Mobile Web 2.0 Summit
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Osney Medias' Mobile web 2.0 Summit aims to:
Clarify the principles of Mobile Web 2.0 and understand how to create the business models required for an enduring industry
Determine who has value in the value chain and discover
Find out what tools can be used to understand the Mobile
Explore the role and revenue potential of Mobile Web 2.0 in advertising and brand impact
Discuss how to ensure excellent end to end user experience
Examine what social networking means from a mobile
perspective and how to monetise user created content
Discover the realities of billing models surrounding Mobile Web 2.0 and their impact on the market
Compare the world of PC and Mobile Web and determine how
Web 2.0 and Mobile Web 2.0 will share content
Hear from the latest start-ups and their ideas for the newest applications and services
Learn about the next generation platforms and enablement and the implications for Mobile Web 2.0
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What mobile web 2.0 is not and who's not using it
What mobile web 2.0 is not
I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but I thought this was perhaps the most useful approach I could take given the excellent posts already contributed.
Algorithmic search
The more I use the mobile web, the more it is apparent that I'm not using search to discover services. I discover services I like online and like them more when they reveal they have a mobile version. I'm a nerd, so I'm good at collecting things, but how will normobs find out about the amazing services we're creating?
Search is a poor fit for the mobile web right now. Typing is hard work and the quality of results required in a mobile context is nothing short of superlative. I can easily cope with 19 totally useless web results, it is extremely hard to deal with even one on my phone. With current state search technology, this is a real problem.
New approaches like Taptu's makes sense. A mobile version of Wikia could be very powerful. Both are dependant on user interaction and will take time to become really useful.
The iPhone
The iPhone of course, is the single greatest achievement of mankind. If there were a man using an iPhone on the moon, we could all die happy.
The iPhone is made by Apple, who make expensive products for rich people. The next 1.5 billion mobile subscribers will all be in low-income per capita markets1.
Multi-touch is as big a leap as the GUI was from the command line. The command line lived on because it fulfils a need (speed, expressiveness, looking cool). Physical keys fulfill a need, they are more rugged and cheaper to make.
At November's Future of Mobile event 2 interesting anti-iPhone trends were highlighted. One was Google Android, which can be all things to all people in a way that Apple's business model doesn't allow for. The second was revealed by a series of fascinating titbits from Sony Ericsson's Simon Rockman, designing handsets for most people is not about the web and data, it's about things like torches. Technology advances rapidly, but the context in which that technology is used changes slowly.
Transformed
The iPhone throws open the doors and promises access to the whole web just as the iPod promised the whole of your music collection. The whole web can not be squished over the air and into a mobile handest, by zoom-and-touch, by transcoders or even by teams of programmers. Designers must create valuable
services. I think we forget how much useless information we filter out when we use the fixed internet, filtering is so much harder on a phone, it makes the cost of accessing a service just too great for most people.
Flat
To a desktop web browser, the world is flat and time is of little interest. To a mobile browser, these create the context in which it must prove itself relevant. The mobile web must provide instant gratification, whether that is the right information right now, social interaction that is quick and vital or a product purchase that is perfectly relevant.
High speed
Mobile broadband? The mobile web is achingly slow in the centre of a global city, what must it be like in a field in Kenya?
Who's not using it
* People with expensive data (almost everybody).
* People with old, wrongly configured or low-spec handsets (almost everybody).
* People who don't understand the benefits (almost everybody).
How can we address these problems? Creating really compelling services at a lowprice and communicating about those services effectively is a fascinating
challenge.
posted by afternoon
CTO, MyMart, General Troublemaker, Moblog
Posted by Alfie
,mobile web,mobile web summit,mymart
Alfie says:
I can't keep up with these posts in terms of reading, cogitating and formulating replies. Amazing post Ben.
nige says:
oh shit, i made my comment on the image alone, which i think is hilarious. now i will dilligently read the article.
Alfie says:
haha! yeah, the moblog was hidden as it was being edited somewhat. Damn funny image.
Spiderbaby says:
"Who's not using it?"
Yes, that's me for all 3 I'm afraid. Mobile internet is something I'm quite happy to live without as it seems far too much trouble for what it's worth and I don't know what it would take to convince me otherwise. It's much easier to just wait a bit and use the laptop.
Alfie says:
Wait till you see the soon to be released new Moblog mobile site SB :)
nige says:
well written. i've never considered the point made about our ability to filter out irrelevance on the web. thats so very true, and i realise it hits one of the nails on the head (for me, at least) as to why i lose interest in - and put less effort into spending time on - the mobile web. it's so much more than just a device issue.
nige says:
you got any release dates yet alfie? i thought it was happening last month.
Alfie says:
As ever, lots more development to do than expected. That said, the beta is coming to mods and editors exceedingly soon.
nige says:
no doubt lots more work than anticipated, i'll bet. will look forward to it.
bronxelf says:
Since I use my mobile for almost nothing *except* internet, it appears I'm the exception here.
ookiine says:
DAMN! That's a BIG iPhone...
As for it being the "single greatest achievement of mankind"... I don't agree. It is a very nice and advance device, but not the "single greatest achievement of mankind". It could do better and I don't htink the 2nd gen one will do it, but might be close.
I'm waiting for it to be release and decide if I want to pay my ETF to switch carriers (Verizon Wireless is CDMA, not GSM) to have it. If not, I'll get a smartphone on VZW. Can't beat their service. Better than AT&T;!
Spiderbaby says:
Oh. Now I have a really, really low spec phone in the US that won't be able to do any of that. But Crickson really, really wants to get an I-Phone ("it would be a saving really in the long run..." :D ) so I'll just have to look suspiciously over his shoulder at it, like I usually do :)
jc1000000 says:
Totally agree about the filtering we take for granted. It's not just search tools either, all the collaborative participation is filtering information too and often better. I think mobile web is going to about informattion as a sensory 'extension' rather than intellectual thing. The aim might be to bring more of the content filtered by the networks you collaborate with to you, and the technology/algorithmic side essentially personalises it. Mobile search will be driven by human 'referral networks' rather than automated spiders/indexes.
Charlie says:
Good article Alfie. El Reg has an article about the iPhone becoming a stealth hit once it became a bargain and people noticed it was actually a very usable device. I think that pretty much sums it up. i used the same phone for 7 years (on contract) as it performed perfectly, never broke when i dropped it, and had every function i cared to use. However, once i saw a function i wanted and decent form factor (email with big keyboard) i put my coin down and upgraded. Then i saw an enhancement (faster data) that meant something to me, so i upgraded again (although less successfully in terms for it just 'working'). in those seven stable years there was just nothing that appealed to me (at the right price). simple.
the biggest spread of mobile data functions is Blackberry, and mostly the drones have no web data allowance. however, it has opened them to the idea of email on the phone, and that takes them to the next level of handset personally (seen this several times now).
however, back to the point about handset - the man from sony is right. i want a torch. i want lots of things. i want it to work. i want it to have a 2.5 headphone jack. simple, effective, robust. fix the handsets.
afternoon says:
@Ookine I was being sarcastic about the iPhone being man's greatest acheivement. Sorry, should have added a winky. :-)
@JC That's Taptu's concept, you find something with Taptu, you recommend it to your friends.