Golfers have a term for it “Drive for show, putt for dough.” And the MID’s on display at SXSW from the Mid Moves team certain had that same characteristic. While the shapes and looks of all the devices caught people’s eye (especially the Mbook), that was only enough to catch people’s eye.
What it took to close the deal was to see the Mid devices running something that they could relate to. This was where the devices running Windows XP had a serious advantage, as they presented a familiar interface to those who had a go with the machines. I’m a believer that you can only change one thing at a time on a new device – with the change in scale, it could be too much of a shock to the system of a new user.
That’s why the Linux based devices, while stylish and suited to working on the move could prove to be a step to far for the average consumer. Yes, most techies will be happy using something non-standard, but that’s not going to reassure people walking into a store or stumbling over a demo.
What the SXSW crowd are used to is the mobile internet service Twitter. More specifically, a third party application called Tweetdeck that shows multiple views of Twitter information on a single screen. And the almost universal reaction when something that people use almost constantly (Tweetdeck) on a small, portable, sexy device, is a mixture of awe and lust.
Placing something familiar in the form factor of the Mid devices lets people ask vital questions, like what can I run on this device and what will I be able to do with it, rather than will it run the software I want to. Even though the various OS distributions have web browsers, variants of open offices, and email clients, those aren’t enough for people to be in their comfort zone, which they need to be to buy a device.
Show them their life on a new device, and they’re sold.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
sad really, how little interest people have in experimenting.