Mobile & Wireless Roundup - Innovation & Industry News

Yesterday Access made the announcement that they have partnered with Bytemobile to provide a optimised web browsing experience.
Combing the use of Bytemobiles optimisation technologies on server side, the pages can now be delivered up to 4x faster.
So they have joined with Opera and Microsoft in providing such solutions that transcode or optimise using server based technologies.
I see this as being a major issue for the mobile industry. Developers will become reliant on these technologies and create 1 site for all.
Not the best approach since they are then not making full use of the 3rd screen. Mobile web should be treated as a totally seperate entity, and not even be considered on the same level as PC based sites.
As seen with Vodafone and Noverra, it has devastating consequences for existing made for mobile sites, as the transcoder tries to be “clever”, and the user then suffers poor user experience, and the site owner faces poor brand recognition (due to the optimisation algorithms) and perhaps not the same navigation as they had intended for the mobile version.

As seen with Vodafone, it can be switched off, but it relies on the user ignoring their instincts as the message states that the transcoded solution is best, so why would they want to change?
Would a similar solution be available for these browsers? Or is this the end for mobile innovation on the web? And moving back to a 1 for all solution. I hope not!

I’d like to hear your comments..

http://internetcommunications.tmcnet.com/topics/broadband-mobile/articles/8853-access-bytemobile-partner-mobile-solutions.htm

It seems that it is now possible for “Made for mobile” sites to be whitelisted by Vodafones transcoding proxy to ensure that your content stays un-altered when delivering to Vodafone users. As the Novarra solution that they have implemented changes the User-Agent to a PC based one, and then performs the transcode.

Previous article: Vodafone Internet Is Now Mobile

To request a whitelist entry send an email to mobileinternet.whitelist@vodafone.com with the subject “Mobile Internet Whitelist” and contain details of the WAP site you wish to be whitelisted.

Computers are hitting back at their users.

Reports have been coming in, and updates can be found on http://www.jealouscomputers.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlhQW28VIg

Visit http://wirelessroundup.com from your mobile web browser and you should see a mobile version of the site.

Now viewable on PC Browser, Widsets , RSS Readers, and now your mobile phone browser

Thanks to Andy Moore and his Wordpress Mobile plugin!

QR codes have been in use in Japan for many years now, and have started to gain popularity elsewhere. They can be found everywhere in Tokyo, from the Subway adverisments, business cards, and even entry stamps in passports.

http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/qrfeature-e.html

As you can see QR can contain a substantial amount of information, however, this information is static, and relies upon having a QR reader.

In Korea, an alternative approach has been widely adopted to utilise the high average phone capabilities, and also the takeup rate for new mobile services. Using standard 1 dimensional barcodes, which can be read by standard barcode readers, an entire user profile can be called.

While in Korea, my girlfriend used her phone on many occasions for this purpose. Full purchasing of cinema tickets and ski lift passes are common, and the payment is added to the users airtime bill. These barcodesare then scanned at the checkout desks to confirm payment, and swap for the voucher. In addition to full payment, subscriptions to discount schemes prove to be popular too. A code is sent to the users device allowing them discount on a variety of services.

Eventually we should start to see such systems in the UK, and the rest of the world, but the take up of new technologies is slow.

China is currently seen as the country with most potential in the mobile industry. Not only because China Mobile alone has more subscribers that inhabitants of the US, but because the culture and attitude towards technology is vastly different to that of Western countries.

As companies in China are feeling the pressures of the Internet industry, and ensuring that their presence is felt globally, the relatively new sub segment of Mobile Internet and Communication in China is looking to become exploited in the rapidly developing climate.

The major question that these companies face is “Do we take the lead from western countries, and use what worked well?” As mobile technologies for use as a commercial gain by marketing and content companies in the UK has been around for nearly 10 years now, it is often perceived that therefor there is a lot of experience and knowledge in this subject area. So companies are beginning to release similar services in China in order to attempt to “crack” the Chinese market. Taking the same business models as applied in their home countries, and using them to setup in China.

My opinion on this method is varied depending on the attempted service. China has a relatively low income per capita, and do not have “disposable” incomes which they can use for luxuries, such as mobile ring tones. Their attitude to technology is different, just walking around the streets of Beijing, you can see hundreds of computer shops, and pirated software shops, allowing the general Chinese public use of usually expensive software products. Leading from this, and into the mobile market, people will not want to be paying for software based items on their phones if it is known that they can “rip” it off the Internet or create their own.

So a model which will charge consumers £1-3 per ringtone or wallpaper like in the UK, will not translate to China, and so the simple “money in the bag” attitude should only be approached with caution.

That said, information services should be the way forward in China, delivering free content (ad sponsored), reverse billed SMS for competitions and voting. As these have been huge revenue generators ($273million in Q1) in the western “TV Culture”.

Any ventures in the Chinese market should be approached with caution as not to cause offence due to difference in culture, but also this difference should be used as a stimuli for encouraging innovation, to work around known cultural differences.

Things to remember about Chinese Mobile:

1. No 3G Yet
2. Beijing 2008 Olympics
3. Walt Disney China launched free content
4. Mobile Ads predicted to reach $142 million in 2008
5. Mobile TV to be launched in conjunction with Beijing 2008

Reading a report in the Mobile Business Magazine, it seems that Vodafone are to offer Banking through their “Vodafone Internet On Your Mobile” as discussed in a previous blog .

 Al Russell, Head of Vodafone Internet On Your Mobile said: “With the launch of the Vodafone Internet On Your Mobile we want to give customers access to all the services they see as essential, in the palm of their hand.  Banking is one of the most important services that our customers use and by partnering with the Monilink network we can ensure that all of our customers are able to access their bank accounts on the move, whenever they wish.”

If Vodafone ate to be using their new transcoding solution to transcode the banking service, this will open a serious security flaw. Transcoding solutions need to be able to read the request, responses and content in order to perform the transcode. Stripping out the tags and unnesesary content items. As a result, the secure connection between the bank and the device is terminated at the transcoding proxy. This means, if the transcoder is compromised, all bank details can be obtained.
This will be a serious flaw in Vodafones strategy if true, and consequences will be following suit

I came across WidSets today and I immediately thought yet another mobile widget workspace allowing RSS feeds to be delivered to the mobile. However, I thought i’d give it a shot, and experiment with the new service.

After selecting my initial widgets I wanted on my mobile, I signed up and a link was sent to my device to download the Java Client pre-setup with my user details and widgets selected.

After allowing the client access to the internet, I was presented with all the widgets i had selected, and the option to download more from the client itself.

The navigation is intuitive, and works using a smooth horizontal scroll which can be accellerated through progressing to new content items. Its all very AJAX style. Opening up the widgets to view the content, is an impressive popup style interface, with all content pre-loaded so no waiting.

The accompanying website allows the user to create their own widgets using an online interface, and make them public to the rest of the community. Heres mine:

The website also shows you how much data you have used on your mobile phone using the service.

I feel that this service should be watched, as it provides a very attractive user interface for devices that do not support AJAX through their browser.

An interesting article was published by the Korea Herald discussing the reasons behind the poor take up of mobile internet browisng in Korea.

The main points raised are:

1. Manufacturers developing Internet phones for export market
2. Usability - 5 Clicks to reach search engine
3. Free web browsing using other devices (Wi-Fi, PC, laptop, etc.)

The author (Kim Yoon-mi) predicts that the usage of mobile internet will grow in conjunciton with the growth of 3G and HSDPA.

Via: Korea Herald

In my opinion, the reason that Google and mobile Internet has been “semi” successful in Europe is down to the transcoding abilities of the search engines of Yahoo and Google. Trimming down websites and images to fit to the users mobile device. I’m unaware of Naver’s ability to do this, and I would be interested to learn what mobile solution they do offer.
I do feel however, that the attitude to the mobile Internet is currently flawed. Mobile devices are currently seen as an extension to a PC, with fewer capabilities and so the content must be scaled and represented differently. This is W3C’s view. My view is that services for mobile devices should be designed away from the current PC concept, and a radical approach should be taken. Looking at what a mobile phone is used for, where it is used, and its limitations and enhancements over the PC environment.
Some examples include location aware, premium content, ability to integrate phone features (calls, SMS), and the main feature of portability.
In Japan, the success of QR codes has realized the importance of portability, and so allow users to access content and information regardless of their current location. A typical case study that I’ve seen the usage for QR is throughout museums or zoo’s where next to the exhibit, a QR code is placed to allow the customer to view interactive content through the mobile web, such as related videos or wallpaper download of the artists work.

Services such as videos do require a reasonable amount of bandwidth, and yes, with the onset of HSDPA, the usage of data is set to increase. However, many services now can be created using widget based technologies, supplying simple XML feeds to generate rich applications for mobile using the web. Bandwidth should then not be a cause for concern, as its a matter of kilobytes instead of megabytes.

So to conclude, full Internet browsing should not been approached as the way forward, indeed to some extent it will be needed to convert existing sites, but companied should be prepared to invest in targeting mobile if they wish to be successful on the 3rd screen, and in billions of peoples pockets wherever they are, whatever they happen to be engaged in.

Roughly half of all bluetooth devices have their phones in discoverable mode. Allowing other bluetooth devices to make contact with them. Recently this is beginning to be exploited for marketing purposes.

Unlike MMS and SMS and WAP Push, bluetooth content delivery is free. Being a push technology, the recipient does not require and discovery of the service, the only pre-requisits for delivery are:

1. Bluetooth enabled phone
2. Bluetooth in Discovery Mode
3. User to accept the download

With all this being an advantage to the advertiser, what is the benefit to the end user?

1. Targeted ads - User can receive information about special offers in their vicinity or related to the event they are attending etc.
2. Free Content - Brands can deliver wallpapers or videos to the user, this may be part of a promotion
3. The ability to reject the delivery and switch off Discoverable

There are some limitations to this service. The device is usually a Windows client, or a standalone box, and so requires a source of constant power. The reach of bluetooth varies from 50m to 300, but is severly restricted indoors.

Some people may cause this SPAM, however, in use with proper applications, and the ability to only send to devices once will ensure that the user does not get agitated with the service and hence the brand being marketed a bad name.

Application usage of this type of marketing tool has seen an increase, with billboards in the London Underground providing broadcasting ringtones of a artists to passers by, and people waiting for the train.

Time will tell how this type of application will take off…