Carnival of the Mobilists #125
It’s my first crack at hosting the Carnival of the Mobilists, so if you’re new around here, hello! There are just a few posts for the Carnival this week, but often, less is more. So for your reading pleasure I present:
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First up: James at mjelly asks “Is wholesale mobile data about to take off?”. Essentially, can the content provider pay the carriers for the data consumed by the end user? Coming soon after Vodafone’s annoucement of 500MB of free data for every contract customer, James nicely thinks around removing the barrier of cost, and whether carriers’ backend systems can even cope.
Embracing Coverflow
I’m reading MEX’s Manifesto at the moment, and I’d like to bring two of the agenda issues together and consider what Coverflow-style visual browsing could add.
First– “Content itself will be the interface of the future”. It talks of “…stripping away the confusion and clutter of traditional interface items…”.
Second – “Intelligent contact lists are the future centres of the user interface”.
It seems strange that mobile manufacturers are so eager to try out new hardware designs, but that software interfaces see so little innovation. The styling may change but essentially we’re still left with lists detailing your texts, email, music, contacts, etc. Notable exceptions are the ever-changing S60 multimedia interface and Coverflow on the iPhone.
Innovation in interface design should consider what users do with their device, in terms of the contexts in which they use them. I believe that the strong visual clues as allowed by Coverflow browsing could be extended to scenarios other than choosing music by album covers.
Let’s get specific
It was sad to see the plugged pulled on Mowser, which was aimed at bringing the full web to mobile devices with less-capable browsers. I thought it was a great idea and well-executed, from someone who really gets mobile.
It did have problems to overcome though. For starters, many people don’t know that they can browse the full web (via Mowser or elsewhere) on their phone. And, if they do browse the web on their handheld, it’s probably using the amazing Opera Mini, which is an incredible (and low bandwidth) way to make the web usable on almost any phone.
But behind this is the gradual trend for mobile devices to sport very capable browsers. Symbian and the iPhone OS have great browsers built in, and can handle most web pages. So is there still a space for services that re-purpose content for mobile?
£100 off will drive a few sales, but why do it at all?
For the third time since its release, the iPhone has had a massive price cut. Following the recent price drops in Germany, today saw O2 and Carphone Warehouse knock £100 off the price of an 8GB iPhone. Plus, if bought through cash-back merchant Quidco with an O2 contract, the price drops to just £69!
Why is Apple’s unsubsidised uberphone suddenly so cheap?
The Carnival and the Boom!
Round here, we’re a big fans of Booms! They’re often found in Steve Jobs’ keynote presentations, heralding new things that you never knew you needed before, but have to get right now.
This week’s Carnival at mobilejones also focusses on the Boom! – this time in mobile data and the always-on lifestyle. As well as once again featuring yours truly*, it’s a good read, and there are a couple of complementary posts about mobile data usage.
(1) Chetan Sharma looks at the numbers, showing mobile data is taking off in the US
http://www.chetansharma.com/blog/2008/04/11/mobile-data-the-state-of-the-union/
(2) C. Enrique Ortiz looks at the confluence of factors as to why this is happening
Basically, the networks are getting there and the handsets are getting there. As awareness of the possibilities of the connected lifestyle rises, so does (data) usage.
*It’s getting a bit self-referential round here, so I’ll step up the frequency of posts.
Introducing Jim
In case you hadn’t noticed, this is a blog about the iPhone, and one of the striking aspects of this device is the web browser. It is one of the most usable of any mobile platform, and in its short existence has forced web developers to re-think how they develop for the mobile web.
In this vein, I’d like to introduce All About iPhone’s newest writer, Jim Callender. Jim’s an award-winning web developer who’s going to give us insight from the other side of the coin – the developers who are responding to demand for websites that work just as well when mobile. Browsers such as Safari on the iPhone are a key part of this trend.
Jim’s just back from South by South West. Do read his wrap up of the conference if you get a chance. He has lots of fresh ideas, and I hope you’ll enjoy what he has to say.
There’s something else in the air
Back in the day (ahem, 2003), I was amazed when I hooked up my Nokia N70 with an account at Mightyphone and was able to bi-directionally sync my contacts. Any changes made through their web interface appeared on the phone and vice-versa. This was my first smartphone, and it seemed like magic. Unfortunately (owing to Orange’s data charges) it was expensive magic, and consequently I had to drop the service because of cost. But in the following 5 years, data charges have dropped. Over-the-Air (OTA) synchronisation is now not only technically feasible but actually affordable.
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Carnival of the Mobilists #117
The latest Carnival is available over at mobilestance.com, and I’m honoured that Jamie has chosen my post on iPhone gaming as the Post of the Week.
Check out the Carnival at http://mobilestance.com/2008/03/31/carnival-of-the-mobilists-117-is-here/
I suppose I’d better hurry up and write some more 
Awesome and innovative games are coming
The iPhone is now not just your phone, iPod and web pad – it’s your PSP as well. The game demos at the SDK launch looked fantastic, and I think great things are in the offing for games on this platform. Time to dial up the hyperbole, but not quite to the level seen with Roughly Drafted’s take on iPhone gaming. Am I being blindly optimistic or is there something to back this up?
Well, for starters, consider the line-up of companies who’ve already said they’ll be developing games for the iPhone: Sega and EA both demo’d games at the SDK launch, and since then others have announced upcoming games, including Artificial Life, Aspyr, Feral Interactive, Freeverse, Gameloft, iD, Pangea, PopCap, THQ, and Namco Bandai. Plus I know one additional large games company that is likely to enter to the market, and whose entry would be huge.
But aside from great games houses developing quality games, I think iPhone gaming will be massive for a few simple reasons.
Smartphones Show 55
Sorry for the hiatus. The Smartphones Show 55 is out, available at http://www.smartphones-show.com, featuring me blathering on about the SDK release and what I think it means. Thanks to Steve for cutting it down from my rambling rant
I’ll be posting expanded thoughts about gaming on the iPhone later today.