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Rudy just published the list of people who are going to attend the Mobile Sunday Barcelona gathering "an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums - has already over 100 people subscribed to the wiki!"
I plan to attend, hope to see you there! :)
Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with the Symbian Guru, who is also a dear friend of mine, a.k.a. Ricky Cadden.
The topics ranged from creating and sharing media to how exactly our mobiles fit into our lives, and how they might help us connect better locally. Our conversation is now available as a podcast so go over to Ricky's to listen to it.
Hi friends,
I am attending the Mobile World Congress Barcelona (February 11-14 2008) with Flixwagon.See you in Barcelona! :)
Xen
Welcome to the 106th edition of carnival of the mobilists!
Sit comfortably and get ready for a blast of the best mobile writing of the week :)
Let's start with my pick for the best post of the week:
Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens asks us will P2P IMS applications take off or will there be only Web applications? Very interesting food for thought and some questions for you at the end of the post.
The M Generation
Starting up a new year, two bloggers focused on the M generation; Paul Ruppert from Mobile Point View analyzes today's teens who "socialize from the confines of their bedrooms".
James Whatley from SMS Text News invites us to think about the children of tomorrow; they will probably ask: “Hey Ma, why didn’t you keep a blog?”
Howard Rheingold of SmartMobs reccomends on a forthcoming book by Rich Ling called "New Tech, New Ties", and is "the best book so far about the social effects of the mobile phone, in the context of sociology and social capital theory (and is very well written, as well)".
Mobile Web
Jim Durbin from Situational Marketing shares his thoughts about the mobile web and asks if it is a thing of the past.
Andrew Grill asks will the 3G mobile broadband “dongle” kill the WiFi hotspot market?
And on the same subject, Dean Bubley from Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless lists what needs to happen in order that 3G-embedded PCs might become popular.
Mobile Apps and Handsets
Dennis from the Wap Review took Yahoo! Go 3.0 and the revamped Yahoo mobile portal, both of which are completely widget based, for a test drive.
Raddedas from Techype has his own rants about Yahoo! Go 3.0.
Tarek Abu-Esber reviews the best phones of 2007… and his winner is….?
Vero Pepperrell from Taptology brings 8 recommendations of 8 great ways to show your mobile phone some love in 2008 .
Well, that concludes this edition. But, bofore you leave, an announcement from Rudy:
Rudy will announce during next week another MobileMonday Peer Awards that we'll be hosting during the Mobile World Congress at Espacio Movistar on February 11 and he's organizing a Mobile Jam Session together with Caroline Lewko (from Wireless Industry Partnership), a day barcamp/workshop for mobile developers on Tuesday 12, all websites to be launched during next week. Also you're invited to the MobileSunday Barcelona. Stay tuned @ mTrends.
Have a great week and hope to catch up next week at Mobhappy :)
Chris Albrecht from NewTeeVee reviewed a new start up called Big Think. According to Chris,
"Big Think wants to become the YouTube for ideas. The site has experts like professor Steven Pinker, author Deepak Chopra, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer answering big questions on topics like identity, politics and media. The video answers to these questions are supposed to kick-start discussions with people like you and me who can post responses or comments."
"In a world in which everyone’s a pundit, it’s nice to see someone recognizing the value of experts, but I just can’t see Big Think taking off. It’s just…so…heavy. Questions like “How are language and identity connected?” or “Has capitalism run mmok?” require too much brainpower when I’m multi-tasking with my computer, and the answers are snippets, so the topic can’t be more fully explored. While I haven’t watched all the videos, the only “fun” on Big Think I came across was “Writing for the Harvard Lampoon,” and “What is the most lavish party you have been to?” It’s like I’m reading cartoons from The New Yorker — clever, but fun in a way that’s elitist. Ultimately the whole thing feels like a big Ivy League club that I’m not welcome in."
Putting the writers' negative impressions aside, Big Think have a very smart segmentation, aiming to the higher-end of the population and not necessarily to the masses. When evaluating start ups or new websites, one must differentiate between the relevance for him\her and the relevance for the target segment. Although Big Think might make some people feel as if they are in a big Ivy League club to which they are not welcomed, many others might feel at home. This is exactly what segmentation is all about – specifically tailoring products and services for designated populations. Of course people who do not belong to the relevant segment might feel left out. Otherwise it wouldn't be segmentation at all. This is precisely the reason why adults might feel left out when their children play with Barbies, or action figures. Or why career driven businessmen might feel out of place in a cooking course. Good segmentation. That's why.
The segment of choice for Big think, the higher-end, is a segment that spends hours online and is always on the search for quality resources and quality content; i.e. the high-end segment is also part of the addressable market for video content. While this segment might have been consuming "light" content, it is well-equipped to enjoy more complex messages and will probably appreciate "heavy" content.
Some examples of successful segmentations have already made their way into marketing textbooks (such as manufacturing different car models to address different segments). Video content as a market has already reached the masses (YouTube, MetaCafe etc'), therefore segmentation is the natural next step. Lately we started to see some players addressing specific segments, like 5min and now BigThink. So, if you feel left out, don't worry – some player will target your segment soon enough.
This post was originally posted on The Flixwagon Blog.
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