Last night when I came home from work, I went over to my AT&T HomeManager Frame to check messages and missed calls.
This was not some conscious act of doing, since after all, I had just had the device for a few days.
It just sort of happened.
After doing this, I thought to myself, "this is really a better way to check your voice messages...."
I found the user interface of using the Frame to be more elegant and enjoyable, much like the way I enjoy using my iPhone, my iPod in the car, and my MacBook Pro for other types of work and life things. (OK... I am an Apple fan too)
All this to say is that in all of these supposedly multi-purpose devices that vendors create for us, at the end of the day, they generally do one or two things really well and the rest- sort of so-so.
I find that the HomeManager- and in particular the HomeManager frame is becoming a sidekick to my iPhone and MacBookPro when I work from home.
I can also multi-task (like I need more multi-tasking in my life?) and find that I am using the HomeManager's Yellow Pages because it's just easier and faster to look stuff up on my Frame than it is on my computer or iPhone.
AT&T's HomeManager offering may not be for every family, and I still have a problem with $299 for the base system, even though it really is a very cool and compelling idea.
I don't think it's "overpriced."
I just think the price point is something we, as consumers have not been trained to accept.
Maybe the problem is that we still think of these devices in the home as just "phones."
Do a quick survey: ask some of your friends, family and business associates what they call their iPhone or their BlackBerry. Chances are they won't call or refer to them as "cell phones."
I don't fault AT&T or Samsung, who makes the system for its price point or product offering.
After all, it's not a phone.
It's what it is: a telecom home manager, for the home.
Maybe it's also because for a zillion years, Ma Bell-Western Electric-Southwestern Bell- SBC-AT&T has evolved we as residential consumers of the phone company still see these home phones as just phones.
Anyone out there buy a HomeManager?
Comments are welcomed at: alan at weinkrantz dot com.
