A new study from 11mark surveyed 1,000 Americans about their smartphone usage, and found that a whopping 75% of American smartphone owners have used their phones in the bathroom. More women have used their phones in the bathroom than men (76% vs. 74%), but men are actually more attached to their mobile devices than women. Thirty percent of men surveyed said they won't go to the bathroom without their phone versus 25% of women.

Believe it or not, Gen-Ys were more likely to use their phones in the bathroom than Gen-Xs, Boomers or the elusively dubbed "Silent Generation" (people born before 1946). But even some people ages 66-years and up used their phones from the bathroom.

OK, so maybe mobile phones really are the new cigarette. Does this look familiar?

But maybe we should be less concerned about mobile habits than hygiene habits. After all, phones carry germs. And while 92% of respondents said they washed their hands after using the restroom, only 14% admitted to washing their phones.

Comic via Blogwell.

Twitter has just announced some major and much-needed improvements to its Android app as well, available now via the Android Market (or via the QR code below).

Twitter says this version also includes the "Pull to Refresh" feature that its iPhone app has, but it doesn't seem to work quite as smoothly on the Android.

Twitter touts both the speed and polish of this new app. And really, that's probably the bottom line as companies work to make sure that the features that are available (and are probably viewed by smartphone owners as "the standard") on the iPhone appear with the same look, feel, and experience on the Android.

However, in the U.S., it's Android that's number one, with 43.6% market share lead.

Another factor that bodes well for Android is the broad range of price points available for Android devices, from high-end products like the Samsung Galaxy S or HTD Desire all the way down to affordable "budget" devices like the LG GT540 Optimus or Huawei's Vodafone 845. The Optimus, incidentally, will be coming to Walmart in the U.S. for only $0.97 (with a two-year contract agreement), according to leaked news from unofficial T-Mobile blog TMoNews.com this morning. 

For Apple, there is some good news - it has now jumped ahead of Blackberry maker RIM with a 26.2% market share in the U.S. compared with RIM's 24.2%. Worldwide, Apple reached 17% share, beating RIM's 15%.

However, Canalys's headline for their report - "Apple takes lead in the U.S. smartphone market" -  is a little misleading, since, as noted above, the Android OS now has a 43.6% share in this country. Apple's U.S. "lead" here is a title that comes with qualifications: among companies who ship their own hardware, Apple leads. But Android wins it overall in the U.S., and, if the trend continues, may even rival Nokia for the number one spot worldwide at some point in the future.  

In preparation for the RWW Mobile Summit, we're going to outline the 10 leading trends of the Mobile Web in a 3-part series of posts. We'll delve more into these trends with you at the Summit, because our unconferences are all about audience participation. In this, the first post, we'll outline 3 important design and development issues for the Mobile Web.

Register now to discuss these and other topics at our unconference. The RWW Mobile Summit is being held on Friday 7 May, directly after the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco (2-6 May).

Native App and/or Browser Based?

Just as businesses in the PC-based Web spent years in the 90's wondering if a desktop app or web browser based service was the best choice, in 2010 the same question applies to mobile phone applications.

Organizations are asking themselves: should we build a native mobile phone app, or should we build a cross-platform browser-based mobile service? If they choose the former, which platform(s) do they focus on first? The choices include iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian.

In February, mobile search company Taptu released a detailed report showing that the future of the Mobile Web is likely to be dominated by cross-platform browser-based mobile web sites - rather than apps built specifically for iPhone, Android, or any other platform. The company estimated that there were 326,000 Mobile Touch Web sites worldwide at that time, compared to 148,000 iPhone apps in the App Store and 24,000 apps in the Android market. What's more, Taptu expects the browser-based mobile web market to grow much faster than the app market.

One factor to consider is that both options, native app and browser site, still have something of a 'wild west' element to them. We can see evidence of this in the stand-off between Apple and Adobe over Flash on mobile phones. Apple's iPhone platform and its default mobile Safari browser do not run Adobe's Flash technology, despite Flash having an almost ubiquitous presence on desktop PCs. Apple has been pushing HTML5, the latest generation of the Web's mark-up language, as a replacement for much of the functionality in Flash. This battle is yet to be won - but it's not looking good for Adobe, because it's hard to bet against the next version of HTML.

Privacy

Location-based mobile apps have been a big trend in 2010 (we'll cover this in Part 2 of this series), but there are significant privacy implications for these apps. Sites like Foursquare, BrightKite and Gowalla encourage their users to "check-in" to places, so that their social network knows where they are at any given time. While these apps have privacy controls that allow you to (for example) send a check-in update to just a select group of friends, a lot of times the updates are sent to the entire network.

In a recent analysis post, Sarah Perez asked: are location-based social networks privacy disasters waiting to happen? She added that many web and mobile apps are using location data now, including Google, Facebook and user review site Yelp.

The privacy dangers were highlighted earlier this year by a social experiment called PleaseRobMe, which displaying aggregated real-time updates from Foursquare users who used the social sharing feature to broadcast their updates publicly on Twitter. Although PleaseRobMe has since been shuttered, the point they were trying to make still resonates: sharing your physical location with a public network is potentially dangerous. For more details, read our February review of the short-lived PleaseRobMe.

Emerging Wireless Standards

Think your smart phone is cool now? Wait till it gets RFID chips, then it'll truly be 'smart.' That's the promise of two emerging RFID-based mobile technologies called NFC and DASH7.

NFC (Near Field Communication) holds great promise as an enabler of mobile payments. DASH7 is a wireless sensor networking standard that complements NFC; it will enable things like advanced location-based services, long-distance mobile advertising and mobile coupons.

Both NFC and DASH7 may soon be a part of the mobile phone that you carry around everywhere. Nokia already deploys NFC, and Apple and Google are rumored to be working on NFC implementation.

There are a group of other emerging mobile standards and technologies to look out for, such as WiMax, ZigBee and 4G. They all play an increasingly important part in the evolving Mobile ecosystem.

Top 10 Mobile Trends of 2010:
- Part 1: Design & Development
- Part 2: Apps, Apps, Apps
- Part 3: Emerging Markets

We'd love to discuss these and other mobile topics with you at our ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010. See our announcement post for more details.

If you're a company in the Mobile Internet market, you may be interested in becoming a sponsor for this event. Please contact our COO Sean Ammirati for more information about sponsor packages. And a big thank-you to our current event sponsors: CallFire, WorldMate, Alcatel-Lucent and Ipevo.

In part 1 of this article, we looked at m-commerce's struggles in relation to other mobile markets like mobile ads and video while also discussing some of the issues mobile retailers face today. But another aspect to m-commerce's growth (or lack thereof) is the issue of mobile payment providers. Only recently have we begun to see some changes in this space - at least in developed markets like the U.S. With the recent launch of several new mobile payment services, consumers should soon become more comfortable and open to the idea of using their phones to make purchases.

Interestingly enough, the "comfort factor" in using a mobile to make a purchase is more of a problem here in the developed world. In developing markets, however, where critical infrastructure like bank branches and high-speed internet is often lacking, people use mobile phones for all sorts of things including mobile banking, mobile money transfer, mobile education, and mobile medicine.

For example, one of the more successful mobile phone money-transfer services is M-PESA, a branchless banking service which has seen success in Kenya, Tanzania, and Afghanistan. Then in Sri Lanka, parts of Africa, and other low-GDP regions a company called Amdocs even helps mobile users to spend their minutes like currency.

Closer to home, the recent partnership between mobile service provides Fundamo and Clickatell may help to bring additional mobile banking initiatives to more advanced mobile markets. Like the U.S., Fundamo's technology is currently used in one third of all mobile banking deployments globally while the U.S.-based Clickatell works with institutions like First National Bank, Standard Bank, MoneyGram, Capitec, Nedbank, Moneybookers, New Heights Microfinance Bank, and others.

Getting Comfortable Paying with Our Phones

One key component to m-commerce's potential success is establishing a comfort factor among consumers when it comes to paying for things with mobile phones. Facebook's role in helping to mainstream this trend should not be overlooked. The company has begun testing mobile payments via a partnership with Zong which would allow users to purchase Facebook credits via their cell phones. Although not in effect yet, once the "flip is switched" so to speak, there will immediately be a large potential customer base for using mobile payment technology. And because it's Facebook, there will be a certain level of trust in the technology. (Yes, we know that's odd given Facebook's numerous privacy stumbles in the past, but overall, the mainstream population won't likely be all that wary.) In addition to the Zong/Facebook partnership, a mobile payment service called Boku has already launched within Facebook and in other social networks, too.

Other mobile payment initiatives introduced this year include MasterCard's launch of their MoneySend™ technology and Nokia's launch of Nokia Money, both being mobile money transfer services. MasterCard is working with Obopay, to deliver their person-to-person payment technology to U.S. consumers. Even though this is not a service intended for mobile retail use, its availability will help to further solidify the concept of using mobile phones as payment devices among consumers.

Obopay, as it turns out, is also the company powering Nokia's new service. With Nokia Money, users will be able to send money to other mobile users via their phone as well as pay for services, pay utility bills and refill prepaid SIM cards. Unfortunately, the company is launching the service in Asia and Africa next year, but has not said if or when it will arrive in other markets like the U.S.

According to David Schwartz, Sr. Director, Product & Global Marketing at Obopay, partnerships like these are only the beginning of what's about to become a major trend. "While some think that mobile commerce is still in its infancy, the market is actually growing at impressive rates," he says. "Gartner estimates by the end of 2009, there will be 74.4 million people using mobile devices to purchase goods and services worldwide, and predicts that number will double by the end of 2012 globally. Since our inception four years ago, Obopay has helped a countless number of people stay connected from sending money to a child in college across the country, to splitting a bill - it's proven to be both easy and secure."

Consumer Experience Matters

With these upcoming mobile payment services, it won't just be availability that matters. Also important is making sure the services themselves work as advertised while still simple enough for use by the average mobile phone owner. Bryce Marshall, Director of Strategic Services at direct digital marketing firm Knotice, agrees. "The future for m-commerce is bright but there are challenges, he says. "For m-commerce to reach its full potential, both the consumer experience and the transaction process must be improved."

For the consumer experience to excel, companies need not only to develop mobile payment applications but develop standards as well. That's why this year Visa Inc. partnered with GSMA, a mobile communications industry group representing hundreds of operators worldwide to develop standards for mobile money management. They've deepened their investment in mobile payments in other areas too, including making a minority equity investment in Monitise plc, a U.K. mobile payment firm, and also teamed up with NeuStar to accelerate worldwide mobile adoption.

Availability + Usability + Large Userbase = Adoption

With all these mobile payment initiatives launching from brand-name companies like Facebook, MasterCard, and Visa, it's only a matter of time before consumers reach enough of a comfort level with mobile payment technology to make an impact on the m-commerce industry. By integrating mobile payments into mobile applications, similar to how Apple does now via their in-game purchases, paying via mobile will eventually become second nature.

But for now, it seems that we're still on the cusp of what could be the next big mobile trend and are just waiting to see it take off. For m-commerce to succeed in the developed world, we'll need to see more retailers making their move into this space as well as new technology that lets people pay with their mobile phones. We're only seeing baby steps being taken at the monment, but with the growth of the smartphone market (in the U.S., up 47% in Q2 of this year), there will soon be so many mobile users online that it will become impossible to ignore them any longer.

With these levels of growth, we're also seeing related mobile services getting a boost. App stores, both phone-based and carrier-based, are popping up left and right, mobile video usage is booming, and mobile ad markets are seeing dramatic growth, too. However, there's one area that hasn't yet benefitted from the mobile revolution: mobile e-commerce.

The indicators of increased mobile web usage are everywhere. Just this week, we heard Facebook reporting their mobile growth had tripled from December of last year to this past month, for example. And then there's AT&T, the carrier for Apple's iPhone, which is seeing so much data usage that they couldn't even keep up, having to delay the introduction of new iPhone capabilities like MMS messaging until they were ready to handle the demand.

Mobile Ads Doing Well

Mobile-dependent markets are doing well, too, at least for the most part. A recent Gartner report states that mobile ad spending will grow 74% this year worldwide to $914.5 million. But the real growth won't happen until 2011 when advertisers are expected to fully embrace the shift to mobile. By 2013, the firm expects the mobile ad market to surpass $13 billion with the Asia-Pacific region in the lead, followed by North America and Europe. Not only is the rise of the smartphone to thank for this trend, so is the rise in flat-rate data plans which make it easier for more consumers to afford mobile web connectivity. As more consumers go online, more web publishers begin to cater to their needs with mobile-ready versions of their websites. This, in turn, "is lifting mobile web access among non-smartphone users," notes Gartner analyst Andrew Frank.

Mobile Video on the Rise

Along with basic web surfing, mobile users are also finding entertainment via their handhelds, specifically in the form of mobile video. According to Nielsen's latest three-screen report, the number of people watching mobile video increased 70% from last year. Nielsen, which specifically tracks American media habits, says this increase to 15 million viewers represents the largest annual growth to date.

M-Commerce Struggles

However, not all mobile-dependent markets are doing well. Mobile e-commerce, for example, is struggling. Despite the massive numbers of mobile users, those using their phones to make purchases are still few and far between...at least here in the U.S. According to new data from eMarketer, more than 70 million U.S. mobile phone users will access the internet from their devices this year, but the m-commerce market remains immature. In an April 2009 survey by RIS News, privacy and security concerns are still at the forefront of both shoppers' and retailers' minds. This had led companies to drag their feet when it comes to introducing their mobile commerce plans. Says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst, "most retailers are either standing on the sidelines or in the midst of planning their mobile commerce strategy."

Another major problem is the lack of standardization in the mobile space. With the number of platforms now available, retailers find building a plethora of mobile applications not worth the effort. As InfoWorld recently noted, the smartphone market has become a "tower of Babel for developers." This means that mobile retailers have to carefully pick-and-choose the platforms they plan to support in order to see reasonable returns on their investments in this space. Despite the slow growth, it appears that m-commerce could be successful if only there were enough mobile apps and shopping opportunities out there.

Already, mobile payments firm Billing Revolution found that on-the-go consumers seem happy to purchase small ticket items like pizza and movie tickets, for example.

And a March 2009 PriceGrabber.com survey found that early m-commerce adopters were even buying up higher priced items like consumer electronics, apparel and jewelry.

In other words, when it comes to m-commerce, "if you build it, they will come." , or so it seems. However, developing m-commerce applications is only one part of the equation. For mobile e-commerce to be successful, we'll need to adopt a number of mobile payment platforms too.

But is the mobile web really to blame here for the usability issues? Or is this just a matter of people trying to surf a web that has evolved beyond what traditional cell phones and their awful built-in browsers can handle?

According to the new study, available as of yesterday from the Nielsen Norman web site, the average success rate for performing various tasks on the mobile web was only 59%. Compare that to 80% for the same tasks when performed on a PC.

"Observing users suffer during our ... sessions reminded us of the very first usability studies we did with traditional websites in 1994," Nielsen told USA Today. "It was that bad."

Some of the tests involved in the study had participants heading to specific web sites, including Fandango.com for movie reviews and Anthropologie.com for a shopping task. Other tests were more general and open-ended, allowing users to do web searches to find the answers to various questions. As they surfed, participants came across sites that were both mobile-ready and those that were not.

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that success rates dramatically improved when surfing the mobile versions of the web sites - by 20%, to be exact. Also not surprising was the fact that smartphone owners had less trouble performing the same tasks as users of traditional cell phones. For example, iPhone owners had an average success rate of 75% while other smartphones averaged 55%. Traditional cell phones, however, only averaged 38%.

Is the Mobile Web Unusable or is it the Devices People Use to Surf It?

The study calls into question the usability of today's mobile web, pointing out contributing factors to the problem which include things like small screens, awkward input on mini-keyboards, poorly designed sites, and bandwidth issues.

But the overall takeaway from this research feels like a case of putting hard numbers to information we already knew: surfing the web with your hot pink Razr's built-in browser is an experience that leaves a lot to be desired.

It is, in fact, the rise of the smartphone that has made the mobile web such a popular destination on both consumer devices and those designed for business use, like the Blackberry. Prior to what we can only call the "smartphone explosion," not much thought was given to the mobile web by users, web site owners, or by the handset manufacturers whose built-in browsers seemed to make the problem even worse in some cases. Data plans were an expensive luxury, too, so many people didn't even bother to add on the extra package that made mobile web surfing possible.

But when the smartphones took off, a movement in which Apple's iPhone has had a major impact, the mobile web felt the ripple effects of all the new users coming online. Not only were companies designing mobile sites, they were taking the time to design iPhone-specific sites, too. Although the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone in existence by any means, it has been a driving force of change for the smartphone industry as a whole. With its highly usable Safari web browser and touchscreen, other manufacturers had to step up their game in order to compete.

These days, every cell phone carrier offers multiple types of smartphones in their lineup from touchscreen Blackberrys to Android-powered phones to the iPhone and more. On these phones, the usability of the mobile web is not really an issue.

So what is this study really saying, then? If you want to surf the mobile web with ease, get a smartphone? Or perhaps it's pointing out how terrible the browsers are on traditional cell phones, seeing as how those who struggled the most were using what many would call "old school" handsets (aka "feature phones"). It's also interesting that no comparisons were made between the basic built-in browsers and a user-installed upgrade like Opera. With Opera Mini's site compression and zooming abilities, for example, accessing sites - both mobile and non - on any phone becomes much easier.

Ultimately, though, the market for feature phones may be on the decline, making usability issues such as the ones found in this study of less importance going forward. In March of this year for instance, IDC reported a decline in mobile phone shipments due to the poor economic conditions worldwide. What was really interesting, though, was that the smartphone segment of this market, while not unaffected, still remained in positive growth while the rest of the market was poised to expect an 8.3% downturn. As noted by the IDC report, that "speaks volumes about the potential upside for these devices when the market turns." What it means is that the market for feature phones is fading out. In the future, when every phone becomes a smartphone, the usability of the mobile web probably won't seem so bad.

Look out mobile phones, because in a decade's time wearable systems may be the primary means of accessing the Web!

The current system, albeit relatively clunky, could be purchased for as little as $350. Essentially it is made up of a webcam, a battery-powered 3M projector, mirror, phone and colored finger caps. But in 10 years - according to Maes, the period of time when this type of system might be fully developed - it could be one device and as small as a watch. Or indeed maybe even a brain implant.

This type of product will undoubtedly go well beyond what mobile phones are capable of now. As Maes put it, mobile phones currently don't have easy access to all of the relevant information we need on a daily basis. A mobile phone still requires a user to change their behavior, she said.

Plus the Web as we know it today is full of manual steps, such as visiting websites and searching for information. In 10 years time we'd hope that the Web of Data would be much better realized, for example product data easily viewed outside of its official website no matter what the context.

One example given in the TED presentation was looking at a book in a bookstore. Currently to get access to reviews information, a person would need to take out their cellphone, open up Amazon's mobile website - or a relevant iPhone app perhaps - and search for that book. Whereas with the wearable internet device demoed at TED, the user simply wiggles his or her fingers and up pops the Amazon rating on the front cover (reviews data can be reached by opening up the book).

You can see the power of this as a next generation Internet interface, as it removes several manual steps from the process of receiving relevant, contextual information about something or someone.

We've blogged a fair amount about sensors this year, because they connect the real world up to the Internet. The wearables system relies a lot on them, for example the caps on Pranav's fingers. Add that to the many other points of connection to the Web and it's a powerful system; for example the book has a barcode that, in combination with the wearable device, will pull down data from Amazon.com via the Web.

The Internet as Sixth Sense

As explained in a Wired article earlier this year (found via h+ Magazine), a lot of the information that "helps us understand and respond to the world" doesn't come from the 5 senses humans are usually born with. It comes from computers and, increasingly, the Web. So the goal of this MIT wearable device is to "harness computers to feed us information in an organic fashion, like our existing senses."

We at ReadWriteWeb are very excited about next-generation Internet interfaces, such as augmented reality and so-called cross reality. These wearable devices strike me as being the most impressive future Web interface that I've seen in a while. Check out the video and see if you agree.

First a little background. Lippman explained that his Viral Communications group aims to "symmetricize media" - in other words, balance it. He used an analogy of the radio system. The power to broadcast over the radio is still tightly controlled, spectrum is limited. So in that sense it is asymmetrical, unbalanced. The MIT Viral Communications group aims to re-think the way media works. Lippman and his group is asking: does radio have to be like this?

Lippman explained this in an executive summary a while back:

"The communication industry is in an upheaval equivalent to that caused by the advent of personal computers in the early 1980's. In that earlier revolution, traditional giants who held to mainframe technologies and centralized services were outpaced by newcomers with new ideas about individual ownership, incremental adoption and instant turnover. This will now happen with communications."

Examples of new forms of communications are sensors and open 802.11 networks, which are "renegades: unlicensed, personalized, digital, and embedded." [the guy in the glowing 802.11 detector shirt to your right is not Andrew Lippman btw]

This all brings about new types of social interactions with media, which Lippman seems particularly keen on right now. He mentioned the intersection with mobility: "It's not about you anymore, it's about you plus your context."

Fluid Voice: A Mobile Group Communication System

The theory of viral communications is a bit hard for the layman (this writer included) to grok, so I asked Lippman for some examples. One of his group's projects is Fluid Voice, a research project that has been prototyped on the Nokia N810. It runs, initially at least, using the 802.11s wireless mesh.

Fluid Voice is described in a white paper as "a proximity based mobile group communication system for opportunistic social exchanges." This makes one think of a mobile app for picking up members of the opposite sex. But being an academic project, I'm sure that's not the point of it. So what is it? Lippman described Fluid Voice to me as a new type of messaging system that engages a group. He said that it's like a telephone system that defaults to a conference call all of the time, which he termed "push to listen." It has similarities to party-line telephone systems, instant messaging chat rooms and conferencing bridges for business people. It's also like the Citizen's Band (CB) radios used by truck drivers in the 1970s.

Fluid Voice can be both a live and asynchronous experience - i.e. you don't need to be participating live to receive and leave messages. It isn't just audio and text messaging either: audio polls and wish lists are a part of the product. Here is a UI screenshot:

Fluid Voice Use Cases

The goal of Fluid Voice is to coordinate people in outdoor settings, using their mobile phones. According to a white paper, use cases include "spreading news during emergency responses and supporting impromptu social exchanges."

The name of the product, Fluid Voice, derives from the fact that "users can transition from live to asynchronous audio communication in a fluid manner depending on the wireless environment." To appreciate what this kind of system might be used to enable, here's a description from the paper of how CB radio was used in the 70's:

"CB radios enabled a cooperative social culture on the highways for friendly conversations in addition to providing road assistance and accident prevention among the drivers. As cell phones and multi-band WiFi enabled cell phones are becoming ubiquitous in the 21st century, an exciting opportunity arises for supporting opportunistic social collaboration within a local area."

One imagines that software like this may become a common feature in next generation mobile phones. I used the example of a sensor-enabled bookstore in this week's post about Cross Reality applications - the store pinging your mobile phone about a book on your wish list that it happens to have in stock. We can similarly forsee that Fluid Voice, on your mobile phone, could be used to meet like-minded people at the bookstore. You could even continue to chat with that group after you left the bookstore.

Social networking 3.0 anyone? Breaker 1-9!

Image credits: get directly down; slworking2

Pizza Hut, a company that apparently understands the difference between an app and a web page, has just released a brand-new iPhone application that puts Papa John's lackluster attempt to shame. We wonder: will this be the start of a new trend in company-branded applications?

The Pizza Hut App

Today, however, a user searching for the keyword "pizza" in iTunes will come across a number of restaurant locator apps and one new one that will jump out at them: Pizza Hut (iTunes URL). That's right, Pizza Hut has released a new application designed specifically for the iPhone. The app will complement their already robust lineup of alternative ordering methods that currently include ordering by text message, web site ordering, mobile web site ordering, and even a Facebook ordering system.

The Pizza Hut iPhone app offers a simple interface that includes a menu and a checkout function, as expected. However, the company has also smartly included a "virtual fridge" where you'll find coupons to add to your order and a free game called "Hut Racer" which you can play while you kill time waiting for your pizza to arrive. Altogether, the app seems to be well-thought out, well-designed, and simple enough for anyone to use.

Will Pizza Hut Encourage Other Restaurants (and Companies) to Follow?

However, the most revolutionary thing about the app may be the fact that it exists at all. No other pizza delivery company has launched an iPhone application yet. For that matter, no restaurants have done so either, not even Apple partner Starbucks. (Correct us if we're wrong about that, we searched for numerous popular chains and found none...but we're sure you'll let us know if there are some out there. At any rate, there are very few if any.)

We once wondered why so few companies, not just restaurants, but also retail stores, travel sites, and other big businesses had eschewed the App Store entirely, opting instead for mobile web sites (or, sometimes no mobile sites at all). Why shouldn't companies build iPhone applications to complement their other online offerings? The cost of development isn't prohibitively high and the iPhone represents a huge chunk of mobile web traffic both here in the U.S. and on the worldwide stage.

Some commenters on that original post argued that an iTunes store filled with branded apps from companies would clutter things up, but as the App Store now offers some 65,000 applications (give or take), is clutter really that much of an issue anymore? Others worried instead about cluttering up their phones' screens and becoming overwhelmed by the number of applications. That issue, too, has now been somewhat addressed thanks to OS 3.0's extended springboard and Spotlight search feature. You can now fill your phones with apps and find them exceedingly fast via search.

Of course, we don't think that users would download and install every single application for every single business they've ever patronized - just those they use on a regular basis, probably only a handful at most. Because really, how many businesses, restaurants or otherwise, do you visit or use multiple times per month that would make a dedicated app worth your while?

Finally, multiple commenters noted that designing a mobile web site made the most sense since it could be used on any platform. Of course we agree that companies should have a mobile site - that should be par for the course these days just as having a web presence is - but why ignore the 59% web traffic marketshare delivered by the iPhone here in the U.S. or the 43% of web traffic worldwide? Why not build for this dominating platform?

It will be important to watch Pizza Hut's success in this space, as they're leading where so few others have so far failed to go. If they see increased revenue driven by their mobile application, other restaurants - especially those that offer delivery and carry-out options - may end up doing the same. We hope this will bring about a new trend of company-branded applications, but it's far too soon to tell. We'll just have to wait and see...I guess we'll play a little "Hut Racer" in the meantime. 

Recently we spoke to Andrea Vaccari, a research associate at the lab. He gave us a fascinating glimpse into the coming world of practical apps built on top of digital footprints.

What Does MIT's SENSEeable City Lab Do?

Firstly, what are the goals of MIT's SENSEeable City Lab? Andrea told us that it aims to "inform the public," to show vision and to inspire.

We asked if there is potential for commercialization, by companies and startups. Andrea replied that there is, but that we're only at the early stage of understanding 'digital footprints.' He said that for the first time we have access to these data sets - via cellphone data - and so we have to understand it first. This is MIT's objective. But he explained that there will, in time, be practical uses for what they are researching, for example, organizing public transportation.

Uses of Real-Time Cellphone Data

Many companies are already using cellphone data to predict traffic and transportation - it's the "first and most obvious problem to target" according to Andrea Vaccari.

However he sees many other opportunities. Tourism is one - he mentioned MIT's 'the world's eyes' project in Spain, based on geo-tagged photos in Flickr. In this project hundreds of photos were tagged by Flickr users as party, arty, and so on. This allowed them to see where all the parties were happening, which areas were arty, etc. Andrea explained that it could also identify the type of person who took the photo, so they can identify trends from that - for example, a particular area of a city might be frequented by a particular nationality or age group.

Another opportunity is security. Andrea said that people often think of the negative use of aggregate cellphone activity (in particular the threat to privacy), but there are also positive security uses. For example, it can alert you to potential trouble spots. Or it can help detect car accidents or fires by checking cellphone activity variations.

These are some of the commercial activities for real-time cellphone data. As yet we haven't seen too many companies using such data, but one we reviewed recently was Sense Networks. It has a product called Citysense, an iPhone and Blackberry app that allows people in San Francisco to see the most happening nightlife in real time. Andrea noted that there is a major difference between what SENSEeable City Lab does and what Sense Networks does. MIT collects aggregate data, whereas Sense Networks collects individual behavior from their users' phones. Andrea noted that a disadvantage of getting aggregate data is that the detail is lower, however, the advantages include that it covers all of the city, is "unbiased" and doesn't cost anything. Which leads to the question...

Where Does The Data Come From?

The aggregate data that MIT uses comes via telecoms companies. MIT has different partnerships, for example, they worked with AT&T on the NYC Waterfalls project (the subject of our next post on this topic). Andrea admitted that it's easier for academic institutions (eg MIT) to get access to that data. It would be harder for commercial companies - or even for the telecoms companies themselves - to use it. He says that, hopefully, in future telecoms companies will be more free to give the data out (securely of course!) and enable re-use of it.

Andrea mentioned that currently very few groups around the world have access to this data by telecoms providers; and MIT has only had access to it for a couple of years. So it really is an emerging field of discovery.

What's Next

The next step for the SENSEeable City Lab is to put what they've done into a consistent framework, currently in development.

Andrea also said that they're working more with semantic data - for example comparing the frequency of a word in a document with the frequency in the total library of documents. Using this methodology, they can identify keywords, check if it's in (for example) Wikipedia, then create a semantic index with a set of tags. In other words, eventually they'll be able to determine what cellphone activity means semantically.

A number of trends are converging that will make use of cellphone data very widespread, and soon. Andrea mentioned that in 2008, for the first time, more than 50% of the world's population lived in cities. He noted too that the physical and digital are merging. Also at ReadWriteWeb we've been tracking the growing number of Mobile Web apps that use location data. For example, there are currently a lot of location-based social networking companies. They include "social compass" service Loopt (our review), Nokia-owned Plazes (our review), Pelago's Whrrl, ULocate, and GyPSii. Probably our favorite right now is mobile social network app Brightkite, which last year we named our Most Promising startup for 2009.

So expect real-time cellphone data to have many useful applications in the near future. Let us know what applications you hope to see emerge out of this.

How Does it Work?

According to Sensaris,

"Whether used by pedestrians or cyclists, the sensors provide noise and ozone levels in real time over the Internet and web based visualization (mashups). Our Senspod technology forms the basis for innovative citizen centric services. We look forward to helping other cities use it for their own community action and urban life quality improvement plans."

We think this is potentially a wonderful tool that will empower citizens to become involved and take back some control over their quality of life. Hopefully it will force cities to pay more attention to air and noise pollution problems in less affluent neighborhoods and take steps to improve conditions.

As we're nearing the halfway mark of 2009, we decided to find out what location-based applications the ReadWriteWeb community is using. We asked for feedback on our Twitter account @rww, (which we recommend you follow, to participate in upcoming surveys and get the latest tidbits about web technology).

Brightkite and Google Maps / Earth got the most votes. Let us know your favorite app in the comments.

Favorite Location-Based Apps of RWW Readers

Note: we haven't linked the companies, but please use your favorite search engine if something catches your eye.

@CleverClogs @Glympse lets you share your dynamic GPS map location with someone for a preset period of time.

@petercowan google earth. hands down. no contest.

@OlafLewitz Google Maps, because I find nearly everything I need.

@dvint 1am loving sky map on the G1 - see the latest version, it is now a google app & google maps

@sherrymain Google latitude b/c of network effect, others on it. But I have an iPhone, so I can only track/update online

@selviano www.buzzd.com, a mobile LBS app that has covered several times. They launched a new WWW portal yesterday

@iamrehman My Local Traffic guide for The southern Swedish Province Skane .. The app is called skanetrafiken.

@Lambday Google Street View xD

@dingman google maps w/ GPS routes, direction to X from current location, MOST USED APP EVER by me

@thillerson Another vote for Brightkite for sweet useful mobile apps

@Judd6149 Brightkite. It is simple to use (from my iPhone) . When it is used to is max capabilities it is quite engaging and useful

@mvarroyoI am a big fan of loopt. the facebook & twitter integration was one reason i liked it so much. it just works now, so I stayed with it

@dc2fla favorite location-based app - Google Earth, hands down. Intuitive, easy to use for mapping, research, virtual wandering, discovery

@theReviewGuy aroundme iPhone app becauz it's dead simple with 2 clocks to destination

@pixelpooch iWant has been pretty good to me with all the travel I do makes it easy to find whats near by also provides yelp reviews on restaurants

@richardram Google Earth combined with Earthbridge, Voda 3G and a Dell Mini 9 with the GPS turned on, a real-time, virtual tour awaits.

@evakennedy76 iMapMy by MapMyFitness. I also use mapmyrun.com pretty regularly.

@grahamclarke: Google Earth - rich data layers, easy to use, combination of satellite imagery and user submitted photos, cool

@jaredwsmith: For me it's Brightkite: The concept of "placestreams" is fascinating and incredibly useful. Brightkite can, if the data's populated for a location, give me great context when talking about a place -- I show someone the stream.

@KindSoles gmail's weather theme. My computer sits infront of a window so it's cool to see it change with the weather on a day to day basis.

@drnormal shizzow.com is social, has a mobile web interface, quick search for locations and of course, Twitter integration (a must have)...

@dekkerd @brightkite. multiple easy ways to update, shows what's happening around me and my friends. plays nice with other services

@ajleon No question right now it's @brightkite, GREAT community, Gmap Integration, easy to post pics and make friends, great UI

@ITSinsider I like Brightkite. It's easy and I like the Twitter integration. I "check in" all the time so the kids know where I am.

@melleez TwitIQ easy peasy lots less work

@josh909 Brightkite due to twitter integration, and good GUI

@Socialbees prob yelp iphone app b/c it's so often saved me from potentially terrible dining exp & turned me on to great places while traveling.

So, what defines a smartphone as all phones become smarter? What is the exact trajectory of the mobile learning curve?

Second, competition with Apple's iPhone has prompted OS innovation in a trickle-down effect. Google's Android, the Blackberry Storm (which sounds like some kind of Blizzard flavor but is actually a full touchscreen device without the mobile manufacturer's signature-if-clunky QWERTY keyboard), Palm's competitively priced Pre, and devices from HTC and Nokia have all garnered well-deserved interest in recent months. And though the iPhone still holds a significant amount of the high-end mobile market share, the number of devices sold still pales in comparison to the number of Blackberry users, for example, which leaves lots of room for smartphone competitors.

Third, devices that were once top-of-the-line are now moving toward mid-range prices, meaning that more and more consumers will have access to smartphone technology. This poses a significant threat to GPS systems, low-end video cameras, and MP3 players, all of which can look to pagers and PDAs as the ghosts of Christmas yet to come.

These "adjacent sectors," as they're termed in the Forrester report, can also prepare for the mobile future by offering services and content on mobile devices, licensing technologies to hardware manufacturers, improve their own devices to be a couple steps ahead of mobile handsets, and minimize any possible future overlap with mobile offerings.

Finally, the report sees major and minor feature sets across all "smart" mobile devices (e.g., Kindle 2 is a poor music player, and the PlayStation Portable is multidimensional but best at games), but the folks at Forrester don't see all the competition as heading toward convergence. "No device," it reads, "is best in breed for everything - and nor will it ever be." Rather, devices will be (or ought to be) classified in the near future based on whether devices/operating systems are primarily extensible through apps (think iPhone) or fundamentally "open" (think Android), whether they are best used to create or consume content, and whether they are more suited to utility or entertainment.

Another prediction is that of continuing fragmentation in mobile software offerings. Apple devices will continue to run on Apple software; HTC, however, creates handsets for Android and Windows. Sony needs a replacement for Symbian's UIQ; and Palm, Samsung, LG, Nokia, and Motorola need to develop winning strategies for the smartphone game. Microsoft and Google each need to work to improve their offerings and increase adoption rates. None of these facts points to a winner-takes-all conclusion, or even a two-party system such as we now see with personal computers (sorry, Linux - you're still our favorite hobby OS).

In a word, there will be plenty of healthy variety and a device and OS for every kind of mobile user in Forrester's version of the future of mobile.

(via Latitude's FriendFeed page)

Wikitude represents perhaps the first stage of what is possible with AR. Microsoft recently released a video that shows other future scenarios for AR:

(via Literanista)

Microsoft's Surface app, released in May 2007, is a pointer to this future.

There are many potential scenarios for AR. A popular one is doing your grocery shopping and checking information on your mobile phone (or AR glasses!) about price, specials, reviews, comparisons with competing products, etc. With the rise of RFID chips and technology such as that being developed by Microsoft, this type of scenario isn't too far away.

Another interesting consideration is that social software will have a big role to play in future AR apps. For example when walking down the street, you could use your mobile phone to point to a restaurant, and overlaid on a photo of the restaurant would be customer reviews, recommendations, and other relevant user generated data. (inspiration from Rafael Torres)

Let us know other apps that are doing interesting things with AR technology mixed with the Internet. And of course we'd love to hear about your favorite future AR scenarios!

For more on this topic, read Alex Iskold's post from July 1007 Digital Life vs Life Digital: Our Inevitable Digital Future and Marshall Kirkpatrick's from March 2008 User Interfaces Rapidly Adjusting to Information Overload.