06-16-2008, 02:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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jkontherun: "Smartphone Makers: Better Wake up and Smell the Applesauce"
 "Well the long awaited iPhone 3G announcement has come and gone and the July 11th availability date will be here in just a few weeks. The pundits have analyzed its capabilities, shortcomings and torn apart the new AT&T iPhone data plan. We've seen the experts critique the newest iPhone on a feature by feature basis and lament the exclusion of feature X or the shortcomings of feature Y. I'm here to tell you that just like the original iPhone these shortcomings don't matter in the overall scheme of things. Companies that make smartphones better be shaking in their boots right now as the iPhone 3G is going to continue to change the game and in fact change it faster than the original iPhone did...Apple realizes that the very small phone savvy (read geek) market segment is so small it doesn't matter. Apple has rightly determined that the target market of the iPhone, and it hasn't changed with the 3G model, is the mainstream consumer market that doesn't even know what a smartphone is."
An interesting article written by James Kendrick. I think he's dead on with how the iPhone is pitched as an easy to use product - the commercials alone have an impact that I don't see from any other phone maker. My wife chuckles at me because when I see an iPhone commercial as we're skipping commercials on our PVR, I always stop and watch them. I can't say I do that with any other mobile phone advertisement. The only other recent phone commercial I can even think of is a Motorola RAZR variant commercial - the one where they're dancing around in the subway mock-fighting. Which one do you think has more impact on a potential consumer? The commercials for the iPhone impart a sense of empowerment when you watch them - I can easily imagine people who'd never purchase a smartphone seeing those commercials and thinking "Hey, I can do that - it's easy!". Why don't other companies do commercials like that?
What I'm not so sure about is Kendrick's "Aunt Sue" concept. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens when the iPhone is released in Canada to see who in my circle of friends and family picks one up. I don't know many people who aren't computer owners but would be comfortable with a $60+ monthly cell phone bill. To me, that doesn't make much sense, and it's not really about the cost - if they're not already online, they probably don't see the value/need to be online, so why would a phone change that? I don't doubt that Kendrick knows people like that, but I'm not sure how many there really are.
On the other hand, I can see people who are basic-level computer users who wouldn't think of wanting to get online with a phone looking at those iPhone commercials and thinking that's a logical next step for them. One barrier I've seen many people complain about is the idea of them feeling like they're having to pay twice to get their email: once to their ISP, once to their wireless carrier. Amongst my circle of friends and family, the data plan pricing barrier is one that's more of a problem than the cost or selection of hardware. I'm hoping that when Rogers Wireless launches the iPhone in Canada, which is coming up quick, it will shake things up on the data plan front.
Has the iPhone impacted your circle of friends and family in ways that other mobile phones haven't? What can Windows Mobile do, moving forward, to appeal to those people who bought their first smartphone with the purchase of an iPhone?
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06-16-2008, 03:08 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I'm not sure about the Aunt Sue thing, but I agree with you Jason. It's unlikely someone who cares so little about the internet at home is going to spend the $ for an iPhone and it's $30/monthly (in the US) data charges.
In my circle of friends, nobody has an iPhone. Heck only one or two people besides myself have any smartphone except for company issued blackberrys. While it's pretty easy to see that WM still provides more flexibility and access to more features than the iPhone. I think Microsoft should be more worried about losing many of the geeks that currently use WM devices but don't really take full advantage of the platform. Those people are going to be the first to jump on the 3G iPhone. Certainly Apple will attract some folks who want the internet on the go, but found current WM offerings too expensive or too intimidating. But, I don't think it's going to be those who are new to the internet.
Apple has done a masterful job marketing the iPhone. Look at how much it's talked about, despite the fact that it's really only captured a tiny percentage of the market.
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06-16-2008, 03:27 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 431
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Right on Jason. I have complained in your message threads for years about the lack of marketing for products that are more functional, more innovative and as good as or better looking than various Apple competitors. Apple is largely a product design and marketing firm. I have seen flashes of good marketing from Microsoft and other companies, but nothing sustained or as viral as what Apple does.
HP is doing as very well with its creative and sustained "computer is personal again" campaign, but that is about it. In phones, I would agree that of all companies Motorola has done the best job selling a particular phone with the RAZR. There are other good phone ads campaigns, but they have no sustainability. The HTC Diamond has the potential as a product to be the next hot thing if HTC and the carriers market it. They are starting off well with the buzz factor, but let's see how they do when the phone is in wider distribution.
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06-16-2008, 03:36 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,053
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Seriously? I call shenanigans. Let's start with the biggest one:
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She brags that she is amazed that she can get and send photos of her family members with email, even though she's so intimidated with computers that she's never used one.
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Maybe this is true for Aunt Sue. She has to be the most unique case in the world. I only know one iPhone user and that's my brother. He's never had a smartphone either but he loves his. Mostly because he can listen to music on it. Its eliminated his iPod.
Does the Aunt Sue scenario exist? For the iPhone's 7 million users I'd be surprised if that scenario cracked 4 digits.
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Geeks can rightly point out that there are many smartphones on the market today that do more things than the iPhone and do some things better than the iPhone but I'm here to tell you that it just doesn't matter. Apple realizes that the very small phone savvy (read geek) market segment is so small it doesn't matter.
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This is the part that just makes me laugh. This is the common argument for why the iPhone is the most amazing thing since sliced bread. There is only ONE thing that the iPhone does that dozens upon dozens of other phones out there don't do. Its GUI. And even with as good as it is...I prefer Mobile Shell on my Wing to the iPhone GUI and the Blackberry UI is pretty darn good too.
Once you get past that, the iPhone is a great multimedia smartphone. Its an absolutely awful business device. And that's the real joke. "The Geek Market" isn't the market that is buying Blackberries and WM phones. Sure, there's a few of those in there too. The big market is...business. This is the SAME market that Microsoft used to push Apple out of the lead in the 80s.
Everyone that I work with has either a Blackberry or a WM device (though overwhelming Blackberry). The iPhone is not seen as something that can support us for heavy work related use daily. I've taken a look at its PIM features and they're super basic.
So its fine to make all of these claims but if Microsoft makes their goals this year of 20 million phones & RIM keeps doing what it does...that seems proof enough who is buying what.
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06-16-2008, 03:56 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 58
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There is one big thing all competitors should be afraid of, and it isn't that the new iPhone has 3G and GPS. It's the selection of enterprise features added in the new firmware.
It has policy support (WM only JUST got this, and only on WM6.1)
It has Cisco VPN support built in (WM doesn't do this)
It has remote wipe through Exchange
It has application push support (WM doesn't do this)
I don't see major enterprise users switching to the iPhone, but any company with up to about 100 devices will take a serious look at how the iPhone can help them. And depending on the quality of the applications released in the App store, they may find it to be a better choice than WM or Blackberry.
If any platform is in trouble, I'd say it's Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile. Blackberry is so far ahead in the enterprise market that they'll do just fine.
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06-16-2008, 04:31 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 357
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottC
It has application push support (WM doesn't do this)
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What's the Managed Programs control panel for then?
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06-16-2008, 05:08 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 667
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I was pretty harsh in my comments on the last iPhone article you guys linked (Is the iPhone a portable computer?), but I think this guy has identified a basic truth even if he has exaggerated a bit to make the point. I agree with some of the comments here that Aunt Sue is unlikely to go from no computer or other electronics to laying out hundreds of dollars plus large monthly charges to try an iPhone. But that's not really the point since Aunt Sue was just a metaphor for people who are not phone geeks. Here's what I've seen in my world.
I teach at a small liberal arts college so my circle of people ranges from young to old, from geek to Luddite. The vast majority of people I know do not have a smart phone at all. Most of the students have phones with roughly the capabilities of the RAZR, that is, they use them mostly for talking and texting, but they don't check email or browse the web on their phones. A few do have iPhones, but I've never met a student at my college with any other smartphone.
The few of us who do have smartphones are adults, basically geeks, who like to play with whatever cool toys are new. Most of us do not have an iPhone because it really does lack features we came to depend on long before the iPhone existed.
So why do I say the author is basically right? Because I've watched the few people who do have iPhones and seen how other people react to them. If I am with some people and I pull out my Touch, get onto Google, and answer a question that we were discussing, everyone says thanks for the answer, but no one focuses in on the phone and carries on about how great it is. But I've seen a student do the same thing and other people ooh and ahh over the phone, ask to hold it, and so forth. Let's face it, there is something charismatic about the iPhone that makes people want to try it. And that's where I see him as being right. If someone takes someone else's iPhone and, without instruction, makes it do things they would find useful, then they're much more likely to go out and get one themselves. I see these people as not being smartphone geeks, but every day people who already pay for a cell phone and who suddenly see that their phone can do more. I'd have to tell the same person what to do on my Touch to get the phone to do something impressive. That doesn't carry the same wow factor to regular folks.
Startphone geeks mostly won't be happy with the iPhone, unless their actual needs were quite light in the first place, but everyone else won't care what the iPhone lacks because it's more than they ever considered having in the first place. And as the author of the article says, there are many, many more people who aren't gadget geeks than those who are.
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06-16-2008, 07:11 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 554
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Who is Aunt Sue? Middle age woman, housewife, that is pretty much a stereotype.
Look at it from different prospective, look at "little girl" named Sue. She can be pretty much your little sister or daughter. What does she has in her bag? iPod. Now she is old enough to have her own Phone. What would she get? iPhone You would want to see your kid happy, wouldn't you? Specially, when it cost you only a couple hundred bucks, and she pays for service working in MacDonald's. Time for a College? Your dear Sue grow up with Apple products, remember that iPod you bought her for her 10th birthday? Then iPhone at 15? It is logical she would want to have Apple Mac for higher learnings. And now she goes to work. She grow up on Apple products, she doesn't do that well with PC, she and few of her friends (same age) ask boss to get Macs so they are more productive. And why not?
People who grow up in late 80's 90's are more MS PC generation. We played first computer games on, it we study on it, we work on it. New generation is more USED to Apple products. And that generation is the one that takes over the market, the trends, the style, while PC generation, the "old guys" thinking of retirement. And as for some mystic Sue who doesn't know how to use a computer? What planet is she from? My mother, 70 y.o. has no problems sending emails, browsing the net, among other things on her laptop.
__________________
You create your opportunities by asking for them
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06-16-2008, 07:29 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 952
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I've been saying the same thing as James since Microsoft started this Pocket PC thing. Microsoft just doesn't pitch to consumers. I still believe had Microsoft aggresively marketed to consumers when the Pocket PC first came out in 2000 there would have been no iPod or iPhone crazes like we have now. The Pocket PC was the original Web browsing, Email sending, MP3 listening, Movie viewing, Games playing, Offfice Apps editing, Remote control eliminatin machine that could fit in your pocket. With all that going for it Microsoft left out the consumer market all together and went after the Enterprise dollars. I still scratch my head at that decision.
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06-16-2008, 07:47 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,053
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Quote:
Originally Posted by virain
She grow up on Apple products, she doesn't do that well with PC, she and few of her friends (same age) ask boss to get Macs so they are more productive. And why not?
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Because enterprise applications aren't generally cross-platform? Your hypothetical scenario was the same exact one that failed Apple in the 80s. Capturing the mindshare of the consumer doesn't help Apple break into the workplace. Especially when the devices Apple makes are about as anti-business as you can get. Its harder to use an Apple product for work than it is to use a PC for fun.
Apple probably won't return to its dark late-90s days anytime soon but I think there is a pretty firm cap on how much growth they can achieve.
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