Cell Phones Forum

August 15, 2005
In Mobile Phones, Older Users Say, More Is Less
All the Features Just Confuse, They Tell Vodafone, So It Tries Making a
Simple One
Pushback From Young Staffers
By DAVID PRINGLE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

At a time when cellphones are letting users do more tricks, from video
calling to downloading digital music, one of the latest models from
Vodafone Group PLC has no camera, no browser and hardly any icons.
Instead of being sleeker and cooler than ever, the phone is large and
ordinary-looking.

What it is, though, is easy to use, and if Vodafone is right, the
market will love it. That's because of who its market is: people
getting up in years.

If the battery on the Vodafone Simply, as it's called, gets low, the
phone doesn't signal this with a tiny icon somewhere. Instead, on its
screen, the words "please charge" appear. If a message is waiting, a
light flashes, like in old-fashioned answering machines. To help people
who tend to lose their phones around the house and let the battery run
down, this one comes with a stand that serves as a place to stow the
thing, and charges it while it's there.

Ann Ridley is the kind of customer Vodafone has in mind. A 65-year-old
ballet teacher in Claygate, near London, Ms. Ridley rarely gives out
her mobile-phone number, never uses text messaging and doesn't store
her friends' numbers on the phone. "I can't see the numbers, and it's
too complicated," she says. The result is that she uses the cellphone
for fewer than a dozen calls a year, spending less than $18 annually.

The hope at Vodafone is that when people like Ms. Ridley, who said she
wasn't familiar with the Vodafone Simply, hear about it, they'll find
its ease of use so comforting they'll start to use their cell service
more. If so, Vodafone, which collects a fee for each cellphone call,
can expect more revenue.

Vodafone isn't the only company -- nor cellphones the only industry --
trying to shape some products for older consumers or to simplify them.
At Ford Motor Co., designers who test-drive prototypes sometimes wear a
"third-age" suit that gives them a sense of an older person's
experience by means of stiff fabric at the elbows and knees and thick
padding at the waist. Ford has made many modifications to cars as a
result, from wider doors to more-comfortable seats, says one of its
technical specialists, Jeffrey Pike.

Philips Electronics NV, whose many products range from beard trimmers
to X-ray systems, has a "Simplicity Advisory Board" of outside experts,
and next month will bring out the first products of a companywide
simplicity drive. Consumers are saying, "Many products complicate my
life instead of making it easier," says the head of Philips's global
marketing management, Enderson Guimaraes.

The Vodafone Simply isn't an attempt to match certain ultra-simple
phones sold to the elderly for emergency use, such as one from a France
T=E9l=E9com SA unit that has no keyboard but just three big color-coded
buttons linked to preprogrammed numbers such as that of a doctor.
Instead, Vodafone is trying to appeal to a large market of middle-aged
and older people with a handset they won't find intimidating. The
company's European target market is everyone who's 40 years of age or
over and isn't issued a cellphone by an employer.

That's a sign of how young the usual market for cellphones is -- and
what a change this move is for an industry that keeps adding features
to get customers to upgrade. Vodafone's plan reflects the need for new
sources of growth. Cellular markets in much of Western Europe and Japan
are becoming saturated, so that the middle-aged and older are among the
few places to look for new growth.

Vodafone is offering the Simply in nine countries so far, not including
the U.S., a market in which it participates through a 45% stake in
Verizon Wireless. The U.S. cellphone market still is growing briskly,
although its growth, too, is expected to slow before long. The
countries where Vodafone Simply is available are the U.K., Germany,
Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Greece and New Zealand.

Other European cellular operators have ideas similar to Vodafone's for
more effectively tapping into the older market, says Kai Oistamo, a
senior vice president at Nokia Corp. The Finnish manufacturer of
handsets is in discussions with some other service providers now, he
says.

Vodafone's initiative began two years ago, after the company surveyed
5,000 Europeans about what they wanted from a cellphone. What it heard
from consumers aged 35 to 55 shocked executives of the Newbury,
England, company. Many in that age range didn't know their cellphone
numbers or how to use basic functions.

One-third, for example, said they didn't know how to tell when they had
received a text message. Some thought the envelope icon that signals a
message meant their phone bill had arrived.

One woman in Italy told Vodafone she didn't know how to reply to a text
message, so she would send back handwritten notes through her son, on
his bicycle.

Many 35- to 55-year-olds also didn't like going into Vodafone retail
stores because the young staff -- average age 24 -- talked in acronyms
they couldn't understand. These consumers said they weren't interested
in the cameras, Internet browsers and many of the other features that
are becoming standard on the latest cellphones. "Our biggest customer
segment turned round and said: 'You haven't been listening to us,' "
says Guy Laurence, the company's consumer-marketing director. "It was
an industry for kids."

As the Vodafone Simply project took shape, company executives debated
how much emphasis it should get. The company's chief executive, Arun
Sarin, a silver-haired 50-year-old who once headed a Silicon Valley
start-up, was convinced the appetite for a simpler handset was
substantial. "It's not tiny. It's a chunk," he said at a recent news
conference.

At an industry gathering in early 2004, Mr. Laurence invited
manufacturers to build a basic handset that could make voice calls and
handle text messages and do little else. "They looked at me like I was
from Mars," he recalls. "They said: 'It's not needed.'"

Eventually, Vodafone found a supplier in Sagem SA, a Paris-based
electronics maker. Vodafone also engaged IDEO, a London design agency
that had worked on the Palm V personal organizer, widely acclaimed for
ease of use.

During development, young Vodafone product managers kept trying to add
features, like software for sending picture messages. Mr. Laurence said
no. He showed them an old TV comedy sketch about an elderly person
being humiliated by a hi-fi salesman who delighted in the customer's
technical ignorance.

Vodafone ran the ideas of product managers past groups of over-40
consumers. One finding was that the consumers tended not to enter many
names into their cellphone contacts books because they thought they
might lose the handset and have to do it all over again on a
replacement. This wasn't good news for Vodafone, which finds that the
more names in a phone's contacts book, the more the phone gets used.

To allay people's concerns about the hassle of re-entering numbers in a
replacement phone, Vodafone made it easier to copy the contacts book
onto a personal computer for storage. The handset automatically
transfers contacts to a PC when connected to it, something that with
most handsets can't be done unless owners first install special PC
software. It is then straightforward to transfer the numbers from the
PC back to a replacement cellphone.

Based on what older customers told it, Vodafone also installed
dedicated buttons for volume control and for locking the keypad, to
prevent accidental redialing of the last number called. It added a
'tips' function to give users guidance if they got stuck in any of the
menus. The handset is bigger than most and has a spacious keypad.

Gary Sheehan, a 38-year-old director of a London information-technology
company, likes that keypad, along with the phone's simple menus and
large screen. He replaced his Sony Ericsson camera phone with a
Vodafone Simply in July. "It was all singing, all dancing," he says of
his old phone. "But if I wanted to change the ringer volume, I couldn't
find it."

On his new one, "I can see what I am typing without squinting," he
says.

The downside is that his colleagues at the IT firm, mostly in their
20s, frequently mock his choice of handset. He says his wife, using
British slang for "idiot," calls it the "Vodafone Wally phone." But he
doesn't care: "I just wanted a phone that phoned," he says.

The simple handset remains a work in progress. In the 2=BD months since
Vodafone launched it in mid-May, the company has decided it needed to
make about 60 tweaks to the software.

The company's Mr. Laurence was wary of permitting advertising agencies,
typically staffed by young people, to create a commercial for the
phone, fearing it would be too flashy or complicated. The company first
commissioned a print ad to run in a European edition of Good
Housekeeping magazine -- not a usual venue for cellphone advertising.
Its print ads, which also ran in Golf Monthly, picture the handset and
describe what each button does.

One of them, highlighting the volume-control button, says: "No mucking
about in menus to find the right setting. So no excuses for letting
your Vodafone Simply phone ring in the middle of your cousin's
wedding."

Mr. Laurence ran the ad by product managers working on fancy multimedia
handsets for young people. "The more they hated it, the more we knew we
were on the right track," he says. Vodafone eventually ran television
commercials for the phone in four of its markets.

It won't say how many of the phones it has sold, but Mr. Laurence says
the company expects to at least recoup its investment through added
revenue. The average age of the phone's users is 45.

Many young staffers in Vodafone's retail stores don't seem to grasp the
concept, because they keep pushing older customers to buy phones with
fancy features, Mr. Laurence says. So the company has taken to lending
their parents a Vodafone Simply. "If their parents say 'this is the
best thing since sliced bread,'" Mr. Laurence says, "they are going to
learn to sell it properly."

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

I am so glad to learn what Vodafone is doing for older adults.  I have
been predicting for some time that smart marketers are going to find
the older market soon and some are going to make millions from it.
Seems like Vodafone and a few others such as Ford and Phillips
Electronics are seeing this as well.

I am considering a cell and may just wait for Vodafone.  I had one for
a year, but it wasn't useful to me, so I gave it up.  What is mentioned
about all of their clerks being age 24 is quite true.  What is not
mentioned is that most of their clerks don't know anything about their
product.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In my experience the Suncom people are trained in quackery, puffery,
lying, deviousness, and changing the subject when you pin them down.

My experience with them was fatal and they will never see another penny
from me.

I also had a bad experience with US Cellular, but at least in dealing
with their employees they were scrupulously honest.

Don't ever, ever buy a cellphone without very detailed investigation of
the purveyor.  Take it from someone who has learned the hard way and
has developed a little understanding after living 60 years -- but still
makes mistakes.  If I had first done a little googling about Suncom, I
would have avoided them like they were the plague.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On 15 Aug 2005 06:27:56 -0700, "MrPepper11" <MrPepper11@go.com> wrote:

>If the battery on the Vodafone Simply, as it's called, gets low, the
>phone doesn't signal this with a tiny icon somewhere. Instead, on its
>screen, the words "please charge" appear.

Hmmm, this is very interesting.  When any and all of the Nokia
handsets I have get a low battery condition the handset beeps and
there's a message "low battery."  How much clearer can that be that
you need to plug the handset into the charger!

>If a message is waiting, a
>light flashes, like in old-fashioned answering machines.

Well, just basic instruction in the beginning pages of a user's manual
should make it quite clear what's the indication that they have
messages waiting.  That's hardly nuclear science.

>To help people
>who tend to lose their phones around the house and let the battery run
>down, this one comes with a stand that serves as a place to stow the
>thing, and charges it while it's there.

Most any and all mobiles can get a charging stand where you can put it
when you come in the door if that's what's needed for you to keep
track of where it is.

>Ann Ridley is the kind of customer Vodafone has in mind. A 65-year-old
>ballet teacher in Claygate, near London, Ms. Ridley rarely gives out
>her mobile-phone number, never uses text messaging and doesn't store
>her friends' numbers on the phone. "I can't see the numbers, and it's
>too complicated," she says. The result is that she uses the cellphone
>for fewer than a dozen calls a year, spending less than $18 annually.

And Voda thinks that going after this "lucrative" market is going to
substantially enrich their coffers?

>The hope at Vodafone is that when people like Ms. Ridley, who said she
>wasn't familiar with the Vodafone Simply, hear about it, they'll find
>its ease of use so comforting they'll start to use their cell service
>more. If so, Vodafone, which collects a fee for each cellphone call,
>can expect more revenue.

Her habit is already to make as few calls as possible.  I highly doubt
whether severely dumbing down a phone severely will be all it will
take to make her spend £30 or £40 per month on services!

>The
>company's European target market is everyone who's 40 years of age or
>over and isn't issued a cellphone by an employer.

I think they severely misunderstand people who are of "that age."
They make it sound like anyone over 40 is ready to be set out to the
rocker on the front porch and are a bunch of doddering old farts.

>One-third, for example, said they didn't know how to tell when they had
>received a text message. Some thought the envelope icon that signals a
>message meant their phone bill had arrived.

Well, perhaps if they'd bother to crack the user's manual or bothered
to ask the clerk at the Voda or T-Mobile shop for some basic
instruction they wouldn't be nearly so ignorant of basic  phone
functions.

>One woman in Italy told Vodafone she didn't know how to reply to a text
>message, so she would send back handwritten notes through her son, on
>his bicycle.

So, rather than find out how to reply to a text message she didn't
bother to learn how to do it and relied on the way she's done things
for the last forty years.  People treating people like they're stupid
or fools only encourages the stereotype that anyone "of an age" has to
be incompetent.  A teenager who encounters a rotary dial phone and is
puzzled by it is no different.

>As the Vodafone Simply project took shape, company executives debated
>how much emphasis it should get. The company's chief executive, Arun
>Sarin, a silver-haired 50-year-old who once headed a Silicon Valley
>start-up, was convinced the appetite for a simpler handset was
>substantial. "It's not tiny. It's a chunk," he said at a recent news
>conference.

Mobile operators push fancy phones with all sorts of features for a
reason!  Mobile operators want people to use features *other* than
ordinary voice services!.  They've invested heavily in "3G" networks
so that their customers can do fast data.  They perceive that if they
push it hard enough there will be a "need" for these 3G services
rather than people just picking up the phone to call Aunt Millie from
the greengrocer or butcher to see what's needed for supper tonight.

>The downside is that his colleagues at the IT firm, mostly in their
>20s, frequently mock his choice of handset. He says his wife, using
>British slang for "idiot," calls it the "Vodafone Wally phone." But he
>doesn't care: "I just wanted a phone that phoned," he says.

I use a Nokia 6310i.  I don't think there's anything that my handset
does on its own that is not simple to use with a minimal look at the
owner's manual.  Why people think that you don't have to learn
*anything* about a device you're going to use is really beyond me.
This article goes on and on and you'd think that the doddering old
fools it focuses on cannot handle anything more complicated than a
dial phone or maybe a manual can opener if they're not too addled.

>Its print ads, which also ran in Golf Monthly, picture the handset and
>describe what each button does.

Which is likely not something that the techno phobic can deal with.

>One of them, highlighting the volume-control button, says: "No mucking
>about in menus to find the right setting. So no excuses for letting
>your Vodafone Simply phone ring in the middle of your cousin's
>wedding."

How difficult is it to lightly tap the power button and adjust the
ringer to silent?


- -

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

"Joseph" <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> wrote in message
 news:ibe2g19a965rd33
 bl6rgfll0nodc909p3r@
4ax.com...
> On 15 Aug 2005 06:27:56 -0700, "MrPepper11" <MrPepper11@go.com> wrote:
> 
>
> Hmmm, this is very interesting.  When any and all of the Nokia
> handsets I have get a low battery condition the handset beeps and
> there's a message "low battery."  How much clearer can that be that
> you need to plug the handset into the charger!
> 
>
> Well, just basic instruction in the beginning pages of a user's manual
> should make it quite clear what's the indication that they have
> messages waiting.  That's hardly nuclear science.
>
Basic concept of human factor engineering is that everyday objects should be
self-evident. The concept of an owners manual (and a work, a training class)
for a telephone, is frigging ridiculous. It should be like a faucet- look at
it, and you know how to work it. I do 'tech' for a living, and make pretty
good money at it. Some of the hardware and software coming in baffles me, so
I know our casual end users are gonna be clueless.

aem sends....

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 02:29:21 GMT, "ameijers"
<aemeijers@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>Basic concept of human factor engineering is that everyday objects should b
e
>self-evident.

Caught this over the telly news.  I wasn't paying attention so some of
my report may be inaccurate.  Do put in your corrections.

There is a new service called ICE for "in case of emergency" for cell
phones.  Cellphones don't have a universal 911 emergency service.  The
service started in the UK and seems to have spread around the world.

In ICE I think you register with an (volunteer?) organization that
will store your personal details on their computer.  You key their ICE
phone number into your cellphone's memory.  You can also key in the
phone numbers, ICE2, ICE3, etc.  of your closest kin to call in case
of an emergency.  Thus if you are badly injured or unable to
communicate  someone finding your cellphone can call up ICE and get
vital information on you as well as report the emergency.  There were
some other services provided, like locating you in case you are lost.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In article <5ccMe.102676$5N3.75118@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>, "ameijers" <aemeije
rs@worldnet.att.net>  wrote: 
>Basic concept of human factor engineering is that everyday objects should b
e
>self-evident. The concept of an owners manual (and a work, a training class
)
>for a telephone, is frigging ridiculous. It should be like a faucet- look a
t
>it, and you know how to work it. I do 'tech' for a living, and make pretty
>good money at it. Some of the hardware and software coming in baffles me, s
o
>I know our casual end users are gonna be clueless.

exactly. i also work in technology industry

i got my mom a phone (who's in her late 60s).
she's no dummy but far from technical savvy.
i told her to read the manual & she would not read it cause the font is too
small. it was just so much easier to ask me to set it up than putting glasse
s
& figureing out her self. sigh.

although one thing i did find a bit offensive about the article is they assu
me
people above 40 are all senile & dumb. there're also plenty of younger peopl
e
who want a simpler phone without camera, web browsing, MP3, etc. or who have
poor eyesight & need big buttons.

btw, i also use 6310i too. it's pretty simple but still too complicated for 
my
mom.

regards,

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

ameijers <aemeijers@worldnet.att.net>  wrote:
> "Joseph" <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>  news:ibe2g19a965rd33
 bl6rgfll0nodc909p3r@
4ax.com... 

> Basic concept of human factor engineering is
> that everyday objects should be self-evident.

It aint even possible in the real world most of the time.

Nothing 'self evident' about a power switch.

In spades with those you press to turn the
device on and press again to turn it off again.

> The concept of an owners manual (and a work, a
> training class) for a telephone, is frigging ridiculous.

It aint necessarily feasible to do a relatively complex
device like a VCR or cellphone without one.

> It should be like a faucet- look at it, and you know how to work it.

Not even possible with a cellphone or a VCR.

> I do 'tech' for a living, and make pretty good money at it.
> Some of the hardware and software coming in baffles me,
> so I know our casual end users are gonna be clueless.

Sure, but thats a different matter to your silly claim that its
actually possible to design a VCR or a cellphone so that it
can be used by someone who has never seen one without
any instructions on how to use it or a manual etc.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

ameijers  wrote: 
>
> Basic concept of human factor engineering is that everyday objects should 
be
> self-evident. The concept of an owners manual (and a work, a training clas
s)
> for a telephone, is frigging ridiculous. It should be like a faucet- look 
at
> it, and you know how to work it. I do 'tech' for a living, and make pretty
> good money at it. Some of the hardware and software coming in baffles me, 
so
> I know our casual end users are gonna be clueless.
>
> aem sends....
>
>
Agreed. Every cell phone that I have has required a call to the
provider or a visit to a retail location and I am not the type of person
who gives up after a few attempts to use something new.


--
To reply via e-mail please delete 1 c from paccbell

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

 
> Basic concept of human factor engineering is that everyday objects should 
be
> self-evident. The concept of an owners manual (and a work, a training clas
s)
> for a telephone, is frigging ridiculous. It should be like a faucet- look 
at
> it, and you know how to work it. I do 'tech' for a living, and make pretty
> good money at it. Some of the hardware and software coming in baffles me, 
so
> I know our casual end users are gonna be clueless.

X-No-Archive:yes

I agree - a phone is a phone. It is not a camera, radio, tv or
computer. Don't know the statistics, but I guess many cell phones are
purchased for emergency and/or use away from home and they should be
large enough number buttons that are not too small for your fingers.
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]