The title may seem obvious - as apparently everything needs mobile nowadays. But it's more important for what it's implicit - if context has little impact on how your customers relate to your brand and products, then you DON'T need mobile. I could have also titled it "if you're not considering context in your mobile strategy, you're not doing it right".
A tortuous logical road brought me here, let me share.
Recently I was invited to speak at a seminar about Social Networks. While I deem myself a knowledgeable guy on the subject of mobility, I am not so sure about my performance on the social networks theme. I mean, sociability is not natural on me, which means that I've always dwelt on social networks with a mix of curiosity, pragmatic need and aversion.
As the event line-up was filled with hotshots I was actually concerned about what I would speak (see, usually we can say pretty much anything as long as correctly delivered). I took some relief on the fact that the subject was mobile social networks. A greater relief came when I found out I didn't have to present anything - just answer questions. However I only knew that after I prepared my presentation. And what would I be presenting?
My initial problem was the idea of mobile social networks itself. It didn't feel right that everything that had mobile attached to it was thrown in the same terminological bucket. Are Facebook and Foursquare the same thing? I guess not.
My point is, there are social networks that have mobile extensions - are mobilized. And there are social networks that are mobile in the sense that the fact of mobility is the trigger towards networking.
Facebook is a good example of the former. It has a mobile access developed with a mind on enhancing the interaction of users with the site tools. Check the snapshot:
A news feed, events, photos, chat, notes - all these items can receive a boost from being mobile. And this is the iPhone app. When you look at the Blackberry, you cannot even navigate through the site - it's only a tool where you can basically update your status, upload pictures and comment on your friends' walls. Mobile is here to enrich the experience. And it works - Facebook Mobile has 65M users.
And then you have Foursquare (or any other location-based social network). How would you interact properly with Foursquare if not from your mobile? The whole idea is based on exploration, discovery and enhancing the mobile experience. Of course I can update it from my couch. But it's definitely not the same thing.
See the difference? There's mobile enriching the experience and there's enriching the mobile experience. My view is that a genuine mobile social network (opposed to a social network with mobile extensions) is built upon enhancing the experience of people when in movement.
Therefore building a business based on mobile social network should first consider how to contribute with this mobile experience. I would make a case for transaction costs as well, but this is another issue for a much later consideration.
This distinction can be productively applied to mobile development.
The effective consideration of context will happen only when I evaluate how mobile can be used to improve the consumer experience when in movement. The "mobilizing content" attitude will not necessarily create a better experience unless there are touch points with your consumer that are more valuable when accessed mobile.
Mobilizing the content per se does not generate value and it’s all too easy to do just that. If you're not creating value, you'll inevitably get the "why can't I do this at my laptop" look from your consumer. The whole talk in the end is about how you need to get context to work for you.
Identify the points where your customer interacts with your brand and where there's an opportunity to enable a better relationship with you.
This one here is surely the best example. It's that simple. And no wonder apps are the talk of the town. They can be developed with an exclusive view on the interaction context.
What are you doing? Are you just mobilizing your content or are you actually taking into consideration context and delivering a better experience?
For all the talk and hype around mobile, there are actually sounding business reasons to invest. Oh, and if you know of any product where context doesn't play a role, please let me know.
