Computing Science Roadshow: Mobile Computing

All you ever wanted to know about mobile phones and computing

What's it all about?

The mobile is about making tasks easier to do; it's about reducing the friction between actions. You can think of it along the lines of the '10 Cs of mobile' to use Tomi Ahonen's term.

Communication - using the mobile as a phone
Consumption - download content off the internet
Charging - paying for services with your mobile such as parking, movies, vending machines
Commercials - engagement marketing on the mobile, both voluntary as with Blyk, and non-voluntary
Creation - give in to creative urges at the moment of experience, because your phone is always with you
Community - share what you do with your social network of friends, family, and colleagues
Cool - fashion comes to mobile via 'must have' and blinged-out handsets
Control - determine what remote devices do for you through your phone such as check irrigation pumps in India
Contex - where you are and what you're doing with the help of GPS and Twitter
Cyber - mass market automated sensors to send you information to your mobile as seen in Leaf Sensor

Each of these is a trend that is more noticable in some places than others, with the main trends most noticable in Finland, Japan and South Korea, and then extending to other countries as needs and markets develop. Just because the potential is there, does not mean that it will appear overnight. It will take time for the products to develop, and for the network operators to provide appropriate, low-cost products for us to make use of them. Users will not use internet services on their mobiles if they are concerned about the potential cost involved. Therefore, at the moment it is only used by those, for the most part, with data contracts attached to their mobile phone contracts.

Where is it happening?

It's easy to forget that while we have moved from landlines to internet over modems and then broadband, that other people in Africa, China India and South America, have gone from few landlines to mobile and skipped out on their own phone and ignored the PC.

Some of the most advanced mobile banking applications are in Africa, not in the US or UK using services via M-Pesa and Mi-Pay, which move money and airtime between people, businesses and banks. When you think about it, this is not that surprising as most mobile phones are in less developed countries, and the people there are able to leapfrog older technology to the newest ones. Kiwanja.net has a comprehensive database of articles about the impact of mobiles in the developing world.

Farmers and fishermen also use mobiles to keep track of prices so that they know the best time to take their crops to market, and know that they are not being cheated of the best price. Others use their mobile to learn a new language. It is also part of the process of setting up supply chain networks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) just like large companies such as Tesco and the like.

In addition, while we are getting to grips with downloading music to our phones, others are creating new jobs using mobiles that enable them to feed their families. A new trend in some parts of Africa and Asia is for one person to buy a handset and to charge others to make calls on it. As the cost of the handset is so large, the woman (usually a woman does this) will take out a special type of loan and then repay that out of the proceeds from the phone calls. These can be sort of kiosk type operations, or more.

The developing world is also seeing a number of interesting aggragating services appear such as FrontlineSMS (videos), which enables NGOs to send sms to a number of peopl simultaneously as a way to report what is happening for election results, health reports, etc in Afghanistan, Kenya, Iraq, etc. There are also systems such as Movirtu being used to let people have virtual handsets which can be accessed by normal handsets without any extra systems. This is mobile for the 'bottom of the pyramid' who live on less than $2 a day, or the 'next billion' as they say.

Other projects like txteagle allow people to have an income based on small tasks that can be done via SMS, such as translation work. This is the mobile equivalent of Amazon's Mechanical Turk, which uses people to complete tasks for others.

Closer to home in the developed world the most advanced services for mobiles are in Japan and South Korea, where the networks support higher connectivity so that you can watch live TV on your mobile if you wish. We are also experiencing both more people using mobiles, as well as a better standard of mobiles being used by more people, so that, for example, it is expected that the handset, of even kids will have a camera and play music, plus maybe have Bluetooth.

How many are there?

There are a lot of mobiles out there. You can count them in different ways such as number of handsets, number of subscriptions, percentage of people in a country with mobiles, etc, but anyway you look at it, there's a lot of mobiles out there.

The global population is about 6.6bn and there are about 3.4bn mobiles in circulation for about 4bn customers. Every year another 1.15bn handsets are sold, with 15% of those being smartphones. In the first three months of 2009, Nokia sold about 14.9mn smartphones, Rim sold 7.2mn Blackberries, and Apple sold 3.9mn iphones.

You can see how many people are covered by mobile networks, compared to population density at the ITU. Select set in top left, then tick boxes for GSM and population density coverage in boxes on the right. Also make sure the 'ITU statistics' button is ticked on the far right. In the second drop-down box under ITU statistics you'll also find any overlay for percent of the population covered by mobiles.

There are, by comparison, about 1bn PCs and laptops being used globally, or one pc/laptop for every 3 mobile phones.

Who's involved in the Mobile Ecosystem?

Everyone is involved one way or another as it is easier to reach more people via SMS, or phone, than by email, or any other means because more people have mobiles, than have email accounts.

You

There is also a large variety of people involved in making applications, and in using applications for mobiles. While it is unlikely that you'll make a big hit application for mobiles that makes you a fortune, it is not impossible for you to learn to programme for your mobile, and use these skills to your advantage. The more applications you develop, then the more familiar you become with the mobile ecosystem, and the better placed you'll be when you want to find a job.

There is also nothing stopping you using your mobile as a simple portable tool to develop your other talents further.

Assuming you either develop content for the mobile (write books, publish articles in a blog, or create movies), then you just need to make sure that your content can get onto mobiles. This could be via downloads over wifi, or side-loaded via your PC over bluetooth or USB, as well as possibly via MMS or SMS direct from your mobile.

If you're developing mobile applications, then it's a bit more complicated. You need to decide whether to develop web applications that can run in any mobile browser, or whether you want your application to be deployed onto the handset. There are benefits and problems with both options.
The biggest benefit of the app on the handset, is that it doesn't need to be the same as the one on the web. It can help reduce friction.

Web Applications

On the plus side you only need to develop for the browser using any type of PC and a mobile emulator plus a way to upload your mobile friendly pages to a site, so it should not matter what kind of mobile people use to browse your site. On the downside, you need a way for people to find your application. You are also limited to getting money via ads on the page for the most part. Nor can you make the same assumptions that you can if the application is loaded from the handset.

There are also obviously a large and growing number of mobile friendly social web sites that are used, and interacted with from mobiles such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. You do not need to have a specific mobile app, just be friendly with mobiles.

iPhone Apps

In order to develop for the iphone you need a Mac and the development tools to go with this. You also need to fight for recognition amongst the other 50,000 apps that are currently available for the iPhone (June 2009). This number grows by almost 10,000 a month too, so the competition is fierce to keep your application visible and findable by people.

Java Apps

You'd think this should be easy. About 70-80% of all mobiles can run Java. However, each handset manufacturer uses different parts of the Java library, so you need to test your application on a variety of handsets, and tweak it accordingly. You can do this on Windows or Linux PCs, and then distribute your application via getjar fairly easily. Depending upon your app, you could also try to get into handset specific manufacrer application channels, such as Nokia's Ovi store, then you may need to pass various tests.

Symbian Apps

Symbian OS powers Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson handsets, although apps for one will not necesarily run in the other ones. Nokia has the biggest market here with its S40 and S60 handsets numbering in the millions. You will need to have the developer tools, and to pass various tests for your application to be added to the stores.

Google Android

This is still new and currently (June 2009) only runs on one handset, with more promised by the end of the year. You can develop on Mac, Windows and Linux and have your application added to the application store. More development tools are being released as time goes by for this.

Handset vendors

There are the usual handset vendors of Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, and Apple, plus the firms that make the handsets for the likes of Apple and others. Each of these will have a number of applications that they want to put on their handsets to differentiate themselves from the competition. They will also enter into agreements with the operators and carriers such as T-Mobile, O2, etc about producing handsets for them, and particular to specific markets.

Apple has changed this setup. It used to be that the carriers had more power than the manufacturers about what went on the handset. Now this has changed in favour of both the manufacture, and the user. It is easier for people to change what is on the handset, and to also find new applications to put on the handset.

Carriers or Operators

These are the same, the network operators, from whom you buy airtime and sign contracts. Their power lies in the handsets they carry, and the types of offers they provide. They do what they can to keep you tied to their network so that you use their services. If you can get your application to be one of their preferred ones that appears on many of their handsets, then you'll have done well. Only a small number of developers achieve this.

How big is the industry?

Big. Really, really, really big.

The global movie industry took in about $28.1bn in 2008 in box office sales. Video game sales were larger at $32bn in 2008, and DVD and Blue-Ray sales were $29bn in 2008. while music sales were only $18.42bn in 2008. That's $108bn in total for music, film, DVD and games. not a bad figure.

All of the SMS and MMS messages sent around the world at pennies per text add up. The total for mobile messaging is $130bn, which is more than movies, music and games combined. The other data you pull down your mobile: web pages browsed, and songs downloaded, adds another $70bn.

We can also look at the handsets sold ($150bn) and the network infrastructure ($50bn), and of course you may actually want to speak to someone on the phone for another $600bn.

All in all the mobile industry is worth about $1,000bn (a trillion) a year. Not bad for something you carry about in your pocket.

How do they work?

HowStuffWorks naturally has a series on cell phones, with details about the insides, the 2g and 3g networks, etc.

Wikipedia has useful information on mobile phones, and base stations, the later explaining (with useful diagram) how the mobile connects to the network and to landline phones.

How do I participate?

Use your mobile as and where it is appropriate during your day. If you're not sure what settings your phone should have then go to http://www.configuremyphone.com/ and it will help you sort them out.

You can stream live video from your mobile to others using Qik, or use Skype and IM on your mobile with Fring (videos), and set your Sky+ box Shozu to upload video and photos directly from your mobile to online sites like Flickr and YouTube. If your mobile doesn't have a data plan, but your friend's does, and you both have wifi, then she can install JoikuSpot and turn her handset into a wireless hub for you and your friends. Business types can use tools like this airline flight booking tool used by Norwegians. This is not that far-fetched and about half of all flights in Finland are done via mobile.

while away from home too. Needless to say you can also get maps on your mobile for use in navigation and geocaching, etc. You can also use tools like

Experimentally you can also use the camera in your mobile for augmented reality using Layar, or for shooting zombies, as well as other games and concepts, such as virtual tennis from Fanta, and a collection of AR ads. You can also use your 'printer as an application store' in principle.

All these long URLs are too much. There has to be an easier way. There is. Open the barcode reader application on your mobile, and point the camera on your mobile at QR code instead. If necessary, create your own QR code for others to use too.

You could also use your mobile for fun and games to baffle others with code-like messages such as these from veryoldman on Twitter. What' it all mean?

But I'm only in school...

Ok, so you don't want to do things that are connected to the network unless it's via SMS and MMS, or wifi perhaps. No problem, then you can send photos to Flickr via MMS/email, update Twitter (and Facebook) via SMS, and integrate with most blogs via SMS too so your friends still know what you're doing.

So you want to improve your guitar playing, then install a tuner like this one, or this one, on your mobile.

You can also use the tools on the mobile for your creative urges. Write a book using SMS as some have done in Japan. Five best seller books were created this way after being first released as mobile books, and one was turned into a film too. Yes, these were written by young people, for young people, and meant to be read on a mobile by their friends and others of their age.

Similary, you could also use the video and camera technology in the mobile to create movie or video projects and photography projects. If there are mobile movie film festivals, and the BBC find that the likes of Nokia N95 workable for them, then you could find similar devices suit your needs too. With help from your parents you could also probably make money on EyeVibe, as it pays you each time someone watches your video. This also works for YouTube, of course too.