getFreshMinds.com | Ideas so fresh--they should be slapped!

Should you be making connections, or breaking them?

Not long after I started my Creativity Challenge, I realized something ironic. 

• One one hand...
  JibberJobber, the prize for the contest, is designed to help you strengthen connections.

• On the other hand...
  The Random Word exercise, the contest itself, requires you to destroy connections.

Whoops!

Actually, it's not as bad as it sounds.  The Random Word is actually about escaping current connections to search for new ones.

Here's why.

The more times our brains thinks of something, the easier it is to think of that same thing again.

That's why we study for tests, and why it's hard to stop thinking about a new romantic interest, and why I can still recite a children's poem I learned at the age of ten.

But it's not so great for creative thinking.

Basically, what happens is that the human brain connects a problem with a solution--and then every subsequent time those problem/solution pairs are connected, the stronger the connection gets. 

Then, when the brain is asked to solve a problem, it jumps right to its usual solution.

That's why car companies always think faster, bigger, more powerful, more expensive when they design new cars.  It's why cell phones are all moving towards becoming mini computers.  It's why I always want to make pasta when it's my turn to cook dinner.

Even though other possibilities C to G are out there, our brain automatically goes with this established A-B path.

And the Random Word technique is designed to get in there, stop the normal connection-making, and bust the possibilities wide open!

You'll know exactly what I mean when you go to my contest and get a random word.  Your mind will be happily trying to think of new ways to improve a car... when your random word will come up something crazy and completely unrelated. 

Like SHARK.

Immediately, your brain will screech to a halt, going "WHAT? What in the world do "sharks" have to do with improving a car???"

You'll think it's impossible.  You'll think I'm cruel for filling the Random Word Generator with absurd words.  You'll hate me for doing it on purpose!

But, then something will click and an idea will come up. 

• Like incorporating a cartilage-like material into cars to make them less like to break and shatter in accidents. 

• Or studying how the shark's scales move water to figure out a more efficient tread system for tires.

• Or something else that makes sense and results in a new idea.

What happens is that the Random Word doesn't allow our brains to go from A to B anymore.  In fact, it makes us start at completely-related point C.

Then, because our brains are so used to making connections, they frantically run over every aspect of Random Word until they find something that can be related to the problem at A.  Then, BAMM, a new connection is made.

The Random Word technique starts our thinking outside the "normal" connections, and then solves the problem by connecting backwards.

The process isn't as neat as going from A to B, but it does work. Just ask the 13 readers who have already successfully made connections in my contest.

Or better yet, go try it yourself!

And, maybe you'll not just win with all the new creative connections you make, you'll also win the JibberJobber subscription so you can make connections with real people too!

Your challenge... if you chose to accept it.

How many connections can you make?  How many new ideas do you have?

Last week, I was awarded a "You Get It" award by Jason Alba of JibberJobber for having so much fun writing this blog. 

This is great because Jason's letting me give away 6 months of his premium JibberJobber service to a commentator on this blog.

So, what's this prize about?

JibberJobber is a tool that you can use for your personal career management. Experts tell you to do all kinds of stuff, and it's hard to keep track of it all.

 

will help you:

• Manage and keep track of network relationships. It is your personal relationship manager for your career.
• Organize and keep tabs of target companies that you apply to, or want to apply to.
  
• Track jobs you apply to - when did you interview, did you send a thank you letter, etc.?
• Prepare for interviews. Put in elevator pitches. Put in responses to questions.
  
• Store important documents like resumes, cover letters, reference letters, etc. Track where you use these and who you send them to.

Jibberjobber is also great for keeping your job-search material organized and available anytime.

How can you win it?

Simple, all you have to do is give me one idea. I'll even tell you how to get it!

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to use a Random Word to come up with "fresh ways to improve cars".

It takes only three quick steps to be entered to win...

1. Get a Random Word.

Use the generator below.  The word should be completely unrelated to cars. You have to use one of the words that comes up.

2. What is the first thing that comes to mind about that word?

Don't worry if it doesn't feel related to the problem!  That's the idea!

3. How could that turn into "a way to improve a car"?

Any idea is great, especially if it's wacky.  I want fresh ideas beyond faster and more powerful.  Let your random word bring you somewhere completely different.

Just write it in the comments (with the random word that got you there) and you're done!

Now, get started!  Your Random Word is:   

   

       

(And, trust me, all the words are hard.  Just go with the first one you get.)

If you need some help starting your thinking, go to Do You Have Trouble Being Creative? for examples about using this technique.

UPDATE: The contest is all over, and the winner has been crowned.

If you'd like to see the fantastic ideas people entered in this contest, they're here:

Ways to Improve Cars - Ideas from the Random Word Contest (Part 1)

Ways to Improve Cars - Ideas from the Random Word Contest (Part 2)

Many thanks to everyone who participated!

(Random word generator comes from Paul McFedries)

Do you have trouble being creative?

It's one thing to think of new ideas when your brain is on a creative roll, but what about those days when you're completely stuck?

In my experience, I've found that it's not enough to just go outside my normal physical setting when I'm stalled--I have to actually jolt my brain out of its normal paths of thinking.

Sounds great, Katie... but how do you do that?

Simple.  All it involves is a single Christmas light, some wires and a power outlet.  (JUST KIDDING! Please don't don't try this at home.)

Many times, people recommend going to a different place, doing something daring that you've never done before, or letting your hair down and playing games like a child.  But while I love a good ball crawl and long to go on a creative get-away, sometimes it's necessary to be creative without leaving your everyday routine.

So, here's my suggestion for getting fresh ideas everyday: Learn some creativity techniques!

Try Lateral Thinking, get a Whack on the Side of the Head, or bring out the ThinkerToys.  And it's not cheating.  There will always be ideas that jump out of nowhere, but it's a lot easier and more productive to use creativity tools to jump-start your thinking!

Here's an example of how one creativity technique can bring up new ideas and start your thinking in another direction.

Your Challenge: To Improve the Car

What you'll probably think about first:
Unsurprisingly, your brain is probably jumping automatically to the ways car companies already improve cars.  Something like improving the handling of the car, or giving it a bigger engine, or making the interior more luxurious, or similar things.

The problem is, everyone has those same ideas and unless you can think of something completely new, you won't gain any advantage over your competitors.

Now, I'll show you how the Random Word Technique, one Lateral Thinking tool, can open up new possibilities. 

Rationale: By thinking about a completely random word that is not related to the task, our brains make new connections.

 The Challenge: Improve the Car.
Random Word: Frog

Sounds completely ludicrous, right? How can thinking of a frog help you to think of ways to improve a car?

• Except then you might start thinking about how some African frogs can change sex. What if you had a car inside that could be customized even more exactly to genders of your customers?
  
  Or maybe the car could be customized for their lifestyles? Suddenly you have many more add-ons that you could sell for a premium, and the potential of a marketing slogan like "your car, your style".

• Or maybe your mind went to how frogs jump. What if the car had the ability to jump over traffic? That's not physically possible, or legal, but what's another way that it could be done?
  
  Perhaps the car could instead be fitted with a traffic monitor and city map that can direct you to non-busy roads. That's now possible with Google Maps.

• Also, frogs change from tadpoles to adult frogs. That could lead to two ideas right off the bat...

1. What if you had a car that was able to change size? Many people buy larger vehicles because they need to haul things occasionally. Yet they mostly drive around as the only passenger in their car.
   
   What if the car had a stylish attachment for when the driver needs more space--that could be taken off when it's not needed and the driver wants to conserve gas?
   
   
2. OR, what if the car could change from childlike to grown-up? Many parents let their 16 year olds drive their cars.
   
   What if there was some sort of parental control (that could be enabled by parents) that didn't allow the car to go above a certain speed and allowed the parent to monitor where their kid had been?  Or how else could a car change ages?

• Another thought: frogs are amphibians and some amphibians change colors. What if you had designed a car that was able to change color?
  
  This could perhaps be done with heat-sensitive paint so the driver would be able to judge the temp of the car just by looking at it. 
  
  Or perhaps the car could use some sort of image technology that the driver could use to change the color according to their moods ("I think I want a blue car today."), or car dealers could even create at service at the car dealership to help customers customize the outside of their car without going to a separate painter.

• Frogs also catch flies, swim, climb windows, croak/sing and ( sometimes) turn into princes.  What ideas come from those?

That's just one creativity technique, and I was able to come up with all those ideas in just 10 minutes. Of course, not all of them are actually viable--but they do expand thinking in a new direction.  It's no longer about handling, speed, or luxurious interiors!

Plus, this whole process can be repeated with a completely different random word to head off in another direction.  It's very amazing how many different ideas our brains can come up with when they get a nudge in a new direction!

Please share your own ideas based off this word, and come back tomorrow.  I'm holding a creativity contest and there's a prize!

For anyone who is interested, Edward de Bono just published a new book with tons of exercises using the Random Word technique.  It's called How to Have  Creative Ideas. (or UK link)

(Frogs from Sean, Robert, Alexis, Gary and Andrea. Car from Emma.)

When doesn't it make sense to supersize your product?

Have you ever tried to bathe a cat?

When I was younger, it took three of us to wash my cat. 

She would grab at anything within reach, and resist every attempt to keep her in the stove.  Later, she would follow us around for hours because she thought we were mad at her.

The last time I bathed our current cat, she grabbed onto my sweater so tight that the only way I could get her off was to wiggle out of the sweater and surrender it to the sink.

No, washing a cat is not a pleasant experience! 

Which is why every time I see cat shampoos in stores, I wonder what grooming supply companies are thinking!

I've seen containers of cat shampoo up to 20 ounces in size!  At the least, they're the same size as the regular human shampoos.

It's not that there's anything wrong with the large shampoos... it's just that one bottle could last for half a decade in the hands of a regular cat owner who bathes their cat only a couple times a year.

And it's not good for the pet owner, who ends up storing a huge bottle of shampoo that is barely used.  Nor is it good for grooming supply companies, who saturate the market with such big bottles that they're reducing future demand for their product!

So, I'm asking, why not put the cat shampoo in travel-sized containers?

Travel sized containers would be good for owners.  Takes up less space in the cupboard, prevents feeling guilty about trying a new brand when the last one is still 3/4th full, and they feel like they're paying less for shampoo because less goes to waste.

And it would be good for the grooming supply companies.  Not only would they sell a larger volume of shampoo, they could charge higher prices for the smaller bottles.  Instead of selling a 16oz bottle for $8, they could sell a 1oz bottle for $1.50.  Plus, instead of a one-time sale every decade, the grooming companies would have much more constand demand for their product.

Any thoughts?

And just in case you need a refresher on bathing a cat, check out this video!

(Clean cat photo taken by theogeo.)

Why they just don't care...

4 out of 5 customers agree... calling a company's customer service line is a frustrating experience.

5 out of 5 companies agree... they don't care.

The last time I helped my parents sign-up for a cell phone plan, we were the lucky recipients of 3 defective (but brand-new) cell phones.  Even after following the activation directions to the letter multiple times, I couldn't get even get one to work.

So began a 3-day long adventure of customer "service".  After a significant amount of time trying to get through to a human, multiple long waits, 5 different people telling me 7 times the exact same directions to activate the phones--and numerous wishes for a punching bag--one customer service rep finally admitted to me that my new phones *may* have been shipped without any software.  As a result, they simply couldn't be activated!

Happily, they were able to send us new phones in just a couple days (that worked right off the bat).

But why did it take so long (and so many activation requests) to figure out the problem? 

Quite simply, because I was no longer a priority to them!

Let's face it, when we sign-up for a cell phone service, it ceases to be about us the moment they charge our credit cards.  We don't need to be wooed anymore and they don't need to convince us that they're a great company to use.

From that day forward, they can count on 24 months of constant paychecks and the luxury of knowing they can charge us fees for choosing to change to another provider too soon. Many customers even receive network-specific phones, and others will lose their telephone number if they change providers.

They have us right where they want us.

Now that we're stuck in a 2-year contract, the courtship is over.  And that's why calling customer service lines can feel like torture.  They have all the power in the relationship.

So if bills are wrong, or mysterious charges show up, or the service simply doesn't work in an area... it's not the company's problem.  It's up to the customer to get issues resolved because the company doesn't care if people get what they're paying for.  They make money when customers don't contest extra charges, or when customers pay even though the service doesn't work for them.

In response to (multiple) comments on her post about Sprint, Becky Carroll writes:

I have a sneaky suspicion that Sprint call center reps are doing when they are incented to do: get customers off the phone quickly. Until companies change their metrics to be more customer-focused, it will be very difficult to see true customer resolution of issues...

...The telecomm industry has a very high turnover rate, mostly due to the fact (I believe) that customers are “hold hostage” to their carrier or cable company. Many times, there are not a lot of choices, or customers are locked in with huge fees for leaving...

...Sprint did not value the customers it fired, for whatever reason.

Of course they don't.  Why should they bother making changes when the majority of their customers are shackled to their service agreement? Plus, poor customer service is an industry standard in the US cell phone business. (Even though Sprint is rated as the worst.)

In Sprint's view, they have no incentive to change to a more customer-focused system.  Until they really feel negative results from their behavior, they’ll probably just continue what they’re doing.

 

After all, "With over 53,000,000 subscribers, Sprint will feel no pain over losing 1,000 "demon" customers."

(By the way, the only way I reached a real live person when calling the helpline was by clicking through to the sales department and pretending to be confused!)

More ideas about improving customer service calls.

The last couple days have been fun thinking about ways to make the customer service experience less painful for both companies and customers.

If you haven't read them yet, please go check-out Does thinking of customer service as a negative blind companies to new opportunities (Part I) and Part II.

But, the best part has been when readers have written in their own thoughts about customer service problems--and jump-started my thinking in new directions!

James Todhunter of Innovating to Win commented that when he calls RCN with issues, he hears a recorded message that says "We are experiencing higher than expected call volume" and then is faced with a long wait. 

Although it's good that the company tells him that many others are ahead of him, the following message "Your call is very important to us" sounds like a blatant lie when the company is always overloaded and does nothing about it.

Some ideas that came from James' comment...

• What if customers were able to see the estimated wait time online before they called?
  
  Most of the time, people just pick up the phone without realizing that 500 other people are calling on their lunch breaks too.  As a former restaurant host, I know that telling customers right away how long they have to wait lets them decide whether they want to or not.  It should work the same for phone service.

• What if customers needing service could sign-up for email or text message alerts when the call volume is low and the wait is short?
  
  Customers would then be able to find out when it is the best time for them to call in, and the company would be able to maintain higher call volume in normally-slower periods (and thus reduce wait time in busy periods).

• What if customers calling the customer help line could "take a number" and then the call service would call them back when it was their turn?
  
  This would give callers a chance to do other things while they were waiting and not have to stayed glued to the phone.  Plus, the teeny extra step of calling the customer back would make customers feel that the company was taking an extra step.  And phone companies need to know the phone number of the customer in order to help them--calling up the account screen and calling the customer could be a combined step.

Doug Meacham of Next Up says that it would be best if customers didn't have to wait for customer service at all!

Although Doug obviously doesn't understand that customers always have had to wait for companies to get around to serving them, that it's just the way things are done, and that no one likes people who come up with crazy ideas... (just kidding, Doug!)... his radical statement makes me wonder how that could work.

Some initial thoughts...

• What if the company specified online the types of issues that could be resolved through email, and reduced call-ins to more unusual problems?
  
  The advantage of this is that many issues can simply be resolved through a couple minutes on the computer system.  Thus, customer service reps don't have to spend as much time talking, and the issues could be worked on outside of regular business hours. (Potentially overseas to reduce costs further.)

• What if customers could book appointments to speak to customer service representatives?
  
  This would work really well for both customers and the company.  Customers would feel that they were being treated well and were respected by the company, while the company would be able to schedule those service appointments during the slow-call-in periods.
  
  
  
• What if customers didn't feel like they were waiting?
  
  Perhaps customers could choose between different types of hold music to get one they liked, or the hold system let them listen to a radio station, or sports results.  Who said that waiting for customer service had to include sterilized elevator music and irritating advertisements?

Any more thoughts and ideas?  Please share them below!

Must all quality ideas be brand-spanking new?

Where do your ideas come from?  Are they out of nowhere, or have you seen them before...somewhere else?

The other day I came across an interesting post on the BQF Innovation blog about how many good ideas have been adapted from things people see in other areas.  I've been meaning to write a post expanding on it, but hadn't developed it yet.

So, it was a real pleasure yesterday to get an insightful comment from Kent Blumberg that demonstrated exactly what I wanted to write about!

In response to my recent posts challenging the idea (held by many companies) that customer service is bad, Kent writes...

This reminds me of Fujitsu's approach to help-desk operations (as reported by Jim Womack and Dan Jones in "Lean Solutions", (Free  Press, 2005).

Apparently, Fujitsu gets paid a set annual fee to run help desks, rather than getting a fee per call.  That gives them incentive to fix problems permanently, thereby reducing the number of complaints.

Very interesting.  First of all, it brings up the point that there are people who benefit from repeated calling about the same subject.

If a company uses an outside call center and pays a fee per call, that call center has no motivation to actually work to solve the company's problems.  In fact, the more times customers have to call, the more the call center makes.

But the better part is that Kent opened his mind up to how companies in other industries are dealing with the same problem.  That's actually rarer than you'd think. 

It's amazing how many experts in one field focus only on happening in that field, and miss similar developments (that could help them) in other arenas.

In fact, the US military is a prime example of this.  Until very recently, the Navy, Air Force and Army each required completely unique designs for their planes despite sharing many of the same requirements.  And the Pentagon just ordered the Army and Air Force to develop their new unmanned aerial vehicles (which were both being made by the same company) together, instead of individually.

Paul Sloane's post Adopt, Adapt, Improve shares some historical examples of innovations that have come from adaptation. 

Did you know that:

• The idea for roll-on deodorant came from the ball point pen?
• Velcro was inspired by burrs tangled in a dog's fur?
• The telephone was modeled after vibrations made by the human eardrum?

It's amazing how being open to seeing parallels in other fields can lead to new solutions for the same problems.

As Kent suggested for Sprint's case, it may be as simple as changing the focus of the problem.

Going from:
"Customer service is costing us too much--so we need to get rid of existing customers"

To:
"We have this amount of money to spend every month for customer service--what can we do to reduce call volume?"

This may not seem like a huge difference....

Except the call center now has an incentive to get problems fixed and out of their hair.  It's to their advantage to make sure each customer's issues are addressed in the first call, and that the same issues don't reoccur every month.

It's the difference between requiring customer service reps to field customer problems versus requiring them to solve customer problems.

I would be very interested to see how this idea would work out.  From what Lean Solutions reports, Fujitsu has had a lot of success in reducing call center costs and increasing customer satisfaction by focusing on fixing reoccurring problems and locating the underlying causes.

Special thanks to Kent for his comment and for tipping me off to an interesting book!

                                                            Tunnel photo from Walter.

Does thinking of customer service as a negative blind companies to new opportunities? (Part 2)

It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this blog that many large companies hate giving customer service.  To avoid talking to their customers, companies outsource, automate, and even (if they're Sprint) send break-up letters to their most challenging customers.

But is customer service the horrible beast many companies make it out to be?  Or do opportunities lurk just past its frightening exterior?

Yesterday, in Does thinking of customer service as a negative blind companies to new opportunities (Part 1), I challenged the belief of companies like Sprint that customer service calls are negatives that should be avoided.

Here are a couple more "What If" questions that Sprint should be asking.

Question 3: What if Sprint benefited from customers calling the service line?

Many many companies spend a lot of money on market research, paying big bucks to find out what their customers want.  They do surveys, gather focus groups, and pay other companies to tell them what customers are saying.  It's not an easy thing for them to get quality input.

At the same time, customers calling the service lines are often faced with long, boring waits where they listen to elevator music and head the same advertisement over and over and over.

Hmmm.  Can something be done to improve both those situations?  What if customer who called the help line were invited to help the company with a little market research while they waited?

Customers could complete a survey, evaluate a radio advertisement for its effectiveness, or even share their ideas with a representative.

Although many customers would do it for free (just to avoid the horrible hold music), the company could offer incentives to increase participation.  Perhaps a 10% deduction on their next bill, or a coupon code to buy phone accessories on their website, or maybe even a shorter wait?

Market research would get access to a large number of subscribers, customers would not be so irritated at the long wait and the company would be able to write-off some customer-service expenses as a development initiative.

Question 4: What if Sprint only paid for customer service representatives when they were needed?

One major disadvantage for large companies like Sprint is the cost of running a large customer care center.  Unlike restaurants, customer care representatives cannot just be "phased out" when call volume drops.  Call center workers expect to work their full shifts.

Or could a customer care center be run more like a restuaruant? What if Sprint changed the traditional call center structure to give it more flexibility in staffing by (a) decentralizing it and (b) hiring more part time workers.

(A) VoIP technology allows people to answer phone calls where ever, whenever with the same line.  This could enable Sprint to set-up many smaller call centers around the world that would all be accessible by the same number (which might already be happening) OR it could allow call center representatives to work from home.

Which brings up (B) hiring more part-time workers.  The issue with having a large center is that workers expect to have full shifts when they come in to work.  If workers are allowed to work from home, or from smaller close-by centers, however, they might be willing to come in for shorter shifts during peak hours.

College students might be very interested in a job where they could come in for just a couple hours to make some extra money.  Another possibility is stay-at-home parents.  Airline Jet Blue currently homesources its entire reservation service to approximately 1000 housewives in Utah who work an average of 25 hours a week.

By moving to a system like that, Sprint wouldn't have to pay for a full staff of customer service agents during their slow periods, but would still be fully-staffed during their busiest times.

So, there are a couple more ideas about how Sprint could turn their customer service calls into a positive.  Sometimes, even the "worst obligations" can harbor opportunities.

But... if Sprint prefers the monster, they are perfectly welcome to continue down their deep dark path to see what waits for them at the end.

Note 1: I say Sprint because they just grabbed headlines by firing 1000 of their neediest customers... but it could be any company that hates customer service calls.

Note 2: Special thanks to Thiago and  Jean for the Godzilla photos!

Does thinking of customer service as a negative blind companies to new opportunities? (Part 1)

Customer service calls are never pleasant, but it seems that many companies hate them even more than customers do!

Not long ago, mobile phone giant Sprint made headlines when they "fired" 1000+ of their customers for "excessive complaining".  Those "demon customers" were allegedly guilty of calling Sprint's customer service line too many times per month--costing Sprint more money to staff the service lines than it was willing to pay.

What is interesting to me is that Sprint (and many, many other companies) view customer service as the bane of their existence.

To them, customer service is expensive, time consuming, and frustrating because only the unhappy people contact them.  It's something to be shuttled to the bottom of the priority list, automated as much as possible, and outsourced whenever possible.

It's not something they try to put a lot of brainpower into.

But, let's try something different by putting on our thinking caps, asking some questions and looking for opportunities in customer service.

Question 1: What if Sprint welcomed customer complaints?

Customers rarely call companies to thank the company for doing something right.  Usually, calls result from something going wrong.  (Rocket science, huh?)

Well, what if Sprint or another company combined their customer service line with their improvement squad?  Then, when customers called in with problems, those problems could be noted and fixed.  Priority could be given to the problems with the most call-ins.

Although this would probably overload the company right away, in the long-term it would have significant benefits.  Customers wouldn't have those problems anymore and customer service reps wouldn't have to deal with common issues on a time-consuming individual basis.  Most importantly, by fixing the recurring problems with their service, the company would have a much stronger position in the market.

Question 2: What if Sprint used those calls as an opportunity to blow their customers away?

Imagine calling a customer service line, fully expecting be shuttled from computer voice to unhelpful agent and to have to fight for every little thing, and then hearing...

"We're so glad that you brought this to our attention.  Could you please tell me a little more about the situation so that we can fix it for you? . . . I just want you to know that we're also making a note of this issue and submitting it to our improvement office."

Wow.  Wouldn't you feel great to find out that the company cared about you and legitimately wanted to fix the problem? Wouldn't that company really stand out in your mind?

The truth is, no one wants things to go wrong, and no one enjoys calling the help line.  When most people do finally call customer service, they're expecting a runaround at best, and wouldn't be surprised if they end up with a customer service horror story.

There's a reason that so many people love Apple.  Not because their products are the best in the world, but because they work hard to make sure that every customer has a positive experience.

This is beginning to sound interesting, isn't it?  Who really sits down to think about how customer service calls could be a positive both for the company and the customers?  (Hey, stop pointing at me!)

But since most companies seem to view customer service as a bad thing, it's a ripe area for new ideas.  The key is to start asking questions.

Here are a couple more of the ones I'm thinking about:

• What if calling customer service was fun?

• What if Sprint benefited from people calling the service line?

• What if Sprint didn't have to pay for customer service reps when they didn't need them?

Continue to Part 2 for more ideas about how those "What if" statements could work.

And please share your own! What more "What If" statements can you think of?
 

What if cell phones headed in a different direction?

Everyone's excited about the iPhone and the other manufacturers who are racing to create the next generation of phones that will be better, faster, with more capabilities. 

Every year, phones are becoming more like miniature do-it-all machines.  Phones today have cameras, email, to-do capabilities, calendars, web browsers, mp3 players, file storage, music libraries, individualized ring-tones, video players, keyboards and even credit card purchasing abilities.

But, as the tech-enthusiasts are flying off into the future, and the rest of us are dragged behind (happily or reluctantly), is anyone asking if this if what people really want?

It seems to me that all the phone manufactures are simply charging down the path to creating feature-packed, extremely-expensive, quickly-obsolete mini-computers. 

While this is a great thing for some people, it's a bad thing for creativity. There's no real thinking involved, just the bundling of more and more features into a tiny package!

Personally, I'm not thrilled about carrying around a mini-almost-as-good-as-a-computer phone.  It's expensive, too small to use as a main computer but very big for a phone, and it has a lot of things to break.  Especially for occasions like running or going out, a feature-packed phone isn't ideal.

Apple fans, please don't attack me here!  I like the iPhone... I just don't like that every cell phone creator is now dead-set on creating a "better, more advanced" version of it.  The iPhone is fantastic because it questioned many assumptions about what people want in their cell phones.

I'd LOVE to see more of that!

For example, take a look at this fresh idea from the Sparkbugg Idea blog:

Although it's not considered very promising on the blog, I beg to differ. This idea has promise not for its specific as-is market value, but because it challenges our embedded concept of a cell phone.

Who says that cell phones have to be blocky, inflexible tools?  Why can't they be elegant accessories?

Think about it!  When the phone doesn't have to be a mini-computer, what else could be done with it?