Social Networking on Mobile..and more
Social networking on Mobile has already hit a high. Its interesting to see startups like Dodgeball (now Google's) , Zyb as well as mainstream online networking sites like Facebook, MySpace are making their way to mobiles. Whereas web-apps have taken ad-hoc networking to a next level, it has to be in mobile space where realtime and localised networking can grow. Someone's stuck in the traffic jam of Hosur Road (Bangalore) and loooking for a VoIP chit-chat, or just idling in Zoo Park looking for an enthuastic group to have better time, or probably looking for a friend nearby to have cup of tea by knowing their positions using GPS, all this is quite possible using present technologies. Even Indian Railways can be a good use case in India, as its the largest carrier of passengers in India. People frequently take long trips of over 24hrs, with not much activities to engage themselves. With useful networking opportunities, probably youngsters and amateurs may benefit and utilise the idle time. Long flight travels and waiting hours on airports can also be utilised in similar fashion. Besides, mobiles excel in their realtime networking due to their fakeless presence and unique identity. If I have set of mobile contacts and email contacts, I know mobile ones are more real and more responsive than my email ones. The fact that most mobile service providers have services inside a country makes it more localised and hence more suitable for this.
But that's not the end, mobiles have lot more to offer..
As I said, Mobiles have a lot more to offer against webapps, besides exclusive mobile applications. A simple message based subscription and transaction can be effectively used as alternative to simpler web interactions. Take the case of orkut : responding to friend requests, sending scraps, rating friends, voting in communities etc. is easier done on mobiles than desktops/laptops. However, the applications should refrain from asking customers for large pool of data, like reviews or document building or lengthier reading over mobiles, as it isnt the best (read comfortable) device for that.
On a heavier note, all this new shift looks somewhatfamiliar to me, that is, the nature of applications built and the way they are consumed. Initially internet stole some of distributed but lightweight apps from desktops, like emails. Today, some sites offer even windows like desktop pages on web! Mainstream desktop apps like office is in common use now. On a similar note, mobiles are doing the same but to both internet apps and desktops. As mobiles are easier to carry and simpler to operate, lightweight apps wrt both complexity of application and usage of resources can become popular here. The lightness of web application refers to the nature of services offered and simplicity of interactions, where the attack is on the web platform. The lightness of resources required, like space, computation, database etc attacks on the usage of heavy browser, hence the need of a desktop. Not to wonder, as the wireless data width and mobile computation power rises with time, the replacement can be sizeable in future.
Probably web2.0 apps can gear up to become light enough to push their usage on mobiles. Be it assistive or a fuller application, it can only boast their revenues, given the huge mobile subscription factor in any part of the world.
