Glitches Plague a Digital Model of Motorola’s StarTac Phone
Some digital versions of Motorola’s popular StarTac mobile phones have had technical problems so severe that Pacific Bell Wireless quietly stopped selling the phones for several months rather than continue to replace and reprogram them.
The problems affected a relatively small number of phones--possibly in the tens of thousands of units in California--but they nonetheless angered many PacBell Wireless customers and saddled Motorola with repair costs and lost sales.
The phones, sold in California by PacBell Wireless and other retailers for use on the PacBell network, suffered technical problems that resulted in dropped calls or the phone shutting off without warning. Motorola said the problems are limited to the StarTac 7000 model, which uses the digital technology known as global system for mobile communications, or GSM.
The StarTac 7000 originally cost nearly $500, but PacBell later sold it for as little as $150 with a rebate--a price that sparked a surge in sales of the faulty StarTac last year. Other models of Motorola’s flagship phone apparently have not been affected.
Neither company would say how many of the well-known mini-phones were affected by the technical glitches, but one retailer said the number could range from 15,000 to 50,000. Motorola and PacBell also would not disclose how many model 7000s are in use.
PacBell Wireless is by far the largest GSM carrier in the United States, and the phones have also been sold in electronics and other retail stores that offer phones and service for PacBell Wireless. Analysts said it’s unlikely that the other, smaller GSM carriers across the country sold many of the phones.
The companies never issued an advisory to customers and instead acknowledged the troubles only to customers who complained.
Pete Maddox, an independent computer systems integrator in Santa Ana, said that since January he has had his StarTac reprogrammed four times and replaced another four times through PacBell Wireless. “I never know when it’s going to cut someone off or turn off or hang up on somebody when I try to answer it,” said Maddox, who relies on his phone to respond to service calls. “I’m ready to smash this thing.”
Customer Masood Arshad had a similar tale. “Everyone seems to be having problems with it. I’m on my third or fourth StarTac, and at least two of them were very, very bad,” said Arshad, a salesman in South Orange County who bought his first StarTac a year ago. Arshad said he picked up a new StarTac last week, and that it is working fine.
Recently, PacBell and Motorola officials said they have been fixing the phones through software changes as customers return them for service. Maddox, however, says the software swap has not yet solved his problems.
Steve Krom, a vice president at PacBell Wireless, said, “We have a lot of StarTac users. It’s a high-value phone with high-visibility users. We’re taking this very seriously, and we’ve taken steps to make sure that StarTac customers have a phone that will perform up to par.”
Motorola said the companies have worked closely together to resolve the problems. The company upgraded PacBell Wireless’ entire inventory of StarTac 7000 models with the new software, according to Denise Gibson, vice president and general manager for Motorola’s U.S. strategic operations.
Some PacBell Wireless stores have begun selling the phones again, but supplies are limited and they are heavily discounted in advance of a newer model’s release. Representatives at other PacBell Wireless stores last week variously described the StarTac phones as “recalled,” “no longer available” or “reconditioned by Motorola.”
Customers and others say PacBell representatives have bluntly criticized Motorola’s handling of the issue, especially since the problems could potentially sour customers on PacBell’s service.
“They had a dispute with Motorola over the problem, and PacBell told Motorola they won’t sell it anymore unless Motorola proves they’ve fixed it,” said a retailer who sells mobile service and phones from multiple carriers and manufacturers.
The problems have surfaced at a time when Motorola is pushing hard to regain lost ground in the market for digital phones.
Motorola, once the dominant wireless phone maker, has lagged behind other companies in its shift from traditional analog technology to digital features and has lost valuable market share to rivals Nokia and Ericsson as a result.
In 1998, sales of Motorola wireless phones rose 28%, but the rise nonetheless was smaller than the increases for its competitors and was well below the industry’s 51% increase in mobile phone sales, according to figures from the research firm Dataquest Inc.
Motorola’s long-awaited digital models of the StarTac--the company’s signature phone and a best-selling mini-phone for years--are a key part of the firm’s digital rebound.
“They’ve lost a lot of traction in GSM with the largest GSM carrier in the United States, i.e., Pacific Bell, which has been running promotions with Ericsson and Nokia phones, and Motorola’s been shut out of that,” said the retailer, who asked not to be identified.
But, he said, other digital StarTac models are “getting rave reviews” and serve much larger markets than the problematic GSM model.
Wall Street analysts, noting that the flaws were limited to a single model, said the problems will just be a blip for Motorola.
“It probably shakes PacBell, but it doesn’t shake me and it won’t shake Wall Street,” said Mark McKechnie, a wireless analyst with Banc America Securities. “When Ford has problems and recalls a few cars, people don’t stop buying Fords, and I think it’s that kind of an issue.”
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Times staff writer Elizabeth Douglass can be reached at elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com.
