Next Great Thing

Having a name like “Next Great Thing” we are often asked, “So… What is it?” Over the next few months, we’ll be blogging our “Top Mobile Trends” every Monday to help answer that question.

Now, we aren’t claiming we’ve discovered these (”Twitter! Eureka!!”). Rather, we’ll be presenting the prevailing themes we’ve seen emerging over the past few years, along with some examples, analysis, and projections. If you know of other examples we didn’t include, or have thoughts or comments, please share!

The Evolution of Microblogging

The age of the personal blog is coming to an end. People have finally accepted that no one was reading their Typepad page, so they got off the couch and joined the microblog party. These sites, such as Twitter, Plurk, Fanfou, and to some extent Tumblr let users share (and overshare) through short “micro” posts (and eavesdrop on the “conversations” others). To draw an analogy with Facebook, these are streams of “status updates” that can be easily logged via the web, SMS or IM.

Now people are also microblogging through visual media as well. We first saw this phenomenon on Flickr as it became a platform for people to capture and caption their lives (or just their faces). Daily Mugshot and Flickaday are both built around this desire to self-catalogue.

Lifecasting

Microblogging with video brings it closer to what we call “livestreaming” or “lifecasting” (i.e. broadcasting your life). This term originally referred to 24/7 streamers like Justin.tv, but is now essentially using video to stream your life online, in any length. This is becoming easier by the minute. Thanks mostly to the cell phone, there’s no longer a need to strap a camera to your head. Several popular services make it dead simple to “lifecast” via mobile to the web, including Juicecaster, Kyte, and Qik.  It’s easy, even 50 Cent is doing it.

If you need proof that this is going mainstream, just check out this weekend’s New York Times. Also look at the number of ancillary services that have cropped up around all these sites. Summize (purchased by Twitter) FriendFeed, Yoono, and TwitBuzz, to name a few, all help aggregate feeds, search sites or track buzzworthy topics. This aggregation taps into what is called “lifestreaming,” aggregating your multimedia content from a host of sources. Robin Good boils it down well in this beginner’s guide.

Convergence: Multimedia Microblogging

As technology speeds along, though, the boundaries that define these terms are disappearing. All-in-one services are emerging, letting you microblog with multimedia i.e. post photos, video, text, music, and other content. Twixtr mashes up Twitter with photos; Twiddeo merges it with video; Seesmic is its own video microblogging community; Utterz is an emerging mobile-driven platform that uses voice, video, text and images; Zannel is quite similar, but has developed a “professional” presence (bands, studios) as well. This sort of multimedia microblogging will simplify your online life. No need to go to multiple sites, these give you all the tools you need.

Now that the technologies are synonymous, the terms can be defined by content: lifestreaming/casting is all about you, microblogging need not be. However, that seems to be everyone’s topic of choice, so they are becoming interchangeable: Zannel calls itself a “mobile blogging tool” that lets you save to your “life stream” and touts the tagline “your life in real time.” Plurk calls itself a “social journal” that put “your life, on the line.”

A New Paradigm

Whatever you call it, this is a new paradigm, one that will flourish in the hands of youth through multimedia. Just think about what young people do on their phones (texting and taking pictures), then tie this to what they are doing online (social networking) and it makes perfect sense. And pretty soon, everything will be viewable through the handset, bringing about a new level of connectedness among the next generation.

HANDSETS

Touchscreens getting big for Asian market [IntoMobile]
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Japan is really getting into touchscreens. This is backed up ina new report from ABI: “Because it’s difficult to represent even a fraction of the common Asian characters on a QWERTY-style keyboard, touch screen devices on which characters can be written with a stylus are immensely popular. The Asia/Pacific market consumed more than 80% of the world’s touch screen-based mobile phone production over the past year.”

AUTO

NearU Search helps consumers save at the pump [Mobile Marketer]
Last month, we speculated that a new site called Gasbuddy should go mobile. Now they have, thanks to NearU. By texting the ambiguous shortcode “Gaspass” to 63278, you can get local, real-time gasoline price alerts on your phone. For $7.99 you can search nearby stations. (You also get to say, “I am going to Gaspass”.)

PS- For more auto-mobile fun, check out AAA Mobile: it has turn-by-turn navigation, live traffic alerts, weather forecasts, travel information, local movies and showtimes, as well as gas price search.

CULTURE

I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You [New York Times]
In his survey of “ambient awareness,” journalist Clive Thomson answers the eternal question: “Why would anyone Twitter?” Well for one, it gives you E.S.P. It also lets you be more connected socially, albeit with weak ties. Most of all, it makes you more self-aware. Great article, bad title. May we suggest: “Update: Twitter is the new yoga!”

MUSIC

Musinaut: a New Era in Music Interaction [PFSK]
Musinaut claims it will revolutionize music by making it interactive, and we just might agree. Their Skinvaders software lets artists “accessorize” their songs with added rich content (varied musical interpretations, remixes or styles called “skins”). Using the MXP4 player, listeners can opt for never-before-heard versions that are randomly selected each time a piece is played. And hey, its available for mobile phones.

Snow Patrol and Apple Aim for the Skies [MusicWeek]
Pop rockers Snow Patrol are making history by releasing an interactive album as an iPhone app. It will enable fans to access extra content including artwork, behind-the-scenes images and lyrics via the touch screen of their handsets.

‘Popcuts’ music site pays hipsters for buying cool music first [USA Today]
Essentially Sellaband for songs, this new music promotional tool pays mp3 buyers a cut of its future sales. The earlier you buy a future hit, the more you get. It’s a great example of what we can call the Influence Economy–or maybe it will just prove the Cumulative Advantage theory.

Sony Ericsson next to jump on the unlimited downloads bandwagon [Shiny Shiny]
Following in Nokia’s footsteps, Sony Ericsson now “comes with music” as well, adopting a subscription-based music models for their mobile phones. Its a bandwagon alright, but only time will tell if enough consumers jump on.

VIDEO

@ CTIA: MTV Launches First Mobile Ad-Supported VOD Service With Carriers [mocoNews.net]
MTV will soon be launching its first mobile video-on-demand service, which will be supported by ads. Smart move considering music videos are the #1 type of content teens watch on their phones.

FOX Interactive: With Mobile Video, It’s Gotta Be Live [New TeeVee]
According to Fox, live video is where it’s at when it comes to the mobile video audience. Makes sense, but bear in mind, this is coming from a proud purveyor of news and sports.

Straight To Mobile: Verizon Shows WB.com’s ‘Sorority Forever’ [MediaPost]
The Frog is just jumping into the new media pond with a splash. Last week we reported on the CW’s Myxer takeover and full-episode mobile offerings. Now we hear that Thewb.com, their online video site, will be available through VCast and some shows will debut online and on mobile simultaneously.

Yesterday we looked at what mobile consumers in Japan want, one of which was smartphones. What Japan Thinks has some new survey results backing this up: Only 20% of respondents said they can’t see themselves using one in the future. The data also supports the notion that Japanese consumers actually dig the iPhone. Camera and touchscreen top the list of desired features, and while the iPhone “seemed expensive” to many, it was also deemed “cool,” “novel,” and “amazing technology.”

Today, we glimpse beyond that they have and want, to what they are going to get in the future. Thanks again to Lucy King in our Tokyo office for her insights…

The Japanese market will become increasingly dynamic and competitive through 2011. Local research labs are engaged in innovative research and developing cutting edge technologies.

• Audio barcode: Data embedded in sound waves are picked up by the target devices with a microphone (e.g. a mobile phone), analyzed by special software, and then extracted.
  
  Commercial application scenario:
  - automatic transmission of website URLs to a phone pointed at a TV or radio

• 3D Display: NTT DOCOMO has developed a portable 3D display system that enables viewers to view 3D images from any direction without having to wear those dorky 3D glasses.
  
  
  
  Commercial application scenarios:
  - realistic games where the characters and images are rendered in 3D
  - mobile Internet shopping that allows customers to view potential purchases from virtually any direction

  

• Touch communication: DoCoMo has developed a working prototype that actually used the body to transmit information through touch, rather than via wired, wireless or optical communications. The technology is known as ‘near-field intrabody communications, uses a tiny electronical field that exists on the surface of the body to safely and harmlessly conduct information to and from devices - such as a mobile phone - via the human body. There was a successful test demo at the DoCoMo booth at CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) show last October.
  
  
  
  Commercial application scenarios:
  - Next generation version of e-wallet phones (just walk through the ticket gate by tapping a panel)
  - Unlock a PC or enter a secure area
  - Exchange a business card with a handshake
  - Phones with especially equipped sensors to monitor body health conditions to relay information to health care provider

Technology aside, though, the most impressive thing about the Japanese mobile scene is the scene itself. The level of cultural integration is remarkable. Sure, having a cool phone is still “cool” in America, but in Japan, the mobile phone is truly is treated almost as an extension of self, or is, at the very least, a technology so culturally immersed that it seems that way. It even has a name - “keitai culture.”

Regardless of what a phone is capable of, it’s still a struggle to adapt and evolve mobile to fit into and enhance the user’s life. While we’re all racing on the same track, Japan is just a few laps ahead in terms of making features and applications useful. This is largely thanks to the mobile carriers, Docomo and Softbank, who have been able to push mobile technology into government and business operations, really putting the technology to work. That seems to be the major hold up elsewhere. But non-Japanese take heart, at least we have the App Store and other open platforms like Android. They leave the future of our mobile progress is in our own hands–literally.

Americans are becoming increasingly fascinated by the quirky culture of Japan, especially their mobile technology. It runs so deep, that “digital” and “online” are synonymous with “mobile.” Why is this? And can we expect it in the U.S.? Our colleague Lucy King in Tokyo helped shed some light with a look at the state of mobile and what’s coming up in Japan. Here’s a look:

In Japan, the driving force of digital market growth has shifted from PCs to mobile phones. Japan is a highly mature market for mobile phones, and users will exceed 100 million this year. In fact, more Japanese access the Internet through mobile phone than PC (same in China, Korea, APAC region). Japan has the world’s 2nd largest economy, and the 10th largest population, so what they do or don’t online has a real impact on markets around the globe. Fortunately they are doing a lot.

The Japanese are voracious mobile consumers. There is constant demand for new gadgets, features, designs and convenience functions. Some top trends:

• E-Commerce: Rakuten owns the largest online shopping mall in Japan with over 18 million products from 18,000 merchants (and its very own baseball team!). Online auction sites are a frequent destination for Japanese Internet users.
• E-wallets (swipe at ticket gates, convenience stores… essentially point, click, buy)
• Scanners to decode 2D barcodes, which appear frequently in advertisements and magazines.
• GPS tracking functions (children and dogs etc), guide maps etc.
• Killer content
• Email
• Music distribution
• Mobile novels (a growing niche market)
• Mobile Games
• Broadcast TV and UGC Video (Youtube’s second largest market in Japan, and Sony, sensing the opportunity, launched a competitive last year called EyeVio)
• Pet interface (allows video chat and remote feeding)
• Blog updating

In terms of handsets, “small and cute” rules. Simultaneously, buzz is moving beyond regular cell phones and towards more comprehensive devices such as Smartphones (Windows Mobile). The challenge will obviously be formatting these traditionally bulkier devices for the market-and promoting them well. Right now, you’ll see a lot of ads with both beautiful people promoting phones and “real” people using them.

You’ll also hear talk about choices, choices and more choices. Given that there are just couple dominant carriers in Japan, this seems to be a sensitive area. In fact, a young Japanese ad exec recently told me that he envied the freedom we get with the iPhone App Store. The grass is always greener…

Tomorrow we’ll post Part 2: Japanese Keitai Culture and What’s Next…

We talk a lot about “curation” and its importance in our media- and technology-saturated world. So we find it suiting that museums are rising to the occasion, adding their editorial expertise to new media channels.

For awhile now, museums have been taking advantage of mobile technology-mobile audio for special exhibits, applications that provide details on location and admission, and mobile maps of exhibits. But, unfortunately for art lovers in smaller cities, these mobile partnerships have only existed in the fancy-pants museums found in big cities.

Until now. Somehow, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art wrangled the Louvre into loaning a portion of their Roman art collection for the summer. While the exhibit is gorgeous, most impressive was the mobile audio that accompanied the marble sculptures and earthen pots. Museum goers were prompted to call a number and were given access to audio accompaniment for a selection of art.

If only we could call the Mona Lisa and ask her what she’s smiling about:)