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Friday, July 28, 2006

Mobile lifelines

A study commissioned by Carphone Warehouse this week reports the finding that more than 90% of UK mobile users can't get through the day without using their phone. Hardly surprising for us … we've been asking people 'deprivation' questions in mobile groups for years- and have been getting responses like 'Oh my god, a day/a week without would be awful! My whole life is in there' (incidentally this is a line used by Nokia in the US, one of the few markets where people are less enamoured with mobiles…). Mobiles have developed, even more so than PCs into THE technological tool in our lives - and yes, that includes the lives of many people in developing markets too. My colleague Kirsty has termed them our essential 'techno-hubs' bringing together various functions beyond calling (communication tool, phone book, alarm clock, camera and, albeit possibly more slowly than anticipated, more advanced functions like web access, music and email). However, the thought of doing without your mobile seems particularly daunting given their emotional dimension. Whilst PCs and PDAs are seen largely functionally, mobiles are of course much more personal; carried with us and with the potential to work as fashion acccessories and/or status symbols but they also work as 'lifelines' - to our friends, family and increasingly connect us to the things that make our lives pleasurable, games, music, photos etc. Mobiles work as security blankets as highlighted in the study but can also be company, comfort, entertainment, memory banks…

1 Comments:

Blogger Sabine said...

like your observation about physical 'attitude' in handling phones since most of our work with consumers about mobiles tends to be discursive rather than observational we may not facture this in enough... Have you read the comments by the anthropologist Kate Fox about how women tend to use mobiles as a 'barrier' to deflect unwanted attention? observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1826997,00.html Rings very true...

As to your question, I'm convinced (not only for sycophantic reasons to please our clients at Nokia) that you may have a better chance of turning your MOBILE into an ipod rather than the other way round...

12:35 PM  

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