Madness

Wi-Fi is hot again. And this time it’s the device that is generating the heat. But in a good, way.

T - Mobile, Nokia and Apple have all just recently released devices that enable their users to access the web using Wi-Fi.

In terms of how people will interact in the future today’s Nokia - Skype announcement is the most exciting. Streaming data, over a mobile internet connection, enables peer - to - peer chatting and should ultimately push the usage of mobile video.

SMS is the killer app for mobile because it extends the basic premise of any phone - mobile or fixed: It connects people.

The mobile video chat use case is every bit, if not more, compelling. IM - ing, text-ing, even talking on the phone are all powerful ways to communicate. But connecting eye - to - eye is almost always more meaningful.

If - and this is a big if - mobile video chat can ever be priced so the average American can afford it, the carriers will make a lot (more) money selling data services. And if they don’t reduce their data plan pricing, there are many Wi-Fi providers lurking on the edges that will take a significant piece of business away.

These lost customers will be awfully hard to get back behind the wall once they have tasted freedom. This is good stuff. Especially if this helps to spur the development of a national Wi-Fi network. But that’s not really what gets me going. Seeing something is living it.

I always measure my gut on a mobile application by whether or not my kids would use it or not. There’s not a doubt in my mind they would use mobile video chat if they could.

It might even reduce the 1200 + texts my oldest daughter sends a month.

We’re not superstitious … it just happened that we decided to launch madapp.com today. But, we have to admit, launching the site on “trip sevens” does make us smile.

The site is more or less an introduction to some of the work we - a group of IT, web, wireless, media & marketing veterans - have been involved in over the last seven years.

Over the coming weeks and months the site will reflect our efforts as we go about fulfilling our vision of creating a set of unique products and services that simplify the process of communicating with one another via multiple formats and platforms.

Just as our culture, and the ways in which we choose to communicate continue to evolve, so will madapp. As communicators, we’ve never been bound by a single media type. As technologists, we’re always looking for a better, more efficient way of connecting; of getting the job done.

We know it may sound naive, but we do believe that the Internet, has changed the very foundation of how we relate to each other and the world around us. The almost instantaneous sharing of data across cultural practices and economic disciplines, without regard to time, place - or device - has made us richer and smarter than ever before.

And we feel lucky to be in the thick of it.