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How to drive data plans to consumers? Go QWERTY!

Categories: Ideas and rants
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 12:01 AM

That is the conclusion I’ve come to after reading this post about mobile search over at Mob Happy:

75% of mobile web users use mobile search, but it’s much higher on smart phones with qwerty keyboards. These people are roughly 3 times (81% v 25%) more likely to use the mobile web and 4 times more likely to use mobile search (67% v 18%).

We need cheap, attractive QWERTY devices for all product segments. The only "teenage" friendly devices I can think of are the T-Mobile Sidekick and the soon to launch Helio Ocean.

It makes sense you know: Younger people use text messages practically every hour of their day, I know I do.

Get the guys who designed the 6300, 8800 and E61i in a room together and let them brainstorm the perfect device. Simple features like triband GSM and a 2 megapixel camera, but make the thing look ridiculously sexy.

It will sell like hot cakes and operators will fall in love since more and more people will begin subscribing to data plans. Here in America we are just now starting to see unlimited sms/mms plans and the price of unlimited data is falling too.

The services are there, but what about the devices?

Update: I knew I previously posted a similar rant a while ago.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • krisse

    This has already been done lots of times, there are lots of mid-range qwerty phones (Nokia alone made the 5510, 6800, 6822, the US version of the 3300) but none of them have taken off with a mainstream audience, probably because they require two hands to use and the keyboard just adds to the bulk. Most people I know look at my E61 and think it’s a bit nerdy to have a full keyboard on a phone, or to use any phone two-handed. I honestly don’t think there’s a mass market for full keyboard phones, and despite their hype things like the Blackberry and Nokia Communicators are still very much niche products saleswise.

    It’s also possible that people who use mobile internet access a lot buy QWERTY phones, but simply making more QWERTY phones available wouldn’t make any difference to the size of that group. People who drink in bars are more likely to eat peanuts, but that doesn’t mean that increasing the supply of peanuts is going to encourage more people drink in bars.

    IMHO the secret of encouraging mobile internet access is a faster, easier to use, smoother browser based around a touch screen. I absolutely loved the N800′s browser, I wish something similar was available built into phones.

  • Henrikki

    I just bought a N800 and haven’t used it that much because N95′s is so much easier to use. And faster..

    I was just reading a review at AAS the other day (mayby by you Krisse?) in which the author complained that the cursor is not a good way to navigate a website. I thought the remark silly. What is more intuitive than pointing with the cursor where to go?