I think most Americans look at their phones as disposable tools or, at most, fun toys.
But cell phones have become a much more integral part of the culture and economy of other countries around the world.
Tracking how the cell phone fits into the daily life of users in different nations is the job of Jan Chipchase, who says he does “design research” for cell phone maker Nokia.
A fascinating interview with Chipchase in NewScientist uncovers some surprising applications for the humble phone:
What uses surprised you?
In a country like Uganda, most mobile phones are prepay. What we saw was that people are using their phones as a kind of money transfer system. They would buy prepaid credit in the city, ring up a phone kiosk operator in a village, read out the number associated with that credit so that the kiosk operator could top up their own phone, then ask that the credit be passed on to someone in the village - say, their sister - in cash.
Often those observations lead to new product lines:
But, for instance, we did a study on phone sharing in Uganda and Indonesia, and within a year - which is really quick when you’re talking about hardware changes - we had two products out which support multiple address books, allowing people to share a device within a family or a company while giving them a degree of privacy.
There’s also an interesting slide show of photos from Chipchase illustrating some of the different uses or fashion trends for cell phones:
Via Slashdot.
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