There have been a couple of stories recently that have got me thinking about mobile phone technology and where it’s heading.

The first one was the announcement of the iPod Touch; essentially an iPhone without the phone, or to look at it another way, a touchscreen iPod with wireless internet capabilities. This led to speculation about whether it would be able to connect to a microphone and run VOIP software like Skype, which allows telephone calls to be made over the internet. There are rumours that the iPod Touch has bluetooth capabilities, although whether the hardware is actually present as it is in the iPhone isn’t yet confirmed (it seems unlikely though.) However, even if it isn’t then it seems that there’s no technical reason that it couldn’t be able to pair up with a headset of some sort and be used to connect to the internet as a VOIP telephone.

Obviously, that sort of competition would be somewhat disappointing to the mobile telephone networks, as VOIP is much cheaper than using a land line to make calls, let alone mobile calls (especially long distance calls.) It would also significantly undermine the partnership between Apple and various cellular netoworks in selling the iPhone— announced earlier this week to be released in the UK in November on the O2 network. But, if speculation is to be believed, it seems that Steve Jobs wouldn’t be too bothered by ruffling some feathers. (more…)

September 20th, 2007 | Mobile Web, Uncategorized | 1 comment

While the web and the internet have become widely used over a relatively short period of time, there is still a tendancy to associate them solely with computers. However, internet access of some description on mobile phones has been widely available for several years, from the WAP phones of the 1990s to GPRS, EDGE and 3G technologies today.

According to this years Ofcom report, while around 2 out of 3 UK households have a computer and just over half have a broadband internet connection, 93% of UK households own a mobile phone (for the first time, more households now have a mobile phone than a land line). On a worldwide scale, in many developing countries it has proven cheaper and easier to install wireless mobile networks than nationwide cable networks, so mobile internet connections are more prevalent than cables.

However, despite this increasingly wide availability of mobile internet access, the mobile web has yet to really take off in mainstream usage. One reason for this is that data costs on most mobile phone plans are very expensive, which discourages users from using them to browse the web, making it difficult to attract users or inform them about sites that could be of use or interest to them.

There are two exceptions to this broad generalisation; Blackberry mobile phones are becoming increasingly popular, particularly with business users who need to be in touch with colleagues and clients and want or need constant access to their email. For personal use, sports news websites are popular. Both of these uses of the internet involve a need or desire to follow events happening, as they happen. When a sports fan is out and about, unable to watch a game on television or follow it on a radio, the mobile web via their mobile phone offers an alternative and unobtrusive way to follow the progress of a match and experience the highs and lows in a way that watching a replay or hearing the final score can’t compare with.

Other than these uses, which involve relatively low volumes of data and low bandwidth, but do require “always on” connectivity, the mobile web has yet to really take off. (more…)

September 10th, 2007 | Devices and User Interfaces, Mobile Web, Other Media | No comments