The mobile company Ericsson recently made a prediction that 80% of the Internet broadband users will be hooked online through a mobile connection within five years’ time.
You could say that this technology development has had three major stages if you use the "screen" as a evolution point. First came the ”silver screen” and soon followed the television set. Then the computer monitor arrived and now it is time for the mobile phone display. Nokia has illustrated this concept of development in a moving commercial at YouTube.
A feature that will come along in the near future is something called a Quick Response Code (QR Code for short). You can consider the QR as an updated version of a bar code. The code can entail all kinds of commercial information (e.g., a discount coupon for a cup of coffee and biscuit at 7-Eleven.) But first, we have to get used to carrying our mobile devices in an active "trigger happy mode", ready to take a shot of the QR with your mobile camera in order to take advantage of the data inclosed in the in code. From David Harper's post, Mainstream America is Ready for Bar Codes - Converging “Realspace” and “Mobilespace”:
”One of the tools which aim to converge “realspace” and “mobilespace” are bar codes (think of them as a form of physical hyperlink.) It works like this. Let’s say you’re walking along a sidewalk and someone hands you a flyer. Glancing down you notice a bar code placed neatly within the design. Immediately you take a photograph of the bar code with your mobile phone. Software on your phone converts the snapshot of the code into a mobile address. You are automatically offered the option to launch this address in the phone browser. Doing so launches your mobile browser and you are taken directly to the linked content - jumping you from printed content to online content.” (Wirelessink.com, March 29, 2006.)
Personally, I think this will take a long time for people to adjust to. It’s also important that we receive offers and ads that we have a request and demand for. I remember how the mobile phone providers tried to push all sorts of content through the handheld device in the past. But the majority of users were not ready to indulge this and thought the price tag was a bit too hefty for it as well.
But I do see positive signs that business men and women will receive useful content in the near future, which may lead to conducting business on the go without getting stuck at the office. Take this example from the trend watching site Springwise: Use your iPhone as a credit card terminal. Another example is a new mobile marketing channel called ”Manna From Heaven.” Here is an excerpt from Nick Robertshawe's post, Mobile internet: A Shining light in troubled times.
"With better service analytics, the case for mobile will be further strengthened by the application of a common currency across the mobile internet. The mobile internet has more information than the traditional such as location, movement and presence. This information can be utilised to achieve better inventory management and ad performance - ultimately leading to the mobile channel being one of the most valuable to content owners as a source of revenue." (Mobiletech, March 17, 2009.)
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
PAUL ROSENFELD 2 years 8 months and 12 days ago
...sorry got cut off...I'm not so much making an advertisement as sharing a thought about how the entire developer community needs to think "small business" as client and not "big business."