Giving up on humanity - I'm a geek and proud of it

[slitchfield]

More 'normob' encounters in the last few days have left me speechless. If some of what I've encountered is typical then arguments about how to introduce smartphones to the average person in the High Street are, quite simply wasted. Or maybe I'm just a technology snob. Either way, I'm a geek and proud of it. You probably are too. Read on and comments welcome...

Read on in the full article.

[Rafe]

Before everyone starts moaning:

I think Steve got out of bed the wrong side the morning he wrote this... Please accept AAS' apologies if you feel slighted. I will try and control Steve's phone snobbery better in the future.

Joking aside it does underline a very important point. The need to look at the market (probably applies everywhere, but especially in mobile) and understand there is a great deal of variation even within a single country... (never mind between countries). Everyone has different reasons etc etc. This goes a long way to explaining the enormous diversity and segmentation that goes on in the mobile market place.

Oh and I think AAS needs to keep reviewing because we hope people value are informed opinion and it helps them make better decisions! (Nice try though Steve).

[stuclark]

...on showing off my i8510 to a "wannabe" geek, he declared it c**p because, and I quote, "I don't like that theme". Never mind that he apreciated it was [miles] ahead of his N95 classic, it was obviously no good because it didn't ship with a theme he liked!

...but yes, the whole iPhone / WinMob (omnia) / Viewty / Tocco etc. scene is FULL of "real people" who actually go out and buy these phones then get fed up with them because (and I quote again) "they don't look like a Nokia" (!)

Excellent article, I agree with this completely. I remember when I first got my N95 Classic, it was expensive, and the people who did have one appreciated what it was, and everything it could do.
Nowadays lots of people have them. I see people in their 60s with an N95 (although that's not to say that people this age can't appreciate or, competently use the equipment, it's just that the majority of people I know with one, don't use much of the features and in some cases, don't even know how).

[ILoveGadgets]

We need to be thankful for these people. If they only used the phones geared up to their level of competence then the phone manufactures would stop making the nice phones for us geeks on the basis that it wasn't worth their while for such a small market.

I tend to agree with ILoveGadgets. If the only market for these amazing devices was the geek/gadget freak group (and I am a paid up member of that group!) phone companies would have long since stopped developing smartphones/multimedia computers/whatever you like to call them.

As a lover of gadgets, especially mobile devices, I say good on you normies! Keep buying those overspecced devices you only use a tenth of, it pushes the phone companies to keep building new toys for those of us who really appreciate them.

[ajck]

I have to think about this sort of stuff daily - my co. runs on mobile industry consultancy and mobile software development. My humble opinions are as follows;

If there's friction on any level between technology and people, in my book people are ALWAYS right. Always. Without fail. No matter what they want. Honestly, technology is the biggest pile of steaming you know what, ever. And I say that as a tech fan. Tech should always always bend to what people want, need, desire, and their way of working. There is no other way forwards. Humans are not a piece of machinery that should be made to bend into shape to fit some bit of tech that some geek designed. This is why I have always hated Microsoft and their bloat and bugs and appalling design. (It's also why I rebel against geekiness/nerdiness despite having the technical competance of someone very geeky, myself). Geeks can't see the world this way - they love tech more than computers. This is fatal when designing technology for ordinary humans to use. This is why there are so many usability issues, and lack of uptake of various technology - because geeks designed it. Geeks are to a technology nirvana (where all people can use and benefit from technology), what a muddy farm track is to a Formula 1 car. Yes, this is the reverse of the snobbery Steve shows (and I don't mean my comments personally by the way), but it is also true. As regards the article's observations;

1.) Yes, keep reviewing, you guys are experts and do great reviews for the enthusiasts. It's great if more powerful tech is more easily available on the High St. Bravo, bring it on. People deserve to benefit. It doesn't matter if they don't use many features. Let them have what they want and do what they want. Do you criticise people that don't use their cookers at home to bake cakes, instead only using them for sunday roasts, or perhaps even just the hob? So what? Who cares? Maybe they will some day. Maybe they never will!

2.) Anyone falling for the iPhone hype deserves to fall for the iPhone hype, if you see what I mean. Honestly, they're good in some ways (UI), and utter crap in others (like being a decent phone/camera/etc). Remember tech is down to personal preference too.

3.) Sorry this is going to sound horribly blunt but someone who calls this "Utterly dispiriting and demoralising" should go and spend a week in a 3rd world hell-hole seeing kids die of easily preventable diseases. Seriously. And see 1.) above.

PS. There's no such thing as a "smartphone" anymore, and AAS should drop all mention of it.

Other than that, keep up the good work!

Alex
phonething.com

You've made an interesting point. Phones and their uses all come back to the user. When the first VGA camera phones came out, a smart user could email or MMS pictures up to Flickr, while a NorMob would complain about how bad the picture quality is. When WAP web browsing was standard, a NorMob probably wouldn't find much usefulness. When the N95 camera is kinda slow to use, it's no wonder NorMobs don't spend the time to learn to take better photos, much less edit videos and upload them to Ovi.

The whole category of SmartPhones is really just what smart people are doing with the advanced phones that are now available. The engineers are insuring that the barriers to creating ... content (stuff, things) with smartphones are disappearing. The phone blog-o-sphere is chomping at the bit, heralding the minor incremental upgrades, waiting for each new feature. But will this speed up the uptake of advanced phone technology by NorMobs? Maybe not.

But I say it's still the duty of the early adopter to push the envelope of what's possible. Don't get depressed just because nobody else is doing it. You're a pioneer, Steve! We're all out here doing things that couldn't be done outside of a lab a few years ago. Revel in it! Can I get a W00t?

[svdwal]

Another possibility is that the smartphone is just not as good as the non-converged competing devices.

Take the camera for instance. Taking a picture with a compact digital camera is so much easier than with a N95, nobody apart from the early adopter crowd will take the N95 serious as a camera. The early and late majority will always compare the camera bit of a smartphone with a normal camera and the smartphone will loose that, unless lots of care is given to the camera interface on the smartphone. This relegates the smartphone camera to taking pictures of your car accidents (yes, that's a good selling point).

Displaying pictures from the same camera should be easier, right? N95 again. Why on earth are there so much levels to cross before I get to the actual pictures, and why on earth are the albums not compatible with the folder structure in "My pictures" in Windows?

Morale: as long as the smartphone is worse in usability than it's non-converged competitors in use for the early and late majority, it will stay in it's niche.

[paker]

steve is right i compeletley agree with him.when i see someone who doesnt know what he can do with his highend phone i want to take the phone and give him a nokia 1100!
ofcourse going into phone from power button and coming out from the the usb port is not recommonded except for us! geeks

[mcpezza]

Steve, your article is spot on. My experience is that most Smartphone owners have no idea what they have in their pocket.

The handset market in the UK, as we know, is geared to subsidised handsets with volume driven by upgrades. I believe few people “buy” handsets.

As a member of the Nokia S60 Ambassador programme, I speak with more mobile users than would probably be deemed as normal and I would say that at least half of the smartphone/iphone users spoken with volunteer that they have absolutely no idea of the capabilities of their device, are disappointed with their performance, which often, and I think this is an important point, translates to unhappiness with the brand. Most admit they have them because they were offered by their network provider as the latest must have.

If we predominantly purchased mobile devices at or near their true value, more considered purchasing decisions would be made and there would be many more satisfied owners which strengthen brand loyalty and referrals.

However, I must selfishly agree with ILoveGadgets and Unregistered, we do need Mr & Mrs Average to keep the sales volumes up to subsidise our passion for these amazing devices.

The Smartphones show was a silly name for three reason.
1. It clashed with Symbian's "Smartphone show" (especially as it appeared on the Symbian site)
2. and secondly because the "s" on both the end and start of the word is clumsy
e.g "Simply Smartphones" works, but "Smartphones show" sounds wrong.
3. In a title like "The phone show", the phone is assumed to be plural since you are unlikely to be referring to a particular individual phone.
You don't see a "the albums show" or "PCs user magazine".

I can't believe represented 'yoof's view of technology based on the polling one person. 'Geeks' in particular have not got the right brain wiring to understand how the masses react to products.
Remember the Casio watches with calculators and TVs on them - smartphones are just like that - anything we carry around with us is fashion, disposable and a status symbols.

All in all though, I like the article though... it reminded me of this
http://science.videosift.com/video/D...no-santa-claus

[Enizmitic]

You highlighted an important point - you are a geek. The people reading and posting here are geeks. We take the time to read about and understand the technology we use and we make the most of it. Our lives in many respects revolve around these technologies because they interest us so much.

The users you talk about (some would call them luddites), don't appreciate technical marvels like the N95 because they don't need to. They look at core functions like SMS, camera and usability (this is partly why the iphone is doing well), and don't really see the need to explore the true functionality of the device.

The key here is making advanced technology easier to use, and to make platforms like S60 more engaging for the end user.

No, not at all..
Steve did not got out of bed the wrong side the morning as he wrote this...
I totally agree what Steve has wrote in this article
He is a true geek, he's proud of it, which he should be, because i admire him =)
I read through the article and i thought..."This is what i've been wanting to tell those Mr & Mrs Average out there!"
So Steve has wrote it all for us..giving his own opinions, telling the main points..
and I have to say i'm definitely on his side, why? coz i'm a geek too! not as much as him but still part of it =D
I totally pity those people who are using one of the best mobile phone currently available on the market, like the N95, and did not even use all of its functions, it's just a Waste of Money! I don't get why they bother to spend all of those money just to show off that they've got the newest, most expensive phone, smartest phone, when they don't even use the wide variety of functions available from the phone itself!
I really appreciate the fact that Steve has got up in the morning to write an article like this..It shows me how truly a geek he is, and makes me even more proud to be a geek as well. Thanks Steve =)

[dscobsct]

think of people and pc's, my mother has got a pc, bet she cant hack into the pentagon with it though, but someone out there can. should she really be allowed to own a pc? as long as these devices can do simple things simply then people will own them.