There's a buzz around mobile at the moment. In fact there's been a buzz about mobile for years, it's just that most of the predictions have been a little ahead of themselves. Finally, however, it does seem like the mobile web is really happening. But is it happening for everyone?
For so many reasons, iPhone, Android and Blackberry are the platforms of choice for engaging the mobilised audience. But, what does this mean for people who don’t have the latest toys? The occasionally blinkering effect of social media means that a lot of the people I connect with have smartphones. The web experience on these is pretty good. It could be better, but if an organisation builds a mobile site then it’s going to work pretty well on my phone.
So what does this mean for audience development? I’m already engaged with cultural institutions so mobile sites just make it easier for me to get information about things that are already on my radar. What about those who aren’t yet engaged? What about people who aren’t even using the mobile web? How do we reach them? Mobile phone ownership is vast and a mobile phone is one of the rare objects that most people take with them everywhere. So there’s no question that reaching them presents a huge opportunity. But how do we reach them?
Our Devon Museums project is giving us an opportunity to explore this (among other things). We’re setting out to target a huge range of mobile devices in many different ways and we’re looking forward to sharing what we discover. Of course, if you’ve done similar things then we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch.
this is a really captivating and thought-provoking subject, thank you for bringing it to the forefront. It obviously interests me re. mobile distribution of content, and I’d like to learn more about this
By Francesco on 2010 03 12