A recent poll named LG and Sony Ericsson as the least reliable mobile phones in the UK.
As reported by Register Hardware, a poll of 2000 British adults found that 34% of LG owners had experienced a problem with their phone in the past 12 months. Sony Ericsson were just as unreliable with 33% reporting that their mobile had experienced a fault. Samsung, Motorola and Nokia owners had fewer problems, although nearly 1 in 4 of these mobiles broke in the previous 12 months.
Taking this poll at face value, it suggests a pretty dismal display by the phone manufacturers, and the operators who always quality test handsets before launch. Reliability is clearly still compromised in favour of pushing new phones and features out to market in a rush. Mobile phones are routinely launched with multiple known software and hardware errors in order to try and beat the competition to market – at the expense of customer satisfaction. My advice to friends and family is never to buy a mobile phone in the first 6 weeks of it’s launch as the risk of a major hardware of software fault is high. You’re effectively buying a beta version of the phone.
These statistics far out strip the handset fault data I was privy to when I worked for a major mobile operator a few years ago. The trend for the reliability of mobile phones seems to be inversely proportionate to the growth of the minimum term for mobile phone contracts. Phone reliability deteriorates rapidly after the first 12 months and making your mobile last until the end of today’s longer contract terms (18 to 24 months in the majority of cases) is becoming quite a challenge.
If you have a problem with your mobile in the first 12 months of ownership and you haven’t signed up for a phone insurance plan all is not lost. As I blogged before Christmas, you can use your manufacturer’s warranty to get your phone fixed. I’d advise being extra fussy about faults with your phone whilst under warranty to make sure little bugs don’t turn into crippling faults outside of the warranty period.
The poll, also attempted to describe the personalities of the owners of different mobile phone brands. LG owners are apparently “tech boffins” whilst “handset simpletons” was the term used for Nokia owners(!). This ‘back-of-a-fag-packet’ analysis of mobile phone customer segmentation led James Parker, Manager of Mobiles at poll sponsors Moneysupermarket.com, to give us this further ground breaking insight:
“It may not be a coincidence that LG owners suffer the most faults as they are often the most advanced phones.”
Any chance the lack of reliability has something to do with poor build quality and rushing devices to market before they are ready James? Applying a similar amount of in-depth analysis I would describe the Moneysupermarket’s ‘personality’ as “publicity chasing morons “.
Rant over.
Related posts:
