I’ve been considering the purchase of a new phone recently, specifically Sprint’s new HTC Hero. The Hero is built on Google’s Android platform, and is supposed to be the open source answer to the iPhone. All of which sounds lovely to me. While the quality of the phone and whether I decide to take the plunge is irrelevant here, one part of my process in searching for the answer was incredibly insightful.
A few days ago, right before I was going to purchase, I happened to run across a few articles about the coming release of Android 2.0. This stopped me dead in my tracks, for what if the Hero won’t support 2.0? That would make my purchase immediately obsolete, and perhaps its best to wait for the next hardware release that supports it.
For a day there came no announcement from HTC on this, which left me in a standstill. Then yesterday I queried Twitter Search for anything mentioning Android 2.0 and the Hero. Lo and behold, a number of consumers had tweeted links to letters from HTC customer service explaining that indeed the Hero will be upgraded to 2.0 in the coming months. Problem solved and I’m making the switch.
A completely significant news item for the HTC organization, which affects a massive audience of their customers, has gotten out to the public via Twitter. The news is just starting to spread now, and will absolutely affect purchase decisions for way more individuals than just myself.
Point 1: The sooner that organizations begin to see Twitter as a a communication tool as much as it is a promotional vehicle, the better.
Point 2: Finding information via Twitter is now part of our instinct and routine in the purchasing process. See Point 1.
Twitter, My Most Reliable News Source: Thoughts From My Purchase Of The HTC Hero
I’ve been considering the purchase of a new phone recently, specifically Sprint’s new HTC Hero. The Hero is built on Google’s Android platform, and is supposed to be the open source answer to the iPhone. All of which sounds lovely to me. While the quality of the phone and whether I decide to take the plunge is irrelevant here, one part of my process in searching for the answer was incredibly insightful.
A few days ago, right before I was going to purchase, I happened to run across a few articles about the coming release of Android 2.0. This stopped me dead in my tracks, for what if the Hero won’t support 2.0? That would make my purchase immediately obsolete, and perhaps its best to wait for the next hardware release that supports it.
For a day there came no announcement from HTC on this, which left me in a standstill. Then yesterday I queried Twitter Search for anything mentioning Android 2.0 and the Hero. Lo and behold, a number of consumers had tweeted links to letters from HTC customer service explaining that indeed the Hero will be upgraded to 2.0 in the coming months. Problem solved and I’m making the switch.
A completely significant news item for the HTC organization, which affects a massive audience of their customers, has gotten out to the public via Twitter. The news is just starting to spread now, and will absolutely affect purchase decisions for way more individuals than just myself.
Point 1: The sooner that organizations begin to see Twitter as a a communication tool as much as it is a promotional vehicle, the better.
Point 2: Finding information via Twitter is now part of our instinct and routine in the purchasing process. See Point 1.