Innovative Cities for the Next Generation
CING stands for “Innovative Cities for the Next Generation” It is a Specific targeted research project / IST call 4 funded by the E.C.
ICING (Innovative Cities for the Next Generation) proposes to research concepts of e-Government based on a multimodal, multi-access approach to a ‘thin-skinned City’ that is sensitive to the citizen and to the environment, using mobile devices, universal access gateways, social software and environmental sensors.
The intelligent infrastructure will enable a Public Administration Services layer and a Communities layer. Communities will be able to interact with the infrastructure to get services created by the administration, and create their own information-based services.
Outcomes include a Vision Model of a more sensitive and accessible city; Technology Models and Open Source Tools for multi-modal access, Communications Gateways and Location Based Services that interact with the citizen and the environment; an ‘Urban Mediator’ system for citizen-led services; Research-Based Evidence of community use; a Roadmap for implementation and further RTD.
Resources:
Proposal Abstract
Project site
Thursday, February 02, 2006
TopMoto: Motorola Helps Operators Extend ‘Push’ of a Button Services to Prepaid Consumer Market
New solution enables Motorola PoC service for Prepaid users as packet service for the Prepaid market
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.– 1 Feb. 2006 – Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today announced the Push-to-Talk Over Cellular (PoC) Prepaid Mediation Solution, a new service that enables wireless operators to extend PoC services to prepaid customers in parallel with their postpaid subscribers. Motorola’s end-to-end PoC Prepaid Mediation Solution encompasses the network, devices and services.
This mediation solution can be extended to support other applications’ prepaid billing needs by integrating with operators’ network services enablers such as messaging, location-based services, video streaming and email solutions.
“More than 60 percent of global wireless consumers are prepaid subscribers1,” said Sri Kannankote, Motorola’s corporate vice president, Network Services and Applications Management. “As a global leader in PoC, this solution is a natural extension of our portfolio that provides operators with another method for offering advanced services to increase average revenue per user.
Motorola Global Application Management Architecture (GAMA) enables this mediation solution and works with virtually any billing system to accommodate operators' needs. This plug-and-play interface enables swift authentication and debiting of the customer account without a delay in call set-up and can support various types of PoC Prepaid billing scenarios that require a more customized approach to rating, such as pay per minute, pay per session or unlimited calling. GAMA also provides the service providers with a common service delivery and content management architecture that simplifies and accelerates the creation, deployment and management of end-user applications and services.
According to Yankee Group analyst Erica Fox, “the expansion of prepaid payment options has been one of the most critical growth drivers of the worldwide wireless market. Latin American markets for example have increased the share of prepaid subscribers from 80 percent to 85 percent during the last three years and are predicted to maintain a steady 85 percent through 2009.”
In addition, because the solution has the ability to support future services like Push-to-View, subscribers can continue to enhance the way they communicate through new services not realized before. From an operator perspective, this flexibility provides a path for achieving revenue growth not only through the delivery of new services, but also through a more efficient billing infrastructure.
Now, PoC makes it possible for prepaid and postpaid customers to share a special moment with an entire “buddy list” - including friends and family across the globe - instantly during one discussion.
Motorola is a leader in deploying PoC with more than 46 commercial contracts in 35 countries and territories worldwide and anticipates that it will continue to participate in the growth of this service in emerging markets. The PoC Prepaid Mediation solution can be deployed on CDMA, GSM or UMTS networks.
New solution enables Motorola PoC service for Prepaid users as packet service for the Prepaid market
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.– 1 Feb. 2006 – Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today announced the Push-to-Talk Over Cellular (PoC) Prepaid Mediation Solution, a new service that enables wireless operators to extend PoC services to prepaid customers in parallel with their postpaid subscribers. Motorola’s end-to-end PoC Prepaid Mediation Solution encompasses the network, devices and services.
This mediation solution can be extended to support other applications’ prepaid billing needs by integrating with operators’ network services enablers such as messaging, location-based services, video streaming and email solutions.
“More than 60 percent of global wireless consumers are prepaid subscribers1,” said Sri Kannankote, Motorola’s corporate vice president, Network Services and Applications Management. “As a global leader in PoC, this solution is a natural extension of our portfolio that provides operators with another method for offering advanced services to increase average revenue per user.
Motorola Global Application Management Architecture (GAMA) enables this mediation solution and works with virtually any billing system to accommodate operators' needs. This plug-and-play interface enables swift authentication and debiting of the customer account without a delay in call set-up and can support various types of PoC Prepaid billing scenarios that require a more customized approach to rating, such as pay per minute, pay per session or unlimited calling. GAMA also provides the service providers with a common service delivery and content management architecture that simplifies and accelerates the creation, deployment and management of end-user applications and services.
According to Yankee Group analyst Erica Fox, “the expansion of prepaid payment options has been one of the most critical growth drivers of the worldwide wireless market. Latin American markets for example have increased the share of prepaid subscribers from 80 percent to 85 percent during the last three years and are predicted to maintain a steady 85 percent through 2009.”
In addition, because the solution has the ability to support future services like Push-to-View, subscribers can continue to enhance the way they communicate through new services not realized before. From an operator perspective, this flexibility provides a path for achieving revenue growth not only through the delivery of new services, but also through a more efficient billing infrastructure.
Now, PoC makes it possible for prepaid and postpaid customers to share a special moment with an entire “buddy list” - including friends and family across the globe - instantly during one discussion.
Motorola is a leader in deploying PoC with more than 46 commercial contracts in 35 countries and territories worldwide and anticipates that it will continue to participate in the growth of this service in emerging markets. The PoC Prepaid Mediation solution can be deployed on CDMA, GSM or UMTS networks.
Making Connections, Here and Now - New York Times
SIGNS Yellow Arrow is a program that uses text messages and stickers to link to real-world sites. A sticker at the Children's Animal Farm in Copenhagen has a message from Mai Christiansen, a mayoral candidate.
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By ETHAN TODRAS-WHITEHILL
Published: January 25, 2006
MORE and more cellphones know exactly where their owners are at any given time, and software developers are trying to leverage that ability to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. These programs aim to "browse" the physical space around you, connecting you to people, places and unexpected bits of information.
Enlarge This Image
Urban Task Force
ONE WORLD A page from the Web site of Yellow Arrow, which uses stickers and text messages to connect Internet sites with physical locations.
The programs, collectively labeled mobile social software, are part of the broader genre of location-based services. They allow users of cellphones and other mobile devices to view or retrieve material created by someone else, or to connect with the users, based on time and geographical location.
To the extent that the programs are successful, they are birthing a hybrid that cognoscenti call the geospatial Web, the Internet overlaid on the real world.
One of the first pieces of mobile social software was Dodgeball (dodgeball.com), which sends registered participants text messages when other participants (or their friends) are nearby. Dodgeball, which was introduced in 2004, was recently acquired by Google, a sign that such programs may be gaining traction. Others like it are appearing around the country and expanding on the concept.
These programs are in their infancy, now being used mainly by technology aficionados, but their potential is vast. In the future, users may subscribe to the mobile posts of bloggers who review neighborhood lunch spots or to business travelers who share city-specific survival tips. On the Web, your location may not matter, but on the geospatial Web, location is crucial in determining the kind of information you will receive.
Yellow Arrow (yellowarrow.net) is a program that uses real-world stickers and text messages to link multimedia content to physical space. Higher-tech options exist, like automatically sending content associated with a spot to anybody who carries a cellphone past it. But Yellow Arrow's co-founder, Christopher Allen, said he chose text messages and stickers, the "lowest common denominator" approach, to make the project as accessible as possible. It appears to have worked as users have posted 50,000 arrows and messages in the year and a half of the project, he said.
Yellow Arrow played a bit part in City Council elections in Copenhagen last November. The South Harbor Voices project encouraged mayoral candidates to walk around the South Harbor district and place stickers pointing to neighborhood features. Using text messages, passers-by could retrieve candidates' thoughts by sending a message to the addresses on the stickers, then add their own thoughts as they might add comments to a blog.
"The stickers and the messages are permanent," said Mai Christiansen, an unsuccessful candidate who posted yellow arrows bemoaning an underdeveloped square and cheering a community stable. "It's words politicians can't run away from."
More recent projects include Socialight (socialight.com), which lets users put virtual Post-it notes in places where other users can see them; Rabble (rabble.com), a mobile blogging tool that allows posts to be linked to a location (think of a mobile MySpace); and StreetHive (streethive.com), which combines the virtual Post-it idea with social networking à la Dodgeball.
What the industry calls passive location awareness on the part of cellphones is critical to growth in mobile social software. It simply means that a phone knows where it is because it is equipped with technology like a Global Positioning System. Most current location-based services do not automatically keep track of where you are; you need to tell them by sending a text message. Passive awareness in your cellphone, by contrast, lets sites like Socialight or Dodgeball keep track of where you are all the time and send you relevant information posted by others.
But getting passive awareness on your phone is not easy. The federal government's Enhanced 911 directive requires all new cellphones to report location during a 911 call, spurring phone makers to integrate G.P.S. and other location technologies. But cellular carriers have mostly refused to make location information widely available to outsiders. Workarounds include phones that make G.P.S. readings accessible to the user, like many Sprint Nextel Boost handsets, and Wi-Fi positioning systems. But these are not widespread enough to be useful for this purpose.
Finally, cellphone users are suspicious of passive location awareness because they do not want to get unsolicited location-based text messages, or geospam, from advertisers as they pass stores.
But those who find the geospatial Web concept appealing have reason to hope for its continued development.
Rave Wireless, a student-focused mobile social service that allows students and faculty members to broadcast information that all students can access from their cellphones, began operation at Montclair State University in New Jersey in September and is being introduced in at least 10 universities this year. Rave Wireless expects to add social Post-it features in March.
Largely avoiding the advertising approach (some coupons from campus vendors are offered to participants), Rave has built a business model based on connecting universities with their students through handsets. It already has a deal with Sprint Nextel for location information and expects to sign with another carrier soon.
As for other mobile social programs, a press officer for Verizon Wireless suggested that in the future the company might let its customers use such services through an off-network, "trusted content provider" model.
And geospam? It may actually materialize, and even the developers of mobile software are not thrilled by the idea.
"The billboards are already there," said Mr. Allen of Yellow Arrow. "I don't need a message in my pocket to tell me McDonald's is around the corner."
More Articles in Technology >
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SIGNS Yellow Arrow is a program that uses text messages and stickers to link to real-world sites. A sticker at the Children's Animal Farm in Copenhagen has a message from Mai Christiansen, a mayoral candidate.
Sign In to E-Mail This
Printer-Friendly
Reprints
Save Article
By ETHAN TODRAS-WHITEHILL
Published: January 25, 2006
MORE and more cellphones know exactly where their owners are at any given time, and software developers are trying to leverage that ability to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. These programs aim to "browse" the physical space around you, connecting you to people, places and unexpected bits of information.
Enlarge This Image
Urban Task Force
ONE WORLD A page from the Web site of Yellow Arrow, which uses stickers and text messages to connect Internet sites with physical locations.
The programs, collectively labeled mobile social software, are part of the broader genre of location-based services. They allow users of cellphones and other mobile devices to view or retrieve material created by someone else, or to connect with the users, based on time and geographical location.
To the extent that the programs are successful, they are birthing a hybrid that cognoscenti call the geospatial Web, the Internet overlaid on the real world.
One of the first pieces of mobile social software was Dodgeball (dodgeball.com), which sends registered participants text messages when other participants (or their friends) are nearby. Dodgeball, which was introduced in 2004, was recently acquired by Google, a sign that such programs may be gaining traction. Others like it are appearing around the country and expanding on the concept.
These programs are in their infancy, now being used mainly by technology aficionados, but their potential is vast. In the future, users may subscribe to the mobile posts of bloggers who review neighborhood lunch spots or to business travelers who share city-specific survival tips. On the Web, your location may not matter, but on the geospatial Web, location is crucial in determining the kind of information you will receive.
Yellow Arrow (yellowarrow.net) is a program that uses real-world stickers and text messages to link multimedia content to physical space. Higher-tech options exist, like automatically sending content associated with a spot to anybody who carries a cellphone past it. But Yellow Arrow's co-founder, Christopher Allen, said he chose text messages and stickers, the "lowest common denominator" approach, to make the project as accessible as possible. It appears to have worked as users have posted 50,000 arrows and messages in the year and a half of the project, he said.
Yellow Arrow played a bit part in City Council elections in Copenhagen last November. The South Harbor Voices project encouraged mayoral candidates to walk around the South Harbor district and place stickers pointing to neighborhood features. Using text messages, passers-by could retrieve candidates' thoughts by sending a message to the addresses on the stickers, then add their own thoughts as they might add comments to a blog.
"The stickers and the messages are permanent," said Mai Christiansen, an unsuccessful candidate who posted yellow arrows bemoaning an underdeveloped square and cheering a community stable. "It's words politicians can't run away from."
More recent projects include Socialight (socialight.com), which lets users put virtual Post-it notes in places where other users can see them; Rabble (rabble.com), a mobile blogging tool that allows posts to be linked to a location (think of a mobile MySpace); and StreetHive (streethive.com), which combines the virtual Post-it idea with social networking à la Dodgeball.
What the industry calls passive location awareness on the part of cellphones is critical to growth in mobile social software. It simply means that a phone knows where it is because it is equipped with technology like a Global Positioning System. Most current location-based services do not automatically keep track of where you are; you need to tell them by sending a text message. Passive awareness in your cellphone, by contrast, lets sites like Socialight or Dodgeball keep track of where you are all the time and send you relevant information posted by others.
But getting passive awareness on your phone is not easy. The federal government's Enhanced 911 directive requires all new cellphones to report location during a 911 call, spurring phone makers to integrate G.P.S. and other location technologies. But cellular carriers have mostly refused to make location information widely available to outsiders. Workarounds include phones that make G.P.S. readings accessible to the user, like many Sprint Nextel Boost handsets, and Wi-Fi positioning systems. But these are not widespread enough to be useful for this purpose.
Finally, cellphone users are suspicious of passive location awareness because they do not want to get unsolicited location-based text messages, or geospam, from advertisers as they pass stores.
But those who find the geospatial Web concept appealing have reason to hope for its continued development.
Rave Wireless, a student-focused mobile social service that allows students and faculty members to broadcast information that all students can access from their cellphones, began operation at Montclair State University in New Jersey in September and is being introduced in at least 10 universities this year. Rave Wireless expects to add social Post-it features in March.
Largely avoiding the advertising approach (some coupons from campus vendors are offered to participants), Rave has built a business model based on connecting universities with their students through handsets. It already has a deal with Sprint Nextel for location information and expects to sign with another carrier soon.
As for other mobile social programs, a press officer for Verizon Wireless suggested that in the future the company might let its customers use such services through an off-network, "trusted content provider" model.
And geospam? It may actually materialize, and even the developers of mobile software are not thrilled by the idea.
"The billboards are already there," said Mr. Allen of Yellow Arrow. "I don't need a message in my pocket to tell me McDonald's is around the corner."
More Articles in Technology >
Order an Online Edition of The
Lenovo to Built HSDPA/UMTS Cards into Thinkpad T60 and X60 Notebooks
enovo has selected the Sierra Wireless MC8755 PCI Express Mini Card embedded module for HSDPA/UMTS networks for integration into the ThinkPad T60 and X60 notebook computers for European markets.
This follows recent collaborations between the two companies in integrating EV-DO connectivity into business notebooks for North American customers.
Mobile professionals with AirCard Enabled notebook computers will be able to enjoy the benefits provided by simple, convenient access to 3G networks, built right into their computers. Quick mobile access to the Internet, email (even with large attachments), and online corporate applications ensures that road warriors and business travelers can make the most efficient use of their time.
The MC8755 PCI Express Mini Card module is built using the MSM6275 Mobile Station Modem chipset from QUALCOMM and offers peak download speeds of 1.8 Mbps. The MC8755 operates on the 2100 MHz HSDPA/UMTS frequency band and is designed for markets in Europe and Asia.
MC8755 modules are also compatible with GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks on all four GSM frequency bands (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz), for global roaming in areas where an HSDPA or UMTS network is not available.
The MC8755 module measures 51 x 30 x 4.5 mm, and weighs less than 12 g.
enovo has selected the Sierra Wireless MC8755 PCI Express Mini Card embedded module for HSDPA/UMTS networks for integration into the ThinkPad T60 and X60 notebook computers for European markets.
This follows recent collaborations between the two companies in integrating EV-DO connectivity into business notebooks for North American customers.
Mobile professionals with AirCard Enabled notebook computers will be able to enjoy the benefits provided by simple, convenient access to 3G networks, built right into their computers. Quick mobile access to the Internet, email (even with large attachments), and online corporate applications ensures that road warriors and business travelers can make the most efficient use of their time.
The MC8755 PCI Express Mini Card module is built using the MSM6275 Mobile Station Modem chipset from QUALCOMM and offers peak download speeds of 1.8 Mbps. The MC8755 operates on the 2100 MHz HSDPA/UMTS frequency band and is designed for markets in Europe and Asia.
MC8755 modules are also compatible with GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks on all four GSM frequency bands (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz), for global roaming in areas where an HSDPA or UMTS network is not available.
The MC8755 module measures 51 x 30 x 4.5 mm, and weighs less than 12 g.
Orange Australia to Migrate to 3 Brand
Hutchison Telecoms has joined its mobile services, Orange and 3, under the single brand 3, and plans to upgrade Orange customers from its 2G CDMA network to its 3G network.
“The appetite for 3G services is growing in Australia and globally,” said Kevin Russell, CEO Hutchison Telecoms. “It is the future for delivering mobile services and in the next two to three years we will see its rapid adoption – fuelled by exciting multi functional handsets and appealing information, entertainment and communication services. 3 has led the way in making the 3G experience a present day reality for over half a million customers, and we want our 2G customers to be able to upgrade and experience 3G easily.”
“Bringing our 2G customers well and truly into the 3 family by rebranding is the first step. The next step is providing those customers with the most compelling plans, market leading handsets, and access to 3’s exciting services,” Russell added.
2G customers will now receive 3 branded bills and correspondence, and are receiving exclusive offers to upgrade to 3G, including attractive plans and subsidised handset pricing.
“With these outstanding offers we expect the uptake to be high. In January alone, in a campaign to a targeted segment of our base, over 20,000 2G customers upgraded to 3G. This interest in upgrading will grow with today’s launch of the first mass market Nokia 3G handset – the 6280,” Russell added.
With the anticipated demand, additional capacity in key areas of sales, service and support has been provided to ensure a positive customer experience.
Customers upgrading will be able to do so either in 3 Stores or Dealers, as well as by phone or web. All channels previously selling 3 and Orange, will exclusively sell 3’s 3G service.
The company also hinted at the discontinuation of their 2G CDMA operations, following the move from Australia's largest operator, Telstra: “Once a significant proportion of our customers have upgraded and are settled in with their 3G service, we will review our plans for continuing to operate our CDMA network. Telstra has already put a timestamp on that technology of approximately three years. Customers want certainty now, so we would expect that upgrade process to complete well within that timeframe,” Russell said.
Hutchison Telecoms has joined its mobile services, Orange and 3, under the single brand 3, and plans to upgrade Orange customers from its 2G CDMA network to its 3G network.
“The appetite for 3G services is growing in Australia and globally,” said Kevin Russell, CEO Hutchison Telecoms. “It is the future for delivering mobile services and in the next two to three years we will see its rapid adoption – fuelled by exciting multi functional handsets and appealing information, entertainment and communication services. 3 has led the way in making the 3G experience a present day reality for over half a million customers, and we want our 2G customers to be able to upgrade and experience 3G easily.”
“Bringing our 2G customers well and truly into the 3 family by rebranding is the first step. The next step is providing those customers with the most compelling plans, market leading handsets, and access to 3’s exciting services,” Russell added.
2G customers will now receive 3 branded bills and correspondence, and are receiving exclusive offers to upgrade to 3G, including attractive plans and subsidised handset pricing.
“With these outstanding offers we expect the uptake to be high. In January alone, in a campaign to a targeted segment of our base, over 20,000 2G customers upgraded to 3G. This interest in upgrading will grow with today’s launch of the first mass market Nokia 3G handset – the 6280,” Russell added.
With the anticipated demand, additional capacity in key areas of sales, service and support has been provided to ensure a positive customer experience.
Customers upgrading will be able to do so either in 3 Stores or Dealers, as well as by phone or web. All channels previously selling 3 and Orange, will exclusively sell 3’s 3G service.
The company also hinted at the discontinuation of their 2G CDMA operations, following the move from Australia's largest operator, Telstra: “Once a significant proportion of our customers have upgraded and are settled in with their 3G service, we will review our plans for continuing to operate our CDMA network. Telstra has already put a timestamp on that technology of approximately three years. Customers want certainty now, so we would expect that upgrade process to complete well within that timeframe,” Russell said.
Coming Under Friendly Fire - Pass It On at MobHappy
One of the huge trends and consequent opportunities in the next couple of years will be peer transmitted content on the mobile phone. Just as our email inboxes fill up with jokes, news and “interesting” info sent by well meaning friends, colleagues and relatives, this trend will start happening on your mobile.
Actually, this sounds rather curmudgeonly. I know a lot of people hate this sort of email, but personally I love it. Or if I don’t like your brand of humour or interests, I’ll break it to you gently and quickly.
This trend was given a significant boost recently by none other than Google and their new Tool Bar extension:
Google Send to Phone for Firefox is an extension that enables you to send short text messages of web page content to your mobile phone. For example, you might text message yourself a phone number, an address, or directions that you find on the Web.
Or just fill up your arch enemy’s mobile’s inbox - because you can.
This trend will create commercial opportunities too, as marketers attempt to harness it for their own ends - so called Viral Marketing will be coming to your phone soon, if it hasn’t already.
Despite its rather unpleasant name, viral marketing actually makes a lot of sense for recipients of marketing messages as well as the marketers themselves. Your friends and colleagues act as your marketing gatekeepers and only pass on messages that they think you’ll appreciate. OK, Uncle Charlie doesn’t quite understand that just because something arrives in his email box, you’re not necessarily going to find it funny too - but generally the self-filtering, or policing, works surprisingly well.
Marketers love viral as it’s cheap (no communication or crippling media costs) and effective (when it works) as an email from a friend is generally going to get opened and read (apart from Uncle Charlie’s).
So I was interested to read about Sharpe Partners’ survey into viral marketing reported in eMarketer. Note that this was about email viral campaigns and that Sharp Partners are a viral marketing agency, so their motives aren’t in doubt - they’re not likely to conclude viral marketing is bad thing, after all.
Even so, I was mildly surprised at how high sharing email content is and I think it’s a sign of things to come for your mobile. Brace yourself for an onslaught.
89% of US internet users claim to share content, 63% share weekly and an amazing 25% share daily. Note that this isn’t necessarily commercial viral campaigns, it’s anything doing the rounds that these people feel the need to share with others.
75% of respondents shared with up to 6 people.
The most popular things to share were jokes and humour, somewhat predictable coming in first at 88%, followed by news and articles at 56%. For me, a surprising 30% claimed to share religious or spiritual messages, but then maybe my friends don’t think I’m worth saving.
As far as commercial or sponsored messages are concerned, only 5% said that they would definitely NOT send these types of messages on. And for some reason 43% said they were MORE likely to forward these on. Umm…why? I can understand people saying that if a funny joke comes with some branding, they’d still send it on, but why would they be more likely to?
They also uncovered a type if person called a Brand Fan, who basically loves spreading branded content. It takes all sorts, but please don’t go giving them my email address.
As we see our mobile phones used to spread content by our peers, whether it be motive-and-commercial-free, or sponsored, I have a final thought. In many ways, I’d be much more inclined to sign up for a mobile marketing channel, where I controlled what messages I receive, when I get them and how many, than rely on the vagaries of what my friends think I might like. Interesting, no?
And in the meantime, if you have something you’d like to share, please drop me an email and leave my mobile out of it.
One of the huge trends and consequent opportunities in the next couple of years will be peer transmitted content on the mobile phone. Just as our email inboxes fill up with jokes, news and “interesting” info sent by well meaning friends, colleagues and relatives, this trend will start happening on your mobile.
Actually, this sounds rather curmudgeonly. I know a lot of people hate this sort of email, but personally I love it. Or if I don’t like your brand of humour or interests, I’ll break it to you gently and quickly.
This trend was given a significant boost recently by none other than Google and their new Tool Bar extension:
Google Send to Phone for Firefox is an extension that enables you to send short text messages of web page content to your mobile phone. For example, you might text message yourself a phone number, an address, or directions that you find on the Web.
Or just fill up your arch enemy’s mobile’s inbox - because you can.
This trend will create commercial opportunities too, as marketers attempt to harness it for their own ends - so called Viral Marketing will be coming to your phone soon, if it hasn’t already.
Despite its rather unpleasant name, viral marketing actually makes a lot of sense for recipients of marketing messages as well as the marketers themselves. Your friends and colleagues act as your marketing gatekeepers and only pass on messages that they think you’ll appreciate. OK, Uncle Charlie doesn’t quite understand that just because something arrives in his email box, you’re not necessarily going to find it funny too - but generally the self-filtering, or policing, works surprisingly well.
Marketers love viral as it’s cheap (no communication or crippling media costs) and effective (when it works) as an email from a friend is generally going to get opened and read (apart from Uncle Charlie’s).
So I was interested to read about Sharpe Partners’ survey into viral marketing reported in eMarketer. Note that this was about email viral campaigns and that Sharp Partners are a viral marketing agency, so their motives aren’t in doubt - they’re not likely to conclude viral marketing is bad thing, after all.
Even so, I was mildly surprised at how high sharing email content is and I think it’s a sign of things to come for your mobile. Brace yourself for an onslaught.
89% of US internet users claim to share content, 63% share weekly and an amazing 25% share daily. Note that this isn’t necessarily commercial viral campaigns, it’s anything doing the rounds that these people feel the need to share with others.
75% of respondents shared with up to 6 people.
The most popular things to share were jokes and humour, somewhat predictable coming in first at 88%, followed by news and articles at 56%. For me, a surprising 30% claimed to share religious or spiritual messages, but then maybe my friends don’t think I’m worth saving.
As far as commercial or sponsored messages are concerned, only 5% said that they would definitely NOT send these types of messages on. And for some reason 43% said they were MORE likely to forward these on. Umm…why? I can understand people saying that if a funny joke comes with some branding, they’d still send it on, but why would they be more likely to?
They also uncovered a type if person called a Brand Fan, who basically loves spreading branded content. It takes all sorts, but please don’t go giving them my email address.
As we see our mobile phones used to spread content by our peers, whether it be motive-and-commercial-free, or sponsored, I have a final thought. In many ways, I’d be much more inclined to sign up for a mobile marketing channel, where I controlled what messages I receive, when I get them and how many, than rely on the vagaries of what my friends think I might like. Interesting, no?
And in the meantime, if you have something you’d like to share, please drop me an email and leave my mobile out of it.
The End of the Internet?
The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.
Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from content providers to individual users--would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.
To make this pay-to-play vision a reality, phone and cable lobbyists are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communications policy laws. They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. Indeed, both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are considering proposals that will have far-reaching impact on the Internet's future. Ten years after passage of the ill-advised Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone and cable companies are using the same political snake oil to convince compromised or clueless lawmakers to subvert the Internet into a turbo-charged digital retail machine.
The telephone industry has been somewhat more candid than the cable industry about its strategy for the Internet's future. Senior phone executives have publicly discussed plans to begin imposing a new scheme for the delivery of Internet content, especially from major Internet content companies. As Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"
The phone industry has marshaled its political allies to help win the freedom to impose this new broadband business model. At a recent conference held by the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank funded by Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and other media companies, there was much discussion of a plan for phone companies to impose fees on a sliding scale, charging content providers different levels of service. "Price discrimination," noted PFF's resident media expert Adam Thierer, "drives the market-based capitalist economy."
Net Neutrality
To ward off the prospect of virtual toll booths on the information highway, some new media companies and public-interest groups are calling for new federal policies requiring "network neutrality" on the Internet. Common Cause, Amazon, Google, Free Press, Media Access Project and Consumers Union, among others, have proposed that broadband providers would be prohibited from discriminating against all forms of digital content. For example, phone or cable companies would not be allowed to slow down competing or undesirable content.
Without proactive intervention, the values and issues that we care about--civil rights, economic justice, the environment and fair elections--will be further threatened by this push for corporate control. Imagine how the next presidential election would unfold if major political advertisers could make strategic payments to Comcast so that ads from Democratic and Republican candidates were more visible and user-friendly than ads of third-party candidates with less funds. Consider what would happen if an online advertisement promoting nuclear power prominently popped up on a cable broadband page, while a competing message from an environmental group was relegated to the margins. It is possible that all forms of civic and noncommercial online programming would be pushed to the end of a commercial digital queue.
But such "neutrality" safeguards are inadequate to address more fundamental changes the Bells and cable monopolies are seeking in their quest to monetize the Internet. If we permit the Internet to become a medium designed primarily to serve the interests of marketing and personal consumption, rather than global civic-related communications, we will face the political consequences for decades to come. Unless we push back, the "brandwashing" of America will permeate not only our information infrastructure but global society and culture as well.
Why are the Bells and cable companies aggressively advancing such plans? With the arrival of the long-awaited "convergence" of communications, our media system is undergoing a major transformation. Telephone and cable giants envision a potential lucrative "triple play," as they impose near-monopoly control over the residential broadband services that send video, voice and data communications flowing into our televisions, home computers, cell phones and iPods. All of these many billions of bits will be delivered over the telephone and cable lines.
Video programming is of foremost interest to both the phone and cable companies. The telephone industry, like its cable rival, is now in the TV and media business, offering customers television channels, on-demand videos and games. Online advertising is increasingly integrating multimedia (such as animation and full-motion video) in its pitches. Since video-driven material requires a great deal of Internet bandwidth as it travels online, phone and cable companies want to make sure their television "applications" receive preferential treatment on the networks they operate. And their overall influence over the stream of information coming into your home (or mobile device) gives them the leverage to determine how the broadband business evolves.
Mining Your Data
At the core of the new power held by phone and cable companies are tools delivering what is known as "deep packet inspection." With these tools, AT&T and others can readily know the packets of information you are receiving online--from e-mail, to websites, to sharing of music, video and software downloads.
These "deep packet inspection" technologies are partly designed to make sure that the Internet pipeline doesn't become so congested it chokes off the delivery of timely communications. Such products have already been sold to universities and large businesses that want to more economically manage their Internet services. They are also being used to limit some peer-to-peer downloading, especially for music.
But these tools are also being promoted as ways that companies, such as Comcast and Bell South, can simply grab greater control over the Internet. For example, in a series of recent white papers, Internet technology giant Cisco urges these companies to "meter individual subscriber usage by application," as individuals' online travels are "tracked" and "integrated with billing systems." Such tracking and billing is made possible because they will know "the identity and profile of the individual subscriber," "what the subscriber is doing" and "where the subscriber resides."
Will Google, Amazon and the other companies successfully fight the plans of the Bells and cable companies? Ultimately, they are likely to cut a deal because they, too, are interested in monetizing our online activities. After all, as Cisco notes, content companies and network providers will need to "cooperate with each other to leverage their value proposition." They will be drawn by the ability of cable and phone companies to track "content usage...by subscriber," and where their online services can be "protected from piracy, metered, and appropriately valued."
Our Digital Destiny
It was former FCC chairman Michael Powell, with the support of then-commissioner and current chair Kevin Martin, who permitted phone and cable giants to have greater control over broadband. Powell and his GOP majority eliminated longstanding regulatory safeguards requiring phone companies to operate as nondiscriminatory networks (technically known as "common carriers"). He refused to require that cable companies, when providing Internet access, also operate in a similar nondiscriminatory manner. As Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig has long noted, it is government regulation of the phone lines that helped make the Internet today's vibrant, diverse and democratic medium.
But now, the phone companies are lobbying Washington to kill off what's left of "common carrier" policy. They wish to operate their Internet services as fully "private" networks. Phone and cable companies claim that the government shouldn't play a role in broadband regulation: Instead of the free and open network that offers equal access to all, they want to reduce the Internet to a series of business decisions between consumers and providers.
Besides their business interests, telephone and cable companies also have a larger political agenda. Both industries oppose giving local communities the right to create their own local Internet wireless or wi-fi networks. They also want to eliminate the last vestige of local oversight from electronic media--the ability of city or county government, for example, to require telecommunications companies to serve the public interest with, for example, public-access TV channels. The Bells also want to further reduce the ability of the FCC to oversee communications policy. They hope that both the FCC and Congress--via a new Communications Act--will back these proposals.
The future of the online media in the United States will ultimately depend on whether the Bells and cable companies are allowed to determine the country's "digital destiny." So before there are any policy decisions, a national debate should begin about how the Internet should serve the public. We must insure that phone and cable companies operate their Internet services in the public interest--as stewards for a vital medium for free expression.
If Americans are to succeed in designing an equitable digital destiny for themselves, they must mount an intensive opposition similar to the successful challenges to the FCC's media ownership rules in 2003. Without such a public outcry to rein in the GOP's corporate-driven agenda, it is likely that even many of the Democrats who rallied against further consolidation will be "tamed" by the well-funded lobbying campaigns of the powerful phone and cable industry.
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If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
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about
Jeff Chester
Jeff Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy (www.democraticmedia.org), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit. His book on US media politics, Digital Destiny, will be published in the fall by The New Press.
more...
also by
Jeff Chester
ABC's Digital Convention Scam
Jeff Chester | ABC will cover the GOP convention precisely as it covered the Democratic event--by largely ignoring it.
08/30/2004 (web)
A Present for Murdoch
Jeff Chester
12/22/2003 issue
There Is No Silver Lining
Jack Newfield, David Helvarg & Jeff Chester
12/9/2002 issue
more...
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Internet & New Media
You've Got Jail
Robert Scheer | Obsessed voyeurs in the Bush Administration are poking their noses into everyone's business, with the help of Internet giants like Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo.
02/6/2006 (web)
All the King's Media
William Greider | The scandals suffocating the Bush Administration seem less like Nixon and Watergate and more like Louis XV and pre-Revolutionary France. They are harbingers of a potent cultural event that may jolt the public out of complacency.
11/21/2005 issue
The Porn of War
George Zornick | What began as an amateur porn site has become a magnet for graphic images of combat and derisive comments posted by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But military officials are loath to condemn it.
10/10/2005 (web)
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Corporate Responsibility & Accountability
Titans of Trash
Heather Rogers | Gas-guzzling SUVs take a lot of blame, but landfills make stealthy stealthy contributions to climate change. While they should be developing innovative waste disposal strategies, corporate-owned landfills use techniques that generate heat-trapping methane that accelerate global warming.
12/19/2005 issue
The Disappearing Flu Vaccine
Nicholas von Hoffman | Flu vaccine is in short supply this season, and the reason is that drug companies can't make as much money protecting us from disease as from developing expensive treatments for niche illnesses.
11/28/2005 (web)
On the Wal-Mart Money Trail
Liza Featherstone | As the nation's wealthiest family, the Waltons could be a force for social good. But when they choose to spend their fortune lobbying for pet projects, tax cuts and charter schools instead of providing a living wage for their workers, they are dangerous (and costly) to the nation.
11/21/2005 issue
more...
MOBILE | AB
The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.
Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from content providers to individual users--would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.
To make this pay-to-play vision a reality, phone and cable lobbyists are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communications policy laws. They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. Indeed, both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are considering proposals that will have far-reaching impact on the Internet's future. Ten years after passage of the ill-advised Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone and cable companies are using the same political snake oil to convince compromised or clueless lawmakers to subvert the Internet into a turbo-charged digital retail machine.
The telephone industry has been somewhat more candid than the cable industry about its strategy for the Internet's future. Senior phone executives have publicly discussed plans to begin imposing a new scheme for the delivery of Internet content, especially from major Internet content companies. As Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"
The phone industry has marshaled its political allies to help win the freedom to impose this new broadband business model. At a recent conference held by the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank funded by Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and other media companies, there was much discussion of a plan for phone companies to impose fees on a sliding scale, charging content providers different levels of service. "Price discrimination," noted PFF's resident media expert Adam Thierer, "drives the market-based capitalist economy."
Net Neutrality
To ward off the prospect of virtual toll booths on the information highway, some new media companies and public-interest groups are calling for new federal policies requiring "network neutrality" on the Internet. Common Cause, Amazon, Google, Free Press, Media Access Project and Consumers Union, among others, have proposed that broadband providers would be prohibited from discriminating against all forms of digital content. For example, phone or cable companies would not be allowed to slow down competing or undesirable content.
Without proactive intervention, the values and issues that we care about--civil rights, economic justice, the environment and fair elections--will be further threatened by this push for corporate control. Imagine how the next presidential election would unfold if major political advertisers could make strategic payments to Comcast so that ads from Democratic and Republican candidates were more visible and user-friendly than ads of third-party candidates with less funds. Consider what would happen if an online advertisement promoting nuclear power prominently popped up on a cable broadband page, while a competing message from an environmental group was relegated to the margins. It is possible that all forms of civic and noncommercial online programming would be pushed to the end of a commercial digital queue.
But such "neutrality" safeguards are inadequate to address more fundamental changes the Bells and cable monopolies are seeking in their quest to monetize the Internet. If we permit the Internet to become a medium designed primarily to serve the interests of marketing and personal consumption, rather than global civic-related communications, we will face the political consequences for decades to come. Unless we push back, the "brandwashing" of America will permeate not only our information infrastructure but global society and culture as well.
Why are the Bells and cable companies aggressively advancing such plans? With the arrival of the long-awaited "convergence" of communications, our media system is undergoing a major transformation. Telephone and cable giants envision a potential lucrative "triple play," as they impose near-monopoly control over the residential broadband services that send video, voice and data communications flowing into our televisions, home computers, cell phones and iPods. All of these many billions of bits will be delivered over the telephone and cable lines.
Video programming is of foremost interest to both the phone and cable companies. The telephone industry, like its cable rival, is now in the TV and media business, offering customers television channels, on-demand videos and games. Online advertising is increasingly integrating multimedia (such as animation and full-motion video) in its pitches. Since video-driven material requires a great deal of Internet bandwidth as it travels online, phone and cable companies want to make sure their television "applications" receive preferential treatment on the networks they operate. And their overall influence over the stream of information coming into your home (or mobile device) gives them the leverage to determine how the broadband business evolves.
Mining Your Data
At the core of the new power held by phone and cable companies are tools delivering what is known as "deep packet inspection." With these tools, AT&T and others can readily know the packets of information you are receiving online--from e-mail, to websites, to sharing of music, video and software downloads.
These "deep packet inspection" technologies are partly designed to make sure that the Internet pipeline doesn't become so congested it chokes off the delivery of timely communications. Such products have already been sold to universities and large businesses that want to more economically manage their Internet services. They are also being used to limit some peer-to-peer downloading, especially for music.
But these tools are also being promoted as ways that companies, such as Comcast and Bell South, can simply grab greater control over the Internet. For example, in a series of recent white papers, Internet technology giant Cisco urges these companies to "meter individual subscriber usage by application," as individuals' online travels are "tracked" and "integrated with billing systems." Such tracking and billing is made possible because they will know "the identity and profile of the individual subscriber," "what the subscriber is doing" and "where the subscriber resides."
Will Google, Amazon and the other companies successfully fight the plans of the Bells and cable companies? Ultimately, they are likely to cut a deal because they, too, are interested in monetizing our online activities. After all, as Cisco notes, content companies and network providers will need to "cooperate with each other to leverage their value proposition." They will be drawn by the ability of cable and phone companies to track "content usage...by subscriber," and where their online services can be "protected from piracy, metered, and appropriately valued."
Our Digital Destiny
It was former FCC chairman Michael Powell, with the support of then-commissioner and current chair Kevin Martin, who permitted phone and cable giants to have greater control over broadband. Powell and his GOP majority eliminated longstanding regulatory safeguards requiring phone companies to operate as nondiscriminatory networks (technically known as "common carriers"). He refused to require that cable companies, when providing Internet access, also operate in a similar nondiscriminatory manner. As Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig has long noted, it is government regulation of the phone lines that helped make the Internet today's vibrant, diverse and democratic medium.
But now, the phone companies are lobbying Washington to kill off what's left of "common carrier" policy. They wish to operate their Internet services as fully "private" networks. Phone and cable companies claim that the government shouldn't play a role in broadband regulation: Instead of the free and open network that offers equal access to all, they want to reduce the Internet to a series of business decisions between consumers and providers.
Besides their business interests, telephone and cable companies also have a larger political agenda. Both industries oppose giving local communities the right to create their own local Internet wireless or wi-fi networks. They also want to eliminate the last vestige of local oversight from electronic media--the ability of city or county government, for example, to require telecommunications companies to serve the public interest with, for example, public-access TV channels. The Bells also want to further reduce the ability of the FCC to oversee communications policy. They hope that both the FCC and Congress--via a new Communications Act--will back these proposals.
The future of the online media in the United States will ultimately depend on whether the Bells and cable companies are allowed to determine the country's "digital destiny." So before there are any policy decisions, a national debate should begin about how the Internet should serve the public. We must insure that phone and cable companies operate their Internet services in the public interest--as stewards for a vital medium for free expression.
If Americans are to succeed in designing an equitable digital destiny for themselves, they must mount an intensive opposition similar to the successful challenges to the FCC's media ownership rules in 2003. Without such a public outcry to rein in the GOP's corporate-driven agenda, it is likely that even many of the Democrats who rallied against further consolidation will be "tamed" by the well-funded lobbying campaigns of the powerful phone and cable industry.
Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
PRINT THIS ARTICLE | EMAIL THIS ARTICLE | WRITE TO THE EDITORS | TAKE ACTION NOW
about
Jeff Chester
Jeff Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy (www.democraticmedia.org), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit. His book on US media politics, Digital Destiny, will be published in the fall by The New Press.
more...
also by
Jeff Chester
ABC's Digital Convention Scam
Jeff Chester | ABC will cover the GOP convention precisely as it covered the Democratic event--by largely ignoring it.
08/30/2004 (web)
A Present for Murdoch
Jeff Chester
12/22/2003 issue
There Is No Silver Lining
Jack Newfield, David Helvarg & Jeff Chester
12/9/2002 issue
more...
related articles
Internet & New Media
You've Got Jail
Robert Scheer | Obsessed voyeurs in the Bush Administration are poking their noses into everyone's business, with the help of Internet giants like Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo.
02/6/2006 (web)
All the King's Media
William Greider | The scandals suffocating the Bush Administration seem less like Nixon and Watergate and more like Louis XV and pre-Revolutionary France. They are harbingers of a potent cultural event that may jolt the public out of complacency.
11/21/2005 issue
The Porn of War
George Zornick | What began as an amateur porn site has become a magnet for graphic images of combat and derisive comments posted by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But military officials are loath to condemn it.
10/10/2005 (web)
more...
related articles
Corporate Responsibility & Accountability
Titans of Trash
Heather Rogers | Gas-guzzling SUVs take a lot of blame, but landfills make stealthy stealthy contributions to climate change. While they should be developing innovative waste disposal strategies, corporate-owned landfills use techniques that generate heat-trapping methane that accelerate global warming.
12/19/2005 issue
The Disappearing Flu Vaccine
Nicholas von Hoffman | Flu vaccine is in short supply this season, and the reason is that drug companies can't make as much money protecting us from disease as from developing expensive treatments for niche illnesses.
11/28/2005 (web)
On the Wal-Mart Money Trail
Liza Featherstone | As the nation's wealthiest family, the Waltons could be a force for social good. But when they choose to spend their fortune lobbying for pet projects, tax cuts and charter schools instead of providing a living wage for their workers, they are dangerous (and costly) to the nation.
11/21/2005 issue
more...
MOBILE | AB
BBC Springwatch Survey Uses Location and SMS at MobHappy
y Russell Buckley on February 1st, 2006 in Mobile Society, Announcements, Location Based Services.
The BBC, that delta where creativity meets technology, have launched their Springwatch campaign, utilising sms and geolocation data.
Springwatch is designed to monitor the progress of Spring
throughout the UK. So they ask people to look out for six classic indicators, ranging from bees to Hawthorn blossom to Frogspawn. When you see one, you sms the relevant keyword in to a short code, immediately, whereupon the BBC capture the Cell ID (from the sound of it) and time and date.
This will enable them to map how Spring happens in the UK, in real time.
Good old WAP is roped in too, with a Spotter’s Guide available here.
This is a really nice use of rather primitive Cell ID, as pinpoint accuracy isn’t really important to the project.
Nice work Auntie and thanks to Simon for the info.
y Russell Buckley on February 1st, 2006 in Mobile Society, Announcements, Location Based Services.
The BBC, that delta where creativity meets technology, have launched their Springwatch campaign, utilising sms and geolocation data.
Springwatch is designed to monitor the progress of Spring
throughout the UK. So they ask people to look out for six classic indicators, ranging from bees to Hawthorn blossom to Frogspawn. When you see one, you sms the relevant keyword in to a short code, immediately, whereupon the BBC capture the Cell ID (from the sound of it) and time and date.
This will enable them to map how Spring happens in the UK, in real time.
Good old WAP is roped in too, with a Spotter’s Guide available here.
This is a really nice use of rather primitive Cell ID, as pinpoint accuracy isn’t really important to the project.
Nice work Auntie and thanks to Simon for the info.
Should Businesses Have Mobile Friendly Websites?
cellPhoneSafe: "A client of ours has asked us to develop a mobile friendly version of their website. Their CEO has a Pocket PC and his browsing experience of his site is not great. However, aside from keeping him happy, is there a business case for a mobile friendly version of his site? Is there actually any volume of web surfers using a Pocket PC, Palm, or other web-capable pocket devices? It's one thing to convince a client of the benefit of supporting Mozilla (else they'll loose 10% of potential customers), but how do the figures stack up for mobile users? To be honest, I'd be surprised if mobile users accounted for more than 1 in a 1000 visitors to a site, so I'd be interested in your experiences. Have you developed a website for mobile users? Were you overwhelmed with new customers? Did these mobile users expect a different service offering to traditional PC users?"
cellPhoneSafe: "A client of ours has asked us to develop a mobile friendly version of their website. Their CEO has a Pocket PC and his browsing experience of his site is not great. However, aside from keeping him happy, is there a business case for a mobile friendly version of his site? Is there actually any volume of web surfers using a Pocket PC, Palm, or other web-capable pocket devices? It's one thing to convince a client of the benefit of supporting Mozilla (else they'll loose 10% of potential customers), but how do the figures stack up for mobile users? To be honest, I'd be surprised if mobile users accounted for more than 1 in a 1000 visitors to a site, so I'd be interested in your experiences. Have you developed a website for mobile users? Were you overwhelmed with new customers? Did these mobile users expect a different service offering to traditional PC users?"
Vodafone To Allow Content Providers To Absorb Data Traffic Costs at MobHappy
by Carlo Longino on February 2nd, 2006 in Content Providers.
A recurring issue for mobile content providers and marketers is the cost end users must bear for data transfer, whether it’s on the mobile web or via messaging. It’s a particular problem in delivering content or applications to users with per-KB data plans, often adding significant cost to the stated price of the application — and an uncertain one at that.
My former colleague Justin Pearse broke the story at New Media Age last week, though that Vodafone is going to allow content providers to bundle traffic charges into the cost of their content, then take a cut of the revenues to cover the charges. This will let content providers charge an upfront, set price, or even allow for free browsing and downloads. The article’s gone behind the NMA paywall, but I’ll share some if it here (thanks Justin!):
Vodafone lets content providers charge consumers fixed price
by Justin Pearse, New Media Age
Vodafone is the first operator to launch a commercial offering for third parties to let them absorb the cost of data traffic, making browsing and download of content free for consumers, who will only pay the retail price for actual content.
This model has long been successfully used on the Vodafone Live! portal, a discrepancy which was seen by content providers like record labels as distorting the market.
“Rich media, such as audio and video, will be the next fillip for the mobile content market,” said Vodafone head of commercial partnerships Jeremy Flynn. “But a lot of current data tariffs are not 3G-centric. We’re introducing an 0800 data model that’ll be free to consumers and reverse-charged to content providers.”
Vodafone said it already had live services trialling. The service works by Vodafone zero-rating a URL so that consumers don’t pay to access content. If content providers have a fixed-size product, that’s always 1Mb, say, then Vodafone takes a cut of the revenue share. The alternative is for the operator to charge per megabyte.
Vodafone said it already had live services trialling. The service works by Vodafone zero-rating a URL so that consumers don’t pay to access content. If content providers have a fixed-size product, that’s always 1Mb, say, then Vodafone takes a cut of the revenue share. The alternative is for the operator to charge per megabyte.
This is a pretty significant move, and one that really should have happened sooner. The problem remains, though, that it only works on Vodafone for now — seeing this across all carriers would be more beneficial. But the idea that carriers will do this makes things much more straightforward for content providers, but particularly for marketers. It could also open up mobile web advertising, should it be possible to zero-rate ad servers so consumers aren’t charged to view ads.
by Carlo Longino on February 2nd, 2006 in Content Providers.
A recurring issue for mobile content providers and marketers is the cost end users must bear for data transfer, whether it’s on the mobile web or via messaging. It’s a particular problem in delivering content or applications to users with per-KB data plans, often adding significant cost to the stated price of the application — and an uncertain one at that.
My former colleague Justin Pearse broke the story at New Media Age last week, though that Vodafone is going to allow content providers to bundle traffic charges into the cost of their content, then take a cut of the revenues to cover the charges. This will let content providers charge an upfront, set price, or even allow for free browsing and downloads. The article’s gone behind the NMA paywall, but I’ll share some if it here (thanks Justin!):
Vodafone lets content providers charge consumers fixed price
by Justin Pearse, New Media Age
Vodafone is the first operator to launch a commercial offering for third parties to let them absorb the cost of data traffic, making browsing and download of content free for consumers, who will only pay the retail price for actual content.
This model has long been successfully used on the Vodafone Live! portal, a discrepancy which was seen by content providers like record labels as distorting the market.
“Rich media, such as audio and video, will be the next fillip for the mobile content market,” said Vodafone head of commercial partnerships Jeremy Flynn. “But a lot of current data tariffs are not 3G-centric. We’re introducing an 0800 data model that’ll be free to consumers and reverse-charged to content providers.”
Vodafone said it already had live services trialling. The service works by Vodafone zero-rating a URL so that consumers don’t pay to access content. If content providers have a fixed-size product, that’s always 1Mb, say, then Vodafone takes a cut of the revenue share. The alternative is for the operator to charge per megabyte.
Vodafone said it already had live services trialling. The service works by Vodafone zero-rating a URL so that consumers don’t pay to access content. If content providers have a fixed-size product, that’s always 1Mb, say, then Vodafone takes a cut of the revenue share. The alternative is for the operator to charge per megabyte.
This is a pretty significant move, and one that really should have happened sooner. The problem remains, though, that it only works on Vodafone for now — seeing this across all carriers would be more beneficial. But the idea that carriers will do this makes things much more straightforward for content providers, but particularly for marketers. It could also open up mobile web advertising, should it be possible to zero-rate ad servers so consumers aren’t charged to view ads.
Newspapers Fight Back Against Search Engines
An international group of publishers is exploring options, including collective action at either a national or international level, for enforcing copyright and preventing search engines from taking their content for free.
By Antone Gonsalves
TechWeb News
Feb 1, 2006 05:53 PM
A task force of global and European publishers has agreed to examine ways to receive payment from Internet search engines and news aggregators that the group claims are making money by taking someone else's content for free.
Led by the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, the group of newspaper, magazine and book publishers are hoping to write standards and policies that define the commercial relationship between publishers and search engines, such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., and content aggregators.
The task force also is exploring options, including collective action at either a national or international level, for enforcing copyright and preventing brand infringement, the group said. Among its first steps would be to meet with Charlie McCreevy, European Union commissioner for the internal market and services; and Viviane Reding, the commissioner for information society and media.
"The search engines are increasingly aiming their strategic efforts at traditional content originators and aggregators like newspaper publishers," Gavin O'Reilly, WAN president and chairman of the task force, said in a statement released Tuesday. "The irony is that these search engines exist, largely, because of the traditional news and content aggregators and profit at their expense."
O'Reilly compared search engines to Napster, a file-sharing service provider that was forced to change its business operation several years ago by a music industry lawsuit that objected to Napster allowing users to share songs for free.
"Google, Yahoo and other search engines are not some new breed of social benefactors of information -- they are assuredly commercial, very-much-for-profit organizations and not the new Robin Hoods," O'Reilly said.
Many newspapers in the United States has seen significant drops in readership as more people turn to the Web for daily news.
Web site traffic, however, increased in October 2005 by 11 percent from a year ago, to 39.3 million unique visitors, Nielsen/NetRatings said. The numbers indicated that traditional media is alive on the Internet, despite declining readership offline.
Besides search engine use of publishers' content, WAN said it was also "extremely concerned" with the actions taken by Internet companies when faced with censorship demands by repressive governments, O'Reilly said.
Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which owns the MSN portal, have said they would block information on their search engines that governments deemed were inappropriate based on local laws. Search engines have dealt with such restrictions in the communist nation of China, as well as democracies such as France and Germany.
Google is facing in the United States a lawsuit filed in October 2005 by major book publishers, which object to the search engine digitizing and storing library books without the permission of copyright holders.
The French news agency Agence France-Presse sued Google in March 2005 for taking photos and stories from AFP subscribers' Web sites and offering them to Google users. That case is pending.
The first meeting of the task force included representatives of WAN, the World Editors Forum, the International Publishers Association, the International Federation of the Periodical Press, the European Federation of Magazine Publishers, the European Publishers Council, the European Magazine Publishers Association, AFP and several French organizations.
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An international group of publishers is exploring options, including collective action at either a national or international level, for enforcing copyright and preventing search engines from taking their content for free.
By Antone Gonsalves
TechWeb News
Feb 1, 2006 05:53 PM
A task force of global and European publishers has agreed to examine ways to receive payment from Internet search engines and news aggregators that the group claims are making money by taking someone else's content for free.
Led by the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, the group of newspaper, magazine and book publishers are hoping to write standards and policies that define the commercial relationship between publishers and search engines, such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., and content aggregators.
The task force also is exploring options, including collective action at either a national or international level, for enforcing copyright and preventing brand infringement, the group said. Among its first steps would be to meet with Charlie McCreevy, European Union commissioner for the internal market and services; and Viviane Reding, the commissioner for information society and media.
"The search engines are increasingly aiming their strategic efforts at traditional content originators and aggregators like newspaper publishers," Gavin O'Reilly, WAN president and chairman of the task force, said in a statement released Tuesday. "The irony is that these search engines exist, largely, because of the traditional news and content aggregators and profit at their expense."
O'Reilly compared search engines to Napster, a file-sharing service provider that was forced to change its business operation several years ago by a music industry lawsuit that objected to Napster allowing users to share songs for free.
"Google, Yahoo and other search engines are not some new breed of social benefactors of information -- they are assuredly commercial, very-much-for-profit organizations and not the new Robin Hoods," O'Reilly said.
Many newspapers in the United States has seen significant drops in readership as more people turn to the Web for daily news.
Web site traffic, however, increased in October 2005 by 11 percent from a year ago, to 39.3 million unique visitors, Nielsen/NetRatings said. The numbers indicated that traditional media is alive on the Internet, despite declining readership offline.
Besides search engine use of publishers' content, WAN said it was also "extremely concerned" with the actions taken by Internet companies when faced with censorship demands by repressive governments, O'Reilly said.
Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which owns the MSN portal, have said they would block information on their search engines that governments deemed were inappropriate based on local laws. Search engines have dealt with such restrictions in the communist nation of China, as well as democracies such as France and Germany.
Google is facing in the United States a lawsuit filed in October 2005 by major book publishers, which object to the search engine digitizing and storing library books without the permission of copyright holders.
The French news agency Agence France-Presse sued Google in March 2005 for taking photos and stories from AFP subscribers' Web sites and offering them to Google users. That case is pending.
The first meeting of the task force included representatives of WAN, the World Editors Forum, the International Publishers Association, the International Federation of the Periodical Press, the European Federation of Magazine Publishers, the European Publishers Council, the European Magazine Publishers Association, AFP and several French organizations.
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Critical Path Launches New Multimedia Content Services for Mobile Consumers
SAN FRANCISCO – February 1, 2006 - Critical Path, Inc. (OTC: CPTH), a leading provider of messaging software and services, today announced the launch of new multimedia content services for consumers with Memova Mobile 2.0. Building upon its initial release as a consumer mobile email solution, Memova™ Mobile now enables mobile operators to provide easy, on-the-go access to popular multimedia content, such as news, blogs, sports, music, podcasts and other content. Compatible with any MMS-enabled phone, Memova Mobile 2.0 offers mobile operators immediate opportunities to drive MMS traffic and increase data revenue. Memova Mobile 2.0 will be unveiled at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress, February 13-16 in Barcelona, Spain.“Most mobile operators have yet to see significant uptake of MMS as a person-to-person messaging service,” said John Delaney, principal analyst, Ovum. “To unlock the potential of MMS in the near term, operators need to focus additionally on the power that MMS has to push content out to end users – content that they are already interested in receiving, and which can form the basis of services that are easy to use, low cost and personalized.”With Memova Mobile 2.0, popular content with photos, graphics, video and audio, in addition to email messages from existing email accounts (Yahoo!, Gmail and others), can be easily mobilized and pushed to mass-market mobile phones. The solution enables operators to leverage their existing MMS infrastructure to get to market quickly with new services targeted at the large installed base of consumers who already have MMS-capable handsets.With Memova Mobile, consumers can easily set up services, discover available content, and choose which email messages, news, blogs, podcasts and other content they want to receive on their phone. Memova Mobile 2.0 provides a powerful user experience that is:• Easy – Most consumers do not have to change or upgrade their mobile phone, and the service can be set up with a few simple text messages – there is no software to install or configure. Also, because content is pushed to the phone, user discovery and consumption of content is simplified.• Personalized – Content feeds can be personalized according to the consumer’s interests, and users can easily allow or block email senders so they get only the Messages that Matter.™• Addictive – Memova Mobile pushes email and content that subscribers already use regularly and also suggests preferences to users – enabling easier discovery of content and encouraging greater personalization and frequent, repeat usage.• Affordable – Leveraging existing MMS infrastructure, Memova Mobile enables operators to minimize costs and offer competitive pricing to subscribers. “Through our market research, we consistently see that consumers want mobile multimedia content services, but they need a simple discovery, download and content management experience,” said Donald Dew, CTO, Critical Path. “With the release of 2.0, we’re extending the easy, affordable, personalized and addictive nature of Memova Mobile beyond email to multimedia content, presenting significant new opportunities for operators.”Demonstrations of Memova Mobile 2.0 will be available at 3GSM World Congress in the Critical Path stand – F48, Hall 2.About Critical Path, Inc. Critical Path's Memova™ solutions provide a new and improved email experience for millions of consumers worldwide, helping mobile operators, broadband and fixed-line service providers unlock the potential of email in the mass market. Memova™ Mobile gives consumers instant, on-the-go access to the messages that matter most. Featuring industry-leading anti-spam and anti-virus technology, Memova™ Anti-Abuse protects consumers against viruses and spam. Memova™ Messaging provides consumers with a rich email experience, enabling service providers to develop customized offerings for high-speed subscribers. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices around the globe, Critical Path's messaging solutions are deployed by more than 200 service providers throughout the world. More information is available at www.criticalpath.net.
SAN FRANCISCO – February 1, 2006 - Critical Path, Inc. (OTC: CPTH), a leading provider of messaging software and services, today announced the launch of new multimedia content services for consumers with Memova Mobile 2.0. Building upon its initial release as a consumer mobile email solution, Memova™ Mobile now enables mobile operators to provide easy, on-the-go access to popular multimedia content, such as news, blogs, sports, music, podcasts and other content. Compatible with any MMS-enabled phone, Memova Mobile 2.0 offers mobile operators immediate opportunities to drive MMS traffic and increase data revenue. Memova Mobile 2.0 will be unveiled at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress, February 13-16 in Barcelona, Spain.“Most mobile operators have yet to see significant uptake of MMS as a person-to-person messaging service,” said John Delaney, principal analyst, Ovum. “To unlock the potential of MMS in the near term, operators need to focus additionally on the power that MMS has to push content out to end users – content that they are already interested in receiving, and which can form the basis of services that are easy to use, low cost and personalized.”With Memova Mobile 2.0, popular content with photos, graphics, video and audio, in addition to email messages from existing email accounts (Yahoo!, Gmail and others), can be easily mobilized and pushed to mass-market mobile phones. The solution enables operators to leverage their existing MMS infrastructure to get to market quickly with new services targeted at the large installed base of consumers who already have MMS-capable handsets.With Memova Mobile, consumers can easily set up services, discover available content, and choose which email messages, news, blogs, podcasts and other content they want to receive on their phone. Memova Mobile 2.0 provides a powerful user experience that is:• Easy – Most consumers do not have to change or upgrade their mobile phone, and the service can be set up with a few simple text messages – there is no software to install or configure. Also, because content is pushed to the phone, user discovery and consumption of content is simplified.• Personalized – Content feeds can be personalized according to the consumer’s interests, and users can easily allow or block email senders so they get only the Messages that Matter.™• Addictive – Memova Mobile pushes email and content that subscribers already use regularly and also suggests preferences to users – enabling easier discovery of content and encouraging greater personalization and frequent, repeat usage.• Affordable – Leveraging existing MMS infrastructure, Memova Mobile enables operators to minimize costs and offer competitive pricing to subscribers. “Through our market research, we consistently see that consumers want mobile multimedia content services, but they need a simple discovery, download and content management experience,” said Donald Dew, CTO, Critical Path. “With the release of 2.0, we’re extending the easy, affordable, personalized and addictive nature of Memova Mobile beyond email to multimedia content, presenting significant new opportunities for operators.”Demonstrations of Memova Mobile 2.0 will be available at 3GSM World Congress in the Critical Path stand – F48, Hall 2.About Critical Path, Inc. Critical Path's Memova™ solutions provide a new and improved email experience for millions of consumers worldwide, helping mobile operators, broadband and fixed-line service providers unlock the potential of email in the mass market. Memova™ Mobile gives consumers instant, on-the-go access to the messages that matter most. Featuring industry-leading anti-spam and anti-virus technology, Memova™ Anti-Abuse protects consumers against viruses and spam. Memova™ Messaging provides consumers with a rich email experience, enabling service providers to develop customized offerings for high-speed subscribers. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices around the globe, Critical Path's messaging solutions are deployed by more than 200 service providers throughout the world. More information is available at www.criticalpath.net.
3G growth fuels mobile portal demand - vnunet.com
Portals to remain key platforms for data services in Europe, IDC predicts
Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 31 Jan 2006
ADVERTISEMENT
The role of mobile portals "clearly represents a key development area" in the shift towards 3G services, bearing many of the applications and services that can help the take-up of 3G in the consumer market, according to IDC.
A newly published report from the analyst firm predicts that the western European mobile portal market will increase to around 74 million users by 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate of 10 per cent.
"Since 2004, other interesting developments have taken place in the mobile industry regarding mobile portal usage and content," said Rosie Secchi, senior analyst at IDC's European Wireless Communications service.
"Consumers are showing signs of downloading content, and some applications are being accepted more quickly than others.
"To sustain growth in terms of both users and usage, mobile operators must introduce more dynamic and interactive mobile portal content and evolve the offering to ensure that it continues to be compelling and personalised."
According to IDC's study, the globalisation of branding and services will lead to a rise in pan-European players operating across multiple regions and countries.
"This new trend is seeing the biggest network operators in Europe battling for markets, further emphasising how important it is for a mobile operator to own its customers, thus providing value through branding, sponsorship, content and effective marketing," added Secchi.
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Portals to remain key platforms for data services in Europe, IDC predicts
Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 31 Jan 2006
ADVERTISEMENT
The role of mobile portals "clearly represents a key development area" in the shift towards 3G services, bearing many of the applications and services that can help the take-up of 3G in the consumer market, according to IDC.
A newly published report from the analyst firm predicts that the western European mobile portal market will increase to around 74 million users by 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate of 10 per cent.
"Since 2004, other interesting developments have taken place in the mobile industry regarding mobile portal usage and content," said Rosie Secchi, senior analyst at IDC's European Wireless Communications service.
"Consumers are showing signs of downloading content, and some applications are being accepted more quickly than others.
"To sustain growth in terms of both users and usage, mobile operators must introduce more dynamic and interactive mobile portal content and evolve the offering to ensure that it continues to be compelling and personalised."
According to IDC's study, the globalisation of branding and services will lead to a rise in pan-European players operating across multiple regions and countries.
"This new trend is seeing the biggest network operators in Europe battling for markets, further emphasising how important it is for a mobile operator to own its customers, thus providing value through branding, sponsorship, content and effective marketing," added Secchi.
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Trackback URL: http://www.vnunet.com/actions/trackback/2149482
3G ON THE MOVE
Above : The 3Way DBX-m military UMTS product, this will use the TriaGnoSys satellite optimisation software to carry secure military mobile comms over satellite.
Europe : 3G technology is set to be made available for the first time in remote parts of the world and on ships and aeroplanes. TriaGnoSys, the satellite communications specialist, and 3Way Networks, the UMTS equipment specialist, have joined forces to produce the first integrated 3G mobile network using satellite communications, which will enable cost-effective and robust satellite telephony from anywhere in the world.
The system, which will be available from April 2006, consists of a picocell, which is a mini mobile phone base station that has a range of 200 metres. It takes signals from mobile devices and transmits them to and from a satellite, which in turn transmits the signals to the public network. The picocell is small, weighing only a few hundred grams, making it highly portable; the software that enables the satellite communication is highly resilient and supports the high transmission rates associated with 3G.
The 3Way Networks/ TriaGnoSys solution provides full 3G operability, based on UMTS – as well as high quality multimedia, transmission rates are many times faster than older technologies, and it includes access to a high-speed data connection. It also allows point to point communications within the site without going over the satellite, providing further cost savings.
The new solution offers huge advantages over current satellite telephony: it is effectively creating a secure network which can support up to 100 devices at any one time; it uses UMTS – the most up-to-date mobile technology available; and it is cost effective: a picocell costs around the same as a current satellite telephony equipment while allowing many more users, and the bandwidth costs are low.
Prof. Giovanni E. Corazza, Chairman of the Task Force on Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems (ASMS-TF), said, "The time is ripe for 3G over satellite to become a reality, to enable the provision of advanced mobile services exploiting the satellite assets to provide wide coverage and flexible connectivity. The entire satellite communications community is moving strongly in this direction."
Simon Albury, 3Way Networks Sales and Marketing VP, said, “Initially, we anticipate that the main users will be the military, aid NGOs, private ships and business jets. Indeed, we will shortly be starting trials with a number of NATO forces. The solution will allow the rapid deployment of a secure 3G infrastructure virtually anywhere in the world, providing a local communications centre which will be invaluable in remote areas, for example during conflicts or when administering aid. The low per minute call costs and the high call quality make the solution a good option not only for ‘business’ use, but for the first time it will also be viable for the important morale-boosting personal calls and emails.”
Axel Jahn, Director of TriaGnoSys, said, “The solution will provide a sophisticated onboard communications system for the air transport and maritime markets. It can be used both for passengers and crew to remain in touch with the outside world, as well as communicating onboard. The combination of 3Way Network’s world-leading UMTS technology expertise and TriaGnoSys’ experience of optimising cellular backhauling over satellites makes this a unique market proposition that modernises satellite telephony.”
Above : The 3Way DBX-m military UMTS product, this will use the TriaGnoSys satellite optimisation software to carry secure military mobile comms over satellite.
Europe : 3G technology is set to be made available for the first time in remote parts of the world and on ships and aeroplanes. TriaGnoSys, the satellite communications specialist, and 3Way Networks, the UMTS equipment specialist, have joined forces to produce the first integrated 3G mobile network using satellite communications, which will enable cost-effective and robust satellite telephony from anywhere in the world.
The system, which will be available from April 2006, consists of a picocell, which is a mini mobile phone base station that has a range of 200 metres. It takes signals from mobile devices and transmits them to and from a satellite, which in turn transmits the signals to the public network. The picocell is small, weighing only a few hundred grams, making it highly portable; the software that enables the satellite communication is highly resilient and supports the high transmission rates associated with 3G.
The 3Way Networks/ TriaGnoSys solution provides full 3G operability, based on UMTS – as well as high quality multimedia, transmission rates are many times faster than older technologies, and it includes access to a high-speed data connection. It also allows point to point communications within the site without going over the satellite, providing further cost savings.
The new solution offers huge advantages over current satellite telephony: it is effectively creating a secure network which can support up to 100 devices at any one time; it uses UMTS – the most up-to-date mobile technology available; and it is cost effective: a picocell costs around the same as a current satellite telephony equipment while allowing many more users, and the bandwidth costs are low.
Prof. Giovanni E. Corazza, Chairman of the Task Force on Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems (ASMS-TF), said, "The time is ripe for 3G over satellite to become a reality, to enable the provision of advanced mobile services exploiting the satellite assets to provide wide coverage and flexible connectivity. The entire satellite communications community is moving strongly in this direction."
Simon Albury, 3Way Networks Sales and Marketing VP, said, “Initially, we anticipate that the main users will be the military, aid NGOs, private ships and business jets. Indeed, we will shortly be starting trials with a number of NATO forces. The solution will allow the rapid deployment of a secure 3G infrastructure virtually anywhere in the world, providing a local communications centre which will be invaluable in remote areas, for example during conflicts or when administering aid. The low per minute call costs and the high call quality make the solution a good option not only for ‘business’ use, but for the first time it will also be viable for the important morale-boosting personal calls and emails.”
Axel Jahn, Director of TriaGnoSys, said, “The solution will provide a sophisticated onboard communications system for the air transport and maritime markets. It can be used both for passengers and crew to remain in touch with the outside world, as well as communicating onboard. The combination of 3Way Network’s world-leading UMTS technology expertise and TriaGnoSys’ experience of optimising cellular backhauling over satellites makes this a unique market proposition that modernises satellite telephony.”
GPS To Figure Increasingly In E911
Global Positioning System receivers are poised to play a "critical role" in wireless communications as a result of the United States Federal Communications Commission's E911 directive, and location based services are expected to follow on the heels of the mandate, according to tech research firm Frost & Sullivan.
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The prolific analyst firm finds that successful E911/LBS products and services will "require products with features that can implement GPS in mobile telephones."
Frost & Sullivan's report, "Strategic Analysis of GPS Chipset Market," concludes that the market earned revenue of $207 million in 2004, and estimates it will reach $589.1 million in 2008.
The third generation of GPS receivers presently available already exhibits "significant gains in miniaturization, reduction in power consumption and portability" over the earlier models, and "this trend is expected to continue," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst S. Nagarajan.
"Surveying receivers are likely to decrease in size to fit into a car radio and then into a mobile phone. However, there is also a trend to pack more electronics into the receiver box," Nagarajan says.
Location-based services have been increasingly on the radar screen for a wide variety of carriers amidst much debate on how LBS initiatives can enhance average revenue per user and reduce churn. Revenue in this industry totaled $91.2 million in 2004, but some analysts think it can reach over $600 million by 2008.
"The variety and breadth of possible applications and services in LBS, from pure content and advertising, to emergency 911, navigational aids, social networking, and tracking services highlight its adaptability," explains Frost & Sullivan Industry Research Manager Brent Iadarola.
The miniaturization of much of the electronics (particularly the tracking channels) onto VLSI circuits means that less power is needed for the receiver to function. However, the challenge is to develop small, lightweight, long life batteries. There have been many predictions of low-cost GPS receivers.
Many handheld navigation receivers are available for just a few hundred dollars. It is doubtful whether the cost of GPS surveying receivers will ever fall below a level that is typically ten to a hundred times the cheapest receiver, for a number of reasons.
The small-sized, low-cost OEM receivers are well suited for developing new applications. Hence, miniaturization is one crucial factor for the development and penetration of GPS systems into the market.
The lower costs have become a reason for the slower and meager revenue generation for the GPS chipsets market. The sudden decrease in the prices and almost no increase in revenue generation in cases of GPS systems in mobile phones has put pressure on the vendors. This acts as a restraint in the growth of the GPS chipsets market. The cost of the basic GPS chipset has continued to decline steadily, leading to the relatively thin profits in high-volume consumer electronics.
High-margin GPS products tend to be those with specialized software content or where GPS provides crucial functionality. Demand for smaller handsets leads to reduction in form-factor and die size, which corresponds to an additional decline in the price of the transceiver chip.
"The growth of civil GPS applications and user equipment represents a very pure form of market competition in that GPS signals are provided as a free public good. There is no limit to the number of potential users and the marginal cost to the system of an additional user receiving a GPS signal is zero," says Nagarajan.
David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.
Global Positioning System receivers are poised to play a "critical role" in wireless communications as a result of the United States Federal Communications Commission's E911 directive, and location based services are expected to follow on the heels of the mandate, according to tech research firm Frost & Sullivan.
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The prolific analyst firm finds that successful E911/LBS products and services will "require products with features that can implement GPS in mobile telephones."
Frost & Sullivan's report, "Strategic Analysis of GPS Chipset Market," concludes that the market earned revenue of $207 million in 2004, and estimates it will reach $589.1 million in 2008.
The third generation of GPS receivers presently available already exhibits "significant gains in miniaturization, reduction in power consumption and portability" over the earlier models, and "this trend is expected to continue," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst S. Nagarajan.
"Surveying receivers are likely to decrease in size to fit into a car radio and then into a mobile phone. However, there is also a trend to pack more electronics into the receiver box," Nagarajan says.
Location-based services have been increasingly on the radar screen for a wide variety of carriers amidst much debate on how LBS initiatives can enhance average revenue per user and reduce churn. Revenue in this industry totaled $91.2 million in 2004, but some analysts think it can reach over $600 million by 2008.
"The variety and breadth of possible applications and services in LBS, from pure content and advertising, to emergency 911, navigational aids, social networking, and tracking services highlight its adaptability," explains Frost & Sullivan Industry Research Manager Brent Iadarola.
The miniaturization of much of the electronics (particularly the tracking channels) onto VLSI circuits means that less power is needed for the receiver to function. However, the challenge is to develop small, lightweight, long life batteries. There have been many predictions of low-cost GPS receivers.
Many handheld navigation receivers are available for just a few hundred dollars. It is doubtful whether the cost of GPS surveying receivers will ever fall below a level that is typically ten to a hundred times the cheapest receiver, for a number of reasons.
The small-sized, low-cost OEM receivers are well suited for developing new applications. Hence, miniaturization is one crucial factor for the development and penetration of GPS systems into the market.
The lower costs have become a reason for the slower and meager revenue generation for the GPS chipsets market. The sudden decrease in the prices and almost no increase in revenue generation in cases of GPS systems in mobile phones has put pressure on the vendors. This acts as a restraint in the growth of the GPS chipsets market. The cost of the basic GPS chipset has continued to decline steadily, leading to the relatively thin profits in high-volume consumer electronics.
High-margin GPS products tend to be those with specialized software content or where GPS provides crucial functionality. Demand for smaller handsets leads to reduction in form-factor and die size, which corresponds to an additional decline in the price of the transceiver chip.
"The growth of civil GPS applications and user equipment represents a very pure form of market competition in that GPS signals are provided as a free public good. There is no limit to the number of potential users and the marginal cost to the system of an additional user receiving a GPS signal is zero," says Nagarajan.
David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Wireless World Enormous innovation, but big challenges
A record number of mobile phones were shipped last year, and analysts and investors are now saying that the promises made 10 years ago about the potential for the wireless economy are truly being realized. Still, some of the foremost investors and analysts tell United Press International's Wireless World that they are nervous that the United States may not maintain its competitive edge in the global information economy unless certain changes are made -- by federal policymakers and business leaders -- soon.
"There is enormous innovation in our economy -- no doubt," said James Melcher, founder of the New York City-based hedge fund, Balestra Capital Management, in an interview with Wireless World. "It's incredible. But there are problems. Why are countries with only 40 percent of the world's population (e.g., China) graduating ten times as many engineers and scientists as we are? Why are our schools pumping out so many lawyers? There is no value-added in legal work." Melcher's fund -- which grew 14 percent last year, and is up 6 percent during the first three weeks of this year -- is invested in a number of economic sectors, including energy and agriculture, and has reduced its exposure to technology, to hedge its bets. Global mobile phone shipments grew 19 percent year-over-year, to reach a record 810 million units during 2005, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, the noted Boston-based consultancy. But Melcher, and others, worry that the growth in the technology sector may turn out to be what he terms "profitless prosperity." He worries that federal regulations regarding homeland security related technologies may be too restrictive -- and may cut off an avenue of future growth for the technology industry. That, combined with immigration restrictions on foreign-born engineers and scientists, heightened since Sept. 11, 2001, and the decline in the number of native-born Americans seeking technology degrees, may be a signal to view the future of the U.S. economy pessimistically. Other investors and analysts are less pessimistic, however. According to the report, 2006 IT Predictions from Nucleus Research, a copy of which was provided to Wireless World, the global economy has already seen some of the charm of India fade, "as the population of top programmers is tapped and costs rise." Although some companies will move technology work to China or Bangkok, others will find that the costs of effectively managing offshore outsourcing "outweighs the benefits," said the report. What is more, Nucleus said, wireless and Internet technologies are still driving cultural changes that are creating waves at many major companies. While many firms have provided employees the option of working remotely, some have been reluctant to extend the practice past a select group of workers, fearing loss of control. "But, the realities of natural disasters and the rising cost of commuting to work provides compelling reasons for companies to examine their current practices for enabling employees to work remotely," said the Nucleus report. "Telecommuting will be on the rise as companies take advantage of the technology they already have in place, and appreciate that by loosening the corporate apron strings, you'll be able to provide your employees a nice addition to the benefit package that doesn't add to and perhaps can even lower overhead costs." According to Peter S. Cohan, an executive-in-residence at Babson College, there are an array of trends, being pushed by consumers, not businesses, that could continue to propel the tech economy to prosperity. Cohan tells Wireless World that the six most promising technology sectors this year are as follows: -- location-based services -- free wireless Internet -- Web-based document management -- sensor networks -- Flash memory
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-- semantic Web Among that technology mix, the wireless technologies may be the most compelling. "Location-based technologies use global positioning satellite (GPS) technology linked to individuals' changing locations to create new services for consumers and businesses," said Cohan. "Location-based applications have already started in Asia -- helping parents locate their children, providing driving directions and enabling consumers find the closest movies or restaurants." The market for location-based services is expected to grow fast, other experts note. ABI Research estimates that the global location-based market will grow at a 52 percent compound annual growth rate, from the current of $981 million to $8 billion in 2010. Another wireless trend of promising potential for this coming year is free wireless Internet, Cohan told Wireless World. "Through a laptop computer, people can send or receive mail, obtain news and entertainment, and -- using Internet telephony services such as Skype -- converse with others," he added. "And thanks to the increased availability of free wireless Internet, laptop users can do all this from any location where wireless Internet is available." As it becomes more pervasive, free WiFi Internet access will create opportunities for some businesses and threaten others, Cohan said. "WiFi Internet access will increase the productivity of mobile workers, such as sales and service people, globe-trotting executives and medical professionals. However, WiFi Internet represents a direct threat to Internet service providers and telecommunications companies that are used to charging monthly fees for wired services." Another very promising area -- networks of tiny wireless sensors. Cohan said these sensors are making it cheaper to monitor temperatures, chemicals and light. "Using small amounts of energy, the sensors can quickly wake from hibernation and locate and establish communications with nearby wireless sensor networks. They can then report changes in temperature, light, motion, or the presence of chemical agents," he said. Sensor networks, Cohan added, are likely to create significant business opportunities. "They will improve the quality and lower the cost of providing perimeter security, they will facilitate the tracking and management of inventory, and they will improve manufacturing and process quality," said Cohan, who is also founder of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, based in Marlborough, Mass. There are other tech trends as well that are worth noting for 2006 and beyond, according to researchers. Growth by acquisition will be seen among telecoms, as VoIP vendors continue to attract the technology-hungry Baby Bells. What's more, electronics and computer hardware manufacturers will continue to sell for higher prices -- relative to earnings than firms in other industries. This is partly due to rapid advances in technology and end-users' lower costs for equipment replacement -- such as cheaper mobile phones. Costs for manufacturing overseas have probably gone about as low as they can go -- and Asia may some day no longer have a lock on the electronics manufacturing jobs. "The big impact from China over prices is probably over," said Melcher. "Wages and prices are increasing there too now." Copyright 2006 by United Press International
A record number of mobile phones were shipped last year, and analysts and investors are now saying that the promises made 10 years ago about the potential for the wireless economy are truly being realized. Still, some of the foremost investors and analysts tell United Press International's Wireless World that they are nervous that the United States may not maintain its competitive edge in the global information economy unless certain changes are made -- by federal policymakers and business leaders -- soon.
"There is enormous innovation in our economy -- no doubt," said James Melcher, founder of the New York City-based hedge fund, Balestra Capital Management, in an interview with Wireless World. "It's incredible. But there are problems. Why are countries with only 40 percent of the world's population (e.g., China) graduating ten times as many engineers and scientists as we are? Why are our schools pumping out so many lawyers? There is no value-added in legal work." Melcher's fund -- which grew 14 percent last year, and is up 6 percent during the first three weeks of this year -- is invested in a number of economic sectors, including energy and agriculture, and has reduced its exposure to technology, to hedge its bets. Global mobile phone shipments grew 19 percent year-over-year, to reach a record 810 million units during 2005, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, the noted Boston-based consultancy. But Melcher, and others, worry that the growth in the technology sector may turn out to be what he terms "profitless prosperity." He worries that federal regulations regarding homeland security related technologies may be too restrictive -- and may cut off an avenue of future growth for the technology industry. That, combined with immigration restrictions on foreign-born engineers and scientists, heightened since Sept. 11, 2001, and the decline in the number of native-born Americans seeking technology degrees, may be a signal to view the future of the U.S. economy pessimistically. Other investors and analysts are less pessimistic, however. According to the report, 2006 IT Predictions from Nucleus Research, a copy of which was provided to Wireless World, the global economy has already seen some of the charm of India fade, "as the population of top programmers is tapped and costs rise." Although some companies will move technology work to China or Bangkok, others will find that the costs of effectively managing offshore outsourcing "outweighs the benefits," said the report. What is more, Nucleus said, wireless and Internet technologies are still driving cultural changes that are creating waves at many major companies. While many firms have provided employees the option of working remotely, some have been reluctant to extend the practice past a select group of workers, fearing loss of control. "But, the realities of natural disasters and the rising cost of commuting to work provides compelling reasons for companies to examine their current practices for enabling employees to work remotely," said the Nucleus report. "Telecommuting will be on the rise as companies take advantage of the technology they already have in place, and appreciate that by loosening the corporate apron strings, you'll be able to provide your employees a nice addition to the benefit package that doesn't add to and perhaps can even lower overhead costs." According to Peter S. Cohan, an executive-in-residence at Babson College, there are an array of trends, being pushed by consumers, not businesses, that could continue to propel the tech economy to prosperity. Cohan tells Wireless World that the six most promising technology sectors this year are as follows: -- location-based services -- free wireless Internet -- Web-based document management -- sensor networks -- Flash memory
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-- semantic Web Among that technology mix, the wireless technologies may be the most compelling. "Location-based technologies use global positioning satellite (GPS) technology linked to individuals' changing locations to create new services for consumers and businesses," said Cohan. "Location-based applications have already started in Asia -- helping parents locate their children, providing driving directions and enabling consumers find the closest movies or restaurants." The market for location-based services is expected to grow fast, other experts note. ABI Research estimates that the global location-based market will grow at a 52 percent compound annual growth rate, from the current of $981 million to $8 billion in 2010. Another wireless trend of promising potential for this coming year is free wireless Internet, Cohan told Wireless World. "Through a laptop computer, people can send or receive mail, obtain news and entertainment, and -- using Internet telephony services such as Skype -- converse with others," he added. "And thanks to the increased availability of free wireless Internet, laptop users can do all this from any location where wireless Internet is available." As it becomes more pervasive, free WiFi Internet access will create opportunities for some businesses and threaten others, Cohan said. "WiFi Internet access will increase the productivity of mobile workers, such as sales and service people, globe-trotting executives and medical professionals. However, WiFi Internet represents a direct threat to Internet service providers and telecommunications companies that are used to charging monthly fees for wired services." Another very promising area -- networks of tiny wireless sensors. Cohan said these sensors are making it cheaper to monitor temperatures, chemicals and light. "Using small amounts of energy, the sensors can quickly wake from hibernation and locate and establish communications with nearby wireless sensor networks. They can then report changes in temperature, light, motion, or the presence of chemical agents," he said. Sensor networks, Cohan added, are likely to create significant business opportunities. "They will improve the quality and lower the cost of providing perimeter security, they will facilitate the tracking and management of inventory, and they will improve manufacturing and process quality," said Cohan, who is also founder of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, based in Marlborough, Mass. There are other tech trends as well that are worth noting for 2006 and beyond, according to researchers. Growth by acquisition will be seen among telecoms, as VoIP vendors continue to attract the technology-hungry Baby Bells. What's more, electronics and computer hardware manufacturers will continue to sell for higher prices -- relative to earnings than firms in other industries. This is partly due to rapid advances in technology and end-users' lower costs for equipment replacement -- such as cheaper mobile phones. Costs for manufacturing overseas have probably gone about as low as they can go -- and Asia may some day no longer have a lock on the electronics manufacturing jobs. "The big impact from China over prices is probably over," said Melcher. "Wages and prices are increasing there too now." Copyright 2006 by United Press International
3.6Mbps Data Call on Tri-Band HSDPA PC Card Modem
Europe / US : Novatel Wireless announced it has developed the Merlin U870, a High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) PC Card Modem, to support the global rollout of HSDPA networks.
Novatel Wireless and Siemens have successfully completed their first 3.6Mbps (megabits per second) data call, a wireless link between a base station and a wireless modem. The test data call took place at Siemens' labs in Berlin, using the company's NodeB 880 base station and Novatel Wireless' Merlin U870.
The Merlin U870 is Novatel Wireless' second-generation HSDPA PC Card Modem, which provides accelerated HSDPA speeds of up to 3.6Mbps (megabits per second), compared to the industry's current 1.8Mbps. The product also works on the 800, 1900 and 2100 MHz HSDPA bands in North America and Europe, making it a global roaming card. The card is backward compatible with currently deployed data network technologies including UMTS, EDGE and GPRS.
"With the introduction of our second-generation tri-band HSDPA PC Card Modem and the successful completion of the first 3.6Mbps data call with Siemens, Novatel Wireless reconfirms its leadership position in the wireless broadband market worldwide," said Peter Leparulo, chief executive officer for Novatel Wireless. "With established partners like Siemens, and cutting-edge products, Novatel Wireless is continuing its focus on offering operators advanced end-to-end HSDPA solutions."
Europe / US : Novatel Wireless announced it has developed the Merlin U870, a High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) PC Card Modem, to support the global rollout of HSDPA networks.
Novatel Wireless and Siemens have successfully completed their first 3.6Mbps (megabits per second) data call, a wireless link between a base station and a wireless modem. The test data call took place at Siemens' labs in Berlin, using the company's NodeB 880 base station and Novatel Wireless' Merlin U870.
The Merlin U870 is Novatel Wireless' second-generation HSDPA PC Card Modem, which provides accelerated HSDPA speeds of up to 3.6Mbps (megabits per second), compared to the industry's current 1.8Mbps. The product also works on the 800, 1900 and 2100 MHz HSDPA bands in North America and Europe, making it a global roaming card. The card is backward compatible with currently deployed data network technologies including UMTS, EDGE and GPRS.
"With the introduction of our second-generation tri-band HSDPA PC Card Modem and the successful completion of the first 3.6Mbps data call with Siemens, Novatel Wireless reconfirms its leadership position in the wireless broadband market worldwide," said Peter Leparulo, chief executive officer for Novatel Wireless. "With established partners like Siemens, and cutting-edge products, Novatel Wireless is continuing its focus on offering operators advanced end-to-end HSDPA solutions."
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Billion Dollar Market for On-Device Portals
London, January 25, 2006 -- The industry is witnessing the adoption of On-Device Portals (ODPs), a new generation of products which deliver content on the mobile phone through the use of a software client application. Orange Downloads, Vodafone Live Cast, DoCoMo i-Channel, Sprint Nextel On-Demand and O2's planned deployment of Qualcomm uiOne, are some notable cases of on-device portal deployments which have already taken place worldwide. According to a recently published report from wireless research and consulting firm, ARCchart, the ODP market is now poised for aggressive growth and is forecast to reach a value of $1.4 billion by 2009. Mobile operators will initially lead ODP deployments but eventually media companies will dominate.
On-device portals are an evolution of WAP, as they leverage the handset's capabilities to deliver a more compelling user experience, increase service awareness and streamline content purchasing. ARCchart classifies these products into three categories: offline portals, on-device store-fronts and home-screen replacement products.
ODPs have emerged to address the poor take-up of mobile data services. Operators have spent billions of dollars on next generation networks and on sourcing content from media brands. However, non-messaging data revenue is still low: for a successful operator like Vodafone UK, the increase in pure data revenue generated between 2004 and 2005 is estimated at just $88 million.
“Clearly, the answer is not in bigger pipes or more content - content may be King, but the user experience is Queen,” says Andreas Constantinou, the report’s lead analyst. While operators have made substantial investments in their content strategies, the user experience has been neglected, leading to the ‘abandoned shopping cart’ syndrome that was prevalent in the early days of the web.
On-device portals have the potential to drive data ARPU uplift and service usability by delivering content to the device in an easily discoverable, instantly accessible and personalised manner, and by providing the ‘wow’ factor through the use of rich graphics and smarter content. For content providers, ODPs are able to deliver an immersive user experience beyond the traditional off-portal channels.
This report analyses 14 vendors in the on-device portal space, namely Abaxia, Action Engine, Cibenix, Handmark (Pocket Express), Macromedia (FlashCast), MSX, Nellymoser, Onskreen, Openwave, Opera Platform, Qualcomm (uiOne), RefreshMobile, Silk and SurfKitchen. An in-depth review is provided for each vendor, followed by overviews and case studies on T-Mobile NewsExpress, Handango InHand, Access, Obigo, Macromedia Flash Lite, Ikivo, July Systems and Zi Qix. A case study for an unnamed emerging ODP player is also included. The report identifies 10 trends unfolding within the ODP market from 2006 onwards, from application environments as the route to market, to customised design manufacturers.
ARCchart estimates that the on-device portal market in 2005 stood at $30 million, but will grow aggressively over time to reach $1.4 billion by 2009, corresponding to 1.1 billion ODP licenses sold for that period. According to Matt Lewis, Research Director at ARCchart, “We see the tier-1 and tier-2 mobile operators initially leading the way in ODP client deployments but, by 2009, we forecast that media companies will be responsible for the lion’s share of client deployments.”
Following the technology trigger in 2001 and the first wave of ODP vendors arriving in 2002, on-device portals have gained traction in 2005. There are now more than one RFP for ODP products being announced each month globally, and the report profiles the movements of the major operators within the ODP space. Efforts by device manufacturers to incorporate ODP features into their handsets, such as Motorola’s Screen3 and Nokia’s Active Idle and Preminet client, are also examined. In 2006, a second wave of heavyweight vendors are expected to enter the market, while in 2007 ARCchart predicts the wide acceptance of on-device services by the key industry players. Ultimately, however, the core technology of current ODP solutions will commoditise and ODP producers will have to innovate their way into new technology areas in order to continue delivering value.
London, January 25, 2006 -- The industry is witnessing the adoption of On-Device Portals (ODPs), a new generation of products which deliver content on the mobile phone through the use of a software client application. Orange Downloads, Vodafone Live Cast, DoCoMo i-Channel, Sprint Nextel On-Demand and O2's planned deployment of Qualcomm uiOne, are some notable cases of on-device portal deployments which have already taken place worldwide. According to a recently published report from wireless research and consulting firm, ARCchart, the ODP market is now poised for aggressive growth and is forecast to reach a value of $1.4 billion by 2009. Mobile operators will initially lead ODP deployments but eventually media companies will dominate.
On-device portals are an evolution of WAP, as they leverage the handset's capabilities to deliver a more compelling user experience, increase service awareness and streamline content purchasing. ARCchart classifies these products into three categories: offline portals, on-device store-fronts and home-screen replacement products.
ODPs have emerged to address the poor take-up of mobile data services. Operators have spent billions of dollars on next generation networks and on sourcing content from media brands. However, non-messaging data revenue is still low: for a successful operator like Vodafone UK, the increase in pure data revenue generated between 2004 and 2005 is estimated at just $88 million.
“Clearly, the answer is not in bigger pipes or more content - content may be King, but the user experience is Queen,” says Andreas Constantinou, the report’s lead analyst. While operators have made substantial investments in their content strategies, the user experience has been neglected, leading to the ‘abandoned shopping cart’ syndrome that was prevalent in the early days of the web.
On-device portals have the potential to drive data ARPU uplift and service usability by delivering content to the device in an easily discoverable, instantly accessible and personalised manner, and by providing the ‘wow’ factor through the use of rich graphics and smarter content. For content providers, ODPs are able to deliver an immersive user experience beyond the traditional off-portal channels.
This report analyses 14 vendors in the on-device portal space, namely Abaxia, Action Engine, Cibenix, Handmark (Pocket Express), Macromedia (FlashCast), MSX, Nellymoser, Onskreen, Openwave, Opera Platform, Qualcomm (uiOne), RefreshMobile, Silk and SurfKitchen. An in-depth review is provided for each vendor, followed by overviews and case studies on T-Mobile NewsExpress, Handango InHand, Access, Obigo, Macromedia Flash Lite, Ikivo, July Systems and Zi Qix. A case study for an unnamed emerging ODP player is also included. The report identifies 10 trends unfolding within the ODP market from 2006 onwards, from application environments as the route to market, to customised design manufacturers.
ARCchart estimates that the on-device portal market in 2005 stood at $30 million, but will grow aggressively over time to reach $1.4 billion by 2009, corresponding to 1.1 billion ODP licenses sold for that period. According to Matt Lewis, Research Director at ARCchart, “We see the tier-1 and tier-2 mobile operators initially leading the way in ODP client deployments but, by 2009, we forecast that media companies will be responsible for the lion’s share of client deployments.”
Following the technology trigger in 2001 and the first wave of ODP vendors arriving in 2002, on-device portals have gained traction in 2005. There are now more than one RFP for ODP products being announced each month globally, and the report profiles the movements of the major operators within the ODP space. Efforts by device manufacturers to incorporate ODP features into their handsets, such as Motorola’s Screen3 and Nokia’s Active Idle and Preminet client, are also examined. In 2006, a second wave of heavyweight vendors are expected to enter the market, while in 2007 ARCchart predicts the wide acceptance of on-device services by the key industry players. Ultimately, however, the core technology of current ODP solutions will commoditise and ODP producers will have to innovate their way into new technology areas in order to continue delivering value.
Mobiles covet Google success - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "Network operators want a lucrative slice of the pay-per-click advertising pie, but are they too impatient? By Paul Durman
AT the Caf�Royal hotel in London this month, pioneers of a fledgling industry gathered to discuss building a prosperous future.
The first Mobile Search & Discovery conference brought together mobile-phone and technology companies eager to repeat Google’s success. It is not hard to see the potential goldmine. Google has built a fast-growing and enormously valuable business by connecting internet users to advertisers. One of the many attractions of pay-per-click advertising, or paid search, is its measurabilit"
But Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN are pitching their ads to an audience of “only” 1 billion personal-computer users. There are already more than 2 billion mobile-phone users in the world, and over the next few years far more will go online via the mobile internet rather than the PC.
Mobile-phone companies, therefore, see an opportunity to create a hugely profitable new medium for advertising and e-commerce. The mobile firms have some advantages over Google and Yahoo in choosing which ads to serve up. They know where their customers are; what they spend; and have a billing relationship with them.
Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong conglomerate that owns 3, is one of those hoping to sprinkle some Google-style magic dust over the valuations of its mobile- phone businesses. It hopes that advertising-revenue prospects will pump up the price for a 3 Italia flotation.
Unsurprisingly, Google was the star turn at the conference. Listening to the debate, there is clearly a philosophical divide between Google and mobile firms that seek to ape its success.
Google already has a mobile search engine that is accessible by more modern and higher-end handsets. However, it is not yet running the sponsored links that generate the money for its fixed-line website. David Thevenon, Google’s head of European wireless partnerships, said: “Let’s throw the product out there and see what works for users. It’s a little bit early to look for links on a mobile phone. We want to be sure what the user wants first. We want to be sure we have a great product, and then find a way to monetise.”
This is at odds with the hard-nosed commercial attitude of many in the mobile industry, perhaps best typified by Dan Olschwang, chief executive of JumpTap, offering an unbranded mobile search engine to mobile operators.
Olschwang’s approach could be described as “monetise it and they will come”. He believes the network operators need to focus now on making money from search, rather than leaving it to the fixed-line world of Google and Yahoo.
With stock-market valuations depressed, said Olschwang, “the mobile industry is at a crossroads”.
“The opportunity that the mobile industry faces today is to embrace search and monetise it to create an upside (future growth). If we don’t do it, we will end up as a ‘bit pipe’.” In other words, merely as a transport mechanism for bits of data.
He is sceptical of Google’s apparent selflessness. Google was after a bigger slice of an advertising pie worth billions — a pie that fixed- line telecoms companies had already surrendered. “They have no incentive to operate with the carriers. I don’t see Google sharing revenues with BT or Deutsche Telekom”.
The objection to this is the relative success of Google and the mobile industry in generating demand for new products and services over the past five years. While Google has scored a runaway success, mobile firms have struggled to make meaningful revenue from picture- messaging, location-based services and song downloads.
AT the Caf�Royal hotel in London this month, pioneers of a fledgling industry gathered to discuss building a prosperous future.
The first Mobile Search & Discovery conference brought together mobile-phone and technology companies eager to repeat Google’s success. It is not hard to see the potential goldmine. Google has built a fast-growing and enormously valuable business by connecting internet users to advertisers. One of the many attractions of pay-per-click advertising, or paid search, is its measurabilit"
But Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN are pitching their ads to an audience of “only” 1 billion personal-computer users. There are already more than 2 billion mobile-phone users in the world, and over the next few years far more will go online via the mobile internet rather than the PC.
Mobile-phone companies, therefore, see an opportunity to create a hugely profitable new medium for advertising and e-commerce. The mobile firms have some advantages over Google and Yahoo in choosing which ads to serve up. They know where their customers are; what they spend; and have a billing relationship with them.
Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong conglomerate that owns 3, is one of those hoping to sprinkle some Google-style magic dust over the valuations of its mobile- phone businesses. It hopes that advertising-revenue prospects will pump up the price for a 3 Italia flotation.
Unsurprisingly, Google was the star turn at the conference. Listening to the debate, there is clearly a philosophical divide between Google and mobile firms that seek to ape its success.
Google already has a mobile search engine that is accessible by more modern and higher-end handsets. However, it is not yet running the sponsored links that generate the money for its fixed-line website. David Thevenon, Google’s head of European wireless partnerships, said: “Let’s throw the product out there and see what works for users. It’s a little bit early to look for links on a mobile phone. We want to be sure what the user wants first. We want to be sure we have a great product, and then find a way to monetise.”
This is at odds with the hard-nosed commercial attitude of many in the mobile industry, perhaps best typified by Dan Olschwang, chief executive of JumpTap, offering an unbranded mobile search engine to mobile operators.
Olschwang’s approach could be described as “monetise it and they will come”. He believes the network operators need to focus now on making money from search, rather than leaving it to the fixed-line world of Google and Yahoo.
With stock-market valuations depressed, said Olschwang, “the mobile industry is at a crossroads”.
“The opportunity that the mobile industry faces today is to embrace search and monetise it to create an upside (future growth). If we don’t do it, we will end up as a ‘bit pipe’.” In other words, merely as a transport mechanism for bits of data.
He is sceptical of Google’s apparent selflessness. Google was after a bigger slice of an advertising pie worth billions — a pie that fixed- line telecoms companies had already surrendered. “They have no incentive to operate with the carriers. I don’t see Google sharing revenues with BT or Deutsche Telekom”.
The objection to this is the relative success of Google and the mobile industry in generating demand for new products and services over the past five years. While Google has scored a runaway success, mobile firms have struggled to make meaningful revenue from picture- messaging, location-based services and song downloads.
TeleAtlas to offer 3D Maps of Major Cities | GPS Lodge.com
Map supplier TeleAtlas plans on shipping 3D map data of large European and American cities by the end of 2006 - this is a pretty interesting innovation and it follows some of the Google Earth type applications that allow you to see a very real life view of a city as you are moving through it. So, by the end of this year, TeleAtlas is planning on shipping these new maps to major GPS companies like TomTom and Cobra. The question is, who is planning on bringing this innovation to the market first. I would assume that you are starting to talk about even bigger hard drives to handle the information. The other question is will the thing be useful and easy to understand whil you are driving the confusing streets of an unknown city.
The folks over at My TomTom GO are reporting this information.
"At the Independent Blackberry User summit held at the Hilton in Amsterdam last Thursday, Leon van de Pas, TeleAtlas' salesmanager Europe, claimed that the conversion from 2D to 3D maps is the most important development in 2006. "We use six camera's on all our map-data-collecting mobilhomes, and we also measure the height of the buildings with a gyroscope. Before the end of the year, we'll add 3D environments of large European cities to our maps." In this 3D mode, images are projected on the buildings in the cities, so the mapping experience become extremely realistic. Hundreds of employees in India are currently busy inputting the images into databases. The technology that is used for this project is called "mobile mapping", and was developed by Polish based GeoInvent, a company that was bought by TeleAtlas last year."
ReadMore at My TomTom GO
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Map supplier TeleAtlas plans on shipping 3D map data of large European and American cities by the end of 2006 - this is a pretty interesting innovation and it follows some of the Google Earth type applications that allow you to see a very real life view of a city as you are moving through it. So, by the end of this year, TeleAtlas is planning on shipping these new maps to major GPS companies like TomTom and Cobra. The question is, who is planning on bringing this innovation to the market first. I would assume that you are starting to talk about even bigger hard drives to handle the information. The other question is will the thing be useful and easy to understand whil you are driving the confusing streets of an unknown city.
The folks over at My TomTom GO are reporting this information.
"At the Independent Blackberry User summit held at the Hilton in Amsterdam last Thursday, Leon van de Pas, TeleAtlas' salesmanager Europe, claimed that the conversion from 2D to 3D maps is the most important development in 2006. "We use six camera's on all our map-data-collecting mobilhomes, and we also measure the height of the buildings with a gyroscope. Before the end of the year, we'll add 3D environments of large European cities to our maps." In this 3D mode, images are projected on the buildings in the cities, so the mapping experience become extremely realistic. Hundreds of employees in India are currently busy inputting the images into databases. The technology that is used for this project is called "mobile mapping", and was developed by Polish based GeoInvent, a company that was bought by TeleAtlas last year."
ReadMore at My TomTom GO
Read More in: Automotive GPS | GPS News
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