The past few weeks have represented a true watershed for the mobile Web, for the mobile networks/carriers/device ecosystem and for application developers who have been trying to figure out how to jump on the mobile content creation bandwagon. Still a bit of a stretch to make a direct positive correlation to mobile learning, per se. But the more that mobility is a no-brainer for everything else we do in our work and consumer lives, the more obvious and self-evident is the value of mobility for learning and performance support.
The Handheld Learning Conference (or #hhl, if you follow tweetstreams) concluded mid-week with reports of 1500 pleased attendees who are still churning over the ideas and debates that were shared while F2F. Adobe's MAX, the company's worldwide developer conference, featured lots of news for mobile developers: Flash on Blackberries, mobile Connect, Open Screen Project news and, of course iPhone Flash compilers for CS5. Not exactly the Flash on iPhone that people have been hoping for, but at least Adobe is stepping up to the fact that Apple won't play with them. I saw a number of tweets from very excited elearning types who were speculating how great this will be for mlearning. Which of course is a whole other blog post. Stay tuned for that.
There were also more company announcements than usual, along with pointers to various industry reports and post. Here are links to just a few:
- Mobile Crunch reports that the mobile internet is experiencing a 34% jump this year, thanks to women, teens and seniors
- CTIA released its Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey results describing the telecommunications industry (e.g. number of subscribers, number of minutes - which exceeded 1 trillion for the first half of 2009). Here's a link to their research page. Lots of good, free info. While the full industry survey *is* for sale, there is a top-line, 10 page summary available with plenty of good info.
- AdMob's Mobile Metric Report provides a detailed look at statistics describing the relative mobile usage as reported from AdMob's network. They address things like worldwide operating system share. Top handsets and smartphones for the world markets.
- We're hearing about how Microsoft is going up against the iPhone and Android, Google's open source operating system. And seeing questions such as "Is Windows Mobile’s Relevance Gone Forever?"
- We're reading about how AT&T Reverses Policy on iPhone Internet Calls - which is code for saying that you can now use Skype from your iPhone in certain markets
- The FCC is jumping into the dust-up with Apple, Google and AT&T regarding Google Voice.
- Verizon Wireless and Google ink a collaboration pact. Next up - Google Voice support.
- Palm announces that they are offering review free app distribution for the Pre.
- Verizon is investing $1.3 billion USD in LTE. And yes u should know what that is.
What does this mean for learning and elearning professionals (remember, IMHO there *is* a difference, and there are a number of Roadtrip posts that have beaten that topic into the earth) who are trying to figure out how to integrate mobile learning into the toolset?
Stay tuned for Part 2.
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