industry problems

I got a new cell phone last night (yay full keyboard!) and part of my reasoning for purchasing another Samsung was because I expected to be able to use the same car charger.

When I mentioned that to the customer service rep, she told me that it was not the same type of charger. When going from one Samsung slider to a new Samsung slider, the size of the charge port changed and I have a completely different wall charger.

Why must this be the norm? Why can't chargers at least be universal across all of a brand's phones? It is ridiculous to me that I have to buy a new car charger to accommodate my new phone. It does make sense that it is a good portion of business for cell phone companies to have to buy a new suite of accessories for each new phone, but it is extremely wasteful. I turned down the new car charger, because at least for awhile this battery will hold a charge for a long time.

One good thing that comes from this is that I may pass down my previous phone to my younger brother. It's still in great shape (I got a few comments on how nice my phone looked after two years) and can easily be switched to his number. In that case, I can also pass down my car charger to him instead of figuring out how to dispose of it.

But honestly, it's not necessary to change charger types with each phone made, especially within one brand. I love Samsung phones and all, but I'm not pleased with this. I think that could increase brand loyalty, as it was a reason I didn't look harder at other phones. I'm sure there are others who would like to be able to use their accessories with more than one phone. And I'm still annoyed they moved the menu button from the left side to the right. Help a girl out here!

1 comment

raindog said...

that's a valid question. i am a huge apple supporter and i think their new, greener macbook is pretty damn brilliant, but why won't they sell the chargeable-up-to-1000x, last-up-to-8hrs-per-charge battery for the earlier laptops. they certainly could. the technology is there. the internal build is nearly identical, but if you want that greener computing feeling, break out the wallet and give em a bit of your green in return. and this is a company that has a high green rating. its a shame, but this is going to happen more and more. you'll find yourself paying top dollar in an effort to be more environmentally sensitive.

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