New Yorkers Value Mobile Ease Of Use 3 To 2 over Appearance
19 April 2007: This week, more than 800 New York metropolitan area survey respondents were asked about the importance of several factors when considering the purchase of a new phone. 70% rated Ease of Use Very Important as compared to 46% rating Appearance Very Important. This finding is astounding, because it shatters the commonly-held belief that appearance is more important to consumers than usability.
Included in the survey were Internet Access, Mobile Television Features, and MP3 Player Capabilities. Only 9% rated Mobile Television Features Very Important, and 14% rated MP3 Player Capabilities Very Important… The highest percentage of respondents (33%) rated Mobile Television Features and MP3 Player Capabilities as Neither Important nor Unimportant in their mobile phone purchase decisions. Internet Access was rated Very Important by 34% of respondents.
Mobile usability is hard to gauge in stores, but impossible to miss once the phone is purchased. According to WDS Global's 2006 survey in the UK, one in seven mobile phones is returned within the first year of purchase by subscribers as faulty, but 63% of the devices being returned are found to be without fault, costing the mobile industry $4.5 Billion per year. Usability is a big deal.
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April 01, 2007
Bill Clinton & George H. Bush, Live at CTIA
CTIA's day 3 keynote featured Bill Clinton & George H. Bush. The 41st President of the United States, George H. Bush (1989-1993) started with some funny jokes about gay marriage and right and left-wing politics. He even called the speaking opp "white collar crime," where "I go out, speak, get paid, and go home." He said that he's hooked to his Blackberry, and is a "blackbelt wireless emailer." He even took a cute pot shot at Al Gore, saying that he was using email before Al Gore made his "contribution to connectivity." He said that "there are things greater and more important than individual politics." His best one-liner: "Even after 14 years, people will still remember that you threw up on the Prime Minister of Japan." He has turned into a comedian.
Then came Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, with a lot of fascinating statistics and a hot pink tie. He received a long standing ovation. (George Bush received a short standing ovation.) Clinton spoke of the telecommunications act that opened up cable and wireless to more modern competition, though he expressed regret for the "antiquated language" in the act. Clinton said that median incomes rose in the second half of the 1990's due to information technology, which accounted for 7% of US employment, but 28% of US economic growth from 1996 to 2000, with economic growth of 4%, with IT growing 21%. Inflation was 3%, but in IT it was 1%. Jobs paid twice as much as foreign affiliates in the same industries and 25% more than average jobs in the US. Median wages rose due to IT.
In Rwanda, Clinton is working to put together a healthcare network, relying on cell phones and solar power. Penetration of cell phones in Africa is over 12%. Every increase of cell phone penetration of 10% increases GDP 1/6 of 1%, increasing access to markets through their mobile phones. Haiti, afflicted by bad governments and oppression, has a new job class where people sell minutes of use on a mobile phone. The fastest category for micro loans in Bangladesh is to women so that they can buy cell phones. 60% of loan takers use this money to lift themselves above the poverty line. Clinton urged us to make micro loans to people all over the emerging world to enable those below the poverty line to rise above it through the use of mobile technology.
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Samsung Upstages CTIA 2007
Samsung upstaged everyone at CTIA 2007. Not just with the Sprint Upstage pictured at left, but with the Verizon u740 below. The Upstage was the most innovative product at CTIA, with an MP3 player on one side and a phone on the other. Switching from one side to the other required pressing a "Flip" button on the side of the unit, which was card-thin.
The Upstage was just one of a whole line of Ultra phones, the craziest of which was the SGH-F510, below. Samsung didn't have any US announcements for the SGH-F510, which not only flips, but has an embedded hinge, inside of which hides an aerial, used for television reception. It seemed pretty fragile.
The u740 is a dual-hinged flip phone with a QWERTY keypad. It looked pretty tricky to use in vertical orientation, but the horizontal orientation looked terrific. The button feel wasn't perfect, but the unit was thin.
