Top message: About "Cingular" on the F7200 screen... by Rich Brome
Replying to: Why LG cares by Rich Brome
Re: Why LG cares
Rich Brome said:
Well, if it was up to them, they wouldn't care. And in some ways, they don't - anyone on the show floor at CTIA could see them plain as day.
But the problem is that carriers these days want to announce phones themselves. Of course, the manufacturer wants to the be the one to announce the phone instead, but the carrier is the customer, so the compromise is that the manufacturer doesn't announce the carrier when they announce the phone early.
The carriers write this kind of thing into their contracts with the manufacturers, so the manufacturer is supposed to keep the carrier part secret. If they let it leak out - especially via an indisputable published photo with a logo - then that "robs" the carrier of the opportunity to genuinely announce it themselves.
If that happens, the carriers gets all pissed and yells at the manufacturer. Of course, that's not good, because the carrier is the customer, so that situation can actually jeopardize the whole carrier/manufacturer relationship.
From that point of view, there are actually (potentially) many millions of dollars at stake with this kind of thing.
And that's why LG cares.
Interesting. Can that possibly mean that Samsung and VZW have a less strict agreement concerning unreleased phones? Because we saw that Samsung was not so shy as to forego the placement of the VZW Get It Now logo on the A970 keypad.