Bloomberg – ISIS to invest $100M+ August 29, 2011
Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a commentHad a chance to talk to Bloomberg Businessweek about the evolving landscape of Mobile Commerce and Payments. We have a stellar panel at Mobile Future Forward to discuss the nitty-gritty. Peter Ewens, Chief Strategy Officer at T-Mobile USA will be there to address ISIS and how operators see the opportunity.
The article below.
AT&T-Verizon-T Mobile Sets $100 Million for Google Fight: Tech
August 29, 2011, 12:27 AM EDT
By Olga Kharif
Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) — Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T- Mobile USA plan to invest more than $100 million in their joint venture that lets consumers pay for goods with mobile phones, people with knowledge of the project said.
The investment sets up a showdown between the venture, known as Isis, and rivals like a mobile-payment service from Google Inc. The amount of funding depends on how successful Isis is at attracting banks and merchants, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the financing is private.
The carriers have created the alliance to grab a piece of the market for mobile commerce, which lets consumers buy things by tapping devices against a reader at checkout. The market may reach $670 billion by 2015, Juniper Research says. The carriers may invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the venture if it gains followers, one person said, helping it catch up with Google, which unveiled its own mobile-wallet service in May.
“Over the long haul, operators have to create new businesses that derive value from more than access,” Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst in Issaquah, Washington, said in an interview. “It’s a given that people are going to be transacting more over cell phones. It could open a potential new revenue stream for them.”
Worldwide mobile payments will generate $240 billion this year, growing two to three times that amount within the next five years, according to consulting firm Juniper Research.
Coupon Service
Formed last year, Isis also would let consumers receive and redeem coupons via their mobile devices — in addition to making payments. The service, which will debut in several cities next year, will make money by charging marketers a fee for sending offers to consumers’ phones.
“Isis remains on track to launch in key markets, including Salt Lake City and Austin, in early- to mid-2012,” Jaymee Johnson, head of marketing for Isis, said in a statement. He declined to comment on funding.
Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, also declined to comment, as did T-Mobile’s Hernan Daguerre. The two companies are poised to merge early next year, assuming AT&T’s $39 billion bid passes regulatory scrutiny. Albert Aydin, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, didn’t return a request for comment on Isis’s funding.
Isis also has built ties with the financial industry. It has partnerships with Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc., Discover Financial Services and American Express Co.
Chasing Google
The venture’s carrier owners may decide to increase the pace of the service’s deployment to compete with rival mobile- payment efforts, one of the people said. Google is equipping merchant cash registers to accept its Google Wallet service.
Visa, which runs the world’s largest credit-card network, is hedging its bets. In addition to supporting Isis, it also is working on its own mobile-payment service. And it recently introduced incentives to encourage U.S. merchants to adopt new credit-payment terminals able to accept mobile payments.
Isis aims to get ahead of its rivals by relying on its carrier partners’ existing distribution network and customer relationships. Phones set up for Isis service are expected to be available at carrier stores in the trial cities.
“We have yet to announce our national rollout plans,” Isis’s Johnson said.
The carriers could potentially preinstall Isis software onto their phones, making it easier to use. They also may push handset manufacturers to adopt Isis software.
Samsung Electronics Co. and Research In Motion Ltd. are rolling out new phones that can tap on card-payment terminals at cash registers to make mobile payments. By 2014, at least one in five smartphones globally will rely on a technology called near field communications to offer mobile-payment functions, according to Juniper Research.
Mobile Future Forward – Mobile Commerce and Payments August 26, 2011
Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a commentMobile Commerce is on top of minds of many executives so have assembled a stellar panel to discuss the future of commerce, payments, retail, consumer behavior – it is going to be terrific
http://www.mobilefutureforward.com/agenda.html
Mobile Commerce & Payments
Mobile is fundamentally reshaping how consumers spend. Mobile not only influences purchase behavior but also all moments of truth. Mobile is thus helping close the nirvana gap for brands and advertisers who seek to connect advertising to actual transactions. All ecommerce will eventually be mobile. How are the various players preparing for the new world of mobile commerce and payments? NFC has been around for some time but will it really help in moving the money around? Will the killer NFC application be commerce, payments, advertising, loyalty programs, or something else? How do the mobile technologies influence the instore experience? The panel will chaff through the hype and noise in the segment to discuss where the value is, who benefits, who wins, and how long before mobile becomes central to the multi-trillion dollar global spend?
David Messenger, EVP and Head of Online/Mobile, American Express Company
Gibu Thomas, SVP – Mobile/Online, WalMart
Dale Nitschke, former President, Target
Peter Ewens, Chief Strategy Officer, T-Mobile US
Jay Emmet, GM, OpenMarket, SVP, Amdocs Bob Egan, Managing Partner, MGI Research (moderator)
Mobile Future Forward Panel -SoLoGaMo August 23, 2011
Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a commentAt the Intersection of Social, Location, Gaming, and Monetization
The worlds of social, location, gaming, and commerce are colliding to create enormous opportunities that impact devices, software, applications, services, cloud, interface design, advertising, monetization, and consumer expectations. How are entrepreneurs taking advantage of the social and interest graphs, open APIs, fast networks and processors, and different input modalities? Meet the innovators who are creating tremendous value and are at the epicenter of this evolving trend.
Will Hsu, Chief Product Officer, AT&T Interactive
Naoki Aoyagi, CEO, GREE USA
Bob Borchers, Partner, Opus Capital (moderator)
Rob Glaser, Chairman, Real Networks
Wibe Wagemans, Head of Advertising and Analytics, Rovio (Angry Birds) Jana Messerschmidt, Sr. Director, Twitter
US Wireless Market Update Q2 2011 August 18, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, Applications, Connected Devices, Enterprise Mobility, IP, IP Strategy, Intellectual Property, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mobile Applications, Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Payments, Patent Strategy, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far
http://www.chetansharma.com/usmarketupdateq22011.htm
US Mobile Data Market Update Q1 2011
Summary
If Confucius was alive, he would have said, “We live in interesting times.” 2011 is proving to be the blockbuster deal year. After Microsoft/Nokia, AT&T/T-Mobile, Microsoft/Skype, Google made the $4*π billion play for Motorola and raised the stakes in the mobile ecosystem warfare. The ecosystem has entered into a phase that Sun Tzu and Chanakya would have loved to operate in.
In other news, the US wireless data market grew 5% Q/Q and 22% Y/Y to reach $16.2B in mobile data service revenues in Q2 2011 and is on course to increase Y/Y by 22% to $67B in 2011.
US unseated Philippines as the king of TXT messaging with almost 664 messages/sub/month. Philippines is seeing a sharp decline in per user messaging thanks to Facebook and app messaging.
Apple overtook Nokia as the dominant smartphone OEM though Samsung is right behind and is likely to overtake Apple later this year. However, Apple will continue to dominate profit share for the foreseeable future.
Smartphones continued to be sold at a brisk pace accounting for 55% of the devices sold in Q2 2011. Operators are averaging 70% of their postpaid sales as smartphones with Android dominating though iPhone leads in mindshare. The featurephone as a device species is on the verge of extinction. By Christmas, 90% of the US postpaid device sales could be smartphones.
Platform Moves
I am a Platform, therefore I am. Everything and everyone wants to be a platform that developers can build upon. The big 4 – Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are having good success with frequent upgrades and rollouts. Consumers gravitate towards ecOSystems and the richness of the product offerings not specific OSes. OS is just a means to an end. However, the more developers you get excited about the platform, the more the ecosystem thrives and it becomes a virtuous circle. Companies left without the dancing partners need to ensure that they are not the one left standing when the music stops.
While a lot of attention has been focused on Apple and Google skirmishes, Amazon has been quietly tinkering with some interesting products – advertising enabled Kindle, the upcoming tablets and handsets, Android based appstores, mobile payments, distribution giant, cloud, and so on and so forth. Facebook with its nearly 800M friends can unleash several “billion dollar” features that can shake up different mobile microcosms.
In the meantime, Microsoft is trying to find a way to get back into the mobile market. Microsoft’s Xbox franchise gives it something unique and compelling. Their success might depend on how well they are able to integrate and tell a compelling story to the consumers. The upcoming Christmas quarter will be a critical test. RIM and HP don’t have much of an ecosystem to matter in the larger scheme of things. They can be successful in their own ways but attaining a leadership position remains significantly challenging.
AT&T/T-Mobile merger
AT&T’s proposed merger of T-Mobile continued to keep the regulators busy for the quarter. Earlier this year, we published a first of its kind in-depth study on competition in mobile markets -“Competition and the Evolution of Mobile Markets - A Study of Competition in Global Mobile Markets”. The paper presents analysis and an in-depth analytical framework to study the competitive landscape in the global mobile markets. Our research shows that an effective equilibrium point for the top three market share in a given country to be around 46%:29%:18% respectively. We expect that once all is said and done, we will end up in the vicinity of this equation.
Patent Warfare
On the eve of Android launch, I mentioned to one of the journalist to watch for some IP fireworks in about 3 years. For those of us who have been deeply involved in the mobile IP space, the IP events of 2011 have been largely predictable though the valuations have gone through the roof.
Over the last 15 years, I have seen patents and IP in the mobile space from all angles from authoring patents to testifying in ITC cases and pretty much everything in between. In the last six months, patents have become an essential tool for competitive strategy in the mobile device space. See our analysis on the major players with the number of granted patents in Europe and US (slide 13).
To paraphrase the oracle of Omaha, “Only when the litigation tide comes in do you discover who’s been swimming without protection.”
Mobile is changing the way we spend
It is very clear that mobile will be at the center of human evolution for years to come. Mobile collapses time and distance and as such impacts every facet of our lives. While we have come to know the mobile phone as a communications device, their role in our daily lives has been expanding. From checking emails, paying for tickets, sending money transfers, taking pictures of your kids, watching soccer World Cup live, checking commodity pricing, to emergency response to mHealth (mobile Health), mobile devices have become an essential tool to help us navigate our day.
Mobile also plays a key role in how we go about the most basic transaction in a given day that keeps the economy humming – spend. We discussed this and more in the paper “How Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend” that was released earlier this month.
What to expect in the coming months?
All this has setup an absolutely fascinating rest of the year in the communication/computing industry. Convergence is everywhere and is leading to a fundamental reset of the value chains and ecosystems. We are likely to see a few more blockbuster marriage proposals before the year is out.
We are going to be discussing the ins and outs of how the industry is going to evolve in the next decade in our Sept 12th mobile thought leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward which is bringing exceptional industry thought-leaders, inventors, and doers to brainstorm, discuss, and debate what’s next.
Hope you can join us.
As usual, we will be keeping a very close eye on the micro- and macro-trends and reporting on the market on a regular basis in various private and public settings.
Against this backdrop, the analysis of the Q2 2011 US wireless data market is:
Service Revenues
- The US Wireless data service revenues grew 5% Q/Q and 22% Y/Y to $16.2B in Q2 2011. The mobile data services revenues for the US market are on track to reach $67B in 2011.
- Verizon and AT&T had a good mobile data quarter accounting for 77% of the increase in data revenues in Q2 2011.
- For the quarter, AT&T and Verizon accounted for 69% of the market data services revenues and 62% of the subscription base.
- Verizon maintained its #1 ranking just edging past NTT DoCoMo who came in at number two with $5.77B in data revenues for the quarter. AT&T maintained its #3 position with $5.4B in data revenues. Sprint and T-Mobile maintained their #6 and #8 rank in the top 10 mobile data operators list for Q2 2011. The proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile will make AT&T #1 by a distance and place 20% of the global mobile data revenues in the hands of the top two US operators. AT&T and Verizon will become the #1 and #2 players respectively.
ARPU
- The Overall ARPU increased by $0.41. Average voice ARPU declined by $0.48 while the average data ARPU grew by $0.89 or 5% Q/Q.
- The average industry percentage contribution of data to overall ARPU was 36.3% in Q2 2011 and is likely to touch 40% by year’s end. Verizon is likely to be the first to eclipse the 40% mark with AT&T a close second. (NTT DoCoMo became the second major operator to go past the 50% mark this quarter (if we don’t include Philippines) and Japan as a market follows Philippines in going past the 50% mark).
- Verizon and Sprint were neck-and-neck in data ARPU followed by AT&T. In terms of % contribution, all the top three operators exceeded the 35% mark. T-Mobile ended the quarter with almost 30% of its revenue coming from the data services.
- We expect data revenues to exceed voice revenues in the US market in early 2013.
Subscribers
- Helped by the growth in connected devices, the overall net-adds increased by 4.4M with Verizon accounting for almost 50% of the growth.
- For the seventh straight quarter, AT&T reported more net-adds from connected devices than postpaid subs. AT&T now accounts for 43% of connected devices in the US (w/ cellular subscription of some sort).
- Overall, AT&T has 43% of the connected device share of the market. The connected device segment growth slowed down to 3% Q/Q but is still up 37% Y/Y.
- Sprint continued on its comeback trail by adding more than a million subscriptions for the third straight quarter, first time it has done it since Q2 2005.
- T-Mobile however continues to be sandwiched between the top three and the next three and hasn’t been able to add postpaid subs for five straight quarters. The net-adds declined for third straight quarter.
Applications and Services
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US unseated Philippines as the king of TXT messaging with almost 664 messages/sub/month compared to Philippines which is seeing a sharp decline in per user messaging due to IP messaging. Some of the European operators are also experiencing the pain of declining SMS usage.
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While the percentage share of the data revenues is declining for messaging, the revenue growth stays strong with almost $5B in revenues.
- The market is finally starting to see activity in the mobile commerce and payment services as well as in various industry verticals like healthcare, retail, and education.
- Q2 2011 also saw tremendous activity in the mobile commerce and payments space with lot of announcements from the operators, Internet players, and startups as well as the retailers and the ecommerce players. All are vying for a piece of the mobile wallet. Much more to come in the next 12 months.
Handsets
- Smartphones continued to be sold at a brisk pace accounting for 55% of the devices sold in Q2 2011. Operators are averaging 70% of their postpaid sales as smartphones with Android dominating though iPhone leads in mindshare.
- For a first time in recent memory, Nokia sold less than 100M devices in a quarter and its marketshare shrank to 22% from a once dominant position of almost 40%.
- Apple unseated Nokia as the king of the smartphone hill but Samsung is right behind and is likely to overtake Apple later this year.
- 35% of all smartphones being sold globally are being sold in the US.
- Last quarter, smartphones sales exceeded the 50% mark. The % share jumped to 55% in Q2 2011. Smartphones now account for 80% revenue of all phones sold in the US.
- In the vertical vs. horizontal platform battle, the ecosystem is shifting towards horizontal domination in the near-term (units sold) while a majority of the profits reside in the vertical column.
- 85% of the tablets use WiFi only (some have inactivated cellular chipset) meaning the operator channel is not a necessary distribution channel. Operators who start to bundle multiple devices by single data plans and data buckets are going to see a better yield in this category.
- While the definition of 4G stays muddled, Sprint added 1.7M WiMax subs and Verizon incremented their LTE count by 1.2M.
Mobile Data Growth
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The mobile data consumption continues unabated. We expect per MB usage in the US to reach 675 MB by the end of 2011 just behind Sweden which is likely to end up at 760 MB.
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While the spectrum debate rages on, in addition to the network and backhaul upgrades, policy management and data offload have emerged as top two solutions that operators deploying around the world. Signaling management solutions like Diameter routing are also getting good traction. However, a long-term video solution is still elusive. As we have been saying in our Yottabyte series of research papers, a comprehensive solution strategy is needed to effectively manage margins/bit.
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We will have the 3rd edition of our “Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era”research out later this year. We will also be discussing this subject in great detail at our Mobile Future Forward summit with some of the most influential voices in the space.
Global Update
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Race to a billion - India went past 850M in Q2 2011 subs and China went past 900M. By mid 2012 both India and China will have more than a billion subscriptions.
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China Mobile crossed the 600M subscription mark however its 3G introduction has had a tepid response thus and its 4G strategy remains in flux.
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For more details, please see our Global Mobile Wireless Market Update released in July 2011.
Mobile Future Forward
We will be discussing the global mobile ecosystem – the challenges and the opportunities at our annual mobile thought-leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward - brought to you in partnership with our terrific partners – Qualcomm, Millennial Media, Real Networks, AT&T Interactive, Synchronoss Technologies, OpenMarket, Ericsson, and Openwave. Hope to see you in Seattle on Sept 12th.
Some of the distinguished guests include:
Abhi Ingle, VP, AT&T; Biju Nair, Chief Strategy Officer, Synchronoss Technologies; Bob Borchers, Partner, Opus Capital; Bobby Morrison, President – PNW, Verizon Wireless; Braxton Woodham, Head of Product Development, AVOS; Danny Bowman, President, Sprint; David Messenger, EVP, Head of Online/Mobile, American Express; Gibu Thomas, SVP – Mobile Walmart; Erik Moremo, SVP, FOX; Glenn Lurie, President, Emerging Devices, Resale & Partnerships, AT&T Mobility; Hank Skorny, CSO, Real Networks; Jana Messerschmidt, Sr. Director, Twitter; Jay Emmet, GM, OpenMarket; Jason MacKenzie, President, Global Sales and Marketing, HTC; Jerry Batt, CIO, PulteGroup; Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave; Ken Wirth, President, Alcatel-Lucent Wireless; Kris Rinne, SVP - Networks/Architecture, AT&T; Mark Rolston, Chief Creative Officer, Frog Design; Manoj Leelanivas, EVP & GM, Juniper Networks; Michael Wolf, VP, GigaOM; Mikael Back, VP – Products, Ericsson; Naoki Aoyagi, CEO, GREE USA; Paul Palmieri, CEO, Millennial Media; Rob Glaser, Partner, Accel; Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO, LightSquared; Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint; Steve Mollenkopf, EVP/Group President, Qualcomm; Suja Chandrasekaran, CIO, Timberland; Will Hsu, CPO, AT&T Interactive.
More information at http://www.mobilefutureforward.com
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Nov 2011. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Apr 2012.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
NY Times: As Networks Speed Up, Data Hits a Wall August 15, 2011
Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a commentHad a chance to talk to NYTimes about mobile data growth and consumption
As Networks Speed Up, Data Hits a Wall
By JENNA WORTHAM
The newest smartphones are intended to run on speedy 4G networks that allow people to effortlessly stream music, watch Netflix movies and tune in live to a Mets game, wherever they are.
But there’s a catch, of course.
Cellphone plans that let people gobble up data as if they were at an all-you-can eat buffet are disappearing, just as a new crop of data-gobbling Internet services from Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, Apple and the like are hitting the market or catching on with wide audiences.
These services use far more data than simply checking e-mail or browsing the Web, so their heaviest users may find themselves running over their plan’s monthly allotment and paying extra.
The wireless carriers say their tighter limits will affect only a small percentage of customers. And they say they are simply trying to get ahead of an exploding appetite for data and avoid problems with overburdened networks.
Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, said that if current trends continued, the company’s network would carry more data in the first two months of 2015 than in all of 2010. He described the pricing issue as a “balancing act,” adding: “The tiered data plans will meet the needs of the overwhelming majority of consumers. A lot of people think they’re heavy users, but they’re not.”
But analysts say that inevitably more people will find themselves in the “heavy user” category, particularly as more of them trade in their lower-end phones for smartphones and move to 4G networks.
For most people who use their phones to check e-mail, surf the Web and watch an occasional video, the move toward tiered pricing will not immediately raise their phone bills. Verizon’s monthly plan offering two gigabytes of data for $30, announced last month, costs the same as its old unlimited plan, for example. But even now it doesn’t take much for a media-hungry smartphone user to chew through two gigabytes; watching Netflix video for more than roughly 20 minutes a day will do the trick. And an extra gigabyte will cost Verizon customers an additional $10.
“Over time, as you give people faster devices with faster speeds, it’s going to be a lot easier to hit that two-gig mark,” said Philip Cusick, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase who follows the telecommunications industry.
In addition to worrying about overtaxing their networks, wireless carriers are looking for new ways to make money from mobile data and applications, rather than voice minutes.
Over the last three years, the amount of money consumers spent a month on mobile calling declined to $30 from $40, according to Recon Analytics. During the same period, the average amount spent on data nearly doubled, jumping to $13 from $7.
“We’ve fallen in love with data and the utility that we get from it,” said Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon. “The usage pattern has changed dramatically.”
AT&T and Verizon have both phased out their unlimited data plans in favor of tiered plans. Verizon offers 75-megabyte plans for basic phones, as well as two-, five- and 10-gigabyte plans for smartphones, topping out at $80 a month. Those in the more expensive plans who go over their limit are charged $10 for another gigabyte, as are AT&T customers who exceed the limit on that company’s two-gigabyte plan, which costs $25.
T-Mobile, which AT&T is hoping to acquire, offers tiers from 200 megabytes up to 10 gigabytes. Those on the 200-megabyte plan are charged 10 cents for an extra megabyte. And if those with the upper-tier plans exceed their limits, the company slows their data connections until the next billing period.
Sprint is the last carrier to hold onto its unlimited data plan, but analysts and industry experts say it is unlikely to last.
All of the carriers let customers track their data use through their Web sites and on their phones, and they send alerts when customers are in danger of going over.
Of course, those who want to avoid paying more can simply wait until they are connected to a Wi-Fi network to, say, download high-definition videos, since this will not count against the monthly limit. But that doesn’t help someone who wants to stream movies or music on a long evening commute.
Terry Hartup, 34, who works as a technology consultant in Clearwater, Fla., said he was frustrated that his connection might be slowed if T-Mobile decided he was using too much data.
“These new services are coming out that let us do more, but the pipe is getting smaller and smaller,” he said. “And costing us more.”
Mr. Hartup, who streams audio throughout most of the day on Spotify and Pandora over T-Mobile’s network and Wi-Fi, says he rarely goes over two gigabytes a month. But he worries that new apps and services will make it harder to stay under that cap.
The data caps are very much on the minds of developers of mobile apps and services, who need to think about how they will affect the way people use their phones.
Malthe Sigurdsson, vice president for product design at the Internet music service Rdio, said the company was adapting to the data limits. Rdio includes several features intended to help prevent users from unwittingly churning through their data allowance.
“You can set Rdio to play at a lower quality when using a cellular network, and then decide to use a higher quality when on Wi-Fi,” he said. “We try to help people out so they don’t use up their cap in a few hours of using our service.”
Most people, he said, have adjusted their behavior to stream only when they are on a Wi-Fi network, or make use of a feature that lets them store songs on their phones to play when they are away from Wi-Fi.
Kevin Systrom, one of the founders of Instagram, a popular photo-sharing application for iPhones, said he was concerned that data caps would constrain developers from creating innovative and possibly data-intensive features and services.
“Any low data limits imposed would curb usage of all services,” he said. He called the introduction of data caps “a step backwards for mobile technology.”
Yet AT&T and other carriers, along with some developers, argue that the caps make data use more affordable and improve the performance of the carriers’ networks for all.
The main issue, developers say, is that most people have no idea how much data they are using when watching a YouTube video or sending an e-mail.
“They don’t have an intuitive feel for how much data they’re using,” said Rick Osterloh, vice president for development at Skype. “You can so easily blow through a data plan if you’re watching videos, browsing the Web and making Skype calls.”
Mr. Osterloh said he sympathized with the challenge the carriers face in managing demands. But he is concerned that mobile Skype users who accidentally go over their limits may get upset with the company rather than their carrier.
The wireless carriers, who will increasingly compete with one another for customers, could raise their data caps to best rivals and accommodate customers’ increasing appetites.
During a recent call with investors, Lowell McAdams, Verizon’s newly appointed chief executive, said it was not inconceivable that carriers might once again dangle unlimited data plans to lure subscribers.
“There may be some that hold out longer with unlimited, and I wouldn’t be surprised if unlimited comes back in and out from a promotional perspective,” he said. But he added that the trend toward limits was “inevitable.”
Mobile Future Forward Keynote August 12, 2011
Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a commentSteve has been leading Qualcomm for many years so we are really delighted to have him as our 2011 keynote speaker.
http://www.mobilefutureforward.com/agenda.html
Keynote - Steve Mollenkopf, EVP and Group President, Qualcomm
Recent studies estimate there will be 1 billion smartphones on the global market by 2016. The proliferation of high- performance internet-enabled devices, objects and machines, in conjunction with next-generation LTE networks, clearly shows the mobile industry is on the cusp of enabling a world where virtually all the devices in your life are smart and connected. We are entering an era where smartphones and tablets will truly be the primary means by which we communicate with each other and control the devices around us. Making these connections will open up new opportunities for both the mobile ecosystem and the consumers that fuel it. Qualcomm Executive Vice President and Group President Steve Mollenkopf will address how mobile computing solutions are helping the industry realize a new vision for the mobile user of tomorrow.
Mobile Advertising through the eyes of Millennial Media
Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a commentAs regular readers know, I am big fan of data that helps inform the industry. Mobile Advertising has been near and dear to me for a long time. Millennial Media produces great industry reports that give a good pulse of what’s happening and where things are headed. Earlier today, they released their 50th report.
You should definitely check it out for yourself - http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/50th-report/
Here are some stats on how things have changed in the last 3 years.
Mobile Future Forward – Agenda Update August 11, 2011
Posted by chetan in : Mobile Future Forward , add a commentGreetings Everyone!
Hope you are having a great summer.
We are only 4 weeks away from the 2nd Mobile Future Forward Executive Summit so I thought I will provide an update to the agenda and the speakers. We have an incredible line-up of speakers, thinkers and doers. The meeting of the minds will hopefully inspire you, help meet the "key" decision makers in the mobile ecosystem, and learn about the future direction of the mobile industry.
Give us your one day and we will give you the next 5 years in mobile.
Registration and other information at http://www.mobilefutureforward.com
Please note: Summer Saver is expiring next Friday, Aug 19th, 2011. We are 80% sold out so please register early.
In proud partnership with: AT&T Interactive, Ericsson, Millennial Media, Open Market, Openwave, Qualcomm, Real Networks, and Synchronoss Technologies
We also released our Mobile Future Forward Whitepaper – How Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend. It will be part of the Mobile Future Forward book that will be released on Sept 12th to the summit attendees. Book contains 19 essays from our illustrious speakers and industry thought-leaders.
We look forward to seeing you on Sept 12th.
Thanks
Chetan
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Sept 11th 2011 |
Speakers Dinner |
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6:00 - 8:00 pm |
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Sept 12th 2011 |
Registration Opens. Breakfast and Networking |
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6:30am |
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8:15 am |
Introduction and Welcome - Chetan Sharma, President, Chetan Sharma Consulting |
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8:30 am |
Keynote - Steve Mollenkopf, EVP and Group President, Qualcomm Recent studies estimate there will be 1 billion smartphones on the global market by 2016. The proliferation of high- performance internet-enabled devices, objects and machines, in conjunction with next-generation LTE networks, clearly shows the mobile industry is on the cusp of enabling a world where virtually all the devices in your life are smart and connected. We are entering an era where smartphones and tablets will truly be the primary means by which we communicate with each other and control the devices around us. Making these connections will open up new opportunities for both the mobile ecosystem and the consumers that fuel it. Qualcomm Executive Vice President and Group President Steve Mollenkopf will address how mobile computing solutions are helping the industry realize a new vision for the mobile user of tomorrow. |
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9:00 am |
Disruption is in the Air Disruption is the fundamental tenet of progress. Whether it is the technologies, the business models, the players or the alliances, disruptive forces are essential in making things better for the consumer and the larger ecosystem. Is 4G a game change? What does the wholesale business model do to the data economics? Is the halving of the device lifecycle good or bad? Who manages the customer and where does the value shift? Meet the two leaders who are working to disrupt the mobile industry. Brad Stone, Senior Writer, Bloomberg Businessweek (moderator) Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO, LightSquared Jason MacKenzie, President, Global Sales and Marketing, HTC |
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9:30 am |
Design, User Experience and Consumer Behavior The number of connected devices per user is increasing very quickly. Some users have 10-20 connected screens in the household and the number is only going to increase. How does product and service design leverage this phenomenon? How do monetization strategies change? What are user experience and pricing expectations? How does the value shift between the players? How do developers take advantage of n-screens? The panel will deal with the realities of playing in the n-screen world and debate how to make the most of it. John SanGiovanni, Cofounder and VP - Product Design, Zumobi (moderator) Mark Rolston, Chief Creative Officer, Frog Design Cliff Kushler, CTO and Cofounder, Swype |
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10:15 am |
Playing in the N-Screen Media World The number of connected devices per user is steadily increasing. Some users have 10-20 connected screens in the household and the number is only going to increase. How does product and service design leverage this phenomenon? How do monetization strategies change? What are user experience and pricing expectations? How does the value shift between the players? How do developers take advantage of n-screens? The panel will deal with the realities of playing in the n-screen world and debate how to make the most of it. Paul Palmieri, CEO and Cofounder, Millennial Media Jeremiah Zinn, EVP – Digital Products, MTV Networks Eric Anderson, VP - Content and Product Solutions, Samsung Frank Barbieri, SVP – Emerging Platforms, YuMe (moderator) |
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11:00 am |
Break |
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11:15 am |
TBD |
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12 - 1:30 pm |
Lunch Demonstrations – Visions of the Future Meet the entrepreneurs who are working on technologies that are going to impact the mobile ecosystem and consumers in profound ways. A fascinating dive into the world of biometrics, display, advertising, retail, sports, and consumer electronics. Natan Linder - MIT Media Lab For quite some time, researchers and designers in the field of human computer interaction has strived to better integrate information interfaces into our physical environment. They envisioned a future where computing and interface components would be integrated to the physical environment, creating a seamless experience that uses all our senses. This talk is centered on the design and development of new prototypes for interactive augmented reality interfaces that blur the boundaries of the digital and the physical worlds. It is focused on the LuminAR system - a compact and kinetic projected augmented reality interface embodied in familiar everyday objects, namely a light bulb and a task light. It allows users to dynamically augment physical surfaces and objects with superimposed digital information using gestural and multi-touch interfaces. |
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1:30 pm |
Monetizing the Mobile Network
Traditionally, there has been a direct correlation between the mobile network usage and revenue/profits. However, the significant mobile data consumption, lack of adequate spectrum, ecosystem disruption by the Internet players, and the changing of the consumer expectations have provided the opportunity for operators to rethink how they look at their network from a technology perspective but more importantly from a monetization angle. How will operator grow their revenue base beyond measuring the bits and bytes? What network assets can create long-term sustainable revenues and value? Does the role of the operator morph over time? How does the landscape different in different regions of the world? Do operator CTO and CMO look at the network differently? This expert panel will delve into the “future of network monetization.” Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave (moderator) Kris Rinne, SVP - Network and Architecture, AT&T Mobility Janet Schijns, VP – Business Solutions Group, Verizon Wireless Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance Industries Bob Azzi, SVP - Networks, Sprint Nextel Mobile Enterprise and the CIO Prism
Mobile is influencing corporate IT in multiple ways – devices, software, security, collaboration, cloud, and investments. How is mobile enabling the enterprise of tomorrow? How are the various verticals adapting to the confluence of broadband network, tablets and smartphones, cloud, and enterprise software. How is the economics of supporting a mobile worker changing? How does mobile virtualization and BYOD impact the enterprise? How are enterprises using mobile to engage with their customers, shrink supply-chains, and drive more efficiency out of their enterprise dollars. We will look at the evolving mobile landscape through the CIO prism. This panel of enterprise veterans will delve into the significant problems they are solving and how they see mobile evolving in the enterprise? Suja Chandrashekaran, CIO, Timberland Abhi Ingle, VP – Advanced Business Solutions, AT&T Wireless (moderator) Jerry Batt, CIO, PulteGroup Subba Rao, CEO, Razi Healthcare |
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2:30 pm |
Mobile Commerce & Payments
Mobile is fundamentally reshaping how consumers spend. Mobile not only influences purchase behavior but also all moments of truth. Mobile is thus helping close the nirvana gap for brands and advertisers who seek to connect advertising to actual transactions. All ecommerce will eventually be mobile. How are the various players preparing for the new world of mobile commerce and payments? NFC has been around for some time but will it really help in moving the money around? Will the killer NFC application be commerce, payments, advertising, loyalty programs, or something else? How do the mobile technologies influence the instore experience? The panel will chaff through the hype and noise in the segment to discuss where the value is, who benefits, who wins, and how long before mobile becomes central to the multi-trillion dollar global spend? David Messenger, EVP and Head of Online/Mobile, American Express Company Gibu Thomas, EVP – Online/Mobile, WalMart Dale Nitschke, former President, Target Jay Emmet, GM, OpenMarket, SVP, Amdocs Mobile Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition, and Opportunities
Data is everywhere. Mobile Cloud is Booming. Data is driving Knowledge. Having the best knowledge about the user to help drive transaction is simply the most valuable currency of commerce. With so much data being generated, how do we efficiently sift through it and make sense to enable engagement and commerce in a fraction of a millisecond? What is data teaching us about the consumer behavior, future product design, and the competitive landscape? What are the implications for consumer privacy and data security? What new opportunities emerge due to mobile big data? Who will own the user context and how will the knowledge translate into transactions? How do the app developers leverage big data? Our expert panel of engineers and executives will delve into what will be a key trend for this decade. Braxton Woodham, Head of Engineering, AVOS Joe Megibow, VP and GM – Mobile and Analytics, Expedia Hank Skorny, Chief Strategy Officer, Real Networks Ramneek Bhasin, GM and VP, TheFind |
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3:30 pm |
Break |
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4:00 pm |
At the Intersection of Social, Location, Gaming, and Monetization
The worlds of social, location, gaming, and commerce are colliding to create enormous opportunities that impact devices, software, applications, services, cloud, interface design, advertising, monetization, and consumer expectations. How are entrepreneurs taking advantage of the social and interest graphs, open APIs, fast networks and processors, and different input modalities? Meet the innovators who are creating tremendous value and are at the epicenter of this evolving trend. Will Hsu, Chief Product Officer, AT&T Interactive Amit Gupta, SVP and CTO, INQMobile Tim Chang, Partner, NVP (moderator) Rob Glaser, Chairman, Real Networks Designing the Mobile Infrastructure for the Next Decade Mobile Data demand is doubling every year. For many operators more than 75% of their sales is smartphones. The connected devices segment is growing at a 55% Y/Y rate. With seaming insatiable demand, what are infrastructure leaders doing to help out the operators over the next 10 years. What technologies and products are on the horizon to solve some fundamental data network issues? How far do heterogeneous networks, self-organizing networks, offloading, and all-IP infrastructure elements take us? Sprint’s CTO will put the industry problems (and opportunities) in front of the vendors to figure out how we are going to cope with the mobile data tsunami. Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint (moderator) Ken Wirth, President – End-to-End Network Solutions, Alcatel-Lucent Biju Nair, Chief Strategy Officer, Synchronoss Technologies Manoj Leelanivas, EVP and GM Business Group, Juniper Networks Mikael Back, VP – Product and Portfolio Management, Ericsson Erik Moreno, SVP – Corporate Development, FOX Networks Group |
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5:00 pm |
Connected Universe. Unlimited Opportunities.
The connected devices segment is the fastest growing category of the market and is also the most profitable due to higher margins. Connected devices are impacting a rethink in virtually all key verticals – healthcare, housing, travel, entertainment, communication, energy, and others. It is also disrupting the traditional value chains and revenue models. Which segments are yielding the highest ROI? Does computing fundamentally change forever or are connected devices just a part of the PC hub? How does M2M fit into the world of smartphones and tablets? How are businesses and solution providers taking advantage of the growing connected universe? What’s most important for the consumer and what are their expectations on design, pricing, and connectivity? From connected cars to wireless pill bottles, our world is going to change forever. Meet the leaders who are shaping the growing connected devices ecosystem to get insights that will inform your strategy and decide your future revenue streams. Chetan Sharma, President, Chetan Sharma Consulting (moderator) Glenn Lurie, President - Emerging Devices, Resale & Partnerships , AT&T Mobility Danny Bowman, President – Connected Devices, Sprint |
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6:00 - 8:00 pm |
Adjourn, Reception, and Networking |
Agenda subject to change
Register today at http://www.mobilefutureforward.com/register.html
Mobile Future Forward is produced by Chetan Sharma Consulting
New Paper - How Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend – A Mobile Future Forward Paper August 5, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, CTIA, Connected Devices, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Indian Wireless Market, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Breakfast Series, Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Payments, Mobile Search, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so farHow Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend
A Mobile Future Forward Paper
The Mobile Future Forward 2011 Book will contain 18 essays from thought-leaders around the globe and is going to be distributed exclusively to the Mobile Future Forward attendees on Sept 12th. The book is published by FutureText, UK.
The essays from the Mobile Future Forward speakers and industry luminaries are:
1. How Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend – Chetan Sharma, President, Chetan Sharma Consulting
2. The Mobile Cloud Connected Enterprise – Abhi Ingle, VP, Advanced Mobility Solutions, AT&T
3. Mobile and Health Possibilities – Subba Rao, CEO, Razi Health
4. Buying a Mobile Device in 2014 – Frank Meehan, CEO, INQMobile
5. Surviving and Thriving in the Age of Mobile Internet – An MNO Game Plan – Manoj Leelanivas, SVP and GM, Juniper Networks
6. Mobile Future Forward Interview with Steve Elfman – President, Sprint Nextel
7. Is Mobile Local Advertising Finally Poised to Take Off? – William Hsu, SVP and CPO, AT&T Interactive
8. Implications of a Connected Society – Danny Bowman, President, Sprint Nextel
9. Big Data and Mobile – Braxton Woodham, Head of Engineering, AVOS
10. Broadband for All – Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO, LightSquared
11. Wireless Competition and Innovation – Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint Nextel
12. The Future of the Personal Information Economy: Enabling Success Across the Mobile Ecosystem – Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave
13. T-Commerce – Carving Out and Extending E-Commerce – Ramneek Bhasin, SVP and GM, TheFind
14. The Case for Building a Mobile Broadcast Content Delivery Network – The Critical Piece to Fulfilling Mobile Data Demands of the Future – Erik Moreno, SVP, FOX Network
15. Connected Devices – Redefining the Channel – Biju Nair, Chief Strategy Officer, Synchronoss Technologies
16. How Mobile Can Turn Retailers Into Media Companies – Dale Nitschke, CEO, Ovative Group
17. The Future of (Mobile) Communications – Carlos Domingo, CEO, Telefonica R&D
18. Competition and the Evolution of Mobile Markets – Chetan Sharma, President, Chetan Sharma Consulting
Download (http://www.mobilefutureforward.com and click on the White paper image)
Executive Summary
In his 1943 paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation”, the famed philosopher Abraham Maslow theorized his observations of human needs and curiosities. His pyramid came to depict the human hierarchy of needs. If we map the physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs onto how much we spend as a community, it correlates rather well. As you would expect, human spending behavior is tightly tied to the basic needs. The amount of money we spend on these basic needs might vary by demographics or region but in aggregate, we tend to spend the most for the things that are the bottom of the pyramid – shelter, food, and water.
Over time, entrepreneurs have used technology to drive fundamental changes in consumer behavior for e.g. Microsoft with personal computers, Google with search, Apple with devices, Facebook with social connections. Of course, the web of interconnection, the various vertical industries that map against the human needs is very complex and as new technology cycles come into play, inventors get busy with enhancing performance sometimes by manifold to keep up with the insatiable demand and appetite to do more.
It is very clear that mobile will be at the center of human evolution for years to come. Mobile collapses time and distance and as such impacts every facet of our lives. While we have come to know the mobile phone as a communications device, their role in our daily lives has been expanding. From checking emails, paying for tickets, sending money transfers, taking pictures of your kids, watching soccer World Cup live, checking commodity pricing, to emergency response to mHealth (mobile Health), mobile devices have become an essential tool to help us navigate our day. As we alluded to earlier, it is not just the traditional phones that have cellular connection these days; we are slowly but surely moving into an era where a majority of electronic devices from small tags to giant billboards will have a communication channel that both machines and humans can interact with.
Mobile also plays a key role in how we go about the most basic transaction in a given day that keeps the economy humming – spend.
In this paper, we will take a look at how the connected universe of devices and sensors are going to impact the way we spend and how all this creates new opportunities to meet the basic human needs.
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks
Chetan
