Thinking from a different perspective: What do people less well off fancy in a mobile?

Coverage from Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Design Studio event in London is finally starting to flow out. Thanks to Nokia Conversations for a link to Raphael Grignani’s write up, which linked to The Near Future Laboratory’s writeup,which drove me to do a few Google (NSDQ: GOOG) searches in an attempt to discover more information about the designers presenting at the event I found this article in Business Week articlem which linked to this slide show, the main reason for this blog post. Don’t you just love the internet? Enough waffling:

We’re all high end enthusiasts, Will has an iPhone, Dusan has an iPhone and a Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) W960i, the guys working on this site either carry an iPhone or an HTC TyTn II, I have a Nokia N95, N82, E61, 9300 and Sony Ericsson W880i. We as a collective make up such a small part of the market that sometimes we fail to grasp the desires and wishes of other people who can’t really understand why we want the things we want, when they need running water and shelter.

Nokia went to Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and Accra to find out what these people needed and what they wished for, because after all, the money to be made these days in the low end of the spectrum where volume counts. Over 220 people submitted their designs and wish lists and Business Week shares 16 of them. Crude as they may be, this isn’t about artistic talent, but about opening a window into the lives of people who, today in our ego-centric fast paced lifestyles, we don’t really think about. At all.