Mobile as a New Medium

I don't know of an instance where a new medium was not initially seen through the lens of the old. Among the perhaps obvious examples is the tendency of early movies to be "filmed stage performances." So to the extent that the "mobile web" is a new medium, and not merely a small-screen version of a PC, one would expect that the medium still is developing, and that we do not yet realize the potential.

For that reason, some speculate that the mobile web will ultimately become a different medium from the PC web.

"Where we are headed (or should be headed), I think, in developing a mobile web that is actually distinct from the web as we have known it," says Steve Smith, Digital Media Editor at Media Industry Newsletter.

If you want to know why mobile payments, mobile banking, local mobile advertising, social shopping and location services are getting so much attention, the reason is that the particularly unique "mobile media" is seen as converging or extending digital and offline experiences, so that both parts of a new experience.

In many cases, that means melding things people do in the offline "real" world with mobile capabilities. Consider shopping, which is driving much interest in mobile advertising, social shopping and location-based and "real time" offers.

But the notion that the mobile phone can be a digital extension of product - that a phone can complement the actual utility of a physical object a marketer offers - is where we get mobile closer to its ultimate promise. But some would argue we will start to approach the medium in its unique form when we start to see mobiles as a digital activation of physical world activities.

In that view, mobile does not extend the web, or offer a mobile marketing opportunity, in a narrow sense. In other words, we will understand the specific attributes of the medium as we learn to make the mobile-provided digital experience an actual extension of physical goods, services and products. It is a digital activation of the physical world.

Think of it as an extension of the notion that much of the value of any physical product is the software associated with it. PCs are nothing but platforms for software, for example. Music is a part of the MP-3 player product, or the Apple App Store as a key part of the iPhone experience.

In other cases, Amazon's service, support and recommendations are an intrinsic part of the product, which is the shopping experience, not so much the specific items purchased by the consumer.

Mobile is Not Your Older Brother's World Wide Web