A recent article from the Associated Press "Privacy Delays Ad Targeting on Phones", and widely circulated on the news wires caught my eye as it highlights some of the current issues facing mobile advertising and in particular location based advertising. The Media often write about how location can be easily combined with other demographic and customer specific information to provide a more targeted proposition for advertisers. If only the location part was so easy then it would have been implemented by now. The fact that location services have not taken off in a big way yet points to the fact that to provide a location element to mobile advertising is actually quite difficult.   more »

We all know that the time leading up to Christmas and New Year is a very slow news period, but many mobile commentators including myself had a quiet chuckle when they read the story on the front page of the UK’s Financial Times on Christmas Eve 2007 - iPhone users raise network hopes. What just 4 weeks of iPhone user data really points to (the iPhone launched in the UK on November 9th 2007) is that if you give subscribers data plans that are really unlimited (not capped at 200MB like other “unlimited” plans) then you will drive real usage. I’ll grant that the iPhone is a great device with a great user interface, so naturally it is easier for users to consume lots of data when the phone has a slick Safari browser and a YouTube link built in, but if the iPhone had not been mentioned then this story may have read “Users consume more mobile internet when we don’t charge them up to £4 per megabyte for the privilege of accessing the internet when not at home”.   more »

Following on from my earlier post on the new My Location feature on Google Mobile Maps, and after having used the application for the last month, I thought I’d provide an update on usability in a range of real world situations. While I have been testing it everywhere I have travelled in December (London, Bristol, Athens, Madrid), the real test came on both Christmas Eve and Boxing day when I needed to use it for real!   more »

As the year comes to a close, I thought I would offer my predictons for the mobile industry in 2008. • Two words – Mobile Internet – by the end of 2008, operators will be offering flat rate mobile internet. The “trials” of £10/month for 3GB data etc will have proved extremely successful and everyone will be offering all you can eat data • Mobile payments solutions (micropayments) are becoming more mature especially in developed markets – expect to see some new announcements here • RFID enabled phones will start to become mainstream on the back of trials in the UK with O2 and Transport for London – expect more RFID contactless payment phones released • Music phones – we should see the big payers unveil their latest a large number of mobile music handsets in 2008 as well as music platforms. Expect iTunes to have real competition from OVI and Vodafone Music station. Mobile music platforms and deals with the large record labels will surface in 2008. Only the operators can offer the data tariffs that will support unlimited music downloads.   more »

I have been seeing a lot of m. web addresses spring up for mobile sites lately such as m.dopplr.com but fewer .mobi addresses, and I am interested in understanding what the trends are for mobile website naming conventions and which one will win in the end. In thinking about this from a usability point of view, It seems easier to type into a numeric keypad m.website.com than website.mobi   more »