Is Mobile Phone Book Passe?
Many may disagree with the topic or may find it very futuristic but here what I going to discuss is the trend that is fast catching up. Phone book is considered as a major asset by the handset vendors as a catalyst to adoption of social media on mobiles. However, contrary to the expectations, there are evidences that support the theory that users may soon stop using the phone book on the mobile and retrieve the data online from the social media sites whenever required.
I biggest challenge I have found in maintaining the phone book on my mobile is that it becomes obsolete fast and I do not even come to know about it. People change jobs, locations and phone numbers. If I am not on the other person’s phone book, I would not receive his or her updated co-ordinates. The updation would also depend on his sending the updates and my saving the updates to my phone book. There are a few chances of slippage in each of these activities. This problem gets sorted out at social media sites like Linkedin/Facebook. The contact details on these sites are normally updated. A user just need to update his contact details on the social media sites and everybody comes to know about it. Think about synchronizing this information with the mobile phones or the user retrieving the information on the go whenever it is required using his mobile. With improving mobile internet connectivity, why should I rely on the mobile phone book? I just need to go to Facebook and click on the mobile number of my friend to call him.
Screenshots below show how Facebook contacts can be used:
Google Latitude is a location based application that is gaining popularity as it can show the location of social contacts. I can come to know who is around me. On this kind of map, if there are contact details available, I would click on the mobile number of my friend on the map to connect with him. I would easily find the route to his location if I want to visit him. I can directly share text, links, photos, etc. with my contacts. This would be a very cost effective and easy way to interact. I expect the mobile internet to become ubiquitous in next 2-3 years with costs coming down and carriers offering flat data plans
I see a clear trend towards an integrated phone book across the mobile phones and social media sites. There could be a single phonebook.com kind of a site emerging in the internet space which would be the central repository of the contacts across the world. This virtual directory could aggregate contact details from various social media sites. Mobile applications would then be built around the virtual phonebook and the location to provide holistic experience to the users.
Acknowledgements – My colleague Zereh Lalji
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Yes, a single phonebook scenario is possible in 2-3 years. But, its success will depend on “ease of use”. How many clicks before I can make a call or send a message? Will searching thro’ the single phonebook be much more complicated? Additionally, you need to deal with a multitude of social networking sites. One contact may update his contact details only on Facebook, while another may update her details only on LinkedIn.
Mohit,
I agree on the trend but don’t think it will become big. Too many obstacles exist in addition to what Pandith has highlighted above. The browsing speeds to remain slow in near future despite widgets (atleast in India), too many privacy issues (will I really want to share my data and contact nos in a big central repository??) and biggest of them all….not all my contacts on my phone book use social networking—-my older relatives, service providers like cab cos, carpentars and plumbers, my home delivery grocery store!! …no way phone book is going to become obsolete…
Arvind
Interesting thought and more I think about, I tend to agree with Mohit’s point. The people who matter to me, I am already connected to them on either Linkedin (professional) or Facebook (personal), so these two sites should suffice the needs. And I can only extrapolate the same for other users.
To Pandith’s point about multitude of social networks, that might be a reality, but I will be connected with my friends on social networks and not the other way round. so I dont really see an issue with that.
To arvinds point about plumber etc, what are ads on the SN sites for
cheers
I agree to what all of you have to say on the future of the phone book ,But at the same time lets not forget Facebook and linked came into existence few years back and today the moment there is a change in the professional details the first thing we do is to update info on these sites ,because i need to be in the network and i want every one to know about my change , lets not look at this concept for the personal networking ( relatives, or other utility numbers) ,lets look at this from the professional point of view , why shall we not create a wap site for this where every one uploads or sync there phone book once every week or month let every one have a secured login but at the backend in intelligence should be created in case of a change in the contact it with the users permission the contact is updated automatically with an alert to all who have this contact saved with them about the change . I think this will become an instant hit . Pl revert
I predict that the so-called name-dialling will become the 1st and foremost used phonebook for all different devices in 2-3 years time, at least in the countries where ‘all you can eat’ data packages are custom. The only choice will be; which namelist will be the primary source: FB, MS, MSN, the one you will get from your operator, the one from the OEM, etc. If you go onoine and use your namelist of choice, it will be possible to save that name to your phone and your phone will ask once in while (daily) if it should ‘update’ all contact details. Easy as 1-2-3. Of course, you will still have the option to add names and contact details of friends manually, especially the ones that refuse to use SNS’s, although question remains if they will exist (or remain your friends) in 2-3 years time….