I have been contemplating buying an iphone. Every time I meet an iphone user I gaze at their phone longingly, borrow it for a few minutes and check out what apps they have installed. “You mean it can recognise that song that’s playing right now? It’s got GPS? So where can we buy a pizza?” I guess it’s partly because I am a mac girl, but it’s really more than that. I long to have a more nomadic technological existence. Rather than carry my laptop everywhere I want to travel with an iphone and my livescribe pen. I’m sure my chiropractor would support me here.

But I’ve been procrastinating, and today I worked out what it was that was holding me back. It is all to do with the inability of New Zealand telecommunications providers to tailor a usage plan to meet my needs. I can buy an iphone at a cheaper price if I want to sign up for a two year contract. Trouble is this gives me a certain number of calls, texts and limited download capacity. Options are complex to interpret and advice slow. This model of customer service is so outmoded that I can’t even contemplate it. We live in flexible times. Times where we can tailor our own learning and where technologies change rapidly. So if providers can’t be responsive to my needs they have really missed the boat. Of course they can tailor the programme if I am a large corporate. But I’m not. I think there are lots of people like me who aren’t having their needs met. Collectively we are powerful. If we withdraw our support they will soon feel it.

The latest trendwatching briefing lists transparency of prices, opinions and standards as one of the most important current consumer trends. As they say, “reviewing is the new advertising.” So yes, I have been reading reviews, twittering for advice and researching the options.

What am I going to do? Within the next few weeks I will bite the bullet and buy an iphone. I’m not going to sign up to any plan that is not customised for me. I’m going for an option that I can change whenever I want and that is based on my needs. I haven’t quite finished my research – but I know what I don’t want. Nomads don’t want to be tied down.

Tags: information technology, think beyond

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Change Management, information technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.