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Nokia's Cellphone Anthropologist
Posted by
timothy
on Thu Jun 19, 2008 08:06 PM
from the cell-phones-need-louder-alarm-clocks dept.
from the cell-phones-need-louder-alarm-clocks dept.
holy_calamity writes "New Scientist have an interview with a Nokia researcher who uses anthropological methods to study how people use their phones. His work currently focuses on watching how people in emerging markets like Africa use their devices to inform designs. For example, after finding that in Uganda many people use one handset, they shipped a version with multiple separate address books. There's also a slideshow of Chipchase's research images."
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multiple separate address books (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I don't actually remember if any of my US cell phones had it, though I feel like they did. My cell phones here in Japan certainly do, though.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It probably shouldn't make me as mad as it does, but it's a pain in the ass to have to retype every single number. If only there was an option to set "Default phone field" or something similar
Re:multiple separate address books (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but that would imply a blackberry was a smart phone. It's much more like a mentally challenged phone with severe acne.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Cellphones as "enablers" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Cellphones as "enablers" (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not the point ... the point is: rather than selling unnecessary or useless 'features' at high cost or dumping outdated technology at low cost, why not design something simple and robust and inexpensive but takes advantage of new technology?
This is the approach Renault took for the Dacia Logan [wikipedia.org] car ... and it is proving very successful.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I just added two lines to my plan and got $450 worth of phones for free. I'm trying to figure out why anyone would pay. Yes, certainly the contract time pays for the phone, but if I could use no contract, a simple robust phone would be fantastic. I'd not spend money on the thi
Re:Cellphones as "enablers" (Score:5, Insightful)
That's untrue, at least in my experience.
The incumbent monopoly in the developing country where I live never showed any interest in selling glitzy phones. In fact, the phones they offered were cheaper, more robust and simpler than what you could get just down the road.
Just this year, the telecoms monopoly has been terminated and the latest entrant is even more intent on offering phones that are well-suited to this tropical environment. When they set up shop in nearby Papua New Guinea, they were offering two pre-paid phones for the equivalent of about USD 15.
Telcos in the developing world know which side their bread is buttered on. They provide a service, not a product. With the introduction of competition here, the two telcos are fighting for mindspace based on coverage, call quality and price. Selling reliable phones - even packaging them with solar charging kits - is the only way they can ensure a reliable revenue stream.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Design cost is enormous, frequently outweighing manufacturing cost even for large runs of units. It is, quite simply, cheaper to make one design and sell it everywhere than it is to make a new "cheap" design without these useless features. You'd end up paying more and getting less, and what would be the point?
Re:Cellphones as "enablers" (Score:4, Informative)
Then you might be surpised that Nokia does design new "cheap" phones. And it seems it pays off, the first one is both world's best selling phone and best selling consumer electronics device.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_1100 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_1110 [wikipedia.org]
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Re:Cellphones as "enablers" (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, damn them for forcing automobiles to not be death traps at a relatively small dollar cost.
Why not bitch that your seat belt restricts your movement while you're at it... we'll just pretend that paralysis isn't such a huge restriction on movement too.
The real reason that India has $3000 cars and we don't is that it simply costs more to manufacture and sell a car here than it does in India, no matter what features or devices are included or required. A single US dollar is simply worth more in India than it is the US.
As for motorcycles... I've known paramedics who just assume any motorcyclist who gets in a crash is likely to be an organ donor by the time they get to the scene. They probably should be illegal on safety grounds, but it's just such an unpopular proposition that it will never fly.
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Stale Contacts (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stale Contacts (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd also appreciate a provider field also fed by an online service. Over here people can take their mobile numbers with them when switching providers. Sometimes I'm calling someone with the same operator code in the assumption that I'm using the 1000 minutes I can talk for free calling people on the same mobile network. Of course I could ask whenever I'm calling, but it would be way more convenient to know before I dial...
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Market Research? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Market Research? (Score:4, Insightful)
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TEDTalk (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"Anthropologist" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:"Anthropologist" (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps these conclusions would be obvious to a professional ethnographer, but you don't find many ethnographer is mobile phone design teams.
It is not unusual for devs to not really understand the actualy usage patterns of their products in the field. The people creating the products often lave limited or no actual contact with users. The contact is mediated through product managers or "product definition" people, with a loss of fidelity. This happens for a couple of reasons:
1 - As soon as someone has a contact number or email address in development, that dev becomes the go to person for everything, even if it is unrelated. So companies try to shield their developers from the end users to enable them to remain productive.
2 - Devs are not often well versed in the company line and might say things about roadmaps and whatnot that the company would rather not have said.
Incedentially, I agree with you, but that is the lay of the land.
Parent
Two sim cards (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd love a phone that supports two sim cards. :(
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
When I visited Tokyo in March I was amazed just how much more advanced the basic mobile phones are in Japan compared to the top level phones available in Western societies.
Almost all Japanese mobiles have large screens, built in dictionaries for translating between English and Japanese, and have cameras that can 1) read in universal square barcodes that represent web addresses and 2) can read text from a distance.
I wonder if the study also takes into account the different ways societies as a whole use t
Re:Old Hat? (Score:4, Funny)
That post took a strange turn the last few lines.
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Re:2 Numbers / 1 Phone? (Score:5, Funny)
It must exist. I've seen one of those old Mororola bricks that had multiple line capability years ago.
Technology dosn't move backwards (Windows Vista excepted).
Parent