Hello from the Blue Boar, Billericay
Tonight I’m moving — physically — to the new Mobile Industry Review Headquarters in Chiswick, West London.
Which means it’s my last proper opportunity to sample the delights of Billericay, Essex. If, for the Americans reading, the name ‘Billericay’ sounds familiar, that’s because it’s where it all started for you all.
The Pilgrim Fathers met in Billericay prior to hopping aboard the ship, The Mayflower, to the new world. You can read all about that in Wikipedia.
Billericay is a reasonably affluent area of Essex, forming part of the commuter belt that feeds the City of London every morning with bankers, insurance chaps and a heckuvalot of related financial people.
It’s an interesting town in which to observe the growth and influence of the mobile industry in the United Kingdom. Indeed, if I was to describe Billericay in mobile terms, I’d say it’s pretty much ‘triple-A contract’. That is, the majority of the populace spend at least 50-100+ pounds per month on their mobile handsets and do so on a contract basis. Pay As You Go is mainly limited to teenagers and one or two students. This is a free-handset-haven. Almost everyone on contract still very much expects — and is conditioned to expect — a new handset every year from their mobile operator.
There’s a Carphone Warehouse — a small one — serving the population. That only opened a few years ago and gets a degree of custom. It’s usually empty when I walk by though. That’s because most of the populace is accustomed to doing their mobile transaction business either directly over-the-phone with their operator or at the out-of-town shopping centres where you can talk directly with employees of Vodafone, o2, T-Mobile, 3 and so on.
Handsets are a status symbol — and although there are numerous Nokia devices to be seen, of late, there’s a ton more high-end Sony, Samsung and iPhone devices around the High Street.
Which brings me to the Blue Boar — a Wetherspoon chain pub, the largest in Billericay. Beyond 8pm, the pub is the social centre for the town’s youth, with the place frequently packed to the rafters with preening upper-Essex teenagers — and a fantastic time to observe the growth of the mobile industry. Prior to 8pm, the pub’s Beer-And-A-Burger deals (4.69 pounds) are hugely, hugely popular with a legion of retirees — the same who were severely unimpressed when I deigned to sit in the wrong seat the last time I was in the Blue Boar.
Back in September 2006, I popped into the Blue Boar to use the Wifi that every Wetherspoon offered. My internet wasn’t working and it looked like a good alternative.
Only, the Wifi wasn’t working.
I had to phone ‘The Cloud’ support and a bored sounding chap rebooted the router to get it to work. Back in September 2006, people were still emailing with problems related to Vodafone’s picture messaging service not working.
Fast forward almost three years and what’s changed?
Well, MMS, picture messaging — or whatever it’s name du jour — is now more or less reliable. Even if you’re an iPhone user. There are two other people with laptops sat in the Blue Boar using the free Wifi (it used to be chargeable — so nobody but me used it). There are mobile handsets proudly displayed on every table.
That, I think, is a real culture difference. Here in the UK, we generally like to put our handsets on display. Whether it’s for easy access or to simply show off, I’m not entirely sure.
I’ve spotted five iPhones. All either 3G (or possibly 3GS) models. The old retirees sat by the bar are regularly receiving phone calls from, one assumes, other old retirees. The super-crazy-loud default ringtones can be heard from miles away.
The lady sat opposite with me, feeding her 5 year old a veritable mountain of soggy chips, has been talking away on her modern Samsung for 40 minutes. Behind her, the chap in the suit has just finished what must have been a one-hour conference call on what looks like a Nokia E51. (He’s now tapping away on his Thinkpad).
To the left of me, the plumber — he looks like a plumber, painter, decorator, by the cut of his overalls — is nattering away on a first generation Nokia N95, whilst his wife is plugging their three children into a pint of Coke each. She has a touchscreen handset proudly on display. It looks to be either an LG or a Samsung. I don’t want to stare too much.
The elder-statesman-like chap and his wife, sat out in the pub garden, surprised me. With horn-rimmed spectacles balancing on the end of his nose, he flipped out a first generation iPhone and looked up a location on Google Maps. I’m not sure if he noticed that his device automatically logged on to The Cloud Wifi — I did, because the maps arrived too quickly for GPRS speeds.
A group of tweens — I think that’s the right definition — they’re of indeterminate age. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13? I don’t know and again, I don’t want to stare. There’s a group of about five or six of them sat at a round table each passing round a fairly decent Sony Ericsson and gasping in turn. From what I can gather, these were pictures from a recent party.
What’s annoying for me is that they’re still using their devices as phone galleries. Long ago, the networks completely 100% screwed the market for device photo exchange. These tweens or teens should be sharing their photo galleries a la Facebook on their devices. They *shouldn’t* be handing a handset around. How very much annoying.
I’m pleased though. I’m pleased to see that folk are actually using their mobile devices. I was shocked to see a Vodafone HTC Magic in the hands of one older teenage girl. She didn’t use it in my presence but that’s an interesting development. The most popular handsets on display by females here in the Blue Boar are overwhelmingly shiny. Shiny, sleek, silvery. And they all have good cameras.
I wonder where we’ll be in another 3 years. I wonder what the population of Billericay will be doing with their mobile devices in 2012.
There are still a disappointing array of ‘shitphones’ on display. You know, handsets that do nothing other than make telephone calls and send text messages. Hopefully those will be upgraded in time. I’d like to see what the population will make of the next generation of ‘connected’ devices.
Maybe nothing.
Maybe if you put an iPhone, an N97 and an HTC Magic in the hands of these people — NON mobile fans — what will it take for them to grab hold of the technology and start using it? At what point will that group of girls stop handing round a phone containing pics from last night’s party? Strictly speaking those pictures should have (for example) been sent to Facebook direct from the handset and consumed by the tweens at their leisure. Or, immediately.
What’s clear is that, aside from the iPhone users, there is next to no usage of applications going on. The phones on display here are being used exactly as their instruction manuals intended — the experiences have not been augmented to the user’s desire. Instead the users have wrapped themselves around the functionalities offered. Camera. Text. Calendar. Telephone capability. Possibly music functions.
In three years time, what kind of devices are the people of Billericay likely to be sporting? What kind of augmentation (applications or otherwise) will they have adopted? They’ll certainly have upgraded their devices a few times. Once at least, possibly twice. Will the majority be carrying INQ1-like cheap-but-capable phones? Will the handsets all be running Android with a smattering of Nokia? Will Nokia have blown the planet away with their next generation of tablet-cum-handset-cum-entertainment-gizmo? Or perhaps everyone will be sporting $49 Apple iPhone v6 devices?
We shall see. I shall aim to come back in three years and have a look.
