Challenges for Emerging Mobile Technology

My general guideline (when I was able to see such info directly) was that about 20% of users were using devices more than two years old. A surprising number use five year old devices. There are (unless explicitly kicked off the system due to technical incompatibilities) users of ten year old mobiles still hanging around.

This was always just a regular part of the segmentation; after 6 months so many people will have new devices, after 18 months, you can start to expect saturation as long as a majority of devices sold have the feature, so plan your marketing and advertising budgets for the long haul.

But this BBC article on Challenges to a 'cashless' world brings up a good point. The lifecycle we have gotten used to for the last decade or so has stalled. Drops in sales are not just mobile manufacturers doing badly, but consumers not buying things. Aside from straight revenue losses, they are not getting the new, exciting stuff into the field.

Although so far everyone is still plenty excited about just getting their websites onto phones and still ranting about touch, what happens when someone tries to implement, say nfc to support a mobile banking initiative? Or what happens to all those wimax towers?

I actually have no idea. I think I've reached the end of my ability to understand macroeconomics and business strategy. But maybe I can persuade Barbara to comment on it.

You’re right, Steve! i work in a company that’s been in mobile advertising market for 10 years! That’s a lot of time, especially when we think the technology is so young and most of people are not familiarized with that.

We surely have some steps to reach the top. In spite of the crises, we’re walking. After all, crisis is also opportunity.

Regards!

I am still talking to all sorts of folks who are still (slowly) pursuing all sorts of exciting mobile electronic initiatives. Besides being exciting, these systems offers opportunities for efficiency, sales or marketing that cannot be left on the table.

So I am hoping that, while there’s a slowdown in some areas, product development and technology rollouts will continue, and the whole sector will be ready for a big jump when everything gets better.

Interesting Article.

I know a person still using a qcp-2700. That’s, what, 8 years old? Or older? I figure that when he gets a new technology it means that instead of “crossing the chasm”, it’s finally “jumped the shark”

There has always been a delay between getting a new technology to market and getting it well-adopted. For many mobile technologies, with their social or communicative nature, you have to get to a useful saturation point before the new technology is really useful to anyone.

My general guideline (when I was able to see such info directly) was that about 20% of users were using devices more than two years old. A surprising number use five year old devices. There are (unless explicitly kicked off the system due to technical incompatibilities) users of ten year old mobiles still hanging around.
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