I started writing this post with the intention of sharing valuable insight into future innovations in the mobile industry. Then, when I actually started writing, maybe because of the late hour when I began, everything that came to mind was more satirical than serious.
UPDATE: This post pokes a bit of fun at Nokia. I do this for the sake of humor, not because I dislike Nokia or its products. They’re making some great devices, and as they roll out more CDMA phones in the future, I wish them the best of luck. Plus, I’m on Verizon and I would love to have a smartphone option besides a Blackberry!
I’m adding a conclusion to the top of this article to ensure you get something “useful” from reading. Then you can continue reading the rest of the post and just have fun!
Conclusion
Much of the focus of innovation in the mobile industry is around user experience and interaction, which is great news for us users. From mobile gaming experiences to social networking to web browsing to usability to voice recognition to location-based services to music and multimedia innovation, companies like Nokia are focusing on making their devices more capable, more versatile, and easier to use. Mobile startups will be excited to hear that the global corporations are open to accepting “not invented here” technologies and integrating them into their products.
Example of a sexy cell phone. This is the kind of outfit your phone should wear to high-tech speed dating.
The Rest of the Story
San Diego’s CommNexus periodically hosts the business equivalent of speed dating sessions with mobile companies.
In the words of CommNexus:
“MarketLink a.k.a. High-Tech Speed Dating:
MarketLink is a FREE program that pairs local companies with multinational corporations hoping to identify and license new technologies. MarketLink brings parties of mutual interest together by orchestrating an event that will offer selected companies the opportunity to present to technology executives from visiting corporations in a personalized 1-on-1 session.”
These events are intended to match the innovation needs of the global corporations with the innovation strengths of the small companies and startups that otherwise might be ignored or by their larger, more popular peers. (Like a standard Hollywood depiction of high school, the jock/quarterback spends an entire semester sitting next to his one true love in chemistry class, but doesn’t realize she exists until she takes off her glasses and lets down her hair for prom.)
I recently received notice of an upcoming “High-Tech Speed Dating” session with Nokia. (According to the email, Nokia had 37% of the global device market share in Q4 2008, which is all the more remarkable considering they haven’t sold a device in the US since candy-bar phones in the ’90s.*) The list of prospective technologies, titled provides useful and concrete insight into the R&D focus of the mobile industry today. Here’s Nokia’s list with my comments in red:
What Nokia is Looking For:
Nokia is interested in engaging and partnering with firms that have next-generation or disruptive technologies in the following areas:
Social Networking
– Looking to combine the best characteristics of Twitter and 12Seconds with their new microblogging service, 12Characters. The most common message sent is, ironically, “12Characters”. (Go ahead and count.)
Mobile Internet and Browsing
– Researching nanotechnology advances such as nanotubes, because the internet is a series of tubes, and the smaller the tubes, the more internets you can fit in a phone.
Multimedia (Future Innovations)
– Not just plain multimedia, but future innovations multimedia, like special episodes of Lost made just for mobiles. They’re like the TV series, but edited down to only scenes where the plot is advanced. They’re 15 seconds long and come out once every two weeks. (Can you tell I’m a frustrated Lost fan?)
Music (Future Innovations)
– Not just plain music, but future innovations music, like when guitars have been replaced UFO Flutes (blowing into an alien’s ear while covering combinations of his 8 nostrils to produce different pitches)
Email and Messaging Solutions
– Nokia is rushing to roll out integrated email in its phones before anyone else thinks of it. It’s considering naming the phone the Belatedberry.
Location Based Services and Applications
– They’re calling their location-based service the “System To Always Locate & Know Everyone’s Region” (or STALKER)
Audio / Voice Quality
– Why do you keep asking me, “Can you beer me now?” I wouldn’t be talking to you on a cell phone if you were close enough to hand you a beer.
Voice Recognition
– Until I can whisper sweet little nothings into my phone and it replies with confidence-building compliments about my wonderful personality and dazzling good looks, voice recognition has room for improvement.
High Speed Connectivity and Side Loading
– Nokia is turning up high speed internet to the max. They’re skipping from 3g up to 11g.
Enhanced Usability
– I think these “enhancements” are related to the implanting of silicone cases to make the phone owner’s pocket bulge bigger.
User Interface
– We need something to compete with the iPhone
Touch UI Innovations and Performance
– We really, really, really frickin’ want to beat the iPhone!
Antenna Technologies
– I hope they’re not bringing external antennas back, they haven’t been gone long enough to be retro yet
Sensors
– The accelerometer senses when the phone user consumes too many shots and falls of his barstool, automatically playing “Another One Bites the Dust” in response
Battery Technologies and Power Management
– Some day in the future, Nokia cell phone batteries will be so powerful that when you plug your phone into your hybrid’s lighter jack, the phone charges the car
Video / Photo Editing for Mobile Environment
– Because navigating a timeline of hundreds of clips, transitions, titles, and effects is so much fun on a 24″ monitor, why wouldn’t you want to do it on your 3″ phone screen while waiting in line at the grocery store?
Gaming Experience Enhancements for Mobiles
– You’ve already heard of iPhone apps where the accelerometer is used for hitting an imaginary golf ball or where shaking the phone finds a restaurant. Nokia is combining an accelerometer with a blood alcohol content (BAC) sensor near the microphone for its new game “The Drunken Stumbler.” You score points based on the combination of high BAC + low stumbling + # of dials to ex’s.
Mobile OS
– Rumor is a San Diego biotech firm is doing genetic engineering to crossbreed the iPhone OS, Android, and the Palm Pre OS into some sort of super-mobile OS. Only time will tell how many extra camera eyes it will have.
* I didn’t actually research this fact. I just don’t see Nokia phones around.
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