Phones now: info in, info out

Source: San Antonio Express-News

When Jo Michele Pierson leaves the house to run errands, the first thing on her list is to pull out her phone and send a message to a group of 157 friends — here and around the world — about what she's doing.

Most moments of her life are chronicled like this. She's been doing it so long, via a free service called Bright Kite, that it's second nature to the 34-year-old college student.

Whether she's stuck in a line at a store, having a coughing fit at home, buying a cane-sugar Dr Pepper at Buc-ees or earning her beads at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, they'll know minutes after she does it. And they'll react, offering up their thoughts and their location.

“It's nice to get a real-time point of view of what's going on,” says Pierson. “It's interesting to know who's doing what. You have a certain level of interaction with these people even if you're not with them. It becomes a multidimensional relationship.”

These dimensions include photos, video, text messages and GPS location. And every once in a while, Pierson makes phone calls.

Welcome to the new world of geo-location, where information is the way people communicate and the wireless phone has evolved into a beacon. Combining social media, GPS mapping, Internet search engines and the multimedia capabilities of modern wireless devices, phones are now an always-on, two-way street of data that people use to navigate the world and stay connected around the clock.

With a phone, you can find your way, find a restaurant, find your friends, find a movie and find (and avoid) a speed trap.

David Lee, a software developer whose company created the iPhone app Car Spotter, says the phone's GPS function creates a new layer of information that wasn't there before — constant knowledge of location.

Car Spotter lets users leave their car in a large parking area, make a note of it on the phone, wander afar and then have a digital bread-crumb trail to follow back to their vehicle.
“People want to know where they are and what's around them,” Lee said in an e-mail interview. “It gives them bearings.”

Geo-aware applications, Lee said, save people time and money and allow “convergence” with their surroundings.

That's possible, says Dan Costa, PC Magazine's executive editor, because of the evolution of wireless phones from voice devices to computers.

“They have the computing power of a PC from 10 years ago,” Costa says. “Your phone is more powerful than your first PC was. A cellular phone connection is a cellular data connection. You can do anything with your phone that you can do with your PC.”

And it does even more — a phone is portable and most new ones have GPS capabilities.

“The thing that a phone brings that a PC can't is portability,” he said. “And they're location-specific. They travel with you. There are a host of applications that aren't just about what you're doing, but where you are. They fix you at a time and place, as well as being able to reach you. It's not about sending you a discount movie theater ticket while you're at work or home, but sending you a discount coupon as you enter the mall.”

But it's not just wireless users seeking info. Marketers are realizing the value of the phone as a pipeline to your pocket or purse.

The first wave was text messaging contests, such as the voting for “American Idol” or television news polls. Then came interactive advertising, where viewers could opt in to get text messages of trivia and promos from television shows and bands.

Now merchants are designing ways to make it worth your while to give them access to your cell phone.

A local auto dealer sends out a list of car deals for drivers who text in a special number. And an apartment ownership group has rolled a system to notify tenants of special events and send them reminders when rent is due.

Santikos Theatres has taken the lead among local companies using the technology. The Santikos Mobile VIP club takes seconds to join and puts users on a list that receives weekly text messages about showtimes, coupons and special offers.

“It makes so much sense,” says Meghan Vincent, Santikos' director of communications. “Stand in a lobby in any theater. Whenever a movie lets out, every kid that comes out of that auditorium turns on their cell phone and starts texting.

“That's our demographic.”

Right now, the system is limited in what it can do. In the future, patrons will be able to buy tickets via text message.

Vincent imagines that text-messaging will come into play in the auditoriums, too. There might be Friday night interactive trivia contests. Audience members could vote, via text, on what trailers will be shown before a movie. Or maybe there will be contests to see which high school is most heavily represented in the crowd, like a digital “spirit stick.”

And it goes further. Brad Beasley, whose CrossLink Media developed and manages Santikos' system, sees the day when theaters have designated “Bluetooth Zones.” Those would be areas where customers would have to opt in and allow Bluetooth connectivity with the theater's computer system. Once the systems are in sync, customers could receive streaming media — such as movie trailers, entertainment news, locally produced content — on their phones.
“This opens up a whole new area for marketing, advertising and for customers,” Beasley said.
CrossLink has also developed systems for military exchanges, which send coupons and news of special sales to military families. He's drafting a system for his church, which will allow the pastor to offer interactive sermons.

And the CrossLink system has been rolled out for United Apartment Group, which owns 6,000 apartments in 36 complexes all over town. Besides the monthly-rent and special-event reminders, there are plans to send news that's specific to each tenant, says Katrina Campbell of Outside The Box, a promotion company that works with UAG. Right now, that's an on-demand texting service for apartment hunters, offering the company's hottest deals.

So far, only a few tenants have opted in for the system. United and Outside The Box are pushing it for all residents of their properties.

As the program ramps up, there are numerous options still to be realized — traffic updates specific to each complex that can be sent to tenants, an ability for tenants to make maintenance requests to a centralized dispatch, even emergency evacuation messages in case of fire or natural disasters.

All of these uses become possible, says Wendy Welsh, Outside The Box president, because of the changing role of the phone.

The first generation of wireless users viewed the devices as private phones because of the high costs, Welsh said. Now, as rates have dropped and more people have dropped land lines, the cell phone is their phone of choice. That makes text communication more effective.

The basic premise behind the text messaging systems, Campbell says, is simple.

“People will ignore an e-mail and they'll screen calls. But they always read a text message. And everyone always has their phone with them.”

Costa says more and more companies and phone users will join the interactive community.
“You're going to see more people using their phone as a total communication platform,” he says. “That's where a phone still excels and can't be beat. It's still text communication in real-time, e-mail communication and in many ways it's almost faster and easier to reach in your pocket and send an e-mail than finding a computer.”