Samsung Electronics (2012)
In Southeast Asia, mobile phones are abundant, but data bandwidths scarce & expensive. Side-loading apps & content is a way of life. People stay “connected” by supplementing their (pre-)paid connectivity with their offline people network. To the extent that sharing tips and exchanging content has become an integral part to one’s daily social activity. The Robin Hood concept proposes an “offline smart” phone that rides off people’s social behavior and facilitates the face-to-face exchange and consumption of content.
Neighborhood Tech Forum, where Ready-Content is Social Currency
Afternoon tea time at neighborhood cafes is a major part of people’s social lives. It is also where people recharge their gadgets, logon to free WiFi for Facebook and other heavy-lifting work too expensive using pre-paid credits. As people get together, they also share their knowledge and recommendations related to gadgets. In most matured markets where people have historically used PCs and where network bandwidth is abundant and cheap, tech discussions happen mostly online on established forums, and file sharing on Torrent or other P2P platforms. Nonetheless, in developing markets, where mobile phone is effectively the first computer for many and where network bandwidth is scarce and pricey, tech discussions happen face-to-face, and file sharing on USB stick and other physical media alike.
Due to the dramatic rise of mobile users that continues to outpace local governments' ability to increase bandwidth supply, we predicted that content sharing in person via physical media will remain a dominant norm, representing an opportunity for UI overhaul of existing smartphones designed primarily for matured markets.
