I wrote a while back about Paul Golding’s idea for giving better resources to developers about the many and varied handsets available to them. Anyone who has ever tried to develop an application for a mobile device knows that it’s a complete nightmare to try to get it working across all handsets, operators and payment plans (or even some of them!) at the same time.
One of the issues is a lack of a central resource or repository of information on handsets. While Paul wanted this to be provided by operators, it was always more realistic to see this coming from an independent source and one has been launched today by Mobile Research – the Mobile Device Database.
It looks to be a very comprehensive resource, covering all operators and handsets currently sold in the US market. They’ll be expanding into Europe soon too, though if they cover all markets, the complexities are a little mind boggling.
The service is available on a subscription basis, the price of which is not disclosed in the press release or on the website.
While the service sounds great, I always find it annoying when companies don’t disclose the cost of doing business with them. If I’m interested, I now have to contact their sales team. If I then find out it’s $5,000 a month, this is way beyond my (fictional) budget. This means they’ve wasted my time and theirs to produce a lead which is useless. So a guideline price would be very useful, fellas.
Or does anyone think it’s a good idea to be cagey about your pricing policy? The only exception might be real luxury goods where the "if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it" principle might conceivably apply.
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