Actually, my bet is on those who know how to build mobile portals – spreading their influence to the mobile masses.
Link: sdbj: For once I agree with Nicholas Carr.
Maybe the basic internet search engine is fated to be a cheap commodity running behind the scenes. And maybe those who control the search function – and most of the related ad revenues – won’t be the guys running the engine but those who own the desktop or the portal (or whatever replaces the desktop or the portal).
Keep it simple!
This guy writes great stuff on design and mobile design in particular. I forget how I found out about him (I think he gave a presentation here at Nokia that I ended up downloading), but he comes highly recommended by anti-mega and blackbeltjones.
Link: f r e e g o r i f e r o | weblog.
Hail the power of perceived simplicity: why shouldn’t all mobile phones give users the ability to choose a "basic" profile?
We need connected devices that actually do more by doing less, by keeping things simple for people who do not want to deal with unnecessary complexity.
Google is now in the unenviable position of being feared, loved, and hated as much as Microsoft and to a certain extent, Yahoo (GYM). But, while reading this analysis what ends up being the main scenario – mobile.
Yes, I’ve been reading the Google tea leaves quite closely. And so has bubblegeneration. Cuirouser and curiouser.
Link: Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab.
Think about this scenario a few years from now: I am roaming in downtown Vancouver one saturday afternoon and using my mobile to find the exact location of a shop carrying a rare copy of an old Sanskrit text that I had found by searching on an Indian university’s library archived using Google Print. Who’s the ONE company that can find that shop for me? Of course, GOOG. Why? Because it has integrated vertical domains: web, languages, mobile, mapping imagery, geographic locations, businesses and print archives. How? It has applied its competence in searching across domains. Why? To increase the switching cost for a user like me and buy my attention for zero marginal cost. Why is that important? To sell my attention to GOOG’s advertisers for profit and protect such advertising revenues.
If this really happens, GOOG monopoly will be more powerful than any other in known history, including our resident evil empire de jour from Redmond. The sheer scope of GOOG’s ambition is breathtaking. Think of how valuable the access to Google’ s network will be for the aforementioned shop which not only has its location, but also its entire inventory digitized and stored in Google’s databases. Then think of how I’d ever be able to wean myself away from that network. Talk about being qwned!! Oh yes: it WILL be evil. It just has to.
A really good compilation of numbers for those of you contemplating the size of the mobile device market.
Link (via Roland): MyPhoneRocks dot com � Blog Archive � Enertainment Evolution.
In yesterdays episode of MyPhoneRocks I claimed that mobile phones are transforming our world in new ways and that there’s no shortage of companies helping to accelerate the change because they know there’s gold in them-thar hills. Unlike the limited quantities of the actual soft yellow metal that has found itself at the heart of many a man’s demise, new veins of metaphoric telecom gold grow larger every day in the form of new mobile phone users, new features added to phones, new network technologies and existing consumers finally learning how to use what they’ve already got. And, oh yeah, handset manufacturers and network operators finally figuring out how the hell to sell the stuff.
Link: Distraction Culture: Never alone?.
The phone is very insistent – we cannot leave it alone. This is partly explained by McLuhan’s theory that the phone demands a partner and partly because we all wish to feel wanted. In fact it is entertaining, involving and two way. Calls, text messages and e-mail satisfy that need.
Ander Lindh rund FlyerOne, a long time mobile marketing company in Helsinki. Lately, he’s been sharing the wealth by highlighting the different activites FlyerOne has done or is doing.
Check him out for ideas.
Link: the mobile experience.
This is a showcase of a somewhat different campaign that demonstrates the possibilities offered by wireless connectivity.
PS As a side story, I was shocked to listen recently to a VC in the Bay Area proudly proclaim they had put money into a mobile marketing firm as if it was a new business segment. I think the Bay Area is currently going through recapitulating the whole mobile learning process. Eh. GIve them time. They’ll catch up.
Finnish license plate
Originally uploaded by schickr.
They just love rye
Kodaja Cowbow’s prison blues
Originally uploaded by schickr.
17:09 Thursday, 10 November, 2005
Image 167
Weird chruch in Palo Alto
Originally uploaded by schickr.
15:47 Wednesday, 09 November, 2005
Image 164
