Hi-Call
Gloves
Will this
product be adapted?
Product:
Hi-Call Gloves is a new product
from Hi-Fun, which is referred to as a “talking glove”. The Hi-Glove is a glove
that let you touch your smartphone or tablets with your gloves on, because of
the technology in the fingertips of the glove. Freezing fingers while trying to
text during winter should not be a problem any longer with this product. The new
and special features with this glove is that the left glow has a speaker in the
thumb and a microphone in the little finger, and a control pad on the wrist, all
this let you use the glove to talk to someone on the phone. They come both in
the color black and gray and for both men and women. This glove can be used and
connected to every mobile phone with Bluetooth. The battery can last up to 20 hours
conversations, and is rechargeable through a microUSB/USB cable.
Analysis:
As E. Rogers describes in Diffusion of Innovation, there are different variables that
determines whether or not an innovation will be adapted, and the relative speed
in which this potential adoption will take place.
I will first try to look at the cost and some advantages
that come with the Hi-Call Gloves.
There are not much cost other than the actual money
spent, that come with this product, although the price can seem to be quite
high compared to other hand-free earplugs or other Bluetooth hands free
products. It is easy to order online, and the price is around $65. That the
product has this price and is not very accessible in-store yet, might make it
harder for people to try it, just for the sake of trying it, but I don’t think
that the price should be a big problem. Considering the low total cost with
this product, the advantages should easily come into focus. The product is easy
to understand, so considering the low complexity the product is likely to be
adopted quickly.
The relative advantages that these gloves have
is that you no longer need to freeze your hands of when you text or talk on
your phone during the winter. Another advantages that can be seen among some
people is that you will look cool. How fun wouldn’t it be to use the universal
hand signal for talking on your phone, to actually do so? Like we all did when
we were kids and talked into an imaginary phone. But at the same time as some
people do think this will make them look cool, some and maybe most people will
feel silly and embarrassed walking around talking into their glove.
The other relative advantage people might see
with this product, is that there is no need for extra equipment to talk on your
phone without the actual phone held to your ear. You wouldn’t need earplugs or
other hand frees stuck to your ear, all you need to do is wear a different
glove, a pair of Hi-Call gloves. One occurring problem here is that it still won´t
replace the “old” types of hands frees. In summertime and even inside, who would
wear a glove to talk into? One of the main places people do use a their hands
free is in their car. Talking through their hand will not be very safe for
driving, so this is just an additional product to all the other already adopted
products to use outside when it is cold.
The compatibility with the social norms and
the Hi-Call Gloves is not very high. Most people have spent many year getting
used to people walking around and talking in hand frees, because it looked like
they were talking to themselves, and some people are even still adopting to
this. Bringing in the pretended phone from peoples childhood as an ok product
to walk around with in their adult life will take some time to get use to. To
be takes serious by the people surrounding you while talking through your hand
would be hard.
In todays society we are very interesting in
all new technologies that arrives on the market, and all equipment we can get
for our smartphones is somehow often see as necessary for a little while. This
perceived needs does often only stay for a short period. This is where the word
trend plays an important roll. Trends come and go, and a pair of Hi-Call gloves
is something I believe is more of a trend than a remaining product for everyone
to use. Getting some celebrities to start using it or other opinion leaders will
be a good step to get the trend rapidly going, and is very likely to happen.
I do think there are a few things that can be
questioned with their marketing strategy and what seem to be their targeting
groups as well. It seem like they do try to show everyone how useful this is
for not just some people, but everyone. They use people in their 20s and 30s to
be the users in their advertisement, and focus on a sporty lifestyle, where it
is perfect to use while skiing or participating in other sports. But a pair of
glows – that are relatively thin will not be very good to use in the snow, and
a pair of gloves that are not washable, unless you take them to the drycleaner
is also something I think is questionable when it is meant to use during
sports. The speaker in this glow is not very good either, so that mean that you
will need to hold you hand very tight into you ear, and you should not be in
very noise surroundings while using it, which limits the range of use even
more. Maybe if they focused on younger teens, which I think will be the people
most likely to try these products, the gloves might have a chance to be better
adopted.
I recon the whole idea of the product if cute
and fun, and I do think the product will get its chance, and be fast adopted
among quite a lot of people, especially younger people and maybe in cultures
like China and Japan where new technology products seem to be something that
most people care to try out. I still believe this only will last for a shorter
period of time, and that it will fade out when the trend is overtaken by a new
trend and product, because the need and advantages of this product is not big
enough to make the product stay on the market for to long.
References:
Everett M. Rogers: Diffusion of innovations, chapter 6
By: Marte Christine Bakken
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