Martin Gleissner

Mobile Social Networking - 2011 Mobile Social Networking Predictions - Road to Barcelona

In this series we’re profiling top mobile industry trends in the run-up to Mobile World Congress 2011.

Social has been THE buzzword of the past few years, but the buzz is far from dead. Not only do new social communities continue to pop up across the internet – you can now join a social network for everything from skateboarding to knitting - they have also found their way onto our mobile devices, which help their popularity to increase even faster.

Social communities will be one topic at Mobile World Congress that will be discussed by representative from all parts of the mobile industry:

Obviously, this will be a hot topic among the content generators; the relatively new App Planet at the edge of the congress parameters will showcase a wide range of new mobile Apps targeted at existing or looking to create new social communities.

Marketers will discuss how to understand and reach those new communities as well as how new social media channels can be used for marketing purposes. Location-based services (LBS) will play a key role in this aspect. Almost all social network providers are not only trying to pinpoint what and when their users are doing but also where. The data generated is marketing gold.

The average visitor/attendee will Tweet their whereabouts, update their status on Facebook or check in at the lunch restaurant via Foursquare.

The handset manufacturers are aware that not only younger target groups are looking for the best possible integration of social community Apps. Hence, they will try to impress with devices that provide a true social mobile experience.

Operators will also be talking about the role of social communities in connection to their services. When taking into account that mobile data traffic is expected to grow 40-fold over the next five years, however, one can be certain, that they won’t get bored for the next couple of years.

No matter if you are a social media enthusiast or critic, there is one MWC Session that you don’t want to miss: “Social Networking: Social Goes Mobile” 2:00pm – 3:30 pm, Tuesday, February 15.

“In this session, representatives from operators, social networks and device manufacturers will explore the different elements of a true mobile social network, from personalisation and location to operating systems and impact of the smartphone, as well as share their thoughts on where social mobile will go next.”

Posted by Martin Gleissner on February 9, 2011 at 7:47 AM
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Augmented Reality - 2011 AR Predictions - Road To Barcelona

In this series we’re profiling top mobile industry trends in the run-up to Mobile World Congress 2011.

One of the main driving forces of the internet has been bringing real life to the online world where it can be recreated and restructured. With Augmented Reality (AR) slowly but surely entering the spotlight this step of recreation can soon be skipped entirely. Reality can be captured right then and there and a layer of data stuck on top of it. Key to AR is the rapid success of smart phones, mobile apps, as well as camera and display technology that makes it possible to capture and display reality in real life.

According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle AR has left the “Technology Trigger” phase in 2010 and has instead reached the “Peak of Inflated Expectation.” Since closely linked to geolocation communities, which are currently dominating the mobile app world, a lot of attention will be drawn to AR in 2011. It will be one of the trending topics for hardware and software makers alike who will focus on how AR can be used for a variety of industries such as retail and gaming.

Consumers will hardly have any problems to get used to AR services since they seem to be a logical step up from existing mapping technologies: Just take out your phone use your camera to check out your surroundings to look for ATMs, restaurants or the nearest train station.

Not only since AR is mainly about the mobile experience will it be one of the trends to be discussed in Barcelona at the 2011 Mobile World Congress. The Session “Augmented Reality: Is Reality Ready to be Augmented” for instance will look at aspects such as hardware capability, usability and discuss who will take the lead in its development.   

Posted by Martin Gleissner on January 14, 2011 at 10:34 AM
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Location is the new black and Facebook is throwing around its weight

The Internet user as we know him is dying out. He is no longer behind his desktop computer checking his email or on the couch with a notebook in his lap updating his Facebook status. From an immobile creature, he has quickly evolved into a very mobile being, like a prehistoric fish that has grown a pair of legs and has left the ocean.

Instead of legs, though, evolution has equipped him with smart phones and a 3G network that enables him to move freely, while surfing the net. He is no longer the sitting duck that was an easy target for Internet communities, media, advertisers and marketing departments across the globe. The big question resulting from this is: how to catch him while he is moving?

This is actually an easy task, because he is eager to tell you where he is. Location-based software has created some fast growing communities such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and SCVNGR that allow him to show the world exactly where he currently is located. Those communities let you to mark a place, let’s say your favorite café, with a geo tag. Other community members that come to this place can “check in” indicating to their friends where they are currently at and what they are doing.

As the popularity of those mobile location networks is growing, so are the creative juices of the marketing and PR departments in the chase to find out how to use the new knowledge they confronting them. The first test balloons have already been launched. The campaigns that we have been seeing so far are mainly trying to foster customer loyalty. The café mentioned earlier, for instance, can measure their customers’ loyalty by checking the amount of time they have checked into their place via Foursquare. If they check in ten times, they are awarded a free cup of coffee.  

In the next couple of months, we will see more creative and more elaborate campaigns of this kind as the networks are growing. The question then will be what platform to use for your campaign? Those things tend to sort out themselves: Remember the battles Twitter vs. Jaiku, or Facebook vs. MySpace? Each ended with a clear winner.   

There is yet one problem: Obviously, Facebook with its Places and Google with Latitude want to get in on the action, too, which could change the outcome of the race. Google for instance has already set things in motion by acquiring Dodgeball, one of the pioneers in geosocial networking, in 2005, only to discontinue it four years later. In the meantime one of the founders of Dodgeball went on to found Foursquare, which is now leading the location-based social networking pack.

Facebook’s contribution to the picture is a recently awarded patent titled “Systems and methods for automatically locating web-based social network members are provided”, which many fear could wipe out all the other communities mentioned in this post. This however still remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure. One should keep an eye on location-based social networks as they contain a tremendous communication potential. It is still quite unexplored territory and grants room for experimentation. It is still too early to say who will be the big player in this field in a year or two from now so don’t put your money on just one horse, but keep an eye on all communities out there.   

And by the way, while the battle over location-based networking is in full motion, the first person just recently “checked in” at the International Space Station. 

Posted by Martin Gleissner on October 29, 2010 at 9:32 AM
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