Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news

I'll be too busy with other things until the end of the month, so I've decided to not post any blog entries until then.

See you in September.

As we are now more or less free from pop-up ads on PCs they instead move to mobile phones, if the Internet advertizing heavy-weights and others get what they want.

'Pop-up ads: Coming to a mobile phone near you?' argues this is something users will accept and appreciate.

'These companies, such as Mobile Posse and Acuity Mobile, say they're working to ensure that the ads are so useful to customers that they won't be annoying.'
Even so, I have hard to believe I personally would stand this for very long.

'Others would greatly benefit by teaming with operators that can ease the distribution of software by loading it onto the phones before selling them to customers.'
Good luck with that. This is a dream for any ISV, but few gain such access. Such companies must at least make it obvious that also operators gain from such a collaboration via revenue sharing.

SMS seems to be the most logical choice for pop-up ads as it's ubiquitous, people know how to use it, it emulates pop-ups by presenting new messages right on the idle screen (at least most phones do), rather than having to install a special Java application, as required by the mentioned companies.

But better would be if there weren't any pop-ups.

'IT Execs Seek New Ways to Justify Web 2.0' mentions especially wiki as a useful tool for internal information exchange at enterprises, and I'm sure it is.

While I worked for Axis Communications I single-handedly maintained an intranet directory of all technical information we needed for developing our products. Some info was local, but oftentimes all that was needed was a link to the appropriate Web sites. At the time I didn't use any wiki server, all pages were manually edited so I was the only publisher, but the "read only" user experience was pretty much the same.

The key for this to be a success is that there's someone that bothers maintaining the information database. If everyone just posts information, the information and the value thereof deteriorate pretty quickly.

The note mentions costs for setting up a wiki. Of course the cost is not in the wiki server itself, but in the maintenance of the information contained in it.

Also it says it's tricky for IT execs to convince management about setting this up. More often it's the other way around: Management has the vision, while IT execs stalls. Also, setting up a wiki can be done for one specific department for no initial cost, and decided by the department manager.

Just so you all know, wiki is a very old technology, Internet-wise. The first wiki was published already 1994.

I have to admit I don't like the wiki syntax, that makes very little sense and seems to have been defined during a meth binge.

'How MIDlet Signing Is Killing J2ME' is not a very certification friendly note, but admittedly it's true.

Oddly the certification requirements for Symbian applications are not at all as hard, even though such applications have access to much more functionality and also much more openly, than Java ME / MIDP ditto.

As I've mentioned before, even with such warnings popping up it's easy to ask the ignorant user to accept them to be able to benefit from the application, and hell will still break loose if the application is actually a trojan.

See also my comments to the note.

Aplix, Celunite, LG Electronics, McAfee, Wind River, ARM, Broadcom, Ericsson, Innopath Software, KTF Co., MontaVista and NXP have now joined as well, according to Mobile Linux group gets wider support.

'A standard platform not just promises to reduce development time for new cell phones but could also provide a common platform on which to build applications so expenses can be lowered.'

The most critical benefit is cross-device application compatibility for all players, including the manufacturers, as it would also be better for them to be able to choose from low-cost off-the-shelf products, instead of having to develop applications on their own or integrate "middle ware" applications. It's also critical that end-users can install such applications after phone purchase. Just see how Opera Mini has changed what's expected from browsers on featurephones. Without a standard platform (in this case Java/MIDP) that would never have happened.

'TeleNav Adds Social Networking Features and Business Reviews to Mobile GPS Navigation Service' is not all new, but certainly still relevant.

TeleNav is fundamentally a navigation application running on a mobile phone, but as the title says, also other aspects of location have been added, and it makes good use of information on line. A few examples:

• Plan trips on line and then download
• Share locations
• Look up addresses

etc

An interesting aspect is that you can e.g. mark where you parked your car, and then track your way back to it when on foot.

If you are lucky enough to have a phone with GPS, or an external GPS module, The best mobile GPS software might give you some pointers. Note though that none of the applications are for Java, only smartphone OS's.

From Terms of Use:

By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

Granting themselves sublicensing rights means they can sell your info to anyone they please. That's pretty serious, and of course not acceptable. That means the privacy statement is completely void.

(via mobuzztv)

As 'Gartner's 2006 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle Highlights Key Technology Themes' is about Gartner's Hype Cycle I had to link to the Itera bicycle (that was hyped a lot, but failed commercially), not that it has anything to do with it. Back to the topic...

Gartner has investigated 36 emerging technologies and made estimations of which ones are likely to have the most impact for enterprises (read: Gartner's customers).

Even though the target group is enterprise, Web 2.0 is still deemed the most important. Also user interface enhancements, and mobile and location technologies are deemed key, which should interest anyone into enterprise mobile location services with user-generated content, e.g. for tracking employees that are working outside the office, to assign work tasks without having to do broadcasts to all, and where workers can provide status reports etc via the system.

'Jackie Fenn ... said: “The hype cycle should be used along with a planning model such as the priority matrix, which highlights the technologies we believe are worth adopting early because of their potentially high impact. However the actual benefit will vary significantly across industries so planners need to ascertain which of these individual opportunities relate most closely to their organisational requirements.”'

Comment: Watch Mobile, User Interface and Web 2.0 Innovations, Says Gartner

'LBS: 'clear opportunity' for US carriers said JupiterResearch' mentions two specific areas with potential, based on what people say they want:

• Tracking younger children
• As a new dimension to social network services

Yet: 'less than three percent of cell phone users reporting routine use of maps or turn-by-turn directions in their travels'

That's an interesting aspect, as most existing players deal with maps.

'Tasso Roumeliotis, CEO at Wavemarket, was estimating the potential child tracking market between 10 to 30 million subscribers (!) in the US'

If true, that's 10% of the population on a stable basis! We are talking subscriptions here, not e.g. using the service once and then never more. That represents a lot of revenue.

Once GPS is a standard feature it will be a great tool for people that also network in the real world. There social network services will provide the backbone for the information exchange. The revenue stream is less clear though.

My answer is no, and this note seems to confirm the same notion, where technologies better suited for wide area coverage (in this case WiMAX, but also 3G applies) will be used instead. Wi-Fi hot spots have been hyped a lot, but I still mainly see them in airports, hotels and conference centers. Wireless broadband needs to cover cities to be of any real value.

Of course inside homes and enterprises Wi-Fi will continue to be used a lot, but if you have the choice of getting broadband via wireless for your home maybe more will use that instead of getting first ADSL or similar and then Wi-Fi as well. That's provided the network adapters for e.g. wireless broadband become very cheap, both as a one-time cost and over time. Uncapped flatrate is of course required.

Public Wi-Fi: Past its Prime?

'Using mobile logistics to streamline your business' provides an example of where it's clear mobile access to the information systems (mainly for inputting information in this case) has made the operation more effective and helped bring in more revenue. In many situations the benefits are not this obvious, but I'm sure there's something to learn for other companies thinking about using mobile phones for enterprise information access and location.

'In 2003 ... Mac-Gray leaders decided to replace the voice-based field force management system with a pair of data-driven mobile applications that also embraced geo-location.'

'Four years later, having roughly tripled both the size of its workforce and its annual revenues while dramatically increasing productivity and lowering its consumption of fuel, company executives are heralding the applications'

Update 20070806: This note provides some interesting info about mobile trends. Whether I agree this has anything to do with Mobile 2.0 is another story. The things mentioned are enablers to the use of mobile phones as information devices.
Mobile 2.0 is happening now


I'm one of those that think the "2.0" term (whatever stands before it) is very much a lot of nonsense, as different people packages different things in the term. Especially Mobile 2.0 is a very loose term, and Wikipedia (that normally covers Internet phenomena well) still has very little to say about it. It's social and it's user generated, and that's about it. Same as Web 2.0.

OK, so in that sense Mobile 2.0 is already here, as people now use their cameraphones to post in photos and videos to content sharing sites. People also do a lot of chatting and "communiting" via their phones. So, what's needed to make Mobile 2.0 happen then?

As I've mentioned before "2.0" is not fundamentally about technology, but the application of technology, so nothing says that phones need to have Ajax etc to be Mobile 2.0 compliant.

Here are two notes on opposite ends of the spectrum.

FEATURE: Mobile 2.0: Still in the far-off future

Ready to Embark on the Mobile 2.0 Bandwagon? Now Is the Time!

These notes make nothing clearer though, at least not to me.

Talking about trends instead of hip terms I see the following:

• New Internet services are made for PC and mobile use from day one. Mobile access is no longer something that's patched on later. That's a very good thing and should be talked about more by the industry.
• These services (of course) use what's available today in most phones, like SMS, simple browsing, Java etc. Otherwise they get no coverage.