It wasnt all that long ago that a phone was, well, just a phone. One used it to talk to another person. It had to be easy to dial. It had to be comfortable to hold. It had to sound good.
These days a phone is anything but a phone. It plays iTunes. It has a calendar. It plays Java games or runs Windows applications. It does email and text messaging. It is so small, you need a special instrument to dial a phone number. You can use it to take photos. It has TDMA, CDMA, GSM, EDGE - whatever those things are.
Yep, phones today are all about features but I question how many people really understand or use all those features. I suspect that many customers use a different heuristic to pick a phone - fashion. They want something "cool", something "new", something that makes them different.
As such, I keep hoping for some more fashion diversity in phones. Instead of feature-soup, how about some new materials - wood, leather, aluminum. How about some different shapes, something that isnt function-driven but comfort-driven.
The cell phone for kids, Firefly, is a great start. How about some phones for older (over 40) folks? Fewer tech-features and more human-features like large buttons, maybe even larger phones.
I think there is a lot of opportunity here that is not being addressed. Perhaps this has to do with the structure of the industry but I hope someone starts to experiment more.
Nokia Taps Curtis to Oversee Design of Its Cellphones
March 3, 2006
Nokia Corp., the world's largest cellphone maker, is turning to the designer in charge of its low- to midcost handsets to oversee its entire range of phones after having missed some key style trends in recent years.
The move also comes as competition is heating up in low-cost handsets with emerging markets expected to provide much of Nokia's growth.
