Having ‘mobile’ and ‘trends’ in my header asks for a yearly overview of mobile and wireless trends insights for the coming year. You can check here which trends I wrote about last year.
In a poll Richard Mac Manus held amongst Read/Write Web readers last week, on The Biggest Web Trend of 2007, the Mobile Web came out on the third place of coming web trends for 2007. Online Video / Internet TV was voted most popular (though the poll stays open until 31 December), the continued rise of browser-based apps (Ajax, Google, etc) as second. RSS and structured data – my personal favourite, and Rich Internet Apps (Apollo, WPF, etc), respectively on nr. 4 and 5.
Watch the online video trend going mobile in 2007, just check what teenagers do with a PSP these days and how easy it is to get YouTube on the device (see image below). Results 2, 4 and 5 are the logical evolution of web 2.0. Will the Mobile Web finally breakthrough to the masses next year? Having readers putting it upfront in a poll of a popular weblog such as Read/Write Web is a significant indication for more. How about you?
For Richard’s original “2007 Web Predictions” post – one of his most read posts of 2006 btw, he asked me for 10 Mobile Trends for 2007 you can read in that same post. I wrote down 10 mobile trends for 2007 very spontaneously, not having really thought about them before and without having the time to doublethink them through. Reading them over again now, I think it’s actually good to have written down 10 trends spontaneously – try it yourself… so, I invite you to check how good my gut feeling was next year 
I’ll repeat them here again for my readers:
- Flat fees will become more affordable bit by bit.
- Thus, more user-generated content will become available to the phone; opening the way for mobile users to start using new web/mobile 2.0 services on their phones, such as podcasting, RSS feeds, more user-generated content to upload and use.
- Big Media Youth Networks going mobile – MySpace, YouTube, MTV and many more players will resolutely go mobile; allowing users to upload pictures, videos and create/consumer content straight from their mobile phones. And to share with friends (including mobile forwarding functionality).
- Mobile search – the big players will start positioning seriously in the mobile market (watch out for deals with carriers/operators and device manufacturers)
- Mobile ads – the market is growing at a rapid pace (just watch AdMob’s ad views ticker box daily)
- QR codes will start to enter retail markets.
- Mobile image recognition will pop up in mixed marketing campaigns.
- Cell Phone memory card swapping – to exchange music/video files.
- Multiple network download hotspots become available in urban zones – enabling ‘on the spot’ mobile download and internet access possibilities via wi-fi/wimax/bluetooth/nfc/etc…. (all build in or available immediately)
- Rise of ‘smart client’ solutions, for convergence of content and application functionality on mobile devices in general.
I think 2006 was a very prosperous year for mobile in general. On a personal level, I got the chance to meet and work with some of the best people around in mobile in Europe and US, we’re just at the beginning of a new era and more prosperity in the mobility sector.
Special kudos to Kelly and Lisa at gotomedia, Russell and Carlo at MobHappy, Oliver at MobileCrunch, Caroline, Andy, Richard, Martin, Dave, Fabien, Stuart, Julia, Josep, Carles, Justin, Francesco and Gabriel, Jari and Micah, Ignacio, Debbie and her team, Peter and José, Markus, and last but not least Darla and all the women working in Mobile.
I wish all my readers and blogging friends an excellent and peaceful 2007!
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11 Responses to Mobile and Wireless Trends for 2007
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[...] In Rudy Da Waele’s recent post on M-Trends about Mobile and Wireless trends for 2007, he listed some interesting predictions. Some I agree with, some I don’t. But I wanted to add a slightly different viewpoint on the matter by posting my Mobile and Wireless Marketing trends for 2007. Since I’m up to my neck in the mobile marketing industry (running Cellit Mobile Marketing), surely I have a nugget or two of wisdom to add. [...]
Rudy,
Great post. I agree with you on most stuff, but feel QR’s are a gimmick to be replaced by broader adoption of shortcodes. In a slightly different vein, I posted my top mobile marketing (marketing being the key) trends on my site at: http://www.cellitmarketing.com/blog/ which might be interesting to you and your readers.
[...] Mobile and Wireless Trends for 2007 at m-trends.org (tags: mobile trends 2007) [...]
[...] Der Experte für das mobile web Rudy De Waele stellt folgende 10 Thesen auf: 1. Flat fees will become more affordable bit by bit. 2. Thus, more user-generated content will become available to the phone; opening the way for mobile users to start using new web/mobile 2.0 services on their phones, such as podcasting, RSS feeds, more user-generated content to upload and use. 3. Big Media Youth Networks going mobile – MySpace, YouTube, MTV and many more players will resolutely go mobile; allowing users to upload pictures, videos and create/consume content straight from their mobile phones. And to share with friends (including mobile forwarding functionality). 4. Mobile search – the big players will start positioning seriously in the mobile market (watch out for deals with carriers/operators and device manufacturers) 5. Mobile ads – the market is growing at a rapid pace (just watch AdMob’s ad views ticker box daily) 6. QR codes will start to enter retail markets. 7. Mobile image recognition will pop up in mixed marketing campaigns. 8. Cell Phone memory card swapping – to exchange music/video files. 9. Multiple network download hotspots become available in urban zones – enabling ‘on the spot’ mobile download and internet access possibilities via wi-fi/wimax/bluetooth/nfc/etc…. (all build in or available immediately) 10. Rise of ’smart client’ solutions, for convergence of content and application functionality on mobile devices in general. [...]
all the best. have a good, happy and mobile year.
[...] M-Trends Blogissa oli kanssa kattavaa katselmointia tulevan vuoden kuvioihin.. (en jaksa selostaa, katselkaa itse) http://www.m-trends.org/2006/12/mobile-and-wireless-trends-for-2007.html [...]
[...] I’m looking forward to this do-tank, double-thinking my daughter surfing YouTube on her PSP, a conf call with Katrin Verclas from N-TEN last week on mobile appliance in Africa, the evolution evolution of GSM, UMTS, WLAN, Bluetooth, and WiMAX, from web 2.0 to mobile 2.0, sensuous gear, Negroponte’s $100 laptop for the world’s children education, the kinetic elite, global warming, sustainability, the Mobile Web in the Developing World, lift, aspiration tech, while listening to the ‘The Awakening‘ of Ursula Rucker (check the lyrics!) on 4 Hero’s -btw- excellent new ‘Play With The Changes‘ album. Announcements, augmented reality, club of amsterdam, do thank, ethnographics, Experience Design, Felix Bopp, girona, human experience, Humberto Schwab, immersed experience, innovation, lab, Laurence Desarzens, media lab, Mobile Culture, Mobile Lifestyle, Paul F.M.J. Verschure, ricardo baeza yates, social media, Trends, Ubiquitous Devices, Urban, usability, user experience, we mediaThese icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
2007 Predictions…
Sorry, I don’t do predictions. Normally I wouldn’t even mention the topic. But hey, this is the age of the Internet! We can just leave the predicting to people smarter than us – and comment on them
Here’s two sets of predictions for …
[...] Got invited last week by Nokia for their new mobile sharing community platform called MOSH. I must admit it’s great to be invited to all exciting Alpha and Beta mobile testing, still it’s quite difficult to test them all in-depth with a lot of workload on the shelves these days. However, as with anything good in life… quality, curiosity and surprise always make a good cocktail and make you want to try out things immediately before others. MobSharing, a term originally coined by Mike Evans in September 2005, didn’t figure in my 2007 predictions but was already mentioned as a future trend in my 2006 predictions and now it’s finally here from Nokia Still in closed Alpha, but with the advantage we won’t have to wait another couple of years for it to get a critical mass… “Create, Upload and Share all of your mobile content”: [...]
[...] Read my Mobile and Wireless Trends for 2007 and check for yourself my gut feeling on what happened yet and what is still to come. It seems very obvious and easy but predicting trends can be tricky, just try it for yourself! Check also my del.icio.us for some interesting predictions from other technology blogs I bookmarked during holidays. One of my favorite readings during holidays is still Carlo Longino’s and Russell Buckley’s yearly predictions at Mobhappy. Do check them out! [...]
[...] Mobile Advertising (M-Trends – Prediction #5) [...]