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January 29, 2006
In San Francisco/San Jose Next Week
I will be down in San Francisco and the valley next week, the 6th and 7th of February for some business meetings and to attend the February Mobile Monday. If you would like to meet to learn more about Mobile Research, please feel free to contact me; the info is on the website, or you can email me at David.Adams@mobileresearch.com. Also if you are going to attend MoMo, please introduce yourself.
-David
Posted by David Adams at 04:42 PM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2006
In Memorium Septem
Twenty years ago this morning the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing the entire crew soon after. I was 16 years old and can remember the exact spot I was standing when I heard about it. I and my classmates spent the rest of the day in silence, glued to the television.
Almost three years later I watched the space shuttle Discovery return America to space from the steps of the Gus Grissom dormitory at Florida Tech (then called The Florida Institute of Technology) just down the Space Coast from the cape. I was a freshman in college studying computer engineering at a university that was started by some NASA scientists and engineers, and has very close ties to the space program. The Challenger disaster is one of the most extreme examples of what happens when politics and commitees get in the way of good engineering.
Ad Astra Per Scientiam
Posted by David Adams at 08:38 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2006
Mobilecasting v.s. Podcasting
In a follow up to my post about last month's Idea Day here in Seattle and "podcasting's" inevitable (in my opinion) migration to "mobile casting", I thought I'd post a link to a nice post that Rob Greenlee from Melodeo (another Seattle mobile company) put up on the "Mobile Podcasting" blog.
So here it is, it's a good read: "Mobilcast vs. Podcast Defined"
Posted by David Adams at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2006
Smartphones
Smartphone. I used to know what this word meant. Lately I don't think that it has much meaning anymore. We had a customer last week ask if we had data in our database that signified if a phone was a smartphone or not. We aren't currently doing this and the reason is that there is no objective criteria for what makes a phone a "smartphone" . Wikipedia says that basically if a user can load software onto the phone, then it's a smartphone. By that criteria, 3/4 of all the phones in the U.S. market are smartphones.
There are obvious extremes; the Treo 650 is a smartphone for sure, and the Startac is surely not a smartphone. But when you look at the rest of the phones out there, the majority of new phones available that cost more than $20 are Java MIDP or BREW enabled. Also many phones have calendars, notes, and other PDA/PIM functionality. Probably the demand for camera phones has required devices with enough processor power that we are just getting "smartphone" features now with what would otherwise be "feature phones".
I think that with the new phones available to take advantage of EDGE, EV-DO, HSPDA, etc. along with the abundance of cameras, bluetooth, usb connection, better/larger displays, video playback, MP3 playback, etc. etc., that the term "smartphone" has really lost most of it's distinction.
I'm interested in what you all think.
Posted by David Adams at 11:08 PM | Comments (3)
January 11, 2006
Idea Day - Podcasting
Tuesday night I had the pleasure of attendeding the February IdeaDay. Idea Day is a monthly meeting somewhat like Seattle Mobile or Mobile Monday only for "creative" types. This month's topic was Podcasting; the speakers were Matt May of Blue Flavor and Alex Williams. I've been downloading podcasts for a while, even onto my mobile phones, but it is amazing to see what is happening to the media world. The era of the mass produced - shotgun to the entire audience media is begining to end. It is also amazing to see all of the creative things that are going on right now with podcasting, video podcasting, and targeted media.
The one thing that really struck me though is that here we have all these web 2.0 people who by and large are really smart and know what they are talking about; and they are talking about the video iPod. No-one is talking about mobile. Sure iPods are amazingly succsessful, and beautiful, I love mine. But, there have only been like 10 million iPods ever sold. There were 810 million mobile handsets sold globally in 2005. Mobile phones are now the largest consumer electronics category.
I am thinking that with the carriers opening up, Google adding it's influence into the mobile space, and the recent and ongoing improvements in network speed and handset functionality, that we are going to start to see Web 2.0, Podcast, Video Podcasts and blog start to collide with the mobile world in a big way in 2006.
Correction: Looks like the total number of iPods ever sold is 40+ Million ipods. Still, that's just ~10 Million more than the number of Chinese who get their weather by SMS on their mobile phones.
Posted by David Adams at 03:16 PM | Comments (2)
January 07, 2006
Just to Clarify ...
It's not "Mole-Skine" or Mole-Skeen".
It's pronounced "Mole-a-skeen-a". It's Italian for Personal Digital Assistant. You should buy one. It'll change your life.
Posted by David Adams at 12:55 PM | Comments (1)
January 06, 2006
Mobile Device Fragmentation
I've had several discussions lately with different colleagues and customers about device fragmentation. I am always suprised at how many bad assumptions and generalizations are made about mobile devices. People making vast erroneous generalizations about devices is something that I've run into since we first started sending monophonic ringtones via SMS in early 2001 (Not all Nokia devices are created equal). It suprises me though that as far as mobile content and applications have come since, how few people in the industry have a firm grasp on the realities of device fragmentation. Even more suprising to me is the lack of effort to address the issue by a lot of mobile companies and professionals; and the effect that it is having on their products and their end-user experience.
Since device fragmentation is the core problem that we set out to challenge at Mobile Research, and I have some hard data to shed some light on the realities of what carriers have what and what phones are and are not just like the others, I thought I'd write up a few posts and clear up a few misconceptions about the state of device fragmentation in the US market.
I'm going to try to tackle one issue: Java, SMS, Content, etc. every couple of days for the next week, as well as throwing out some current device stats, so stay tuned.
Posted by David Adams at 08:56 PM | Comments (3)
New Year - New Moleskine
I've been using the same two (pocket and large) Moleskines for the last year. They are both pretty filled up at this point but not too worn out. I've been through about 6 of the Cahier books for small projects that called for something disposable this year. They don't hold up as well due to the binding. I've been using these amazing notebooks for about the last three and half years, and wouldn't want to live withouth them. Paper is SO much better than a PDA. I use a large one for detailed business planning, etc. and the pocket Moleskine for day-to-day things. It does fit very nicely in a pocket.
I have an extra large one already, but since it's a new year I am going to treat myself to a new Pocket Moleskine to track my day-to-day appointments, notes, ideas, etc.
Posted by David Adams at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2006
Verizon Draws a Line in the Sand
I was trying to activate an older Verizon phone the other day and after 20 minutes of going through the process with the support person on the phone, I was told that they could not activate my phone because it was not E911 compatable. He said this was a relatively new policy and that they will not activate any phone that do not have E911 capabilities. This makes it impossible for us to test any more of the older, non-E911 phones; we've got a lot oof the 2003-2004, but we won't be able to test the very old phones.I would think this should flush those older devices out of the market faster than usual as well.
So if you are buying older Verizon phones to test your products, make sure they are E911 enabled phones.
Posted by David Adams at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2006
Happy New Year
Should Auld aquaintance something something ...
May 2006 bring you good fortune.
Posted by David Adams at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)