Tomi T Ahonen writes an interesting piece that considers what will happen when more people access the web via phone than the computer. He suggests that the internet on the mobile phone will deliver four elements that don’t exist today on the fixed internet:
First of all, a mobile phone based internet is totally personalized. Our PC is often shared… Secondly the mobile phone is always on… Thirdly the mobile phone is always within hand’s reach of its users. No other technology is so close to us physically at all times… Finally – and most importantly – the mobile phone offers a built-in payment mechanism.
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Oh THAT meme again…
As long as reading text and inputing is so central to interactive experince, mobile phones will not become a major internet access interface as they don’t provide a good experince at either.
April 24th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Hi Uri and readers of the PSFK Blogsite
(Uri also replied at our blogsite and I replied to his point there as well)
Three quick comments. First, while we in the industrialized tend to find a PC purchase well within reasonable purchase cost, most people on the planet are not that wealthy. For them there is no option of buying a PC. The only way they can afford to connect to the web is via a mobile phone. The interface is irrelevant if that is the only access.
I would argue further – that for those who are NOT technically comfortable with the personal computer – did not use them at university or high school – the user experience of learning a PC is much MUCH more difficult than learning to use a mobile phone. Witness the global use of SMS – 1.3 billion people send text messages, whereas the total number of e-mail users is only 680 million (most of whom have multiple mailboxes, by which we arrive at the 1.2 billion e-mail boxes in use statistic)
But secondly, the PC keyboard vs phone keypad is totally irrelevant to the young people of today. For them there is no problem sending text messages with the phone held in a pocket, or under a table, totally unseen. The keypad is only a problem to “us” old fogies.
As to reading text – it depends on the formating and the screen resolutions. Modern smartphones are totally usable as internet access devices, while not “perfect”. If size was the deciding factor, we would never have seen hollywood movies move from the truly big screen to our living rooms. Yet there is not one movie that did not manage that transition. And the proportion of the size change is many times greater moving from a cinema screen to a TV screen, than moving from a PC screen to a mobile phone screen.
The arguments Uri you present, are relevant only to adults in the industrialized world, today. Some will resist the change forever and always buy a new PC or laptop. But the majority of the connected world today is not part of that population. For the majority a PC is not a viable option. And for a large portion of the rest of the world – young people – a mobile phone keypad is perhaps more familiar than a PC keyboard.
Tomi Ahonen :-)
4-time bestselling IT/telecoms author
founding member Forum Oxford, Carnival of the Mobilists, Engagement Alliance
website http://www.tomiahonen.com
blogsite http://www.communities-dominate.blogs.com
April 25th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Quick update
The British telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has just released its latest study of digital Britain. The story was covered by the BBC, and Ofcom reports that today in the UK across the whole population on the avrege, sending SMS text messages is already PREFERRED to placing voice calls. So it is not a question of a cumbersome keypad experience. Simply a question of learning to use it. Get with the programme. If the average British grandparents can learn to send texts to their grandkids, surely all who can read this blogsite can learn to use the most popular data service on the planet….
Tomi T Ahonen :-)
May 1st, 2006 at 1:56 am