Over last several years, mobile devices have been living up to their hype as convergence devices. The iPhone, however, continues to astonish. New data from AdMob suggests that the iPhone is becoming more than just a convergence device...it's the go-to device.
There are some really interesting and important implications coming out of the research:
1. We can no longer assume that digital = computers.
2. The mobile web is becoming a place of discovery and exploration. But now, everything can be contextual.
3. As more devices rival the iPhone's browser capabilities, stats like this will trend for mobile as a whole.
When you load the app, holding it flat, all 13 lines of the London underground are displayed in coloured arrows. By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many kilometres and miles away they are and what tube lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons.
Since the release of camera phones, I have been snapping pics here and there. But once I got an iPhone, it became a documentation device - something that allows me to capture nearly everything. These days, I take a lot a pictures. Some good, some bad. Some interesting, some not. But when I go back, usually when syncing, I realize I've captured quite a lot. So here's the last week of my life according to my iPhone.
Dead pigeon in San Francisco (never actually seen a dead one before).
The U.S. Marines are known for their ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Hence the mantra: "Adapt, improvise, overcome." This ability is critical for survival when you're at war. But surely it is applicable in other places...say advertising.
When dreaming up campaigns, we can plan for the things we know about and some of the things we don't know about. But we can't plan for everything. Every now and then, something happens...cultural, legal, etc. that effects how we operate and communicate. We're then forced to adapt media plans, messaging, etc to suit the needs at the time.
An interesting example is in Japan where QR codes were hugely popular in print ads to activate mobile web content. However, it appears that QR codes are being used less frequently in [print] ads. Why?
About 1-2 years ago, train and metro companies in Japan banned camera phones on trains because of stalkers and upskirt photos. This meant people couldn't use their QR code reader on the train anymore either. As a result, Japanese ad agencies started using other methods to activate content like search boxes (see image below) along with the search keyword you would use for online and mobile search. Evidently, this is trending through the ad space and being used in more than just print advertising.
It's amazing how little things can lead to bigger changes. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for QR codes in Japan.
While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.
There's a lot chatter about Google Labs' new venture, Google City Tours. It shows how technology is changing the way we experience the real world.
Now add Augmented Reality to the mix, and you've completely changed the game.
Maps and tours, etc. are just one cool way of using mobile Augmented Reality. Mike Arauz wrote a super smart and provocative post about mobile AR and social nets...
"This image is a concept I sketched up for a mobile app that would identify faces via the phone's camera. Then, using face-recognition software, the app would look for matches to that face in profile pics within the user's Facebook and Twitter networks. Once the app has found a match, it would display the most recent updates, identify mutual friends, and could even access the person's blog or website if it was linked to from Facebook or Twitter."
I'm all for innovation and creating brilliant mobile operating systems. Over the last several years, we've seen the [re]launch of Apple's iPhone, Google's Android, Palm's Web OS and now the latest from Nokia and Intel. Add these to Symbian and BlackBerry, and you can see there's a lot to think about and plan for.
This is all very exciting because it means a lot of smart people are laser-focused on the mobile industry. The result will be breakthrough technology and new experiences for everyone. But there's a downside to all of this innovative spirit. As the number of operating systems and platforms grow, so too will complications for brands looking to go mobile.
Brands are asking not only how they can get consumers engaged via mobile, they're asking how to get the engaged on iPhones in particular. Why? Because the iPhone-wielding public represent an opportunity for rich, meaningful brand engagement. Now, they want to know how they're supposed to use Android and what the Palm Pre means for them. It's already hard enough creating ubiquitous mobile experiences given the carrier and handset constraints. But add to the that the introduction for five new operating systems and you've got yourself a dilemma. At some point, brands will have to choose (because everything costs money) between engaging iPhone users and Android users and Web OS users and Linux users, etc. All of these operating systems are cool. They all represent huge opportunities for brands and advertisers. But at what point does it actually become damaging to the ecosystem?
Think about the Internet (the world wide web). While we all have different computer hardware (Mac, PC) and browsers (Safari, Internet Explorer), the experience is fairly ubiquitous. You don't [necessarily] need a specific computer or browser to access content or connect. And, look at the push to things like Open ID and Facebook Connect...people are working to make Web experiences even more seamless.
Point is, let's learn from this. How do we plan for a more open, seamless mobile experience? Because developing for handset-specific applications, browsers and optimizations isn't going to be cheap. And it isn't sustainable. We have to move past this walled garden approach to mobile started by carriers years and years ago.
I wasn't going to pony up the money for the new iPhone 3G S...until I saw this. Below are two images - one from my iPhone 3G and one from a 3G S. The new camera on the 3G S is unbelievable (and I haven't even mentioned the video quality).
Agency ecosystems are getting bigger, not smaller. Brands are inviting more and more specialists to the table who will be asked to execute strategic ideas. From a pure numbers perspective, that's more people who could potentially misinterpret, misrepresent or generally @&%*# up the idea.
The problem is that sometimes strategies come out really convoluted and complicated. That's not to say that strategies can't be complex. In the digital world, they often times are. But when you're working within an ecosystem with lots of working parts, it's really important to communicate strategy in a way that makes it usable, understandable and executable.
