A VC - Latest Comments in Mobile In/Mobile Out

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

Udo Szabo — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:15:04 -0000

Nokia is working on this, Kerry. Have a look at the N97 if you haven't seen it yet. The devices was specifically designed to merge the best of mobility, connectivity and usability into a "pockatable" form factor that can do anything you would expect from a computer today - and more.

Fred is right that the access and availability of content on mobile devices will change the behavior and re-direct time away from the PC - we have seen this all happen with Email. Once you have a good mobile email device like a BB, iPhone or E71, you still can sit in front of your laptop to read and reply - but you dont have to, and most people use this freedom.

We will see the same effect for consuming and creating content soon, allowing you engage when it matters, comment when things unfold and comfort somebody at the moment of sorrow. The best things hardly happen when we are in front of a PC.

I gave a talk at LeWeb in December about the main consumer drivers for this evolution and how we think it can unfold. You can see it on SlideShare if you are interested: http://tinyurl.com/695rvh

Our experience is that a really simple & valuable mobile & social feed reader will need all of the previously mentioned feature: personal filtering, text/video/audio, commenting, sharing, re-blogging, etc & a device that makes it possible to enjoy it with a large display, battery, browser incl. flash, audio, qwerty and touch. Finding the right trade-offs between those while keeping the experience extremely simple will create a winning solution.

Let me know if you find an interesting one. Would be interested myself and their is clearly more opportunity here.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:20:15 -0000

Great comments

Thanks!

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

kerrypalringo — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:00:32 -0000

A few random thoughts:

be careful in trying to replicate the "web experience" on mobile. Context in the broadest sense is much more important with mobile than the web. there are still usability issues in mobile that cannot be ignored (from battery life to screen size)--and services ignore these at their peril.

yes, the iphone has raised the bar regarding certain aspects of usability, it also proves the point that single purpose devices do have a future--people will gravitate to devices that best service their needs, whether it's music, web browsing, emailing etc(and the iphone does not do all of these really well).

on the subject of the iphone, there is a risk of seeing the consumer from the prism of the iphone. let's not forget that symbian shipped 20million devices per quarter last year ! let me give you an example of a very non-scientific poll i conducted a couple of months ago. i was in silicon valley, in a room of start-ups, vc's etc: 50% iphones; 25% blackberry as primary device; 3% G1; 25% other; and 50% had blackberry as second device. i did the same poll with similar mix of people in london: 10% iphone; 40% nokia; 40% blackberry as primary; 30% blackberry as second device.

Unfortunately, the reality of the mobile world is that NOT all devices, operating systems are alike--it;s not like the web (and, yes, this opens the debate about developing native vs browser based applications).

And, finally, if we are going to talk about hardware and mobile devices, let's not forget that it's as much as fashion and design as it is about functionality. Both the Kindle and the G1 both fail on this count--and, this is an area Apple understands very well (perhaps it helps that Brits have been a key part of the iPhone/iPod design teams!). If Amazon really wants to make the Kindle a global success, it should move its product design team to the UK!!

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:47:22 -0000

I can¹t wait for that. It¹s happening to some extent but if the iphone
supported flash, it would be much stronger

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

Andrew Deal — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:16:01 -0000

how about listening to radio media on your iphone/blackberry/razr or whatever you happen to have?

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

Carrie Hartley — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:10:37 -0000

I almost exclusively use my Iphone for the web now. It's just so easy. In particular I love reading a book, with a Wiki app open. As I read anything that I am curious about I just wiki as I read. It's great! I don't do much commenting on websites with it, but as a user who never had a blackberry I have no problems with the iphone keyboard for typing.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:00:11 -0000

This has been suggested by a few others and its a very good idea

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

kortina — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:54:13 -0000

I am actually writing this comment on my iPhone as an email to myself that I will post on your blog next time I am on my laptop. Here's a killer way for Disqus to implement mobile commenting. Just as you have a Reblog button from zemanta at the bottom of each post (it even seems to be in the rss feed version which I was reading, which is fantastic) there should also be a "comment via email" chicklet that opens mail on my mobile. I write my comment, it gets mailed to Disqus, and they parse out the address to figure out which blog I'm commenting on. This shouldn't be too hard since disqus already has strong email integration.

To make things even smoother for iPhone users, this: almost everywhere on the iPhone (safari, inside rss reader and other apps) there is an option to "mail a link to this page." I should be able to mail this to commentviamail@disqus.com, and, because a URL is the first line of the body of this message, disqus can use that information to determine which post my comment belongs to. This way, blog publishers don't even need the chicklet.

I have definetly been feeling this pain myself, and currently when I view a post I want to comment on, I just email myself a link and go back later to comment, but often lose my train of thought by the time I get back to it. Would love to see disqus or someone else build this. I find myself reading on my iphone more and more at home even when my laptop is in the dame room. iPhone is great for reading but still kind of sucks for writing.

(other problem with mobile commenting like this is it's hard to see the conversation / interact with other comments)

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

Dorian Benkoil — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:57:54 -0000

I agree that Apple devices (there, spelled the word right) are not open -- though Apple is more open than it used to be.

This discussion has got me thinking about the tension between open sharing and control, open source and proprietary, the tension between empowering users vs. keeping them in a specific environment in order to make a buck off them, the difficulty of supporting a product or service if it's open and not controlled and vetted.

Enjoy the Pompidou. One of my favorite things there is the escalators.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:29:06 -0000

That's why the 7 to 9" itouch is so interesting. Apple's not totally open either (lack of flash support on the iphone for example) but the safari browser on that device is a glimpse into where this is all going

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

Dorian Benkoil — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:37:19 -0000

Fred,
Interesting you say the Kindle is beyond the iPhone. One thing I very much dislike about the Kindle is how closed a system it is. While I can read on it, I can't do the kind of sharing or commenting from it you site later in your post.

Clearly, though, the larger point -- mobile reading and interacting, and devises developing toward that direction -- is valid.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

kenberger — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:25:57 -0000

and more importantly could tip the issue I addressed in my other comment here, to allow me to confidently read and write on a mobile device. The Nokia N810 tablet gave me an early taste of that.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:44:26 -0000

I included some of this in my post today, my wishes for the new year

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

pangaro — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:13:48 -0000

user goals for "text on devices" can also involve scanning, filtering, finding key items of interest, or compare-and-contrast. a modest approach is offered at http://tinyurl.com/ay5h6p; use http://tinyurl.com/8fp2pl for iPhone viewing.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

laptapos — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:54:05 -0000

Not all countries in the world have greater than 1% in internet on mobile usage. There are some countries whose citizens don't use mobile for accessing internet specially those less developed countries. But America and Europe as well as Japan and China can relate with this issue.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

haynes_dave — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:07:21 -0000

Definitely agree that we need better tools for blog reading on mobile devices. I do 90% of my blog reading on a mobile. Previously on a Nokia N95 and now on my iPhone, both times using Bloglines. I found reading and making comments next to impossible on the N95 but it's far easier on my iPhone. Yet there are still features I really need.

Easy bookmarking to remind me to read a post in full when back at a computer. This is especially the case when it's a post that has media like videos or slideshows that I can't read in the device browser.

As mentioned above, more support for rich media and flash content / videos in blog posts.

Simple and ubiquitous tools to allow me to share interesting posts and links to twitter etc.

Offline reading for when I'm on the underground or out in the countryside with bad reception.

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:56:07 -0000

Comment, tumblog, twitter, it doesn¹t really matter

As long as we are communicating

Great comment/observation

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:55:10 -0000

Yes, you are way ahead of me!

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:48:11 -0000

The new iTouch that is rumored to be coming out next fall could give kindle
a run for its money

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:23:11 -0000

I think that¹s the right call for now

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:21:13 -0000

So true

We spent a lot of time on that when we redid AVC

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:21:10 -0000

It worked it seems. Been getting reports of FB commenting working
intermittently

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

fredwilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:19:08 -0000

Well let¹s start with video and audio

The fact that the iPhone doesn¹t natively support flash is a huge issue in
my mind

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

Prakash — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:09:25 -0000

It seems that all references to consumption pertain to textual content. What about browsing through catalogues? What about browsing through content that lead to a purchase?

I think the mobile is full geared to making an impact in this area too.

Thoughts?

Re: Mobile In/Mobile Out

girishwarrier — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:07:15 -0000

That is so true; the pervasiveness of the Internet through mobile devices will cause so much reading on the fly.

I was just wondering how this compared to audiobooks. There was a point when I thought audiobooks was the way to go;reading while you are on the go. But did audiobooks really take off? It probably did not dent the hardcover copies that much.

But I guess reading small snippets and short blog entries is really convenient on your mobile device. Did'nt twitter just take micro-blogs to the wireless world.