There are more than a few people out there that put their entire lives (more or less) into their mobile device, i.e. a smartphone. Mobile users are all about accessibility, as in “I want to do everything on my smartphone that I can do on my computer.” And when they say everything, they mean everything.
The Big Three in this field are Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Let’s take a look at each.
Site: http://www.google.com/mobile/
This is what you can currently do on mobile with Google:
- Search (duh)
- Maps
- Gmail
- SMS
- YouTube
- GOOG-411
- Calendar
- News
- Picasa (photo sharing)
- Blogger
- Reader
- Docs
- Sync (sync to a Blackberry)
- Notebook
Microsoft
Site: http://mobile.msn.com
This is what you get with MSN mobile:
- Mobile Web (MSN homepage)
- Search
- Hotmail
- MSNBC (news)
- Weather
- MSN Money (stock quotes and so on)
- FOX Sports
- Entertainment (movie showtimes, current gossip, etc.)
- Local (maps, listings)
- Spaces (blogging)
- Messenger (instant messaging)
Yahoo
Site: http://mobile.yahoo.com
This is what you get with Yahoo mobile:
- Go (meant to be used as a starting point)
- oneSearch (search)
- oneConnect (connects different and multiple messenger accounts, instant messaging)
- onePlace (sort of like a bookmark/favorite type of thing)
- Widget Gallery (allows for custom programmed stuff such as MySpace, eBay and so on)
- Mobile Homepage
- Messenger
- Local (maps)
- Flickr
- News
- Weather
- Finance
- Sports
- Entertainment
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As of right now, the brand that has the best mobility is Yahoo. It has widget support. It can connect to multiple instant messaging accounts. It has Flickr which is what most people use for photo sharing.
Yahoo Mobile promotes “digital life” better than anyone else at the moment because it shares out what counts. The goal of mobility is to stay connected when you’re on the go. Yahoo is doing that better than everyone else.
I have to emphasize the “right now” aspect of this. Mobile computing is literally advancing almost every 3 to 6 months. In other words, a very rapid pace. The only thing that is slowing everyone down is not the development but the hardware. Smartphones still use relatively slow processors and have a limited amount of memory to work with. The reason? There’s only one – to extend battery life.
Not to worry – processor manufacturers are hard at work developing chips that will consume less power and be faster for tomorrow’s smartphones. Watch for it.
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