When it comes to mobile devices, do people care about 3D content?
It's a topic I've been wrestling with since the emergence of the HTC Evo 3D, the first 3D-capable smartphone. I came to the conclusion that it was largely a gimmick, or something that piques your interest but quickly fades away. For some, it's just a bit of headache-inducing flash.
Still, that hasn't stopped more companies from moving into the area. The latest two are media startup Cooliris and mobile advertising company Smaato, which recently said they were partnering to deliver 3D advertisements on mobile devices.
Fortunately, the two aren't exactly talking about images that seemingly pop out of your iPhone. Rather, the service enables the delivery of 3D-rendered images, allowing you to rotate, disassemble, and reassemble that picture in a mobile ad. Since they don't pop off the screen, the images don't need any special displays or glasses. The two plan to show off the technology later this month at the AppNation conference in San Francisco, where the ads will show up on iPhones and iPads.
Cooliris's business unit Adjitsu has a demo up showing off the ability to manipulate a fully rendered BMW. As you can see, it's pretty nifty.
"Rich Media is an important part for the substantial growth of mobile advertising and we see this as a great opportunity for our developers and publishers to maximize their revenue," Smaato CEO Ragnar Kruse said in a statement earlier this month.
Cooliris's Adjitsu will use Smaato, which already delivers mobile ads to a network of advertisers and devices, to expand its presence in Asia and Europe.
"Together we will enable consumers to re-experience brands, products and services like never before," Cooliris CEO Soujanya Bhumkar said.
Still, while it's cool enough technology, I still question how effective it will be.
People like the Evo 3D, but is it because of the 3D feature, or because it's a decent phone?
(Credit: HTC)
When I tested the Evo 3D, I was eager to show off the phone's special camera and display to coworkers. They agreed it was cool, but their interest waned fast. I wonder if the same fleeting engagement would occur with Adjitsu's ads.
To be fair, Adjitsu's technology isn't the kind of gimmicky 3D that the Evo 3D, and later on the LG Thrill 4G, employs. The BMW example looks fairly practical if you're interested in buying a new car.
There's been a lot made out of mobile ads in general. Mobile adverting is why Google got into the mobile game with Android in the first place. It's also one of the primary business models driving the apps market.
But I sometimes wonder how effective these banner and display ads are. When playing games, browsing the mobile Web, or watching videos, I largely ignore the ads, or speed through them as quickly as possible.
Maybe 3D-rendered images may cause me to pause a bit. For now, I'm still not sold.
Near Field Communication technology or NFC capabilities for Apple iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 in 2011 was a rumor before its release was officially announced. Now there are several speculations going on and there are several rumors spread regarding the launch of iPhone with NFC capabilities.
According to the sources Mac Rumors and Digitimes, As the NFC support is present on the mobiles of Nokia’s Bada, BlackBerry and Google’s Android – Both Apple and Microsoft are planning together to bring NFC support to Windows Phone and Apple iOS in the year 2012. According to the Taiwanese makers of smartphones there will be a gradual increase in the manufacturing of NFC enabled smartphones from current 10% to 50% in the coming 2-3 years.
NFC enabled smartphone models of 2011 include the manufacturers RIM, Nokia, HTC and Samsung Electronics who had given there best.The issues regarding the standardization of NFC is the reason for the slow growth of technology, but now a SIM-Based standard has been signed by Verizon and AT&T including other 45 wireless carriers to resolve those issues.For the moment it should be considered as a rumor but there are still expectations of NFC enabled iPhone from Apple as even Google launched the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which is an NFC enabled device.
After years of considering how to best get into the phone business, Facebook has tapped Taiwanese cellphone maker HTC to build a smartphone that has the social network integrated at the core of its being.
Code-named “Buffy,” after the television vampire slayer, the phone is planned to run on a modified version of Android that Facebook has tweaked heavily to deeply integrate its services, as well as to support HTML5 as a platform for applications, according to sources familiar with the project.
Facebook only recently chose HTC, after also considering at least one other potential hardware partner — Korea’s Samsung. That means the products themselves are still a ways from hitting the market, potentially as long as 12 to 18 months.
Although it has changed scope and leadership, Buffy has been an ongoing area of concern at the social networking giant for the past two years. These days, the project is led by Facebook CTO Bret Taylor, several sources said.
A spokesman for Facebook declined to comment on Buffy directly, but told AllThingsD:
“Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world.”
HTC also declined to comment.
Mobile is critical to Facebook’s future. And moving directly into the phone business, while fraught with challenges, may well be essential for the company.
Facebook says it has 350 million active mobile users, and relationships with 475 global mobile operators. Although it is one of the most popular applications on nearly every phone for which it is available, the social network generally plays only a supporting role.
In many cases, Facebook is just an app where people can view their friends’ feeds and upload their own photos and status updates. In other cases, Facebook has worked to take things a step further, allowing users to upload photos directly from the picture-taking app, or to integrate Facebook contacts with the phone’s address book.
But the fight for mobile control is only getting more fierce. Google and Apple run the two major smartphone operating systems, giving Facebook little say over its mobile destiny.
Apple has fought to maintain strict control over payments within its mobile apps, even if those apps run off of Facebook’s platform, and it also made Twitter its social partner. Google is increasingly a direct competitor, as it is working to promote and integrate its own social network, Google+, across all its products.
The Buffy project represents a significant shift for Facebook, which has focused much of its mobile work on light collaborations with hardware makers looking to create more socially-oriented phones. The partnership with HTC is the latest incarnation of the long-running project, whose twists and turns we’ll detail in an upcoming story in this series.
HTC is one of several companies that have built phones with a dedicated Facebook button, having introduced the Salsa and ChaCha earlier this year. AT&T has sold a version of the ChaCha, dubbed the Status. Others, including Inq Mobile and Motorola, have also developed phones with dedicated Facebook buttons.
And France Telecom’s Orange unit last week announced a series of Facebook-centric phones aimed at emerging markets in Europe and Africa.
With Buffy, though, the integration will go much deeper, bringing friends and social activities deep into the mobile interface.
“Mobile devices are inherently social,” Taylor himself said at an industry conference earlier this year.
That pronouncement has to be awfully tempting for him to turn into reality.
Please see the disclosure about Facebook in Liz’s ethics statement.
