We all have mobile phones. And mobile phones are part of our life. Mobile phones are no more wants they are needs. Essentials.

Nokia 6610i

I got my first mobile phone in 2003. It was a gift from my cousin brother. Nokia 6610i. It was a super cool thing. But I didn’t use it much, because most of my friends did not have a mobile phone that time. It was decent phone with color display and a VGA camera.

My second phone was Nokia 3230. Again it too was a gift from my brother. I think I got that in mid 2006. I loved the phone because it came with  Java. Some crazy 2D foot ball game was my favorite.

Nokia 3230

Later in the beginning of 2008 I sold the Nokia 3230 and bought a Nokia 6630. In 2008 Nokia 6630 was bit old model. It was a heavy phone with a super display.

It had two historical points. First this is the first phone I bought. Second this is the first phone I used to write mobile applications.

“ Do you know there was a mobile framework called J2ME from Java ? “

I used to write applications using J2ME and tested them in this phone.

Nokia 6630

In 2010 I lost my Nokia 6630. Then my brother bought me a Nokia 6500. It was a good phone but I didn’t find it much fascinating because I just used it for SMS and calling. But it had a descent camera and audio features.

Nokia 6500

MS announced the Windows Mobile – Mango and the local MS hosted a competition for Mango app development. I did develop an app and walked away with a phone.

It was a LG Quantum C900.

Then I won the Imagine Cup 2012 and went to Sydney. In the grand finals all the competitors were given a super cool Nokia Lumia 800. Yes that’s the one I’m using now.

Lumia 800

The fascinating point is, among all the mobile phones I’ve used I bought only one. All the other phones I’ve been using were either gifts or the ones I got from a competition.

I’m eagerly waiting for the local Windows 8 Phone app competition to be launched.

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Here’s an excerpt:

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I do not know whether all who sell electronics are like this. I really do not know. But I got to know one of the famous plaza in Colombo is like this.

This is a true story. For their safety and for the promise I made on the people who revealed this information I’m not mentioning any names here.

The well formed computer hardware fortress in Colombo. Always crowded. People look for computers, peripherals, software, gaming gadgets and even hand bags…..

We think there are plenty of shops with different owners. Of course they are different but the whole bunch of shops have only 8 owners at the very top level.

There are plenty companies/places in China, Thailand and Malaysia who produce electronics. In those countries small chip manufacturing is a home business. (some thing like rope knitting or wood sculpturing in our country). Most of the small electronic gadgets sold in the plaza are from those markets with the fake label of a big company.

You can’t buy a single genuine gadget anywhere here. (told by a person who works in a shop for 3 years)

The secret is when they import things here, all the owners discuss and fix a maximum prize tag for each gadget. Minimum is up to the owner on his/her own risk. Normally they don’t used to have the meetings in Srilanka. Most of the owners are also not in Srilanka.

When they fix a price normally that is 2 or 3 times bigger than the actual cost. (if you buy something for 3000 the actual value is very less than 1000). And each shop has it’s own technique of selling the gadget. If one say they can sell a gadget for 10K without any warranty and they say with 1 year warranty they can give you for 14K. Go for the one without the warranty

Because they don’t change anything, just the same thing. They just want to sell you. They know that most of the time the gadget works fine for 1 year. In this case the person goes for the warranty is doomed.

Even if you are going for the guaranteed gadgets, make sure to get a signed bill buy the manager with his name (not by the sales person) with the written statement for the warranty.

And when it comes to laptops, some shops have direct dealerships with the real companies, but again locally they play their game.

A laptop of any brand with core i3 2nd gen processor with other decent configuration will not cost more than 30K SLR. – (another sales person a from a shop)

When they import a laptop here; most of the shops reconfigure the laptops. If a sales person tells you that he can prize a laptop for 50K and with another 2 or 4 GB of additional RAM or with a more higher capacity HDD he can give that for 55K, then please do double check.

Because if a sales person tells like this, it is most likely to be that the laptop really comes with  more memory or with a higher capacity HDD. When he says if you buy this another 4GB RAM or 500 GB HDD is just for 2 ~ 3K we immediately go for that. A selling trick to cheat on the prizes.

Normally take the serial number / model number of the laptop and check in the specific brand’s official site whether there is really an official model is available. If so then check the configuration carefully.

“They mostly interchange the parts” – (a person works in a service shop)

Apart from this, the place is well known for the money transfers and foreign exchange selling and mainly for buying. You can buy almost all the currencies here, is a very hot business. I do not know whether they have any tricks on this as well. Because to do this you have to go through a trusted party.

Finally you can ask how do I know all these things ? I purchased and fooled by them many times as like you. But still no use. We are not reluctant to pay, but why they cheat? If they can do a genuine business still people will buy things.

Do you believe that I haven’t spent a single penny on collecting this information?