I’m involved in the design of a product for an american customer. The customer wants the product to be designed around the Motorola V180 which they insist is ‘hot’ and really popular in the US. From our research this appers to be a pretty old phone but I’m aware the US market is a bit different from the UK. Does anybody in the US have an opinion about the coolness, up to dateness, of the V180 is. My hunch is that its a bit old hat and there are probably more up to date models that are as popular - Any feedback would be appreciated.
I don’t know anyone with this phone. It looks to be from the ‘old’ motorola and not part of the new design efforts they are putting out (razr, pebl, etc.)
but it’s probably affordable - check with T-mobile and Cingular and see where it comes in vs other phones - it might be one that’s free with a plan purchase. if it’s a bargain model i guess it’s not so bad looking.
judging from phone introductions in T3 magazine it would seem that the UK and Europe have a lot more versatility in getting new handsets, and a lot more being introduced. so your clients might be correct, despite your assumptions. with 2-year plans becoming more standard to get the really cool phones, people hold onto their old cheap ones longer and longer.
try going to www.cingular.com and goto Shop cingular for PDAs and Phones. When it asks for the zip code, put in 53129 (Greendale, Wi…a suburb of Milwaukee) or put in whatever zip code your product is going to be targeting.
That should give you a good idea of what phones are currently being offered from one of the larger cell phone companies in the US. Keep in mind that most people will just get whatever they can for free…
my last phone was a v180- it was the bottom of the line at Tmobile, I was sick of shilling out 400 for the hot phone and having it break in 8 months or just work poorly in general.
turns out the v180 was a piece of shit and the 5 replacements t mobile sent me were as well.
It was the best looking of the cheap options tmobile and cingular had in my area. Its no razr, but its a lot slicker than the korean alternatives.
I think the number 1 reason the v180 is hot shit in the US is its dirt cheap. in general the phones here are pretty dated anyways.