Do I (really) need a new smartphone?

I bring this quetion up as I own an HTC Hero, it lets me do most of what I would like with a smartphone but do I really need to upgrade to a new handset? A question for myself ... but also the manufacturers and operators. Chances are, many people near the end of their contract may be asking the exact same question. Of course, you will always want to upgrade if your current phone has worn out or knackered ... however mine is pretty good condition and nothing has degraded ... yet, touch wood! Even the battery still gets me through a normal day. So, why would I want to upgrade, I mean do I really need to?

What do I get when I upgrade, or can I save money by not upgrading? Right now, handsets are getting better screens, better cameras and so on ... so perhaps I will upgrade soon to something a little more flashy. However, most of the interesting aspects seems to sit within the software, such as the browser and the apps. Perhaps I can upgrade the software and get most of what I need? But actually, thinking about it, I would like a better camera with a flash ... so perhaps yes, upgrade, stick with Android, stick with what I know and feel comfortable with. Will I need another one in 12-18 months time?

I assume (rightly/wrongly, please choose) this is a question all handsets manufacturers have been asking themselves these last couple of years. Rather than deliver every conceivable feature on their latest and greatest handset, they have to hold features back otherwise nobody will want or need to upgrade. But some manufacturers are more about shifting numbers of devices, they aren't really into the post sales side of things so do they really care as long as they hit their monthly targets? If the handset doesn't have all the latest wonderful features, is it ever likely to sell? Are reviewers going to damn it before it has even hit the shelf? Most handsets seem to have about 1 year shelf life these days, so whatever gets built needs to shift quick. With many manufacturers building Android handsets now, they have to be clever in differentiating their models so it has the 'must have' feature I can't do without.

I have a feeling that until something earth shattering and radical moves handset form factors beyond the current rectangular slab with a glass window on the front, the rate of change and upgrades are likely to slow down as software updates become more important to the user. We saw this happen in the desktop and laptop market. Might mean a slow down in smartphones sales at some point. So do operators really need to have 24 month contracts to recoup the costs of the handset? What incentives are there to keep your current handset ... this is the greener thing to do afterall!

Mobile Monday London, 5 years down the road

It is with some pride that MoMoLondon has made it to it's 5th birthday ... still in tact and still feels as relevant today as it did all those years ago. I cast my mind back a couple of years before MoMoLondon hit the scene. Along with Dan Appelquist, Paul Cooper and Stuart John we tried to start the perhaps badly named, ill fated and short lived Foneclub. But the idea was the same, get people to meet up, discuss mobile and network. The first 'event' took place in the boardroom of the old offices of Clarity Capital in Mayfair, must have been around 20 of us there, and Paul had chipped in to buy some beers to keep us in there for an hour or two. Even with that number there was a good industry cross section of attendees from operators, technology, funding, agency and so on. Regrettably, consequent meetings saw less people able to make the events ... and inevitably it faded away.

Two years later (the summer of 2005), I was sat with Dan in a restaurant in South Kensington, both of us suggesting we should start it up again (the mad fools). Dan then talked about something called Mobile Monday going on in Finland and in Silicon Valley and proposed we start up a chapter in London. Well in October 2005, the mailing list was created, and the membership flood gates opened. We didn't know what to do for our first event, I mean where do you start? Dan opened it up to the list proposing 'Bridging the mobile and physical worlds' ... and the theme stuck for the first event. It took place in the canteen at the old Vodafone offices on The Strand and there must have been 100+ people there that night (Monday night obviously). In the early days most of our events were in the canteen of an operator or web giant, typically with the sound of a fridge whirring in the background. Since the early days, we moved out of the canteens and into more comfortable and functional spaces, mostly at the CBI at Centre Point. We have run events most months now for over 5 years, and the ideas and offers of help and sponsorship still come, although the organisational side of things has evolved from the original line up.

So where are we now? The MoMoLondon karma is still all about the community, events and networking. The industry may have changed, grown, mutated even, but the community still needs this free to attend space to discuss and network as much as 5 years ago, perhaps more so. A couple of weeks ago I was sat in a board meeting with fellow organisers Dan Appelquist, Jo Rabin and Helen Keegan, discussing what the scene is like now, how we run ourselves effectively, who else are in our space and where we see ourselves in the coming year(s). You will hear more about this in the new year and you will be glad to hear that we continue to celebrate the spirit and values of MoMoLondon.

It is probably worth wrapping up this post with huge thanks to organisers past and present, namely Dan Appelquist, Jo Rabin, Helen Keegan, Stuart John and Paul Cooper. Also thanks must go to everyone that has been involved over the years, the speakers, the demoers, the sponsors, the volunteers and of course, everyone in the MoMoLondon community. Thanks one and all!

Anyway, Happy Birthday us :)

Time to Blog again

I am back, for now, and perhaps this is the time to start blogging again as soooo much has changed in the last couple of years. Since I last blogged, back in 2008 I now work for Nuance Communications as a Technical Program Manager. I have been working in the world of mobile applications now for about 2.5 years and my thoughts are moving towards the future of the mobile web, well maybe that is more my thoughts are moving back to the mobile web. I want to draw some focus of where the web is moving to and why mobile is more about you the user, more so than the device you happen to be using. Nothing ground breaking I know, but an important area in my line of work.

MoMoLondon site goes Alpha

December is here, the frost is starting to bite and MoMoLondon is back on the scene with our event on 'Mobile Social Networking - Platforms and People'. We are going to investigate the ins and outs of running mobile social platforms and take an alternative slant by talking with and about people that use it. All this and ... finally we have hit alpha with our new web site. Right now it is where the registration for the event is taking place, so create a profile play around on the site and register for the upcoming event ... alpha.mobilemonday.org.uk ... remember it is an alpha of the site so not everything works yet and there will be the odd issue or two ... but hopefully in the main it will help us get to where we have been wanting to be for well over a year now.

Amplified08 event

Lots happening on the London scene right now ... to demonstrate this on November 27th at NESTA there is going to be a new event called Amplified08 that aims to bring together people from many of the different industry specific networking clubs, such as Mobile Monday London. The plan is to get 200 people together and get them chatting. The art of networking is all about getting into conversations with people you wouldnt normally meet and naturally you end up learning new things, get ideas, build your network of contacts and in some cases create an opportunity. It is of course a big social experiment, but if you are active on the networking scene in London you will know that there is potential to fill this type of event out 10 times over. This will be a great excuse to get out of your industry silo and meet people from other trades and cultures. See you on the 27th November.

MoMoLondon - Nov 10th - We are 3 years old :)

Yes its that time of month again! However this event is rather special as it marks the 3rd Birthday of Mobile Monday London. Its been an emotional 3 years so far and we are working hard to make sure the so called 'credit crunch' doesnt affect us. Registration is now open and the main MoMoLondon event is immediately followed by a Swedish Beers gathering at Bar 101 (downstairs from the CBI at Centrepoint). So come along and celebrate all things mobile!

Battle of the brands

With the impending launch of the new Android phone with T-Mobile, most information I have read mentions little of T-Mobile ... sounds familiar? Well I wonder if we are starting to see the start of the end of the mobile networks branding up devices in the way they have. If you buy an iPhone, apart from a SIM from your network, there isnt much on there that makes you think anything other than its an Apple product. I wonder if the mobile market is about to go this way. The Google mobile platform is going to be about Google search, maps, mail, calendar and so on ... doubt there will be space for the operators services on there. If Nokia can get over the fact it has allowed operators to butcher their devices in the past, they may be able to control their own future a little more. So, should this be a reason why Microsoft and Yahoo! should combine to hold their own in this market? I think this is inevitable that consumers will go and buy the product rather than the network. It's a little like going out and buying a PC then deciding which ISP you want to use to connect to the internet. The only real restriction is that the operators are holding exclussive rights to the devices in certain markets, so choice is a little restricted ... well right now it is.

MoMoLondon back for Autumn

Monday saw another great MoMoLondon, back for the autumn and this time we put together a panel to discuss all things regarding mobile platforms. The theme was subtitled 'Too much choice or Hobson's choice' ... which is a good summary of how it feels right now in the top end phone market. Choice is always an interesting concept to dig into. In most things in life, where there is great choice, you find people tend to pick the most convenient and easy option. However this doesnt mean the best choice was made. This could be the case for mobile platforms. Companies like Apple own most of the loop from hardware, software, delivery and product shop. Therefore they pretty much own the experience. So to compete do you need to cover this whole experience. Only time will tell, but Nokia have tried in the past with their music store but with network operators having a big say over what gets delivered on the handsets is this really going to work. It seems the only way is for a big brand to force through change (for the better or worse) rather than wait for people to make the choice.

On Monday I didnt really get much chance to absorb everything that was said (as an organiser you have to make sure things run smoothly ... well smoothish). But a big take aways were the big difference in opinion when it came to which platform was preffered between mobile web and native applications, but also the opinions about why and how standards are going to help or hinder future innovation. Some of the audience remarked that, like the web brought about standards through the stuborness of some browsers to just conform to standards and not get swayed by others. It will be interesting to see if this works in the mobile world, change is slow and compatibility with legacy is going to be harder to cope with than in the desktop world.

Nuance acquire SNAPin Software

If you arent following me on Twitter the news is that Nuance have just acquired SNAPin software where I have been working now for only 2 months. Nuance are the big player in customer service and SNAPin until recently were competing head to head for what used to be a niche industry of mobile self service. However this is about to hit the big time with roll outs of the SNAPin platform with Vodafone. How this affects my good self, well of course only time will tell. But as always it is business as usual in the morning and lots of deadlines to hit :)

And so I am starting to get back into developing the final areas of the Mobile Monday London website and I thought I should see how it looks on an iPhone. Looks mostly ok, just a few minor rendering issues but other than that it works very well on the device. We are looking for a company to host our website setup (Tomcat + MySQL most likely), if you would like to host our site and get a logo on it with links back into your own site let me know and we can start going through how we intend to launch the new site.

MoMoLondon packs em in for July

Hi folks, I would have posted this earlier in the week, however it has taken me a while to get some time to really reflect on Monday's MoMoLondon event. We themed around 'Enabling location in applications' to cover areas such as actually what is around for you to build location into, how to share it and how to access some of those capabilities from your handset. A really great thing about the event was it was packed, not a spare seat and the whole thing ran along smoothly and on time ... gosh! We also had some of our global MoMo colleagues in from Spain, Germany, Italy, Finland, USA, Estonia and more, great to see everyone over a glass of wine afterwards. We also welcome Helen Keegan (aka technokitten) officially to our organisers, who no doubt most mobile folks will know already, and she has helped us out on numerous meetings in the past.

Huge thanks must go out to Ted and Kate from Skyhook Wireless for hosting the event and putting on the party at Bar 100 afterwards, much appreciated by all the MoMo community. Also thanks to our other speakers and demoers Ben Ward (Yahoo! Fire Eagle), Charles Wiles (Google Gears), Andrew Scott (Rummble), Justin Davis (Buddy Ping), Mark White (Locatrix) and Matt Womer (W3C). Not only did they keep the momentum going but made a really good Q&A panel at the end of the event ... cheers folks!

Taking a bit of a look around the web, we have found quite a few blogs post Monday's event, so here is a quick round up from other people that attended ...

• David Wood
• Ben Matthews
• MJelly
• Inma Martinez
• Simon Judge

And so MoMoLondon takes a breather for the summer. We are still interested if anyone would like to sponsor drinks at a bar for a networking event ... email me alex@mobilemonday.org.uk if you are interested. We will be back in September where we hope to have some interesting announcements regarding our website, and hopefully a full autumn and winter events diary. Keep your eyes on our Yahoo! Group for more information.

(Pictures taken from Dan Appelquist and Mike Butchers from Flickr ... nice shoots guys!)

MoMoLondon July is all about location

MoMoLondon is back for July on the 14th (important that bit remember!), sponsored by SkyHook Wireless with a great lineup from Skyhook, Yahoo, Google, Rummble, Locatrix and W3C. All set to be a great event, and there will be a number of our friends from the global MoMo community in town. Keep your eye out on friday for the registration opening.

Its all happening since my last post

Well I havent posted to my blog for a little while now so I thought I would do a quick update on whats been happening. I have pretty much finished the MoMoLondon website and am now readying it for deployment to a host (more on that when it happens). I have also got back into the real world and taken a Technical Program Manager job at a company called SNAPin (a US based company with offices in London). Its a great role interacting with most areas of the company and I will need to get my head around all things mobile from the operating system, network operators through to the user experience (phew!). Also in a couple of weeks the next Mobile Monday London (14th of July) themed around Location, with an alternative slant on it, more about that later as well.

MoMoLondon - June 2nd - Wassup in mobile media and marketing?

The next MoMoLondon event is to be held next Monday (June 2nd) and will be an open panel discussion regarding the future of the mobile industry in the media and marketing industries. This should be a great insight into opinions from the panelists from the BBC, Financial Times and Fjord ... the panel will be hosted by a good friend of MoMoLondon Helen Keegan. Look forward to seeing everyone there, registration is now open, take yourselves to http://www.rss.org.uk if you are already registered with our yahoo group, otherwise register here first.

MoMoLondon May 2008

MoMoLondon May 2008
Originally uploaded by Alex Craxton

Last night saw the MoMoLondon community come together at the Thomson Reuters building at Canary Warf to discuss 'Monetisation through Advertising' with a great panel of Russell Buckley, Ray Anderson, Shan Henderson and Claire Valoti. Thanks to everyone that came along and had a chat with over a glass of wine afterwards. See you on June 2nd for 'Future of mobile applications'.

My wakinet.org site

I have spent a day playing around with my wakinet.org site. If you take a look, let me know your thoughts as it is early days yet and I intend to reflect some of the stuff I get up to there along with posts to my blog here and more trivial day to day stuff on twitter.

May MoMoLondon registration open

Registration is now open for the May 12th MoMoLondon event, the theme this time around is Monetisation through Advertising and is kindly being hosted by Thomson Reuters down in the Canary Warf end of London. Should be a good lineup this month with hopefully a good panel discussion to wrap things off. If you are in town and would like to come along, make sure you are a member of our Yahoo! group first and follow the instructions on the post to the group for registration.

Ever spotted a happy person with mobile email?

No? Neither have I. You see loads of people in London with Blackberry and Nokia email phone, but typically you see them reading something followed by a long sigh. I think this comes down to email typically being a more involved interaction where more information is usualy exchanged than most people want to deal with on the move. Also many people really misuse email communication as a whole, as though sending an email to somebody means they now have to jump your commands. Reading through an email conversation on a mobile is not an enjoyable experience. If you have ever received many emails from people with a Blackberry you tend to get a short response, so should you really be sending shorter messages to people with a Blackberry? It feels like we need something between the length of a traditional SMS and the never ending email conversations. Perhaps when people are more online with their mobile conversational applications such as twitter and jaiku will find a role within a business environment. I also believe if you really want somebody to do something for you, there are better mediums than email, perhaps an email just to point them to a task list or application might be as far as I would go. As you might have guessed, I am not a fan of email, I dont often have great experiences with email. You either get a conversation that would be better done over IM or in person or you get one liners that could work better as a text message.

Microsoft misses the point with mobile (again)

If you have been on the tube in London recently you will probably ... no ... you will not have been able to miss the adverts for Windows mobile everywhere and anywhere. I cant believe Microsoft have gone and done it again, selling their platform as an extension of the office. Missing the idea of it being a personal device. Dont they get where mobile has been and where it is going? I think somehow they want a piece of the Blackberry 'people' market. Remember the apple advert sneering at microsoft ... just feels they didnt get the jibe Apple were getting at ...



So here is an interesting challenge, go to google and type 'microsoft mobile' or 'windows mobile' and see what you get. First link ... tells me a lot about where they are targetting their mobile products right now.

And so the final stages into Alpha

As blogged before, the website for Mobile Monday London is nearing the stage where it will go into a closed Alpha. We are going to attack it from a user experience angle so that we can be sure that it will serve our community now and into the future. It will hopefully be released into a public Beta for our community before the summer gets going (to hold me to that) and we are now putting together a roadmap of features it has now and some milestones over the next year, looks to be an exciting future for it.