Comments on: Is Mobile a Medium?

By: brain waves

brain waves — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:50:11 +0000

Just the sort of data I’ve been looking for! I’m still somewhat new to binaural beats.

By: KentC

KentC — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:10:12 +0000

As I see it, Netbooks have two things that separate them back from being mobile devices. The first is form. They are two handed devices (keyboard) , which makes using them without a surface to place them on difficult. They are still just too big for most people to use them “on the go”. However, even were tabletized they’re still to big for most people to carry them around all the time, and especially to use while walking. Compare a smartphone or even an iPod touch, which fit in the palm of your hand and only takes on hand to operate (hell, you can hold and operate it in one hand). This makes them easier to use on the go, an thus more likely to be used in a ‘mobilely’ (aint that a fun sounding word) context, while a netbook is more likely to be used in a sit down context.

The second is that, due to the more standard (and efficient) interfacing a netbook will likely tend more towards more creation oriented applications (example blog posts, long comments, writing), while the input limitations on a mobile will result in less content creation, and more light/passive consumption (light being stuff like reading content and perhaps tweeting, and passive being stuff like watching movies and listening to music).

By: adam

adam — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:29:50 +0000

Kent

Great point about orientation–I love meeting people who get what mobility and marketing (and content distribution) are all about.

I agree with all of your points, but I am not 100% sold on your point about netbooks. I am starting to come around, as I cannot yet think of a good counter argument–I may have to admit I am wrong

By: KentC

KentC — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:12:32 +0000

You can think about mobile and the web as paper and text. The text may be a medium, or perhaps a ‘meta-medium’, but its the end technology that, when talking about the effects of a medium, we tend to focus on (for good or bad).

So to answer the three points:
1. The mobile web is going t obe the set of content created that orients itself towards mobile. These will not be sepperate from the world wide web, it will simply be content targeted differently. And there will likely be bleed over between the two. Think Twitter, a very ‘mobile’ tech, but which is used on desktops as well.

2. For many yes, but I am sure that talented marketers could do both just fine. While the two will likely be using the same network, and have a lot of bleed over, the technologies use is going to be focused differently, and marketers need to plan on targeting certain aspects of their web activities to mobile specific applications. For instance, a restaurant website will want to get its location into Google Maps and connect that to their websites menu.

3.No. Laptops are portable, not mobile. You sit down to use them, and the activities you do are less dependent on minimal info.

3.1. Netbooks are just ultraportable, not mobile. You dont walk down the street, pull our your netbook, go a google maps search for “roast beef”, and note that you have to go two blocks down and three over to find the nearest roast beef sandwich. Similarly you would not pull out your ultraportable to check a wine list while at a restaurant, while you might use your phone for that.