Tech guru Nicholas Negroponte told the Zed Symposoium that feature pile-up in phones is "out of control".
The founder of the MIT research labs was the star speaker at the conference organised by Spanish value added services specialist Zed. He addressed around 200 delegates from over 30 countries.Negroponte described the complexity of phones as 'ridiculous', attributing it to the desperation of handset companies to retain RRPs in the face of falling technology costs. He referred to Moore's Law, which states that costs halve every 18 months.
"Simplicity is the biggest challenge that handset makers face," he said. "Some devices are so packed with features that they are becoming charicatures." He also believes power consumption needs a re-think. "Why can't I just shake my phone to get a few extra minutes when the battery is nearly flat?"
Meanwhile Negroponte urged operators to explore ways to get more SIM cards into users' hands. "They must stop thinking of ARPU as a per-SIM card idea and think more about ARPU in terms of their customers. Get multiple cards out there!"
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