Consider yourself forewarned: This is a girlie column. But hey, it seems wireless handset designers have forgotten about half of the world’s population, so maybe you men out there should take a deep breath and plunge into this column anyway.
I think Motorola Inc.’s Magenta Razr phone is going to be a serious hit for T-Mobile USA Inc. Not many men are going to don the phone, but that fact likely will make the phone even more appealing to women. And here I mean women, not just young girls like the teen cheerleader featured in a recent T-Mobile USA ad.
The phone is cute. It’s bright too, so it should be easier to find in your purse. And it’s hot pink. Phones are accessories (a necessary accessory but an accessory nonetheless.) Women like their accessories to be colorful. This explains the number of purses, shoes, etc., in their closets.
Now, assuming I am correct about this and the pink Razr is a hit, will handset designers take the next step and draw up a better phone for a woman? Yes, there are a few efforts out today: Nokia Corp. has a lipstick-shaped phone, complete with a vanity mirror, but I don’t know anyone who actually owns one. And Sanyo Electronics Co. Ltd. has a number of colored phones for Sprint Nextel Corp. But that’s about it. Either these phones are missing the mark or they haven’t been properly marketed to the demographic they are trying to attract.
BusinessWeek last week ran an article on how technology companies are finally paying attention to women, and how it’s paying off. “As recently as early 2003, Samsung Electronics tested its phones, TVs, and home theaters with all-male focus groups. Today, the company makes sure half its reviewers are women. The payoffs: Samsung designed its DuoCam-the first two-lens digital camera and camcorder-after women reported they liked to record `life events’ both in photographs and video but didn’t like to lug around two gadgets. The camera recently became lighter by 40 percent, again the result of female feedback,” according to the article.
So what’s the secret to winning over women and beating out all the other handset manufacturers out there? Find a way to make a functional phone with a screen that doesn’t need to be cleaned after every conversation because it has makeup smeared all over it.
(And if you think I’m kidding, you should do more research.)
