The Hot Phone
Cell phones come loaded with all sorts of high-tech features these days, but the models people really want are the ones that look right. By TED OEHMKE
Photograph by Tom Schierlitz for The New York Times
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HE STANDARD In the early 1990's, designers at Motorola became aware of a seemingly minor trend: in Japan, people were wearing electronic gadgets as fashion accessories. Motorola had invented the world's first portable phone in 1973 -- a two-pound brick with 2,000 parts -- and been working ever since to winnow it down into a more appealing size and shape. Now the company had a new idea: what about a wearable phone?
Over the next four years, Motorola developed more than 90 concepts and cranked out 20 prototypes, eventually settling on a clamshell design; when flipped open, the handset had the balance and ear-to-mouth ergonomics of a traditional phone. Closed, it looked like a military-chic, space-age device, and it fit neatly on a belt clip.
The phone was dubbed Startac, and it hit the market in 1996, a propitious moment. Cell phones were breaking into the wide-open terrain of the U.S. consumer market, but the handsets available then had been designed for corporate users, made to look sturdy and reliable (although they usually were neither). The Startac was a fashion statement, and priced as a prestige product (about $2,000 a pop). It was small, but still conspicuous. "We wanted a phone that would be visible enough to express something about you," says Dan Williams, a Motorola designer. "It started as a couture product."
Product placements were arranged on shows like "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Friends" and were handed out by the dozens to Hollywood celebrities. Sources estimate that the phone sold more than a million units in its first year.
Startac's 1999 sales are projected to be 10 times as much -- it is so popular that its reign as the exclusive must-have phone is over. Though Motorola continues to add features and tweak the clamshell design, the Startac has become about as trendy as a Ford Taurus.
THE CONTENDER No single model is poised to dominate the field the way Startac has. Competition has intensified, and product-development schedules have been compressed; new models can be designed and rushed to market in as little as three months. The closest contender to topple Startac is the wildly hyped Nokia 8860, a relative of which was first glimpsed by American audiences in "The Matrix." That phone, practically a star in the movie, was a different model, but it triggered consumer interest in Nokia. When the 8860 arrived in stores months later, the pump was primed.
The 8860 was created by Nokia's chief designer, Frank Nuovo, who had previously designed cars for BMW. Although increasingly elaborate features, like Internet access, Palm Pilot applications and, soon, Global Positioning Systems, are being built into wireless handsets, emerging hot phones like the 8860 tend to be simpler machines. Like the Startac's, the 8860's appeal is based on aesthetics and feel; instead of Motorola's clamshell, the Nokia model slides open vertically. Its antenna is inside the phone, rather than sticking out on top, making for a sleeker appearance. And its shiny chrome finish doubles as a serviceable mirror, an added feature that Nuovo hadn't even intended.
While Nokia's phone may never rival the run of the Startac, its longevity as a status symbol will be aided by the continuing infrastructural mess in the United States. Unlike most parts of Europe and Asia, where a uniform digital platform was agreed upon years ago, five separate, independent systems battle it out for supremacy here. This is more than just confusing for customers; it has proved to be a serious drag on phone-design innovation. "Having five different standards forces everyone to go to the lowest common denominator in terms of design," explains Mike Isgrig, of the cell-phone maker Ericsson. "For every phone we put out for the American market, we have to make five different versions. In Japan, they would make five different colors."
THE SCRAMBLE The pressing issue for designers is, How much do people want in a phone? By the time the United States conforms to a global wireless standard (which should happen within five years), a wave of technological innovation will have flooded the marketplace. Features like voice-recognition capabilities that allow users to "dial" phone numbers may be common by then. To sort out who will want what, cell-phone makers have initiated a market-research blitz of almost unprecedented scale. Qualcomm researchers troll malls, trying to goad shoppers into participating in two-hour sessions about what they like and don't like in a phone. "Sometimes we get surprised," says Gina Lombardi, of Qualcomm. "We had a very large man in Denver a couple of weeks ago who took a liking to a tiny phone with a small keyboard. It's very hard to figure out who likes what."
Meanwhile, phone makers have spies on the streets, looking for fashion trends that might inspire the look of new handsets. A pilgrimage site for designers is the Akihabara district of Tokyo, a densely packed bazaar with hundreds of electronic shops. Small manufacturers use it as an unofficial test market, cramming shelves with new products to see what sells and what doesn't. "They try wild concepts you wouldn't see anywhere else," Nuovo says. "Things that we would draw up and discard, I then find in the market at Akihabara."
Of course, eventually, cellular fashion must go retro, and the coveted phone will once again be the Startac. |
