Communications

Talking about Voice SMS, Video SMS and MMS in a webinar tomorrow

Tomorrow (May 6th) at 9 am EDT (1300 GMT) I'm doing a webinar on:

Mobile Messaging- Its Not Just About Texting

Mobile Text messaging has created new opportunities for additional revenue resources for global mobile operators.  Industry analysts predicts mobile messaging to reach $65B in annual revenue by 2010.  As a result of this messaging explosion, operators continue to look for ways to differentiate themselves in messaging services and to increase the revenue realized from text messaging.  Adding voice and video messages to the standard text message service is just one of the services operators are using to enhance the texting experience within their subscriber base. This webinar will examine video and voice short messaging services(SMS), discuss the technical considerations of implementing these types of services and review various operator successes with media messaging services.

Multi-Media messaging (MMS) has been very successful in some markets, e.g. the UK, while in others, like the US, it's used only for sending photos.  In other markets, it's hardly used at all.  Part of the problem is handset interoperability, especially when it comes to exchanging video clips.  In some cases, there are handset-specific user interface issues and in some markets the problem is enabling MMS operation, e.g. roughly half of the MMS-capable handsets in the Philippines haven't been "activated" (as the operator needs an SMS from the customer indicating their handset type).  Finally, there are markets where MMS inter-connection between operators.doesn't work, either technically or commercially.

But where there's a failure, other solutions emerge.  That's what I'll be talking about tomorrow.

I've written in the past about Voice SMS and about Video SMS, two services that fill the gap by being very simple to use and by working with every handset and every operator.

If you're interested, sign up here and listen in tomorrow.

eComm 2008 Panel: What Will Drive Wireless Innovation?

Here's the complete video of the panel discussion I ran at eComm 2008 in March, all 86 minutes.

My panelists were:

• Martin Geddes (STL Partners),
• Stanley Chia (Vodafone),
• Sumit Agarwal (Google),
• Jonathan Christensen (Skype),
• Christopher Allen (iPhoneWebDev.com),
• Benoit Schillings (Trolltech/Nokia)

Time permitting, I'll see if I can index some interesting highlights and have a follow up post with direct links — that's just in case you're hesitant to invest 86 minutes in the whole session...

VideoSMS — Another cool service that avoids the problems of MMS

Video SMS, like Voice SMS, delivers an exciting service that works on any handset and any network.

Meanwhile, Multimedia Message Service (MMS) is mostly languishing.  In the US and much of the world, MMS is used for picture mail but hardly anything else.  There are several problems.  In most markets, there are a dearth of MMS capable (and appropriately configured) handsets, there are interoperability issues between handsets, particularly with video support or the lack thereof, and in some markets there are interoperability issues between service providers.

So new, simple, inter-operable services have emerged.  The first was Voice SMS, an audio messaging service that has taken off because it actually works with any handset and any network.  I’ve written about Voice SMS several times in the past as it’s a cool service and we supply platforms to many of the vendors in this market.

Today we had our first press release on a new service, Video SMS.  Maxis Communications, the leading operator in Malaysia, has launched their Maxis Video Avatar service in December, based on an application by NGC Systems and platforms from NMS Communications.

Like Voice SMS and unlike MMS, Video SMS is a messaging service that works with any handset.  If both subscribers have 3G handsets, the service leverages the 3G network to deliver an actual video message.  But in the more common case, where one or both of the subscribers are on 2G or 2.5G, the service still works.  Instead of an actual video message, the 2G user generates and/or the 2G recipient receives a voice message with an animated gif image of a lip-sync'd talking avatar.  If the recipient has a voice-only phone the service reverts to Voice SMS, but with a URL where recipient could view the lip sync'd avatar speaking the message if they can get web or WAP access.

From the user's point of view this is a cool new messaging service that serves the same needs as Voice SMS but with an added personalization element — animated avatars.  From the operator's point of view, it's a new revenue source with both message revenue and content revenue, as avatars can be sold just at ringtones and wallpapers are sold.

The key take-aways:

• Easy user interface
• Simple useful service
• Connects with any phone on any network

Smart Communications in the Philippines has also launched this service to their 27M subscribers. As they put it:

Video Avatar is a new P2P 3G video messaging service that combines lip-syncing fun avatars and a 30 second recorded message to create an expressive and memorable video message.

Ringback Tones Adoption Rates — Culture, Biz Model or Marketing Savvy?

Ringback tone services have been wildly successful in many parts of Asia and they are emerging as a major money maker, not to mention a major music distribution channel, in many other countries, but not in the US or the EU.

Nearly 55% of Korean subscribers have ringback tone service.  China Mobile has close to 50% adoption.  Yet, as of September, adoption rates in most of Europe were below 10% (the UK was at 2%) and US adoption was only 5%.  Since our LiveWire Mobile division provides white label managed ringback tone services and sells ringback tone service platforms, I'm obviously interested in understanding more.  And, with 30+ operators on six continents using LiveWire Mobile platforms or services, I have some access to comparative data.

A late start is only part of the story.  Korea went from 0 to 30% penetration in just nine months (April to December, 2002).  China took a bit longer as the service only became available in stages across China Mobile's 31 separate, relatively autonomous, provincial units.  That roll out took from mid-2003 to early 2004.  But by the end of 2004, China Mobile had 30 million ringback tone subscribers (then 69M by 12/05 and 144M by 8/06).  And yet after ~2 years of service, the US has only 12M subscribers or 5% penetration.

One clear difference in Korea and China, versus the US and EU, is the number of independent marketing organizations directly or indirectly promoting the new service.  I remember visiting Seoul Korea in January 2003 and having a billboard pointed out to me where a Korean rock star was advertising his latest hit and how you could make it your color ring tone. I was told there were more than 20 independent organizations providing content for SKT's Color Ring service at that time.  More significantly, revenue splits were such that these independent organizations found it worth while directly promoting their content to mobile subscribers.  That means there were 20+ marketing teams with independent activities that all served to increase subscriber awareness.

Compare this with the typical operator in the US or EU where the only source of information or content is the operator's portal and the only service promotion activities are those of the operator.  That means there is one product manager focused on ringback tones, they have a limited budget and they must compete with their associates for position on the operator's WAP deck.  Is it any wonder awareness is low?

Of course other factors also contribute to service success.  Our LiveWire Mobile team has accumulated a set of best practices based on discussions and consulting work with operators around the world.  They have a formal service offer of course, but I'll endeavor to summarize some of their learning in a future blog post.

Community goes mobile, when? how?

Some notes from the first after lunch session at Connect 2007 in Madrid yesterday, entitled Community Goes Mobile.  Dave Penny (VP Biz Dev at NMS) moderated, with panelists:

• David Springall, CTO, Yospace
• Stuart O'Brien, Editor, Mobile Entertainment Magazine , Intent Media
• Gerrit-Jan Konijnenberg, CEO, Comsys
• Peter Karney, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, NEC

The first key point is communities don't align with operators.  The lead example in every market is SMS.  Until there was universal connectivity, SMS never took off.  David is particularly vocal that social networks have to span multiple operators to succeed.  This is interesting as Yospace currently runs SeeMeTV for 3 in the UK and Look At Me for O2 in the UK and a similar service for 10 other operators in various countries.

Big discussion of charging models.  If Facebook is free on the Internet, why pay for mobile access.  Conclusion, you'll never get someone to pay per transaction, but you might get someone to pay an Internet access fee, especially a fixed known flat rate fee (like x per day for all day and y max for all month Internet access).

Another interesting point is that mobile operators are doing deals with Internet brands (like Vodafone UK with MySpace) because the Internet brand has more recognition than the mobile brand.

Of course there are no operator representatives on this panel to hold up their end...  :-)

Mobile application innovation in EU

The second session at Connect 2007 in Madrid is Application Innovation with John Orlando, NMS CMO moderating and panelists:

• Gianluca Ferranti, Director of Marketing, Reitek S.p.A.
• David Springall, CTO, Yospace
• Colm Healy, CEO, XIAM
• Anssi Tauriainen, CEO, Aito Technologies

This panel is slide presentations and covers material that's interesting, but mostly already familiar to me.  So my comments will be brief...  (sorry).

Gianluca's focused on video infotainment which appears to be taking off in Italy.  While he's active in some really cool stuff, today's talk covered market statistics and more conventional applications.

Yospace has their "SeeMeTV" service running on 12 operators now, but David comments that it's been a struggle compared to launching a service on the Internet.  If you're not familiar with SeeMeTV, it's a service that allows subscribers to upload cameraphone videos via MMS.  Others can browse content that people have uploaded.  It costs 30 pence or more to download a clip.  The original contributor gets money everytime someone watches their clip.  The revenue share is 10%.  The SeeMeTV service bridges 12 operators, so contributors get cash back from users across multiple operators.  Paybacks to contributors are via PayPal, not the operator.  All-in-all, it's a mobile service which could be run over-the-top but, based on David's comments, they only work through operators because operator endorsed (on-deck) is the only viable approach today.  Even so, they don't get customer demographics from the operators, just billing and an on deck position.

Colm from Xiam is focused on mobile advertising.  Xiam's edge is in automated analysis of subscriber demographics so it's possible to target content to users when the price points is 30 cents or 1-2 Euros.  On the Internet, Amazon can show dozens of potential offers, but on the mobile phone there is only space and time to make a very few offers.  Currently they get 3X click through by targeted offers on mobile phones at Orange UK.

Anssi is founder and CEO at Aito is focused on providing customer analytics to mobile operators.  Their software mines the operator's data to figure out the services individual customers use and the constraints and problems they encounter.  The goal is to figure out specific problems that need to be fixed, both technical issues and communication issues.

Interesting, but running over slightly which killed the Q&A which would have been the best part.

...

Off to Madrid for Connect 2007 Europe

The third and final Connect conference of 2007 is taking place in Madrid on Wednesday and Thursday, November 7th and 8th and I'll be there.  My blog comments on earlier conferences are here (& 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

Day One has a heavy focus on mobile industry issues and mobile applications. And, it's conducted as panel discussions with few or no slides.  Perhaps this only works because there are good speakers, chosen to promote controversy and discussion, but it really works!  In both 2006 and so far in 2007, the nature of the discussion has been much, much better than at a typical industry show.  The session descriptions for November 7th are here and the speaker bios are here.  If you can be in Madrid on Wednesday, you should attend.

Day Two is a more traditional developers conference focusing on NMS technology and products that are used to create many of the applications discussed by the Day One executives.  Check out the Day Two program.

Connect 2007 Asia in Guilin China

I'm at the Connect 2007 conference in Guilin (Day One schedule here).

There's free WiFi in the lobby, but WiFi connectivity in the Sheraton Hotel’s conference area is from China Mobile.  This costs 100 Yuan per day.  What's worse, it worked well for the first 30 minutes or so, but then became extremely unreliable — slow to the point of timeouts, which precludes creating posts through the normal Typepad interface.  So this is composed in Blogjet and will be uploaded later via the hotel’s in-room wired access.

The first day of the US & EU conferences are 100% panels — no presentations.  The Asia Connect conference is more presentations and less Q&A.  This is partly to deal with language issues, but mostly it’s cultural.  It’s harder to get tough questions, or any questions at all, from Asian audiences.  They are too polite.

Community goes mobile

Dave Penny, VP at NMS, is moderating the first session after lunch entitled "Community Goes Mobile" with panelists:
Prakash Iyer, Founder and CEO, envIO networks -- a market centric approach to recommendations and content discovery.  They are still in stealth mode, but already he's said more than shows up on their website.
Nicolas Arauz, Co-founder and Managing Director, Xipto LLC -- some notes earlier today...
Dan Melinger, CEO, Socialight -- location aware social recommendations particularly useful when you want friends comments on where you are right now.
Jouni Welander, Head of New Solutions US, Nokia Siemens Networks -- most people know NSN...

Some comments I found interesting:

Jouni showed a Nokia Siemens forecast that by 2016 there would be 5 billion people connected.  I can't imagine it will take that long...  Of course they are talking about real people, not just subscriptions, but still... Why so long?

Jouni also mentioned a study that says 12 million people used mobile devices to access social networking sites in June 2007.  Half of these were US users accessing either MySpace or Facebook.

Prakash differentiates mobile community by location but also by the different characteristics of the mobile environment.  On the other hand, neither Prakash nor Dan see the need for different services on the Internet and on mobile -- they will just be different interfaces to the same community.  Nicolas focuses on how personal the mobile device is, e.g. spam on a mobile is much more intrusive.

A lot of discussion about location and privacy issues.  All of the panelist seem to assume that location is something that may become available from the service providers.  So far, no one has mentioned Navizon which I wrote about last week.  The real issue is trust and the need to push control of location information to the user.  Edge solutions sound best to me, but everyone seems to assume they'll have to work with operators to get location info.

A long discussion of swarming, i.e. too many people including completely unrelated people showing up for a suburban party, political protests, or related, cyber bullying.  Also discussion of privacy in virtual worlds and in your on-line social persona.  The panelists are worried about privacy, but everyone on the panel is over 30.  My impression (even though I'm over 50) is that today's youth are much more comfortable with living their lives publicly.  Or to put it another way, it used to be if you lived in a small town, everyone knew everything that went on.  Today, it's not just in a small town.

Making money -- social networks must appear to be free as they are on the Internet.  Money comes from driving traffic (on a flat rate plan), perhaps by offering some premium service to a subset of users and, eventually, by advertising and advertising-like activities, for example, content discovery and content recommendations.

In response to a question, Nicolas made the point that your closest contacts on your mobile may churn quite rapidly but can be represented by who you've communicated with in the past 24 hours and/or past week.  To me that suggests that a mobile social network client should capture all your phone calls and SMSs and ask you if they are people to add to your social network (and if so, where and how they are to be added).  And, sure enough, three minutes later Nicolas added the idea that your biggest mobile social network is the people you call and SMS in any given day.

General agreement that mobile social networking won't really take off until it is available across operators.  Exclusive deals won't promote widespread adoption.

Dan suggests that handset standardization should come through browsers, although this will take time to roll out.

****  Minor corrections 12 Oct 2007  *****

Thinking about the User

Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis is moderating the next session at Connect 2007 entitled "The User?" with panelists:

Ewald Anderl, CTO and VP at Kirusa
John Puterbaugh, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Strategist at Nellymoser
Russ McGuire, Strategy at Sprint Nextel
Ken Olewiler, Managing Director of PUNCHCUT
Jud Bowman, CTO at Motricity

Here's what struck me from the discussions:

Interesting comment from Ken, reinforced by Dean, that US consumers are willing to carry bulkier devices, perhaps in belt pouches, compared with Europeans.

Russ from Sprint-Nextel disavows doing their own innovation.  He says they recognize they are not the innovators, they just want to be sure they attract the innovators in a fashion that doesn't result in them  becoming a dumb pipe -- refreshingly honest!

John points out that off-deck user interfaces are better than most carrier user interfaces even though the carriers can pre-load user interface software onto the phones.  There are particular problems with billing, i.e. jumping into and out of billing screens.

Universal admiration for the iPhone's user interface.  Jud notes that even if Apple sells 20 million iPhones, that's a drop in the bucket of a billion plus handsets per year.  The point is 40 other handsets vendors are scrambling to include parts of the iPhone's user interface.  Ken expects a flood of copies, many of which will be by wanna-a-be's, who don't actually understand what Apple has accomplished. 

Negatives:  iPhone voice calling isn't great.  The SMS user interface (with no tactile feedback) is impossible to use behind your back, in your pocket or under the school desk (where you can't see the screen).

But there is still universal admiration from all panelists, including Russ at Sprint.  Russ does point out that Apple set the bar with the Mackintosh, but it was a (comparatively) closed ecosystem and Windows won in the end.  So Apple has raised the bar for everyone - that's good.  But who wins in the end is not clear.

Digression on smart phones...  Russ makes the point they are like a Swiss army knife, great to have a pair of scissors but they are not as good as a real pair of scissors.  Russ uses that to promote Sprints new WiMAX service Xohm, where they expect 3rd party device vendors to go wild.

Ewald is very much in favor of AJAX on the mobile phone as it reduces the application's footprint on the device to zero.  Jud confirms that user purchases go up tremendously when users succeed in downloading a Java application.  He can't wait to see wider deployment of AJAX capable browsers so he can avoid the need to have the user download an Java application.

Dean's wrapup is theres no one layer that determines success.