Thoughts @

faster is not always better

With the influx of mobile data services, new handsets and little to differentiate various players in the marketplace, we turn to brand as a key decision point in the mobile user experience process. David Pringle, a writer for the Wall Street Journal writes,

“At stake is control of an everyday device owned by more than a billion people. The winner will be in a position to shape the future of the cellphone business and cream off the profits that come from being a premium brand.” Wall Street Journal “After a Long Peace, Wireless Operator Stirs Up Industry”, November 2004

His comments are in response to Vodafone’s highly publicized brand play as the world’s largest carrier demanded their logo be placed on the front of every exclusively carried handset, including the new 3G devices released for the holidays last year.

This is the continuation of an exercise where carriers, now the suppliers of much sought after content and services, feel their brands surpass that of handset manufactors, namely Nokia and Sony Ericsson. It is interesting to note, at the beginning of the 3G market in Japan, NTT DoCoMo’s W-CDMA-based FOMA service rose early with high-speed 3G access, yet garnered only 300,000 subscribers by the end of 2003. During the same time period, KDDI launched it’s new Au service with lower data speeds (CDMA2000 1XRTT network was not considered 3G) but with wider perceived coverage and reliability, well marketed services and applications, and a targeted subscriber (young, hip early adopters.) KDDI hit 7 million subscribers by the end of 2003 – completely beating out it’s high speed network competitor [source: Trends of Mobile Communications in Asia by Yihong Zhang and Bo Feng].

KDDI wasn’t the fastest speed, but the perceived ‘brand’ and trust in the reliability of the service that won out. So, my question is: how important is brand in this marketplace, and how are (or will) today’s customers able to clearly differentiate between products, services and offerings? It is clearly becoming a petty brawl between carriers and handset manufactors, and upcoming exclusive brands for content and new services (mostly coming from Hollywood) as they fight for front and center placement – on devices and on screen.

Posted on January 13th, 2005 in Thoughts
Tagged as , ,
Written by Kelly Goto

2 Responses to “faster is not always better”

Comments

  1. Todd says:
    January 13th, 2005

    Hey Kelly,
    Great topic. The mobile experience has been on my brain a lot lately as well. I totally agree with you on the brand perception. This is going to be huge in this market. With large sums of money being poured into brand advertising, it will be interesting to see who wins.

    On a separate note, I’ve been thinking about how the mobile universe will change the way we design websites. Will web designers, evolve into web/mobile interface designers? This experience and interface will be a unique art in itself. Will the design schools integrate this type of design into their curriculums? I just wrote an article on this topic on the “dump”. Check it out if you have time. I would love to see you write something similar on this subject in this forum. Hope all is well.
    Cheers,
    Todd
    http://www.designdump.com

  2. decat says:
    January 13th, 2005

    Your brand comments are on target. However, I think that useability remains a key factor and when tied to brand you have a winner. Specifically, it is tiresome to have to wade through click after click to get what I need. I was impressed with Alltel’s Celltop offering. There ate those that say widget’s are an old story, but the execution is great and really works. Check out the video on http://www.mycelltop.com/#home. There is also a piece on YouTube

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