A few operators around the world are already offering MSN and Yahoo messenger on your mobile (checkout 3 xseries), however there's also a lot more that are dragging their heels. From a user perspective, IM seems like the next evolution of SMS, allowing a lot more features, in particular seeing the presence settings of your friends (online, away, busy) but it also comes with a whole lot of barbs for Mobile Operators, which as in most cases such as these are around the charging model for traditional IP services.
IM is more relevant now than ever due to the very fast move to broadband capable networks, however if mobile operators allow you to have IM in its current form, the theory is that you'll stop sending sms messages which generate between 10-20% of total usage revenues for many developed-market operators today.
The GSM Association has a major campaign in-place to establish a GSM operator community standard for IM, http://www.gsmworld.com/personal_im/. The program is about setting the conditions (technical and business-model) for offering IM services to mobile customers. Their basic principle is that with somewhere between 2 and 3 billion people with a GSM phone, they have a bigger community of potential IM users than MSN and Yahoo and therefore should be able to influence the business model.
Many mobile operators don't want to go down the path of interoperating with MSN and Yahoo because it won't allow them to use a Calling-Party-Pays model. This means instead of getting revenue per message they would only get revenue from you connecting to the internet and opening up your IM client. There's not many mobile operators who will happily swallow that, particularly as it will not only be a missed opportunity but also a big cannibilisation of their current sms revenues.
The whole concept of calling-party-pays and how it relates to internet usage/IP services on a mobile phone is a massive issue for the global industry and IM is an excellent, tangible example of the paradoxes hich exist. There are signs however of a shift, whether intential or not with the proliferation of the wonderful new 2gb for $15 usb dongle plans that are springing up everywhere around the world.
Mobile operators continue to fight hard to prevent themselves from becoming mobile-network based ISP's, but I think there's a growing trend in the industry towards accepting this and a focus on getting as many users on as possible, after all its not a bad business! More on this one later.
Showing posts with label IP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IP. Show all posts
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Mobile Internet - The Elephant in a Bird Cage
Its here and it feels like mobile internet has come from nowhere in a big hurry. Of course, there will be those that remember the WAP debacle and the various, faltering lurches made by mobile operators around the world in launching mobile data products over the last few-years (a friend recently asked me about the fate of i-mode) and here's an article about why both Telstra and 02 UK ultimately canned it. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/23/imode_fails/
But thats all behind us, its here now and I don't just mean downloading of gimmicky ringtones and content. This is THE hottest topic for mobile operators almost everywhere in the world and for so many reasons, this post talks mainly about usability and how mobile operators are brining you the web to your mobile
The big challenge for Mobile internet (and the genesis of the elephant metaphor) is the fact that websites were not built to run on small screens, they were also designed with a nice big keyboard and mouse in mind and their demand on bandwidth grows faster than even the rapid deployment of fast mobile networks can keep pace with.
Mobile operators in Australia are overwhelmingly taking the portal approach, (Optus MyZoo, Planet3, Vodafone Live & Telstra Bigpond). There's two main reasons for mobile operators adopting the portal approach. Firstly, quality of service can be guaranteed by your operator if they control the portal, this is something that mobile customers are especially senstitive to.
Secondly and possibly more cynicaly, mobile operators by controlling what you access and how you access it can also control the amount you pay, and the amount that advertisers pay to get onto your tiny little mobile screen. Even more simply, mobile operators don't want to go down the path of ISP's where they become dumb-pipes, providing you with some bandwidth and having nothing more to do with your mobile internet experience.
I do acknowledge here the proliferation in Australia of the '5gb for $29.95' mobile broadband plans but these are confined to the use of a USB modem plugged into your laptop (internet via a mobile network rather than truly mobile internet....though even that vague distinction is blurring).
For handset manufacturers, the problem is quite different. Their relationship with you really ends once you've opened the box (although they'd all like to change that). Therefore the manufacturers are putting their efforts into rendering technology, effectively providing a mobile browser that can tailor a website designed for the 'big screen' to work on your mobile. Nokia does this well, unsurprisingly so does Apple and no doubt Google's android will make major advancements in this area.
For the mobile industry as a group, the focus has been on putting together rules for content development that will make websites work better on the mobile handsets and make it easier for developers to know how to create them. http://www.w3.org/Mobile/
Then there's the ever contraversial .mobi, a new top-level domain created specifically to denote websites that will work on mobiles http://www.mtld.mobi/. Critics of the domain say it is polarising the internet and creating a mobile 'ghetto' rather than a single web that is device/access technology agnostic. Supporters say its the best way of offering a reliable way for all website owners to denote a mobile friendly space, rather than the hit and miss that exists now. Whatever your view, check out the investor list....its the most interesting cross-section of companies working together in this space I've ever seen.
Whatever the answer, the news is good for everybody. Accessing data services on mobile devices is THE trend of the next five years for everybody along the value chain and the direction and opportunities that this will take are very much still up for grabs.
But thats all behind us, its here now and I don't just mean downloading of gimmicky ringtones and content. This is THE hottest topic for mobile operators almost everywhere in the world and for so many reasons, this post talks mainly about usability and how mobile operators are brining you the web to your mobile
The big challenge for Mobile internet (and the genesis of the elephant metaphor) is the fact that websites were not built to run on small screens, they were also designed with a nice big keyboard and mouse in mind and their demand on bandwidth grows faster than even the rapid deployment of fast mobile networks can keep pace with.
Mobile operators in Australia are overwhelmingly taking the portal approach, (Optus MyZoo, Planet3, Vodafone Live & Telstra Bigpond). There's two main reasons for mobile operators adopting the portal approach. Firstly, quality of service can be guaranteed by your operator if they control the portal, this is something that mobile customers are especially senstitive to.
Secondly and possibly more cynicaly, mobile operators by controlling what you access and how you access it can also control the amount you pay, and the amount that advertisers pay to get onto your tiny little mobile screen. Even more simply, mobile operators don't want to go down the path of ISP's where they become dumb-pipes, providing you with some bandwidth and having nothing more to do with your mobile internet experience.
I do acknowledge here the proliferation in Australia of the '5gb for $29.95' mobile broadband plans but these are confined to the use of a USB modem plugged into your laptop (internet via a mobile network rather than truly mobile internet....though even that vague distinction is blurring).
For handset manufacturers, the problem is quite different. Their relationship with you really ends once you've opened the box (although they'd all like to change that). Therefore the manufacturers are putting their efforts into rendering technology, effectively providing a mobile browser that can tailor a website designed for the 'big screen' to work on your mobile. Nokia does this well, unsurprisingly so does Apple and no doubt Google's android will make major advancements in this area.
For the mobile industry as a group, the focus has been on putting together rules for content development that will make websites work better on the mobile handsets and make it easier for developers to know how to create them. http://www.w3.org/Mobile/
Then there's the ever contraversial .mobi, a new top-level domain created specifically to denote websites that will work on mobiles http://www.mtld.mobi/. Critics of the domain say it is polarising the internet and creating a mobile 'ghetto' rather than a single web that is device/access technology agnostic. Supporters say its the best way of offering a reliable way for all website owners to denote a mobile friendly space, rather than the hit and miss that exists now. Whatever your view, check out the investor list....its the most interesting cross-section of companies working together in this space I've ever seen.
Whatever the answer, the news is good for everybody. Accessing data services on mobile devices is THE trend of the next five years for everybody along the value chain and the direction and opportunities that this will take are very much still up for grabs.
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