Would you be willing to Beta test pda phones for Sprint?

[boe]

I'm considering what happened a day after I got my 6600 and then my 6700. I went to a couple of popular forums and saw all the reports of known bugs being listed with the phones. The phones were released nearly a year after their initial debut as sprint was "testing" the phones. Does Sprints definition of testing mean shoving the phone in a drawer and forgetting about it till their manager says have you completed testing?

I see so much effort being put in by people in this group and others of fixing the issues with our phones for no fee. Sprint was giving a newer AKU by HTC about 3 months ago and it still isn't even on their web site and probably never will be.

Since Sprint makes us buy their phones to use their network, why not have some of us phone enthusiasts test the phones for them, report back issue and concerns and get them fixed before they reach the public. Considering that the tools for AKU 3.5 were never fully released and yet people here have nearly completed a fully operational one just a few weeks after getting the components, wouldn't it be great for non geeks to just use the phone as a business tool and not worry about the many bugs that were present with the phone when it was first released and even with AKU 2.2 that came out about 3 months after the phone was released?

I think Sprint could then offer us patches faster as we would essentially develop them as we do now anyways but we could do it sooner if we got the materials direct from HTC. If we did the testing as we unofficially do now anyways, Sprint could "test" more phone types such as the IMATE ultimates, Samsungs, and iphones. The users would get more phones to choose from, Sprint's client base would grow and everyone could benefit.

Just my thoughts.

[colonel]

I have had people try to get me in test groups, but it never happens. I agree, they need to really poll the power users.

[msiegle]

I believe that ultimately makes too much sense, and thus Sprint would not do it. I have a feeling that it may partly have to do with the fact that Sprint's target market for smart phone devices has been mainly business customers to this point, and they usually want consistency and not have to worry about software updates that may not work properly with their existing applications.

Have you seen a new website created by Sprint, http://www.buzzaboutwireless.com/ which is supposedly aimed at helping them figure out why people don't like Sprint.

[boe]

Colonel, I've certainly seen enough posts by you that I would want you on Sprint's beta team as well. The sad thing is you would be willing to do it for free and Sprint and or HTC doesn't take advantage of it.

I'm not a developer but I support hundreds of users with PDA phones and so I see a lot of stuff that should have been resolved before the phone hits the shelves. I also get a lot of requests for a phone that is this size or has a bigger keyboard or thinner even if it has no keyboard, one with better resolution, etc. etc. I know what my end users want and since I support radically different clients (one of the largest universities in the world, two multimedia companies, an entertainment industry and two financial companies, I think I'm getting a reasonable statistical sampling of what the general public is looking for. I could test the base unit with the standard software just about everyone loads and find out what works and what doesn't and even help them select better units. Hell, Sears doesn't make washers, driers, fridges etc. Kenmore/Sprint specs what they want and then they are given samples by bidders. Why can't Sprint do the same, I think they sell enough units that they have that kind of clout.

[boe]

Originally Posted by msiegle

I believe that ultimately makes too much sense, and thus Sprint would not do it. I have a feeling that it may partly have to do with the fact that Sprint's target market for smart phone devices has been mainly business customers to this point, and they usually want consistency and not have to worry about software updates that may not work properly with their existing applications.

Have you seen a new website created by Sprint, http://www.buzzaboutwireless.com/ which is supposedly aimed at helping them figure out why people don't like Sprint.

Thanks - I have posted there - including this same topic in the phones forum- I've been posting a bit hoping to improve Sprint's offerings.

While I agree, Sprint doesn't want to worry about updates, since we would be beta testers, Sprint would have nothing to lose and could gain customer loyaltly, and improve their image by releasing the updates to the public after we beta tested.

[dannzeman]

Originally Posted by msiegle

I believe that ultimately makes too much sense, and thus Sprint would not do it.

I think thats kind of a universal rule, just replace 'Sprint' with the name of any company. It seems if something makes too much sense, it'll never happen.

[Ultima]

Companies arent that smart guys. The problem is professional executives make all the important decisions in large companies. The thing is those decision makers have been behind a desk for too long. They forget how it is in the real world or "on the front lines". They are too removed from the actual productive flow that all they know how to worry about it making themselves look good (profit). Now, I know profit is the #1 purpose of a business but to make money it helps to have fully developed products which make happy customers, which begets profit, but thats where the guys don't get it...

[sk8boardd]

i would do it for sure but doubt sprint would

[JBabey]

working for sprint i have some insight for you guys, but your not going to like it...

the test team consists of 18 people, and the "advanced support team" (the guys that answer the level 3 calls and call you back)

they dont even begin to touch on the uses of the handset that we put it through, most of the time when i need to call them, i know much more about the phone than they do. They are just dudes, and have REGULAR phones.... the ppc is not their primary handset, so of course its use is minimalized. On top of that, the guy i was talking to is always testing like 2 or 3 phones at a time, its totally freakin retarded. on top of that, the support team guys, arent allowed to take the phones home from work, they can only use them at work (while they have other job responsibilities to do).

all in all, our testing process is garbage, they rely heavily on microsoft to just put out a good product, and our guys to test the ext.rom applications and give it the green light.

++++

not what you wanted to hear, but thats just how things are. As a company they dont have the rescources/time/money and process's in place to ensure that the phone is rock solid.

the nice thing is, we have dedicated communities out there to get us through that, to really unlock the potential of the handsets, and get them to work "properly"

making even a SINGLE change, and pushing a software update out to our users costs the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you would be amazed at how much we are charged to package sh*t up.

every update we have to RE-PAY royalty fees to microsoft, and then HTC charges us to repack the update w/ our extended ROM. Then sprint has a documentation team to write crap, and update the website....all in all, a VERY time consuming process. It took them ONE MONTH after the phone was released to realize that the radio wouldnt allow ring-through when on vision.... from that day, it took us nearly 8 months to get an update pushed, and cost us over 120 grand. (and MOST of that was the docs sitting at legal waiting for approval).

---thats just the short of it, but i hope it gives you some insight. I would REALLY like to be upset, but understanding what is involved, just makes me grumble, and find more boards with good people willing to make everyones experience a little better.

[boe]

JBabey,

If what you say is true, it is the exact reason why Sprint should let us test the phones in advance. They save money, end users get better phones, and we get the fixes sooner and the phones sooner.