Why Wired's CES Phone Articles Are the Least Exciting

Christina Bonnington wrote an article for Wired titled, "Why Windows Phones Are the Most Exciting Handsets at CES," that takes center stage on their homepage.  I was chowing down on my spring roll lunch and huddled in for a good informed read.  Instead I got a puzzled face asking myself why did I just waste my time with this garbage?

The article starts with the contradiction that Windows phones are the fire of the show even with years of evident failures.  Interesting, let's keep reading.  There's a quote from Ballmer that turns into the same PR drivel you would expect from any corporate drone.  Then the article points out how these new Windows phones, specifically from Nokia, are no longer, "behind the times, specs-wise."  How utterly banal. 

Fantastic how going from mediocre to average is an achievement in the realm of Microsoft smart phones.  One of the differentiating factors are upgraded cameras as high as 16 megapixels but rating cameras by megapixels alone has never been a real identifier of quality for the average user.  No mention about the timing from turning on the phone to picture, HDR, filters, timers, or integration with a cloud system to share and save your images through multiple devices (hello Xbox 360).

The next item is how these phones support 4G speeds.  Ok, that's kind of cool, if not totally unexpected since almost all phones will be 4G by the end of this year.  Let's keep moving on through the sea of yawns.

Comparison to the current Android OS and Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich comes down to how Microsoft's OS is more locked down and allows for minimal customization to get a feeling of unity across devices.  A nice differentiating factor from Android, but nothing new from an Apple standpoint. 

So far I haven't read a single thing that makes me want a Nokia Microsoft phone, let alone read about one. 

To finish it off, here's a direct quote from the article, "In most ways, Windows Phone is playing catch up. But for those of us who deal with smartphone news and technology on a daily basis, it’s exciting to see a new player enter the game in earnest. A major reason for that excitement is Microsoft’s and Nokia’s Windows Phone product synergy."

Yes, Windows phone is playing catch up.  As someone who reads technology blogs and news information on a daily basis, no, I don't find it particularly exciting to read an article about a product that lists nothing new or interesting.  From an average consumer standpoint, I think the article would be even more useless since there are no real talking points or clear symbols of uniqueness.  I guess Wired just had to make some imaginary quota of CES articles for the day.

The laws of pirates

Look here: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/05/warner-bros-pushing-movie-delays-from-28-to-56-days-for-netflix/

We see a potential announcement at CES that DVD/Blu-ray sales of Warner Bros titles to movie rental outlets like Netflix and Redbox could be delayed by 56 days, instead of the current 28.


If true, I would like to award Warner Bros with the bonehead award.  I can imagine it now.  Warner Bros business executives blindfolding each other in the boardroom.  Take a quick line of cocaine, then throw darts at an invisible board of bad consumer decisions that screams in the latest intern's voice; the last intern mysteriously disappeared after the last game of drug darts. 

I don't know if there is a law out there, but there should be.  Not a law enacted from a local governing body, but an internet law if you will.  It's simple.  The harder you make it for consumers to acquire your product, the faster the good old skull and crossbones flag gets rung up the flag pole.

In reality, I'm sure they've already thought it out and could care less about the pirates.  A small percentage of consumers will be disgusted and turn to pirating movies which they can publicly complain about to justify their harsher clamp downs.  The other consumers who really want the movie will go out and purchase it, offsetting the pirating costs, and lastly a minute number of customers will just stop making purchases.

It's business, and more importantly it's their business, and they can do what they want with it.  It's also a clear example of a company that likes to sit on a throne and look down on the consumer, treating them like expendable surfs.  It's only when you become truly interested in people who use your product that you really shine as an example of master creator and distributor.  For now, they're just the master of maximizing profits over the ease of acquiring their movies.