Mobile Phone Users Struggle With Hardware Adoption 386
Ian Lamont writes "A Google executive speaking at the Emerging Technology conference has described a problem that mobile phone carriers and manufacturers have been struggling with over the last few years: Users aren't taking advantage of many phones' hardware-based features. Rich Miner, Google's group manager of mobile platforms, stated that 80% of mobile phones being sold today have cameras on them, yet the number of people who actually know how to use them or get the images off the phones ranges between 10% and 50%, depending on the model. Miner listed several reasons for this state of affairs, including bad UIs and small screens, but added that the participation of companies with software expertise — including Google — would help increase usage of such features."
Connectivity (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What happened to just a plain old phone? (Score:3, Informative)
There are still real phones. Just google for Motorola F3. It's a real phone w/o any multimedia crap. The only extra is an alarm clock which I consider to be useful. And it has a display which I can read w/o my glasses.
There is another goodie: the battery life time is enormous simply because it does not have that extra useless crap
tglx
Re:Connectivity (Score:2, Informative)
um the iphone 3g has a regular jack, the sd card isn't needed because as soon as you plug your ihpone into your mac it automatically downloads every new image from the camera into iphoto.
also sd cards have a nasty habit of getting lost or broken at least with me. I need something that doesn't bend in half easily.
All that said I don't use the camera on my iphone not because I can't use but it sucks compared to my 5 megapixel digital camera with sd cards(that I have lost 2 of). The simple fact is I use my iphone as a phone, and mobile internet device. if I wanted a digital camera I would have bought a pocket sized sony model with real lenses.
Re:Cell phone companies to blame? (Score:3, Informative)
obviously getting the pics off will be hard.
Weird file formats are also an issue. I have a Samsung slider phone (T-809 I think) with T-Mobile, and it's pretty easy to use, actually... but movies recorded with the onboard camera are stored in some sort of weird file format, that I guess I have to run through Samsung's software to decode if I want to watch them on my PC. Thanks but no thanks. I even tried simply renaming the extension, but that didn't work either.
The funny thing is, by simply renaming a .mp3 into a .m4u (or something like that) I was able to use mp3 song snippets as ringtones. :)
Re:Cell phone companies to blame? (Score:3, Informative)
Evidently Verizon is notorious for this kind of thing, but I didn't do my homework before buying the phone.
Re:I don't @*&!! want a camera in my @*&! (Score:3, Informative)
Blackberry 8800 - no camera.
Re:I don't @*&!! want a camera in my @*&! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Camera phones (Score:3, Informative)
Higher resolution is largely useless without better optics. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_resolution [wikipedia.org]
Re:10 megapixels? (Score:3, Informative)
That said, most people don't edit much, so it won't be useful. Also, lens quality and sensor size tends to matter far more than MP number after 4-5 MP.
Re:People don't care (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, well, it's not just the phones or the users (Score:4, Informative)
If the phone providers actually let their customers use all cool features of the phones they sell, maybe this wouldn't be such an issue. I think a lot of people would use more of their phone's capabilities, they just don't want to pay their provider any more juice money.
It gets back to the three most basic human emotions: greed, fear
Re:People don't care (Score:2, Informative)
1. define good. i have a feeling any answer we give, you'll shoot down as being 'too heavy' 'ugly', or something else. i'd rather know beforehand what i have to aim at.
2. nokia 1100 - it costs about US$40, has ~9 days battery, and is virtually indestructible in everyday use. no camera, java, gps, calendar, etc
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Because the extra features suck. (Score:4, Informative)
I have a Sprint PCS phone, made by Samsung, with a camera, GPS, voice dialing, and web browser. All those features suck.
The camera has a max resolution of 640x480, which is tolerable, but that's not the default resolution. The default is 120x80, and the phone resets to the default when powered off, and sometimes when connected to a charger. So taking a picture isn't a casual affair; I have to plow through menus to reset the resolution, or risk getting a dinky picture.
The GPS isn't enabled, because Sprint requires I buy a package with tons of stuff I don't want to enable it.
Voice dialing has very slow response. My previous Motorola phone was much faster, and that was five years ago.
The web browser blows up on many sites, and connecting to Sprint's network interface usually takes at least 30 seconds of "connecting".
So I just use it for voice calls, and take an occasional picture.
Re:People don't care (Score:3, Informative)
>>>("just give me a phone!") is rather Luddite.
Or work-dependent. The companies I work for (defense) don't allow cameras inside the building. So I literally DO need just a phone w/o the extras.