Archive for UK
by Imran Ali
July 29, 2008 at 4:23 pm · Filed under MMS, Mobile messaging 2.0, SMS, UK
Back in November, we reported that Brits were sending 1.2bn text messages each week. Today, just eight months later, the UK’s Mobile Data Association released figures (as reported by BBC News) covering the first half of 2008 that show in increase to 1.4bn messages per week, surprisingly including 10m photo messages.
Assuming an SMS averages 5p and MMS 10p, that’s likely to be around £60-70m of revenue each week for a product will a relatively miniscule cost base…an astonishing figure which underlines the massive consumer appeal of SMS and MMS and its value to cellcos. All the more impressive when comparing the 28bn UK messages with 80bn messages sent across the US in the same period, a country five times the size of Britain.
Conversely, the UK’s Chartered Society of Physiotherapists today published a study illustrating the physical and physiological impact of texting on teenagers and other groups. As well as a geographic and demographic breakdown of the texting habits of 177 people, the CSP goes on to suggest a five step programme for safe texting…
- Hold the phone up with the screen facing towards you so you are not having to flex your neck too much as you look down to view the screen.
- Keep your hands close to your body. The weight of a phone may not feel much, but the load on your arm is significantly increased if the arm is held out stretched and this action will put strain on your neck and shoulder muscles.
- Try to use both hands together when texting to “spread the load”. Keep messages short and use abbreviations and the predictive text messaging feature on your phone. This will help reduce the repetitive motion of pressing various keys.
- Don’t text continuously. Try to take breaks by putting the phone down between text messages.
- Carry out the following two exercises to prevent text message injury:
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- Regularly open your fingers and stretch them out.
- Stretch your arm out, rotate your wrist so it is facing upwards and with your other hand pull your palm down towards the floor to feel a stretch over the front of your forearm muscles. Hold for 15 seconds and repeat 2-3 times.
Taken together, the MDA and CSP studies provide an invaluable insight into the textual habits of Brits.You can read the CSP’s study online, here…
by Tarek Abu-Esber
June 9, 2008 at 9:56 pm · Filed under Apple, Devices, UK, iPhone 3G
Today we witnessed the announcement of the Jesus-phone 2.0 - the Apple iPhone 3G. So pencil in July 11th as the date of the second coming of the iPhone, only this time with 3G (HSDPA baby), GPS (assisted) and a sexier body.
Darla and Ewan have already covered the American numbers between them and Imran has covered the lust-factor, but what does the iPhone 3G mean to UK users?
First and foremost the new iPhone will be Free from O2 on an 18 month contract. This finally brings the iPhone in line with every other Smartphone on the market in the UK and is no doubt down to Apples re-vamped revenue model for the iPhone. You know, the one that’s replacing the “revolutionary” revenue share model that AT&T and so few other networks agreed to?
Current O2 customers aren’t left out and can pay £100 for the privilege of upgrading to the iPhone 3G. When you compare that to the price point that the iPhone started at in 2007, we’ve come a long way.
As O2 haven’t released details of the subscription packages that will be available for the new iPhone in the UK it isn’t clear if we’ll see large rises in the cost of data packages and call bundles like we’ve seen in the US. Assuming they’re the same as the current iPhone packaged, then it looks like Apple may have hit a home-run when it comes to the price point of the iPhone in the UK.
However price isn’t everything and the UK market is, in some ways, more tech-conscious than the USA. Apple have done the obvious and added 3G and GPS to the device, two major flaws in the original design but they seem to have ignored far more basic improvements like MMS, video recording, instant messaging and an improved camera. My money says those features are as important, if not more so, than 3G and GPS to an average user in the UK.
But perhaps I’ve been too optimistic here. As soon as I heard the $199 price point my immediate reaction was “They’re going for the mass market.” but I don’t think that’s true just yet. The iPhone 3G has been updated specifically to take full advantage of the high-end Smartphone market with its top-end features and software updates aimed at the enterprise market. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that is Apple being short-sighted or a stroke of genius.
by Imran Ali
March 25, 2008 at 8:09 pm · Filed under Design, Events, London, Olympics, UK
I was recently invited to an intriguing workshop…unfortunately I can’t attend, but here’s another sign of London’s role as a global hothouse for mobile innovation.
Next Thursday, Living Labs Europe is holding a half-day creative workshop on the development of mobile urban services for the 2012 Olympics, to be hosted in London. The Flaneurs: The network is the city event will bring together around 50 participants during the afternoon of Thursday 27th March.
The group’s objective is to explore interaction, experience and service design with a view to develop applications or services that may be showcased in the period leading up to and including the 2012 Olympics; the ideas and concepts which emerge from the workshop will be circulated amongst the industry to inspire others to conceive of new opportunities.
There’ll be a bunch of speakers interspersed throughout the workshop, most notably Orange’s Neil Churcher. Though I left Orange just as Neil began his role there, we collaborated during his previous role as the Academic Director of Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. The work that the IDII students prepared for us was nothing short of inspiring and astonishing, on a par with NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Programme or the MIT Media Lab.
For this reason alone, I can’t wait to see what Flaneurs comes up with - organiser Nico MacDonald has promised me some follow up insights following the workshop. The group looks incredible - I’m loving that fact that there are tech people, broadcasters, public transport officials, architects and designers in the same place - ace!
by Imran Ali
March 25, 2008 at 12:47 pm · Filed under Android, Chumby, Events, Google, London, Nokia, UK, Yahoo
London continues to be a hotbed of mobile hacking and innovation, with next month’s Over The Air, taking place on April 4th + 5th at Imperial College.
Organised by BBC Backstage’s Ian Forrester and Vodafone’s Daniel Appelquist and backed by Nokia and Google, amongst others, Over The Air will be playing host to around 450 attendees across 48 hours of hands-on hacking and code-campery!
iPhone, Openmoko, Android sound like they’ll be strong themes, but expect to see a bunch of sessions on user experience design as well as some masterclasses from handset and software companies, including Nokia, Microsoft, Adobe and Yahoo! on day one.
Head on over to the Over The Air blog for more information on the schedule and how to register…
by Imran Ali
November 5, 2007 at 11:27 am · Filed under Communication, Ethnography, SMS, Studies + Research, Thumbs, UK
The UK’s Mobile Data Association has just announced that Britons are sending around 1.2 billion messages a week…that’s 25% growth over the previous year! Bundling, ethnographics, B2C messaging and increased enterprise usage are noted as the underlying factors.
Let’s say at an average prices of 5p/message, UK mobile operators would be collectively hauling in just under a quarter of a billion pounds each month!
It’s a crude statistic, but also underlines the inertia in opening up mobility. Why worry about making decisions about developer programmes, open source, unlocked handsets and the like when you can essentially wait it out. Time favours the telcos…
To quote Rainier Wolfcastle…
Jay Sherman: how do you sleep at night?
Rainier: On top of a pile of money, with many beautiful women.
