State of Mobile / Air Graffiti

Editor's Notes

1. Kristof Michiels | Kristof Michiels is applicatieontwikkelaar en onderzoeker bij IBBT-SMIT (iLab.o) aan de Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Hij werkt er aan verschillende context-bewuste social media toepassingen en prototypes, met focus op mobiel, web, stad en/of kunsten Objecten zullen worden wat Bruce Sterling "Spimes" heeft genoemd, dwz genetwerkte dynamische en context-bewuste voorwerpen die hun volledige geschiedenis van gebruik en interactie met hun omgeving "in zich dragen". Ook voor erfgoed en erfgoedbeleving zullen de impact en de mogelijkheden groot zijn.
2. Context-aware urban mobile service Sensor-based navigation for public spaces
3. The iPhone still rules when it comes to traffic on the wireless web, according to the latest figures from AdMob , but Google’s Android and Palm’s webOS are picking up steam. The San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile ad company today said the iPhone (not including the iPod touch) accounted for 40 percent of wireless web usage in August, up from 33 percent in February. Android showed steady gains as well, jumping to 7 percent from 2 percent during the six-month period, and webOS — which only became available in June with the launch of the Pre — claimed 4 percent market share. The Pre’s market share of mobile Internet traffic is impressive given its June launch date and the limited number of handsets on the market. And Android’s momentum is likely to continue in the coming months as a slew of new handsets with the OS are launched from manufacturers including HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung and INQ. But a closer look at AdMob’s geographic breakdown indicates a huge opportunity for newcomers in Asia, where Nokia currently owns 50 percent market share of mobile web traffic and its Symbian platform claims an astonishing 85 percent. Nokia has done a fantastic job tapping emerging markets where fixed-line Internet access is rare, but mobile data usage in Asia will ramp up quickly as 3G networks and handsets come online in China. China can be a difficult market for foreigners — as evidenced by the government’s mandate to disable Wi-Fi on the iPhone — but look for the iPhone OS to build on its 12 percent share of the region’s wireless Internet traffic in a hurry as Apple’s phone becomes available to users in the world’s largest handset market. Embattled ratings company Nielsen has published some Internet findings that may interest you. (If not, go make a sandwich or something.) The big finding is that mobile access to the Internet has jumped 34 percent compared to last year, and it looks like women, teens and, yes, seniors make up the bulk of that increase. The mobile Internet: not just a place for 20-something men anymore. Darn.
4. De laatste tijd gaan steeds meer fabrikanten van mobiele telefoons in zee met Android, het mobiele softwareplatform van Google. Android staat nog in de kinderschoenen, maar analisten dichten het systeem steevast een gouden toekomst toe. En vandaag schittert dat goud meer dan ooit in een artikel in de Financial Times. Een van hun redacteurs, die ook bijdragen levert aan de technologieblog van de FT , voert enkele sectoranalisten op. Die voorspellen dat Android tegen 2012 met een marktaandeel van 18 procent groter zal zijn dan iPhone, Blackberry en Windows Mobile-toestellen. Het Google-platform zou enkel nog het Nokia-systeem Symbian voor zich moeten dulden. Dat platform heeft zijn grote marktaandeel enkel te danken aan het feit dat het op alle nieuwe Nokia-toestellen wordt gezet. Tot nader order is de Finse gsm-bouwer nog altijd de absolute marktleider. De FT probeert die gegevens op zo'n manier te presenteren waardoor het lijkt dat Android de ultieme iPhone-killer is. Maar iPhone OS is software die Apple ontwikkelde om zijn eigen iPhone te doen werken. De software wordt niet in licentie gegeven, net als de technologie van het toestel zelf. Hetzelfde geldt eigenlijk ook voor de software van Blackberryproducent Research in Motion. Android is een open source, gratis softwareplatform waarmee elke hardwarefabrikant aan de slag kan. In feite is het onvermijdelijk dat Android in een dergelijk landschap een aanzienlijk marktaandeel verovert.
5. http://www.nickburcher.com/2009/03/facebook-usage-statistics-by-country.html
6. the museum Twitter group. I'll be following your progress!
7. Browser maker Opera released its latest ‘ State of the Mobile Web ’ report Tuesday, claiming that there was a huge surge in mobile web usage past September. Opera’s monthly report shows the rate of increase on a monthly basis. Here’s their graph that shows the evolution as measured by data consumption: Last month, the company claims more than 35.6 million people used Opera Mini and is now serving over 500 million pageviews per day on average on a wide range of mobile devices. That’s up 11.5% compared to August 2009 and more than 150% compared to September 2008. The Norway software developer also claims more than 2 petabytes of data is now processed by its servers on a monthly basis. That’s 2,000 terabytes.
8. Can web 2.0 work with museum 1.0 ?
9. De hippe Antwerpse Kammenstraat gaat haar klanten mobiel informeren en zet, als eerste winkelstraat in België, een Bluetoothapplicatie op om passanten gratis te voorzien van informatie, aanbiedingen, stylingtips enz… Het gaat om een proefproject. Wie de Kammenstraat inwandelt, zal via zijn gsm of PDA op de hoogte worden gebracht van allerlei nieuwtjes. 'Het is iets fantastisch leuks', vertelt Nico Volckeryck van Unizo Antwerpen-Stad. 'Voorbijgangers kunnen via deze tool berichtjes, filmpjes en gegevens ontvangen, maar kunnen die net zo goed weigeren', vertelt hij. In eerste instantie beperkt de info zich tot een promospotje over de Kammenstraat. Het project is een initiatief van Kammenstraat United, UNIZO  Antwerpen-Stad en Digix. The promotion will run at eight U.K. Vue Cinemas from July 22nd-August 31, 2005.This special promotional content will be available at The West End, Star City (Birmingham), Edinburgh Omni, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Cribbs Causeway, York and Cambridge theatres. Twentieth Century Fox will feature two of its summer blockbuster films, the highly anticipated remake of Marvel Comics' "Fantastic Four," and "The Perfect Catch" starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. The in-theatre content download displays, which will be located in the lobby areas of the cinemas, will alert consumers with Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices that they can download the upcoming trailers and wallpapers from the two movies. Downloading content is extremely fast - it takes less than 30 seconds to download a full-length movie trailer - and by using the localised Bluetooth connection there is no extra fee from the phone's service carrier. The stations work with a wide range of mobile devices from all major handset manufacturers. This promotion coincides with a similar program currently running in the U.S, where Twentieth Century Fox is working in concert with Loews Theatres to offer moviegoers trailers, ring tones and wallpapers to promote some of the hottest summer films at selected theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "We're pleased to offer customers the most advanced and innovative ways to download content from these two major movie releases to their mobile phones, extending the moviegoing experience" said Rachel Hook, Local Marketing Executive for Vue Cinemas. "Twentieth Century Fox is a leader in movie marketing and promotion, and we look forward to a similarly successful program in the U.K." Added Chris Green, Trade Marketing Manager at Twentieth Century Fox UK, "Mobile marketing is an exciting and effective channel to attract and build consumer loyalty. We love the idea that the cinemagoer can download trailers and related content for our upcoming films. Hopefully this new kind of in-cinema marketing will enable us to amplify our prerelease marketing reach." WideRay's on-location hardware, called the Jack Service Point, is a caching server for local-area wireless applications. The technology allows end users with Bluetooth or infrared-enabled mobile devices to access digital content and applications on location. The Jacks have built-in connectivity to leverage a global wireless network for remote management, and support a wide range of mobile devices running on all major mobile operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, UIQ and many gaming devices. "We're extremely pleased that Twentieth Century Fox and Vue Cinemas, two of the largest names in entertainment in the U.K., have chosen WideRay's on-location wireless distribution solution to bring mobile content to their customers," said Grant Wakelin, chief executive officer of WideRay. "We're confident that this trial will be a huge success among the target audiences for these summer movies, propelling Fox/Vue to the forefront of this new and exciting consumer awareness model." For more information about visit www.wideray.com ‘ Turn on your bluetooth’ is een boodschap die u de komende weken vast zult zien in de Antwerpse Kammenstraat. De organisatie Kammenstraat United test daar namelijk een nieuw systeem om via de bluetooth functie van een GSM winkelinformatie en promoties digitaal door te sturen naar voorbijgangers. “ Flyers zijn ondertussen een voorbijgestreefde en bovendien vervuilende manier om de klant te bereiken”, vertelt Nico Volckeryck, woordvoerder van Kammenstraat United. “Of de informatie nu naar één of meerder personen verstuurd wordt, de kost van deze digitale tegenhanger blijft dezelfde.” Kammenstraat United werkt samen met Unizo en krijgt de steun van de Kamer van Koophandel en de Vlaamse Overheid. Nog geen iPhone Volgens Dan Seidman van Digix, het bedrijf achter de praktische opstelling van het systeem, wordt ongeveer 90 procent van de mobiele telefoons ondersteund. “Bij Apple’s iPhone ligt de zaak iets anders”, aldus Seidman. “Doordat Apple de bluetooth functionaliteit van de iPhone vrij beperkt houdt, werkt de applicatie er momenteel nog niet op. We hopen deze ondersteuning in de toekomst echter wel aan te bieden.” Privacy In de praktijk krijgen shoppers die door de Kammenstraat flaneren en hun bluetooth functie aan hebben staan de vraag of ze winkelinformatie willen krijgen. Weigert een klant, dan zal deze niet meer lastig gevallen worden tot de volgende informatie, zeven dagen later, beschikbaar is. “Op geen enkel moment wordt persoonlijke informatie opgeslagen”, voegt Seidman toe. “Enkel als de klant aan de tijdelijke wedstrijd, waar onder andere waardebonnen en een GSM mee te winnen zijn, wil deelnemen, kan hij er voor kiezen zijn contactinformatie door te sturen. Een fenomeen dat al lang in papieren vorm bestaat.”    
10. QR codes have been ‘big in Japan’ for years now, and back in 2008 Trendplanner posted about the possibilities of QR and how it might not be long before the QR code was common place in countries other than Japan. But now well into 2009 the QR code is yet to really take off outside of Japan in countries such as the US and UK. With benefits for both brands and users , why is this so? Chances are since 2008 a lot more people have come into contact with QR codes. Within the UK major brands such as Pepsi and Volvo have been experimenting with QR codes, and although not common place many people now have some understanding of what these strange little black and white boxes are. But even with improved understanding, QR codes are not being used regularly within the UK. QR stands for ‘Quick Response’ and many of the reasons for the lack of success can be brought back to the fact that activity within the UK does not satisfy this definition. The point of a QR code is that it offers the user a way they can save time and effort, it allows them to be  ‘quick’. For example, users see a advert and they want to know more, they don’t need to wait till they get to a computer they can use their phone, and they don’t need to go to the effort of searching for the content or type in a long URL, they simply scan the code and the information is delivered. But the majority of campaigns seem to have forgotten this and are assuming people will scan the QR code just for the experience of scanning a QR code. This might work for a few curious first time users, but the majority will require an incentive. Another major issue that interferes with how ‘quick’ the service is that in the UK the majority of phones do not have an inbuilt QR code reader. Users have to download an application in order to use their camera as a QR scanner, and for some users these applications are not compatible with their phones. Either there will have to be some major incentives to get people to download the application or it needs to become standard issue on new mobiles. It seems that the technology that the average person has access to in the UK does not make using a QR code a viable option. What’s more many uses of the QR are based around internet access and the majority of people in the UK still don’t have the handsets and the data plans to make make accessing the mobile Internet a regular activity. So it seems for the QR code to take off firstly we need an improvement in the technology available to the average user, preferably all new phones will have an inbuilt QR code reader and then just as important is that the QR codes produced actually provide users with an incentive to use them. This might be years rather than months away, and by then there might be other technology available. Currently there are some very similar alternatives to the QR code, these include the datamatrix code and the Microsoft Tag . Either a single code needs to be established or code readers need to be able to read all types of short code. Furthermore, there are other similar services becoming available which use a similar concept but take things to another level, such as Snaptell and Nokia Point & Find . These services work in a similar way in which relevant content from the Internet is delivered to the user in a quick and easy manner, however in this case users don’t need to scan a code they simply take a photo of the relevant content. Snaptell can provide a product price comparison just by the user taking a photo of the product in question, Nokia Point & Find can be used to show the user a film trailer just by them taking a photo of a poster for the film. So it seems the UK is not quite ready for the QR code to take off, and when it is it might not be the QR code we see being used, but a more advanced service based upon the concept of the QR code . As accessing the Internet via a mobile device becomes more popular so will these technologies that can save the user time and effort. Brands need to be ready when their target audience reaches this stage but need to remember that such a service simply acts as a gateway and is worthless unless users actually desire the content to which the gateway leads.
11. http://twitter.com/admkrm/tweetjects
12. Artifacts: made and used by hand / hunters & farmers2. Machines: va 16th C / "Customers" / specialized support structures3. Products: 1918 / "Consumers'4. Gizmos: 1989 / "End-users" / highly unstable, user-alterable, baroquely multifeatured objects, commonly programmable, with a brief lifespan. Functionality is so plentiful that it is cheaper to import features into the object than it is to simplify it. Commonly linked to network service providers. Not standalone objects but interfaces / enough functionality to nag people / deployment demands extensive, sustained interaction: upgrades, grooming, plug-ins, ... Spimes: 2004 (RFIDs added to military supplies) / Wranglers / manufactured objects whose information is so overwelmingly extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system / Spimes begin and end as data / designed on screens, faricated by digital means, and precisely tracked through space and time throughout their earthly sojourn / their substance will fold back into the production stream of future spimes. Eminently data-mineable, Spimes are the protagonists of an historical process.