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Thinking Mobile Key to Future of Technology

By Sheila Shayon

The message behind Mediabistro’s ThinkMobile conference, held Sept. 16 in New York City, was straightforward: mobile is steadily marching forward and the hyper-local genie will not only never fit back in the bottle, it’s destined to create and inhabit the largest cloud computing presence we have ever known.

Marco Argenti, VP of media for Nokia, recited this message during his keynote speech, along with touting his company’s latest offerings from its app store, Ovi, and its other technologies including Ovi Sync, Maps, Mail, Files and Music. Nokia is clearly moving into head-on competition with Microsoft, Google and Apple Inc. in being a provider of Internet services.

Argenti believes “Apps are more human than websites – whereas websites record ‘hits,’ Apps are more like ‘hugs’ – they detect the pressure of your fingers and whether you are happy or hungry,” he says.

The potential of apps is ever-expanding with their ability to track billions of data points and record locational and gestural elements. Argenti adds that calendars and phone books are the most underutilized apps in terms of capturing and refining data as content.

Below is a list of highlights from the various sessions during the conference:

Design Matters: A Mobile Manifesto by Razorfish’s Kyle Outlaw

Five basic tips were offered:

1. Get your hands dirty: Have ‘skunkworks,’ use Idea Labs for proof of concept, invest in innovation, commit either money or time or both, permission to fail, share knowledge and archive experiments.
2. Choose your platform carefully: iPhone gives most clients the best bang for their buck, and being a stable platform, iTunes exposure is hard to beat. Know your target and what devices they are using, is it agnostic, native application or hybrid?
3. Embrace ‘Mo-jile’: Agile development methodologies develop core, cross-functional teams; containment of features, low-budget and short time-frame. Rapid development process – test early and often.
4. Sweat the details: Don’t discard standard experiences for a mobile platform – but build on one for the other. Need for more data control, documentation of user-flow gestural, sound and camera.
5. Be unique: How to stand out – take risks, push the technology envelope, focus on core features – don’t overload the Apps.

Mobile Strategy for Media, by Alisa Bowen from Thomson Reuters

— WAP is moving to APP and business and personal usage is blurring;

— The great divide between Gen Y and Gen X is disappearing as usage crosses all age barriers.

Coming to a device near you soon:

• Mobile digital print
• iTunes subscriptions monthly vs. annual
• Many apps in gaming, horoscopes, sports scores, crossword puzzle clubs.

The Internet of Things: New Application Scenarios for Mobile

• Android is still in the ‘wild west’ stage, but will bring augmented reality to the fore.
• Brands are still key. As an overabundance of content proliferates, credible sources become more important, i.e., when the AP broke news of Michael Jackson’s death, people believed it was true.
• App stores are the new gatekeepers. Apple was first to make an end-run around the carriers – and now, no intermediary is required – the consumer can shop directly and download from the manufacturer. And yet – the average ‘pro-sumer’ spends 4 minutes per downloaded App – and keeps it for only 3 days.
• Kindle will be overridden by a more generalist devise. Web Tablets and Web Pads will proliferate.
• Someday there may be no device at all – we’ll be cloud-connected via our keys or wallet.

Closing Keynote by Mike Wehrs, Mobile Marketing Association

280 million mobile phone subs in the United States – 91% national penetration.

SMS Texts far exceed phone calls: the average SMS/per month/per user is 486 in Brazil; 200 in the Philippines.

Mobile is a unique phenomenon as this device magnetizes us to it 18 hrs/day – we will stop and instantly service our device when it vibrates, rings or beeps red — it’s the apogee of one-to-one marketing.

Soon idle screens will all be active – with ads, custom updates, offers on mobile coupons at points of purchase.

ThinkMobile provided an information-rich platform for mobile technology. Thinking Mobile is clearly the smart way to be thinking. The Apps genie available now, 24/7 on an agnostic device coming to you.