FEATURE

The mobile: your passport to interactive living

‘What can your mobile phone do for you?’ This used to be an easy question to answer: it makes calls and sends texts. For many people, these still remain the primary functions of their mobile. But take a good look around and it’s clear that mobiles have become so much more than that. We now use them to enter competitions, vote off Big Brother contestants, top up credit, request information, respond to advertising and a whole lot more. In short, the phone is fast becoming the focal point for living, working and engaging with modern society. This article will look at some of ways and places in which this is happening.

But first, let’s go back to the beginning. In the early years of the mobile, things were different. Few people had mobiles, the phones were basic, they didn’t have Java games, displays were small and in black and white, ringtones were tuneless and irritating, and the networks did not support fast data transfer and so services such as multimedia messaging were simply not possible. In a few short years, all this has changed. Mobile operators around the world have invested in faster networks such as GPRS and 3G and the handsets themselves are a far cry from their early incarnations – think Neanderthal Man versus Homo Sapiens.

As the technology has evolved, businesses, advertising agencies and brand owners the world over are waking up to and exploring the possibilities presented by a connected, interactive world where the mobile phone is the central mechanism – the hub – for interaction.

One of the most interesting developments has come about in Japan (where else?) where a decade-old technology that was invented to track parts and inventory has found its way into the commercial mainstream. This is the QR Code or two-dimensional (matrix) bar code. The ‘QR’ stands for Quick Response, reflecting the fact that the codes can be read and decoded quickly. For a while it looked at if these codes would be consigned to factories and warehouses forever but the recent inclusion of QR Code-reading software on camera phones has changed all that. By scanning the code, users no longer need to key in data into their mobiles – it’s all contained within the code. It’s now common for magazines and advertisements to contain QR Codes. Take a picture of the code and it will launch you to a Wap site or fire up another application on your phone. The codes are also being printed onto business cards, saving the recipient the hassle of keying the contact details into an address book. Simple stuff, maybe, but incredibly useful all the same.

If you happened to visit New York’s Times Square in the summer of 2005 you would have witnessed a different but equally innovative use of mobile phone technology. It was there that Nike unveiled an interactive billboard to coincide with the relaunch of its mass customisation website, iD. The idea was that consumers used their phones to customise their own sports shoe by interacting with the giant screen. When the design is finished, the person receives a text message. This contains mobile phone wallpaper bearing the design of the new shoe and a link to the Nike iD site where they can buy their personalised shoe. This type of mobile interaction is known as ‘text-to-screen’ and a growing number of big brands are using it to connect with consumers and, ultimately, increase sales.

Another way that brand owners are making outdoor advertisements interactive is by using Bluetooth. This is the popular short wave radio technology that’s used to wirelessly connect electronic devices such as mobile phones and headsets. Using a system known as ‘BlueCasting’, advertisers send messages from small electronic tags embedded in posters to Bluetooth-enabled phones ‘discovered’ in the vicinity. Mobile users who ‘opt in’ to receive content are then sent information via text or MMS. UK band Cold Play very successfully used this on a poster side in central London to launch its X&Y album last year. Some 13,000 passers-by downloaded pre-release video clips, audio samples and interviews.

From downloading free content to paying for it. As we have seen with ring tones, music and games, the mobile can also be used as safe payment mechanism. Now this is moving to the next level through the application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. This involves embedding a tag within the mobile phone. This tag, essentially a microchip with an antenna attached, communicates with a reader built into the merchant’s payment terminal, thus enabling transactions. This market will take a while to develop, not least because the credit card companies and banks have to be happy with the security aspects, but develop it surely will. In fact, industry analyst ABI Research believes that within five years, 50pc of the mobile handsets used in the US will contain such a chip.

Want to find out more? Just email sales@puca.com