[AndroidBlizzard]

HTC One series( X and S) have already been released in Europe for quite a while now(Early April).

I'm certain that I am not the only person annoyed that phones are released in Europe and else where before arriving in the U.S. (Late April,May and even June.)

Someone needs to knock this trend around, clearly there are more consumers in U.S, U.S needs to be the country to have the phones first and then let other countries get the phones later on. Call me ignorant or biased but this method works. Just look at Apple.

Only good thing about Apple is that they actually release iPhones in the U.S first, companies need to step it up and emulate Apple's rollout plan. If it weren't for my ever growing dislike of Apple I would have gotten the iPhone. Basically came down to 4s or One S and my contract ended last month. Hopefully the wait is worthwhile.

No offense intended to the Europeans but how in the world do they get cellphone releases first boggles my mind. On the bright side it could be worse, I could waiting 2 or 3 months but luckily HTC One Series are coming "only" a month later. Better than GS2 and perhaps GS3 where waiting 2 or 3 months after the european release is very likely.

I would favor simultaneous releases in U.S and elsewhere but bottom line U.S consumers should not be the ones to wait.

/end rant

[UCLA 15]

Meh, U.S. guy here and I don't think there's much substance to your rant. If companies are releasing their phones elsewhere first, it's probably because they are making more money doing so. Note: I'm not saying that they are selling more phones elsewhere, because I really don't know if more phones are sold worldwide or if more are sold in the U.S. What I am saying is that somehow the sum total of selling worldwide first and then in the U.S. is probably more profitable than selling in the U.S. first. If it was the other way around, they probably would have already started selling in the U.S. first a long time ago...

That said, some of the time gaps have been much bigger than I find reasonable. For example, the gap between the international GS2 and the GS2 we finally got in the U.S. was a ridiculously long time.

[AndroidBlizzard]

Meh, U.S. guy here and I don't think there's much substance to your rant. If companies are releasing their phones elsewhere first, it's probably because they are making more money doing so. Note: I'm not saying that they are selling more phones elsewhere, because I really don't know if more phones are sold worldwide or if more are sold in the U.S. What I am saying is that somehow the sum total of selling worldwide first and then in the U.S. is probably more profitable than selling in the U.S. first. If it was the other way around, they probably would have already started selling in the U.S. first a long time ago...

That said, some of the time gaps have been much bigger than I find reasonable. For example, the gap between the international GS2 and the GS2 we finally got in the U.S. was a ridiculously long time.

True there is no data to back up that U.S do sell more phones but I look at it based on population size.
It's safe to assume that a greater amount of people correlates to higher sales in theory.

U.S- 300 million
India- 800 million
China- 1.1 Billion

Where as the most populated European countries have a total close to 50 million ( give or take a bit)

Maybe there are contracts, connections and other plans that the public doesn't know but releasing it in Europe isn't the best from an economic standpoint.

[Kevin O'Quinn]

The sales model is completely different. The markets are completely different. And releasing one unlocked version of a phone in Europe will work on 99% of the carriers over there. It just makes more sense to release unlocked phones in Europe first, where consumers are used to paying $500+ for a phone.

Go ahead and try telling the average consumer in the US that they have to pay that much for a phone.

[grunt0300]

I've checked out the whole HTC Series, here at AC. To paraphrase Obi Wan...These aren't the Droids i'm looking for.

[SysipheanEfforts]

What I wonder about is the approval process. For example:

How does FCC approval (mainly the time taken for approval) compare to any equivalent system in Europe?
Do European carriers have the same input over phones that US carriers do?
What is the internal review/approval time (average, I guess) for European carriers vs US carriers?

It probably goes on and on, but I'm willing to be that the above at least plays some part in it all.

[AndroidBlizzard]

The sales model is completely different. The markets are completely different. And releasing one unlocked version of a phone in Europe will work on 99% of the carriers over there. It just makes more sense to release unlocked phones in Europe first, where consumers are used to paying $500+ for a phone.

Go ahead and try telling the average consumer in the US that they have to pay that much for a phone.

Makes sense, I didn't account for that. It's a good trade off then having a subsidized price at the price of waiting longer.

[Mikey47]

The sales model is completely different. The markets are completely different. And releasing one unlocked version of a phone in Europe will work on 99% of the carriers over there. It just makes more sense to release unlocked phones in Europe first, where consumers are used to paying $500+ for a phone.

Go ahead and try telling the average consumer in the US that they have to pay that much for a phone.

I'm sure this is it. Make a GSM phone that you can sell to everyone (Europe) first, or make a ton of different varieties (U. S.). I wish the U. S. were more like Europe in this regard!

[Phil Nickinson]

Somebody has to be first.

The U.S. often gets Motorola phones before the rest of the world.

[icebike]

What I wonder about is the approval process. For example:

How does FCC approval (mainly the time taken for approval) compare to any equivalent system in Europe?
Do European carriers have the same input over phones that US carriers do?
What is the internal review/approval time (average, I guess) for European carriers vs US carriers?

It probably goes on and on, but I'm willing to be that the above at least plays some part in it all.

In many cases these phones are certified by the fcc first and the other countries simply accept fcc certification, because the fcc has far more exacting standards than most countries.

Any thing certified to run on at&t will work in most EU countries.

I think Kevin has hit the nail on the head. US carries have gone out of their way over the years to prevent you from taking your phone to another carrier.

Part of this is history, because the US started on cell networks first, and the EU sat back and watched to see which technology works best. They never got themselves saddled with CDMA.

But T-Mo being on incompatible bands was a consciousness decision to subvert handset portability.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[carp00r85]

also, apple is an american company and the others are not

[Ry]

Somebody has to be first.

The U.S. often gets Motorola phones before the rest of the world.

Doesn't China have an HD RAZR already?

[Ry]

This thread is very American. lol

[Kevin O'Quinn]

In many cases these phones are certified by the fcc first and the other countries simply accept fcc certification, because the fcc has far more exacting standards than most countries.

Any thing certified to run on at&t will work in most EU countries.

I think Kevin has hit the nail on the head. US carries have gone out of their way over the years to prevent you from taking your phone to another carrier.

Part of this is history, because the US started on cell networks first, and the EU sat back and watched to see which technology works best. They never got themselves saddled with CDMA.

But T-Mo being on incompatible bands was a consciousness decision to subvert handset portability.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

I think the T-Mo thing has more to do with how spectrum is handled in the US. It's a mess, really.

[Richard Devine]

Europeans are people too you know take pity, in the uk we don't have lte yet!

[Kevin O'Quinn]

Europeans are people too you know take pity, in the uk we don't have lte yet!

But when you do won't the frequencies be the same between all the carriers so you can roam from one carrier to the next? Or switch carriers at will and not have to worry about what frequencies your phone supports?

[texinwien]

First off - the estimated population for the European Union is a hair under 500,000,000 - significantly higher than that of the US.

Second off, Europe doesn't have scads of mobile service providers, each hawking a different technology. An unlocked European phone can be used with any European provider, and a locked European phone can be used with any provider if the owner's willing to unlock it (easy to do).

Third off, much of the rest of the world is on the same or compatible mobile technologies as Europe - there's a reason people are calling the One series phones sold in Europe the "international" version. Taking this into account, the "European" phones are the same phones they'll sell pretty much everywhere on the planet, except in the US - so subtract the 300MM population of the US from the 7B world population, and you have a potential 6,700,000,000 consumers for the international version compared to 300,000,000 for the various US versions.

I"m a US citizen who's lived in Europe for a little over a decade - from my perspective, it's the US that is still behind the times in terms of mobile technology. You're catching up on that side of the pond, but you're still lagging in a number of areas.

Disclaimer: My population numbers are approximate, and were pulled from quick google searches. Also, I can't promise that every single country on the planet uses mobile technologies compatible with the European ones, or that the US is the only outlier in terms of reliance on 'non-standard' mobile technologies. I have traveled extensively - 5 continents - and I've been able to use my GSM phones everywhere I've been (with the exception of the US some years ago, before they started adopting GSM technology).

[magiccheeto]

I'd assume that phones get released elsewhere before the us because its very painful process to get a phone through the FCC. That and US cellular carriers are generally unpleasant both to customers and phone manufacturers.

[Kevin O'Quinn]

Thread cleaned. Keep it on topic please. Anything questionable please use the report post button. It's the red triangle with exclamation point in the middle at the top right of a comment.

[dragonsamus]

It would be great to release phones worldwide at the same time but its not possible because of the carriers wanting variety and being on different frequencies. It would be nice though...

[icebike]

I'd assume that phones get released elsewhere before the us because its very painful process to get a phone through the FCC. That and US cellular carriers are generally unpleasant both to customers and phone manufacturers.

Doubt that. You get through the FCC, the rest of the world just rubber stamps the phone right through.

My imported international version has FCC APPROVAL. Its meant for the far East market..

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[Kevin O'Quinn]

Doubt that. You get through the FCC, the rest of the world just rubber stamps the phone right through.

My imported international version has FCC APPROVAL. Its meant for the far East market..

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

The FCC needs to test and approve almost (I say almost because I'm not 100% sure) any wireless device that has the potential to be used here.

Even if it isn't every device, phones have to be high on the list of potential things to get imported from a different region for use here.

Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk 2

[steve31]

We have it in Canada. I am surprised that lately we have been getting the phones in Canada before the US. We got the GS2 and I think the GNexus first. At least you can always count on Apple. I hope the GS3 release is world wide.

[Crispy]

US carriers are by far the worst in the world, they have all kinds of requirements and demands and it takes longer to meet them. In the rest of the world, the oem's can release the phone they made with the name they chose rather than have to play games to meet the demands of carriers here.

If you think about it in many ways we have a very backward infrastructure and network compared to most countries. We like to do things different for no good reason (not follow global standards like metric, gsm etc).

[AndroidBlizzard]

Motorola Razr MAXX coming to Europe in May and it has been released in Jan/Feb in the US. Music to my ears!

This is what I'm referring to, carriers and a lot of other problems complicates it but it would be wise to start over and let the US receiving phones first.