I thought that this was a concept, but as it turns out this is a real-deal functional KDDI product. And I want it, desperately. I love the file-tab metaphor being brought to the table to segment the functionality of the product, with a slide out keypad for ‘phone first’ functions, media consumption, and content generation being located elsewhere. Looks nice and thin in side profile since the controls are separated from the display element.
I saw this about a year ago and thought ‘wow, wouldn’t that be nice to have,’ not thinking that it was implementable. The killer color combination only lends itself to another visual metaphor with regards to the different layers of plywood. IIDA is a manufacturer that needs to get stateside stat. Should only take until 2012, when we are all surely wiped off the face of the earth….
with marketing like this, their 'strategery' is unclear. uhm, the phone is like a horse?
Do I think that a phone built by sportswear manufacturer can be a viable play in such a huge market? Probably not, but what it represents is important; when a company makes up it’s mind, reins in feature creep, and focuses, they can deliver their vision in a space crowded with juggernauts of industry. It’s not like they just dropped something weak in there to make a co-branded splash either. Anyone else remember the LG Prada? Didn’t think so.
Puma entered the fray with game changers in terms of both hardware, solar panel rear housing, and software, a nicely branded OS with some nice sporty widgets. With only one of those two factors it could stand side by side with any mid-tier touchscreen offering from, say Samsung. Of course it launches in Europe before anyplace else, too cool for the US market. How cool? I encourage you to take a look at the launch site which shows off some of the icon-driven UI and….the confusing-ass image that appears above. With no details as far as carrier exclusivity it’s a tough call to tell how it might migrate overseas, but I have to admit that I want one.
Yet another killer collection of phones from Japanese studio iida. How come the flip-phone body type hasn’t dropped off in terms of consumer usage or style in Japan? Maybe it’s a cyclical thing in terms of what drives this, but design is definitely the differentiator in the mobile space—particularly in this market. Some nice hard-edged cues and the banishment of the Call Line Indicator are great places to start. Via great design blog Grafikcache.
‘Marriage of Art and Software?’ I worked on phones for years and during that time I never saw anything this compelling that told the story of the process and made the technology seem so interesting. Dual mic noise suppression isn’t anything that new to the market, but show it alongside a slick video with decent animation and you get something that makes people more interested in the phone. Plus the style and format of the presentation is such that it effectively raises the question of ‘who else has two mics–why wouldn’t you want that?’
http://www.vimeo.com/8259713
I saw this on Gizmodo late last year and didn’t repost it until now but it’s impression stuck with me through the holidays. Nokia selected a small number of people to send a very unique promotion in hopes that videos like the one above would be placed online. Not sure how truly effective something like this is (difficult to quantify) compared to the build cost for each box created but it’s a welcome push in a different direction to increase exposure.
For a moment think about how many online ads we see daily, some more subtle than others with (left/right) Margin placement as opposed to being In-Line with content. Don’t get me started with Actionscript enabled interactive Mastheads that end up being custom microsites. That being said I really like the latest generation that use Javascript to take advantage of alpha transparencies. Anyways, to me this can all be placed into the bucket of ‘E-Mass Marketing’ because it is far from being personalized or physical in nature.
*Lets keep VR enabled webcam print ads and magazine cover animations out of the discussion because they are still somewhat buggy and at least six months to a year away from mass market ubiquity….but soon will be for sure.
So–one day in December a Product Manager at web design agency Mint Digital got a box in the mail. He plugged it into a Windows machine (oops,promotion was not Mac compatible), followed the commands printed on a card that came with the box, typed the sentence “connecting people” and the box opened with a cloud of smoke. Inside was a veritable nerdvana; a Nokia N900, copy of Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3, and a few other tech presents just in time for the holiday. A slick promotion for the n900 meant to go viral for sure.
In my opinion this was money well spent compared to doing other forms of advertising for a few reasons:
- You simply couldn’t create something this visceral in a purely digital format–the box releases smoke, c’mon!
- Combining the digital (plug into computer, hack to ‘unlock’) and physical (box has locking mechanism, smoke) creates something stronger with the two working in tandem than one means alone.
- This creates buzz for the early adopter audience that would be most likely to purchase the device as opposed to a mixed media blitz.
- If this cascades as intended via word of mouth it’s more effective in generating interest/awareness than spending a boatload of E-cash.
- If it doesn’t work the early adopter audience is still more interested in future Nokia launches than they would have been otherwise.
To wrap things up a bit, based on the Nokia-generated demo above the n900 looks rock solid. Too bad the font legibility is negligible since sub 9 pt onscreen doesn’t work that well without a ‘pinch and zoom’ function. Oh, and if it runs Symbian all bets are off in terms of usability–that OS is wack!
You have to hear it yourself to do the discussion justice but Ira Flatow heats it up on this week’s edition of Science Friday talking about mobile data with professors from both CMU and UCLA’s computing programs. Oh, and if you didn’t know your phone has had GPS on it since around 2000 then you might want to be sitting down while listening.
http://www.vimeo.com/8118831
This bad boy hangs in the lobby of an interactive design firm in London and is composed of 50 upcycled cell phones. How can you not love it? Check out the behind the scenes ‘how to’ is available here. Best part is you can use their virtual keyboard online to play a song which will remotely play on a phone in the mobile in a real time. Found it while meandering on Vimeo last night.
Since Android’s rise has been picking up speed lately it has me wondering: who stands to loose the most? Windows Mobile is in the process of dying a slow and well-deserved death which was more or less occurring regardless of Google’s involvement, which only speeds things up. Palm is and will always be an outsider with marginal market share, surviving on passionate devotees of yesteryear. Their latest HW launches (Pixi, Pre) have been little more than thinly veiled attempts to throw one last ‘Hail-Mary’ pass. That’s not to say that the Pre doesn’t have a unique amount of value added to the mobile space, but did it play a role in taking subscribers of any other network to Sprint?
It’s possible, but not in numbers that justify the carrier exclusivity–and probably nowhere near what either company had hoped. It’s not a 1:1 comparison between the two companies and their approach to the mobile space, but the end result will likely be the same. Blackberry has a loyal base of users, much larger than Palm ever had due to their dominance in the enterprise space. Once other companies have physical qwerty keypads, trackballs (of course), and the IT department’s device approval who is to say that individuals won’t make the jump to Android?
*images depicted above do not represent actual fun being had by end users
The Android HW options will begin to eclipse the amount that Blackberry offers, resulting in consumer choice. The open-source SW enables application downloads, which technically exist with other offerings but are far from mature marketplaces. The only thing that deters iphone use (other than no keypad) is the focus of the device; is it for business, or multimedia consumption/gaming? Regardless of the choice it’s only a matter of time before BlackBerry is pushed out of their current position which will begin to erode at a fast pace. With a device churn of 18 months on average it’s more or less a fact…..after all, it’s not as if the Storm is enough to keep them above water.
With nicely rounded corners and edges sporting a soft and lacquered ‘heritage’ look this phone breathes some freshness back into the flip form factor. The huge imager, seamless oled clock, slim profile, and pared down cobranding take this hardware to a new level if you ask me. The red is surprisingly warm and soft, eliciting a bit of a glowing presence when it comes to it’s fit to hand. It ends up being a communication device that becomes a precious object that I definitely want now. Check out the product page (in Japanese) here.
i don't care if the housing is made out of pure silver and the keypad is ceramic, a blocky overbuilt clamshell is still an uninspired offering for 2009
Behold ‘Axyta,’ another hand built Vertu. Whereas previous designs were built on the Nokia (parent company) candybar platform they are making a big deal over the fact that it is a flip phone/clamshell. So what makes this a miss and not a hit? It’s really a core strategy issue: Your design language and software are outdated, and no matter how low production needs to be to meet your ‘exclusive clientele’ profitability arc the clock is ticking–unless ‘bling’ is back in favor somehow…..
Since users everywhere have identified that a phone’s experience is now more SW than HW driven based on the success of the iphone and surge of Android I’m shocked that there is a market outside of Eastern Europe for products in Vertu’s lineup. Gaudy fasteners and premium finishes, precious stones, all coupled with thick bricklike housings are so…….early 2000’s. Throw in a weak misspelled name and it’s sad. What I find funny is that I have never seen one in person to date. Ever. Maybe I am too low-brow to even see a phone with a dedicated concierge service, but other than that why else would anyone want one these days when I have everything literally at my fingertips?