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Internet services on mobile devices - a great opportunity to focus on what people really want to get done!
Today both business users and consumers have access to an abundance of application power at their desktops. Most people actually do not need all the bewildering choices and options offered by their applications. On the contrary the abundance of features often gets in their way when they simply want to get their work done.
The typical desktop application portfolio, once rather basic but now cluttered with features, has improved incrementally by each new release. At the outset, when an application is not yet good enough at satisfying user needs, the SW release cycle is a good thing. Over time however each new increment tends to offer less and less user value while simultaneously making the applications more complex and harder to use. The SW industry rests firmly on the "more must be better" mantra.
At some point the application vendors start to shoot over what most users need and are able to pick up. The feature development race then turns into a pure technology differentiation battle between competing vendors and a vehicle to drive upgrade sales from uncritical users.
Moving in the other direction, reducing rather than adding complexity (in order to help users get their job more effectively) is a rare strategy practised by few. Once all the vendors shoot way over what most users need and charge hefty prices for their over featured products something interesting tends to happen however. One or several of the vendors with the weakest market presence gives up the feature race they cannot win and decides to focus on the low end of the market instead by offering a "good enough" solution for much less or even as freeware. Creative and daring market moves often come from companies that have nothing to defend and therefore nothing to lose. The losers and the new kids on the block are usually the only ones who are prepared to take the risk of breaking the existing industry business logic.
This is exactly what is about to happen now as web-based applications and services start to gain on desktop based solutions. They will typically be more focused, easier to maintain and upgrade, accessible from anywhere and, of course, considerably cheaper since the margins will not be made from SW licensing. These web solutions will gain ground in the low end of the market and then start climbing upwards, adding the key features that volume users still lack until they are good enough for the mainstream market.
In practise most users are indeed willing to do trade-offs and give up functionality they rarely or never use if they get something valuable in return like flexibility, ease of use or a more attractive price tag. There are plenty of reference cases proving that focus, flexibility and ease of use often wins over feature richness and top notch performance. The majority of users will settle for good enough, flexibility and convenience.
It did not take long before business users started to se their mobile as their prime phone although it had lower speech quality and fewer PBX-like services than their desktop extension.
MP3 and other compact digital music formats are about to dethrone the CD thanks to much greater convenience, portability and flexibility, much to the frustration to the high end market, the HiFi-enthusiasts who complain loudly about inferior sound quality.
Studies by Nokia show that surprisingly many people with access to mobile TV watch it in their home since mobile TV allows them to decide for themselves where to watch and what to watch.
So expect web based applications and services to become an increasingly important part of your life. You may even start getting used to the idea of saying bye bye to your bloated Office package.
The Internet is exploding with all sorts of more or less practical or amusing services to help us manage our lives. Like in nature the application categories divides into more and more specialised niches. Some of the internet services are have mobile versions. Now things really start to get interesting.
As applications move from the desktop up into the almighty internet cloud and broadband access become more powerful, allowing more powerful internet applications, the same feature race history is likely to repeat itself. Feature based differentiation will result in unnecessarily complex web services just as it resulted in bloated desktop SW packages.
There are people in the industry who claim that already today some smart phones users continue to use the mobile site also at the desktop. Allegedly they prefer the less cluttered mobile user interface since it helps them getting the job done as painlessly as possible. If this is indicative the future for mobile services may be greater than expected.
There are plenty of the new internet services help people solve practical situations. Life does not limit itself to the desktop environment however.
- When does the next train depart?
- Where is Park Avenue 8 and how do I get there before 15.00?
- Where can I find the cheapest Godfather 3 DVD?
- Have I received that important e-mail yet?
- Where is there an open Pharmacy?
- Do we have that spare part in stock?
Situations when you can be assisted by internet services happen ad hoc randomly where you happen to find yourself at any given moment, not where your desktop computer is. Why shouldn't people have access to these great services anywhere from their mobile devices? And, if they get used to using their personal mobile devices to access web services conveniently when away from the home or office, why shouldn't they use them also in the office and at home.
The smaller mobile device form factor offers a great opportunity to focus on the core services that are really important to people and that they need to access often from wherever they happen to be.
In a conservative scenario we can expect mobilized internet applications and services to complement the desktop by letting people access core tools anywhere. But, we may also find that the combination of the more personal mobile device and highly focused internet services and user interfaces that get to the core of what people want to do can disrupt the more powerful desktop computer as primary entry point to the connected world. That would imply that the desktop terminal becomes a complement to the mobile devices for less frequent and more demanding jobs to be done.
Think outside in. Focus on the very core of what's important to the users. Find out what most users want to accomplish most of the time and focus on delivering that in the most simple and convenient way. Chances are that a mobile service can do the job better most of the time.
Anders Ångström
Partner
A-focus AB
Anders Ångström
www.a-focus.se
A-focus provides knowledge and senior consultancy services to leading companies and up-and-coming challengers in the highly competitive Swedish telecom arena.
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