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Blog

Welcome back King Content

25-02-2010

by Ralph Averbuch

We're about to see a big shift towards the mobile web.

Small Israeli company ELSE Ltd demonstrated an innovative new approach to user interface design on smartphones using one finger navigation at the recent Mobile World Congress.
Small Israeli company ELSE Ltd demonstrated an innovative new approach to user interface design on smartphones using one finger navigation at the recent Mobile World Congress.
Here's an interesting statistic. According to Vodafone, one in four of the mobiles it sold in the run-up to Christmas '09 was a smartphone... worldwide. That's a trend that's set to continue as people discover the benefits of being able to carry a piece of the web around in their pocket. It's taken a while for the momentum to pick up, but the growing popularity of these devices is a combination of lower handset costs, better mobile internet packages, rapidly improving handsets and, perhaps most critical of all, a change in the relationship we have with our network. At one time the mobile companies tried to mediate the experience, creating walled gardens into which we were more or less restricted. It didn't work. We didn't want to be penned in and so these portals were not heavily used. Apple's iPhone smashed those barriers and has heralded a massive growth in interest in the mobile web. The recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona shows where that trend is going with Google's Android allowing a flood of very capable handsets to join the fray. And this ultimately means we are about to see a big shift in emphasis as major media interests look to adapt their existing sites and web services to follow the customer. We've grown accustomed to a web that's been dominated by ever increasing screen sizes and higher resolutions on the desktop. Now, with phones more powerful than PCs we owned five years ago, that experience has to be revisited. To get it right will be a challenge but with estimates that there are already four times as many mobiles than PCs in the world, any company that drags its heels could quickly be undermined. Why else do we see the biggest players like Google, Microsoft, Nokia and many others working so desperately to stay in front of our eyes? They know they need to be in the mobile OS business as that's the opportunity to mediate -- not through creating walls but by aiding ease of mobile access to this rich new world of content. Of course, despite any denials from the likes of Google's Eric Schmidt, this does mean that the mobile networks are in danger of becoming glorified mobile "dumb pipes" with virtually no means of making anything other than flat monthly fees. It's seems that content, once again, is king.

Comments

Welcome back King Content

I'm feeling like the only person around who doesn't have a smart phone, but I know the experience they give of content-while-mobile is quite transformative. The dichotomy of fat screen (full-size computer screen) vs thin screen (smartphone) has so many ramifications. It reminds me of the difference between, for example, Facebook and twitter. The enforced conciseness of the latter makes it a natural for the mobile platform.

In much the way newspapers, for example, have had to find a web-based user experience that balances between what was in the paper that day and what's being written now by their newswire writers, every content provider is going to have to keep the thin screen in mind at all times, and create streams that are friendly for that platform.

Just because a smartphone can give you a satisfactory web page experience, it doesn't mean you want to drink gallons of content when on the move.

Sheila Averbuch - ENN

by Sheila Averbuch on 25 February 2010 at 12:10

Welcome back King Content

Network operators are without doubt very afraid of becoming that "dumb pipe". With demand for data rates & throughput rising & pressure to conform to a flat pricing structure there are difficult gaps to bridge.

Compounding the problem is the fact that Apple, Google & co. have created a relationship with the networks' customers, cutting out the middle man giving no room for other sources of income for the operators. The relationship with the customer will migrate away from the network operators if they don't move fast to capitalise on their customer base in other ways outside of their traditional models.

We see the same problems in the fixed line world with Eircom not having sufficient reserves to deliver the network that our future connected world requires e.g. fibre to the kerb. Without the ability to connect, be it mobile or fixed then everything collapses. Network operators would be wise to steer away from investing in future loss making networks but how then do we provide the necessary connectivity?

Eventually we will need some intervention from the government if we are to remain competitive. Nobody wants to run a loss making "dumb pipe" but that is their future unless it is addressed now. It will be too late in the future as lack of investment now effects the future. Yes network operators have made obscene levels of profits in the past but why would they waste their money on a known loss making entity? Business is business.

by Mark Fitzgerald on 26 February 2010 at 12:07

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