Yeah, this is a rant and it is probably a bit off topic for our usual coverage here. But I’ll try and make it relevant. AllTel is proudly announcing a new voice mail service called VoiceMail Max. The purpose? It will now allow customers to customize their voicemail greetings with celebrity voices.

Here’s my point. I understand mobile companies and OEM’s work hard to come up with products and services that lend the perception of value to their customers. Nothing wrong with that. But, IMHO, we see far too much of this kind of silly development on things that are nothing more than polished up fru-fru that quickly fades away. The same can be said of companies, like Asus, that spend resources developing their own little proprietary apps for their devices that do nothing more than fill up the machine with CRAPWARE. Most of that kind of CRAPWARE quickly gets uninstalled, so why bother adding it in the first place.

I’d much rather see these companies devote those resources into better products, better service, and indeed into better customer service, than I would continue on the path of providing silly add ons. That’s where the real value is with a customer, not in some silly service or application.