NextWindow Provides Winning Touch

New Zealand Herald
8 May 2003 

By Simon Hendery

The marketing muscle behind the latest cellphone technology has provided a boost for touch-screen company NextWindow. 

The Auckland firm has developed the technology for touch-activated kiosks used by Vodafone to promote its new Vodafone Live! service. 

For NextWindow, the Vodafone deal is the biggest implementation of its technology since the company was set up three years ago. 

The deal may also provide access to overseas markets - Vodafone Australia is assessing the marketing applications of the technology. 

The kiosks first appeared in Vodafone stores last month when the company launched its biggest promotion yet to push its high-tech Vodafone Live! handsets. 

The kiosks allow customers and sales staff to simulate the features of a Vodafone Live! cellphone, including the ability to download news, maps and webcam pictures.

Of the 122 kiosks in use, about half are geared up for interactive use; the rest provide static demonstrations. 

Vodafone retail channel manager Neville Pulman said the interactive units included a wireless modem that enabled the company to download and assess data about how customers were using them. 

That meant software could be changed to make popular functions more accessible on the kiosk menus. 

Vodafone appointed Nexus Business Network as primary vendor for the project and Display Point was sub-contracted to design and build the kiosks. 

Pulman said NextWindow put forward a strong pitch for the touch-screen component of the project so Vodafone offered it the option of forming a partnership with Nexus, which it did. 

The NextWindow technology "enables us to easily and cost-effectively make changes to the key messages we wish to convey to the consumer without having to make significant software changes", he said. 

Vodafone will modify the panel design to include new content regularly, updating aspects such as links to its website and information on new handsets. 

NextWindow chief executive Al Monro said the touch-screen technology was an excellent direct marketing tool because it connected the consumer straight to a distribution channel. 

"The benefit of this technology is that it is both the medium - you can introduce your product and provide information - and it is also the channel. You can sell using the interactive display and you can capture customer information." 

Monro said NextWindow was working with another company to develop a "ticketless agency" concept, which would allow customers to top up prepaid transport cards at a kiosk. 

It was also negotiating with a British automotive company interested in a "through-glass" version of the technology, which would provide touch panels on the outside of showroom windows. 

Potential customers would be able to browse through the screen's menus at any time of the day for more information about specific cars the company sold, or even create onscreen a virtual version of their dream car. 

"You could, for example, go along and configure a car at 10 o'clock at night as you're walking home from a restaurant." 

NextWindow received a $560,000 grant from Technology New Zealand last year to work on miniaturising its flat-panel display technology.