Mobile & Wireless Roundup - Innovation & Industry News

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.

• A small percentage of mobile devices have built in GPS recievers, of which, a smaller percentage have the facility turned on in order to save battery
• GPS does not work indoors effectively
• Triangulation provides a rough location, for example, Google Maps often locates me to the nearest 1600m, or is unable to find my location
• Third Party applications often needed to communicate with servers

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.

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.

I stumbled across an excellent application for mobile yesterday that I have been getting to grips with on my SonyEricsson K850i.

Nimbuzz allows you to use a multitude of IM protocols to communicate with your friends through mobile. Many previous such applications have been limited to smartphones (S60, UIQ, WiMo etc.) The main attraction for me is that this allows you to make Skype to Skype calls for free using a J2ME client. Fring allowed this also, however the client was limited to smartphone users. EQO also tried the Skype route, however, this required you to have skype running on a PC with the EQO server running through to which your phone connects.

Nimbuzz takes a slightly different approach. It uses a http connection to maintain a buddy list and chat sessions for which ever IM client you wish to use. To then make calls, it will trigger a local call to either a freefone, or local number which will route your call over to the Skype (or whichever) user.

The Nimbuzz website also allows you to create widgets to plugin to your website/Facebook/blog etc.. so that any user can send you a message, call you, send a file, and buzz you. For incoming calls, you must register your mobile number, which the Nimbuzz server will use to route your incoming skype calls.

The main problems with the Nimbuzz application are to do with security and availability. Firstly, you have to supply your account details for the IM clients (similar to meebo) which they store on their servers. The Nimbuzz client then requies a single username/password which connects these accounts. This is also subject to security issues, as loosing your phone will allow your IM clients to be accessed because login details are saved.

Another problem exists when roaming internationally, you will not be able to make Skype calls for free, as I discussed, it will route your outgoing calls via a local phone number instead of data

I am glad I found this software, its a step in the right direction of getting Skype through J2ME. As its still early software, I am sure that future developments will improve some of the current features, and build upon the functionality it currently provides.

I recently read an excellent article about sending gifts via text messages.
Its a very simple idea that has shown to be very popular and is now a multi-million dollar industry in South Korea.
The main reason for its popularity is that it breaks down social barriers and enables people to show their affection for someone without doing so face to face.
In my opinion this service should be extended for the Valentines period, where the message can be sent anonymously if desired.

SK Telecom’s mobile coupon service, dubbed “Gifti-con”, saw an year-over-year growth of 700% from 2006 to 2007.

The full article can be found here:
http://www.web20asia.com/212

A follow up to my previous post: Proximity Marketing or Spam?

In response to an article posted on mocoNews.net

In my opinion, Bluetooth marketing, otherwise known as “Proximity Marketing” is only suited to certain situations to take of in a way that will benefit the end user. Banking is not an exciting medium for mobile, as there are few application usages currently for banking using mobile services. Companies that should be embracing proximity marketing are restaurants (only broadcasting their bluetooth messages during eating hours) and entertainment retail stores. The application for bluetooth is much larger, as they can offer money-off coupons as image push, or advertise the latest albums and dvd offers with video and audio clips to get the users attention.

As everyone is trying to predict the next killer application for mobile, I thought i’d throw in my opinion.

At the W2Forum Launch party in Soho, London, I was asked on several occasions what I thought would become the next success in the mobile industry.

The mobile content market is ever evolving, and new pricing strategies, and content services are being exploited on a regular basis, and there currently seems to be no let-up in its growth of innovation and youth attraction. One of the main drivers of content, is the “All you can eat” data packages, which for a set monthly fee, you can download an unlimited (Yeah Right! 250MB on O2 for example) amount of data per month. But even through this “unlimited” offering is always truly unlimited, content should always be “made for mobile” ensuring that the best CODECs and compression ratios are used for the mobile device, therefor reducing the data download requirements.

The mobile content industry has been seen as a very lucrative market, and has had its share of bad press with companies like Jamba offering subscription services when a user tries to download a single ringtone, charging them every week without notice. But recently, this has been cleaned up, and the companies must make it very clear now that they are offering a subscription and not a single download. But none the less, this relatively new revenue stream has attracted thousands of companies to offer premium content to mobile.

Definition - Premium Content: An item that is viewed by the end user after making a payment. This content item can be a Ringtone, Video, Wallpaper, Horoscope, Joke, News Subscription, etc..

As there are so many companies now offering these services to mobile, the user now faces too much choice. Where will the user go to find “Strawberry Fields by the Beatles” as a ringtone? The first place i guess they will look is their carriers portal, and then if they cannot find it there, they will give up.

Solution
A product like Google’s Froogle or Kelkoo, which offers price comparison can be utilised. With a database of all the mobile content storefronts, a user can perform a search for the content item they are looking for, and a list of variants will be returned. This will give the user the chance to find not only the cheapest, but also related content items (wallpaper, or other ringtones), and special offers.

The problem that such a solution will currently face, is the on-portal content that is only available through the carriers network. This, however can have a benefit to the carrier, as it can promote content items to other carriers customers which may encourage the user to switch. Another problem with many mobile storefront solutions is that they perform “on the fly” transcoding, adapting the mobile content to the users device after they have requested it, so the resulting content item can not be guaranteed. The final issue, which I hope will be addressed by store front and CMS solutions, is that they should provide a query feed in RSS or ATOM, that allows search engines to query the content store, and get returned an XML results page.

Benefits
This will provide a way for the content providers to promote their content, and with some business cases, they could also “pay their way” to increase their search rankings.

Affiliation programs will help to create further revenue streams

There is a continual stream of companies getting engaged in the mobile industry around the world, monetising on premium content such as ringtones, wallpapers, videos, jokes, and horoscopes etc. The reason that they were so successful in economically developed countries, is due to the fact that people have disposable income, and mobile is seen as a luxury, and are used to paying for services that can be provided to the device.

A few comparisons:

PC based services (Free)

Messaging - Email, IM

Content - Desktop Wallpapers, News Videos, Comedy Clips, Streaming Audio

Mobile based services (Premium)

Messaging - SMS, MMS (£0.10 - £0.50 per message, or bundled for a charge)

Content - Wallpapers, Ringtones, News Videos (Costs vary per content provider)

It has been noted that this market has started to see a decline in premium content usage, and so the mobile industry is set explore new markets. Many have decided to turn to the Indian or Chinese companies, and pitch their products to them. However, these companies have been struggling to capture the full potential of the mobile content market in the same way that Europe, Japan, Korea and America have.

A new approach is needed

China has a well known issue with piracy, and many software products that are sold are illegal copies. This does not stop at the software industry, why would a consumer in China think it is acceptable to pay up to $5 for a content item such as a small picture for a wallpaper, when they can “rip” them from the web for free. Piracy is not the only issue that faces these markets, but also the income of the people living there.

Content is not the answer

Money can be made from the mobile industry in many ways (apart from premium content), through advertising and deals with corporations that offer services to users. The important thing to note, that emerging markets do not use mobile devices in the same way that economically developed countries do. Mobiles are the only form of communication, as minimal infrastructure is needed, compared to traditional fixed line services, and they consume a low amount of power. This can mean that they do not need a constant supply of electricity to use the services on the device, and they can be charged on a relatively low power source, such as solar, and wind up based chargers. The ability to be “wire-free” enables remote tribes and villages to communicate with each other effectively. This is the key market to utilise.

I feel that one of the next big innovations in the mobile industry, will help to provide an effective communication service for mobile users in developing nations. But they key thing to success, is not to charge the end user for the service.

Various carriers are beginning to provide content targeted portals to their customers. Information on the user behavior is gathered and analyzed in order to determine what kind of content that the user will be interested in. The concept is nothing new, as it has been used on sites such as Amazon for many years. However, porting such an application to mobile has brought up some concerns. Are telephone conversations and text messages intercepted and analyzed?

Anyways, bringing the content to the user without them having to waste time and data performing the searches themselves seems like a good concept, its the approach to data capture that needs careful consideration.

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