2012 Olympics: Mobile, Social, 3D and Green
With as many as 4 billion people expected to watch the London Olympic games over the next two weeks, organizers have made many high-tech improvements that will captivate and elucidate viewers with four times more information produced than the Beijing Olympics. Here are seven advances in technology that will change the way we'll experience the most digital-friendly Olympics.
Mobile Technology
With NBC poised to telecast a record 5,535 hours of Olympics coverage over the next two weeks, the viewing opportunities on our four screens have more than doubled since the 2000 hours broadcasted during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the last four years, smartphone sales alone have risen over fivefold worldwide according to researcher IDC. So the Olympic planners have made it easier for us to view the Olympic events wherever we are and whenever we can with mobile applications:
1) The official London 2012 Olympics mobile applications for the Events, News, Results and games can be downloaded here for Apple iOS mobile devices, Google Android-based devices and Blackberry products. NBC has mobile applications for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices available here.
2) Visa has activated mobile payment technology in a variety of ways for the London Olympics to demonstrate what the future can be for mobile consumers. As many as 1,000 athletes and trialists will be able to use the Samsung Galaxy S III with Visa payWave app on their smartphones to make contactless payments at select locations. Millions of Visa payWave-enabled credit card owners can do the same for London taxis and many Olympic venues.
Social Media
With Facebook users increasing 10X and Twitter users expanding 300X since the 2008 Olympics (according to iProspect), 2012 marks the year of the Socialympics.
3) Facebook, the world’s largest social network with over 900 million users, has launched a unique Olympic portal as well as hosting the standard London Olympics Facebook site. The Olympic hub gives users an unlimited ability to access athletes, teams and venues at a level that wasn’t capable four years ago.
4) Twitter, the world’s favorite micro-blogging site with over 300 million users, has the official London Olympics Twitter site that provides personalized access to global athletes. Yet with strict IOC tweeting rules, athletes will need to be cautious about how they tweet to avoid being banned from the games for improper remarks (set by the example of Voula Papachristou from Greece).
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