The iPhone – where analytics and geography meet

The release of the new iPhone is not just exciting news for those of us desperate to spend our Christmas vouchers on the latest shiny toy. As the first portable device to make accessing the web on the go really easy, it heralds a new dawn: an era where web browsing is available to the non-computer literate for the first time. The iPhone will have a significant impact on how we all use web analytics.

Using a system called GeoTagging, mobile phones can already embed the GPS coordinates where a photo in the photo. When uploaded to sites like Flickr, photos can be grouped by location, and displayed with pictures taken by other people at the same place.

The iPhone is also going to know where you are, according to Apple, probably through data it receives from the phone network.

This technology can be used to collect data for analytics programs like WebAbacus. At the moment you can only work out where users are by mapping the web address of a user to the registered location. Even with PCs, this method is prone to error. For mobile phones, it’s totally useless.

If mobile technology enables accurate location information to be captured during browsing, the implications for cross-channel marketing and retail are enormous. We can begin to understand where users are when they access information, and create models for when they are more likely to respond positively.

Do people buy more when they are in a bar? Are they near a shop and should they be given an offer for it? Are the journeys through sites different when using phones? Answers to these questions will transform the business logic of websites, and could lead to fundamental shifts in the way sites are built.

*Next month, we’ll look at the usability implications of the iPhone launch.