Mobile phones – It doesn’t have to be Cost OR Quality!

It’s not often that I rave about articles I read, but Ian Mansfield of Cellular News hit the nail on the head with this article.

Not only is it a well written and concise article but its chock full of recent data (primarily from JD Power research), and most importantly it’s data that tells a very interesting story that nicely aligns with Sensory’s strategy in mobile. So, thanks Ian, for getting me off my butt to start blogging again!

A few key points from the article:

1. Price is becoming increasingly important in the choice of mobile phones, and simultaneously the prices of mobile phones are increasing.
2. Although price might be the most important factor in choice, the overall customer satisfaction is driven by features.
3. The features customers want are seamless voice control (36%); built-in sensors that can gauge temperature, lighting, noise and moods to customize settings to the environment (35%); and facial recognition and biometric security (28%).
4. As everyone knows, Samsung and Apple have the overwhelming market share in mobile phones, but interesting to me was that they also both lead in customer satisfaction.

Now, let me dive one step deeper into the problem, and explore whether customer satisfaction can be achieved with minimal impact on cost:

Seamless voice control is here and soon every phone will have it, and it doesn’t add any hardware cost. Sensory introduced the technology with our TrulyHandsfree technology that allows users to just start talking, and our “trigger to search” technology has been nicely deployed by companies like Motorola that pioneered this “seamless voice control” in many of their recent releases. The seamless voice control really doesn’t add much cost, and with excellent engines from Google and Apple and Microsoft sitting in the clouds, it can and will be nicely implemented without effecting handset pricing.

Sensors are a different story. By their nature they will be embedded into the phones and will increase cost. Some “sensors” in the broadest sense of the term are no brainers and necessities, for example microphones and cameras are a must have, and the six-axis sensors combining GPS and accelerometers are arguably must haves as well. Magnetometers, barometers are getting increasingly common, and to differentiate further leading manufacturers are embedding things like heartbeat monitors; stereo 3D cameras are just around the corner. To address the desire for biometric security Samsung and Apple have the 2 bestselling phones in the world embedded with fingerprint sensors!

The problem is that all these sensors add cost, and in particular those finger print sensors are the most expensive and can add $5-$15 to the cost of goods. It’s kind of ironic that after spending all that money on biometric security, Apple doesn’t even allow them as a security measure for purchasing iTunes. And both Samsung and Apple have been chastised for fingerprint sensors that can be cracked with gummy bears or glue!

A much more accurate and cost effective solution can be achieved for biometrics by using the EXISTING sensors on the phones and not adding special purpose biometric sensors. In particular, the “must have sensors” like microphones, cameras, and 6-axis sensors can create a more secure environment that is just as seamless but much less difficult to crack. I’ll talk more about that in my next blog.