(photo by Derrick Story, O’Reilly Media)
Om Malik's Business 2.0 article (Nov 14th 2005) "The iPod Effect" talks of why the Motorola RAZR mobile phone flies off the shelves. He says
"Call it a case of great -- and unmet -- expectations. When Motorola (MOT) announced a partnership with Apple (AAPL) to release a cell phone, many industry watchers hoped for a phone that would combine Apple’s subtle design acumen with Motorola’s engineering smarts to create a music phone to put all other mobile devices to shame. Instead they got the Motorola Rokr, which combines the iTunes client and a basic GSM handset. While Motorola and Apple executives hoped for record sales and the opportunity to dominate the nascent mobile music market, the Rokr has been a colossal disappointment. What’s missing? Though the Rokr is a capable phone, it lacks what has made all other Apple-related devices so special: great design.
But how much does design really matter? Consider this: Motorola sold about 250,000 Rokr phones in the third quarter of 2005. During the same period, its sleek cousin the Razr sold an impressive 6.5 million units. Why? Not because of the Razr’s ability to play tunes. The Razr became a must-have icon largely due to its looks; as with the iPod, consumers bought the $400 Razr because of its elegant design.
Call it the iPod effect. Apple, which has sold 25 million units of its popular music player so far, has had a huge impact on product design in the consumer electronics industry at large. Now, perhaps more than any other industry, the world’s cell-phone makers are using the iPod to inform the design of their latest models."
In Motorola ROKR: Instant Failure Michael Mace writes
"I did an online search today for the words “Rokr” and “failure” together in the same article. There were 49,700 hits.
I don’t want to pick on Motorola, but the speed at which its two-month-old product was labeled a failure is fascinating -- and a great object lesson for companies that want to play in the mobile space. Here are some thoughts.
First off, it’s hard to be certain that the Rokr actually is a failure, since there are no official industry stats on phone sales by model. But the circumstantial evidence is pretty damning. Most importantly, Cingular cut the phone’s price by $100 in early November. I can tell you from personal experience that no US hardware company ever introduces a device expecting to cut its price just a couple of months after launch. It causes too many logistical problems, and pisses off your early buyers......."
The thing about the iPod is that it is a component in a system that enables the consumer to have a music experience "like no other" Joseph Pine talks in the Experience Economy of the commodification pressures versus value-adding paradox.
We can relate this to Maslow something like this
If we walk through the consumers' experience as they go through their day we will pick up where there is "frustration" as they realise, often with embarrassment, they cannot do some task. From this we can pick up that there are gaps between a consumer's ideal experience and the one delivered (which might also be different from that promised!). We can pop that onto a Design Pyramid which allows the gaps in consumer experience to drive the technology, packaging system and communication the development of a new concepts. There may also be some insights to guide a compelling experience.
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