shaunak
Contributor
Hey,
The premise is simple. Brands like Samsung and HTC charge a lot more for similarly spec'ed phones than local brands like Karbonn and Micromax. My question is very simple: are they using their brand value to overcharge or do local brands have genuine reliability problems.
Before you answer that, do spare a minute to hear my arguments:
1. All phones are made in China. No two ways about that. Right from Micromax, Samsung, HTC, to Apple. Major components are manufactured and assembled in China. The process and fabrication houses they use are also the same. The components they use (SOCs, Processors) are designed by very clever people (mostly in the US) on computers, and these designs materialize in China. They are tested on the same kind of test hardware and soldered by the same kind of pick and place machines. So do bigger brands actually gain anything by being bigger brands at the component level?
2. The designs and the software are published (or reverse engineered) and are freely available. It is not hard for anyone to build an Android enabled hardware today. [Case and point: Raspberry PI] SOCs are also sold by the same vendors. So its not like big companies with larger research budgets have much to gain.
I have searched the internet looking for reliable data on an issue that is important to anyone in the market for a phone today: Are local brands (karbon, micromax) as reliable as "global" brands (samsung, htc).
I checked a consumer court aggregating website [http://www.consumerdaddy.com/home.htm] and was shocked to find: all three - micromax, htc and samsung score poorly on it. So in terms of consumer cases, they are pretty evenly matched. Or, more likely the data set is biased.
It looks like most opinions out there are just that, opinions with no firm data backing them.
I would like to start a small survey [which can perhaps grow to be a reliable data source for others] on the matter. I would like to collect some data on your usage, duration of ownership and problems / praises for the phone.
Please fill out this form and post an honest reply about the phone you use.
Brand: eg: Micromax / Samsung / HTC / etc.
Model: eg: Galaxy S
Duration on Use: eg: A year / A month etc [It will be really nice if you can provide a date of purchase]
Problems Faced: eg: Faulty Touchscreen
Praises: eg: Works well in-spite of dropping from a table
Personal opinion: eg: I feel that micromax has a lower reliability
Reliable / Happy: yes / No
I intend to compile results every few days and post up on this thread itself. Perhaps this can be made a sticky?
-------------------
RESULTS SO FAR
-------------------
[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]Brand[/TD]
[TD]Happy[/TD]
[TD]Not Happy[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Samsung[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dell[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nokia[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The premise is simple. Brands like Samsung and HTC charge a lot more for similarly spec'ed phones than local brands like Karbonn and Micromax. My question is very simple: are they using their brand value to overcharge or do local brands have genuine reliability problems.
Before you answer that, do spare a minute to hear my arguments:
1. All phones are made in China. No two ways about that. Right from Micromax, Samsung, HTC, to Apple. Major components are manufactured and assembled in China. The process and fabrication houses they use are also the same. The components they use (SOCs, Processors) are designed by very clever people (mostly in the US) on computers, and these designs materialize in China. They are tested on the same kind of test hardware and soldered by the same kind of pick and place machines. So do bigger brands actually gain anything by being bigger brands at the component level?
2. The designs and the software are published (or reverse engineered) and are freely available. It is not hard for anyone to build an Android enabled hardware today. [Case and point: Raspberry PI] SOCs are also sold by the same vendors. So its not like big companies with larger research budgets have much to gain.
I have searched the internet looking for reliable data on an issue that is important to anyone in the market for a phone today: Are local brands (karbon, micromax) as reliable as "global" brands (samsung, htc).
I checked a consumer court aggregating website [http://www.consumerdaddy.com/home.htm] and was shocked to find: all three - micromax, htc and samsung score poorly on it. So in terms of consumer cases, they are pretty evenly matched. Or, more likely the data set is biased.
It looks like most opinions out there are just that, opinions with no firm data backing them.
I would like to start a small survey [which can perhaps grow to be a reliable data source for others] on the matter. I would like to collect some data on your usage, duration of ownership and problems / praises for the phone.
Please fill out this form and post an honest reply about the phone you use.
Brand: eg: Micromax / Samsung / HTC / etc.
Model: eg: Galaxy S
Duration on Use: eg: A year / A month etc [It will be really nice if you can provide a date of purchase]
Problems Faced: eg: Faulty Touchscreen
Praises: eg: Works well in-spite of dropping from a table
Personal opinion: eg: I feel that micromax has a lower reliability
Reliable / Happy: yes / No
I intend to compile results every few days and post up on this thread itself. Perhaps this can be made a sticky?
-------------------
RESULTS SO FAR
-------------------
[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]Brand[/TD]
[TD]Happy[/TD]
[TD]Not Happy[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Samsung[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dell[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nokia[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
