I missed this from Debi earlier in the month. I totally agree with what she says. Actually, she and I have had some great discussions around this topic of mobile myopia among the Internet leaders.
Yes, Debi, there is a need for mobile-savvy folks to start permeating all these Internet companies. In any case, it's a business opportunity for mobile folks to leave traditional telecom companies and get involved with companies in different areas.
Link: The Supernova Mobile Apps Panel - Wasn't | 8/8/2005 | mobile jones.
The only person on the panel to reference mobile audiences and the mobile life style was AJ Kim. This is an ongoing problem that is perceived in the view of Silicon Valley companies and not incorporating a mobile perspective in their product planning, and initially even in their language. This panel demonstrates the absence of comfort and ultimately understanding that these seminal user created content and social communication tools vendors have for mobile prosumers and their needs.
In the spirit of openness, I'll give away my list of potential targets.
Companies who could use an infusion of mobility
- Six Apart - TypePad
- Yahoo! - Flickr, Search, Yahoo!mail
- Google - GMail, Search, Dodgeball
- Apple - iTunes, iPhoto, .mac
- AskJeeves - Bloglines
- 37signals - Basecamp, Backpack
- Kodak
- smaller companies - del.icio.us
And since this is a community, I have a list of people I know who get mobile and whom I'd call on to execute stuff with the companies listed above. I'll keep that list to myself - to protect the innocent.
At the risk of sounding like a moron trying to be a devil's advocate: what really is the difference between a cell phone and a laptop with an always-connected WiFi?
I mean - if it's just the fact that mobile phones are more resource-constrained, then yeah, mobile phones are just browsers with crappy connectivity.
Everybody keeps saying how mobility is different - but how exactly is it different? And from what?
Posted by: Janne | 31 August 2005 at 09:02
Charlie, I'd love your list of mobile-aware-ready-visionary companies as well !
Posted by: Rodrigo A. SEPÚLVEDA SCHULZ | 01 September 2005 at 16:30