I was among the first ones who preordered Jolla phone on May 13. Finally, couple of days before Christmas, the phone arrived. The company promised to deliver the phone to the early birds before it was going to hit the markets. But what happened.
Fail #1 - forgetting the early adapters
The company forgot it's first backers. Part of the early adopters, pioneers, who had eagerly waited the phone got it LATER than the phone arrived to the DNA's (Finnish mobile phone operator) shops. Fail which sounds not a big deal but is bigger than it's size.
Never dissappoint your fans. They are the ones who write the early blog entries on the user behaviour and since they are the early ones they are perhaps more eager to forgive the early bugs.
But if you do not get what is promised. You start to use your device with more critical view. I was the one who received the phone late. I was pissed off the fact that I had paid in advance a certain amount of the device and the company forgot to send the phone to me in time. The people could get it earlier from the shops than I got that from the post.
How did the company react?
Fail #2 - when you make a mistake in the market, apologies might not be enough
I sent an email to Jolla's customer service when I had not received the phone. All I got was apologizing email which sent condolences and understanding for the fact I was dissappointed to the company's handling of the case. And all they promised was clearer communications in the future and thanked for the support for being early supporter.
Good thing was that they apoligised the handling but the error was that they should have invented a funny incentive or "pay back" for their **** up. "Kissa kiitoksilla elää", as they say in Finnish.
Fail #3 - Unfinished product. Too many promises, too few or them kept
Since I was not among the early users I did what was the most obvious in this occassion. I put the phone to the most extreme user test ever - gave it as a Christmas present for my spouse. She is all but early adopter - laggard I would say. Anti technical, anti technology - but appreciates devices which are easy to use and fast to learn.
What happened?
You could not give the phone to the hands of someone who is not familiar to use technical devices. User interface, haptic feedback and learning curve is very phone. What do you think of technical device you need a week or two to learn the most basic functions?
As a technical person as I could call myself, I can see the promises of the device but it does not work for the mass market. For instance, when I tried to explain "multitasking" to my spouse, what were it benefits and how it differs from the other devices - so what. What are the real benefits of it? How do you explain it to the [wo]man from the streets? There's something for the marketing department. For instance, what are the obvious benefits of the multitasking for the surfing in the internet: it makes it faster and you can for instance update your "bookmarked news page" without actually opening the program and obsiously saving time (+ that you can have many of these windows simultaneously open). But that just isn't enough.
I wonder whether the development guys of the company ever handed out the device for someone who is not fond of technology and could be called as a laggard.
I claim they would have learned more by watching couple of hours how my partner tried to learn to use the phone than after spending months in development meetings. When do the old Nokia engineers learn that you do not design phones to fellow engineers but to the consumers?
Now, after two weeks my spouse seems to have learned to use her phone. I'll update later her comments for the phone, pros and cons, here later. She is an old Android and Windows Phone user. So, please, come back and check out the update.
Fail #4 - where are the OS updates?
I know the company is small but in early phases it would be important to serve your current customers and provide updates. The phone has many small and big bugs: screen does not turn around according to the device's position, but what comes to the battery life, my partner does not consider it to be dramatically different than it was in her Lumia.
Fail #5 - other half is missing - but a clean and nice design
The design of the phone is lean and classy. Also the sound design is pretty nice as well. But the benefits of "the other half" - big fuzz but there wasn't anything in it yet. I hope the company succeeds better in rolling out the other half than it was with the device itself.
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| Product packgage |
Fail #1 - forgetting the early adapters
The company forgot it's first backers. Part of the early adopters, pioneers, who had eagerly waited the phone got it LATER than the phone arrived to the DNA's (Finnish mobile phone operator) shops. Fail which sounds not a big deal but is bigger than it's size.
Never dissappoint your fans. They are the ones who write the early blog entries on the user behaviour and since they are the early ones they are perhaps more eager to forgive the early bugs.
But if you do not get what is promised. You start to use your device with more critical view. I was the one who received the phone late. I was pissed off the fact that I had paid in advance a certain amount of the device and the company forgot to send the phone to me in time. The people could get it earlier from the shops than I got that from the post.
How did the company react?
Fail #2 - when you make a mistake in the market, apologies might not be enough
I sent an email to Jolla's customer service when I had not received the phone. All I got was apologizing email which sent condolences and understanding for the fact I was dissappointed to the company's handling of the case. And all they promised was clearer communications in the future and thanked for the support for being early supporter.
Good thing was that they apoligised the handling but the error was that they should have invented a funny incentive or "pay back" for their **** up. "Kissa kiitoksilla elää", as they say in Finnish.
Fail #3 - Unfinished product. Too many promises, too few or them kept
Since I was not among the early users I did what was the most obvious in this occassion. I put the phone to the most extreme user test ever - gave it as a Christmas present for my spouse. She is all but early adopter - laggard I would say. Anti technical, anti technology - but appreciates devices which are easy to use and fast to learn.
What happened?
You could not give the phone to the hands of someone who is not familiar to use technical devices. User interface, haptic feedback and learning curve is very phone. What do you think of technical device you need a week or two to learn the most basic functions?
As a technical person as I could call myself, I can see the promises of the device but it does not work for the mass market. For instance, when I tried to explain "multitasking" to my spouse, what were it benefits and how it differs from the other devices - so what. What are the real benefits of it? How do you explain it to the [wo]man from the streets? There's something for the marketing department. For instance, what are the obvious benefits of the multitasking for the surfing in the internet: it makes it faster and you can for instance update your "bookmarked news page" without actually opening the program and obsiously saving time (+ that you can have many of these windows simultaneously open). But that just isn't enough.
I wonder whether the development guys of the company ever handed out the device for someone who is not fond of technology and could be called as a laggard.
I claim they would have learned more by watching couple of hours how my partner tried to learn to use the phone than after spending months in development meetings. When do the old Nokia engineers learn that you do not design phones to fellow engineers but to the consumers?
Now, after two weeks my spouse seems to have learned to use her phone. I'll update later her comments for the phone, pros and cons, here later. She is an old Android and Windows Phone user. So, please, come back and check out the update.
Fail #4 - where are the OS updates?
I know the company is small but in early phases it would be important to serve your current customers and provide updates. The phone has many small and big bugs: screen does not turn around according to the device's position, but what comes to the battery life, my partner does not consider it to be dramatically different than it was in her Lumia.
Fail #5 - other half is missing - but a clean and nice design
The design of the phone is lean and classy. Also the sound design is pretty nice as well. But the benefits of "the other half" - big fuzz but there wasn't anything in it yet. I hope the company succeeds better in rolling out the other half than it was with the device itself.
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