http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Teens-and-smartphones/Summary-of-findings.aspx
Here’s the interesting part for me:

• 26% of all teens (including those with and without cell phones) say they talk daily with friends on their cell phone, down from 38% of teens in 2009.

However, the Pew Internet survey shows that the heaviest texters are also the heaviest talkers. The heaviest texters (those who exchange more than 100 texts a day) are much more likely than lighter texters to say that they talk on their cell phone daily. Some 69% of heavy texters talk daily on their cell phones, compared with 46% of medium texters (those exchanging 21-100 texts a day) and 43% of light texters (those exchanging 0-20 texts a day). “

The study shows teens are talking less on their cell phones than in 2009, while texting has increased. This finding seems so obvious since it’s been splashed all over the media.

But what you never hear is the second part, that heavy texters are also the heaviest talkers! More texting = more voice. Once you hear that, it makes sense. Socially active people talk more. Those who prefer a good book?…probably less.

Why is this important? Well, what I’m saying is that you need to put voice services where people are socially active.

A high-ranking carrier executive once told me that social network users don’t want voice services. “They want messaging only” he said. He cited his daughter as his proof. However, she wasn’t given a test product to try nor did she hear about friends using calling from social networks. Most teen behavior today is virally picked up from early

adopters. He mentioned that he had asked her over a bowl of frosted flakes what she wanted. Taken in that context, I don’t agree with his conclusion.

In general, for the mobile operators, voice services seem to be low priority. But they are under threat from VoIP competitors and would benefit from both innovation in voice distribution and a presence on the social web. It seems to me that a senior manager should inspire co-workers to champion the product responsible for about 75% of their revenue: voice services!

We’re in the midst of the biggest disruption in communications in the last 100 years and the carriers are looking for more data revenues. Ok, it might pan out. But, read the study and ask yourself what you would do with a $100 billion voice company.

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“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” said Yogi Berra. Thanks for that common sense reminder.

If M2M is successful, what about M2S or machine to social? That certainly has to come first. For all of the predictions of M2M value, today’s world would more easily incorporate M2S. That’s my prediction: M2S will be a common part of social networking before M2M.

In fact, it’s not much of a prediction at all, since an M2S wave has already started. When your Fitbit reports to Facebook or Twitter, or, your mobile automatically logs your location, that’s the beginning of M2S. Our home video and music consumption and game play reports content and play levels to our social networks, too. Perhaps our collective friends will be able to vote on what content gets DVR’d at home so that a person can watch their friends favorites, without going person-to-person.

I hate going to the extreme of this prediction, because it almost assuredly won’t play out this way, but, I love the tried and true M2M connected home with the ‘smart fridge’ vision, communicating lamps and online treadmill. Standard M2M logic says if you run enough, the fridge of the future will unlock for a few minutes and let you eat. Now throw social into that mix. I want my running partner’s treadmill to update my treadmill and challenge me with a specific run that he did. Maybe I want friends to know what I’m cooking in my oven, with photo’s, direct from oven to social network. I would like to see where my friends’ cars have driven, speed, location, mileage…and how my group could carpool together, be more social and save resources.

Social makes M2M more compelling. What we need are the tools to integrate the M components with the S components. We need the social layer.

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Blockbuster repeatedly declined multiple opportunities to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000…when Blockbuster was worth $6 billion. Now, Blockbuster is bankrupt. The mystery seems to be why Blockbuster was unable to defend its market against an opponent with so much less capital. They were so busy being successful, that they forgot to succeed.

This simple situation speaks to innovation, and it’s purpose. A start-up innovates to disrupt, change and make a new world. Larger companies innovate to sustain or grow modestly, with the rare exception of Apple and a few others.

What I find interesting is watching Mobile Operators make their choices as disruption threatens voice & video revenues. Will one Mobile Operator prevail, or will they all sink or swim together? They have the money to do almost anything. Remember, Skype sold for about US $9 billion, but, a single year of global mobile operator service revenue recently topped US $1 trillion. http://bit.ly/gjViVo
What would Blockbuster’s management team tell them to do, given their experience? Blockbuster-informed history teaches us that they should buy or replicate every disruptor as either an offensive or defensive tactic.Forget trying to be disruptive innovators, buy disruption.

In fact, can someone tell me why one of them didn’t buy Skype, to either exploit or just slowly bury?

The post Buy Disruption appeared first on Telesocial.

Engagement:
The more engaging an app is the more time we spend using it. I believe that talking to a friend is engaging in itself, but if you can do this in the context of a social game or app, the app becomes more social and fun. If your friend also happens to be an expert at the game you’re both playing you might get help moving ahead, hence enjoying it even more. And if your friend is buying virtual currency to advance, it’s likely that he will convince you to do the same.

Virality:
When I enjoy something I always feel an urge to share it with somebody (and this occurred even before Facebook, believe it or not;-). So, this goes back to engagement. But, there are some built-in functionalities in our calling features that are inherently viral, as in
- if I want to call you from the app I must invite you to register and download it;
- Once a friend has registered for web calling, via any TS enabled app, I can see that in his or her profile by the calling button being active;
- Invites to conversations happen on social platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook and will be visible in timelines and feeds.

Retention:
In order to keep users returning, we must make sure the app is useful and/or engaging. Talking to a friend, or a like minded, within the app has proved to work via chat and messaging features. We argue that voice would add another (more intimate) dimension.
And if a social app, by allowing you to click to call your friends, turns into a seamless phonebook wouldn’t that surely make you return to it?
APPNATION also talked about how carrier API:s will leverage network platforms to build better apps. I will return on this theme.

Finally, they touched on the subject ‘Why Siri and Speech recognition apps will change man2machine interaction forever’. We tend to side with the people who believe this is the future. And imagine if, in the near future, you could tell your phone ‘Get the marketing team on the phone!’.. and it just happens! Seems pretty valuable to me.

Hanging up for now.

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The event draws a diverse audience composed of developers, advertising agencies, content companies, research and analytics companies, industry analysts, professional services firms and executives from across the app value chain including those from hardware manufacturers, networks and operating system vendors, and tool and technology vendors and providers.

The agenda is full of interesting and informative sessions like The State of the App Consumer, The APPNATION CEO Roundtable, as well as real-world tips and advice on getting your app company funded from industry leaders.
At APPNATION III you can also attend a kick-butt developer BOOT CAMP, pitch your app at APP CIRCUS, or stop by the APPNATION III Garage, where over 50 of the top developers and entrpreneurs are eager to meet and greet.

This year Telesocial has a SuperPod on the main exhibit floor as well as a presence at the PlayHaven village. Be sure to stop by and say hello to our team

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As they work, the conversations continue in the background and kids seamlessly move in and out of the Hangout sessions. The parents occasionally pop into the room and the video chat session to let all know that there is supervision. Imagine that! Kids today are ushering in yet another paradigm for using social networks and technology. While this behavior is adopted by the younger generation, we know that eventually it will work its way into everyone’s lives such that we will all have ongoing video sessions on our screens while we go about our daily lives. In this new world, what will happen to mobile calling? Right now, the average American  makes or takes about 12.5 mobile calls per day, and that number (surprisingly for some parents) is almost 50% higher for teens.

I can imagine the traditional mobile call will melt downward to a few times per day and social voice and video activity will shift onto the platforms where we socialize. Some work related calls (voice or video) will also begin to move to platforms like LinkedIn, Chatter or even Box.com. Dialing a phone number or trying to IP-connect to someone outside of a social network will become an annoyance.

We could soon see a world where video and voice become more important to teens than texting. From the mobile carriers point of view, they are becoming aware that they need to work within influencing technologies and do more than just offer network API’s. Carriers understand they need to offer solutions for the big social networks that work for both developers and subscribers. With almost 6 billion mobile phone subscribers on a 24/7 global network, carriers understand that they have a lot more to offer Facebook and Twitter than Skype does. With that said, it’s easy to see how VoIP and video can augment core phone connectivity, giving users the best of both worlds. The carriers still hold some great cards in a world of disruptive technologies, and innovation can work in their favor.

It would be safe to predict that the carriers will try many approaches to solving this problem. And with over $1.3 trillion dollars in global revenue, the mobile industry has a lot to protect.

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