Is convenience factor overrated?

Next time someone tells you 'convenience' is the key factor influencing consumers' decisions, grill them for evidence.

For many years, Personal Technology has been one of the most innovative and fastest developing industries on the planet – and, this is likely more visible in Asia than anywhere else. That is why it comes as a double-surprise to see some pretty old tech inventions sticking around so firmly with Asian consumers.

Every day, I see scores of people on the streets doing hand-gymnastics with their smartphones: one minute they keep the phone flat (horizontally) in front of their mouth, while pressing their thumb onto the screen; and next minute, they move the phone's edge to their ear, still holding it flat (horizontally). And then, they repeat the sequence: mouth plus finger, ear; mouth plus finger, ear; etc.

For the uninitiated readers: the above describes typical behaviour among users of smartphone apps that utilise decades-old push to talk and half-duplex technologies to offer 'free calls' over mobile data services. These apps work walkie-talkie style: press the button on the screen and keep your finger on it while speaking directly to phone’s microphone (this is your ‘push to talk’ element); release the button when you are done talking -- otherwise, you won’t give the other party a chance to talk back; listen to the other party speaking -- in the ‘speakerphone’ mode (this is the ‘half-duplex’ part); repeat.

The telephone handset -- combining a microphone and a speaker into one (handy) piece of equipment -- was invented in 1877, and subsequently, widely adopted at the dawn of the 20th century. Both the wired and wireless phones as we know them today have been using this form-factor for decades: you grab onto the handset (wired or wireless) and conveniently keep it on the side of your head, so that you can speak and listen at the same time (that is ‘full-duplex’ for you).

Yet, after more than a century of constant and accelerating progress, people still choose the odd hand-gymnastics with their smartphones… Clearly, there must be some very compelling benefit to these apps which makes the 21st century consumers give up the physical convenience of using their handsets the way they were designed to.