HTC’s Rhyme Designed to Appeal To Female Demographic
In an overcrowded market just aching for something fresh and exciting HTC has designed a phone with specific attributes meant to appeal to women. One major example of this design strategy is a charm that attaches to the phone that is meant to be dangled outside of the owner’s purse. This charm will light up when there is a phone call or text. Despite its heft price tag and contract requirement, the android-powered HTC Rhyme is predicted to be the biggest hit in the teen girl markets from age 10-15.
By Rob Spiegel
Though the new HTC Rhyme smartphone’s specs don’t exactly stand out in the crowded Android field, its design and accessories appear to target a distinctly feminine demographic. “If you’re in marketing or advertising and you have a smartphone client, you have to be wracking your brains to come up with new ways to differentiate your product and market,” said analyst Laura DiDio.
Here’s a smartphone designed for charm. The HTC Rhyme for Verizon actually has a charm designed to dangle outside a purse. It lights up to tell the owner when there’s a call. The phone appears to target teenage girls — that is, except for the price point of US$199.99 with a two-year contract. Perhaps a tad pricey for the very young. It comes with three accessories: a dock, headphones and the charm.
While Verizon’s Droid was positioned as macho — remember, the ads called the iPhone “prissy” — here’s an Android-based phone clearly designed for women. HTC is promoting the phone for its style.
The Rhyme runs AndroidGingerbread on a 1 Ghz single-core processor. It has a 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera. The Rhyme also has a revamped version of HTC’s Sense, which consists of a clean home-screen, custom wallpapers and enhancements to the camera app. The Rhyme will be available globally with Verizon as its exclusive U.S. carrier. It launches September 29.
Broad Market?
While the Rhyme seems tailored for females, Verizon insists it has appeal for a larger market.
“The target audience is fairly broad,” Verizon Wireless spokesperson Brenda Raney told TechNewsWorld. “It is intuitive, sleek and comes out of box with a host of accessories that make the experience easy and quick.”
The phone does make a clear style statement, Raney conceded.
“Certainly, a fashion-forward person will love the look and feel of the device,” she said. “And of course, those who are Android fans will love the phone because it ships with the latest Android operating system.”
Read the full article here
