Ugliness (was Re: 10 PACK UPDATE!!!)

[Schmidt András]

I myself and all people I talked to think that that the black one has no 
style. Also the orange-white looks cool.

It is not a blocker for me but would be for an average user who is not 
Open fan.

Fancy color case is a must in the future.

Stroller wrote:
>
> On 25 Apr 2008, at 16:25, Lowell Higley wrote:
>
>> Nine out of ten "typical consumers" I show it to think it's ugly and 
>> wouldn't buy it because of looks alone.  If I show it to a techie 
>> type, I get the "what are the specs?" question.  Lesson?  To the 
>> consumer, beauty is only skin deep.
>
> This is typical of the consumer, though (and of the place the mobile 
> phone has taken in the mainstream, of "reflecting" the owner's 
> "personality").
>
> At the end of the day, there are a hundred mobile phone designs on the 
> market - and for probably this reason. Substantially all mobile phones 
> do the same thing - make & receive calls - and I guess appearance is a 
> primary differentiation. If your one consumer in ten finds the 
> Freerunner acceptable (or even, shudder!, attractive) enough to that 
> they'll buy it, then Freerunner surely has a far greater market 
> interest than most mobiles! It's all a matter of taste and I'll bet 
> there are very few phones on the market which would be _universally_ 
> considered non-ugly.
>
> We should also remember that OpenMoko is probably not aiming at the 
> "girlie" market, of consumers for whom appearance and daintiness is 
> the primary concern. I am reminded of a girl I knew two or three years 
> ago who was pleased with her new mobile - it was a small clamshell 
> design with a second screen on the outside; the outer screen showed 
> the time or, when it rang, the caller's name or number. A screen saver 
> was available for both screens - floating pink & pastel bubbles were 
> chosen.
>
> When making calls is the only function then I do like small phones, 
> but the aforementioned girlie phone had no features that appealed to 
> me over any of the other clamshell designs available on the market for 
> the past decade. The Freerunner is surely aimed to compete with phones 
> based on Windows Moble & Symbian - phones on which email, calendaring 
> & media playback are important features (it may even compete, then, 
> with the PSP).
>
> The Freerunner will be replacing a Sony Ericsson P990i 
> <http://www.cellphonebeat.com/images/p990i_.jpg> here - now THAT'S a 
> phone which could barely be more ugly, but nevertheless it sold well 
> on its features (and besides, ugliness is STILL only an opinion).
>
> Stroller.
>
>
>
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