Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > March > 14 > Entry
Panel: Emerging Trends of Mobile Technology
Date/Time: 11:30 a.m. Saturday
Panelists: Rob Gonda (Director of Marketing Strategy & Analysis, Sapient), Juan-Carlos Morales (Creative Director, Sapient Interactive), Ryan Stewart
Around the world, there are three times as many mobile subscribers (3.38 billion) than Internet and twice as many people use mobile devices than television. In a few short years, the vast majority of people will access the Web on a mobile device instead of a computer.
In Asia, people are more trusting to use their phones to buy everything, from groceries to take-out. Added security on phones will happen, but only reactively, not proactively, Gonda says.
One thing that impedes the U.S. from advancing with mobile technology is that phone carriers have so much control over the user interface and experience online, Gonda says. In other cultures where mobile use is so advanced, carriers simply provide devices, not dictate usage. Flash is a core part of Internet usage, and phones will have to be able to display Flash in order for people to want to use mobiles to access the Web. Gonda said that it doesn’t make sense for developers to have to redevelop sites for mobile phones.
Quotes: “It’s so easy for us to spend 99 cents, Morales says. … You can’t buy a whole lotta things with a dollar. $2.99 for an app is too much.” — Juan-Carlos Morales
“(Mobile use is about) rehashing, remapping, reusing the same technology with new creative uses and experiences. Technology isn’t just a commodity, but it’s a facilitator, and what really sells it is experience” — Rob Gonda
Takeaways: Even though there are already 200,000 mobile applications, with the introduction of more open source phones, we will see hundreds of thousands of more applications in the future. The price will stay low.
Image recognition will also quickly advance. Morales foresees that users will be able to take a picture of an avocado and a recipe for guacamole will pop up. Image recognition can be mixed with public sources of information like Wikipedia, so you can point your phone at a monument and it will tell you information about it.
You’ll be able to use your iPhone as a navigation system, hanging it from your windshield and it will act as a GPS device.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW 2009
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.