Mobile Monday London - “Mobile Platforms”

After a summer break, MoMo London returned this week with a great event discussing the future of mobile platforms. Held at the usual venue,  CBI Conference Center in Centre Point Tower, the evening was sponsored by Yahoo! and facilitated by EMCC Software.

After the evening it was good to catch up with Andrew Grill - who showed me a cool mobile service that is sure to launch over here soon - and to meet Simon Maddox in the flesh after exchanging tweets.

Blog posts on the evening have already appeared from Simon Judge and Kai Hendry. Below are the notes I took on the evening, which I'm sure are far from comprehensive and may not make sense unless you were there, but I hope they prove useful in some shape or form:

Chair:

Annie Turner, TelecomsEurope.net

Panel Members:

Simon Rockman – Sony Ericsson

Nick Allot – CTO, OMTP

Msrko Balabanovc – LastMinute.com

Ben Last – EMCC

Ricardo Varela – Yahoo!

Platform fragmentation

• OMTP looking for consensus on key issues.
  

What do we mean by platforms?

• A cheap way to build an application
  
• OR What developers develops their applications for
  

Different platforms at both ends of the scale

• All pervasive, e.g. Text
  
• Other end of line – Symbian application, deeper user experience but not much penetration

In between user experience and market penetration is ideal, but doesn't give you a good return/monetisation

Web is fantastic for broad applications. For mobile applications, need access to things that classically present a security problem, e.g. access to contacts and location.

It's difficult to write apps for a sustainable business model. Only success story (apart from porn) is mobile ringtones.

How can we get consistency in what the web can gave to native mobile platforms so that it doesn't threaten security and viability of mobile applications/platforms?

Trying to find application environment that is ubiquitous, is quick to develop with, and quick to deploy to the end user.

It is the integration with the web that really adds to the richness of the user experience.

Computer games developers optimise for certain platforms, e.g. Brain Training for the Nintendo DS.

• Fragmentation of mobile platforms doesn't make this possible for mobile developers, unless you target a niche with a large audience, such as Blackberry users.
  
• Also made more complex by different languages and societies with different grades of mobile handsets around the world.

1 billion mobile phones sold around the world per year. 40% of those are Nokia handsets.

App stores could be tailored to who the consumer is, e.g. only present them with apps relevant to their handset.

Develop apps for Nokia Series 60 and Blackberry and you can capture the majority of the mobile app audience.

Apps that already exist on the web aren't interesting to mobile users. Those that are enhanced and unique to th mobile are a lot more interesting.

iPhone app store works because it is such a seamless experience. It is easy to connect to the internet, easy to connect to the app store, and easy to pay for items as it is billed to your iPhone account. If operators see this model working, they will replicate it and incorporate it into their own business model.

Writing apps for the web gives you 10s of millions of users, but for the mobile space only gives you a few million at most. The business model doesn't scale well.

Consumers who don't download apps are not averse to spending money, but disappointed with apps and games that they have downloaded. Web still gives a much richer user experience.

Lots of phones will not get more powerful, but they will get a lot cheaper. Phones will become to be priced 12-15 pounds. But for the next 2 billion people to enter the market by buying these phones this is still very expensive, e.g. a weeks wages.

Two ways of stopping fragmentation:

• 1 or 2 companies monopolise the market
  
• Operators and developers collaborate on a single platform

One of the biggest applications in India is having a torch on your phone – extremely useful to a large base of users, but no sustainable business model given their economic demographic

OMTP trying to construct a system which properly constructs trust in the system and completely removes the unneeded questions that users have to deal with. E.g. taking an application from one operator/mobile platform to another without having to re register of fill out more security certificates

Ben Whitaker: Users shouldn't ever have to deal with different languages for different phones or have to set up their own internet connections. The technology for a standardised WAP system is available but very few operators install it automatically.

Yahoo! Blueprint

• How are they going to make money out of this?
  
• The way they make money is to make their own applications. Yahoo's motivation behind releasing Yahoo Blueprint is to gain the audience and then monetise once the audience is there.
  
• Yahoo wants to get the reach so they only have one system for each different type of platform, e.g. Symbian, Java, etc

LastMinute.com aren't looking to see applications, but rather get people to buy stuff from LastMinute.com through using free applications on their phone.

• Using as a trial to see what the user uptake is in this space, e.g. what do users find useful?
  
• But only concentrated on Western European users and find mobile secondary to what users have on web at home or work.

Trying to resolve the fragmentation issue by bringing out your own solution will just result in ore fighting over the issue. The reason Firefox become so successful was that it started to do the same things as IE but make it better and with added features.

If a user doesn't have an internet connection on the phone, the app automatically detects this and completes the registration process through encrypted SMS texts.

Ladbrokes reported 250% uplift in users when they introduced full registration on mobile rather than on the web.

As with the web, we will see some standardisation at some point, but this has to come from something higher than a company or organisation. When this will happen is determined when it comes to the point when users say that this isn’t working

Customers didn't buy the Wii for the Wii, but they bought the Wii when they saw someone else playing Wii sports and bought the Wii so that they too could play Wii sports. It's a dot com phrase, but that 'killer app' which is easy to use, offers a rich experience and is easily shareable among users will make a lot of money even if it is on one platform.

Mobile Monday - The Conversations Flows

Following on from last week's Mobile Monday, some interesting debate has come about - both in the comments of my write up on the event and in the group's mailing list.

Chris Morton questioned if the fact that “SMS in this country (UK) alone exceeds worldwide Google searches in same period of time” was really true.

In the true spirit of the group (one where a lot of useful conversations take place and where everyone freely shares their knowledge), Nick Gyles of WDS Technology answered quickly:

"The short answer seems to be no. Comscore’s latest figures (http://www.comscore.com/press/data.asp) have Google’s unique visitors at just over 6 billion per month – so search hits it way over that. I’m sure the average user must do in excess of 50 searches a month. The Mobile Data Association shows UK text messaging at 6.3 billion SMS for January ’08."

But then quickly followed up rectifying his mistake:

"Actually Google seems to be 600 million users, so it’s a bit closer.

Should have realised that 6 billion would actually be everyone on the planet ;-)"

James Pearce then pitched in, with a rather dry but witty response:

"3 computers, each with 2+ browsers, 2 VMs, 2 phones (one of which toggles to WiFi), 1 Wii, and a Google Maps mashup.

Um. At least 10 of these humans are me :-)"

Helen Keegan, the chair of the Mobile Monday event, then stamped her authiority on the debate, compelte with a humble acceptance of human error and a link to an article with stats to back up her arguemtn:

"The google search quote was from Mike Short (I checked with Robert Thurner) and he stated this at the SMS Birthday Party last December held by Airwide Solutions. So we can blame him if the maths doesn't add up! But actually, I think the maths probably does...
More stats from Mike Short here

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2202766/uk-sending-billion-texts-week"

Giles replied again:

"Search engine watch reports 2.7bn searches a month for Google in 2006. The Vnunet reports claim 2007 figures of 4.6bn SMS are 25% up on 2006, which would give 3.4bn SMS in the UK in 2006. So UK SMSers beat worldwide Googlers... at least back in 06.

For figures source see here: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156461"

So it seems that UK SMSers beat worldwide Googlers -at least back in 06.

But what have I learned from all of this debate - both at the actual Mobile Monday event, blogging about it afterwards, and the ensuing debate on the Mobile Monday Yahoo Group?

Well, apart from learning more about the future of mobile marketing, I've learnt that niche social networks with open, fair and intelligent debate are an incredibly useful tool for professionals - whatever industry they are in.

Luckily, the PR world has a few social networks specifically catered for our industry - PR Open Mic and The PR and Communications Network to name a couple.

The only problem is that not everyone knows how to use these tools or is sceptical of their usefulness. It's up to those who are confident in using those tools to teach those who aren't their worth. Users also need to meet up in the real world to network and discuss the various issues face to face - like the Mobile Monday events. Real world networking and debate is as improtant as the online version.

The Mobile Monday group is a perfect example of how a niche social network should be run, even with the fact that it is now a world wide brand. Here's hoping it continues the way it has done so far, that the debate and conversation continues, and that other niche social networks follow the group's example for their own benefit.

PR Event: Mobile Monday London

I went to my first MOMO London (Mobile Monday London) last night, down at the Royal Statistical Society near Old Street.

Titled “Whassup in Mobile Marketing and Media?”, the evening was sponsored by Wireless Foundry. Featuring a high-level panel discussion on current mobile web, services and applications from a media and marketing perspective, the event took a look at everything from mobile web to proximity to messaging to games and highlight creative execution and effective campaigns. They also discussed what media-owners and agencies want and how we as an industry should or could respond. They also challenged the panel to take a glimpse into the future and tell us what's catching their eye on the mobile horizon and what they think will capture the public's attention in the future.

On the panel were:

• Helen Keegan (Chair), Beep Marketing
• Marek Pawlowski, PMN
• Stephen Pinches, Financial Times
• Matthews Postgate, BBC
• Robert Thurner, Incetivated

Below are the notes I took during the evening:

Top 11 Mobile Trends:

1. Smart mobile browsers
2. Mobile Web standards
3. Mobile Ajax and Widgets
4. Mobile Search
5. Mobile Ads
6. Mobile Mash ups ad Open APIs
7. Mobile RFID & 2D Bar codes
8. Location and Geotagging
9. Mobile Social Networks
10. Mobile User Generated Content
11. Smart web Devices

After intros from panel (which were quite entertaining as mixed reports of great use of Google Maps, etc, with human error meaning some panelists were late!) the panel were asked what the current state of mobile marketing was and the debate got going.


Mobile Marketing:

• Dominated by text-2-win campaigns
• Proximity marketing was dream 5-6 years ago
• E.g. walk past Starbucks and they would send you a 50p off voucher
• What else is on the horizon?
• Text-2-win is tried and tested, instant gratification – but severely limited
• SMS in this country alone exceeds worldwide Google searches in same period of time
• Anyone here like drinking cider?
• Text Sun1 to a number and you'll get a voucher to use at participating bars
• Need to know where nearest hospital is?
• Text HOSPITAL and you'll get the nearest hospital sent to you
• As an industry, need to move on from location and text-2-win campaigns
• Shark Week on Discovery Channel – Game used real sharks as part of game GPS tagged sharks – sent off Discovery boat but if went near real shark it sent back SMS to tell you that you'd been attacked.
• But also sent information to watch programme on Discovery Channel
• Take voucher to bus driver and get free ride on bus – not going to work if bus driver forgets glasses
• No matter how much technological innovation, need to make sure it's usable by humans too
• Subway – had mobile coupon promotion where texted for promotion and had vouchers on display, but staff had not been trained and didn't accept the vouchers
• Main problem is that people don't know how to use vouchers
• Newspapers is good example as readers get established use of them – e.g. daily – and so can use them in exciting ways once they get use to them
• Training is expensive to do and mobile coupons are hard to measure ROI
  

Applications:

• More expensive to develop – development skills cost more
• Persuading people to download them and providing the upkeep are two hardest elements of mobile apps
• Overheads make developing apps not worth it
• Not a waste of time, but must target specific devices that you can't do in a web browser
• Mobile browser experience is closing that creative gap
• Challenge is to find interesting apps that can't be replicated on web browser based apps
• Key issue – can people download the app and do they want to?
• Lack of flat rate plans means that high data charges still remain an issue
• Only a few apps that work better in apps rather than mobile web
• Some corporate clients cannot access mobile web on their Blackberries – apps can get through firewall and becomes a trojan horse
• Can role these apps over the whole corporation, e.g. FT online rolled out across investment banks
• Therefore death of mobile apps is over-exaggerated, but mobile web users are growing
• Start with audience need – FT realised users need both apps and mobile web
• What are the BBC looking for in development teams?
• BBC have quotas to feel 25% spend must be with external teams efficient system and can find exciting things
• Mobile isn't as hard as he believed – have known this for years
• Mobile should be simple, personal and location based – joins up other platforms, e.g. internet
• News is immediate so mobile web important to BBC
  

Is this the year of the mobile?

• Last year, bigger ad spend in mobile than in the cinema
• Haven't caught up with radio, TV or internet
• But bigger advertisers, e.g. Jaguar, have experimented successfully with mobile
• Next year, those brands will spend more on mobile
• Is there a danger of saturation in the market?
• It's a permission based market If companies want to get onto someone's mobile, they need to earn the trust and the right to get on it
• Not seeing this at the FT – seeing growth with users, but majority of advertisers and agencies say 2010 will be the year of the mobile
• Agencies still not at the infrastructure to justify the ROI from it
• There is a danger of saying that all mobile marketing is measurable
• Mobile and web users will soon be measured together as everything goes mobile
• Certainly year of mobile for some users
• Colour TV was invented in 1940, but the golden age of colour TV was 1970s – not going to take 30 years for it to grow, but will take time to get better and better
• Not year of mobile as mobile is only one part of our intricate lives – we are in danger of looking at it through our own subjective experiences
• Google exec – “Don't need to be better than Nokia or Motorola, but need to be better than Trusted Uncle” – the trusted social sphere that mobile users operate in

In conclusion, the future of mobile marketing is not just about advertising, but we need to think about how mobile can activate other media channels, using mobile to glue together whole of the marketing mix. It's not about the effectiveness of mobile on its own, but whether it is more effective than turning on the TV or picking up the newspaper. It will cannibalise other media, but ultimately it is a complimentary channel.