Mobile devices as an extension of social software

I know everyone has been talking about Goobe and the coming storm of mobile media content from social web-sites such as MySpace. I believe that mobile devices offer just another distribution platform for these players - they do not intend to take the mobile into the era of social software.

Here’s what I mean by this - Very few companies are investing in figuring out how mobile devices can be used to increase the level of interaction within a community or within your own personal social space. Traditionally, we all use our mobile devices to stay connected, wired (pardon the pun) into our social space - our friends, family, work etc, in a sense the mobile device is an extension of our social connections - we use the device to remain accessible within our social context. But, what we are seeing today in the new mobile era is a lack of appreciation for what these devices are meant to do with regards to this overarching social goal.

Some of the work done in this area by upstarts such as dodgeball and others is interesting but I think the proliferation of GPS enabled and/or LBS aware mobile devices will set the stage for socially aware mobile software like the kinds we haven’t seen yet. The possibilities to make mobile applications that can take cues from formal and informal interactions between nearby users or users within your social context will make mobile interaction more real.

In the Japenese mobile market, attempts to integrate socially aware applications into devices have been introduced since the late 1990’s with an especially popular application being Lovegety which was not really device agnostic but did introduce some of the concepts articulated above way ahead of its times. This application had quite literally become a craze with the teeny-boppers and other off-shoots have proved to be popular aswell. The dating game is quite literally the hub of the social interaction for teens hence the sky-rocketing adoption rates of such services, however, there is a social meme that can be propogated using the mobile device as the fulcrum and convergent technologies like EVDO, LBS and GPS ready phones can spawn new ideas that will make our lives easier - It’s not that far away - really!

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