Mobile & Wireless Roundup - Innovation & Industry News

November has seen many interesting developments in the mobile content industry. The news however seems to have been dominated by two main events. Firstly, the release of the Apple iPhone in Europe (which I have conveniently not discussed in my blogs due to the already excessive media exposure), and the Google Android platform. These events seem to have cast a shadow over some of the smaller news articles which underpin the movement of the content industry.
The main topic of conversation at the moment is “Which revenue model do we use?” There are three current trends.

1. Pay per song - The original payment method for digital media on the web and ring tones, but does this really capture mass market appeal?
2. Subscription based - Payment on a weekly or monthly basis for unlimited downloads on an “all you can eat” plan. This sounds more appealing to the end user, but will it eat into their data costs? Will the user sign up and forget?
3. Ad funded model - Content is sponsored through advertising, offering it free to end user, be it branding (audio ad in music) or short clips to be used as ring tones to promote the artists full album?

With the expected value of the mobile music industry in the UK to leap to $156million in 2011, pay attention to the news..

Nokia’s Music Store - Ovi
Nokia launched a mobile music store for its latest range of dedicated music devices (Nokia N81, N95, 5310 and 5610) which is going into direct competition with the on-portal solutions that carriers offer. This has stirred plenty of controversy with the carriers themselves, explaining that the consumer will be paying the price for the high data usage on music downloads, and the high costs to the carrier for handling an expected increase in call center requests. But analysts believe that this is not their main concern, but it is driving potential revenue away from their hands, and into Nokia’s. Not only the carriers have been making an attempt to block Nokia’s new domination path, but also Warner, who is non to pleased, as their concerns over piracy and illegal file sharing take hold again, showing their inability to deal with trends in technologies, and attempting to restrict change, as apposed the embrace and innovate. The latest news on Nokias music store is the deal that has been struck with Kylie, through which customers can download her latest album “X” a week before the official release. This is a sneaky move, as the customer maybe likely to then purchase the CD once officially released, hence doubling the revenue.
Some reviews can be found here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/29/nokia_music_store/
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-nokia-signs-up-vodafone-for-ovi
http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/35878/Kylie+album+to+receive+early+release+with+Nokia.html

Vodafone takes up MusicStation
Initially the deal was rumored to be with Carphone Warehouse, but Vodafone has come out trumps, and has nabbed the service and launched just before the iPhone launch in the UK by O2. Charging a rate of £1.99/week or free on contracts of £40+/month. The MusicStation service allows the user unlimited music downloads with access to over 1.2 million tracks. Along with this service, they are heavily promoting the much anticipated Samsung F700, which is due for release on the 27th November, and Vodafone have exclusivity on this device.
Further details can be found here:
http://www.vodafonemusic.co.uk/products/musicstation.cfm
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-vodafone-launches-subscription-music-service-in-uk

SonyEricsson wants some of the action
Hot on the heals of Nokias music store, SonyEricsson announced plans to compete head to head. But the major difference between Nokia and SonyEricsson, is that SonyEricsson plans to work with the carriers, providing them with revenue share, than to compete with an off portal solution. Also not restricting the devices that access the service. Major labels have already been signed, and include Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, EMI, and Warner (which is a suprise after a spat with Nokia). The service is due to be released in Q2 2008.
More details:
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-sony-ericsson-announces-plan-for-mobile-music-store-in-q208/

Ministry Of Sound announces Music Store
Rumoured partners include Channel4 and Phones4U
Details:
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-ministry-of-sound-planning-mobile-music-store/

Mobile Music sales statistics
Orange have stated that their mobile music sales have nearly doubled since January (105,000 tracks) to around 203,000 tracks.
Spanish digital content download sales has now reached a rate of 83% through mobile alone, leaving web trailing.
The UK mobile music industry is approximately work $83million currently, but is expected to climb to $156million in 2011

Microsoft - Time to act
After watching the increase in use of mobile music, Microsoft have acted, and jumped on the acquisition bandwagon, and purchased Musiwave for a sum of $50million in cash and dept, a mobile music content provider.

Ad supported music - MySpace

It is only th 23rd of November, will there be any more news that can really prove the trend towards mobile music?

Volantis have just announced their intention to go open source with their “Volantis Mobility Server” opening the product to the wider development community. The Open Source licence will be released in Q1 2008, but is available for free download now.

Will this create the drive for innovation in the mobile web industry?

Full press release can be found here:
http://www.volantis.com/news/press-releases/20071113.php

Get your free download and developer community account here:
http://community.volantis.com/

Lets get creating innovative products that the industry has been lacking, and really push forward the presence of made for mobile websites instead of relying on transcoding solutions such as Google and Novarra’s Vodafone solution.

Quote from telecomskorea.com

Requires a paid subscription to read..

Tags: SouthKorea, Mobile Internet

An excellent article has been posed on MocoNews.net by James Quintana Pearce which quotes Steve Smith from Mobile Insider, discussing why they think Mobile video content should not be charged for.
The general gist of the argument is that users are not used to paying for video based content. Although strictly not true, in the UK we pay a TV Licencing fee to the BBC to have ad free TV channels, we pay for DVD rentals, and Pay per View TV. However, most TV (and hence video based) content is free, and the user does not have to make a purchase to watch the channel or particular content item.

The article is available here:
http://www.moconews.net/entry/why-mobile-video-should-be-free/

I agree with the point that has been made, however, the approach to providing free content should be met with a choice. Users should be given the option as to getting FREE ad sponsored content, or paying for the item, but getting the original content. This could be taken a step further to then provide a higher quality content item for the paid for market.

An advantage to providing free content, with no DRM restrictions will also encourage viral marketing. Users forwarding the items to their friends and peers, and hence spreading the advertisements.

Like Mobile TV, when it finally gets released, the uptake will dependon the revenue models that will be associated with the channels. Commercials within the TV programs will generally be accepted if there is no charge to receive them.

Tags: MobileVideo, Mobile Content, Ad Sponsored

An excellent article was posted on Wireless World Forum by Karerina of Touchlink Mobile about the success of the Mobile advertising strategy that was employed by Coca-Cola, entitled Global brands take mobile marketing track

Here you can see that it proves that with a eye for innovation, and the driving and influential force of large brands, mobile content can see unprecidented sucess.

Read: http://www.touchlink-mobile.com/news/?id=91/