FAO: Orange CS Rep...why do I have to hack my phone?

Hammyman

Dear Mr. Orange Customer Service Representative...

I have a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic which I got in November 2009 when I signed up my contract.

Nokia released a firmware update early in 2010 and Orange released a custom version of it. It was the 50.0.005 version. This was soon realised to be extremely buggy and a short while later Nokia released ver 52.0.007 which seriously improved performance and added a few other things.

Orange chose not to bother releasing an operator customised version or even the original version.

In desperation last night after months of suffering the buggy 50.0.005 firmware and constantly coming up against a brick wall from Orange, I'd finally had enough. I downloaded the Nokia Service Suite and changed the Nokia product code from the Orange one to a generic one in order to get the latest firmware update - something that could have either resulted in me getting malware on my computer or bricking my phone.

So dear Mr. Orange Customer Services Representative, why have Orange not released the lates firmware which has been out for months to fix the buggy version on your update server?

sparky93

fair question, there, and same has occured on other product ranges too.

gjchester

Because as I pointed out in another thread once the phones are out of the door on sale no-one other than the end user really cares about upgrades with the exception of Apple.

Vendors may release one or two upgrade (look at HTC or Sony who do a few upgrades to the Android phones), and the networks may or may not go to the hasle of re-borking the firmaware by branding it, but with the exception of Apple generally there is no upgrade path other than replacing the phone in 18/24 months.

Like or loathe them Apple know it's the day to day user experience people like and rememeber. By tweaking and adding in features and abilities through upgrades, and by not allowing networks to customise the phone and so stop that process, they have built the brand loyalty they have.

drbesty

I'd be great if Nokia didnt release such half-arsed buggy firmware in the first place. Orange or any other mobile provider sell or have sold hundreds of models of phone, keeping ontop of all the various firmware updates would be a massive task, each one has to go through alot of testing before being released. As gjchester said, Apple have it spot on

Hammyman

drbesty wrote: »

I'd be great if Nokia didnt release such half-arsed buggy firmware in the first place. Orange or any other mobile provider sell or have sold hundreds of models of phone, keeping ontop of all the various firmware updates would be a massive task, each one has to go through alot of testing before being released. As gjchester said, Apple have it spot on

All Orange have to do to the released firmware is change the product code and integrate their settings for APN, homepage etc which takes no time at all and then put it on their servers.

Jon_01

Hammyman wrote: »

All Orange have to do to the released firmware is change the product code and integrate their settings for APN, homepage etc which takes no time at all and then put it on their servers.

Not a hope in hell of them doing that I'm afriad.

A number of people have contact the exec office about this, but it's policy that Orange will not have their firmware removed. And as whole depts are now being let go due to the merger I doubt very much any handset will ever see any updates. . .