How To Build <i>Just Right</i> Mobile Handsets Using Convenience Analysis

Balancing competing product design demands through a series of tradeoffs is a critical part of the process of building a mobile device like a phone or a tablet.

Why didn't smartphones enjoy mainstream success in the late 1990s and early 2000s given their numerous features? The tradeoff decisions were wrong — the features did not deliver sufficient real benefits, and the corresponding barriers were overwhelming. Why is it still so hard to design a great mobile handset? Because knowing which tradeoffs to make on a new, innovative phone design is still more of an art than a science. The solution to both questions is the comprehensive concept of convenience. Firms that use the Convenience Quotient can increase their mobile product's benefits while reducing the barriers to success.

In this teleconference, Forrester Analysts Ian Fogg and Doug Williams identify the key benefits delivered by mobile handsets and the barriers to adoption that stand in the way of product success. But handset manufacturers are not the only beneficiaries of this analysis — the analysts demonstrate how mobile operators, software vendors, and content providers can benefit from application of the Convenience Quotient to improve their own products and services, too.

Agenda:

• The importance of convenience when designing mobile devices
• How to apply mobile handset convenience analysis
• Convenience analysis helps all companies within the mobile ecosystem

Vendors mentioned: Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, Amazon, AT&T, Danger, Dell, Facebook, Google, HTC, INQ Mobile, Kyocera, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Panasonic, Research In Motion/BlackBerry, Sagem Técommunications, Samsung, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, Symbian, T-Mobile, Twitter, Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone