Virtual Home of
Russell Eagling
www.russelleagling.com
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Virtual Home of
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QuestionsBelow is a series of topic areas and questions that will form the basis of my research for this project. Ringtone chartsRingtone sales overtook the sale of singles in 2003. Whilst single sales have declined dramatically, the fact that ringtone sales are now a more significant portion of the market shows that there are many people capable and willing to use their mobile phones to more than make calls. It should be noted though that this success story from selling services through phones, is intimately connected with the basic purpose of the phone. That is to say that once a ringtone has been downloaded, one has to receive a call in order to hear it. What are the demographics of people downloading ringtones? To what extent have the social aspects of groups and peer pressure accelerated the success of these kinds of services amongst the young? Could similar circumstances be created amongst other groups, or amongst the same group for different services. http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,10005561,00.htm http://www.netimperative.com/2005/04/06/Ringtones_sales http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7948-1132642,00.html http://www.massive.co.uk/resources/news/fullstory/uk-ringtone-market-150m/ http://www.mobileyouth.org/news/mobileyouth1492.html Texting in AmericaThe popularity of SMS in Europe and Asia was for a long time far ahead of there popularity in Europe. What were the technical, social, marketing and cultural reasons behind the boom in SMS use in Europe and Asia? What were the technical, social, marketing and cultural reasons why the growth of SMS in America was much slower? What do these factors tell us about why some products are successful in different markets? http://www.ewirelessnews.com/StoreProducts/3/38/visiongain/vg/np-1/Messaging-Report-2002/toc http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/jul04/07-08FlirtingPR.asp http://www.allbusiness.com/articles/SalesMarketing/3927-26-1787.html http://www.e-consultancy.com/newsfeatures/360338/the-growth-of-sms-in-the-us.html Flash LiteFlash Lite is available to 8 million users in Japan. Nokia signed an agreement with Macromedia to integrate Flash Lite with their future devices. Macromedia proclaim that this will make it easier for developers to create content with the same flexibility that is currently associated with Macromedia Flash Player. Will this lead to a boom in services created for mobile phones? Will people make more use of services delivered on mobile phones when Flash Lite is installed on their phones What is the experience in Japan? Will Flash Lite get around some of the access and compatability problems associated with the hundreds of competing screen sizes, resolutions and platforms that comsumers use. http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/logged_in/tevans_nokia.html http://www.macromedia.com/mobile http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008048.html Carrying the ipodFor many the ipod is the style icon of our time. Sleek and stylish, capacious but quite limited. Should developers rejoice that people use and carry with them sophisticated technology, or weep that they choose to buy a separate consumer item with them and eschew their phones? The ipod has turned many onto paying for music downloads where previously many either pirated their work or simply stuck to their existing music collection. What are the lessons for Mobile Phone developers? http://www.academictermpapers.com/abstracts/15000/15907.html http://www.ryerson.ca/portable/text_content/Conf_prog_abstracts.html#education http://www.academicresearchpapers.com/abstracts/17000/17216.html Mobile and PDA technologies and their future use in education MTV and SkyWhilst putting together this project proposal I had an informal meeting with Alec Hendry, Interactive Operations Manager for MTV Europe. I was shown the latest project they were about to, and have now launched. Users can use their red button to register their preference about which song they want to hear next. Once they have submitted their information the request is logged by the central system which moves the item up the playlist database and sends a message back to the client with details of the next few times that song is scheduled to be player. Here are a few points from our meeting. • MTV uses a program called In-Sequence to program its interactive content. This program has a similar look and feel to director. • They regard SMS communication as an important form of interaction which their audience are familiar with and have confidence in. Mobile communication and Interactive TV are both part of the same department and seen to feed off each other. • MTV has an established history with interactive TV stretching back at least to the 2001 MTV music awards which allowed views to vote in the nominated categories and even vote during the live transmission of the “Best Live Act” category. • Whilst MTV produce content for mobile phones, the sheer number of competing resolutions, screen sizes, platforms and manufacturers make this a frustrating process. They are looking forward to the growing availability of Flash Lite, but realise that this is some way off. • MTV produce interactive content for 4 reasons:-
They are keen to support me in any work I decide to do with Interactive TV. Defining InteractiveCall-in programmes, Telethons, Teletext, or texting your comments to Question Time have all been described as forms of interactive TV. Where does one draw the line? Is the majority of “interactive TV” currently available really only offer extended channel hopping? Development of interactive TV and Internet-based learning services to the home and its impact on traditional and distance learning institutions http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/questions/interactive.shtml Information Systems in the Living Room: A Case Study of Personalized Interactive TV Design Can interactive digital television bridge the 'digital divide'? TeletextAn early form of interactive TV. Although we now consider it simple to use, what did people at the time of its initial launch? Teletext was never successful in America. Are there connections here with the slow take-up of SMS messaging? How does use of interactive TV services now compare with use of teletext a similar time after its launch in the Social PatternsWhen is it socially acceptable to use a mobile phone. Are young people more likely to spend their money on mobile downloads because it is socially acceptable behaviour to do with friends, but not so with older people? Or has the act of downloading regularly made the act socially acceptable?
Different worlds? A comparison of young people's home and school ICT use |
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Launched on December 25th 2003 |
