Mobile Industry Review - Latest Comments in Mobiles for the old and baffled.

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

MaManfie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:22:42 -0000

Interesting. Seems like a good test. "Can grannies/and the baffled use iPhones?"

I'm sure it would be quite funny to try.

Samantha.

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

bensmith — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:15:42 -0000

My g/f and folks took to the iPhone much more quickly than other new handsets...

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

MaManfie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:44:03 -0000

Who the old and baffled?
Well, my Mum hasn't the faintest on it, plus she has no need for it. As for my Grandparents? Well, they wouldn't know where to start. Although saying that, my Grandma has that Motorola phone with iTunes on it, and she made me put a load of music on it (she likes Kanye West), so she might like that. My Grandad would appreciate being able to read SkyNews and BBC News all the time. So you never know.

Samantha.

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

smstextnews — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:39:06 -0000

Also, I wonder how they'll react to the iPhone

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

MaManfie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:36:58 -0000

Hahah, that'll be interesting!

Samantha.

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

smstextnews — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:35:07 -0000

I've emailed that company to see if we can get some trial units

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

MaManfie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:34:49 -0000

Hi,

I can see your points there. The cheap Pay phones are just cheap, and old. They're not nice looking or anything really.

It may be tricky, but if some thought, and proper market research went into it, I think something could be made that suits my Mum, and maybe even the grandparents. As for expense, as I said, the market for older people is increasing, whereas there are less younger people; this is a growing trend. In the long term it'll pay off.

Thanks for reading,

Samantha.

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

MaManfie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:27:36 -0000

I'll be reviewing it shortly, so I'll let her have a play with it. I'll see what she thinks.

Samantha.

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

TerenceEden — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:24:12 -0000

Vodafone (my corporate overlords*) used to offer the Vodafone simply range
http://www.mobilegazette.com/sagem-vs1-vs2.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/23/vodafon...

You can still get them from Amazon and probably eBay, but they're no longer sold in store.

I'm not sure why they're not being sold direct any more. I guess there wasn't sufficient take up. Besides, most of the cheap PAYT phones fit the bill.

Part of the problem is conflicting feature specification. Your mum wants something small - but she also wants big buttons. That means a small screen. But she wants a big screen. So she has to have a big phone.

She wants a camera (even though she won't use it). But she doesn't want lots of confusing menu options. So how do we make it easy to find the camera and find the pictures?

She (probably) doesn't want to check her email. But lots of her peers might. So do you offer one phone that does email and one that doesn't (with a simpler menu)?

It's not impossible to design a very simple phone. But it's very difficult and quite expensive. Especially when you have to build multiple models because some people want games, some don't want changeable ringtones, some want them in red.... etc etc.

It's a tricky one...

*Not speaking for Vodafone in an official capacity.

Re: Mobiles for the old and baffled.

kcjh — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:26:44 -0000

I would point at the Sagem one showcased in the Video Podcast - I would imagine that would fit the bill for your Mum. As for Grandparents... *SHRUG*