Time For A Little Customer Segmentation In Handset Design
from the one-size-doesn't-fit-all... dept
Lots of people have been pointing out that traditional mobile phones don't work very well for old people or very young people. In the last few months, it looks like the industry has finally started to take notice. It wasn't that surprising that Korea led the way with more targeted handset design based on the age of users, but now firms around the world are clearly trying to figure out how to design phone handsets for people of all ages and lifestyles. While the idea isn't new, what's good to see is that the industry seems to at least be much more open towards the idea of offering a wider variety of handsets, rather than focusing on "one-size-fits-all" models. Of course, this also raises questions about manufacturing costs, since the economies of scale won't be as big -- but that could just push the handset design further towards cheaper Chinese manufacturers. The real issue is that the more diverse phones are better for the mobile carriers, since (they hope) phones that are better designed for subscribers will get more use, leading to more revenue. Of course, that doesn't necessarily translate directly back to the handset makers who don't make a cut of the ongoing data revenue. All this means that ongoing battle between the carriers and the handset makers is only likely to intensify.
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Don't Cell Phones Turn you into a Mass Murderer?
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All I want for Xmas ...
One without an Mp3 player,
without bluetooth,
without games,
and ringtones,
and calorie counters,
that take pictures,
and voice messages,
and vibrate,
and bleep,
and picture, ringer, caller ID the person to the wall if they call ...
type of phone.
Something simple.
One that my Mom won't hand me on Christmas day and gloriously yell : " How the fuck do you make this god damn thing turn off ? "
... oh, that's also what I want for christmas Santa ...
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Re: All I want for Xmas ...
Please Santa, I've been real good all year !
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Re: All I want for Xmas ...
I'd love a phone with bluetooth and a camera and vibrate, and ringtones so I can make it sound like a real phone not a casio keyboard.
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Re: All I want for Xmas ...
The only assumption made here is that you assume I want a dumbed down phone for a dumb person. Nothing could be further from the truth ! My Mom & Dad are both well educated intelligent people.
Simplicity is the key word.
They simply don't WANT all those features !
They want a phone to make and receive phone calls ... how novel !
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Re: All I want for Xmas ...
Of course we " could " give you a 10% dicount on your monthly phone bill ... but that too, would be discriminatory ...
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