Simple Mobile Phones
Wired News: Just Give Me a Simple Phone
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas -- Nathan Bales represents a troubling trend for cellular phone carriers. The Kansas City-area countertop installer recently traded in a number of feature-laden phones for a stripped-down model. He said he didn't like using them to surf the internet, rarely took pictures with them and couldn't stand scrolling through seemingly endless menus to get the functions to work.The problem with mobile phones is that they are so damned tiny - sure they fit into my pocket, sure they don't weigh much - but the trend for smaller and smaller phones leaves me with a problem.
I can't use them because they are un-ergonomic to me - and to millions of older mobile phone users.
I have here on my desk a calculator that is about 160x100mm in size and the same weight as a my mobile - it has a large clear screen that I can read without glasses and buttons that I can easily hit with my fingers.
Why can't the mobile phone companies make a phone of this size and design? There would be enough screen space to do whatever was needed and the buttons would be easier to access. Not only that but it would fit nicely into an inside breast pocket of a jacket, inside my waistcoat pocket - almost anywhere.
If I had a phone that was easy to use I would use texting more - but right now texting is the last resort - because the phone was designed for much smaller hands than mine - and the idea of doing email and wap over my phone (which is is quite capable of doing) is out of the question.
So you can forget "convergence" for a large sector of the market - they already have problems programming the video - and loading new features onto a phone only sells the phone to people who want - and use - those features.
My phone is feature laden - but which feature do I use most? The ability to make and take a phone call.
Everything else is ignored - the calendar, the agenda, the alarms, the wap, the games - the whole lot is dead to me.
Phone companies take note - the reason why we only have one mobile phone in the house is that they are too small and difficult to use - if they were easier to use you'd sell me 2 - one to replace the old one and one for my wife who currently refuses to have anything to do with them.
So don't be talking to me about "market saturation" - the market is not saturated - you aren't reaching all of the market.
Time for a rethink - please.
Tags: mobile phones, convergence, market saturation, ergonomics