Mobile-related technologies for the past week, in 3 (or almost) words: Mobile World, Geofencing, Quick Search

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THE WEEK IN 3 WORDS

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WEEK #28

3. MOBILE WORLD
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The world will definitely be mobile in 2015.
A study by Gartner, published on July 7th, estimates that there will be more
tablet sales than PC sales as soon as in 2015.
Tablets answer better than desktop PCs or laptops most end-users’ needs,
especially at home: a survey by ExactTarget* shows that tablets are mostly
used for emails, online searches, watching video, reading and as a companion
to a smartphone. But tablets success is really due to their user experience:
even is users don’t consider a tablet is “mobile”, they can use it wherever they
want at home, and in a manner that is more comfortable than a laptop.
(*) http://www.exacttarget.com/sites/exacttarget/files/deliverables/etmc-2014mobilebehaviorreport.pdf

5. GEOFENCING
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The capacity of interacting with a mobile phone through Bluetooth Low
Energy technology and with “beacons” (indoor devices that can
communicate with mobile applications) is the future, according to ABI
Research*, which estimates that 60 millions of such devices will be
shipped as of 2019.
Beacons will be used by retailers in their stores, as they mostly are
today, but not only. The possibilities are numerous, since the
technology is very flexible in what it allows to communicate to mobile
applications: enterprises or public buildings can leverage such devices
as well to give users very specific information.
There are tow most obvious advantages that can explain this bright
future for beacons: they are cheap (around $30) and they are local
(delivered information can be very precise). The counterpart is a
potential user privacy threat… but let’s bet users, in 5 years from now,
will be more vigilant!(*) http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140708006124/en/iBeaconBLE-Beacon-Shipments-Break-60-Million-2019#.U70u

7. QUICK SEARCH
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At the Wearables Technology Conference in San Francisco, the former head of
Google Glass, Babak Parviz, stated that they were designed to reduce the time
it takes to search for information. (A search on a smartphone takes around 10
seconds in average.) Mr Parviz added that Google Glass is only the first step of
this objective.
But is Google targeting the right objective? Of course, Google
succeeded thanks to its search engine, which still is its main source
of revenue (through adwords). But Google’s share in mobile Internet search ad
is dropping (see W3W WEEK#25), because users do not search with their
mobile the way they search on desktop PC.
Google may be missing the point and aiming to the wrong direction: it is not
really a matter a making Google search faster and more convenient, it is much
more about redefining search according to users’ behaviors on mobile devices.