American Idol and Mobile Marketing May 24, 2007
Posted by chetan in : Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, Gaming, ARPU, Unified Messaging, Messaging, Mobile Applications, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Search, Wireless Value Chain , add a commentAmerican Idol was a game changer in the US as far as mobile marketing is concerned. Last night 74M text’d in.
The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) today published a draft Code of Practice (Code) outlining best practices for Participation Television (P-TV) in the United States. P-TV services typically provide viewers the ability to interact with television shows – for example, where viewers are asked to text in votes or enter sweepstakes using their mobile phones. Often these shows integrate enhanced content with premium rate mobile services. P-TV is expected to experience continuing fast growth in coming months.
Had a chance ealier today to talk to Edward Boddington, MEF Americas Board member and Telescope, Inc. Founder. Boddington helped develop ‘Pop Idol’ in the UK, which became ‘American Idol’ in the U.S. (he handed the envelope to Ryan Seacrest last night on ‘American Idol’ announcing Jordin Sparks as the new American Idol).
Some numbers from Ed. $300M P-TV in UK, 30% of it is mobile messaging. In the US, the numbers are in the range of $30-50M though accurate estimates are not available. The final version of the code will be available at www.m-e-f.org within 2-3 months. Thanks to Chris Pfaff for arranging the interview.
Global Wireless Data Market Update 2006 April 29, 2007
Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Strategy, Carriers, Middleware, Speaking Engagements, 3G, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, MVNO, Indian Wireless market, BRIC, Mobile Gaming, Gaming, Networks, ARPU, Japan wireless market, Mobile TV, Mobile Applications, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Search, Wireless Value Chain, 4G , 1 comment so farhttp://www.chetansharma.com/worlddatatrends2006.htm
In 2006, mobile data industry grew across every geography. From the true and trusted SMS messaging to new services such as Mobile TV, LBS, and others, different services helped in adding billions to the revenues generated for the year. Japan and Korea remain the envy of the global markets and the countries to study and learn from. The US market has been steadily making strong comeback and is soon going to become the biggest mobile data revenue generating market in the world. Chetan Sharma Consulting conducted its bi-annual study of the global mobile data industry. We took a look at wireless data trends in over 40 major countries - from developed and mature markets such as Japan, Korea, UK, and France to high-growth markets such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia. The study also took a detailed look at over 30 prominent operators. This note summarizes the findings from the research.
- 2006 was a great year for mobile data. Revenues from mobile data were up in all major regions and for all major carriers with data contributing double digit percentage to overall revenues in most cases. The overall subscriptions rose to approximately 2.7B and we should be crossing 3B by the end of 2007. The wireless industry is on its way to gain the quickest billion subscribers within the next 3 quarters.
- Japan led the way with almost $20B in annual mobile data revenues. US and China were next with $15.8B and $9.2B respectively.
- NTT DoCoMo became the first carrier to cross the $10B barrier for a given calendar year amassing $10.5B for 2006 in data revenues. The Japanese market was followed by China Mobile at $6.9B, KDDI at $6.6B, Verizon Wireless at $4.5B, and Cingular Wireless at $4.3B. They were followed by Sprint Nextel, SK Telecom, Softbank, O2 UK, and China Unicom to make up the top 10.
- A majority of countries we tracked got double digit growth in mobile data ARPU except for a handful of countries which registered a decline from EOY 2005. Some of the prominent ones being US (33%), Czech (40%), Brazil (32%), Netherlands (31%), UK (20%), and Japan (14%). Japan registered the largest dollar amount increase with $2.08 increase from 2005 levels. US and UK data ARPU levels grew by $1.72.
- In 2006, SMS’s vice like grip on data revenues loosened a bit with many carriers seeing an increase in non-SMS data revenues. On an average, Japan and Korea have over 70-75% of their revenue coming from non-SMS data applications, US around 50-60%, and Western Europe around 30-40%.
- The top 10 carriers increased their revenue by 13% during the second half of 2006 to reach an aggregate amount of $46.8B for the year in data revenues.
- In terms of data ARPU, Japan continues to lead the pack with almost 30% of its revenues coming from data services amounting to almost $17 data ARPU. Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, UK and South Korea also registered significant data ARPU. US crossed the ($5, 10%) block, where $5 is the data ARPU and 10% represents the % share of overall ARPU. As of Dec 2006, US stood at ($7, 13%). For detailed US Wireless Market update, please see “US Wireless Data Market Update 2006” (For more details, please refer to the 9-box diagram in the ppt”; for 2005 comparative numbers, please refer to our paper from last year titled “Perspectives: Wireless Data ARPU”)
- NTT DoCoMo’s position at the top of the wireless data world has been challenged recently by several carriers esp. by its archrival KDDI which surged past DoCoMo and remained ahead pretty much for the entire year. Their data coordinates stand at ($17, 31%) and ($17, 30%) respectively. However, it is 3 UK that is inching towards ($20, 30%) mark with $26 in data ARPU contributing over 29% to its overall ARPU. 3 Italy with ($16, 35%) is also amongst the leaders.
- The biggest % contribution by data ARPU has been consistently registered (since mid 2002) by two Philippines carriers – Smart Communications and Globe Telecom with almost 50% (or $3) contribution coming from data services.
- Even though China reported approximately $9.2B in data revenues, and the % contribution is over 20%, data ARPU is around $2, confirming what we already know – it’s a volume game. For India data ARPU is just under $1. Approximately same for Brazil and Russia. Actually, in 2006 the overall wireless service revenue for US was two times the overall revenues of the four BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries combined. So, lessons are pretty clear as to which markets to approach for what products and services.
- In terms of overall ARPU, it has been a mixed picture compared to 2005. Of the 40 countries we looked at, it was an even split, with half of the countries registering increase in overall ARPU while the other half were at the same level or experienced decline in ARPU. US, China, and India all registered declines while Japan, Russia, Italy, UK, and Canada had an uptick in their ARPU numbers.
- All the carriers in the top 10 wireless carriers by wireless data revenues list exceeded $1B in data revenues for the second six months of 2006 and $2B for the year.
- Western Europe officially crossed the 100% wireless subscriber penetration mark (primarily due to multiple SIMs and double reporting) with several nations reporting up to 140% subscriber penetration. US crossed the 75% penetration mark.
- China crossed the 400M subscriber market in 2006 and is on its way to cross the 500M mark this year. However, its growth rate was overtaken by India which is experiencing tremendous growth. Its net-adds approached 7M subs/month compared to 6M/month for China (though in March 07, monthly net-adds dipped below 4M probably due to the pressure from the government to prove the reported numbers). India crossed Japan and Russia to stand number 3 behind China and US and is going to get past US in terms of total number of subscribers by 2008.
- As expected, China Mobile is way ahead of the second ranked Vodafone w.r.t total number of subscribers. China Unicom, América Móvil, Telefonica, SingTel, Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), and Orange (France Telecom) are the next six largest telecom groups in the world. In terms of individual carriers, Cingular and Verizon now occupy the #3 and #4 spot respectively ahead of NTT DoCoMo, which is at #5. The two Chinese carriers round up the top two positions and are likely to stay perched at their lookout vistas for some years to come. Telecom groups in mature markets are under enormous pressure to either come up with a global expansion strategy or accelerate their existing plans. Carriers in Japan and Korea are the most under duress.
- Japan became the first nation to have more than 50% of its subscribers using 3G. DoCoMo and KDDI have 60% of their subscriber base using 3G devices. Korea is close second approaching 50% 3G penetration. 3G is starting to pick-up steam in both western Europe and North America per our discussion in the cover story article “3G: Hitting the Mass Market” published in Wireless World Magazine. US and Western Europe crossed the 10% mark for 3G penetration (Italy stayed ahead with over 25% of its subscriber using 3G phones). The difference between 2G/2.5G/2.7G and 3G is palpable, for example, for DoCoMo the difference FOMA (3G) and mova (2G) was approaching 200%.
- China and India represent the biggest opportunities for Infrastructure providers. China has postponed its 3G decision for the umpteenth time and is having technical and political problems to get something in place before the 2008 Olympics. India is going through its 3G spectrum policy but unlike China is likely to resolve the issues in short order. Some of the biggest infrastructure contracts will come from these two countries that are looking to expand coverage.
- Carriers with nationwide 3G networks and good distribution of handsets are seeing uptick in data ARPU. The Japanese and Korean carriers along with operator 3, Verizon, Sprint Nextel are all seeing benefits of rolling out their 3G service. Deployment of 3.5G technologies such as HSDPA and EV-DO Rev A (and B) are also gaining momentum. Networks are getting deployed and market is being seeded with some of the early handsets.
- In terms of applications, messaging accounts for lion-share of data revenues. However, other services such as Mobile Music, Mobile TV and video streaming, Mobile Games, IMS, LBS, Mobile advertising, and others have captured industry’s imagination. Though not much talked about, enterprise applications are also being adopted widely esp. in North America as more workers become mobile and corporations seek efficiencies in their operations and supply-chain.
- China Mobile overtook Vodafone as the most valued telecom operator in the world which in turn was surpassed by AT&T though China Mobile is likely to get its title back within a few quarters.
Your comments are always welcome.
Chetan Sharma
Sell Phones: What will make mobile advertising tick? October 12, 2006
Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Strategy, Middleware, Security, 3G, Devices, Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Trade, Location based Services, Indian Wireless market, BRIC, Gaming, Networks, ARPU, Japan wireless market, Messaging, European wireless market, Mobile TV, Mobile Applications, Smart Phone, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Microsoft Mobile, Mobile Search, Wireless Value Chain, 4G, Privacy , 2 commentsThis column is going to appear in FierceMobileContent tomorrow.
Mobile Marketing and Advertising is the new “it” in the industry. All the recent industry shows have been buzzing with the potential of mobile advertising. Is mobile marketing going to be another over-hyped industry segment or will it actually help generate revenues, drive exits for VC investments, and most importantly, deliver value to the consumers? While the potential exists, there are several technical, business, and legal hurdles that need to be overcome before mobile advertising becomes a successful industry.
To get a grip on the potential market, we take a look at Japan as the harbinger of what’s to come in this space. According to Dentsu, mobile advertising revenues for 2006 will be approximately $373M or close to $3.8 per subscriber (for the year). By 2009, this number is likely to scale to over $6/sub/year. In 2006, US will do less than $1/sub (for the year) in mobile advertising revenues, bulk of which will be SMS marketing. Clearly, potential is big. It is apparent that due to the availability of context, immediacy, and personalization, mobile has significant advantages over the other channels as an advertising medium.
First, let’s discuss the technology piece. As we have seen in Japan and Korea, higher processing power handsets and 3G pipes play a significant role in the adoption of rich advertising content. In the US, by 2008, 3G penetration will reach over 25%. Adoption of Smartphones is also increasing. By next year, we will start seeing $100 smartphones. User interfaces are also getting better. UIOne, MYDAS, Flash, Screen 3, 1mm, and other proprietary solutions are extending the possibilities. In addition, search (including local) is going to be at the epicenter — whether advertising is based on declared intent from the user or passive impressions based on user’s context, history, and preferences.
For mobile advertising to be successful, one needs “reach”, “purity”, and “analytics”. Reach is how many “real” customers do you have? Purity is the “quality” of information on the customers. Name and address just don’t cut it. Analytics is matching users interests – implicit and explicit, context, preferences, network and handset conditions to ads and promotions in real-time. Not just bucketing a user in a group and giving them a number but understanding the user in every way possible and customizing every single interaction to the finest degree possible. Also, what is absolutely needed is an easily accessible control framework for “permission advertising” so that the user can selectively or globally switch-on or off the types of ads/promotions they would like to entertain and when.
It is clear that mobile advertising and marketing has big potential if industry strives to take into account the user considerations that matter the most. But, which players will dominate and control the ecosystem. Without a doubt, carriers have the purest profile information available, but can they execute their strategies? Well, they have approximately 2-3 year window. Once 3G and Smartphone penetration curves collide and pass 20-30%, if the carriers haven’t built a good mousetrap (value proposition) by then, all bets are off. Different dominant players will start to emerge, as it will get easier for Internet and traditional brands to build direct relationships with a good proportion of the subscriber base. Brands and service providers who are able to integrate user experience across channels will benefit the most.
Then, there is the whole world of off-net advertising and marketing, where carriers are going to play a lesser role. Here, creative technical and business solutions are needed for accurate targeting. Finally, ads and promotions should be “super-distribution-friendly” meaning — treat ads and promotions like content that can be passed around “easily.”
While the potential is immense, there are also significant risks and potential challenges before the industry evolves into a vibrant advertising medium. The prominent amongst them are privacy and data security. Once you start mining user data, significant profile information can be developed. Then how that information is used and by whom becomes an issue and a significant legal minefield. In addition, the security policies and procedures need to be in place to protect the data from theft or misuse if the industry doesn’t want regulators to get involved.
It is quite clear from the industry trends that mobile industry is moving from an emerging state to a more interactive and immersive applications environment. By 2011, global advertising industry will be close to $600B. Can mobile start to increase its revenue share from its current levels of less than 0.2% to 2-5% by then? Since this medium can provide context, immediacy, and personalization, the answer is yes. However, there are technical, business, and legal hurdles to be crossed before the industry becomes a thriving institution. Until then, stay tuned to our commentary on the shifts and turns in the ecosystem.
Note: An expanded version of this article will be published soon.
Acknowledgements: My thanks to Sunil Jain, Victor Melfi, Amar Patel, Anne Baker, Sarla Sharma, Shawn Conahan, and Subhadeep Chatterjee for their valuable assistance with this article.
CTIA, MES, MECCA Fall 2006 Roundup September 18, 2006
Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Infrastructure, Carriers, Middleware, Enterprise Mobility, Security, Federal, General, M&A, 3G, Partnership, Devices, Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, Mergers and Acquisitions, Location based Services, MVNO, Mobile Gaming, Gaming, Networks, ARPU, Mobile TV, Mobile Applications, Smart Phone, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Usability, Mobile Ecosystem, Microsoft Mobile, Speech Recognition, Mobile Search, Wireless Value Chain, 4G, Patents, CTIA , 2 comments
Los Angeles was the venue for the annual CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2006. Pre-show events included Mobile Entertainment Summit (Chetan Sharma Consulting was a research partner) and MECCA. This note summarizes the observations and commentary from the above shows.
First let’s do the numbers. Just before CTIA, M:Metrics released some numbers from their most recent survey. Amongst the western nations, US has just over 5% 3G penetration with UK leading the way at 11.4%. Spain and France are at 8.9% and 7.9% respectively. In the US, Verizon is ahead with over 17% 3G subscriber penetration followed by Sprint at 6%. CTIA also released their survey numbers. 12.5 billion messages in the month of June 2006, up 71% from 7.3 billion messages in June 2005. There was 70% growth in service data revenues. You probably already knew most of the above after reading our research notes here and here, weeks and months ahead of the mainstream media.
MES and MECCA. The central theme from both the shows was community and advertising. The buzz shifted from “Mobile Search”, “Mobile TV”, and “IMS” during the last couple of shows to “Mobile Advertising”. The prospective lifecycle of product development goes like this – build community (whether it is around user generated content, games, artists, bands or other) and monetize the community by advertising. The permutation and combination of the business models are: free application and/or free content, subscription, earn credits for watching ads, more credits for feedback/surveys, etc. Companies who are able to build a large mobile community (at least 5-10M active users) and gather some specific demographic data become hot property of the moment. It is important to note that the mindset for an exit strategy for companies in the social media and user generated content space has changed a bit. Instead of getting acquired by software or computing companies like Google and Yahoo (yes, yes, they are media companies as well) to traditional Media companies like FOX and HBO. This was quite apparent in a number of discussions I had with the executives from new media content companies.
Enterprise focus, Finally!. I have been involved in the mobile enterprise space since 1999 and have been coming to the CTIA for a number of years. The fall show is supposedly about dual personalities of Entertainment and Enterprise. For the first time it felt that the Enterprise side was given its due respect and was on an equal footing to its sibling personality - the glamorous, the attention-seeking “Entertainment”. CTIA started the conference with an Enterprise panel discussion (of course after the surprise Governator keynote). Though the discussion was too high-level to provide any key insights, CIOs confirmed what is well known now that the spending on wireless-data related projects is going up significantly. A surprise revelation was that China’s growth in enterprise solution is among the highest in the world. It is all about productivity and ROI. Companies are also looking to outsource their IT operations related to wireless devices. Handset guys are coming out with Enterprise targeted devices though we are still in the very early stage development of the cycle. Throwing an email client on the device doesn’t make it an enterprise device. Email client is a given in all new handsets now. When will we start seeing embedded enterprise apps? Mobile web services clients and frameworks?
It’s an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad world. Mobile advertising is clearly the buzz of the moment. Everyone wants to build an ad-supported model and also build their own ad network. Currently, most of the talk is around simple rotation of ads or tying ads to the category the user is interacting with. Not much attention on demographics, profiles, or context. That’s where the “big” impact and value will come into play. Currently, carriers sit on goldmine of user data that is begging to be leveraged for enhancing user experience. Unexpectedly, they sit on a big opportunity that will start to change the advertising industry over the course of the next 5 years. To see where things are going, we just need to look at trends in Japan and Korea. It was interesting that in almost all of the mobile advertising discussions, nobody talked about the elephant that was not in the room - Google, trendsetter in monetizing content. Also, missing were the agencies and their perspective. I have looked at this space quite a bit over the last two years and while agencies are excited about the prospect, they are not ready to jump yet. It will be quite entertaining to watch the new-generation media companies compete/collaborate with the carriers. For the next 3 years or so, carriers will still have an upper hand and if they execute it right, could dominate the space for a long time to come. People also talked about different types of ads – IVR, Voice, Interstitials, banner, in-game, before-and-after, etc. Of course, click-to-call or click-to-action are going to be an especially important ingredient of this game. Sprint Nextel and Enpocket announced their mobile advertising program. Amp’D also announced mobile advertising plans with Rhythm New Media. Bango launched its Ad initiative as well. Virgin mobile’s Ad program “Earn Airtime in Your Spare Time” is innovative. They are truly in tune with their subscribers.
FMC. Kyocera had some trial handsets that supported WiFi/VoWiFi. One could theoretically make VoIP calls and download content over WiFi but will carriers allow it and how long will they resist. Non-traditional carriers like the MVNOs and the cable operators are very interested in exploring bundling offers. Sprint also announced EV-DO Rev A data cards that provide data rates up to 400-600kpbs. Cingular announced that they will have a majority of the top 100 markets deployed with UMTS/HSDPA by year-end. However, the choice of handsets is still missing and as such adoption for Cingular is behind schedule.
4G. While, we are just starting with 3G (except Japan and Korea), seven of the wireless industry’s leading carriers have joined forces to “develop a common vision” for the future of mobile networks technology. Members of the Next Generation Mobile Networks initiative include China Mobile, KPN, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Orange, Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile and Vodafone. The group said it has created a set of requirements “for a future wide area mobile broadband network designed to offer enhanced customer benefits by delivering competitive broadband performance alongside high levels of interoperability.” In plainer terms, the NGMN appears to be devising a roadmap for interoperable 4G networks. You can sense the arm-wrestling to come. 4G could end up having some serious IPR issues if all major patent-holders don’t participate. The 3GPP licensing regime has been a failure, industry needs to be proactive, dedicate resources to the problem and get is solved to the extent it can.
Telematics. The number of firms talking about telematics or navigation on the phone or devices for your car increased quite a bit. Navteq, TeleAtlas, TeleNav, Inrix, Pharos, Kore, Teydo, and many others displayed their wares. On the consumer side, navigation is getting embedded into Local search apps which are enhancing the user experience quite a bit. FindIt and Google Maps are two examples. There were enterprise focused solutions from Tierravision, LiveCargo and @Road.
WiMax. Spent sometime with Lars Johnsson, VP at Beceem Communications talking about the prospect of WiMax worldwide. Clearly, Intel and Clearwire’s announcement has reenergized the industry and taken some uncertainty out. Lars is extremely knowledgeable person on everything WiMax. He co-founded Flarion which got sold to Qualcomm last year. It looks like the benefits of 802.16e will render 802.16d useless in short order. “e” provides better link capacity, Forward Error Correction, power efficiencies, and optimization. The cost of building a WiMax modem is lower than the WCDMA counterpart. A number of cable and wireline players are looking for triple-play offerings. Beceem has strong partnerships with OEMs worldwide and is actively involved in several trials in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, and US. The biggest challenges are around interoperability (as always) and quick resolution of IPR issues. From an application perspectives, gaming companies are the ones watching it closely. Also, automobile media player vendors are interested in using WiMax for Broadcast video. Tropos believes that Mesh technology will continue to have relevance in a WiMax-enabled world as the practical ranges of base stations won’t exceed 5-10miles.
M&A. Some major M&A news at the show– Real acquiring WiderThan for $365M, Lucent acquiring Mobilitec for undisclosed amount, and FOX acquiring 51% stake in Jamba for $188M. This follows Sybase’s acquisition of Mobile365 last week for $400M. There are several factors at play. Clearly, some segments of the industry that have matured are facing price pressure and hence consolidation. Media companies are also realizing the potential and don’t want to miss out or get behind the curve so acquiring companies that have traction, not necessarily the best technology. Some of the valuations just don’t make sense but I guess some over-exuberance is to be expected at this time.
Handset launches. You might have missed the announcement; there was no Steve Jobs, no iPhone release. Pearl was probably the highlight of the show though plans had been leaked in the media sometime back. RIM has Razresque aspirations from the device. The big three didn’t have anything interesting. Nokia launched E62 (thankfully, taking a cue from Motorola, they are getting rid of their number scheme), however it is missing 3G and WiFi support of its European cousin E61. Kyocera had some interesting devices as discussed above. Sprint launched two EV-DO Rev A data cards from Pantech and Sierra Wireless. Cingular announced a $150 HTC Smartphone. Linux handsets are also on the rise. Obigo/Teleca had some nice tools/products for mobile Linux – Browser, IM, Media and Email client. The user experience was quite nice.
Mobile TV/video. At the last two shows, Mobile video and Mobile TV were all the rage. The solutions seem to have matured though uncertainty of its success remains (primarily around time-horizon to success). There are too many providers in the space offering solutions from individual codecs to end-to-end solutions, do-it-yourself toolkits (Nexage) to user-generated video solutions (ComVu, Juicecaster – ComVu’s one click mobile broadcast capability was pretty good) to niche demographics (Viva Vision is getting good traction in the Latino market). Various pieces of the mobile video puzzle have been commoditized, now, it is all about packaging. There were a number of Mediaflo handsets on display as well. The quality of Broadcast is really good. I saw some Broadcast TV services in Seoul earlier this year and the user experience is pretty good. My partner watched the entire South Korea soccer world cup game on his mobile device as he wasn’t near a TV. Once the market gets seeded with enough phones and service pricing settles to mass-market scale, we can expect good adoption rate for such services. Imagination Technologies out of UK showed some innovative SoC (System on Chip) solutions targeting Mobile Broadcast video. Some new names in the space are QuickPlay, Picsel (nice user experience), and Convisual. Expect some consolidation in this space over the next 12 months.
The ecosystem friction. The mobile data ecosystem tension is bubbling up. Carriers want control (some more than others) so that they can manage user experience and minimize customer support calls. Content companies want to bypass the carrier and go direct to the consumer. This was also evident in the Walt Mossberg’s grilling of the carriers as well as other conversations with participants in the value chain. Things are improving but not at the pace everyone would like it to be. Clearly, ecosystem only proliferates if it is allowed to make money. If certain sections of the chain get strangled, holes start to develop which pollutes the system.
User experience. Didn’t see much progress on the UX front. Saw a cool implementation from FAST for Optus in Australia where they used search technology to populate the Active Screen with user preferred content. Optus has been using this offering to entice users to 3G as it is not available on lower bandwidth network and is apparently having good success. Add context and some multimedia and it becomes very very compelling. It is one area that hasn’t been exploited that much yet. In the US Cingular’s MediaNet implementation uses the same concept but is more browser-based. In different sessions, carriers agonized over limited shelf space and mountain of content. That’s why man invented “mobile search”. The concept of “deck” is very limiting. Content needs to get exposed via search whether it is post-query or pre-populated dashboard based on context and preference.
Test equipment – Whether it is entertainment or enterprise, very little attention is given to testing and monitoring data applications and services. Keynote launched a really useful product offering (Mobile Device Perspective) that enables developers to test their app from distance on a live network and live devices and control it through manual steps or automation. Currently, such testing is done by flying a team of testers, test, and optimize. This offering can reduce the cost of such operations. I took a look at their R&D and test setup and found it quite compelling. TestQuest also showed a product along the same lines though it is more of a platform play than a service offering.
MVNOs. There is a realization that MVNO business is hard. The unrealistic expectations for customer growth are being recalibrated. It is still a viable business model but one has to give time and execute like a carrier. Virgin Mobile noted that it requires at least 2M subs before a nationwide MVNO (in the US) will cross the line from red to black.
IMS. Talked to Lucent and NMS about their pre-IMS solutions. NMS was displaying a technology around P2P mobile video sharing while talking (though the tasks happened in time-slice mode). Lucent had a solution “extensions” which converged PBX and Mobility. An example would be you dial a 4 digit extension on your mobile phone that connects you to the other party as if you dialed it from your desktop phone. BUT, networks aren’t there yet and devices will arrive a bit later. In the interim, companies are looking to stimulate the simulated IMS experience.
Funding news. Several funding news from the show, the one that caught my eye was $10m for Bubble Motion in VoiceSMS (funded by Sequoia Capital). It should be noted that there is prior art in this space and the likelihood that the company is infringing on somebody’s patents are high.
Coolest gadget. MyVu’s media viewer
Coolest booth. Infospace’s Tony Hawk show was probably the most exciting thing happening on the show floor. Watching the masters go swing-swong had the crowd go wild with ooohs and aaahs.
Misc. News.
- Melodeo won a major podcasting deal with Cingular.
- Medio Systems announced the big Verizon deal (mobile search including use of voice as input).
- Hookmobile – Got a preview of the services coming out next week on all four operators. It is around Mobile Trading Community and using content to digitize trading cards, create some exclusivity and hence some viral effect. In future users can create their own trading cards for their social network. Carrier keeps 35% of the subscription fee. Hookmobile gets 27% and rest goes to the content guys. This could be good for the MMS infrastructure that is collecting dust right now. And yes, you guessed it right; there is an Ad model as well.
- New York City is going to use IPWireless technology to build a $500 million network for police, firefighters and other public-safety agencies
- Users of EV-DO data cards were much happy customers than free Wi-Fi users. Though things were better, under load, the free network comes to its knees fairly quickly.
- SpinVox had a simple but useful offering – converting voicemails to text messages. Use case – you are in a meeting, somebody leaves a voice message, can’t go out to listen, peek under the desk to see (the SMS) if it is important.
- SNAPin’s solution is designed to address Carrier’s customer calls. It wouldn’t be a stretch if carrier starts selling “the deck” to other companies especially in the airlines, insurance, and credit-card industry. You dial the number; phone captures it, goes into the system and brings you the answers to the questions you might be most interested in (in a data format).
Your comments are always welcome.
Hook Mobile - Mobile Trading Community September 14, 2006
Posted by chetan in : General, Gaming, CTIA , add a commentGot a preview of the services coming out next week on all four operators. It is around Mobile Trading Community and using content to digitize trading cards, create some exclusivity and hence some viral effect. In future users can create their own trading cards for their social network. Carrier keeps 35% of the subscription fee. Hook Mobile gets 27% and rest goes to the content guys. This could be good for the MMS infrastructure that is collecting dust right now. And yes, you guessed it right; there is an Ad model as well.
amBX from Philips July 21, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Mobile Gaming, Gaming , 2 commentsYesterday got a demo from a friend at Philips Research on amBX or “ambient experience”. Very impressive. The experience is immersive in nature whether you are watching a movie or playing a PC or console game. It is visual and tactile. It is Dolby for your eyes and sense of touch. It could potentially revolutionize how we watch movies at home or in theaters or play games. Imagine controlling the visual environment of your game opponent. If you are interested, let me know. More information at http://www.ambx.com
