All Phones are equal, just some are more equal than others.

.....it’s the users that make them smart, or the content that’s created for them.

The term smart phone has been around for 10 years now, one of the first phones dubbed with the name was the Nokia 9210 Communicator. It was, for it’s time, a powerful handheld computer with internet access, email, Apps etc, oh and it also made phone calls.
So what defines a Smartphone in 2010? I think most people would agree the following a Smartphone has;
1. The ability to download and extend the phones capabilities with Apps.
2. A more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a basic “feature phone”.
3. A QWERTY keyboard.
4. A touch screen.
5. Unlimited connection to a full, fast, internet browsing experience.

There it is; 5 simple features that define a Smartphone, or is it?

10 years ago Smartphones were defined as having multiple features, such as; email, web browser, camera, and music player, but even the simplest of feature phones now have all these features.

Perhaps then, it’s point one; the ability to extend the phone with Apps. But here again, the Nokia Ovi store and others like it, now extend a huge range of feature phones with the ability to download 3rd party Apps.

So is it point 2; a more advanced computing ability? But with the ever advancing technology, what was a Smartphone 2 years ago, is this year’s feature phone. Many of the most popular “non smart” feature phones are 3G and or wifi, have multi-mega pixel camera’s, can read email, browse the internet and download Apps. Nokia 5230, LG Optimus, Sony Ericsson W995 etc.

OK, may be Smartphones can be defined as having large touch screens. But there is a wealth of budget feature phones that have touch screens, and in any case there are also many QWERTY phones (Blackberry, Nokia) that are very smart that don’t have touch screens. So touch screens can’t be used solely as Smartphone definition.

Finally, may be it’s the always on capability of a full internet experience; but here again, even the iPhone has the weakness of no flash, and the blank screens that appear because of it. Other smart phones have their own browsing limitations when browsing the full desktop internet experience.

Perhaps we need to think beyond “Smartphone” perhaps a new name; mPC or superphone.

There are still big differences between the best Androids / iPhones and the latest feature phones, but there are far more Smartphones than we currently think of.

So maybe rather than thinking of smart phones, we need to educate more smart people, but to do that we need to create smarter content, that’s richer and rewarding, then more people will use more of the features of these great devices.

In terms of mobile internet browsing then, it is more important that the content publishers need to make their content smart, and think of the ever increasing army of users accessing their sites.

What goes around....

I thought I would add my own experiences to the commentary on specialist agencies in digital, especially after the news about Agency.com. I started a small design agency way back in 1990 and was well established by the time the web appeared. Always being one to look at new technology, I embraced this new area of design. I hated the technical restrictions that the early HTML offered, so was delighted be the creative freedoms Flash offered, even if it had its own drawbacks. Even in those days I would rather give a few people a good experience than everyone a bad one. In those early days, only the brave clients, spent decent money on web sites, but they are the ones who generally do very well in the digital space today.
However, within a few years of the web being noticed, specialist web agencies appeared, more often than not they were technically based rather than creative, and they started to win business (not bitter really:-)) Clients believed that they needed specialist's to provide a service that the larger agencies didn't have.
Bring us right up to 2010, and digital is no longer specialised, it's just part of the whole campaign, and I think in some cases, my beloved print has become more niche than digital!
So here I am in Mobile, and I'm getting real deja vue. However this time I believe the big agencies (some of them) have learnt their lesson, and are bringing in specialisms much earlier, hence why I'm at Ogilvy and Mather. If we can prove early on, that we have the people and resources in house to create remarkable work in house, then our clients wont need to go to smaller "specialist" agencies.
It's very exciting times!

iPad publishing potential

The link below was an interesting article published in the standard the other day, I couldn't help responding, though by the end of my response I was getting tired and bored so the grammar was dropping off,...sorry :-)

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23840405-is-ipad-really-digital-saviour-of-newspapers-dont-bet-on-it.do

Hi Roy
First of all I'm writing this on my iPad, and whilst a huge fan of Apple, am not scared to criticise them. The iPhone wasn't perfect when it first came out, and still isn't. I guess the iPad will be the same, however like the iPhone, the iPad is so far ahead of it's compitition I don't feel that compelled to complain too much.
Some of your scepticism though is unfounded on a number of points.
numbers don't stack up? The iPad isn't on it's own going to save newspapers, but the collective competition could. No doubt the copycat devices will be cheaper and do a similar job. Apples laptops don't have a dominant market share but they are still great pieces of kit.
You argue that no one will pay for content when they can get it free on the Internet, but if that was the case why do people still buy newspapers? Clearly the newspaper and an iPhone app will offer something more than the Internet. Have you seen Wired, Time or Popular Science magazines? Far more engaging than the Internet content.
Then there is the advertising. Admittedly, most advertisers have failed to grasp the potential in these first Apps, however then ones that have some kind of rich content such as video clips of animation have a massively more sticky appeal to them, compared to their standard press ad style equivalents.
I could actually argue the case for tablet devices being great for publishers, but I'd rather go to bed
Regards
Alistair Gillan

I'm currently working at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising - Mobile Technologies

WPP - Leaders in Advertising, Branding, Marketing.

Apps - the jewel in the crown

Despite what many of the established mobile specialists say, Apps are where we are at in terms of high profile content. The fact is many brands just wanted one, despite the ROI, and for the last 18 months or so that was great. If managed well the cut through and buzz of the App was all that was required.

But like any campaign we need to look at the big picture. Mary Meeker, Morgan and Stanley's internet analyst has just released a report showing interesting figures about mobile internet browsing and how in just a few short years it will over take PC browsing. For now though its still important to view mobile internet browsing as 'snacking' and we need to deliver mobile specific content for this space rather than a mobile friendly full blown site, as many many people still don't have big screens like the current smart phones.

And then there's good old SMS the stalwart of the mobile marketing, from a creative point of view I've not seen too many good examples, but that's because generally the campaigns are left to companies that are more technical than creative, however they still delivered, and for most that was good enough. Regardless, SMS is a great tool in the mobile marketing tool box, and I think should always be included when done correctly.

I'm now seeing the fruits of my labour from the last 5 years or so. I've gone from; 'maybe we should look at this mobile thing' to 'we have put mobile on the agenda' to 'mobile was in the initial budget, but with overruns, we had to cut the budget from somewhere' to now it's ' we can't afford not to do it' ...still small percentages but mobile budgets are here to stay, and grow and grow.

I'm currently working at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising - Mobile Technologies

WPP - Leaders in Advertising, Branding, Marketing.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Just a quick thought, maybe it's because I love the iphone, but when I'm on a train, in a coffee bar or a pub, etc the amount of people I see that are using their iPhone's far far out weighs the market share it is supposed to have. I think the last figure I saw was still single digits in terms of share of the whole phone market, many reports show it around 16-18% of the smart phone market, whilst others put it at 26% of market based on OS install, which probably then includes the iPod Touch.

I wonder if there are any stats for iPhone install within certain demographics, that would be really interesting....

I'm currently working at Ogilvy Advertising Mobile

WPP - Leaders in Advertising, Branding, Marketing.

iPad - my first touch

I was excited to get my hands on an iPad in advance of my own being delivered on the 28th May (hopefully). First impressions were of a high quality piece of kit, reassuringly weighty, with a beautiful screen and very fast.

However this device needs high quality content, scaled up iphone Apps just don't cut it, and Apple knows this. They go to great lengths in their iPad Human interface guidlines to encourage developers to ensure that graphics are of the highest quality.

Wired magazine demo their ideas for tablet magazines in a video posted on youTube ( search on youTube for 'Wired and Adobe')

Their concepts look truly amazing and whilst the demo isn't on an iPad, I'm sure it will be just as good. But will it be as easy to create this content within the Xcode environment? Dont know, but this I'm not going to get drawn into an Adobe / Apple debate :-)

I'm currently working at Ogilvy Advertising Mobile

WPP - Leaders in Advertising, Branding, Marketing.

It's been far too long!

At last I get to write on my own blog. So much has happened since I last wrote an entry!

Well the iPad has arrived, am I a fan? ... yes; is it perfect? no. Does it need to be? No. I'll still buy one! Lets go back 35 odd years, and I remember as a small child being in awe of a printed colour picture in a book. I touched it, and tilted the page, but I couldn't work out how the image got on the page, at that very young age I had no concept of printing. Move back to the present, and with the birth of tablets such as the iPad, I can't see why anyone would stick with a static image. Imagine if tilting the device shows a different angle of the same object; turn the device left and right and the object you are looking at rotates to correspond with the users motion. Not to mention being able to touch the screen to drag the object to spin it 360. Some of this is demo'ed in the wired magazine example of their tablet publication...awsome. When the public get to play with this stuff, will they ever go back to the printed version? Well yes they will, as I will, but will there be a huge market for this new interactive medium, too right there will be.