Mobile Technology Quiz Feedback
Written by: Jonathan Briggs
March 5, 2006 [2592 views]
Nearly everyone completed this week’s quiz – thank you. I am sorry I was unavailable in Friday but I am on the mend.
Here is some feedback on each of the questions. Read my comments carefully. I am not just trying to give you the correct answers but helping you think about how you would tackle similar problems.
Your client runs a nightclub and wants to inform regular customers about new nights, drinks promotions and discount early entry?
I would select SMS and 94% of you did too. The 3 of you who selected WiFi need to think about how you would inform customers about discount early entry using WiFi. Where is the WiFi? Where is the customer? GPRS is a possibility if your customers can be persuaded to log on to your club’s mobile site but that is so much less sensible than SMS which is available to 100% of the customers who have mobiles.
Your nightclub client wants to streamline the entry system for his club to provide regular VIP guests with a separate queue and faster access
Slightly harder question but 77% of you thought like I do that an RFID membership card would speed up entry to the club. All the other technologies require manual checking of your phone. WiFi once again is a silly idea.
Your nightclub wants to target VIP guests when they are in the club with special offers to their own phones
Deliberately harder still and I think there is perhaps a real choice. SMS is the obvious favorite with 53% of you selecting it. WiFi does make sense in this setting and might work inside a club with poor cell coverage BUT almost no-one has a WiFi device with them. Don’t make life hard by insisting your customers upgrade. RFID on its own makes no sense and what were you going to go with GPS? 9% of you will lose marks in the exam for no understanding GPS at all!
A haulage company wants to monitor the position of its delivery lorries
The first of a number of location based services questions to see who is getting it. The lorries are out on the roads. RFID receivers are where? RFID might be useful for loading the lorries and knowing what is checked onto and off them but how can it be used to get the position of the lorries? I would go for GPS (to get the position in the cab) plus SMS to send the data back to the control room. Only 31% of you agreed. This was deliberately hard to get you thinking.
A hospital wants to make sure that patients cannot leave without being discharged
I would use RFID here and so would 57% of you. What do those of you who would use GPS have in your mind? What is connected to what? How can the device see the satellites? Some of you suggested RFID plus Cell Location and clearly this is a second possibility similar to tracking your child. Is it not easier to notice that someone is leaving the hospital rather than trying to track them with Cell Location after they have left.
A betting company wants to offer betting by mobile
I would go for either a specialist application written in J2ME (23%) or SMS plus the web (60%). It depends a bit on the complexity of the bets being placed but the easiest way is to allow a customer to set up an account online and then use that account via SMS. You certainly don’t want an SMS only service – just think of the complexity of making payment. Once again WiFi and RFID made an appearance and I’m not sure what you were thinking. Do comment and let us all in on it.
An environmental pressure group wants to be able to contact active members quickly and cheaply. They have agreed to be contacted. The group only wants to mobilise those who live near particular breaking stories.
This was another test of your thinking about GPS and 47% of you chose SMS plus GPS. Why? What is your mental model of what the GPS will do? A story breaks and I want to send messages to everyone living in KT1. Surely the easiest way is to collect their address when they register and then send them an SMS if they live in that postcode? 72% of you don’t agree. Please comment and tell me what you would do.
A satellite TV channel runs a Student Idol competition and wants people to vote for their favorite student from the show.
What’s wrong with SMS or perhaps SMS plus the web if web voting is allowed too? 31% of you were tricked by the “telephone return path”. What was that for?
The police want to alert citizens who live in specific neighbourhoods to help catch criminals
30% of you want to use GPS again and this time it might be allowed but what’s it for? I hope that it is being used by the police to discover where they are at a crime scene, but perhaps they would not need it because they have a map. In some ways this is exactly like the environmental question if we have a register of people and their mobiles (collected via the web). I can see a situation where you might use cell positioning information to see whether the registered user is at home when you send the SMS
A broadcaster wants to send news and short video updates to mobile customers who have subscribed
MMS was your most popular choice (61%) and would certainly be possible. The BBC has recently launched a service that uses a J2ME/Flash application which seems powerful. No one has a WiMax phone so the 12% of you who suggested that will have to wait for quite a while and its not clear how that would be paid for or where it would be broadcast from.
Final comments
So, some interesting answers and some correct ones. A few of you really need to sort out in your own minds what is going on. Use the comment box below to add your comments and questions.
What do you think?
