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AT&T's HomeManager Does Well for managing Voice Messages and is Pretty Lame for Email

As a messaging center, the AT&T HomeManager does well with traditional voice messages and falls way short if you are trying to use it as an email device.

As you can see from the photo above, there are a variety of menu options that let you review missed calls, messages and more.

As for using the HomeManager as an eMail client- well, it's just not very good.  The email loads slowly, and it's hard to write even a simple message

AT&T HomeManager Is Starting to Grow on Me. Here's why...

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.

More Info on AT&T HomeManager....

Yesterday was a pretty good day in terms of media coverage for this blog.

With my introductory coverage of AT&T's HomeManager, I was swarmed with end user emails asking me questions like:

1.  Will it sync with my iPhone?

No

2.  Who's gonna use it for email? 

Hmmmm..... I don't know, but I do know that some times journalists or bloggers like me get a bit too wrapped up in being so far ahead of the pack, that we don't think about the potentially millions of customers who don't get 150 emails a day, carry a BlackBerry or iPhone, and leave their computers on 24 x 7 to stay perpetually wired.  Maybe (and probably) mainstream America just needs to occassionally check or respond to an email on a device like this.

3.  The retail price of $299 is sort of high. 

You can get a nice digital photoframe like this one at Amazon for $105.  Add in lots more electronics and capabilities, and a wireless base station and phone and all of a sudden $299 seems like a pretty good deal - for the right family.

Still, I think the price point is high.  But no..... look at the utility you do get for this introductory price point.  Considering that the frame itself is a phone in its own right, the price does offer more value.  But wait..... let me flip-flop.  Each addititional phone is $69.  Now, with the base system and another phone (or two) the price point now comes to $450. 

Ugh!  That's lots of money - especially these days, to the average working American family. 

4.  Why didn't AT&T partner with Apple with a competing product?

Seems like a logical choice to me.  What if the Apple version could sync with iPhoto?  What if the Apple version of the frame could sync with all of MobileMe?  What if the touch capability on the make pretend Apple version I have in mind would have the same sensory touch as my iPhone.  Would it extend the halo effect of both the AT&T and Apple brands?

Remember folks, the above descriptor was just a fantacy, but sure seems like a good idea to me.  Or maybe....just maybe... AppleTV morphs into the base station for the phone system and from there you get an iPhone that can be part of your home line and then lets you transition to the 3G system once you are, say 50 feet away from your home?

Maybe.  Just maybe, this becomes a way for AT&T to give consumers more value on their wireless plan and keep them "wired" at home with a residential phone number that becomes or transitions to your mobile number.

Do you have questions, issues, or ideas for what HomeManage could have been or should be in the future?

Do you plan to buy a HomeManager?

eMail me your answers:  alan at weinkrantz dot com

“Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to show you something way cool.” AT&T introduces HomeManager-- a practical and stylish telephony and information management hardware platform for the home

Last month’s deployment of AT&T’s U-verse Voice in my home represented a fundamental shift in the way I look at my residential telephony service.  And now, with today’s introduction of its HomeManager™ product offering, the phone company as we no longer know it, is extending the value chain in helping me integrate and manage all of my IP services in the home.

Read AT&T Press Release here.

Here's my review, shot in my home, here:

Overview
The AT&T HomeManager consists of three devices:  the HomeManager Frame, HomeManager Handset, and HomeManager Base.

The HomeManager Frame is a cordless touch screen device with a vivid 7 inch color display that provides easy access to your address book, as well as your call logs, voice mail, Yellow Pages and White pages, weather, news, email calendar digital photos and videos – and it’s a speaker phone.  It has the look and feel of a scaled down tablet PC and could be a hint of form factors to come, especially in light of Intel’s recent announcement of its Urban Max prototype displayed last month.

The HomeManager Handset is what it is- a handset but with the feel of something more like a Cisco, Nortel or Avaya office IP phone you see in the enterprise. 

The HomeManager Base which hooks into the Residential Gate way serves as a means to connect to the Frame and Handset.

First Impressions:
It looks really cool. Especially the HomeManager Frame.

It was easy to install. 

I was up and going in about 10 minutes.  The directions are easy to read and follow.

The HomeManager Frame got me thinking about how I consume and apply information.  In the case of Yellow Pages, the HomeManager  Frame is a great application – and a better application than having Yellow Pages on U-verse TV.  Frankly, Yellow Pages on U-verse TV is slow and cumbersome.  But on the HomeManager Frame it’s fast and easy to use.  Oh- by the way, I still use the paper version of the Yellow Pages which sits on a shelf in the kitchen.

While you can get your email on the HomeManager Frame, it’s sort of clunky and not as elegant as checking or composing email or texts on my iPhone.  The HomeManager Frame also comes with a pen stylus for tapping text instead of using your fingers.

The address book is a good idea, but you are out of luck in trying to sync it if you have an iPhone.  If you are a subscriber to the AT&T Mobile Backup Service, you can set your address book to automatically sync with your AT&T mobile phone address book on select phones.  (If you have an iPhone, I highly recommend the MobileMe service which syncs your PC/iPhone/and your .Me account in the cloud).

One thing that the HomeManager Frame does display – and can be your screen saver, is the weather.  This is a case where this type of device lends itself best for a certain type of information that I want to have at my disposal.

The lesson here is that there is no one device or communications platform that can be all things to all consumers.  The other lesson is that slowly but surely, AT&T is helping me build out a small-scale enterprise network in my home with service options that can be deployed on a variety of hardware platforms.  At the end of the day, it can be my TV, my PC, my wireless device, or now my Frame. 

Pricing:
The basic HomeManager offering is on sale starting today for $299.  Additional handsets are available for $69 each.  I wonder why AT&T doesn’t offer a $100 rebate if you sign up for U-verse, or at the very least, let you put 10 non-interest payments of $29 per month on your phone bill.

Availability:

You may purchase your HomeManager today in the following major AT&T markets:  Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.  I assume others will follow as they roll the product out.

Highly Recommended