MEX - Manifesto #5: Investment in input and display modalities must increase

The 2009 MEX Conference includes a Manifesto on input and display modalities

Manifesto statement
We believe...enhanced input methods and font handling are key foundation technologies for revenue growth in mobile services. Combining these elements will allow customers to create, manipulate and share rich data more easily. With data-driven services now accounting for 20% of global mobile revenues and rising, investment in input and display modalities must increase to a similar percentage of R&D
budgets.

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Tags
Input; Fonts; Display; QWERTY; Touchscreens; Handwriting recognition; Predictive; Multi-modal

The story
Around 20% of global mobile service revenues come directly from features reliant on text input: SMS, email, web browsing and social networking applications. With the price of voice minutes continuing to fall, the proportion of revenue derived from data is growing daily.

For any market segments, voice calling is no longer the dominant application, bringing into question the design fundamentals which have governed mobile product development since the industry began.
However, while the amount of text input to mobile devices is exploding, the
mechanisms remain comparatively crude. The industry continues to develop products built around legacy formats like the 12 button keypad, QWERTY layout or handwriting recognition. Text is still displayed in standard system fonts, with little choice for the user over how they consume their visual data.
One solution is to increase the range of modalities available on each device, combining input methods like voice, predictive text, QWERTY and handwriting in a single product. However, this risks a negative impact on the customer experience as users find themselves delayed by sub-conscious latency periods as they evaluate the correct method for their current task.

To get you thinking...

• How can we combine an increasing number of input modalities in a single device without damaging the user experience through increased latency?
• How can we enhance familiar input methods, like the QWERTY keyboard, to drive mobile service revenue?
• What role will font technology play in enriching data services? How do fonts need to evolve to provide a reading experience conducive to increased data consumption?

Stat Spots

• 1742: The typical US teen mobile subscriber (ages 13 to 17) sends or receives 1742 text messages per month, compared to making or receiving 231 mobile phone calls. Data from Q2 2008. | (Source: Nielsen)
• 217m: 217 million P2P text messages were sent per day in the UK during Q3 2008. This was up by 38% compared to the same period in 2007. This adds up to over 1.5 billion messages a week, or on average 6.5 billion text messages sent per month. In 1999 the total was 1.1 billion for the whole year. | (Source: MDA)
• $347bn: Global mobile data revenues will grow from $148bn in 2007 to $347bn by 2013, representing around one third of the mobile industry's 1 trillion dollar revenue stream. | (Source: Informa)
• 14%: 14% of BlackBerry Storm customers in the US were unsatisfied with their purchase after spending a month with the device. Only 33% claimed they were very satisfied, with most choosing a mediocre rating of 'Somewhat satisfied'. This contrasts with the results of a similar survey of iPhone users, which found 77% were very
  satisfied and just 5% unsatisfied. The primary reasons for the Storm's lacklustre appeal appeared to be the touchscreen interface, cited as a problem by 20%, the lack of a physical keyboard (21%) and difficulty to use (20%). | (Source: ChangeWave)
• 10%: Only 10% of US subscribers pay for additional calls outside of their monthly plans following the rise of high volume 'bucket' packages and unlimited deals. | (Source: Lowenstein's Lens)
• 50x: Customers of Verizon Wireless sent 50x as many text messages as multimedia messages in Q4 2008. | (Source: Verizon)
• $10.7bn: Verizon Wireless generated USD 10.7 billion in data revenues during 2008, a 41.4% increase on 2007. Data now represents approximately 23.4% of Verizon's total wireless
  revenues. | (Source: Verizon)
• x2: Google's mobile search traffic is doubling each quarter in China according to comments made by the company's China President Lee Kai-Fu. He believes mobile search traffic may exceed PC traffic in China within 3 years. | (Source: Bloomberg)
• 76%: More than three quarters of teenagers between the ages of 11 and 13 use instant messaging, according to a 2008 survey
  of 58,000 young customers in 31 countries. | (Source: Sulake)
• 43%: Instant messaging is predicted to grow at CAGR of 43% between 2008 and 2011 to reach USD 5 billion worldwide, while email will grow 17% to USD 14 billion. | (Source: Portio Research)