About Mobility

In the The Future of the Web and Mobile, I introduced a viewpoint on the future of mobility in general with respect to its elements (vs. applications). To get “there” we must understand the elements that comprise the “next” generation of mobility, and how to transition to it.

In that same piece, I wrote about the transition to Mobile 2.0, which I would like to re-iterate here. The elements of Mobile 2.0, the future of mobile applications, is, regardless of the underlying technologies, about transitioning to become Open, Public, Connected and Useful:

…with the following elements and transitions:

• Closed to Open: as in open technologies, protocols, standards, services and methods
• Proprietary or Pre-package to Public and Custom: as in public and custom web, services, content, that is accessible and generated by the people; the collective
• Standalone to Connected: from standalone, to always on, (occasionally) connected web/Internet and services, over various networks (proximity, personal, local, wide, etc)
• Boring and Limiting to Exciting and Useful: as in multimedia-rich, intelligently leveraging the mobile and social contexts, multimodal and multiplatform, with useful high-speed and affordable networks

Some time ago Rudy de Waele captured a quote in his excellent piece Understanding Mobile 2.0, that summarizes the current state of mobility from the perspective of openness; state that will transition to become Public, Connected and Useful as explained above:
“Web 2.0 is based on user intelligence instead of technologies, i.e. by giving users smart tools that enable them to apply human semantics to information provided, you get a more intelligent web. This can only be done in a massive (thus useful) way with open standards and protocols that are inclusive and inviting to everyone. Now, as I see it, this 'open-source' story is an aspect seriously lacking from mobile platforms.”

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The other I was talking to an old peer of mine… we worked together at AGEA back in 2000-2002, where we had created (web) content adaption technology. We were too early back then. Then the Bubble burst. So I was talking to my buddy about how important content adaption is today, actually more important today than what it was back then, and I was explaining about the current pain that (still) exist, how there is plenty of room to bring to market a better solution, and how content adaptation is a great opportunity to start a company today.

I just learned that Openwave just acquired WiderWeb; this validates that recent conversation… At “only” $5M”, not the ideal exit strategy for WiderWeb which was started in 2003, but still it proves the point of the value of such content adaptation technology. And congrats to the WiderWeb folks.

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This is my first attempt using Claims by Jyte. My blog has been notorious for choking when including iframe tags inside the body of a post, so let's see if this go through.

Update: Woohoo, it did! Neat.

Update2: I wonder if the reason there is such a low participation on this Claim is is due to having to login (OpenID), or because the claim identifies/show who voted, heh, probably the latter (I didn't realize this until I posted the entry). But I guess the rationale behind Claims is different from a survey per-se. I know MSA and Java ME fragmentation is a hot topic; it would have been nice to see how people felt about this. I will try the same question using a different approach. To get an OpenID go to www.myopenid.com.

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Anders @ Abiro points to an article by Adobe on Porting J2ME games to Flash Lite.

One of the differences pointed out is the use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) in Flash Lite, which is something that is coming soon to Java ME under JSR 226 which is one of the “mandated” APIs under the Mobile Service Architecture (MSA) for Java ME specification. The new SVG API will bring a new level of look-and-feel to Java ME applications, and I can't wait for it to become pervasive across Java handsets. To see the Java ME SVG API in action download the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5, and run the SVG demos; you will see what I mean. See Sun Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5 for CLDC Release Download.

I agree with Anders that Java ME is much farther ahead than Flash Lite – just hit the web and look at the numbers (see Google Trends chart below). That said, Flash Lite, and other mobile platforms, have great potential. At the end, it is not the technology per-se what makes the winner, it is whatever technology is more accessible to mobile users which is why SMS is huge, and why Java ME is huge, and why Mobile Web is or will be huge, and why Symbian OS is too, and why BlackBerry is big in the enterprise. And is the same reason why Palm is not, or BREW, or Windows Mobile.

Google Trends chart for “Java ME”, “J2ME”, “JavaME”, and “Flash Lite”

The Adobe article is a simple overview, good article in general. But I was a bit confused why the author wrote the following under the “similarities of Java ME and Flash Lite” page:

“Both the technologies are based on the Symbian OS. This means a J2ME game and a Flash Lite game both run on top of the device UI layer. Just as J2ME has external APIs to access the device functionalities, Flash Lite has its FSCommand functions to communicate with the device.”

Saying that Java ME and Flash Lite are both based on Symbian OS is totally misleading… probably Miriam meant that when running on S60, both uses the S60 underlying OS functions… but that is not the same as as the two technologies came from Symbian OS.

* See Adobe's Porting J2ME games to Flash Lite article by Mariam Dholkawala

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Yeap, we have been saying that for a while…

Mr. Cerf who is chief Internet evangelist at Google says:


“Yet, the Internet only reaches a sixth of the world's population… You will get those other 5.5 billion people only when affordability increases and the cost of communication goes down… The mobile phone has become an important factor in the Internet revolution.”

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Photo Source: AFP

• The Future of Mobile Applications is Multiplatform, Multimodal
• The Future of Mobile Applications is Multimodal, Context-aware and Social
• The Future of Mobile Applications is exposing and consuming Services on the Web – The Web as the Platform
• The Future of Mobile Applications is an Iceberg
• The Future of Mobile Applications is Open, Public, Connected and Useful

My view on the future of Web applications in general is about the Return of the Platform; this is Web itself and the application as platforms. About making web application aggregate-able. About consuming other services on the Web to build applications, and turning around and offering or exposing new services to others on the Web.

How this is exposed all depends on the target audience: enterprise (business) vs. consumer (more social network in nature). But in common is the collective nature of information gathering/generation, being it private or public, and how they are constructed and exposed (services on the web).

My view on the future of the Mobile applications is also about applications as platforms on the web exposing services to mobile clients to that are very good on the client side, while pushing (leveraging) services on the Web, but as we move forward, we are also talking about multiplatform/multimodal mobile applications (and services on the Web), where the mobile context as a whole is taken into account. Again, how these are exposed and consume will all depend on the target audience.

Think Multimedia, Multiplatform, Multimodal…

So what is bigger than "local" applications space? The answer is Web/browser-based applications space. And what is bigger than Web/browser applications space? The answer is voice space.

And what mode allows you (as applicable to your application) to remove the barriers associated with carriers and walled-gardens, and application distribution, and permissions, and signing, and device limitations, and so on? The answer is voice, as in voice-enabled applications. Voice is mobile. But voice may not apply to all mobile applications… or does it? Think about it… think multimodal.

And the future of mobile applications not only will be multimodal, but will be context aware, as in mobile context and social context.

And not only the future of mobile application development is about leveraging and exposing services on the Web (mobile applications are connected, end-to-end applications), and context aware, but most of the development for them occurs on the Web – as Jason wrote, mobile application development is like an iceberg.

The future of mobile applications (and the web in general) is about
transitioning to become Open, Public, Connected and Useful:

From Understanding Mobile 2.0:


“Web 2.0 is based on user intelligence instead of technologies, i.e. by giving users smart tools that enable them to apply human
semantics to information provided, you get a more intelligent web. This can only be done in a massive (thus useful) way with open
standards and protocols that are inclusive and inviting to everyone.
Now, as I see it, this 'open-source' story is an aspect seriously lacking from mobile platforms.”

ceo

ARS Technica published an article on the results of a survey done by Digital Life America that concluded that Blackberry owners are chained to work; not a big surprise here.

“The results were split exactly three ways: a third agreed, a third remained neutral, and a third disagreed. Among just those who own a BlackBerry-like device, the results were also almost equally divided, with 34 percent agreeing and 37 percent disagreeing.”

Some of the conclusions include:

• survey results showed that those who owned a BlackBerry were, in fact, more likely to work long hours than those who didn't.
• 19 percent of BlackBerry-owning survey respondents reportedly worked more than 50 hours a week, compared to only 11 percent of the general population.
• a higher percentage of BlackBerry owners also felt that they didn't have enough personal time in their lives – 53 percent, compared to the 40 percent average.
• the average household income of BlackBerry owners was nearly 50 percent higher than the national average, at about $94,000, indicating that those who own BlackBerry-like devices may share some more overachieving (or is that overworking?) personality traits.

And the kicker is: "The expectation on the part of the employer is that once they have it they will be accessible at all times. There are no more boundaries or times when they are unreachable, even on vacation" (of course, as I've seen the mentality is that if the employer pays for the handset, they think they have the right to call anytime, which is of course ludicrous).

My own conclusion here is that while 34% the people surveyed realize they are chained to work, the other 66% are in total denial.

I wonder how prevalent this issue of work balance is on other parts of the world? Here in the U.S. it happens a lot.

It is up to us as individuals to draw the line between work and private/personal time…

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Two press releases by Adobe tell that Flash Enabled Mobile Devices Pass 200 Million, and that Adobe Flash Lite To Support Video for Mobile Handsets…

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Read a very good write-up by Jason at Paxmodept, where he covers what writing mobile applications is about…

While he is talking about Java ME applications, what he describes really applies to (local) mobile applications in general, and not only to Java ME. The emphasis on focusing on highly usable, great user experience on the handset, and leveraging or pushing more complex functionality to the network while understanding and minimizing the cost of ownership is the way to architect and design mobile applications.

I describe mobile applications as occasionally connected, end-to-end applications, consumers of services on the web, but I really like the iceberg metaphor that Jason uses to explain not only where development takes place, but also explain the distribution of (quantify) the work related to developing mobile applications…

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P.S. Jason, if you don't mind, I would like to borrow the iceberg metaphor for my own presentations

The Global Peer Awards have been awarded. And the honors go to Plazes, Realy Eyes 3D and Mobile Complete…

Congrats to all. And it is pretty cool to see Mobile Complete win – three months ago I wrote about Mobile Complete, and what seems to be a very useful service – it feels good to be right.

It also is pretty cool to see our own (as in from Austin Texas) Carlo Longino be part of the Global Peer Awards jury… Carlo is a fellow Mobilist blogger, and a fellow Mobile Monday'ist, who is editor and contributor at MobHappy and techdirt; he is the one pictured on the far left… Also pictured below on the far right is Peter Versterbacka, another Mobile Monday fellow, who I had the pleasure to personally meet on March of last year when he gave us a surprise visit at one of our Mobile Monday Austin events.

And last but not least, congratulations to the best Carnival of the Mobilists entries for 2006, and to Rudy, who won the best host for the Carnival of the Mobilists… awesome and well deserved. I didn't get to submit any entries, but it doesn't matter, as the chosen winners are the best…. congrats to all! And also congrats to Micah Gland and the rest of the Global Mobile Monday Ltd. team, and to Rudy and his team at Mobile Monday Barcelona who hosted the Mobile Monday Peer Awards at 3GSM…

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At techdirt, Carlo writes 3GSM World Congress: What Happened To The Hype?, where he wrote something that caught my eye:

“What's interesting, though, is to see non-broadcast video getting a growing amount of attention as smart companies cotton on to the idea that non-linear, channel-organized video isn't the be-all and end-all of mobile video, and that consumers are going to want mobile access to the sort of internet video content they enjoy on their PC.”

I've always thought from day one that video, and multimedia in general is going to be huge in the mobile space; but video/multimedia from the social perspective, as in sharing “special” moments or events, and communication. I made this realization back in 1996-97 while working on the AIX multimedia streaming server, when I played with the concept of video emails… So I am not surprised to see Mobile TV coming behind the use of “video for the purpose of enhancing communications and socials aspects” — at the end of the day, the mobile handset is a social apparatus.

So mobile video for social purposes is the next leap in the personal mobile communication space. It just have taken a long time for the right ingredients (handsets, APIs, network, services, people) to fall into place; but the time is approaching – from noise into reality…

Related to this:

* ABI Research 3GSM Day 3

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