Stunning stats about kids and mobiles (in the USA)

Cell Phones Key to Teens’ Social Lives, 47% Can Text with Eyes Closed

Nearly half (47%) of US teens say their social life would end or be worsened without their cell phone, and nearly six in 10 (57%) credit their mobile device with improving their life, according to a national survey from CTIA and Harris Interactive.

Four out of five teens (17 million) carry a wireless device (a 40% increase since 2004), finds the study titled “Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged,” which probes how the growing teen wireless segment is using wireless products and how they want to use them in the future.

Impact on Teen Life

- A majority (57%) of teens view their cell phone as the key to their social life.
- Second only to clothing, teens say, a person’s cell phone tells the most about their social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes.

Providing Entertainment and Security
- More than half of the respondents (52%) agree that the cell phone has become a new form of entertainment.
- One-third of teens play games on their phone.
- 80% say their cell phone provides a sense of security while on the go, confirming that the cell phone has become their mobile safety net when needing a ride (79%), getting important information (51%), or just helping out someone in trouble (35%).
- Teens carry cell phones to have access to friends, family and current events.
- Though only one in five (18%) teens care to pinpoint the location of their family and friends via their cell phone, 36% hate the idea of a cell phone feature that allows others to know their exact location.

Texting Replacing Talking

The study also confirmed that texting is replacing talking among teens. Teens admitted spending nearly an equal amount of time talking as they do texting each month. The feature is so important to them that if texting were no longer an option 47% of teens say their social life would end or be worsened - that’s especially so among females (54% vs. 40%).

Teens say texting has advantages over talking because it offers more options, including multitasking, speed, the option to avoid verbal communication, and because it is fun - in that order, according to the study.

With more than 1 billion text messages sent each day, it is no surprise that 42% of teens say they can text blindfolded, the study found.
“Teens have created a new form of communication. We call it texting, but in essence it is a reflection of how teens want to communicate to match their lifestyles. It is all about multitasking, speed, privacy and control,” said Joseph Porus, VP & chief architect, Technology Group, Harris Interactive. “Teens in this study are crying for personalization and control of exactly what a wireless device or plan can do for them.”

Devices of the Future

The survey asked teens what future changes they’d like to see in wireless services and devices and found that respondents want cell phones that break boundaries and are personalized to fit their lifestyles.

Teens remain excited and openminded about the wireless possibilities and their ideal future mobile devices would feature five applications - phone, MP3 player, GPS, laptop computer and video player, according to Harris.

Also on teens’ wish lists are phones that…
- Guarantee secured data access to the user only (80%)
- Provide accessibility to personal health records (66%)
- Present opportunities to be educated anywhere in the world (66%)
- Bring users closer to global issues impacting teens’ world (63%)
- Are shockproof and waterproof (81%)
- Have endless power (80%)
- Feature a privacy screen (58%)
- Are made of flexible material and fold into different shapes and sizes (39%)
- Have artificial intelligence - ask it questions and it gives answers (38%)

“In the future, mobility for teens means mobile banking, mobile voting, location based services, personal entertainment - the sky is the limit for how mobile our lifestyles can be,” said Steve Largent, president and CEO, CTIA - The Wireless Association. “We’ve certainly come a long way in 25 years and expect teens to be a growth driver for the industry and have a major impact on the wireless landscape for years to come.”

About the study: The study was conducted online in July 2008 among a nationally representative sample of 2,089 teenagers (age 13-19) across the US who have cell phones. More than 100 questions were asked on mobile phone usage, attitudes, behaviors, and teens’ desires and aspirations for the future of mobile communications, entertainment, and other features.

Thanks to Marketing Charts.
Original post at:
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/cell-phones-key-to-teens-social-lives-47-can-text-with-eyes-closed-6126/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Top Mobile Trends

Thanks to NGT

Top Mobile Trends: Location Curation
One of the great things about cell phones–besides Brickbreaker–is their ability to find you in a geographical haystack. As more and more phones come with GPS, developers are increasingly incorporating it (and other cell-spotting technologies) into their apps, called location-based services (LBS). If mobile is about place and time, LBS aim to provide the right place at the right time.

TMI (Too much information)

Loopt, Brightkite and Limbo are a few of the services that help locate your friends via mobile. At their best, they’ll work wonders for your social life. As more people use them, though, they face the TMI problem. Too Much Information. We’ve seen this happen with online communication tools–that’s why SocialThing, Chi.mp and FriendFeed have all stepped in to help you manage Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc… But phones are personal, and mobile services themselves need to help manage and cull information.

PHONES AS GUIDES

If location technologies can make my phone a homing device, I want it to guide me, not make me a target. This is why most services let me choose whose information I receive, so I can “curate” my social map. These people may include my more intimate friends, or loose contacts who provide information I want. For instance, I may only choose to follow my club-hopping friends so I can learn about the trendy new nightspots. These friends can be seen as experts who help me pare down my outside world. This sort of “location curation” by trusted sources offers a more sustained value than pure social plays for both users and advertisers.

POINTS OF INTEREST

Take, for example, Untravel Media, whose “Mobile Narrative System” combines online mapping with audio, pictures, and video to produce “sightseeing experiences” that run on mobile phones and GPS devices. The technology is state-of-the-art (a Flex and AIR front end communicating with a back-end Java server that generates media for a Flash Lite-based player), but more importantly, it’s easier to use than to build. A simple interface allows experts–historians, filmmakers, curators, and travelers–to help craft and narrate tours.

Socialight is another LBS focused on combining place with topics of interest. Using their site or my phone, I can curate “urban mixtapes” to help friends discover New York. I could also find out the “Best fall picnic spots in Wine Country” according to Winetravel.com or if I’m near one of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite restaurants. City of Memory, while not yet mobile, is another good example.

BRANDED MOBILE UTILITY

To reach consumers, LBS need to be useful–and so do brands. This presents a huge mobile marketing opportunity. A brand can show people, quite directly, places of interest related to their “expertise” (e.g., Adidas–sneaker shops, Pampers–nearby restrooms). Louis Vuitton Soundwalk, celebrity-narrated mp3 tours of Chinese cities, does just this (if only it had a map component…). So did Guinness’ mobile app for the Sevens in Hong Kong and Socialight’s “Gossip Girl” and “Project Runway” guides to New York. With open APIs like uLocate’s Where, Google’s Android and the iPhone SDK, we expect to see more brands use LBS to get you–and their marketing message–to the right place at the right time.

You should also check out: Multimedia Microblogging

Original post at:http://www.nextgreatthing.com/wordpress/2008/09/23/top-mobile-trends-location-curation/

Follow the path of the unsafe

Here's some inspiration and a relevant quote for our times, for those thinking about the future, about where to invest their energy and time in the coming months ahead:

"Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of crackpot than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost."

Thomas J Watson

Thanks FurtureLab. Original Post: http://scottgoodson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/follow-the-path-of-the-unsafe.html

Is your website ready for a handheld world?

Thanks again to iMedia Connection - breathe in, this is a long one but worthy

Is your website ready for a handheld world?

Handheld devices are more capable than ever, but their capabilities remain extremely limited in comparison to the kind of desktops and laptops most commonly used to browse the web. With their relatively tiny screens and slow connections, sending a handheld device the code for your normal website is likely to produce confusion and frustration in those you're trying to serve, leading to severely curtailed responses.

In theory, of course, any website can be accessed by any mobile device. But in reality, many websites are coded with much more robust devices like desktops and laptops in mind. The trends to rely on network- and CPU-intensive technologies -- and to have the web browser in continuous communication with the web server (a la Ajax) -- further limit the compatibility of many standard websites with mobile devices.

Important differences
The three main differences between handhelds and larger computers are the:

1. Much smaller screen size
2. Relative scarcity on handhelds of support for advanced browser-related technologies like cookies, Java and Flash -- without which many standard websites just don't perform well or look good
3. Intrinsically slower and sometimes spotty nature of the networks serving handhelds
All this is why the most successful websites aimed at mobile browsers are now being optimized for this class of equipment.

Why is this important? One reason is the sheer size of the opportunity. For example, more people have internet access through cellphones than through computers. In addition, Nielson Mobile reportedly tabulated some 9 million purchases from cellphones during the month of April. That's up more than 70 percent, year over year.

Not everyone agrees on the best designs and technological underpinnings for successful websites targeted at mobile users. But there are broad swaths of concurrence on what's best and what's not. 

Focus on minimizing website size

Because of the slower speeds and smaller screens associated with mobile devices, every bit of data you attempt to serve deserves consideration. That's why it's vitally important that you reduce the amount of content on your mobile-optimized site, removing extraneous information, animation and all other eye candy. Tables, so handy for coding standard websites, require too many bits to be beneficial for mobile websites.

With bit rates for 3G handhelds hovering under 15 Mbit/sec, there's a strictly limited amount of data that can be transmitted if your website is to load in 10 seconds or less. Think "dial-up" rather than broadband.

Fortunately, most handheld browsers show the incoming material bit by bit as it arrives, and mobile browsers that use proxy servers tend to load whatever data the screen is trying to display at the moment. Still, users won't sit still for long delays at home, and they feel even less inclined to do so when they're on the go. So cutting website sizes to the bone is central to optimizing for handhelds.

Serve only the most important content

On mobile-oriented websites, it's critical to keep content concise so the need for users to scroll is minimized. Content developers and marketers often have a desire to overkill -- they want to make literally everything available. But for mobile websites, right now that's just not practical.

The quantity of content you should offer on your mobile website(s) obviously depends on your reader base. For example, experience shows that "pop culture" content doesn't captivate users enough to keep them scrolling through long articles on their cellphones. Articles that are 200 words or fewer are the most likely to be completed. On the other hand, travelers seeking specific details about a locale have shown themselves willing to scroll the small screen as many as 20 times or so. On many mobile websites, checklists with only half-a-dozen items have proven to be particularly well received.

It's also important to understand the kind of information your mobile customer wants. Why are they accessing your site from their mobile, rather than their laptop or desktop? Usually, it's because they're not browsing for deep learning, but looking for a quick hit of specific information. Many mobile users simply want a phone number or address, directions, a schedule of events, perhaps a restaurant menu.

Understand why users come to your mobile website rather than your standard website, and put the information they are most likely to want up front.

Layout and graphics

Go for practical layout. Design is critical because mobile devices vary so greatly. The iPhone and 3G devices are much faster than older technologies, of course, but when you're optimizing for mobile, you must consider and cater to the lowest common denominator. For example, with less real estate available on a mobile screen, websites optimized for mobile should generally look very different from their desktop cousins. Ideally, you want your mobile content in a more vertical format, minimizing overlooked information as well as the need for horizontal scrolling -- frustrations that tend to drive people off your site. Putting everything in more of a columnar format leaves users with the more natural task of scrolling down, rather than across.

Pare graphics

Specific capabilities for viewing graphics vary greatly from one handheld to another, with the iPhone leading the charge toward a whole new generation of graphics-friendly mobile devices. But even there, the largest screen size is just a few inches. Next generation devices may have 5-inch screens, but that's still pretty small. While there is no hard and fast limit on the graphics you can attempt to deliver, these days most optimization experts suggest you limit all images to no more than about 120x120 pixels.

RSS and .mobi

Enable RSS Feeds. RSS is designed to deliver the newest content on a site, stripped of graphical elements and other impediments to transmission. It's often the easiest and fastest way to send your content to handhelds. For some websites, enabling RSS may be all you need to do to convert your website for mobile users.

Consider whether or not to go ".mobi"

Companies looking to serve the mobile market should design a version of their sites for these devices, and many argue that implies switching to a ".mobi" domain name. The top-level domain ".mobi" was conceived and launched at a time when many felt the need to separate websites for mobile from standard websites. As a result, a lot of big name advertisers now support sites on the ".mobi" domain.

But with growing technological sophistication, others now argue that ".com" can serve just as well. For example, today it's possible for a server to do a browser detection every time a user hits it and then deliver an appropriate website for each class of device. For what it's worth, however, the W3C says that staying with ".com" for mobile sites breaks the web's convention because not all ".com" sites are suitable for handhelds.

As handhelds evolve from today's 2.5G and 3G into tomorrow's 4G technology, the gap between handheld and desktop user experiences will certainly narrow.

Navigation

Standard websites have evolved toward placing navigation along the top and sides. For mobile optimized websites, this just doesn't work. Mobile screens are so small that top navigation could easily cover much of the screen and force users to scroll before seeing the first elements of your site's content. It's counterintuitive, but in most situations mobile websites play better with navigation at the bottom of the page. This way, users see the vital content they want with the very first screen full of information. And because they are used to the idea of scrolling down to see more, scrolling to find the mobile site's navigation makes more sense than it does on a standard website. In many cases, that first screen can display a content menu with links to half-a-dozen sub-topics or categories of content that mobile users are likely to want.

Incidentally, users of the standard web are far more forgiving of "under construction" or "coming soon" signs than mobile users, who absolutely hate broken links. Even if you have plans to expand or modify your mobile website very soon, make sure everything you put up for mobile users actually works. Add any new or changed links into the site's navigation only after you flesh out their content.

It's also useful to include a "mobile site map" somewhere on your site. Having one from Google helps your ranking in Google's mobile directory, and it also helps Google keep up to date as you change your website's pages. With the link in place, Google will often register page changes in a couple of days rather than a couple of months. Similarly, Yahoo has a "yahoo mobile submit" page where you can register your site and help them track your mobile pages more closely.

Designers, testing and going local

Work with a mobile site designer. A substantial number of designers believe they can design and develop for any device. You'll hear arguments that it's unnecessary to develop an additional site for handhelds, and that it's better to come up with one site that displays nicely on desktops, laptops and handhelds. Sad to say, designers' beliefs are not always accurate. The limited capabilities of handhelds should not restrict what you do on other platforms. That's why, in many cases, it's more fruitful to have one designer creating your standard websites and another working off that design to optimize different coding for handhelds.

Test extensively before launching

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that testing a site -- any site -- is very important. There are lots of testing services available, as mentioned on the next page. Point some of these tools at your mobile site and you'll quickly discover whether or not it meets all the applicable standards. It's also possible to use handheld emulators to make sure that pages load correctly on each of the devices you expect to be serving.

Plan to exploit localization

One of the most exciting aspects of the mobile web is its capability for localizing each user. Right now, Google Maps can pinpoint a user's location within about 2500 feet (the distance to the nearest cell tower), but GPS-enabled phones are far more accurate. Why not explore the best ways to leverage this technology? From a marketing perspective, localizing can be incredibly powerful because it allows you to compete for a person's business as they walk or drive down the street. The trick, of course, is to get people to opt in, so you have their permission to deliver localized offers to their phones.

Conclusions

As smartphones become more advanced, the need to optimize your websites specifically for mobile devices will become less and less critical. In the future, mobile users will be able to see the same websites as any other device. For now, however, failing to optimize for mobile users is a great way to hamstring your company's online efforts.

What's more, because cellphones often work when and where laptops do not (or are not available), the mobile web can provide an opportunity to offer content to customers and prospects when they are not willing or able to visit your standard website.

Fortunately, it's a lot easier to optimize for the mobile web than a lot of people believe it might be.

Years ago, advertisers were wondering if they should have a website. Now, of course, we all recognize that we need one. It's the same with mobile. Whether you build a new site or retrofit an old one to make it compatible, getting involved in the mobile web can benefit every advertiser. While many think the mobile web is a marketing tool for the future, others are discovering that it is here -- and viable -- right now.

Additional info

One simple and useful way to check the readiness of your website for mobile users is to submit it to the Ready.mobi testing tool. Free of charge, the site thoroughly evaluates any submitted site's mobile-readiness, based on industry standards and best practices. A free report on your site includes both a numerical score (from 1 to 5) and more detailed analysis of individual pages to help you gauge how well your site is likely to perform on most mobile devices. Recently, an upgraded version of this mobile website testing tool was launched, adding new mobile phone emulators, more reports with color-coded scores, and analysis of about three dozen website attributes.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20542.asp

Texting days are over... (really?)

Here is a post from the NY Times about how apparantley texting is old skool and anyone who is somebody is streaming live videocasts from their mobile phones rather than taking the time to punch out and SMS.

“People have moved on from texting,” said Carla Thompson, senior analyst at the Guidewire Group, a marketing research firm in San Francisco. “Just typing in what you are doing is no longer enough. That’s why the field of live video streaming is burgeoning.”

Personally, i'll have to sit back and wait till i win the prize draw at my local RSL before i can afford a mobile with the technology that permits live streaming - many starting from about $400 to $895.

Glamour.TV

Thanks to Adage for this post.

Glamour Rolls Out Web-Video Platform With Key Advertisers
Conde Nast Title Ventures Further Into Branded Content

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Three years after launching its groundbreaking "Reel Moments" short-film series, Glamour continues to branch out in the realm of branded entertainment.

Earlier this week, the Conde Nast fashion title introduced Glamour.TV, a new web-video platform aimed at expanding Glamour content into bite-sized video clips, customized to key advertisers.

Looks are everything
Dockers, for example, is the sponsor of "Moms Working It," a show that interviews celebrity mothers such as Jennie Garth, Solange Knowles and Nikki Taylor. Revlon is the presenting sponsor of "Beauty Wars," a makeover competition series, hosted by "Entourage" co-star Debi Mazar, in which makeup artists from around the world strive to create the consummate look for the American woman. There's also "The List," a fashion and entertainment news show, hosted by model Molly Sims and E!'s Giuliana Rancic, that is co-sponsored by Estee Lauder and Burberry.

Bill Wackermann, senior VP-publishing director of Glamour, said the model is reminiscent of the TV-sponsorship model of the 1950s. "It harkens back to when advertisers were in the business of promoting their own shows, promoting their brands and having more creative control of the process."

(To highlight the vintage ad model, Glamour this week literally trotted out the vintage by sending waiters to its top ad clients in New York with champagne and TV dinners prepared by Kurt Gutenbrunner, the Austrian chef of uber-trendy West Village bistro Wallse.)

Glamour.TV is the second video site of its kind to emerge from a Conde Nast fashion title in the past year, following last year's late-summer launch of ShopVogue.TV (now Vogue.TV). Both magazines have taken an aggressive stance on owning their own content online at a time when everyone from Elle to Marie Claire is partnering with TV networks for reality TV projects.

An image to maintain
"We've been approached on almost every one of those deals for a reality show. You pick the program -- magazine partners are always being asked to participate," Mr. Wackermann said. "But that becomes about their show and their brand vs. ours, and if you have a small brand you may benefit from being associated with that show. But Glamour reaches 12.8 million women; our brand is larger than the audience that watches those shows at any given time. For us, when we do something to extend our brand into different media, it has to be what is relevant to our consumer and our brand."

Glamour is also experiencing growth in year-over-year web traffic going into the launch of Glamour.TV, an encouraging sign that the site could find a sizeable audience early on. Since July 2007, Glamour.com's monthly traffic has increased 118% to 862,708 users, according to ComScore. Its Conde Nast sibling, Vogue.TV, also reached a viewership milestone earlier this week when "Model.Live," an original series co-distributed by social-networking site Bebo, passed the 1 million view, or video streams, mark after five episodes. In just two weeks "Model.Live" drew enough traffic to Vogue.TV to send its unique viewer stats past the 1 million mark as well, having accumulated 900,000 users since launching in August 2007.

Said Vogue Publisher Tom Florio of the site's economic model, "We want to make sure clients get the print, that we're not giving away the business like everyone else out there. [But if a client] moves 10% of their budget to the internet, we want to show them where the tonnage is coming from. ... You've got everyone in Hollywood trying to suck money out of this business, so we want to work together exclusively with advertisers online, or package together with pages."

Guest stars
Mr. Wackermann said Glamour.TV's first season will carry through October, when the latest installment of "Glamour Reel Moments" will also appear on Glamour.com. On tap for this year's short films are directors Demi Moore and Courteney Cox, featuring stars such as Rumer Willis (Ms. Moore's daughter), Anna Faris and Laura Dern.

Glamour is also actively in talks with the major video distributors to help syndicate Glamour.TV content online. Vogue.TV already has deals in place with Hulu, TiVo, Tidal TV, Veoh and JuiceCaster.

Click on this link for the original article: http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=130923

Something to keep in mind...

Cheers to IntoMobile for this post:http://www.intomobile.com/2008/09/10/touchscreens-getting-big-for-asian-market.html

Touchscreens getting big for Asian market

ABI Research’s latest report took a look at the growing popularity of touchscreen devices and what their future is looking like. Since 2006, shipments have nearly doubled, and forecasts are claiming a $5 billion market in 2009. As promising as that sounds, the increasing adoption differs widely according to geography. For example, Samsung and Motorola are rocking roughly a third of the touchscreen market each because they’ve effectively targeted Asia, which is ready to adopt something with easy character recognition. On the other side of the coin, BlackBerry’s had a rough time in Japan exactly because input is considerably trickier on a QWERTY device. The iPhone is obviously doing its fair share to improve the popularity of touchscreens and intuitive user interface is a big factor for shoppers, it’s still considered a niche compared to the big boys. I’m curious to see if the recently-scoped BlackBerry 9500 will suffer the same fate, or if it will have better luck with the mainstream…