re: GPRS in London Up Close
A few weeks back I did a walking tour of London on a Friday afternoon with a couple of business associates after the conclusion of a few days of business.
I stuck my head in several shops (Nokia, Vodafone, Orange, one2one) just to get an flavor but spent about 30 minutes talking to a very knowledgeable salesman in a phone store called "The Link" at Charing Cross Station near Soho which had about 50 models of GSM phones in stock and on display.
On my last visit there was only one GPRS model from Motorola.
On this visit there were 4 models from 4 manufacturers on display and in stock:
- Ericsson T39 GPRS/Bluetooth £99.99
- Motorola T260 GPRS £89.99
- Siemens S45 GPRS £99.99
- Mitsubishi Trium Mondo GPRS/Pocket PC £399.99
All prices above were with a BT Cellnet contract. Price on the Ericsson T39 without a contract is £99.99. Exchange rate was USD$1,47.
The salesman was very excited about the Tri-Mode Ericsson T39 and gave us a demo of its Bluetooth capability (mobile to laptop). The standard configuration is 3+2 but can evidently be configured as 5+1. T39 stock had arrived 4 days prior (September 4th). He had already sold a dozen or so - 4 that day. make that 5 - one of my associates (PR based but with a LA beat) bought one for use in Latin America.
I asked when stock of the Nokia 8310 would arrive. He advised that he expected the unit about September 25th and that it could be preordered at £149.99 with a BT Cellnet contract. I neglected to ask for a noncontract price.
The salesman also told me that by the end of November he anticipated having about a dozen GPRS handset models and at least 3 modem cards in stock.
The salesman's personal phone is the Nokia 6210 with HSCSD which he uses on the Orange network. He considers HSCSD very worthwhile and plans to purchase Nokia 6310 after it comes in.
At this time last year I had great concern that Nokia would lag other vendors who had already formally or informally announced GPRS product.
While Nokia is not first mover, the lag between Nokia models and competitive models turns out to be considerably less than I anticipated.
I was really surprised that their was still only on Rotomola model showing anywhere (The Link, Vodafone, BT). Salesman commented that the T260 wasn't very appealing compared to the other 3 models he carried.
On the nonGPRS side, the Nokia 9210 was featured prominently in every phone shop window. There were also large posters featuring the 9210 in the windows of other fashionable shops in Soho and in and around Leicester Square, Marble Arch, and Trafalgar Square. The 9210 with GPRS and HSCSD should be a big hit when it becomes available. Contract price for the 9210 at "The Link" was £399.99 and noncontact over twice that.
- Eric - |
