M:Metrics: Lessons from the Desert

Mark Donovan takes his annual trek to the desert and posts his mobile field experience at the M:Metrics Blog. In his lengthy post, Donovan states upfront that he has two points to get across:

1. The worth of mobile content and applications is only really proven when you're "in the field,"
2. Text messaging needs to be understood as a technology platform and not just an application

Donovan goes on to discuss his real world mobile experience while on vacation and explains that "the needs I want technology to meet are the ones I have at the moment, not the ones which are carefully planned by marketing departments."

In the end, this is what he learned from his vacation:

First, I only care about your technology if it makes my world better when I need it to make my world better. Second, I haven't dialed 411 in three months--ouch, that just knocked $4 from my ARPU. Third, SMS works, it's ubiquitous, and the experience of texting an address and using T9 is much closer to they way I navigate Web search than the WAP equivalent--companies focused on today's market will work to exploit and transform technologies that are widely deployed and understood. Fourth, while I love Google and it's my default webpage, I have to step back and note that Yahoo! is, rather quietly, getting it right.