Challenges facing mobile analytics

Great article on measurement challenges for mobile:

• Data collection
• Unique visitor identification due to lack of cookie support and the changing of IP addresses
• Handset capability detection
  
• Phone and manufacture identification
  
• Screen resolution detection
  
• Traffic source detection
  
• Geographic identification

Read the entire article here.

Also, check out the Mobile Marketing Association's website.

The Future of Mobile

Can I just say again how much I love SlideShare.net? It's millions and millions (OK, maybe thousands and thousands or hundreds and hundreds). Right on, Rashmi and team (but, maybe a tip--take it for what it's worth--how about surfacing the number of slide shows and slide casts on the network?)

Anyway, I'm not writing to rave about SlideShare only. Ur, rather, I'm writing to talk about what I found on SlideShare during my last slidescapade. I wrote a couple weeks ago about my experiences with Mobile. I love it and I hate it.

I love it because I can get so much info anywhere. I hate it because the interface doesn't support collaboration, interaction and participation as much as I'd like. So I sought out solutions or discussions on the topic and came across some great slides from a conference held in London early this month called The Future of Mobile.

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The first slide show that I came across was by Brian Fling, Principle & Director of Strategy at Blue Flavor. The slide that caught my interest the most was a slide explaining the 10 things that he learned at Mobile 2.0, another mobile conference held in October:

1. #1 Mobile 2.0 = The web
2. The mobile web browser is the next killer app (AMEN, it sucks right now)
3. Mobile web applications are the future
4. AJAX is the next frontier
5. Javascript kills battery life
6. The mobile user experience sucks (AGREED, see 2)
7. Mobile Widgets are the next big thing
8. The Carrier is the new "C" word (what does this mean, Brian?)
9. People abuse the Podium
10. We are creators not consumers (I may disagree slightly with the semantics, but the idea is solid... see this Fred Wilson post or my post last week inspired by Fred).

Want to see Brian's list without my commentary, see slide 17.

Other Future of Mobile slides on SlideShare:

• Getting mobile type right OR... TEXTUAL HEALING
• Remembering the Future
• MobileCommerce
• The Truth About Mobile Web Development Standards
• Will Content Be King onMobile?
  
• Engaging mobile experiences
• Cracking the code: developing for mobile devices
• PayforIT

Highlights from Ad:Tech Archives

I came across this great archive of highlights from the Ad:Tech New York 07 event that went down last week. They include some juicy excerpts:

• Follow the Money: Why Some Advertisers Successfully Use Emerging Media and Why Others Can Not - Or Will Not
• Tales from the Bleeding Edge
• Brand Nation: Leading Marketers Share their Vision
• Route CGA: Put the Prize Money Down!
• eCommerce Marketing: The Art of Customer Acquisition
• Extending Your Reach: Leveraging Mobile Content to Drive Your Brand Message
• The Online Female Consumer
• Defensive Branding 101: Troubleshooting Your Brand in the Age of Consumer Control
• Britney Spears: the Social Media Gift that Keeps on Giving
• Multi-Platform Advertising: An Out-of-Body Experience?
  
• Global Perspectives on the Digital Revolution

Stuck in Newark... Time to try Opera Mini

My flight in Newark has been delayed in Newark by 2 hours (hopefully). Times like these remind me of Fight Club. Never knowing which city that I'm in or what day of the week it is.

I'm laptop-less at the airport, so I'm blogging from my Blackberry. It's been a blessing. I have a Blackberry 8700, and I prefer the typepad to the Treo 650 that I had up to a few months ago.

Relying on the Blackberry over a laptop makes travel lighter, but it also introduces the limitations to mobile. Or, at least the limitations as assumed by a mobile neophyte like myself.

I'm not at all impressed with the mobile browser choices. I want my tabs. I want my firefox. I want an easier way to capture images and flip between content as I forward it to friends and coworkers or repurpose it for use in the blogosphere.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I may not be up on the latest mobile technologies (please let me know my options!). So, maybe these aren't true obstacles. If they are, it seems they need to be addressed in order to move more users more quickly to the third screen.