Every month, manufacturers probably release some new mobile phones or the upgraded model of a best seller. Following that will be the media hype on both conventional and social media. Every one of these products will be touted as being feature rich and a productivity enhancer to the user. Both your audio and video senses will be bombarded by advertisements emphasizing on these features. More often than not, the device is made to look cool, and all of them are designed to make you want to get the device. But do you really need it?
Looking beyond all the hype from the media, you will notice that all of them are short on user experience. Very rarely you get a live example of a real user talking about how the features on the phone have been a productivity enhancer. That is not surprising, given the fact that everyone of us have very different needs and applications for a particular feature.
Take for example the ability to install applications onto the phone. From my experience as a Blackberry user, I discover that the traders would love to get onto their Blackberry applications such as Bloomberg, or Reuters, which feed live market data to their handset. Meanwhile, other users might want Instant Messaging programs (for ease of contact with their friends), or time-killing games for keeping them occupied during their daily commute. Since the Blackberry is given to users in the office (including myself) for work purposes whether we liked it or not, it really would make no difference had it been a phone running on Windows Mobile or some other OS, as long as we still get to read our mails on the go and it won’t be a pain in the butt installing or using those applications. Surprisingly, in spite of the learning curve in using a Blackberry, over time we have grown to like the device we have been given, even though originally we hated being given a device that keeps us within the easy reach of work matters.
From this experience, I realized that no matter how many features a device has, they are often useless when they are not used. A device is thus only ‘good’ or ‘superior’, depending on how easy it is for us to use that feature. For example, if it takes User A four steps to get to a feature while it took you only 1 step to get to it on the same device, then to User A, the interface would be ‘stupid’ while to you, this is the best device in the world available. In fact, even though a certain device may contain certain advanced features, has anyone given much consideration as to just how often one would use those features and whether those features alone would justify the cost? All that, without even considering if it is doing better in the features already available in other phones!
That brings me to the point – it’s just a device (or gadget, whatever you want to call it). It really doesn’t matter who the manufacturer is. What really matters is how (well) you use it. Never let people hoodwinked you into believing one device is cooler or greater than the others because who manufactured / used it. After all, when you strip away all the emotions and all the hype, it is really just another device even though you can delude yourself you are experiencing your superstar or idol, or being much more superior than the average joe out there when using a particular device they endorse. (Is there someone out there who only eats a particular brand of ice cream cone because JJ Lim endorses it? I doubt it would taste better than the rest.)
To emphasize my point, take for e.g. the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm. The Blackberry storm definitely losses out as far as the browser is concerned, even though both didn’t sport a full fledged browser themselves. In short, netbook computers would be the closest mobile device you can think of to do some of the things you can do on a computer. Still, the Blackberry will win hands down in the email feature, the ease of application deployment, and even implementation of security – a legacy from generations of Blackberry phones in the market. The Blackberry Storm may also lose out being an entertainment tool – as a music player or a game device, but then the Blackberry Storm is originally built as a PDA phone with Enterprise email solution. Even for the iPhone, if the only features that can be said as superior is the browser and being a music player, then one might as well just get an iTouch (essentially, an iPhone without the phone), and I shall stop here without going further into asking just why an iTouch (or other iPods) is much superior than the products Creative manufactures, or even the Zune in certain key performance indicators – such as sound quality. In fact, if the iPhone is to be touted as some kind of game or music device, then how is it more superior in those features compared to a NDS / PSP, or the Walkman series of phones from Sony Ericsson respectively?
Consumers today are so overwhelmed by the media and feature rich devices that many are no longer buying equipment based on their needs. Very often we get queries from friends as to what to buy and none of us are any the wiser. Most often than not some people will suggest to buy what is cool while they are short on specifics on why one should buy it. In the end while some may live to like what they bought, some become an utter nuisance by continually calling up their friends to find out how to use certain features. Some may even experience the pain of re-learning how to use a certain feature which used to be a breeze on the previous device.
Based on the fact that every product out there is just another device, as a consumer one shouldn’t be too concerned with what features the device offers (most offered more of the same), but be more concerned on how those features can meet one’s needs. For example, browsing the web on the go would mean having the phone’s browser displaying the page nicely and a large screen is important. Being able to store lots of media (music or video) or install programs would mean large device memory, and preferably expandable as much as possible. Many devices comes with fixed memory, like 8MB or 16MB etc and then ‘obsolete themselves’ on the release of an upgraded model. Such devices should not be considered if possible – all the more so if you are an advocate in saving the environment and the Earth since they actually exploiting the Earth’s dwindling resources and contributing to more waste.
Once you have short listed the few phones that meets your needs (and also your budget), the next thing you should do is perhaps go down to a shop (or borrow a friend’s) and try them out. Find out whether they meet your expectations and also how easy it is to use those features. There is no use of having a device with a convoluted interface, which requires you to jump through multiple hoops of fire before you can get the feature to work. The next best way to do this would be to look up on the web responses from users who already own such a device, or videos on Youtube demonstrating them. In other words, there is no need to rush in and be an early adopter, for all you know the device might even be buggy and unwieldy.
It is also necessary to find out whether it is easy to port certain information from your current phone to the new one, if you store them on the phone memory instead of the simcard. As far as I know, user information portability has always been a pain. Even though both devices might sync with Outlook or a comma separated value (.csv) file, there is no guarantee you will not need to resort to some wizardry, or make certain modifications before they are imported properly.
Finally, after deciding on the device, you might want to check whether it is cheaper to switch to another telco, and whether they are freebies that will come with it. Simply put, damn the hype, fxxk the media, be yourself and not follow the herd.
Recommended Reads:
FoxTwo’s Ramblings: Why All The Hype About iPhone?