Monthly Archive for May, 2008

A solitary moment for two

Published on May 28, 2008 in Articles, Electronics, Home Entertainment, Mobile Phones and Uncategorized. 1 Comment

As a  techno-utopian, I believe technology brings people together rather than disconnecting them.

Received wisdom would have us believe that technology breeds isolation:  I’ve lost count of the number of hysterical Daily Mail articles that warn us that computer-games are turning kids violent. As a child I was told that sitting too close to the TV would “make you go blind”. There’s a great deal of nonsense spoken about technology, and it’s often believed because many people consider technological progress to be the root evil of society.

When I think about how technology is used in my household, the HD TV is like a digital campfire which brings the whole family together to watch films, the Wii is a short burst of fun for my husband and I when the kids are in bed, Facebook connects me to a wider circle of friends that I wouldn’t have the time to see, and my mum and I listen to Woman’s Hour together on our new Wi Fi radio.

Not only is technology physically bringing people together through new shared experiences, its creating a new way of sharing an emotional experience albeit in some cases on different platforms and different devices.  The reactions and the emotions of the people with whom you are sharing the experience with is whats important.

This becomes ever more apparent with the shift towards mobile content sharing devices.   As Jan Chipchase shows with this photo of two Tokyoites – on the right of the photo engaged in the same task watching the same television program on their mobile phone each using their own device, with comments passed back and forth.   Whereas one screen can compromise the viewing experience, the same content can be shared and hence the same experience.

As technology evolves and content becomes ever more mobile (or ‘time shifting’), there are so many opportunities for companies to position technology less as something about individual glory and status but more as a shared emotional experience.  Its these kind of positioning that will capture the female heart as well as the female pound.

Is Web 2.0 pink?

Published on May 23, 2008 in Articles. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

The Internet is according to an article in BusinessWeek going to go pink because women are apparently the hottest target market for social media.

The article’s author Auren Hoffman who is CEO of Rapleaf states that Web 2.0 is all about being social. This is supposedly more appealing to women. Rapleaf and Business Week surveyed 13.2 million people and found that more women than men are using social media.

The research found that young women are much more active on social networking sites but married men over 30 do not even seem to join social networking sites. Married women between 35 and 50, on the other hand, are the largest growth segment for social media – defying the stereotype that only young people are hooked to the Internet.

The study also claims that men’s behaviour in social media is more transactional, i.e. gathering information and making introductions, while women are more relationship oriented. This sounds like a very stereotypical view of men’s and women’s behaviour but Auren Hoffman foresees that women will increasingly be hired to engage with key audiences. The future target market for Web 2.0 applications are according to the article women.

Attracting Women or Girls?

Published on May 21, 2008 in Articles, Mobile Phones and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

The article in The Times from 20 May entitled ‘Salesmen say this Pounds 300 pink phone with its cartoon cat loved by children is aimed at women of 30. Parents fear otherwise’ written by Lilly Peel states that the pink Hello Kitty phone produced by Sanrio is targeted not at young girls but at women in their twenties and thirties. This is based on a comment by Sanrio’s sales director Caroline Preston. I wonder what market research Sanrio has done to come to this claim. The Lady Geek research Saatchi & Saatchi has conducted last year found very clearly that only 9% of women in the UK would buy ‘pinked up’ mobile phones and technical gadgets. Pink might in the end be a better colour to attract young girls than women in the UK market.

kitty phone

Touch Me

Published on May 21, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

With the collaboration between Best Buy and Carephone Warehouse (Best Buy bought half of the chains retail arm for £1.1b last week), the competition to deliver better customer service within the technology retail environment is on.

With the exception of Apple, service is much of a muchness whether it is John Lewis, PC World or the Sony Stores. It wouldn’t take much work to lift a retailer above the disappointing average.

I agree with Charles Dunstone , chief exec of Carephone Warehouse when he says

‘I think the consumers of Europe are ready for someone to do a better job selling electronics’

And if anyone needs to deliver a more inviting retail experience its Carephone Warehouse. As one Lady Geek said,

“I feel like bait walking into Carephone Warehouse dreading the first sales person to pounce.”

Interestingly, Best Buy moved their staff from a commission based sales structure, where customers were put under pressure to buy, to a more laid back approach with a focus on providing advice.  Perhaps Carephone Warehouse will adopt this model.

Even with internet online sales reaching 18% last year (ahead of the expected 15% of the market), expectations of the store experience are higher than ever.   Women particularly, talk about technology as they would any other purchase, they want to see it in the flesh.   Women want to feel the product.  See the weight of it.   Experiment with it.  Play with it.  Actually see what they are buying.

The physical environment is also about reassurance for women and many women will go back into the store once after they have decided what to buy as “they still feel a bit wobbly about it“

We have just conducted some research for Comet: We discovered different archetypes along a skills and confidence axis- confidence in their attitude to technology and skill in terms of their knowledge.

When it comes to high confidence and high skill, more men fall into this category.  Whats interesting is that when it comes to high skill and low confidence, women are much more likely to fall in this space.   Women do not have the confidence to buy technology, whilst many have the ability.   Women I have spoken to start their sentence with “I feel so stupid…” or “This is all jargon to me” but when you dig deeper, many women are more informed than their male counterparts.

The other important point is that as technology becomes more exciting and desirable, the desire and enjoyment of buying it is much greater, whether that is in store or online.   I know I really looked forward to buying my HD TV.  Its by no means a ‘distress purchase’ which much of the white goods fall into.

If BestBuy are willing to invest and re-invent the Carphone Warehouse experience the hum-drum mobile-phone retail marketplace could be in for a shock: Mobile phones are amongst the most desirable tech products and nobody is selling them in a particularly interesing way – on the other hand I just wonder if BestBuy appreciate how much sales they are missing because of the unfriendly high-pressure environment that their latest acquisition has become famous for.

While the number of girl gamers is increasing, the world for women in science, technology and engineering looks more gloomy

Published on May 18, 2008 in Articles and Games. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

A recent article suggests that the number of girls playing games has increased to 41% in Australia. The article argues – as we have pointed out many times in this blog – that stores selling video games and makers of video games are not set up to please female customers. It is really surprising that companies have not realised that almost half of their customers are female.

The study also highlighted that women playing video games in Australia are now on average 28 years old, up from 24 years. The trend suggests that games of the future are not only as likely to be male as female but also older.

The article suggests that one way of responding to the increasingly female audience of video games is through having more female game developers. The figure the article quotes for Australia is 5% while the international figure stands at 12%. The picture is similar in computer science courses at universities and colleges where women make up only about 10% in the US as an article in USA Today states.

This is supported by the fact that the few women who enter science and technology professions are also likely to drop out as a recent contribution of Silvia Ann Hewlett in the FT claimed (I will review her Harvard Business Review article here when it is published next month). Hewlett argues that as many as 52% of highly qualified women in science, technology and engineering drop out due to work pressures and a hostile environment.

The IT industry can ill afford training few women and losing them in disproportionate numbers later on. However with more women actively using technology and playing computer games, one can hope that the image of technology jobs might change slowly.

Technology can be beautiful

Published on May 12, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

I am in geek envy again.   Keyboards are usually dull boring functional devices.  Not these.  These hand painted keyboards are really beautiful.  £75 a piece.  Technology doesn’t have to be a piece of kit but something more akin to art.  The fusion of art and technology would make a great exhibition.   Check out Gizmodo for more info.

Technology Women honoured by BlackBerry Awards

Published on May 8, 2008 in Interesting. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I was glad to have been invited by Maggie Berry from WomeninTechnology, an online job board, networking and event group for women working in technology jobs in the UK, to attend the glamorous BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards. This was the third edition of the event celebrating women’s achievement in the field of technology.

Maggie Philbin, who used to be a presenter of Tomorrow’s World, led through the evening and various speakers such as Glenda Stone, Aurora and Charmaine Eggberry, VP and managing director, EMAE for Research in Motion.

The evening started with a reception and then we were asked to sit at the tables for a wonderful meal. The WomeninTechnology table was fabulous with a variety of people ranging from representatives from NBC and the WISE – Women into Science, Engineering and Construction to Suzanne Doyle Morris who offers coaching for female leaders who also authors an interesting blog.

After the dinner the award ceremony started. The winners were

  • Best use of technology by a woman within the corporate sector: Jayne Opperman (Lloyds TSB)
  • Best use of technology by under 30 year-old woman: Lisa Ditlefsen (Base One)
  • Best woman in technology (public sector and academia): Professor Lizbeth Goodman (SMARTlab)
  • Best use of technology within the multimedia industry by a woman: Beatriz Alonso-Martinez (Avid Technology Europe)
  • Best company advancing women in technology: BT Group
  • Best use of technology by a woman in small to medium business: Polly Gowers (Everyclick.com)
  • Best female mentor: Kate Bishop (Dell)
  • BlackBerry outstanding woman in technology: Professor Lizbeth Goodman (SMARTlab)

What I found particularly interesting was Charmaine Eggberry talking about research commissioned by Research in Motion with girls aged 11 to 16. 90% of these girls described technology as ‘cool’. 38% of the girls talk about the latest technologies daily. However only 28% of girls in contrast to 52% of boys wanted to work in this area. Girls simply saw technology work as too geeky. We know from research on stereotypes that role models have a major impact on perceptions and honouring women of achievement in technology is one way of changing the image of technology and encouraging more girls and women into the area.

The Nokia E65 and the Second Phone Syndrome

Published on May 8, 2008 in Interesting. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

I thought I am overdoing it a bit by carrying around two phones. One smart phone, in my case a BlackBerry 8820 which I got from work, and my private phone. However I do not seem to be such a minority as I thought. A report by Rubicon Consulting shows that 36.4% of iPhone users have a second phone with them. Reading the comments of a review which looked at this phenomenon, it seems that many people carry two phones. Most of them are just like me because they have one for work use and one for personal use.


The workphone is usually a smart phone like a Blackberry. Like Belinda, I was sent a Nokia E65 for review purposes. Like her I am a bit disappointed by the device. While the N-Series got a lot of coverage including a blog, the E-Series is still uncharted territory. The E-Series is marketed as a Nokia for business needs. It is seen as a phone where substance meets style. It comes in a range of colours such as white (what I was given), red, pink, mocca, purple and black.

How does the E65 do in relation to my BlackBerry 8800? The E65 is a slider and although overall smaller it appears rather bulky and heavy. The overall appearance is almost a bit tacky in contrast to my BlackBerry. The 8800 is larger but slimmer and I really appreciate the qwerty keyboard which makes answering emails and messages much easier. The E65 is a bit of a let down in this respect as a smart phone without qwerty seems to defeat the objective. At least for me. However my BlackBerry lacks a camera and I was really impressed by the quality of the two mega pixel camera the E65 has. Overall, I prefer my BlackBerry due to ease of use with typing and also it takes less space in my handbag.

So the E65 maybe as a second phone? For most people it would probably be a good second phone and a good entry point into the smart phone area. However I am less convinced by this because the E65 feels quiet heavy. It also does not look very stylish and if you have a private phone you want to have something that is a good accessory.

Although the E65 is not a bad phone, it does not fit into my lifestyle. Neither as a business phone nor as a private phone. A true innovation would be to make the two phone syndrome obsolete. Given that lots of people fill their pockets with phones and despite of the fact that big handbags are in fashion for women, it seems like a waste to carry around two phones and other electronic gadgets like an iPod. Convergence might mean that future smart phones are truly smart and include different profiles for the same user such as one for work and one for private use. At least it would de-clutter handbags.

Nokia’s business anthroplogy

Published on May 8, 2008 in Articles, Mobile Phones and Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Nokia wanted to find out what some of their emerging markets wanted from a mobile phone:

They asked people from Buduburam near Accra, Favela Jacarezihno in Rio de Janeiro and Dharavi in Mumbai to design their ideal future phone. Rather than use traditional focus groups they got people to sketch and design what their ideal phone might look like.

The results are amazing.  You can click here to see the slideshow.  Two interesting points.

The first is how the ideal mobile phone is so much more than a communication device to so many people. It ranged from a survival tool to a stress-coping device to an anti crime device.  For Sam, an artist from Accra, his design (in the picture above) is an all-in-one device for high-profile businesspeople or celebrities. It includes a DVD player, mini-laptop, and cable TV, and lets users stay in touch with the world, especially when they are on the road or in a remote area with no electricity.

The second point is the way Nokia designed the research.  As I have frequently noted about in my previous posts, I am not a fan of focus groups:  They tend to ask the same old questions in the same old way to the same old people. I like to see research that helps people say what they want to say rather than what a moderator prompts them to say.

In this case the results speak for themselves: Every drawing tells a rich story that explains some facet of what these new customers want from a phone and how the company might better serve their needs. It’s the human aspect of this study which is so powerful.  By getting people to sketch out their ideal phones, they found out about people’s identity, their community and heritage.

This method of research is more akin to anthropolgy than traditional market research.   Its not about collecting data, its about understanding what it feels like to be someone in a shanty town.  Advertising people need to become business anthropologists and let go of this ritual of sitting people in a darkened room with strangers and bombarding them with questions. This results of this anthropological study will transform Nokia’, that is if Nokia’s product people have as much imagination as their researchers.

Mum’s the word

Published on May 6, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

A recent report called “Women and Digital Lifestyles in the US” highlights not only the importance of the female dollar in the tech sector but specifically the way women and children choose their tech products.

More US women download TV shows than men (15% compared to 11% of men).   More women use their DVR’s than men (9.3 times per week compared to 8.3% of men).   And of these segments, women with children make up the greatest proportion of frequent users.

I think many tech companies overlook women with children and go for the corporate professional woman with time and money.  This is a mistake. Whilst doing the most recent Lady Geek study, I met mums who became gamers whilst on maternity leave, usually DS or PSP players.

Mums need a quick fix, something to do when baby is having a nap: Especially something that can be paused or finished quickly. Films are too long, daytime TV too dull.  An episode of Desperate Housewives streamed to my portable device is great.  A 10 minute game on my DS is just perfect.

As a mum, I know that every minute of my time is spoken for.  Whilst on the phone, I simultaneously need to make baby’s bottle.  I order my shopping online at the same time as I feed my baby. Women also want entertainment technology  that keeps their brain’s active while attending to life’s many duties.

Nintendo are unarguably the kings of ’snack gaming’ – however their positioning does not stress the pick-up, put-down-ability of their products. Microsoft’s XBOX 360 has the most technically sophisticated video download store but their prodcut selection does not address the preferences of a modern woman – nor are most mums going to be able to watch a whole movie within the arbitrary 24 hour window they impose.

What I’m trying to show here is that only small fixes are required to make today’s technology more mum-friendly – it’s a really easy win.