Cell Phone Sommeliers on the Way?

Japan is reportedly toying with the idea of educating and licensing "sommeliers" to help potential buyers wade through the vast sea of options available for a new cellphone purchase. "Japan's communication ministry is looking to the private sector to manage the potential nightmare exam and certification process, with children's online safety highlighted as an important part of the plan. Mobile sommelier sounds like a pretty sweet title, we can totally feel how an HTC TyTN II might be paired with an earthy unlimited plan followed by the soft nutty finish of a 200-minute a month daytime calling package."

Comments

Too many features

[Hatta]

If you need a professional to pick out the features you need on a phone, chances are you don't need all those features in the first place. If you really needed them, you'd know enough to ask for them in the first place. These guys are just overblown salesmen trying to talk you into something you don't need. As for me, all I ask out of a phone is that it gives me a dial tone when I pick up the receiver.

Re:Too many features

[Jellybob]

SMS is a wonderful invention over here in Europe, where we're not stupid enough to let the providers charge us for receiving.

In the states I'd want it turned off as well - the thought of paying because *somebody else* wanted to get in touch with me makes me shudder... what happens if some nut job gets your number and you didn't even want the messages. Can I then call up my provider and ask for a refund?

Re:Where's TFA?

[Malevolent Tester]

Here.

A future scene.....

[Urger]

Though the original stock comes from Scandinavia the terroir of this particular batch came from Shanghai. You can smell the rich, earthy aroma of circuits left on the assembly line until they were perfectly ripe. Taste high-impact plastic exterior, make sure you taste it on the back of your tongue. As you can tell it's quite a balanced flavor. Quite correct sir, vintage 2002. It takes time to bring a phone to that level of complexity.

Re:Uh?

[Hatta]

I don't remember a cell phone that actually produced a dial tone

Yes, that was my point. Never had a cell phone, never care to have one.

The software is available...

[NotQuiteReal]

For example The Electronic sommelier from a couple of years ago...

Now that you have mentioned a consumer demand for it, it will be new cell phone feature soon!

Re:Uh?

[squiggleslash]

He means he wants one of these, 'cos he's elderly and kind of stuck in his ways.

Re:Where's TFA?

[dattaway]

I thought the whole point of slashdot was to heckle the people who DID read the article!

Used Car Salesmen-Like People More Likely

[celest]

It's far more likely that this will just result in more used car salesmen-types in the cell phone sales market. The sommelier analogy is almost offensive to real sommeliers. Certified or not. You are not going to get people who truly understand the intricacies of cell phone technology, features, software, services, plans to take a retail sales job. It just doesn't work that way. Sommeliers are a respected profession that requires years of apprenticeship. It is about culture and tradition.

Cell phones have always been about fads and over-hyped widgets. It's all about pushing out the current model and signing people up as fast as possible. The market is too cutthroat to allow for anything else. For this same reason, sommeliers don't stand around selling wine at your local grocery store.

I walked into a supposedly high-end cell phone store a few months back. They had towering signs that said things like "Ask our experts anything! They will help you figure everything out!". I walked up to one of the reps who wore a big badge saying "I'm a cell phone expert, ask me anything!". I asked a simple question: "Which devices do you have that run Symbian OS?". I received a blank stare and "What's a simmian?" in response. Followed by "We have lots of phones with cameras and MP3 players. Do you want one of those?"

I'm not holding my breath that this program will make any difference.

Re:Used Car Salesmen-Like People More Likely

[DDLKermit007]

I understand your annoyance, but this kind of stuff is old news. Sommeliers, or people who act like them for technology usually service high end clientel...Just like the traditional ones. I know because I do this day in, and day out. It's just not my entire line of work. I deal with mid to high end real estate agents, small to midsize business owners, and the like usually. Anyone below that line usually can't afford someone who's intelligent enough to understand technology, and how it will fit with a client. These people don't care about price, what makes it work, or where they can get it. Just that it works, it can be a status icon (first on the block with one) and will make their life as easy as possible. Anyone who goes into a retail cellphone store would love that kind of service, but they are in a retail store for a reason. Price matters way too much for them.

Re:Sommeliers vs. Sommeil?

[wcbarksdale]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sommelier:

A sommelier (pronounced /smlje/ or suh-mal-'yAy), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, commonly working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all facets of wine service. The role is more specialized and informed than that of a wine waiter. French, from Middle French, court official charged with transportation of supplies, pack animal driver, from Old Provençal saumalier pack animal driver, from sauma pack animal, load of a pack animal, from Late Latin sagma packsaddle.

The Communication Age

[Quiet_Desperation]

we can totally feel how an HTC TyTN II might be paired with an earthy unlimited plan followed by the soft nutty finish of a 200-minute a month daytime calling package."

What the fu-

What is this?

WHAT LANGUAGE IS THIS?

Re:sommelier?

[gstoddart]

Why don't they use something that is related, in English, or at least a bit more understandable, do the Japanese speak French? Probably some English lit major justifying his/her degree/salary. These are probably the same people who make up all that management speak, like instead of chart or table they use 'matrix'

Because, sometimes English words don't exist which have the nuance of a foreign word -- they can lack that certain "je ne sais qua". :-P

A highly trained individual whose job it is to help you select from a wide array of choices ... I can't think of a specific word short of "expert" or "salesman" (both of which can have negative connotations, or might just lack the dignity implied by the French word) which exactly conveys what that word says. :-P

I once had a native speaker of French as me for the English word for "gourmet", to which I had to explain that we had never come up with a single word which conveyed as much as "gourmet", so we stuck with it. The word carries with it a lot of implied meaning and suggestion that aficionado or whatever wouldn't convey.

Let's face it, English is just plain littered with words which have never really been translated. Sommelier is one of them. If you need to express a particular connotation or inference which is attached to a certain word, using substitutes makes the word understandable to more people, but might lessen the actual intended meaning. Subtle nuance is something which is difficult to replace with a synonym.

Words from other languages which have been kept intact aren't that uncommon.

Cheers

Re:Curious analogy

[PPH]

The analogy between cell phones and wine seems rather strained to me.

Not at all. Obligatory bad car analogy: Neither mix well with driving.

An argument for consumer-protection legislation

[Animats]

What we need is not used-car salesmen with delusions of grandeur. What we need is better truth-in-advertising regulation. Like this:

• The use of the phrase "up to" or synonym thereof in connection with any service quantity is per se deceptive, unless an "at least" guaranteed value is also provided and given equal or greater prominence.
• The advertisement of an introductory rate is per se deceptive, unless the highest rate after the introductory period is also provided and given equal or greater prominence.
• Advertised rates must include all charges and taxes except for state and local sales taxes.
• Advertisements mentioning "rebates" must mention the non-rebate price more prominently than the price after rebate, unless absolutely no conditions are attached to the rebate offer and the rebate offer does not require the consumer to pay, at the time of sale, a price higher than the after-rebate price.
• Any customer contract which allows the carrier to change the terms of the contract during the period of the agreement is void as against public policy.
• Advertisements must use generic terms for features, rather than proprietary terms, to allow comparisons between vendors. (For example, "World Wide Web access" rather than "Sprint PCS Vision", and "Push to talk intercom" instead of "ReadyLink")

Japanese Retail Smiles

[writerjosh]

We have to remember a couple things:

1. Japan is very far ahead of us as far as cell-phone technology is concerned. They've had fully-functional video phones for at least a year or two, for example (as in, you can communicate via real-time video).

2. Japanese retail is much more about service than most US retail. We just want to get in and get the product, but the Japanese are all about greeting you at the door, pleasant smiles, and all of that.

Therefore, a sommelier isn't all that strange in the context of Japanese retail. It's strange to Americans, but to the Japanese, it must make sense, otherwise they wouldn't bother.