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Posted: 07/28/10 by Mobile Future Team
The Walt Disney Corporation has come a long way since audiences first saw Steamboat Willie in command of his river-boat vessel. These days the company behind heartwarming, animated classics is forging ahead into the mobile revolution. Piggy-backing off success of the latest release in the Toy Story franchise, the Toy Story 3 application was downloaded 1.7 million times in its first month (box-office projections foresee over $900 million in revenue for Toy Story 3, the film).
In addition to creating its own content, Disney has also moved into the mobile acquisition market with its recent purchase of Tapulous, the developing engine behind the successful iPhone series Tap Tap Revenge. With almost $1 million in monthly sales, it’s easy to understand why 30% of iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded the musical game since its release in 2008.
With new content being developed for the iPad, it is clear that Disney intends to stay relevant as technological advances bring more media into the mobile space. The mobile future looks bright for Disney and its future generations of captivated audiences.
Posted: 07/27/10 by Mobile Future Team
Birthdays and anniversaries are inherently times of reflection and celebration. Which is most likely why Mashable, a news site celebrating its 5th birthday this year, decided to take a quick jaunt down memory lane to show us just how far mobile technology has come over the last half-decade.
Suffice it to say that if the majority of human relationships were as successful as that of consumers and the wireless industry, the markets for chick-flicks and online dating may cease to exist-- because this romance is nothing short of a fairy tale.
The expansive and swift proliferation of mobile broadband. The shift from feature-based flip phones to smart mobile devices operated over user-friendly interfaces like the touchscreen. The real-time social capabilities offered through new media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The emergence of apps for, well, just about everything.
And thankfully, there is no end in sight for this climate of consumer-driven innovation. We appreciate Mashable for highlighting how wireless continues to serve as a true American success story, and, as always, we look forward to exploring new unchartered horizons in our mobile future.
Posted: 07/26/10 by Jonathan Spalter
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 — landmark legislation that ensures equal opportunity and accessibility for the 54 million, or one out of five, Americans living with some form of a disability. We have seen terrific progress over the past twenty years and there is still much work to be done.
One bright spot where new tools are being developed to help increase opportunity and independence for those with disabilities is in wireless. With technology leaping forward at warp speed, mobile innovators are developing new products, services and applications to both anticipate and meet evolving consumer demands and particularly the needs of those with disabilities.
For example, a smartphone uses voice activation on a mapping application to guide a visually impaired person walking down the street. Mobile screen readers narrate everything from the day's newspaper stories to email messages. And new mobile tools help distinguish between $5 and $10 dollar bills and cans of peas or corn on the pantry shelf.
Mobile Future's recently released white paper titled, "Mobile Ability: The Transformational Impact of Wireless Innovation for People with Disabilities" takes a closer look at how wireless technology can improve the quality of life and enhance inclusiveness for individuals with disabilities. The report explores how important the intersection of mobile innovation and broadband technology is for people with disabilities in the areas of employment, health care, education and emergency response.
Mobile technology has revolutionized communications worldwide, and in doing so, has reshaped the way society functions as a whole. Robust investment in wireless has allowed innovators to dream big and invent affordable and accessible technologies that provide consumers with advancements and opportunities never dreamed possible.
The ADA was a beacon of hope for millions of Americans and led to countless opportunities. But while we celebrate this monumental legislation this week, we must not forget that there is still more policymakers can do.
To help spur even more potential mobile solutions for those with disabilities, we must free up more spectrum to accommodate the looming mobile data crunch. We also need to remove barriers to technology like high taxes and fees on communications services. We must continue to encourage the strong collaboration between innovators and the disability community on mobile technologies. And, finally, policymakers must support efforts to modernize local 911 infrastructures.
As the FCC and Congress move forward to implement the National Broadband Plan, policymakers must strive to keep the goals of the ADA in mind and continue to uphold the wise regulatory policies that fuel innovation, competition and a consumer-driven mobile future for all.
This article was originally published on Huffington Post.
Posted: 07/23/10 by Jonathan Spalter
Lost your home to flooding, a tornado or other disaster? If you have a smartphone and a wireless connection, help just got a lot easier.
This week, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) unveiled an addition to its mobile site allowing disaster victims to apply for assistance directly from their smartphone. FEMA's rationale is clear: In a life-threatening emergency, seconds count. Residents are more likely to have a mobile phone on their person, or may have just enough time to grab one before heading to safety.
"More and more, I think we are reorienting our focus... to really developing tools that are useful to you in a mobile environment," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate told Politico's Morning Tech.
(You can watch him run a demo of the new mobile site on multiple PDAs here.)
Fugate added that FEMA is exploring additional ways to deliver services via mobile and GPS technology. The agency already processes an average of about 40 percent of disaster applications online; this seems like a common-sense way to further streamline FEMA's operations.
Furthermore, FEMA's announcement is a timely reminder of the lifesaving capabilities of mobile communications. Five years ago next month, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana. The government's disjointed response in assisting the maintenance and repair of mobile communication links contributed significantly to the extended chaos.
Three years later, look at the improvement: During Hurricane Gustav, wireless technology provided real-time communication links vital to the rescue efforts. Among the examples, Tulane University kept more than 10,000 students aware of storm developments through Twitter. Mobile users accessed Gustav-related pages on social network sites such as Ning for real-time news alerts, on-site posts, and videos.
Looking to the future, mobile platforms are already linking voice, video, IM, and other data for first responders at federal, state and local levels. Just think how first responders could use mobile phones and GPS to organize a large-scale rescue operation with a location-based networking application (example: BrightKite), which would allow authorities to divide a region into smaller areas, directing volunteers in each one as necessary.
This would be particularly helpful in the aftermath of a serious earthquake. As reported last week in The Orange County Register, a new early-alert system in the O.C. could give residents up to 70 seconds warning of a major San Andreas earthquake. Through the use of mobile apps, that would be enough time to slow high-speed trains, shut down power plant generators and take other precautionary steps.
The augmented incorporation of mobile technologies into government-led relief efforts is already saving lives and resources. In the five years since the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, wireless has grown up as an industry, with the government recognizing the powerful organizational capabilities immediate access to mobile technology affords Americans stuck in disaster areas. FEMA's recent addition to its mobile site is one of many demonstrations that the government takes seriously the positive ramifications of amplifying its use of mobile devices, which are now inextricably linked with the day-to-day lives of Americans.
This article was orginially published on Huffington Post.
Posted: 07/23/10 by Mobile Future Team
If you're in the area, Mobile Future highly encourages you to stop by Apps 4 Access, an event hosted by Disability Power & Pride in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Apps 4 Access will showcase a variety of disability applications, and Mobile Future will be in attendance with two booths featuring a mobile demonstration at each. The event is from 9:30AM-11:30AM in the Capitol Visitor Center's Congressional Meeting Room South. Hope to see you there!
Posted: 07/22/10 by Mobile Future Team
Last winter's Vancouver Olympics had some great moments: Lindsay Vonn and Bode Miller picking up golds. Joannie Rochette's final. Ovechkin's hit on Jagr.
And according to a briefing this week from NBC, millions of you were watching this on the tiny screen.
Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development of NBC Universal, told a conference on the mobile Internet that mobile viewership of the Olympics surged between the 2008 Beijing Games and Vancouver. During the Beijing summer games, NBC reported that 15 percent of viewers watched events through their mobile devices.
Just 18 months later in Vancouver, that number almost doubled to 27 percent. About 1.2 million mobile users used a Winter Olympics mobile app, also a large increase from 2008.
NBC's figures are in keeping with other evidence of the boom in mobile web usage. Nielsen estimates cited by Wurtzel peg the growth of mobile web users during the same period at nearly 50 percent (49 million users to 72 million).
So the mobile revolution accelerates. And to think: The London Olympics begin on July 27, 2012, or almost exactly two years from today.
Posted: 07/20/10
No, we’re not condoning a high-speed chase, we’re talking Twitter. Ford Motor Company would like you to meet AJ, a 2011 Ford Fiesta that can tweet on its own. Ford already announced its plan to run smartphone apps on its Sync-based cars by the end of this year and claims the technology behind AJ is a logical extension of its commitment to incorporate wireless in a greater capacity in its vehicles.
This past May, a team from Ford drove AJ from Ann Arbor, Michigan all the way to California, with the car tweeting independently throughout the trip. The messages included real-time traffic updates and weather information gathered through an app deemed the “Auto”matic Blog, which “tap[s] into all the available data on the car, including telemetry information, like location, speed, acceleration and braking,” and, “glean[s] information from the windshield wipers, steering input, GPS data and correlate[s] it with live information culled from the Web,” according to the New York Times.
For more on AJ, as well as some information surrounding how Ford will integrate smartphone apps into its vehicles in the near future, check out the full NYT article here.
Posted: 07/14/10 by Mobile Future Team
The wireless industry reached an impressive benchmark last Thursday, with the number of wireless service subscriptions surpassing 5 billion globally. After taking into account individuals with multiple subscriptions, the number, which is up from 720 million in 2000, suggests just under 5 billion of the world’s 6.9 billion people are connected wirelessly. Furthermore, Ericcson, the company who first released the estimates, predicts at the current rate of 2 million additional subscriptions per day, we will see 50 billion connected devices by 2020. The popular and expeditious transition to the mobile Internet shows the demand for wireless devices is here to stay, with consumers realizing more than ever the benefits of mobile connectivity.
To read more about Ericcson's findings, click here.
Posted: 07/12/10 by Mobile Future Team
Better late than never to the app game, the feds have relaunched usa.gov, complete with a suite of free mobile applications from federal agencies that run the gamut and seek to close the technology gap between the private sector and the federal government. With so much information to wade through at the federal level, many citizens often find themselves unsure of where to go to for vital information (tax deadlines, etc). White House officials are hoping that this new app suite will put more information in the hands of all Americans and further contribute to the administration’s goal of increased transparency.
Planning a summer trip? Check the latest safety guidelines with the TSA app. Head in the clouds? Go on a space odyssey with NASA’s application. All eighteen apps are free and available now to help you get engaged!
Posted: 07/09/10 by Jonathan Spalter
Consumer confidence remains low in today’s tough economy, but the Pew Internet and American Life Project’s new Mobile Access in 2010 report illustrates a contrarian streak among U.S. consumers when it comes to the mobile marketplace. Across ages and demographics, Americans are showing a remarkable bullishness when it comes to the value and innovation they see in their wireless purchases. In fact, usage of connected devices and applications continues to grow at an unabated and staggering pace.
Over the past year, the number of Americans connecting wirelessly to the Internet is up 8 percentage points, with six out of 10 Americans now using their smartphone or laptop to access the Internet. In fact, more Americans now use their mobile device to connect to the Internet (38%) than play a game on their device (34%). And, it’s not just young millennials gravitating to the nexus of wireless and the Internet. Their parents—folks in the 30 to 49 year old age bracket—are now leading the growth.
African Americans and Latinos also continue to lead in mobile connectivity. Two-thirds of both communities are wireless Internet users. And, African Americans and Latinos continue to outpace whites when it comes to cell phone ownership (87% versus 80%).
These insights illuminate the wireless debate at a pivotal moment, coming on the heels of President Obama’s Executive Order announcing his Administration’s intention to increase the amount of spectrum available to meet consumers’ fast-growing mobile needs. Pew’s methodical documentation of a steep adoption and usage growth trajectory—cutting broadly across the U.S. population—powerfully illustrates the profound importance of these spectrum allocation efforts and the equally essential need to safeguard policies that encourage the billions of dollars in investment needed to get this spectrum into use across the country. This process can take six to 10 years to complete, from the announcement of auctions to the deployment of actual networks, so we need to get started now.
Unfortunately as temperatures rise in Washington (both literally and metaphorically), it seems no debate is safe from the partisan pull of election-year politics. Even U.S. wireless policy, which has enjoyed bipartisan support for a light-tough regulatory framework through both Republican and Democratic administrations, is getting dragged into the pro-regulation and heated rhetorical fray.
It’s hard to justify given the frenetic pace of competition across the mobile landscape. Verizon and Google recently have gone public with their ambitions to challenge the AT&T/Apple iPad alliance. HP, Dell and others also are in hot pursuit. Cox is becoming the first U.S. cable company to directly offer wireless services. Regional players like Leap Wireless and MetroPCS are thriving. And, the Palm Pre was recently offered to consumers for the jaw-dropping price of a single cent. Consumer choices of service providers, plans, devices and applications abound.
All of this, of course, only further fuels the leaps and bounds we’re now seeing in mobile Internet adoption and usage. The arrival of dispassionate, data-driven reports like this Pew contribution are essential to constructive policy conversation that benefit consumers and innovators alike.
The data also clearly illustrates just how deeply mobile connectivity is working its way into our lives, and just how enthusiastically consumers are responding to the profound innovation it is making possible.
As the Federal Communications Commission takes a closer look at wireless, it’s important that it consider how consumers are actually embracing mobile connectivity in their diverse lives. And, it is imperative that the FCC acknowledge that all of this progress we celebrate now has taken place in—and been made possible in no small part by—the current light-touch regulatory framework.
The proof is in the numbers. As the mercury rises in the nation’s capital, it’s important that cooler heads prevail when it comes to the flexibility and dynamism that have truly connected the nation to the opportunities and innovation made possible by the mobile Internet.
This article was orginially published on Huffington Post.
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