Comments on: Smartphone Stimulus http://mobileiron.com/blog/2009/06/smartphone-stimulus/ The human, business, and technology impact of smartphones in the workplace Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:54:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: David Williams http://mobileiron.com/blog/2009/06/smartphone-stimulus/comment-page-1/#comment-39 David Williams Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:29:13 +0000 http://mobileiron.com/blog/?p=98#comment-39 There is a market for powerful smartphones and for simple, low-cost feature phones. The technical underpinnings may start to look similar in both camps, but both economics and simplicity will win out for many consumers. A friend recently pointed out that one can buy an iPhone or BlackBerry for $99 -- right in the sweet spot of feature phone pricing. True, but only half the story. The smartphone will run you over $1000/year for for voice, text, and data. The feature phone -- half that. Consumers get this. On the usability front, iPhone, Pre (and to a lesser extent, Android and BlackBerry) are powerful and flexible platforms offering touchscreens and keyboards. I'll contend that feature overload and inferior battery life will keep many prospects away for some time. Feature phones with QWEWRTY keyboards & cameras are great for lots of voice, texting, and social networking. They are to mobiles what the Flip is to camcorders. The distribution of phones will be bimodal. The smartphone market will put up great growth numbers (coming from a small baseline) for years to come. In 10 years time, *most* people will have a smartphone but we'll all likely have a feature phone or two as well! There is a market for powerful smartphones and for simple, low-cost feature phones. The technical underpinnings may start to look similar in both camps, but both economics and simplicity will win out for many consumers.

A friend recently pointed out that one can buy an iPhone or BlackBerry for $99 — right in the sweet spot of feature phone pricing. True, but only half the story. The smartphone will run you over $1000/year for for voice, text, and data. The feature phone — half that. Consumers get this.

On the usability front, iPhone, Pre (and to a lesser extent, Android and BlackBerry) are powerful and flexible platforms offering touchscreens and keyboards. I’ll contend that feature overload and inferior battery life will keep many prospects away for some time. Feature phones with QWEWRTY keyboards & cameras are great for lots of voice, texting, and social networking. They are to mobiles what the Flip is to camcorders.

The distribution of phones will be bimodal. The smartphone market will put up great growth numbers (coming from a small baseline) for years to come. In 10 years time, *most* people will have a smartphone but we’ll all likely have a feature phone or two as well!

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