Free GPS with data services March 21, 2007
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentSprint announced that their customers will be getting free GPS w/ data plans of $20 or higher. While this is quite high, their mind is in the right place and in a few months, this will drop to a point that there will be no additional cost of GPS to the consumer (or to the application provider).
iHollywood Forum’s MoTV Summit next month March 15, 2007
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Our partner iHollywood Forum is hosting its annual summit on Mobile Video and TV aligned with IPTV World - the NAB convention. More details here.
Be sure to check it out.
Verizon vs. Vonage: Where does VoIP stand?
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentPulvermedia is hosting a series of webinars on helping VoIP companies understand the impact of Verizon vs. Vonage ruling. Salient point from the presentation:
- Verizon asserts its patents are broadly relevant to VoIP. Companies in this space should work with legal on matters of interpretation and applicability of patents
- Consider getting exculpatory opinions to have in the file to avoid willful infringement (the award triples for willful)
- Consider contributory infringement issues when dealing with third parties
- Also check indemnification clauses with your vendors
- If there is a conflict, consider proactive design arounds and file for design changes
- Collect (probably as a group of like minded companies) prior art that is relevant but hasn’t been considered by USPTO (happens quite often)
- More VoIP patent litigation to come
- Clear new products and services of existing patent issues and investigate existing suite to resolve ambiguity and issues that might invite litigation
Microsoft finally acquires Tellme March 14, 2007
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentAfter months of chatter, MS out-hustled and is acquiring Tellme. Pretty good fit and strengths MS in its struggle against Google. Congrats to Mike, Jeff and the crew over at Tellme.
Search wars
Posted by chetan in : General , 1 comment so farJohn Battelle presents a proposal for MS and Yahoo to take on Google. It is nothing new, has been presented before but it illustrates the desperation at Yahoo and MS at the widening gap between them and the Search master. Actually, Steve Flinn posted the comments which are more in line with what’s going to happen
However, at first blush, as a shareholder I would oppose it for two major reasons:
1) Every general wants to fight the last war again, and search is the last war as far as I’m concerned. Personalization is the upcoming war — that’s clearly where Google is heading across all its apps, not just search. And that means that’s not only where advertising is heading, but computing in general. Search will always be important, but recommendations and application level personalization will likely become even more important. I don’t see personalization getting ceded to a JV — it’s too strategic for both Microsoft and Yahoo (and I think Microsoft holds the stronger cards of the two in this area — but Google is clearly the player to beat)
I agree. The online search war is over. Google won. The next battle ground is in “personalization” and “mobile” and how you tie the online and mobile world together. Google hasn’t exactly wowed users with its simplistic offerings in the mobile arena. Their subscriber base is in low millions and presents an opportunity for both Microsoft and Yahoo to build some lead and momentum. They are striking deals with operators that weren’t possible before - yes, they are willing to do white-label deals. Google is also coming around and leaving its arrogance at the door to offer some compromises. In mobile, at least for short-term, it is a distribution and reach game. Mobile Enterprise Search is also an untapped territory for search players and MS is better positioned. MS has done a poor job of leveraging its resources and relationships to come up with a coherent strategy, but the motivation to beat Google keeps them up at night. Interesting battle to watch for the coming months and years.
Mobile Enablement Platform Content to Grow to $7.4B by 2011
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentiSuppli has some interesting forecast on the mobile content market
(Source: iSuppli).
CTIA March 13, 2007
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentLooking forward to CTIA in a couple of weeks. Always good see friends, colleagues, and the new stuff. Parties are not bad either. Hope to see some of you there. I will be shuttling between Billboard and Mobile Advertising session on Monday and then T-Thu at CTIA. Let me know if you would like to meet one of these days.
Let me know if you would like me to cover any particular company, sub-segment, new entrants, etc. Our CTIA report will shortly after the event.
Billion Dollar Stories
Posted by chetan in : General , 2 commentsViacom sues Google for a billion and change.
Microsoft close to acquiring Tellme for close to billion dollars. it is an acknowledgement that MS’s voice strategy hasn’t worked inspite of BillG’s push for the last 10 years. Industry veterans would note that MS hated VoiceXML and pushed its on SALT initiative which didn’t make much progress. Tellme is 100% VoiceXML (Jeff and I wrote the first book on VoiceXML 2.0 back in the days) and standards-based operation. The acquisition is both driven by its lack of progress as well as fear of Google acquiring Tellme to get a leg up in voice/mobile search.
Carnival of the Mobilists March 12, 2007
Posted by chetan in : General , add a comment# 64 is at m-trends.org, as usual collection of some great posts from last week. Thanks Rudy.
What is the potential of the mobile search market?
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentPeggy Anne Salz poses this question in her recent article and quotes us for the answer
–What is the potential of the mobile search market? Independent consultant Chetan Sharma has some insightful excerpts on his blog. In a nutshell, he estimates desktop search outpaces mobile search by a ratio of 3:1. But the revenue potential of the mobile search market in the U.S. alone is set to reach $2.5 billion in 2010, up from just $100 million in 2007
Cricket - Worldcup begins
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For people fortunate enough to understand and follow Cricket - the sporting feast started today with opening ceremony in the Caribbeans. For the next 45 days, the world will be treated with the ups and downs of the world cup - an event that comes every 4 years. Fortunately for us, we will be able to follow the event in daylight and wouldn’t have to stay awake into the wee hours. WSJ (Tunku Varadarajan) did a good roundup.
You can follow live coverage on Dish network or on willow.tv for $199 for the whole competition.
You could also follow the game on your mobile with live action. Intvo also good apps (Disclosure: I am advisor to the CEO)
May the best team win. Let the games begin.
End of Vonage? March 9, 2007
Posted by chetan in : General , 2 commentsVonage has been ordered to pay Verizon US$58 million plus 5.5% per line in monthly royalties to Verizon for infringing on three patents relating to VoIP services, the Virginia Eastern District Court has ruled. The jury found five patents (from an original seven) to be valid but found the claim (rather than the patents) on two patents relating to billing, account management, and fraud minimization to be invalid. The jury also found that the infringement was not wilful, which would have tripled the award-maximum liability would have been in the region of US$197 million and 19% royalties claimed by Verizon.
The patents infringed cover call translation from the Internet to the PSTN, call waiting features, and Wireless VoIP handsets. Vonage also stated that it will immediately file an appeal and has argued that Verizon was not actively pursuing utilization of the patents until competitors such as Vonage came to market. Verizon has countered that it was unable to do so because of regulations in place at the time.
This is definitely a big blow to Vonage which is already struggling. Though the decision is going to be appealed, things don’t look good for this VoIP company.
It’s the User Experience, Stupid!
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This article was first published in Dec 2005 by WSA Newsbytes and is being republished in Wireless World Magazine’s March 2007 issue. The new article quotes Stacy Wolff, Director, Mobile Design, HP Personal Systems Group
A great design is timeless… From our perspective “form is function” … “Technology used to sell on speeds and features, now we sell and buy product on appearance, emotion, personal value. In other words lifestyles drive product. The technology future is both blurred and fused by our lifestyle. There is no single colour trend nor is there a single color emerging. We see silver metallics continuing with warm silver metallic’s emerging and gaining strength. We also see black as the “neutral colour” of choice that when correctly executed exudes luxury. We see texture on different levels. We see “form” in general moving toward an organic form (softer), but with great control and simplicity. Soft or organic forms are balanced with elements of precision.”
It’s the User Experience, Stupid!
Chetan Sharma, Sarla Sharma
The US wireless industry added more subscribers in 2005 than any other year in its two-and-a-half decade old history. Thanks to messaging and interest in digital media content, wireless data revenues from first six months in 2005 were over $4B while it had taken the entire year in 2004 to amass the same amount[1].
This year started with a flurry of activities in the wireless industry. From mega-acquisitions of AT&T Wireless and Nextel to the launch of new data networks[2] and services, the wireless market has been quite active. However, in spite of the buzz, carriers, especially in the US, face the same old problem of improving industry’s most fundamental metric - the average revenue per user (ARPU)[3].
As we move towards an all-IP world, voice ARPU is declining and there is a danger that data ARPU might not increase fast enough to offset this fall off. By focusing on enhancing the user experience, digital media content and applications can be made compelling enough to boost interest, usage and distribution –- and hence revenues. Wireless carriers who implement a user-centric vision will deliver sustainable competitive advantage and will help define the next-generation of personalized services.
We need to remember that the principle motivation to buy is not the technology, but the service that the customer is willing to accept and pay for. As such, all in the value chain need to focus on the single most important aspect of any service - consistent and immersive user experience.
Current applications and infrastructure framework do not do a good job of usability. At best, they are device-centric, i.e. content is customized by group of devices. Little attention is given to making the browsing and purchasing of content quick. By making content more push-centric, bandwidth can be optimized and increase value to the consumer. In addition, location and context should be used to package the digital content elements before they are presented or pushed to the user.
Help users find information
The digital media catalog across ringtones, ringbacks, graphics, movies, music, TV shows, video clips, etc. is growing at an explosive rate. Finding something that might interest you is becoming an incredible challenge. Consumers go through enormous pain to find the media content that they like. Imagine the up-take rate if users were able to find the content quickly and items that they are likely to appreciate are pushed up to them rather than subjecting the user through an archaic menu-like navigation system. A voice navigation system and recommendation engine backed by an analytic framework will help enable such search and discovery functionality. By building a content database of meta-data associated with all content, several opportunities will open up. Mobile search will be more important and cross-selling/up-selling opportunities will finally open. This content data along with user’s history, preferences, and context will make for a very useful user experience that will increase data usage and hence ARPU.
Focus on day-to-day application use
Carriers should focus on making the everyday use applications – address book, calendar, SMS – better. For example, current calendar implementations do not have sharing and auto-syncing functionality. If Jan inserts an entry “Pick up kids at 4:00pm from Soccer practice” and if Jan and her husband Steve share the calendar, Steve’s calendar should be updated automatically with this new entry. Additionally, these applications need to be ubiquitously accessible and multimodal in nature to adapt to the users’ needs. These features will offer an attractive way of retaining customers in addition to creating potential new revenue streams.
Embrace new models
To be successful, carriers need to focus on new models such as off-net digital content sales, mobile advertising, superdistribution, and machine-to-machine. The implication is that services must be designed to enable new models and user experiences, and let independent content providers access the market without dealing with the walled gardens. Such a possibility requires the scope of the UI to be broader than existing implementations. It also requires the UI to be dynamic, i.e. to have the ability to be modified on the fly. However, some of these new models will only be successful if user privacy is fully respected.
Conclusion
As the networks are becoming capable of delivering higher bandwidths, devices are coming out with ARM9+ processors and rich multimedia capability, and digital content is becoming more pervasive – we are at the cusp of a hockey stick growth. However, digital multimedia content will only proliferate if user experience is front and center of every offering and every interaction that user has with the device and all types of content. It needs to be contextualized and personalized based on user’s needs, preferences, and device capabilities. Only then can the true potential of digital media be unleashed.
Chetan is an industry expert and author of numerous books, articles, and reports on wireless industry. He is advisor to CEOs and CTOs of leading wireless companies on product strategy and IP development. More information at www.chetansharma.com. Sarla is a Principal with the firm and her experience includes work with Fortune 500 companies in various industries. Her clients include T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless, Clearwire, Alltel, Microsoft, aQuantive, Getty Images, and Costco
[1] Source: CTIA
[2] By end of 2006, most metros will have 3G (EV-DO and UMTS) coverage
[3] Though we have been witnessing the introduction of various data services, overall data revenue accounts for less than 7% of revenues for US operators
Microsoft/Camera Phones/Search March 8, 2007
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentYesterday, MS Research showed of new research. One of the items was - snap a picture of a nearby building, send off the photo to a database and soon you’ll get back a map and information about where you are.
The map-search technology required Microsoft to get millions of street-level pictures of Seattle’s buildings and landmarks. Those pictures were added to a database and indexed by distinguishing features that can be cross referenced to pictures sent in by users.
My question is WHY?
Most phones have GPS (granted GSM phones in US are out of luck for most part but they will be enabled soon). Doing this picture database thing is too expensive and cumbersome (if you want to make this service universally available) .. for some landmarks, it works fine and might be preferable in the short-term (given the confusion regarding the business model) but long-term, NO.
Clearwire raises $600M in IPO
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(Source: Seattle Times)
Craig McCaw is master of the financial markets. After raising almost a $1B from Intel and Motorola, Clearwire yesterday raised $600M in on of the most anticipated IPO in recent months.
The funds will go toward its effort to build a nationwide wireless broadband network based on a technology called WiMax. For the most part, the network competes with DSL or cable broadband providers, but because it can be mobile, it has the promise of developing a platform for new applications for Internet connections.
In its IPO, Clearwire sold 24 million shares for $25 apiece, reaching the high end of the expected range of $23 to $25. The company also exceeded expectations that it would sell 20 million shares, with an overallotment of 3 million. The stock is trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CLWR.
Ambassador of India to US on India March 7, 2007
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Attended a session with Hon’ Ronen Sen, Ambassador of India to the US. He has had an illustrious career in Indian Foreign Service with Ambassadorships to UK, Germany, Russia, Mexico and several other UN and diplomatic roles. Washington is actively seeking India as a trade partner with trade missions to India last year and Governor’s mission this year. Ambassador Sen has been active in promoting bilateral trade and was instrumental in securing Boeing’s multibillion dollar contract with AirIndia and is looking to get airlines fly direct to India given the amount of traffic that has increased in the recent years. He talked about significant challenges and opportunities for India and India-US trade relationship. The biggest area of challenge/opportunities are Energy, Health care and medical equipments, clean drinking water, airport and port infrastructure (there is not a single facility that meets Intl standards, which is kind of pathetic), Telecom, and of course IT.
He took several challenging questions from profitability of s/w companies in India to dealing with bureaucracy and was quick on his feet. The quote that i loved the most “Whatever you have heard about India is probably true” - from the good, the bad, the ugly to supernatural. India is a land of contradictions - you either love it or can go crazy trying to figure it out. I have been meaning to post my observations from my Dec trip to various parts of India but haven’t been able to .. will do so soon. Bottom-line is - it growing incredibly fast and opportunities abound but it is not for the faint-hearted. Stay tuned.
Nokia’s entry into mobile advertising March 6, 2007
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No wonder Third Screen Media has been shopping around. Nokia’s significant announcement into mobile advertising has left a number of startups scrambling for strategic options. Good news is it validates the space, bad news is they didn’t expect the big guys come out so soon. Companies with early patent disclosures will benefit.
Microsoft’s Reprieve March 5, 2007
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentLooks like MS has gotten reprieve in the MP3 tussle with Alcatel. Phew for the industry.
KTF Case Study March 4, 2007
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Last year, I had the privelage of working in one of the most advanced mobile markets - Korea. Had a chance to work with some of the well-respected movers and shakers in the industry. The case study from my work can be found here.
Mobile the 7th Mass Media
Posted by chetan in : General , add a commentTomi Ahonen has pretty insightful discussion on mobile as 7th Mass media.
