back to article Reg readers take mobile makers to task

When Freeform Dynamics asked you for your opinion of your mobile phone, you didn’t hesitate to give it to us. Both barrels, in some cases. We asked you a bunch of multiple-choice questions which delivered some interesting statistical information. But we also asked you to comment here and there. Your replies gave us some real …

COMMENTS

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  1. Tim Spence

    First graph

    From the first graph in the story, we can deduce that there is a small set of phone users/owners who use hardly use their phones for anything.

  2. bettername
    Unhappy

    I want...

    ...a DAB radio built in. I don't care if it's power-hungry, or sounds like "bubbling mud" - I can't get TMS on FM, and streaming doesn't do it for me as soon as the train passes the M25!

    Mobile + portable DAB for the future it seems, sigh.

  3. Steve Evans

    Curious...

    It's pretty hard to read your second chart, but from what I can see nobody said the most useful or crucial feature of a mobile phone is the ability to make and receive phone calls!

  4. Ian Ferguson
    Happy

    I would like

    A pony with my phone contract

  5. James Hughes 1

    Something with a decent reception please

    We don't all live next to base stations.

    My 5 year old Sony Ericson works so much better than my brand new (cheap though) Samsung, both for reception in my out of the way village in Cambs, and for the menus. The SS was obvious designed by a cadre of monkeys randomly bashing coconuts against banana and seeing where the bits landed.

  6. Jamie Kitson

    Re: I Want....

    I was looking forward to ditching streaming on my iPhone when I got an HTC with a radio. Unfortunately I've found that phone and radio signal drop out at the same time on trains :(

    Kind of obvious when you think about it.

    http://blog.kitten-x.com/2009/02/old-news.html

  7. armyknife
    Grenade

    I Want A Better World

    Therefore I'd like to see all mobiles implode at 5.59pm tomorrow, Tuesday 27th October; plenty enough warning if you ask me, hence hand grenade.

  8. David Hicks

    Tethering

    An easy way to tether the phone to a laptop for access on the go. Bluetooth or WiFi (AP mode) would work. A decent screen and keyboard for when it's on its own.

    Cheap would be good....

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    What about making a phone call?

    That's practically all I used to use my phone for when I had one (I don't now).

    Or don't they actually do that these days?

  10. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
    Flame

    Forget the phone..

    .. get rid of the so.-called "helpful" menus on mobile voicemail.

    Their sole and single purpose is to waste time, which thus turns into extra revenue minutes on a truyl staggering scale for no benefit to the end user (I think the last person who didn't understand what voicemail or a recorded message was must have buried quite a while back)..

    This is also why they are often impossible to bypass (the best example of that I had recently where a voice mail system started again from the beginning if you dared to touch a key too early).

  11. frank ly
    Stop

    @James Hughes 1 re. Something with a decent reception

    "...designed by a cadre of monkeys randomly bashing coconuts against banana and seeing where the bits landed."

    That technique worked for Vista. Oh....er.......

  12. Alex Hawdon

    re Internet access

    "deliberate ploy to make you hit internet connection functions by accident in order to deliver more revenue to the telcos"

    haha - "oh, hold on - it's run off to the internet again" - used to be a frequent comment when using almost-smart phones like the k800, where every second button seemed to fire up either a web browser or some really heavy, gaudy, pay-content-delivery system which you had to wait to load (5/10 seconds) and then menu -> quit ->YESIMFRIKKINSURE before you could get on with using it....

  13. jake Silver badge

    I want my phone to make and receive calls.

    I want my phone to have a strong transmitter and a sensitive receiver. I mean, the primary use of a phone is to make phone calls, right? That's ALL I want. The rest is fluff that is better handled by other equipment.

    That's why I carry a ten year old Nokia 5185. It is unaffected by Sonoma County's notorious so-called "dead zones". Can't ask for more than that out of a telephone :-)

    Hell, I once carried on a conversation up the Oakville Grade, down Trinity to Cavedale, and Cavedale to 12 without once losing the connection ... Try THAT with your iPhone or Crackberry!

  14. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    As has been said before, it's the wrong customers

    The mobile makers make the phones for the carriers, not for us, the customers.

    I want a decent (quad band) phone, that does nothing else (except texts), but I prefer the flip phone form factor, because the mic reaches my mouth and the ear-piece reaches my ear. It's simple ergonomics, that you can then make a phone that's smaller in the pocket, while physically blocking extraneous noise. And still have room for buttons that accommodate my fat fingers, and a screen that I can read without my glasses. Plus of course better battery life.

    All that could probably be done for £50-60, and I'd happily buy direct. But it's not happening with the current business model, and the money hungry carriers desperately want me using the net, MMS and buying music, hence the feature-creep.

    On the cynical person in the survey I could point out that my first Razr had a hardwired internet button that couldn't be disabled, right next to the on/off hang-up button. Every time you pressed it you got charged about 15p to download Orange's crappy WAP portal. You're only paranoid if they aren't out to get you...

  15. Ben Dover
    Boffin

    Bridging the Gap between SmartPhone & NetBook

    I would like to see a cheap, dumb, jacket pocket sized addon unit, standardised for all top phones.

    Outside, the lid could incorporate a trackpad (for use by left hand) plus a solar cell perhaps. Open lid to reveal e-paper screen (8x grayscale), plus k/b as big as will fit.

    Now attach phone to rhs of lid for close data/power path & provide speaker & camera, its OLED screen would show part of a page around the mouse position.

    Unit could contain an ultra-cap for when phone needs to be a short distance away, & might need a slider control for when the text gets lost in the background.

    There, design done for you, now someone make it please.

  16. Dead Meat
    Badgers

    Waste of space.

    Personally, I don't even want a phone that does texts, nevermind accessing teh intertubes.

    Everything apart from voice calling is an unnecessary add on, and I agree about the deliberate placing of internet access keys to catch people out.

    The best place for a mobile phone is at the bottom of the nearest harbour.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    So....

    Does anyone use it to phone people with? dosent look like it from the graphs...

  18. Aortic Aneurysm

    Re: So....

    My Orange contract gives me 700 minutes, I'm lucky if I use 60 of them a month. It does give me unlimited texts and a decent data bundle...

  19. Cosmo
    Paris Hilton

    Survey stats

    I assume that the majority of people who answered this survey are young to middle-aged technically savvy males.

    It would be interesting to see how the usage type varies when you throw women and teenagers into the mix. (and dumb blondes like Paris...)

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    More apps?

    We saw an ad a while back that said "Want to order a pizza on your iPhone? There's an app for that!" My wife turned to me and said "couldn't you already order a pizza with any phone?" That's the kind of thinking we need with phone makers! Just make one that can place and receive calls. Anything else you want to spend, put into longer battery life. In my ideal world, there would only be around 5 kinds of mobile phones, and none of them would have internet capabilities.

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