Being a pda freak, I'm always looking for a better device. Having just sold my JAM, I am inclined to switch to the HTC Universal-based model. However, being unlucky to be based in Kazakhstan (the notorius "Stan"!), I have found it very difficult to talk to the online stores such as eXpansys or MobilePlanet. They simply do not make deliveries to this region.
However, I found this website, www.qtekuk.com which, after I wrote to them, responded that they would be able to deliver to Kazakhstan.
My quesiton is, has anyone dealt/heard of these guys? I need a second opinion before I make a money transfer.
Replies at soonest are much appreciated as I need to make up my mind (there is one guy in town waiting to sell me the item but his price is not as attractive).
Thanks and regards
Try some other sellers too.
Hi I noticed you didn't get answer yet to your question. I can't tell much about that,but my advice would be ,that if you're planning to buy a gadget like that,you could also spend a few extra dollars and actualy call them to make an idea about the company. Also,read throughout the forum and you'll find a lot of sellers especialy in uk from whitch people bought already.
Good luck.
qtekuk.com = SDD
"qtekuk.com" are none other than SmartDevicesDirect. I don't know if they have become the official distributor in the UK, or if the domain and site are just designed to look that way. (qtek.co.uk still redirects to agbglobal, Qtek's parent company).
Search the forum if you want other people's experiences of them (good and bad). Personally I prefer not to put my trust in companies that use mulitple identities, or that charge credit cards up front for stock they haven't got. Plus I hate web sites that play cheesy music as soon as you land on their home page. YM, of course, MV.
Hey striker_69, sorry I missed your post before. I would say don't bother with this firm. £610 is outrageously expensive. You could buy one from someone trustworthy on eBay for around £150-200 LESS than that. Since you are in Kazakhstan you would need to pay via bank transfer probably (a lot of PayPal fraud occurs in Eastern Europe and also in India, Thailand, nigeria, etc as I am sure you are aware).
Hmm, can't really comment, but after seeing that guy on the intro to their site, well, 'I wouldn't buy a used car from him!'
Hope it works out for you
Gareth
Now we have some official information about regional availability.
In a nutshell, WP7 will support 5 languages (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish), and Marketplace will be available in 17 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and United States).
While at first I thought - fine, I'll just import one from wherever it's available, it won't work.
First of all, it will be next to useless if you speak Dutch or Russian, for example - it won't have dictionaries for auto-correction or, in the worst case, won't have the input characters necessary.
What's even worse, you won't be able to buy applications if your market isn't supported.
Big disappointment...
Disappointing low availability in the initial rush. I'd expected more of Microsoft.
Lol. You guys are way too harsh. Do you know how many carriers those markets contain? A LOT.
Rolling out an entirely new software platform and entirely new devices is not an easy process. Lighten up, they're doing an excellent job.
Iridox said:
Lol. You guys are way too harsh. Do you know how many carriers those markets contain? A LOT.
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No, we're not.
Apple iTunes is the only marketplace that supports selling/buying applications in those regions. And same goes for music services (iTunes Music Store) versus Zune.
Google after over a year of Android still haven't launched anything in northern Europe. It's super annoying that we're left behind innovation this easy. I'd expected more of Microsoft, who have a established business selling software and services in all the European countries, to be able to launch in all these regions at the same time.
Iridox said:
Lol. You guys are way too harsh.
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I'm not harsh, I'm disappointed because I'm left out of the party, even though I live in a country that almost 4 times as many mobile phones in use as in France, where Microsoft has over 30% market share in smartphones, where they have tons of people working at their offices including developers and localization contractors and what not, and where they have some of the biggest ISVs supplying third party applications.
So I'm frustrated, not harsh.
Windcape said:
Google after over a year of Android still haven't launched anything in northern Europe.
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Google isn't a consumer oriented company, have no infrastructure or processes in most places to sell anything directly to end users, so that's understandable. But Microsoft? Come on, they're just being lazy.
vangrieg said:
..
Google isn't a consumer oriented company, have no infrastructure or processes in most places to sell anything directly to end users, so that's understandable. But Microsoft? Come on, they're just being lazy.
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But it is still very successful.
Which makes Microsoft think.....and rethink its new product roll-out.
Could their not be other issues like Licensing and other laws that might make it difficult to get everything in order before a mass release is done? Just because you have access to similar products now doesn't mean it is easy to get new products to you when Laws/Procedure get in the way.
IM0001 said:
Could their not be other issues like Licensing and other laws that might make it difficult to get everything in order before a mass release is done?
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That is precisely the problem. It's the same reason that developers have to be in one of 30 or so countries because Microsoft can't pay them if they're outside of those.
Wow, none of the Nordic countries.
nizzon said:
Wow, none of the Nordic countries.
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Probably copyright issues. That and languages that aren't spoken by a large amount of people comparatively.
RustyGrom said:
Probably copyright issues. That and languages that aren't spoken by a large amount of people comparatively.
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All the Nordic countries speak/read/write English almost as well as their native language, so it's not a localization issue.
Legal issues is more likely the problem -- Specially when it comes to Zune, more than anything else.
But it's still disappointing, as Microsoft got large local divisions in the Nordic countries, specially Denmark (Microsoft Dynamics is developed here), so one would think they could be better than Google in this.
What I don't understand, is that Apple got both iTunes for Apps and Music available in all the European countries, so why would Microsoft be limited here with Zune?
However, it could also just be that Microsoft isn't pushing it to all countries due to simple logical issues -- there simply ain't enough phones. Nokia had same issue with the N900, which also were limited to the major countries + Finland (Nokia resides in Finland).
But is it common practice to sell stuff in english and not the local language? I really don't know but I would think they would localize it.
Zune has been interesting. Microsoft really hasn't bothered to sell it anywhere but the US. I suppose it's more of a cost/benefit thing. They just didn't care enough to take it abroad. They started that when they brought it to Xbox 360 and now they're going further with WP7.
But yea, it's going to be hard enough on them and their partners to do an effective launch in 17 countries as it is. And they're supposedly going to make their way to the Netherlands before the end of the year so that may just be it as well. Or maybe they couldn't get all the legal issues straightened out in time? At any rate, it's no small undertaking.
RustyGrom said:
But is it common practice to sell stuff in english and not the local language? I really don't know but I would think they would localize it.
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For cutting-edge it's generally accepted.
RustyGrom said:
Zune has been interesting. Microsoft really hasn't bothered to sell it anywhere but the US. I suppose it's more of a cost/benefit thing. They just didn't care enough to take it abroad. They started that when they brought it to Xbox 360 and now they're going further with WP7.
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Yeah, they stated that Zune will be released in all regions WP7 is released in.
RustyGrom said:
At any rate, it's no small undertaking.
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Doesn't make it less annoying for us
RustyGrom said:
Zune has been interesting. Microsoft really hasn't bothered to sell it anywhere but the US. I suppose it's more of a cost/benefit thing. They just didn't care enough to take it abroad. They started that when they brought it to Xbox 360 and now they're going further with WP7.
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Well, Zune is a very difficult thing because digital rights have to be obtained for every country separately... Plus, Zune has streaming, so you have to get streaming rights as well. Sometimes a label will have an agreement with the artist that won't cover digital rights, so you'll have to negotiate these separately. That's a colossal amount of "manual" work to make an international music store - and then you get videos, too...
As nice as it would be to have Zune Pass though, I can certainly live without it, and I sincerely hope this isn't something that's holding WP7 back - they won't open Zune in many countries till doomsday.
RustyGrom said:
But yea, it's going to be hard enough on them and their partners to do an effective launch in 17 countries as it is. And they're supposedly going to make their way to the Netherlands before the end of the year so that may just be it as well. Or maybe they couldn't get all the legal issues straightened out in time? At any rate, it's no small undertaking.
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Apart from Zune, however, I don't see any big hurdles. Translation isn't a big deal, they have a network of subcontractors that do it, and everything is in those MUI files. Marketplace is available in more than 17 countries even now, so they certainly learned how to deal with tax and legal issues by now, and it's not that difficult really. OEMs know how to sell devices there, have distributors, retail/MO partners etc. etc.
At the end of the day I don't care if they "launch" WP7 in Russia or not, all I care is that they add Russian keyboard. Adding language support is certainly not that big of anl undertaking which would sell a couple million more devices even without official launches and all that fluff.
vangrieg said:
As nice as it would be to have Zune Pass though, I can certainly live without it, and I sincerely hope this isn't something that's holding WP7 back - they won't open Zune in many countries till doomsday.
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As I said, Zune will be launched in all countries they launch WP7 in.
At the end of the day I don't care if they "launch" WP7 in Russia or not, all I care is that they add Russian keyboard. Adding language support is certainly not that big of anl undertaking which would sell a couple million more devices even without official launches and all that fluff.
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It's a software keyboard, can't be that difficult to implement, even for a Cyrillic alphabet.
Windcape said:
As I said, Zune will be launched in all countries they launch WP7 in.
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In that case we'll never ever see WP7 in Russia, even Apple hasn't been able to get deals with labels to launch iTunes store here.
Windcape said:
It's a software keyboard, can't be that difficult to implement, even for a Cyrillic alphabet.
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Certainly, given that CE supports Cyrillic, Silverlight supports Cyrillic, even Zune supports Cyrillic, and Microsoft has all the dictionaries and stuff. That's a really minor thing to do to get access to a market with some 200 million active mobile phones in use I'd say...
So we wont even get the Phones?!!!!!!!
I got the impression that we could buy the phones but not have access to the Marketplace. I though wrong?
If thats the case, when the F!!! will I be able to buy it in Sweden? Next summer?
This is ****ing uppsetting.
nizzon said:
So we wont even get the Phones?
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Well, you don't need a phone to be officially available in your country to buy it, you can just buy it on the internet from wherever you like. You may not get official warranty, it won't be subsidised etc., but you can get it if you want.
Lack of official status isn't a problem with WM because you can install any keyboard you want and you can sideload applications. This isn't a problem with the iPhone because it supports tons of languages regardless of where you buy it. In the case of WP7, text autocorrection won't work, you might not get the characters you need in the software keyboard, and you won't be able to install applications, so simply importing it will be pretty much useless.
nizzon said:
So we wont even get the Phones?!!!!!!!
I got the impression that we could buy the phones but not have access to the Marketplace. I though wrong?
If thats the case, when the F!!! will I be able to buy it in Sweden? Next summer?
This is ****ing uppsetting.
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Countries like the Netherlands have been told to get it around Christmas - so most likely the Nordic countries will get it too...
Don't be too upset, there will be announcements soon.
vangrieg said:
Well, you don't need a phone to be officially available in your country to buy it, you can just buy it on the internet from wherever you like. You may not get official warranty, it won't be subsidised etc., but you can get it if you want.
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Not in my case, I will get it from the company I work for and we have certain policys to follow.
Hello!
I read a forum post on another site that Paid Apps wont be immidiatly available in all countries. Can anyone here confirm or deny that?
I live in Sweden and I don't want to miss out paid apps that often have a better quality (not saying that it isn't high quality free apps).
I'm just going off memory but I believe every country that has phones officially available will have paid apps. However, not all applications will be available in every country.
RustyGrom said:
I'm just going off memory but I believe every country that has phones officially available will have paid apps. However, not all applications will be available in every country.
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I have seen the source to the claim now, and it's not put straight, the only thing said is that the answer to that question "will spread like fire on forums", which in my ears sounds like it wont be available. But I don't see why they would restrict it in WP7 when it's working in WM6.1, feels like most of the work should be done (payment handling and such).
And of course it will be some region restrictions. Some apps is simply only useful in a local area.
from what we heard all there will be localised WP7 marketplace for each location and paid app ( if the de have added it to your local market ) will be avilable for purchase from day one
Dear heroes:
Very pleased to XDA, the first to introduce myself, I, surnamed Li, from China, Xiamen, in China there are three major operators, China Mobile is the first, followed by China Unicom and China Telecom, in January 2011, I China Mobile spent 5,000 yuan to buy the HTC T9188 phone, and click on the purchase of the two, after buying it really is the harm done, why do you say, because it is equipped with the system is WM 6.5 system, but with WM6.5 90% of the software is not compatible, the phone often crashes, freezes as long as you need to pull the battery, and the market for less than half of the machine, HTC also has a listing in the mobile phone A9188, A9188 is Android2. 3, sad ah! I and family often give HTC customer service, Microsoft China phone, mail, they really have been perfunctory we really too depressed, I'm looking for a forum on China HTC T9188 to unlock the phone, for the Android system, but unfortunately, in the China does not have such a technology, think about .... .. really sad, inadvertently see the XDA's name, but said most cattle technology Forum, I am very excited to see this, because I really English poor, so after using Google translator to complete. Look forward to your reply, thank you! E-mail: [email protected]
As newly registered user can not publish external links, mobile data in the Google search or visit HTC China, thank you!
Yes, T9188 of not less than 10 million users in China.
Thank you again!
担心翻译软件有问题，翻译不全，附上中文：
亲爱的各位大侠:
很高兴来到XDA，先自我介绍一下，我姓李,来自中国福建厦门，在中国有三大营运商，第一个是中国移动，其 次是中国联通和中国电信，在2011年1月份，我在中国移动花了5000人民币购买了HTC T9188手机，而且一下就购买了两部，购买之后真的被它害苦了,为什么这么说呢，因为它搭载的系统是WM 6.5系统，但是与WM6.5的软件有90%是不兼容的，手机经常死机，只要死机就需要拔电池，而且上市不 到半年的机器，HTC同样在移动上市了一款A9188手机，A9188是Android2. 3，伤心啊!我和家人经常给HTC客服，微软中国打电话，发邮件，他们真的一直在敷衍我们，真的太郁闷了， 我在寻找中国HTC T9188的论坛上进行手机解锁、换Android系统，无奈，在中国没有一家有这样的技术，想想.... ..真的很心酸,无意中看到XDA的大名，而且介绍说全球最牛技术论坛，看到这个我很兴奋，由于我英文真的 很差，所以之后借助谷歌翻译来完成。期待您的回复，谢谢！ 邮箱：[email protected]
由于新注册用户无法发布外部链接，手机资料请在谷歌搜索或登陆HTC中国,谢谢！
对了，T9188的用户在中国不少于10万人。
再次谢谢了！