Posts by kerlmann

Do you all work for Vodafone??

Is the only explanation for these comments - in my experience, O2 is the only telcos that gives a monkeys about its customers, which might explain why its service (including broadband) picks up so many awards and why they're #1 in the market (pending Orabile merger).

Remember, this deal with BT is with their wholesale division, not the crappy customer-facing part (Global Services), so customers will benefit from the decent part of BT - its network - without having to endure the pain of being frigged about by its inept customer care department.

The key question is....

....what's the modern day Winchester Club going to be like? Some of the best scenes in Minder were the banter between Dave, Arfur & Terry/Ray.

"VAT, Dave - better make it a large one." They sure don't make 'em like that any more.

Let's not forget humble coconuts....

....which the pedants/QI fans amongst you will be quick to point out isn't a nut at all. Nonetheless, 50 billion (count em) of these beauties grow each year globally in the wild already, most of which are wasted. Another desert-friendly option perhaps?

Have a look here for evidence of where it's already being used: http://www.channel4.com/4car/ft/feature/feature/80/1

Surely this misses the point?

The bigger question that has to be asked here is who at T-Mo actually sanctioned this hackneyed, low-rent, banal creative idea as a supposedly mesmerising campaign? Is there no-one with a shred of creative zest at their ad agency?

This whole idea and hammed-up execution is every bit as woeful as those "had an accident that wasn't your fault?" ads on daytime TV. In fact, at least those raise a smile - even if inadvertently.

The usual amount....

....of ridiculous rheotic and ignorance being spouted here.

NFC technology is totally different from GSM, GPRS, 3G, WiFi etc. Think of it more as your Oyster Card with bells on being embedded into the back of your phone. I know Oyster isn't 100% perfect, but it works nearly all the time for almost everyone - this will be the same, and won't be dependent on your phone being in coverage or even switched on.

It's also likely to be free to use - remember that every retail outlet that you use cash in still has to pay that cash into a bank and is charged accordingly each time it does so. There will be an interchange fee between whichever payment partner you use (e.g. Mastercard, VISA, Amex), but that won't be passed on to the consumer. Nor will you get charged by your network per transaction. You might find that a compatible handset costs more in the first place, but that's it.

Advantages? I'd have thought they were fairly obvious - fewer things to carry (all your credit cards could go onto your phone, no travel card needed), never needing to worry about cash / correct change again....

All for one (and me for myself?)

@Chris Paulson

Humans clucking well should care about the fate of the rest of the planet. In case you hadn't noticed, we're all here living together at the same time - separated by a few thousand miles of land and sea, and although you might not believe it, we're all the same species. I thought it was human nature to show a little compassion about others? Or is it out of sight, out of mind? Head in the sand, I'm all right jack, tough crap on the rest of the planet?

Thank your lucky stars folks that you were born into the relatively rich west (yes, credit crunch notwithstanding), which, for all its faults, is an infinitely better place to live in than a resource-poor nation controlled by a megalomaniac who doesn't give a fig about the welfare of the people he purports to serve. You can take your pick from dozens, if not hundreds of these.

Have a little perspective.

Noel vs Keith...

....comparing this incident to the video of Keith Richards attacking a stage marauder with this guitar isn't valid - Noel didn't see this bloke coming at all, or certainly not until it was too late to do anything about it.

Richards on the other hand (if you watch the vid) has enough time to take his guitar right off, balance himself and tw*t the little bleeder before he even has a chance to lay a finger on him.

@Muzchap - that made me laugh!!

Muzchap, you need to CALM DOWN a bit, fella... and while you're there, how about we start dealing in some real evidence here rather than your own bizarre rhetoric....

Fact: GfK NOP did this study off their own backs (for PR purposes you might say). The results would not have been published by the agency if they had done the research on behalf of either O2 or Apple as it wouldn't be GfK's intellectual property. And before you ask, I work in O2's marketing department, so I'm pretty confident in this statement.

Fact: 750 is a perfectly respectable sample size, regardless of the entire population 'universe'. Your own logic on this might sound right to you, but it's cobblers. There comes a point where surveying more and more people has no discernable impact on the outcome. You'd need to understand stats to appreciate what I'm talking about here. A sample of 750 out of 64 million is infinitely more reliable than a sample of 30 out of 100.

Fact: The soup analogy is absolutely spot on. You my friend are not.

Fact: No corporate 'big cheese' as you put it would stay in his/her job long if (s)he just employed agencies to tell him/her what he wants to hear. The research agency wouldn't last long either, nor would they put their name to research that was fudged to tell the right story.

Market research / polling is a totally respectable industry - it's the (ab)users of the data that give it a bad rep.

@pctechxp

How on earth can you say it's "rubbish" based on a couple of pictures? Philips have a great record for making the very hi-tech very usable (in my experience), so am expecting good things from this.

I'm not denying Sony Ericsson are also excellent on the usability side, but let's at least see how well this works before discounting it. On the aesthetics side, the curves give it a style of its own which I like.

@Sam Kirkpatrick

"I've no personal experience of Phones4u, and haven't found them any more pushy than any other mobile sales stores."

If you've no personal experience of them, how can you have found them no more pushy than others?? Doesn't make sense.

I work in the industry and ALL the customers we speak to are unanimous in their condemnation of P4U's sales approach - I've not found anyone with a good thing to say about them. Most of the networks' own stores are now committed to offering an experience that's diametrically opposed to P4U.... it's a slow process, but it's starting to happen.

Not great??

> the last 12 months has not been great for O2 so a change of leadership makes a certain amount of sense.

If launching iphone, a very decent broadband service, the best indoor arena in the UK (by far), and remaining no.1 for customer connections aren't a great year, then I'd like to know what exactly might constitute such a year for anyone. It must be tough at the top.

I'd call that going out on a high, but maybe I've missed something?

@Anonymous Coward

Why is rebranding HTC phones as O2 "just plain stupid"? HTC has virtually no brand equity here in the UK, whereas all the mobile operators are trying to generate some genuine loyalty by offering their customers something tangible (i.e. a decent handset), rather than just a pure service offering.

BT-branded home phones are a good example of where this has worked well in a similar industry.

Acquisition tool....

....O2 is clearly using the iphone as a way to differentiate itself and get more people to join, that's the simple reason the deal is exclusive to them and the iphone locked to their network.

From what I've seen, O2 always come top or 2nd of customer sat comparisons and their network is excellent IMHO, so if you can port your number (which you can), why wouldn't you switch if you really wanted the iphone?

@Steve Sutton

Oh dear, Steve - as well as being a real charmer, you've vainly tried to make some points to justify your use of whatever language you like, but not very well.

1) "If people find the specific words I use to communicate, then that's their problem". I think you missed out the word 'offensive' there, but I got your drift. If someone finds you or your language offensive then it's YOUR problem, sunshine. Who are you to say how someone should feel? By your own lofty standards is homophobic, sexist or racist language also acceptable? If you answer "no" to this, you're guilty of appalling double standards.

2) Using offensive language can amount to bullying on its own, doesn't need any actions to go with it. Cases have gone to European Court over this.

3) Mostly tosh, Steve - I'm not telling you to stop swearing, but just to consider the thoughts of others. Would you swear in a job interview? In court? Of course not - it's part of cultural etiquette not to use certain words in certain circumstances. And as I said earlier, if someone finds it offensive, that's reason enough that you should at least consider refraining. How on earth can that be considered self-fulfilling? What exactly does it fulfil?? In any case, the less frequently it's used, the more value it has - keep it up your sleeve for hard-hitting impact.