This session emerged from comments over coffee at the beginning of the day, obvious maybe, that there are major different modes of usage of mobile devices.

• We were offered a hierarchy of modes, from most to least accessible:

1. Voice
2. SMS
3. Browser-based apps
4. Downloadable apps

• One important impact of the hierarchy is that downloadable apps are way down the food chain.

• A later Marketing session also addressed multi-modal marketing, where sms campaigns are supplemented with voice and/or browser-based components.

• Cathy from 3Jam contributed stories about their uses of sms. (3Jam provides group sms: e.g., invite people to dinner; all subsequent sms's can go to the whole invited group.)

• There's an interesting question about default sms apps -- whether (on various platforms and carriers) an sms message can be re-routed to an alternative app.

• SMS inter-operability across carriers was delayed in the US, and this may account for its lesser usage here. Also, in much of the world sms is much less expensive than browser-based apps, so that is driving its usage. The US may be catching up now with SMS, and later with MMS too.