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26 April 2010
The African Phone : How Microsoft learned having less features can be more
By Allison Bland
In some places around the world, cell phones are sold in bunches like bananas. Sellers walk through crowded intersections, chargers and phones coiled up in a secure braid until it is time to peal one off for a ready customer. Those who can't take the heat of the street find shade under decorated umbrella, offering phones out of bins like a New York City hot dog vendor. Here, and in many places around the world, communication is changing for the better. But the phone that can connect us all is still to come.
Now that Americans are ready to shift many activities from their phones to their tablets, it is a good moment for a global conversation on what people around the world actually need phones to do.
Microsoft's new cellular lineup consisting of a pair of non-Smartphones, the Kin 1 and the Kin 2, is certainly... unique. The Kins don't have the dynamic capabilities most have come to expect from cell phones. It is not like the HTC Incredible, poised to give the iPhone a run for its money. But in a way, that is what makes the Kin so brilliant.
We are entering an age of tablets and what we once wanted to do on Smartphones, we can now do on tablets. We can have a handy, connected experience that is larger, more readable, and thereby more functional on a tablet. Do we really need to run the same apps on our phones and on our tablets? Microsoft must make a case for the "deeply social" phone and prove the concept is not just redundant.
It is a bit baffling that Microsoft has many interests that are not represented in the Kins. They do not run Windows 7, you can't access the Zune store, and you can't wirelessly synch the phone with an X-Box 360. These are things Microsoft knows how to do, and they will likely do them with the release of the Windows 7 phones later this year. But Microsoft was after a different demographic here. It is a group they call “seeking,” rather than“settled.” A group, 16 to 30, still going through important stages of maturation, especially in this day and age – school, graduation, first job, no job, starting a family? The constant is that their world is defined by their social identity and relationships. With this, Microsoft has, intentionally or arbitrarily, stumbled onto a formula that works not just for developing people, but also for the developing world.
They did this by focusing solely on how to make instant communication better. Microsoft is clued into the delineations between device platforms, and exercising restraint.
The Kin is designed to optimize your social networks, and that's about it.
When you turn on your phone you are automatically plugged into the “the Loop,” the main graphical interface of the phone. It cleanly shares texts, prioritized status updates, RSS feeds, and images, eliminating steps of navigating out to multiple programs from a menu. Another brand new feature is the “the Spot,” which allows you to drag a piece of information to a fixed point on the screen and instantly shoot this media to any desired group of recipients. The appeal and necessity of texting is not forgotten, but enhanced, particularly in the Kin 1 with its “squirkle” shape that effectively lets you text and cradle the device single-handedly. It also allows the keyboard to slide into the device when it is not needed to better manipulate the touch screen.
These inspired enhancements affect the actual utility of the cell phone in a way that can improve the experience of most users around the world. I can think of how handy the Loop would have been for me as I trekked through a mountainous countryside, trying to connect with a large group of people I'd never met. It should not be forgotten how significant worldwide adoption of the cell phone is – how even within the cultures of the poorest nations, space has been made for these small devices. Indeed, 80% of the world lives within range of a cellular network. Clearly, better design and better organization is more appropriate than buying apps in the bulk of these communities.
There are other features too that make Kins friendly to people around the world. You can have unlimited access to music and videos by subscribing for Zune Pass. There is an FM radio. You can take an unlimited amount of photos without worrying about a memory card because your stuff is automatically backed up online in “the Studio.” They connect to 3G. The battery life is optimized for long periods of usage. Its size is unobtrusive. Every single one of these features is key.
For these reasons, in this moment a phone like the Kin 1 could emerge as a device that does well for users in the developed world, and in the developing world. Now if only @KIN had a better response when asked about plans to be sold beyond the US and Europe than, “No plans right now, but we're always looking to expand. :)”
If Microsoft is truly forward thinking, this is a task they could take up with their Technology for Emerging Markets group, like the one at Microsoft Research India that develops MultiPoint. After all, it doesn't matter how good the technology is if there is not a human culture ready to embrace it.
Bill Gates found this out when he introduced a tablet called the OQO Model 2 in 2007, dubbing it the first ultra-mobile personal computer. Although it seemed like a promising little device, won awards for good design, and even got placed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the world's smallest fully functional computer, it just did not catch on. There was not a market for the device.
Fast forward a few years, and that same idea has netted new interest, potentially creating better marketplaces for appropriate devices around the world. There are cultural progressions in the US that have brought about this shift. Namely, Americans are evaluating age old notions about productivity, as evidenced by success of The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, Rework by Jason Fried, and others. They want tablets to share with the very oldest members of the family and the very youngest. They want tablets to be comfortable, interactive handheld media experiences they can lean back and enjoy. They want their phones to be able to call freely, but they do not want to feel “on-call.” Therefore, separate experiences are now desired.
In a column in the latest Wired Magazine, Martha Stewart writes that, “The tablet could be like going into Africa,” to describe how the next-level of National Geographic magazine might feel. In the same issue, Kevin Kelly rephrases the words of writer Brian Eno claiming that, “the problem with computers was that there was not enough Africa in them,” and suggests that tablets can incorporate the missing elements of performance he perceives as devoid in most gadgets, but plentiful in the cultural expressions akin to African people.
The problem with this reasoning is that it undermines the complex performances endemic in the lives of people in poor and developing countries, and forgets that they too are users of technology, even as they simultaneously experience strenuous conditions. Is it African to swipe at a touchscreen if you need your free hand to balance a pail of water on your head?
It is a very American thing to be constantly disengaged with the world, crouched over, experiencing technology behind a desk, or shut away in a home office. You cannot expect to lean back and experience Africa just because you bought a device. Technology is already going into Africa. When technology is used by Africans, there is Africa in them. The task is not to create foreign experiences for any user, but experiences that meet every user at his or her station in life.
It is a good thing that the tablet is now capable of taking on all the excess features that have been developed for cell phones over the years, obscuring what was originally intended to be a small, compact device. (So actually, this will make the tablet like going into America!) What is left is a small thing that can now be better suited to the needs of many, something that is handled a bit differently in every community it reaches, from wake to work, ushering in the lifestyle simplifications that good technology is known to bring.
I've been anxiously anticipating the release of a mobile game called, “GetH20,” by Butterfly Works and Mama Bits. It is a community planning game to promote peace, aimed towards the youth of Kenya to help them better understand aspects of conflict escalation and prevention. The problem is I'll have to borrow someone else's phone to play it. It is only going to be available on the phones youth actually use in Nairobi and its surrounding areas – Nokias, Motoralas, Samsungs and Sony-Ericssons to name a few. The Blackberry, iPhone, and Android crowds are largely irrelevant here. The game's slogan is key - “A game about real lives.”
The bottom line is that you can't win without water, and events having to do with the well require constant communication between individuals and the community. The amazing thing is, youth around the world will play this game, device in hand, while actually living in these circumstances. The cell phone is already the tool that can bridge conflict – but optimized social networking capabilities make them better.
Imagine your cell phone updated every fifteen minutes in a meaningful way, foreseeing conflict, eliminating minor miscommunication, and aggregating the thoughts, feelings, and concerns of a wide body of people at a glimpse. Facilitating negotiation about water – that's what a smart African device really needs to be able to do. Can Microsoft deliver with the Kin?
Contact Allison Bland at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .