Keepin' it real fake, part CLXVIII: no carrier subsidy to be found

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 19th 2009 at 10:44AM

Most people try to keep carrier branding on their phones to a minimum -- it's gaudy, loud, and unnecessary -- but for the burgeoning KIRF industry, anything goes. Take for example the SciPhone S18, brought to you by the same company that saw fit to clone a free platform, Android, of all things. It sorta looks like a cross between an Incite, a Vu, and a Prada (which never launched on AT&T, coincidentally), but the kicker is the big ol' AT&T logo top center. We're pretty sure it wouldn't take more than a couple days on an American carrier for these dudes to decide that the logo's doing more harm than good, but then again, maybe they know something we don't. Doubtful.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM

Tags: att, incite, kirf, lg, prada, s18, sciphone, vu

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RCC2k8 @ Jan 19th 2009 12:24PM

Has anyone ever tried any of these fake phones? Do they actually work, or are they just glorified pocket calculators?

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Ashton @ Jan 19th 2009 4:37PM

I'm sorry, but what the hell is with the "We're pretty sure it wouldn't take more than a couple days on an American carrier for these dudes to decide that the logo's doing more harm than good" statement? Are you some kind of Euro fanboy?

I rarely have problems with service or signal, and if I do, it's because I'm in some remote location where I would never expect there to be service anyways.

Here's some food for thought: The continental United States alone (NOT INCLUDING ALASKA) is roughly 80% the size of western and eastern europe combined. Now we just take western europe for example, which is probably where these fanboyish statements come from, it's about half the size of the US. Imagine now, that the American TelCos must try and cover a land mass ON THEIR OWN that is that size? Do you think that is an easy task? Where a company in a place like the UK and France only has these certain population centers to cover. I'm sure if someone lives in the UK, and has problems with service and lives out on a farm, they aren't going to be posting on engadgetmobile about it.

It is two completely different situations. I think the American TelCos do a damn good job at what they do given the circumstances.

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Jamar @ Jan 19th 2009 10:56PM

How 'bout China then? It's mostly mountains once you leave the coast, but the carriers cover most of it and they're dirt cheap too- 20c per text? Ha! That's what I pay INT'L ROAMING! I pay about $5 for 100 minutes and an additional $6 for 500MB data.

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RCC2k8 @ Jan 19th 2009 4:53PM

I think that comment "We're pretty sure it wouldn't take more than a couple days on an American carrier for these dudes to decide that the logo's doing more harm than good" is directed at how carrier branding in the US is associated with crippling handset features and loading them with useless bloatware that you can't uninstall. In that sense, putting a carrier logo in an otherwise unbranded device is a downgrade to the device.

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