Sat, April 26, 2008
So, you walk up to your bus stop, scan your phone and through GPS it tells you how far the next bus is from picking you up.
This is the concept being tested at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The idea, I think is brilliant. It’s useful and should be easy to use. So, why hasn’t this been a runaway success? Well, for many of the same reasons many mobile campaigns are facing challenges. Not because consumers don’t want to interact with services via mobile device – it’s because there are unnecessary boundaries in the way. First, in this case, there is a software issue. To get the bar code scanner on your phone you need to download software for it. This is a big ‘no-no’ if they expect masses to use this service. Second, is the lack of understanding of cost. There is a cost to using the service and, for many, people aren’t sure what that actual cost will be. There is too much of a risk.
Both of these hurdles to using the program come down to key issues I have with the phone carriers. Data plans are both too expensive and often too confusing for consumer to know what you are paying for. Second, a streamlined software/reader will need to be put in place if we ever expect to use the mobile phone as an effective device to reading bar codes.
It’s a shame. I think consumers are starving for ways to make their life easier and would be more than happy to use their mobile phone. There are just a few unnecessary boundaries which I am optimistic will get out of the way soon enough.
If you have a select group of people (like subscription theater’s, etc.), you might be able to get your patrons to download software for their phone if you could create applications that make their experience a better one. It will be a challenge though. For now, we are bypassing the ‘scanning’ by having consumers ‘text in’ for services which seems to have work well so far.
Read more about Case Western case study here.
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