MobileCamp Boston 2011

I attended MobileCamp Boston at MIT today and I wanted to share some of the trends I heard from lecturers and attendees.

Across the board everyone agrees that Mobile web is the most important part of any campaign. This means that advertisers need to have mobile sites specially designed for the fingers, smaller screens and touch before creating apps. More People use the web on mobile devices than use apps. Apps are expensive to create for all platforms. App usage diminishes greatly over time while web usage does not.

There is a very big HTML5 push going on that will help the Mobile web catch up to the capabilities of apps. I was surprised to find the advances in HTML5 support and capability. Geo Location, accelerometer, touch are some of the specific mobile features that browsers are now supporting with HTML5. There is still lots of functionality missing that a mobile browser can not do that an app can do but within the next 2 years they should be more evenly matched. This repeats the history of the desktop app vs the browser. Initially it was all about desktop applications and now everything is about web based apps. The same is happening in mobile.

Mobile advertising should not be used as people have thought in the past. You get a pop up coupon on your phone as you pass by a store. That is just too intrusive. Mobile should be used as a way to allow customers to find more information about your products, facilitate purchase, research, coupons, discounts. Ultimately Mobile should be another channel for your customers to have access to your products & information. The mantra of mobile is the ability to close the loop and profile behavior, not shell out intrusive ads.

Mobile can create an experience that will make your brand or product memorable. Features that help customers on the go make more informed decisions and find what they are looking for faster are what is going to cultivate a growing user base and repeat sales.

There where lots of technologies that came up that will help with the fragmentation of platforms, new features, and wow products. I wont bore you with the techno talk but one worth mentioning is Google goggles which will essentially replace Qr-codes. The jest of it is you take a picture of something and more information pops up about what you took a picture of. The demo was impressive.

It was exciting to mingle amongst a savvy mobile crowd and interact directly with experts in the field. I hope you found my notes helpful. Interested in hearing more? Reach out via twitter @victorjuri