Companies that design and manufacture cell phones are going back to the drawing board and rethinking what customers want in a phone, according to the New York Times on Friday. Of particular concern is that younger customers can be more influenced by their peers than by the company’s marketing. They’re looking at how Apple has been so successful.

LG is one company using focus groups and listening well to customer feelings. "Our job is to be behaviorists and psychologists," said Ehtisham Rabbani, LG’s vice president for product strategy and marketing. "We constantly have to be reminding ourselves that we tend to be geek types and our customers are not."

All of a sudden, millions of dollars are at stake for companies that don’t execute well with their mobile phones products. Most notable has been Motorola who went for market share by devaluing their RAZR and lost the gamble. Even more troublesome is the rate at which customers switch allegiance and influence their friends. "The world has changed," said Jeremy Dale at Motorola. "There is more relevance in what other consumers say than what the company is saying."

Another trend is the rate of innovation. If a company can’t keep up in the innovation war, they get bad word of mouth in an increasingly connected social network.

Carriers are customers too, and the vendors have to make sure they understand what the carrier needs to make those teenage girls happy. With so much at stake and with the technology moving so fast, companies can’t afford to get it wrong. AT&T’s ROKR was one example. "At the end of the day it’s a judgment call," said AT&Ts; Steve McGaw. "We don’t always get it right."