By Hastings Research
Network World, 09/24/01
In our tests of wireless Internet devices, the default consumer-oriented configurations
of devices evoked feelings that ranged from confusion to annoyance
from participants.
Perhaps the biggest message that participants had for vendors
was how critical it is to preconfigure devices for the intended user group.
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In testing 22 devices over nine wireless access services
and six portals, we did not encounter a single device that was
suitably configured for business users - or perhaps any particular
user group. This is because manufacturers and resellers have piled
on Web-enabling software indiscriminately, either adding poor
quality Web access services, or bloating the feature set past
the users' tolerance levels.
For example, the Sprint/Qualcomm TP 2100 cell phones
came equipped with six flavors of e-mail service, including Sprint
"Short Mail," Juno mail and Yahoo mail. Survey subjects
were pleased with the option of pre-written messages such as "Will
return your call tomorrow" or "Meeting postponed until
_______," but were baffled by message options such as "Is
that your final answer?" and "Wassup?" Test subjects
continually said that the size of the e-mail feature set was mind-boggling.
The Research in Motion (RIM) pagers, by contrast,
only added one icon (Web access) to the normal set of features
(calendar, contacts, to-do list and others). In the case of the
RIM with GoAmerica access, users could reach URLs directly, so
when we asked subjects to use this device to search on Google
and other destinations, they found those sites with ease. When
they were then handed a RIM with more rigid and limited Yahoo
Access (Motient's Yahoo eLink pager), they expressed disappointment
with the experience, especially upon learning that the main search
option was Ask Jeeves.
The Palm VIIx's suffered exactly the same problem as the RIM
equipped with Yahoo. Users were so dissatisfied with the limits of Palm.net's
Web access, that when they reached the e-mail part of the study, one user
sent a message saying "Palm.net must die." Most of the problems
were due to an ill-advised factory-loaded application set, geared more towards
inexperienced consumers than business users.
The Jornada was a somewhat different case of bloat from the cellular
phones. Running on Windows CE already causes quite a bit of bloat
in its own right, making a PDA-like device look like a PC, only
with excessively more scrolling. There were so many preloaded
pages that it was often impossible to tell whether you were on
the Web or merely accessing a factory loaded page.
Additionally, the Jornada included many ways to perform the same
function, all of them slow. Users found themselves unintentionally sliding
between programs and losing their places. The typical attitude was that while
the interface looked appealing, it was too difficult to accomplish our prescribed
set of tasks.
One of our primary observations was that there is no one-stop
shopping for a Web site or portal that works across all types of devices.
For example, Yahoo was weak on the RIM, but worked quite well on the Web-enabled
cellular phones.
The lesson is that wireless devices must either be ordered with
a precise list of features and services, or significant reconfiguration
must be done in-house.
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