Whose Phone Is That?

Whose Phone Is That?
By Monica Alleven
WirelessWeek - November 01, 2008

Apple started it in a big way with the iPhone.
Now the G1 paves the way for what promises to be one of many Google phones.
So where does that leave the handset maker and the carrier brands?.​

For years, U.S. wireless consumers faced that age-old question: Is it your Motorola phone, or your AT&T/Verizon Wireless/Name-Your-Carrier-Here phone? Now, add Google to the mix. And while we’re at it, why not Facebook, MySpace and Amazon? The list goes on.

Handset manufacturers usually make phones according to the U.S. operators’ specs, but average consumers don’t always know that. Even before Verizon Wireless existed in its current iteration, one of the PCS service providers it eventually acquired boasted that customers referred to its devices as “my PrimeCo phone.” In other words, they didn’t call it their Samsung phone.

The battle between the handset manufacturer’s brand and that of the service provider is ongoing. Sometimes, the manufacturer’s brand is completely left off. On far more rare occasions, like the Apple iPhone, the carrier’s brand is nowhere to be seen on the hardware. Many times, both brands are found, but sometimes you need to hunt for the manufacturer, whose only sign might be on the battery. With the G1, you’ll find T-Mobile and “with Google” on the phone before you’ll see the little HTC letters etched onto the side.

In some cases, the handset maker’s brand is left off because they’re not a well-known commodity. That can work against them if they’re new and trying to develop brand recognition; in other cases, they don’t mind being left off because they’re not going after brand awareness. Other times, it behooves the operator to feature the manufacturer’s name to cater to its followers, like Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry or the Palm Treo.

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