By Glen Burchers
Recently Freescale and some of our top customers and partners finished an industrial design project at Savannah College of Art and Design. We asked this top ranked industrial design school to do some smartbook research and concept designs for us. We assigned them the task of researching nine different demographic groups and then designing a smartbook that would best meet the unique needs of that demographic.
We learned some interesting facts from more than 1,000 interviews conducted over a 10-week period earlier this year. The most important finding was that for the use model targeted by smartbooks (internet access, content consumption, light applications) there is not a one-size-fits-all model. Different age groups have different needs and prefer some product differentiation to suit those needs.
I’ll be posting the results of those nine demographics and the resulting models here in my blog over the coming weeks.
The first concept product shown at the left and below is targeted at 12-14 year olds. When we analyzed the potential use model for this age group, the dominant factor in their lives after their school work was gaming. 70% of this age group already owns both a console gaming and a portable gaming device. The most common entertainment activity for both boys and girls in this age group is gaming. So, naturally, the concept targeted at this age group must have a gaming element. You’ll notice that the industrial design team concept shown has the familiar d-pad for gaming.
Likewise, this age group communicates primarily with SMS messages. 13% of this age group sends over 10,000 SMS messages per month. That’s not a typo. They actually send one SMS every two minutes of their waking day. Over 35% send at least 2000 SMS messages per month. SMS messaging is the reason for the thumb keyboard on this concept.
This concept is based on a 6” diagonal touch screen and the keyboard/d-pad slides out for use when needed. An optional dock is shown for charging and hands-free use.
Freescale has been sharing this demographic data with our customers. I won’t make any predictions about what types of products might come to market. But the data shows that the future has broad potential for a variety of smartbook form factors to emerge.
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One Comment
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
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