Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news

SmartMobs hosts it this week, and there's the usual spread of interesting facts, rants and outlooks.

Smart Mobs: SmartMobs.com presents Carnival of the Mobilists #38

Niklas Zennström is not alone about working with VoIP, as now Swedish Rebtel has opened the doors to its new low-cost VoIP service.

Of course the onslaught of low-cost and no-cost VoIP services has just started, and there's nothing that says Skype will lead for much longer.

Rebtel offers a service that enables you to call end-to-end via normal fixed or mobile phones. The cost is as for local calls even if you call across the world. You then pay $1 weekly on top of that for using the service.

This is not offered to all countries yet, which is understandable.

Local numbers, global friends

The cryptic title expanded: Should the UI of after-market applications look and behave the same across all supported phones, or is it more important that the applications look and behave the same as other applications on any specific phone?

I'm a fan of the latter, as people get used to how applications work on one phone at a time and expects/assumes also after-market applications to follow suit. That also seems to be the conclusion of this note about user interface styles.

It's not all easy if you make Java ME applications. The note points out that KVM providers and phone manufacturers sometimes don't realize the above and assigns keys differently in the case of Java than what would be the case for embedded applications. When you use the basic UI widgets in Java ME you have no control over exactly which abstract button goes where, so the manufacturer must do this right for it to work consistently.

I typically apply this model when using the lcdui widgets:
* Commands that passively take you back in the UI flow (like Cancel or Exit) are set to the BACK type
* Commands that saves or performs are set to the OK type
* Commands that should be in a certain menu order get the SCREEN type, where priority decides the order
It should be noted that this is not perfect either, but it creates a reasonable level of consistency between phone applications and also across phones. The command types and priorities are just hints, so expect the unexpected.

Little Springs Design - designing the mobile user experience » Blog Archive » User interface styles

This is feedback from a conference held by MEX in May.

I have a slightly different view on the summary:

Quote: The challenge is how to combine all building blocks on the small mobile screen size.
No, it's simple, just mobilize existing social network, IM and blogging services. The phone's camera comes in handy for blogging and user profile editing. The display and keypad work fine for IM etc etc. You don't need to see e.g. users' profiles and the IM view simultaneously etc.

Quote: What can mobile add for existing communities? Privacy. Other people can’t oversee what you are doing.
There can't have been anyone below 40 in the panel, based on the above conclusion. That's definitely missing out on a few important benefits, like:
* Access on the go.
* Proximity services, like locating friends etc.
* Younger people are more likely to have a mobile phone than their own PC.
* Younger people have more privacy on their phone than on let's say the family PC.
* Possibility to use the camera for photo and video blogging, and profile editing.
* Possible to record podcasts on the go.
etc etc.

Quote: What are the technical challenges? Steep learning curve. Partnerships are key to the market.
It's granted that traditional Internet-focused companies don't know much about mobile technology, but there are certainly other companies that do.

Quote: In using the mobile version you may no longer be anonymous (and want to be).
Why? You are logging in to an Internet service whether from a phone or a PC, so the same privacy principles apply. It's granted that if the phone number is used for voice calls, SMS and MMS in relation to the service there's no privacy, but then don't use those facilities in the service. The service could though hide such info and make calls and send SMSs etc on behalf of a user (as a proxy).

Quote: It may be better to create the community firstly on the phone and then move it to the PC Internet space.
Like reinventing e.g. MySpace on the phone? That makes no sense. We don't need separate communities for mobile vs PC access, still I know many will try (and many will fail).

Quote: It’s difficult to make money when the operator takes 50% to 70%.
Operators simply have to change their business models. The operator's role is simply to provide the bit pipe. Leave the rest to others.

MEX - the strategy forum for mobile user experience - Building mobile communities

Clearly the most popular platforms for after-market mobile games are Java ME and BREW, and there are pros and cons with both, as shown in this article, that has a UK bias. It goes through other platforms as well, but they are of relatively little interest to commercial game development.

Java ME pros
* Dominating worldwide
* Freely available advanced development tools
* Games can be sold directly by developers to consumers
* Large developer community

BREW pros
* Higher performance and better 3D support
* Less device fragmentation
* Part of a complete billing/provisioning infrastructure

It claims C and C++ (as used for BREW) are easier to learn than Java. I would argue against this (having worked with all 3), as a major problem with any form of software development is hard-to-find bugs, where Java shines. If you don't know C, C++, nor Java, then Java is the easiest to get productive with.

Mobile games platforms explained Mobile

As many have said in blogs and elsewhere, mobile searching is mainly about finding information about your surroundings and where to go etc, rather than searching in general for topics.

The immediate thought then is of course to show a map, but I honestly believe a map is not the most relevant information during the initial screening. At least not when choosing what of several options is the most interesting. E.g. which cinema to go to, as that's more based on what the cinemas show and the times than exactly where they are, provided the phone has already sent information to the service about where you're at, and makes use of that as a search criteria. The address could of course be shown in text, and if it's in your neighborhood you know where the cinema is anyway.

So, as we still have fairly slow data links in mobile phones it would therefor be better to start with facts and addresses (in text and icons) to select where you want to go, then as a next step show a map of where the target is.

Google Maps Cool But Mobiles Not Ready | NetworkWorld.com Community

People from QuicklyBored visited MGC (Mobile Games Convention?) and got this pearl from an operator regarding why they don't open up their billing services etc for third-party: "You can never make too much money from data."
The problem with this statement is that there will never be a large market for nor a large revenue from data if operators don't provide third-party access, so it's really a sad conservative Catch 22 situation. Operators would get much more revenue from acting brokers for data services, billing etc than as content and service providers. The first operator to understand this will win the prize.

Quicklybored » Blog Archive » MGC Hangover: Carriers and the Mobile Games Universe

Different from e.g. iCamCU, 3rd-i (what with all these strange names?) uses a dedicated camera unit that sends pictures and also live video and alerts to the home owner's phone. I think the last bit is most useful, as well as being able to see snapshots.

Funny comment: For customers who are not constantly checking their surveillance video on their phone, 3rd-i offers an alert system.
Right, people will be staring at their phone all day long :).

The price is steep: £200 / $370, but you might value your home security much higher.

3rdi Mobile Secuirty for your property

Commentary:
Digital Media Europe: News - Home security goes mobile using mobile-based security system by 3rd-i

This gizmo shows received picture messages on a TV, for easier viewing. It can also show slide shows. It's still only in prototype form.

For users that are too old or too young to use a phone, or to see the message on the phone, this is a way to still be reached by picture messages without any user intervention.

There's a video too, showing the principle.

www.michihito.com : Narrowcasting TV

(via Textually)

Intended to be used in cars, iLane communicates with the phone and the headset via Bluetooth and speaks e.g. e-mails and SMSs. You can also give it voice commands to e.g. make calls etc.

It sounds very interesting to have news and messages read out loud but the question is, will the car and you stay on the road? Critical local traffic information read out this way would be really nice and useful, but frequent news updates and e-mails are more arguable. Instead of CrackBerries we get CrashBerries.

Yet, if I was given one I would use it, that's for sure.

Welcome to iLane

Commentary:
New Device Reads E-mail While Driving - Yahoo! News

Nokia calls these phones "multimedia computers", which is not far from the truth. The only thing lacking for that to be true is an alphanumeric keypad. For camera and music use that's not needed, but to make use of the many PIM applications etc in the phones, it is.

In brief:

N73:
Series 60
3.2 Mpixel, Carl Zeiss optics, auto-focus
Photo/video sharing software (ShoZu?)
Not much internal memory (40+ M), but of course slot for more
240 by 320 display
Can play MP3, (e)AAC(+), WMA
WCDMA
USB 2.0

N93:
The above plus...
3x optical zoom
30 frames/second, stereo audio, digital stabilization
Advanced video editing on the phone and PC (Adobe Premiere)
Video out
WLAN

Media talks a lot about camera phones replacing dedicated digital cameras, but very little about ditto replacing dedicated camcorders. Isn't it time to do that now, or the issue is that you can still record so much more on a camcorder than on a phone, even if the N93 gets equipped with 2 GB memory? In any case a non-subsidized N93 with 2 GB memory is way more expensive than a reasonable tape-based camcorder.

I'm still curious about the photo blogging/sharing software. ShoZu exists for Series 60, so it could easily be bundled with the phones, so I'm pretty sure it's actually ShoZu. That would also be a way for ShoZu to get more than advertizing dollars: Software licensing. The investigation continues...

Nokia - Digitally Divine Nokia N73 - the Ultimate Challenge to the Digital Camera - Press Releases - Press - About Nokia

Nokia - Nokia Introduces the Next Story in Video with the Nokia N93 - Press Releases - Press - About Nokia

Nokia's New Nseries Cell Phones Focus on Video - Yahoo! News

Nokia releases N73 and N93 "multimedia computers" - Engadget Mobile

Nokia N73 - Features, Specs, and User Reviews - Mobiledia

Nokia N93 Multimedia Phone Starts Shipping - Mobiledia

Nokia now shipping N73, N93 - MobileTracker

Press Release: Ready, Set, Snap - Nokia N73 starts shipping (MobileBurn)

Press Release: The Nokia N93 starts shipping (MobileBurn)

As the free Unit Converter application has been downloaded more than 17000 times from GetJar by now, I felt something needed to be done, so there will soon be a commercial version called Converter Pro. It can convert between many more units than Unit Converter, all in all ~220 different units, so I had to split lists up in unit groups etc. It of course also converts between number bases like Unit Converter does.

It's almost completed, but there are remaining issues with performance (phones don't like long option lists) and compatibility (so far only for MIDP 2.0, and it might stay that way).

The free version at GetJar will remain free.

I will post here when it's available. See below for a teaser:

Update: Seemingly Mobile 365 is also used by Skype to deliver SMSs, primarily for the Asian market:
Mobile 365 Powers Skype Messaging - 7/26/2006 10:55:00 AM - Wireless Week - CA6356471

Two things caught my eye:

Quote: Skype talks a bit about why the company charges for the service, and says the carriers charge Skype, so they have to pass the fee onto users
Of course, but Skype could though make a mobile application that effectively circumvented the whole SMS infrastructure, by using packet data for text messages. Actually this could be combined in an application that also provided chat and voice services via Skype. Running packet voice over wireless packet data is still a very pricey option in most regions, but simple text messaging and text chat wouldn't be a problem.

Quote: the partnership could make mBlox a well-known global brand. Something that could be even more valuable for the small startup
In my mind Skype is a startup, that still has to prove its long term worth, while mBlox is an established company that's well known in the telecom industry (admittedly not in Asia). mBlox was founded in 1999, Skype in 2003. mBlox hosts the content billing for Jamba/Jamster, so we are definitely not talking a newbie here. It's true that mBlox is unknown to the general public, but mBlox doesn't provide any services to the general public anyway.

GigaOM : » mBlox Powers Skype SMS

This note about Skype SMS is referred to:
Skype SMS... what’s up with the beta? - Skype Blogs

TechBlog has "awarded" the 5 coolest and the 10 strangest phones.

Top 5 coolest

The honorable mentions stood out the most, at least for me to comment on.

Dual-Screen Cell Phone: The second screen is sensitive to the touch, and is thus a lot more durable
So why not have a touch screen on all phones? Relative to the price of the display a touch screen doesn't cost much, and you could add virtual context-sensitive buttons easily. Not losing the stylus is an issue though. The NEC 908 mentioned earlier on the same page has only one display/touch-screen and no buttons, making the phone also considerably smaller.

Motorola PVOT (as in pivot) Phone: the Motorola PVOT concept is a hand crank, rechargeable AA battery-powered phone. You get one minute of use for every 25 cranks.
Considering bikes are very common in countries with few cars (and elsewhere too), why not make an adapter that enables use of the bike generator? That would surely give you more juice than the hand crank, and the phone could be made smaller too (read: normal size).

TechEBlog » Top 5 Coolest Cell Phones


Top 10 strangest

Luckily it's mostly design studies.

Again I got stuck on the honorable mentions:

I don't think Samsung SPH-P300 fits here, as it's a very practical design. It looks like a calculator with easy to use buttons and a wide (instead of high) display, and it's very small (credit card sized). Why is that bad? Also Emporia gets my vote for a good design. Think about it: Would you accept if your PC keyboard had buttons that hardly could be pressed and where you could hardly see what each button is for? I guess many do though on phones.

TechEBlog » Top 10 Strangest Cell Phones

(via Textually)

Michael Mace at Mobile Opportunity is this week's host.

More flashy than ever. This time, appropriately, with a carnival theme. I'm starting to get a bit anxious about how I should be able to top this when it's my turn, not that that's the point with CotM. It's spreading the word about all mobile-related blogs out there.

Enjoy!

Carnival of the Mobilists #37

In this context mobile platforms should be interpreted as mobile application platforms for downloaded / after-market applications.

The note called "We need a new mobile platform. Sort of." from June (I didn't spot it until now) is very good, but also very long and there are lots of comments, so I can't even summarize it. It's not just about mobile platforms, but the whole "biosphere" for mobile applications, including delivery, billing, security etc.

Instead I found a comment that struck my fancy, in part because I'm a Java ME / J2ME freak. On a more serious note though, as Java ME is available in such a huge amount of phones, it's the best choice on that merit alone. If it's also the most practical to use it's of course even better.

Quote: It is absolutely right that every user will have their own personal killer apps - but note that all your example Palm apps could be done on any MIDP1 device. There is no need to (if you'll excuse the term) fantasise about a ubiquitous smartphone platform (S60, Windows) or other dev environment (Flash) to achieve them - of course some apps need advanced functionality, but I found it very interesting that none of your examples do, and I think most other 'killer' apps will be relatively quick simple affairs too.
I agree with this. Many complain that they can't access certain features through Java for certain applications. My answer to that is (lateral thinking in a way): Make some other applications then. The playing field is open.

But also a few words against it (actually many more, but this kind of sums it up):

Quote: I think Java fragmentation issues and the baggage that involves considerably detracts from it effectiveness / possibilities. Where is does seem to work well is where the Java implementation is standardised across a platform (e.g. Sony Ericsson, S40 S60) etc. Even then its not perfect.
I've reported about this before in Java ME, still not Write Once, Run Anywhere, so the problem is wellknown, but it can be overcome.

Only DoCoMo with its i-mode and Qualcomm with its BREW Delivery System seem to have solved the whole solution well to my knowledge. Considering applications is a big success in e.g. Korea too, I'm sure they have very good systems there.

As BDS is a closed system that only operators can use and it's owned by an industry insider with lots of patents on CDMA and WCDMA etc, it's not the ideal solution, the question then is: Why hasn't Sun taken this opportunity to launch a complete delivery system including a business model for operators and other application resellers to handle all this, and why do operators and other resellers take such a big cut of the revenue for selling applications? I think DoCoMo still takes 9%. Handango normally takes 50%!

Sun has a big opportunity to be in control in terms of the needed systems, and Sun could also serve as an advocate for the business model and good reseller behavior. Considering servers and server software are the core elements of Sun's business they should be very interested in solving this and hence increase revenue. Sun could learn from DoCoMo and Qualcomm.

As Sun has already won the mobile application platform race, let's see if Sun sees the light when it comes to delivery solutions, and if so what they'll do.

Mobile Opportunity: We need a new mobile platform. Sort of.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the telecom industry (at least in the Western world) still sees men as the cookie-cutter norm that everything's initially designed for, and women as having "out of the ordinary" requirements on phones and services.

That's a dangerous way of thinking for market growth, considering for instance it was recently concluded that women are more interested in mobile games than men.

Anyway, Sprint recently did a survey on women's uses of mobile phones. Main findings:

Women...
* want to personalize their phone, more than most other things they have
* are more interested in ringtones than men
* want their phone within reach more than men
* often text message and photograph family members
* clearly prefers flip phones; interestingly candy bar style phones were called "regular phones" despite of this, and despite the huge success of the RAZR.

What I lacked in the information was requests for new or differently behaving features, but that was maybe not part of the survey.

There are much more details in the note. Interesting read.

Women Would Rather Personalize Cell Phones than Hairstyles - Mobiledia

Women Rely on Wireless - 7/21/2006 10:37:00 AM - Wireless Week - CA6355386

Updated: I switched to a note with info from Strategy Analytics that has much more details.

Total sales increase is 26% since Q2 last year.

Motorola is the most obvious highlight, with its 53% sales growth, in a large part contributed by the RAZR. It's almost become a standard phone by now.

Sony Ericsson is back on the fourth position over LG. Sony Ericsson has had big success with its Walkman phones.

Samsung lost some market share.

Nokia: share 33.3%, sales up 29%
Motorola: share 22.1%, sales up 53%!
Samsung: share 11.2%, sales up 8%
Sony Ericsson: share 6.7%, sales up 33%
LG: share 6.5%, sales up 26%
Others: share 20.3%, sales up 8%

IDC guessed in a separate note there can best case be shipped 1 billion phones this year, which would be a staggering figure.

Strategy Analytics: Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson Set Record Highs as Global Mobile Phone Shipments Reach 230 Million Units in Q2 2006: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

I guess everyone's familiar with Opera Mini, whether you've actually used it or not. It's a browser developed in Java ME / J2ME and downloaded to the phone.

i'Free's browser is a bit different in that it's actually intended to be integrated into phones. I've mentioned before that this is a trend, as it's easier to develop a Java application and integrate that then to know all the more or less proprietary (and much differing) mobile embedded platforms and develop software for them.

Samsung will integrate this browser in some of its phones, and provide a dedicated browsing/portal button (similar to DoCoMo i-mode etc) for direct access to Samsung's portal. The browser is optimized for accessing this portal, so you can't browse any public web site this way, according to Michael Novikov at i-Free.

What's promised when using this browser is that there's no need for setting up the browser manually. How that's done is not detailed, but I figure it's pre-configured for specifically Samsung's portal and nothing else.

i-Free — News — Press-releases

Mobilitec takes a new approach to getting feedback on mobile content services: Asking the customers, in this case 8 to 22 year olds. Sounds bloody obvious doesn't it, but it's done way too little.

The unique point with the approach taken here is to collect feedback from the users/customers in an orderly manner and draw conclusions from it, and then make effective use of that information.

Interestingly the examples of feedback that are mentioned are bloody obvious too. Almost anyone that's purchased content would give similar responses.

Have you ever been invited by your operator to provide feedback on your experience of their services? Me neither.

To practice what I speak: What would you say is good or bad about Abiro's services? Would you like anything different than it is now? Do the services provided work OK?

Youth are best judges of cellular content

mojungle is a new service that enables you to send pictures/photos and videos from your phone to be published on your own or others sites. Sending the info is easy enough: You just send an e-mail or MMS to now@mojungle.com with the content. Publishing is also quite simple: You paste some HTML code (launching a Flash script) into one of your web pages and it's done.

The sent content is stored at mojungle, so whoever pastes in your specific HTML code (that has an identifier to your content) accesses the same centrally stored pictures etc. When you send new content it will automatically be available to all that has included your code (a page refresh might be needed though).

You can watch the published content either manually or timed, and you can also download original-sized versions of the content.

The pictures and videos I sent from a Sony Ericsson K608i worked fine. Audio is not supported yet, but according to Ari Mir (CPO mojungle) this will be added later.

The question is if this is just a short term funny gizmo or long term sustainable. In any case rather easy to use as long as you have anywhere to put the script, and it's quite addictive too. A blog does fine for publishing, like this:



Here's a more advanced version of the mojungle player/viewer with controls for slide show etc: Abiro - Mojungle Test Page

mojungle - share your cell phone photos and videos

A report from LogicaCMG suggests that a big chunk of mobile phone users in the UK don't know what phone model they have when calling in to the operator for help. Some don't even know the brand.

I have a simple solution to this: Don't rely on the user, but rather standardize a way for the phone to tell about brand, model, condition, possible hardware problems etc, similar to how nowadays repair crews monitor cars.

As a mobile phone is inherently a communication device (obviously) this is technically trivial to solve. OMA just needs to bring forward a standard way of doing this, e.g. by the operator being able to query the phone via SMS.

Just do it...

Study: many don't know the model of their phone - Engadget Mobile

Study: Most Cell Phone Users Flunk Mobile Hardware 101 - Yahoo! News

Most Cell Phone Owners Don't Know What They Use - Mobiledia

This note argues that a key benefit with Linux is that it's free. That's a relative statement, as most manufacturers use bundles and complementary applications from Montavista, Trolltech etc, and these are of course fully commercial companies.

That said, Linux has a lot speaking for it, being inherently a very stable and scalable platform for all kinds of systems. Remarkable is that Linux can scale from powerhouse Internet servers down to mobile phones without hickups, and with much less memory requirements than e.g. Windows Mobile and possibly also Symbian OS.

The note raises the concern about standardisation, which is a big issue that has been reported about before, but there are of course efforts to try to remedy. Considering there are so many different organisations attempting this, I'm though sceptical to a quick convergence.

Meanwhile Linux will be a good platform for specific manufacturers, provided they each make an inhouse standardisation between phones.

Linux Poised to Expand Role as Mobile OS - Mobiledia

Here's another commentary on the fact that today's young favors IM and SMS, and e-mail is being used mainly for communication with "elderly".

I suddenly feel so old :)...

textually.org: E-mail is last millennium, SMS is now.

Located in the same "telecom valley" as Abiro, Bokilur is a provider of a service for listening to audio books and viewing comic strips via your mobile phone.

The approach is interesting: Books are not downloaded, but rather streamed to the phone. This means the phone is not filled up with book files. Also, the consumer pays only for the book, not the data transfer (Telenor and Tele2Comviq only as of now). It's possible to listen to snippets of books for free, and there are also a few completely free books.

The service is currently provisioned via Telenor, Tele2Comviq, Telia and Halebop.

The user downloads a free Bokilur application (in Java) to the phone, and all interaction with the service is done via the application. Use is intuitive, and there's no risk of getting lost.

More details on Bokilur next week, so stay tuned.

P.S. Bokilur means "book in handset" D.S.

BOKILUR

Richard Meurling has done what most would have considered impossible: Ported the original Zelda game to Java ME for use on mobile phones.

He mentions how he was able to juggle all the sprites and other resources without running out of memory on memory-starved phones: All resources in the game are managed by class which keeps track of what is loaded and what is safe to release. If, for example, a monster needs a sprite which is currently not in memory, the class loads it and feeds it to the monster class. If it gets an out-of-memory exception doing so, it tries to release all unused sprites and load the monster sprite again, if that fails that monster is skipped.
This is actually also efficient for phones with lots of memory.

I admired the graphics. They look really nice. Also, the levels are planned exactly the same way as in the original game.

IGN: Zelda Mobile?

You can download it for free here: Zelda 1 remake for java-phones
It's still in development.

The argument from Research and Markets is that once the transition from polyphonic ringtones to "real" ringtones based on MP3 or similar has been completed there's no driver for further market growth.

That sounds unrealistic to me as that would assume there's no overall growth of the mobile phone market, neither a growth in the interest for ringtones, and it's not far-fetched to say both are growing.

Label Revenue Growth from Ringtones is Expected to Stop When The Format Replacement Cycle is Complete

Here's a speculative and anecdotal piece on how user-generated content keeps social network services going, and where this is a big advantage for the service providers in terms of what they can and need to focus on. Not rocket science, but still with a possibility for differing opinions. I still don't think I'm that far from the truth.

I also posted this at MobHappy as a comment to Russell's note about User-generated Content, slightly modified.

As the header suggests, the ideal is to create a social network service where you as a service provider only has to deal with the service as such, and the actual information is generated by the users:
* Less work and cost on the part of the service provider (compare this with news and review sites with own personnel for that; very expensive).
* The service provider is freed to focus on adding more and more functionality (some will fly, some won't; doesn't matter) to keep the users from leaving to competing services.
* By the info being user-created and for exchange with other users of that service, it's harder to move it somewhere else, again decreasing churn.
* Pure revenue-driven services (inhouse or licensed) can be introduced, thriving on the large user base. E.g. a music shop with the possibility for the users to write reviews is a very good combination. Same with "home videos" etc.
* Third-party content and (sub) service providers will stand on your doorstep every day to get access to your user community. Read: negotiation power.
* When getting a critical user mass the revenues from advertising can in itself drive all further development and also enable the founders to buy one or two Porsches ... and yachts...

Unfortunately there's not room for many services of one type. Even the second in popularity gets much less attention than the leader (even more so than for e.g. pure blogging services, search services etc). The one with the biggest community wins over almost all of the newcomers as well (at least in a given demographic), so the leadership is self-maintained to a certain degree.

Even if you make a service that does exactly what e.g. MySpace does and more the success is unlikely, so you need to find new aspects of social networking, or special user groups or regions untapped by MySpace. E.g. Lunarstorm is extremely popular in Sweden among young people, despite MySpace. Lunarstorm existed well before MySpace and everything's in Swedish (critical for children), so there are incentives for continuing using Lunarstorm. Then there's BuzzCity in Singapore etc.

I agree there's a big opportunity right now to provide new social network services, and it doesn't have to be a huge investment to get going.

Investors have a lot of money to spend these days, so if the idea sounds right and can be done, and contains "social" in the business idea :), then there are people that are prepared to hand out cash. Just be prepared that if you just provide more of the same to a demographic that's already satisified with an existing service, the chance to succeed is small.

Updates (on mobilizing social network services):

See here for how to (and how not to) handle submissions of content from mobile phones to blogs and social network services, based on practical testing: Abiro - Mobile News: Google Blogger as a showcase for mobile blogging

And this for an example of how the above method can be used to advantage: Abiro - Mobile News: Trying out mojungle

Google Blogger enables photo-blogging from phones, so I use it to show what a popular blog service can do in terms of mobile blogging out-of-the-box.

The user sends an e-mail to go@blogger.com to kick it off. The service then automatically creates a blog if it's the first time an e-mail is sent from that user / reply address, and the reply address is used as the identifier from then on. By "claiming" the blog you can configure it the same way as any other blog (change template etc). It's then also easy to reroute the submissions to existing blogs, which is important as the auto-generated blog gets a "funny random" name.

The issue I've seen in Europe is that most people don't have e-mail configured at all, as operators don't use e-mail in their services, and most people don't know how to configure it or even knows it's there.

Often the Blogger scenario doesn't work with MMS either, as there's sent a returning message (with info about the newly created blog) and some (all?) operators don't have a gateway the other way around. Hence, you might get a blog created, but you have no clue where it is, nor how to claim the blog for more advanced configuration. I tested with 3 and it failed due to the above.

It would be convenient for users if there actually was an e-mail-to-MMS gateway, but the issue in at least Europe is of course who should pay for the sent MMS.

E.g. mojungle doesn't have this return message issue, as you first sign up to a web site and you download the script from there after sending the first message. This is not really a blog service either, so you get some and you lose some.

In newer phones I've found that it's easy (at least much easier than before) to take a photo, record video or voice and send that as an MMS or e-mail, so some aspects of phone use have been improved considerably, and there's no real reason for making a Java application for sending audio, photos or videos to blogs and social networks any longer, which is quite beneficial to service providers: no need to tackle the "fragmentation hell" of Java, and simply no need to do anything on the phone side at all. This is of course provided that e-mail or MMS have been configured properly beforehand.

For interactive access to social network services (like MySpace, that includes blog functionality, but also IM, photo/video/audio archive etc), you are more likely to need a Java application. Handling e.g. IM any other way (including via e.g. a browser) doesn't cut it, as you need to see chat log updates and presence in real time.

It all boils down to:
* What's easy to deploy over many handsets?
* What creates the best experience for the end-user?

Blogger: Blogger Mobile

Considering how successful Nokia has been with its own Series 60 platform, it's at first look surprising that Nokia would choose to release a UIQ-based phone, but they now have in the shape of Nokia 6708.

UIQ is primarily used by Sony Ericsson in its smartphones. Both Series 60 and UIQ use Symbian OS as a base, but each provides a specific UI and applications on top. In the case of the 6708 it's UIQ 2.1 on top of Symbian OS 7.0.

One direct reason for using UIQ is to enable use of a stylus, which is needed for the Chinese market that the phone is intended for. Also, it doesn't have an alphanumeric keypad, which is of less use in China, so it makes sense in the end.

Business Standard - Write touch

Nokia 6708 - Full phone specifications

Mobile-review.com Nokia 6708

Nokia 6708 - Nokia's first UIQ phone - New Launches

UIQ Technology - Leading Technology Innovation and Beyond

And here for some self promotion:

Abiro Mobile Blogger is a simple tool for submitting text-based blog entries to Google Blogger. I've now made it work on any MIDP 1.0 phone (at least in theory) for broader use.

It was initially developed as a showcase for how fast applications can be made with NetBeans Mobility Pack. It actually took a day from design to publishing on GetJar. Please note that I'm not bragging, it just shows how helpful the Visual Mobile Designer in Mobility Pack can be and how simple the application is. Most of the nitty-gritties are actually handled by a server-side script that I for the most part already had ready.

It's not been downloaded much (not at all in comparison to my Unit Converter), still if you search for "blogger" at GetJar it comes high up in the list. I haven't figured out why this is so. Don't users want to blog from phones?

I guarantee this specific application will always be free of charge. If/when I add photo and audio support etc it might not.

GetJar - Abiro Mobile Blogger

SoonR, that enables you to access your PC from your mobile phone's browser is evolving, and I recently got a newsletter about two new interesting features:

Page Pre-viewer shows Office documents on your phone's display, so that you for instance can do "emergency presentations" and reviews anywhere you are (handy for instance when meeting business contacts at the airport etc).

Organizer gives you full access to the information in MS Outlook, be it email, calendar, contacts, notes or tasks.

The only real drawback I see with SoonR, and it's rather serious for professionals, is that your PC has to be on to get access to email, files etc (hence it doesn't in my opinion replace e.g. direct access to MS Exchange). In a normal "business man on the road" scenario this can be outright impossible, as you normally bring along both your phone and your laptop computer.

That said, I think SoonR is evolving quite nicely, and is a strong offering when it comes to PC-to-phone information exchange. By SoonR being browser-based instead of e.g. Java-based means it probably works on more phones out-of-the-box than similar services.

Just to be clear, SoonR is not alone on this market. I found similar Java-based services at GetJar, but less and less likely as powerful as SoonR.

Interestingly the site still says "SoonR Beta". Flickr also did for a long time (now it's at "gamma"). It seems nowadays you have to launch services before they are completed, so that no one else gets before you, and by saying your service is "beta" you might get less criticism if not all aspects of the service works, not saying that's the case with SoonR nor Flickr.

SoonR

TiggDo is a new service that provides an easy way to aggregate Internet information for easy access from a mobile phone. It e.g. supports RSS feeds (as used by most news services and blogs etc), maps, product prices, local info, stock info etc.

It's completely free, which makes it sound even better.

It's also possible to add your own mobile service to TiggDo, provided it's approved by the TiggDo team.

Trying it out:
* I went to www.tiggdo.com.
* Signing up was simple. Verification was done via email.
* After that I could directly decide which feeds etc I wanted to see.
* Adding RSS feeds was easy enough (name and a URL).
* It's also possible to add BBC feeds via check box selections. I wish this was available for more than BBC though.
* Adding maps, horoscope etc was a simple clicking on a link.
* The mobile site is at wap.tiggdo.com, so I went there via my phone.
* After logging in and saving the next page as a bookmark I got a quick return route with no need to log in. Same approach I use for Mobile Blog at wap.abiro.com.
* My selected services were available on one single screen, so it was easy to navigate to what interested me at the moment.

Notes:
* The service requires a phone with a WAP 2.0 browser. That's commonplace today, but if you have a very old phone it might fail due to this.
* All access is done via the phone's browser, so there's nothing to install on the phone.
* Local information does not use any means to find out your position. You have to enter where you are. That goes for Maps too.
* Maps seems to only work for USA (?).
* It shows all RSS feed entries on one single screen instead of as titles first. I guess some prefer it this way. I don't, as some entries can be very long.
* The responsiveness is quite good on a UMTS phone, and it's probably so also on a GPRS phone, as most information is text.

There are still some rough edges, but it all works in a stable way. I didn't find any of the services I signed up to not working.

Definitely worth a try.

Tiggdo - Mobile RSS and other services for your mobile cell phone

Up at mobile jones by Debi Jones, and this time focusing on SMS. There are also other interesting contributions, including from yours truly.

The first link was broken when I last tried (Debi indicated server problems). Try the second link if this is still the case.

mobile jones The Carnival of Mobilists Volume 1 Issue 36
mobile jones

The Visual Mobile Designer (VMD) in NetBeans Mobility Pack provides an easy way to design the UI flows of your Java ME / J2ME / MIDP applications. VMD is not optimised for games and other graphics-intensive applications. Rather it's based on the functionality of the lcdui class, and hence is optimised for creating input form, setup, login, etc screens.

What I've found recently is that in the design phase it can be used effectively for creating mockups of the application UI, and it's even possible to adjust the UI flow when meeting with the customer and show the changes directly, as a UI flow diagram or by running the mockup in the WTK emulator, or even on a real phone. Customers that don't get impressed by that are rare.

What's really nice about this is that once the UI flow has been designed and the customer's satisified, the same UI flow can directly be used in the final product, as what VMD creates is pure Java code, and you can switch back and forth between Java code and the VMD views any number of times during development.

If you currently use Eclipse, or even a simple text editor, for writing your MIDP applications, the above might be reason enough to check out NetBeans.

At least I'm completely hooked on NetBeans.

Intro to the NetBeans Mobility Pack

Example of how the VMD views look like:
Abiro - The Lab - Java ME - NetBeans

This must be the weirdest thing I've seen today, and it even tops the Chinese Skype clone: Supposedly 65% of US citizens lose their phone per year!

It's a bit frustrating that the note only talks about how to secure lost data and the risks if not, rather than how to make irresponsible employees be more careful with expensive company-owned equipment.

The note even concludes 45% + 65% is 100%.

Sorry for the ranting, it's getting late :).

Update July 15: I haven't been so good myself: Of 8 mobile phones and 3 PDAs I've had over the years, and where I've paid for only two of them myself as far as I remember, I've lost 2 and broken 1, so I guess I should shut up...

This is what happens to lost phones (blame the dogs): Lost Cell Phone.

United Press International - Hi-Tech - Wireless World: A looming 'cell hell'

An interesting discussion erupted at J2ME Forums about whether Flash will/can take over from Java ME / J2ME in mobile phones.

Actually Flash is by now quite powerful and programming language like, and can even set up communication sessions etc, but I honestly think it will take quite a long time, if ever, for Flash to win over Java ME.

I of course had to contribute, so read it for yourself. I'm redsmurph.

This is not 1-to-1 comparable, as most applications running on a PC are written for Windows (including the web browser of course, and pretty much all commercial games), not Flash. In a mobile phone you typically only have Java ME for all after-market applications.

Also note that there are approx. 1 billion phones with Java ME / MIDP on the market. You don't replace those with Flash-capable phones in a jiffy.

When it comes to browsing the "normal" web on a phone (which is what users want, not any special mobile web), what you need is full support for Flash, not Flash Lite.

I'm not critical to Flash, I just want to reality-nuance this discussion.

flash for mobiles

Available for BlackBerry, Palm OS, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile and Java ME / J2ME, WMfS adds the possibility to make voice calls and text-chat from your phone via the Skype network.

What I didn't like was that it doesn't support MSN, Yahoo! etc as well. This is an increasing issue on PCs and even more obvious on a phone where you often can't run applications in the background. The VoIP/IM market is very fragmented, so every effort to combine functionality should be promoted. Not in this case though.

Another drawback is that it requires Skype to run on a PC all the time, so you are actually communicating between the phone and your home or work PC, not directly with the Skype network. That sounds like a serious limitation. When I contacted WebMessenger about this, they told me they will make it possible to access the network directly in a later version.

A $3.95 monthly subscription sounds very good. Actually this is much better than a completely free offering, as they tend to disappear after a while when the companies (often very small) go bankrupt.

It seems to have most of the features available in the PC version, so existing Skype users should have no problem using this software.

WebMessenger Inc.- WebMessenger Mobile for Skype

Seemingly a lot of features for a ".x" release: WiFi, over-the-air firmware updates, USB 2.0 on-the-go, HSDPA, push-to-talk (walkie-talkie), improved memory management etc.

Symbian is the clearly leading smartphone OS due to Nokia's use of Symbian OS in its Series 60 application platform. UIQ (used in e.g. Sony Ericsson's P series), that's also based on Symbian OS, is relatively speaking much less popular. Neither is Microsoft Windows Mobile, even though many predict it will take market share from Symbian / Series 60. Some tote the fact that Windows Mobile supports push mail, but so does Series 60, so that's a weak argument.

When talking mobile application platforms in general nothing comes close to Java ME, now in approx 1 billion phones, and in most phones that also have Series 60 or Windows Mobile. Compare that to 10s of millions for Series 60.

Symbian optimizes latest OS version for convergence and market segmentation

Other commentary:
Symbian Updates OS - Mobiledia
Symbian OS v9.3 goes gold - Engadget Mobile
Symbian 9.3 released - MobileTracker

Nokia's results are motivated by sales growth in emerging markets, where Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and LG have strong positions, but Nokia clearly leads.

Quote: "Nokia is about a year ahead of its rivals," said Evli analyst Ilkka Rauvola, adding that Nokia bene