Infoworld is reporting Microsoft announced at DemoMobile that they have come up with the killer application for mobile: Location.
I laughed maniacally when I read this. Its not that Microsoft is wrong. They are quite right. I laughed because I had to wonder "what took everyone so long?!?" Is it so hard to fathom that location would be a crucial factor in mobile data services?
I worked for a company that did some consulting on mobile back when it was the next big thing. It became abundantly clear then that, as they say in the real estate business, it was all about "location, location, location." Despite names like the "wireless web", mobile Internet services are used in a very different context then from a desk with a full keyboard and large color screen. The user's environment necessitates the need for short, time sensitive location-based chunk of information. Mobile users do not surf.
Over two years ago I visited Seattle for the first time. Armed with my then new Blackberry 957 and with a WAP browser I was walking around with a colleague looking for a place to eat. Being enthralled with the power of mobile, I pulled out my device and went into 10best.com's mobile service to find a seafood restaurant. Dozens of clicks and 40 minutes later we found a place almost by dumb luck. I had to navigate through several levels, (Portal menu to 10best menu to Seattle to restaurant to seafood etc.) and manually scan each listing to make a determination. Besides being laborious, I was never in Seattle before and didn't know where most of these locations where relative to where I was standing. I never tried that again.
When asked by clients if they should build mobile app X, we would advise "only if it is better and more convenient then other options." With this understanding mobile applications location because the differentiating factor from mediums like the desktop. This makes location a near requirement to good mobile applications.
In all fairness, I do have some sense of what took so long. Determining location of a mobile user is difficult. Global Position Systems (GPS) requires too much power. Cell-tower triangulation can be highly inaccurate especially in big cities such as New York where signals ricochet off buildings. Determining location also requires the roll out of additional equipment. I am of the opinion that location was more important to mobile data adoption then 2.5G and 3G bandwidth and that the telcos place their efforts in the wrong place.
Going back to my trip to Seattle, ideally I should have only had to select restaurant recommendation and perhaps the type, seafood. I should have then received a list of 3 or 4 of the closest right away because the application new I was in Seattle standing near the Pike Place Fish Market. My personal killer app when I did a lot of business travel would have been a service like this for locating the nearest Starbucks. One click and "Here is the closet Starbucks. Do you want directions?"
In another astounding revelation, CNET is noting that "Push technology is finding redemption in millions of cell phones." What is this push technology? SMS and always-on wireless email. (I developed a homespun solution with Blagg that pushes news excerpts to my device periodically throughout the day. It took me less then an hour to setup.) Once again this makes a lot of sense, but I am astonished at how long it's taken the industry to get it right.
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