Australians who have bought a mid range or flagship Android phone that isn’t a Samsung model have little or no choice when it comes to buying quality cases and accessories from a reputable Australian retail store or online shop.
Sure some Ausdroid readers will be happy to buy a no name case from AliExpress or Ebay and wait a week or two for it to ship from China but frankly speaking this isn’t good enough.
Samsung Australia’s accessories store sets the standard for Australian Android phone manufacturers with 99 different cases available across their current and past flagship and mid-range phone models. That’s not even counting all the other Samsung phone accessories like fast chargers, cables, power packs etc.
If non-Samsung Android phone brands like OPPO, LG and TCL are going to design slippery all-glass phones they also need to make it easy for people to buy a quality, tough case for their new phone. Speaking of OPPO, they have had an Accessories section on their Australian site for several years where you can buy more of their proprietary super fast charging cables, adaptors, power banks and car chargers but there’s only one case for one model. That’s a start but more case choices there please OPPO.
This is the kind of thing that all of the other Android phone manufacturers need to step up to the plate and provide.
As an example there’s Samsung’s Korean counterpart LG. They don’t sell any phone accessories online in Australia. LG recently launched their new high to mid range Velvet phone which we reviewed recently.
As buyer “Stevie” commented on the LG Australia website a few days ago, it’s great that LG includes a free soft case but they:
“Have been searching for accessories all week, not much to find at the moment”
I managed to find one reputable Australian phone accessories website Mobile Zap which sells five different LG Velvet cases from good manufacturers like Olixar, Ringke and Spigen. Besides that the only options are a few no name cases of unknown quality imported from China via Ebay etc.
In terms of new entrants to the mid-upper range phone market there are good signs from TCL Australia. VP and Regional Managing Director, South East Asia & Pacific, for Alcatel/TCL Mobile Sam Skontos mentioned to Ausdroid during a recent briefing for the newly launched TCL 10 Pro and 10L that his company was considering launching their own Australian website for phone accessories and product bundles. Hopefully in the near future that means Australians will be able to buy TCL phones, tablets etc and accessories easily from a trusted source because if an Australian buys a TCL 10 Pro or 10L today there are literally no phone case accessories available on sale for these models from any reputable Australian physical or online retailer.
It is about time that phone manufacturers start thinking of after-sales service which should include providing accessories to use their products to their best ability — and that should include a decent case so the new phone isn’t broken on the first slip of the hand.
What do you think of the current situation where most Android phone brands have poor Australian retail availability of quality cases and accessories compared to Samsung’s excellent effort?
