It's Not Primetime Yet

One of the problems faced as a content provider and a designer is how we're going to get material into the hands of the user, and by what method. I'm talking about mobile phones, people.

While I don't have any consistent statistics in front of me (studies vary widely), mainstream mobile users doing any kind of real data (aside from downloading portal-sourced ringtones) seems to be pegged at about 25% of the population. How about those actually getting away from their provider's portal and into the unknown? Much, much less than that. Probably around 2-3%.

Nick Gonzalez over on Tech Crunch wrote an article about a company out of Singapore named Velvet Puffin . Velvet Puffin is a tool that integrates with social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook to provide a seamless experience between mobile and traditional computing environments. That's great - I use Facebook's SMS-based mobile features all the time. But how many people are really able to get some actual data flowing on their mobile device? The real question is do they want to?

I like to acknowledge something I call "carrier arrogance" when talking about progressive mobile technologies. I'm convinced that your average user does not yet see the real value in spending $20+ extra a month (per phone, at that) to visit the underdeveloped world of mobile browsing. Hell, people outside of the 18-25 age bracket are barely comfortable with text messaging.

I'm convinced that carriers are not ready to let go of their cash cows of ringtones and videos. If a user had access to the whole internet on their phone (they do - not many realize it), why should one pay $3 a pop for a ringtone that expires in 90 days? They wouldn't. Carriers know this.

There's one more issue, and that's the issue of usability. I believe in simple interfaces designed for mainstream audiences. Something so intuitive that those of us who don't happen to be internet savvy feel comfortable and functional in using it. Mobile devices certainly lack that, both from a hardware and a software standpoint. I've gotta go log onto the web, hit a variable soft key, scroll down to the "Go to URL..." button, enter the exact URL, and hope that my browser can display the page properly.

Sure, there are other ways to get there. For instance, URL's can be embedded into SMS messages. There's one method. Another is for mobile portals to link to off-portal content. Think that'll ever happen? Fat chance.

It boils down to this: Things need to happen before the United States catches up to the rest of the world with regards to mobile data.

• Consistent browser design on the phone itself.
• Better mobile web design with the user interface in mind.
• Awareness of off-portal content.
  
• Improved ease of access to off-portal content.
• Hardware. Not as significant, but improvements (see iPhone and other smart phones to follow) will allow for easier web access for your average Joe.

If I had to guess, I'd let a good year and a half go by before we see some real progress that everyone can appreciate. It's not time yet, but it's close. And with that, opportunities are abound.