You pull into the parking lot of some fancy new restaurant. You click an icon on your mobile phone and instantly have access to the restaurant’s menu, food and service ratings, photos, rants/raves, web pages and blog entries from others who’ve been there before you. Maybe there’s even a special offer of some sort from the restaurant. 
To most of us this scenario still feels pretty futuristic — like it might be reality about the same time we all pilot hover crafts. After all, seems like the majority of us over the age of 25 really just use our mobile phones for mainly…well, making phone calls.
But that instant-access, geographic-specific information, available through our mobiles, may be closer than we think. MVNO companies like Helio (which launches this spring) plan to cater to the spoil me (still living with mom & dad), see me (show offs) and feed me (high income young professional gadget collectors) segments and Helio is already talking about letting users tag their info with geocodes. Something young user will probably grasp and foster quickly.
My understanding of geocodes leads me to believe they’re like “tags” on steroids. If you don’t know about “tags” they are simply keywords or category labels that help people sort and organize information — made popular via sites like Flickr.
Once geocoding grabs hold, why couldn’t they link the geocode and all that info right to the phone number? {Some company is probably already working on it.} Think about what that could mean. You could be lounging on the couch. You wouldn’t have to drive anywhere; or use the computer, or for that matter get up off your keister. And pretty much everyone on the planet can operate a cell phone if all they have to do is punch in a phone number. Wouldn’t that just be the ultimate in usability?
It’s pretty clear to me that a phone isn’t just a phone anymore. And it really hasn’t been for a while for those under 25. My teenage kids don’t even use the word phone in connection with their cell phone. They call it their “mobile”. And given the surprise bills I get for overages based on texting volume and surfing minutes, their use of it as a phone represents only a small percentage of their usage.
On the flip side, my Mom thought her cell phone didn’t work when she first got it because it didn’t have a dial tone.
Now if someone can figure a way to digitize me and send me through the ether to some warm beach in Fiji…..