Tuesday, May 15, 2007
simmons
erstanding mobile devices is crucial to your journey into the heart of the mobile ecosystem. Most mobile phones are not dynamic systems like a computer, with the exception being Smart Phones and PDAs where the hardware is designed around the requirements of the platform.
Most subscribers cannot upgrade the operating system, messaging client or Web browser. Software is often customized to the device model’s specific limitations. In many cases, in order to make devices available to subscribers, hardware and software components must be further customized by the device manufacturer to suit the carrier. This creates a landscape that is wrought with... how should I say, “uniqueness.”
Mobile content companies not only need to own every device sold by a carrier, they must also maintain a tester-developer ratio of as much as 5-to-1 to test functionality on so many devices. This makes it difficult and costly for the little people to enter the market.
Ah, but there is a shining beacon to the device dilemma—standards.
Mobile Standards? They do exist!
When I talk to people that work mostly on the Web, I am always surprised to hear the misconception that there are no standards in mobile. Maybe it’s because we use “standards” to describe both technique and philosophy on the Web, however mobile standards do exist now, and in fact, always have.
One benefit of having a carrier-controlled ecosystem is that flash-in-the-pan technologies never make their way to devices. From the onset carriers and device manufacturers adopted a consistent and future-looking approach to the standards and practices of the mobile ecosystem. For example, take Flash, which exploded on the web in the late 90’s, has taken Macromedia engineers years to get Flash (and Shockwave promised before it) on to mobile devices. But unlike the desktop where you can simply release an application, Macromedia had to work with carriers and manufacturers for five years to get a mobile version of Flash , called Flash Lite, as a viable technology for mobile devices.
In fact for such a diverse ecosystem to exist it relies on basic standards for interoperability. Of course there are outliers that choose to propagate a different method of doing things, but it is not as diverse as one may be led to believe by standards groups peering into the mobile world.
With a modern phone in hand and a firm grasp of basic HTML and CSS, any Web designer/developer can create Web sites for the Mobile Web. It really can be that easy. As well, many traits of the Web beyond code can be applied to mobile, strategy such as information architecture and design and usability principles. Developers can apply standards to both the mobile Web and applications written for devices.
I won’t down play the challenges that device diversity creates, but you can meet the challenges as long as you take a flexible approach to the design and development of your mobile experience.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article helps to you understand and provide some background of mobile. There are a lot of topics that are still yet to be uncovered like mobile applications or mobile technologies like messaging and the Mobile Web. But the first step is understanding that mobile is about context, in order to get mobile you have to first understan
Understanding the Mobile Ecosystem
The mobile ecosystem is immense. It‘s analogous to “The Web”—very large with many moving parts and many different technologies working together. Though unlike the Web, it isn‘t a field where anyone can buy a few books, sink their teeth in and sort it out. Knowledge and information is closely guarded in the industry, making getting mobile a difficult task.
Most importantly, mobile is a controlled ecosystem, much like a drive-through wildlife preserve where animals roam free and you see them from the relative safety of your car. You may not be able to see the fence that keeps the animals caged, but it exists nonetheless.
The wireless network is the cage I refer to. Owned and operated by carriers (operators outside of North America), they’re trying desperately to prevent what happened on the Web to happen in mobile.
A Brief History
While it may seem that a mobile phone with a Web browser is some sort of modern marvel, the first WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) capable phones were introduced in the late 1990s. In fact, just as the dot-com bubble was deflating, mobile devices started to show signs of the Mobile Web to come.
Seeing websites focus on strictly inclusive experiences, overwhelming consumers with choices during the early dot-com era, the carriers wanted to ensure that their subscribers were protected for the onslaught that was to inevitably happen in mobile. Being such a limited device, they knew that consumers would leave for another carrier if they could not maintain the integrity of the their Mobile Web.
This yielded the “walled garden” of many mobile carrier services. This is the concept of creating an Eden for your phone - a mobile paradise where everything you need is readily accessible, on one condition—you cannot leave. Many carriers prohibit subscribers from accessing the Web by redirecting their quest for information to their own controlled experiences.
Why does this happen? Largely because carriers must increase ARPU, or Average Revenue Per User, by charging you for games, ring tones, videos and other mobile-only content. It is also partially due to the lack of mobile-ready content on the Web, and to the need to create a consistent customer experience.
Yet other carriers embrace the Web, by creating their own subscriber portals, known as “decks” to encourage subscribers to explore the Web instead. With little mobile-optimized content available, carriers charge subscribers by the kilobyte for loading bloated p
