The phone wars are here. Within the past few months we’ve seen the release and/or rumors of so many new phones with capabilities running from media players, mobile tv, video, GPS, push-to-talk, web browsing, picture and video capture, 3G, Wi-Fi, and just about anything else you can imagine. There is even Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc., which has been successful turning phones into debit-cards for small purchases, that has plans to turn their devices into “electronic wallets” that can serve as full-fledged credit cards. Phones can literally do anything.
But how do all of these options affect both the end-user and the enterprise buyer? Is it possible there are actually too many options? And what is the resolution of the disparity between what the enterprise rates as top priority and what the end-user holds dear?
For end-users it’s a matter of convenience, customization, and coolness. They only want to have one phone, and they want it to do everything possible, as fast as possible. They want the convenience to make calls, surf the internet, and listen to music while on a commute, along with access to business systems while out of the office… and they would like to have these abilities all in one device. It’s considered a burden to carry around both your “work phone” and your “personal phone.” For many, it’s important for these to be one-and-the-same. And if they are the same, users want to be able to make this one phone their own. That means phone skins, themes, background images, customized ring-tones, and more. People express themselves with their phone, and, why not, if it’s something they are bound to for up to 24 hours a day?
And of course, a lot hinges on coolness-factor. If I have a brick of a smart-phone, there’s no way I’m pulling that out next to a new iPhone 3G or BlackBerry Bold. I want the newest, fastest, sexiest device I can get. Do I get a touch screen which is clearly the visual champion, or do I want a tactile keyboard because I do a lot of typing on my device? Do I need video capture, or do I even need a camera? How much memory do I need for multimedia? Consumers upgrade and change all the time, as these phones have become a status symbol for the prosperous. If you’re still typing away on a Palm Treo 650 or a BlackBerry 7230, you are clearly not top of the food chain (no offense to anyone still using those devices).
But for enterprise buyers the list of importance is much, much different. Their list reads more along the lines of ‘security, simplicity, and serviceable’.
It’s been pretty clear through both customer surveys and industry polls that the number one factor for IT teams when choosing a mobile device for their end-users is security. In fact, in a recent survey of top Financial Services firms, 85.7% of IT teams rated ‘security’ as the number one factor, with ‘speed’ coming in a distant second. If they are going to even think about pushing enterprise data to a mobile device, it must be secure with bail-out options if the device is lost, stolen, or compromised in any way. You see this through kill switches built in to both device’s OS and third-party applications. Much safer than a laptop, were it to disappear.
Simplicity is also important. Too many bells and whistles mean that a) end-users get distracted (“I don’t want my sales teams playing with music when they should be out selling”) and b) it’s tough to keep devices with so many options locked down (IT needs to control what their end-users do and don’t do). IT teams have the ability to turn off options such as camera, media players or text messaging. This kind of “pick and choose” helps the user’s case when dealing with more conservative IT teams. The majority opinion holds that the more simple the device, the more completely the user will adopt it.
“If something is easy to integrate into my daily routine, then I’m going to use it. If it’s difficult and takes a long time to learn, then I’m going to get frustrated and give up. Why change up my routine that is (in theory) working by introducing something that frustrates me and makes things more difficult?”
Finally, the device must be serviceable. IT needs to be able to fix problems, needs the device to be up and running 99.9% of the time, and don’t want their end-users to have too many hurdles to jump. It just needs to work. Simple as that.
So, who wins in the battle of want vs. need? Well, it depends on who you talk to. IT teams seem to have final say most of the time, but when the CEO of a multi-billion dollar Financial Services institution puts his or her foot down on one device or another, that can create a pretty concrete decision. The one thing that is clear, however, is that as more and more phones are released with more and more options, the lines are beginning to blur. Then hopefully the argument won’t be between which devices to get, but how many to purchase.
What drives your decision to buy and use a device and who has the final say on what you end up with?
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