The Convergence Conversation

Groups and Committees

The search for the perfect handheld device

The handheld device – by which we’ll take to mean a variety of products including mobile phones, ipods, blackberries, and PDAs - are the most prevalent and popular consumer electronic product in the market today. Market penetration is already incredibly high (there are an average of 8 mobile phone handsets per household in the UK) and is growing globally on the back of rapid adoption in developing countries where m-commerce is an established mechanism of transferring cash. Handheld devices are also the site of the greatest convergence of functions: even an average phone is now likely to offer additional camera, music, video and web browsing capabilities as a means of attracting consumers. All of which serves as some context for Intellect’s Convergence Conversation that focused on ‘The search for the perfect handheld device’.

What then, in a marketplace flooded with choice but lacking in meaningful differentiation, is the consumer looking for in a handheld device? What are the implications of changes in the mobility, functionality and modularity of handheld devices? Most importantly, is a converged device, with the compromises in function and form this necessitates, the right way for device manufacturers to go?

This is an enormous topic and one that brings into focus a number of challenges facing the CE industry. Two strong themes emerged from the debate. The first that everyone agreed upon was that the perfect handheld device was not necessarily one thing; perhaps we are too obsessed with the idea of one device capable of providing telephony, entertainment, banking, email and web functionality. Such a thing was likely to look like a bit of a brick anyway and what consumers wanted above all was ease of usability. A device may well have the capability to do lots of things but unless it could deliver them in a reliable and easy way then consumers would return them, or vote with their feet. In this the iphone, both in its design and user interface was top of the class. The broader message here was that handheld devices have to start being more personally tailored to suit consumer wants: not just in appearance but also in functions and services. The appeal of mass-market propositions was beginning to wane. Divergence would also happen.

Secondly, and with a relevance to the entire CE sector was the disjunction many people identified between producer and user. Conversationalists pointed out that the adoption of new technology is driven by consumer demand but that this consumer demand was often being misunderstood or simply ignored by the industry. To be really successful companies had to stop trying to sell technology to consumers and start selling the experiences that technology enabled. Until device manufacturers changed the focus of their R and D, spending more time and resource on research before going into the development stage then products would still come to the market and flop, due to a lack of real insight.

Even in two hours this debate only really scratched the surface. What is clear is that the search for the perfect handheld device goes on.