In the past few months there have been quite a few graphical tagging companies, projects, etc popping up around the place. Some are:

Microsoft tag
The advocate of Free Open Source Software screams it is Microsoft so instantly evil, but being more open minded it does look rather pretty, which actually for my artworks is an important factor.

They do say: “The reader works great on most current smartphones and advanced feature phones, including Windows Mobile (5.5 and above), iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, and J2ME” but then when you click on the link to see supported devices, the list does not indicate actual handsets:
* Apple iPhone
* Blackberry 81xx, 83xx and Bold
* J2ME based handsets
* Symbian S60 3rd Edition
* Windows Mobile 5 and 6
Many users will look at the list, and see their handset isn’t listed, and not actually be aware that this is a list of technologies that handsets use.

As usual the geeks are useless at communicating to end users and then they will be scratching their heads wondering what the uptake is so slow. You must provide a list of supported devices – most users do not know what OS their phone uses.

Tikitag:
This is tagging using RFID tags instead of graphical tags. I think given the nature of my work it is important to see how both these technologies develop side by side. Although graphical tagging currently is more accessible to end users, their limitation is that they need to be at least 2.5 cm to work properly. On the other hand RFID tags have the potential to be really small and hidden, using near field technologies, rather than scanning, but their readers are even less accessible to the general public at the moment then graphical tag readers. Tikitag still needs users to purchase a USB reader, ie hardware, rather than beng abel to download software straight to their phone.


Snaptell
These guys work in the same way that the guys on the Branded Meeting Places project are working, using Image Recognition Software to match up images with those stored in databases. At the moment it only seems to be supported by i-phone and android devices, so not really accessible to a wide variety of end users. Interestingly though it does support barcodes as well, so good functionality here.

All these new apps are all fine and well, but we still have the problem of market fragmentation and user confusion. These are still products made by geeks for geeks. They are still not user friendly. Although many mobile comms companies are standing up and shouting “Personalisation of devices” actually this is far too confusing for the end user. Most people just do not have the patience or desire to keep learning how to do the same thing a hundred different ways – one way is plenty.

I am a case in point – I have a phone that I hate that I can hardly do anything with, and yet I am frozen into not getting another phone because at the moment I just do not have the time to invest learning how to use it! And I am someone who is working with phones for my phd!!! If I am frozen into inaction, what hope is there for the average user?

We need standardisation not fragmentation!!!!!