Mobility

Innovation never stands still - and comes from unsuspecting places

In our last post we spoke about the all-important browser.  Let's not forget about the device. For those of us who travel abroad, going gaga over handsets at retail outlets we never see over here in the U.S. is better than sightseeing in Tokyo, London or Amsterdam.  The U.S. market has grown up with a one size fits all approach that has probably resulted in cheaper service but less choice. But the lack of credible handsets for mobile Internet browsing has and will continue to limit uptake. 

One mobile company is doing something about it.  And no, it isn't one of the big-3 US carriers or even name-brand handset manufacturers.  It's an MVNO called Helio. In San Francisco Helio marketing is in full display on giant billboards but that hasn't translated into a lot of buzz.  That's about to change. 

With the introduction of a new phone called Ocean, Helio is set to take center stage in what may be a very hot summer for the manufacturer. The much watched columnist Walt Mossberg has a complete review of the phone so we won't go into details here.  Suffice to say he loves the dual-slider phone (telephone keypad and full text keyboard) which is both sleek and highly functional for mobile Internet browsing and communicating. 

A full keypad trumps number pad punching any day and with the help of smart mechanical sensors, its smart display takes a page from Apple's iPhone albeit it months earlier.

Mobile Innovation from a computer company and now from an MVNO - boy, what's next?

The Mobile Internet - Coming Soon, Sort of

A recent “Samsung Blackjack” purchase provided an excellent opportunity to be at the cutting edge of mobility (if just for a few months). Thanks to the interoperability within Microsoft, the operating system (Windows Mobile) seamlessly connected to the work Exchange server and after book-marking a personal eMail account – wha la! familiar terrain at last. Equipped with a 3G connection and one of the fastest processors available on the market the Blackjack was quick to retrieve information.  A quantum leap in technology?

Three months later, while the Outlook mobile client is a handy companion to read business related emails, accessing personal Web based email accounts happens infrequently if at all.

While connection speed and download time are no longer an issue with the expanding 3G presence worldwide, the screen size on one end and portal usability on the other remain a huge usability barrier. If tech savvy users like us (who love their wireless phones) stay away from the simple task of Web email reading using the latest handset, will the average person adapt? And what about more advanced transactions such as accessing bank account and transfer funds? How about buying a new gadget on eBay? (Maybe we’re not that savvy afterall.)

Two years ago while attending one of the Orange developers conferences in Boston, a guy from Nokia demonstrated their yet to be launched browser. The browser was based on the Opera open source code - the creativity and usability of the mini browser was amazing. Not only was it able to zoom and show different content on the small screen, but it was done with minimal button clicks. Once the page was fully downloaded (back then 3G was not available) the content rendering happened instantly. Since then, the Opera browser has grown in compatibility with other handset manufacturers (we use it often on our w810i). Recently Samsung announced it too will release a compatible version of Opera – soon please.

Dramatic revenue growth from wireless data service (mobile internet among them) is forecast just ahead. The hidden assumption is that these services will mature quickly, improving usability to gain user confidence. Such an improvement can happen in two ways: (a) mobile Web based applications become compatible with small devices and (b) small devices mature to support traditional Web applications. Whichever one succeeds, the introduction of the Opera or Opera-like browser will be the real trigger behind the trend of Web applications going mobile.

Anyone remember Mosaic? It’s déjà vu all over again.

 

Writing On the Go

We start a new blog on a topic that is as expansive as the horizon - mobility.

Our goal is not just to opine about the future of mobile computing, but to observe and share how we view this emerging space from our perch.

And an interesting one it is being that we test & monitor mobile applications, content and services from countries all around the world.

We hope you’ll join us and through the dialog we’ll both benefit from understanding, arguably, the next most important technology phenomena of our lifetime.

- Shlomi Gian & Anshu Agarwal