Future of Mobile: Next Generation UI

by Matt Millar (Adobe)

• How do we make the content richer?
  • Especially for those people who are paying more for their device/contract
• 77% of iPhone users said they were "very satisfied" with their device
  • Highest satisfaction level for any mobile device

• The experience should be expressive, memorable and desirable

  • "Hey, isn't this great! Let me show it to you."
• Expecting same quality of content as get on TV, PC, etc
  • The mobile is not the only way to get hold of (your) content
• Animation helps guide and draw the eye towards things of interest
• Transitions help ease context switches, avoid users losing focus

• FlashLite 3 will be coming out on first devices Jan/Feb 2008

  • Supports video & up to Flash Player 8 content

  • Most content published on the web seems to be Flash Player 7 & 8

• Not investing that much in SVG -- going for Flash instead
• Integration with address book etc: nothing announced at the moment, but may be privately
• Touch interaction is supported with Flash Lite 2 but devices do not necessarily support the hooks (even the ones with a touch interface...)
  • e.g. LG Prada has a touch-enabled Flash Lite player
• There are more Nokia S60 devices in the market than there are Macs

Future of Mobile: Cracking the Code: Developing for Mobile Devices

by Luca Passani (Admob)

• Original web -- started without thinking about money
• When companies started to monetize, they weren't able to muck with the basic standards
• On the mobile web, companies are trying to monetize before the technology is solid

  • e.g. Vodafone & Novarra "breaking the underlying technology"

• W3C denying the issue is there (One-Web)
• WURFL updating process is a bit heavy to manage
  • 6Mb file, hand-edited by Luca
• Building new public interface to WURFL
• Enables users with accounts to add patches and download updated version on the fly
• Luca can then merge in changes more easily

• Other WURFL sub-communities: J2ME, Flash Lite & Video

  • http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wurflj2me/

  • http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wurflvideo/

  • http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wurflflashlite/

• WALL:
  • created in 2004 and looks it
  • new version WALL NG (WNG) allows css to degrade gracefully

  • object model with Java API & tag lib, integrates with JSTL

  • levels: XHTML advanced (level 3 or 4), XHTML simple (level 1 or 2) & WML (level -1 or 0)

    • only 5% of devices accessing mobile web are WML only
    • level 3 assumes no AJAX, level 4 supports AJAX
    • company working on AJAX for mobile that Luca intends to work with

Future of Mobile: How the iPhone Will Change the Mobile Space

by Brian Fling (Blue Flavor)

• Jason Devitt - Testimony before congress about operator anti-competitiveness

• Uses video iPod as babysitting device for his daughter when out at a restaurant
• iPhone is educating the consumer about what a mobile device can do
  • Nokia is happy that iPhone is encouraging web use as it helps sell higher-end Nokias
  • Introducing flat rate data
  • Has updatable software (and is easily updatable)

  • Makes difference between EDGE & Wifi clear - encourages users to demand better speed from networks

  • Big impact on web communities (introducing them to mobile)

• Leaflets: http://getleaflets.com

  • Reformatter from RSS to make look good on the iPhone
  • Also has a list of other iPhone apps
• Daniel Applequist's daughter was able to enter a URL
  • She doesn't even know her letters -- doesn't know what URL to type
  • How many times have we complained of how hard it is to type in a URL on a phone

  • But if people spend $300 for a handset, they expect it to be unlocked

Future of Mobile: Android and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA)

by Dave Burke (Google)

Software development kit released on Monday: http://code.google.com/android/documentation.html

• Exposes Java for application developers -- SDK is based on Eclipse (works on Windows, Mac & Linux)

• Free phone stack provides at least 10% reduction of bill of materials for device
• Applications run as individual Linux processes with different user ids
• Complete two-way sync for user data (google gears?)
• Leveraging open APIs to expose application functionality

• Scalable to work with different device capabilities & input

• Component-based -- user can replace components
  • e.g.
• Overall architecture:

  • has freetype, media framework, SGL, OpenGL, LibWebCore (part of WebKit) libraries

  • Java runs in Dalvik Java VM
  • Four core apps: home, dialer, contacts, browser (can all be swapped out)
  • Can run MIDP applications in parallel
• Full source will be released with first handset
• Browser has visual history
• Can use Google Maps as a control in your own applications
• Example development process:
  • Emulator is real ARM emulator
  • Can create user interface declaratively using XML
  • Plugin picks up ids from UI XML and makes them available in java code completion
  • Can extend javascript in running browser component with native Java code
  • manifest file has permissions where can add security permissions
• Application Developer Challenge will distribute $10 million in awards to developers of applications for the platform
  • Developers retain all intellectual property and other rights to their applications while granting Google a license to evaluate and test the application for purposes of the Challenge as well as a license to display the application to promote the Android platform. More information will be provided when we make the Terms and Conditions available

• Android has simpler security system (for the user) than MIDP -- need details here

• Already works with real handsets but not available to public

• WebKit engine supports Netscape-style plugins

• Released under Apache license at the moment
• Designed for high-end platforms that include an MMU
• Own set of APIs providing full access to the device as opposed to MIDP
• Java is 1.5 so has generics etc.

Future of Mobile: How Devices Will Evolve

by Simon Rockman (Sony Ericsson)

• His job is understanding what people will want to do with their cheaper phones in the next couple of years

• T68 hit the market right -- introduced colour & Bluetooth at the right time

• Technologies take about 3-5 years from introduction to mass adoption
• When WAP failed, WAP-Push succeeded
• Therefore spotting the next big thing is not coming up with new ideas, but working out what will work
• Don't think that UMA (home/mobile together) will take off
  • e.g. when BT has tried to sell DECT phones that look like mobile phones, they haven't sold
• Difference between listening to what people want and understanding what people want
  • Nokia 5100 huge success in India cos it has a torch vs Motorola rugged motophone
  • Painting a Razor pink way outsold new 3G Nokias in Xmas 2005
• What will win is building phones for what things they want to do

  • e.g. new TomTom navigator has a SIM

  • 60% of Blackberry users have a voice phone
  • 100% penetration is not the limit -- probably 5-6 phones each
  • Currently 2 billion devices, but really 2 billion SIMs -- can get larger
• Simon thinks fragmentation is a good thing, as it meets the demand for the multiple needs of each person
• When building millions of phones, the thing that drives down cost is cheaper or omitting components
  • "Software can be more expensive as need to ensure platform passes tests"
  • Cheaper and better for developers to keep the platform stable
• People accept larger bills by separating out into different categories
  • e.g. my music bill, my messaging bill and my voice bill

Future of Mobile: Beyond WAP: Advance Browsing, Mobile Ajax, and the future of the Web

by Daniel Appelquist (Vodafone)

• Voda are pushing forward on xHTML Reunification
  • XHTML Basic (W3C) vs XHTML-MP (Open Mobile Alliance, ex-WAP Forum)
• Participating in W3C Ubiquitous Web working group
• "In 5 years time, there will be only one web, and it will be the mobile web"
• W3C has launched mobileOK from today
  • Tests plus open source java reference implementation for local checking

• Mobile AJAX Workshop from Sep 2007: http://www.w3.org/2007/06/mobile-ajax/report.html

• DOJO has refactored itself and shrunk down to target iPhone and Nokia S60 browser
  • A lot of the bulk in DOJO was dealing with IE6, taking it out made the lib much smaller
• Device access vs. security
• SVG tiny 1.2 includes AJAX capabilities
  • e.g. Vodafone Germany - Bundesliga SVGt app running in Ikivo player
  • will move to be integrated within the browser
• WICD - Web Integration Compound Document

  • Mandates XmlHttpRequest

  • Details http://www.w3.org/2004/CDF/

Future of Mobile: Discovery & Off Portal Search

by Steve Page (Mobile Commerce)

• Discovery & off portal search

• Currently provide local search & travel information on all mobile networks

• Mobile Commerce are tech partner with yahoo for Orange off-portal search
  • Social networking sites are very much at the top
• UK: 25 million searches a month
  • 3 times as many search requests coming from Google than from Yahoo
  • But three times as many click throughs coming from Yahoo
• Vodafone contacted them and said moving to ad-supported, so they started setting up off-portal sites intending them to be found by search

• WAP & Web backfill -- free discovery (see below)

• Google mobile search is appalling
  • Not enough searches
  • Nobody goes down to click more
  • None of the mobile sites are linked to each other
• However, finally got some stuff to the top on google mobile search
  • Spent about 8 months working out their findability

  • it's free!

  • Findability:
    • Personal contact at Yahoo very useful

    • Google ranks WML above XHTML -- mime types & DTDs really important

    • Need to submit site map & wait for crawl

    • Google uses Nokia 6220 as user agent -- weird device
    • Need to permit bots through robots.txt

• Really good slide on discovery prioritisation for mobile operator portals

Future of Mobile: PayForIt

by Guillaume Peersman (Dialogue)

• PayForIt

• About 7 APIs (intermediaries) available
• Moving to max £10 soon
• Fourth release is due soon
• Typical implementation time seen at Dialogue: 3 days
• Stats so far:
  • Some services have seen increased 27% conversion rate
  • 13% of users go to payment page and cancel
  • failures around 7% on average
• Subscription services
  • Confidence increasing due to trusted framework

• Clients: NewsCorp

• WAP billing only available on Orange, 3 & Voda at the moment