VietNamNet Bridge – Smart phones tend to have shorter life circles, thus making users suffer for the big money they spend to buy them.

A lot of smart phones with powerful configurations got “out of fashion” just after one year of use. Since manufacturers drop the out-of-fashion products, users do not have apps to use.

The smart phones with high technologies but no apps

The rapid technology development has made the smart phones’ life expectancy shorten. This means that though users spend big money to buy powerful smart phone products, they would not use the products for a long time.

In principle, one can sell the out-of-date product to get money to buy a new one with more advanced technology. However, the out-of-date products only can be sold for next to nothing, the owners usually hesitate to sell them.

Nghia in district 6 in HCM City said that he bought a Samsung Wave in 2010 at nearly 10 million dong. At that moment, the model was considered one of the most stylish for players.

However, since the main operation system of the product line – Bada – has become forgetful by Samsung, the model has no new features more. Meanwhile, the latest-generation models have diversified Android app stores, even though they have weaker configurations.

Nghia said that his mobile phone now can be used to make calls, listen to music and surf on Internet only, because the other important apps do not appear on the models running on Bada operation system any more.

“My phone has CPU and RAM more powerful than other popular models, but this does not have much significance, because the model was designed to run on Bada only,” he complained.

Nghia has heard that hackers have found out the way to unlock the phones to make Samsung Wave fit Android operation system. If this is true, he would shift to use Android operation system to enjoy more apps.

Nghia is not alone. Many smart phone users complained that their iPhone 3 or the models of HTC, Samsung and Nokia made one or two years ago cannot fit new apps. It is because the software has been upgraded continuously to be compatible to higher level operation system.

Smart phones – the products for the rich

Le Duy, the admin of MobileWorld.vn, said many people think they should buy the smart phones with high configurations to keep their phones useable for a long time with updated features. However, they are wrong.

Unlike normal mobile phones, the life expectancy of smart phones is not long. When manufacturers stop developing services, the smart phones would lose their features. The only way for smart phone users is to upgrade the operation. However, Duy said this does not have much significance, because the configuration may not be suitable.

Phuong, a member of Tinh Te, a forum for hi-tech product players, said upgrading software is just a provisional solution. It is now really difficult to upgrade the software for iPhone 3 or iPhone 3Gs. In order to use Viber or Tango with iPhone 3, for example, the operation system needs to be upgraded. Meanwhile, it will take more than half a day to do that, while this would not bring the perfect use because the mobile phone configurations don’t fit new operation systems.

Huu Duyen