Nov 9, 2009

Is a Mobile Phone really a Telephone?

Gary Eckstein General Technology 5 camera phones, communication, digital cameras, Diversification, mobile telecommunications, nokia, Phones, photography, strategy, text messaging

It’s interesting that we continue to refer to Mobile (or Cell) Phones even although their use has clearly evolved from a ‘device that transmits and receives sound, most commonly the human voice‘.  Mobile Phones and how their use has changed over the years is a great example of the Product Development strategy as proposed by Igor Ansoff in the 1957 Harvard Business Review article ‘Strategies for Diversification’ (MBA students take note!). Nokia is the biggest digital camera maker as cameras are attached to most of their phones. What would have happened if Canon or Nikon had decided to include phones on their cameras?

Anyway here are some interesting pieces of information relating to the changed role of the mobile phone:

• ‘When is a phone not a phone? In the hands of children and tweens, today’s cell phones are primarily used as text messaging devices, cameras, gaming consoles, video viewers, MP3 players, and incidentally, as mobile phones via the speaker capability so their friends can chime in on the call.’ via A Pocket Guide to Social Media and Kids | Nielsen Wire.
• ‘According to Lyra Research, an international market research firm, camera phone shipments will exceed one billion units per year in 2011. And, they also state that by late 2008 or early 2009, the cumulative number of camera phones shipped will surpass the cumulative number of both conventional and digital cameras shipped in the entire history of photography — and camera phones have been on the market for less than a decade. In 2007 Nokia sold almost 200 million camera phones.’ via Camera Phones – First phone, first camera
• ‘Texting re-creates the brief, frequent, spontaneous ‘connections’ with members of our social network that characterised the small communities of pre-industrial times. Texting re-creates the brief, frequent, spontaneous ‘connections’ with members of our social network that characterised the small communities of pre-industrial times. via Evolution, Alienation and Gossip: The role of mobile telecommunications in the 21st century