Whats in a name?  All of us are used to names such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, etc on the sim free market and they are good handsets with style, but have we considered other handsets which may come from China for example.  Not sure?  Well some may say, I’m not sure, but think of it, your TV, Fridge, Hi Fi and in many cases cars are not made here but in China or Japan. 

I have recently had the privilege of looking at one of these, codenamed HT928 and for a mid range music phone it’s good, although it only had a 1.3 mega pixel camera, the rest of the features were impressive, and with a larger than standby and talktime on the battery and fully CE certified, it would rival many phones and a lot cheaper than the major players.  So could it be that we will soon have a new range of mobiles to rival the big players at a cheaper cost to the consumer, well only time will tell.  They say that in a lot of things from Tyres to TV’s to mobiles that you pay for the name, well that could be true, but if these mobiles do come to the UK, then the consumer will have a greater choice and dealers will be able to make a bigger profit.

One grouse by many dealers all over the country is networks announcing launch of handsets, which then when dealers start gearing up for them, suddenly find that they are going to be delayed.  So what are the reasons for delays and are these explained to dealers.  Blackberry “Bold” some dealers have told us that their dealer managers have said to them its because of software issues, but surly these are bench tested before they are even launched by manufacturers. 

There have been other mobiles which have suffered problems in the past some from Nokia, it does make you wonder how long manufacturers take testing these phones.  Car manufacturers sometimes test their vehicles for at least 12 months before they even launch to ensure quality and that everything works correctly, you would not want your engine packing up whilst doing 70 in the fast lane of the motorway would you?  Then why cannot Mobile manufacturers test out mobiles to ensure the same quality.

Once its announced, dealers will prepare for a new model, they may even prepare advertising material or plan campaigns on the phone, but this can throw all that into confusion when its announced there is a delay.  The instances of these are increasing year on year, and manufacturers or indeed networks who notify dealers and distributors should be sure they will be available before announcing it.

The IMPDA awards will be held at the end of November, so there is still time to place your votes on the IMPDA web site at www.impda.co.uk This is the second such awards, but this year there are more categories, and your vote counts, so please take the time to visit and vote on this years contenders.  You can choose your best or worst mobile, the best Network, Best Distributor and more.