• by April 29, 2009

There's one thing we all perhaps intuitively know about mobile devices that can't quite be measured (until there is a way to use the device's camera to gauge how far the user is holding it from his face): real engagement. You know the way the typical person checks his email or watches video on a phoneâ€"as pantomimed by Joy Liuzzo of Insight Express from the stage at OMMA Mobile so well this morningâ€"holding the phone six to ten inches from his face while contorted in intense concentration.

Try to someoneâ€"a grown adult, mind youâ€"checking his email. It's like he is 14 years old and just about to solve the "Legend of Zelda."

Couple this intense engagement with the fact that to watch video on a smartphone requires headphones. What is the headphone engagement factor? Liuzzo says there's not yet a way to measure this, but we know its part of the picture. Couple this with the fact that the average person finds their phone indispensable (more people own mobile phones than own computersâ€"still and at this point, probably always, as phones become more powerful) and you can see why mobile marketers get breathless.