Engage user's pocket

Look back in the year 2005 and messianic prophets talking about mobile advertising.

Financial Times run a piece about mobile advertising on the front page ( April 6th, 2005 edition) presenting interview with Andrew Robertson the CEO of BBDO, the global advertising agency ( the world's third largest ) .

Why he thought mobiles will become key ad medium in the future ?
It's easy to understand why he thought like many of us, but I wouldn't call it ''key'' medium cause it's just one piece of the advertising puzzle .

The trouble is in the execution. So, rightly he said :

'' You have no way to interrupt because they ( users ) can choose what they can do.The opportunity is if you can create some content that they want to engage with, they can do that all of the time from anywhere.

We´re delighted that many of the smartest thinkers in traditional agencies share our vision of the future. The question for advertisers is whether agencies can do more that talk the talk - does their current business model and company structure allow them to embrace this new future.

We find that Agency chiefs do want to move forward, but find themselves limited by the fact they are essentially factories devoted to creating TV commercials.''

The forcast by Mr. Robertson was way ahead of time and the promise is still not fullfilled. Since then, there was story about YouTube not MobileTube we all know very well...

Mobile phones are just in the ''waiting lanes''.

Web Balkanisation

The Web is split up

Stephen Wellman from InformationWeek was among the crowd in the auditorium during Google presentation about mobile applications and service and quotes Google user experience designer Leland Rechis who said:

''Rechis said, bluntly, that the mobile Web is balkanized, "The Pangaea of the Web is gone." And don't expect this to change anytime soon, either. Thanks to carrier portals and off portal applications, there is no one mobile standard to develop for.''

Read, Google thinks there's a two-tier Web and it won't be reversed fact.
I realised this one year ago when they labeled their search as ''Web'' and ''Mobile Web''.
Tim Berners Lee is strongly against this view but it's a simple truth.

Paul Golding even thinks we can't call it ''Mobile Web'' either. Maybe we should wait DoCoMo to define it :))

Follow up:
What term Pangaea means

VoiceIndigo preloaded podcasts support

Audio- centric mobile service

Samsung UpStage will be the first mobile phone by the global handset maker preloaded with podcasting software provided by VoiceIndigo with its catalogue service and advertising solution.

The service will be free for the consumer ( but not for Sprint ).
This solution is enabled for Sprint users in USA.

The trouble I have with those sort of services is web-based management of the subscription service.
It must me managable from the very same device from which you are occasionally listen audio content.

Latest edition of MobileMedia here in Croatia showed on the main page Beyonce Knowles holding dual-faced Samsung UpStage ( SPH-M620 ) phone. It's clearly phone for mobile entertainment.

VoiceIndigo podcasting app is only one feature but of equal importance just like Bluetooth or 1,3 Mpx camera.

Thought of a day about mobility

Two simple truths:
The World Wide Web is vast, and mobile phones are small.

Low 3G capacity utilisation

Not dumb, but empty pipe

It’ll take a long time for the telecom ''pipes'' to be filled.
Short on incentives for a mass market.

Nokia widgets to charm

Woohy, woohaa, widgets. Hijack !

Andrew Orlowski hits Nokia for its widgets business strategy.
I have to disagree this time with him.

I belive he had mistaken Nokia's Web 2.0 marketing thingie-lingie language and the real reasons coming from the fact that UI concepts tend toward data-centric intefraces ( instead of list-based, now they are becoming more richer ).

I don't like Web 2.0 fancy schmency either, so I agree with him only on the part Nokia hadn't had to mentioned Web 2.0 at all.
But this time, Orlowski in the name of IT security whispers PC bloatware is coming...
We'll see.
I never liked or used widgets on my desktop, but mobile has much more sense, IMHO.

To me, there's real business logic to give web community tools to mobilise more easily their properties etc.

S60 will be software platform that enables the creation of widgets using familiar standards-based Web technologies.
Why uploading html pages ( sometimes ) when you can streamline those data more conveniently, faster and cheaper ?

Widgets will be distributed to users through several channels, one of which is WidSets, a popular consumer Internet service launched by Nokia, which allows users to personalize their mobile Internet experience.

FOLLOW UP:
Microsfot ZenZui bets on widgets
uLocate GPS widgets
GetMobio lifestyle portal
Properazzi widget for real estate

The conclusion:
Enticing vision of what the mobile deck could be if carriers opened their minds to the possibilities of a truly customizable interface. Even if this ether of floating widgets were just the front end to the content portion of a deck, it would be a vast improvement over what we have from any carrier now. First, it lowers the personalization bar so low that almost anyone with a Web connection could be enticed to manage his or her decks from a Web site.

Croatia ready for 3rd party mobile services

The point of saturation.

Puls, a croatian market research agency, presented findings 2 months ago about croatian mobile habits and use.
I almost forgot about these findings.

They conducted interviews with croatian households ( n= 1.000 people, time frame- January 2007., people over 14 years old, national representative sample ).



Key findings:

- Penetration : 101 % ,

- Usage: 37 % photography, 25 % games, 21 % mp3, 16 % video clips, 13 % radio, 12 % content dowloading, 7 % web browsing, 7 % mobile e-mail

- Males and under 25 years old are using more actively multimedia, music, games and web browsing

For example, T-Mobile Croatia has ARPU of € 27 ( In Germany it has about 21 € ).
Tele2 has the biggest subsciber growth. Vipnet provides videocalling, HSDPA network with 7,2 downlink ( HSPU upgrade ) and is actively making inroads in fixed-mobile convergence with its VIP Homebox service.

Open Source Car

Ugly.

But still, you can modify as you wish but share it with other. ;))

Social signs in your hand

What your mobile phone says about you:

Nokia

Family-minded
Middle aged managers
Balance seekers
Health conscious

Motorola

Fashion conscious
Under 24
Fun seekers
Individualistic

Sony Ericsson

Ambitious young men
Professionals
Success driven
Individualistic

LG

Favourite of mums
Stay-at-home parents
Success driven
Harmony seekers

Samsung

Young women
Career focused
Success driven
Fun seekers

Via: WirelessDuniya and Stuff.co.nz

Buddy Calls

Mobile VOIP. Again.

Nokia Nseries or Eseries WiFi handsets and calls with WiFiMobile software ( S60 3rd ).
Buddy lists will sprung up.
All that even before Skype made any significant inroads in mobile space :))

Mobile Web Certification

Excellence

The folks at dotMobi are partnering with Prometric for Mobile Web Development certification.
Their initiatives are heading toward more attention for ''Mobile Web'' or whatever we might call it.

Bedroom full of laptops

Love and marriage, love and marriage

Woman deserves more attention ( FULL ) than laptop.
Indians are learning this hard way.

Motofone

Easy mobile. 1,2,3...Around 1998.

What if Motorola did have released Motofone in 1998 ?
It would be trendsetter and the best mobile UI of its time.
The growth of mobile telecommunications would be tremendeous ( it was, anyway ).
Just imagine.
Slick, low-cost, simple, big buttons, wide display, call, SMS...

3G Stimulation

Finns did it ! Again !

Change the law and adoption goes up.
That's how Finns did for 3G adoption. The results are:

- almost half (40%) already use 3G services and every fourth (25%) is considering their adoption

- the most wanted 3G services are email (60%), map and route services (49%), and Internet (40% )

- According to comparative questionnaire studies, the use of 3G has increased more than six-fold from the previous year's 6 per cent to 40 per cent. Currently, there are more than 700,000 3G phones in use in Finland. A year ago, the number was only 50,000.

- the most wanted were email (60%), map and route services (49%), and Internet (40%). Next most popular were the news (39%), bank (37%), weather (33%), search (27%), music (21%) and television (19%).

From Nokia's mouths

Those bluddy amateurs :)

An interview with Nokia's vice president of Nseries Computers Pekka Pohjakallio about iPhone.

Rare opportunties to hear about iPhone.
He admits Apple implemented some things differently.

"We have been preaching the message of converged multimedia in one device, with lots of use cases and a good experience for the whole life of Nseries. And now Apple have come and said basically the same thing, even if they have implemented some things differently.

And

"They had music, internet, an email deal with Yahoo and a deal with Google, but it is a 2G device, not 3G, which was a surprise to me," he says. "And it's coming first to the US market with Cingular, so let's see. But overall, it's very exciting for us."

But my biggest question for Apple about iPhone is why Apple created a "internet device" running on ISDN speeds ?
How will they connect iTunes library and multimedia rich iPhone without high-speed wirelles tech ?

Nokia 5700

Music phone. Four important buttons.

Mobility thoughts of day

Recent thoughts and question about mobility:

- How will upcoming Apple iPhone handle clicking web links when browsing on tiny device only with a thumb? If there is a list of links, how will screen respond to clicking links and fully precise doing so ?

- Mobile operators want fewer mobile OS. So, is there a space for LiMo, Apple OS and in the future some Google OS ? Basic smartphone OS's are enough or not ? Fast device-to-market is important to them. Third party developers can also benefit from few basic mobile OS's

- javascript:void(0)
Publish

Local production in a globalised world

Reverse-engineered globalisation

Motorola to launch in 2007. a new cell phone fully developed in Brazil.
Why ?
Support of local economy ? Nice try, I guess.
It's interesting development in the global economy.
More of:

Motorola will draw on the technology and software of 600 partners spread throughout Brazil, according to the spokesperson.

Man, it's 600 partners ! Local business and politician dream.
Hard & Soft will be produced in Brazil.

Sonopia

Put your logo on the mobile handset

With Sonopia become MVNO under 10 minutes. Resell mobile phone service to your group/community/users.
Sonopia headquarters are in Kyev and Menlo Park.