Legal Research

Mobility

Some folks are predicting that 2008 is the tipping point for mobility growth in the North American market. It already tipped in the rest of the world!

Anyway, we're certainly seeing a lot of innovation in digital phones that are available. And the Apple iPhone is pushing everyone in the industry's envelope.

This posting from the CapGemini CTO blog had some nice facts:

"95% of cell phone owners never leave home with out carrying their phone;
3 billion people are always ?connected?, twice the number of connected PCs;
54% of 14-24 year olds use their cell phone of the internet;
24% of Japanese cell phone traffic is voice traffic;
Between 1 and 6% of users ?click through? on cell phone adverts a higher percentage than on PCs."

I like this quote: "As the cell phone gets smarter, or at least more capable, it becomes increasingly a candidate for being the one ubiquitous device that we will all have and use most. Why? Because the user interfaces of phones are more natural in placing people at the centre of the activities they want to use for everyday matters as opposed to data entry centric interfaces on traditional PC keyboards."

Mobility. Worth watching. And one of the ideal places is to watch people and users in situ. Ask people the time. Do they look at a watch or their phone? If you ask for a phone number is it written down or stored on a pocket device? Ask a question about what features they use on their phone. Does the answer change from now to December 2008? Ask about downloads from a sports nut, golfer, politics junkie, news junkie, whatever. Ask if they've changed their ringtone and why? Ask about their games on their cel? Do they TXT, IM, e-mail, voice? How many phones do mthey have? (I am amazed ay the number of folks who carry two or more!) People won't voluteer this stuff and sometimes they will prevaricate. Look over shoulders. Be a digital ethnographer. Are their really generational differences? Are the differences market based? Are accountants on their Blackberries different than teens on a Razr?

Simply, are you collecting cel phone numbers are part of your OPAC profile?

Play recommendation: WidSets. This is a library site which as of today is offering a stunning 3,753 widgets for your cell phone!

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).