(This article is written by Alex Tohme for ArabNet Weekly Digest – Issue 31)

I missed a couple of weeks contributing to the blog and a lot has happened.  I promised to update you with the details of how my information organizing and sharing in the enterprise adventure is going.  Well it’s not really going anywhere.  Sparing the technical details, one of the main issues is educating people to seek and / or store information whilst on the go.

This leads me nicely onto my next point.  The mobile web.  Some various stats have been flying around about the rise in mobile search queries across the region.  What really made an impact is seeing the Dubizzle.com latest mobile offering.  Notice that the author of that review makes the same point; connecting with users on the go.  Obviously for many potential users searching for a property to rent, they might want to be able to search on the spot if there is any availability in the building they’ve just driven past.

For me, I envisage something even more interactive, such as the ability to be able to point your mobile at the actual building and find out if any flats are available inside to rent, avoiding the need to conduct a search altogether. Ben Cerveny points out that in smartphones, tablets and smart tv’s, the search box will not be the killer app (see the link at the end of the piece).  An Augmented Reality Layar could give you all these details, such as price, availability, contact details of agent and it could also give you a 3D rendering of the actual apartment, allowing you to see which floor it’s on and how the light enters the rooms.

I recently wrote a lengthy article in Campaign magazine about the need for Brands to empower women in Saudi using Ecommerce.  Part of that rationale was centered around making a woman’s life easier.  According to more research done in the USA; women use the mobile (66% of them) to make their life easier whilst within the shopping environment.  A recent study by Greystripe conducted over a 3 month period showed that

• 45 percent use their smartphone to locate the nearest store
• 36 percent use their phone for price comparison
• 31 percent use their phone for new product research

 

Fortunately for all of the brand managers and advertisers, the study also showed that “smartphone moms are receptive to advertising, with 55% indicating that advertising plays a role in their purchasing decisions and 91% preferring free apps with ads over paid apps without ads”

So there we have it.  Mobile makes life easier, and more exciting. I’d like to finish by giving you this link to a presentation by the founder of Bloom.   It’s worth watching for the interesting observations on how we interact with our surroundings.