The future of mobile is context

Interesting blog entry from Forrester which supports the recent release of their report: "The Future of Mobile is User Context". User context is nothing new. Back in 2009, I discussed context-aware technologies. Julie Ask gives some examples of context-aware scenarios and recognizes that these are not new, and that companies are already developing them. What I found particularly interesting was her definition of user context: “the sum total of what your customer has told you and is experiencing at his moment of engagement."

This, undoubtedly, centers context-aware services around social networks content and platforms.

iTunes App Store Surpasses 15 Billion Downloads

The iTunes App Store had only 500 applications when it launched in 2008, now it has over half a million applications if you count iPad's. The 15-billion download number is staggering. Talk about a Long Tail! The App Store is reaching this milestone only one month after the iTunes Music Store reached the same number (iTunes Music Store launched in 2003, 5 years before the App Store).

I have been a strong supporter of a vibrant developer community to establish a platform, this is one of the best illustrations we've ever seen so far.

Google's Android Market is still playing catch up (Apple must be feeling them breathing over their neck though), but if you add their numbers, this truly is an incredible growth and remarkable achievement.

The 8 most important types of collaboration apps for smart phones

According to this article which covers a recent Forrester report, the following applications will matter the most on smart phones and tablets:

• E-mail and calendars
• Document-based collaboration
• Web conferencing
• Activity streams
• Presence and chat
• Social collaboration
• Expertise location
• Videoconferencing

No real surprise, this was the kind of list that was circulated around 10 years ago except for the social collaboration and activity streams.

I found the following figure quite valuable as we always discuss the value of rich vs thin vs native type of mobile application. Clearly, the back-end is moving to the cloud while the front-end is mobile or better: multi-channels.