Archive for Convergence
by Ewan Spence
April 7, 2008 at 6:14 am · Filed under Google, Communication, Convergence, Email, Gmail, Android
Remind me again what use Google Android is? I mean, I know what the party line is, to create an open platform, to have a standard approach, to let it run on lots of handsets, to give the Linux community another White Knight OS running on standard phone hardware (as opposed to OpenMoko, or Sava JE, or whatever Motorola’s Strategy department liked using last month), there may be another useful side effect.
While it will be good news if Google succeeds in getting a foothold into the Handheld OS market, it won’t be because they have a standard platform. With all the best will in the world, Apple’s market hare of mobile phones in the US could not be described as a standard; a foothold, yes. Even Symbian’s worldwide share of the total mobile market (and not just the ‘smart’ section) has a long term goal to reach 10% (2007 sa their share rise to 7%). So I just don’t see how Google can manage to make any ground selling handsets.
Maybe they have something else in mind? After all, Google’s strength is in advertsing. What they need is eyeballs over their sites and properties. It is leveraging the mobile search space with browser tie ins and plug in search widgets – all driving browser footfall back to Mountain View. If the fragmentation in the mobile space continues, then one of the key applications is going to be using the phone as a think client, via the web or small Java applets, back to destinations such as Google Maps and Google Mail.
If Google can keep the tech elite switching between devices like the iPhone, the Nokia NSeries, and now Android, then these cross platform properties become more and more useful to the users, they gain more presence and become even more sticky. So people can squabble all they like over the Operating System. Google will keep gathering knowledge via the Android project, but the real value comes from keeping everyone arguing over a lot of systems, while the tools used continue to stay with Google.
by Ewan Spence
January 14, 2008 at 10:19 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Funny, Communication, Convergence
Good news! Readers in Glasgow will be the first in the UK able to use their mobile phone and get a signal on their metro. The Glasgow Underground is on course to deploy a combined Wi-Fi and 2G/3G service by this February. It should be noted that coverage, as yet, is only for the stations, and not in the tunnels between the stations.
But already I can hear the cries and howls of protest as ‘the last bastion of peace and quiet is breached,’ or similar sentiments (cf MocoNews’ “is nothing sacredâ€). You know, we’ve been here before. Go right back to the invention of the telephone and it has been slowly moving into more public spaces. Take the start of the 80’s, you would not have walked out on the street to make a call, where everyone could hear your side of the conversation. Nowadays that’s a common occurrence.
As technology has changed, so has social acceptance. We’re seeing it in the field not just of mobile communication (for example are we at the point where it is polite to at least read an SMS at dinner, if not quite the done thing to take the time to reply?) but in all areas of the internet – the most obvious change is the attitude towards copyright and the rewarding of artists but more and more steps in mobile phone etiquette are under way. The next big area, I feel, is in airline travel – and with Air France to start trials of its in-flight call system in the first half of 2008 the airline cabin during flight could be the next step.
Does this all matter though? Are those people who are crying Cassandra at the changes doing the right thing, relics of a more polite past, or will they come around when the rest of the crowd is doing it?
by Ewan Spence
December 28, 2007 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Communication, Convergence, Advertising
There are some who hope that the mobile message in 2008 will simply read “Vote Bush for President 2008.†(Un)fortunately term limits take care of that one, but there are a lot of names who want to be there come November 2008, and getting their message out is their goal.
Now, being based in the UK, and in a constituency that is pretty much solid for one party, I’m not going to preach here about the benefits or problems with one US Presidential Candidate over another; what I am interested in is how they’re going to use Web 2.0 and Mobile Messaging to find, mobilise and use their supporters.
Ewan MacLeod pointed this out over the festive seasons with a post on Obama’s use of SMS shortcodes (in his case OBAMA, or 62262). It didn’t take long for the supporter of another candidate to point out their shortcode – Hilary Clinton using 442008 (the 44th President will be elected in 2008). It’s not the first time MacLeod has pointed out Obama’s use of technology, with his use of text messaging to gain an audience for his show with TV host Oprah Winfrey, but I’m sure we’ll see more and more of this in the next few weeks and months (during Primary season) and then onwards with the chosen candidates towards the main event.
It says a lot about the power of Web 2.0 to reach the younger votes, a group that is generally regarded as being hard to both reach and motivate – interacting with them on platforms such as Facebook, having Twitter accounts is going to become the norm for candidates in many elections, not just the bigger US versions. It might take time, but the blogging politician has an opportunity to make a connection for life with his or her constituents; something especially important where there are no term limits (such as Capitol Hill in the US and the United Kingdom House of Commons).
What’s been the most unusual political outreach online you’ve seen?
by Imran Ali
December 27, 2007 at 4:28 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Studies + Research, On Blogs and Blogging, Ethnography, Communication, Convergence, Email
In the last couple of weeks, the various contributors to Mobile Messaging 2.0 have been holding an open debate on what the definition of a mobile message should be; with some insightful and thought provoking contributions from Debi, Darla, Ewan, Paul and Russell…almost the entire team!
From my own perspective as a user, cognitively, I don’t think I’ve ever made distinctions between mobile messaging or ‘fixed’ messaging. In fact the means of transmission is pretty much meaningless to me, with a focus on where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m talking about and with whom I’m communicating.
Every day I expect 100-150 incoming emails, around a 1000 blogposts at Bloglines, maybe 50-75 Twitters, an average of 5 voice calls, 5-10 Facebook messages and the odd notification from a blog comment, Facebook event, YouTube, Upcoming, Last.fm or eBay. Every now and again, I might even receive an MMS!
They’re all just messages - some land in my mailbox, others in various web application inboxes, some on my mobile phone. I might see a Facebook notification email arrive in my N95’s inbox and reply using the mobile web UI for Facebook. I may receive a direct Twitter on my phone as an SMS and reply using Twitterific on my Mac. Sometimes I wander around the house firing off replies from an iPod touch.
Conversations and communications start in one application, end in another and meander through various fixed and mobile networks…it’s all communication, driven by context and situation.
Perhaps there’s a meta-question we need to address collectively. Rather than exploring definition of mobile messaging, we perhaps need to understand why this definition is important. Are we more interested in the mobile portions of a conversation’s journey or in the multi-modal nature of that conversation?
I would argue that the latter question is perhaps more significant, simply because this is an area in which the industry lacks knowledge. Classifying messages by network or device is relatively easy to comprehend, but doesn’t reflect the reality of usage most of us now experience.
We can perhaps learn much more about the design and usage of communication by delving deep into the motivations we have when switching contexts between services, devices, location, time and relationship…
by Ewan Spence
November 27, 2007 at 7:03 pm · Filed under Platforms, Twitter, Instant Messaging, Communication, Convergence, Jaiku, Messaging, seesmic
Many years ago, back in the dark days when I studied Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh University I was a heavy user of the Usenet reading application TIN. This of course was in the fun days when all access was through 80×24 VT100 terminals. And I remember that TIN was a great improvement over RN and NN, and the main advantage was it used threaded messaging.
And I think that’s where Seesmic, Loic Le Meur’s play to get into the instant message + stream of conscious + video space which could (could) prove profitable in the future. I’ve been on the service for some time, and using it in anger over the last week, and while it is incredibly rough around the edges (and everyone is screaming for threaded messages - making it more Jaiku than Twitter?) there is something going on here that needs exploring.
Seesmic is not the final answer. It’s simply the opening shot, like a ranging shell in a naval battle. If any of the other presence services add video, the bloated Flash app of Seesmic will have a tough battle early on it’s career. TIN caught my imagination, but it was a News client on Windows 3.11 that really pulled me into Usenet. So the question is, will Seesmic’s TIN become lead or gold?
by Ewan Spence
November 23, 2007 at 10:47 am · Filed under Devices, Mobile Tech, Platforms, Software, ARPU, iPhone, Google, Apple, Instant Messaging, Openmoko, Communication, Convergence, Symbian
The launch of Android, and the Open Handset Alliance (primarily with Google and over 30 other partners) has prompted a huge amount of discussion around the internet, from Telecoms Analysts, Industry Watehrs, Developers and enthusiatic bloggers. That’s been reflected here on Mobile Messaging 2.0.
So what exactly is the impact of this in the mobile space? Debi Jones and I sat down to discuss that very topic in our latest podcast.
Google, Android and the Implications - MM2.0 With Debi Jones and Ewan Spence:
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by Ewan Spence
October 25, 2007 at 12:30 am · Filed under Devices, MMS, Events + Conferences, Podcasts, iPhone, Mobile Advertising, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Convergence, CTIA
The second day at CTIA IT and Entertainment 2007 in San Francisco, and Debi, Paul and I meet up at the end of the day to discuss the major issues as we see them. In this podcast, we’re talking about the resurgence of voice, but in applications; the new forms that mobile messaging could take; monetisation and making mobile payments; why aren’t we talking about MMS as the new message?; Microsoft’s $240 million dollar deal with Facebook; what that deal means for Google and their opening up of mobile; and a few points about hype.
by Imran Ali
September 30, 2007 at 7:40 pm · Filed under Usage + Usability, News, Mobile Advertising, Ethnography, Radio, Convergence
Mobile operators, handset manufacturers and operating systems vendors have a tendency to become breathlessly excited by the possibility of all-in-one super phones such as the N95 and iPhone.
Yet, few take the time to critically understand the ethnographic reality of convergence. I spent many years pointing out to my former employers that convergence and digital TV was less about crude interactive and more about understanding what people were googling on their wifi laptops as they watched TV!
By the same token, a recent piece by Reuters on the use of text-messaging promotions by radio broadcasters is a indictment of the blinkered nature of convergence discourse in the industry.
Rather than pursuing the mirage of the One-True-Device, operators and handset builders need to sharpen their ethnographic understanding and open their innovation processes to a wider community of developers. There is more than one model of convergence chaps!
Interestingly, Reuters’ Radio stations keying in to text-message promotions, doesn’t mention anything about support from operators and vendors…
