We’re just going through our next major design revision for Taptu, and it reminds me of just how important to us the whole topic of ‘click-distance’ is.

What is ‘click distance’? It is the sum of the number of clicks and the number of scroll actions that a mobile user must make when navigating to a specific item of content. It’s the critical measure of usability for mobile search.

Back in 2002, Professor Barry Smyth of University College Dublin carried out an experiment on the O2 mobile portal. For a sample of 150,000 users accessing the portal via the mobile browser, he measured their navigation behaviour. Specifically he measured the number of clicks and the number of scrolls that they would make on their phone keypads as they navigated the menu structure of the portal in their search for content. From this experiment came a very simple but incredibly important insight: the motivation of most users to continue navigating for content falls off a cliff when the click-distance exceeds 12.

Back at the end of 2005 we carried out our own research study into click-distance performance of mobile search engines. We asked a panel of users which 100 typical searches they would most like to do on a mobile phone, and which search words they would start with. We then selected the most popular mobile search engine, ran the 100 searches and measured the average click-distance. Shockingly, the average result was 36 clicks. It’s not hard to see why mobile search has yet to go mass market when you see a ‘usability gap’ of this magnitude.

When we design a mobile user interface for a device, or for a device family, the desire to minimise click-distance is always at the front of our minds. It’s become the central proposition of Taptu: how to deliver relevant mobile search results in 10 clicks or less. Needless to say, setting the objective of 10 clicks or less is the easy part. For a universal mobile search service, it is a very tough target.

We’ve just set up an internal research project to update our 2005 findings. This time around we have a lot more data on what mobile users actually search for, so our test database can be much more realistic. In the last couple of years, we’ve seen some improvement in the performance of the existing mobile search engines. We’ve also seen new kinds of devices like the iPhone which can do full Web search on a mobile using the desktop versions of popular search engines.

What effect will this have on click-distance performance for mobile search? Keep you posted.

All About Symbian points out this morning that the Nokia Music Store is now live for UK users. Or some UK users anyways. Those with an N95 8GB, N81 or Internet Explorer only. Not me*.

When I visited Nokia in September, I asked the PR person whether purchasing music would be widely available to existing devices, as well as Mac users - since the demo clearly worked fine on Windows in Internet Explorer. She skirted around the existing devices question, but seemed perfectly confident that the store would work happily on a Mac. Not so just yet.

I appreciate that Internet Explorer represents a fair chunk of the population, but Firefox, Safari and other non-IE users probably make up most of the gadget-using crowd they’re targetting - ie. those who use their phones for more than just banal calls. It’s also early days and things will evolve, but universality and ease of use regardless of what device you’re using is something we treat as essential here at Taptu, and I’m surprised it wasn’t a priority for Nokia.

That issue aside, the store looks reasonably good, but is only differentiated from other online stores by the application which comes pre-installed on the new N95 8GB and the N81, as the transfer to mobile needs to be done from a computer on any other Nokia device.

Music on mobile is clearly an area where we’ll see a lot of activity in the next few months, and I’m thrilled to be here to watch it all happen!

[* Yes, I could launch Parallels but that's not the point... ]

From the archives, this is an impromptu video of the Nokia Music Store beta, taken back in September at the Nokia offices in Finland.

There’s no one more critical about a plumber’s work than a fellow plumber. The same applies to marketing people; no one is more entertained than I am by watching others’ marketing initiatives.

This week, as a first in the blogging world, I won’t pit the usual contenders against each other: Apple, provider of iShinyThings(TM) vs the biggest mobile player in Europe, Nokia. Rather, in this game, Nokia and Apple will be tagteaming against Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

The game is one of survival: How to create buzz around your products so that bloggers write about your new gadget, consumers talk about it amongst themselves and, ultimately, they buy your stuff. Who’s doing it well, who’s doing it wrong and who’s not doing it at all?

In the right corner, Apple and Nokia, kings of buzz

There’s no debating what the most talked-about mobile device was this year. Yes, of course, I’m talking about the iPhone. Ubiquitous in the press? Yes. Overhyped? Quite possibly. But everyone knows what it looks like and has at least heard about it. I don’t even think people who live in a cave would manage to get away from the buzz.

Similarly, in Europe at least, the rumour mill has been working overtime churning out buzz about the Nokia smartphones. Prototype pictures circulating, guesses at future specs, wondering what will come next in the N-Series line. How can we resist the bait when we’re told that these are prototypes and “not to take pictures too close up”, but then handed the phones to play without supervision?

While Apple barely needs to move a finger for the fan base to get the rumour train going full steam ahead, Nokia has been actively seeding the market with humourous viral campaigns, such as the Jealous Computers, the N81 viral site and, lest we forget, the cheeky ads Nokia posted on Google for disgruntled iPhone users.

In both cases, staff present at events and conferences seem genuinely excited and personally invested in the business, rather than hired booth-monkeys who are counting the hours til they can go home.

And now, the opposition: Sony Ericsson and Motorola

In the other corner, we find Sony Ericsson and Motorola, two other major contenders for the phone market. To say the least, these two have selected an unorthodox strategy. The best way to describe is, hrmm, as the “go away!” tactic.

Last week, Steve Litchfield at All About Symbian described the brick wall he faced when visiting the Sony Ericsson store in London. No matter who Steve spoke to, he was told that taking pictures inside the store simply wasn’t allowed, journalist or not. The fact that Steve broadcasts reviews of mobile devices to hundreds of thousands of phone addicts seemed to completely escape the Sony Ericsson clan.

Motorola behaved in a similar way at the Smartphone Show, shuffling new devices out of sight when cameras were brought out, since “they’re prototypes and the finished hardware will be different.” Poor Steve found himself taking photos of basketball players.

His experience seemed to ring true with a number of readers, both as consumers and journalists, they’ve struggled to get anything blogworthy when attending SE or Motorola events.

Is Buzz the answer to everything?

Of course not. Buzz does not a great phone make, but it sure helps a good product carve a space in our limited mental bandwidth, ensuring we consider it as a possible option next time our phone upgrade comes around.

In practice, Sony Ericsson and Motorola still own a reasonable share, albeit far smaller than Nokia’s, of the mobile phone market, but few people talk or write about them with the same fervent passions that Apple and Nokia stir up. How much of it is owed to buzz and the bubbling community surrounding the products?

[Rock'em, Sock'em Robots picture from JTony on Flickr]

[tags]taptu, taptology, apple, iphone, nokia, symbian, motorola, sony ericsson, phones, mobile phones, technology, gadgets, marketing, buzz, community[/tags]

Today at the Symbian Smartphone Show, Nokia presented S60 running with a touch interface.

To get more details, I listened to the Voice of S60 podcast, hosted by Phil Schwarzmann who interviewed Minna Karvonen, Product Marketing Manager for S60 UI and UI Customisation.

Minna explained that the touch interface would support finger and stylus input, mulitilingual applications and is backwards compatible with the existing S60 3rd Edition platform.

While this is great news and will most likely change the landscape of mobile browsing, the cynic in me struggles to see how S60 will make this in any way as smooth and usable as the iPhone. (What, did you really think I wasn’t going to make this comparison immediately?) Regardless, it’ll be a very interesting space to watch once it is released in 2008.

And finally, here’s a video of the Nokia presentation, taken by Rafe of All About Symbian:

Welcome to this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists, I’m thrilled to be hosting it here on the Taptu blog.

The turnout in posts has been great, and we’re covering a wide range of topics today; from web3.0 to free speech, and from Burmese dissent to UFO sightings. There’s also a sneak preview surprise for all Carnival readers at the bottom of this post… So what are you waiting for? Read on!

Innovation in Developing Markets

From Mobile Active, guest writer Abi Jagun from the University of Manchester deconstructs the hype on mobiles in civil society, in particular in developing countries. Kevin Smith from Vodafone Betavine touches on the inventiveness of some African services when faced with a problem, from “beeping” each other to transferring funds via a mobile payment service. In a similar thread, Paul Ruppert at Mobile Point View posts the first of a two-part series on mobile transactions, interviewing Michele Scanlon, an expert on mobile payments in global emerging markets.

Controversy in America

Abhishek Tiwari discusses the seemingly game-changing decisions Sprint has made over their wireless offering in the US, moving away from the binding contracting model and transitioning to a subscription model without users being tied to a specific device. Echoing some of the Sprint news mentioned by Abhishek, Jason Devitt from Skydeck tells us about Verizon Wireless (almost) declining to allow Pro-Choice America send messages, explicitly requested by users, about abortion, on the grounds that the subject matter was too controversial.

Ian Welsh of The Agonist questions net neutrality in the current oligo/monopoly of the telecoms landscape, putting out red flags around AT&T and Verizon’s questionable termination clauses.

Learning From the Past

Reflecting on the launch of the Sputnik 50 years ago, Judy Breck reminds us that today’s educators should use mobiles to support lessons in a positive way rather than resort to banning them from classrooms.

A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words

Mark van ‘t Hooft at Ubiquitous Thoughts posts his observations on the dilemma military generals are facing in the current Burma/Myanmar protests with regards to the use of mobile phones and information virality. Also musing on the impact of new technologies, Krisse from All About Symbian wonders about UFOs and the effect of cameraphones on the sightings. Quick, get your camera out, there’s something weird up there!

The Web Is Abuzz…

Meanwhile, C. Enrique Ortiz from …about mobility comments on Jason Calacanis’ “official” definition of Web 3.0, and Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens writes on the “Phonetop”, mobile equivalent to the desktop, ODP and widgets as the possible future of mobile apps.

Dennis from Wapreview looks at the mobile version of Gawker Media sites I’m a big fan of; Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Valleywag, Wonkette and Defamer. Verdict? “It’s nice to see that a big publisher like Gawker is thinking of mobile, but these really aren’t very good mobile sites.” Read on to find out why. Tarek Esber from tarek speaks mobile… takes us through how the mobile web saved the day twice by allowing him to connect to important information in a quickie, taking him to destination.

Mobile Conference

This week, Rudy De Waele points us to the Mobile 2.0 Conference, which is taking place in San Francisco next Monday, 15th October. Presented by Mobile Monday and The Open Group, the event brings together experts and thought leaders from all aspects of mobile; investors, mobile carriers, device manufacturers, application developers and web technologists.

Coincidentally, Taptu will be presenting in one of the Mobile Launch Pads and showing some pretty exciting stuff! Have a look at the agenda and the speakers list and come tell me you don’t want to be there? I’ve been informed there are a few places left for those who’d like to attend.

And Finally… The Sneak Preview!

This brings me to the sneak preview you’ve been waiting for; we’ve decided to invite Carnival readers to have an early look at the Taptu mobile search beta, before we launch publicly. Want to have a look? Just leave a comment using a legitimate email address or email me on hello@taptu.com and you’ll get access to our private beta tomorrow.

Next week, the spotlight for the Carnival will be on the Symbian Smartphone Show, so see you there!

“Does anyone have a charger for a Sony Ericsson phone?” shouted across the office. Negative head shaking from everyone. Email to mates saying “Meet you at 6.30. Don’t ring me, phone out of battery.”

Common scenario, isn’t it? I’m hopeless when it comes to chargers and adapters. I always manage to misplace them, leaving me with a frantic scavenger hunt for a Nokia charger while my N95 expires with one last low battery beep.

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP), a forum of leading phone operators and manufacturers including heavyweights Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG, has agreed to make micro-USB the connector standard on all its future hardware.

“With UK consumers changing their handset on average twice a year there are hundreds millions of chargers and data cables in circulation,” says a statement from the group.

Of course, there’s no mention of timescales, but it’s a step in the right direction, towards a more practical way of connecting devices. I, for one, am thrilled at the idea of carrying less peripherals with me on a daily basis!

[Via PC Pro and InfoSync]

Not exactly what I’d describe as “light” Friday afternoon reading, but certainly entertaining is Stephen Fry’s first blog post on his fascination with mobile devices going back as far as the early “electronic organisers”.

For me it’s an addiction. Swapping SIMS, syncing, testing, probing, playing. I can’t pretend I’ve any higher purpose. What cars are to some, SmartPhones are to me – much, much more than just a functional tool. We live in the age of these devices. It should be the age of the greatest imaginative drive, flair and creativity in the digital arena. I am disappointed that not everyone in the industry sees it that way.

As the General Confession in the Book of Common Prayer has it, “I have followed too much the devices and desires of my own heart.” Amen.

The ever-eloquent Peter Ha from CrunchGear writes a post entitled “SMS 2.0? Wha? Huh? Noooooo!”.

Via TechTicker, Peter uncovered UK’s Affle (come again?) and India’s Airtel’s masterplan to spruce up the SMS advertising landscape with some 2.0 technology of their own. How does it work?

There is a cache of ads and content stored on the phone which is periodically update during the day (through a background action via GPRS). Each time the user opens his messaging window, an initial item—which could be a content or an ad—is pulled from the cache based on the user relevance. To enhance user experience this item is usually a relevant content (approx 75% of times)

I don’t think any relevancy could make up for the kind of interruption they’re suggesting. I’m usually in a rush when I want to send a text message, the last thing I need is an extra obstacle to getting my message through to a friend!

Yesterday, I visited the Nokia offices in Helsinki, Finland and had the opportunity to look at the latest range of handsets and technologies being developed. While there are no groundbreaking announcements to make and no fuzzy spy pictures to share, I did get a video of a mad pet project (no pun intended!) of some Nokia team members.

The N800, a large touchscreen internet tablet, was released some eight months ago and this has to be my favourite use of it so far.

The robot dog is controlled via another N800 tablet and has a range of predefined actions it can do. Great fun!

On Friday, the mobile phone celebrated 20 years of growth and development, which means that, thankfully, phones have gone from the size of a briefcase to a tiny, multi-featured smartphone.

On 7 September 1987, 15 phone firms signed an agreement to build mobile networks based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications.

According to the GSM Association there are more than 2.5 billion accounts that use this mobile phone technology.

Adoption of the technology shows no signs of slowing down with many developing nations becoming keen users of mobile handsets. [BBC News]

For some of us, it’s difficult to even imagine life without mobiles. It’s become something of a lifeline; finding information and planning our social lives wouldn’t be the same without this ubiquitous means of communication.

It seems fit then that today, hundreds of mobile industry people are getting together in Helsinki for the Mobile Monday Global Summit. Some pics of the event are already being posted on Flickr. Well, what did you expect from a bunch of mobile geeks?