Keitai

Some neat stuff i’ve been reading…

Wireless Works: Exploring New Brand Connections

A great research paper from the folks at the BBDO Proximity Lab.

“People truly treasure their mobile phones. They are reassured by them. They feel loved and secure when they have them and lonely and anxious when they do not. And they see their mobiles as another way in which to express their unique selves. They do this by changing their ringtones to the latest music, their screen saver to a picture of their partner or best friend and adding details to the outside of the phone.”

Just follow the somewhat hidden link on the right to request a copy. They have a great blog as well.

Introducing Generation M

Recent research from M:Metrics on mobile subscriber demographics.

“Mobile subscribers aged 13-24 are most likely to use mobile applications, but content companies should not ignore older subscribers who account for 70 percent of users.”

Consumers and Convergence: Challenges and opportunities in meeting next generation customer needs

Recent research from KPMG on cultural differences in consumer habits and interests relative to mobile devices and services.

“Daily commutes, for example, can spell opportunity for mobile providers who can offer services that promise entertainment or personal productivity during transport-bound downtimes (not to mention costs, when such usage pushes peak network capacities). Every day nearly half of the Asian consumers surveyed spend over an hour each way shuttling to and from their workplaces, as compared to 36 percent of European respondents and 33 percent of North American respondents (refer to Exhibit 7). To add to this “downtime” phenomenon, Asian respondents tend overwhelmingly (47 percent) to rely upon public transportation for these commutes. This percentage far exceeds those found in Europe (22 percent) or North America (8 percent).”

The location of this PDF keeps changing but you can find it easily enough through Google if it disappears again.

Distraction: Being Human in the Digital Age

I have this book on order so can’t totally vouch for it but it’s published by the folks at Futuretext “a publishing company specialising in mobility, digital convergence and other emerging technologies” (also the people behind Forum Oxford) and looks quite good.

What People Carry and Why by Jan Chipchase (Powerpoint)

Short but thoughtful presentation (2MB) by Jan Chipchase of Nokia Research. If you’re not familiar with Jan, do visit his blog. And if anyone knows Jan—try to convince him to (convince Nokia, to) release his photography under a Creative Commons license!

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian by Mimi Ito

Mimi is a cultural anthropologist who studies new media use in Japan and the United States. I’ve only read excerpts of this book but have it on order. There’s also a good podcast with Mimi on the Australian Mobile Media Show from the Podcast Network.

Insights into Asia: Same Technologies, Different Attitudes and Reasons for Use, Genevieve Bell for Intel

I ran into this neat PDF abstract from Intel a few days ago. It’s part of a larger Cultural Mobilities research project and has several associated PDFs that sadly can be a bit hard to find due to out of date links.

“What if you built a wireless router—like we do—for the home like we have. That wireless router is actually designed to send a signal to the average American home, of a free-standing dwelling with three to six rooms. It’s configured in a particular way for a particular footprint. We don’t think about that, because why would you? It’s built for a home. You take that same wireless router and put it in a flat in Singapore, which is 450 square feet in a multifamily high-rise, highdensity dwelling?. You are suddenly broadcasting to your flat, the next flat, the next flat, the next flat, and the flat across the street. Anyone in Singapore who has a wireless router or a wireless Ethernet card in their computer will tell you that they can open up their computer in their flat and get seven or eight IP addresses, none of which are their own.”

More links coming soon…