The success of iPhone has not only changed the way phone companies and handset makers operate but also impacted other media channels. For instance, companies are now racing to build marketplaces for TV programs that act much like iPhone apps, able to interact with social-networking services, play games, call up movies and other Web content—all using a remote control, rather than a computer equipped with browsers. With PTCL and Wateen in the smart TV game, its only a matter of time before we see more of this.
I previously wrote about some initial steps that Verizon took. with social apps as widgets. Yahoo was also an early contender with a technology for TV applications it calls widgets. The TV applications are designed to exploit new consumer electronics devices with Internet connections that are beginning to appear in homes in significant numbers. More from this article:
Vudu, a startup that offers a streaming movie service; DivX, known for a popular format for storing digital movies; Boxee Inc., which offers software that lets users view Internet content on TVs; Roku, which sells a set-top box for receiving Internet content; and Syabas Technology, which announced a set-top box at CES.
I came across an article in New York Times on advances in shopping technologies. The effort to turn people’s mobile phones into information displays and ordering devices is on. Here’s a quick list of the technologies you could see on a cell phone soon:
Scan and shop (various apps)
Presence (IBM)
Mobile Concierge (Cisco)
Mobile Loyalty Cards
Shoppers will soon be able to stand outside the designer Norma Kamali’s boutique in Manhattan, point a phone at merchandise in the window and buy it — even late at night when the store is closed. How? By using technologies such as ScanLife which allows customers to scan bar codes on merchandise. Other apps allow users to do perform product search and price comparison through barcodes.
Technology convergence, wireless panorama’s fast and furious change, SMS, MMS, voice call, internet in the pocket, data throughput boost, high speed internet and video call, that was all I could think of while finalising my final year project proposal. But today I write about something I didn’t think will go mobile so soon. Forget me, who thought that one can pay bills, transfer money and use many more services from their own mobile phones, anytime, anywhere.
Yes it is possible today, Telenor and Tameer Bank have taken the easypaisa suite one step ahead by introducing ‘Mobile Account‘ in Pakistan.
Apple announced iPad, a new device with features similar to iPod touch and iPhone but with a modified interface. and enhanced capabilities. The iPad is for surfing web, reading, watching pictures and videos, email and for accessing apps such as maps, contacts and a calendar.
The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did, and we believe more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.
As the number of mobile applications increase its important for developers to understand the shifts in the mobile app development ecosystem. They need to know the best ways to capture value and to make money. Recently I came across a good presentation by VisionMobile called Mobile Mega Trends 2010, which among other things talks about the monetisation models and revenues. The first diagram from VisionMobile shows the 4 quadrants (device/cloud and pre/post-sales) which are important. The second diagram talks about the value and revenues in each quadrant. One of the key point is the value after sales which can come from inventory leasing, analytics, service distribution and service management. Read more »
When compared with cellular phone growth, Broadband has been slow to take off in Pakistan. However the last two years show some progress in terms of growth (a little over 20K subscribers per month), more choices of services in more places and most importantly a significant drop in cost for broadband access (~Rs.1200 per month on average). Another welcome trend is to move towards unlimited broadband.
According to PTA, “broadband subscriber base grew by 146% adding 245,727 subscribers during July 2008 – June 2009, while broadband connection charges for 1Mbps connection dropped below Rs. 1000. There were 413,809 Broadband subscribers in June 2009 as compared to 168,082 in June of 2008.”
At the current rate of broadband growth we can cross the half-million mark by December 2009. We need to get to 1 million much faster.
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s (SDPI) Study Group on Information Technology and Telecommunication in its 56th meeting discussed the problems that hinder broadband growth in Pakistan. Relevant stakeholders participated in the meeting. Wahaj ul Siraj of NayaTel and Zamir Bhatti of Wi-tribe reviewed the existing policy and infrastructure sharing issues.
Here are the results of the poll from October about smart phone data usage. As you can see a majority of users who participated in this poll are power users. This is to be expected as people who read blogs tend to be early adopters and thus more likely to be mobile data users. Also see the results from my own usage as of today. The very obvious trend is that wireless data usage is on the rise and mobile phones are fast becoming the most common device for accessing information. Network operators and service providers need to adjust their business models to take this into account. The pace of this acceleration of data usage varies by geography but its only a matter of time before this becomes a global phenomenon.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll.
Here is an interesting slide which shows the rapid growth of cloud-based connected mobile devices. The trends depicted here will be important for the telecom industry. The numbers for 3G users worldwide are important and I will soon write more on that topic.
Source: Morgan Stanley (Economy + Internet Trends October 20, 2009. Web 2.0 Summit – San Francisco)
IPv6 or Internet Protocol Version 6 is the next generation protocol for the Internet. It has been designed to provide several advantages over current IPv4, like increased address space, more efficient routing, reduced management requirement, improved methods to change ISP, better mobility support, multi-homing, security, scoped address: link-local, site-local and global-address space, etc.
In this regard, CoReNeT is arranging a seminar (through video conferencing) on “IPv6 Protocol – Its Features and Capabilities” from 6 – 7 pm, October 20, 2009, at M. A. Jinnah University, Blue Area, Islamabad. Presenter of this seminar is Dr. Mudassir Tufail of Cisco Systems, USA, who is an accomplished and experienced telecom professional. The contents of the seminar are designed for employees of technical organisations and covers important new developments within IPv6 and the potential applications. Hence, we invite the members of your organization to participate in this seminar. Registrations for this workshop can be done via email [corenet@jinnah.edu.pk] latest by October 19, 2009.
Here’s an interesting video from Cisco about MTop - Mobile Transport over Packet. It provides an ideal backhaul aggregation solution to simplify operations regardless of ‘generation’.
InMobi is a fast growing global mobile advertisement network. InMobi has been a sponsor to Telecompk.net for a while and we had the chance to sit with InMobi CEO and ask a few questions about the future of mobile advertising and opportunities in this exciting space.
How is InMobi different from its competitors? Instead of focusing on being different we’d much rather focus on doing things better. What has helped us grow to this point is our focus on solving real customer needs and our value proposition to our partners. InMobi has consistently focused on providing higher quality and monetization levels for our publishers and greater return-on-investment (ROI) for advertisers, many of whom are trying the mobile internet medium for the first time, or for the first time in our region.
Instead of focusing on being different we’d much rather focus on doing things better. What has helped us grow to this point is our focus on solving real customer needs and our value proposition to our partners. InMobi has consistently focused on providing higher quality and monetization levels for our publishers and greater return-on-investment (ROI) for advertisers, many of whom are trying the mobile internet medium for the first time, or for the first time in our region.
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