Announcements

Stuart Mudie is organizing a mobile gathering at 3GSM

Posted on by charlie

Mobile maniacs unite!

Link: Blethers.com – Stuart Mudie’s weblog – MobileSunday Barcelona.

The 3GSM World Congress, the annual trade fair that is the world’s largest gathering of everyone with an interest in all things mobile, will take place in Barcelona from Monday 13 to Thursday 16 February.

I will be attending this year to witness the launch of the 2006 edition of the Netsize Guide, of which I am one of the co-authors, and I’m willing to bet I won’t be the only mobile blogger in town. Wouldn’t it be fun if we could all meet up somewhere beforehand and indulge in some pre-3GSM mobile geekery?

UPDATE: D’oh! Forgot to say that as far as I know, I will NOT be there. Sad, but true. So, take pics and drink a few for me (I can handle it). I like brown ales.

Oh, and the organizers are Stuart and Rudy. When I know more, I’ll post it here.

The Narrative

Blast from the past – Nokia unveils new comprehensive mobile Internet solution

Posted on by charlie

First product I worked on at Nokia. Five years on, the story hasn’t changed.

Do you know anyone who uses this product. Neither do I.

Learned a boatload, though.

Link (from Oct 2000): Nokia – Nokia unveils new comprehensive mobile Internet solution – A world-class engine room for seamless 2G and 3G services – Press Releases – Press – About Nokia.

Nokia has today introduced Nokia mPlatform Solution, an open platform for operators and service providers to implement mobile Internet services. With Nokia mPlatform Solution as an enabling layer, operators and service providers can now start to build a trusted position with their mobile Internet portals and tailor new services according to market and consumer demand.

Statements

Boston Globe on: Boston, city of Franklin’s birth, barely celebrates 300th B-Day

Posted on by charlie

Link: Boston, city of Franklin’s birth, barely celebrates 300th B-Day – Boston.com.

On Benjamin Franklin’s 300th birthday on Tuesday, Philadelphia will be the celebratory hub, boasting a 42-page full-color guide to 85 events that include Ben’s Birthday Bash at the National Liberty Museum and a gala parade to his grave.

And what about in Boston, where the founding father was born and his intellect and character nurtured?

Innovation/Strategy/The Narrative

Jan Chipchase on: Smart People, Dumb People

Posted on by charlie

Jan is an amazingly observant guy. Nokia is lucky to have him.

You just have to read his website, where he regularly posts about his many trips and user studies all around the world. Lately, he has been focusing a lot on developing markets, which suits me just fine.

In this article, he brings up the concept of ‘utility maximization’ in relation to the cell phone world – that fixed-line infrastructure still has relevance where it is significantly cheaper than mobile phone service.

Link: Jan Chipchase – Future Perfect: Smart People, Dumb People.

Whilst the mobile phone offers the key benefits of personal, convenient, synchronous and asynchronous communication people often opt to use and will go out of their way to use public infrastructure because its simply cheaper.

Reflections

Places I’ve been in 2005

Posted on by charlie

Inspired by David (link below), here’s my list.

Places I’ve slept in* that I can remember or publicly admit to. These are not in chronological order. And I’ve marked the places I have jogged in, too:

  • Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (yeah! and we hardly slept that night)
  • Espoo, Finland (jogged, marathoned, half-marathoned) – this is where I live
  • SĂŁo Paulo, Brasil
  • New York City, NY
  • San Francisco, CA (jogged)
  • San JosĂ©, CA (jogged)
  • White Plains, NY
  • West Hartford, CT (jogged)
  • Cambridge/Boston, MA – slept in, ugh, Burlington
  • Paris, France (jogged)
  • Berlin, Germany (jogged)
  • Munich, Germany (jogged)
  • Madrid, Spain
  • London, England (jogged)
  • Wolfsburg, Germany (jogged)
  • Hannover, Germany
  • Stockholm, Sweden (actually slept on the cruise ship in transit)
  • Euro Disney, France
  • Bäsholm (an island off of Porvoo), Finland

I have no idea if I got them all, but that’s a lot of traveling. And you shoulda seen last year.

*As opposed to visiting for the day or passing through

Link: hello, typepad: Places I Went in 2005.

Strategy

This is Mobility on: Google Personal Mobile – Close the Loop Already!

Posted on by charlie

MoMo Mike points out one deficiency in another interesting Google mobile service – poor integration to existing mobile services.

To me, that’s the piece I see missing in the things Yahoo and Google have been releasing. The products still seem to be point solutions for existing properties, not integrated extensions of multiple properties. For example, the Yahoo!Go mobile client doesn’t link with Flickr. Or, as Mike points out, the Google Personal mobile interface or the Google Local Mobile doesn’t integrate with Dodgeball.

I have no doubt that integration will come,. But how and when? Also, why aren’t these new things already coming integrated?

Integration can be messy, but if done right, can be the much better than the various services individually.

Link: This is Mobility – Close the Loop Already!.

A lot of folks have been talking about the mobile version of the Google personalized homepage recently, and of course I’ve given it a try. But just like the Google Local for Mobile release before it, it’s missing the one set of data that would really drive me to put some use behind it: Dodgeball.

Announcements/The Narrative

TechCrunch on: A New Blog is Born – MobileCrunch

Posted on by charlie

I had been on the look out for this. A new mobile blog has been announced (thanks Tommi).

Mike Arrington of Techcrunch has extended his brand (maybe with my goading?) to the new Mobilecrunch. Does that make Mike Captain Crunch? Had to say it.

The lead mobilecruncher is Oliver Starr who recently left his gig at Mobile Weblog and, in addition to Mobilecrunch, has popped up at MobHappy. Doin’ fine, Oliver.

Link: TechCrunch – A New Blog is Born – MobileCrunch.

I am very pleased to announce a new TechCrunch Network blog – MobileCrunch. MobileCrunch is being written by long-time “mobile” blogger and entrepreneur, Oliver Starr. Oliver just left his current blog, the very popular The Mobile Technology Weblog, to join me.