"Keep it Simple"...uh, maybe not. make that Keep it Usable;
There is no such thing as the right amount of features for a mobile phone. Faced with many choices, consumers un- variably pick a phone with more features than the next one, even though many such features will often stay unused: BlueTooth connections, mobile email, digital zooms, folders for media cataloguing/archiving., etc. Therefore, feature creep is inevitable. To make things worse, a majority of product returns are then prompted by consumers not being able to figure out how to use the features they were attracted to, even though they spend an average of 20 minutes trying the product 1 before giving it up.1
Winning handset makers will be those who make their products easy to use and manage to hide from human beings the complexity that they are so busy cramming their products with. It is all about making phones much better at interacting with the sensorial capabilities of human users.
The One-Button iPhone (Courtesy Apple)
On the output side, presenting visual and audible information to users in the most optimized ways requires hugely researched and cleverly written software, which most handset vendors are unable to produce. Breakthroughs are likely to come from either large computer software makers with deep resources, or from highly specialized vendors with deep usability and even anthropology expertise.
On the input side, most innovations will be 3D-based in an unusual way. Amazingly, we are just starting to acknowledge that user input should not be limited to 1-D buttons and scroll- wheels laid out on 2-D surfaces: human beings have multiple fingers that they can use simultaneously; they can pick up a phone, turn it around, bring it to their ear, and their intentions are often expressed by the way they move their hands or fingers even before they touch the phone. Multi-dimensional input detection is therefore essential to understanding a user. This is where Apple™s iPhone shines, with multi-touch capabilities, surface gestures, device orientation and face proximity detection. Expect also smaller innovators to leverage the 3D™ nature of human beings even further, bringing interactions that will initially seem magic, until everyone takes them for granted. A great definition of the ultimate success for entrepreneurs.
Over The Air versus Side loading: a battle for content downloads into phones is brewing.
The respective merits of Wireless Operators on the one hand and of Internet Portals on the other hands are not in the balance. Instead, this will be decided by the end users themselves, almost entirely motivated by theconvenience/price ratio.
Here is your typical user experience when downloading a piece of music or video over the air into your phone:
Starting from a favorable convenience/ price ratio, start-ups and major players alike are working hard at increasing even further the convenience numerator through more seamless and quasi spontaneous connections between phones and content servers, interrupt & resume protocols, automated library backups, etc. Expect also some initiatives, not necessarily targeting the price denominator, but addressing the adjacent field of consumer billing, where Wireless Operators currently have an edge.
Patrice Peyret
Venture Partner, Nexit Ventures
1 Source: study by Elke den Ouden, of Philips Electronics
