Telepocalypse

The value tree in bloom

Just been reading at The Feature a write-up on how mobile users prefer driving directions and payments over media content from their mobile phones. You’re in the metered bit-moving business and DRM is a poison to moving bits. Novel thought (not). And some strategist gets paid for this stuff?

It’s been said elsewhere before, but since the world doesn’t seem to get it, here’s what wireless users want, in descending order of value:

1. Safety. Keep me in coverage, be there when I’m in trouble.
2. Personal communication. Keep me in touch with my family, friends, co-workers and customers. Plenty of unsolved problems here.
3. Transactional service. Buy things, sell things, authorize things. Users care about their wallets. We don’t have the right application platfoms and interaction paradigms to do this well yet. Too much usability and connectivity friction to satisfy the demand.
4. Information. Tell me what I need to know when I’m away from my fixed information sources.
5. Entertainment. I’m bored — unbore me.

Somehow the marketing departments of most wireless carriers seem to have started from the wrong end. But you knew that already, didn’t you?