Handset fashions

Matt Lewis of ARCchart provides an interesting insight into the growing similarity between the fashion industry and the mobile handset business:

He writes: “The hottest selling dress in the UK this summer is a polka dot dress sold by the British retailer Primark… Why am I talking about fashion and a polka dot dress? Well, there is another industry where consumers are starting to behave in a similar way – it’s called the handset industry and, increasingly, consumers are basing their handset purchase decision not on technical features, but on style and cosmetics.”

Read the full article here.

The theory behind mobile etiquette

Andrew Monk and his colleagues at the University of York have conducted a study into why we find mobile phone conversations to be annoying in public and how these insights can be used to refine the user experience.

Interestingly, the study found the main source of annoyance was not being able to hear the other side of the conversation. In fact, over-hearing quiet one-way mobile phone conversations was perceived to be more negative than much louder two-way, face-to-face interactions.

Read the findings here.

Smart decisions

Steve Litchfield of 3-Lib writes in response to our previous article on Phonescoop.com’s handset comparison capability to advise of his own interactive grid for helping consumers decide which smartphone is most appropriate to their needs. You can access the grid here.

EPIC future

I recently participated in a stimulating think-tank on the future of journalism in a seamlessly mobile age, led by Sir David Brown, Chairman of Motorola. Following-up from these discussions another participant – Tom Savigar of the Future Laboratory – sent an interesting video with a vision of how journalism could evolve in a world of ubiquitous access. It is an interesting piece in itself, but it is also worth noting any developments of this nature will have a major impact on mobile technology and vice versa. See it here.