Making the most of mobility
Jinfo Blog

By Nancy Davis Kho

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SwetsWise announced last month that SwetsWise Online Content can now be accessed through the Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch.

While hardly an early adopter, Swets can be applauded for recognizing that users want to be freed from device constraints, pushing vendors to make their content available where they want it, when they want it, and on whatever device they want it. This comes on the heels of the launch of Amazon's Kindle2, expected by many, including LiveWire's Penny Crossland, to do for books what the iPod has done for music.

SwetsWise Online Content subscribers will now have mobile access to direct links for more than 11,000 journal titles all from a seamless Web interface and through the convenience of their Personal Digital Assistant. Information users can search relevant online content, utilize multi-level linking, download subscription lists and much more."

Additionally, SwetsWise Subscriptions is also available through the Apple devices, enabling users to manage their subscriptions, view publication schedules, check the title status to thousands of print and electronic content and many other SwetsWise Subscriptions functions.

As mobile devices like the iPhone and Kindle 2 become more feature-rich and comprehensive, users will be even more inclined to access content on them in ways that once tied them to a PC - think PDFs, videos, and slide shows. Publishers and information professionals alike should begin envisioning a fully mobile future, so that they can leverage the opportunities offered in our increasingly mobile present. And the demand for mobile content will fuel other aspects of the content industry, starting with search.

As reported by Kenneth Corbin of InternetNews.com, Google CEO Eric Schmidt expects mobile search to overtake PC-based search within a few years. Corbin quotes Schmidt saying, "The fact of the matter is that mobile devices are going to be the majority of the way that people get information," he said. "The argument is relatively simple: You already have them. They're called your phones."

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