The latest Carnival of the Mobilists is up on the Mippin blog.

And now that I’m back from a big trip, We’ll be posting a bit more often.

©2008 Little Springs Design is a user experience design consultancy focused exclusively on mobile.

…or, the Network Providers/Operators must be having a blast.

The network providers are doing just fine… new cool handsets here and there, handset exclusivity on certain networks, message usage is up, data consumption is up, new services are coming up, very cool applications from web to native, developers and more developers, and prices are up…

Not too bad for the current state of the economy, don’t you agree?

• Mobile Messaging Reaches Record-Breaking Numbers (ReadWriteWeb)
• Operators to Launch NFC-Based Mobile Payment Services (PR News Wire)
• Growth In Data Revenue Nearly Offsets Plunge in Voice Revenues (mocoNews.net)
• T-Mobile USA Data Price Increases - Bandwidth Issue or Greed? (The WAP Review)

I’ll tell you, mobility is the place to be…

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If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you took the Motorola ZN5, made it a slider rather than a candybar phone, and added 3G, you now have an answer: the Motorola VE66. Also, stop thinking about stuff like that, weirdo.

It’s not quite that simple, but it’s pretty close. Like the ZN5, it’s got a QVGA screen (albeit .2″ smaller, at 2.2″), 5 megapixel camera (though with LED flash, rather than Xenon), Stereo Bluetooth, a microSD slot, and WiFi.

While the official announcement fails to mention it, GSMArena reports that there will be two models of the VE66: One with quad-band GSM/EDGE and no 3G (headed to China), and one with UMTS and HSDPA 3G. No word yet on availability beyond “Q4 of 2008″.

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Cartoon: Hugh MacLeod

This week the Carnival of the Mobilists moves to the Mippin Blog where host Scott Beaumont has showcased ten recent posts on mobile issues from around the web.

There's a  mobile formated version of the Carnival too. It was created using Mippin a great service that creates an instant mobile site from any RSS or Atom feed.

This week there are  three posts on Femocells, a couple on mobile usability plus items on app stores, the limitations of ARPU as a metric, a look at work vs personal mobile "personalities" as found on the E71 and piece on touchscreen vs. keypad trade offs.

Congratulations to London Calling's Andrew Grill for his item on mobile advertising, illustrated with a cartoon (above) from Gaping Void, which took Post of the Week honors

Link: Carnival of the Mobilists #150 at the Mippin Blog (mobile version)

While I try to avoid comparing every touchscreen phone to the iPhone, it’s a bit challenging when they throw them on the same carrier for the exact same price. Coming in at $199 on a two-year contract with AT&T (after $100 dollar rebate), it was all of about a half second before the first “ZOHNOES iPHONE CLONE!!!” remarks started pouring in.

So, what does it bring to the table? Windows 6.1, 3G, aGPS, WiFi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0, and a 3.0″ touchscreen. Oh, and a massive bezel. In the ever crowding touchscreen smartphone market, I fail to see what the draw here would be; any Incite fans want to tell me what I’m missing?

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Are US GSM/HSDPA carriers running out of bandwidth?  It sure looks like it.  First AT&T killed the "unlimited" data package for GoPhone pay as you go users, then they took away the option to sign up for unlimited data for users on GoPhone hybrid prepaid plans.  Now T-Mobile has raised data prices across the board for postpaid and hybrid users. Data has never been offered on T-Mobile pre-paid

AT&T's actions will decrease revenue so I can't see any reason they did other than to cut data usage. The 3G data issues that iPhone users have been reporting appear to be caused by  AT&T's 3G network rather than any issues with the phone, according to both lab tests and an analysis of iPhone performance around the world. In my own use of the N95-3 on AT&T in San Francisco, I see frequent hangs and have never achieved a data rate much over 300 kbps, far less than the 2000 kbps HSDPA should be capable of.

In the case of T-Mobile, raising prices in the middle of a recession seems like a sure way to drive away customers or at least discourage them from adding a data package. So what do T-Mobile's new prices look like?  For the details, TmoNews seems to have the best breakdown. Here's a summary comparison:

In addition to raising the prices, T-Mobile will no longer allow the cheapest $9.99 plan to be used with Windows Mobile phones or anything else that the carrier defines as a "Smartphone" which apparently includes the new Samsung Behold. The Behold is a touchscreen device that superficially resembles an iPhone but is really just a typical T-Mobile feature phone with locked down Java that keeps it from running 3rd party data-aware applications.

As I said at the beginning, I think these new rates are designed to curb data consumption rather than to increase revenue.  T-Mobile does not require a data plan even with smartphones or the G1.  These prices will discourage a certain percentage of users from adding data.  The 50MB cap is another indication that discouraging data use is the intention.  Overages on the 9.99 plan are charged at $0.20/MB with a cap of $15.00 on top of the 9.99 for a maximum monthly charge of 24.99.  That will certainly make many users think twice before streaming video or audio.

Users on the old plans will be grandfathered as long as they don't change plans or upgrade from a feature phone to a smartphone, Blackerry or Sidekick.

T-Mobile used to have a reputation for the lowest voice and data rates among the major US carriers. That's no longer as true as it used to be as the following table shows.  It lists the cheapest available voice only plan for feature phones and the cheapest voice + unlimited data plan combination for smartphone's and BlackBerries.  These prices are for the San Francisco Bay area and may not apply everywhere.  The various carriers also offer different amounts of voice minutes with their plans, ranging from 200 (Sprint feature phones)  to 450 (Verzion, ATT and smartphones on Sprint).  T-Mobile falls in the middle with 300.

T-Mobile still has an advantage for smartphone users.  Or maybe not, compared with the other carriers T-Mobile gives you fewer voice minutes and has far less 3G coverage so it's not the bargain it appears to be.

In defense of the carriers, I don't think they are doing this out of greed.  Data use is exploding and with it the myth of unlimited 3G data is dying. In many urban areas, all the available channels are already in use so adding more capacity isn't possible.  AT&T is already doing doing data shaping, giving users with iPhones highest priority, followed by postpaid users and finally prepaid.  T-Mobile is also data shaping, but taking a different approach, anyone exceeding 10GB of data in a month will have their data rate reduced to about 50 kbps for the rest of the month.

Making data more expensive and limiting it to postpaid users is certainly going to have a negative impact on adoption of mobile web services by users. If there is in fact a bandwidth shortage, I don't know what can be done to ease it. Interestingly, the CDMA/EVDO carriers, Sprint and Verizon, don't seem to be doing anything to curb data usage.  Is EVDO significantly more spectrum efficent than HSDPA? How about 4G including WiMax and LTE?  Any readers who are knowledgible about wireless data network technologies care to jump in with a comment?

I really enjoyed Future of Mobile yesterday.

The day started a little sluggishly with a well-qualified panel discussing the future of mobile operating systems. I didn't feel I learned much here - revenues of the panelists businesses weren't particularly exciting, and aside from an interesting conversation around runtimes I didn't feel I learned a great deal.

For me, things really started to take off with the presentation from Doug Richard of Trutap (disclosure: they're a client of ours). Doug was talking about the rise of a middle class in the developing world that shares aspirations with the middle classes everywhere, and quietly pointed out our arrogance in assuming that it could be otherwise. I particularly liked his notion that Western operators would adopt defensive positions and hence take fewer risks (and be less innovative) than those coming out of India.

I didn't devote much attention to Matt Millar from Adobe, I'm afraid - sorry Matt, but I was doing last-minute panicking about my own presentation. I've not watched the video yet, but whilst I'd spent more time preparing than I ever have in the past (and felt the slides were reasonably polished), I made the mistake of over-planning what I was going to say. Normally I work from bullet points and just chat around them (something I'm comfortable doing) but after my hour-long overrun at the Werks talk a month or so back I tried to restrain myself by planning what I'd say in great depth. The upshot was I felt like I was working from a script, and had to keep checking where I was, staring at a screen instead of talking to the audience. Lesson learned there, but at least I managed to get my macaroons-as-analogy-for-porting slide out.

The bloggers panel was a really good format: 6 bloggers, 6 minutes each, mirroring blogging itself. Really nice to hear Vero Pepperell evangelise a human approach to communication - as an industry we ought to know that stuff, but I can't help feeling we need someone to gently beat it into us on occasion. Helen was righteous - nuff said.

A lunch, or non-lunch, followed. If there was a weak point to the day overall, I'd say it was the facilities. I heard plenty of people complain about a lack of wi-fi (though as a 3 USB dongle owner I managed OK), there was no lunch provided, and no coffee in one of the coffee breaks. Fortunately Kensington is full of restaurants and cafes, but it would've been nice to hang around in a throng during all these breaks. The auditorium itself was excellent - a lovely space, good sound, and power to most seats.

Rich Miner gave a great talk in the afternoon, filling in a bit more detail around Google and their plans, and drawing on his own history launching the Windows SPV Smartphone when he was at Orange. He gave a good if negative insight into the world of operators when he talked about product managers feeling threats from new product developments and derailing them.

Interesting also to hear about his take on mobile web apps - that they fail for reasons of network latency, lack of local storage, and access to device capabilities. Whilst you can see efforts in Android, PhoneGap and OMTP Bondi to address some of these, it's a little way from the "web apps as future of mobile" angle which I'd heard Google were adopting.

And similarly it was good to hear Rich quizzed on the topic of Android and fragmentation by David Wood (who's more qualified to talk about this than he?). Rather than espousing the rather bland "we don't think fragmentation is in the interests of the industry" line I've heard from Google before, Rich talked about the value of having a reference implementation by which to judge others; a conformance test being introduced for OEMs; and the use of challenging and popular reference apps to provide a "Lotus 1-2-3" style evaluation of an Android implementation.

Tomi Ahonen was hilarious and upbeat as usual - full of detailed and slightly threatening stats on the hold that mobile has on us, and case studies of fantastic things launched elsewhere (usually Asia). The Tohato "worlds worst war" was my favourite: purchasers of snack products fighting one another in vast virtual armies, wonderful.

And the day finished with another panel discussion: lots of disagreement from qualified folks who've been doing this stuff for years, including two of our clients. We had some kind words said about us by Carl from Trutap and Alfie of Moblog fame - thanks guys! - and it was particularly interesting to hear the pendulum of fashion swing back towards applications, away from the mobile web. I wonder how permanent this effect, which is surely down to the iPhone App Store, will be?

The evening party followed, carrying on the upbeat atmosphere :)

My slides from the day are online here. The lens-tastic Mr Ribot took video footage of the talk which you can see here, and I heard a rumour that the official footage from the event may go online some time too.

Thanks to Dominic and all the team at Carsonified for the hard work they put into the event - I know all too well from Sophie how much this takes, and they did a cracking job. And a particular yay to Mr Whatley, who stepped in as compere at the last minute and did an excellent job of keeping the audience engaged, even in those sleepy after-lunch slots ;)

Thanks to everyone who voted for Sean at the JCP elections. The two with the most votes have been elected for JCP ME Executive Committee for the next three years. Having Sean at the EC is a very good thing, as he will represent the developer community; he understands well the issues and will push for changes — lets now hope the JCP will listen, accept and implement Sean’s recommendations:

• Sony/Ericsson: 45.1%
• Sean Sheedy: 36.8%
• Aplix: 17.9%

Congrats Sean (and Sony Ericsson)!!!

ceo

As host Scott Beaumont at 150’s host Mippen Blog notes, this week is a nice round number for the Carnival with a bumper stack of posts from a wide number of areas in the mobile space.

I came across configuremyphone today via the MoMo London email group. It’s solves the problem of getting connection settings to phones. The www.configuremyphone.com site itself is for end users who pay for settings to be sent via premium SMS. I don’t see the point of this when most phone OEMs provide their own free setup services (See the ‘Settings for Phones’ links on my blog) that tech savvy users can use.

However, what’s much more useful is the partner.configuremyphone.com facility for companies to integrate the configuration setting services into their own website. Again, the end user pays via premium SMS which means this provides a free service for companies to ensure (perhaps less tech savvy) users have the correct settings on their phone prior to delivering further applications or services.

If you wondering about the integrity of service, it’s run by WDSGlobal. This is the company that has provided the Nokia’s settings for many years.

Related Articles:

• Mobile Internet is not Plug and Play
• Connection Settings
• Phone APNs

Andrew Ebling, author of iBlueSky emailed me regarding the charts I published last week. He suggested one metric that he thought would be interesting to consider would be the relative difficulty of addressing device fragmentation.

This chart is trying to say a lot of things and generalises a lot so it needs some explanation. On the horizontal scale, 0= best, 10=worst. When people talk about fragmentation they often don’t qualify the type of fragmentation they are talking about. I have tried to sub-divide fragmentation into…

• Device variety - the number of different models of device.
• Functional variability- differing functionality across a same OS/runtime version due to bugs and OEMs (or even phones from same OEM) implementing things differently.
• OS Version variability - differing functionality across successive OS versions or runtime versions (this is normal and to some extent expected).
• Runtime variability - for runtimes, the variability in functionality caused by being able to have more than one runtime on a given device.

The case of Windows Mobile is interesting in that fragmentation differs depending on what development approach (win32, MFC or .NET) you take. The problem is that if you choose the easier routes (MFC and .NET) you end up with problems of not knowing you will have the correct version of runtime on the device. My experience is that if you code for the lowest common denominator (win32) then you can get away with the most amount of code that will run on all devices.

The iPhone and Android platforms are also interesting in that they have yet to release significant variants. The ease with which developers can maintain compatibility may yet be deciding factor for long term success of these platforms.

As previously, the values on this chart are highly subjective and are based on my personal views and experience.

Related Articles:

• Symbian Foundation
• Runtimes, Frameworks and Fragmentation
• Android Fragmentation
• Android and Fragmentation
• Native vs Java ME
• LiPS 1.0 and Platform Fragmentation
• JavaOne Mobility Online Sessions
• Java ME De-Fragmentation
• Mobile Linux Fragmentation?
• Fragmentation

Whenever the G1 vs iPhone debate gets underway, iPhone purists are quick to flag the G1’s lack of multi-touch input support. Turns out, it might just be able to handle it after all -on the hardware end, at least. Whilst tearing his G1’s workings apart line-by-line, a crafty coder going by RyeBrye came across an interesting artifact. It seems the driver for the Synaptics touchscreen has some code commented out; after recompiling the kernel with said code back in, he was able to track two finger presses at once.

So if the hardware supports it, why no multi-touch on the G1? Patents, presumably. While this in no way actually enables to you to do any kind of multi-touch funnin’ immediately (nothing made for the G1 is currently coded for use with multi-touch, afterall), it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Though we probably won’t see any official support for multi-touch on the G1 any time soon, someone with a bit of spare time to tinker will probably figure out a way to make use of it before too long.

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Future of Mobile: Panel Discussion

Panel discussion:

Dan Appelquist, Vodafone
Mark Curtis, Flirtomatic
Alfie Dennen, Moblog
Justin Davies, Twenty10
Carl Uminski, Trutap
James Body, Truphone
Sam, A.N.Operator

Q: Carl, where did you get your jacket?
A: !

Q: For application developers: where were we 2-3 years ago, what's changed, what's good, what's bad?
MC: You can advertise on mobile. There's a large audience to reach on the mobile, who weren't there 2 years ago. We ran our first ads on Admob in August 2006, saw an attractive cost of acquisition, but low volumes of users. Just after xmas 2006 we ran our first ads on operator portals and got 3.5k users in 3 hours - and they're good users, they spend money with us.

Q: And you Alfie?
AD: Advertising has made a difference, particularly if you don't have a relationship with an operator. Users aren't as afraid as they were of going off-portal.

Q: Justin/Carl, are applications still a dark art?
JD: J2ME lets you go quite a long way across the board in handset support. Java implementations are getting better but there are still problems. Applications now do work on handsets - a year ago VCs didn't like the idea of them, they preferred sites, but now people understand them better. Android, Apple have launched marketplaces and people are now used to them. From a UE point of view an app lets you do things a web site just can't do.

Q: How have emerging markets reacted, Carl?
CU: They're often not 3G users. We're finding customers with good connections and data rates, they're very cheap to use. We use optimised protocols to avoid bill shock. Also handset manufacturers and operators like applications.

Q: James, has the iPhone changed much for you?
JB: The App store has been a big success. We were the first VOIP app in the App Store, and did very well out of that.

AD: Doesn't it take us back a bit to have these closed, partitioned areas where commerce takes place? Won't discovery suffer?
JB: The Apple system isn't perfect but there's a fair chance an app will work if you get it through there.

Q: Will the application store model ever be mass market?
JD: It already is.
JB: We generate more revenue from iPhone users than Symbian users
DA: The App Store has also debunked the idea that real users don't want to use applications. The prevailing wisdom have been that applications were for the nerds.
JB: It's more about people not being told what they can buy by operators.
MC: It doesn't make much difference whether it's operators or Apple telling customers what they can download. It's more about how users will discover you, and thinking about how it'll happen in a years time once the fuss around the iPhone store has gone away. It's easy to get in the top 10 now, outside of that you're in the long tail - so where's the discovery then?

Q: Are you familiar with the UK operators and their developer services? Vodafone Betavine, O2 Litmus, Orange, T-Mobile.
DA: It's great to see O2 coming to the table. O2 Litmus is different from Betavine.

Q: Sam?
Sam: Operators have some value to add: identity, location, and billing. Location is being eroded because they didn't do anything with it. Identity is useful (through control of the SIM card). Revenue shares on billing are still very high.

Q: Do you use external agencies?
MC: Yes, but it depends what for. In the last 2 years, an external agency for usability - and it paid for itself twice over.
CU: We use Future Platforms :)

AD: Panelists doing applications: do you see a move towards web-based?
JB: It's going to be a mixture.

Q: How does a company approach Vodafone? Who sites the budget/acceptance of a third party app. How realistic is it for me to get my new application onto phones?
DA: The answer long-term is to use the web as a distribution medium. Vodafone is in a joint venture with China Mobile and Softbank Mobile. Q3 they're launching an app platform with these guys to upload widgets to a single store and have them distributed across all OpCos.

Q: With gaming generating more revenue than movies, why no mention of mobile gaming today?
JB: In the iPhone App store, lots of the popular apps are games.
AD: There's no-one from mobile gaming on the panel.

Q: For a mobile developer starting a new project today, iPhone or Android?
MC: Logically iPhone, cos it's out there and Android isn't.
AD: What he said, in part because it's hard to get onto any portal. If your business doesn't need a complex application, look at XHTML.
DA: You can do more with the web right now, on Android you can use Gears with web apps to get location/local storage. On iPhone you can use PhoneGap to do the same.
JB: We go for the platforms that generate revenue. Number 1 is Symbian, because "quantity has quality all of its own", 2 is iPhone because there are fewer but you generate more revenue. 3 is Blackberry.
CU: When you're looking at social networking, you need Java to get lots of platforms. iPhone and Android don't do J2ME. GetJar does good distribution through their store.

Q: Are iPhone users normobs?
JD: Apart from the people on this panel, yes. It's changed perception of what a mobile can do.
AD: Let's not forget it was broken in so many ways, but it was good at the basics. I don't have much time for it - it's taken us back a bit.

Q: What user numbers are mobile ad servers looking for to place ads?
MC: More than a thousand a day. Depends on whether it's on cost-per-click or CPM. CPM means 20-30k+ users a day before you make an impact. The off-portal market isn't expanding as fast in the UK as we would've liked to have seen. We're very dependent on advertising on operator decks. You need different techniques to milk a cow, a pig, a goat and a chicken.

CU: On location services, most people don't go to that many places: work, pub, gym, home. Because it's in a social context - it's useful. e.g. my friends know where I am if I'm at work.

Q: What's the best way to get new users? Bring them from the web to mobile, or direct to mobile?
JD: Get them on the mobile web, because you know they're already using the net on their phone. You can also filter by device.

Q: Will the most exciting apps come from Silicon Valley or Europe?
DA: India
MC: Europe
AD: Europe
CU: Europe
JB: Europe
Sam: Europe for Europeans, America for US

Q: Future of Mobile is...?
DA: The web
MC: Complexity
AD: One Web
JD: Personalisation
CU: Please cheap data
JB: Freedom
Sam: One web

Q: Android or iPhone?
DA: Android will be to the iPhone what the PC was to the Mac
AD: iPhone will learn from the web, it'll be an even playing field
JD: Android because it'll be on more handsets in emerging markets
CU: There's no comparison. It's Android or Symbian, iPhone is an end-to-end experience, Android is an OS.
JB: Today: iPhone. In 2-4 years, Android's looking good.
Sam: Android on an iPhone

Q: What's your favourite mobile app?
Sam: Twitter
JB: Mobile facebook
CU: Google maps
JD: Google maps
AD: GMail
MC: Google Maps
DA: Koi Pond

Citing “duplication of assignments”, Virgin Mobile USA has announced that they have laid off 45 employees from their New Jersey and California offices, which works out to about 10% of their workforce.

This comes just months after Virgin Mobile purchased post-paid MVNO Helio for $39 million. The terms of that deal already entailed a whole lot of cuts to the Helio team, and I’d imagine that today’s announcement means more jobs lost by that camp.

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mobileOK Basic was published as a Proposed Recommendation (the penultimate state of the W3C standardization process) a couple of weeks ago, and today the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group is releasing an updated version of its mobileOK Scheme document.

What is that one about? While mobileOK Basic describes what you need to do to make your page mobileOK, mobileOK Scheme explains what you can or should do once you have a mobileOK page.

Typically, you will want to let your current or future visitors about the quality of your page: the document tells you how to do that using the mobileOK logo, or through a machine-readable label (using the POWDER specification).

That document is nearly final too, although it won't be published as a Recommendation since it is meant to be mostly informative. The group will finalize a few points in the related license (to use the logo and the trademarked phrase "mobileOK"), and will publish it as a Working Group Note.

According to BGR, RIM is already crackin’ away at an LTE device so that it’s ready for launch whenever LTE officially goes live.

For the sake of the folks out there who don’t spend their lives memorizing every last mobile industry acronym: LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”, and is one of the standards set to make up the next generation of mobile network technologies. In other words, LTE (along with competing technology, WiMax) is 4G. Sprint is siding with WiMax, Verizon and AT&T are going with LTE.

With that in mind, RIM’s rumored work with an LTE handset should come as a surprise to no one. With RIM’s US presence made up predominately by AT&T and Verizon, both of whom are backing LTE, not having a suitable device ready ASAP would be a huge misstep. Hell, I’d be willing to wager that they’re working on at least two of them - one touchscreen (a la Storm), and one in the more traditional candybar form.

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The iPhone and Android platforms have validated a number of things; below is a list with some of such things:

iPhone:

• Applications are at the center of next generation of handsets.
• That software, not hardware, is the main driver and differentiator.
• Touch-screens rock! Everyone knew it, but Apple showed the world how.
• The mobile web is important, that there is no One Web, and that handset-specific customized mobile websites will continue to be built.
• That influencing the network provider and changing their game-field is possible.
• While the mobile web is great, today richer and more integrated applications need to be native.
• That users will download native applications, if a better way to discover and download applications is provided (i.e. App Stores)
• That closed systems is a sucky idea.

Android:

• That mobile-handsets can be based on open source and Linux, and be successful.
• Integration with services on the web (i.e. application infrastructures) matters a whole lot and is huge; and that this is especially true if such is provided “out of box”.
• Keyboards rock, but a software keyboard should also be provided.
• It is going to be a hell of a challenge for handset manufacturers that use Android to differentiate themselves; how will they if the software is the same? UI? Hardware designs?
• That open systems is a great idea.
• It re-validated points already validated by the iPhone: applications (and developers) are key to success, that it is about the software, the mobile web is important, that richer and more integrated apps need to be native, that users will download native app if a better way to discover and download is provided (app stores)
• That 3G can be impractical as it sucks-up your battery dry.

Other:

• That developers will develop in whatever programming language is necessary, even if it is Objective-C.
• Fragmentation? Who cares!

Anything else?

ceo

T-Mobile said the Samsung Gravity would show up on Nov. 17th and, sure enough, it has arrived.

While the Gravity might not have the same pull as some of the bigger, less wallet-friendly QWERTY handsets on the market, at $49.99 (on a 2-year contract) it’s a decent pick for anyone looking to wear down their thumbs without wearing down their savings. It’s available beginning today in Aqua/White or Lime/Gray at the nearest T-Mo spot.

While the main draw would probably be the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Samsung has also packed in a 1.3-megapixel shooter (with video capture and 4x zoom, though we’re guessing that’s not optical zoom), IM support for AOL/ICQ/Windows Live/Yahoo, T-Mobile myFaves, stereo bluetooth (A2DP), and quad-band radio. For 50 bucks, that’s actually pretty impressive.

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Future of Mobile: Tomi Ahonen

Mobile is as different from the internet as TV is different from radio.

All the concepts for TV we have today cannot migrate back to radio, though they did evolve from.

91% of mobile owners keep the phone within 3 feet, 24x7

Mobile is as addictive as smoking cigarettes. Removing mobile phones produces similar withdrawal pains as attempting to stop smoking.

Text-and-driving is more dangerous than stoned or drunk driving.

63% of people are not willing to share their phone with our spouse.

1 in 3 partners snoop inside the phone, mostly when we're in the shower. 10% of people ended relationships after this.

1 in 4 British couples sleeps apart 1 night a week because of their partners addiction to Blackberry, phones, etc.

Mass media are print, recordings, cinema, radio, television, internet, mobile.

What is print doing in a presentation with mobile? In Japan, mobile books sold ¢82m mobile books in 2006. 5/10 best-selling printed books started as mobile books. Books are written on phones using text-messaging, spelling and style.

The internet subsumed media that came before, and added interactivity. Look at Habbo Hotel for an example of a fixed internet service which raised revenue through mobile: by using billing.

Mice Love Rice: a song released for free on the internet. Sold as a ringback tone, raising $22m. Ringback tones have to be enabled by operators.

Don't try to copy the internet: create something new.

Mobile has seven advantages over internet: personal, permanently connected, always carried, built-in payment, present at creative impulse, most accurate audience, captures social context.

Carbon Diem: location-based service tracking how your mobile moves, discovering speed of movement and inferring carbon usage. Young people care more about green issues; for Tomi's generation WW3 was the threat.

Tohato: Japanese snack brand, introduced 2 new snack brands: Satan Jorquia and Habanero. Invited customers to choose a brand and fight the other brand in the "worlds worst war". Gamers joined by scanning a 2d barcode in a bag. Recruiting friends earned promotion in the army - all done via mobile, battles scheduled at 4am, with a 24-hour gaming news channel.

Hoshi-Ichi Maniac: mass participation TV format in Japan, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, knock-out style quiz. 200k live players on the first run.

"Create services that are so amazing that the first time someone uses it, people think they're magic" - e.g. Kamera Jiten, a cameraphone translator which takes photos and translates them English to Japanese.

Future of Mobile: Rich Miner, Google

"Changing the mobile industry, one phone at a time"

Pre-iPhone, we saw the mobile industry as being closed. Unlimited data plans, browsing anywhere, installable apps... all moves towards openness, all difficult to reverse.

Every carrier in the US now has unlimited data plans: "carriers tend to behave like lemmings, when one starts in a particular direction the others follow behind"

iPhone pushed carriers to embrace someone else's brand on their network and be supportive of a model they couldn't directly monitise.

How bad could it have been? RM launched the first Windows Mobile SPV phone; didn't work that well, but showed promise. Orange was launching Push-To-Talk at the time, the SPV had a bug with PTT which MS were going to take 18 months to fix: derailing the launch. He worked for Orange Ventures, investing in applications and startups, but it still proved impossible for Orange to launch new products. Apps needed to be signed, tested, embedded. PMs of any threatened products derailed new ones.

The ability for consumers to connect directly to publishers (err... is it direct if it goes via Apple/G stores?) is a fix for this.

Mobile is the best distributed device, and in many cases the only connected device end-users own.

So it's important for Google. They found getting apps signed across many carriers troublesome. Constrained devices needed innovation to fix. Overall it was confusing to the developer and the end user.

As bill of materials cost for device falls, software has been a growing percentage of % of device cost: operating system, browser, codecs. There was no proprietary, open OS - and it felt bad for one entity to control any platform.

Simon from the Gears for Mobile team:

Lots of developers want to do quite simple things. On the desktop, between 2003 and 2006 there was a shift away from writing apps and towards mobile apps. GMail showed that the browser was capable of some interesting things. Google Maps showed nice draggable components.

Mobile web apps suck for 3 reasons: latency in the network, poor access to local storage/caching, and lack of access to device capabilities (e.g. location).

Gears was originally designed for enabling offline web apps on the desktop. Today in the Android browser, you can deliver LBS apps.

End piece: "no one party controls the platform (nor a committee)".

Apps are self-published. No human makes a judgement on apps to go out.

Q: In open source projects, usability tends to get left behind. How are you going to guide the UI of Android?
A: Most of the phones we carry today aren't open source; this doesn't mean they have good interfaces. TiVo is built on open source with a good UI. Most of the web is built on open source.

Q: (Claire Boonstra) iPhone had greater hype than the iPhone when it first came along.

Q: Open technology, but will Google control it in any way. As a developer can I replace the search engine or maps application?
A: You can build a handset with no Google apps.

Q: (David Wood) How will you ensure the applications written by developers run on different handsets, when the platform has been modified by handset vendors?
A: Despite Java's best efforts, there wasn't a reference implementation to judge them by: this is the difference with Android. So the chances for fragmentation are lower. And we'll introduce a conformance test for OEMS, and encourage carriers to run it. In the early days of PC Clones, you had the "Lotus 1-2-3" test - if it ran this, the clone worked. We'll pick reference apps that challenge the platform in a good way, and educate people that these matter.

Interesting, a different argument from the one I've heard before (which was that fragmentation won't happen because "it's not in our interest") - much more detailed, much more useful.

Q: In the current implementation of Android, developers can't create their own home-screen widgets. Why?
A: The home-screen is just an app. We ran out of time to get a widget architecture in there. It's a common request

Future of Mobile: Doug Richard

When you run software companies in the US, you divide companies into the US and Rest Of World (ROW). Trutap focused on the RROW (Rest of the Rest of the World).

Last year, a load of new users got their first mobile: 7m new people per month in India (that's one Finland per month). 130m new mobile subscribers worldwide last year.

Many of them think they're middle class: they have a purchasing power equated aspirationally to this. We're under the misimpression that the market is either a small wealthy market, or a huge number of third-world users.

It's not all farmers sharing crop prices.

So this is 500m+, disproportionately young consumers. They have fundamentally different quality of life in Mumbai to LA. Luke @ Trutap spent lots of time in India early this year, including dozens of interviews of current, prospective and failed Trutap users. They have the same needs as western kids have today with their iPhone or PC.

In the West, the PC is private; in Mumbai it's public - and data is more expensive in internet cafes than it is via mobile. Expressing yourself via the net becomes harder in these conditions.

In LA, internet usage is primarily PC. In Mumbai, it's mobile.

Needs and aspirations are the same between the two. I believe social networks are a temporary phenomenon on the PC: they belong on the phones. We want to keep up with friends and associates constantly, to meet others: this nirvana is in the offing. Nokia talk about the super-address book, but it's all the same thing. The new emerging middle classes are as large numerically as the whole of Facebook today: so social software isn't done and dusted, it's not all done yet.

Western operators will make conservative choices and adopt a defensive position - Indian operators will be more inclined to do risky stuff as they grow. All these things that people understand the mobile industry has to get over? They'll get over them first in India.

Internal goal for Trutap 2.0: delivering an iPhone experience to everyone else. Can we do this? No - I don't own an operator, I have slightly less cash. But we can move in that direction.

The iPhone is having a disproportionate impact on the world: in emerging markets it's practically non-existent. But it shows what the future should be.

This will happen where there is capital, opportunity, and a large emerging middle class.

Trutap was a support of a web existence. We support all the worlds IM transports. Dating sites arose on the web independent of social networking; in Japan the two never split.

... shows off Trutap ...

We have an odd and unique time coming - the IT industry has been driven by the US, whilst mobile was driven from Europe. But we need to be sensitive to the fact that much innovation will come from emerging markets.

I am here in London now at the Future of Mobile. Great conference, it’s always good to have more and more people joining the mobile space and to catch up with fellow peers, bloggers and ecosystem collegues.

Here below the slides of the keynote I did this morning here at #FOM with topic on “Threats and opportunities of increasing openness in the mobile ecosystem.”

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like to discuss some of the topics in detail or leave a comment.

Android, application, applications, apps, browsers, conference, convergence, Conversations, Cool Devices, countries, Developers, developing, device, devices, ecosystem, ethnographics, evenmt, events, Experience Design, fom, future of mobile, image recognition, innovation, iphone, lbs, location based, london, mobile, Mobile Apps, Mobile Content, Mobile Culture, Mobile Events, mobile internet, Mobile Lifestyle, Mobile OS, Mobile RSS, Mobile Search, mobilemonday, networks, NFC, nokia, open, openness, Operators, opportunities, os, platforms, Predictions, QR codes, rfid, s60, smartphones, social, social media, standards, startups, symbian, threats, Trends, Ubiquitous Devices, usability, user experienceAndroid, application, applications, apps, browsers, conference, convergence, Conversations, Cool Devices, countries, Developers, developing, device, devices, ecosystem, ethnographics, evenmt, events, Experience Design, fom, future of mobile, image recognition, innovation, iphone, lbs, location based, london, mobile, Mobile Apps, Mobile Content, Mobile Culture, Mobile Events, mobile internet, Mobile Lifestyle, Mobile OS, Mobile RSS, Mobile Search, mobilemonday, networks, NFC, nokia, open, openness, Operators, opportunities, os, platforms, Predictions, QR codes, rfid, s60, smartphones, social, social media, standards, startups, symbian, threats, Trends, Ubiquitous Devices, usability, user experience

http://www.m-trends.org/2008/11/future-of-mobile.html Rudy De Waele http://www.m-trends.org http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gif About mobile media lifestyle trends. 2008-11-17T14:58:28Z tag:www.tarosite.net,2006://2.9767

[ REVIEW, iPhonestock ] 　愛用しているiPhoneアプリの1つ、駅探エクスプレスのVer 2.1が素晴らしい。今まではiPhone「らしい」インターフェイスを追求したシンプルで軽いアプリだったが、だんだんiPhoneの機能を深く使うアプリになりつつある。

　愛用しているiPhoneアプリの1つ、駅探エクスプレスのVer 2.1が素晴らしい。今まではiPhone「らしい」インターフェイスを追求したシンプルで軽いアプリだったが、だんだんiPhoneの機能を深く使うアプリになりつつある。

　先日、開発を担当しているHMDTの木下さんにお話を伺ってきたが、「SDKによってiPhoneのポテンシャルの80％を引き出せるようになった」と語っていた。それに合わせるかのように、ヴァージョンアップした駅探エクスプレスは、iPhoneの位置情報機能、加速度センサーなどの機能を、これまたスマートに取り込んだアプリになっている。

　検索結果を表示した状態で画面を横長に構えると、経路の駅を線でつないでくれる路線図が現れるのである。停車駅や乗換駅もきちんと表現される。初めていくところや普段慣れない路線だと、目的の駅が有名な駅の手前なのか先なのかわからず、ミスするかもしれない、と電車内の路線図を一生懸命調べるタチだったので、手元で全てわかるのはとてもありがたい。

　また検索条件設定の際に、すでに入力してある駅名をクリアしたいときには、端末を振ればばらばらと駅名が下へ落ちていき、まっさらな状態に戻る。振ってクリア、というのはすでに他のアプリでもよく使われているが、ある意味iPhoneでクリアしたい場合は振ればいい、という共通操作になるかもしれない。

　またGPSなどのロケーション情報から付近の駅をリストアップしてくれたり、複数の検索結果がフリック操作で切り替え可能になったり、条件設定まで記憶してくれる履歴機能も便利である。

　しかしここで最も面白そうなのが、他のアプリとの連携だ。現在は、30min.おでかけアプリとの連携が予定されている。

　例えばレストランガイドやショッピングガイドと行った、どこかのスポットを紹介するアプリには、電話をかけたり、iPhoneのマップアプリで場所を見つけたりすることはこれまでもできたが、いざそこへ行こうとすると、アプリの操作はいったん断絶し、新たに乗り換え案内のアプリを起動する必要があった。

　そこで駅探アプリは、ガイドのアプリから駅探アプリに飛ばすことによって「これから出かけるための行き方」を紹介するところまでを一連の操作でフォローすることになる。iPhoneの上にインストールされているアプリ間であれば、情報を受け渡して探すことが可能で、目的地の駅を渡して現在地を取得、近くの駅を提示すれば、すぐに乗り換え案内ができる。

　手の中でアプリ同士がマッシュアップをスムーズに行ってくれる環境。iPhoneアプリが充実していく中で、とても重要になるファクターである。

　
<p><a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=jB1C8KUTf6E&offerid=94348.703808623&type=10&subid=">App Store: 駅探エクスプレス</a><img alt="icon" width="1" height="1" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=jB1C8KUTf6E&bids=94348.703808623&type=10&subid="></p> <p><a href="http://lab.ekitan.com/express/">駅探製品ページ</a></p>

2008-11-17T14:51:06Z 2008-11-17T14:10:45Z taromatsumura taromatsumura@gmail.com http://www.tarosite.net/ tag:www.tarosite.net,2008://2 Copyright (c) 2008, taromatsumura netnomad's web by taromatsumura 2008-11-17T14:48:15Z tag:www.tarosite.net,2006://2.9768

[ BLOGGING, fukusen ] 　Podcastのブラックレーベル、TALKSHOW by castaliaに飯吉透さんの新しいPodcastが登場します。タイトルは「新教育開国論 - Opening Up Education」。ITを活用した新しいオープンな学びのスタイルについて考えます。

　Podcastのブラックレーベル、TALKSHOW by castaliaに飯吉透さんの新しいPodcastが登場します。タイトルは「新教育開国論 - Opening Up Education」。fusenのアイディア以降、オープンでソーシャルな学びの形について考えている昨今、飯吉さんの話を大変大きなリファレンスとして伺うことができてとても幸せです。

　初回は飯吉さんのプロフィールと教育工学に興味を持つ経緯について語ります。これは教育に携わっていない人も、かじりついて聞くべきPodcastとして自信を持ってオススメしたいと思います。

　僕がMacPeopleで連載している『デジタルとアナログの間』という連載の前に、飯吉さんが『海の向こうの胸騒ぎ』というシリーズを連載されていたのが懐かしい。ちょうど2007年3月号に、nobiさんに誘われて「アナログを感じさせるデジタル」というテーマでPowerMateというインターフェイスのレビューを書いたんだけれど、今思い返すとそのときの特集のテーマがそのまま連載になったんですね。感謝。

　ということで、11月17日からのweekday、毎日更新です。ぜひ。

　
<p><a href="http://www.castalia.jp/podcast.php?pid=2415">castalia: 新教育開国論 / 飯吉透 on TALKSHOW</a><br /> ITなどを使った開かれた教育を提案するポッドキャストです。プロフィール：国際基督教大学・同大学院（教育工学）をへて、フロリダ州立大学大学院にて博士号（Ph.D.教授システム学）を取得。ジョージア大学学習行動研究所研究員をへて現職。 北米を拠点として、主要プロジェクト・学会・協議会・財団などと連携し、テクノロジーを利用した教育の進展に関するビジョン策定・研究開発・啓蒙活動に従事。招聘講演や賞審査委員など多数。日本国内では、これまでに、NHK、NTTや文部科学省などの教育システム開発・評価プロジェクトに、共同ディレクター・研究コンサルタント・委員として参加。主編著書に「マルチメディアデザイン論」、「電脳への提言」（アスキー）、「Opening Up Education」（MIT出版,2007秋刊行）他。 アメリカ教育コミュニケーション工学会最優秀実践賞・同学会研究論文奨励賞受賞。<br /> </p>

2008-11-17T14:48:15Z 2008-11-17T14:33:35Z taromatsumura taromatsumura@gmail.com http://www.tarosite.net/ tag:www.tarosite.net,2008://2 Copyright (c) 2008, taromatsumura netnomad's web by taromatsumura 2008-11-17T14:48:15Z http://mobilephonedevelopment.com/?p=712

There&#8217;s an interesting (long) post at Safe From The Losing Fight. This is a great follow up if anyone has been reading my past observations on the iPhone application store. Andy Finnell says that one outcome may be that&#8230; &#34;The App Store becomes a market for one off apps and abandonware, where apps don&#8217;t progress beyond version [...]

There’s an interesting (long) post at Safe From The Losing Fight. This is a great follow up if anyone has been reading my past observations on the iPhone application store.

Andy Finnell says that one outcome may be that…

"The App Store becomes a market for one off apps and abandonware, where apps don’t progress beyond version 1.0 because there’s no money in it. Apps are simple and cheap to build, and developers rely on the initial sales spike to make all their money."

I have heard this from more than one source. The problem is that the current discovery mechanism favours new applications.

Incidentally, AllAboutiPhone featured a case in point today. A chess program by John of ZingMagic (who I incidentally worked with on the UIQ book) selling for only $1 and with 12 competitors!

However, I have been thinking that one of the problems is that there are very few really great ‘must have’ applications. Most have been created quickly and haven’t been written in such a way to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Taking the Chess example, how about Network Chess where you could play against other people? How about a server based tournament system where people could challenge one another. How about storing replays of games so others can see what has happened? How about a real prize for winners?

I think you get the idea. It may not be just about application store visibility and pricing. Word of mouth will always raise the profile of a ‘must have’ application. I think people will pay a good price for a ‘must have’ application. The only problem is that such applications take a long time to write and require a determined commitment to the iPhone platform.

Having said this, even when writing ‘must have’ software, I believe in my original observation that, with time, software prices tend towards zero - however, over months or years (which is ok) rather than days.

Related Articles:

• Pre-load to post-sales?
• iPhone App Gold Rush Over So Soon?
• iPhone Developer Shortage
• iPhone Application Gold Rush
• iPhone 3G Impressions and Development
• Free vs Sold Applications

2008-11-17T11:30:56Z 2008-11-17T11:30:56Z Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer http://mobilephonedevelopment.com Copyright 2008 Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, Android, J2ME, SMS and the Mobile Web 2008-11-18T12:51:34Z http://mobiforge.com/1764 at http://mobiforge.com

On Saturday 15th November I, along with Andrea, Ruadhan and over 70 (yes you read that right, over SEVENTY) other Irish Drupalers rolled over to DIT Kevins Street for a spot of Drupal-centric discussion and joviality.

read more

2008-11-17T10:00:57Z daniel.hunt http://mobiforge.com/rssfeed MobiForge Content Feed 2008-11-18T22:54:22Z http://natalian.org/archives/2008/11/17/still-no-decent-data-plan-offer-from-vodafone/