Consumers Don’t Care About Smartphones
I talk to a lot of people about phones, I’ve always got a stable of the things around and there is a marked interest in them. They are all smartphones, that’s the kind of user I am. I use my phones for so many different purposes that I sometimes forget they are phones. To me the smartphone has become a pocket computer, email machine, Twitter box, e-book reader, web appliance, well you get the picture. I even sometimes make phone calls with them, although even that has been Google-powered for me. I find one common theme to the conversations I have with “regular” people about the phones I use, and that is that regular consumers do not care about smartphones.
How can that be? We read all the time that smartphones are selling like hotcakes, they even may be selling more than feature phones. If consumers don’t care about smartphones then why are they hot items? It has to do with perception. Consumers are buying phones for the features, maybe a good promotion sucks them in first, but they are buying a phone, not a smartphone. They delight that their new phone can tap the web, let them email their friends, but at the base of it all they are simply buying a phone.
I keep getting this drilled into me regularly, while talking to consumers about the phones. They may like the way a particular phone looks, or they like how easily they can call and text their friends, but that is as deep as the understanding goes. Bear in mind I am not talking about tech-savvy consumers, like most of you readers. I am talking about my neighbors, friends and my kids’ friends. Not tech-savvy at all, just regular consumers.
I find this true even among those who already own smartphones. Most of these owners aren’t even aware what platform is powering their phone, because they simply do not care. It’s a phone. It does some cool things, but it’s a phone. The only platform I find awareness of in consumers is the BlackBerry, and that awareness is not really of the platform but of the type of phone. It’s a BlackBerry, that’s as far as it goes. I see the same thing about the iPhone among owners. They aren’t aware of what platform is under the hood, it’s just an iPhone.
This is important to understand because those of us heavily involved in the tech world are often insulated from what regular consumers think about smartphones. My experience shows me that mainstream consumers simply don’t care about them. They buy a phone, and if it’s more capable than phones they have purchased in the past, that’s just gravy. This means that the handset makers, perhaps the carriers too, must be sure and follow up the phone sale with information about how to best use it.
I have run into several consumers who have bought smartphones and yet passed on any data plan. That means they can’t even tap into many of the capabilities of the phone, and carriers are missing out on revenue. Similarly, I have run into BlackBerry owners who have never set up email on the phone. That makes little sense, as BlackBerries are first and foremost email machines. It is clear to me that there needs to be consumer education about smartphones, and some organization needs to step up and provide it. There is a lot of wasted opportunity in the smartphone market.
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another thing is image, want to think of yourself as a business person, you go grab a blackberry.
want to be a artist? iphone, mac and sitting at starbucks…
btw, this is why a lot of people worry so much about how to transport their devices, as most options fail the image they try to create of themselves…
Very good point and no doubt a factor. It’s all about how people want to go about their lives, not about having a smartphone.
I read your item with interest, however the overall workforce is getting exposed to smart phones like it or not. The younger generation, even tweens, are using more and more of these intelligent devices. So the snapshot and perception of people and smartphones change dramatically. I travel a lot in the USA and found places like Nebraska, not a techie hub, and found that out of 10 people in a mall 6 had blackberries, Iphones or other devices that do much more than a phone.
I’ve noticed this trend a long time ago
Most teens I know got a blackberry just so they could text easily (and did not get email or data for it) with the exception being iPhone on which they play games or watch YouTube on.
I’m one of those people who doesn’t care about smartphones even though I have an iphone. For me a phone is just too small to enjoy doing anything on other than using it as a phone. Occasionally web browsing on the iphone, or some of the apps like the Kindle app are useful.
I do usually have a netbook with me somewhere and 3g USB connection. The functionality is very useful, but a smart phone doesn’t cut it.
My initial thoughts were very similar to David above. Certainly when I’m travelling in the UK I would say a significant amount of phones I see are Smartphones to some extent, LG, Samsung, Blackberry, iPhone, HTC, I see them everywhere. Now, many folks may not realise they have a smartphone but will use it for youtube, photos and sometimes email/IM.
However, James’s comment stands in that they may only be skimming the surface of what these devices can do.
Its funny how things work. I have been in the wireless business for 13 years and have sold every major carrier. Verizon and Sprint I held a 99%+ data attach rate with Blackberries, Palm, and Winmo devices. It was a given that you would never allow a device that does e-mail, web , etc. to go out without a data plan to take advantage. T-Mobile… maybe 50%. Demographics dictate where the data goes. Some carriers also make it so they cannot be activated without these features.
-CS
I’ve seen many people in my demographic (19, give or take a few years either way) packing various smartphones. A few iPhones, but mostly Blackberries and various Windows Mobile handhelds (some touchscreen-less Smartphones, others touchscreen-equipped Pocket PC Phones).
I’m not sure if they’re anywhere as close to a power user as I am, though. In the Windows Mobile instances, I didn’t notice anything that would suggest use of anything other than the stock ROM, whereas someone like me would have flashed it with something from xda-developers already. However, many of those devices have seen at least some Web browsing. (Unless, of course, it’s an iPhone, where it’s all but guaranteed.)
As for phones being phones, there are people like my stepfather who insist that cell phones are to make phone calls and NOTHING ELSE. No mobile Internet, not even text messaging-if you’re not actually calling people with that phone, you shouldn’t have it. (That’s the polar opposite of my possible motives for having a smartphone if I could. Having broadband Internet anywhere without hunting for Wi-Fi would be my main concern; I don’t care about traditional voice for the most part, especially with VoIP services like Skype around. I don’t care about SMS at all, though-push e-mail is where it’s at, and I need a data connection for that!)
Great post and your assertions are so so so so true in my experience as well, its almost as if the actual smartphone did not matter, if it looks cool and it can make calls easy and text(maybe) then they like; also if its a trendy phone to have, I’ve met tons of iphone users who have never uploaded a pic to any social site and I even met one that got fed up with the drop calles on ATT and had tons of pictures which are nothing more than visual memories, at least 400+, this lady got one of the 1st iphone 3 years ago, and when she switched she lost all her pictures. It was pretty sad when she told me the story and I was like, “why didn’t you tell me” but oh well, consumers are really in a class of their own.
Great post. I’ll link up in my site, people have to know about this.
I think a mis-conception of people who read blogs like JK, assume everyone else also reads them and understands technology.
They don’t!!!
Most people are clueless in my experience of what they can achieve with a smartphone and tend to buy them as they have heard it is what to buy.
Same with computers etc……. it goes on.