I aim to promote the mobile web through promotion of innovation. The thoughts and discussions in this blog are entirely of my own opinion and do not represent my employer or clients.
I can provide marketing and product strategies for mobile applications, deployments and campaigns
As initially announced by Ted Rogers back in April, that the iPhone will be coming to Rogers, it has also now emerged on the Rogers and Apple websites, that it will also be available on Fido.
Fido has been known to be slacking in the ability to roll out decent handsets, so its good to see times are changing for the Canadian companies.
UBIK, a Volantis owned company, has now gone into Open Beta with its tool to create mobile web sites.
Tagged “Get Mobile Now”, it allows users to create full mobile web sites using their interactive interface. With lots of templates styles to choose from, all the user has to do is add pages, insert text, and upload images, in order to have a mobile presence.
Two interesting features that have been included, are the ability to make donations and payments through PayPal, and also the ability to upload photos directly from your mobile phone using MMS
Although the service offers a very Web 2.0 look and feel, the actual functionality of the site could be improved vastly to appeal to the likes of Bloggers and Content Owners. Enabling a simple RSS feed option to read in existing content from blogs and other content sources such as Flickr. Other functionality, that although simple, should be incorportated, to make more use of the properties of accessing the site on a mobile. For example, send a SMS/MMS using the smsto and mms to functionality (if device supported).
Compared to the likes of site.mobi (powered by mobisitegalore) this offers the user a more visually attractive user experience, with a greater variety of templates. The WYSIWYG interface for UBIK is clean and fast, and makes the most out of AJAX capabilities. Whereas, the templates on site.mobi looks very Microsoft Publisher 97.
This round goes to UBIK, but I hope that the additional functionality will make it into the final product. At the moment, UBIK are aiming at people who want simple static sites, and by the looks of it from the templates, at individuals who wish to have a mobile presence (is this the right market to be targeting?)
Visit my landing page at m.ubik.net
There has been a lot of hype around location based services recently, and their potential benefits to the users through the exploitation of the fact that the user is mobile, and hence has a location.
Last week at MoMo, the topic was LBS, and an excellent presentation was given by Alcatel Lucent, showcasing their latest service called GeoPepper. The service, which is very similar to FireEagle by Yahoo which was demonstrated at ICE08, however it is out of closed and is available to developers and application service providers to start exploring. The services all offer an API through which developers can connect to get location information on users.
From this, there is plenty of potential, however, there currently exists a few limitations to LBS.
So how can this be issue be solved?
Well, currently there is no definitive answer, it all depends on the scale of the project that the service will be used for. An article over at MoCoNews entitled Shopping malls are tracking the habits of visitors using location based services provides an insight as to how one company is now offering services to track users on a local scale to find out their habits using mobile triangulation.
There is a much simpler solution for shopping malls to track users. Through bluetooth. All users broadcast their MAC Address when their bluetooth is turned on to discoverable. So if in each shop there is a bluetooth discovery module, which doesn’t actually ask to connect to the device, but just discovers bluetooth devices, they can be linked up to a central database to track exactly (more precisely than triangulation) where users have visited.
As the data of which types of stores are visited, and how frequently, carefully targeted proximity marketing can be implemented to offer loyally discounts to frequent users, or offers to entice potential customers through an opt in scheme.
Obviously the concerns about privacy of the users is still in question, but correct marketing techniques should be used to explain to the targeted users what is happening, how to receive promotional campaigns through opt in procedures that are not overly complex.
The “Watch & Play: New ways to interact with video” session had some interesting product demonstrations. The two that impressed me the most are from the companies Animoto and OverlayTV.
Animoto allows users to upload photos in order to have automatically created a movie. They choose the order, request emphasis on certain images, and then upload an audio track for which the movie will be based around. The algorithms behind the software analyse the audio track, and manipulate the images in time to the beats. Even if you make the video twice, the result will be different. Animoto is entirely web based, using drag and drop AJAX, with a Web2.0 look and feel.
Once the video has been created, it can be shared on which ever social platform you choose.
After the presentation, I had a chance to speak with the founder, and asked him about the possibilities of going mobile. It has been considered in their business plan, however at this time, they are concentrating finalizing the product and increasing the audience.
Overlay.TV is an advertising strategy. It moves away from the idea that commercials are played pre-reel, post-real, or mid-reel. Overlay.TV applies an overlay to the video which contains contextual and targeted advertisements. This approach is designed so that content producers can monetize from their videos. The solution also alows for hotspots for sections of the video to have hot links to product information for example.
Emphasis on the users ability to turn off the overlay was of primary concern. The user should be able to make the choice on if they wish to receive a video untouched, or to receive video that becomes interactive and allows the user to discover content and products they are interested in.
Overlay.TV does not give the content producers any limitations, it is up to them to work out what works for their consumers and experiment with different strategies.
The business model behind Overlay.TV works on an affiliate program, with revenue shared between the content producer and Overlay.TV.
I managed to catch up with Rob Lane, co-founder of Overlay.TV before his presentation, and asked what his strategy for approaching mobile was. In his eyes, he can see enormous potential with touch screen devices and technology, especially the iPhone. With music video, user can discover alternative content, such as ringtones, and other videos, and also have direct access to their MySpace page for example.
I would love to have seen some more developments in the mobile sector with mobile, but perhaps we have to see how successful the web counterparts can be before innovation to mobile in Canada will occur.
The first keynote and panel session that I attended at ICE08 called “Flash Forward: New Canadian Media”, was moderated by Raja Khanna (GlassBOX Television), and featured panelists David UK (Heavy.com), Pary Bell (CanWest Digital Media), and Michael Hennessy (TELUS). It was noted that Canadian carriers are the limiting factor when it comes to innovation, and Raja posed the question to the panelists, should we ask for subsidies from the ISP’s to develop applications and content. TELUS’ initial response was that this would not in fact be legal, but then was quick to say that this would be “like giving creators crack cocaine” which will result in screwups and cause havok in the market place.
I had to disagree with Michaels opinion here, as time has shown, all industries have failures and sucessus. Opening up the doors to a flood of content producers will increase the chances (simple probability) that more great content is produced and gets to see the light of day. I am not saying, give cash subsidies to all who want it, but to have a greater acceptance that great content is available, and to reward those who produce it, more effectively. As ultimately, content is king.
Later during the discussion, TELUS stated that “we are not in the content business” and understands that they need to open up and allow content producers to do their thing.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this seems like a contradiction to the previous statement that was shunning new and aspiring content producers. But maybe, the case he was making is simple. TELUS cannot subsidize the costs for content producers, but do realize their value of keeping them on board. Maybe they can see that markets around the world are taking this stance, and it is about time that Canada (TELUS in this case) follow their lead as to ensure, that their users get Canadian content.
In five years, TELUS expects that the following changes have occured:
Lets hope that all this talk of being “Open” actually does ring true.
Last week saw the launch of Wireless Box Office on the Rogers portal in Canada in collaboration with Live Nation. The service is available to all Rogers Subscribers. If you purchase your tickets through your mobile, you will also be given VIP treatment and own entrance to skip the line ups.
Users can now purchase tickets to major gigs and concerts across Canada through the Mobile Web. The service makes use of 2D barcodes which will get delivered via MMS. These then get scanned at the event.
With Wireless Box Office™ you can now browse and purchase concert tickets directly from your Rogers wireless phone! Anytime… anywhere.
Rogers Wireless Box Office allows you instant access to the best Live Nation concerts across Canada through Live Nation Member Ticketing (Live Nation Tickets).
You’ll always be upfront for all the action with the Roger’s exclusive group of preferred Live Nation Tickets, only available from the Wireless Box Office and only from Rogers!
To purchase tickets…
This campaign is aiming big, and Rogers are really trying to make an impact on the mobile industry in Canada. I have seen full page newspaper ad to generate interest.
However, I did note one vitally missing element to the newspaper article. Most newspapers are thumbed through on the daily commute, and cafes. The “call to action” on the newspaper is directing the user to the website: http://rogers.com/URTicket and not making use of the readers current situation, where they do not have computer access, but have their mobile phone, which is the main emphasis of the project, sitting in their pocket, idle.
Anyways, this has been seen as a ground breaking product in the Canadian industry,its a first for full ticket purchase using the Mobile Web. Lets hope Rogers keep up their innovative mind set, and allow future products of similar innovation to come to Canada.
After attending ICE08 (Interactive Content Exchange) conference in Toronto, it has become clear that the majority of people in the New Media industry feel that Canada seriously lags behind the rest of the commercialised world. It ultimately comes down to the fact that the Canadian carriers are not “open” to the idea of innovation. We have seen this before in the UK and the USA. Carriers are hanging on to their their classical revenue streams for as long as they can. If they are generating revenue, why quit? In my opinion, carriers (especially Canadian carriers) need to re-evaluate their business models, and accept the fact that consumers are opening their eyes to what “could” be possible on their mobiles, but are too scared to experiment.
Listening to some of the speakers and the panel sessions, some of the questions that were answered didn’t seem to make sense in terms of the conferences objectives. One of the questions posed to the panel of “Moving Experience: Innovation in Wireless” was asking if the carriers are to blame for the stifled innovation that Canada is seeing in the wireless sector. The panel responded with the fact that Canadian content businesses should not let the limiting factors by the carrier effect their business, and to take the business overseas. In my opinion, where does this leave the consumers, they want to be able to access the innovative products that “should” be available to them. This also is taking away the potential custom inside the country that the conference was attempting to promote.
To pinpoint the exact issue that wireless developers face, was also a matter of opinion from the panelists and delegates. But the majority came down the fact that data rates are either extortionately priced or have anti competitive and anti innovational terms associated with them.
One point to note,we (in Canada) have not yet seen transcoding solutions in place at carrier level. I am hoping that they will hold off until a solution has been developed that handles the mobile industry fully.
More to come on ICE08
I will be attending ICE08 in Toronto for the next few days. I expect to be blogging on the latest developments in mobile and new media in Canada. So watch this space…
About the conference
The conference component of ICE is the exchange of ideas in interactive media. Participants will share and acquire knowledge and insights into innovations, hot trends and cool possibilities. Panel discussions and presentations are key parts of the Conference component.
Just found this excellent plugin for Firefox.
It even works on Flock!
Now, lets see if it will make it in Firefox for mobile plugins.
Tricia Duryee over at MoCo news published an informative article on the two companies strategies for the mobile web.
I’d have to agree more on Yahoo’s strategy on the mobile web, than on Apple’s, which seems to be take the internet as it is, and make it available to consumers. Yahoo’s approach to take elements of the internet, pieces of information that users actually care about when on the move and need quick access to it, and present it in a mobile friendly way. The concern I have about Yahoo’s strategy is that Yahoo! Go is Java based, and therefore suffers from the fragmentation issues that are inherent with J2ME apps.
It would be interesting to see how far their widgets will extend, and hope that we will soon see browser based widgets making the most of the devices capabilities.
