I don't use it, and don't think I will very soon though I have endless debates with my friends trying to convince me to jump on the wagon. At the end of the day I just find it too time consuming for the value I would get updating or following other's updates.
That being said I find it incredible that Evan and his team get very valuable insights onto the directions they might take twitter onto - take link 1 or link 2 as some of the recent examples I came across. That's I guess one of the most powerful outcomes of an ever increasingly noisy blogosphere environment.
Articles in category Mobile
Kottke's take, in case you missed it.
In Poland that is -- MNI, which is a media group providing online content to ISPs, IP TVs and the like acquired a mobile gaming shop for 1.2 million euros. Apparently it is a vertical strategic move for creating a strong portfolio for a compelling value proposition in a future move towards becoming a mobile virtual operator.
Last fall I actually had the chance of looking very close to the MVNOs fundamentals - that's a very interesting opportunity, still virgin in Romania and that basically needs a god differentiator in the niche one is aiming at. It is a wholesale business whereas in a classical Porter way you position yourself somewhere between being the lowest cost provider or the highest value proposition provider -- it's basically a marketing business.
Hence segmentation is key - take some some nice examples from the Scandinavian market: Norwegian Chess sold a while ago to TeliaSonera, gaymobile or Kvinders (mobile operator targeting women only) from Denmark.
That's one industry I would bet my money on, as opposed to hmm, real estate for example, which is still hot in Romania and where everybody and their mother is an expert. :)
Last fall I actually had the chance of looking very close to the MVNOs fundamentals - that's a very interesting opportunity, still virgin in Romania and that basically needs a god differentiator in the niche one is aiming at. It is a wholesale business whereas in a classical Porter way you position yourself somewhere between being the lowest cost provider or the highest value proposition provider -- it's basically a marketing business.
Hence segmentation is key - take some some nice examples from the Scandinavian market: Norwegian Chess sold a while ago to TeliaSonera, gaymobile or Kvinders (mobile operator targeting women only) from Denmark.
That's one industry I would bet my money on, as opposed to hmm, real estate for example, which is still hot in Romania and where everybody and their mother is an expert. :)
It is likely that Norwegians set a new record, sending well over 4.5 billion SMS last year - or roughly 1,000 per person. [link]
Last Thursday Ev posted about Odeo's
side project - twttr - which basically
involves sending (mass) SMS-es to your friends with your status, etc. Ev
positions it as a mobile blogging tool probably because all the messages are
listed on the web in a public
timeline.
Some people argue that twttr's just a West Coast version of dodgeball (which is quite used here in NYC). Personally, I hardly can find much of a personal use of it or as viral as they claim to be it, but probably people into setting IM funny status (most likely kinders/teenagers) might use it. We'll see how it goes, the direction of the future product development is what matters most and most likely I am not in the target anyways, personally I think hellodeo has better odds to fly.
Digging around the story, I also ran into other cool mobile-centered apps:
- jaiku
- mocial
- freever (acquired by buongiorno last year in August)
Some people argue that twttr's just a West Coast version of dodgeball (which is quite used here in NYC). Personally, I hardly can find much of a personal use of it or as viral as they claim to be it, but probably people into setting IM funny status (most likely kinders/teenagers) might use it. We'll see how it goes, the direction of the future product development is what matters most and most likely I am not in the target anyways, personally I think hellodeo has better odds to fly.
Digging around the story, I also ran into other cool mobile-centered apps:
- jaiku
- mocial
- freever (acquired by buongiorno last year in August)
How
to do your own podcasts -- easier than I had thought actually, it works
like a charm. You only need two pieces of software (free) and a
mic.
Some took
Bill Gates' statement about the 20 dollar phone from Davos as
alternative to Negroponte's $100 laptop as just plain jealousy on Google's
involvement in the laptop development as well as on Linux being used as OS.
It seems
that there's a lot of movement in the $20 mobile phone space though.
It is called SMS Sugar Man -- link
I added a new category - mobile - given that lately I have been reading more
and more stuff about the impact of the mobile phone on users, society or
business. It is something new and that I am still down-down on the learning
curve, but I believe that this is one area where tremendous innovation will
emerge in the years to come.
The following quote is what triggered this category creation:
"76 percent of Japanese consumers use their phones for Web browsing, compared to just 12 percent in the U.S. market."
The reason is cultural-related, as expected, as allegedly in Japan a home-based PC is not a common thing.
The entire press release is worth reading. [ via]
The following quote is what triggered this category creation:
"76 percent of Japanese consumers use their phones for Web browsing, compared to just 12 percent in the U.S. market."
The reason is cultural-related, as expected, as allegedly in Japan a home-based PC is not a common thing.
The entire press release is worth reading. [ via]
