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    SNL Spoofs Confusing Smartphone Marketing [VIDEO]

    By Charlie White | Mashable – Sun, Feb 12, 2012

    [More from Mashable: Microsoft: You’ll Never Turn Off Devices Running Windows on ARM]

    When Saturday Night Live decides to make fun of Verizon, there's something deeply satisfying about it. See if you agree when you watch this skit that aired Saturday night on SNL, poking fun at the alphabet soup and numerical nightmare that you'll find yourself embroiled within if you decide to buy a connected device.

    [More from Mashable: Smartphone Sales Overtake PCs for the First Time [STUDY]]

    Unless you're an absolute expert about smartphones and 3G and 4G and all the various protocols and model numbers and powerful sounding names attached to such products, you might feel lost if you find yourself inside a store like this. Whew! Don't feel bad. It's complicated. Many people have no idea what kind of connectivity they have.

    We run into the same problem when reviewing smartphones, especially when we're trying to describe how fast a certain smartphone or tablet is when using 4G LTE. It's fertile ground for deliberate confusion on the part of Verizon and other cellphone carriers, because wireless connectivity can vary from block to block, and even from room to room in your house.

    In addition to the plethora of connectivity confusion, we're especially amused by this video's skewering of the barrage of choices when it comes to smartphones. Because there are so many different handsets from which to choose, many consumers are tempted to throw up their hands and give up, keeping the cellphone they're using now.

    When presented with too many choices, people are less likely to choose anything. In a classic Columbia University study of consumer choice, when given a choice of six flavors of jam in a supermarket taste test, people were 10 times more likely to buy one than if they were given a choice of 24 flavors.

    Now think about this in the context of buying a smartphone: As of today, Samsung has an absurd 134 cellphone choices on its website. How likely is a novice going to choose one of these, or just give up and keep the cellphone he's using now, or make a snap decision based on getting out of the store as quickly as possible? Maybe Apple is onto something with its single smartphone brand name: iPhone.

    What do you think? Are there too many choices in the smartphone world? How about in the tech world overall?

    For those outside the U.S., here's a YouTube version of the video.

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

     

    17 comments

    • bubarub
      bubarub  •  Fresno, California  •  3 mths ago
      people need to read and learn new things.... this isn't funny for the reasons everyone thinks. it's only funny because they are dumb for trying to be funny to dumb people lmfao!!! thats a real joke!!!
    • paul p
      paul p  •  Madison Heights, Michigan  •  3 mths ago
      They should have made the joke about how 4g speeds are pointless when they cap you. Have fun capping out watching one half hour of video everyday for one week.
    • Reason
      Reason  •  3 mths ago
      up to 10x faster.... means it might possibly be 10x faster 1/1000 times if your that lucky person
    • Michael N
      Michael N  •  Pottsville, Pennsylvania  •  3 mths ago
      whats even funnier is that the actual people in the store don't have a clue what they are selling you, so when they use all those terms and you get confused, its not just you, they don't know what they mean either, even if they tell you they do.
    • Steve
      Steve  •  Waterloo, Illinois  •  3 mths ago
      Funny
    • Private
      Private  •  3 mths ago
      Funny and sadly true. Only way Android can "make" any dent into Apple's dominance in the smartphone arena is to give them away. With over 350 phones all made by different manufacturers and made available for free, its no wonder, Android is now the poor man's iPhone. Cheap, plastic knockoffs is what Android is, kind of like Windows. And like Windows, Android enjoys for the first time "ever" trojans, malware, and viruses ON A PHONE! Good job Google, good job.
      • John
        John 3 mths ago
        I would not call Android a poor mans iPhone. They can cost just as much, if not more if you want a current phone.
      • MrClarenceCat
        MrClarenceCat 3 mths ago
        Don't the facts get in the way of a good story, huh? Can you get viruses on an android phone? If you try hard enough: turn off a few settings and start to download unknown files from stange sites. Even the website that started this"fact" had to revise their statement.
      • Grant
        Grant 3 mths ago
        So what makes an iphone so freakin great? What makes them better? I've never had one but I just want to know why some people just freakin love them.
    • Tom
      Tom  •  3 mths ago
      Solution: get an iPhone 5 when it comes out.
    • indianajonz
      indianajonz  •  3 mths ago
      That clip probably paid for SNL for the next 6 months, with all the product placement.
      Verizon, LG, Samsung etc...
      Sad thing is SNL sucks. It's not funny any more. See how they just dropped the end of the skit? Big ironic build up and then - What if I drop it in the toilet? It breaks immediately. An old person's nightmare. Not a funny ending. All their skits are like that now.
    • sketch
      sketch  •  3 mths ago
      I think this captures the unclear sales pitches of cellphones very well. They throw out terms as if they are self-defining and then act as if we should get all excited about them. How can we get excited when you haven't even explained what they mean? I think SNL did a good job here.
    • SteveF
      SteveF  •  3 mths ago
      The fact that there is still an SNL is confusing.
      Their are funnier smells in an airport rest room
    • joel
      joel  •  Dallas, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      Most people don't know what phone, plan or company to decide on, more importantly they have even less idea of why they need a phone, who to call, or what to say. Texting and most calls paraphrase the old computer saying garbage in.
    • Macro Man
      Macro Man  •  3 mths ago
      If you have to buy a phone and have no clue which one to get, buy the latest model that is out. A phone that came out six months ago will be old technology but you will pay the same price as the phone that came out last week. In four months a new phone will come out that will be better then one that came out this week, so it doesn't really matter which one you purchase. I waited six months for the Samsung Galaxy SG II, because I knew it would be the latest technology. Four weeks after I bought it they came out with a 4G version, where mine was only 3G. Didn't see that coming. My area doesn't support AT&T 4G service so it didn't really matter.
    • John
      John  •  3 mths ago
      I thought the skit was funny.
      Yes there are a lot of cell phone choices out there, and Samsung makes over a hundred different kinds, but you gotta break that down into carriers too. Because all carriers want exclusive phones that the other companies don't carry, companies like Samsung cater to them and make phones that only Verizon carry, or ATT, or Sprint, or.... (You get the picture) That adds up fast with all the different kinds of phones there can be.
      As for the video. I agree, there are so many choices. If your just looking for a phone to use as a phone, salesman thrown way too many choices at you.
    • Canadian Bacon
      Canadian Bacon  •  West Point, Georgia  •  3 mths ago
      And yet most people just surf and text with the #$%$ things as they head toward thier next car accident. Impressive how we've progressed.
    • dojolaser
      dojolaser  •  3 mths ago
      when's snl gonna get funny again?
    • adam
      adam  •  3 mths ago
      SNL's at their BEST when they do these commercials. Verizon's ok I guess, BUT ATnT should BURN IN HELL for being the BIGGEST waste of a "company" POSht IN HISTORY along with WALMART! 2 LOSERS! Just watch "The High Price of Low Cost"
    • I
      I  •  Tucson, Arizona  •  3 mths ago
      it's funny because it makes fun of native americans once, shows a bunch of device logos, makes us feel sorry for someone who doesn't understand the size of a streamed song or movie, holds up a glass of juice, and finally makes fun of old people.

      "turn up the good, turn down the suck"

      - fubar
     Post a comment
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