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Disturbingly, an adult drew this.
After what seems like a fairly explosive few years, with headlines pretty much weekly, the world of Mobile user-generated content (UGC) seems to have gone quiet.
Previously not a week would pass when some new service or other (or in fact a service mashup) would launch, always promising something that hadn’t been done before. Leading lights in the (Mobile) UGC world were Three with their SeeMeTV (a service later expanded in partnership with O2, and called EyeVive), doing good numbers from their user-base.
But Three were in many respects exceptional in the UGC space – they had a capable network and handsets from the get-go, along with exactly the right demographic of users that would utilise the service. Moreover, they had an excellent Marketing team that made people aware of the service. And finally, ease of use (send an MMS to upload, browse to download) on their closed network was definitely there – resulting in the high usage figures. Adding in an adult content zone didn’t hurt either…!
But monitoring the news at the moment, as I do, there really isn’t that much in the way of new services launching – probably the more significant thing for me has been the iPhone with it’s platform to enable crazy mashups of different services (a lesson it took directly from the Web). The innovation that the iPhone has added is location – contextualising things like Google maps with a new reality, and then allowing you to share that at a whim.
So I wonder then whether (traditional) UGC as we knew it has had it’s day, and what in fact we’ll see now is service mashups, or perhaps even multiple-service overlays – where you can import, combine, and export information, in a very flexible manner.
Historically here, Google Maps was a true innovator, combining both maps, satellite view, and directions, and making a seamless (and useful) service from them. But those areas were all related – perhaps going forward we’ll see some more esoteric or eclectic mixes of information sources….?
What do the IntoMobile readership think? “Do you upload, therefore you are”? Or are you waiting for the next big thing?
Ben
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
