People Just Aren't Interested In Phones With Too Many Functions
from the calm-down,-industry-execs dept
The iTunes phone may finally be coming this week, and with the rumored limitations of either 25 or 100 songs total, it won't be that surprising if the phone is a huge disappointment. However, it's not really clear if the phone would have been all that successful no matter what, as mobile phone users are still trying to get across the message to industry execs that they're really not all that interested in multi-function phones. They'd much prefer a cheap, simple phone that works. Imagine that. This doesn't mean there isn't a place for more advanced phones -- but the industry needs to stop rushing these things. Solve a few of the problems that people face now with their mobile phones, and then focus on the more advanced features. If people really believed that the phones would work, maybe they'd be a lot more interested in buying these fancier, multi-purpose devices.
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My current phone is an *archaic* Motorola V400. I'd still have my black dot matrix style V60 if it weren't for the fact that I broke the antenna off and the flip stopped working.
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It's a Generation Thing
But here's a true story. Last Christmas I was travelling by train at the same time as a load of schoolkids were going home. The train got stuck in a tunnel and the lights went out. And you know what, it didn't get dark. Almost every kid had a cellphone out - not talking because we were in a tunnel, but using so-called "advanced features" - and there was literally enough light from all the glowing screens that I could have read a book.
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Of course, thanks to the brash behaviour of kids in our craptastic sitcoms, Eastern kids are learning to follow up inappropriate behaviour with just plain rudeness. Yay for America's Culture!
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People want *good* features
Surveys often say people aren't interested in non-voice features, but the same people use advanced features without thinking about it. Before phones had clocks built in, people taking a survey would have responded that they didn't need a clock since a wristwatch does a fine job.
Right now people carry a phone and an ipod; when a combined device works just as well nobody will choose to carry both.
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