Asian telcos want ‘dumb’ phones for masses
The Age — “Asian telecom executives on Tuesday called on the world’s mobile phone makers to manufacture cheaper, less fancy handsets in order to realise the full potential of the region’s mass market. Amid the hype over high-speed third generation (3G) mobile services, Asia remains a huge market for low-cost “dumb phones” capable only of voice and text, the 3GSM World Congress of the telecommunications industry heard.”
October 1st, 2004 at 2:34 pm
Thank you! Electronics have become far, far too fancy and allow too much broad functionality, instead of drilling down and providing the best functionality the devices can provide. If I want to take digital pictures, I’ll be using a high-end digital camera, thanks very much. If I want to play games, I’ll whip out my Nintendo Game Boy. If I want to make a call, I’ll use my cell phone. These things shouldn’t be combined and I’m glad someone, at least, is focusing on what cell phones should be - just phones.
October 2nd, 2004 at 4:44 am
Absolutely! Think there is a big call for simplification for technology across the board. Do some user research, understand what really matters to people, see where customers are frustrated by competitor products, draft a list of critical tasks and optimise around these tasks. If people can do the critical tasks for any product really well, they will buy into the other features.