America's dire handset marketplace, revisited
I took a trip to the other side of Los Angeles this evening.
I navigated via the Apple store. I figured that Steve and his team would have located their Apple stores near some other signs of life — you know, consumer-focused shops. My real objective was to observe mobile usage in a semi natural habitat, and also pop into a few mobile shops to see what sort of deals they were offering.
Before I left the hotel, I did a look-up for the nearest Apple store. On reflection I didn’t actually check to see if it was the nearest. Los Angeles is Los Angeles, yes? The search results reckoned that the store was located on West 3rd Street. Doesn’t sound bad, does it? Especially when the hotel is more or less next to 3rd Street, right?
About 30 minutes later I arrived. Shit!
The Apple store was at 6301 West 3rd Street. I watched out the window as we went through all sorts of neighbourhoods and counted the door numbers from about 1000 upwards.
Eventually I arrived at The Grove (it has it’s own website) and quickly located the Apple store. I tried to buy two iPhones but the chap wasn’t having it. I forgot my passport which is a no-no when you’re trying to buy with a credit card. You need “EYE DEE”. Arse. My eyes popped out at the 800 quid 30 inch screens that are normally 1100 quid in London.
As I took a look at one of the iPhones on display I overheard a conversation between a New Zealand couple and one of the Apple store employees. The couple were talking about life back in England and also NZ. They were wondering if the iPhone would work in London.
“Sure, but you’ll have to pay AT&T roaming rates,” said the store chap to crestfallen looks from the couple.
“But,” he continued, “I think they might be getting the iPhone in the UK.”
They MIGHT? How spectacularly uninformed!
The couple (well, the guy — the girl was too busy fondling the iPhone) enquired whether he could put his own SIM card in the device. The Apple chap’s eyes widened and he started spluttering words to the effect of ‘no way’ (but cleverly, without saying NO WAY specifically — just lots of muttering and head shaking).
I felt like a Clark Kent moment was approaching fast as I continued to listen. I was about to pull out my iPhone and say “NO, LISTEN, JUST UNLOCK MAN!”
The store’s security guard was eyeing me though. So I didn’t. I did however notice the text on the bottom of the information plaque next to the iPhone that says (words to the effect of):
Apple strongly recommends you avoid unlocking your iPhone as this will invalidate the warranty and prevent you from receiving assistance from Apple’s Geek Bar.
(Something like that anyway).
Heh.
I need to go back with my passport and buy a few. If you fancy an iPhone and you want a good deal (it’s 399 dollars for the 8gb) let me know.
After getting my Apple fix I wandered around the shops. Abercrombie & Fitch. GAP. Banana Republic. Nordstrom. Bath & Body Works. You get the picture? Think fancy high-end high-fashion stores. The equivalent in the United Kingdom would be the likes of Bluewater Shopping Centre or more commercialised parts of High Street Kensington.
The Grove, however, is laid out like a high street. It even has a mini-park of green grass and a fancy little fountain. There’s also a little tram that passes up and down the big long street. At each cross section there are little signs pointing to shops. Every third or fourth store is a high-end restaurant. Everyone is dressed well and loving it, most people are laden with bags. Every 3rd person is talking on a ‘cell phone’.
I took a walk around the whole place looking for the mobile phone shops. I was looking for a Sprint store, or a Verizon store, or an AT&T one. Any, actually. I was curious to see exactly what I’d need to in order to sign-up as a customer. You probably need to have a social security number or something strange in order to get a post-pay account. But I thought I’d enquire.
Strange, though. I couldn’t find any stores. Not one.
I went hunting — seriously hunting and finally found this store, tucked away in the corner off one of the man-made thoroughfares:
That there is a Palm store. One thing I have been seeing a lot of are Palms. Maybe 2-3% of the handsets I’ve glimpsed around are Palm Treos (or similar). I popped into the store, delighted that I’d found something resembling a mobile phone shop.
The handsets were all around 300 dollars — the top of the range ones anyway — which required a ridiculous 24 month airtime contract. If you wanted the handset itself, you’d have to spunk $600+.
I was about to have a talk to the chap in the store but quickly decided not to. I feeling of mild disgust was fast approaching. What state is this mobile market like, I began to think, when the only sodding store in the Mall is a Palm one. It was clearly aimed at business people. It wasn’t a public store. You only go into the Palm store to buy a business phone.
Where are the stores for kids, teens, students and … well… the rest of society?
In every single High Street in the United Kingdom there are, guaranteed, four Mobile-Operator-owned mobile shops, together with copious resellers such as Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and so on.
I was astounded to visit this high concept fashion (outside) mall and to find no consumer mobile phone shops. This is, of course, just a small sampling. Goodness knows what it’s like in middle America. I’d have thought that this fancy part of Los Angeles — with all these familiar global/American brands — would have necessitated at least one AT&T, Sprint or Verizon store?
Doubtless the stores exist. But based on my very limited experience, there appears to be a huge disconnect between fashion and utility.
The Vodafone, 3UK and o2 shops in the United Kingdom rub shoulders easily with just about any international brand you’d care to throw at it. The UK operators have worked really hard to fashion-ise their services and stores — to the point that their shops are all over the place. I can’t go shopping anywhere without seeing a Vodafone, 3UK or o2 shop. That is GOOD for the industry. Every time I see the shop I’m (sub)consciously registering the brand and deciding whether to have a look.
Even sat in the-middle-of-nowhere town of Hartlepool in the North of England, I saw many a group of tweenagers, arm-in-arm, popping into Vodafone’s store to have a browse of the new handsets.
Everywhere I looked, I could see youngsters with handsets. But they were nearly all sporting those horrible old Motorolas that literally do nothing but call or text. If you’re lucky, they have a 0.5 shitty mega pixel camera. If you’re ULTRA fashionable, you’ve got a RAZR. I’ve seen the odd iPhone around. But for the most part, the young people are using their handsets as utility devices.
The device itself doesn’t appear to be fashionable. It’s almost as though they’re using them like they would a screwdriver. You need to screw something in? Get a screwdriver. Need to make a call or text a friend? Get a handset, any handset, doesn’t matter.
I’m making sweeping judgments of course and this experience today certainly isn’t necessarily representative of the whole country.
It’s so disappointing that — at least from today’s visit, it appears that the mobile operators haven’t got much presence next to the leading fashion outlets. This could well be a one-off though. I really need to go and find an AT&T store and see how they’re presenting things. It would, however, explain why the young folk (and by young, I’m basically including everyone under 30 who isn’t using a Blackberry for work) who appear quite content to walk around with decrepit devices.
I nearly accosted the twentysomething girls sitting next to me when I went for a drink. One had a shit Motorola and was texting away whilst the other was yapping into a RAZR (she, with the RAZR, was clearly feeling a lot more stylish with her device, while her friend didn’t overtly show off her crap Moto). I’m not clear on the culture here though — do you think politely interrupting people and firing mobile related questions at them might be met with negativity?
If you’re American, perhaps you could give me a perspective on how mobile phones are retailed and your retail experience?
I might try, soon.
Anyway, tomorrow’s another day. I will go looking for a proper a mobile phone store.
