Strategy/The Narrative

Emotional attachment to technology and catalyst apps

Posted on by charlie

Another day. Another discovered note.

I heard Nick Jones from Gartner give a talk a while back. One thing he said regarding emerging markets that stuck with me was that (I don’t remember the exact quote) ‘Folks with no emotional connection to technology just use it. Emerging market players can experiment. There is no emotional connection to existing biz models’ to hinder product use or uptake.

He also made a characterization that I constantly use when looking at products, which he called ‘catalyst apps’. Catalyst apps are the apps that convert the non-user to a user.

I guess this is for the folks who do have an emotional attachment to some tech or biz model.

I kinda view it as the cross-over metaphor, one that folks understand and can transfer to, say, a mobile device.

For example, email and browser use are metaphors folks understand from the fixed desktop Internet world. But the potential of Internet connectivity from mobile devices goes way beyond that. Therefore, we need to use email and browser use as the metaphors to hook folks on mobile Internet use and only then offer them apps that go way beyond that.

Make sense?

The Narrative

Engadget reports that over 200 million Nokia 1100s have been sold

Posted on by charlie

I’ve written about this phone before – when it was picked as the billionth phone Nokia sold (in Nigeria), when Nokia announced that they had sold 100 million of them a little over a year ago, and when commenting on the amazing growth of subscribers in Africa.

Yeah, we work so hard on fancy high-end super phones. But, let’s not forget the hundreds of millions who just want to be part of this Hyperconnected Age.

A voice-SMS phone is then more than enough.

Link [hat-tip to Peter B]: Nokia’s 1100 handset: over 200 million served – Engadget:

You heard right, this low-end candybar has put the 100 million iPods, 50 million RAZRs, 10 million Chocolates, and 115 million PlayStation 2 consoles to shame in terms of sheer units moved.

I think the Nokia 3300-series phones also sold over 100 million. And now the Nokia 1600 is selling briskly. What about the seven phones just launched in India. Will any of these be the next to top the Nokia 1100?