When technology succeeds it becomes invisible

January 20th, 2009

I often make the point when I am addressing an audience that when technology really succeeds it becomes invisible. Observing that most people in the room are writing with pens and paper – I point to their paper notepads and explain that paper is a technology. In fact it is a very complex technology. Yet the technology has seemingly disappeared and all you are left with is a great user inteface.

The Apple iPhone is a case in point and yet a recent study shows

It often seems as though phone calls are increasingly an afterthought when it comes to modern cell phones, and a new study says that consumers are frustrated by software complexity when it comes to using more advanced cell phone features. Bad design, feature bloat, and nickel-and-dime tactics may be hurting handset sales and stifling adoption as consumers are too afraid to try new features or even buy new phones.

According to a study presented by Mformation Technologies Inc., as many as 78 percent of consumers would upgrade their handsets more regularly if the setup process was “less painful.” Further, 88 percent of cell phone consumers stay away from trying new services because setup can be so difficult. Topping out the list of cellphone experience frustration are e-mail (46 percent of respondents), Internet browsing (40 percent), instant messaging (30 percent), and picture messaging (29 percent).

Nearly two-thirds of respondents stopped using mobile applications because they “cannot solve problems with them.” For once, mobile carriers and handset makers may have caught consumers in a state of handset lock-in not by intentional design, but by mismanaged or incompetent software engineering.

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