Stephen Ives

Phones are getting more complicated, but using them should remain as simple as ever ­ not an easy combination. Mobile phones are now visual devices, not just voice devices. They are driven by the advent of color screens and the possibility of always-on communications based on either 1xRTT or GPRS. They are moving from being speech-based to more sophisticated personal devices, where being a great phone is only part of the story. At the same time, sections of the economy are moving on from delivering services to the next stage of development ­ the experience economy ­ where people are happy to pay for an experience. Phone manufacturers and mobile network operators have to focus not only on delivering the product functionality and services that the user requires, but on the way the different functions work together to create an overall user experience. There are a numb... (more)