Gartenberg: the 'killer app' for mobility isn't an app at all

It's all about circumstances and setting

By John Cox on Mon, 02/08/10 - 2:51pm.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the "killer app" for mobility. Because there isn't one, according to tech pundit Michael Gartenberg.

Instead, what's critical is particularity: the specific requirements and interests of a particular user at a particular time in a particular place. The one-word summary is: context.

[HT to prolific tweeter Todd Smith (@Cisco_Mobile)]

The core of Gartenberg's brief commentary is this: "Today, the mobile space is connected, and that makes it quite unique: it's neither home or work, work nor play. Your context shifts rapidly depending on what you're doing, where you are, and what devices or devices you may be carrying -- in our age of digital ubiquity, you can access the relevant information, either personal or professional, wherever you are, on whatever screen you choose. Delivering the contextual information users need, when they need it, is what's critical -- not any particular application or service."

It's probably not an entirely original insight, but it did highlight some things I've been wondering about. Back in 2005, I looked at how the rise of Web services could simplify mobile computing, essentially by letting mobile devices easily access complex backend applications, services and data, where all the heavy lifting could be done.

That basic idea has currently evolving in front of our eyes in the form of cloud-based services for mobility, location data and direction, and possibly client virtualization services.

ABI Research predicted last Fall that mobile cloud users will soar from 42.8 million subscribers in 2008, (approximately 1.1% of all mobile subscribers) to just over 998 million in 2014 (nearly 19%).

Cloud computing, location, and virtualization are not, by themselves, what Gartenberg means by "context." But they seem essential to creating context and leveraging it on behalf of mobile users and mobile enterprises.

The rise of mobile "augmented reality" is an example, though much of it is being squandered at this point on novelty: the location and orientation/direction of a given user makes it possible to feed him additional data about his surroundings, such as the nearest ATM or subway entrance.

Both Palm and more recently Google are contextualizing the user experience for their mobile operating systems, respectively webOS and Android. When Palm first announced the Palm Pre smartphone a year, with webOS, it featured a program called Synergy, which creates a single, integrated means of tracking and organizing multiple calendars, contacts and messaging applications that can live online or on the phone. The messaging application combines SMS text messaging and instant messaging, creating threaded conversations that span both.

My impression is that Apple hasn't done this as well so far. The iTunes/App Store service comes closest in terms of a contextualized, if closed, online service. But in a sense the proliferation of native iPhone apps is a kind of do-it-yourself contextulization: iPhone users select very specific, often narrowly focused apps ("There's an app for that..and that, and that and that"), which let them, in effect, create their own specific, self-centered context.

I don't think that's going to be enough, at some point at least. But I admit I'm not sure what "enough" will prove to be.