Keitai

Hillarious video (part of a larger presentation Bill Moggridge, IDEO on Interaction Design at the 2007 Potsdam Innovation Forum) demonstrating the incredible patience required to extract a soft drink from a Japanese vending machine via iMode/QR code etc. Scrub through to about 9:35 for the iMode video.

The whole video is worth a listen and begins with an interview with iMode co-founder Takeshi Natsuno regarding the creation of iMode and follows with the creation of the first computer mouse, the designs that led to the creation of MicroSoft Windows, the iPod, Google etc.

Many thanks to Marek Pawlowski, organizer of the MEX, Mobile User Experience conference, for the opportunity to publish my response to the annual MEX Manifesto on the MEX blog.

“In this article responding to point #5 of the MEX Manifesto (’The developing world is the new frontier for mobile user experience‘), Stephanie Rieger of user experience consultancy Yiibu paints a detailed picture of customer lifestyles in South East Asia. Stephanie’s writing interweaves links to a community photo essay from Flickr with her own commentary on the individuals she has met in this region and her observations on the mobile user experience implications.”(more)

I will also be attending the conference on 27-28, May 2008 and co-authoring the annual MEX Report which outlines conference proceedings and the overall response to the Mex Manifesto.

Really looking forward to attending the event!

Via Experentia:

According to a recent Nokia survey of consumers in emerging markets [conducted in India, China, Brazil, Pakistan, Vietnam, Russia and Egypt], a new trend appears to be emerging: phone sharing. More than 50% of respondents in India, Pakistan and nearly 30% in Vietnam indicate that they share, or would share, their mobile phone with family or friends - a figure which contrasts consumer behaviour in more mature markets.

“Phone sharing is a logical trend - more and more families are purchasing a mobile phone for the entire family to use, not just the head of the household. In addition, digital cameras are quickly becoming more popular in these markets, and as such taking and sharing digital images is becoming more common,” adds Lambeek. “In response, Nokia has developed a number of innovative features like the multiple phonebook to support phone sharing, and we have added technologies like Bluetooth to some models to make transferring images and ringtones easy and affordable.”

Interestingly, this is not only occuring in emerging markets (although i’m sure that emerging market lead the way in this behaviour as it just plain makes sense for consumers with lower incomes.)

A recent large French study (French PDF) found that families in varying income brackets tend to share devices:

1. The mobile phone is no longer just a personal device. In 2007, the phone is integrated within collective practices both in the family and between friends.

Mobile phone are increasingly objects that circulate within a group. The owner of the mobile phone is no longer the only one to touch it, check it and use it.

Mobile phones can allow for exchanges based on the amount of credit left before the end of the month and on the range of hourly allowances when calls are free. This can also lead to a collective choice of operators, of discount plans and of prepaid cards, with the sole aim of optimising cost within the group.

Within the family, mobile phone reinforce the asymmetric role and character of the parent-child relationship: whereas parents do not think about money when calling their children, the children themselves try to save money by “beeping” their parents, in order to be called back.

The mobile of the child is a jointly managed tool and a transaction device. It is experienced by the parents - and mainly by the mothers - as an opportunity for exchange with their child and as a way for children to learn to manage a financial budget.

Within a group of friends, mobile phones serve to define roles and affinities. One can find the expert, and the user with difficulties, the “banker” who always has some credit, and the “borrower” who always asks for text messages and minutes (without ever giving them).

Beyond these roles, the mobile phone created relations of exclusivity with those whom one calls most often based on the tariff offers and their compatibility.

More on this study–again on Experentia.

(Preface…not much blogging lately as i’ve been struggling with my spam issue for several months. At least i’m not alone with this particular problem but having to wade through instructions to harden Wordpress and worry about the nasty emails i’ve received from Google are making me reconsider the amount of energy required to host a blog on my server vs a hosted provider. Spam is gone…for now…will see how things continue to develop before I make any drastic decisions…)

Been learning about virtual worlds and economies lately and thought i’d share some of the interesting links i’ve dug up:

• A presentation from the Future Play conference in Toronto. Dr. Constance Steinkuehler, assistant professor in the Educational Communication & Technology program for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argues that MMOs and online worlds are good “push technologies” for education, rather than threats to it. A really nice talk (mp3), very down to earth and informative.
• Presentations from last year’s State of Play conference in Singapore. All talks are worth listening to but highlights for me included the talk on regulating virtual worlds, kids, education and virtual worlds and some great crosscultural insights in the connecting east and west panel. (loads very slowly at first…)
• Play Money by Julian Dibbell. Absolutely brilliant, fun, informative, somewhat of a compulsive read actually…a great introduction to the life of a gold farmer.
• Edward Castronova’s fascinating economic explorations of the MMOG phenomenon in Synthetic Worlds: The business and culture of online games
• Selected talks from Virtual Goods 2007. An overview of the conference plus commentary on the subject is available here from Om Malik along with a list of top ten MMOGs by active user or subscriber. (Update: The conference site seems to have gone down over the past few days but the talks are still available via Brightcove: Conference intro/Habbo/Nexon/Neopets, The value of digital goods, Making virtual economies work, Virtual items, mainstream or not/moderated by Robert Scoble, Business models. Well worth a listen. Not sure how long they will be online.)
• Brief article from the NY Times (free login required) about the rapid growth in virtual worlds for children.
• Some of the most creative Flash-based stuff i’ve seen in years is coming out of France including large games like Dofus, or smaller ones like Piou Pioux (chicks) and DinoParc. Bryan has also recently take a liking to Nexon’s games–in particular KartRider!

Very grumpy today.

Seems my blog’s been hacked and i’m now dispensing links to pharmaceuticals. Had beter things to do this week than try to sort this out.

Hope to be back soon with comments on the Future of Mobile and Mobile Youth Workout.

In a few weeks we celebrate one year in the UK. Methinks it was a good move

So for your reading enjoyment, bits and bobs of strange mobile news from Canada.

• Fido annouces 3G services: “Of course, the fun seems to end the moment you want to actually use the service as rates are pinned at $10 a month for 12 MB data and a penny for every kilobyte in overages. To put that in perspective, a 250 MB month would cost you ’round about $2500 for the data services alone. Thanks, but no thanks, FIDO.” [Engadget]
• But hold on, if you’re a Virgin subscriber you can get unlimited monthly surfing for $10–but only if you happen to own the MOTOKRZR (with an ever-versatile WAP 2.0 browser) or Samsung M510 (the browser here is so insignificant that Samsung doesn’t even list it on its specification page…oh and don’t try to download Opera Mini either–sorry, not supported)
• Rogers has started 7.2 Mbps HSPA trials in Montreal and Brampton — Brampton? (insert name of your favourite local suburban wasteland here…) Apparently….”The consumer appetite for mobile applications is undeniable in Canada and around the world,” said Rob Bruce, President, Rogers Wireless.” The data speeds achieved in this trial will enable Rogers to meet our customers’ needs with the most advanced, innovative services today and in the future.” Huh? What? Reminder: the most advanced Nokia for sale in Canada is the 6680 But then…maybe this is why…
• Canada has the highest penetration of Blackberrys: “Canada was the birthplace of the BlackBerry platform and Canada continues to generate the highest per capita penetration of BlackBerry smartphones in the world today,” said Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM. “We are fortunate to be located in a country with a thriving wireless industry that continues to offer businesspeople and consumers world-class wireless data services.” (Can’t stop laughing!!)
• Meanwhile, because Candians still use the word ‘cell-phone’, a random Google search for Canada and ‘mobile’ returns this LOL! result as #4 (right on the heels of #3; an article entitled “Canada Worse than 3rd World Countries when it comes to Mobile Data Access.”

Preface: I watched three great presentations about kids over the past few weeks. The first at Fjord’s MobileCamp London; was mobile focused. The second, at Brandlicensing Expo 2007 was about preschoolers and their relationships with branded/licensed toys. The third was Marc Presky’s plenary presentation at Handheld Learning 2007 on kids, technology and learning.

All three presentations were—in some way—about play and discussed (directly or otherwise) many of the reasons technology is so compelling to children. The similarities and contrasts in these presentations; despite their differing audiences and subject matter were also interesting.

Talk 3: Marc Prensky on “Why kids are no longer ‘little us’s”

…paraphrasing from lots of notes unless stated…

“Email is for old people” (– A headline in The Chronicle of Higher Education)

We haven’t seen much in our lives. Sure there’s been man on the moon but before, things moved pretty slow overall. Now technology makes things move fast—and they’re about to get even faster. Many of the things we use today didn’t exist 5 years ago; and probably won’t exist in 5 years time. Many of us also have jobs that didn’t exist five years ago. Who knows what we’ll be doing 10 years from today.

How can we (teachers) learn all this stuff?

But young people only know the fast stuff and are “born to the idea of rapid change” (Nicola Griffith in Slow River (1995)) The stuff that feels threatening and confusing to us is empowering to “digital natives” (PDF). We’ve been teaching kids to solve problems with the tools we had. Now the problems are changing. We need new tools for these new problems.

Teachers need to see their jobs as helping students invent new tools.

New tools will be digital and they will be invented on the devices kids have. When you have 1 computer for every 3-4 students, it’s just not enough to give them the opportunities they need.

“We grow up interacting – through computers and through our cell phones – and that’s how we learn.” (a graduate student)

Old teaching styles (lectures) are no good for today’s young people. Why shouldn’t they be taught in new ways [blogs, mobile, social networks, peer learning, self-directed discovery, experimentation etc.].

In 5-10 years our society will be cashless, phones will have super computing power (will predict the weather?!), implanted/wearble real-time environments…within 30 years, technology will be a billion time more powerful. We don’t know what that means.

Deciding to put a computer here and there in a classroom is missing the point. How will we deal with the massive change that’s coming?

“You look at technology as a tool, we look at it as a foundation that’s integrated into what we do” (a student)

Who are these kids anyhow? The one certainty is that they are not little ‘us’s any more. What worked for us will not help them.

“Today’s learners are not the learners our system and teachers were designed and trained to teach.” Why are they like this? [Goes on to display statistics showing the number of hours spent by the average (?) young person playing video games, watching TV, texting, IM-ing. Reading (a paper book) barely figures on the list.]

“[Young people] are not just using technology differently today, but are approaching their life and their daily activities differently because of the technology.” (–Net Day “Speak-up Day” Summary )

Welcome to the emerging online life of the digital native: the daily universals that make up the life and [personal, social and professional] development of today’s kids: Communicating (IM, chat) , Sharing (Blogs, MySpace), Buying & Selling (ebay, craigslist), Exchanging (peer-to-peer), Learning (Wikipedia, You Tube, search), Meeting (Second Life) etc. [Partial list only, the entire list really makes you think…]

This isn’t new stuff. We had to do and learn this stuff too but kids do all this digitally. The largest differentiator is the social networking as a component of much of this.

Our job is (should be) to help them make this happen as part of their education. We have to be part of the solution to the digital divide. Why are so many kids bored with school? They have to power-down at school compared to life outside of school. Their passion is the future but we are teaching them the past.

They are bored because—we’re not teaching them the right stuff.

Why not teach programming, multi-language texting, simulation… We need to teach 21st Century skills.

They are bored because—we’re not teaching them the right way.

(Metaphor) Kids used to grow up in the dark. Teachers (adults) were the ones who showed them the light. Now kids grow up in the light….this changes everything. They are already learning—[on their own, their own way, their own tools, their own groups and networks.] School teaches legacy stuff and provides credentials. “After school” is the “future learning”—the stuff they need to know. We are teaching them face to face, slowly, top down, linear, one size fits all when they want to learn online, faster, bottom-up, multi-threaded and through discovery.

The old paradigm: bored kids being taught. The new paradigm is engaged kids teaching themselves (with guidance.)

Technology adoption has several stages: hiding, panic, acceptance, comfort and finally power. Kids know that technology provides power, especially because today’s technology is programmable. [They can change it, adapt it, personalize it..]

Why is programming important? We do it every day….at home (TV, thermostat), work (problem solving), school, government (legislation), tools (games, blogs.) The curriculum includes programming as well: maths, science, languages (dictionaries), english (research, analysis) etc.

“Do we know how to help our kids learn to program in more and more sophisticated ways? What if we don’t….”

[Many thanks to Mark Prensky for sending me a copy of his presentation to use as backup to my notes. This presentation is well worth seeing if you ever have the opportunity. ]

AdMob has provided the community with some statistics on global, mobile web usage. The handset stats are quite revealing of the market differences between North America, Europe and many of the emerging Asian and African economies.

First a bit of context. AdMob serves ads on mobile web and wap. Judging by the handset models on this list, there is likely a lot of wap and Opera/Opera Mini usage vs “full web” rendering browsers like Nokia’s (mind you the latest Opera Mini does a wonderful job of approximating the full web experience.) Either way, the sites serving these ads are mobile specific in some way or other. These users also have some sort of mobile data access.

So they are already fairly sophisticated users even though some of their devices first hit the shelves 3-4 years ago. (Note that old models may still be purchased new. In South East Asia there are still 6600 and 6680s on sale—and not just within emerging economies. Ironically, one of the few Nokia’s on sale in Canada is the 6680.) As for volume, AdMob serves about 1.5 million ads a month with visitors from over 160 countries. They do note however that their traffic is driven by publisher relationships and may skew accordingly. So while these statistics do not represent a definitive list of top handsets, they are nonetheless worth noting.

Ad Impressions by Country

1. USA (42%)
2. India (10%)
3. South Africa (6.9%)
4. UK (5.4%)
5. Indonesia (3.9%)

Not many surprises here, especially when you see the choice of handsets in the U.S. I assume the high data usage is driven by email applications and the perennial news, weather and sports (groan..) served to business professionals on the go. Key advertisers on AdMob include CBS News, ESPN, Coke, Geico, CoverGirl, EBay, MTV so it seems lots of mobile ad money is being poured into the already ad-rich US market where many services are highly partner and channel driven. (Does AdMob serve ads within walled gardens? I’m assuming yes.)

Top Handsets U.S.

1. Motorola RAZR V3 (7.1%)
2. Motorola KRZR K1c (6.3%)
3. RIM BlackBerry 8700 (5.5%)
4. RIM BlackBerry 8100 (4.3%)
5. Samsung I607 BlackJack (2.7%)
6. Samsung A900 (2.7%)
7. RIM BlackBerry 8830 (2.6%)
8. Sanyo SCP6600 (Katana) (2.4%)
9. Danger Sidekick II (1.8%)
10. LG LX550 (1.7%)

Let’s face it, the U.S. is pretty much skewed on the business professional data traffic side. Most of the above handsets are Blackberry imitators and the balance are either RAZRs or RAZR imitators. In North America where handset choices are limited, ‘cool’ businesspeople who don’t want/have no need for a Blackberry often carry a RAZR. Also—there is a conspicuous absence of Flash Lite enabled devices. The only possibility are the RAZR and KRZR which offer Flash Lite via over-the-air download on Verizon (with a circa 28% market share.) (Even then, the Verizon Flash Lite devices are specific to RAZR V3c or V3m and KRZR K1m—not sure if any of those are even included in the AdMob stats.)

Top Handsets India

1. Nokia 6030 (5.9%)
2. Nokia 6600 (5.9%)*
3. Nokia Opera for 6670 (5.4%)*
4. Nokia N70 (4.6%)*
5. Nokia N72 (3.3%)
6. Nokia 3230 (3.0%)*
7. Nokia 6630 (3.0%)*
8. Nokia 7610 (2.9%)*
9. Nokia 6233 (2.5%)*
10. Nokia N73 (2.4%)*

A few things of interest here—other than the obvious domination of Nokia. Sure Indian traffic is only 10% compared to the UK but there is a clear picture here (similar to what i’ve seen in Thailand) that the upgrade path can only go up. According to a recent Knowledge@Wharton article, by focusing on families of products around a given ‘platform (business, music etc.) "[Nokia] has created a ladder for consumers to climb from the low end to the middle end to the high end, while being fully assured that they will be with the mother brand Nokia."

Whether you believe this strategy is working or not, it’s easy to see the progression in the Nokia family of products. By comparison, what does an American Blackberry owner have to treat him/herself—a Blackberry Pearl?—an iPhone? With the US already at 77% mobile penetration (most of it post-pay) and India barely reaching 15%; the coming growth in India seems to point heavily towards higher data usage and (more importantly) much more focused consumers who know what they want from a device.

The potential consumer demographic in India is also worth noting. Visahl Gonda from Indiagames provided some interesting stats at last weeks Nokia Games Summit.

• The median age in India is currently 24—and is going down
• 72% of Indians are under age 35
• [This group of consumers] swears by the mobile phone and life revolves around friends and phone
• Spends more time online and mobile. TV viewing is going down.

India currently has some 200 million subscribers and adds 6 million to 7 million more each month—many will fall into the above group.

As for Flash Lite (see the *), I count 8 out of the 10 devices on the list above!

Top Handsets UK

1. Sony Ericsson K800i (5.7%)**
2. ZTE F866 (3.9%)
3. Sony Ericsson K610i (3.8%)*
4. Sony Ericsson W850i (3.5%)*
5. Sony Ericsson W810i (3.1%)*
6. Nokia N73 (2.6%)*
7. Nokia 6280 (2.3%)
8. NEC e616 (2.3%)
9. Nokia 6630 (2.1%)*
10. Nokia 6680 (2.0%)*

Overall this is a pretty strong list. The split between Ericsson and Nokia offers a good range of devices with decent (if not excellent) mobile web browsing out of the box. (And for those without a decent browser, the only two handsets not supporting Opera Mini or Opera Mobile from the list above are the NEC and ZTE–which incidentally are a bit odd to score so high. Can’t remember the last time I saw ones of these.)

Flash Lite doesn’t fare all that bad here either thanks to Sony Ericsson and Nokia. The only device i’m unsure of is the K800i**. The Sony Ericsson site strangely lists "Macromedia® Flash®" on the device spec but Adobe’s Device Central doesn’t list the handset as supported at all. So at the very least that makes 6 out of 10 Flash Lite devices on the list for the UK.

On the street, i’m also seeing considerable numbers of N95s which I suspect will trickle onto this list eventually. The (somewhat) unlimited data plans recently announced by Vodafone (ahem…) and the excellent T-Mobile Web n Walk will also probably begin to change these figures pretty soon.

All said, a nice reminder of how different our mobile markets can be. The AdMob Metrics also includes stats for South Africa which is a market I must admit I know little about. Also always worth looking at is AdMob’s Ad Monitor which uses Google Maps to display the location, operator and handset of ads being served in real-time. (I’d love to see them add information about the browser and type of site—was it WAP, HTML, Opera Mini, Nokia, Safari?)