Putting Things in Context

LOCATION IS NOT ENOUGH
Mobile users with GPS-enabled phones are now able to locate businesses and other points of interest and use their phones to help them navigate their way. While location is a relevant and important factor in determining context, location by itself is limited. Augmenting location data with other contextual intelligence allows for the development of more compelling applications and provides for a far richer mobile experience.

WHAT IS CONTEXT?
Subscriber context is about activity, location, and time and is unique to each mobile user. For example,

• If I am in an office in a meeting, at school or church, my mobile phone is most likely set to silent mode or turned off.
• If I’m out shopping, my phone is my link to communicate and to access information.

Context can empower a user to automatically personalize their voice, text, and data communications based on their preferences and real-time situation such as driving, calendared events, or at home with family.

Context also helps to determine what content to deliver and at what time. For example,

• At a sporting event, information about a particular team or player could be delivered.
• Delivery of coupons for a favorite retailer -- irrelevant if I am driving past the retailer but relevant if I am walking in the vicinity.

NEW CONTEXT-AWARE APPLICATIONS
The Aegis platform provides APIs that will allow third-party developers the ability to design and create new services. The types of services that can be developed include mobile phone management based on a mobile user’s calendar and real-time situation, mobile advertising, social networking, mobile entertainment, and more.