My wife Jo decided after much deliberation that she would defect from Nokia S60 and join the ranks of iPhone addicts! However her experience with 3 was a little different. After saying she was leaving 3 because she wanted an iPhone, the 3 advisor tried every possible objection to her stated wish for a PAC code. Despite getting the PAC code they continued to phone asking her to reconsider and didn’t give up even after she said she’d bought the iPhone! She began to feel she was being stalked by 3!

Now Jo’s got an iPhone she’s thrilled with it and hasn’t stopped plundering the App Store! So what aspects of the iPhone really impressed her? To quote ‘It’s so easy to use and it’s a really fun phone’. For me what’s really telling is the fact that Jo has only looked at the user guide once (which is good because she hates user guides!). Despite the complexity of what the handset can do, the user interface is so simple that Normobs can use it ‘out of the box’. The ease of use of social networking apps is another attraction. She’s a big fan of Facebook and Twitter and the iPhone is a great device for this type of interaction. The user experience on the iPhone is so much better than having to fire up the S60 browser and then go to your bookmarks to select Facebook or Twitter. In fact her ongoing commentary about how great it is is becoming increasingly irritating!

When it originally launched I said that the iPhone was the smartphone for Normobs. I’m a big fan of Nokia S60 devices but they don’t make the smartphone experience easy for Normobs – no App Store (yet, but it is coming at last!), no seamless WiFi/3G experience and a limited application set ‘out of the box’. The iPhone WiFi integration is a neat touch as it takes the decision making on 3G versus WiFi away from the user. This is especially useful where 3G data coverage is flaky, e.g. in-building, and the bundled access to commercial hotspots gives a reasonable level of public hotspot access.

Next up for Jo on the iPhone is Truphone so she gets all her IM accounts in one place plus free calls between us!

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Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

Some people, as I very well know, are not blessed with this kindred ability to use anything that has buttons. I have my Grandparents, a perfect example of the “older less inclined”, my Mum, the “not so old inclined”, and then sadly, even people who are about my age of seventeen or slightly older or younger, who are completely bamboozled by their mobile phone.

Now, it’s not surprising; in recent years or months, we’ve become inundated with technological advances, or a numerous collection of applications and abilities that our mobiles can now perform. Long gone are the days of playing “Snake” on your 3310, and thinking you were the bee’s-knees… We have the internet now!

But, what is the point in all of this, if what I read this week is in by any means shape or form, even remotely true.

Apparently, a survey conducted in both the UK and the USA has found that out of those questioned, some 45% prevented themselves from upgrading their phones due to “set-up issues”.

Following that, more surprising is that 61% of those questioned, had given up using Applications altogether because it was too complicated, and problems couldn’t be solved.

This is a very important aspect of any technological industry to bear in mind. On MIR we often to refer to people as “normobs”, in fact, I fall under that category. For the vast majority of people who fall under that category, who like those questioned have become completely perplexed at that ringing device that they haul around with them? How many of them are actually aware of the features that said mobile has, or doesn’t have?

More importantly, how is the industry going to change this? How are those like my Mum, the Grannies, or even my friends (who I try to educate in the ways of the Mobile Phone as much as possible), and the rest of them; what is going to happen to them?

To look at this logically, what is the point in having any technological advances when figures, which are pretty high, suggest that even in this booming age of computers, internet, socialising, gadgetry, and creativity, there’s an actual fear or distaste to moving forward because they simple cannot comprehend their phone.

Now as much as I would like to think we could “educate the masses” by introducing “how to use your mobile” into the curriculum, or even have someone standing in the Carphone Warehouse or Phones4U, who will happily guide through every detail of your beloved new buy… I just don’t see this happening.

Even so, whatever plan that tries to fix this obviously quite crucial problem in the market, I hope that it works!

Samantha.
samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

The country added almost 10 million new mobile subscribers last month, taking the total figure to 310.62 million. Now, if my maths knowledge serves me right, that’s about 4 new subscribers every single second. However, the penetration rate still lags at 27.5%, leaving out enough room for further growth.

The country’s market is large dominated by the GSM technology, contributing about 75.2% of the total subscriber base. 7.65 million new GSM subscribers were added last month while the CDMA base contributing 2.34 million.

Bharti Airtel continued to be the country’s largest cellular operator, adding 2.7 million subscribers out of the 9.9 million. Vodafone, which ranks third added 1.86 million subscribers. Airtel currently services 77.48 million subscribers in the country, while its closest rival, Reliance Communications serves about 56 million.

It would be interesting to take a look at the market share for the mobile handsets and the manufacturers that carry these new subscribers.

[Via Cellular-News, Photo: Sirensongs]

Twitter is not blogging. It is not even micro-blogging. It is just another glorified messenger service with a fancy Fail Whale graphic for when it decides that it can’t even be a messenger service.

I’m not entirely comfortable with Twitter.

I get it. I get how it can be used. Same with Jaiku. I particularly liked Jaiku’s location-based status which is one of my favourite features of the service.

But as for life streaming, it’s a total arse.

Many of the feeds I see about the place are filled with, let’s be ultra honest here, total shite.

There is limited value in me knowing that you’re having a cup of coffee at the moment.

In fact, I’ll go you one step further. It’s of NO value to me knowing that you’re having a cup of coffee right now.

Not unless you give me some meta-data. Like your location. Now you’re talking. That’s potentially valuable to me. But only if I’m free to consider meeting you for a coffee.

Otherwise, getting a Tweet at 2am in the morning from you whilst you’re in NY and I’m in London… that doesn’t help at all.

So I find a heck of a lot of drivel on Twitter. Yet, now and again you get moments of pure genius. A comment that makes you think. A thought that gets your mind moving. It is, sadly, a rare happening. Valuable enough for me to put up with it.

There’s got to be something better, eh? Surely?

The reason I know there’s got to be something better is that none of my friends use it.

They’re all far too busy. I’m *too* busy. We’re doing a lot with our Push 1 For Help consultancy arm here at SMS Text News and, sadly, when I’m on-site, talking to people and giving them viewpoints, the last thing they want me to be doing is jumping up in the middle of a discussion and telling 250,000 readers that ‘I’m in a meeting’.

Further, they don’t want to waste the first 2 minutes of a meeting with me, waiting, whilst I update my statuses across the web to let people know I’m in a meeting.

None of my real friends use Twitter. I should quality ‘real’. I mean normobs. Normal mobile users who couldn’t give a stuff about it.

They’ll update their Facebook status, sometimes. They’ll upload photos daily. They’ll tag me in photos. This is NORMAL mobile users I’m talking about. Not geeks. But they get Facebook. They even get Facebook Mobile.

That’s saying something.

(The iPhone 2.0 normobs that I’ve come across are loving Facebook’s iPhone App, incidentally.)

But Twitter?

Take James for example. A highly qualified brain box IT consultant with a first generation iPhone. He likes arsing about with the phone’s gallery function. He uses a wide range of iPhone-designed mobile web pages — Google Reader, for example (where SMS Text News is a casual, once a fortnight dip — hi James) or Facebook Mobile.

James and I have known each other for more than a decade and he knows my mobile tendencies well. He’s got a mensa plaque on his wall at home celebrating his ability to work out the square root of 99 quicker than me.

And he hates Twitter with a passion. Primarily because I’ve tried to get him to use it. I’ve tried to get him and a few other friends using it and he’s not having it. He simply cannot see the point.

Now, here’s our problem.

Talk to mobile related geniuses around the planet and they’ll give you a different description of Twitter. Ask them why and they’ll give you a response that, when it boils down to it, means ‘er… because.’

Nothing works on James. No explanations. No Fortune Magazine articles, no Jeff Jarvis style explanations. He simply isn’t having it.

“Text me,” he tells me, “If you’ve got something to tell me. Text me.”

“Right, but I’d like to know what you’re doing,” I tell him, “You should do an update now and again.”

“Why?” he asks.

“Errrr,” I respond… scraping around for an answer that doesn’t begin, “Because, errr, it’s … it’ll… it’ll be cool.”

When your iPhone-toting normob doesn’t get Twitter and doesn’t care that they don’t get it, there’s a problem.

What does it mean for the future of Twitter?

I do wonder, I really do. Did you see they recently bought the Twitter search engine, Summize? This is, on the face of it, good news for the company and the burgeoning Twitter-industry of clients, and related services.

As for James and the rest of the Great Unwashed normobs? Have they just not seen the light, yet?

—

This week I’m returning to the theme of Normobs and some ideas for saving money when using mobile phones abroad. Last week an email from Ofcom dropped into my inbox. It linked through to a PDF that Ofcom has produced offering consumers (Normobs to us!) advice on how to get the best out of their mobile on holiday. It’s great to see Ofcom taking the initiative here because managing your mobile bill when roaming has always been something of a black art! Unlike our friends across the Atlantic the idea of being charged to receive calls has always been a shock.

Ofcom’s advice is a good start but it doesn’t highlight services that can make a real difference. Here are a few tricks I’ve used to save money on trips abroad.

• Replace your operator’s voice mail service with Spinvox. It’s much easier to receive your voice mail as a text message wherever you are, so this is one to use both at home and abroad.

• One of the benefits of being a 3 customer is access to 3 Like Home. With 3 Like Home you use your regular inclusive minutes and messages, on the local 3 network in Austria, Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy or Sweden. Plus, it’s also free to receive calls. Pity that Vodafone, with its huge family of networks, doesn’t do something similar.

• A second benefit of being a 3 customer is that their Tru Zone rates and elsewhere Truphone Anywhere allows you to make calls via a local in-country number.

• If you don’t mind changing your mobile number when you’re away and are travelling to a number of different countries then a travel SIM is a neat idea. Companies like SIM4travel provide you with a new SIM card that allows you to receive inbound calls free and make outgoing calls at lower rates. This can be a better alternative to buying local SIM cards for each country because you don’t end up with different numbers for each country. Of course you do need a handset that isn’t locked to a specific operator.

• And the best tip of all. Just leave all those phones and gadgets at home or at the very least keep them turned off and enjoy your holiday!

What are your tips for cutting the cost of mobile use abroad?

Ofcom’s advice in full:

1. Enable your mobile phone: Check with your mobile provider that your phone has been enabled to use abroad. Operators are obliged to provide this information to customers.
2. Check your handset: Check with your mobile provider that your handset will work in the country you are travelling to.
3. Check the prices before you leave: Contact your mobile provider to check your tariff before you travel to help avoid unexpectedly high bills.
4. Ensure you are getting the best deal: Check international packages offered by operators before you travel to ensure you are getting the best deal.
5. The pan European tariff only applies to voice calls: Remember that the pan European tariff (Eurotariff) which has helped to reduce the cost of calls, only applies to voice calls, not to texting and data downloads. It is available from all operators, across most European countries but is not available in Switzerland, Turkey or Croatia.
6. Check your bundles: Don’t assume that the price of calls made abroad are included in your bundled package.
7. Don’t forget voicemail: Remember that calling your voicemail from abroad can cost the same as making a call to the UK – check with your provider if in doubt. Unlike at home, you may be charged every time someone leaves a message on your voicemail . I f you want to avoid these charges, you can switch off your voicemail before you leave the UK.
8. Using mobile internet abroad: Be aware that when connecting to the internet via a mobile handset, dongle or data card (a portable modem which provides internet access via the 3G network) whilst abroad could cost significantly more than when using them at home.
9. The local SIM option: If you are out of the country for a long period time, it could be cheaper to buy a local SIM card that can be used in your handset or a local dongle.
10. Alert your operator immediately if your phone is lost or stolen: If your phone is lost or stolen when you are abroad remember that you could be liable for the cost of the calls made in that country. Make a note of the contact details of your operator before you travel to ensure that you can get in touch with them as soon as possible to report the loss.

You can find Ofcom’s brochure here.

—

Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

Been a bit busy of late folk, hence the absence of my regular Whatley on Wednesday slot.

Trying to get down for the weekly podcast mind…

But yes. Reading the site with interest as I often do, I really enjoyed Tuesday’s ‘Walking with Normobs‘ piece.

So much so that I stirred from my blogging slumber and decided to join the debate…

First off, I totally agree with where you’re coming from. I do. Terry. I do.
But you need to look ahead.

The Normobs of the future will be at the early adopter stage we’re at now.
Underestimate them at your peril.

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited along to a Nokia End User group test thing wotsit.

On the N81 8GB.

Yes – the same device that I reviewed way back when and the same device that my esteemed colleague Ben Smith lavished hatred upon recently also.

This is no strange thing. I often find myself in these kinds of focus groups.
Why?

Well I’m one of those people. One of those people that when asked:

“Would it be ok to contact you in the future?”

I say “Yes”

If I’m not busy, and if I have the time, then I’ll gladly offer assistance. From big companies like Vodafone and Nokia after some customer insight or for a friend’s friend whose N95 keeps breaking because her firmware is ‘stuck on v10′.

I like to help.

Anyway – off I went to this group gathering – just off Carnaby Street, and lo, as is the norm with these things, I entered a room full of folk from all different walks of life/areas of London.

In fact – one guy had such thick urban ‘accent’ that the gentleman running the session actually found it difficult to understand at times. Love it.

I digress.

The point is, Terry, these kids – I was, it seemed, the oldest chap in the room, (quite refreshingly so too). These kids knew their stuff. We had a mechanic, a trainee IT bod, a couple of students and an accountant… and me, obviously.

As I said – these kids knew their stuff.

They knew about firmware updates, they knew about downloading games (N-GAGE or otherwise), they knew about all sorts of stuff.

I was genuinely impressed.

They referenced other devices in their analogies. They reminisced over handsets of yesteryear when articulating their complaints.

They. Knew. Their. Stuff.

You and me, Terry? We’re the old men of tomorrow.
Our kids? What handsets will they be concerned about getting us?
We’re early adopters now. Our kids will be too. Their kids. And so on.

The normal mobile users of tomorrow will be using the products you and I use today.
You make valid points about Skype as a service. Skype is a different way of making a phone call, branded. Tell your Dad to make a phone call by pushing the Skype button, and he will. Tell him to make a call over Skype? He’ll look at you like you’re from Mars.

Similarly with other naming conventions/terminologies: Podcasts vs Radio Shows. Blogs vs Diaries.
And so on…

Of course we’re not expecting our folks to go out and start making VoIP calls tomorrow.
But that’s not the point.

I’m pretty damn sure that the big guns aren’t really concerned about the Daily Mail reading, Marmalade eating Normobs taking up their services. Of course, it’d be lovely if they did! But I doubt very much they EVER will. The Daily Mail will die out as new generations come forward with new ideas and thoughts. Challenging the way we think and the way we view the world.

I read recently on a blog in Clay Shirky’s Book “Here Comes Everybody” about a little girl who, on a recent trip to see some family members had, on arrival, taken one look at the television, screamed and then run behind it suddenly looking for something…
The reason?

She was looking for the mouse.
The girl in question had never seen a screen without one before.

These small changes in behaviour and expectancies of ‘the norm’ take generations to change. Sometimes things go faster, but often things move a lot slower.

There is a particularly fond day dream of mine, where all of us geeks are sitting round at dinner late into our 70s and there we are still moaning about the lack of X and how Y never really did turn up etc etc…

And our kids?

Well they’ll be doing their equivalent of blogging and moaning about the lack of parent-friendly services/devices on the Market I’m sure.

Cheers.

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And as an afterthought, going back to that focus group for a second, maybe those kids in the room weren’t that savvy after all.

Maybe it was just that bloody device that made them get online and learn something.

Heh.