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- In the Stores: Smartphones and Data PlansAugust 6
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Last week, we surveyed three mobile phone stores in Midtown Manhattan to see what young people—from tween to college students–want from their mobile experience. What kind of phones are they buying? And what plans are powering them?
According to all three stores, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, they want smartphones. These higher-end devices allow them to activate their social lives on the go: snap a picture and load it to flickr, film something and post it on YouTube, check facebook, text with friends, listen to music–even talk to their parents.
Young Verizon customers specifically ask for color choices when purchasing their mobile device. They also want phones that play music and text, and they don’t mind small buttons or touchpads that cause headaches for more thick-fingered folks. Basically, Verizon customers want an individual
experience–from the music they play to the color of the phone.In addition to a diverse color choice, a QWERTY keyboard is a must at T-Mobile. Their SideKick gives users a full keyboard that lets fingers fly, making it much easier to text and stay connected. Youth feel extraordinary pressure to maintain social contact with friends even if it means driving
- NGT News: Handsets as Accessories, Gossip on the Go, Mobile Museum TrackerAugust 5
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Pattern Recognition: Latest Trends (July 08) [PSFK]
A deep analysis of recent PSFK articles produced three major themes: the collection, sorting and usage of data, the idea of “city as playground,” and outdoor eco projects.Matching your handset to your handbag [Mobile Crunch]
ABI forecasts revenues from luxury handsets will increase to $11 billion next year with designers looking to mobile as the next design frontier.Popularity of buying digital goods via mobile phone set to soar [Tech Digest]
Juniper predicts that teen mobile users will push companies to go mobile so that by 2013, 2 billion people will purchase goods like electronic tickets or music via mobile.VH1’s Scandalist.com Feeds Gossip Needs [MobileContentToday]
A new mobile site from VH1 called Scandalist.com ensures that you’re always in the know with a mobile headline feed, iPhone version, and soon-to-be-launched real-time commenting feature and Yahoo Go! widget. - Nintendo Your Way into CollegeAugust 4
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Nintendo continues to come out with unique gaming options. In fact, they seems intent on breaking all the preconceptions associated with video games. (We suppose they’ve been reading all the data about the growing casual game market.)
First, the Wii (and subsequent Wii Fit) proved that you could work out more than your thumbs playing video games. Then Wii Music let you compose your own music with more than 60 instruments.
Now, Nintendo is gearing up to offer FutureU, an SAT prep game created by Kaplan, brushing aside those who would claim video games to be nothing more than mindless indulgence. Now it’ll be easier to make your parents believe y
- iPhone Apps for the Young MassesAugust 1
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The iPhone is democratizing mobile, and now that the App Store has opened, even the non-tech savvy are tricking their phones out. Our coworker Zack–a 20-something who calls himself an “unlikely iPhone owner”–has been like a kid in a candy store for the past few weeks. In an effort to discern which of the many (many) apps available are resonating with youth and why, we asked for his personal top 5:Shazam
Definitely the coolest app out there right now. It answers the oft-asked question: Who sings this? Simply hold your iPhone up to the music and after a few seconds, it detects the song playing and stores it for future reference. It also gives you the option to purchase the song on iTunes or watch the music video on YouTube.Save Benjis
For most Gen-Yers like myself, living can sometimes be expensive, which is why I love this one so much. Search for any item by brand name, product number, or even bar code and you can instantly compare prices of over 100 major online retailers that carry the item. It even allows you to purchase the product straight from your iPhone.Remote
A very simple app that tur - NGT News: Obama’s WAP site, QR Patches, Vice MagazineJuly 31
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YA Author Sets Her Characters a’Twittering [GalleyCat]
YPulse points us to this interview with YA author Jennifer Banash who has created Twitter profiles for her characters to create buzz for her new book. Besides a good PR idea, this is a very cool way to engage kids with books. The story doesn’t need to end at the last page, readers can follow the action long after they finish the book. It also offers an “insider” peak, lends authenticity to the characters, and gives readers the chance to interact with @them. Of course, we’re not sure how many YA readers are on Twitter as of yet, but the platform is almost secondary. Short IM-like conversations are how young people communicate. We could see the Twitter feeds being pulled in to any site, blog, SNS, etc…Obama Unveils .mobi Site [MobileContentToday]
The first wiki-candidate now has his own .mobi site to compliment his personal social network, mobile shortcode, YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and BlackPlanet presences….
