Viva la WiFi calls revolution!

Now that WiFi enabled phones are starting to get into the market, it can be easily foreseen that WiFi calls will become a reality for mainstream users in the next 3-30 years. Why this wide range? Well, 3 years if it was dependant purely on technology advancement, 30 years if it's up to the operators...

Yes, though they try to be cool about it, operators are very much afraid of WiFi calls, and it's very easy to understand why: When you have a WiFi enabled phone, whenever you are around a WiFi hotspot you have internet access which means that you can technically make voice calls over the internet the same way you make them with Skype on your PC.

If your phone is Windows mobile based, you can actually run Skype Mobile, simple as that. If it's not, third parties such as Fring and Truphone offer their own solutions. Without getting into details about the solutions and their differences, they enable VoIP calls over WiFi and also over 3G. (BTW - VoIP over 3G is cost effective only if you have a flat/cheap data plan, if you're not roaming and of course provided that your operator doesn't block it...). In addition phones are starting to come with built-in VoIP software.

Now WiFi is not everywhere, and also not always free, but even if you are in the airport, suddenly the outrageous $10/hour rate can make sense when it comes as an alternative to mobile calls while roaming.

Over the past years, operators have been fighting to provide their subscribers a walled garden Internet instead of an open environment in order to route all mobile content through their channels and cut their usual 50% cut. This has been going on despite of legislation and despite of protests of strong content providers such as Google.

How much of their revenues do operators make from data services you ask? Well, it's 7%-20% (Including SMS, browsing and mobile content). Voice accounts for more than 80%, and even 90% of operators revenues. Think how far they would be willing to go in order to protect that.

And this exactly why Vodafone and Orange asked Nokia to disable VoIP on the N95 in such a way that not even possible to use Truphone, and you can see Truphone's video demo comparing an unlocked phone vs. a locked one. (BTW - I perceive the N95 as a breakthrough, since most of the other WiFi enabled phones are far away from mainstream, either the Blackberry-like E61, the Windows bulky smartphones etc.)

Another example is that the all powerful iPhone was released with no WiFi calls support. Apple has done a lot to equip this gadget with all the software needed to enjoy the full experience of a phone/media/Internet, so why not include the one killer app that could have utilized 2 of the iPhone strengths?

But unlike the battle for mobile content which is still waging (With the operators having the upper hand), this is one battle they can't win, and in fact this battle will also make them lose the battle over mobile content. And the reason for that is simple: Up until now, the operators were our ISP as well. Every data packet came through their gateways, and as such they could always block whatever they wanted: By IP address, by file type (ringtones, games), by protocol (SIP) etc.

WiFi phones provide the bypass everyone has been waiting for: You can access the Internet directly whenever you are around a WiFi spot, and the operator can't do anything about it. What it can do, is sell its subscribers blocked phones, but soon everyone will understand that it's better to buy unlocked phones from retail stores.

Knowing that, some operators are embracing the "if you can't beat them, join them" approach. One of those is T-Mobile which is even promoting now a WiFi phone, but still capitalizes on this "generous" offer by taking $10/month from subscribers. Another operator that promises to open up is Hutchison/3.

In any case, operators are going to have to be creative and innovative to turn this situation from a potential disaster to a stage in their evolution. I am sure that in this case openness will be rewarded with customer loyalty, while tricks like locking phones, which is in any case a very temporary "solution", can only have the effect of antagonizing customers.

We should also remember that in any case, that while WiFi is spreading to a lot of places even to the extent of city-wide hotspots, it is still far from the worldwide coverage that operators networks supply (for now...), and this is another reason for operators to act wisely and not block WiFi, so their users stay loyal and use their network when out of WiFi range.

P.S. - For more on the N95 blocking you can read this. Also as a side note, even PSP will support VoIP soon.

Go Yahoo! Go

Have you seen Yahoo! Go 2.0? If not, go get it. Go is Yahoo's interpretation of how the mobile web experience should look like, and from all I've seen up until now - they got it right.

Yahoo! Go is a client application that allows you to basically do everything. Starting with search of course, browsing the web, accessing your Yahoo! mail account, accessing your Flickr account, finding directions and maps, checking the weather, news from around the world (via RSS) and more.

Being an all-in-one solution often means compromise in the various components withing the solution, but Yahoo! succeeded in giving a best of breed solution to each and every one of the enclosed components (With the understandable exception that you can only access their own proprietary services such as Yahoo! Mail and Flickr).

Generally, the interface is very user friendly and also "easy on the eyes" (You can see it yourselves in their slightly annoying demo video). Switching between the different applications is done via a carousel at the bottom of the screen. The applications themselves feature the same navigation and text entering interfaces, so once you learned the basics in one app, you are good to go in the others. Yahoo! have even placed an Intro tour that guides you through the interface in the first time.

About the various apps themselves, let's start with the search engine which is custom tailored for the mobile, and knows to bring the most relevant items, whether these are sites, pictures, reviews etc. For example if you search for a celebrity you will immediately get her pictures on the top... If you search for a movie, you'll get links for buying tickets and so on. Giving the relevant items on a mobile device, is even harder than on the web, since you want to give the user the top 80%-90% of the relevant results in the first page, which is difficult enough even on the web, but more difficult when you have the screen of a handset...

When you find what you want - you can browse the site with Yahoo! Go. It doesn't send you to the handset's mobile browser (which often doesn't cut it), instead Go features its own browser that also formats even regular web pages to your mobile, similar to what other mobile browsers such as Opera Mobile do (And this can be a big threat for Opera).

And of course you get ads on the top of the page if Yahoo! wants to, and these are ads from their network, regardless of what site you are browsing... In fact, as mobile advertising is getting more and more mainstream, the strategic value of having a "real estate" on the mobile phone is getting to be extremely important for search engines.

Back to the product: The Maps service is simply amazing, you can ask for directions, get them verbally and see them on the Map (And if you have a GPS, you can see where you are on the map). The weather service also works great, and you can easily add any location that you are interested in. Same goes for RSS news - add your own sources, track specific people or companies etc. You also have sports, finance and entertainment sections that are already configured with content sources.

Flickr access is very easy, and browsing through your pictures or others pictures is very intuitive and surprisingly fast. You need to enter your Yahoo! ID once, and then it automatically recognizes you both on Flickr and in Yahoo! Mail (Which also works great, but Google/Gmail provided such a service a long time ago).

In addition it seems that Yahoo! have dedicated a lot of thought to reducing data traffic, which is considered rightfully as a barrier for acceptance of mobile applications by users. You can check at any time how much data you transferred, and at the end of the session, you see the amount of data transferred. My "test drive" (on Nokia N73) included checking mail, entering my Flickr account and browsing through thumbnails of my pictures, asking for directions in NY and seeing them on the map (plus zooming in, moving the map a bit etc.), searching and browsing a few sites and more - and all of that consumed only about 0.5MB (At least that what Go reported...)

Now, what's the catch? Well the most significant issue now is that their device support matrix is still rather small - a lot of the phones appear on the site as supported but marked with a "coming soon" label. In any case, the support is improving. A few months ago, right after 3GSM 2007, where I originally saw Go, I tried to download it to my SonyEricsson K800i but it wasn't supported. Today it is.

Another small issue is the size of the application: 613KB for the Nokia N73 version... Nowadays it's not much of a problem, since devices have dozens of MB available for apps, but still it can take a lot of time to install over the air, especially if you don't have 3G. In addition, it makes me wonder how the implementation would look on older phones that they claim to be "coming soon".

And of course there's the issue of the content itself. On the web I usually tend to use Google's services, whether it's Gmail, Picasa or Blogger (used to write this blog). The question is whether having a great mobile solution such as Yahoo! Go will change my (and others) usage patterns when it comes to the web.

And while we are talking about Google, let's see what they have to offer: Google mobile services include their Gmail client and a Google Maps client. all the rest of the services are WAP based. Now you may ask what's wrong about WAP? Well, just read on a bit more (you've come so far...)

The Google Maps client interface is not an eye candy, but it has some nice features Yahoo! doesn't have. As for Gmail, I should say a few good words here: Gmail client was truly innovative for its time, both in terms of interface and usability. I am using it for over a year now if I remember correctly, and as a person who doesn't like carrying around my laptop (or using a heavy PDA) it changed my email availability altogether.

Google had a WAP version for Gmail even earlier, and I used that too, but as WAP services often are it was soooo sloooow so I avoided using it too much. So today when people are asking me what's wrong about WAP, I am telling them that the point in time when I started using mail on my mobile as a real alternative was when Gmail client came out (And usually they remember that it was the same for them...)

As I mentioned, aside from the mail and maps, Google offers the other services as well, but in WAP mode, and the experience is very far away than the experience you get with Yahoo! Go. Yahoo! is definitely on the lead here.

So, Yahoo! - you get a big thumbs up from me (I know you were waiting anxiously for this approval...) and Google - start running and fast - the mobile space is one place you don't want to lose to Yahoo!...

P.S. - I know everyone is blogging about the iPhone these days, so I'll make my contribution as well: Yahoo! Go supports the iPhone, and this shows how strong iPhone is from the get go. (And not another word unless Apple wants to send me one so I can review it properly...)

What Sun has in store for us?

I've attended Java Technology Day here in Israel and while this is a technological conference, it has deep implications on the mobile content we're about to see in the following years.

As you probably know Sun's J2ME (Java for mobile devices) became the de-facto standard for mobile applications in Europe, and is also rather popular all around the world, pushing other platforms such as Qualcomm's Brew aside (even in the US).

One of the major problems with J2ME is the lack of compatibility among devices. One of the reasons for this situation is that Sun's standard for mobile devices (MIDP) didn't require them to implement APIs for common features (such as multimedia, SMSs, Bluetooth etc.). This made developers to release several builds for each device according to its specific API support.

To solve this problem Sun has defined (in a process led by Nokia and Vodafone) a standard called MSA (Mobile Services Architecture). This standard has much more strict requirements from devices and as such can push the market into standardization. MSA comes in two flavours: full and MSA subset (for weak devices). Even in the MSA subset standard the following are a must: Multimedia, Messaging (SMS), Bluetooth, 3D graphics, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and PIM (Personal Information Management, i.e. access to the contact list and other files on the phone, such as pictures, MP3s etc.).

When J2ME started it was quite limited (somewhat due to the traditional "sandbox" approach), but as you can see the added APIs can leverage mobile Java applications into a whole new level.

Of all the APIs mentioned above, SVG is probably one of the more strategic ones for Sun, and useful for developers. Unlike bitmap graphics, vector graphics allows lossless scaling of graphic objects and is more suitable to some applications including mapping and can also help handle the difference in devices' screen sizes in games and animations.

The emphasis on SVG and its definition as a must even in the MSA subset is probably due to the gap closing by Sun's nemesis Adobe. Adobe has won the battle over the desktop with its Flash technology, mainly due to the difficulties users are having with installing the JRE which is the Java plug-in (And not a word about Microsoft's role in that...).

Now, Adobe is headed towards the mobile with its Flash Lite technology. In the mobile world Sun currently has a big advantage and that's its big install base, but Sun knows better than to sit still and is targeting one of Flash's flag features: Vector graphics.

The PIM API is also extremely important: Not only it allows interacting with the contact list (which is useful for community/friends driven applications) but it also allows access to local files on the handset. This means that Java apps are able to play MP3s and show pictures from outside their sandbox.

Another API worth mentioning which is not included in the MSA subset but on the full MSA is CHAPI (Content Handling API). This API allows Java applications (as well as native ones) to run other Java application to handle specific types of content, in the same way that on your PC browser when you click a resource of a specific type (PDF, MP3 etc.) it launches the relevant application.

So, to summarize, the new APIs, and their availability on a multitude of devices, opens a door to a whole set of new applications and new market opportunities. Now go get 'em!


P.S. - Expanding the standard set of supported APIs is great, but it is not a complete solution to the problem. Device manufacturers/mobile JVM vendors have been known to cut corners on Java implementations, and even the base API is sometime different from phone to phone (preventing the application developer from releasing a single build that fits all). So it is certainly not the end of porting - but it's a good step in that direction...

IVA 2007

Last week I've been to IVA 2007, the annual conference of the Israeli Venture Association. The conference which attracts most of Israel's VCs (And entrepreneurs...) was focused this time on building large companies (Israel has a lot of successful exits of small and medium companies, but just a handful of really large hi-tech corporations).

The conference featured some impressive keynotes from Shay Agassi (ex-SAP), Gil Schwed (Checkpoint) and Stanley Fischer. Some lectures/panels were very interesting, others quite obvious, but all in all a good balance. Anyway, I guess it was all worth it for the mingling, and also for Alex Vieux's direct style of interviewing (For example, in a question to Israel Makov, ex-CEO of Teva: "So, why did you leave Teva? Were you tired, or were they tired of you?...")

Anyway, the major trend everyone is talking about (surprise, surprise) is CleanTech. In Agassi's lecture he basically said "drop everything you're doing now - go to CleanTech..." others said it less bluntly, but in any case this is definitely one of the directions VCs in Israel will go to. But all of you software/Web 2.0 entrepreneurs don't have anything to worry about - there are plenty of interest and actual investments in these fields...

Another trend that could be seen is the involvement of the VC/Hi-Tech industry in social projects. The exhibition featured mostly social projects intended to help underprivileged kids, teenagers and students.

That's about it - it was definitely a good place to meet some old friends and catch up on today's trends.

Walking down the street... on the web...

Well, this has nearly nothing to do with mobile content, but it is so cool that I couldn't not write about it...

Google has launched a new service inside Google Maps which is called "Streetview". The service allows you to see how the streets actually look like as if you were walking/driving. As I understand Google (or actually its partner for this project, Immersive Media) took a car out on the streets with a special camera on top of it, and there you have it: America is physically on-line...

The great thing is that though these are static images, you can go in any direction with a very intuitive inteface, and it really looks like as if you were walking down the street (a frozen in time street, but still...).

Currently the service covers areas in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver & Miami but I am sure they'll get everywhere soon enough...

Anyway, you simply have to check it out yourselves. But beware - it's addictive...

The Asian Markets

Yesterday I met with several diplomats from Asia (Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand and more). They came to see the incubator model here in Israel, so they visited JVP Studio which is the incubator in which GamearraY grew.

Now, I have already written about the importance of Asia, and in particular Japan and Korea in the mobile market. But when I was asked by the Japanese delegate why do Israeli companies prefer doing business with Europe and the US, my spontaneous answer was "force of habit".

Usually when asked this question, people will say "cultural difference" or something like that. And while it's true that there are huge differences in the culture, but there are also differences between Israeli culture and the US & European culture and still Israeli companies feel confident approaching these markets at early stages (and are doing quite well there...)

It is my feeling that while there is some more profound cultural gap between Asia and the western world, in the modern business world the "culture" is becoming a lesser factor, since the real "culture" guiding businessmen is actually some sort of a global "business culture". The only problem is that it takes time to these changes to be realized, and since before Asian markets were not very open to western companies, people still think that and already have the instant answer of "cultural differences".

I may be oversimplifying things, and I know that there are a lot of nuances, but still, I think that Asian markets are more open today than they have ever been, and it is worth exploring the Asian option, especially in the mobile market.

The cameraphone wins again...

Just a short "follow-up" post:

A few weeks ago, I have written here about the rise of cameraphones and the inevitable fall of digital cameras. Well, in the last few weeks I have been to more than a few rock concerts (And I am going to another one tonight...), and as you can see in the picture, people are really embracing cameraphones and leaving their cameras at home.

Now I know that you could see a few people with cameraphones at rock concerts years ago (and even before that in operators/handsets vendors commercials...), but the difference is that now it is the masses using the technology, and not just a few early adopters. There were a lot of people using their phone to capture the moment and practically no cameras around.

So the next time you are at a rock concert or another event, make sure you are equipped with a good cameraphone and leave your digital camera at home...

The keypad and its effects

I just saw a post in MoMo-NY about a new mobile keypad concept called "fastap". Aside from the numeric keys, it features a key for each letter in the ABC in the corners of the numeric keys (However, it does add another row of 3 keys at the bottom).

This keypad is featured on the new LG AX490 phone (in the picture to the left). You can read the full article here.

Anyway, what seems to be another standard handset innovation has more effect that you might think. Improving the human interface (and especially the keyboard/keypad) is a major issue to the success of mobile applications.

And it has to be done wisely, meaning without affecting the phone's total size, since the bigger the phone is the less mobile it is. You don't want to take away the one thing mobile phones are good at.... Or as I have written before: If it doesn't fit in your pocket without competing for space with your private parts - it is not a mainstream device... (This colorful rule of thumb is taken from my post about mobile blogging).

Fastap's solution seems to affect the size, but reasonably, the question is whether it is actually comfortable, and that I will be able to address only after actually testing it.

SonyEricsson has another solution I first saw in 3GSM, in which each key is actually two keys: when you tap it to the left you get one letter, and when you tap it to the right you get another. I tested this one and it is very comfortable, but on the other hand it does add 2 columns of keys (so the keypad is 5x4 and not 3x4) making the device something between a handset and a PDA, which doesn't really do the trick. This keypad is featured for example in their P1 phone.

Anyway, it is obvious that the form factor here is critical to the usage of mobile applications, so whoever finds the best one, will do good not only to himself but also the entire industry.

Virtual Worlds and the mobile world

One of the hottest trends today is the Virtual Worlds "madness"... For those of you who are not familiar with the phenomenon, I am talking about 3D virtual worlds in which you can take the form of a 3D Avatar, walk around in the virtual space, chat with people, buy stuff etc.

Some of these worlds have economy systems with an exchange rate from US$ to the virtual currency (For example, in the most famous world, Second Life, the currency is called Linden Dollars), and people can buy clothes, gifts, vehicles, apartments, furniture and what not... obviously the revenue potential here is big.

The picture here of me hanging out with virtual babes is taken from MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach. The thing about their world is that everyone looks hot... (At least their virtual avatars...). This world by the way has a good vibe too, and I think we'll see its market share rising.

The question is, when and how will this trend translate into the mobile world. Obviously the capabilities needed to render the full experience is beyond mobile devices today, but more than that, the question is whether handsets are the right media for such activity. As I wrote in previous posts, some activities (such as 3D shooter games) are enjoyed best with a big screen TV (Or at least a decent 19" screen..), so the handset will always be a "second best".

But there maybe something between the full 3D worlds and the most used social data application on the mobile (SMS...) that may provide users with a new experience. For example, Sulake, the developer of Habbo Hotel has a mini version of their world called "Mini Friday". It's quite neat, but still lacks in support for mainstream phones.

I also heard rumours about other companies trying to port the full 3D experience to mobile. Anyway, there's a lot of potential there. Unlike traditional games, virtual worlds don't necessarily focus on tasks and missions, but are just a virtual hangout place. And we know that for chat and social activities the handset can be a major platform.

So, it is going to be interesting to see the new stuff that comes out soon. In the meantime, if anyone hears news on that subject feel free to comment here or drop me an e-mail.


P.S. - Regarding the writers team of NextGenMoCo, thanks to all of you who have joined, we expect to launch the blog in its new form (with contributions from various authors) sometime in June.

Join NextGenMoCo's elite team of writers!

It looks like we are assembling a good lineup of contributors to the blog (See the call for writers). Some of you had a few questions about writing here, so I'll try to sum the answers to the frequently asked questions:

If I want to write here - how often do I have to write for the blog?

You do not have to commit to a constant flow of articles - even people who want to write just one article are welcome. And this is the whole idea: In terms of market perspective it is better to have one article from a thousand different people than a thousand articles from the same person.

And what if I do want to write here constantly?

People who would like to join as constant writers are very welcome. Every one that submits at least one article in a month will be also featured on the right column along with a full profile (We will usually upload the profile after 3-4 articles/posts).

What about the IP/ownership of the article?

The original writer remains the owner of all intellectual property rights. You can post this articles in other places or do whatever you want with it. We do not require any exclusivity of any kind, the blog just receives a license from the owner to publish the article here.

What about payment/royalties?

This blog is non-commercial by nature, and is intended to be a free of charge service to the mobile content community written by people from within that community. People can read for free (and with no ads), so we also require the writers to contribute the articles for free.

Can I write about my company? We have the coolest product...

As said, the blog is non-commercial, so we do not appreciate advertisements disguised as articles, however, we do allow and even appreciate articles that are based on examples from the real world and not just on theory. So if you have an article about the future of mobile games for example, and your company is doing something interesting in that frontier, you can mention it and even elaborate on it. Now of course there's a fine line here, but we'll help you to find the balance.

Who reads this blog?

We have readers from around the world, primarily from the UK and the US. The blog got its fame from the famous 3GSM 2007 reacp post that circulated around the globe. Among the readers we have VCs, operators and mobile content publishers/developers/aggregators etc. In terms of traffic the blog can have thousands of readers in a good month. So we are not talking about millions, but these are not random visitors - almost all of the readers are from within the industry. In addition the readers base is expected to grow when we launch the blog in it's new form with a multitude of writers from different segments of the industry.

What's in it for me?

As a contributor to NextGenMoCo you can get exposure to other people from the industry, some holding key position in organizations you may want to work with sometime (And if that sounded like a sales pitch, just write - you'll feel good about it...)

That's it for now, if you have more questions, let me know, and if you want to join, drop me an e-mail (you can find it in my profile page).