Posts Tagged "Social Networks"

Augmented reality is moving fast from a novel form of Smartphone interactivity to a killer application as demonstrated in this article today on MobileMarketer.com.

Few marketers would argue with the value of giving customers the ability to use their mobile devices as literal gateways into all their business has to offer, and that is exactly what a company called GeoVector has done via an application called World Surfer, available for the iPhone and Android platforms.

“With its technology, GeoVector can attach any type of data to a place on Earth or via latitude and longitude coordinates.”

This capability has the potential to transform any storefront type business into a “mobile business,” by connecting a store with its customers and customers with relevant advertising messages.  The possible applications are endless, as noted in the article, yet all of this rich interactivity is designed to encourage commerce on a level unheard of before.

Static signage, hoped for brand awareness, billboards and the Yellow pages will no longer matter once every business is represented in a database such as GeoVector’s.  Customers will still need to opt into this environment.  But applications like GeoVector will facilitate and manage consumer “commerce networks,” ironically an idea I blogged about after seeing Motorola’s Cliq and its focus on social networks.

The real killer app will be the one that seamlessly blends the social and commerce side of the mobile customer experience.  It’s also important to note that this is ultimately about data.  While the application layer is not entirely an incidental piece of the puzzle, a focus on data ensures a company like GeoVector can take its value proposition to any kind of device in the future.

This evening I attended the Chicago gathering of Mobile Monday, a local networking group dedicated to mobile technology.  The meeting was held at Motorola’s downtown Chicago offices where Moto representative presented their latest device, the “socially aware” Cliq.

In case you haven’t heard of the Cliq, it is Motorola’s first handset based on Google’s Android platform and features an exclusive feature called “Blur” which provides users access to unique views of updates to social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.  This capability seems to be the device’s defining characteristic, if not just a marketing focus to take advantage of current social networking trends.

The focus of the presentation was on how Motorola developed the device, which resulted after a yearlong effort involving a lot of research and design.   The choice of Android was a topic of certain questions, in one case relative to Windows Mobile.

It is interesting that unlike Microsoft, Google is being far more flexible in how device makers can unbundle the included applications to create unique experiences targeting a particular user demographic.

For example, a Moto developer cited the contacts database in Android as having a customized implementation on the Cliq but that the data itself is a foundation that non-Moto apps could access should they need to.  It’s a level of openness that Microsoft hasn’t shown in the past, wanting instead to probably be the definition of the user experience, with the device makers relegated to commodity players.  Smart move it would seem on Google’s part.

While the demo showed how a user didn’t have to log into separate social networking accounts to enable the Blur experience, I immediately thought how similarly people might manage their “Commerce Networks” – the interactions consumers have with various advertisers and brands as part of a commerce relationship (loyalty programs, discounts, coupons, alerts, etc.).   Instead of Blur, they could call it Buy.

It would seem an opportunity exists for this “single sign on” approach to helping consumers manage their purchase centric relationships via mobile device and incorporate emerging technologies like location awareness and augmented reality.  As long as consumers had control over their preferences, this would be mutually beneficial.