Post by Bozur on Apr 10, 2005 16:37:30 GMT -5
It's not just a phone, it's an adventure
By Michel Marriott and Katie Hafner
The New York Times
STANDARD INTERFACE - The Nokia 7610 uses a layout of keys and menus that is standard to practically all of Nokia cellphones.
VOICEMASTER - The Samsung x475, a dual-band cellphone, emphasizes voice calling. It has a simple keypad and is capable of text messaging and Web access. It doesn't have a camera
FAMILIAR OPERATING SYSTEM - The Samsung i730 has a lot of features, but it uses the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system, which looks and behaves much like late model PC's using Windows.
LARGE KEYPAD - The Motorola E815 has a large keypad with well-spaced buttons that are easy to push. The 2.2-inch color screen displays menus that are easy to follow.
MUSICAL - Kyocera's Slider Remix KX5, due in August, can take video and 1.3 megapixel pictures and play music in two formats. Its simplicity lies in pinwheel controls and a one-touch silence button.
THE BASICS - Kyocera's SoHo cellphone has a stylish angular design, but it offers little more than a large keypad for making calls and text messaging. It has no camera, but it includes voice-activated dialing and a speakerphone.
Larry Azlin, a software engineer in El Cerrito, Calif., considers himself one of the lucky ones. His aging clamshell cell phone, a Motorola V60, seems to work just fine. But once he gives it some thought, it occurs to him that he does have a few complaints.
"The buttons on the sides are a bit annoying," he said. They seem to do different things when the phone is open and when it is closed.
His biggest complaint is that the phone insists on making noise at every opportunity. "You can't even turn it off without it making a sound," he said, noting that when he tried to discreetly silence the phone at a concert, it squawked.
Azlin is hardly alone in being confused and confounded by his cell phone at times. Gone are the days when the most one expected from a mobile phone was to place or to receive a call.
In recent years, cell phone makers have tended to view their products, which millions of people press to their faces every day, less as phones and more as platforms for services and features.
Practically every new iteration of cell phone promises more: digital music, streaming video, 3D video games, location-based navigation and full Internet browsing, not to mention a camera. With more features often come more buttons, complications and costs, and thicker operating manuals.
Some people call it feature creep.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for the NPD Group, a market research company based in Port Washington, N.Y., said he had seen a "little bit of response" from cell phone makers to do away with arcane key combinations and with designs that force users to mine menus to accomplish the most basic of tasks.
But "the customer for handsets really isn't the consumer," he said. Rather, it is the carrier.
At a wireless trade show this month in New Orleans, carriers like Cingular and Verizon Wireless spoke repeatedly about the importance of providing services that would further drive the average revenue per user on their voice and data networks.
Rubin said creating phones that encourage consumers to browse the Web, to upload videos and to download ring tones, for example, is good for the industry's bottom line.
James Burke, senior director for North American product operations for Motorola in its headquarters in Libertyville, Ill., near Chicago, acknowledged that "phones are clearly getting more and more complicated in terms of what we can put into them." But he said better and cheaper technologies give cell phone operators more opportunities to "really address consumer needs."
"My sense is that technology is a bit dangerous here if done wrong, jamming every feature in like a Swiss Army knife," Burke said. "You get into trouble with the consumer. But if done right, it can really be enabling. It can be very powerful."
He cited two phones expected soon from Motorola--the E815 (scheduled for the first half of this year) and the E725 (scheduled for the second half)--as examples of how to do it right.
The E815 features a large keypad and well-spaced buttons beneath a large color screen. The combination makes it easy to create and send text messages, he said. The E725 is a "slider" phone, with its display panel and scroll wheel sliding up to reveal a 12-button keypad for simple navigation.
Still, both phones are laden with functions. They offer high-speed uploading and downloading of pictures and files. The E815 has a 1.3-megapixel camera; the E725 will have a VGA camera, dedicated music keys, a five-band graphic equalizer, audio synchronized rhythm lights and up to 2 gigabytes of storage on an optional removable memory card.
"I don't think we're overserving people," Burke said.
John Chier, a spokesman for Kyocera Wireless, which is based in San Diego, said his company's research had affirmed that "people wanted a phone that was easy to use." But he asserted that the solution was not to create lots of stripped-down phones.
In the end, Chier said, cell phone makers have little to distinguish themselves beyond the way they combine and arrange features. "As manufacturers, we are pretty much painting from the same technology palette."
One effort to make things simple is Kyocera's SoHo cell phone, a "voice-centric" phone in limited release in North America. Its exterior has sharp, angular lines, but the clamshell phone offers little more than a large keypad for making calls and text messaging. It has no camera, but predictive text software, voice-activated dialing and a speakerphone.
On the other hand, Kyocera's Slider Remix KX5, due out in August, is a multiuse phone that shoots video and 1.3-megapixel pictures, plays music files in MP3 and AAC (the format used by Apple Computer's iPod), and much more. More important, Chier said, the Slider Remix will be easy to use with its pinwheel-like controls and--yes, Mr. Azlin--a one-touch silence button.
One way Nokia is making its cell phones easier to use is its adoption of a standard interface, which is the basic button and menu system common to all of its phones. This sort of familiarity can be attractive to consumers shopping for a cell phone, he said, especially if they are shopping for a replacement.
"One thing we've learned over the years is that no matter how cool a feature is that we put into a phone, if it's not easy to use, people won't use it," said Keith Nowak, a Nokia spokesman.
Azlin, the software engineer in California, just switched to a Nokia 6230. He says it has been easier to use than his old Motorola. "The menu system is much more logical than Motorola, and the five-way scroll selection button is pretty easy to get used to," he said.
Josh Kerwin, a spokesman for Microsoft, said the use of Microsoft Windows in millions of personal computers and laptops can also foster ease of use in cell phones with the Windows Mobile operating system, like Samsung's i730, a hybrid phone and organizer with a thumb keyboard. For example, Windows Outlook and Media Player basically look and operate the same in the i730 as they do in a late-model computer using Windows XP.
For some consumers, a cell phone just needs to be a cell phone. Samsung says it is responding by offering the x475, a dual-screen phone with an easy-to-read and easily accessible keypad, a bright color screen inside and a large-type gray-scale display on the phone's cover.
"My sense is that technology is a bit dangerous here if done wrong, jamming every feature in like a Swiss Army knife."
--James Burke
Senior director for North American product operations, MotorolaThe x475's appeal, its makers say, is in the ease of making and getting voice calls.
Simple. Or perhaps too simple.
Keeli Shaw, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, said she was happy with her simple cell phone, a blue Samsung SGH-r225m, which came free with her T-Mobile service. She described it as the Atari of the cell phone world.
At a recent meeting of international students, a young Dutch woman asked if she could borrow it. "I pulled it out and her response was, 'Your phone is so, well, primitive,'" Shaw said.
Nonetheless, "it works just fine," Shaw added, "and I think I would get confused if I had a mini-computer type of cell phone. Too many choices and options."
By Michel Marriott and Katie Hafner
The New York Times
STANDARD INTERFACE - The Nokia 7610 uses a layout of keys and menus that is standard to practically all of Nokia cellphones.
VOICEMASTER - The Samsung x475, a dual-band cellphone, emphasizes voice calling. It has a simple keypad and is capable of text messaging and Web access. It doesn't have a camera
FAMILIAR OPERATING SYSTEM - The Samsung i730 has a lot of features, but it uses the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system, which looks and behaves much like late model PC's using Windows.
LARGE KEYPAD - The Motorola E815 has a large keypad with well-spaced buttons that are easy to push. The 2.2-inch color screen displays menus that are easy to follow.
MUSICAL - Kyocera's Slider Remix KX5, due in August, can take video and 1.3 megapixel pictures and play music in two formats. Its simplicity lies in pinwheel controls and a one-touch silence button.
THE BASICS - Kyocera's SoHo cellphone has a stylish angular design, but it offers little more than a large keypad for making calls and text messaging. It has no camera, but it includes voice-activated dialing and a speakerphone.
Larry Azlin, a software engineer in El Cerrito, Calif., considers himself one of the lucky ones. His aging clamshell cell phone, a Motorola V60, seems to work just fine. But once he gives it some thought, it occurs to him that he does have a few complaints.
"The buttons on the sides are a bit annoying," he said. They seem to do different things when the phone is open and when it is closed.
His biggest complaint is that the phone insists on making noise at every opportunity. "You can't even turn it off without it making a sound," he said, noting that when he tried to discreetly silence the phone at a concert, it squawked.
Azlin is hardly alone in being confused and confounded by his cell phone at times. Gone are the days when the most one expected from a mobile phone was to place or to receive a call.
In recent years, cell phone makers have tended to view their products, which millions of people press to their faces every day, less as phones and more as platforms for services and features.
Practically every new iteration of cell phone promises more: digital music, streaming video, 3D video games, location-based navigation and full Internet browsing, not to mention a camera. With more features often come more buttons, complications and costs, and thicker operating manuals.
Some people call it feature creep.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for the NPD Group, a market research company based in Port Washington, N.Y., said he had seen a "little bit of response" from cell phone makers to do away with arcane key combinations and with designs that force users to mine menus to accomplish the most basic of tasks.
But "the customer for handsets really isn't the consumer," he said. Rather, it is the carrier.
At a wireless trade show this month in New Orleans, carriers like Cingular and Verizon Wireless spoke repeatedly about the importance of providing services that would further drive the average revenue per user on their voice and data networks.
Rubin said creating phones that encourage consumers to browse the Web, to upload videos and to download ring tones, for example, is good for the industry's bottom line.
James Burke, senior director for North American product operations for Motorola in its headquarters in Libertyville, Ill., near Chicago, acknowledged that "phones are clearly getting more and more complicated in terms of what we can put into them." But he said better and cheaper technologies give cell phone operators more opportunities to "really address consumer needs."
"My sense is that technology is a bit dangerous here if done wrong, jamming every feature in like a Swiss Army knife," Burke said. "You get into trouble with the consumer. But if done right, it can really be enabling. It can be very powerful."
He cited two phones expected soon from Motorola--the E815 (scheduled for the first half of this year) and the E725 (scheduled for the second half)--as examples of how to do it right.
The E815 features a large keypad and well-spaced buttons beneath a large color screen. The combination makes it easy to create and send text messages, he said. The E725 is a "slider" phone, with its display panel and scroll wheel sliding up to reveal a 12-button keypad for simple navigation.
Still, both phones are laden with functions. They offer high-speed uploading and downloading of pictures and files. The E815 has a 1.3-megapixel camera; the E725 will have a VGA camera, dedicated music keys, a five-band graphic equalizer, audio synchronized rhythm lights and up to 2 gigabytes of storage on an optional removable memory card.
"I don't think we're overserving people," Burke said.
John Chier, a spokesman for Kyocera Wireless, which is based in San Diego, said his company's research had affirmed that "people wanted a phone that was easy to use." But he asserted that the solution was not to create lots of stripped-down phones.
In the end, Chier said, cell phone makers have little to distinguish themselves beyond the way they combine and arrange features. "As manufacturers, we are pretty much painting from the same technology palette."
One effort to make things simple is Kyocera's SoHo cell phone, a "voice-centric" phone in limited release in North America. Its exterior has sharp, angular lines, but the clamshell phone offers little more than a large keypad for making calls and text messaging. It has no camera, but predictive text software, voice-activated dialing and a speakerphone.
On the other hand, Kyocera's Slider Remix KX5, due out in August, is a multiuse phone that shoots video and 1.3-megapixel pictures, plays music files in MP3 and AAC (the format used by Apple Computer's iPod), and much more. More important, Chier said, the Slider Remix will be easy to use with its pinwheel-like controls and--yes, Mr. Azlin--a one-touch silence button.
One way Nokia is making its cell phones easier to use is its adoption of a standard interface, which is the basic button and menu system common to all of its phones. This sort of familiarity can be attractive to consumers shopping for a cell phone, he said, especially if they are shopping for a replacement.
"One thing we've learned over the years is that no matter how cool a feature is that we put into a phone, if it's not easy to use, people won't use it," said Keith Nowak, a Nokia spokesman.
Azlin, the software engineer in California, just switched to a Nokia 6230. He says it has been easier to use than his old Motorola. "The menu system is much more logical than Motorola, and the five-way scroll selection button is pretty easy to get used to," he said.
Josh Kerwin, a spokesman for Microsoft, said the use of Microsoft Windows in millions of personal computers and laptops can also foster ease of use in cell phones with the Windows Mobile operating system, like Samsung's i730, a hybrid phone and organizer with a thumb keyboard. For example, Windows Outlook and Media Player basically look and operate the same in the i730 as they do in a late-model computer using Windows XP.
For some consumers, a cell phone just needs to be a cell phone. Samsung says it is responding by offering the x475, a dual-screen phone with an easy-to-read and easily accessible keypad, a bright color screen inside and a large-type gray-scale display on the phone's cover.
"My sense is that technology is a bit dangerous here if done wrong, jamming every feature in like a Swiss Army knife."
--James Burke
Senior director for North American product operations, MotorolaThe x475's appeal, its makers say, is in the ease of making and getting voice calls.
Simple. Or perhaps too simple.
Keeli Shaw, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, said she was happy with her simple cell phone, a blue Samsung SGH-r225m, which came free with her T-Mobile service. She described it as the Atari of the cell phone world.
At a recent meeting of international students, a young Dutch woman asked if she could borrow it. "I pulled it out and her response was, 'Your phone is so, well, primitive,'" Shaw said.
Nonetheless, "it works just fine," Shaw added, "and I think I would get confused if I had a mini-computer type of cell phone. Too many choices and options."