Mobile & Wireless Roundup - Innovation & Industry News

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.

Reading a report at WirelessWeek, Social.fm have teamed up with Handmark, and will be rolling out operations in Canada.

Initially this sounded great, but then I realised that Social.fm required a Java app on your device. The biggest issue with this, is that Rogers’ new “Unlimited” data plan does not cover third party application data usage from, as quoted in their T&Cs, “Google Maps, and Yahoo! Go”.

Streaming music to my phone at CD quality no longer sounds so great when its going to cost me 5cents/kb!

Come on Rogers, sort it out, and stop limiting your customers to explore new applications on their mobile.

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.

According to an article at MoCo News
“The US is lagging the rest of western Europe in video usage. Only 36 percent of devices in the US are capable of receiving mobile video.
How can this statistic be made? Mobile TV is only mobile TV when it uses technologies such as DVB-H, DVB-T and DVB-S. Mobile TV over data is not mobile TV, it is a really poor user experience, and high data usage. Hence 36% of devices do not support true mobile TV. Once Mobile TV uses DVB technologies, then the update will be expected to increase as costs to the user “SHOULD” be none, as commercial sponsored channels cover this expense.

If transcoding is to become the “norm” which i sincerely hope not, then i hope that new transocoding intelligence will be included.
- Check for microformats to see if the developer has specified their menu structure, the content, and any other standard page feature, instead of guess work.
- If RSS or other feed is available, use this to generate the page instead of transcoding
- Check all the variants on mobile sites to see if they reply with appropriate mobile content (m. .mobi wap. mobile. /mobile etc..)
- Give the user the option if they wish to have a transcoded site (not “optimized” as currently pushed to users) or for the mobile site (if found)
- Pass through of “User-Agent” to allow for the website to decide if it wants to provide mobile content or not. Do not use a non-standard user-agent which causes developers headaches to apply new rules.

Lets see how it goes…

The point Sarin made about “the new-new thing is internet on the mobile” struck me as flawed. I am apposed the the one web principle. Mobile needs to be considered as a seperate entity to the internet. Just like newspapers, television and radio are for delivery services to the user. The Web has been implemented for computers. Sure, certain aspects of the Web wil benefit Mobile, but to simply say, “Internet on mobile” is not a good message to be sending to developers.
Designing a “one web” will lead to various problems:
- Developers making sacrifices in innovation in order to achieve compatibility.
- Developers relying on transcoding tools to take their web site and make it mobile
Both of these problems will lead to poor user experience, and not show the user the true potential of the MOBILE WEB.
Mobiles are designed to be mobile and in your pocket, Computers are designed to be on your desk and at home or office.
When will the industry wake up to these facts, and encourage companies to do more about promotion of innovation. Don’t take your website, and translate to mobile, think out of the box, and see how the meanings of the word mobile can translate to benefit to your company, and the solution that you are offering.
-Olaf-

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

Mozilla have produced some mockups of their ideas for their mobile browser.
http://dougt.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/we-want-you-proto-mobile-uis-posted/
There is a Firefox plugin so you can simulate the browser designed for non-touch screens at:
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/UI/Designs/NonTouchScreen
https://people.mozilla.com/~blassey/spbrowser.xpi

I’ve been waiting for a Mozilla implementation of a mobile browser, and from what I have seen on the screen shots I am disappointed to see that they have gone down the route of following w3c’s 1 web approach. Horizontal scroll, long pages, and huge download sizes will not appease the user. In order for mobile web to improve, people must develop another version, as PC based and Mobile based have totally different user requirements.
Research needs to be taken up on how to identify a mobile edition of a site, and giving the user the choice. Instead of relying on their input of URL and also third party transcode solutions which in my opinion do a very poor job at moment.

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Tags: Mobileweb, mozilla, browser

Back in October I wrote an article on mobile content agrigation and discovery, and the benefits it would have on the mobile industry.

Full article can be found here

Yesterday, MoCoNews reported that there is a major problem that consumers are unable to find the games they want for their mobile phone.

Today, Zodiac made an announcement that they have developed such a portal which allows content aggregation from multiple content providers. The product is to be name Zodigo  Press Release

When this type of search finally gets mass market appeal, Operators will have to change their strategies in mobile content, and competition between content providers will become fierce. In turn this will drive down prices, increase consumer awareness and willingness to use content, and who knows, maybe more ad sponsored titles will emerge into the market which will appear as *free* in the search result listings, opening the gates to a flood of mobile marketing campaigns.

The mobile content industry is now back in full swing, preparing for all the conferences that 2008 will bring. With the likes of 3GSM in Barcelona heading the bill, and many others including MACC in Florida, many companies will be pitching their ideas for the “Killer App” of 2008.

Mobile content is an industry that thrives on end user participation, mostly targetted towards teens and early twenties who are looking to get the latest cheesy ringtone or wallpaper.

So when you look at the Christmas period, you can see that this has the opportunity for huge content sales, and market potential. New mobile phones are given as gifts, Christmas money goes towards pay as you go credit, and festive ring tones are at a high. So this should be the time when customers are exposed to content providing systems at the peak. Ensuring a quality of service, and new innovational products cross promoted will help to boost business opportunities.

Lets just hope that next Christmas period, the mobile industry does not let this powerful time of consumer targeting slip, and loose potential customers.