Connecting with modu

Our earth hosts 7 billion people and 3.8 billion active mobile phones.  Most of us upgrade our device every couple of years.  Each of us engages in a different personal relationship with our handheld. 

My parents regard it as a phone they carry in their pocket, plain and simple.  My co-workers write messages on their mobile device, and use it to manage their calendars. I use it to read the news. Generation Y and cultures in the Far East use it heavily for rich media, music, games, digital payments, infotainment and entertainment.  We can only begin to imagine how Generation Z will integrate the telecom gadgets of the future into their lives. 

Together with you, every month or two I will use this blog as a platform to explore global, local and glocal trends in the mobile space. 

We will take a look at various aspects of cell phone usage, including:

·         Countries and People: Cell phones in much of the West have penetrated over 100% of potential users.  Less developed locales often rely on mobile networks more than land lines, adding millions of new cellular subscribers monthly.  The average age of people using mobile devices decreases daily.  Who and where are the end users?  How are they changing?

·         Cell Phones and Mobile Media: Is the mobile phone on its way to becoming our personal television set?  Will advertisers soon recognize the mobile phone as the next Internet?

·         Cell Phones and Entertainment:  Music, movies, books, news items, games, social interaction, hospitality and sports.    How can the mobile phone further enhance the way we inform and entertain ourselves, and enjoy leisurely activities? 

·         Cell Phones and Transportation:  Can your cell phone drive your car?  Manage your use of public transportation?  Encourage you to walk? Tell you where to go?

 ·         Cell Phones and Electronic Payments:  Will I be able to leave my wallet at home, empty, and migrate my plastic cards to my phone?  Will I use it to pay merchants and peers, withdraw money from an ATM, conduct my personal business?  Will I receive shopping incentives on this electronic wallet?

·         Cell Phones and Personalized Software:  Some mobile platforms already allow users to choose from thousands of software applications.  How far will that go?  

·         Cell Phones and Personalized Hardware:  Will the trend towards personalized software extend to the shape, look, feel and hardware specs of each person’s device?  Like genomics, which seek to customize medicines to each patient’s genetic code, will mobile phone manufacturers do the same to suit their end users’ preferences?

·         Cell Phones and Human Behavior:  Will the features in your phone change the way you go about your life?  And how will your daily habits impact the design of cell phones of the future?

·        Cell Phones and Humanity:  Can mobile phones fight world poverty?  Some people think so.  And how can we minimize their harm to our environment?

 ·         Cell Phones and Ice Cream:  Can our mobile phone feed us ice cream?  Or replace our schools?  Or decide how to furnish our houses?  What outrageous concepts, currently unfathomable, could become the cell phone feature of the day a few short years from now?

·         Cell Phones and Medicine:  Will you carry your medical records in your phone?

·         Making Money: On each of these topics, can mobile network operators and device manufacturers deliver enough value to end users to create sustainable, profitable business models? 

Discover new directions in the mobile world.  Share your thoughts.  Perhaps we can start a new mobile trend or two of our own. 

Oded Salomy

Director of Corporate Development, modu^TM

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