Ever since I got more friendly with my numerous mobile gadgets (the iPhone and iPod touch, the Nokia E71, the Asus ee and various other gizmos) I have noticed a steady decline in how many actual calls I make; apart from friends & family my professional communications have switched almost entirely to SMS, social networks, eMail, IM, Twitter, Skype etc - at least for the initial level of communication. Now, is this just me, or is this happening everywhere? Once smart phones are actually smart (and that means smart UI and UX), will we search and click a lot more than click + talk?
Some recent stats I have seen show that iPhone users already use Google 50 times as much as mobile internet users with different devices. Once again: if something really works well... we actually use it routinely (just like GPS / car navigation I guess), if not we just ignore it.
So will someone that can use Google Maps on their mobile phone still call your office for directions? If you can use a Starbucks 'coffee ordering' app will you still use the phone to pre-order a round of coffee for your office mates? If you can tweet your friends that tonight's concert is canceled will you still need to call everyone to make sure they know? Will someone that looks for the next Chinese take-out place still ask a stranger on the street rather than search on his mobile? Will you buy 'Time-Out' magaz
ine to find the best Sushi restaurant in London when you can search Twitter, or pull up Tridadvisor or the NYT reviews on your mobile? Probably not. It looks like there are many calls we can do without, and if our mobile device (via a browser or more likely via a specific application) can do the job quicker and more thoroughly I think we'll be switching sooner rather than later.
The opposite is true for personal calls, of course - they will become more meaningful (and appreciated) than ever before; but only if there is a real need for it. If I can see my friends' immediate location on my mobile (using something like Loopt ) would I still call them or would I just go there and meet them?
This trend is also why I think Social Search on the Mobile has a great future - rather than searching the entire world, I search in the subsections and realms of my friends (real and otherwise), friendfeeders or tweet streams. I already use the Search functionality in Twitter (see the pic - via the cool Tweetdeck application - check it out; they rock) and in Friendfeed to do that.
This is also why I am excited about next-generation gizmos like 3's INQ1 Facebook 'phone' - clearly, this is showing us where things are headed. Soon, we may be doing more searching - and finding - than calling.
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