Back on Feb. 6th, Steve Hughes posted on some... um - "irregularities" regarding the now-infamous zzzPhone, which promised a fully-customized phone with lots of bells and whistles, including Windows Mobile for the OS, for only $149. At the time, Steve made some very valid points that led to the conclusion that this was in fact a scam - at least from the point of the price including a licensed copy of Windows Mobile on board.
Turn to today, when I decided to pay a visit back to the zzzPhone web site. Lo and behold - the specs now list the operating system as Windows for Mobiles.
Folks, this is the third time I have seen this operating system change. First, it went from Windows Mobile to Windows Mobile 6. This was not long after there were some inquiries to the "manufacturer" regarding whether or not Windows Mobile 6 was included. On a side note - the radio stack frequencies supported conveniently changed early on after it was noted in some forums that the frequencies listed would not support all US networks. Timing is everything, they say...
I still encourage people to take a good look around the zzzPhone web site. Try to find any copyright notices for operating systems. Any partnerships with OS licensers. Take a good long look at the mockups of the screen for the zzzPhone. It could very well turn out that these phones are running a legitimate OS on them, but Windows Mobile or Symbian? I don't think so.
I will be curious to hear from those who have spent the $149 to find out what they discover. Hopefully, they aren't expecting a refund if Windows Mobile is not on board. You see - the "service guarantee" on the zzzPhone web site states the following:
We guarantee our products to be free from manufacturer defects and will repair or replace your order within 30 days if there are any manufacturer defects in your phone.
A different operating system that works likely won't be considered a "defect", and there is no money back - only a replacement.
As always, ladies and gentlemen - Caveat Emptor...