3. INTRO
The mobile, social media and digital
landscape is characterized by constant
change. These developments bring with
them both exciting opportunities and
new challenges for social change
initiatives worldwide.
M4ID has below summarized the
key trends that will impact technology
supported programmes over the next year.
5. THE WORLD
GOES MOBILE
There will be more mobile subscriptions
than people in the world this year.
This increase is mainly driven by growth in
low and middle income countries, especially among women - over the next five years
2/3 of new subscribers will be women.
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6. GENDER GAP IN
MOBILE USAGE
Despite increases in access, a woman
living in a low or middle income country is still 21% less likely to own
a mobile than a man.
Barriers such as cost, culture and technical illiteracy will continue to hinder
women’s use of mobile phones.
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7. FEATURE PHONE
VS SMARTPHONE
Even though more people have access to smartphones,
feature phones and basic phones will remain the most
relevant device in low resource settings.
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8. YES
WE CAN
Basic and feature phones provide
many smartphone features and a wide
variety of platforms for building applications and interfaces.
Making the most of these will be key
in widening access to information and
providing new types of services.
MOBILE CAPABILITY
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10. MOBILE
ACCESSED INTERNET
The mobile phone will be the primary device for connectivity for most Internet users
in low and middle income countries.
In Kenya, for example, 98% of Internet
connections are made via the phone.
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11. ADDITIONAL
MOBILE TRENDS
/ Mobiles and tablets become increasingly important tools for everyday services,including money transfers and payments, online
commerce, healthcare and education.
/ Data consumption on mobiles will surge. The key drivers will be
video consumption and peer-to-peer (P2P) application use. In the next
year, video is likely to account for 60% of all mobile data traffic.
/ More mobile applications will be cloud based (data stored by servers on the Internet rather than locally on the device). This new wave
of apps and mash-ups of services, together with high-speed networks,
will help mobile phones transform the lives of people in
high and low resource countries alike.
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13. THE NEW
NORMAL
INTERNET USERS GLOBALLY.
OF GLOBAL INTERNET USERS ACCESS SOCIAL MEDIA
SERVICES, OR USE SOCIAL NETWORKING ELEMENTS.
LOG ON TO SOCIAL SERVICES DAILY.
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14. SOCIAL
GOES MOBILE
In 2014, more than 1 billion people will use
Facebook through the mobile app.
Mobile-only social media services
such as Instagram and Snapchat
will go mainstream.
Due to their private nature and low costs
for users, mobile messaging application
services such as Whatsapp, KakaoTalk,
Kik, LINE, WeChat and Viber will become
increasingly popular around the world.
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15. SHOW
AND TELL
Photos, infographics, images, GIFs, and emojis will continue to rule,
shifting communication to an even more visualized form.
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16. VIDEO
SNIPPET
Short videos shot on mobile phones will gain
in popularity. This trend will be aided by mobile services such as Vine, which enables users
to upload 6-second videos via smartphone, integrated to Twitter, and Instagram’s 15 second
video capabilities, integrated to Facebook.
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17. RECLAIMING
PRIVACY
The time of indiscriminate sharing on
social networks is coming to an end.
Scrutiny and privacy concerns will play
an increasingly important role in social
media use. Digital services grounded in
anonymity will gain in popularity.
People will become more aware of how
their digital data is used by governments
and businesses alike and begin demanding more control over their own online
identities and footprint.
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19. DATA
LEAD ACTION
Digital initiatives will become increasingly
data-driven, enabling better:
/ Analysis of detailed user data
/ Measurement of effectiveness
/ Prioritization and planning
/ Tailoring of responses
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20. The number of connected and inter-connected
devices will rise rapidly.
By 2020, 50 billion devices - phones, tablets, appliances, vehicles, smart meters, etc. - will be connected to the Internet
and each other, turning information into actions that create
new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented
opportunities for social change initiatives.
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21. WEARABLE AND
DIAGNOSTIC TECH
Wearable devices, clothing and accessories that
are smartened up with computer or advanced
electronic technologies, will gain traction in 2014.
There will be an increase in uptake of mobile and
tablet integrated portable diagnostics tools for
health and wellness.
Camera-equipped devices will offer portable,
lower cost tools for diagnosing medical conditions
ranging from eye problems to analysing colorimetric test strips.
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22. TECH
SUPPORTED HEALTH
Healthcare, medicine and public health supported by new communication technologies, such as
mobile phones, will become more commonplace.
In 2014, mobile-integrated portable diagnostics
tools will become increasingly popular amongst users (general public consumers).
Camera-equipped phones and tablets are starting to offer portable, lower cost tools for diagnosing
medical conditions ranging from diagnosing eye
problems to reading colorimetric test strips.
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23. HUMAN-CENTERED
DESIGN (HCD)
Human centered design, or service design, will
become a central driver of innovation in the
health and social change field.
The approach enables the discovery of new innovations and service improvement opportunities
as well as the development of viable solutions together with end users and stakeholders.
In the November 2013 WIRED issue Melinda
Gates states that human-centered design is the
innovation that is changing the most lives
in the developing world.
“We must design our technologies for the way people actually behave, not the way we would like
them to.” - Don Norman, author of The Design Of Everyday Things
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25. ABOUT
M4ID
M4ID is a social enterprise leveraging new communication
technology for development and health.
M4ID provides services for not-for-profit organizations and
delivers projects across Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe.
The agency also researches and develops new service concepts,
filling innovation gaps in the area of reproductive,
maternal and newborn child health.
To learn more about M4ID visit: www.m4id.fi
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