Mobile 2.0: hype or reality?

BANGKOK: “Breaking down the Web into small portable devices is the smartest trend that everyone from Nokia to Google is betting on,” said noted technology writer and journalist Om Malik.

The Internet is fast becoming a core mobile experience, as mobile phones are increasingly becoming the device of choice for accessing the Internet content in Asia.

The Forum Nokia 2007 Summit 2.0 held in Bangkok discussed how the Web could be further minisculed onto the mobile screen, without compromising on providing relevant information to the user in a cost-effective manner.

The participants felt advertisement-funded value-added services should be provided free of cost to the users.

Shankar Meembat, regional director, Forum Nokia APAC, dwelt upon how Forum Nokia – now in its 10th year – is driving mobile innovation and offering channels to let consumers experience mobile content and applications.

All about money

The participants were unanimous when it came to revenues: provide more advertisement-funded value-added and personalized services, such as emails that can be pushed to the subscribers’ mobile phones free of cost, as the advertiser will pay for it, as pointed out by Edgar John Hardless, head, SingTel Group Innovation, SingTel.

SMSes can also be provided free, as an advertisement scrolls at the bottom of the mobile screen as the receiver reads the message. Once the user finishes reading the message, the advertisement blooms into a full screen.

These services – emails and SMSes – are provide free of cost to the user, who in turn will have to bear with the advertisements. “The user, however, has the option to block the advertisements,” Hardless hastened to add.

There are other advertisement-based revenue models, which provide the users with relevant information. A user gets a message on his mobile phone as he passes by a shop in a mall that informs him/her of what the shop offers. Such location-based information could be an effective revenue model.

“Location-based integrated mobile advertising platform is more about the right ad, at the right time and at the right place,” Hardless said, adding SingTel is currently testing such an advertising delivery channel. He viewed missed call alerts, voice mails, etc. also as potential ad revenue earners.

James Spahn, vice president of CELL Corp., elaborated on how his firm is generating revenue using FlashLite content and services. “Besides content downloads and Mobile Game Town social networking service, CELL produces and enables real time updates of mobile commerce sites with commerce partners including companies like Warner Music Japan, Avex Trax, Fuji TV and other major Japanese firms.”

Meanwhile, Rafay Khan, vice president, NAVTEQ, saw huge opportunities in India and China for location enabled devices, which have maps that help a driver to navigate to his desired location. NAVTEQ has completed collecting digital map data of eight Indian cities and a location-based service will be launched in India this year.

The cities initially covered will be Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Khan claimed that NAVTEQ’s digital map data will be more accurate than Google Earth. The firm plans countrywide expansion of this service that will cover all key Indian cities by end-2008.

Hype vs. reality

A panel discussion on whether Web 2.0 on mobile is a hype or reality remained inconclusive as the panelists were divided on their views. Hardless had no doubt that it is hype. “Lot of players are doing many things and very little are coming out of it,” he argued.

Terming Web 2.0 on Mobile as hype – albeit reluctantly – Meembat opined, “We haven’t seen what Web 2.0 really is.” However, he added, “People who are in the Mobile 2.0 will be the winners. But we don’t know what Mobile 2.0 is and the winner will be the first one to know that.”

NAVTEQ’s Khan, however was confident that Mobile 2.0 is a reality. “We believe it’s a reality. Disruptions have always been there whenever a new technology was launched,” he argued referring to applications that enable user-generated and shared content that are currently available on mobile phones.

Spahn of CELL, Guy Etgar, vice president – strategic alliances, fring and Malte Schloen, CEO of locr also felt Mobile 2.0 is hype.

The panelists agreed that the convergence of mobile devices and Web services creating an entirely new dimension is not far. For the record, bloggers have been discussing about Mobile 2.0 for a few years.

Later, elaborating on Mobile 2.0, Meembat listed out the prerequisites for Mobile Web 2.0: seamless connection to community, user-defined access to content, and contribution and collaboration.

Some service providers in collaboration with social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, SeeMeTV, MeTV, etc. are already providing Mobile 2.0 services. A few others have launched mobile-only social network sites.

The panelists felt six requirements have to be met before Mobile Web 2.0 took off: flat-rate pricing; value-added services that are unique to mobile; leverage the unique mobile capabilities; allow consumers to choose their own content and trusted communities; create a seamless user experience between the personal computer and mobile; and build a sustainable business model.

Software platform

According to Matti Vanska, vice president, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia, three factors make a software platform successful: “volume, innovation and ease of use.”

“The platform need to be created in such a manner to help manufacturers make different devices addressing different segments,” he said.

Expressing happiness over the volume it has been shipping, Nokia said it had shipped over 100 million S60 devices cumulatively by April 2007.

Nokia’s S60 platform is open to new features. “S60 enables functionalities of many single-purpose devices in one device that is always with you and always connected,” Vanska told a gathering of developers from the Asia Pacific region at the Summit.

Elaborating on S60, Lee Williams, senior vice president, Technology Platforms, Nokia, said, it is a complete operating system and is a complete solution. “Symbian is in the core of S60 and S60 is built on Symbian.”

S60 also supports Linux and new devices with advanced sensor technology developed on this platform are to hit the markets next year, Williams added.

A Forum to innovate

“Forum Nokia is the largest mobile developer community, which is a one-stop shop for tools, documents and other resources,” Meembat said. “Forum Nokia supports developers to create and offer innovative content to consumers.”

The Forum, which comprises three segments – PRO/Launchpad, Champion and Mass Community, helps developers falling under all the three categories by providing access to market research and intelligence, technology, tools and services, and ways to generate revenue.

Launchpad is for starters while the Champion segment has “125 individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary achievement and support for the development community,” Nokia said. There are more than three million people in the Mass Community, many of whom are prosumers or small developers.

Nokia has also launched a community site called MOSH – short for Mobile Sharing – that allows applications and content developers to connect with consumers globally. The alpha version of the site was launched in July 2007, followed by the beta release two months later.

“The (MOSH) site is designed to provide a seamless sharing experience, enabling any content creator or user, with any phone, to create, upload and share original or their favorite content instantaneously,” Meembat pointed out. India tops MOSH in terms of number of users.

Nokia also has a Content Discoverer channel for developers to commercialize mobile content. ‘Try for Free’ catalogue in Nokia Content Discoverer is a channel for developers to upload their applications, from where others can download and play around with it. This catalogue was launched in India in September.

Developers from the Asia Pacific region showcased innovations that provide users the ability to personalize their devices with applications and content. Nokia, on its part, is encouraging developers to come up with innovative applications that would address an ever-growing user population.

(Nokia hosted the correspondent in Bangkok)