Many of my friends, specially those whom I've not gone to school with, think that the new world is getting too geeky. They believe that you have to spend a hack of a time to learn how to use the new technologies efficiently and effectively and that technically makes you a geek in that area.
I have to agree with them. People have different interests and cannot spend 5 - 10 hours on something that they don't like spending time on (like their phone or their computer) just to learn how it works efficiently. They may be able to divide their internet/phone bill by half if they spend this much time but they are just not interested in that stuff and don't want to spend 10 hours on a 'boring' subject.
People have to spend a lot of time, which they usually don't have, to keep up with new changes. That is probably because we are moving too fast in the technology world and one cannot possibly know everything about all the new technologies. This means missing possible opportunities which is just natural.
Companies who are coming up with new services and/or products have to make sure that they minimize the time that is required for their users to understand their product well. In other words, the products should be very simple to understand and use. Even if a product has a lot of great features, can reduce costs [and clean your room without you waking up :)] but you have to spend 5-6 hours to understand it, the product is next to useless for general users. That product will only be used by the geeks of that particular subject who are interested to spend that much time in that area. This means the product cannot become mainstream.
Here is the challenge though: It is not always easy or even possible to make everything simple to grasp. For example, I described how anybody can have a next-to-free phone line here and here but realistically speaking how many people would actually go through all the hassle just for $20-$30 per month? Many people may choose to pay that money but don't bother reading about the stuff that they don't care about. This is perfectly normal. It's like me in the fashion industry. If I know Macy's has a sales on the Boss line and they sell it for 25% less than the retail price, I most probably won't bother going there because I prefer to spend the retail price but don't go through the hassle of standing in lines and busy stores. My clothing example is not a common issue because the number of people who are actually willing to go through the hassle of shopping in a busy store is way more than the number of people who are willing to spend 5-10 hours to learn a technological subject to save $250 per year. This is understandable(not necessarily desirable) because technology is usually considered a boring subject to a good number of people specially when it comes to completing a puzzle using different high-tech products.
Here is the million dollar question: How would a company present their services in a way that users can understand in a blink of an eye and get it to work in 10-30 seconds? This is something that not every company is doing a good job at. Even big guys like Google, Microsoft and even TV makers are coming up with products that general users cannot understand how they work. They may say "sure, it's cool but I don't have time for this!" which basically means: Booooriinngggg... (Just look at Google Wave. I have no idea how they even explained it to themselves let alone other people).
The same is happening in the phone service business. Most of the phone services are boring and require people to spend a lot of time understanding them. Don't get me wrong, users will benefit from that time that they spent on learning the product (either by saving money or having a more effective service) but when they add the "hassle factor" to this equation, it's just not worth it.
The phone services should become easy and fun to use: For example: 

1- Get a free basic phone service; Users click on it and there; they have it.
2- Add a voicemail with web interface; Click, Done!
3- Add your friend to your call; Just drag and drop your friend to your current call.

Getting a phone number should be as easy as signing up for a new email address and adding features to it should be as easy as a mouse click! Features should be easy to use (I am still not comfortable with three way callings let alone more complicated services). The whole thing should (and will) change. There is no point in waiting to talk to "customer support or sales" just to get a phone number! This is so 2009!

Labels: Google Wave, Marketing, Social phone services

Think new phone technologies are too geeky? And you are right.