7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Opportunity: Smartphone owners in the U.S. have to constantly spend money on fixing or replacing their phones due to being built from materials that are fragile.

• Who: Smartphone owners 
• What: Smartphone owners must constantly spend money to fix or replace their phones
• Why: The smartphones on today's market are all leaning toward a slimmer, sleek design. With this phones are being made smaller, with lighter materials than before. This makes it so that the phones are now sleeker, however, they are not as durable and must constantly be replaced when dropped.

Testing the who: This need is not just exclusive to smartphone owners in the U.S. Around the world, people that own smartphones share this problem.

Testing the what: The boundaries for this need are the type of smartphone that user owns. iPhones tend to be more more fragile than smartphones made from other manufacturers, such as the Galaxy. However, as sleeker phones are becoming more popular, Galaxy phones are beginning to lose some of their durability as well.

Testing the why: Not everyone that owns a smartphone faults the manufacturers for using fragile parts. Some people believe that people should be more careful when handling their phones. Others believe that manufacturers build fragile phones purposely to have customers spend more on repairs/replacements and increase the number of warranties that customers buy. Lastly, some people just believe it to be an inevitable byproduct of producing sleeker phones.

Interview 1

This student says that he owns an iPhone that he has dropped and paid to get the screen fixed. He thinks that the phones are not durable enough and break too easily. He would prefer to have a bulkier phone that lasts longer to save money.

Interview 2

This person says he owns a Galaxy and it is in great condition despite being dropped. He believes that the phone is durable enough, if taken proper care of. He thinks all of the different protective options such as cases and screen protectors make it nearly impossible to have spend money on repairs for your phone anymore.

Interview 3

This student says that she currently owns an iPhone 8. She believes the tradeoff for having a sleeker phone is just a small price to pay. She prefers to have a phone that isn't bulky as it isn't appealing to her. She'll rather deal with having to get her sleeker phone fixed than having a bulkier phone that lasts longer.

Interview 4

This woman has owned several iPhones. She thinks that they purposely build them to break easily so that customers can spend money on buying replacements. She ultimately believes it is a scam, but enjoys the software too much to switch to using another type of phone.

Interview 5

This man owns a Galaxy S8. He bought it because it is made of materials that are waterproof and believes it to be reasonably durable. Though he has had issues with fragile phones in the past, he believes that the market is actually moving toward phones that are more durable. He thinks phone made with waterproof technology proves this.

What do I know about the opportunity now that I didn't know before?

I feel like I definitely have a clearer understanding of how people feel towards the newer designs on smartphones. Some people like the sleeker designs and are willing to deal with the fragility, while others prefer phones that ultimately last longer. However, I believe that building with phones with materials that are more durable doesn't necessarily mean giving up the sleek design. Like the man in the fifth interview touched upon, waterproof phones are a great innovation that has increased the durability of his phone. If smartphones can be made from stronger materials, yet keep their sleekness, I believe people will buy them.