On 2010-11-06 12:03:02, jplacson wrote:
I'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge:
• Is there a logical explanation to why SonyEricsson persistently does not add a second (frontal) camera for video calls?
Yes, hardly used function... although sought after...current 3G vid call protocols are not ready for mass use yet... video compression and non-standardized network bandwidth and call pricing limited the spread. It was more a network interoperability issue than anything else. Cases of complaints of excess charges and customers complaining about video call charges that they were not informed of played a bigger role. This is why Apple decided to limit FaceTime use to Wifi... get rid of the problematic carriers and their inability to come to a universal standard for pricing. To be honest, I've owned about 6 3G video capable phones... from the K600 to the P1i... I used that function about 6 times total. As opposed to FaceTime, which I use 3-4x a day...EVERYDAY... using my X10 Mini Pro as a MiFi. The video compression protocol, stability, and ease of use of FaceTime far exceeds the streaming quality of Skype, even on it's best day. And this makes a huge difference in how many people actually want to use it.
I was struggling to find someone... ANYONE in my circle of friends who had video calling capabilities back then... and even now... not many of them know how to use it on their phones... meanwhile, I have more friends who I get FaceTime with than Yahoo or Skype combined.
• Why does SonyEricsson offer more 3G frequencies for the mobile phones that are produced only for American market cutting down on frequencies for the rest of the world?
This one is a simple licensing issue. Different countries have different frequency licensing policies with regards to products sold in their respective countries. Much like the even dumber 100/110/220/240v AC power incompatibilities with some electronic products. This is a license/gov't policy issue.
Remember that from a manufacturing standpoint,
would greatly benefit form just having to produce one product for the whole world... but local licensing restricts that... for the same reason that Apple cannot sell unlocked iPhones OFFICIALLY within the US...but in the UK and Singapore, they are sold officially unlocked in Apple stores.
It all boils down to business/gov't deals... corruption, red tape, etc... all play a part on which manufacturer gets to roam free in a certain region or area.
For example, in the Philippines, only 3 carriers are allowed to have 3G operations... NO NEW PLAYERS..PERIOD. This is circumvented by just starting a "new" telco that piggybacks off an existing telco's network license. Some old, almost defunct telcos have been given new life simply because they had licenses to operate in certain frequencies that new companies want to use but no more slots are given out by the gov't.
Posted: 2010-11-07 15:29
