Mobile Applications Finally Getting Deserved Attention

So, the red headed stepchild known as the mobile application is finally getting big, many thanks to Apple's recently launched Apps Store and the PR machine of Google Android OS. Apple's mobile applications quickly exceeded 10 million downloads within days of launch.

Mobile applications are nothing new. Palm has always adopted this model for their PDAs and Treo devices. Business like Handango sells mobile applications for a lving. What is different today is the easiness to buy, install, customize and remove these applications. The early mobile applications are clunky and difficult to work with. Majority of them require installation from a desktop machine. Today's mobile applications are vastly improved; they offer simple one-click installation/removal process that utilizes advance functions of smartphones (ie. GPS, WiFi, 3G Data Connection). In fact, as Video Acceleration for smartphones take more precedence, we will see more Widget-like mini applications perform powerful duties on various handsets.

As a marketing or IT professional, you are now required to think about how you would position your company into the mobile world. Depending on your services, you should consider the following options when developing your mobile application or web services:

Customer Demographics: Who are your primary customer target? Are they young or old? Male or Female? Answering these questions will likely help you design a mobile program that is tailored for your core customers. If, for example, your core customer is older and female. Chances are, they will not be very into smartphones. Perhaps a simple SMS alert sales/coupon campaign is more fitting, where as professional BlackBerry users may cater more towards a mobile email campaign. Younger, male audience will be more susceptible to trendy mobile applications that utilizes a smartphone's bells and whistles (hint: social networking?). Omniture just announced analytic features for mobile devices, where they can provide the breakdown of your customer's mobile browser, visit/log, and match back against a library of handset profiles, this can be very helpful to construct a mobile application that is fitting.

Consider your products and services: Are you a content publisher? eCommerce retailer? or a store with offline presence? If you do business online, is there a complicated checkout process? These questions can help you decide what mobile services to develop. For example, if you are a content provider, you may consider a robust mobile-web page that is universally compatible to majority of mobile browsers or simply push your content via an RSS feed which also works with mobile readers. AP Newswire and NY Times both have developed iPhone apps which are customized readers offering their news content quickly/dynamically, just as Travel Channel GO offers mobile applications for BlackBerry and Nokia Symbian S60 handsets. Consider the ability to allow your customers to download your content while they have data connection so they can view it while they are on a plane or in a subway at a later time; the value add here is giving them access even when they are disconnected. Having a mobile application available is going to provide a better user experience because you can take maximize each handset's built-in functions (buttons, Wifi, GPS, etc.), the trade-off is you would have to develop one application per smartphone type (ie. iPhone, Symbian S60, Android, Windows Mobile). Perhaps if you are an ecommerce retailer, an application in this case would be more suitable and justifiable to speed up the mobile experience in browsing catalogs and checkout; as long as you have a decent product feed, your can leverage all sorts of options. Building an application can be easy nowdays thanks to turnkey solutions providers; Godiva and 1800Flowers have both engaged in putting up their catalogs into a customized BlackBerry application powered by Digby. Perhaps your company provide a service with physical stores, try to think of ways to empower your customers with easiest way to get to your store equipped with the knowledge of cost and inventory. I mentioned Bank of America offering a cool application for the iPhones where they can use a user's handset location to suggest the nearest ATM and Branch. E*TRADE Mobile Pro is another financial services firm to join the mobile revolution by giving full account access over a BlackBerry application. Starbucks has a mobile website designed to help you to find the nearest cup of Joe. Generally speaking, mobile applications can provide more robust, simplified user experience that can defy the smaller screen challenge; one of the best example is eBay's iPhone application, simply amazing to carry out all primary functions from its website!

Some companies sees the impact of mobile marketing has on its core products even though its primary service may not have a direct link with the software side. Take Griffin Technology for example, they provide hardware accessories for iPhones/iPods but their software team jumped on the iPhone blitz with two games (5-Card Draw and Slots), apparently, both titles are well-received and have made it to the top spot in terms of download (within top 40 of paid apps). In my own personal experience, I am currently working with a mobile shopping portal called mShopper on one my projects at work. These guys offer a turnkey solution to create a WAP shopping portal for mobile handsets; all I had to do was provide them with a product feed normally used for comparison shopping engines (more reference here).

To sum this up, mobile applications are here to stay and this is just the beginning. It may seem like a fad because everyone is now trying to get into the game. If you are a marketer, consider your demographics, user profile and your own services to build a functional mobile experience for your audience. Keep in mind that you are not replacing existing channels (catalog, phone, web, stores) but to compliment with an extra value-add. If executed correctly, this is probably the most personal and intimate channel than ever since most mobile users would carry a phone everywhere they go up to 10 hours per day.

As more Unlocked Phones Become Available, is the Game Changing?

Last week, I read about BestBuy.com to start selling HTC Touch Dual unlocked to its web customers. I went to Bestbuy.com and found a dedicated a space they are using to educate consumers about buying unlocked phones and its ability to work with different telecoms. While unlocked phones on the page are limited in quantity (18 available online at time of writing), it is still a noteworthy movement. Lately, I've noticed consumers now have more places to buy unlocked phones (ie. Amazon.com, Buy.com, MobileCity, etc.) and it may be a shift in trend and mobile knowledge for U.S. consumers.

For far too long, have the U.S. mobile market been locked. We, as the consumers, were never educated about the intricate relationship between SIM Cards, GSM phones, locked or unlocked and roaming vs using other network SIM. Whilst in Asia and Europe, consumers have always known and purchased unlocked phones since the beginning. It is all part of our telecoms' master plan, by keeping things simple, subsidized and locked; it removed many unnecessary Q&As about how all of this works. Just sign on a dotted line, pay a couple of bucks for a subsidized phone and you are off to chat and text away with your friends with a contract for the next 12 months (in the beginning) and 24 months (today). When asked about traveling to foreign lands or out of network area, they tell you that roaming charge will conveniently take care of your needs. After all, why benefit the consumers with knowledge that can save money by inserting a pre-paid SIM to an unlocked phone while on international land?

But going back on topic, there seems to be more unlocked phones within reach. With the simple economics of supply and demand, there must be a growing demand in buying unlocked phones. All of this demand may have been heightened by the infamous AT&T iPhone debacle where people finally realized how much of a hassle it is to have a locked phone working only under a 2-year contract (new or extension) an exclusive carrier. In the interest of wanting to get an iPhone unlocked, consumers may have inadvertently learned about how phones worked or should work. Hence more interest in unlocked phones in the marketplace.

So what does this mean regarding to the future of the U.S. mobile market? Probably nothing drastic; the benefit is that consumers will have more access in buying unlocked handsets of their choice; however this would come at the cost of paying full un-subsidized price for the phone. For those interested in paying close to nothing for a "branded" and "locked" phone, they will continue to sign on the dotted line for a 2 year contract. For those who value the freedom
of an unlocked phone w/o a contract, they will just have to pay full price for that mobile experience. Afterall, freedom is never free.

PS - Anyone interested in unlocking their contracted, subsidized phone can request their carrier to provide unlocking instructions. Generally speaking, if you've been a good standing customer for more than three months, your carrier would be willing to unlock it for you, I usually explain that my traveling requirements throughout Asia is the reason why I needed my phone unlocked, and they are usually very cool about it!

The Significance of BlackBerry Bold

The buzz around the mobile industry has been the BlackBerry Bold (aka. 9000) which has been keeping the Press busy and sending it's maker's (Research in Motion) stock to an all time high of $142 today. The reason why this company has garnered so much attention is because of its participation of mobile progression in the U.S.

From the beginning, BlackBerry has been a silent but consistent workhorse as an email communications device. It has perfected mobile email technology for businessmen on the go and gained trust from corporate America. With a simple, yet reliable software interface and full QWERTY keyboard; it offered a no-nonsense professional solution second to none. This will prove to be an important payoff for this Canadian company later.

In the beginning, RIM didn’t care for bells and whistles, it focused on proprietary push-email technology and perfected its hardware to perform reliably. I remembered how durable every one of my BlackBerrys have been. Little by little, they gained market position as a smart device leader and migrated into more features like voice, data and internet. Ultimately, this led the company to a path in becoming the best all-in-one smart device. By perfecting its communications functionality; it has gained the trust of S&P 500 companies. A BlackBerry has become synonymous with words like “work” and “professionals” and the gold standard for American Corporations.

Realizing what is at stake in the smartphone/business/consumer marketplace; RIM has positioned and transitioned itself into a work and play device. By offering slick designs with faster data speed, brighter screen, camera, video, multimedia, applications while keeping its core communication functionality intact; it easily moved beyond the business atmosphere and into mainstream consumer gadgetry marketplace. It wasn’t a difficult task considering that it was already a widely known brand amongst corporate environment. Its social influence has reached to a new height. Pretty soon, everyone on TV from shows like The Office to reality stars of The Hills (MTV) are sporting a BlackBerry instead of consumer-centric devices like the Sidekick, perhaps the corporate image of a BlackBerry gives the off-beat TV stars a sense of legitimacy. [Side note: With so much commitment from the corporations in the U.S. buying into BlackBerrys, think about how many people you know that have a company-issued BlackBerry. Imagine the influence this has on the spouse, parents or kids; and how powerful this type of reach can be help Research in Motion to build its brand equity and move into the consumer space]

Now, BlackBerry, more popular than ever, is ready to take on the entire world. With 3G iPhone looming, BlackBerry strikes first and strikes hard. With the new model Bold (9000), they bring a whole new level of sophistication into a bulletproof gadget. With a high resolution 480x320 screen, 3G HSDPA over GSM, WiFi, GPS and a slick new GUI in its latest software platform just to name a few; it is very clear where RIM is going with its future: to become the best multimedia smartphone for work and play.

The launch of BlackBerry Bold holds real significance to the mobile movement in the U.S market. We’ve always been in a market that is vastly different than our Asia and European counterparts. In the U.S., we prefer to have a functional device that is standardized and driven by work productivity; BlackBerry has proven to be a highly productive tool. Unlike traditional mobile manufacturers (Nokia, Samsung, Moto, SonyEricsson) where they market right into the heart of consumers, RIM's strategy is to build a successful empire with the business crowd; then they leveraged their success and morphed their products into a mass-appealing consumer multimedia device. The launch of Bold is a testament to their transition. As a result, RIM/BlackBerry growth has been phenomenon and its proven business strategy of moving from one market into the next will definitely make text book material for business schools for years to come. BlackBerry is no longer silent and it wants you!

AT&T in Best Position for Mobile Dominance?

I never would have imagined myself saying this, but by the way things look today, AT&T may be in the position for total US mobile market domination, if not already.

For a long time, American GSM carriers have had a tough battle against their CDMA counterparts (Verizon and Sprint). CDMA’s coverage and clarity have always proved to be more superior in the US. In addition, CDMA’s blazingly fast EV-DO rev.A 3G Data network have paved the way for most mobile fanatics; fans of GSM network had to suffer and settle with EDGE connection for quite some time. Finally, AT&T/Cingular made a great leap by launching UMTS/HSDPA for selected areas in late 2006. I would say that was the pivotal moment for securing their future dominance.

I am banking on AT&T to take total dominance because of their following strategies:

1). First GSM network to invest in 3G/3.5G infrastructure, beating out the other GSM provider, T-Mobile, to the race. This move has set AT&T up as a serious business solutions provider, offering respectable data speed over laptop cards or handsets. While entering this market a little later than Verizon and Sprint, they get a break on being a GSM network provider to offer flexibility to both domestic and foreign business men. Afterall, GSM is the network for Asia and Europe.

2). Brodening smartphone selections: AT&T worked with Samsung, Nokia and HTC to bring quite a few, very competent, smartphones to the market and kept up that supply. They kept most of the phones’ functionalities intacted (ie. WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.). They’ve also given subsidies which brings the cost of a lot of their phones to FREE after rebate (see smartphone bargain section on the right). This was always an advantage GSM carriers have to draw customers over Verizon and Sprint; if you have to start a contracted service, would you like to pay $50 or $200 for your smartphone?. Finally, the biggest boost in notoriety and success is the iPhone deal they’ve struck with Apple. This move single handily garanteed an insane amount of traffic, popularity, new customer acquistion and more… The move is simply brilliant, and I can only imagine Verizon’s upper management regretting as days goes on.

3). GSM Network. Due to this network's international coverage, by default, there is going to be more phones available to AT&T beyond the selections made available in their locked-in subsidized program. There is just going to be more unlocked, gray market support from both Europe and, especially, Asia. Additionally, AT&T is attracting Nokia to bring their flagship products to the mix. There are rumors indicating Nokia to bring their flagship NSeries smartphone (N95) to AT&T's already robust staple; in addition to the N78. Because GSM network offers more handsets that are quad-band supported (850/900/1800/1900MHz) , they give travelers (both to and from USA) a greater flexibility when visiting foreign territory. Albeit, Sprint is trying to launch more “world” phones in their selection, you just can’t beat the convenience of being a true GSM carrier.

Because of AT&T’s first-mover advantage in the US GSM data, wide array of smartphones and network that is more international, I believe AT&T is in a very good position to dominate the mobile market. There may be one threat in their way; that is T-Mobile. T-Mobile is known for their competitive pricing and services as well as providing a nice array of smartphones (ie. Dash, Sidekick, BlackBerry, Shadow, Sage, Wing, etc.). If AT&T wants to lock in more customers, I would suggest lowering the prices to their plans and services to achieve economies of scale (ie. $10-15 unlimited data plans and $5 unlimited SMS or MMS, etc.).

As is, my money is on AT&T.

Can the iPhone break that annoying mobile computing barrier?

It’s late in May (2007), it appears that everyone is holding their breath for the upcoming Apple iPhone. I swear that there is a new article posted every hour on the web talking about the iPhone and its features. I told myself that I am not going to jump on this bandwagon just because everyone else is. So I want to spend a little time sharing my thoughts on a topic that has upset me since the beginning of Smartphones – the annoying barrier that keeps smartphones smart!

Smartphones have come a long way. They are now being shipped with faster mobile processors, colorful LCDs with beautiful GUIs and various multimedia options (ie. Camera/Camcorder/Music/Video Players). However, all of these fancy bells and whistles are nothing but a marketing charade. There are a number of non-smartphones that can satisfy all of the features above. My personal gripe has been that no smartphones on the market today will allow me to travel independent of a laptop. Ironically, smartphones are getting bulkier and heavier, but it cannot substitute for a laptop where I have the screen real estate of 1200+ pixels and enough processing power to open 3MB+ PDF files or Excel spreadsheets topped with Macros. Beyond checking your emails, looking up stock tickers and making basic day-to-day activities (banking, checking the weather, etc.), smartphones haven’t been able to offer much.

To me, the challenge has been that designers and engineers of smartphones haven’t been able to think outside the box in terms of its device operation. They have simply taken the concept of a tablet PC and reduce its screen size, power consumption, battery, and processor. This is a bit counter-productive simply because in the real world (PCs), we have headed the other direction where we have the biggest resolution, highest memory, largest harddrive and fastest processing power than ever before! So how can we possibly do away with today’s smart devices that represent everything opposite?

In comes the iPhone. A device that has the potential to give us a break-thru in the smartphone world. While it offers a touch screen that is nothing new, its operation looks to be non-conventional. Such as sliding your finger across the screen offers a quick navigation across the reading plane gives me some hope. If this device should perform larger than its physical limitation, we may be able to reach a whole new mobile experience. I know I have given a negative review purely on iPhone’s hardware spec in the past, but I am now holding my final verdict as I will wait until I exam whether iPhones have the capacity to break that annoying barrier of mobile computing. I, too, am holding my breath.

Smartphones Lacking Integrated WiFi

I have always been a big fan of smartphones with WiFi and believed that our progress in mobile internet experience can benefit greatly if all cell phones come with integrated WiFi. But taking a look at the current state of cell phones sold by the big four carriers reflects only a tiny fraction of their product line offers built-in WiFi. I have put together a list below and if you look at the phones carefully, you'll notice that besides the Samsung SCH-i730, the rest are supplied by a Taiwanese vendor HTC:

PPC-6700 (Sprint)
Samsung SCH-i730 (Verizon)
XV6700 (Verizon)
8525 (Cingular)
8125 (Cingular)
SDA (T-Mobile)
Dash (T-Mobile)
MDA (T-Mobile)

So, here is my beef: 1). What is wrong with the manufacturers today? Why are they selling a bunch of smartphones without WiFi? Is HTC the only company in the industry with the common sense? 2). When will the carriers realize that charging $30-$45 per month for their unlimited data package (EDGE or EV-DO) is too much for average cell phone consumers? To reach critical mass, the price of data package should be around $10/mo. Until they lower the monthly rates, give us integrated WiFi!