My lists were as follows. The new phone I would purchase should have the following features: Qwerty keyboard, MP3 player, camera with sufficient megapixels and a zoom in/out option as well as video recorder, Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, personal organizer (i.e. alarm, reminders, calendar), sms and mms.
2. The features for my grandparent’s phone are as follows: Camera with flash, calculator, large enough buttons, big screen (high resolution) and big buttons.
Most students did not have a problem with my lists and concurred with it. I did however pick up a few things I did not agree with and some that I did agree with. I picked up that a few of my fellow students included in the list for their grandparents the Bluetooth feature. I for one believe that the list should be made bearing in mind that the majority of elders are not technologically advanced as young people are.
One of the features that the majority of my fellow students agreed on was the large buttons/keys that should be on our grandparent’s phones. This is a vital feature as the larger buttons/keys are easier to see/use and it is a whole better to navigate the phone with. I do however think that it is possible for grandparents to use touchscreen phones. As long as the phones dimensions are large enough, they should have no problem using touchscreen phones. But the fact still remains that large buttons/keys is the way to go with regards to our grandparent’s list of features.
A feature that I did not include in the list for the phone I would purchase is GPS (Global Positioning System). This, I feel, is an important feature that should feature on phones of today. It comes in handy when you have meetings to attend and you are not certain of the location. And it is also best to have it feature on your phone than to buy a GPS device which will set you back a few thousands of Rand. So at the same time you will be saving money with this feature on your phone.