According to MITs Technology Review, most of the companies working on these wearable head mounted displays started out building systems for the military. My interest in wearable devices is centered around consumer products for recreation and leisure time, however it’s fascinating to see some of these companies building innovative communication products for industries like aviation and hospitality first, in order to generate enough revenue and research to get themselves into the consumer market.

RECON INSTRUMENTS

One of my favorite applications for wearable displays is used for augmented reality while participating in snow and dirt sports like snowboarding and dirt biking. Recon Instruments makes micro optic displays that are are completely non-obtrusive for front and peripheral vision and provide real-time information on speed, jump analytics, distance, temperature and much more. Recon’s MOD Live GPS micro optic displays snap into Recon-ready goggles and connect to Android devices (iOS coming soon) via Bluetooth. They just recently partnered with with Smith Optics and Scott sports so I’m expecting we’ll start seeing more of these on the slopes quite soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

ZEAL OPTICS

A fellow MCDM student, Derek Walker, recently posted a video of another goggle device for snow and dirt sports that records video, takes pictures and has an in-goggle viewfinder. These won’t be available for another year, but I really like the way they’ve integrated a head mounted camera.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info: http://business.transworld.net/84405/news/zeal-optics-launches-ion-goggle-at-outdoor-retailer/

LUMUS OPTICAL

“Offering a new way of living, working, communicating and viewing content (including Internet, movies, TV and video games) anywhere and anytime, Lumus-enabled displays take vision to the ultimate level by redefining what you see on the go“

According to their website, Lumus is the “leading enabler of wearable displays”. Their technologies are currently being used by pilots in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. National Guard. Instead of developing displays from start to finish, Lumus sells their Optical Engine Modules under OEM agreements to leading consumer electronics manufacturers, who then market lines of products integrated with Lumus technology. By doing this they have penetrated a wide range of markets but don’t neccessily have control over how their technology is being used.

One fascinating tidbit from their site helps to explain the need for this type of product: Manufacturers and cellular service providers alike are demanding a portable personal display solution that will ensure an optimal large-screen viewing experience, thereby guaranteeing the success of their products and services. Ari Grobman, business development manager for Lumus, guesses that consumer devices will appear in “two years, maybe less.”

Credit / More info: http://www.lumus-optical.com/

VUZIX

“The Company’s products, personal display devices that offer users a portable high quality viewing experience; provide solutions for mobility, thermal sighting systems, tactical wearable displays and virtual and augmented reality.”

Credit: GizmoWatch
Vuzix won two innovation awards at CES for advanced 3D glasses and a new monocular see-through head mounted display (HMD). Their new 3D Mobile Video Eyewear looks pretty slick and connects to nearly anything with HDMI or any other type of video out. They provide a big screen experience (75″ from as seen from 10 feet away) and cost about the same as a plasma TV, $599. The new monocular see-through HMD for idustrial use is intended for things like viewing the schematics of a machine while looking at it and will go on sale later in 2012 for $5,000 to $10,000.

Vuzix has been developing their display technology for military and industrial applications since 1997. In 2005 they jumped into what they call the “consumer Video Eyewear market”. The company is focused on making its video eyewear the standard mobile equipment for watching news, sports, music videos and movies, and for playing video games on the go.

More info: http://www.vuzix.com/

SENSICS

SmartGoggles are by far the ugliest head mounted display I’ve seen but they have some cool features including a 360 degree view, 720p display, built-in Android 4.0, head & hand tracking 3D processing, Wifi and Bluetooth. They appear to offer an immersive virtual 3D environment and use 11 cell phone cameras mounted on the front to detect hand and arm gestures allowing the person to interact with what they see. So far they haven’t announced a price but they should be available later in 2012.

Sensics is also developing a see-through SmartGoggle for augmented reality applications.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info: http://smartgoggles.net/

SONY

According to announcement made on Jan. 5, Sony is working on a 3D head mounted display and has already released a prototype. There’s no word on when it be available but it appears to be intended for watching videos and playing video games.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info: http://www.pcworld.com/article/215745/sony_shows_futuristic_3d_headmounted_display.html

KOPIN

“Golden-i is the world’s first hands-free and wireless headset computer. Golden-i will revolutionize the way we naturally interface with computers and intuitively interact with our virtually enhanced surroundings.”

The Golden-i device has been out for awhile but was on display at CES. Like Sensics SmartGoggles, the Golden-i device has a built-in processor, Bluetooth and Wifi. It runs Windows CE embedded and is controlled by gestures and voice. This device’s display sits just below your natural line of sight and appears to be 15″ when it’s in focus.

Credit: Techiser

More info: http://www.mygoldeni.com/

EPSON

These glasses didn’t make it on stage at CES, I just really like the picture. According to The Verge, they went on sale in Japan back in November for around $643. They simulate a screen that is 320″ wide from about 65 feet away at a resolution of 960×540 and have built-in Wifi.

Credit: PC Watch

More info: http://global.epson.com/newsroom/2011/news_20111109.html

One of the things I found most interesting while researching these displays is that the software needed for augmented reality is far ahead of the hardware. The companies like Recon that are actually creating new markets have integrated software and hardware while other companies like Lumus are just focused on creating the best display. At this point it’s still hard to speculate just how viable head mounted displays will become, but if they’re anything like Bluetooth audio headsets we’re in for a major transition in how we communicate and see the world around us.

Always interested in hearing your thoughts. Would you drop some cash on a head mounted display device and what features are you interested in? Have you heard of any others that looking interesting?

Related Posts

• January 17, 2012 -- Why I think CES matters (3)
• January 12, 2012 -- Your Phone Was Probably Made in a Sweatshop (5)
• January 9, 2012 -- Trying to be Chic AND Geek for the Consumer Electronics Show (0)
• November 29, 2011 -- Getting Schooled in Wearables (9)
• November 25, 2011 -- To Connect or Not to Connect? (11)

At first I felt bad for the frog, because I thought the owner was teasing it unfairly. And then Mr. Bullfrog got his revenge…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related Posts

• January 6, 2012 -- Viral Video of the Week (part 1)–Sith Lord Revisited (0)
• December 30, 2011 -- Viral Video of the Week–Bad PR (0)
• December 16, 2011 -- Viral Video of the Week–Carol of the Sith Lord (1)
• December 9, 2011 -- Viral Video of the Week–Breast Cancer Awareness (7)
• November 25, 2011 -- Viral Video of the Week–Best PSA Ever (5)

ViKi.com, Singapore based startup, is making international TV and movies more accessible to world-wide audiences via crowd-sourced sub-titling - in approximately 160 languages. Yes, even Klingon.

ViKi acquires the rights to programs, uploads them to viki.com and then leverages the power of its translator community. These willing translators provide real-time subtitling of world TV and movies–from Japanese Anime to Spanish Novelas to Korean dramas to Egyptian movies to the latest from Bollywood as well as TV series from Hong Kong, Venezuela, Russia, Korea and the UK.

According to TechCrunch.com, ViKi is attracting around 8.5 million unique visitors with approximately 36 million visits per month, representing a four-fold increase over the past year.

Since coming out of Beta at the end of 2010, 150 million words have been subtitled in 160 languages by the ViKi community. The site features 5,000-plus hours of content with over 1 billion videos viewed.

ViKi leverages the power of its translator community who provide real-time subtitling of world TV and movies–from Japanese Anime to Spanish Novelas to Korean dramas to Egyptian movies and the latest from Bollywood as well as TV series from Hong Kong, Venezuela, Russia, Korea and the UK.

The company is working on adding more premium content, including a new licensing deal with BBC Worldwide. ViKi also launched an international TV series this year on Netflix with subtitles, and is expanding content on Hulu.

Translators subtitle shows into their native languages under a Creative Commons license agreement. This includes revision history and user-generated edits. The more popular programs show remarkable translation times. As CEO and founder Razmig Hovaghimian explained in a recent interview, popular shows can have up to 10 different language translations in the first few hours after the content is uploaded. The number of translations can double in the first 24 hours and increase up to 40 translations in three to four days from submission. Normally, around 500 people contribute to any given translation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The company is working on adding more premium content, including a new licensing deal with BBC Worldwide. ViKi also launched an international sub-titled TV series on Netflix and is expanding its content on Hulu. The company has also just debuted an iPhone app with an Android app soon to follow.

In an interview with the LA Times Caroline Hacker, a spokeswoman for ViKi, said ViKi’s current model is to license videos from producers and then share advertising revenue with them. There are plans to expand into fee-based video on demand in the near future.

Crowd-sourcing translation services such as ViKi means that language is not necessarily the barrier it once used to be for content creators. While those of us in the English-speaking world may be relatively unused to sub-titled content, it’s fair to say that many countries are not.

According to a press release from Viki, Playful Kiss, a Korean drama, reached US cable-sized audiences after an exclusive 10-day US run on ViKi, and then via Hulu.  ViKi licensed the content for other regions and the series was subtitled in over 40 languages – 20 of which were completed in the first 24 hours. “ViKi helped Playful Kiss find its audience” said Song Byung Joon, CEO of Group 8, the production studio behind the series.  “We’ve partnered with ViKi on several series, and are extremely happy to see how our old and new shows are generating significant new revenues for us from new markets.”

The appeal for content providers is obvious – they can leverage their product into markets all around the world creating new revenue streams at little to no extra cost.

The video streaming market is a crowded one. Everyone from individual content producers through to the large aggregators such itunes and youtube are looking to find ways to capture the largest share of the viewing public. For now, it seems that Viki may have found an interesting point of differentiation for itself – the ability to watch any program in your own language.

Investors seem to think this is a profitable leverage point for the company. In October 2011, ViKi announced $20m in new funding from investors around the world including SK Planet, a South Korean IT convergence platform provider, BBC Worldwide, and Greylock Partners a leading Silicon Valley private equity firm.

The question for the future is can Viki sustain its translation based competitive advantage? The key will be its ability to convince the leading content providers around the globe that it has a lock on a large translation community that will be loyal to its platform. Then it seems a no-brainer for producers seeking to leverage existing and new content into new markets at very little cost.

However, if the platform is easily replicable what’s to stop content providers or distributors from crowd-sourcing the translation themselves?

But perhaps crowd-sourcing translations on properly licensed content can help battle the video pirates and illegal down loader? At the very least, consumers should be more comfortable to stream or download free, high quality translated content without infringing on a producer’s copyright.

Related Posts

• October 21, 2011 -- Viral Video of the Week: Baby with an iPad (6)
• July 19, 2011 -- Why Netflix is Moving our Cheese (18)
• April 4, 2011 -- Content is King. Long Live the King! (2)
• March 8, 2011 -- Are You A “Storyteller?” (3)
• September 3, 2010 -- Storytelling, the new Studio System and the “Death” of the Web (4)

On the first day we covered what wearable computing is and the history behind basic computing going all the way back to the 1950s. It was quite fascinating to see how the purposes for using computers has evolved over the years. It all started with specific tasks and business computing in the 50s & 60s, then in the 80s we had the addition of more entertainment computing and in the 90s communication and information computing became mainstream. Looking at the history of wearable devices (not necessarily computers) we quickly discussed eye glasses, watches and Bluetooth devices. Dr. Lawo, our professor, related that when wearable Bluetooth ear pieces first began selling in stores he had his doubts that they would ever become mainstream. He admitted he was quite wrong and that the next wave of wearables, possibly with a built-in eye piece and CPU (as seen in the picture of me below) just might become as ubiquitous as the bluetooth ear piece.

Looking at the purposes behind wearable computing we learned that wearables should support the user in doing a primary task (i.e. navigation) while not distracting the user or becoming obtrusive. We also learned that wearables should have seamless integration with the environmental and social context of the user.

Next we looked at the interactive design process for developing wearables that includes interviewing the full range of target users, sketching concepts, creating mockups, and then testing the users with every aspect of the device. Some of the main concerns in wearable prototyping involve building for a wide range of body sizes, safety, hygiene and ruggedness. Another major concern with wearables is wiring. Just like with a pair of headphones, wiring with wearables is rather delicate and stressed connection points often cause failure.

One of the examples of the first wearable computers we talked about was developed by Symbol Technologies for United Parcel Services (UPS) package loaders in 1995. The wearable device that Symbol was tasked with creating needed to miniaturize and consolidate three key components; the display/keyboard, CPU and barcode scanner. The Ws 1000 (pictured here on the right) that Symbol Technologies developed may not seem fancy today, but it’s quite interesting to think about how much more efficient the package loaders may have become after being equipped with this technology.

We also ventured out of the classroom to check out some of the wearables in development that Uni Bremen has in their lab. One of my favorites was the washable O’Neil snowboard jacket with an integrated MP3 player developed by Infineon. Others included a coat for flight attendants with a keypad built into the arm, a pair of coveralls for forestry workers with a built-in device for stopping machinery such a chain saw if it comes in close proximity to the worker and an eye display with built in bar code scanner that can help warehouse workers sort through their inventory.

Finally we talked about Steve Mann and Humanistic Intelligence, an information processing apparatus that is inextricably intertwined with the natural capabilities of our human body and intelligence. As you can see in the video below from last year, Steve Mann has been in the wearable computer since it’s inception and he believes that they can ultimately lead to better human communication.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related Posts

• January 24, 2012 -- Will 2013 be the year of video glasses and augmented reality? (1)
• July 18, 2011 -- Cleverbot: Artificial Intelligence of the Future, or Just a Jerk? (2)

Mobile technology is the preeminent form of digital communication in Africa and is growing rapidly. As a result of the increasing connectivity that mobile technology has bought to sub-Saharan Africa, there is a lot of buzz around innovative applications and technologies that are making quality information much more accessible to millions of Africans.

Earlier this year mlab, one of a number of mobile technology innovation labs that are popping up all over Africa, held its Pivot 25 Mobile App and Development Conference and Competition. The competition handed out awards for innovation in applications for Mobile Payments and Commerce, Entertainment, Gaming and Utilities, Business and Enterprise, Government Agriculture, Education and Health. The Mobile Health and overall winner was Shimba Technologies for its MedKenya application. Shimba was awarded the chance to present the application at the Demo Fall 2011 Conference in Silicon Valley. Demo Fall is an opportunity for start-ups to pitch their best ideas to venture capitalists and other investors.

Shimba is one of Kenya’s smartest young tech firms – and has already built a sizeable reputation for it’s software platform Tuvitu. Tuvitu (Swahili for ‘small things’) is a Java application, which, among other things, provides news, games, entertainment, social networks and chat. It is compatible with most African mobile devices. For content providers it offers a channel for content delivery on the mobile phone that can be both monetized and analyzed.

Using the Tuvitu platform, Shimba developed MedKenya. Morphed into MedAfrica for the Demo Fall 2011 Conference, this application looks to put access to certified medical practitioners and basic healthcare information into the hands of millions of Africans. Working with public entities and pharmaceutical companies, Shimba is looking to aggregate information on registered medical practitioners, hospitals, symptom checkers and drug authenticators. The application is made to work across a broad range of platforms from mobile web to SMS to USSD. In the video below the Shimba team talks about the potential of MedKenya and MedAfrica:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Whether they receive venture capitalist funding or not, Shimba believes that MedAfrica is a sustainable business in its own right, offering value for which medical practitioners, pharmaceuticals and users will be willing to pay. The Shimba team predicts 200 million users across Africa over the next 5 years.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to Cisco, Africa and the Middle East have the strongest mobile data traffic growth of any region at 129% per year. They also predict that by 2015 Sub-Saharan Africa will have more people with mobile network access than with access to electricity at home. With low cost accessibility and flexibility, mobile technology and platforms are creating great opportunities for a generation of local digital entrepreneurs, like Shimba, to build a healthier and wealthier future for their fellow Africans.

Related Posts

• January 5, 2012 -- Gamer, Heal Thyself (0)
• March 21, 2011 -- Africa Calling (2)
• March 1, 2011 -- An MCDM Alum Reflects from an Emerging Market (3)
• November 20, 2009 -- Revisiting Twitter in Africa (7)
• November 9, 2008 -- Intel Is Now Part of Your Medical Care (1)

The service will be offered to MetroPCS customers with premium plans of $60 per month. MetroPCS users with monthly plans lower than premium can sign up for Rhapsody’s regular $10 per month subscription and have access to the same catalog on their mobile devices. From a consumer standpoint, that’s not a bad deal.

With MetroPCS existing at the lower tier of cellphone service in the United States with roughly 9.1 million subscribers, it stands to reason that their numbers will surely grow now that a cloud music service is attached to their plans. MetroPCS, which is the fifth largest mobile carrier in the nation, also needed a more enticing strategy to stay competitive as other mobile carriers like Virgin and AT&T continuously outmaneuver them.

For Rhapsody, the deal makes even more sense as companies like Spotify are moving into the market with appealing digital music subscription services. Rhapsody was seen for years to be at the forefront of digital music nationwide but much of their dominance in the area of cloud music services has disappeared. Pandora, Amazon, Apple, Spotify, and others have gained far more attention lately leaving the downtown Seattle firm in need of a bold move.

It’s too early to tell if Rhapsody can remain competitive in the long-run, but partnering with a recognizable mobile carrier like MetroPCS should certainly help boost their numbers. That is, if numbers are the only thing that matters.

Related Posts

• October 3, 2011 -- Rhapsody Agrees to Purchase Napster from Best Buy (0)
• August 2, 2011 -- Spotify Encounters a Spat of Bad Press (1)

Here’s the full Q&A:

Q: What’s the story behind Rootmetrics? How did it get started?

A: RootMetrics began in 2008 and was founded by a team of folks with strong ties to and many years of experience in the mobile community. The goal of the company was to break the historical convention of mobile performance residing in a black box, where it was completely unavailable to the public or to mobile suppliers. RootMetrics continues to promote transparency by putting the consumer first. We measure mobile performance from a consumer’s point of view and ensure that everyone has access to the data. Put simply, by downloading and using our app, you are creating the most up-to-date, publicly available map of mobile service and carrier coverage.

Q: How do you help people find the best cellular carrier for their needs?

A: Through our smartphone apps and the maps that you can find on our website and at CNET, we arm consumers with the true picture of mobile performance based on millions of data points. Using these tools, anyone can review signal strength, data speeds and overall mobile performance at a broad regional level, or down to your own street level. Each view of our maps compares carrier data side-by-side, so that you can see how carriers stack up against each other at that location.

Q: What has the demand for your service been like and what do you for-see the demand will be in the future?

A: We’ve seen great demand for our service and have received numerous positive press reviews. As smartphone adoption and mobile technologies continue their steep trajectory of growth, we foresee increased need for our application. We know that consumers are increasingly frustrated with mobile performance and are confused by the conflicting carrier messages in the marketplace. Because we source our data directly from the consumer rather than the carrier, we can provide mobile performance clarity and deliver data that is objective and accurate.

Q: We noticed that you seem to have a lot of data for major US cities, but how do you plan to gather more data in rural areas?

A: Every day, consumers from all across the country send us new data points that add to our mapping of rural areas. The more that people across the country send us samples, the more representative our maps and reports become of the true consumer experience at any location. We will continue measuring mobile performance in major U.S. markets and also look forward to seeing the hyper-localized areas of the maps fill in as word of our application spreads.

Q: Are there any other services with similar functionality?

A: There are a few other services that offer some elements of our functionality, but we are the only app available for iPhone and Android that offers views of both signal strength and data performance and allows consumers to test their networks to add samples to our maps.

Q: Has tracking and publishing this data pressured companies to expand coverage in poorly served areas? Do you think it will in the future?

A: We are just beginning to see how carriers are responding to this data. Infrastructure changes and coverage expansions are often time consuming and expensive propositions, so we don’t expect changes to happen overnight. However, carriers are very interested in the data that we are reporting and are using it to identify challenges in the ways that consumers experience their networks so that they can make changes and improvements.

Q: Are we moving toward a future of “best” mobile coverage on all networks everywhere? When will we get there?

A: At this point, it’s hard to say. Some of the regulations in the US in the mobile industry make it a bit more difficult to do this quickly; however, with our data, everyone will be equipped to make the best choice of carrier no matter their location.

Q: Are you currently working on a WP7 or Blackberry app or have you decided to stick with Android and iPhone only? If no WP7 or Blackberry, why?

A: We are focused on the Android and iOS systems right now as they are the platforms showing the most significant growth and the strongest consumer adoption. However, should BlackBerry and Windows gain deeper consumer adoption in the near future, we will look into apps to support those platforms.

More about RootMetrics:

RootMetrics.com | Facebook | Twitter | Download App

Signed a new contract lately or in the market? Let us know how it’s working out…

Most Commented Posts

• November 21, 2008 -- Crowdsourcing: Name the New MCDM Center! (37)
• November 9, 2009 -- An Ode to Contemplation (32)
• October 14, 2011 -- MCDM’s Toast to a Bully (30)
• February 25, 2008 -- Flip Video Vlog: Codecs and You! (25)
• November 9, 2010 -- Windows Phone 7: Could Mobile Gaming Be Microsoft’s Ticket? (21)

Earlier this year, Apple’s App Store reached its 10 billionth web application download goal. What is amazing is that they did this in about 30 months’ time. Apple’s first iPhone was released to the US market at the end of June in 2007. At the time, the smartphone was seen as a huge leap forward in innovation. Users were able to interact with this new device in ways that they never could using just a cell phone on a wireless carrier. This was more than a phone – this was the beginning of the mobile web.

When the iPhone was released, Apple announced that the iPhone would support third-party web applications written in Ajax (asynchronous Javascript and XML) so long as the apps maintained the look and feel of the iPhone interface.  In March 2008, Apple released a software development kit to third-party developers and a slough of developers set out to create native applications for Apple mobile devices.

Apple’s App Store opened for business on July 11, 2008. The apps that were offered in the beginning were primarily Apple developed educational programs, mobile commerce and business productivity tools.  There was no Angry Birds, Bejeweled, or my personal favorite, Flick Fishing.  Games hadn’t really come along yet – they came along later and have proved to be “crazy popular” with users–dominating all app store categories over the last two years.

Considering that Apple is usually looked to as the pioneering force in smart phone app development and marketing, its worth taking a closer look at how their mobile app business model has grown and is evolving.  However one might feel about Apple’s dominance in the app market, it is true that they have captured not just a significant market share but also consumer’s and developers imaginations. But Apple is no longer alone in this market. According to research from IHS Screen Digest, the combined revenues from the four major mobile application stores by Apple, Nokia, Google and Research in Motion will be $3.8 billion in 2011.  This is up 77.7% from 2010, a spike likely due to the growing number of smartphone and tablet device users. Apple’s take will be around $2.91 billion (that’s about three-quarters share of the market).  The total number of downloaded apps in 2011 is expected to reach 18.1 billion by year-end.  And the analysts are predicting that the mobile app trend is just going to continue to grow.

When it launched, the App Store had just 552 iPhone applications, and today, mobile applications in the iTunes App Store exceeds 400,000 with developers submitting almost 700 new apps every day to Apple for review and testing.  The success of the mobile app store has a great deal to do with the sheer amount of third-party developers producing native applications to run on iOS and the structure that Apple created so developers could make money off their apps.  The iTunes App Store makes it very easy for users to discover and purchase new apps and also makes it very easy for developers to monetize their efforts.

Web based vs. Native applications

In 2009, Mobile App Stores and HTML5 were noted by Wired to be top technological disrupters of the year, so it seems fitting that we revisit that notion two years down the line. App stores (and smartphones) made your cell phone more like a mini computer. The iPhone shifted the control to consumers, so the user could decide what functions their “phone” served.

Developers of mobile applications rework their app’s code based on each target device (eg. iPhone, Android phone, or Blackberry).  In doing this, they are creating a native application for each device.  These “walled gardens” pull information from the web, but don’t necessarily fully exploit the advantages of the entire web (for example: cross platform compatibility, centralization, web metrics, updatability).  However, native apps are said to be faster for graphic-intensive games. Native apps take full advantage of features within the device that typical programs on PC based browsers can’t like the accelerometer, GPS or bluetooth.

Most phones sold today have more modern advances that allow them to operate on super fast networks, like 4G or LTE.  Fast, reliable connections are needed to run web protocols, like HTML5, so a user can access applications through the web, rather than it sitting on a hard drive.  HTML5 would allow developers to create apps much like they create web pages.  Developers would only have to create one app, rather than several iterations based on the device, and it would run seamlessly when called up through a browser.  Additionally, because it allows developers to code once, HTML5 has the potential to save companies wanting a mobile presence money on development costs.  HTML5 also taps into some of the rich features on smartphones, like the accelerometer and geo-location.

The Disrupters: Google, Facebook’s Project Spartan, and publishers

Most of the exploration surrounding the web based model using HTML5 has a great deal to do with money (tapping into Apple’s market share and also developers wanting to keep that 30% royalty fee the Apple App Store requires), politics and freedom of innovation in mobile computing.

Over the past few years, Google has placed loads of resources into the development of building web-based applications for it’s mobile Android OS and Chrome browser so it is no surprise that they are beating the HTML5 drum loudest.  A top secret project in the Facebook camp that would circumvent the App Store on iOS devices has also been leaked. News of Facebook’s new web based photo sharing app leaked three weeks ago.  Facebook’s hush hush project is called Project Spartan+. It’s totally HTML5 based and its aim is to reach over 100 million people with the app in the mobile space, without developing a native version or distributing it inside the Apple App Store.  In fact, the platform will launch with full functionality on Apple’s Safari.  Facebook has almost 700 million users worldwide so they are in a unique position to shake up Apple’s market leader status and attract users with this platform.

Another key user group, publishers, are using HTML5 to break up the distribution model around subscriptions.  Apple required monthly subscriptions to be purchased within the app and they take a whopping 30% from those reoccurring purchases.  Apple revised that policy recently.  Nonetheless, magazine publishers and music services like Rhapsody have been exploring HTML5 based web application development to break free of Apple shackles.  In doing so, these organizations will save in development costs, have a direct channel to their customer’s data, and can deliver multi-platform content updates are more efficiently.  UK-based Financial Times is known as a digital product leader and recently successfully launched an HTML5 web application to meet the demands of new mobile platforms.  You can test out the New York Times version here.

Consumers have the ultimate power to shake up Apple

While some high profile web proponents dream of a day that internet standards will take on a code once/fit all device development cycle, adoption will still be left up to users.

In Lisa Gitleman’s book, Always Already New, the author makes a salient point when contrasting the expressions New Media Publics and New Media Users.  In the case of the phonograph, when introduced to this device, new technology citizens became interested in it.  This change of thinking lead to citizens being looked upon as consumers, therefore defining an entire market system around the idea of home consumption.  I think there are some parallels with this case.  Consumer choice will drive the “massification” of moving users to HTML5 web-based applications.  There will gradually be more examples of how this technology can work for the public and it will gradually become more familiar to mobile users.

I feel that there is also another organized group working in tandem with consumers – developers.  Developers in every sense of the word are users. As Gitleman points out, users are not necessarily just consumers of a technology but they can take an active role in defining its features.  As more developers build applications with HTML5 technology they will be better able to define feature/benefits of web based applications to better serve the needs of consumers.

The story is going to be told between the uses (the differences in technology, the cost/benefits) of HTML5 and the users.  If game apps and e-books are the two most popular categories of native app downloads, is there enough pizzazz and reason behind HTML5 technology to convince consumers to rethink their purchase behavior? Right now, apps have a speed advantage over many mobile sites because they store and access data natively. Fast networks, HTML5 technologies, and consumer choice will make this advantage much less pronounced in the future.

This article was taken from a paper presented to the Summer 2011 Evolutions and Trends graduate seminar at the University of Washington’s Master of  Communication in Digital Media program.

Related Posts

• January 28, 2012 -- Why There Isn’t a Digital Moleskine (1)
• March 3, 2009 -- WHERE are you? A few thoughts on LBS (1)