by Kristjan Otsmann

The chief of Aspiro, Johan Lenander, predicted at the Nordic Mobile Media conference that in the coming years the most interesting mobile services will be those of music and social networks and mobile marketing.

In mobile music people will start downloading more and more complete songs, instead of tunes - 2 to 5 songs a month on average. More than half of them belong to Top 10.

Mobile marketing promises to grow fast as well. We are not talking merely about the growth of text message advertisements, but much more than that. For example, the growth of professional advice services can be foreseen, which will advise on how to spend your free time, inform you about the news and analyse them. The proportion of mobile market research will also increase, as well as the interaction with clients via mobile phones.

The third fast-growing field is social networks. Lenander described it using the example of a digital living-room, where the computer and the mobile phone are just different doors of the room. “Today it is computer-centered, but in the future it will be mobile-centered,” he said, adding that people using those networks will be ready to pay for those services. Well, the success of rate.ee also proves that.

by Chilldor

John Strand, the main speaker at the Nordic Mobile Media Conference said the following in his speech and the subsequent interview:

* Mobile operators are facing more difficult times than ever as price pressure is enormous. Operators must find new sources of income and be more efficient.
* At the moment most of the operators try to do everything by themselves, manage the whole value chain on their own. The smarter ones will start using subcontractors and only do those things they are really good at. Hence, the role of those mobile service creators will increase who offer added value.
* The operators who do not subsidize phones will become more successful.
* Operators will still try to handle most of the clients in the same way, offering them one or at best a couple of brands. Actually one should go deeper: in Denmark Telenor has created a brand for women, in Belgium BASE has created a brand directed at Turks, in Denmark there is even a mobile brand for gay people. People’s needs and wishes are different and with the help of branding the operators get more clients to whom it is easy to offer services that are meant for them. Such “fragmentation” will continue and become more active.
* Operators should introduce a different taxation policy: for example, you pay a euro or two per megabite for reading your mail and much more for downloading files; at the same time, when you order a video from a service provider, its megabite will cost you only a few cents.
* Mobile TV in its present state is a stillborn child. No one wants to watch the news at 9 p.m. on their mobile phone. Mobile TV is meant for ordering video clips so that people can watch them at a suitable time.

Today we can see businesses using SMS for different purposes - marketing, notification, news, text to win campaigns and so on. In those cases usually SMS is a small part of a big project. However, there are plenty of businesses where SMS is in the middle of the business case and sometimes gives the competitive advantage. I will introduce four innovative SMS-based business cases that have been extremely successful in Nordics during the past years.

1. SMS-auction

An SMS-auction is where user’s text in a bid for an advertised item. The system can be set for “highest bid wins” or “lowest unique bid wins” mode. Either way, the user receives a reply message acknowledging the bid and advising them of its position. There are different variations on that business model, which all have their own advantages. Get a general idea of SMS-auctions.

* Bimbaso is a good sample of lowest unique bid auction

* sms2bid is an Australian version of highest bid auction

* Sendioksjon is an Estonian neat version of SMS-auction, where every SMS increases the price per 0,006 EUR and extends the auction by 2,5 minutes. Last person who sends the message gets the product.

2. SMS-loan

It is probably the most profitable SMS-based business, which has also raised some ethical issues. Many countries have already regulated their market for SMS-loans and some countries are doing it right now. Business case is simple - give out loans for small sums with big interests in a really quick and easy to use way. Before creating your own SMS-loan office, read those two stories as well: SMS-loan sharking and loanshark 2.0.

3. Browser based games

Browser based games are quite popular among youth. Believe me, there are plenty of people who want to do something besides shooting someone or playing flash games. Business case here is this - if you want to get advantage over other players, use paid services. Get cool widgets, more money, fame, train yourself etc. Many Fortumo clients have said that for micro-payments SMS is the best one. Every player has a mobile phone these days and they are using it impulsively.

4. Social Networks

Who isn’t a member of some social network nowadays. Some of them have a strong business case behind the solution; some of them don’t have a business case at all. Smaller local social networks have solved it really easily. There are 5 simple steps:

1. you have a social network where people love to spend their time

2. think what could be the extra feature for what users are willing to pay small sums

3. monetize these features with SMS

4. let people know about new opportunities

5. start earning revenue even while you are sleeping

Some things that have been monetized: sending presents, changing the background theme of your profile, getting fame, giving higher points to users, highlight your account/ad/picture etc.

Marino Bresciani

YouTube Blog reports on a new channel called called Mobile Tricks posted by Google Mobile

It is a original way for readers to show what they do with their own cell phone. and you can start watching the video embedded above of with a guy who’s a bit obsessed with them. He’s fabulous!

They’re asking for all kinds of tricks, from the useful to the completely ridiculous, and they can be with or without Google Mobile products. Among all of these, the ones I liked the most were:

• Free dating advice
• Portable X-Ray
• Unknown caller

by Marino Bresciani

Deploy localized SMS services is a challenge that hasn’t found a clear winner. Anyhow, from the States there is a SMS that aims to consider the location of the final users. This means that your text message will only be received once the recipient reaches a certain location such as school or restaurant.

It’s simple yet amazing service which you can use to remind of yourself or others once they are in certain locations. First you need to sign up at JotYou.

The follow these simple steps:
Send messages from your computer or mobile phone. Send to one friend, many friends, or just yourself. Specify a location so your friends get a message when they arrive at school or the mall. When your friends arrive at the location you specify, JotYou alerts them by sending your text message to their cell phone, and delivering the message.

How does it work?
Actually you need a mobile phone that supports J2ME, Symbian or Windows Mobile. In this way, you need to keep the JotYou application switched on all the time, and this will permit you to track your position in the JoyYou server. Ah, you also need a GPS integrated, unless you use the Windows Mobile application; in this case, you can also use wireless positioning (similar to Google Mobile Maps’ “My Location”)

Despite the limitations of needing a continuos gprs connection, the applications deriving from localization services look promising.

by Chilldor

It is a somewhat refreshing experience to read this research conducted by AppTrigger. Unlike many similar articles and research summaries, there is little hype here and it lacks radical visions on how in two or three years time the whole life has moved into the mobile phone. Here they tell you that despite the avalanche of new mobile services, more than half of the mobile users in the UK use the phone still for the same activities as in 2003. The interpretation of figures is even too pessimistic in my opinion - standing in the midst of mobile services it is easy to overestimate their influence on an average user and sometimes a statistical reality check does you good. In my opinion it is good that a bit less than half of the mobile users have changed their habits in last couple of years.

Of those who use more advanced services, the following data emerged:

* Within the youth market (16 – 24 year olds) 62 per cent said that they download music or games;
* The ‘young careerist’ market (aged 25 – 34) said they are more likely to use their phones for PDA tools (diary, contacts and email) and checking websites (62 per cent and 69 per cent respectively);
* The mainstream age market (aged 35-44) make commercial transactions with their phones (39 per cent said they conduct transactions such as topping up their balance);
* The mature age group (45 to 55 year olds) were most likely to user their phones for checking websites;
* Only 22 per cent of mobile phone owners in all age groups said they have used Location-Based Services (LBS)

by Marino Bresciani

Especially in this period, when in UK the youth knife crime is on the spotlight, there is a SMS service being trialled in schools in East London to prevent it. This service enables youngsters to anonymously report classmates or other youths they suspect of carrying knives to anti-crime charity Crimestoppers UK.

Posters urge youths to text details of potential offenders, such as their name, nickname, school and year.

The charity said the pilot is small-scale as it wants to determine whether misuse of the system is likely to be a problem - for instance, by kids attempting to get innocent classmates into trouble - although it stressed that to-date there have been no problems reported. It will also conduct a review of the scheme once the pilot concludes.

Text messages sent to the Crimestoppers UK number are encrypted and routed through a secure server so informants’ details remain anonymous, according to the companies.

by Martin Koppel

Today, when credit card frauds have increased significantly and even moved to social networks like Orkut, it is wise to consider extra payment forms. It all depends on the service you are running, but the overall trend shows that people are thinking seriously before they are providing credit card data. Obviously it is difficult to substitute credit cards, but it is possible to give people alternative payment forms. People who tend to be suspicious or recently read about credit card frauds would like to use something more secure or at least something that seems more secure to them.

For smaller payments I would suggest SMS-billing as an alternative. It has its own disadvantages, but studies have shown that people sense it as secure, anonymous and easy to use payment method.

Here are some points why web based company should consider SMS-billing:

• almost everybody can use it - over 95% of people in most of the developing and developed countries carry a mobile phone,
• people can use it despite the location or time,
• you are able to target young people and reach those who don’t have a credit card,
• people are using it impulsively - SMS-payment is simple and doesn’t take time,
• smaller prices drive people to consume more,
• no chargebacks - people don’t have to worry that something extra is taken from them,
• it supplements the existing revenue stream - our experience with web based companies have shown that while integrating SMS-billing as an extra option, revenues have increased,
• people sense it as more secure measure, because they don’t have to share their personal data.

by Chilldor

WAP has become the “silent success story” of additional value-added services of recent years - at last “the mobile Internet” has enough users, so that it pays off to offer services through it, at the same time as the theme of mobile search is becoming more topical - how to find WAP-pages? Is the operator’s WAP opening page really the only solution?

At a 3GSM information session an analyst asked a rhetorical question: “Why is it that we have to search for a mobile search?” At least the smarter phones could have it at the bottom of the screen all the time? You type in the word, the phone connects to the Internet and takes you to the desired page right away?

At 3GSM it seemed that next year we will probably see some changes, because providing a good search becomes important for phone manufacturers and operators. Unlike the web search, where it is clear that Google is No 1 and everyone else follows at a great distance, the things with mobile search are blurrier and two approaches dominate: one is that Google will be used also for mobile search, the other is that each operator will offer its own search engine brand.

What are the advantages of each approach? The advantage of Google is, of course, that it is a world-known brand and their search results (excluding the China-business) are neutral. Search engines offered by operators (supplied by companies like JumpTap) are different, as in their case those items are preferred, which can be used via the mobile phone right away: for example, ringtones- wallpapers-games of the operator’s partners, mobile TV clips etc. Although the results are not neutral, they try to ensure that the content corresponds better to the habits of the mobile search user. I wonder which approach will be adopted by our local operators?

by Marino Bresciani

Recently, the British regulator in charge of air travel has approved cellphones for use on airline flights, reports the BBC. Airlines will be allowed to activate base stations in the plane’s tail after takeoff, creating a zone of mobile coverage around the plane.

Also, ‘The services could stop working once aircraft leave European airspace. Initially, only second generation networks will be offered but growing interest would mean that third generation, or 3G, services would follow later, said Ofcom. The cost of making a mobile phone call from a plane will be higher than making one from the ground.

This is not the first time we finally hear about use of mobile in aircrafts. Already one year ago, the low-cost company Ryanair announced the introduction , aiming to become the first to allow passengers to use mobiles. By the way, it looks like now Ryanair has had its plans held up by nearly year because of problems getting approval from certain national regulators. OnAir has also had problems getting approval for a system adapted to Ryanair’s aircraft.

Anyhow, at the moment, most of the interested airlines (including AirFrance and British Airways) are in deals with in-flight communications experts OnAir to fit the latest mobile satellite technology on their planes from next summer. Callers will pay the same rates as international roaming charges.

Custom SMS services on a plane can be definitely a possibility, then. Ideas are still on the way, though.