As the web is increasingly leaving home, it offers completely new chances to reach customers.
For a long time we have looked at the real world and the digital world as two completely different entities. That’s what we express when talking about phenomena as “second life” vs. “real life”. Up till now this might have been true, but not because the two are something different, but rather because the digital world just wasn’t far enough developed to be practical for our analogue needs in real places. Interfaces have been just too complicated and “technical” to be relevant in our “real life”. The desktop computer just forced you to stay in the house and even the laptop required booting and had impractical interfaces like mouse, keys and touchpad, that just aren’t made for being on the go.
What we’re seeing at the moment are the first signs of a new understanding of this relationship. Suddenly mobile web is all around us. Thanks to the iPhone people suddenly seem to start using their mobile devices for accessing the web. As Macwold reports Google noticed that iPhone users generate 50 times the search traffic of other devices. 50 times! These figures show clearly, that there is demand for mobile web usage and that people want to access the web any time and anywhere. Up until now the devices had just been too complicated to use on the go.
There are four points that are crucial to increasing mobile web usage. I call them the ‘4Cs’ of mobile web:
. Control - Completely new Interfaces are needed to control mobile applications. Think about voice control or Google not showing a whole result page but jumping directly to the result. The development of multi touch interfaces is the first step to gain control of the mobile web.
. Content - No one wants to surf complicated websites in the city centre. Mobile content will be simple and easy to use. And it will be location-based. Just think of examples like the concept of a quickOrder application for Starbucks. Services you need at a certain location are a great help in everyday life.
. Coverage - As the coverage of 3G and Wifi increase there are good chances you will get the information you need in an acceptable amount of time.
. Costs - One of the main reasons people didn’t use the net on their mobile was that it was enormously expensive. As flat rates seem to become the standard this is more and more neglectable. Only if people begin to use mobile applications as frequently as they send text messages and without even thinking about the costs it will become part of our everyday life.
And the advantages are enormous. If our analogue and digital lives became close friends, there would be a new dimension to what social networks could be like. Not about people sitting alone in their homes chatting with other people sitting at home alone, but about people on the go interacting with other people they meet.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Pink iPhone » Mobile Touchpoints // Mar 8, 2008 at 12:39 am
[…] tecosystems » because technology is just another ecosystem wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt As the web is increasingly leaving home, it is offering a completely new chance to reach customers. For a long time we have looked at the real world and the digital world as two completely different entities. That’s what we express when talking about phenomena as “second life” vs. “real life”. Up till now this might have been true, but not because the two are something different, but rather because the digital world just wasn’t far enough developed to be practical for our analogue spaces. In […]
2 Mobile Touchpoints // Mar 8, 2008 at 12:52 am
[…] tecosystems » because technology is just another ecosystem wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt As the web is increasingly leaving home, it is offering a completely new chance to reach customers. For a long time we have looked at the real world and the digital world as two completely different entities. That’s what we express when talking about phenomena as “second life” vs. “real life”. Up till now this might have been true, but not because the two are something different, but rather because the digital world just wasn’t far enough developed to be practical for our analogue spaces. In […]
3 » Mobile Touchpoints // Mar 8, 2008 at 1:10 am
[…] tecosystems » because technology is just another ecosystem wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt As the web is increasingly leaving home, it offers completely new chances to reach customers. For a long time we have looked at the real world and the digital world as two completely different entities. That’s what we express when talking about phenomena as “second life” vs. “real life”. Up till now this might have been true, but not because the two are something different, but rather because the digital world just wasn’t far enough developed to be practical for our analogue needs in real pl […]
4 Georg // Mar 9, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Update:
Avenue A | Razorfish just published their recent 2008 ‘Digital Outlook Report’, which is certainly worth a read. Patrick Moorhead, the director of their Emerging Media Group in Chicago wrote an interesting part called ‘Waking Up to Wireless. How to build a compelling experience for the mobile consumer’.
5 admin // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Update 2:
You should also check aka-aki. This looks like an interesting approach to mobile communities:
http://blog.aka-aki.com/index.php?p=5&lang_pref=en
6 Blending the Physical and Digital Worlds // Mar 14, 2008 at 3:31 pm
[…] a few days ago I posted an article in this blog about Mobile Touchpoints . In it I stated that the online and offline world have mostly stayed separated up till now and […]
7 Mobile Social Networks - Tagging Real Life // Apr 9, 2008 at 7:15 pm
[…] And then don’t forget Aka-Aki. The Berlin, Germany based project looks really promising, there’s just the chicken and hen problem. As long as the critical mass isn’t reached, they’ll have a hard time. Also read more on this topic in one of my recent articles “Mobile Touchpoints”. […]
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