Death of the mobile as a communication device - Mobile 2.0

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If I have to choose one dominant thread in all of what is happening in Web 2.0 - I would go for 'user generated content'. If one agrees to the fact that there seems to be a dramatic shift in balance of power from the consumers of content towards the generators of content. Needless to say, the next obvious question would be the 'how' of content generation and dissemination would also become equally important.

In my personal opinion, at a time when the mobile is not even fully seen a stable receiver of 'content from the previous generation' (professional created and edited content) the rise in user generated content is making mobile's evolution as a device all the more challenging.

Where is the mobile headed to ? User generated content (UGC) is strong enough it simply means that the mobile starts playing a very important device for two activities which it is barely used today

• Content Generation - In the UGC world, in my understanding anything that happens around you in your day to day life is a possible content you can share and leverage. That being the case, what better than a personal device you can carry with you to capture that. Content capture devices which are both personal and mobile, such as audio and video recorders have existed for a long time but their usability in todays context has diminished to a large extern. You simply don't generate / capture content always for personal use !
• Content Dissemination - The immediate step once I have captured is how quickly can I share it with the world around me. Although the web is evolving as a platform in the true sense of the world, all I need is simply a handle to get on to the platform and share the content. What better suited than a mobile again.
  

As a result of the above reasons, I feel that we will soon see the death of the mobile as a plain communication device and start evolving into a communication device plus as a partner for content collection and dissemination.

Should the device manufacturers focus on this trend that I mention - most definitely yes, simply because the market is big enough

• A cursory look at reports pointing to the people who are 'generating content' the major source still remains secondary sources around the web. A mobile 2.0 device will give these content generators a great chance to scale to the next level to generate original content where ever feasible.
• Most of these users already might have a mobile 1.0 but there appears to be a great chance to elevate them to use a mobile 2.0 device (more suited in the web 2.0 world for content collection and dissemination).
  

Tags: web 2.0, mobile 2.0, user generated content, ugc