Between Brackets

With over 3 billion mobile devices in the world being recharged regularly, and current phone chargers and batteries that continue to be dumb (they don’t know whether the batteries is full or not), handset manufacturers took one step in the proper direction by introducing a charger rating label. This will allow consumers to be more eco-minded when selecting their handsets, and stimulate the charger industry to design more intelligent chargers. We can already learn from this that removing the charger when not used is an important power saver.

It would be even better if the manufacturers more standardized batteries like for example eco-friendly replaceable batteries. Such batteries may come (re)charged with solar-power and should be available through vending (replacement) machines in public places like shopping malls. Switch your battery for a fully loaded one at the machine, and be on your way. Probably not for tomorrow i guess.

According an article in the newspaper De Tijd Belgium will auction at least 8 more licenses in 2009.

• One more UMTS license
• A couple for WiMAX
• And, surprisingly, a number of LTE licenses

So Belgium could be taking a lead in deploying LTE-technology. I would certainly not mind that

This is a finding of a Pew Internet research.

The report covering the results of this research contains many interesting findings and data.

Enjoy!

Most companies can only dream of a fan-site keeping a list of must-add features to the next version of their products.

Apple has just such a fan-site: pleasefixtheiphone.com.

It’s clean and easy.

In the site’s own words: “This site is not affiliated with Apple. It’s a modern love poem from iPhone fans who just want to improve their iPhone.”

Buzzd.com is a site that offers people ways to find out or shout out where the fun is.

Take your mobile phone specify the nearest zip code and buzzd will tell you what’s buzzing. Once you’re somewhere cool, shout it out to your friends and to the community (they get the ‘buzzes’ on their phones). You can also check-out if there’s not someone in the neighborhood you’d like to meet.

What’s cool about the idea is that it offers people real-time reviews (check-out) and allows for swarming (shout out). When someone likes the band playing in the bar they are having a drink, they can shout it out.

More on the feature here.

The challenge will be to have enough people using the site. The more people on it, the more interesting it becomes to also join.

FierceWireless reports that the GSMA is calling handset manufacturers to push integration of NFC into handsets. Now what does this mean?

Simply put, NFC is technology that let 2 machines quickly and securely communicate over a very short distance. This is very useful for contactless payment, but also for all kinds of consumer loyalty schemes, scanning of codes, etc. When integrated in a mobile phone, the phone becomes an intelligent bank card, credit card, or loyalty card. Phones that includes this technology are available in Asia and start to come on the European market (Nokia 6131).

Once a significant amount of mobile phones contains this technology an ecosystem develops in which a new generation of innovative smarter mobile-based applications can be introduced with advantages for both consumers and stores.

Last Monday I went to the second edition of Mobile Monday Belgium. There were many people (48 registered, some didn’t make it but most did).

Unfortunately the Pumbby presentation was canceled because Jean-Paul de Ville called in ill. Fabian Tilmant from Cleverwood gave a presentation on the three key ingredients required for a successful mobile initiative (content, ads, platform) after which Tanguy De Lestré did a debriefing of the Stockholm MoMo gathering he went to.

Listening to the many attendees during the après-powerpoint was interesting indeed. There are many initiatives that are being set up to help the breakthrough of Mobile Internet like for example loyalty programs where you can exchange your loyalty points for mobile internet air-time. Many parties are looking for innovative business models that will make mobile internet more affordable for the public.

Being among other mobilistas is great. You see how everyone struggle with and tries to overcome the wait for the big mobile wave.

Next MoMoBel will be mid-February.

Some other dates for mobile initiatives that were mentioned (both formally and informally):

• Mobile Basecamp in Hasselt: February 7th
• MobileWeb December 4th
• MobileGoingBusiness December 12th

Google makes it extremely easy for everyone else to find you. All you need to do is make sure you’re taken up on their maps.

If you look for ‘Between Brackets’ on your mobile Google Maps application you’ll see:

Search

find

position

info

Here’s an example of a food chain:

And here’s another food chain, notice the ‘unverified’ next to some of their outlets’ information. This is something you must avoid (here’s how to) at all cost, because the customer might not trust the information and this might result in a missed transaction opportunity.

It is important that all you channels are coordinated and managed well (you don’t want other information on the mobile maps than you have on you website etc).

If you can include a phone number in your outlets detail information make sure you do, because then the user can call it with one click of the button.

Note that if you look for ‘Between Brackets’ outside Belgium -say in Spain or the US- on google maps it will not show us as the first hit, which is logical, I guess (we don’t have that many offices yet).

Now, if you need some help with your MEO (Map Engine Optimization) don’t hesitate contacting us, we’ll be happy to assist you even if you’re outside of Belgium

It has been reported a lot of times already: the feature set offered on a mobile website or via a mobile application is of great importance.

Facebook reports on its blog that the addition of one specific new feature on the mobile website, being able to comment on friends’ status updates, immediately resulted in a rush of mobile status updates.

This teaches once again the importance of offering the right functionality on a mobile device: with relevance to the person’s context. Anything that can be postponed to be done on laptop or PC will be. But when you receive a status update of a friend in your context (‘mobile’), you want to respond now and then, not later that day or in the evening. Thus the relevance of this new feature to people in a on-the-go context is significant. Significant enough to urge people to type a comment right away, something they will not do when they for example receive a mobile request to comment on their latest hotel stay.

Offer the right mobile features on your site, and people will come, but always look at context and relevance before you add yet another cool functionality.

To many people the changes are not clear, but new mobile technology is going to transform society in this part of the world as it already did in some Asian countries (read: Digital Korea). These are exciting times, indeed.

The 8th MoMoAms was all about how this revolution will change our society. The speakers:

• Raymond Perrenet – EVP Strategy & Development at T-Mobile
• Johan Koolwaaij – IYOUIT, Scientific Researcher at Telematica Institute
• Teemu Arina – CEO at Dicole Oy
• Bruce Sterling – writes for Wired (beyond the beyond), Wikipedia, author of various books

The introductory note from Mr. Raimo van der Klein certainly deserves mentioning, as it got a number of ways of looking at the mobile context of people. One of the good insights was that it isn’t enough to know where someone is, you have to know why they’re there. For instance: are they in the Arena for a pop-concert or for a football match? Different crowd with very different needs.

Mr. Johan Koolwaaij presented IYOUIT a product that takes into account the location of a person and extra parameters like traveling speed of the person, and motion of the device to deduce whether that someone is -for instance- a passive participant of -say- MoMoAms or the presenter (i.e. when the mobile shakes a lot ). Very interesting indeed.

Before Mr. Koolwaaij’s presentation Mr. Raymond Perrenet talked about what a device like the iPhone can do in terms of stimulating the 3G usage: Have a look at the data it’s impressive!

Mr. Teemu Arina gave a presentation with incredibly beautiful slides. Slides with video that integrated seamlessly and didn’t look like dull embedded windows media player movies, and really added value and emotion to the text that was overlain.

The final speaker was Mr. Bruce Sterling (some say he’s a prophet, but he personally doesn’t like to think he is) who gave word of caution to all present: what kind of society may we be creating? Also a very telling presentation.

It was again a pleasure to be present in the packed Rooie Hoed. If I can rsvp in time once again I’ll certainly be going back.
You can find all the presentation material and the recorded presentations here