34 replies to this topic

[ZTE_SeanJacko]

Hi all

The issue of the processor speed seems to have caused a bit of a stir due to conflicting stories about whether the Skate would be 800MHz or 1GHz.

I can confirm that the Monte Carlo will be 800MHz and that the first ZTE own-branded Skates will also be 800MHz.

I can also confirm that, in the fullness of time, there will be a 1GHz Skate.

Unfortunately, I cannot supply timelines on the availability of the 1GHz device (or price differences - before you ask!).

[flibblesan]

Personally this makes me a little bit sad. The Orange Monte Carlo is coming out next week with the 800MHz CPU, then in a few months ZTE will sell the unbranded version through other retailers. By the time ZTE launch a 1GHz Skate it'll be all too late. Sadly hardly anyone would be willing to wait such a long time for a Skate with a faster CPU, when they could just buy a device already on the market with the same or better specifications. Also you will be in the uncomfortable situation where thousands of people have bought the slower 800MHz Skate and suddenly find themselves feeling cheated when an improved model is released a couple of months later.

If it were up to me then I wouldn't bother with the later 1GHz Skate and focus resources on bringing out a device to beat the upcoming Huawei Vision. Sadly it seems that ZTE have fallen behind a little bit.

[t0mm13b]

What is the point in releasing a 800Mhz Skate when a new one appears...

Sounds like ZTE would have to re-think their strategy - bring out the 1Ghz Skate instead and forget about 800Mhz Skate. I know I am not in the position to dictate but ultimately, it boils down to competition and there's a hint of holding back for a reason I do not know.

As FlibbleSan said, there's going to be pretty good bunch of p***ed off when people goes into Orange and go "Oohh Skate (800Mhz)...." pay for it, down the line, a 1Ghz version released, and that will backfire and kill the sales as now then, you'll either have, people ignoring the 800Mhz Skate or forget about the 1Ghz Skate, out of spite in feeling cheated, ripped off.

[ididmytime]

You've got to laugh.

MC at £150 or a Skate at around £220... and it's exactly the same phone! Yes I know Orange are taking a hit in the price, but who on earth would pay £70 extra for nothing?

The 1ghz version should, and probably will be named something different, as surely common sense would kick in.

Edited by ididmytime, 05 August 2011 - 11:23 AM.

[Wahwah]

I've got to say, it does sound like a bit too little too late, how far into the future will a 1Ghz chip be old hat?
ZTE really need to get their Skates on with sorting out a 1Ghz processor handset.


It's alright, I've got my coat.

[Lew247]

Delay releasing the Monte Carlo and Skate and release them with the upgraded 1Ghz CPU's

Sell the ones you've already made by just making a new name and selling them off, they would sell

BUT you won't make money on the Skate if you sell 2 versions, in fact it will put a lot of people off ZTE, we have been expecting a brilliant replacement to the Blade and the Skate with an 800Mhz cpu isn't it.
I for one would not buy an 800Mhz version but I would a 1Ghz version if it had an arm 7 cpu.

[The Soup Thief]

I have to agree with Flibblesan's comments
A 1ghz Skate / Monte Carlo being released in the last few months or now would have made waves, but the promise of a launch at an unspecified date after the launch of a 800mhz version? That's just gonna stymie sales of the 800mhz version to the modding community (that's a basic marketing principle, the name of which I've forgotten - don't kill your current product with tales of its successor being just round the corner).  Others not interested in unlocking their phone from Orange and flashing a new ROM - well, maybe they'd go for it, but tbh they wouldn't really be too bothered by the improved processor anyway and would be as likely to buy the original
ZTE should put their shoulders/money behind the MSM8255T (snapdragon series 2) device you've alluded to in another post this morning and try to bring that to the budget market asap (and at least before Huawei)
Until they come up with some appreciably better than the Blade and than Huawei's devices I wouldn't expect many of the Blade devotees to trade up (just my 2p)

As an aside, I wonder whether, had the Blade been released initially with a TFT screen rather than OLED it would have caught on in quite such a way as it has
Strikes me a lot of people early on were blown away by the fancy high-end (ish) screen, priming the mod-interest, which stimulated the mass appeal.   Its a bit sneaky to plan to change / degrade specs after a launch, but it seems to have worked here, if my logic holds (I don't wanna start an OLED/TFT argument here - that's been done to death on the Blade forum and after using both I think they each have their strengths, it's just that on paper at launch people got really excited by the OLED tech in a budget device)

[HCDR.Jacob]

Here's an idea. I know my thought probably won't have much impact but meh.

Abandon the 1GHz Skate. Design a new phone (or maybe two) which look different and give them dual core CPUs. That way, by the time they're out, they probably won't be irrelevant.

How about a Skate-like a device with a Qualcomm MSM8260, and maybe a smaller device with a keyboard or something on the same CPU?

Just a thought...

[everett_psycho]

why not (in the UK at least) sell off all the 800MHZ ones as the OMC and delay the skate as a standalone phone until the 1ghz is ready, that way over here at least there will be 2 distinctive phones.  It won't work globally but i agree with most that this is a bad principle to do but it makes no sense at all to tell us about it before the skate launched, at least if it was unknown i'd only feel cheated but i've gone from potentially buying a OMC next week to now not wanting one because of the 1ghz version that will follow.

[Atomix86]

Oh dear, the "Osborne effect" springs to mind.

[The Soup Thief]

Atomix86, on 05 August 2011 - 12:13 PM, said:

Oh dear, the "Osborne effect" springs to mind.

That's what it's called! Extra banana for Atomix86!

[ThermalDroid]

Okay if its released before the 17th september I might pick one up for laughs, but since I got my new phone y'know hacking has fallen to the back of my mind

[flibblesan]

Atomix86, on 05 August 2011 - 12:13 PM, said:

Oh dear, the "Osborne effect" springs to mind.

I don't know what you mean but I've voted you up anyway!

[flibblesan]

ThermalDroid, on 05 August 2011 - 12:16 PM, said:

Okay if its released before the 17th september I might pick one up for laughs, but since I got my new phone y'know hacking has fallen to the back of my mind

You have an Atrix.. you don't need any other phone!

(I'm not jealous.. really I'm not.. honest)

[FrankieADZ]

and there i was thinking about picking one up......but with all this talk....im gonna have to leave it for a while,
ZTE should just release the 1Ghz, imo

[Atomix86]

The Soup Thief, on 05 August 2011 - 12:16 PM, said:

That's what it's called! Extra banana for Atomix86!

Heh, cheers

flibblesan, on 05 August 2011 - 12:36 PM, said:

I don't know what you mean but I've voted you up anyway!

I forgot that was your surname! But it's actually a popular term for when a company bangs on about a "better" or "upgraded" product, and current sales drop (the person who made it famous, Adam Osborne, actually lost his company that way!).

[ThermalDroid]

flibblesan, on 05 August 2011 - 12:37 PM, said:

You have an Atrix.. you don't need any other phone!

(I'm not jealous.. really I'm not.. honest)

But the atrix is my POWARR!!! phone and my skate could be my hacking phone

Also my atrix is technically my work phone because its my work number soo.....

Edited by ThermalDroid, 05 August 2011 - 05:32 PM.

[sane?]

flibblesan, on 05 August 2011 - 12:36 PM, said:

I don't know what you mean but I've voted you up anyway!

You are obviously not old enough to remember the Osbourne luggable and the way pre-announcing better product killed sales of the current one, killing the company. I feel old.

Personally, if I were ZTE, I'd do it this way:

• release the 800Mhz phone as the 'ZTE Blade +' for a small increment over the Blade prices, playing off the back of the brand recognition for that phone with what is in reality a bump
• release a 1Ghz version as 'ZTE Skate' with a not-too-extreme price increase over the Blade+
• add a development of that in short order, probably with a keyboard as another name

That appears to be Huawei's model, tweaks of the same basic design under different names addressing slightly different market spaces.

As for the specs I'd like to see:

• ARM7 by default
• Lots of memory by default
• ~4 inch screen size (not too big, not too small)
• Dual core, so the thing doesn't stop if a thread grabs the processor hard.

Above that, I'd like a demountable keyboard, probably as part of an swappable back cover - so that I have the option of keyboard or thin phone.

The real key for ZTE I think is to focus on the software and docking aspects (eg the useability). The software because that can be kept up to date with a shorter cycle time than the hardware, and the docking because its the area that's missing from most phone setups. Think how its going to be used, not just technology. None of the phones (apple included) really gel properly with practical use cases.

In fact a selection of use cases from real users here might help ZTE get a better understanding of what new phones need to be doing - and avoid cases like the Skate in future.

Oh, and fix that damn wifi-disconnect-on-sleep issue - I'd pay an extra £10 for a phone that worked properly.

[sej7278]

sane?, on 05 August 2011 - 10:51 PM, said:

You are obviously not old enough to remember the Osbourne luggable and the way pre-announcing better product killed sales of the current one, killing the company. I feel old.

Personally, if I were ZTE, I'd do it this way:

i totally agree the 800mhz OMC should be called blade+ (like the defy+) and replace the blade as the bottom-of-the-range model, maybe even hovering around the £100 price point, and the skate should be the 1ghz model.

zte's problem is that its always in the budget market which means using previous generation hardware, but even then their timing is late, so they have a new phone that doesn't even compete with current low-end phones (arm7 defy/u8800) so its more like they're 1.5 generations behind.

by the time a 1ghz (arm6) skate comes out, it will be competing with 1.2ghz (or dual core) motorola's and huawei's.

the blade is (was) a fantastic piece of kit for the price, but the OMC isn't enough of an upgrade or cheap enough to have that kind of impact today.

[wbaw]

It does sound like a bad move all round. It's going to kill sales of the 800mhz version, before it's even gone on sale. Releasing a new phone with a new processor & giving it the same name as a previous model is confusing too, they need some kind of differentiation, even if it's just 'Skate+' or something. Will it be 1ghz ARMv7? or have they managed to get a version of a similar ARMv6 cpu up to 1ghz?

If it was 1ghz at launch then it'd be great, but it looks like the way they're doing it is a bit messed up.

It's good for us to have the info early, but terrible marketing for ZTE to release the info that their new phone will be replaced by a better version soon.

Edited by wbaw, 06 August 2011 - 12:49 AM.