It's Retail 101 again in mobile. We thought we saw (and learned) it all in the heyday of the mobile operator portals, but it's all coming back if we examine the recent wave of app stores. From handset makers turned content/services providers (Nokia and Apple) to platform providers (Android), and from mobile operators (Vodafone and Telefónica) to independent app emporiums (GetJar) – the excitement is all about software applications stores, but the usability is hardly a crowd-pleaser.
What needs to be done to make content findable and buyable? How (and why) should our experience on mobile complement our experience online? And where does the user fit in? It's just common sense, really. Smart retailers make shopping a no-brainer by placing hot-selling items where consumers can see them. Mobile operators and content providers, on the other hand, forced users to navigate through multiple menus and sift through catalogues to find content they like....
When Amazon kicked off the month by taking the wraps off its Amazon Mobile Payments Service, or MPS (a technology that includes a set of APIs allowing mobile developers to provide payment options to their customers within mobile websites and mobile applications), it introduced more than just another way for people to pay for stuff using their phone; it set a usability benchmark that more established players, particularly mobile operators, could find hard to beat....
It's great to kick of the New Year with an analysis of some of the companies and developments sure to leave their mark on 2009. In the case of Taptu - a provider of "socially assisted" mobile search that MSG has tracked from day one - it's a case of both. It's a company we're sure to hear more from and - more importantly - it's a company whose recent deals with Gofresh-owned itsmy.com point the way to one trend high...
January 5, 2009
That’s my line-up for the next days as I prepare to speak on mobile search and mobile SEO at Mobile Content, an event organized by IIR Ltd., and move into the homestretch of the Netsize Guide – an extensive mobile industry almanac featuring 25+ exclusive C-Level interviews with industry movers and shakers (think Google, Nokia [...]...
November 12, 2008
This explains some of the radio silence at ChangingWorlds and why Barry Smyth, ChangingWorlds Chief Scientist, sought me out at the recent recommender conference Recsys 2008 to demo his new and super-cool social search app. I can’t give too much away now, but let’s just say search (like advertising) is fast becoming content and [...]...
November 6, 2008
I avoid using the term “mobile guru” to describe myself. (A Philosophy of Science degree has made me humble. “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.”-Socrates )
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However, I am deeply honored that Bango thinks of me as such: communicated in their press releases, corporate messaging and on the cover [...]...
October 14, 2008
