What is most important to mobile device users?

There's a lot of debate swirling around whether these kinds of functionality issues are caused by the device itself or by user errors. From what I've seen in working with carriers and OEMs in the United States, Asia, Latin America and Europe, I can tell you that it's becoming less and less frequent for mobile device faults to be associated with hardware issues. Instead, many of these supposed device faults tend to be caused by consumers' media consumption habits.

This is where the big problem arises for mobile carriers and device manufacturers. They often put a lot of their focus—and marketing budgets—into creating massive ad campaigns to highlight their low prices, luring customers away from competitors by offering to pay their contract termination fees or showcasing their device inventory. But that's not what really matters to most users. Customer service after the sale is what matters most, and that has a lot to do with making sure customers will be able to get their devices diagnosed and repaired quickly and effectively.

Because consumers' tolerance with mobile device functionality issues is continuing to decrease, it's more important than ever for both the carriers and the manufacturers to have a better grasp on the issues at-hand and more effective tools to identify and deal with them in a timely manner. Best-in-class technology solutions combined with highly skilled, competent customer service and repair specialists are needed to improve the customer experience not only at the time of selling mobile devices, but also in the post-sales stage.

- Amit Mahajan
  EE Times U.S./CTO
  Blancco Technology Group

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