Guides through the Cell Phone Jungle, part two: Clay Shirky

I just had a lovely two hours with Clay Shirky's latest book:

The Chinese cell phone company Xiaomi ("Show-me" is the pronunciation) has produced a modified version of Android and a strategy that's produced a startup worth $45 billion in 5 years.

Shirky's writing is a pleasure, hilarious in spots and insightful always:

If you want a two-slide comparison of the difference between the local U.S. and Chinese economies, you could do worse than comparing in-flight catalogs ... On U.S. airlines, the ridiculous SkyMall, recently bankrupted by the FAA's decision to let people keep playing games on their phones as they land, was a glimpse into a market where everyone who could board an airplane already had everything they needed. So what did SkyMall invite Americans to dream about? An outdoor chaise lounge, for dogs. A mirrored door-mounted jewelry armoire. A spatula with an LED flashlight in the handle. SkyMall was shopping for a culture whose middle class thinks, "hmm, I could use a Tetris lamp, and maybe some rechargeable heated slippers." China's daydreams are different. Here's what's on sale in Chinese in-flight shopping magazines: rice cooker, baby thermometer, skillet, vacuum cleaner, iron, paring knife, umbrella. It's like Sears and Roebuck with QR codes. This is shopping for a culture whose middle class thinks, "hmm, I think I need a set of spoons, and maybe a toaster oven."

Five stars. I have to go back and read the rest of Shirky, immediately.

Guides through the cell phone jungle: first, Cricket

I recently had an experience with a local cell phone retailer that, as I was leaving the store, started to describe as "pleasant." But that wasn't quite right ... it was more like having a competent guide through a snake-filled jungle!

The retailer was Cricket Wireless:

They have an unusual business plan that contains (as far as I can tell) three legs:

• Sell phones at cost by buying in bulk ... but locked to Cricket, not unlocked
• Have knowledgeable staff in their retail stores that can help with technical/commercial issues (more about this below)
• Hold the hands of nontechnical cash users who (apparently) constitute a significant part of their business
• Advertise prices including taxes and fees so they're a smidge cheaper than the competition

I have for a while been using Straight Talk (WalMart) Wireless for my phone and for my stepson's. The stepson's old phone failed and I found advertised on Craigslist a late-model unlocked Samsung Grand Supreme ... but it wasn't unlocked. It was locked to Cricket.

Oh well ... I got on Cricket's website and tried to do the online process to switch the number from Straight Talk ... the order went through but I got an email the next day saying "sorry we couldn't get this work so here's your money back." Annoying, but much less annoying than alternatives I've encountered from other cell providers ...

I took the phone into the Cricket store in Kent, Washington and was guided by Anna, who had previous experience getting service transferred away from Straight Talk. She and I worked together to find the several bits of information to make Straight Talk's clunky number-porting process work and after an hour, it finally did.

One thing they insisted on is the SIM card number of the phone being ported away, and I didn't have that with me as this was a new (used) phone. I finally dug this out of the Straight Talk website as they wouldn't tell me where to find this:

It turns out the Serial Number in the table above is the SIM card number we were looking for; this image is actually more legible than it appears on Google Chrome (the only browser I tried) as the grid lines between fields did not show up and there was just a small space between the two fields.

Cricket runs on the AT&T network; as soon as my Lovely Wife's T-mobile non-contract iPhone payment is over with I'm going to take both of our phones to Anna at Cricket to get them switched.