Last week I was invited to speak on a panel at Om Malik’s Mobilize conference. The topic was “What creates good mobile user experience?” and other speakers included Jyri Engestrom, founder of Jaiku (now at Google), Jeff Taylor from the carrier “3″, and UX expert Rachel Hinman from AdaptivePath. Moderator Dylan Tweney from Wired wrote a great summary of the panel and you can watch the whole discussion at the Mobilize site. (That link doesn’t take you directly there; click “Thinking Experientially” in the column on the right of that page.)
My advice to the audience? Remember that in mobile there are lots of factors that are both outside your control and unreliable: the connection, the device, how your service is delivered and provisioned. If you want to create a superb user experience, you need to control every part of the process as Apple and RIM try to do, or you need to have complete confidence that the parts that you do not control work very well – which is why so many application developers are concentrating on the iPhone.
Can a startup emulate Apple or RIM? Yes, especially if it focuses on simple, single-purpose devices. Think of the Flip camcorder – not wireless, but mobile – or the new Peek email device, or even the original Blackberry.
Another approach is to build software and services for carriers and handset manufacturers to help them improve the user experience on their devices. Aricent is a very successful Valley startup that built the Celltop interface for Alltel, and Ontela makes cameraphones much easier to use.
Skydeck has so far dodged the problem of how to build great applications for your phone by building applications for the web that complement your phone. (Don’t worry, we’ll get to the phone.)
What won’t work is building an application that has a gorgeous user interface, but that takes half an hour of work by a skilled technician to install on your user’s phone. Unfortunately, most mobile startups keep trying this approach.
Since we posted about mystery charges from SJA Mobile a few things have happened that confirm our suspicions and also suggest that SJA has taken notice.
We are not the only ones. Comments on our blog and posts on HowardForums reveal that lots of people have been on the wrong end of charges from SJA Mobile, most of them Sprint customers. (more…)
A backup, ‘glove box’ phone can offer benefits to many groups. For some, it is their only mobile phone, to be used only for special occasions and in case of an emergency. For others, it is a 2nd or 3rd phone that is stored in a safe, accessible place in case the primary phone is lost, broken, or stolen. Either way, if you’re in the market you should look for these three things:
1) The best local coverage available, with a nationwide plan attached. You may have picked your ‘day-phone’ company for cheap calls to your in-network friends or for the early nights, but your backup plan is all about coverage. It depends on where you live, but for most (not all) of the country you’ll be picking between one of the big four carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile).
2) Minutes that renew automatically, and don’t expire. This eliminates most prepaid options, which would require you to manually ‘top-up’ the account, so you’ll probably need a contracted, recurring plan. However, Virgin Mobile and US Cellular are the exceptions to this rule, because they offer prepaid plans that automatically add funds to your account when the balance is low or expiring. If you live in an area where either of these carriers offer the best coverage, you should consider their plans.
3) Low cost with few minutes. The plan you want doesn’t require a great rate per minute, just few minutes for a great rate.
There are a number of companies that offer no-contract 911 only emergency phones, but we expect that for most “I’m locked out” emergencies you won’t want to invite the city’s finest. So what secure, contract plans do the big four carriers offer that would do the trick, and just how low will they go?
ID Check #1: The most attractive ‘glove box’ phone is only for minors, sorry. It offers 100 ‘call anyone, anytime’ minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling, for $20 per month. But, unless you can convince your parents to sign you up for kidConnect from T-Mobile, you’re not going to be able to drop below the $30 per month mark.
So for most adults the answer is $30 (Ignoring government taxes and feescarrier taxes). This isn’t cheap for a car registration paperweight, but can you really put a price on peace-of-mind! All of the carriers offer their lowest published package at this price point, and include two- or three-hundred anytime minutes (note: to get this price with AT&T, you have to choose the prepaid Pick Your Plan phone, which automatically adds $30 to the account each month). Because the number of minutes is relatively less important for an emergency phone, finding the best coverage for the lowest cost should be the primary concern.
ID Check #2: The most bizarre of the group is Verizon, and in addition to your fake ID, you may need some makeup to pull this one off. They offer 200 minutes at this rate, but require that the customer be over 65. Their plan is no different than what their competitors offer for the same price point, to all ages. I guess they did some market research and realized that you’re never too old to pay too much. If they have the best service where you live, you may need to hire a stand-in.
Also, last but not least, we hear that if you threaten to quit the carrier reps can choose to offer you a special monthly rate that trumps their published options. For example, Verizon Wireless has been known to console would-be deserters with an option for $20/month.
So buckle-up, check your mirrors, and stick a cell phone in your glove box.
