Handset Innovations

When entrepreneur Henry Ford became complacent with his Ford Model T and refused to innovate, he fell from the top.

"It is strange," Ford wrote, "how, just as soon as an article becomes successful, somebody starts to think that it would be more successful if only it were different. There is a tendency to keep monkeying with styles and to spoil a good thing by changing it."

Think of where the wireless industry would be if phone designers took Ford's words to heart. Instead, manufacturers constantly are "monkeying with styles" to create a handset that will satisfy the carriers' requests for cutting-edge functionality and the users' requests for must-have communications and personal accessory devices.

BLACK OR BUSTHenry Ford also reportedly once said customers could have any color they wanted, as long as it was black. Many handset manufacturers have the same thinking. You can't blame them. Black sells, and it is cost effective. Look at NEC's pager line, for example, said Jose Sosa, director, wireless marketing division. NEC offers pagers in many colors in addition to black, and black outsells all of the colors combined. Roger Berg, Sony vice president of engineering and product development, added that black historically has been the business color of choice, and it was more cost effective to make everything one color.

Nokia, on the other hand, has embraced color, making its phones recognizable virtually everywhere. Frank Nuovo, Nokia Mobile Phones vice president/chief designer, said for many years Nokia has been working toward capturing the consumers' imagination and showing that the handset is not just a technology device but something that users could aspire to own.

"Why not have fun with it?" he said. "Our dream was to create a personalized option for the customer."

Recently other manufacturers have been introducing color. Ericsson's CF 768 phone comes in four bright colors, and Qualcomm offers its Thin Phone in a number of metallic color options. NEC's NEX series, Nokia's 8810 and Sony's CMZ-200 all offer a brushed silver or chrome-finish faceplate in 1999 models.

Color aside, designers continue to agonize over the elemental puzzle of shape, size, weight, display size, keypad size and placement, as well as ergonomic factors such as how well the units fit in human hands.

SMALL ... BUT NOT TOO SMALLUltra-thin, sleek and small seem to be the current hot ticket. Qualcomm and Nokia, for example, have introduced small, ultra-thin handsets. Qualcomm's Thin Phone weighs slightly more than four ounces and fits into your pocket. Looking like a metal matchbox, Nokia's 8810 weighs just less than four ounces and has dimensions of 4.2"x1.8"x0.7". Designers know that the size must relate to how the handset is used. Some consumers say they want smaller phones, but new data capabilities and current interface technologies don't allow the handsets to get much smaller than they already are.

NEC's Sosa said Americans aren't ready for extremely small phones.

"American consumers start thinking that the (small) phone is equated with low quality, and it looks like a toy rather than a communications tool," Sosa said.

However, Lee Finney, LG director of North American marketing, countered that most people are astute enough to realize that bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. Nevertheless, the Asian market seems to accept smaller sizes more readily than the U.S. market. NEC's Mova N206 phone that's featured in Japan weighs just 2.8 ounces and has standard-shape dimensions of 4.7"x1.6"x0.86". LG products in Korea are significantly smaller as well. For example, LG's Korean 6400 series is less than half the weight of its American counterpart and is about one-third the volume. Finney said no more than 30 percent of the American market would be interested in that phone size, whereas it makes up about 50 percent of the sales in Korea.

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFEIt's difficult to please everybody, and carriers fight that uphill battle by offering as much variety as they can. Manufacturers sometimes rely on focus groups or past experience to guide them in the right direction. But several designers are wary of putting too much emphasis on the results.

"The unfortunate thing about focus groups is people are much more willing to spend imaginary money than they are real money," Finney said.

Cost always is the underlying factor. Most carriers offer consumers a variety; however, most consumers still choose the price leader, even though that may not be the cutting-edge form factor. According to a 1998 Yankee Group study on end users, 42 percent of respondents rely on getting the best deal from the carrier.

The best deal also is reflected in a new generation of users. Another recent study by the Yankee Group showed that wireless phone use among consumers with an annual income level below 20,000 dollars has doubled over the past year, from 8.9 percent in 1997 to 17.4 percent in 1998. The study also found that household penetration of wireless phones among 50- to 59-year-old users increased from 29.5 percent in 1997 to 46.4 percent in 1998. Even with these different income and age groups, consumers still want the best deal possible for their own specific handset needs.

How do you make your phones desirable to such a diverse audience? Many designers look for uniqueness to make their phones stand out, and consumers often look for something a little bit different from the run of the mill.

Sony's Berg said that an established company name with signature features can add to a purchaser's decision. The Sony Zuma line of handsets offers its signature flip-down microphone arm and Sony's Jog Dial navigator.

"When people look at or use the handset, it's something (that) they can say, 'I know that's Sony,'" he said.

Making the phone look unique can be a hard feat to accomplish.

"It's very difficult to have a wide range of design and physical characteristics, given the fact that everybody's facing the same challenges -- cramming a certain amount of electronics as well as those interface units into the phone itself," Finney said.

DON'T STOP CHANGINGHowever, manufacturers have big changes under way in the future of handset design. One design change, if it takes off, could affect the handset's look and make retractable antennas a thing of the past. RangeStar's embedded antennas operate optimally in the frequencies above 800MHz and are effective in any wireless protocol. Set for release later this year, Nokia's 8810 features its own integrated antenna.

The more distant future may hold even more drastic changes. For example, Europeans are reaching the point where the handset will be invisible to others -- a transmission device rather than a handset. You eliminate the keypad and go to voice-activated dialing. All you need is an earpiece, a small microphone and a transmission device that hangs from your belt or rides in your briefcase.

"Now you conceptually change the way the product works and looks, and you can dramatically reduce the form factors," Finney said. "It almost goes beyond wearable to becoming almost integrated into the user's body."

When Ford's automobiles became the best bargain in the industrialized world, skeptics wondered how he did it.

"Our policy," Ford said, "is to reduce the price, extend the operations and improve the article."

Now this is something that manufacturers and carriers alike will want to take to heart.