Wish you were here!
I took the Everun out yesterday for a full day and night tour. Apart from the day being a lot of fun, it was a big ultra mobile PC learning experience for me because as we went around Helsinki and stopped of in bars (including one completely ice-clad and kept at -18 degrees C) we took the opportunity to ask the general public what they thought of the Everun. I want to write about the experience in a lot of detail when I get back here are a few key points learned from people we gave the Everun too.
– Mini keyboards are useless for Women with nails. That’s covers most Women and its going to be a big challenge to consumer Internet devices.
– The Everun is heavy. That’s what people said. But when we probed a bit further its actually because the Everun is heavier than you expect for its size. It doesn’t matter that its a quarter of the weight of a notebook PC because if the customer picks it up and its heavier than expected, its heavy!
– The XP user interface is totally totally useless for a consumer Internet device. Not one person was happy to use XP. We need to learn from this. Simple interfaces are absolutely critical to the success of a device. If I had been able to demonstrate RedFlag Midinux or even Origami experience, the device would have been much more interesting to the end user.
– You need always-on Internet. Wifi isn’t good enough. People want instant Internet access.
– The most wanted application was email
– Media didn’t interest the people we interviewed.
– Women don’t think the Everun is particularly pretty.
– The Everun constantly gets compared to mobile phone. Its a terrible consumer mobile phone which makes the Everun hard to promote after this first impression.
I’ll have more time to discuss this later in the week but right now I need some time to think!
