From the consistently thought provoking blog Putting People First comes this gob-smacking statistic :
“63% of mobile devices returned [for repair] are in perfect working order”
While not reknowned for being an innovator, Vodafone has certainly started to address this when it introduced ‘simple’ handsets. Although aimed at older users (read : Silver Surfers) it’s a fairly safe guess that they would have found a market which extends beyond that.
After all, it’s a classic rule of technology products that 80% of your users will only use 20% of your product’s features.
As phones have get more complex & smaller it seems performance as a phone, get a signal and hang on to it, has suffered. I’ve spoken to many who’d trade features & even size for better performance in marginal reception areas.
It’s been a few years since I last replaced my phone. I dropped the old one in a downpour and sought a replacement wanting only one feature -a waterproof phone but nobody had them at the time.
That feature has been needed for years – when I lived in Hong Kong there was a cafe/bar which had a ‘no cell phone’ rule. It was strictly enforced by the owner in a very abrupt fashion. If you were stupid enough to ignore his rules, he would pick your phone up off the table (in Asia having your phone on display is a status thing) and drop it in your drink.
My wife bought a waterproof phone (Ericsson R310S) when the kids were young. Leaking baby bottles in her bag killed off a couple of its predecessors. The kids are way past bottles but she still has it and uses it 9 years later. She likes the simple working phone function and the keypad that can be used with normal size fingers. Of course it’s now obsolete and the unique batteries (the battery is part of the seal) are nigh on unobtainable. Surprising that there is only one water-resistant phone on the NZ market.