Upside Downturn

Anyone who knows me will know I’m a bit of a gadgetphobe. I dislike getting new bits of kit because it’s something new to learn how to use, it’s probably not as good as the thing it’s replacing (or worse, it’s not replacing anything in particular) and, let’s face it, it’s bound to go wrong and then there’s the hassle of taking it back to the shop or ringing up to arrange a return and then having to wait in all day for DHL to pick it up and then chasing it when it still hasn’t re-appeared in a month and then arranging another day to wait in while DHL deliver it to your neighbours…

So it’s no suprise for my friends to hear me being snooty about the iPhone and Similar Devices Too Small To Look At The Internet With. And how I sneered at the advert about Apps: The things that let you know where to go out to eat, or calculated how to divide the bill between friends just made me angry as they all seemed to be over-engineering solutions for problems that don’t really exist, or making stupid people think that they can work something out that would be easier if they just gave it a go themselves!

And then the text at the end – oh no. ‘Some steps removed’. I’m sure anyone who has ever done anything on the net will know exactly what that means; a horrific drag just to find and download the thing, then learning about the app and then actually going through the process of using it. And who knows what cretinous user interface designers are out there that have been allowed to make apps or what marketing data they all try and get off you. But then the last app that had come up on the screen made me stop mid-rant and take notice.

It was for a spirit level – presumably using the iPhone’s motion thing so you could tell if something was level or not. Now, there was a real use for the technology and for people who need it would be as handy as could be. They wouldn’t have to remember to take a spirit level with them in case they needed it, and for people in the habit of taking one anyway – they would now have that useability within their phone! Wow! Now I was excited by the possibilities!

This happened again when I saw on TV an app used that was a decibel counter. Sure, limited in it’s everyday application for most of us, but for people that need it a huge saving in money, and another great use of the technology that the phone uses anyway.

This all started a big chain of thought for me and I re-read what I’d written about technology a few weeks ago for this blog. That was looking at new technologies in a negative way like I was doing again when I started watching the iPhone ads. But the lesson is that there are people out there who instead of just seeing something as new and complex and as costing them money are thinking “I wonder what else a microphone in a phone could be used for apart from talking into?”. And if those people aren’t making their fortune, they deserve to be. They’re looking at tecnholgies as the problem solvers and themselves as the solution finders.

These are the people who will survive not only the recession but probably also take the same aproach with life and all it’s problems and breeze through that as a result. I want to be more like them and see opportunity where I used to see complication.

andy marketing, strategy