Market Research
Phone Holder
Product Intro
The phone holder has become a hot commodity in recent years as cellphones become more prominent. Every Uber, Lyft, or Taxi you get into has one of this by the driver, used for directions and pricing. These products reduce the risk of crashing while monitoring directions and, if you drive for a ride share service, monitoring orders and requests. The idea is simple, the phone is placed at eye height along the dashboard or center console and holds the phone so the driver never has to take their hands off of the wheel. There are a few restrictions, they cannot hang from your rear view mirror, and they cannot obstruct your direct line of sight of the road (this means placed directly behind the steering wheel).
There are two main styles of phone holder, both commonly made of simple plastic with a variety of mounting options. The most common I observed in store were the suction cup on bottom, this allowed the mount to stick onto the windshield or dashboard, alternatively, an air vent clip so the mount can sit slightly lower on the dash and the user doesn’t have to deal with forcing the suction cup off the dash or window when it comes time to remove it. In the image above, on the left is a simple mechanical mount, while the right is a magnet mount. Mechanical mounts allow the user to stretch out the sides of the mount to fit their phone snugly inside and prevent wiggling as the car moves. It does this by constantly pulling those movable sides inwards. The magnet involves two magnets, one adhered to the back of the phone like a sticker, allowing a quick swap from mounted to in your hand with just a slight pull.
However there are some common problems. The mechanical mount does a great job of keeping your phone in place, but if you’re a user that is physically incapable for one reason or another, opening the mount can be difficult if you are trying to remove the phone, this means the magnet is a better choice for someone in that situation. However, the magnets can be seen as a nuisance, if you ever want to remove the magnet from the back of your phone or case, it will leave a sticky residue on your phone or case, and will no longer be sticky for the next phone or case.
Both of these products range in prices, some staying lower than $15 or $20 but can quickly run you $35 to $50 depending on what features you look for. The mounts that incorporate wireless charging will typically be in the higher price range while a simple mount that is just there to hold the phone, but has no rotational or movable capability will cost you around $10 to $15 in a big box store.
In Store Research:
Store #1: Target
Target played it smart and kept the car mounts with all of their phone accessories and chargers, but it was surprising to see that they didn’t have their own line of car mounts at a more affordable price point. Target carried a range of styles, brands and prices. The lowest priced car mount was the Magicmount ProDash by Scosche and was priced at about $25. Their main brands were Scosche, Iottie, Kenu, and TYLT. Scosche and Kenu held the most shelf space at this particular Target. As pictured in the top left corner of the image below, Scosche has paid for an ad spot using an image of their Magicmount ProDash. Target also had two or so signs about driving “hands free” next to all of the mounts and chargers to further emphasize the car mounts.
With all of these products they stuck to simple white and black color schemes for their products and packaging, but to stand out they all seemed to have picked a distinct color. As shown above, Kenu picked orange, Scosche picked subtle green accents, and TYLT picked blue. It seemed to me that these brands had looked at what was already out on the market and picked new and bright colors to contrast on the shelves.
Store #2: Best Buy
Best Buy, being a store with a focus on Electronics, had a much greater stock of products, but only seemed to carry about three brands. Iottie, Insignia, and Bracketron. Despite carrying three brands, Iottie by far had the most shelf space within the store, taking up about 4 shelving units full averaging about 24 items per unit. This led me to believe that either Iottie is paying Best Buy to place their products all throughout the store, or that Iottie products have been selling well, but now they have excess stock and are trying to get rid of it. Best Buy did offer the most variety in styles and designs despite lacking brand diversity. They offered products from about $20 but spanned all the way to $55 at the highest end. Unlike the options at target or Walmart, the high end options at best buy were able to be tried and tested without opening up the boxes and ruining them.
Best Buy organized the majority of their mounts within the cellphone section, near products like cases and chargers. This was seemingly done so shoppers could go from buying a phone to getting a case, but also while noticing the car mounts. Strategically, this makes sense, while getting a new phone the mount likely isn’t at the forefront of your mind, but when they place them by an essential accessory, the buyer is more likely to think about purchasing one so they wont have to come back again.
Store #3: Walmart
Walmart was significantly lacking in variety, however, they offered the most affordable mounts from the brand Onn at just $6. Walmart only carried 4 brands, consisting on the usual Scosche and Iottie, but also had two new brands, Onn and Blackweb. These mounts ranged from $6 to $35. They offered primarily mechanical clamp mounts with suction cups and had the most of those in stock. As pictured above, some of the nicer products were sparsely stocked and farther removed from the phone section when compared to the main display. The nicer ones also had more rips and dings in their packaging as pictured above on the right. Walmart seems to be targeting a different class of people with their more affordable selections while still offering pricier options for those who so choose. The high stocking with sales on most products leads me to believe that the products aren’t selling too well at Walmart and they are trying to incentivize people to buy the product so they can free up the space.
Visual Benchmarking and Culmination of Data:
These products range in value from $5.88 and extend all the way to $59.99 all to achieve the same purpose, holding your phone in the car. When comparing these it becomes clear that all of them except for one have the ability to rotate 360 degrees. The one that does not is the TYLT Car Vent Mount Wireless Charger, but they all have varying range of motion and mobility outside of that 360 degree rotation. This means when we are making our 2x2 we can look at the maneuverability and adaptability of these products while comparing their costs.
Simply put, more of the affordable options are higher in maneuverability. This is because they are similar in their designs using semi-flexible wire and cable inside a sleeve to allow for custom positioning. However, at this price point the quality of the material can be questioned, but it is also so affordable that you could buy 12 before being comparable in price with the most expensive mount here. As the price gets higher, you begin to pay for more niche features rather than all of the features. Most of the expensive mounts are focused on wireless charging, a function not all phones have and therefore only focus on that to keep costs lower. This ultimately leads to less positive feedback from users as they seemingly wanted something more, but there just wasn’t something they could justify buying.
Most of these products are organized in the same way within the stores. They tend to put the products with the phone accessories, things like chargers and cases. All of these products are positioned adjacent or within a few feet of the area to purchase phones, phone plans, and prepaid phones. One of the more innovative concepts however was something target had set up. They had notices of the new hands free driving laws all around their phone mounts. This stood out to me because it educated customers about the new law here in Minnesota while also incentivizing a purchase because people don’t want to break the law.
With this in mind, I think other retailers could promote more sales for these products in a similar way, grabbing the attention of the customer so they can easily locate the product and are incentivized to buy it. The usage of signs and popping colors are incredibly useful, but also just better labeling of products and spaces. Educating users seems to be a good way to incentivize purchases because people could feel that they will actually use the new information in their lives and thus could justify a purchase.
Online Reviews
Overall, users want a product that will keep their phones safe. Many of the complaints were along the lines of “I took a sharp turn, the suction came undone and my phone went flying” which is never something a potential buyer wants to hear. This was applicable to most all of the brands, a few customers all had issues with application of the mount to the car, but the number of users who had issues was far outnumbered by those who had no issues at all.
The overall most legitimately reviewed, and most trustworthy via Fakespot, was the iOttie Itap Magnetic 2. Despite not being terribly maneuverable (inability to telescope out), it does have 360 degrees of rotation and a nice build quality. It seems to land this spot because of its semi-affordable nature while still offering a strong magnet hold and small form factor. The small form allows users to mount their phone without worrying about a giant extendable arm sticking out in front of their faces. This is just one less distraction consumers have to worry about.
Positive reviews across all of these products note the ability of the mount to hold the phone and attach to the car. These are clearly the most important features, with things like wireless charging coming as a secondary feature. However, features like rotational ability are expected and buyers are let down when they realize it may not be included. When looking at negative reviews, its often a complaint about how the suction cups on the bottom won’t stick to their textured dashboard and/or the inability for the product to physically hold the phone while they drive. Both of these are actually very valid complaints because they render the product unable to fulfill its intended function.
Trend Research
Recently, Minnesota just enacted a full “Hands Free” law stating that using a hand to hold your phone while driving is now illegal. This means no more phone calls unless its on speaker or done using a car stereo interface found in most modern calls. However, this does not ban the use of phone mounts and holders, in fact it actually encourages it. The news around this new law incited a craze in buying these phone holders. By using these phone holders, drivers can avoid the hefty $130 fine for a first offense and $300 fine for repeat offenders. Also, the whole cause of this law is the societal gravitation towards connection and stimulus. We always want to stay updated with friends and family and are thus constantly on our phones communicating and ingesting media. The state of Minnesota wants to avoid people doing this while driving as it creates a dangerous road environment for everyone else on the road. With these phone holders, people can stay connected (to an extent) via phone calls and using mapping features to decrease risk of crashes and accidents.
A quote from the State of Minnesota website, “ The new law allows a driver to use their cell phone to make calls, text, listen to music or podcasts and get directions, but only by voice commands or single-touch activation without holding the phone” thus meaning if you want to actively see your directions, songs, or podcast progress without looking away from the road, you’re going to need a place to set your phone.
Basically, this new law drove sales and demand for phone holders like never seen before. Stores like Best Buy, with a focus on electronics, made sure to stock plenty, but once the hype over the new law blew over, they were left with an abundance of stock that never sold because of the sheer volume they ordered as shown below:
New Ideas:
All of my new ideas were intended to be in some way feasible, yet some require much more technology and thought to become a real product. I tried to keep them all still relatively similar to the ideas of phone holders we have now. Some of these new ideas change the solution from creating a new mount to using older mounts, but in new and creative ways.
Timeline:
Citation:
“Office of Traffic Safety.” Learn More about DPS, Divisions, Programs, Boards and Committees, dps.mn.gov/divisions/ots/hands-free/Pages/default.aspx.
