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Inside the USPTO: A Guide to the Patenting Process April 30, 2008

Posted by chetan in : AORTA, M&A, Mobile Content, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Trade, Mobile Applications, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Wireless Value Chain, 4G, Patents, Intellectual Property, IP, Patent Strategy, IP Strategy , add a comment

Inside the USPTO: A Guide to the Patenting Process

by Carlos Villamar and Chetan Sharma

http://www.chetansharma.com/insidetheuspto.htm

Note: We have an integrated approach to strategy as we strongly believe that taking market research, business, technology, and intellectual property inputs into strategic initiatives is essential in obtaining a long-term sustainable competitive advantage in the industry. To further the dialogue on the subject, we will be publishing several articles, white papers, books, and blog posts over the course of next few months. This white paper is to help entrepreneurs and inventors understand the patenting process.

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This white paper was a collaboration with Carlos Villamar, Partner, Roberts Mlotkowski Safran & Cole. Carlos is a patent attorney who has also worked as a patent examiner at the USPTO.

uspto-s

Abstract

Patents are a key corporate asset that can give the inventor and the company an invaluable tool to protect and commercialize inventions. The process of obtaining a patent is an important one – from start to finish. Beginning with patent strategy, due-diligence and patent search through the United States Patent Office (USPTO) process to finally getting the grant, one needs to have a good understanding of each step. This increases the probability of success by removing uncertainty from the process. Inside the USPTO: A guide to the patenting process takes a detailed look at the ideation and the patent process, specifically, how patent applications flow through the USPTO. By having a good grasp of the intermediate steps and the various decision points associated with each of them, the paper discusses how entrepreneurs and inventors can maximize their chances of securing a patent.

Introduction

We live in a knowledge economy and Intellectual Property is a key asset in this new ecosystem. Patents are one of the essential elements to creating barriers to entry for rivals, building credibility and confidence of investors, customers, partners, and employees, providing clarity as to the property ownership, demanding leverage from the industry, and for generating revenue from licensing and sale.

The knowledge economy thrives and sustains on ideas and competitive advantage based on intellectual property. For individuals, the prestige associated with being an innovator and “first to secure” patents in a given field motivates them to be creative and innovative. Entrepreneurs, engineers, and inventors can benefit from understanding how to secure and maintain their intellectual property rights. This paper discusses the important steps in designing, filing, procuring, and defending your patent rights.

The following diagram illustrates at a high-level the patenting process and important considerations in the decision flow chart. The flow chart is discussed in detail in the subsequent sections.

Table of Contents

Abstract 3
Introduction 4
Pre filing due diligence 6
Patent preparation 9
USPTO filing 11
USPTO examination 13
After approval 16
Conclusions and Recommendations 17

 

Download the full white paper here.

Your feedback is always welcome.

CTIA Wireless 2008 Roundup April 4, 2008

Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, Speaking Engagements, M&A, 3G, Devices, Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Trade, Location based Services, MVNO, Indian Wireless market, BRIC, WiMax, Mobile Gaming, ARPU, Japan wireless market, European wireless market, Mobile TV, Mobile Applications, Smart Phone, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Speech Recognition, Mobile Search, Wi-Fi, Wireless Value Chain, 4G, CTIA , 2 comments

CTIA Wireless 2008 Roundup

http://www.chetansharma.com/ctiawireless.htm

The Sin City hosted CTIA Wireless 2008 earlier this week. On Wednesday morning, just before leaving for the convention center, I caught some portion of Ben Bernanke’s congressional testimony on the US economy woes. Few minutes later, strolling the show floor, talking to various companies, and hearing the keynotes, it seemed like I was on a different planet. Either someone failed to deliver the memo or the wireless industry is resilient enough to weather the turmoil in the financial and housing markets with some ease. The show was bigger with more attendees, the booths were returning to their glamorous heydays of the past, and the general buzz and energy at the show all seem to indicate the industry is going to do just fine and is primed for further growth. The general themes were around open network and access, user experience, and bandwidth.

This note summarizes our impressions from the show.

CTIA Wireless in Pictures

First let’s do the numbers: CTIA released their semi-annual statistics on the US market. In summary: For 2007, $23B in data revenues, 2 trillion in MOU, $139B in total service revenues, 48B txt messages/month. (We released our US Market and Global Market updates last month)

Keynotes: In terms of style, Sir Richard Branson stole the show with his pompous exuberance and pep talk (the talk of imaginary flight to Mars was hilarious; investors in Microgin and Viroo must be upset). For substance, Marco Boerries, President, Yahoo Mobile gave a nice compact overview of Yahoo initiatives and products in the market which are pretty darn good. (Marco wrote an opinion piece for our Mobile Advertising Book – “The future of Advertising is in the Consumers’ Pockets”). Yahoo has sewn together a number of deals worldwide that gives them a potential reach of over 600M users.

Vodafone is one operator which has been quite vocal in stating its positions on future infrastructure roadmap and data opportunities. Arun Sarin is probably the only CEO of major global operator who has publicly stated that Mobile Advertising will constitute a significant portion of their revenues in the coming days (Arun’s point person on the initiative Richard Saggers also wrote an opinion piece for our book “Opportunities for Mobile Advertising.” Let me know if you are interested in reading these two opinion pieces).

Microsoft’s Robbie Bach had the tough task of following the Branson-fest. He announced the arrival of a full-blown browser (finally!) for windows mobile. Also, the new windows mobile device from Sony Ericsson (Xperia) looks pretty darn cool. FCC Chairman Martin announced the rejection of Skype petition on the carterphone principle (to Skype’s dismay, it was not an April fool’s joke). Clearly, the definition of “open” is in the eye of the beholder. It means different things to different people. It has also been clear from the various activities and keynotes that the industry is trying its utmost to remain a “Self-regulated” industry and stay away from the clutches of eager politicians.

Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless conducted a panel with CEOs from Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nortel and probed them on the 4G migration path, trends in applications and services, and contrasts in adoption and introduction of new technology in various parts of the world. Final day was marked by what is now becoming a trend - keynotes from politicians. This time around Sen. Edwards and Sen. Thompson graced the podium.

Mobile Advertising: In talking with numerous players in the value chain from small developers to large operators to ad networks to media companies, the impression was that things have matured over the last six months. It was gratifying to hear that some companies are adopting strategies and recommendations we propose in our book. Still, some of the basic problems remain – majority of the inventory remain unsold indicating weak demand, CPM rates are still over-rated though they are starting to come down, and fragmentation continues to remain an issue.

The good news is that the size of the mobile campaign budgets are getting bigger with several seven figure RFPs floating around. While some companies are still trying to throw a lot at the wall in the hope that something sticks, others are maturing as companies and are more focused in their positioning and product roadmaps. Integration of various channels is starting to appear on the horizon and the integration with the publishers is becoming tighter. The issue of measurement and auditing standards remains a big issue and unfortunately not much progress to report. There are carrier initiatives and various industry bodies are taking the challenge to rally the ecosystem, but, frankly, consolidation of such efforts is necessary, we can’t afford yet another layer of fragmentation in an already complex ecosystem.

We were interviewed on Mobile Advertising prior to the show by several publications. Some of the articles were published this week to coincide with CTIA

Wireless Wave (CTIA) – Moving Targets: Mobile marketing reaches consumers on their terms by Lynn Thorne

BrandWeek – Mobile Marketing – Fantasy vs. Reality by Ken Hein

Wall Street Journal – Personalized promotions: Sending the right ads to your phone – Peggy Anne Salz

NFC: There were many more NFC-enabled devices on display this time and vendors were talking and demoing NFC and Biometrics based payment solutions. While there are handsets on the roadmap, this market is still very nascent in North America and Western Europe.

Inspiration: The inspiration for new and creative services still comes (at least for yours truly) from Japan (and Korea). I love spending time in DoCoMo’s booth for it gives a glimpse into what’s to come. No other company better understands the development of devices, services and applications that overlay on lifestyles than DoCoMo (e.g. a wellness handset that is a pedometer, heart rate monitor, body and bad breath monitor and yes, you can make voice calls too). They view wireless air-interfaces as nothing more than enablers to solutions that enhance daily lives. Various device manufacturers also displayed some really cool devices. The quality and diversity of handsets that have been introduced into the global markets over the last four quarters is just astonishing. The cycle of innovation and time-to-market keeps on accelerating.

Femto Cells: A number of players like Airwalk, Airvana, and others are bringing Femto cell solutions to the market and carriers are starting to pull this into their strategy as well and look forward to deployments beyond the trials.

4G: LTE vs. WiMAX (vs. UMB): Since the decision of Vodafone and Verizon to support LTE, UMB has been disappearing from the discussion. The 4G discussion is convulsing around LTE and WiMAX now (though Nortel did indicate its support TD-SCDMA as a 4G candidate). Without a doubt the operator community is rallying behind LTE and there might be an opportunity to finally converge to a single standard (haven’t we seen this movie before) but frankly, the advances in silicon to integrate multiple radios has made the standards debate less relevant. WiMAX has forced acceleration of LTE standardization process but is starting to lose its time (and cost) advantage. All eyes are on Sprint’s XOHM business rollouts in the coming days and months.

Accessories: I have never seen so many accessory and reseller outfits at a CTIA show. Business must be booming.

Best Booth: Thought there were several good layouts, LG and Samsung continue to impress with their creativity and “art of marketing.”

Developer and Publisher woes: Along with John Philips (Astraware) and Peter Baldwin (Cellmania), I helped facilitate a few developer session at the Mobile Jam Session organized by WIP. The issues of distribution, discovery, and monetization remain challenging for the small developers worldwide. Even with million user base, they are finding it difficult to monetize but we did discuss a number of success stories. The core elements of success that emerged from the discussion were: choosing the right market, embedding viral component into everything you throw out there, there is no room for mediocrity, and personalizing and customizing go a long way to get traction. An interesting tidbit: the number of page views for mobile MySpace app is a magnitude higher on off-deck vs. ondeck. Several of the companies are trying mobile advertising with varying degrees of success. After spending 4 hours with the developers, I sat on a carrier panel discussing mobile advertising. The contrast between the two worlds was so apparent. Clearly, more needs to be done to help both sides understand each other a bit better.

Green CTIA: There is a stronger emphasis on recycling and contributing to save the environment. The show itself is a big resource hog, so every bit helps.

Alternate Mobile Devices: The universe of alternate devices is expanding. Companies are buying wholesale data packages from the operators and integrating broadband chipsets into hardware to do digital signage (ICG), M2M (Sensorlogic), PND and much more. The definition of being “mobile” keeps on changing.

On Being “Open”: Obviously, given the recent activity around openness, getting a penny for each time the word was uttered by a speaker would have paid off for a lifetime of CTIA trips. While talk is cheap, demonstrable progress is being made by the likes Yahoo, Apple (btw, 3G iPhone is on its way), and AOL.

Another MVNO experiences turmoil: Movida - a Spanish focused MVNO which has garnered almost 300K subs filed for chapter 11.

Voice is becoming mainstream: With the product launches from Nuance, SpinVox, Vlingo, Jott, Yahoo, and many others, voice based navigation and its tighter integration with data services is becoming mainstream.

Where are the opportunities? Last week, I was moderating a panel with executives from AOL Mobile, T-Mobile, Motricity, and Formotus and the themes that emerged were around platform play, user experience, and productivity. At CTIA, in addition to these areas, there was a lot of discussion around social networking (though the market is being saturated with the MoSo noise). It is also clear that we are moving into the phase of “aggregation of fragmentation” with initiatives from Yahoo, AOL, and Google dominating the landscape.

Home Screen Effect: I have been talking about using the home screen for driving data usage for the last 8 years. I think we will see good innovation this year on that front starting with Yahoo’s One Platform. There are several other initiatives in the works where operators and OEMs will be deploying frameworks and technologies to bring information to a “click-less” idle screen environment.

Overall, no major news but industry stays vibrant, healthy, and exciting.

Your feedback is always welcome.

Chetan Sharma

Disclosure: Some of the companies mentioned in this note are our clients.

Busy News day February 11, 2008

Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Mobile Advertising, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Trade, Japan wireless market, European wireless market, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Wireless Value Chain , add a comment

Of course, MWC is underway but even otherwise, there are plenty of news items trickling in

  • AOL launches open source platform for Mobile phone. I talked to Jai Jaisimha, VP Products AOL Mobile about this program on friday and this program is more ambitious than anything we have seen thus far as it includes all device types - essentially abstract the device layer and let developers focus on apps. If there is enough traction, the AOL’s business model is to monetize services built around this open source platform.

    • Book Review: The History of Wireless

    Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market, International Trade, Indian Wireless market, BRIC, Japan wireless market, European wireless market, Worldwide Wireless Market, CTIA , add a comment

    The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses

    The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses by Ira Brodsky, Telescope Books

    Last week a colleague of mine, Ira Brodsky sent me his latest book on the history of the wireless industry and i must say i was hooked on to it until i was done. It is a brilliant book especially for us industry junkies and technology history buffs. Ira has done a superb job of mining vivid details about the history, personalities of the major actors in the drama of the evolution of the wireless industry - starting from Luigi Galvani’s frog experiments back in 1781to the most recent advances in broadband wireless, this books transports you to a front row experience of the how the industry grew, each discovery made, each opportunity missed, and how each of the genius inventors over the past 200+ years through determination and foresight brought us the current day wireless industry. I wish the book was available when i was studying science and electrical engineering in school. The terms volt, faraday, ohm, hertz, etc would have had a different meaning.

    We often don’t think about how “true” inventions were made in the wireless industry and take things for granted, in fact the art of original scientific inventions seems to be an endangered species these days. The details of this book are so stunning and Ira has written such a readable book that you feel like you are a fly on the wall while Galvani, Franklin, Faraday, Volta, Maxwell, Hertz, Morse, Bell, Marconi, Edison, Bose, Sarnoff, Galvin, Ericsson, Viterbi, and others were doing their thing.

    The book is effective not only in capturing the history so beautifully but for drawing the lessons from successes and failures of inventors and companies. For today’s entrepreneurs there are words of wisdom and inspiration.

    New Whitepaper: What is your Patent Portfolio Quotient? July 17, 2007

    Posted by chetan in : Carriers, Security, 3G, Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, International Trade, Indian Wireless market, Mobile Applications, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Wireless Value Chain, 4G, Patents , 2 comments

    http://www.chetansharma.com/patentportfolioquotient.htm

    Over the last twenty years, the global economy has slowly transformed into a vibrant knowledge economy. With reduced barriers to entry and pervasive globalization, a small company in a developing world can compete for its share on the world stage. The invention of new ideas and products remains an integral part of the global economy and the commercial food chain. Patents are an invaluable tool to protect and commercialize the inventions. They are essential to creating the barriers to entry for rivals. They are needed for building the credibility and the confidence of investors, customers, partners, and employees. They are required for providing clarity as to the property ownership, for demanding leverage from the industry, and for generating sustainable revenue from licensing and sale.

    In the global marketplace, amongst all the other competitive factors, innovation matters the most and patents can help deliver the competitive edge required to remain viable. Inventors who used to see patents solely as part of their defensive strategy (and to alleviate any future litigation risks) to prevent competitors encroach their space are looking to be more aggressive with their inventions to make patents part of their offensive and licensing strategy. To ensure the financial security of the patents, some companies are embedding their IP programs as part of their Knowledge Management and Risk Management initiatives where they capture know-how, harvest IP and ingrain IP into their product development lifecycles.

    Patents will continue to grow in their contribution as a key corporate asset. Since much value is associated with patents, the industry need better tools to assess and to understand the valuation and the strength of the patent portfolios. This paper will introduce the methodology of Patent Portfolio Quotient™ (PPQ) to measure performance of your patent program and portfolio that enables a Return on Investment (ROI) driven approach. PPQ measures the quality of the patent portfolio and the patent program with clear policies and procedures as it relates to the lifecycle of patents within an organization from innovation to licensing or sale. We will review the importance of patents as a tool for competitiveness and their value to a corporation. Next, we will address - why a patent program should be integrated with product development lifecycle to extract the maximum value from their intellectual property assets. Finally, the paper will introduce the basics of PPQ and discuss what inventors and companies can do to increase their PPQ.

    Please download the complete paper - PDF (22 pages, 1MB)

     

    Table of Contents

    Introduction                                                              2

    Patents as a tool for Competitiveness                          4

    Analyzing Patent Portfolio Quotient or PPQ                 12

    Patent Program Strategy                                           15

    Integration of IP Strategy with Product Development    17

    Recommendations and Conclusions                           19

     

    Your comments are always welcome.

    Chetan

    Whitepaper: Unified Mobile Data Platform - An Analytics based approach June 11, 2007

    Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Strategy, Carriers, Middleware, 3G, Devices, Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Trade, MVNO, Indian Wireless market, BRIC, Mobile Gaming, ARPU, Japan wireless market, Unified Messaging, Messaging, European wireless market, Mobile TV, Mobile Applications, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Usability, Mobile Ecosystem, Microsoft Mobile, Mobile Search, Wireless Value Chain, 4G , add a comment

    Whitepaper

    Unified Mobile Data Platform An Analytics based approach

    Sponsored by InfoSpace Mobile

    Download PDF (30 pages, 1MB)

    Executive Summary

    2006 was a banner year for mobile data. Revenues from mobile data increased for all major carriers across all major regions around the world with data contributing 10-30% to overall revenues. In Q1 2007, US carriers recorded over $5B in data revenues with mobile data contributing to over 16% of the more than $32B in carrier service revenues. In fact, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) from data jumped 43% from last year. It has been a long journey though. Driven initially by SMS messaging, the market embraced ringtones, graphics, music, and gaming, each creating multi-billion dollar markets. As we look into the next five years, not only are new content applications such as broadcast video, idle screen, user-generated-content, community, and mobile search being introduced, but the functionality available with these applications, such as the sharing and tagging of data, is also increasing the demand on the mobile entertainment platform to be adaptive to the growing needs of the market. To stay competitive in this rapidly evolving and challenging market place, service providers must move from silo’d point solutions to integrated unified platforms to maximize their returns from the declining services and better prepare for the technical and business challenges in front of them. The vast potential of mobile data services in general and mobile search and advertising specifically can’t be realized without a retooling of the fundamental approach to deploying services, engaging partners, and serving users with the best possible analytics-driven contextual user experience. This paper outlines the evolution of data services, discusses the need for unified mobile data services approach, and lays out the basics and the merits of a services-oriented analytics-driven framework.

    Table of Contents

    Executive Summary                                                               2

    Evolution of data services                                                      3

    Integrated solution offering                                                   11

    Mobile Search - providing impetus for integration                   15

    Rise of the brands - What’s your Audience Strategy?               17

    Analytics driven unified framework                                        21

    Mobile Advertising                                                               26

    Recommendations                                                               29

    Conclusions                                                                         30

    Your comments are always welcome.

    Chetan Sharma

    CTIA Wireless 2007 Roundup April 2, 2007

    Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, 3G, Devices, Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Trade, ARPU, Japan wireless market, European wireless market, Mobile TV, Mobile Applications, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Usability, Mobile Ecosystem, Speech Recognition, Mobile Search, Wireless Value Chain, 4G, CTIA , 5 comments

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    http://www.chetansharma.com/ctia0307roundup.htm

    Orlando was the venue for CTIA Wireless 2007. Pre-show events include Mobile Entertainment Live (Billboard), day long seminars on Mobile Advertising and Emerging Technology. The main themes from the show were Mobile Advertising, NFC and Mobile Payments, Mobile TV, and WiMAX. This note summarizes the observations, interviews of executives, pre-show briefings, 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. At the end of 2006, amongst the western nations, US had approximately 11% 3G penetration with Italy leading the way with 27%. Photo messaging is picking up reaching 15-30% penetration in most markets. CTIA also released their survey numbers. 233M subs, 76% penetration, and $8.7 billion for the latter six months of 2006, up 82% from $4.8 billion in the latter half of 2005. You probably already knew most of the above after reading our research note here. Instat reported that for the first time the handset replacement market was greater than the new purchase market. Replacement market is expected to take 80% share by 2011.

    Keynotes  Attendees come to keynotes to be inspired, to get a sense of the direction of our industry. Unfortunately, some use the opportunity as a sales platform and rehash of press releases. What a waste of time and the platform. What an insult to the audience. I thought the best keynote came from EMI CEO Eric Nicoli, who first eloquently laid out the potential of the industry and then brought us back to reality by outlining the hurdles that we need to overcome to realize the potential. At the most basic level, it is all about simplicity, valuable functionality, and the right pricing. However, the highlight of the show was being in the same room (along with a few hundred others) with two former heads of state – Presidents Bush and Clinton.

    Mobile Advertising  As expected, the hottest theme out of this CTIA was Mobile Advertising. The pre-event seminar on the subject was packed with discussions and viewpoints from all parts of the value chain. The involvement of agencies was refreshing. They can help guide the industry by articulating the needs of the brands and agencies in an overall advertising framework, develop standards, and not develop point solutions that won’t scale beyond MDF campaigns. But they are keenly aware of mobile and reported positive results from their tests for some big brands. David Rittenhouse from Ogilvy noted that Lenova experienced 188% lift (n=1495) in awareness from a mobile ad campaign. Third Screen reported up to 7.5% click rates on its network. Still missing were Internet players like Google and Yahoo. Vendor driven standardization processes are not very productive and take too long to become meaningful. Since, mobile advertising is the most buzzable topic in the industry right now; companies are adjusting their positioning to become mobile advertising players (akin to becoming Web 2.0 compliant). There was some debate whether off-deck impression is worth more than an on-deck impression. CPMs are a bit out of whack and will need to drop and stabilize. Premium CPMs range from $27-35 going as high as $60. User profile is of course the holy grail of mobile advertising. Visa demonstrated that mobile advertisements isn’t really limited to messaging, keyword auction, and banner ads, but also includes promotions that drop in your applications based on your transaction history. Can carriers stop them from running this downloadable app on the device? They are running some trials to find that out. Code/Image-based advertising is also picking up – Qcode, NFC, barcodes, pictures, etc as input to trigger content/ad delivery is making its way to the US.

    Amongst the various enablers (that I was able to talk to and look at), The Hyperfactory has the most comprehensive view of the space and it shows in their campaigns. Not only cross carriers and cross handsets, but also cross modality and cross countries. Mobile Advertising needs to seamlessly fit in the overall digital strategy of a brand or else there will be too much friction. GSM association has taken some lead in helping define standards in this space. MMA is also updating its best practice guide though it needs to do more to expand its vision. Companies that made their presence felt were Third Screen Media, Ad Infuse, Millennial Media, Yahoo, Smaato, Mindmatics, Bango, Medio, JumpTap, Blyk, Admob, iLoopMobile, GreyStripe, Enpocket, and Rhythm.

    Not to be outdone, Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola were also showing some future mobile advertising concepts that allow for cross medium advertising. For e.g. purchasing or activating advertising subsidized content on one device (like mobile) and viewing on another (like IPTV) and the experience is subsidized and interstitialized with advertisements.

    Note: As some of you know, we have been involved in helping players in the value chain with mobile advertising strategy for the past two years. Well, we are now writing the book on it, literally! This book on Mobile Advertising is a collaboration with two brilliant co-authors and is going to be published by a major publisher. It will explore the key elements that will make mobile advertising tick. If you know of interesting case studies or people we should talk to, please do let us know. Check out our two part series on the subject published in Wireless World Magazine. Track the progress and become part of the conversation and the book at http://www.chetansharma.com/blog/category/mobile-advertising

    Mobile TV  With Mediaflo’s launch, the discussion in the US has changed from unicast/multicast to broadcast. With Cingular and Verizon adopting Mediaflo, it is hard to see DVB-H’s future in the US. Spent some time with Dr. Kamil Grajski, Chairman of the FLO forum. FLO’s advantage comes from better channel switching time and slightly better spectrum efficiency. The goal is to pursue individual partnerships by geography that fuses spectrum, technology, and content. KDDI partnership is such an example. The quality is very impressive and the user experience raises the bar. With the introduction of clipcasting that enables some personalized content filtering on the device (e.g. Entire NASDAQ quotes are streamed but only your portfolio is displayed), broadcast can extract more value from the spectrum. Though Mediaflo has an edge, the future beyond the US shores is tough. Majority of Europe is going to go to DVB-H and similar standards. But, the potential customers are not only cellular operators but also include cable and satellite operators. Companies looking for Triple and Quad play strategies will have to come up with their mobile Broadcast strategy in the next couple of years. While Mobile TV has been in the headlines for some time, the penetration in the US remains quite low – around 2% and represents less than $350M revenue in 2006 (European trends are similar). For the opportunity to scale, pricing and business models will need to be adjusted to market realities. Mobile TV has been around in Japan and Korea for a longer duration and has reached critical mass penetration. Unicast becomes expensive if the usage gets into double digits because pricing pressure doesn’t allow for monetizing by the MB. Broadcast becomes the natural solution but it is limited by spectrum, less interactivity, and lack of handsets in the short-term. Clearly, hybrid models will continue to exist for the foreseeable future. For broadcast, it is about the spectrum first and the technology second.

    Near Field Communication (NFC)  VISA has been running NFC trials around the country for some time with VISA credit cards (30K) and POS terminals (50K). The goal is to do NFC on the phone. VISA also released numbers from their NA survey (n=800) – 57% interested, 64% of Gen X/Y will consider switching carriers and credit card for mobile payment capability, by 5:1, consumers prefer to have charges on their credit card bill rather than their phone bill. The first generation of NFC phones is hitting the US market later this year. Kyocera demonstrated buying from a vending machine, downloading content, and doing internet transactions using an NFC-enabled prototype handset. It also had a biometric fingerprint sensor. Korea and Japanese market have been using phone as a wallet for some time (e.g. DoCoMo’s FeliCa) and it will be great to see such enhancements in Europe and North America. There is a demand for such solutions, Visa is providing leadership, and hopefully, the ecosystem will step up. Last year, in US, $7.2Trillion dollars worth of consumer financial transactions took place. Taking a small cut of this pie will be a big deal. Enabler to watch – Ecrio.

    Biometrics  NTT DoCoMo introduced handset with biometric capability in 2003, we expect to see it introduced in the US in first half of 2008. AuthenTec has been dominating the market for both PC/laptops and mobile phones. Japan has reached about 10% penetration for biometric sensors in mobile devices. ROW is just getting started. HTC is introducing some devices (for the US market) with biometric sensors later this year.

    Mobile Search  Google and Yahoo announced their next release of mobile/local search. Google’s attempts at mobile search reminds me of Microsoft’s early attempts to build an OS for mobile phones. I thought AskMeNow’s semantic search was pretty good though they are still working on indexing which can take a long time due to understanding content. With the recent purchases of BeVocal and TellMe, voice is getting its due attention. V-enable showed their local 411 app and Nuance talked about voice-enabled music search. Voice has become an integral part of any mobile search (and ad) strategy.

    Interesting handsets  While the industry is waiting for the June launch of iPhone, several new concepts and phones emerged at the show. Hopefully, NA operators got inspired from the handsets available in Asia and will bring some of that experience here. Samsung launched its dual-faced Ultra. While, it is a first for the industry, the user experience left lot to be desired, the Sharp touch UI is confusing. DoCoMo had the best selection on display. Flipstart is launching a $2000 mobile device (UMPC form factor), which has full PC running on it. It does have some clever user experience enhancements that make the usability acceptable but I am not sure if the price point will hold in the market where you can find an equally powerful laptop for half the price.

    User Interface  Apple’s iPhone has raised the bar on device user experience. Zenzui announced their UX technology (based on Microsoft IP) that takes us away from the boring menu-based navigation schemes. Punchcut showed what’s possible utilizing the idle screen. Flipstart had some clever UX enhancements that I hope can get integrated into other forms of computing. Biometric sensors also surprisingly prove to be a good navigation element, better than 5 key dial and even iPOD dial.

    Simplicity  EMI’s Nicoli had emphasized on simplicity of applications and services. AT&T’s COO Randall Stephenson echoed similar sentiments. It is a no-brainer, right? So, why do we make things inherently complex and hard-to-use? Hasn’t Apple taught us enough? Ontela’s mobile imaging platform is following on Apple’s footsteps. The technology allows you to take the picture and store it on any other device or destination within 30-60 seconds. No user intervention. It just works.  

    GYM is in the house  It was the first CTIA with Google and Yahoo having their own booths, announcing their arrival. Their presence was telling of the battles to come. Microsoft has been coming to the show for some time but primarily to show their devices and talk about enterprise (email) applications.

    LBS and Telematics There were a number of firms talking about telematics or navigation on the phone or devices for your car. Navteq, TeleAtlas, TeleNav, Inrix, Pharos, Kore, deCarta, 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. TCS is working on a framework for LBS based mobile advertising that allows carriers and users to control location availability to applications, something I wrote about back in 2001. Sprint has raised the bar by opening the APIs for developers and loosening the pricing friction. GSM operators are awaiting the arrival of OMA compliant phones. European carriers are targeting Christmas 2007 to launch several OMA SUPL devices while US will see such devices from Cingular next year. The best navigation was from Churchill Navigation which gives you a bird’s eye view in a fun-interactive experience.

    WiMax. Sprint showed some potential launch devices for their WiMax service. Initially, the focus is limited to data cards and UMPCs. There will be restrictions on data usage and the move to handset form factor devices is uncertain. Samsung showed video conferencing at 12fps and VoIP on WiMax devices (PDA form factor). Since Intel put a boat load of money into Clearwire and Sprint’s endorsement, WiMax industry has been surging ahead but long-term viability is still not certain, how fast will device pricing drop?                

    China  While China can’t make up its mind on TD-SCDMA, Chinese manufacturers are increasingly competing with the big boys, the handset rollouts and infrastructure wins are a testament to that. They should just let go of their obsession with TD-SCDMA, there are plenty of opportunities for their manufacturers. Canada, Finland, Taiwan, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Korea, and UK also had Intl pavilions.

    The ecosystem friction  The mobile data ecosystem tension is bubbling up. It was highlighted in the first session of the conference – Jim Ryan (Cingular) vs. Larry Shapiro (Disney) well moderated by Tom Wheeler (past CTIA President). 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. Things are improving but not at the pace everyone would like it to be. This debate is not going away. Perhaps, CTIA can demonstrate some leadership in kicking-off some content interoperability (and treat ad as content) initiatives.

    Test equipment  Whether it is entertainment or enterprise, very little attention is given to testing and monitoring data applications and services. Keynote launched its on-demand platform for testing and monitoring for developers who for $500/day can test on live devices anywhere in the world. This service can significantly lower down the cost of procuring handsets and doing testing.

    Coolest booth  In my travels around the world, in every major city, you can’t escape the massive ads from Samsung and LG. CTIA is no different. The plastered ads all over and the booth from these two Korean companies were clearly the pick of the show with LG edging out its arch-rival by creating a gigantic music player.

    Misc. News.

    Your comments are always welcome.

    Chetan Sharma

    Korean IT Leaders Summit November 15, 2006

    Posted by chetan in : Speaking Engagements, 3G, Partnership, Devices, US Wireless Market, International Trade, Japan wireless market , add a comment

    My love affair with Korea started last year when i was invited by the State Department to put together a Korean-US Trade Summit. I was honored to serve with several other dignitaries on the US advisory committee along with Co-chair Governor Gregoire. I had a chance to meet with several innovative companies at the event as well. Earlier this year, I was hired by the executive team at KTF, the number 2 carrier in Korea to do some strategy work. As a result, I spent sometime in Seoul and go to know more about the industry, the country, and the wonderful folks who are so digitally inclined that they rank #1 in ITU/UN’s Digital Opportunity Index (ahead of Japan and US which is #21). Their engagement with games is at a different spiritual level.

    So, it was only fitting that my first sponsorship of an event was rolled out at the Korean IT Leaders Summit which was held in Seattle last week. Proudly displayed my company banner side-by-side with Microsoft. Several senior executives from the Korean companies like SK Telecom were present. It always amazes me that the gulf between the device quality between Korea/Japan and US. Though the gap is closing, we are still worlds apart. I have a top of the line EV-DO LG phone. Comparing it with some of the handsets i saw in delegates hand, there is no comparison. User experience is so much better on handsets in Korea/Japan that us consumers in the US are missing out. I will have more on the Korean market next year.

    I will be finishing the year with a stop in Seoul later in December.

    If you are looking to do business in Korea or Japan or vice-versa for a North American or European company, let me know.

    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 comments

    This 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.

    Worldwide Wireless Data Trends - Mid Year Update 2006 August 31, 2006

    Posted by chetan in : AORTA, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, 3G, Devices, Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, International Trade, MVNO, Indian Wireless market, India, BRIC, WiMax, ARPU, Japan wireless market, European wireless market, Mobile TV, Mobile Applications, Worldwide Wireless Market, Mobile Ecosystem, Microsoft Mobile, Mobile Search , 1 comment so far

    Download white paper - Worldwide Wireless Data Trends (doc, 320 kb)

    Download PPT (1.3MB)

    This research note summarizes the wireless data trends in over 40 countries and the analysis of over 30 prominent operators.

    Your comments are always welcome.

    See you at CTIA.

    China 3G August 15, 2006

    Posted by Chetan in : Carriers, 3G, Mobile Content, International Trade, BRIC, ARPU , add a comment

    Bloomberg.com reports China may delay issuing licenses for high-speed mobile-phone services to the first half of 2007 because locally developed network technology isn’t ready for commercial use, researcher Norson Telecom Consulting said. Telecommunication cos in China, the world’s biggest wireless mkt by subscribers, are looking to 3G services, which offer users faster downloads of videos and music on their handsets, to spur spending.

    India - Driving the Next Phase of Global (Wireless) Expansion July 24, 2006

    Posted by Chetan in : AORTA, Strategy, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, 3G, Devices, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, International Trade, Indian Wireless market, India, WiMax, Mobile Gaming, Networks, ARPU , add a comment

    the article is online now http://www.chetansharma.com/India_July06.pdf

    INTEROP Russia: BRIC Wireless Markets June 29, 2006

    Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, Strategy, Carriers, Speaking Engagements, US Wireless Market, International Trade, BRIC , add a comment

    6 cities, 5 time zones, 4 countries, 10 days. Last week was quite hectic but it was great. From the exquisite towering cat