more on Phones Need Simplicity Before Cool Stu ff, CEOs Say

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

_______________ Original message _______________
Subject:        Re: [IP] Phones Need Simplicity Before Cool Stuff, CEOs Say
Author: DV Henkel-Wallace <gumby () henkel-wallace org>
Date:           17th March 2005 7:39:13  AM

Dave,

I loved this story.  Whom are the CEOs talking to: the Street or their 
own employees?  They're falling into the same trap that is slowly 
strangling the PC market.

Both industries sell a commodity as (Bob Frankston has so frequently 
pointed out) and that's all most people want.  These companies have 
been faked out by "featuritis" -- it was a groping path to sufficiency, 
not the driver of demand that they thought it was.  Once the PC or 
phone reached the sufficiency plateau, people lost interest in anything 
more.

People will master a complex interface if it buys them something 
useful.  My automobile is harder to far control than my Treo.  But most 
people couldn't care less about the "value" of the treo and to tell the 
truth, now I've dropped mine and damaged it, I might just replace it 
with the cheapest phone Verizon offers.

-d



On 17 Mar 2005, at 04:04, David Farber wrote:

> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Reply-To: <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:50:12 -0800
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Phones Need Simplicity Before Cool Stuff, CEOs 
> Say
>
> Phones Need Simplicity Before Cool Stuff, CEOs Say
>   Wed Mar 16, 2005 05:54 PM ET
> By Sinead Carew
> <http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?
> type=technologyNews&storyID=7925185&src=rss/technologyNews>
>
>   NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Mobile telephone services need to be far less
> confusing to consumers, the heads of top U.S. wireless operators said
> on Wednesday, even as they talked up complex features such as Web
> surfing or video on phones.
>
> Stan Sigman,
> chief executive of Cingular Wireless, the country's biggest mobile
> service said...
>
> ...agreed Robert Dotson, head of
> T-Mobile USA...
>
>   Ed Zander, chief executive of mobile handset maker Motorola Inc....
>
>   "The limit is the customers' tolerance for multifunction keys," said
> Dick Lynch, chief technology officer of Verizon Wireless,...

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