Dutch IT-publication Automatisering Gids (AG) published an article about the still increasing complexity of mobile phones. As we’ve stated ourselves before as well, each mobile phone has a different user interface and new functionality is being added on a continuous basis. The AG-article (in Dutch) can be found here.  We’re mentioned in the article.

User experience is a continuously moving target. If we compare the first application we inaugurated with our launching customer Telfort three years ago, a lot has changed. Our first approach was a 1, 2, 3 concept (see screenshot). Select your device, select your question and get a resolution for your problem. However, moving back and forth between topics with that interface appeared less intuitive for end-users than we thought. Hence, we switched to a more traditional “menu” design where end-users can jump directly to the topic of their choice. In addition, we moved from dynamic HTML, to static HTML and introduced Flash in parallel such as this example for KPN brand Hi. Each of our customers now has a “unique” application with a user interface customized to their needs. For the latest example of user experience in Flash, take a look at the application we recently released for T-Mobile.

Of the 190 product announcements made in 2008, the month of February stands out with no less than 33 new mobile phone introductions. Quite a device management challenge of course … While February is actually the shortest month of the year, for industry watchers this outcome won’t be a surprise. Each year in February the mobile industry gathers in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress. In 2008 some 50,000 professionals attended the event. Product announcements are reserved to make a splash and attract traffic to one’s booth. Samsung introduced no less than 10 new phone models at the tradeshow in February 2008. To measure the temperature of the industry, to get an overview of what’s going on and network with customers, peers, competitors, the Mobile World Congress is certainly the place to be. Next week Monday the event is opening again and Qelp will be present as well of course. Drop us a message if you want to meet us there.

“The complexity of modern mobile phones is leaving users frustrated and angry, research suggests. Some 61% of those interviewed in the UK and US said setting up a new handset is as challenging as moving bank accounts. Of the 4,000 people questioned, 95% said they would try more new services if phones were easier to set up. Setting up a new phone should take only 15 minutes but many people were spending an hour or more to get the handset to do what they wanted.”
Read the full BBC News article.
One of the main causes is that each mobile phone has its own user interface and menu structure.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. From February 16-19, 2009, the annual Mobile World Congress will be held again in Barcelona. Last year approximately 50,000 industry professionals came to the event. Quite likely, the impact of the economic recession will be felt. Still, it’s the largest gathering of mobile industry professionals on the globe. Qelp will be there again. Please drop us a message if you plan to attend, we would be pleased to catch up with you and inform you about new product developments on our end.

In October last year at the Device Management Conference in London, I delivered a presentation together with Blyk, one of our customers, about the day-yo-day difficulties in device management. During the conference, the consensus emerged that a best in class mobile provider cannot achieve an OTA success rate higher than 60%. In other words: at least 40% of all OTA settings attempts fail! We think this is clearly very poor performance, for all good reasons, but still. Based on that discussion at the conference, our customers’ experience and our own experience, we have put together a Top 10 of device management challenges. Or, device management headaches if you will.
Top 10 device management challenges:
1. Over-the-air settings require user acceptance
2. Some devices do not support OTA, require manual configuration
3. New handsets coming to the market through different channels
4. Remote access to a device requires mobile internet
5. End-users are confused when settings arrive
6. Each handset has a different user interface
7. Call centre support is too costly
8. Second hand devices are preconfigured incorrectly
9. Network operator settings get preference over MVNO settings
10. New IMEI ranges and handsets without an IMEI number
More details about this Top 10 can be found here.

The good news if of course that with Qelp’s web based application, most of these issues can be addressed. As Harri Väyrynen from Blyk stated at the Device Management Conference: “Qelp self service application helps us close the gap of those 40% of end-users struggling with settings on their mobile phone.”

This is amazing, I am speechless so to say. No text entering with your thick thumbs anymore, we have seen it in movies, now on an iPhone near you. This blog runs the risk of writing mostly about Google and Apple, but hey, isn’t this true innovation what Google is demonstrating? Overcoming the limitations of key boards. The speech recognition and processing requires some horsepower on the phone I guess, will be interesting to see if the iPhone can cope with it. The more apps you load, the slower it gets. But, check out the video.
UPDATE: of course Google will not rely on the iPhone for processing, it will just send the audio file to it’s global computing cloud and do the processing there….