One Media To Rule Them All: Mobile Becomes The Centerpiece Of A New Convergence
Mobile Society & Me is the theme of this year’s Netsize Guide, a work sure to stimulate discussion once it is released during Mobile World Congress. The interviews and stats provide a comprehensive record of the developments that marked 2008. But this year, it’s the sharp focus on our future – looking beyond convergence of technologies (mobile, Internet, IPTV) to examine how mobile is bridging the virtual and physical worlds – that sets the bar.
As Stan Chesnais, Netsize CEO, points out in the chapter (aptly titled The Best Of Both Worlds): “It’s not just about linking the physical and virtual worlds; it’s about hyperlinking images and items to pave the way for a new breed of promotion services and shopping experiences, enabling consumers to make purchases or browse the Web by simply snapping a picture using their cameraphones.”
Indeed, the signs of this new convergence are everywhere. From visual search provided by companies including SnapNow, to 2D barcode schemes provided by companies including Scanbuy (the topic of the next in the MSG podcast series), to a new breed of extremely imaginative and interactive mobile advertising campaigns that harness augmented reality to encourage brand engagement, we can see how mobile is becoming the remote control for our daily lives, allowing us to connect, communicate, share knowledge and information, and interface with world(s) around us.
Take it a step further, and this new convergence will likely transform daily activities such as commerce (mobile, online, and the in-store experience), as well as marketing, promotion, advertising, and mobile CRM. Mizuko Ito, a cultural anthropologist at Keio University and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication, saw this coming some five years ago when she observed: “The connected state is the default, and the disconnected state is noted.” (Put another way, we alert others when we are not online – not when we are.)
Mobile changes all the rules, allowing us to live, work and play in a new collective state of hyper-connectedness. Add the ability of the mobile to blur the boundaries of the virtual and physical worlds – and we witness a shift that will affect every industry that relies on the Web for communications, business growth, and interactive marketing.
The connected state has become our collective default.
It’s a topic I explore in my interview with Tomi Ahonen, esteemed colleague, independent consultant and six-time author. We deep-dive into his new book, Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media: Cellphone, Cameraphone, iPhone, Smartphone (a must-read book that documents the pivotal importance of mobile as the 7th of the mass media, following print from the 1500s, recording from the 1900s, cinema from the 1910s, radio from the 1920s, TV from the 1950s, and Internet from the 1990s). We also discuss the many ways in which all forms of content are converging around the mobile phone. (On a personal note, Tomi and I are discussing columns, podcasts and other ways to showcase his ideas and projects on MSG, so please check back regularly.)
I should also note that the Netsize Guide will also be available for download via MSG after it launches. This year it will be accompanied by a new site, allowing readers to access and explore interviews around the book, including an in-depth interview with (authorized) mobile advertising activist Jonathan MacDonald. A lot has happened since our interview last October (referring here to the launch of Every Single One Of Us), so I’ll have him back (both on Netsize and here on MSG) for a deep-dive discussion into the roadmap following the big kick-off get together and Powwow in London on January 15th. I’ll be there until the weekend, so please contact me directly if you want to meet up or catch up.
A lot is happening – and all of it’s good!
Tags: 2D barcodes, Every Single One Of Us, Hyper-connectedness, Mobile As The 7th Mass Media, Mobile Marketing, Scanbuy, SnapNow
January 12th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
The key point in undertanding mobile solutions could not be based on applicatons, but device/telco features. Mobile should copy the “cloud internet”, based on browser + telco enablers (ptt, videoshare, sms, voice).