Image from the Flickr stream of Giorgio Montersino
If Paul Thurrott is correct... I am angry. Not because he’s right, I don’t know the guy and have no opinion on him. No, if he’s right... I’m angry about what he’s right about. Electronista has the Windows-focused writer citing secret sources who say plans between AT&T, Microsoft and Nokia, which is practically a mobile-phone division of Microsoft at this point, will pay store staffers to recommend Windows Phones. If his sources are correct, AT&T retail workers will get a bounty of between $10 and $15 per phone depending on the number they’re able to move. You know when I quit going to Circuit City? When their commissioned employees made it nearly impossible to examine products in peace and at my own pace. Additionally, while I’m not an expert, I know a little bit about Apple’s offering through AT&T thanks to what I do every day. And yet, with that familiarity, I’ve had transactions screwed up at AT&T retail stores thanks to the ignorance of an AT&T retail associate. I’m not saying everyone who works at AT&T retail is ignorant of every offer out there. There are a lot of offers with which they have to keep up. And I’m sure there are at least as many stories of retail workers at Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile not knowing as much as they should as there are stories of ill-informed stormtroopers on the Death Star. But it was better when ignorance was your only enemy. If the person with whom I have to deal in the retail space has $10 to $15 riding on which phone I choose, how likely do you think he or she is to wonder what phone is really going to be right for me? Now flash ahead three to six months when we find Microsoft and Nokia trumpeting the AMAZING popularity of it’s phones through AT&T, leaving off the bit about how much they're paying people to pimp those phones specifically. I shouldn’t be so bothered. I’m just anticipating noise. Like when you see someone hand a kid a whistle. And before that kid even puts it to their lips you’re already thinking, “why did anyone ever give that kid a whistle?” Commission-based selling is nothing new. I’ve even done a tiny bit of it myself years ago (in as gentle a way as possible and only for products in which I truly believed). And I don’t begrudge the ability of AT&T’s stormtroopers to make an extra buck or two. I’m just not looking forward to the piercing-whistle that’s bound to accompany any gain made by Nokrosoft. Again, assuming Paul Thurrott is correct.
