Cut the Wire, Rise from Your Desk & Make the Internet Personal

The Smartphone Redefined Email
Would the Blackberry have been successful if it had taken the laptop email experience and just made it smaller? No, RIM took advantage of the always on, connected experience of your Smartphone and redefined the email experience to make it a compelling (perhaps too compelling) experience. The same is happening with the Internet; Smart Mobile Devices are going to redefine how the Internet is used.

Making the Internet Personal

Smartphones redefine the Internet experience because as well as offering a full browsing experience they offer unique features that a laptop cannot offer:
• Always with you
• Always on
• Always connected
• “Swiss Army Knife of features” including still camera, video camera, GPS, 3D compass, 3D accelerometers

This unique combination of features will allow a wide range of Internet services that will be accessed from the Smartphone in your pocket, making the Internet truly personal and not deskbound.

Smartphones Today – Redefining Shopping Around You

So how has the Smartphone enhanced an Internet service? Let’s just take a simple example of online price comparison and shopping. With a PC you are limited to where your PC is, while a Smartphone is always with you. For example using Compare Everywhere or ShopSavvy on the T-Mobile G1 allows you to scan the barcode of an item in a shop, and it will find the cheapest price online, or locally using your location. Then your Smartphone can be used to place the order online, or guide you to the other shop. What could be simpler or easier?

Applications Spreading From Smartphones to PCs

So what will be the next “hot” service? If I knew that I would be off to a VC right now, but Twitter is a demonstration of how a service designed for the mobile phone has spread from the phone to the PC. As Smartphones become more ubiquitous with HD video, 5M+ pixel cameras, GPS … you will see a new range of user-generated content and social networking services being created.

The browsing Internet you see on your PC will not disappear, but just like with the hardware where you see much more innovation in handsets, you are going to see much more innovation on services focused on the Smartphone as the Internet becomes personal.


James Bruce, Mobile Marketing, ARM, is based in Silicon Valley. James is without doubt a gadget guy who is continuously looking at the latest devices and services on them. Working for ARM allows James to see what technology will be on your mobile device in 3 to 5 years time. This view of the future combined with being based in Silicon Valley and having worked on mobile for the last 9 years allows James to have a unique view of mobile technology. At the moment James is deciding which Cortex-A8 phone he will buy this year, and which dual core Cortex-A9 phone he will buy next year.

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