Analyst Who Wrote Tour 50% Returned Must Be Glue Sniffer
Yesterday we reported that an analyst reported that 50% of BlackBerry Tours from Sprint had been returned with defective trackballs. [Read Story Here]
As we had thought, it is now apparent that the analyst, David Eller, from TownHall Research must have a serious glue sniffing habit that impared his judgment or exaggerated his lack there of.
The response from the vendors was quick:
- Jim Gerace from Verizon stated, “The Tour is not being returned at a high rate. It has in fact one of the lowest return rates of any device we currently sell.”
- Sprint says only a “small percentage” of early production Tours had the trackball issue.
David Eller’s response was that he did not examine all Sprint retail channels but instead talked to people in the field who reported the high return rates. Seriously David? You talked to people in the field? Heck I talked to a drunk on the corner the other day and he said the iPhone is made by aliens. Can I now report that as a fact?
Of course Eller was quick to retract the comment about the Tour having issues with the touchscreen, since it doesn’t even have a touch screen. He instead blamed that particularly stupid comment,on some mysterious 3rd party adding it in after he had submitted his original pile of dung.
Not surprising, Research in Motion (RIM ) has not responded to this and will likely instead have a nice lawyer who does check facts contact Mr. Eller instead.
[source: ComputerWorld]
Related posts:
Interesting picture. I may be dating myself but think I recognize the movie it came from. Thanks for taking the time to follow up on the research note but I have to dispute your conclusions.
I did not discuss a touchscreen issue in the piece I submitted but many people have cited it. I’m not sure what they are referring to but I will look into it when I return to the office. I’m out at the 4G conference now.
As far as the 50% return rate, I stick by that figure. Its through one channel and the issue has been remedied but was not addressed immediately as you may have been told. I cannot give you more information than that because it is a sensitive issue and I have to protect my sources.
As for the carrier frustration, I have multiple sources to confirm this as well. Both the difficulties for Verizon and Sprint and an expected reaction by Verizon. Please keep in mind that public relations personnel are not the closest people to the issue and their mandate is to keep the peace.
Has it been that long since analysts were crucified for towing the company line rather than producing controversial research that can be supported by multiple sources? Sorry to disappoint you but this is not a mistake or wild accusation.
David, I appreciate your taking the time to respond but I have to take issue with your response as well.
My main point is that I do not feel that you have presented sufficient evidence to support the outlandish claim of a 50% return rate.
I fully appreciate that you must keep your sources confidential, but if it was from one source then whom did you confirm with? I would have thought that TownHall Research would require it’s analysts to at least confirm a source. An even better response would have been for you to post a reply that stated you polled 1000 random BlackBerry Tour users or something substantial like that. Simply saying you got the information from “one channel” does not a good research paper make.
I also find it interesting that your research paper does not appear on the TownHall Research site. (at least I couldn’t find it) Was it originally posted there and has since been removed?
I also want to take this opportunity to chastise you for not posting a real picture of yourself on the TownHall Research site, so I could abuse you properly using Photoshop. (only slightly joking)