@Momo Delhi: Superman Is Wireless, Those Who Pay For Games Are Ignorant
“I like Superman more than Spiderman…because Superman is wireless”
That message was sent by one of the Mobile Monday Delhi participants to a short code set up by Impetus Technologies, and was displayed on a screen behind the speaker. Momo Delhi began with the audience demanding more from their mobile device: better battery life, bigger screen size, location based services, multi-party video conferencing, better usability, PC-mobile compatibility, mobile social networking, faster GPRS access, and even for it to be a utility computing device. During the conference, there was a demos of bluetooth marketing, and questions were raised on whether such a solution can be used to close a sale. I also saw an interesting phone called Neonode N1 (more).
Presentations were made on mobile security, mobile payments, usability and adapting content to the mobile. Onyomo, which was also showcased, is a local search engine which also has an SMS based search option. Some of the presentations can be viewed here.
I facilitated a discussion among the audience with some of the issues that we have raised at ContentSutra. While discussing GPRS, we learnt that the operators are currently working on solutions for having GPRS settings enabled automatically. It was also mentioned that currently, there is little that GPRS has to offer to the masses: it’s mainly for the business user who needs to stay connected (I disagree). It was also felt that 3G will be a story of data throughput, not voice, and it is better to movie slowly to 4G, instead of bypassing 3G, because bandwidth needs to be raised slowly, and there is infrastructure compatibility. On gaming, it was felt that people who pay for gaming content are just plain ignorant - they aren’t aware of the numerous websites where quality mobile games are available for free - why should people be limited to the content that the operator chooses? A subscription model is best, and why should people pay both for the game, and then the download?
It was also felt that marketing needs to be reinvented for the mobile - it should be pull based, and contextual advertising is best. Credit was given to the operators - that they are not willing to share consumer profiles with marketers, though that forces marketers to broadcast messages instead of targeting better. People pay not for content but convenience, and a better search option for music might make things easy. Questions were raised about ownership of content when the phone is sold - should you be forced by DRM to buy that content again for a new phone? Connected gaming emerged as a means of monetizing games, and reducing piracy.
Posted In: Mobile
Newsletter
Comments (9)
Jan 31, 2007 3:08 PM
Nikhil,
I’d like to know your opinion / views about uploading photos from mobiles to website—I see so many people snapping pictures from their mobiles—would such a service be helpful—snap the picture then email to your account on a website—the website will automatically detach and upload photo to your account. Kind of moblogging but without the content—just pictures.
-p
Jan 31, 2007 10:47 PM
Pranav, a couple of things:
- I’ve always held the opinion that new bloggers will flock to the blogging sites that are already popular, because they want to be seen as a part of that community. So, for India, rediffblogs, blogger, wordpress and livejournal rule. I don’t quite see a market for a website for hosting moblogs. I want it to be on MY space, not yours.
- Now MMS is operator depended, so GPRS is the only way to do it. GPRS penetration can only go up, and all that is needed is for someone to market a bouquet of services to increase adoption. The operator is probably waiting for more spectrum because of voice congestion - I don’t think they have a dedicated spectrum for data. So, preparing for increased GPRS penetration would be a good idea.
- As a user, what would I want?
For you to give me a single account access to posting on my website, according to the settings that I choose. I just have to mail your site the photo, and it gets posted on a site specified by me (I’ll share the username and password). Blogger has <a >mobile options</a>. I’m not sure if rediffblgos, wordpress and livejournal have it, so there’s a market for a single space that allows posting anywhere.
- Mobile handset usability issue: my phone has an “option” for Bluetooth, MMS, text, but no option for ‘email it’. the number of steps it would take for a user to mail a photograph are a hindrance.
Currently, the process is so tedious that it’ll depend entirely on the urgency of the post.
(anyone else have an opinion on this?)
Feb 1, 2007 12:40 AM
Nikhil—very interesting analysis & perspective.
A few clarifications of my earlier comment - lets say we leave out the ‘blogging’ aspect completely from the uploading of pictures part. The site helps you to upload pictures directly from mobile. And then you can share those with friends / family.
I agree - serious bloggers would opt for the standard blogging platforms / websites. But the actual target audience for the service I describe above would be the teen / college going / young professionals. Snapping pictures from mobile is something that I’ve seen that is very, very popular with this segment. Would they be willing to incur the cost and upload the photos would make some interesting survey / research topic.
Such a service would definitely be dependent on GPRS rather than MMS. In that respect, how much % of the current 100 mill. subscribers have GPRS enabled /use it (Do you know how much % is this—I’m not sure of this number). Besides, after reviewing the 3GSM covergage on contensutra, it seems that all mobile oeprators are looking for additional VAS and increased adoption of GPRS.
Talking about the handset issue—I cant comment on that since I’m based in US. But if what you describe is the general case across majority of the handsets, it would be a big hindrance.
My entire speculation is based on sheer numbers—there are 100 mill. mobile subscribers in india and india’s the fastest growing segment. In that context, even if 0.1 - 0.01 % is the target market, its still a HUGE number…
As you say, it would be interesting to know what other readers might have to say about it.
Feb 1, 2007 1:06 AM
Nikhil,
I did some digging and it seems you can upload photos by email using MMS and not just GPRS.
I am not 100% sure but thats what I found based on searching on Google.
If this is isnt true, some one pls correct me.
Feb 1, 2007 1:27 AM
well, mms isn’t really a solution, afaik. major limitations there. the younger crowd might use mms, but the cost of uploading photos…gprs is so much better. prepare for more bandwidth, I say. willrespond to your first comment later…
Feb 1, 2007 2:23 AM
Pranav/Nikhil,
We have been working with this for quite some time now. Its possible to do it with MMS and has been tried before but for quite a few reasons including settings, interoperability etc. hasn’t worked much. We have also recently developed a Java application called “ClickNShare”, which essentially lets you capture photo, audio and video and share it directly to you friends on their mobile (via a WAP push SMS)/email {cos promoting your own moblogging portal is tough as Nikhil says}. The application is in the final testing stages and we would be launching it pretty soon. But, again the big question of how many people have GPRS and then having a user download this application without the carrier support. Lets see how the market matures :)
Feb 1, 2007 7:15 AM
Nikhil/Pranav/Lomesh
This is an interesting discussion. Photosharing/Photo Bloogging on mobile has caught up fast. This service is very helpful and with the number of MObile Phone to a PC ratio on the rise in favour of the the mobile phone and hence people would prefer to access their photo album on their mobile.
Using an MMS is an expensive affair and emailing is a easy and quick way to share photos without spending anything( Ofcourse you have to pay for GPRS).
I have been developing such applications for major Phone cos on WAP, J2ME and Symbian based clients for a leading Wireless company in India and have been involved in the mobile field for the last 4 years.
Lomesh mytoday.com have a similar photosharing application already. Ibibo.com has launched a photo sharing photo blogging application on mobile.
As far as Mobile Gaming is concerened checke out for this community based free mobile gaming company http://www.hovr.com
Feb 1, 2007 10:12 AM
Lomesh—when you say ” Its possible to do it with MMS and has been tried before but for quite a few reasons including settings, interoperability etc. hasn’t worked much “
do you imply problems at the user end or the service provider end (photo upload site) ? The reason I ask because I dont understand what ‘interoperability’ issues may arise at the user end…
Sidhartha - can you point me to Mytoday’s photosharing app. I tried to locate it but wasnt able to do so.
Feb 1, 2007 12:36 PM
Hi Pranav,
You can click this link and follow the process to download Jhalak in your mobile. http://mytoday.com/cds-main/gallery/items?cat=applications&sno=2 . Alternately type JHALAK and sms it to 676787