[sc:mobile-category ]When Bell released the HD7, it’s first Windows Phone device, they provide a self service “app”, they’ve now updated this app for Windows Phone 8.
The original “app” was actually just a link to a website, it wasn’t installed through the Marketplace and didn’t really work very well. A few months later Bell released a proper application and then disabled access to the website. Of course they didn’t actually tell anyone they had done this so from and end-user perspective all that happened was the self-service app no longer worked.
After a few weeks of this I finally called in to Bell support and they told me about the new app. The new app still wasn’t much more than a coat of paint over the website, but it was an actual app and functioned well enough. It still looked like a web page instead of a Windows Phone app, but something was better than nothing.
With the release of the 8X a few months ago Bell shipped the Windows Phone 7 version of their self-serve app along with the phone. Again, it was workman like, but no more.
A few weeks ago I received an updated notification from the store that the self-service app had an update. I downloaded the app and the first thing that became apparent is that it seem to disappear from the program list. The Windows Phone 7 app was called “Bell Self Service”, which made sense. The new app is just called “Self Service” which means it gets listed way down the app list with the S’s. And really, no one else is going to make an app named “Self Service”? Come on Bell, put your name in the app again, it just makes sense.
Anyway they app itself has had a slight upgrade, but visually it is still a web site, Bell should invest in supporting the platform with a proper app, they’ve done it with their other apps, like the Remote PVR (ok, it’s ugly, but it at least it looks like Windows Phone app).
