On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 14:33:23 +0900, Philip Sidel wrote
> Darren,
>
> Disrespect clearly understood. Your lack of respect for consumer
> behavior research is very clear. Strange, as this remains a very
> active area of academic research, but clear.
as i stated, no disrespect intend, just blunt and honest talk. i have
serious doubts about the effectivness of focus groups having spent many a
year working at the high end of Vodafone Global and AOL. The only effective
use of focus groups I and my department found where in fianl stage Usability
testing. Sorry, but thats the truth. I am not shallow minded are anti-blue-
sky, but pragmatic.
>
> Since the research that I was quoting was funded by a very large
> multinational organization, I thought it might offer some useful
> insights.
the 2 companies above would class as HUGE multinational - especially
Vodafone.
I'm not trying to impress or lecture....but share some
> things that were recently found to be counterintuitive to some
> technology folks currently working on some very interesting challenges.
>
> They were a little shocked to find out that people were more
> connected to their mobile phones than they had originally
> anticipated.
How can this be- are they from Mars. Almost everybody loves their mobile.
and were unwilling to shift to a converged device even
> though it had some technically superior aspects. The major reason
> quoted was "security", as in people didn't want to merge their
> phones with other devices (as has often been suggested on this list,
> and was again being suggested in this thread), for fear of what
> would happen in instances where they lost this "superpower" device,
> if other "unsavory" types gained access to critical information
> stored onboard, etc...
Fair enough, but hardly rocket science.
There were other reasons mentioned too, most
> focusing around behavioral uses of the mobile device itself, such as
> complexity, etc, but these are only important if you're really
> interested in my area of study.
>
see my ui comments above. i agree with you here. though often the results
returned are those already known to the developers/designers.
> Although you can take the macro-level approach and focus on
> something like the 3G videophone (which I believe is a great example
> of a superior technology with no added consumer value)
no vas to the consumer - oh dear... i feel a focus group coming on.
, I personally
> feel that studying the reasons why people adopt and use specific
> mobile technologies and applications will help organizations focus
> on truly relevant and useful technologies.
i agree, if its cheap which it never is.
Basically, the reasons
> that motivate people to use technologies and devices may hold
> critical insights for enhancements and competitive offerings in the
> future.
the reasons are the same as anything man has created in our short histroy -
to make life easier. its the same as asking why does a man drive a car. oh
yes macro level again. perhaps thats because its so painfully obvious to
thos of us that dont require a 200 page white paper to decide yes or no on
a project.
If you'd like me to use simpler language so that I won't be
> accused of marketspeak, I'll be happy to do so in an offline email.
>
PERHAPS YOU COULD USE BIG LETTERS....2
> I stick by my original point though. Better understanding the
> customer's needs, from whatever perspective you'd like to take, will
> probably answer the debate far more effectively than discussing the
> merits and demerits of specific technologies.
>
Marketing and developemnt knowledge and skill do that. at the most focus
groups supplement this process. and no, the key to this thread is that the
technology decides the future, not you, not me. If the public like it they
buy. simple.
i am a bit sorry about the tone of my original email, but past expereince
has taught me this - especialy the psuedo-religious aspect of it and their
unfinching belief that their data in the only accurate data.
darren
[ excessive quoting removed by moderator ]
Received on Tue Feb 17 10:43:33 2004