It looks like e-wallets and mobile commerce are on top of agenda for large telecom companies. China Mobile agreed to buy 20 percent of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for 39.8 billion renminbi ($5.8 billion) to expand its electronic payment business.
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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:
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.
Recently PTA organized a conference on the topic of promoting local content. This event was sponsored by Motorola. It appears that a new ICT policy is in the works.
I wish the press release had more information and specific details about the local content providers and their applications. It would also be useful if they could share the plan for commercializing these apps. I am interested in finding out more about the channels through which these apps will be available and what will be the cost structure. How will the govt or PTA contribute?
Telenor Weblounge provides a self-service online tool that allows users to sign up for (or port your number to) Telenor services and get a golden number free with it. The wizard based system walks you through 5 steps as shown below – at the 4th step, you can search through available numbers and select one. This is Telenor’s answer to Zong’s Book your Number online. Overall the features and service offered by Telenor Weblounge are comprehensive and the wizard based approach makes it easy to sign up.
Online self-service is the wave of the future and this is the right solution for net savvy customers who want to control their accounts and services from their home or work.
Nokia has made a huge move in the mobile mapping and navigation area: it now offers free global navigation (for drivers and pedestrians) on Nokia smartphones. These free-of-charge navigation services are intended to boost Nokia’s service offerings and sell more phones. This is the same direction which Google was moving in with its free navigation software. The free turn-by-turn directions by Nokia mean that navigation device makers such as TomTom and Gramin will be impacted.
TalkMail is mobile service currently in beta stage from Mobilus, a mobile marketing company, founded on the premise that mobile phone technology are hear to stay and is an essential communication tool.
This simple and free service lets user send recorded message from mobile to email recipient any where and anytime without using the mobile internet (GPRS/EDGE). It is available for all mobile operators in Pakistan.
Mobile services are fast becoming popular for a number of consumer-facing product and service companies. I came across a good post / reference for business strategists and marketers who want to justify a budget for mobile applications, services and campaigns. When it comes to Return on Investment, there are a few things which one should remember:
Excerpt from the blog post follows. Read more »
Nokia has a loyal following in some of the largest mobile phone populations. With the recent pressure from competitors, Nokia has adopted a strategy of providing phones with improved connectivity and seamless applications for web, email, music, photos and maps which help with the daily lives of their users. Here’s a piece we received from Nokia about how its contributing to the big shift in how people connect with each others via phones.
I came across this article from CNET on frequently asked questions about smartphone safety and thought that I’d share it with readers. Never a bad idea to remind ourself about safety of data and apps. Here’s the basic checklist:
Read the article after the break.
We have talked about netbooks and how the drop in price of these devices will impact computing, mobility and the need for mobile data consumption over wireless networks. The trend for smaller, cheaper Internet based devices continues full speed. See the graphic below (via WSJ) compares current netbooks to “smartbooks”, the next generation of ultra mobile netbooks.
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.
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Lesson from emerging telecom market – when revenues per user from voice are going down, find creative ways to encourage users to spend on other (data) services. And that’s what Indian cell phone companies have done by offering radio, sports and other entertainment and religious services over cell phones to rural areas, where such services had never reached before. ARPU comparison below is from a recent WSJ article on the mobile VAS market in India. And this dear readers, is the answer to the “suggest a title” mystery post. The woman in the picture was listening to radio on her cell phone.
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