Mobile phones : does size matter?
charukesi April 26th, 2006
Mobile phones. At first large and comfortable, brick-like. Then suddenly as in everything else, small was beautiful - mobile phones got smaller and slicker. And now, I find mobile phones, especially higher end versions becoming large again. People want to pay for a phone that looks ugly and is unwiedly to carry around - and I wonder if most such mobile phone owners even know of or use other than basic applications on their phone…?
This interesting article from informationweek says - people are turning to mobile phones for Internet use more quickly than they’re adopting laptops for the same purpose in many parts of the world - large for a phone but very small and compact for a personal computer. [link through putting people first]
Welcome to mobile-phones-meet-personal-computers…
But coming back to my initial thought, do people actually use the enhanced features or applications that they pay a premium for? I was reading about the “paradox of enhancement” in a paper titled The Upgraded Digital Divide: Are We Developing New Technologies Faster than Consumers Can Use Them? - When people are considering buying next-generation products, they find the bells and whistles attractive and decide to make the purchase, but when they acquire the products, they find the complexity of the new features overwhelming and end up using only the products’ basic features.
In other words, people may buy a higher end version of a product, fascinated by the “add-ons” - they may actually serve as a status symbol (the class diferentiator, so to say), but with the product in their hands, may not aware of all these extras, or find them relevant at all. And this sometimes leads to what has been called ‘technology dissonance’ - what did I pay for? I wonder if this is happening with mobile phones too…
[cross-posted on mindspace]
Robert Scoble wrote sometime ago about how cellphones could be the way to go to reach technology (and information) to the poor; as opposed to, say, the 100 dollar laptop. Sort of makes sense to me.
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/01/30/arguing-about-how-to-bring-computing-to-poor/
Abi, this is very interesting… thanks for the link. I have a thought on this - is a mobile phone more acceptable in a say, lower income household (using the term loosely here) because it has multiple uses and can be used by all members of the family - logically, when resources are limited, it makes sense to buy or spend on a product that can be used more optimally or by more people in more ways - what do you think? does a cellphone make sense compared to a laptop in this context?
“The Upgraded Digital Divide: Are We Developing New Technologies Faster than Consumers Can Use Them? - When people are considering buying next-generation products, they find the bells and whistles attractive and decide to make the purchase, but when they acquire the products, they find the complexity of the new features overwhelming and end up using only the products’ basic features.”
Haven’t read either of the articles that you have linked to - thought of getting back later to that. Just a thought on what you have quoted: New technologies being developed faster than they actually could be consumed, is not a sustainable plank. It can not keep going on indefinitely - an innovation may seem fascinating and could be a selling point the way you have characterised it as - ‘the class diferentiator’, only in the short run. When it comes to the next gen to the next gen, how appealing would that be? Innovation would have to wait till it becomes a norm for it to move on to the next stage. Else, the continuity would be lost and technology would loose its touch with the market. No one would want to keep spending on Technology without a Market for it.
“lower income household (using the term loosely here) because it has multiple uses and can be used by all members of the family . . .does a cellphone make sense compared to a laptop in this context?”
I initially thought it could be so - on hindsight (no puns here), wonder if it was going to be all that true. Yes, Mobile phones are more affordable and would definitely have a wider reach than a laptop would have, for obvious reasons - but when it comes to the usage by all members of the family that possesses it, I wonder if that would be the case. A household that goes for a laptop wouldnt be one that would be among the income group that could not afford one (something akin to the household that uses a mobile phone). And members of such a household would use the laptop quite comfortably - though the applications that are used would be similar to the case of the mobile phones - just the basic ones. The income groups differ and so would be the volume of households - but the usage levels in the income groups would be the same, for both the products - mobile phones and laptops.
However, Cell phones make sense when compared to a laptop in one context - it may not be feasible to tailor pockets in pants or shirts or to be having handbags that would effectively hold laptops in them.
My personal experience is that people know more about the phones they dont own rather than the phones they own.
As the market matures,the sophistication of a mobile phone will grow even as the form factor shrinks and prices plummet. Whether or not the users care to learn to use the advanced features of a mobile phone the aspirational value of these phones will serve to bring in buyers in a trickle. Text messaging and calling are priced affordably today so there are many takers for a mobile phone. When features like browsing on GPRS and video messaging are available at affordable price points, the demand for phones which support these features should rise. Hopefully the proud owners would then want to use these so learning the functions is inevitable
It is a virtuous cycle indeed.
Hi Charu.
Phones and laptops are different I guess. When it comes to being a true, all-solutions appliance, the biggest handicap of the phone is its size. No matter how aggressively they promote iPods with video capabilities and those micro-TVs that you have to operate with a stylus, they come nowhere near the computer or the laptop screen. For Internet browsing and viewing spreadsheets, you need bigger screens. So as far as viewing goes, phones don’t have much future in this respect.
Yes, if they are used as controlling devices or audio-playing tools that they can be put to lots of uses. I’d love a phone (if you lose it, you lose everything!) that along with letting me make calls and maintain my contacts list, controls TV, AC, DVD player, microwave, electricity bulbs, fans and faucets. I’d also like a phone that can perform secure monitory transactions and let me withdraw money (some phones — mine too — have the wallet facility for that). Too much dependence on a single device is scary though.
But when it comes to working with text and data files and watching videos and images we are always going to need bigger screens or some optical devices that can magnify the visuals originating from a hand-held device.
Charu, I think there’s already a reaction to the “unified slim client”. The Tata Indicom ad with Ajay Devgan .. it says “Insaan phone leta hai baat karne ke liye”. That is exactly my point of view. Who wants a camera and GPRS and an MP3 player in their phone?
The problem is, I can’t find a good Nokia model that is just a phone. Damn.
J.A.P.
I agree. To me a phone should work i.e. I should be able to talk, it should have a good battery life and should have a usable interface. Everything else like games, camera, blah blah is extra stuff that I hardly care about.
But then the average life span of a digital device is much smaller as compared to older gadgets. For example, I got my iPod 3 years back and now it looks like it’s being ages. There are 3 or 4 generations of iPods already
Compare this with a Panasonic 2-in-1 that I grew up with.
Or for that matter my digital camera. I had a top of the class Sony cybershot three years back .. now it’s outdates because dSLR are so damn cheap. Compare this with the Canon SLR that my dad has for almost 20+ years now.
I can go on …
However, Blackberry is becoming really popular out here because it truely makes you mobile (e-mail and Internet on the go.)
This is a very late comment so not sure if you might check it, but just bumped into this blog and post. The high end cell phones usually called smartphones may not be an A in the looks department as well as the form factor, but the market is in the email client ( a complete replication of a microsoft outlook with calendar and appointment reminders), games and also in music if you dont care to carry an ipod and a cell around. To answer your question, do people really use all the features or just buy them for the coolness factor, its godsend to people who need that kind of connectivity.