GUEST COLUMN: Do Widgets Pave The Way To A Powerful New Paradigm?
The arrival of Android and the remarkable success of the iPhone have whet our appetite for mobile data services, but they don’t solve the usability issues that prevent mobile data services from becoming a routine part of daily life for many mobile users.
Granted, the iPhone and G1 tackle a laundry list of usability issues. They have been instrumental in raising consumer awareness of the mobile Internet. But what about the vast majority of users on mid-range devices? Recent research from the Yankee Group reports that almost 70 percent of subscribers have either never used the mobile Web on their mobile phones or, only tried it once or twice.
The message is clear: We need solutions that can satisfy the mass market and drive adoption of mobile data. Retrofitting the PC experience for mobile is a patently flawed approach. Put another way, after almost a decade of pushing browser technology, the time has come to reassess the assumptions and use cases.
If we want to reach the 70+ percent on mid-range mobile phones with mobile data services, then we must implement technologies that deliver a genuinely useful mobile Internet experience. Even better if the experience is personal and relevant.
This is where mobile widgets come in. But to understand why mobile widgets are the answer, we need to better understand the two primary mobile data use cases driving their widespread adoption and phenomenal popularity.
Research tells us that consumers using laptops and high-end PDAs are more likely to settle down for longer sessions to consume content (to read emails or surf the Internet) . These sessions typically last 30 minutes to an hour.
Then there are the times that we want to be truly mobile and desire to interact with our pick of mobile data services on the fly. Examples include reviewing flight details on mid-range mobile devices while standing in the line at the airport check-in, nudging a friend on Facebook, or simply checking the latest sports scores. (Typically, these content ‘snacking’ sessions last no more than a few minutes and are done in one sitting.)
In my experience these scenarios are hardly a fit with the browser-centric approach which requires us to unlock the phone, fire up the browser, and find the desired destination. (A tall order if you forgot to bookmark the site in the first place.) Overall, the experience is far from ideal. It can be time-consuming and tedious, which is why – more times than not – the consumer simply gives up.
The mobile widget turns this on its head, empowering consumers to access whatever content and services they choose on their terms. In practical terms, consumers can pre-select the services they are interested in, and have these easily loaded and discoverable on their device. And the content is fresh, relevant and interesting because widgets can update themselves in the background or push notifications when new content is available.
Widgets are paving the way to a powerful new paradigm. Consumers are in control. They can simply select the widget they are interested in and interact with it (on their terms) on the move. This also fits with our habit of “snacking” data services. An interaction like the one I’m describing here typically lasts less than 30 seconds.
Effective widget technology must also fulfil some key criteria.
First, widgets must be easily accessible. This requires excellent usability, but rapid start-up on the device is also essential. Second, they must be easily discoverable. One-click from the idle screen to the widget environment is ideal, which is why so many services choose this as their starting point. Finally, widgets must be flexible and allow consumers to personalize their individual experiences. In other words, users must be empowered to change their widget selection as frequently as they change their tastes, interests and information requirements.
On the technology side of the equation, other measures are essential to deliver a good mobile data experience to the 80+ percent of users who don’t have high-end devices. First and foremost, the mobile industry must ensure that the widget environment operates on a large range of handsets. A key requirement here is openness. Put simply, the widget environment has to be open to a broad range of developers so that users can enjoy the largest possible choice of widgets.
But don’t think it’s enough to simply have a great widget environment on a wide range of devices, with lots of widgets available – or that having a great widget environment somehow negates the role of device OEMs and mobile operators. To the contrary, they have a pivotal role to play in this.
Device OEM’s must enable widget frameworks access to the idle screen, to enable zero-click access to content and applications and to enable a kind of two-way communication between the individual user and the widgets they choose and change to match their preferences.
Apps stores and widget distribution platforms may appear to by-pass the mobile operator, but nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, operators have a crucial part to play. They must ensure that the widget framework comes properly pre-installed on the user’s device, they must manage a broad services catalogue and a selection of pricing to match (including subscription, advertising and event-based pricing), and they must come up with all-you-can-eat tariffs to increase usage and encourage consumers to explore the wealth of mobile apps and content at their finger tips.
Importantly, mobile operators enjoy consumers’ trust. Users still rely on operators to deliver quality mobile experiences. Operators are the first point of contact if users have billing queries or a question regarding services. Importantly, it’s the operators that provide users with the confidence to become familiar with mobile data services and can inspire consumers to use widgets on a daily basis.
What can we expect when widgets are widely available to consumers and consumers have the confidence to customize them and use them frequently?
For one, consumers will finally and fully take control of their content experiences, personalizing their widgets to pick up on what interests them most in their information universe. I want to keep up with my friends on the fly? It’s simple because I have a widget for this very purpose that seeks out updates and events happening in my social network and pro-actively bubbles them up to my device’s idle screen where I can read and enjoy them. I want to keep up with breaking news about the economy? A personalized widget can update me on the developments that matter – as they happen.
Widgets enable a brave new world of interaction.
They are the key to unlocking mobile data service usage and to encouraging content discovery. More importantly, widgets allow us all – not just those of us that own iPhones and high-end devices – the freedom and flexibility to choose and customize our mobile data experiences. With widgets, I can make the mobile Internet my mobile Internet – and access what I want because I want to.
Dave Evans is CTO at SurfKitchen, responsible for the strategic direction and development of SurfKitchen’s Mobile Internet Platform. He leads development of their widget framework enabling mobile operators and their partners to deliver the optimum user experience for mobile Internet and content services.
Tags: Content Discovery, G1, Google, iPhone, Mobile Internet, Personalization, widgets
November 19th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
So, an alternative view….. widgets will not be a meaningful player in the mobile market in three years time.
At the moment, they are -perhaps – more graphically rich than the browser and boosted by the euphoric growth of the iPhone and its usage. But they will fail. Look to the web world. How many widgets do you have running on a PC compared to the number of sites you visit through your browser?
There may be a place for some widgets but these will not dominate interaction with content and services on the phone: the browsers will. There is not one compelling reason (not UI, not personalisation) why Widgets offer more than the browsers.
Of course, I am probably wrong too but readers of the above post should take a long think before making their investment strategy on the basis of it (written as it is by an evolving but predominantly client-based company with an operator client base).
The good news is: without diverse views there would be no innovation. More power to the evolving industry.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Scott – we can have a heated debate over the technology used to deliver widgets – browser vs dedicated widget runtimes, but I think there is common understanding that to make mobile data easy to consume and relevant to the end user, we have to move beyond the current browser use case – looking at how users want to discover and interact with mobile data.
I think there is a need for mobile devices to allow the end user to pick from a broad selection of services, and have the chosen services very easy to access – for example on the idle screen. The entry point of the service should be as immediate as possible – and not require a connection to a server to provide the first screen – so the user can quickly dip in and out of the services. Moving beyond this is where the mobile device starts to adapt the services offered depending on location, profile or incoming events on the network.
The iPhone has shown demand for both great browser experience and great ‘on-device’ experiences, and these can co-exist because they address two different use cases. The challenge we face as an industry is how to extend these concepts to lower end and feature phones.
Dave