Larger iPhone 5, Smaller iPad, Why Not a Hybrid Smarter Tablet?

By Rebecca Murtagh | Mobile

iPhone Getting Larger, iPad Getting Smaller – Why Not Merge Into One Smart Hybrid Mobile Device?

Apple is expected to finally release the much-anticipated iPhone 5 on September 12, 2012.

At the same time, ZDnet has shared that rumors are swirling that Apple will also release a smaller iPad called iPad Mini.

Why not combine the two?
A hybrid mobile device wouldn’t have to be an Apple iOS device to be a winner. Google has good saturation with the Android platform and the new Nexus 7 Tablet with the help of ASUS. Device makers have demonstrated their ability to make smaller tablets. ASUS Padfone was revealed at Mobile World Congress early 2012 running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which is essentially a 3-piece hardware combo, which is definitely an impressive combo approach that validates the logic of making mobile computing and smartphone capability more integrated. We have yet to see an all-in-one device on the marketplace.

View ASUS Padfone – All in one smartphone tablet video:

Is the line between smartphones, carriers and mobile computing too difficult to cross?

Consumers continue to embrace the tablet at astounding speed. Mobile device usage is skyrocketing. Cisco’s recent Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update projects mobile devices surpassing desktop access to internet data in 2012.

Tablets get smaller as Phones Get Bigger

Tablets came into the market with 10 inch screens, but have continued to get smaller to compete against the popular Kindle Fire.

A 7 inch tablet may be a little large to be holding up to one’s ear. However, adding smartphone functionality, video, voice and headset compatibility to any one of these devices could surely give a 4 inch smartphone a run for the money.

Where is the 7 Inch Tablet/SmartPhone Hybrid Device?

There are a multitude of 7 inch tablets on the marketplace. Google Nexus, Kindle Fire, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and now possibly an iPad Mini. Add to this A-list the countless tablet devices being sold by the mobile carrier and computing companies and it seems almost crazy someone has not created the combo device yet.

Make the Tablet Smarter

Why isn’t one super-device integrating tablet and smartphone functionality? They appear to be so close that this upcoming Apple release almost seems contradictory in terms, don’t you think?

So, why wouldn’t Apple, or someone, integrate the technology to merge the best of the two to create the ultimate mobile device. No doubt that’s where we are heading.

A combo device seems like a home run to me. The technology is there. The form factor combining the features has yet to be launched.

Are Mobile Carriers The Barrier to Creating a Hybrid Phone Tablet Combo Device?

I suspect the absence of a smartphone-tablet combo device has more to do with the connection between mobile carriers and their devices, used to lock in customers than it does with device makers being slow to identify this opportunity.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could purchase the device independently, then choose the mobile service provider that best met your needs? You can outside the U.S.

What am I missing?
Would you buy/use a smartphone/tablet combo device?

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at the Origins of Google Knowledge Graph

By Rebecca Murtagh | SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Early Roots of Google Knowledge Graph

Early 2012 I shared with you Google’s roll out of the Knowledge Graph, explaining how Google search was moving from word-based index to connecting people, places and things to deliver more intuitive results.

Marissa Mayer revealed basis for Knowledge Graph years ago.

In 2007 Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of Search Products & User Experience stated in an interview with IDGNS: “Google is really good with keywords, and that’s a limitation we think the search engine should be able to overcome with time. People should be able to ask questions, and we should understand their meaning, or they should be able to talk about things at a conceptual level.”

Enter Google Now

The conversation continued to explore how Google created the 1-800-GOOG-411 service to advance its efforts in speech recognition because they needed to create a “great speech-to-text model”, which is undoubtedly the driving force of “Google Now”, the virtual assistant inherent to Android Jelly Bean 4.1, perceived to rival iPhone’s Siri, and Samsung’s “S”, but with one distinct advantage, access to Google’s Knowledge Graph.

View Google Now Video:

Don’t forget Google’s ability to translate and index audio (speech) from video to meta content to include in search results (also mentioned by Mayer in the IDGNS interview).

We’ve witnessed the roll-out of services that seem arbitrary to some over the years. Google Glass, Self-driving cars, etc. It surely does seem to be coming together, but that is another post.

Google is very good at tantalizing the media to keep their story fresh. Now that Marissa Mayer has left Google to be CEO at Yahoo, many are anxious to hear from the Yahoo camp.

Could Yahoo give Google Knowledge Graph a run for the money?

 

More Mobile Devices than Toothbrushes OR People on Earth

By Editor | Mobile

Mobile Devices Outnumber Toothbrushes and Now Humans

More Mobile Phones Than Toothbrushes

Yup, its true. In Fall of 2011 of the 6.8 billion people on planet earth, 5.1 billion owned a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush.*

Now that’s dirty talk!

Number of Mobile Devices Will Exceed World Population in 2012

In Summer 2012, the Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update by Cisco projected that the number of internet-connected mobile devices will exceed the world’s population this year. Think about that for a moment. That doesn’t mean every human on the planet has a mobile device. Rather, it means that those with mobile devices will likely have more than one. In fact, Cisco projects that 25% of mobile device users will have more than one device by 2016.

Smartphones, Tablets, Gaming Consoles and Laptops (interestingly) are among the devices that will out-populate humans on the planet earth.

More interesting Mobile Data:

More tidbits from Cisco’s report on Global Mobile Data Usage:

• Mobile data usage in 2011 was 8x the size of the entire Internet worldwide in 2000.
• Smartphones will exceed 50 percent of mobile data traffic in 2014.
• Mobile network connection speeds will increase 9-fold by 2016.
• Android data use is higher than iPhone use.
• Video traffic via Mobile device exceeded 50 % (over non-mobile devices) for the first time in 2011.
• By 2016, tablets will generate almost as much Mobile traffic as the entire global mobile network will in 2012.

Kinda makes you think doesn’t it?

Now is probably a good time to devise your digital marketing strategy on how you will meet and serve your audiences on Mobile.

 

* Mobile Marketing Association Asia