Of mobile and cinema

The Sundance Institute and the GSM Association - the global mobile trade association - announced that they are launching a special project to develop short films exclusively for mobile distribution.

Although this seems to be a drop in the immense Ocean of mobile entertainment, it does illustrate an interesting point that many seem to forget: mobile is different. It is different not only because one can use services everywhere and at any time, but it is intrisically different from a user experience perspective: lower attention span, much smaller device form factor, among many other distinctive characteristics.

Yet, many seemed to believe - at least for a while - that the key to delivering content for mobile was content adaptation - basically making existing content more appropriate (in size and format) to mobile devices - NOT actually different content for mobile. I have always disagreed with that philosophy, but will not try to explain myself. Rather, I will applaud those that even in sub-scale conditions decide to try new things so that we, more than 2.5 billion mobile users of the world, can at least feel special once again.

Thank you.