Socially mobile

It looks like social networks is quickly picking up pace on the mobile side of things as we read more news about this space, although I think the supporting infrastructure still has some catching up to do.

What's clear is that short and simple messages are the most effective for the mobile user, either on the upload or download. This is due to the limitations of the device, the user's available attention span, the need to fit social messages into what's essentially a multitasking environment (like walking and sending an SMS) and the available infrastructure (download speeds currently are an order of magnitude faster than uplaod speeds, although that will change with the arrival of technologies like WiMAX).

This is why Twitter is so successful - short messages are its lifeblood. And I like Twitter's view of the service they provide, i.e. a channel for messages, decoupling it from the interface, which could be SMS, IM or web.

This will no doubt be a very exciting area to observe as the minimalist and decentralised platform, something that is at the core of SOA and Web 2.0, will very likely sprout many creative output from the developer community.

This is also where I think we will see a lot of innovation, like apps that adjust their modes based on user behaviour and mobility profiles. Possibilities like this will appear when developers realise that the user interface is now intimately connected to the user and "always on, anywhere" is not just an access paradigm for the end user but also for the user's friends and network to gain access to the user himself.

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