People Don't Buy Smartphones, They Buy the Experience and the Feeling

All engineering involves choices, and that is true of all smartphone design as well.

Perhaps one of the background pressures is the desire to create devices that perform reasonably across a range of functions.

But that might not be a formula for success. A recent study by Interpret might suggest that instead of balancing features, it might be better to "unbalance" and produce a device that is demonstrably better at one thing.

Though one can argue we are early in the adoption cycle, a panel of consumers indicated that the Palm Pre made them feel "smart," "trendy, hop or cool," and "productive" within some range of acceptance for a smartphone device.

The problem would seem to be that Pre scores highest on the emotional attribute that users say is least important of the top three. The Pre produces emotions on the "hip" and "productive" scale that make it analogous to the BlackBerry Storm.

The bigger problem is that the Pre does not produce unusually high key emotions on any of the top three most important measures smartphone buyers say are important to them. BlackBerry and iPhone probably are the best models. Each of them scores unusually high on at least one of the three key emotional drivers smartphone buyers say motivate them.

So maybe designers should forget "balance." So far, no single smartphone unit scores unusually high on the "it makes me feel smart" measure. The iPhone owns the "hip, cool, trendy" space. The BlackBerry owns the "it makes me feel productive" niche.

Smartphones are bought because of the "feelings" they produce, not the features they provide. As the saying goes, smartphones "sell an experience."