About half of all prospective smartphone buyers don't get one because of the glut of models, Best Buy noted today in a study. Of those who don't already own a smartphone, 47 percent said they were "too confused" by the sheer number of phones and range of features. Roughly 63 percent of all those studied didn't own one because they thought it was too expensive; 39 percent of those who don't own one specifically hated the shopping experience.
The retail chain also hoped to disabuse notions that smartphones are primarily bought for work-oriented purposes. Over half of those that own that class of device, at 58 percent, want to play music; 41 percent want social networking and 36 percent value games.
An unusual gender split also exists for apps, Best Buy adds. Women almost always valued apps more than men. They were also more likely than men to value built-in features like SMS messaging (71 percent versus 46 percent), photography (55 percent versus 30 percent), music (44 percent to 25 percent) and GPS (51 percent versus 33 percent). Men only valued calendars more than women did, with 46 percent putting a value on the organizer where 39 percent of women put the same importance on the feature.
While Best Buy doesn't try to explain the findings itself, they play directly into media-friendly phones like the iPhone while downplaying devices running platforms like Windows Mobile that often downplay media features and favor calendaring and other work chores.
Because choice has always been a bad thing. That's why people stopped buying cars. And just think of all the people who never buy a house because they just have too many choices.
I don't believe it. People answer surveys the best they can, but a survey can't read minds. Someone who says "I am interested but won't buy because I don't know what I want" aren't really interested.
Not to mention the simple fact that they were already capable enough of making a choice among the dumbphones, where there is probably an order of magnitude more choices.
If you don't believe this phenomenon is real, read "The Paradox of Choice" by the psychologist Barry Schwartz. The classic example from six years ago is how many cell phone/payment plan options there were from just one vendor. Consumers are being asked to make intelligent decisions based on noise rather than data, and they're making the intelligent choice: not buying.
Frankly, I suspect one of the reasons for the iPhone and iPod's success has been the bewilderment of choice: faced with no other really salient facts, many people think, "Apple makes good stuff. The heck with trying to compare hundreds of choices on the basis of cost/benefit. I'll just buy what I know is probably a pretty good product."
No one said choice was a bad thing, I read "too many choices". And you may want to stay away from referencing the auto industry if you're trying to make an argument for choice. GM will be the first to tell you that too much choice can definitely be a fat and unhealthy thing.
i'd be curious about the complete breakdown of demographics in this sample group. i'm willing to bet a majority portion of this group that is confused by choice are older, and confused my lots of technology in general. In 5 to 10 years, plenty of older demographics will have no trouble choosing and using "smartphones" or whatever they'll be called at that point.
very tech savvy and the number of features on a handset excites them and bewilders them at the same time. They don't like reading manuals and get frustrated at features they can't figure out. Apple has this beat with the iPhone because many people can pick them up and get to the easiest features quickly and then can expand since the interface is relatively consistent. I've never used a Windows handset so I don't know how complicated it is. I could easily handle a complicated handset because I've always enjoyed reading manuals.
But I understand people who can't figure out menus and I would never try to pack so many features into a handset that the average person can't figure them out. That's why I don't understand the tech-head snobs that think because a handset has every feature in the book and beats the crap out users trying to figure out how to access the features think a Windows handset is such a great device. For them yeah, but not for the average user. I say, don't build devices for tech-heads, build them for the not so tech savvy and you'll make a lot more money from sales.
Choice can be confusing for the uninformed especially when it comes to weighing particular features. Try to buy what you need the most in features and find out if they're simple to access.
For me the cost of the plans is too high. Two phones with data and text (otherwise why get a smartphone), is about $200/month or $2400/year. I'd rather pay $40/month for two voice-only phones, and spend the difference on two new PCs a year (or other technology).
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