While many were flocking to the MWC to get a glimpse of the latest consumer tech, much of the big news was around the technologies driving the networks and infrastructure.  With mobile devices, and in particular web-enabled smartphones, being adopted at a massive rate (a spotlight of the show was the emerging smartphone market in India), smartphones are becoming more established as a primary route for accessing content.  The mobile industry is ready and hungry to adopt new network technologies that will be able to supply the greater speed and bandwidth that is already in demand.

The next generation of mobile communication standards is referred to as 4G.  This represents a step up in the amount of data bandwidth possible via the mobile networks.  But the step to provide this service to users is not simple, there are different ways that the technology can be implemented (4G is a classification based on a data transfer rate, it does not specify the means of providing it), and there are many network operators in competition.  Mobile networks, radio, WiFi and other kinds of wireless networks all use radio transmission, so now there is a limit to the available frequency bands that can be used to transmit information – so any new standards brought in by operators have to find a way to fit in to what is available.

LTE, the primary technology that will be driving future 4G networks, has already been deployed in some places for several years – Sweden and Norway have had LTE networks since 2009, as has the USA, but these are not yet considered to be performing at 4G level.  There were a number of announcements at the conference around 4G and LTE, such as the arrival of the first LTE networks to the UK, and demonstrations showcasing new ‘small-cell’ base stations.  These smaller transmitters mean that transmitter can be more easily installed to allow greater coverage by placing them closer to where people are going to be.  It will still be some time before things settle down, but an infrastructure for 4G networks is starting to look like a reality.

Whilst the mobile networks are struggling to roll out the new technology, another approach is taking hold.  The aim is to increase bandwidth available to smartphone users by seamlessly connecting to WiFi hotspots when they are available.   The idea is likened to cellular ‘roaming’.  WiFi is typically very short range, but can offer greatly higher data bandwidth than 3G or even 4G networks. The service is intended to work in densely populated areas where there are many overlapping hotspots.  Cisco Systems have announced major commitments to this approach.

Smartphones have taken hold extremely quickly, with demand for data escalating.  In addition to downloading apps and accessing the internet, streaming media and cloud-based computing are becoming more and more in demand.  The demand for high-bandwidth mobile internet has already exceeded what today’s networks can offer, but WiFi roaming and 4G services are now not far off.  We can see a glimpse of a future where there is much less destination between PCs, smartphones and tablets – Microsoft’s Windows 8 is designed for tablet and PC (rather than having customised versions for each) and Google has already released a laptop that runs on Android, previously only used on mobile devices.  Cloud-based services allow the exciting possibility of bringing the power of a desktop PC to a mobile device, an exciting prospect for cloud gaming (see our article on cloud gaming here).  Cloud storage and computing mean that mobile computer no longer needs to be a compromise, with home and business users able to access their documents, media and applications wherever they are.

An always connected world will bring many more day-to-day services to your smartphones and mobile devices, and multi-channel solutions that provide a seamless experience across many devices will become more important info the future.

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Mobile is huge.  For some evidence of how huge, take a look at the vast crowds of attendees at the recent Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.  Some 60,000 people attended the event, and the amount of content and technology on show was simply staggering.  Scribble were very excited to join the crowds this year.  News is still filtering through the networks, and with so much to take in, it is hard to know where to start.  We will spend the next few weeks talking about some of the hot topics for mobile this year to come out of the MWC, beginning with an overview of new mobile devices on show at the event.

Powerful smartphones

Many handsets are now appearing with quad-core processors – making them capable of high performance in entertainment applications such as videogame graphics and HD video playback.  It also means that devices will be able to perform processor-heavy tasks such as real-time image processing for better camera performance and photo and video editing.

Android

Android is continuing to gain momentum, powering many of the major smartphones on show.  Their new operating system “Ice-Cream Sandwich” was also on show, in handsets such as the impressive LG Optimus 4X HD and the HTC One X.

Tablets

In terms of competition, Apple still hold a very strong spot in the marketplace for tablets, especially with the recently announced iPad3 refreshing their lineup.  But the MWC showed that tablets are here to stay.  Rather than a competition to see who is crowned the winner, the entry of many new sizes and forms of tablets is testament to the arrival of a new category of devices that is sure to replace the PC for a number of common tasks, and allow more flexible mobile computing.

The metric for comparison still remains the iPad, which has set many precedents.  Some tablets will attempt to stand out simply with a smaller price tag, but there are a number of stand-out tablets hoping to carve a niche by offering something new, such as using docking stations to offer the functionality of a laptop, or having controls and graphics capabilities tailored for gaming on the go, many devices at the show were even touting water resistance, with basins of water ready to dump expensive digital devices into!

Somewhere Inbetween

Many new smartphones are emerging with a larger form-factor.  This move comes in tandem with faster processors and advances in screen technology – all with the aim of driving bigger and more impressive displays, for movies, gaming and making web and text content easier to read.  The LG Optimus 4X HD, LG Optimus Vu, HTC One X, Panasonic Eluga and many more have 4-inch and above screen sizes.  The Asus Padfone even connects to a docking station (essentially a touchscreen) to turn it into a 10inch tablet computer.

Windows 8

Whilst there are still comparatively few Windows Phones available, demonstrations of Microsoft Windows 8 clearly show that Microsoft is heavily invested in the future of mobile.  Their new operating system runs on both PCs and tablets – as opposed to having a separate system for each – and is designed with touch in mind.  Microsoft have been largely absent in mobile technology in recent years, but their impressive technology shows that they are likely to be a major player as the mobile sector matures.

Mobile World Congress 2012

We are excited to be attending the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona.  As well as soaking in the joys of the beautiful setting, we are looking forward to seeing some great exhibitions and sharing ideas with attendees.

Scribble: are a digital agency based in Brighton.  We enjoy seeking out innovative solutions for our clients and for our own endeavours in the world of apps.   Some of our main interests include creating cross-platform solutions that integrate apps, web and social media, 3D graphics, augmented reality and social media integration.

We love augmented reality and are really excited about what the industry will have to offer in the coming years, so it is nice to see that the conference will be enhanced by a number of augmented reality experiences to show people about the conference and to guide people to different areas.

The conference will host a pretty comprehensive list of players in the mobile world and will include keynotes from Facebook, Google, eBay, GMA, Visa and many many more.  As well as major keynote speakers and exhibitions, the conference has ‘App Planet’ a large section dedicated to mobile apps, where developers, operators, manufacturers and service providers will be exhibiting and sharing knowledge.

This year’s conference will be split up into a number of different ‘zones’, all related to different aspects of the mobile world, here’s what we are most excited about:

Cloud technology has been taking off over the last few years, and with demand for mobile services surging and 4G networks just around the corner, cloud technology is set to become an essential technology in the mobile world, so we will be taking a great interest in the exhibitors on the “Cloud Pavillion”.

We’ll also be checking out m-Commerce developments in the “Mobile Money Pavillion” – the coming years will see many big changes in this area as mobile banking, NFC and the like start to take off.

The “mPowered Brands Zone” will be dedicated to mobile marketing, and we will be interested to see how companies are making use of mobile technology to spread the word about their brands.

We love to share ideas, so please get in touch with us if you’d like to meet up at the conference, we look forward to seeing you there!

If you’d like to meet up at the conference, drop us a line at hello@scribbleuk.com and keep up to date with our tweets @scribbledigital

Check back here soon for our report of the conference!

Here at Scribble, we love augmented reality.  Augmented reality is being marked by many as a key area to watch in 2012, and with more and more exciting examples of the technology are coming onto the market each day, we cannot disagree.  So we thought it would be a good idea to take stock of things that are going on in the field.

There are a number of different categories that augmented reality apps so far fall into, we take a look at a few which promise exciting things in the coming year…

3D Augmented Reality Games

These games allow the user to use their device to look around and shoot or interact with 3D objects superimposed onto the real world via the device’s camera.  The systems in these games are pretty simple in terms of the broad vision of augmented reality, they do little to interpret the world around us, the simulated 3D objects thus do not interact or correspond to objects in the real world, but the direction the device is facing is tracked, giving the impression that objects are floating in 3D space around the user.  Despite the simplicity, however, there have been a huge number of games released, not just on smartphones, but handheld consoles such as the Nintentdo 3DS and forthcoming Playstation VITA (check out this amazing video where the user places multiple cards onto the table to build a virtual football stadium!!).  In the future, augmented reality games will be able to interpet the 3D space around us, such as in Ball Invasion, a game that employs technology created by NASA!  This is still a simple demonstration, but it shows what exciting possibilities lie ahead.

Image Comprehension

This concept is at the core of augmented reality: the ability of the software to comprehend what it is looking at and then perform some relevant task.  Image interpretation is one of the big challenges in computing, but we are beginning to see some tantalising prospects of what this could bring us.  SREngine is an app that uses image recognition to identify objects and scenes – the demo shows the app recognising an office building and items on a menu.  WordLens is another innovative concept, this time using augmented reality to perform translation: point your device at some text on a sign or product packaging, and WordLens will replace the text in the image with it’s translation into French or Spanish right before your eyes!  TAT Augmented ID uses facial recognition to create a visual tag-cloud of a person’s interests floating around their head.

GeoLocation

This is likely to become the most widespread use of augmented reality: hold up your phone camera to view information about your surroundings.  Big players are moving into this field – Layar is growing in popularity and Microsoft’s Bing are invested in the technology.  Now LG is including an Wikitude, an augmented reality browser, on the LG Optimus.  Adoption by handset makers is a significant step on the path towards augmented reality becoming an integral part of the technology we use.  It may still be a long way off, but companies such as Google and Nokia are already looking at ways that indoor environments could be mapped to allow the same kind of navigational tools that we now take for granted with services such as Google Maps.

Many of these technologies are still in their infancy.  But improvements technology and infrastructure will help bring augmented reality to fruition.  There are countless startups coming out with innovative new uses and examples of the technology, and we will see more of this as the technology matures.  The presence of major players and the first signs of widespread adoption from handset manufacturers is a clear indicator that the technology will be able to move forward and fulfil many of these exciting promises…. hopefully some of them in 2012!

Technology on the move in 2012

2012 will see technology continue to become more mobile, whilst web and social media will integrate further into our lives and the devices around us.

Increased processing power for smartphones and tablets will see mobile devices moving closer to fully-fledged computers and super lightweight and portable laptops will make computers more mobile.  Cloud storage and sevice-based software will continue to grow, making less reliance on local storage, and allowing content to be easily shared and viewed across multiple devices.  Social media platforms will be introducing more apps to broaden their experiences and engage us for longer, and ‘clickstreaming’ will allow users to constantly log their activities, creating a seamless web narrative, while web and social media platforms will be spilling over into smart TVs and the upcoming next generation consoles.

SocialMedia

Predicitions are that social media adoption will begin to slow and level out in 2012.  The buzz word for social media in 2012 is “engagement”.  Instead of harvesting more users, social media platforms will be looking for new ways to keep their users interested for longer, with platforms like Spotify and Twitter introducing apps to broaden their service.  Meanwhile, Facebook will extend it’s reach to more rich media such as newspapers and video channels, with the aim of keeping people on the site for more of their web-browsing time.

Nokia Windows Phone

Microsoft have had little success so far with Windows Phone.  Perhaps this is because the Microsoft brand association is not particularly sexy.  But we like Windows Phone, with it’s colourful box menu, reminiscent of the Xbox live interface, it’s a refreshing change from the iPhone-style rows of icons.  Having joined forces with Nokia, many are predicting that 2012 will be an important year for Windows Phone.

 Ultrabooks

Netbooks received a lot of criticism when they were introduced due to the heavy sacrifices made to performance, memory and screen-size in order to make them portable and affordable.  Whilst sounding good in theory, for many, this was not an acceptable trade-off, a point that Steve Jobs emphasised when he announced the first iPad.

Intel has put a huge amount of effort into developing a laptop which retains portability as the focus, but without the sacrifice in performance, coining the term ‘Ultrabook’.  Intel are not alone in this category, with other PC makers producing thin lightweight models.  Apple clearly see that the future of computing is in portability and mobility, with their entry level range of Macbooks being replaced with the Macbook Air, arguably the first ‘Ultrabook’.

Storage

One of the key space-saving measures for these devices is the removal of the optical drive.  This comes as the industry continues to move towards digital distribution.  Digital stores such as Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, the Apple AppStore will become more dominant for software distribution, and Microsoft will release their own app store with Windows 8.  Cloud storage and services, and streaming media will also take the burden away from local storage.

iPad 3

Many competitors have jumped into the tablet market, notably Samsung and Amazon, bringing some choice and variety to the category.  But Apple still remain ahead by some distance, the iPad being the most desired.  The iPad3 will be announced this year.  Apple are fairly good at guarding the secrets of their products before they are released, but some of the most popular speculations include a higher resolution ‘retina’ display, possibly that runs right to the edge of the device (ie, there is no border around the edge of the screen), more powerful processor and greater graphics capabilities.

 Augmented Reality

Faster processors, graphics capabilities and better cameras in smartphones means that we can expect to see even more exciting augmented reality apps on mobile devices.  As more developers are being attracted to the technology, we will start to see more exciting and practical applications, such as virtually trying on clothes or makeup.  Here at Scribble,  we love to hear about new AR developments, and we can’t wait to try them outfor ourselves!

2012 is going to be an exciting year of Scribble, as web and social media evolve and spread onto more devices and platforms and as digital technology becomes increasingly mobile…. watch this space!