Granny-friendly smartphones

21/02/2012 — AndroidZoom

A while ago it was released that Prince William showed his granny, the Queen, how to use social networks. Surely, you have found yourself in the same situation with your granma who after getting used to them was able to reconnect with childhood friends or (if the woman is a widow and young-spirited enough) spark again the flames of love with her old teenage sweetheart. She would be delighted and amazed with the so-called “technology progress” instead of ranting about how difficult the whole thing is, right? Once old people has learnt the basics of some gadgets or applications is easier for them to see the advantages technology brings to their lives. But, first of all, those products must be accesible and easy to understand to make that learning possible in any circumstance, because you won’t always be there to help your elder ones. Mobile devices are a classic example of this.

For mobile manufacturers, simplicity and usability has always been a must, especially when it comes to reach the over 55-year-old target in the market. It was like that in the pre-smartphone era and it is like that now in this deep blue see of touchscreen devices and apps. While most devices are becoming more and more sophisticated, pushing the boundaries of design and software, manufactures seems to stop that progress when they made products to cover the old age. Tacky design, big, thick buttons and fewer features ala Alcatel One Touch Easy are still the main parts of a trinity in which simplicity overshadows everything else in order to achieve a good perfomance by old people. In our opinion, this implies a high risk of exclusion and, most importantly, a handicap to improve 55+ smartphone usage. Let’s ilustrate this point with some lovely data.

According to Nielsen last report, related to the third quarter of 2011, 55-64 age group reached a 30% of usage in the United States while 65+ oldies figures drop to 18%. These data are far way from the commercial groups: 18-24, in which the penetration rate is 54%; 25-34, with the highest numbers (62%); and 35-44, with almost the same result as the young adults slot (53%). In the middle of nowhere is the 45-54 group, that reached an 39%. But what is most striking is the evolution of this figures from the last quarter of 2010 to the last quarter of 2011: every age group grew an average rate of 15%, with exceptional cases located precisely in the elder slots. On one hand, there is the most promising growth in the 55-64 target that practically doubled the results of 2010 (from 17% to 30%), but on the other hand, there is a much less ambitious improvement in the 65+ group with just an 8% of difference in between (from 12% to 18%). Still, this latter one is a great figure for only one year, but it pales in comparison to rest of age groups.

So, what to do? Simply (or challenging) as to reach a balance and making more intuitive and more battery-wise durable devices adapted to old people’s needs but at the same time keeping the smartphone fancy design. This is not a matter of buttons vs. screens, but a matter of combine the best of both worlds in order to introduce a supposedly reluctant audience to a new landscape of possibilities that may improve their everyday life. Said possibilities, of course, also have to come in app packages aimed to this purpose. In Androidzoom you can already find tons of game apps targeted to children and parents as creative games to keep them entertained, so it would be excellent to find something similar indicated for their grandparents. Mind games to work out mental and arithmetic skills are not breaking news, but so it would be an app that allows them to monitor their pill plans, schedule their next doctor appointments, or even record their medical history. In short: something handy that allows them to be as independent as possible. Or doesn’t your granny or granpa sometimes shush you to let them stand up by themselves?

Mobile companies, app developers and public and private institutions have a great playfield to work on and keep innovating.

Mar G.P. is our latest incorporation as editor and reviewer. She’s taken it seriously.

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BCN MWC 12 is coming!

08/02/2012 — AndroidZoom

Dear AndroidZoomers:

Although February doesn’t seem the right month to enjoy sunbathing, sangria or Gothic art in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s a reason of force majeure to make a trip to Barcelona. By this I mean Barcelona, Spain. That is, that I’m not talking about Barcelona in Philippines, either Barcelona city in Venezuela, but Barcelona city in Spain instead. Before you ask, I can tell you in advance that there aren’t bullfights or flamenco saraos there. Barcelonan people use to talk about themselves as if they weren’t Spanish and they have nothing to do at all with Spain.

As we could say on a Facebook relationship status, it’s…complicated.

I would be able to talk about the wonders of Barcelona all day long, but it’d be better if we come back to the beginning.

Mobile World Congress 2012 will take place at the end of February. It promises to be an event so big, so wonderful and so related to the guts of the wireless industry that it well deserves we post an article about it.
It’s, in case that I haven’t been clear enough, the most important event about smartphone technology. Companies and attendees all over the world come to show off their not-yet-released prototypes, their not-yet-launched apps and, overall, every single not-yet-for sale whatever stuff will be there. There are some exceptions, though. Samsung claimed that they won’t present their Galaxy III, but maybe we can put our hands on a Nexus Galaxy S; nearly every smartphone manufacturer will bring their quad-core Android gadgets. HTC and Samsung are to be the most expected, but Asus, LG, Huawei and Fujitsu (!) have also confirmed their assistance. In fact, Fujitsu promised to bring an Android model with a 13Mp camera and both dust and water proof.

We also expect to big game developers to be there. Rumor has it that there’s an unholy alliance between Rovio (Angry Birds) and, brace yourselves, KISS (I was made for lovin’…) so there we’ll have the chance to ask if Seasons will change its course and if there’ll be an Angry Birds Movie or what. We’re sure that Gameloft, Glu and EA will charge their artillery somewhere within App Planet, that is the name where developers gather and where the best conferences will be held. Stay tuned.

Without mentioning the appearance of BlackBerry 10 and the penultimate Nokia attempt to save its skin with a Windows-powered smartphone; new and -we hope so- longer life batteries, bendable keyboards and unscratchable screens. Everything served with some canapés and cava (Catalan champagne). MWC12 is like a window to the near future where we, as professional androidnauts of the Androidverse, can understand where we are and where are we going.  More than seven hundred fifty thousand square feet (70,500 sq meters) of Mobile World Congress can offer a lot unless we have to dig a hole deep enough to protect ourselves from a falling meteorite (you know, 2012’s stuff).

Peter Warrior

-aka Pedro Guerrero is AndroidZoom’s editor-in-chief,

though he often wants to give free rein to his creative urge and writes an article about whatever related to Android.

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Is it a man’s world?

02/02/2012 — AndroidZoom

It’s been widely proved by statistical studies that most Android users are men. Why is that? Is it because of the brand’s advertising focus or its lack of it? Is it because of the appearance? It can’t possibly be because of the functionalities, can it? Let me ramble a little about the reasons of this feeling of Android as a bastion of manhood where it should be the inverse, if only for the benefit of speculating a little and thinking out loud. Perhaps someone in the industry may catch an idea or two.

Android advertising campaigns are apparently sending messages that don’t attract many women and consequently don’t make the devices appealing to them (us). The phones are seen as mini robots, simply machines that work well and fast, always useful and practical. But shouldn’t this be the main purpose? I definitely think so, although there’s always someone who believes otherwise. If I were a Samsung, HTC or Google publicist, maybe I wouldn’t dare to make a women-oriented ad, but a “it doesn’t matter who you are” ad instead. Android ads should be more similar to Google’s rather than mixing a summer song with too-pretty girls doing too pretty things.

On the other hand, they say women prefer iPhones for the design, but don’t Android phones have an excellent design too? They might be different from what people are used to consider “pretty” but in the end, it isn’t like we’re on a runway. We’re supposed to want something else from our phones and devices, something besides looking good while we carry it. If that’s not your case, though, you’re probably not the target anyway. There are even those who say that iPhones are easier, more intuitive, more usable…I don’t want to make a speech for Android, but I actually believe that bitten apple’s marketing has soaked through and rooted deeply.

Think about this: when we sit around a table to have a tea, every guest puts her mobile on the table, usually in front, on the right, becoming somewhat halfway from a piece of cutlery and a deliberate symbol of status. Of course, we women have embraced the utter usefulness of smartphones, but when I look around I still wonder how many girls think about them as little more than fashion accessories. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t guys doing so, it’s just that unfortunately, once again, the general trend fetches a whole of outdated topics we should eagerly leave behind. We could say that the smartphone industry has inherited all the flaws of the past hi-tech industries. For example, have in mind videogame industry, which traditionally have been mostly played by men and they say that’s another possible reason, as Android is popularly known for its huge list of games. But is it really the same with mobile apps? Studies have proved that women do download apps, they play casual and puzzle games as well as men and they use organizer apps in their daily routine,  so that shouldn’t be an issue nowadays.

As for what an Android does, it’s becoming quite clear that these devices can do practically anything so it can’t be a matter of functionalities. Think of something, anything, and there will most definitely be an app for it or someone somewhere planning on developing one. Trust me, I put my hands on tens of apps per week. The market is growing quickly and the continuous updates make the use of Android devices essential, necessary and turn them into practically an addiction for the everyday use. It makes you wonder, how come I could live without it?

So the question remains unanswered and the final results don’t make much sense. What we do know is that here, in our editor team, there’s not one but two girls, trying apps, reading and writing about Android. We’re sure there are many others out there and possibly as passionate as we are, so let this be a call to all of them.

Anna G.

( When she was ten, she dreamt about becoming a 50s Hollywood star but arrived 50 years late.

In the end, she realized that it was easier to work as a writer at AndroidZoom.com rather than buy a time-travelling Delorean. )

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A ‘Black Hole’ called Android (I)

19/01/2012 — AndroidZoom

This is part one in a two-part series about why smartphones are becoming our main tech devices.

A black hole is a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape (Oxford Dictionary definition).

No intention of sounding pretentious, I cannot help thinking that a similar phenomenon is already going on with smartphones over other devices, electronic or not, that used to be part of our lives. Thus, there’s an ongoing process of integration of lots of tasks that, until now, required different devices to carry them out. For example, calculator, GPS, notebook, PC’s, camera, mp3 players, physical maps, agenda, books…

The assimilation of that issues has been only possible thanks to the smartphone apps. That’s probably the best gift that Steve Jobs has bequeathed to humanity due to all what it implies. Android took that idea and turned it upside down to give it back open-sourced aiming to be the actual catch-all OS.

The apps are the mean to provide our smartphone of new functionalities, as we used to do with our PC’s by installing software. The main difference lies precisely on the mobility. Ok, it’s true that laptops are also mobile. However, they aren’t as mobile as smartphones are (you cannot bring a laptop in your pocket, unless you have a big one). In a nutshell, the smartphone is the natural consequence of the technological evolution of the last times. First, came the revolutionary PC, then the spreading of the Internet, next we assimilate both elements in our lives to the point that we needed to carry them everywhere, so the laptops came up.Smartphones rid ourselves of the laptop’s backpack and then we met real mobility with no leaks on technological potential.


So, here we are. Size doesn’t matter anymore. What users expect from manufacturers is enhancing current hardware constantly (battery, graphics, screens) and, what they expect from developers is to provide their smartphones with more and more new functionalities that allow them to empty their pockets of gadgets. And that’s where apps come in, as virtual gadgets into an all-in-one mobile device: your Android. Users want it all, and want it now. Are out there developers willing to cover that huge market niche?

This is the first part of the article. The second part will be post tomorrow, 20/01 Friday: a compilation of must-have Android apps that free us from only-one-task devices.

Posted in AZ Week, AndroidZoom, Apps, Developers, Games, Google, Opinion, Reviews. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . No Comments »
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