AT&T Inc. is taking an interesting step to shore up the landline biz with the launch of HomeManager, a base station/cordless phone/Internet device combo package thing that is supposed to ...well, this commentator really isn’t sure. It appears to be having an identity crisis.
The “base station,” which kind of sounds like a femtocell but isn’t, makes use of a broadband Internet connection to provide VoIP calling to a special cordless handset made for the occasion (which can also make traditional calls via landline), which also comes with a cell-like color screen, yet is not a dual-mode phone and cannot roam onto the cellular WAN. That base station also feeds Internet content (Yellow Pages, weather, news, e-mail, etc.) to a portable 7-inch touch screen from Samsung, dubbed the HomeManager Frame. And, popular mobile apps like address books and visual voicemail are wrapped into the service for both endpoints.
The whole shebang will set you back $300 in equipment, and requires a two-year contract.
The question is, who is the target customer? Don’t most people already have a cell phone, and a laptop+Wi-Fi router combo for that matter? Or is this meant to appeal to those who haven’t gone whole hog on the wireless home Internet access yet? Or people that haven’t gotten used to the idea of notebook computing at all so this is a nice, easy, one-touch interim on-ramp to the portable Google and the InterWebs? But if they haven’t gotten on board yet, do they really need it?
And for that matter, why not just get an iPhone and a cheapo Wi-Fi router and call it a day?
Or is the idea to just bring a cool factor — does this target the same people that buy plasma TVs and hang them on the ceiling in the bedroom just because it looks cool? The touch screen can also function as a digital picture frame, after all. I like that part. I don’t $300 + MRC like it, but still.
Anyhoo, these are questions to be answered by the nine markets in which it has launched. HomeManager does fit into AT&T’s much-vaunted three-screen strategy — sort of. And it makes sense from the perspective of competing for the hearts and minds of the home user in the face of T-Mobile USA and Sprint-Nextel Corp. both trying to poach that territory. But we’ll see if it can find its proper niche.
And I do like that digital picture frame part.
