The smartphone revolution has been going on for a few years now and its beginning to profoundly change the way that people conduct their lives.  The clever people over at the Future Laboratory and T-mobile have produced a fascinating report on the smart phone future that is just around the corner.  Some of the characteristics  and trends they are forecasting have already begun to manifest themselves within mobile early adopters, and if these trends become more widespread, it will have a massive effect on retailers, travel operators, content creators, websites, in fact just about everybody.

The report highlights 6 major characteristics or tribes of people whose behaviour has been influenced by the spread of modern smartphone technology. I am sure most of you will recognise one or two characteristics in yourselves from the list below.  Please feel free to comment and let me know how accurate these are.

1. Insightseer- These people like to explore, whether it be inside their home city, or somewhere more exotic. They are always looking to find the inside scoop of what is cool and what is not wherever they are. Augmented Reality ( or Addon-Reality) is an insightseers’ best friend allowing their phone to become an informative window on the world.  On Android, we have apps like the amazing  Wikitude ( showcase coming soon), NRU ( from lastminute.com) and Rummble which will ensure that you always have access to the latest information wherever your are.

2. Safety.Netters- Phone have always been about safety. Knowing that you can call or be called is reassuring to the safety netters, but smartphones have taken this safety- conscience bunch to the next level.  The advent of GPS, Google Maps, Latitude mean that people can always be found, or find their way to wherever they are travelling to.  From the survey 40% of the people felt they could never get lost again, which both at home and overseas is a very reassuring prospect.

3. Smartsumers- This is the largest group of them all, and one that I hope to one day be a member of.  A “Smart”s consumer uses the leverage offered by his smartphone to:

1. find the right product using the opinions of his peers
2. Source the information about it, to see if it meets his needs.
3. quickly find the best price that he can obtain the product
4. then either buy it there, or negotiate a better price from the retailer.

In other words, retailers be very afraid.

When a smartsumer comes in, he/she will know more about your products, more about the prices your competitors are asking, and will be able to gain maximum benefit. The days of companies like “Borders” book stores charging more for products in store, than on their website is numbered.  Retailers need to take any opportunity to fight for the sale.  Refuse a price match and I guarantee that that their purchase will already have begun its transit from the nearest play.com warehouse( probably paid for by their mobile phone).  Android Apps like Barcode Scanner, Shop Savvy, or even just a straight google search are all part of the smartsumers’ field operations kit.

4. Social Bunnies ( aka the end of loneliness)- Social bunny’s character traits were often the preserve of those who had time to spend talking on their phone. Not any more, social networks like facebook, twitter, instant messaging, and push email are allowing more people to be constantly in contact with those the may have met fleetingly or sometimes never in person.  Not only are they connecting with more people, but they are using it to find out more about their friends and as a result build stronger relationships.  Apps Like Facebook, Google Talk, Blackberry messenger keep social bunnies on top of things.  The boring long commuter journey is a thing of the past- suddenly it has become a social opportunity to catch up and connect.  Next step is “send-sations” what happens when you can send a virtual hug to someone?

5. Re-connected  communities

Looks like “broken Britain” is being pieced back together one smartphone at a time. Mobile is pushing the internet to your local community and allowing people to take action and control in their local area. Online petitions, Facebook groups and local news websites were only the start. Smartphones will allow locals to photograph local issues, like graffiti, potholes and send them direct to the local council. Suddenly your phone has become tool to improve your local environment. This has started already as over a third of councils are on twitter and 10% already have a Facebook page.

6. The Digivores

Information is power. 40% of people’s surveyed felt they were more informed having fingertip access to latest news. The digivore actively seeks out information like his or her hunter gatherer ancestors. Information is there to give the digivore the edge over his competitors. I encounter digivores on a regular basis, and find that sharing newly acquired information is a way to build links and strengthen relationships with others.
If you seek digivores they are usually to be round hanging around Digg.com ( great mobile page), RSS aggregators and news forums. On mobile they use newsrob, fewer and the multitude of twitter clients to get near real-time news updates.

For those of you developing for Android, I would personally look at each of these tribes and ask myself if my app caters to any of these groups.  If it doesn’t, chances are you are missing a trick or two.

For me the smartphone revolution began in earnest when T-mobile released its flat rate internet pricing plan and allowed for personal devices to be always connected.  This revolution has spread and with the advent of the iphone, blackberry and android has broached the mass market. T-mobile has broken down further barriers by being the first to market a full touch screen android smartphone in the form of the T-mobile Pulse at comparatively cheap £150.00

As we see increased smart phone adoption, we will see the above tribes manifest themselves in greater numbers.  The markets had better start getting ready.  The Insightseer and Smartsumers trends should set off warning sounds to travel co’s and retailers alike.  The Digivores also are a  threat to traditional newspapers and magazines.  News is already becoming a commodity with a very short half life.  Its going to be consumed even faster than at present, and the thought of reading a 4 hour old printed newspaper will disappear very quickly, in the face of smartphone personalisation and realtime updates.

Despite the above trends saying that things are changing, I like to think that each of the tribes have a common theme of connectivity running through them.  Insightseers are interested in connecting to peoples’ personal experiences to find things they are looking for about their location.  Safety netters draw comfort in the fact that they are always with in easy reach of help.    Its only human to want to create and maintain connections-  Connections between people and connections between readers and relevant information. From what I see, the smartphone revolution is finally beginning to deliver on some of its promises of a closer, connected society….and the revolution is only just beginning.  Enjoy the ride folks!

Ps which of the above tribes do you belong to??

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