The Myths

Myth: Users want power and aesthetics. Features are everything.

Well with the demand for the iPhone it is aesthetics that win, features are not everything the iPhone lacks video calling, video capture, stereo bluetooth and more.

Myth: What we really need is a Swiss army knife.

No, look at the iPhone it does a few things well.

Myth: 3G is here!

Well 3G has arrived in Australian capital cities, beyond that in Australia you need to rich enough to afford Telstra. In other parts of the world I do not know what it is like, other than AT&T coverage in the US is limited.

Myth: Focus groups and other traditional market analysis tools are the best way to determine user needs.

Agreed, traditional marketing analysis tools can not deal with services that are only being used by a small minority at the moment.

Myth: If it works in Silicon Valley, it will work anywhere.

Agreed at the moment, there is a big discrepancies between network services available in various locations around the world, though I would prefer it if the myth read If it works in Bangalore, India it will work anywhere. As best mobile networks are not necessarily in the USA.

Myth: The killer app will be games, –er, no, I mean, horoscopes or–

This month it is location aware social networking services. I agree that killer app for mobile devices keeps changing, I don’t believe there will ever be a single killer app for mobile devices, but a number of web services that will tip the scales.

Myth: Mobile devices will essentially be phones, organizers, or combinations, with maybe music/video added on.

Well look at the desirable devices on the market, the iPhone 3G, the Nokia N95 8Gb, the HTC Touch Diamond they are phones with organisers, music, video and GPS included. More and more mobile devices are including these features.

Myth: The industry is converging on a UI standard.

Ever used a mobile device with another OS, you will know there is no standards in mobile devices UI.

Myth: Highly usable systems are just around the corner.

I think this myth is busted, the average iPhone does 50 times more web browsing than the average web enabled mobile phone. It is a highly usable system and that is being demonstrated by it’s owners.

Myth: One underlying operating system will dominate.

The only change since 2005, is the decline PALM, the rise of Apple and the forthcoming arrival on Andriod, there will be at least 5 major players in the mobile device OS field.

Myth: Mobile devices will be free-or nearly free.

That is still a myth, because while devices are nearly free they are tied to expensive long term contracts.

Myth: Advanced data-oriented services are just around the corner.

I would like to say this is no longer a myth, advanced data-oriented services are close, I just can not give examples.

So what do you think?

Do you have a Windows Mobile device and are jealous of the Safari Browser on the iPhone? But can not or do not want to get an iPhone, well the latest Opera browser for Windows Mobile 5 or 6 is for you.

It has touch scrolling, zoom by double tapping and great rendering of most sites. Sure it is a beta, a little clunky and appears to have memory issues on my 18 month old Dopod 838pro. But it way more advanced than IE for WM6 or even the current version of Opera Mobile, it is the best browser for WM6.

The biggest change is the interface, it is very iPhone like and it is probably the first on many applications for WM influenced by the iPhone. With some of the more advanced WM phones available from the like of HTC and Samsung, also influenced by the iPhone. The future for WM mobiles is looking good and very iPhone like.

So if you like advanced features like video capture, video calling, FM radio, stereo bluetooth and a wide range of applications, it looks WM mobiles may be an alternative to the iPhone in the future. I just want it now.

So Brian Ballsun-Stanton and Mark Pesce have created FAUC (Future AUstralian Carrier) Interest Group on Facebook, with the aim of gathering a group of supporters for a new mobile carrier in Australia. A Co-Op, run by the users and for the users, which is designed to offer data pricing plans that reflect real network charges.

So what are you waiting for, go sign up now.
]]> http://nickcowie.com/2008/fauc-future-austrailian-carrier-interest-group/feed/ 0 http://nickcowie.com/2008/wds08-are-giving-an-iphone-away-and-i-want-to-win-it/ http://nickcowie.com/2008/wds08-are-giving-an-iphone-away-and-i-want-to-win-it/#comments Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:57:22 +0000 Nick http://nickcowie.com/2008/wds08-are-giving-an-iphone-away-and-i-want-to-win-it/ Do I want one of those brand new 3G iPhone, YES. But I will wait until what will and see what is going to happen with the offers by all the major telcos in Australia, before committing…

Hat tip to Scenario Girl. See you on the course Lisa.

Update 1720WST 5 May 2008 , just got informed by W3C the course is now full, the 100 places where filled quicker than they expected.

There are a few things to be wary of, to get a free modem you need to sign up for a 2 year contract. Data is calculated on both uploads and downloads. If you exceed your monthly limit, you are charged at a rate of $0.10 a Mb. The service is limited to metropolitan area of major Australian cities. Which means for Vodafone in Perth the metro area ends at Jandakot. So check where you need to use it, with the coverage maps at their websites.

Advantages, you get internet access anywhere within most metropolitan area of major Australian cities, I use it for 30 minute trip to work everyday. The download speed is better than most wired broadband connections, mine is usually in the 400 to 800kps range. I just downloaded Firefox 3 beta 2 all 17Mb in under 3 minutes while browsing the web.

It is so handy and useful, if you are a laptop warrior, live in a major Australian city and don’t have a mobile broadband, I would recommend it. And if you are already a 3 customer, the $14.50 for 1Gb a month is a good deal, especially seeing the RRP of the modem is $300. So for $348 over two years, you get internet access and a modem.

I rarely top 1Gb a month and this is the only internet connection I have. If you tend to download more and intend to use mobile broadband as your only connection, you will have to do research to find the best package for you.

These are limited time offer, but after observing the mobile broadband market for almost two years, I expect the regular prices to get to this level in the next few months. But if you need an incentive to get mobile broadband now, they are good offers in comparison to the alternatives from the other providers.

The fun really starts when you try to build a site that works in both traditional web browsers and mobile browsers. IE mobile applies both screen and handheld stylesheets. Which can cause chaos. Even knowing this is not enough, I you try to counteract the screen stylesheet by removing styles in a handheld stylesheet, you need to do it properly.

To remove a background-color you can not do it by shorthand with background: none; or even background-color: none; you need to do it with background-color: #fff;

And I strongly recommend a white background and dark text for web pages intended for mobile devices, because you never know how some mobile web browsers will render a page and often text will appear on a different background than you intended.

To remove a background-image, again you can not do it shorthand with background: none; you need to do it with background-image: none

Then there is lists. You have absolutely no control of padding-left of list items with IE mobile. There is set default amount of padding, roughly 2em and nothing you can do to decrease it, as negative margin or text indents do not work in IE mobile.

So if you have an hour to spare (and I thought I would struggle to fill 30 minutes) , you can watch me talk about how people are using social networking and the mobile web. If you have not got an hour to spare, go grab the slideshow from slideshare.net, see the stats on the first three pages, check out the personas and then head to the references and go download the Consumers and Convergence report created by KPMG.

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While I enjoyed the research and probably did too much. I strongly recommended anybody interested in mobile web usage read Consumers and Convergence (PDF) a worldwide survey carried out by KPMG. I did a decent job of the slides, I don’t think I spent enough time preparing the talk, as a result I wandered off message. However, I delivered the information I wanted to, but probably not with the emphasis I wanted, that:

• mobile web use is rising rapidly
• people are visiting social networking websites on their mobiles regularly
• people in different cultures used their phones and services differently

As usual the presentation ran over time, but that was to be expected. I had hoped for participation in the second half of the presentation. And with Sue and Frances just back from a m-learning conference, it became more of a discussion than a presentation.

As usual there are a number of very good post, which I am currently reading.