The Geovector handset discovered in Earls Court
Rating: Master class at Internet World reveals its existence
I trotted up to London’s Earls Court to listen to a ‘master class’ in mobile marketing courtesy of Inside Mobile’s James Hilton. And I personally discovered the purpose of GeoVector equipped mobile phones.
What GeoVector provides in essence is the ability to sense which direction the owner has the handset pointing. It’s effectively like having a compass combined with a GPS receiver built into the phone. A good working example of this in practice would be a tourist visiting San Francisco. He or she could point the handset at the Golden Gate bridge and the tourist board could serve up all the information that it has concerning the bridge.
More exciting was the way James Hilton explained how this technology could be harnessed in a commercial environment. He described the experience a future shopper on London’s Oxford Street could expect. The shopper would key in the title of a DVD he or she wished to purchase. Then point the handset at each store in turn. Not only would the service enable the shopper to discover which shop offered the cheapest price but which had the DVD in stock and offered the best price.
Hilton didn’t know of any handsets with this kind of facility built-in at present. So GeoVector capabilities are provided by software. Annie Turner covered its existence in Japan here.
The other shock that Hilton imparted was just how convinced he was that Google’s Android is the best thing to happen to mobile marketing since sliced bread. He believes that it will cure the industry’s current problem that apps have to be built for Brew in the USA; Java for Europe and i-mode for Japan. With Android, he reckons, one size will fit all. I remain to be convinced. If Nokia builds an Android handset, it will at least stand a chance.
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