Archive for Global Messaging 2007
by Helen Keegan
July 9, 2007 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, SMS, MMS, Events + Conferences, Global Messaging 2007, Global Mobile Messaging 2007
I saw this article today over at 160 Characters and I thought it was very relevant to this particular blog and so Mike Grenville, who wrote the piece, has given me permission to republish it here in its entirety:
“While today it may seem obvious that mobile phones are used to exchange text messages as well to talk to other people. As more and more ways of sending text messages become available on the handset, there is a growing temptation to merge message types. But are consumers really calling for convergence or is this driven by developments in technology?
We are often reminded that the rise of SMS was not predicted and certainly was not part of the original design. However it is not clear whether the factors behind the popularity have been understood and incorporated into developments going forward. Partly because of the way that new types of messaging have emerged they are often stored and accessed in quite different ways the mobile phone handset.
While the search for benefits from an IP network goes on, converging messaging has been touted as one of them. While there are benefits to converging the various types of message formats from a network perspective, great care needs to be taken before removing the ability of users to choose which format to use.
A Place For MMS
One of the reasons that MMS has failed so spectacularly was because it was touted as a replacement for SMS. The analysts lined up to say that SMS was about to peak and by the end of the year would level off and be replaced by the rapid rise of the shiny new world of MMS. This was repeated for a few years until it finally became apparent to all that MMS was never going to replace SMS and it joined the growing list of messaging choices available to consumers.
According to M:Metrics at the end of 2006 only about 2-3% of users send an MMS every day, with about 30% using it between one and three times a month.
Speaking at the 2007 Global Messaging Congress, Sibel Ozcan from Turkcell said that “the success of SMS so far is because it is reliable, it is easy to use and the pricing is simple - all of which is the opposite for MMS.” Turkcell have recently relaunched MMS and Ozcan said that they are growing both P2P and A2P MMS traffic. They have found that while an SMS might be sent to anyone in the address book, an MMS is mostly only sent to one person. Special event days and anniversaries was the number one driver for sending an MMS followed by as a decision aid while out shopping. Based on their research Turkcell ran a variety of targeted campaigns for example a series of ads on drink mats in coffee shops which successfully stimulated usage.
Reliability
Ovum’s John Delaney agreed that “SMS continues to have enormous growth even in supposedly saturated markets. It is simple, ubiquitous, most people know that they have it on their handset and it is reliable.”
This last point reliability, is something that MMS still has issues with. While reliability has no doubt substantially for most operators, at least two operators admitted at Global Messaging Congress that about 20% of their MMS messages were not delivered.
In South Africa Vodacom addressed the issue head on. Their research said that young people were not reached by traditional advertising - “give us a service that works and we will share it with our friends” they said. Messaging Product Manager for Vodacom Gabi Porter admitted that the operator got the initial launch of MMS wrong and said that Vodacom went back to basics. They made sure that handsets were properly provisioned to work with MMS and incentivised subscribers who could but hadn’t so far sent MMS. This strategy paid off and moved MMS from being the main reason for calls to the help desk to the lowest alongside a 15% increase in activity.
Porter emphasised that operators need to eat their own dog food! She said that Vodacom found that by sending an MMS instead of the usual SMS at contract renewal time, there was a 40% increase in renewals instead of just 15% with a text message.
MIM Enters Stage Left
Into this messaging comes Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM), which as CEO, Orange Group, Sanjiv Ahuja pointed out at 3GSM in February, “There are five times more SMS users than IM users.”
A recent white paper from Mobile IM provider Miyowa reported that on average, subscribers access MIM services 20 times a month, for about 20 minutes each session, Miyowa’s recommendation platform aims to progressively replace the monthly subscriptions the telcos charge their subscribers to access MIM, with a free service funded by advertising and recommendations for premium content.
Converged Networks
However as network infrastructure moves to a common transport patform, the temptation is there to merge message formats for the user, on the basis that users are only interested in sending a message and not how it gets there or what happens when it arrives.
Ricardo Ruggiero, CEO of Telecom Italia while recognising the “remarkable success of mobile text messaging” he sees IM as “an important transition towards IP-based services, which Telecom Italia believes are an integral part of fixed-mobile convergence.”
While Ruggiero said that “Telecom Italia is driving the evolution of messaging services and developing a high quality, integrated offer for customers”, it wasn’t yet clear whether this would be an integration that real users would be able to make sense of. Message integration is sometimes presented as a revamped version of Unified Messaging which only a few people could make any sense of.
Just because the technology enables a feature does not mean that it offers a benefit to users. Most users are well aware that the levels of intimacy and interuption vary with each message format and choose accordingly, even ignoring the price implications of different formats.
Carlos Fernandez Casares, Messaging Product Marketing Manager at Telefonica Moviles is on the right track when he said that “people will use mobile IM for a closed user group. But will use SMS and MMS for further away people - those we don’t communicate with every day”.
Pick And Choose
Operators need to be clear about how and why users pick different messaging types to suit a variety of purposes. For example, a recent survey by 160Characters found wide variation in the time they expected a response and how they used this as part of deciding which message format to use.
With person-to-person SMS generating US$56 billion in 2006 alone and with messaging revenue accounting for up to 80% of operators’ data revenues and around 20% of all revenues, the stakes are high for operators to get it right. Understanding users rather than the technology would be a good place to start.”
http://www.160characters.org
by Helen Keegan
June 18, 2007 at 2:26 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Events + Conferences, Global Messaging 2007, MEM07, Global Mobile Messaging 2007
I met Marcus about a year ago at a mobile entertainment event in London and although we exchange the odd email, I don’t actually get to see him very often as he’s based in Germany and I haven’t been to Germany since my Sixth Form days when I went on a dismal student exchange (actually, the family treated me very well and I did some interesting things, it was just I had nothing in common with the student I was paired with). So it was a pleasant surprise to bump into Marcus at the Meffy’s on the Tuesday night at the Fairmont Hotel.
Marcus is COO of Peperoni who runs Peperonity, which is a mobile social network that pre-dates myspace and is one of the largest mobile social networks on the planet. And for whom both mobile entertainment and messaging are a crucial part of the service they run for their members. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask Marcus a few questions about what he thought about his trip to Monte Carlo.
Was the trip worth it?
Despite being unsure about the value in the first place and this being the first time we attended the conference (plus: we paid for it :-)) I must say that all in all it was worth it, not just because of the nice, though rainy location. Many of the panels were quite interesting and the meet-and-greet aspect was very important. I also enjoyed the MEFFYS presentation
What were the downsides to the event?
- Why were there no free drinks for attendees? The sun was burning outside and selling water for 3 € gave me the impression that they don’t even try to provide value for money.
- Why was there no cloakroom on the 5th? Many people including myself were running around with their full baggage that day which was a bit annoying inside the conference rooms.
- The whole venue looked a bit scattered due to the several levels in the forum and there being room for 10 times more people all in all, so maybe pick a smaller location next time to support networking.
- I couldn’t find the venue of the MEFFYS in the first place and they sent me the wrong way so what about improving organisation and signposts next time
What was the most interesting thing you saw there and why?
Stupidly enough, we failed to enter the MEFFYS awards but were still sitting at the dinner tables. So I thought to myself, well it’s still a good chance to see who’s number 2 in mobile UGC but from the presentations I saw, I knew only Pitch and Jumbuck’s FastFlirting so it seemed that we were rather looking at who’s number 20 in mobile UGC and not number 2 . Anyway, most of the awards nominees, with the exception of Admob, were unrepresentative of the majority of the current market. So to address that we’re strongly considering entering the awards next year!
Which speaker or session, if any, stood out for you and why?
I think that one of the most interesting presentations from our standpoint was that of the VP Mobile of mySpace (what was his name again? Jean Paul Sanchez - ed). They did seem to get the message of being unable to transfer everything they have to mobile and I am very confident that they provide a very useful mobile side of their web service and thus will help to proliferate the mobile idea even further and exercise even more pressure on the network operators to rectify their access and billing issues very soon so that we can all be part of a great mobile world.
The best panel was definitely the one with the 10 Monaco kids. Even though they were probably not your typical European child, in that they went to an expensive school, lived a relatively sheltered existence in Monaco and money was no worry, they still showed behaviour in common with kids their own age across Europe and the US. It was very clear that even in a world where money doesn’t matter (them being from wealthy families and not worried about the phone bill), content is still being sideloaded and bluetoothed instead of downloaded and MMS’ed because the payment methods are simply not working and the process is not wholly reliable. Lots of lessons for operators in there, wonder if any were present?
So see you there next year Marcus!
by Helen Keegan
June 18, 2007 at 2:01 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Events + Conferences, Global Messaging 2007, MEM07, Global Mobile Messaging 2007
I’ve had a pretty busy few weeks followed by a nasty lurgy so there’s been a bit of radio silence post Monte Carlo. I’ve now had chance to collect a few thoughts on the whole experience and I’ve asked a few colleagues the same.
My own thoughts were that the conference quality was not up to scratch. The opening session on the first day did not wow me in the least. The atmosphere was staid, the content was a bit same old same old and the speakers were very limited by corporate handcuffs as to what they could or couldn’t discuss. And this was a shame. However, there were lots of very interesting people in attendance and I hope you’ve had a chance to listen to the podcasts of some of my fellow UK mobilists, Deborah from Muze, Mike from 160 Characters, John from Vodafone and Gerry from Tanla Mobile. And having the right people there is at least as important as the content. But at Monte Carlo prices, the substance of the conference should have been better. As could the logistics…
Andrew Darling, of WestPier Media, on being asked what he thought of the event, comments
“I thought Peter Bazelgette summed it up when he said ‘Mobile is falling way behind as an entertainment distribution platform, compared to broadband.’ This he said in his key note and you could read the frustration he felt between these lines.
And when you put this in the context of the show, you have to agree. The only interesting things I saw/heard about were based around messaging applications involving advertising (Colibria).
The fact that there were no brands or major media companies exhibiting at the event shows you something. Ok, so it’s a show for mobile service providers to demonstrate their wares and attract the interest of brands, but the floor was only full of mobile people, not media (even if this is what mobile companies would prefer to be called!!). And the media companies taking part in the conference - Bebo, Sony Pictures, Endemol, MTV and EMI - probably took off after they had spoken (to huge, empty-ish auditoriums).
There was absolutely no focal point for networking, apart from the Gala Dinner, at the event. No lunch provided and only a crummy, overpriced bar where stale sandwiches cost an arm and a jambe. I’m not even going to mention the price/hassle in getting to Monte Carlo.
The party scene was pretty non-existent too. Monte Carlo, despite its supposed glamour, is one of the most soulless places I’ve been to. Ok, so a lot of rich, glamorous people reside there for two months a year or whatever the minimum requirement for tax free status is. But rich people have catered parties in their mansions and don’t go out much so the atmosphere is pretty dire, even in the Le Casino.
So what’s the attraction in going next year? I can’t see one personally.”
So what was your take on the conference and exhibition?
by Ewan Spence
June 11, 2007 at 10:46 am · Filed under Global Messaging 2007, Podcasts
If the internet is all about getting relevant data to you fast, then under-pinning all of that is the meta-data. Muze works with large companies including as Amazon, Barns and Noble, Walmart and Ebay, and in their words provide digital commerce solutions and descriptive entertainment media information. In other words, the meta data. Deborah Sass took some time out at Global Messaging 2007 to explain Muze in a bit more detail
Global Messaging Interview: Deborah Sass, Muze:
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by Ewan Spence
June 11, 2007 at 9:15 am · Filed under Events + Conferences, Global Messaging 2007, Podcasts
Mike Grenville is part of 160Characters (www.160characters.org), the SMS and Messaging Association. In this interview, Mike gives a great overview of the changes in mobile messaging over the years, and where he thinks things could be improved. 160characters also hosted the 4th Annual Mobile Messaging Awards at Global Messaging 2007, and Mike takes us through the winners of the awards as well in another podcast from Monaco.
by Ewan Spence
June 6, 2007 at 11:14 am · Filed under Global Messaging 2007
I would expect everyone reading this blog to understand the concept of the Walled Garden of Content – in short the idea that a network has a list of ‘approved’ websites and these are the only sites that you can access. A grand idea at the start of the mobile internet revolution, but now customers are looking to browse wherever they want.
Thankfully, we’re seeing more and more providers realizing this and providing users with the open access they want, and in the case of Vodafone today, routing mobile traffic through a proxy to re-render the pages for a small screen. And while this does emphasis the idea of carriers as nothing more than intermediate pipes for the internet (something that they probably want to get away from, it’s also following something that, at first appears counter intuitive.
If you take less revenue from revenue shares (eg through Premium SMS service, ring tones, and downloadable games), then you see an increase in your bottom line. I expect that they’re looking for the same halo effect with the opening up of Vodafone Live.
When you take a step back and look at why this is the case, two ideas spring to mind for me. The first is that it is respecting the end-user. They know the internet exists, and that it can do a lot more than the locked-down portals. They know that the music store isn’t the only way to get music onto their device – especially when they have gigabytes of music on their PC. So why waste time and effort (and goodwill) locking out functions the users want.
The second is that the mobile industry is growing up and becoming more responsible. The operators are not the only players in town, there are third party developers, bloggers and websites that are becoming an intrinsic part of everyday life for many mobile users – the networks do realize that in the new mobile eco-sphere these external influences need to be embraced as equals.
There’s hope for us all yet.
by Ewan Spence
June 6, 2007 at 8:26 am · Filed under Platforms, Software, Global Messaging 2007, Podcasts
Gerry Drew is Head of Sales at Tanla Mobile. Tanla deal in messaging services, solutions and application development in both the UK and Indian markets. I spoke to him to find out more about the company, and to touch on issues in mobile media and interactivity.
Global Messaging Interview: Gerry Drew, Tanla [00:08:03m]:
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by Ewan Spence
June 6, 2007 at 5:26 am · Filed under Software, Global Messaging 2007, Podcasts
To go alongside Vodafone UK’s announcement that they are opening up the ‘mobile internet’ to all their customers with browser enabled handsets (see press release here), I caught up with John Maynard to find out a but more about the service, data plans and the latest options for email access on the go.
Global Messaging Interview: John Maynard, Vodafone [00:06:05m]:
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by Ewan Spence
June 6, 2007 at 4:54 am · Filed under Platforms, Software, Global Messaging 2007
One of the mysteries of some of the presentations here at Global Messaging 2007 is the ignorance of the web browser. As smartphones move closer and closer to having capabilities similar to the regular PC, as they are driven further and further into the mid-range and low-range devices, the abundance of devices that can run a ‘full’ web browser such as Opera (available over the Symbian OS range as well as Windows Mobile), Access’ NetFront Browser, or the WebCore based Nokia browser in all the latest Series 60 devices – WebCore also powers the Apple Safari browser and it would be fair to assume it’s part of the iPhone stack as well.
Opera even supply Opera Mini, a Java midp applet that uses a proxy both to reduce the amount of information sent to a small screen device and reformats the page using their small screen rendering technology. So there’s nothing to stop the 128×128 screen handsets running a competent web browser right now.
So why this note about the browser? Because more and more internet services and applications are using browsers as a thin client. Gmail is the obvious example, and Google provide a variant of Gmail designed to run in mobile browsers. Bloglines, Facebook and Twitter all carry mobile versions that allow you to manage, read, explore and create from the handset.
While there will continue to be bespoke applications that will provide more flexibility, as it stands using a robust mobile web browser will deliver you a large amount of the functionality that you get on your desktop. It’s yet another example of the 80/20 rule. Pop your web broser icon as one of the main icons in your interface, have a ‘network portal’ being your start page, and allow either the mobile or a desktop PC to set the start page bookmarks (sorry, a user driven personalization and customisation strategy) and you have a gateway to a huge number of internet services.
Which makes more sense - want to watch a YouTube video? Go to YouTube (admittedly we’ll need to have Flash upgraded, but that shouldn’t be too far ahead on the technology roadmap). Need to catch up with the latest bands on MySpace? Go to MySpace. The URL and the Browser is a paradigm that people are comfortable with, and while the edge cases will always argue for a standalone application to integrate with services (eg Jaiku) the majority of people are going to be able to do everything they want to with within the browser.
So when an AOL representative stands up and says “he’s never heard of Opera†you have to wonder just how switched on to mobile technology some of the internet stalwarts actually are.
by Ewan Spence
June 5, 2007 at 10:44 am · Filed under Mobile Tech, Software, Global Messaging 2007
One of the great joys of hacking is when you use a tool that was designed for one use, but end up doing something completely different. Technology is littered with examples of this, from the discovery of the weak glue that eventually became the post-it note, to Phil Torrone receiving an alert on his watch whenever someone entered his house in Second Life. When you hand people new concepts, don’t be surprised if they turn round and use them in ways you can’t possibly imagine.
This is especially relevant when the mobile industry tries to predict what is going to be the ‘mythical’ killer feature in the future. The industry, famously, felt blindsided by the runaway success of SMS in the late nineties – trying to catch the lightning again with MMS or WAP was not as successful, and to a certain extent did damage the market perception of the mobile internet in the UK.
One case in point of unexpected user innovation that I discussed with an operator is in the restocking of vending machines – these were configured not with an expensive Telematics style machine to machine communications, but with a bog-standard SMTP server. This would email to an account that then sent an SMS of the email out to the supply manager. A simple test saying “I’m running out of dry roasted peanuts†would be received and acted on almost instantly.
You can be sure that this usage scenario was one that would not be in the slick PowerPoint presentations that justified the network creating an email to SMS gateway, but I’m sure there are many hundreds, if not thousands, of use cases where a network service has been jury-rigged to function in a role that would be regarded as business critical.
In all the discussions and surveys surrounding mobile messaging, there’s a huge focus on what technology is being well used now – surveys can easily discover what is being used now. If you ask about what you might use in the future, then generally people are picking from a list presented to them (plus a wooly ‘Other’ box that invariably will be last on the list). A list that will be made up by the carriers and manufacturers, of features they would expect to be popular. So the top five things that people want on a mobile – Digital Camera, SMS, Bluetooth Connectivity, MP3 player, and a mini-USB port (results via Telephia) – are all very much predictable.
When the industry talks about IM integration on the handset, when it looks at paid downloads of video content, when it talks about deals opening up social networks, then there’s every chance that some smart person out there has already managed it, packaged it up, and is passing it round. It’s these hackers / early adopters that are the signposts to the future direction of mobile services.
Perhaps we should ask them what’s coming next instead?
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