Archive for Global Mobile Messaging 2007
by Helen Keegan
July 9, 2007 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Events + Conferences, Global Messaging 2007, Global Mobile Messaging 2007, MMS, Mobile messaging 2.0, SMS
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 Events + Conferences, Global Messaging 2007, Global Mobile Messaging 2007, MEM07, Mobile messaging 2.0
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 Events + Conferences, Global Messaging 2007, Global Mobile Messaging 2007, MEM07, Mobile messaging 2.0
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 Debi Jones
June 9, 2007 at 11:55 pm · Filed under Events + Conferences, Global Mobile Messaging 2007, MEM07
The Global Mobile Messaging (GMM) conference was collocated with Mobile Entertainment Market (MEM) at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, Monaco on June 5th and 6th.
The Global aspect of GMM was left wanting. The conference was decidedly focused on the European market and it’s concerns which isn’t surprising given the conference location and it’s organizer, Informa. A couple of speakers from the US were present and one from Korea, but the agenda and panels speaker selections showed a strong emphasis on European operators. Notably absent were any operator participants from Japan, China, South America, Canada, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. That is, if you call a conference global one would expect more global representation.
With two conferences occurring simultaneously it was very difficult to select sessions for attendance. For example, the mobile communities track from MEM ran concurrently with the IM track from GMM. This is often a painful choice during content rich conferences and MEM + GMM was no exception. It’s odd to me that mobile communities were placed in the MEM agenda rather than GMM, but I’ll have a podcast or two as a conference supplemental to address this omission.
There were three dominant themes emerging at GMM.
- Mobile IM is the next application focus for European operators.
- SMS interworking efficiencies via distributed architecture (i.e., hubbing)
- Integration of messaging modalities
Mobile IM
Mmetrics recently reported a dramatic increase in use of IM for the month of March in the UK while IM use is falling across the rest of Western Europe. The US still leads in use of IM over Europe with 13.7 million subscribers which larger than France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK combined.
To Connect Or Not To Connect…
Operators from Portugal, Beligum and Turkey commented on their struggles to select operator branded Personal IM solutions over direct connections to MSN, AOL and Yahoo! Paulo Simoes of TMN, Portugal, commented that business deals and terms with “The Big Three” were draconian. For me, that was the money quote for GMM Day One. All content and application providers will appreciate the irony.
All Your Contacts are Belong to Us
Another battle ground is who provides or owns the contact list. A direct connection to MSN, AOL and Yahoo! means that these companies maintain their siloed versions of your contact list. The operators contend that the logical contact list is the phone address book, an another silo. Of course, both are correct and what would make sense is contact list integration. No one spoke on this option, though.
The one who pays has the say?
Matt Champlain, MSN USA, spoke in his session about the contact list as “the” social contruct through which messaging will naturally occur. He, also, emphasized the user experience and explained that monetization is something that would be determined only after the best user experience was achieved. It’s unclear to me if the lack of revenue model discussion was sincere or a protection against competition, but a logical monetization option would be premium service via IM bots. Perhaps as suggested by Vince Kadar during our podcast that IM bots could be tied to PSMS for billing.
SMS Hubbing
The elimination of bilateral interconnect agreements between operators through distributed architecture via SMS Hubs was a major discussion topic at the conference along with exhibits from all of the SMSC providers tauting the new capability. For those more accustomed to the ground-up distributed nature of the web, this development is likely to only produce yawns. However, the transport and interconnection of SMS and SMSCs across operator and national boundaries has been a source of frustration for all in the mobile ecosystem.
Integration of messaging modalities
Exhibitors and presenters like Shozu and SpinVox brought a bit more life to the discussion of mobile messaging showing off their picture/video and voice-to-text messaging solutions. Shozu operates on a technology not covered at the conference, syndication. Given it’s absence from the agenda, are we to surmise that operators don’t care about RSS, Atom and related technologies, especially as they apply to mobile messaging?
Readers of this blog and listeners to it’s podcasts will already be familiar with SpinVox. See Oliver’s detailed post on SpinVox and my interview with Philip Marnick, CTO SpinVox.
by Debi Jones
June 7, 2007 at 5:10 am · Filed under Events + Conferences, Global Mobile Messaging 2007, MEM07, Mobile Tech, Mobile messaging 2.0, Platforms, Podcasts
Mark Ollila is Director Technology & Strategy and Head of Nokia Games Publishing, Multimedia at Nokia, of course. Mark and I talked about a number of topics with respect to mobile messaging and multimedia, media interaction, syndication and even the mobile internet.
Special thanks to Mark for doing this interview twice after a small production error. Tip: be sure the mic is plugged into the mic port and not the earphones one. *blush* I’m sharing this embarrasment with you so that my rapid speech through the interview has a bit of context. No, I wasn’t trying to catch a bus or train during the interview.
Global Mobile Messaging 2007 - Podcast Interview - Mark Ollila [7:22m]:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
by Debi Jones
June 7, 2007 at 12:01 am · Filed under Events + Conferences, Global Mobile Messaging 2007, MEM07, Mobile messaging 2.0, Podcasts, Voicemail
Philip Marnick is the CTO at SpinVox. SpinVox is a voice-to-text service which provides options for delivery of your voicemail to text message or email, delivery of blog posts via voice to Moveable Type or Typepad blogs, delivery of personal memos to your email inbox and delivery of broadcast text messages to group you define captured as via voice.
Phillip speaks about his company, thoughts on the future of mobile messaging and his view on the defining characteristic of mobie messaging.
For more indepth coverage of SpinVox, see Oliver’s take on the company and it’s products. Don’t forget to share with Oliver your creative use for SpinVox to receive a free account.
Global Mobile Messaging 2007 - Podcast Interview - Philip Marnick [00:11:50m]:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
