Voice-only devices preferred by corporate buyers: Indaba

Cameras, MP3 players and Internet connectivity may be popular cell phone features for many handset buyers, but a portion of shoppers want less glitter and cool - they seek basic, voice-only devices. This is the conclusion from Indaba, a division of London ON-based IT consultancy Info-Tech Research Group. In a survey of corporate cell phone buyers – people who purchase phones for their workplaces – the firm discovered that a significant number value basic functionality over fancy features.Indaba learned that a whopping 62% of IT purchasing managers are opting for traditional, voice-only cell phones instead of the feature-laden devices that manufacturers and their channel partners are peddling. This should be something of a wake-up call to handset makers and carriers, says Ed Daugavietis, a senior analyst at Indaba. "They need to understand that a large part of the market isn’t interested in features….These buyers want high reliability, low features and a really good price." Price is an aspect that sets these feature-eschewers apart from other phone shoppers, Daugavietis says. "Price is extremely important to this group. Some of the other buying criteria such as feature richness and feature availability were ranked very low in the voice-only phone group." Price sensitivity also coincides with the amount of money these corporate buyers are shelling out, Daugavietis says. "We noticed there’s a whole different buying dynamic for this group….They reported paying about $100 a handset, whereas buyers of data-enabled phones were averaging $200 a handset."And voice-only shoppers expect different things from their purchases than feature seekers. "Reliability was rated much lower by the portion of the population looking for feature-rich phones," Daugavietis says. But the research results raise an important question: where, exactly, are the voice-only cell phone buyers getting their handsets? Most manufacturers provide nothing less than a Web browser on their devices – voice-only functionality seems hard to find. Daugavietis did some personal research to find out for himself how easy – or difficult – it is to purchase a handset that only has voice functionality and doesn’t come equipped with a camera, MP3 player or data functionality. He decided it’s not easy at all. "I know there’s nothing out there that’s voice-only. Everything has a browser, or messaging capabilities or a camera." Perhaps some cell phone shoppers don’t quite understand that although they’re not using the handset’s Web browser, for example, that doesn’t necessarily mean the phone lacks the feature. "I believe they are buying phones like that, and they either don’t know it or they’re not admitting it," Daugavietis says. Nonetheless, by Indaba’s reckoning a large part of the corporate phone buying public seeks low-feature, highly reliable and inexpensive cell phones to dole out to end users, and manufacturers would do well to heed the trend. "For the vendors, perhaps a larger share of the market than they appreciate is looking for low price," Daugavietis says. Most of the cell phones offered by Nokia Corp. to Canadians feature cameras and Internet connectivity. Many of them also provide Bluetooth connectivity, and some act as MP3 players as well.But last month Nokia unveiled the 2855i handset on Bell Mobility’s network. This business-minded phone sports Bluetooth so users can link the phone to a printer and run off presentations. Users can also send and receive text messages via Bluetooth to cut down on connectivity costs. The phonebook holds 500 entries, and each entry accepts five phone numbers, an email address and a Web address. The phonebook includes a field for notes as well, which could work as a personal customer relationship management system for salespeople. Note that the 2855i does not have a camera, does not play MP3s and does not connect to high-speed WANs. "It is a stripped down phone," says Paul Chapple, Nokia Canada’s GM. "It very much fits with the Indaba assessment. When Bell looked at it, they said, ‘This is what we need in our B2B channel.’"Chapple points out that the 2855i’s features are designed to impress businesses and business users, so it includes the increasingly must-have Bluetooth connectivity, which helps companies ensure that if employees insist on driving and making phone calls at the same time, at least their hands will be on the steering wheel. But inasmuch as the Nokia 2855i has features businesses might like, other phones have features and functionality that enterprise buyers don’t want to see in a device – the most notable being a camera, Chapple says. Indeed, IT security experts have been sounding the alarm about camera phones for some time now, pointing out that these devices are perfect for snapping pictures of confidential documents and smuggling the details out of a corporation. According to Nokia’s GM, it is possible for a cell phone manufacturer to turn a profit making stripped-down handsets, but "we certainly wouldn’t want it to be our only business; it’s important that we balance that with our high-end, feature rich products." Extenuating circumstances, such as a manufacturer’s profitability, might keep voice-only devices from making a big return to showrooms. According to Daugavietis, handset providers must walk a fine line between appeasing both the feature-seekers and the price-choppers who want little more than cell phones that provide voice connectivity.

Voice-only devices preferred by corporate buyers: Indaba

News | September 8, 2006

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