May 24, 2006 Sharing...when can it be too much?! Posted by at 09:39 AM | Categories: Innovation, User Observations

I was in Vienna this weekend, riding public transportation, and observed something that I haven’t seen yet in Helsinki…young kids are listening to music from their mobile devices and they are sharing the experience with their friends. Here’s the problem for me: they are listening to it in public spaces and I don’t necessarily want to listen to their music--especially if it’s competing with others talking on their mobiles or listening to their music (even with earphones, you can still hear “something”).

I know this problem is elsewhere in other European cities, e.g. London, and there have been public responses to this (and, in turn, some new rules that “prohibit” these behaviors). But it forced me to think about this: there are users who would like to share their music with their friends; they want to do this anywhere, anytime and, most likely, with no restrictions. My guess is that this doesn’t stop with music--users will want to share anything and everything (e.g. pictures, MMSs, video clips etc). So, the bottom line is that there is an obvious need yet to be met…how can/will/have developers respond(ed) to this need?


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Comments

Surely the solution to this problem in the future will be Bluetooth headphones.

Posted by: Gimbo | May 24, 2006 03:59 PM

Bluetooth headphones then need to be able to connect with the same "source device". In other words, a mobile phone needs to enable two headsets to be in use at the same time.

Posted by: Riitta | May 25, 2006 01:42 PM

I'm not sure that it's just about sharing music with their companions. You might find that to a large extent it is also a show of identity to other people around them. It's a bit like wearing a particular style of clothes signals that they are members of a certain peer group. This being the case you'll find that bluetooth headsets and headphone splitters won't be used by the; these would miss the point of the display.

Posted by: Adrian | June 20, 2006 10:31 PM


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