NEWS Vodafone is targeting the UK's oldies with a stripped-down handset and tariff combo.
The Vodafone Simply package will offer users nothing more than a mobile with voice and text messaging functionality.
The service will debut in the UK on 24 May with both a contract and pre-pay option. Two phones will be available with the Simply tariffs: the Sagem VS1 and VS2.
The handsets are reminiscent of fixed-line phones, featuring a large screen and three shortcut buttons to take gadget-o-phobes straight to their messages, launch screen and contacts book, with a side switch to lock the keypad.
With mobile penetration approaching 100 per cent in the UK, the Simply proposition is designed to appeal to the older generation, notoriously mobile-shy. There appears to be room for growth in the 65-and-above segment, where mobile penetration is around 50 per cent, according to analyst firm Forrester Research.
Comments
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1. John Wood
Missing a trick here I think. The phone looks nice and simple, but large screen comes at the expense of the normal tiny keys. If they're going after silver texters, they're going to have a lot of problems squinting at the little letters. I reckon a big-button mobile would do quite well - also good in that a simple mobile is a longer-life product than a cutting edge one, so well worth the development time.
2. Brian Catt
Oh dear, more bad marketing.
Why has this been targeted to old people, which make it hard to buy for the much larger "rest of us" market on an image thing?
A LOT of busy people want simple mobile phones, Talk, Text (maybe), directory, missed call list, easy VM access. Senior people in particular - who also don't text - they don't need to save money and a premium segment who want simple basic functionality also.
Anything else they can do when they get there, or tell someone else to do on the way.
Most senior execs can't use their mobile features. Its just like MS WORD or all the rest of technology lead gadget markets, most people only need the top 5% of features, and don't care about what the others do. Most GPRS phones still aren't used deliberately for GPRS connection, how many people are synchronising with Outlook, etc. ?
........REALLY?
3. mark SPLINTER
they just can't accept that the only service we all need is talk and text. i tried sending one MMS, it failed, never again will i bother. WAP rhymes with crap for a reason. 3G video downloads? no thanks i already have a computer and all the videos they offer are rubbish.
i want my old nokia back with black and green screen that is actually visible in all lighting conditions, fast operating system, no animation, rubber buttons. please.
4. Colin Robertson
One reason why some of us oldies are shy of mobiles is because they can be unusable with a hearing aid, owing to electrical interference. A headset may help but this is hardly convenient for general use. So the problem is not always our poor grasp of technology, but can be simply others' failure to addrsss our needs properly! I do have a headset that works by induction through the T coil on a hearing aid - useful but still not very convenient!
5. Penny Haywood
Brian's Catt's comment is spot on from a PR point of view too: what a wasted opportunity.
6. Richard
Mobiles with Hearing Aids:
Mobile phones and DECT phones interfere badly with analogue hearing aids, causing an annoying buzzing.
However, the newer NHS digital behind the ear hearing aid (Spirit II) seems immune.
A great improvement.
Next, we need spectacles suitable for those tiny phone screens and buttons.
7. Sam Evans
I tend to agree with the newsletter comment, if all you need is talk and text, why not just use/pick up an older phone. I just can't understand the nation's obsession with mobiles anyway. I bought one about 8 years ago, and it sits in the car glovebox except when it comes out to get recharged. I last put £5 worth of credit on it in November 2001 and I've still got over £1 left. I'm far from techno-averse, in fact I'm an early adopter of almost everything, but mobile phones seem to have been a solution which created it's own problem.
8. anonymous
Phones for the Blue Rinse Brigade? Not Vodafone's assertion, merely that of Silicon. It's developed a phone that just does a basib job very well.
Yes, the phone is aimed at a more mature market (although again according to the press release, that starts at over 35), but surely that would make sense as it is selling it's consumer 3G services at a younger one.
I saw someone comment that the buttons are too small. According the press release that is available on the company website the buttons are 30% bigger than normal - that's got to be an improvement.
Don't believe everything you read in silicon.com...
9. anonymous
I take it Brian Catt is in his teens - or maybe just out of them. As it happens I can see the point of a phone only phone - now there's a novelty - for some people. As other people have said most people only use the phone and text - and maybe the camera after one too many - so perhaps manufacturers should just leave that as an option till a 'real' killer app happens
10. Chris Waghorn
having used a mobile since 1989 (therefore not being a technophobe - nor a crumbly) and seen all of the "gimicks" I know what I use a mobile for - to talk and text,end of story - I really don't want to waste my time looking at fiddly 3g videos or any of the other rubbish and as for getting my emails, thats what my office PC is for, out of the office I have a life. Well done Vodafone for getting a grip on reality.
11. Silly Question I suppose
Err somewhere along the line have we missed something, do I want an poor audio quality MP3 player to shorten my battery life, do I want to take low res digital pix's to hog memory, am I that sad that I need to see poor quality video of my team loosing again or do I want a device that allows me to be contacted when out of the office?, away from the castle????????