My colleague Julie Ask has just published an important report, "The Future Of Mobile Is User Context," introducing how companies will use the new intelligence and capabilities of smartphones to deliver better customer experiences in their own context. I quote here from her report:
"In the future, improving the convenience of mobile services will be achieved via improving the use of context in delivering mobile experiences. Consumer product strategists must anticipate what their customers want when they fire up their phones and launch an application or mobile website. Intuit’s SnapTax, for example, must leverage a customer’s home state to file the appropriate tax forms.
"To help consumer product strategists get ahead of this evolving expectation, Forrester has defined a vocabulary to help consumer product strategists discuss, plan, and execute on the opportunity to deliver services, messages, and transactions with full knowledge of the customer’s current situation. Forrester calls this the customer’s 'mobile context' and defines it as:
"The sum total of what your customer has told you and is experiencing at the moment of engagement.
"A customer’s mobile context consists of his:
"Situation: the current location, altitude, environmental conditions, and speed the customer is experiencing.
"Preferences: the history and personal decisions the customer has shared with you or with his or her social networks.
"Attitudes: the feelings or emotions implied by the customer’s actions and logistics."
So what does mobile context mean for content & collaboration professionals? At least four things jump immediately to mind, and I'm sure you have others:
What's on your mind as opportunities or challenges for taking advantage of smartphones and tablets full of sensors, data, and context?