The Tour’s trackball seemed a bit too recessed
and while we’re not ready to connect the dots just yet, this does seem rather convenient. Some research investment dude is reporting that the phone requires frequent trackball cleanings — which users aren’t taking to heart, assuming they know it needs to be done in the first place — and a lack of maintenance quickly leads to stuck trackballs. From there, it doesn’t take a wild imagination to believe that the phone is quickly sent back to the Sprint or Verizon shop from whence it came, and therein lies the problem: rumor has it that Sprint’s seeing fully 50 percent of Tours brought back, and they’re estimating that quality control measures totaling a 2 to 3 percent boost in production costs would bring that stat way down.
A trackball that’s too recessed seems like more of a design issue than a “quality control” one to me, but who knows — maybe they can get it fixed without rearchitecting the whole phone. For what it’s worth, here is an official statement from Sprint: Read the rest of this entry »