Despite Telecom
Provider Digicel putting their
advertising muscle behind the DL600, something seems to be amiss with Digicel’s marketing slant of late.
Gone is the aggressive marketing style that the Telecom Provider is known for,
despite now being free to market their own smartphones with the fall of
Blackberry as surmised in my blog article
entitled “Digicel
officially launches DL600 smartphones on Friday October 18th 2013 and JA$100
2-Day Data Plans - Ours is the Fury as Digicel’s DL600 secures their Throne in
this Game of Phones against LIME”.
The smartphone
is now readily available and can be easily ordered. No more waiting lists and
no more long lines; Telecom Provider Digicel
apparently was stock piling them all along, despite the smartphone being widely
available in other territories in the Caribbean. But thus far their marketing
has been flat.
Mostly
restricted to advertisements on Television on both CVM TV and Television Jamaica, it mainly a
video which shows the smartphone in an animation that shows off very few of its
characteristics, merely citing what the phone’s great at doing.
Now compare this
ad to the one done in Trinidad and Tobago which features a live human being aka
a Customer Care Manager, holding the smartphone and describing the basic
features. This ad is not only more personal, but up until Digicel Jamaica did their ads, it was
the main result of searches by many a Jamaican Googleing the term “DL600”.
Hence the reason
why I eventually added it to my blog article
entitled “Digicel
to launch the DL600 smartphone in Jamaica on Thursday 30th or Friday 31st of
May 2013 - Digicel DL600 is coming Fast and Furious 6 to make smartphones
accessible to all” to drive more traffic to that article!
Clearly the Digicel DL600 isn’t being marketed as
fiercely as it should be in Jamaica as in the rest of the Caribbean. The lack
of enthusiasm as it relates to marketing the DL600 is glaringly obvious. Even
stranger too is the lack of Apps; Telecom Provider Digicel has launched this smartphone
without any custom apps on the smartphone made by them for their product.
DL600 has no Digicel Apps – Google Android Developer’s
SDK Gold Rush
But this has a
good side. This lack of customization means that Telecom Provider Digicel can make Apps from its many
promotions as well as facilitate the fledgling Android Developer Community in
Jamaica to develop Apps for the DL600.
Google Play,
Google’s App Store, gives away its SDK (Software Developer Kit) free online; Telecom
Provider Digicel merely needs to
make a Developer package including a low cost Developer version of the DL600 smartphone
complete with Developer Tools to allow Jamaicans Software Developers to design
Apps for the DL600. I made mention of
this point to a Customer Care Agent on Friday November 8th 2013
while visiting the Digicel Store on Knutsford Boulevard.
This will help
get Jamaicans involved in making money from selling Apps tailored to the
cultural tastes of Jamaican smartphone owners, specifically Game Apps as
described in my Geezam blog article
entitled “Smartphones
and Apps – Freemium Games are No. 1”. But more interestingly it’ll allow Telecom
Provider Digicel to convert their
entire Text message Game Promotions into Apps built along the lines of a
Freemium Gaming model. Customers can then enjoy playing these various
promotional Games on their smartphones via downloading the Apps for free.
However, once
they reach a certain stage in the games, they’ll have to pay with their Credit
Card or Scotia VISA Debit Cards to continue the game and gain the potential to
win many of the Cash prizes on offer.
Even better,
when Mobile Money becomes a reality, smartphone customers will be able to buy
apps using their JCUES account as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “JCUES
Mobile Money brings Cashless Society to the Unbanked as NCB debuts Cheque
munching ATM Machine”, making having no Credit Card no longer a limiting
Factor to participate in the App Economy as a buyer or seller of Apps.
Ditto too for
the Text messaging games that Telecom Provider Digicel turns into Apps. Except
instead of Credit Cards, persons would pay with Voucher Credit that they top up
with as explained in my Geezam blog
article “The
Prepaid Cycle and How Prepaid Credit gives your SIM Card access to the Prepaid
Network”. Even better, players can not only win Bonus Credit as their
prizes but could also be facilitated by Telecom Provider Digicel in purchasing online Apps via
using their Bonus Credit or even their regular Voucher Credit as Currency to
buy Apps from the Google Apps Store!
Digicel Apps Games – Making money from smartphones by
selling Game Apps
Telecom Provider
Digicel has a great opportunity
that they’re not exploiting. They’re already facing a reduction in the spending
of Voucher Credit by smartphones users as they mainly buy Data Plans but hardly
make phone calls, hence the BFFF (Best Friends for Free) Promotion as explained
in my Geezam blog article entitled “Digicel
introduces Best Friend For Free Promotion that’s really just more Bonus Credit”.
They can use
their Digicel DL600 as a
springboard to make more Jamaicans make money from the design and sale of Apps
for this affordable smartphones as well as convert their Text Messaging Games
into Apps. In so doing they’d empower Jamaicans with the idea that they aren’t
just consumers of content from the Internet but that they can make money as
well, key to 4G LTE Broadband Adoption in Jamaica.
In so doing,
it’ll make any future attempt by the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) at selling FDI
(Foreign Direct Investors) the 700 MHz Spectrum to provision 4G LTE which
wasn’t successful due to these issues as explained in my blog article
entitled “Jamaica's
700MHz Spectrum Auction fails to attract bidders on Friday October 11 2013 -
Jamaicans Lack interest in Broadband Internet and no Telecom Regulator for the
Sector” more successful.
Hopefully Telecom
Provider Digicel will put some
more effort into their promotions for their “4G” Mobile Data Services via this
lower cost smartphone come December 2013!
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