The “tingi” system of retail is, I think, a uniquely Filipino way of selling things. I’m not sure of this but I think its only here that a person can buy cigarettes by the stick, shampoo on a sachet, or even medicines per tablet/capsule. I remember when we had a sari-sari store back in the old days (I won’t mention the decade to protect my real age), we sold cheese and “dari-creme” per slice (carefully wrapped in wax paper) and cooking oil through measuring cups.

This system of retail may not be cost effective since consumers pay more for those “tingi” items than when they buy in whole packages or in bulk. Anyway, this way of selling and buying has already encroached on the local technology and like it or not, it has vastly affected the way technology is used by the common “tao“.

There was a time when internet connection was only available to people who are willing to pay a fixed monthly fee for a set amount of online time. Cellphone and land line telephone subscriptions were also for those who are capable and willing to pay fixed monthly subscription fees. It was during those times when only a few people had access to telephony (both fixed landlines and cellphones) and even fewer have access to the internet. Both services were seen as something only the elite can have.

Now, telcos are adopting the “Tingi” marketing strategy. The telcos started making prepaid SIMs for cellphones, allowing people to only pay for the amount of time they actually use their cellphones for conversations and SMS. The same thing happened to land lines. This, of course, spawned a few problems. As it becomes easier to get SIM cards for cellphones, cellphone thefts have dramatically increased with the introduction of the prepaid schemes. The market for stolen cellphones has skyrocketed since its easy to acquire a line for a stolen unit (just go to the nearest phone retailer and buy a prepaid SIM kit). Scams involving SMS has also increased since its easy and cheap to swap out phone numbers. Despite of all these negative effect, the prepaid scheme for cellphones and fixed line telephone has one very positive effect on the country, communication has become very easy and accessible.

The availability of prepaid internet cards has also created some boom in the ISP industry, though not in the scale achieved by prepaid cellphone cards. Because of the availability of these prepaid internet cards, more people are able to go online without having to worry about monthly internet bills. With the recent introduction of wi-fi hotspots locally a lot of people go online using prepaid wi-fi access. Again, using these prepaid wi-fi almost always ends up being more expensive compared to a monthly billing scheme but since wi-fi is not available everywhere, it makes sense to just pay for the amount of time you need to go online instead of paying for an unlimited monthly service you only use for a couple of hours per week.

Again, despite its inherent and obvious disadvantage, the “tingi” marketing in tech today may not provide long-term cost effectiveness but it has become a way of bringing technology closer to the common “tao”.

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M|Ph July/August Issue SonyEricsson K750i Article Addendum
In my review of the SonyEricsson K750i, I mentioned that one of the downsides of the unit is its 8-second limit in saving video files. It turned out that this limit can be changed from within one of the options in its menu. I was not able to fully explore this phone’s capabilities when it was issued to me because of the real heavy workload (on my day job) I had at that time. To SonyEricsson, I sincerely apologize for this oversight.