Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

T-Commerce is a new -rising- market which has great potential, much is written from the developers/business point of view, products are being developed and so on.

As far as I can see, there’s a discrepancy though between demand and supply? I’ve scanned the social sphere but from the users’ point of view, I’m not seeing many conversations, hype, interest and so on.

Am I wrong? If not, due to what is it being caused?

Discuss as well via Google Wave
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That is exactly what the iPhone can be called. Of course any smartphone can be a survival guide, but the combination of created apps for the iPhone and what the iPhone has caused in the mobile industry, is what it makes advanced and suitable to be the device at all times.

An article in the New York Times sums it up perfectly with eight examples for the travel industry:
* Virtual Tour Guides
* Outdoor Enthusiasts
* Money-Saving Programs
* Cool Tools
* On the Road
* Wow Factor
* Travel Booking
* Just for Fun

Read the article for all the additional information which comes along the eight examples.
The most well-known are the Virtual Tour Guides, Wow Factor and Travel Booking applications. An Augmented Reality virtual tour guide is recently released by Lonely Planet, which also falls within the Wow Factor.
Travel Booking applications are becoming a neccesity for companies, a research by eMarketer has shown that 48% of people book last minute via mobile. Being on top of mind is increased as well with a mobile application (and strategy), getting back much quicker with that brand instead of performing new searches right away.

The travel industry has always been a frontrunner when it comes to innovation and creative applications of new opportunities.
When we combine an industry with these characteristics and the 8 key Mobile Internet themes which shows the advancements of mobile usage, the important place that location takes within travel propositions, strategies and business models, a device like the iPhone is the perfect merger and enabler.
The travel industry is adopting mobile fast-paced and exploring what the opportunities for their brand can be. Many solutions can be classified by one of the eight aforementioned examples, which all suffice one or multiple needs for the travelers.

The new survival guide is up to date, can be real-time and social, which add extra dimensions to the applications which makes the usage of them even more handy and fun.
What do you think additional applications of the mobile device in the travel industry are?

Is this the prelude of an intimate relationship between the mobile device and the morphing television?
i.TV enables users to use their iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control for televisions and other devices.

For me, two points stand out which makes this a good example of convergence and a step forward into a more interactive television experience.
First the mobile device as a remote control. It’s a quest in finding a good remote control or piece of device which will enable an easy usage of television 2.0, the iPhone could be well one of the devices which creates this possibility, people are already used to the device, the interface works well, plus that the mobile device is already carried all day through, which is an advantage because it will add new dimensions to the new way of experiencing television in this hyperconnective society.
Secondly, i.TV offers a range of features which allows people to share, recommend and write reviews on television shows. This is the Social TV component pur sang which adds the social and interactive component to watching TV.

i.TV Press release:
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The Telegraph has predicted several technology trends for 2010.

They foresee the following tech trends:

* Rise of the tablet computer (led by Apple)
* Future of on-demand TV
* Make or break for real-time stuff
* 3D TV
* Augmented reality in information and games

Most of these trend predictions are familiar to us, IPTV, real-time and Augmented Reality have been widely covered the last couple of months.
The ones I don’t foresee to rise are the tablet computer and the 3D TV.

While Apple is able to disrupt industries or technologies with their products, I’m not sure if the tablet will penetrate the market as heavily as the iPhone for instance or at least will have an impact.
Ebook readers, better and bigger smartphones are all challenges that needs to be overcome (or complement) by a device like the tablet. The device arsenal of users is growing, from notebook to smartphone and in some cases the ebook reader. At one point an all-in-one device could be wanted. Another scenario could be the adaptive nature of users which slowly shift towards devices like the ebook reader, tablet and increasingly advanced smartphones.

Looking forward to see if the 3D television will have its revolution next year, personally I think it has the same path as Social TV. There are initial developments and content providers, but the market is not ready for it yet, besides the innovators and early adaptors of course.

Augmented Reality and real-time will go hand in hand, enhancing each other’s assets:
* Real-time enhancement of reality, connecting the “offline” world with the “online” world.
* Real-time creation of a more integrated experience between those two worlds.
* Real-time enriching our surroundings with meta-data through our mobile devices.

Augmented Reality does exist already for a decade -but not before the rise of the GPS and compass enabled smartphone- this technology had a widespread attraction amongst users. Both for the Android as the iPhone, applications and browsers are being developed.
Right now, Augmented Reality is being hyped, many me-too applications which essentialy do the same. AR games which are not really AR or are not capable of delivering the expected unique experience.
This being said, Augmented Reality will diffuse the coming year, both amongst users and amongst businesses who are looking to enhance their marketing strategy or portfolio.

What are other technologies which will emerge in 2010?

Where Apple succeeded in disrupting the music industry, is it also possible to achieve the same in the TV industry?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is creating plans which could shake up the industry.

Apple is preparing itself to be a competitor of cable and satellite TV, by wanting to offer a subscription fee to users which gives them targeted networks in return (prices vary from $2 to $4), or TV episodes can be purchased, ranging from $.99 to $2.99.
This fits into the broader scope where iTunes will transform from a pure download model to a streaming model.

What do you think, will Apple be able to be a worthy competitor, or at least shake up the industry and ignite innovation?

Brightkite is deploying this kind of advertising in the US where Insqribe deploys it in Australia, read a previous post on the added value of Augmented Reality to Proximity Marketing.

It’s not only possible to see what friends around you are doing, but with the new app, advertising through Augmented Reality is displayed on your mobile screen.
The collaborative kind of Augmented Reality which is offered by Brightkite enhances the advertisements, because of the recommendations/comments by friends add a new real-time dimension to it.

This kind of advertising can be relevant and targeted, the challenge will be to enable the users to create simple filters of what kind of advertisements will be shown and which ones won’t.
These developments are next steps increasing the importance and opportunities of Location Based Services and Proximity Marketing.

You can download the Layar App from the app store here.

How do you think the amount of advertising can be regulated by the user in a easy way?
By checking boxes which specify certain verticals, or by filters, or by collaborative filtering?

Press release (part of it) on the Mobilizy website:

Lonely Planet, the world’s favorite travel company, has teamed up with mobile augmented reality pioneer Mobilizy to bring a world-class mobile AR experience to their renowned travel guides. Whether you are a seasoned traveller or fledgling explorer, Lonely Planet Compass guides provide expert recommendation and useful information to help you navigate city locations.

Lonely Planet Compass guides offer a unique augmented reality experience to extend your travel adventure with useful information about your surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the real-time camera view of your Android phone.

Looking for the ultimate guidebook? One you can slip in your pocket? Lonely Planet’s Compass Guides for Android give you interactive, personalized and fully searchable mobile access to Lonely Planet’s best-selling travel content .

Currently there are 10 Lonely Planet Compass Guides enhanced with Wikitude AR available for the Android market in the US: Boston, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle and Washington D.C. More titles are coming soon.

Features of the Lonely Planet guides enhanced with augmented reality include:

• Enabled with GPS so you can see your current location and plot itineraries on dynamic maps;

• Augmented reality camera-view to visualize data overlays of Lonely Planet recommended points of interest;
• Hundreds of listings for places of interest – bars, clubs, restaurants and more – search by category, distance, or by address and
• Helpful information on the city, its history and events and more.

Visit the website for more screenshots of the application.
Good to see an application by a brand like Lonely Planet. Their books can be augmented as well to make an offline-online connection and intertwine their channels and business models.
The content was already available by Lonely Planet, thus extending this information to the mobile digital realm was a logical move which responds to the rise of Augmented Reality.

For travelers it’s a new and interactive experience to discover their travel destinations and address to the vast amount of information digitally to enhance their knowledge.
Who knows the Lonely Planet Guides will become 2.0 due to collaborative efforts by users, and what the effect will be for the product and information quality.

Is the end of traditional marketing segmentation in sight?
The process of segmentation is being reviewed and reshaped due to the Internet and available technologies which refines it.
This article continues where we left at the Personalization, Customization, Collaboration – Future Business Trinity article.
Personalization, Customization and Collaboration are the effects and executions arising from Self-Segmentation which takes place during the strategic analysis and moulding of the organization.

Segmentation within the marketing strategy
Segmenting is the first phase within the Marketing STP process, which is followed by Targeting and Positioning.
Segmentation strategies are often derived from market researches which define segments by making use of the statistical technique called cluster analysis. The challenge can be found here when making use of cluser analysis, it’s difficult to identify the segments in the real world due to its statistical characteristics.
Even if you don’t have the resources to conduct a market research, and segmenting the market is achieved through other means, it still remain passive or static characteristics which define segments. These static characteristics can be found within the demographic, geographic and psychographic variables.

The New Consumer
Unfortunately consumers are more complex, they are dynamic, evolving and simultaneously belong to a wide range of segments. The so-called New Consumer defined by Lewis and Bridger, seeks authenticity, is individualistic, independent and well-informed. This new type of consumer could explain the decreasing output by market researches who de-segments himself by actively destroying patterns.
Besides the complex human nature, external factors like the Internet influence the decision making cycle, by enabling the consumers to morph along its online journey being constantly in touch with the available information and other people. Segmentation seen from the New Consumer point of view is becoming an obsolete term. They can’t be predicted or labeled.

Self-segmentation by participatory media
The participatory Web is the eminent medium which enhances self-segmentation due to the co-creational powers it embodies, which effects the value proposition and the value chain of the company.  Customers who are able to dynamically define themselves towards companies which advances the relationship bi-directional, is the self-evident power that the concept beholds.
Self-segmentation is successful due to the active participation by consumers, which have the goal of achieving the characteristcs of the New Consumer as described above. Next to the self-segmenting techniques which are discussed in the Personalization, Customization, Collaboration – Future Business Trinity article , I want to emphasize the important role of social networks within this context.
Consumers are segmenting themselves when participating in social networks, based upon interests, needs and so on. Based upon the interaction between each other, the different roles a person can have within communities and the content which is generated by a user, it all can be analyzed to create a self-segmented model. An important role to do this are Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools which are able to give insight within the vast amount of information which is locked in a network.

The Axiom of Self-segmentation
The initial comment made in this article, that traditional segmentation is ending, has a long way to go, precisely because the organization has to transform fundamentally in order to make fully use of self-segmentation benefits. Outsourcing the value-proposition to the consumers is a new ball-game which changes the internal structure and focus.
Next to the organizational challenges that self-segmentation brings along, impact on the evolution of the New Consumer -in relation to the Web- and of course customer behavior must be analyzed. Just because technology offers a wide range of new abilities, it does not necessarily mean that consumer behavior is changing by it in full potential. Generation Z will grasp the offered opportunities better, as these consumers are grown up by ubiquitous technology.
The advantages of self-segmentation therefore are self-evident from the marketing and technological point of perspective, self-segmentation offers definately new ways of customer satisfaction, retention and engagement.

The fact is that most consumers are not making use of the self-segmentation abilities which are offered to them, i.e. will customer behavior intrinsically change just because technology is evolving? That needs to be proven.

At least a dozen questions have been raised in the past months, about the threats and unsafe environment prevailing in social networking sites. Social networking services offers a chance to build the relationship between people having similar interests by forming a online community. But these are no exceptions for fraudsters and hackers who takes advantage of people using fake identities. Some of the famous social networking sites include facebook, bebo, twitter, technorati etc.,

Threats and Frauds:

According to a recent survey, increase in the broadband plans has increased the amount of Internet users. Also the Internet era has taken us way beyond than how we actually wanted to communicate. Emails, chat, online communities, file sharing, etc., plays a vital role both in business and personal lives. But online security has always been a question to the users since the birth of Internet. Fraudsters work faster than ethical technology aspirants to find the loop and to break the privacy of the users. Social networking sites benefits most of the users in exploring people of their interest and share their views. It also helps people to think beyond barriers like country, religion, education and other qualifications. But tracking the identity of the partners is definitely a tough task. Not more than 10% of the users would be techie enough to find who his/her partners really are? Fraudsters creates a fake profile and exhibits false information of name, place, age, gender, status and much more and make other innocent users especially children as their victims.

Security measures:

Internet packages like mobile broadband and other wireless services has given more opportunity for teens and children to communicate in private, which can back fire if they are not smart enough to identify other users intention. These issues have been reported to the people managing the social networking sites. They have been insisted to come up with better tracking system to identify fake profiles created with the intention of spam marketing and other online frauds. Also to help protect children if they fear some ones intention, Bebo has initiated a child help button which will be redirected to get a local police officers help in case of any abuse or fear. Moreover companies are also insisted to increase the privacy settings and also provide child locking in these sites.

Secure yourself and your children:

All users are strongly recommended to sign up any social networking site only after knowing the use of the site and reading the terms and conditions. Its important that parents monitor the usage of the Internet periodically. Its important that we educate the children in using the social networking sites and let them know the level of safety available in these kind of networks. Sharing of photographs should be limited only to well know users. Other private information and financial identities should be strictly avoided. Despite of the government and broadband providers efforts to avoid Cyber crime, users should update themselves with all security essentials.

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This article is a guest post by Broadbandsuppliers.co.uk and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Agora Media Group editorial staff.
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