big screen, small screen, two small screens. Beyond copying the web to mobile

One of the superficial differences of mobile when compared with the laptop or for example our TV set, is that the screen is "so tiny". I discuss this issue and expose it as mostly a myth in my book Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media as well as the issues with the smaller keypad of the phone, compared to big keyboard and mouse of the PC.

But recently I've had a few good discussions about the phone screen and wanted to comment on those as well. There is more to the story about screen sizes.

FIRST ON THE OBVIOUS

So, the four screens of life as Nokia tells the 7th Mass Media story ha-ha. Yes, the first screen was cinema, second was TV, third is the PC screen and the fourth is our phone screen. Progessively smaller screens. Progressively also more personal consumption. And progessively more interactive (on TV we have our remote control but in the cinema we can't change channels if the movie turns boring; on the phone we can replicate all interactivity of the PC, but we add 2D barcodes for example, far more interactivity than on even a laptop).

Also each smaller screen is viewed at a shorter distance. The cinema screen far away into the movie theater. The home TV two meters (6 feet) away. The PC screen one meter (3 feet) away while the mobile phone at only half that distance. Part of the size difference is compensated by a shorter viewing distance.

So first, if screen size was an absolute factor in deciding a mass medium's dominance, then cinema would still rule today, and TV would have nothing to fear about the PC and the internet. So size alone is not enough to decide. And if you think interactivity adds power to a screen, bear in mind mobiles have more of it than the PC or the TV.

BUT MOBILE HAS MORE OUTPUTS

Then there are the other less obvious factors that assist media consumption on a phone. First, is sound. Yes, we have sound also on a PC, but at the least, a phone can match the sound experience on most desktop PCs and many laptops; in many cases, with bluetooth earpieces etc, the sound experience can be better on a phone than through the tinny-sounding speakers on many PCs.

New phones offer TV out. We also are starting to see TV out as a feature on high end phones as Nokia's N93 started in 2007 and now for example the iPhone 3G has as well. So now we can plug our phone to a plasma screen TV and "trump" the size of the laptop screen. Great for showing pictures and videos shot with the cameraphone.

Many phones now offer touch-screens, and this in turn makes the screen even more interactive than ever before.

And yes, we are getting more exotic displays too, from projectors built-into the phone to those goggles that mimick watching a large screen. Fine, many ways to simulate a bigger screen.

But there is another side to mobile screens. That they are movable and we have more than one of them.

PHONE SCREENS CAN BE ROTATED

This is what some of my friends have pointed out several times recently. That the phone screen is different from the laptop or desktop (or TV) screen in that it is easily able to be rotated. If you want to view the picture from an different angle, just like a real paper printed photograph, a phone can be rotated easily in our hand. Yes, some netbooks do allow this (on larger screens too) but most laptops are bulky and cumbersome to rotate. So think for example of a map. You can easily re-orient the map on your phone, by simply rotating the phone. On a laptop you have to use the software to rotate the image, if you happen to want "North" to point "down" on your phone.

This is not a huge thing, for now. But it is another element we can use, part of what makes mobile magic, what makes it different from the six legacy mass media. When we combine it with the movement sensors that the iPhone introduced to phones, now we get abilities for games etc. There is potential here that goes beyond copying a web page which is almost always planned to be viewed only from one angle.

TWO SCREENS BETTER

But on the other hand, you have your other phone. As I report in the Tomi Ahonen Almanac 2009, today 29% of all mobile phone subscriptions are second or third subscriptions, and out of all who have a mobile phone, one in eight walks around with two phones in their pockets. Like an iPhone owner who also has a Blackberry.

Now we get yet another advantage. We can have two screens looking at two different services simultaneously. Yes, that also can be done on a PC obviously, but this does give the mobile a significant ability. So you can watch the game on mobile TV on one phone, and at the same time check out the scores of other games on the other phone. And very conveniently move between the two, by placing one phone on the table while watching the other (like into the background etc). And obviously if you observe the youth and how they behave who have two phones, you see they often consume some content on one phone, and spontaneously start to send SMS text messages on the other phone.

Mobile is the 7th mass media channel. The internet was the sixth. A media experience on the phone need not be "simpler and dumber" than that on a PC. Mobile is a different mass medium. Mobile is as different from the internet, as TV was from radio. We can build the magical for mobile, go beyond what is even possible on the PC. And the screen is but one element. Do not fixate on the screen. If the screen was so powerful, then radio would never have found a market at all - remember we had cinema for decades before radio became a mass market proposition. Do not fixate on the small screen (or tiny keyboard). Think beyond and create magic.

Comments

[Vesa]

Hi Tommi

Nice post. I am not sure whether you have come accross this news, but they related to your post.

Unfortunately they are in Finnish, so people might want to use Google tranlator: http://translate.google.com/translate_t#

Anyway: http://www.digitoday.fi/tiede-ja-teknologia/2009/03/02/tuottavuus-nousi-kolmanneksen-kolmella-naytolla/20095592/66

Research has found that productivity rose (35%) when using "multiple" i.e. in this case three screens.

And then a nice "concept" miniPC from Asus:
http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/article240080.ece

The idea is that the laptop has two displays. I am sure that we will see these on mobiles within 2 years. Makes more sence if end-users “productivity” can be increased.

Br. Vesa

http://mobile-hype.blogspot.com/