 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific III 2009 |
| Article no.: | 9 | |
| Topic: | Rich mobile experiences for the mass market | |
| Author: | Gordon Tsang | |
| Title: | SVP Sales & General Manager Asia | |
| Organisation: | Myriad | |
| PDF size: | 224KB |
About author
Gordon Tsang is General Manager and Senior Vice-President of Sales in Asia of Myriad Group AG. Prior to joining Myriad Group AG, Mr Tsang was Vice-President and General Manager for the worldwide client software business at Openwave, a provider of software applications for mobile and broadband devices. His previous experience includes Asia Pacific director at Magic4 and Asia Sales Director for Zi Corporation responsible for its text input solutions. Gordon Tsang holds an engineering degree from Leeds Metropolitan University in Electrical and Electronic engineering.
Article abstract
Smartphones dominate the headlines, but the vast majority of mobile phone users own far more modest devices, especially in Asia’s fastest growing markets. For many in China, Indonesia and India, the mobile phone is their only link to Internet services. Many consider the Western world or Japan to be leaders in mobile communications, but the rest of Asia is really leading the way, with mass-market services – especially mobile social networking and graphical data services for ultra-low cost phones.
Full Article
Integrated mobile social networking One of the biggest Internet trends of the past few years has been the emergence of social networking and the past twelve months has seen this replicated on the mobile phone. Both across Asia and globally, social networking has emerged as the key application driving consumer adoption of mobile data services. Facebook is leading the way, already reporting 65 million mobile users per month, up from 20 million just eight months ago and research firm eMarketer forecasts that there will be more than 800 million mobile users of social networks by 2012. There are a number of ways in which users can access these services, whether via browser or via an on-device application. Applications can integrate a number of different services into a single user interface. They also allow for a significantly improved user interface, tailored to the specific device, rather than being constrained by the limitations of the device’s browser – which may not display correctly and may limit the use of the full screen. Devices such as the INQ phone have shown how successful tailored social networking devices can be and we are likely to see a raft more in the coming months. In the future it is likely we will also see tight integration of such applications together with the contacts and inboxes of handsets, allowing for a ‘social phonebook’ drawing together a whole range of information on a user’s friends into a single interface. As we have discussed, specific on-device software allows for applications to be tailored to the unique interface constraints of a mobile device. However, many mass-market devices lack sufficient processing power, battery life and memory for such advanced, always-on data services. For this reason some are looking to relocate the bulk of the processing and data storage to servers accessed via the Internet ‘in the cloud’. In addition to providing better performance on low-cost devices this also allows for easy switching to new phones without the requirement to back-up or worry about losing stored data. Graphical data services for ultra-low cost handsets Whereas the successful data services in more advanced mobile markets have predominantly been lifestyle services, developing markets have seen the rise of more functional applications. These range from banking services, to market pricing, medical information and crop reports. While these have initially been deployed via SMS, they have reached into regions where previously there was no communications of any kind and the fixed line Internet has very low penetration. The next generation will see a shift from the text message interface to intensively graphical interfaces. The challenge is to deliver these richer experiences on the highly constrained platforms of phones affordable to the mass market. However, tailoring these services to the limited processing power and input mechanisms of low-end handset models represents a significant challenge for both handset manufacturers and mobile operators alike. Nowhere is this truer than in the ultra low cost segment, typically defined as devices priced at between US$10 and US$15, which are highly popular in countries such as India, Pakistan, China and the Philippines. The key for bringing services to these handsets lies in the ability to develop highly efficient software with a small footprint for phones with extremely low-processing, memory and power requirements. As, by their very definition, they are resource constrained in order to keep hardware costs down and reach the required price points. To date, they have typically only offered voice, basic SMS and perhaps a WAP browser providing access to a subset of Internet functionality, but have rarely boasted any on-device applications or the ability to add them. However, in spite of their limited capabilities, these phones have still witnessed a huge range of innovative services deployed using SMS, including everything from crop reports and market prices to m-banking. Despite the rudimentary interface offered by texting, these have seen considerable uptake, however the next challenge is to provide these services with a more graphical front-end. With analysts Juniper Research predicting that the low-cost handset market will grow by 22 per cent in the next five years, it is set to be a key market where both handset manufacturers and operators will be looking for ways to differentiate their products and services. Graphical data services have the potential to become this differentiator. The popularity in applications in the Smartphone market has illustrated the demand for specialised applications bringing graphical data services to mobile devices, where smaller screens and basic input options can make them more accessible than a mobile web browser for certain tasks. The challenge is to bring these often resource-hungry applications to low-end handsets, where the typically smaller screens and basic keypads make specialised applications even more suitable. One answer to this could be widgets. Widgets are small applications that display information such as weather reports, news, sports scores and other information directly on the mobile phone’s home screen, without requiring the user to scroll through menus or search for an application. In wealthier markets such as Europe, mobile widgets have already proven popular on expensive feature phones and Smartphones, and are being added to an increasing range of mass-market phones. In fast-growing mobile markets such as rural India the simplicity of mobile widgets is ideal for consumers with little or no Internet experience and access. When delivered to ultra-low-cost phones, with low-processing power and memory, they bring graphical web-based services to this segment for the first time. A further key component is how these widgets are connected to Internet services. By providing connectivity not just via 3G or GPRS, but also SMS, and USSD – a basic data service that is compatible with all GSM phones – it is possible for entry-level data services to be delivered to users without data contracts or in regions with poor coverage. This also opens a range of additional communication options – for example mobile instant messaging has been popular in many regions – but few regions have seen a level of adoption comparable to that in China. There the QQ service has become close to ubiquitous with over half a billion registered users. Specialised IM widgets combined with data channels have the potential to bring these already popular services to low-end devices, driving mass-market data usage. In conclusion, despite the relatively small profile given by many to the mass market and ultra-low-cost segments, they are a hotbed of service innovation. Furthermore, the huge volumes and predicted growth amongst these segments means that they are likely to remain so. While it’s clear to see that there are a number of technical challenges faced by handset manufacturers and operators wishing to bring Internet and data services to mass market handsets, increases in handset capabilities mean that it is set to remain at the forefront for the foreseeable future.
