Android phone Support costs $2 billion a year
Support for high-quality smartphones is expensive for telecom operators, but even more money is spent on servicing cheaper Android mobile devices. WDS has estimated that replacing or repairing low-quality Android phones costs companies up to $2 billion a year.
WDS analyzed 600 thousand calls to technical support over the past 12 months and came to the conclusion that 14% of these calls from Android phone users are related to hardware problems. For comparison, among Windows Phone users, there were 11% of such calls, iOS – 7% and BlackBerry – 6%. The main problem that Google needs to solve, in their opinion, is how to keep the platform as open to innovation as possible and at the same time ensure high quality control.
“Android has done a lot to make the smartphone market more accessible to users, but there are some things that need to be improved,” said Tim Deluca-Smith, vice president of marketing at WDS. “The idea that the consumer experience on different Android devices is exactly the same is wrong.”
He also noted that mobile operators are attracted by affordable prices of smartphones in the low and medium price segment, but these companies, as a rule, do not take into account the cost of their support. When manufacturing Android-based devices for the mass market, cheap components and outdated operating systems are usually used, and they also save on quality control. This is the main thing that distinguishes them from expensive models and from those that run on an OS with more thorough quality control.
The widely discussed fragmentation issues also affect the cost of servicing these phones. Updates are released for different devices at different times, which causes misunderstanding among users who start calling and asking for the latest release. Training and independent technical support opportunities are the main tools to reduce costs and increase user satisfaction. Especially now, when smartphones are rapidly turning from devices for tech-savvy users into the mainstream.
