While the numbers aren’t available yet for the all-important fourth quarter wireless sales, I’m predicting stellar results.
Why? Because I just spent the holidays with the Anderson clan (my side of the family) in North Dakota, and while temperatures reached a frosty -10 degrees, wireless sales in our household were hot.
Of the 13 Andersons gathered Dec. 25, five had new handsets for the holidays (I was one.) That’s a 38-percent handset replacement rate. If my family is indicative of U.S. consumers, handset manufacturers should be quite pleased.
Here’s the rundown on what we thought was naughty and nice in the new handsets:
c Everyone was impressed with the easy access to the Internet on my smart phone. Indeed, so much so that I purposely left my phone in the car on Christmas Day so that curious relatives would keep their hands off it. Whenever someone started talking about cell phones (and it was more often than you might think) someone would say, “Tracy, show us your phone.” As I would hand the handset over, whoever was inspecting my phone would politely ask if he or she could take a picture. However, no one asked if they could access the Web; they just did. The irony, of course, is that it doesn’t cost anything to snap a photo, but they were dipping into my data bucket every time they went online.
While I like my new phone, I discovered some flaws inherent in its design. Both of my brothers-in-law, each of whom owns his own business and is heavily into tools to be more productive, started out impressed with my smart phone. But both were quickly disappointed because they couldn’t see the letters on the diminutive keypad. Forget that their thumbs may be too big-they had to stop to put on reading glasses just to see the keypad.
c By far the feature that received the most oohs and ahs was on my brother-in-law’s phone. His daughter, who is away at college, recorded a message with an accompanying picture of herself that automatically displays when she calls him: “Dad, it’s me Lisa. Pick up the phone, I miss you.” Mind you I have a smart phone/PDA combo, my brother-in-law’s handset can record video, another relative is quite adept at sending photos via his handset, but it was all about the MMS caller ID at our house.
Again, assuming the Anderson family is representative of the mass market, two other wireless-related items caught my eye:
c I have three nieces and nephews between the ages of 21-24. All three have cut the cord.
c The only members of our extended family who don’t have phones are my two small children and my 77-year-old mom. Trying to target the elderly for cell-phone service is probably not the best use of marketing dollars. It’s likely more cost effective to target my 8-year-old, who felt left out that she did not have her own phone (despite the fact that she is still young enough that she is never without adult supervision.) On the other hand, she’s already sold on wireless. Just like the rest of us.
