Keynotes warn that consumer – not content – is king

The acceptance that it’s the consumer that decides on the success of a mobile service hit home with the industry’s value chain at yesterday morning’s keynote session focused on mobile entertainment.

Instead of replaying the familiar ‘content is king’ phrase, the mood was strongly in favour of satisfying mobile users’ varied requirements.

A telling comment from Dr Youngcho Chi, Samsung Mobile’s Senior VP of Overseas Marketing, was for handsets to stop being a bottleneck and become devices that consumers can use to easily access music, games and video content.

“We must create a user experience that generates maximum usage, with handset vendors acting as the integrator to ensure the platform is tuned to the optimum. We’re pushing the industry to accept a common entertainment user interface to remove any restrictions on third party applications.”

According to Samsung Mobile, the highest usage of entertainment services takes place within the first few hours of a user purchasing the handset. “The level of future uptake is determined by the experience gained during this very limited period. The quality of embedded entertainment is critical, and we’re a strong supporter of ‘try and buy’ to the extent that the user can unlock preloaded demonstrations, especially mobile games”

Building on this theme was Todd Miller, VP and MD of Sony TV’s Asia business. “Everything we do now is with the consumer in mind. We’ve learnt some very valuable lessons involved with making mobile TV a success. In brief, we need to recreate the traditional TV experience but keep the navigation and pricing as simple as possible.”

Asia is leading the way with mobile TV subscriber uptake, and content providers are being pushed to provide material that is in demand within particular countries. Sony TV claims to have recognised this and is preparing to produce content locally, rather than sourcing from conventional TV production houses.

“We’re navigating through a disruptive period with mobile TV,” said Miller. “There is a cultural revolution underway with TV consumption and we now need to deploy content across many platforms, and support multiple business models. Where we’ve adopted this approach, and customised it for each mobile operator, then we’ve experienced very strong uptake.”

Dr Li Zhengmao, Executive Director and VP for China Unicom, was also keen to stress the needs of the consumer when launching new services. “Music is a major focus for a Value Added Service and is proving very popular with our customers. However, we need better handsets to support entertainment services that are quickly becoming available.”

VimpelCom reveals HSPA residential broadband plan

Russia, the fourth largest mobile market in the world, is set to get residential broadband delivered via HSPA. Alexander Izosimov, CEO of Vimpelcom, the second largest operator in the country with over 50 million subscribers, revealed his plans for the 3G network to delegates at yesterday afternoon’s keynote session.

Speaking later to the Show Daily, Izosimov said: “The plan is to roll out during the second half of 2008, concentrating initially on rural areas where there is little or no connectivity from copper or fibre. We see this as the way to open up a new revenue stream, as there’s an obvious gap in the market.

“Essentially we expect this to kick-start the take-up of 3G services – it’s a way of driving the adoption curve.”

VimpelCom is currently selecting the supplier for its 3G network implementation. The company operates networks in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia under the 'Beeline' brand.

Mobile Asia Congress Makes Waves

The GSMA Mobile Asia Congress is hitting the headlines around the world. Here’s a round up of the biggest stories unearthed at the event where the region’s major players have been striking deals this week.

China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou says his company is in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to China (reported by BusinessWeek, AP). The iPhone's music-download and Web-surfing capabilities may help China Mobile lure higher-income users, reported Bloomberg, after China Mobile added record customers in September by focusing on rural areas and cutting prices.

Meanwhile, Telstra wants to be the only carrier to offer the iPhone when it’s released in Australia, CEO Sol Trujillo has said (Smarthousenews.com)

MarketWatch reports that NTT DoCoMo is willing to spend between $5 billion and $8 billion to acquire minority stakes in operators in emerging markets. Senior VP Toshinari Kuneida told Dow Jones Newswires: “There are many Japanese tourists travelling in Southeast Asia and we can benefit from offering services in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand.”

Ericsson expects revenue from its Greater China operation to increase more than ten per cent a year in 2007 and 2008. Ericsson accounts for about 35 per cent of the network supply contracts for Chinese mobile operators, Ericsson Greater China President Mats H. Olsson told Dow Jones Newswires.

Meanwhile, Huawei expects contract sales to come in at US$16 billion this year, beating the company’s pervious target by nearly seven per cent (Reuters)

Yahoo! grows in Asia

Building on its Asian customer base, Yahoo! has announced nine new deals with operators across the region.

The operators that have signed with Yahoo! include Aircel, BPL Mobile and BSNL (India), DiGi Telecommunications (Malaysia), PT Excelcomindo Pratama, PT Hutchison and PT Indo Sat (Indonesia), PCCW Mobile (Hong Kong) and Starhub (Singapore).

According to David Ko, VP of Connected Life Asia, Yahoo!, developing partnerships is a critical aspect of the company’s strategy. “Together with our partners we are delivering a premier mobile internet experience to our respective customers. These nine new agreements add to our momentum in mobile and underscore our leadership in this important and growing market.”

Additional mobile search partnerships announced earlier this year in Asia Pacific include Globe Telecom (Philippines), Idea Cellular (India), LG Telecom (Korea), Maxis (Malaysia), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Indonesia), SmarTone-Vodafone (Hong Kong) and Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan).

Yahoo!’s oneSearch service is powered by Novarra, a provider of next-generation mobile platforms and services.

Mobile Innovation winners unveiled

Finalists in the GSMA’s Asia Mobile Innovation Awards have been pitching their products this week to a panel of senior executives from mobile operators at the Mobile Innovation Programme Summit. The judges initially reviewed more than 50 entries before selecting the winners, who are: Telegent Systems, USA (Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology), 3ple-Media, Netherlands (Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform), Integra Micro Systems, India( Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market), and Consilient Technologies Corporation, Canada (Most Innovative Consumer Application or Service).

Consilient was awarded the overall Mobile Innovation Award for its Push messaging application which is re-branded as MobileM@il by its customer SingTel in Singapore. Singaporeans were the first in the world to receive the completely free mobile email service, launched in June. Consilient's mobile advertising server, adSpotz, integrates within the mobile operator's system and delivers smart text, banner and video ads in the mobile email on consumer phones.

The software has a built-in advertising capability which enables advertisers to fully fund the mobile email service through advertising. In exchange for free mobile email, customers receive targeted and interactive ads. Advertisers for SingTel's service include, KFC, Pizza Hut, GlaxoSmithKline and Sony Ericsson.

Consilient CEO Trevor Adey told the Show Daily: “There are so many software companies in the mobile ecosystem – winning the Innovation Award is a testament from the experts.”

The Asia Mobile Innovation Awards form part of the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Programme, launched earlier this year. The Programme aims to highlight industry innovation achievements and needs, bringing together small and medium-sized companies developing innovative mobile products, industry investors and mobile operators to accelerate the adoption of innovation.

Operator giants: Innovation to drive future growth

Yesterday’s opening keynote session of the Mobile Asia Congress saw three of the world’s biggest mobile operators cite innovation as the key enabler of a successful mobile business.

Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and CEO of China Mobile, Masao Nakamura, President and CEO of NTT DoCoMo and Manoj Kohli, President and CEO of India’s Bharti Airtel, represent the largest, most advanced and fastest growing mobile markets in the world, respectively. And although each country is in a very different stage in the development of mobile communications, the overriding message of each operator was the same – the need to innovate.

“The challenge is not just the technology but also the business model,” said Wang Jianzhou. “We can keep operators at the heart of the value chain because we have the customers. We must innovate though.”

Jianzhou stressed the need for the ongoing development and delivery of new content designed specifically for the mobile. This approach has already led to revenue from mobile music services in the country exceeding the total revenue from the traditional music industry.

For NTT DoCoMo, with 80 per cent of subscribers now migrated to 3G, the emphasis is on the development of ‘Super 3G’ – or LTE – with commercial deployments targeted from 2010, as reported in yesterday’s Show Daily. In addition, Masao Nakamura highlighted his company’s intention to “transfer telecommunications infrastructure into a lifestyle infrastructure,” whereby the mobile phone is both a communications tool and a lifestyle tool.

Meanwhile the President and CEO of Bharti Airtel – the world’s third largest operator in terms of mobile subscribers in a country with only 18% mobile penetration –

spoke of the importance of adapting and extending its successful outsourcing business model. The operator hopes this model will enable it to connect 700 million people in rural India.

“This week sees the 12^th anniversary of Bharti,” said Kohli. “When we started we had no capital, no brand, no technology. We have proved you don’t need deep pockets to be successful, you need entrepreneurial spirit and employee and partner passion.”

The perceived threat of ‘over the top’ services from the likes of Google and Yahoo! was also put to the panel for comment. “We believe these are complementary to our services,” said Kohli.

Jianzhou concurred, taking the opportunity to comment on recent industry developments that have seen handsets and services locked to particular operators. “As an operator we need to provide the innovation. We don’t like the SIM-locked service approach. One of the most important advantages of GSM is openness. This is very important to promote the business.”

Untapped US$50B mobile broadband notebook market

The GSMA and Microsoft have published the results of a study into mobile broadband computing that shows a currently untapped market worth some US$50 billion in 2008 – a 70 million unit opportunity – for notebook PCs with built-in mobile broadband in the high growth, mass market US$500-$1000 price range.

The research, undertaken by Pyramid Research, also revealed a gap of over 46 million notebooks between recent industry analysts forecasts and this new report, suggesting that the PC industry has yet to produce the optimum connected notebook that appeals to mass market PC buyers. The study involved more than 12,000 consumer interviews across 13 countries as well as input from all members of the notebook value chain.

“Microsoft is pleased to be working with the GSMA to accelerate the adoption of PCs with built-in mobile broadband,” said Will Poole, Corporate Vice President of the Unlimited Potential Group at Microsoft. “By quantifying and characterising PC market demand, it is our hope that mobile operators and OEMs will collaborate to introduce compelling and affordable notebooks with innovative new services.”

PC vendors that have reacted to this market data and expressed interest in working with mobile operators and the GSMA to fulfill this market demand include Asus, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Lenovo, Twinhead and Vestel.

As mobile operators examine how best to reach potential subscribers, the GSMA and many of its largest operator members are launching a competition to identify devices and manufacturers able to serve the untapped market. Notebook manufacturers and OEMs will be asked to propose new designs that can meet such demand.

The winner of the new PC design will be showcased to decision makers within mobile operators that are interested in serving the unmet needs for broadband services on PCs. The winner will be announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, next February.