Chocolate is Sweet…But Not Quite As Sweet As Could Be
You've probably seen commercials for Chocolate, LG's answer to the RAZR, wrapped in a sweet desire-inducing advertising that is the specialization of good marketing departments. All good on the surface, but how useful is the phone really? Will it replace your iPod?
Not so much, according to this article on the ASU Web Devil. In interviews conducted with students and some of his own research, Mike Chichester found three major problems with the Chocolate: first, LG decided to go with WMA compatibilty, so the phones doesn't work with AAC (iTunes) files. Hard to be an iPod replacement if you don't work with the proprietary files. Second, it costs $1.99 to download tracks from Verizon's website…and even then, if you want the higher quality files to put on the phones 2 GB of storage, you'll need to shell out $30 for the kit to connect the phone to your computer. Third, just because LG updated the memory capacity on the phone doesn't mean they've figured out how to make the battery any more powerful – playing mp3s drains a lot of battery life and means there's less power available for the phones original purpose: calling people.
Reading Chichester's piece, it sounds like while Chocolate is a right step in the direction of convergence, things aren't there yet and won't be until battery technology takes a significant step forward.
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By Rico, August 24, 2006 @ 1:31 pm
Looks like we both agree on the Chocolate’s usability Eric. It seems companies are more interested in retaining control, rather than enhancing the end-user experience.
By Eric Hanson, August 24, 2006 @ 5:46 pm
I guess the market will sort it out – if people overlook the problems and like the phone, it will sell. Otherwise, maybe LG and other manufacturers will get the point.