NextGenMoCo on Carnival of the Mobilists

I am proud to announce that my post on MIDs and UMPCs was published in the WAP Review blog under issue #109 of the Carnival of the Mobilists (CotM).

The CotM is a weekly list of the best posts on the mobile blogosphere. Every week the list is hosted at a different blog (which is usually one of the contributers to the carnival). This initiative has been around for about 2 years, and it's a great way to get updated qucikly, so check them out (I also added a permanent link to them in the right pane under "Blogroll").

If you're here searching for my post on deploying J2ME applications in the US (which got a massive echo in the blogosphere and was linked so far from java.net, operawatch and the german mobile zeitgeist), it's right below this post.

So, you want to deploy a J2ME app in the US?

We are about to launch a new mobile service in the US. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it's not...

You have two ways of deploying a mobile service in the US, and for that matter anywhere in the world. One is to go hand in hand with the mobile operators and launch your application on their deck. You can gain marketing cooperation that way, and the fact that you're on their portal, guarantees a fair share of success.

Why not go that way? Well, for starters the deal cycle can take about 12-18 months. And not only that, you have to convince the operator that it is even worth talking to you... And while I hate to admit it, it's quite reasonable... Operators (or carriers as they are called in the US) get a huge amount of noise from companies wanting to launch their services. Content managers there have more hits than Google has... So, even if you're a start-up with a brilliant solution, they will have a hard time getting you in unless you have some proof of getting revenues or an impressive userbase or an impressive brand etc.

Oh, and there's also the fact that they will take about 50% of your revenues...

The other option, which is taken by most consumer-oriented start-ups when they begin is going off-deck without any business relationship with the opertaor. This is very suitable for free mobile 2.0 products that operators don't like very much (50% of 0 is...), especially if those can be used as a substitute for messaging and voice. However the operator gets data traffic (And the application provider can't touch it), so you would think that in the big picture, operators would like to increase data traffic as they always state.

However, in the reality of things today, application providers find along the way a lot of barriers when they try to deploy their apps off-deck, and the situation in the US is much worse than Europe in which operators already understand that they should encourage data usage.

Anyway, there is also a big difference between the various operators in the US, and during the last few weeks I have come to learn the nuances both via extensive testing we've done on handsets in US networks (Using Mobile Complete's Device Anywhere) and the help of my colleagues at Mobile Monday Silicon Valley.

And here are the results:...

There are 4 big operators in the US: AT&T (which purchased Cingular), Verzion, Sprint-Nextel and T-Mobile. There are also smaller and regional ones, that we'll elegantly ignore for simplicity (I want to get this post done by 2010...)


Verizon

Our application is in J2ME, which is de-facto standard in Europe and also other parts of the world. J2ME is also gaining dominance in the US, however one (big) operator doesn't support it (yet) - and that's Verizon.

So Verizon was out of the picture from the start for that phase, and this is how a lot of start-ups start: First a J2ME version that can cover Europe and about 65-70% of the US. BTW - The Java "version" will have to be ported to about every device in those markets (read my post on that), but Brew is a complete rewrite, so the effort is bigger.

In any case, though we didn't test on Verizon, it is about the most closed environment, so much that you can forget about releasing something off-deck.

T-Mobile

From some reason I had the notion that T-Mobile would be a very open network. Maybe it is because I know it from Europe, maybe it's because it was an early adopter for J2ME and maybe it's because it was rather open up until a few years ago. However, today the situation is quite the opposite.

Users are able to download J2ME apps (JAD+JAR), so if you have an offline app, like a standalone mobile game, you should be fine. But if your app requires an internet connection - you'll be surprised to find out that that is not trivial at all. In the bottom line users will be able to access the internet if:
1) The application was signed with a T-Mobile certificate, or
2) The user has a $20 "total internet" plan instead of the regular $6 T-Zones one, or
3) The handset was not bought through T-Mobile.

Now, as you can understand (2) and (3) are major problems, since the majority of users do not have a $20 data plan and buy their handset from their operator, so you can't rely on those.

As for (1), in order to get a certificate from T-Mobile, you have to have some sort of a commercial agreement with them, which brings us back to plan A (on-deck) that can take 12-18 months as explained above.

Now you might have heard of 3rd party certificates (Verisign, the Java Verified program) - those will not do you any good here. T-Mobile alters the Java security domains and permissions on the handsets it sells in such a way that only a certificate by T-Mobile is considered to be trusted, and any thing that is not trusted does not have access at all to the network as well as to other APIs (SMS, Bluetooth etc - see the exact list here).

This is why users who bought their handsets through other channels have devices that are less restricted and do not block any API even in the untrusted domain, but rather prompt the user whenever there's an attempt to access resources (BTW - on the network side, these users may still have to configure a proxy to use the $6 plan, which is not trivial at all, but at least these menus are not blocked like they are on handsets sold by TMO...)

In short, if you are aiming for a mass-market consumer application, and not just one targeted at business users or tech-savvy users, your hands are pretty much tied... The only way to acheive that goal is to go on-deck with T-Mobile.

AT&T

AT&T appears to be (at least now, these things tend to change) a little less strict than T-Mobile. You can download J2ME applications from anywhere, and they have network access (HTTP), which is what we needed. However, it seems that although we didn't bump into a wall with AT&T, other applications that want to use socket communication, access to the file system, address book and messaging (SMS/MMS) will probably be blocked (See Hartti Suomela Forum Nokia Blog and the exact domains/permissions in AT&T. Hartti has done some research on the subject and answered my nags on Mobile Monday... Thanks Hartti...)

The blockng of those resources/API is done on the same way as with T-Mobile, by altering security domains on handsets sold by the operator. And again even if the application is signed by a third party, it won't make much difference, but at least in AT&T in this case SMS will be allowed in addition to network access.

So it seems that for unsigned applications "just" HTTP network access is granted compared to T-Mobile, but this is a huge difference, since most online applications need just that (sockets communication is less popular also because some handsets don't support it as well as other networks in the world). For example, GMail mobile, Google Maps and Opera Mini will run on AT&T but not on T-Mobile.

However, more advanced mobile 2.0 applications that interact with the content on the handset itself (address book, pictures, other files) will have a hard time running on both networks (hard time=they wouldn't run at all...)

And one more note about unsigned applications (which are considered "untrusted"), even if the operator allows them to install and access HTTP like in AT&T, the handset still gives the user several security alerts, but that's common procedure in J2ME.

Note that those alerts are sometimes quite nasty (For example, in Nokia's newest devices the message can be "This application may cause damage to your handset"...) so you might consider getting a certification from a third party such as Verisign.


Sprint-Nextel

Even though Sprint purchased nextel some time ago, there are still 2 seperate networks with different technologies. They may both be marketed under the Sprint brand, but since there are differences in their policy, I'll address them separately:

Sprint (CMDA)

Sprint is a CDMA network, which usually doesn't combine with J2ME. Traditionally GSM networks supported J2ME and CDMA supported Brew. However, you can understand that this doesn't have to be the situation since J2ME/Brew are high-level technologies that can be implemented over several OSs, while GSM/CDMA are the low-level transmission methods. It's like saying that Java works only on ADSL while .NET works only on WiFi....

The reason for this traditional coupling may be related to commercial aspects or simply to the fact that once handset vendors made specific devices for specific networks it became a standard in those networks.

In any case, while Sprint is a CDMA network it does support a wide variety of J2ME enabled devices, and as expected it has similar issues like its GSM "sisters". Again with the security domains and permissions alteration, but closer to AT&T: you don't have to sign your apps for network access, but other APIs are restricted and can only be used with a Sprint certificate (see the full details here).

Sprint does make it easier for developers and allow them to obtain a developers certificate so they can test their apps before even speaking with Sprint. This certificate is available at the custom WTK (Wireless Toolkit) that is available at Sprint's developer portal (This certificate is only good for testing). In addition I was told that it is much easier to obtain their production certificate, and it doesn't necessarily involve a marketing cooperation, so this process may be quicker.

And one more technical tip you should know: some of Sprint's devices are more sensitive when it comes to JAD definitions. At first we thought that the download itself is being blocked, but it's not. If you can't download an app, go over the JAD definitions and check the MIME type your server send JAD files as.

Nextel (iDEN)

The iDEN network in Sprint-Nextel (which I'll refer to as Nextel, since it was just that originally) is even trickier, but not only because of the operator's restrictions, but rather due to the technology itself.

iDEN handsets do not allow users to download J2ME apps unless it is from the carrier's portal (which means you have to get on-deck). However, you can download the application to your computer and from there transfer it to the handset using a data cable and a tool called openJAL. This is of course not an optional delivery for the mass market, as just tech-savvy users (or geeks as they are more commonly referred to...) can do that.

Note that this is even before we got to the permissions "bridge" - no application even if it's a standalone offline application can be downloaded over the air if it's not on the operator's portal/deck, and in that perspective it's the worst restriction set, but again it has also a lot to do with the technology itself.

So again, you are left with the choice of either getting a deal with the operator or deploying your app to users that can hack their way through (That would be me and some of the guys in the office here... definitely not a very promising demographics...)

Summary

So that's about it. As I said there are other operators in the states but these are the big four. As you can see the current state makes it difficult to deploy applications off the deck, and that's slowing down the industry in my opinion.

The operators themselves claim that the restrictions are for security reasons, and I can understand that partly, since no carrier wants its users to download apps that access their private data or sends messages/connects the internet without permission. But isn't the customer smart enough? I mean what's wrong with the normal security domains in which untrusted (unsigned) applications can access resources only after a system prompt to the user? These messages are scary enough that a user that doesn't understand will click "No", but those who do, can enjoy great apps, and the application providers can enjoy a growth in their revenues, as well as the operators in the end.

So get moving guys and unlock your networks!

MIDs, UMPCs and the iPhone

One of the trends in the CES show earlier this month was the rise of MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). MIDs are basically ultra portable internet consoles. Unlike laptops or PDAs, they do not have to run any Windows (or other platform) applications - they can run only one application: a web browser.

The MIDs are in fact a branch in the UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) family, and while UMPCs are designed to be just very small PCs (with operating systems, ability to install and run applications, store things locally etc.), the MID are less "ambitious" but in my opinion, more to the point of what most mobile users need.

The MIDs are small and lightweight (naturally), typically have a 4.5-7 inch displays, and some creative keyboard solutions (blackberry-like small keys, a sliding keyboard under the screen, touch screen keyboard etc.). Also, their processor does not have to be cutting-edge, and in fact Intel is developing several weak processors especially for MIDs.

Now, a few years back, this would have been a weak solution for on the go computing, since you can't do anything when you're offline, and also you cannot run applications such as Microsoft Office.

However, there are two things that changed over the last few years that make those two arguments obsolete:

1. Applications have migrated online

A few years ago, it was Sun Microsystems who coined the term "The network is the computer". Everybody was talking about online applications stored and managed centrally, accessed by users who pay per use or license it for a certain period of time instead of the model where you buy a piece of software, install it locally and use it indefinitely (or until the next version comes out...).

Sun did a lot to make that vision happen, but on the consumer applications side, it was Google that really made it. While reading emails online is old news (so last millennium...) Google's GMail was truly innovative for its time, and eliminated the slowness problem most webmails had (and still have). In addition with Google Calendar you can manage your calendar and with Google Documents you can read and write documents, presentations and worksheets. Now I know Microsoft's Office is still better - but give it time... And don't get me started on the killer app of them all - Google Maps...

Aside from Google there are a lot of other great services available online. Today with AJAX technologies you can make great fast apps that require just a simple browser. With the addition of two standard plugins - Java and Flash you can also play online games and have access to advanced applications.

In short, Sun's vision is no longer a vision, it is happening, and while people have been saying that for quite a while, today I can say personally that I use mostly web-based services. I find it very convenient as my data is accessible from anywhere and I don't have to sync computers, move files manually (disk on key) etc.


2. You can't be productive offline

When I find myself with my laptop but there's no WiFi around, I do all sorts of things: I am cleaning my desktop, removing installed applications, moving files from folder to folder - in short my productivity is similar to the productivity of a painter that has colors.

Today we read the news on the web, we communicate with our friends and colleagues (email, IM, VoIP, social networking), we search for almost about anything (and find it!), we read articles, make our travel arrangements, bid on and purchase stuff, check our financials and perform financial actions (bank accounts, stock portfolio, credit cards etc.), blog and more.

When your computer is offline - it is disabled. You can't do at least 80% of the things you would usually do. I will repeat once again Sun's motto: The network is the computer. As simple as that.

Another element that helped us get addicted to the internet is the rise of WiFi networks. If you are on the go, you would have no problem finding internet access in your hotel, coffee house or even in the train.


To sum it up, it seems to me that MIDs are about to get popular. They are definitely a great solution for mainstream users (and even advanced ones). In fact, one MID that got really popular although it wasn't necesarily sold as such is the iPhone...

The iPhone fits the criteria of MID, and is in-fact a very well-done MID, keeping things smart and simple, and focusing on the real things mobile user need. It also have the mobile phone functionality, which gives you extra mobility in the rare cases where you can't find WiFi... (By the way, voice calls is not something it adds - since you can do those in MIDs with various VoIP programs, today it's sometimes complicated, but it will get easier as more and more people will be always connected).

So it's no surprise Apple sold over 1 million iPhones in one quarter, and I do believe that this is certainly an indicator not only to the mobile phone industry, but also to UMPCs and MIDs (The borders are getting a bit blurry, aren't they?...)

The December Trip

I am just finishing now a one week business trip to the US, and as I wait for my flight back home, I thought I'd share with you some of my thoughts.

Anyway, in this trip we met with several virtual worlds operators in the purpose of cooperating with them on GamearraY's new (and still undisclosed...) product. It was a very interesting trip. Aside from our "sales pitch", we got to hear some of the thoughts of decision makers in this very young and vibrant industry.

It's refreshing to see an industry in its early days, where everyone still listens and not "stuck" in certain paradigms. Everyone knows that it is very early to know where exactly virtual worlds are going, and maybe even more important what would be the leading business models and the persistent ways to monetize on worlds.

As for mobile, we heard again that this is certainly the next thing for the industry. Unlike social networking sites that do have pretty good mobile services (usually WAP sites, but good ones), virtual worlds remain currently without any mobile access, and this is something all world owners want, even if that's not the first priority (Got to stabilize the world and bring PC users first...).

It appears that 2008 is going to be the year when virtual worlds will go mobile (this was also written in a recent industry forecast), so it's going to be interesting to see the various approaches out there.

There's a lot more, but I have to catch my flight. One last thing: I would like to wish Happy holidays to all of NextGenMoCo's readers! See you again in 2008!

Still here...

I haven't blogged for a while for no special reason, just a lot of interesting things are going on here in GamearraY... Once we get out of our current stealth mode for our new product I will of course update here.

Anyway, since Google's android was released (see my previous post), nothing exciting happened in the industry (as far as I know), and I guess since Christmas is approaching it's going to stay slow for the next month or so. However, 3GSM 2008 is around the corner, opening in February 11th, so this is about to change....

As for this blog, I am thinking about making it more than just a blog, so I would like to hear from you the readers what would you like to see in terms of content that is relevant for the mobile content and new media spaces. If you have any ideas or suggestion drop me an email or comment here in this post.

Google's Android

After a lot of speculations, some of the mysteries around the so called Google Phone or gPhone have been solved.... Google announced last Friday its Android software platform for mobile phones. The technology behind Android was invented by a company by that name which was acquired by Google 2 years ago.

Basically it's an OS for handsets, that is supposed to make things easier for application developers, be portable etc. Of course the proof remains in the unreleased pudding... But soon enough developers and analysts will be able to get their hands in the technology, as an early look SDK is said to be released on November 12.

By the way, the Android initiative has another name you might know and that's the Open Handset Alliance, and as the name suggests it's not just Google that is in it, but also several mobile operators (T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Sprint), handset manufacturers (LG, Samsung, Motorola), platform vendors (Qualcomm, Esmertec) and other mobile companies (You can find the full list here).

So Google is trying to make an industry play here and so far so good. What remains to be seen if it will be truly open or Google oriented.... In any case the word on the blogosphere is that Google services would probably be easily accessible...

P.S. - Check out Luca Passani's new comment in my Porting 101 post regarding a new mailing list for J2ME developers. Luca is the driving force behind WURFL, and moderates that list, so if you want to tap in to his knowledge and influence WURFL for J2ME, you should join.

E for All expo - let the games begin...

The bottom line is that E for All expo (also known now as E4) has a great potential but it’s not there yet. Don’t get me wrong – it’s fun, loads of fun (like entering a huge arcade room…), but it still needs some work.

Here’s some history (Booth babes are down the page so don’t go away…): The legendary E3 expo which was the main gaming show for a long time and attracted tens of thousands of people from all around the world, was cancelled last year. The official reports indicated that publishers simply couldn't bear all the needed preparations which were unprofitable for them.

This led to the breakdown of E3 to two shows: E3 Media and Business Summit, a much smaller version of show, destined to the industry professionals, and E for All destined to consumers. E3 was held last July and to participate you had to have an invitation from one of the ESA members. There were only a few thousands attendees and reports are it wasn’t that good…

The main problem of E for All, which was held this October, is that exhibitors participation was thin, even too thin. Only one of the major console manufacturers exhibited (Nintendo; Microsoft and Sony weren’t there). On the publishers side, EA, the leading publisher did have a large exhibition area, and so did other leading publishers as THQ, Namco and more, but many important publishers such as Blizzard were missing.

Anyway, it still was a rather enjoyable show and again, in the tradition of the Nextys awards I started back in 3GSM 2007, Here are the winners of the show (BTW – They don’t actually win anything other than very limited fame and glory…):

Best Game: Guitar Hero III / Rock Band

THE game of the show was definitely Guitar Hero III, published by Activision. This game is so much fun, and was placed in many stations across the hall, that everybody took a try. I guess the brilliance of the game all boils down to its controller – the guitar. Timing games with notes/moves that reach to the bottom of the screen and then you have to press the right key, were here a long time ago. Guitar Hero took the same concept but made it way much cooler by adding an actual (fake) guitar that makes its player look and feel much cooler… The visuals on the screen and the audio also make things look more glamorous and that’s the trick…

And the best part is that it also makes sense business wise: piracy is much less attractive if the whole idea is not just the software but also the controller/hardware. You might as well just buy the whole set and not settle for nothing less.

Among the activities in the show, there was a stage in which Guitar Hero masters played like crazy and after they finished, went wild on the stage and got applauds from the crowd…

Hero’s twin brother Rock Band, which is published by EA and developed by Harmonix (Which was acquired by MTV about a year ago) is equally as cool, only this time you can play with a whole band, including guitarists, drummer and even a lead singer… My ears still hurt as I remember the peculiar sounds that went out from the amateur singers’ throats… But then again, it’s all for fun… Nobody expects you to be an American Idol (Or even an American…)

Best Booth Babes: Entropia

One of the long time traditions of E3 were the amazing half-dressed (or half-naked depending on your point of view) booth babes (There's actually a site dedicated to E3 booth babes called e3girls). In recent years it was so wild that E3 management had to constitute a “booth babe police” to ensure nobody is crossing the line… Anyway, it seems that this tradition is one of the other things that got lost in the way… I wouldn’t call most of the presenters booth babes, although they were cute. One company did keep the tradition and that’s Entropia with their lovely booth babes. Oh, and they also have a rather neat MMORPG called Entropia Universe that you may want to check out....

Best “out there” phenomenon: Fatal1ty

Do you know Lance Armstrong, the cycling legend? How about Michael Schumacher, the formula 1 all times champion? Well, meet another champion: Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel… (And no the 1 instead of an 'i' is not a typo, that's gamers lingo). Fatal1ty is a professional gamer, and like Armstrong/Schumacher he also has a lot of branded merchandise, not so much sports gear, but gaming gear, especially hardware… This guy also tours around the world to participate in gaming competitions… In the show he demonstrated his skills by playing Quake 4 head-to-head with some poor attendees which were eliminated about 20 times in 3 minutes… He’s good... (But C’mon, branded merchandise?... This is way too weird for gaming...)

Greatest blast from the past: Nintendo’s gun

After the success if the Wii controller, Nintendo is trying to innovate further that field, and while doing that they actually brought back a piece of history that reminds me of the good old days: The gun. It was very popular in consoles in the 80s, and is now making a swift comeback. Some people (like myself) wonder why it was gone in the first place… Anyway here in the picture you can see people wearing the best fashion from the time the first Nintendo console came out, using their long gone controller…

Most Anticipated Game: Metal Gear Solid 4

From the line at Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4 booth (which looked like a detention facility…) it was clear which game is most anticipated by the real gamers. MGS4 is a game that gamers dream about in their sleep… The trailers that came out recently caused some of them to temporarily lose their sanity… and in today’s gaming arena it is really difficult to do so…

Best show in town: Video Games Live

On the evening of the second day of the show, the “Video Games Live” concert performed in LA’s theatre hall (as a separate event). For those of you who don’t know it’s basically a concert (with an orchestra, choir etc.), but the masterpieces were not written by Mozart or Beethoven, but rather they are soundtracks from games… Martin Leung, also known as the "Video Game Pianist" from the show demonstrated his abilities inside E4, and it was simply amazing. This guy can move his fingers so fast you can barely track them…

Most popular trend: Immersive technologies

One of the things that could be noticed at the show is the number of immersive technologies which expressed mainly in gear for gamers (in other words hardware). I guess that after perfecting video and audio, there's a lot of promise in the next gamers accessory. Among the interesting gadgets were:

Novint's "Falcon" 3D Joystick

Novint’s Falcon 3D joystick is truly an immersive experience. It allows you to “feel” the textures of objects, block you from advancing if you’re against a wall, provide force feedback if something happens, and even simulate situations like holding a ball on a string (the way the weight of the ball pulls the hand etc.). Currently it is priced at $239.

TN Games' vibrating vest

This vest from TN Games has 8 vibrating pockets, 4 in the front and 4 in the back. It can simulate gunshots, and can be important to gamers as it immediately lets you know where you’ve been hit. It’s a nice experience and really gets you in the game, but I guess it can also be annoying after a while… Anyway I really enjoyed it, and you can get one for $169 (which is rather low compared to the next two products...)

Euro Touch Interactive's Z-dome

Ever wanted a personal iMax theater? Here’s your chance… The Z-dome which is a 3D sphere (which uses back projection) gives the illusion of 3D by surrounding its viewer. You just stand in the middle and enjoy… The picture doesn’t really capture the effect it has, but still I took one.. Oh, and the price is just $19K, so you might as well get two just for the fun of it...

HP Voodoo's D-Box chair

Now this is how a racing game should be played! Forget about keyboards or joysticks or even those small steering wheels that plug in to consoles… Voodoo, HP's high performance gaming brand now offers us this $15K chair with pneumatic pumps for tilts/vibration, real pedals and speakers in the back, and it seems to be the real thing! I took 3 laps normally which was very enjoyable and had the feeling as close to a car as I have ever seen in simulators, and then on the fourth I mostly tried to crash into things… and it was just awesome! (Forgive me for articulating myself as if I was a Ninja Turtle, but I guess all this gaming frenzy has this effect...

That about sums it up. I just hope next year's E4 will live up to become the old-new E3. Guess I'm gonna have to check it out personally again...

Mobile 2.0 Conference - We're getting there...

I have attended the Mobile 2.0 conference in San Francisco in Oct. 15. It was great to see so many people from the mobile space in one place. In fact, the event was like a Mobile Monday gathering on steroids...

The conference started with a great keynote by Tomi Ahonen, author of several books in the area and also a fellow blogger. One of the main points Tomi made was that mobile is as different from the Internet as TV is different from the radio - so solution providers shouldn't just copy apps from the Internet and "squeeze" them (couldn't agree more..)

Another issue in Tomi's keynote that relates to my previous post on Virtual Worlds, was the rise of these worlds. One world he mentioned in particular was Cyworld, the Korean virtual world. 43% of the Internet users in South Korea have an account there (!). This compares to 21% of the USA Internet users on MySpace and 17% of the UK Internet users. Cyworld also features 30,000 business that opened a virtual presence, as well as over 500,000 branded items. And as for mobile it already has a mobile service in Korea, and soon will have that in the US as well (Ahead of most of the virtual worlds).

The keynote was followed by some very interesting panels (great panelists). I won't go to details about each and everyone, but here are a few observations about things I saw and heard across the panels, and in the networking breaks:

Mobile social networking / content sharing is big. Nearly everyone I spoke with is doing something in that space. It's not very surprising due to the success of that segment on the web, but it seems that adapting that to mobile is not so easy, and the barriers are not just the form factor and all the usual technical issues, but also the high data rates which came up several times. When these are made more reasonable we should see the market evolving much more rapidly.

In any case, I guess Google's acquisition of Jaiku, a mobile twitter, will just make this space more crowded, so for those of you who want to be there - hop along now before it's too late...

Another hot area is mobile advertising, companies such as Smaato, Amobee, Greystripe and others are trying to start a revolution we are all waiting for... Advertising as a business model is probably a good fit for the mobile world. The prices for content are way too high, and the players in the mobile content field are struggling on a daily basis, since the download rates of content are flatlining in recent years.

Other issues that keep coming up are the keypad as a barrier, and what is its future - whether a touch screen like the iPhone, voice activation solutions (For example one such solution was integrated in tellme which was acquired by Microsoft recently) or other creative solutions.

Also, not surprisingly, the handset fragmentation issue came up... Devices are still very different from each other making life difficult for application developers, but at least one of the positive changes is that device information which was once difficult to obtain is available through multiple suppliers, some are even open sources (My favorites are WURFL and TastePhone, which is Java specific, but based on real values sent from phones).

The need for open standards also came up and is definitely another key driver to the industry, panelists kept reminding us that in fact we are in the early days of the industry, and despite all problems, we're advancing pretty well compared to what happened back in the days of the internet, PC and so on... So once standards kick in, we'll have much more viable and effective opportunities in our (currently) humble mobile space...

On the traditional launchpad several start-ups presented their "goods". Among those were Heysan (free mobile IM), Taptu (mobile search engine), Mippin (content optimization), Kyle.tv (video blogging) and more.

All in all, it was a great event with a great turnout, so thanks to the guys from Mobile Monday and the Open Group for making it happen. See you there next year...

Virtual Worlds 2007 - The birth of an Industry

Finally I am getting around to blog about all the great events I have attended in my recent business trip to the west coast. And first in line is Virtual Worlds 2007 conference which took place in Oct. 10-11 in San Jose.

In general, it can be definitely said that all the major players in the industry were there. CEOs and other senior executives of the major virtual worlds, content players, technology players and more. And most of them participated in the panels that as a result were very interesting.

Now, let's go ahead and walk through the interesting things I heard and saw:

TV and Virtual Worlds: CSI and The Office

The conference started with a keynote by Anthony Zuiker, the creator of CSI. What he announced is that CBS's CSI:NY is going to have an episode about Second Life (which was aired yesterday)... In addition I learned that NBC's The Office is going to have today an episode on Second Life as well... When two major networks have shows on that topic - it seems that the virtual worlds trend is getting to the eye of the public... BTW - CSI not only has an episode about SL, but also have a whole array of in-world activities that viewers can play with. This is a nice try to make a crossover between TV and a virtual world, so it would be interesting to see what was the users uptake.

Avatar Island by CyberExtruder and Cranial Tap

Isn't that the coolest thing? CyberExtruder, a 3D solutions company has a technology that allows transforming a 2D image into a 3D character. The system can recognize the face parts and based on that extrapolate on how the person looks like in 3D. Together with Cranial Tap they built Avatar Island (SLUrl), that makes use of this technology in Second Life by allowing users to upload a picture and get a face skin for their avatars.... Then you could roam inside the Metaverse wearing your real life face... In the picture you can see yours truly transforming from a real life person to a bold avatar... and there's a video too...

Motion Analysis Studios / Icarus Studios

This is an immersive technology by Motion Analysis Studios, Basically they have an optical-based motion capture system that allows them to translate the movements of a real person in real time to Second Life (And other apps as well of course). In this picture you can see the demonstrator on the right, and the Second Life avatar is doing what she does on the screen to the left. This was all a part of the Icarus Studios booth.


HiPiHi

HiPiHi, the "Chinese Second Life" as some call it was certainly one of the talks of the day. Everybody wants to know what the recently launched HiPiHi is planning. From the demos given at the conference it looks pretty much like Second Life, but in Mandarin Chinese... Also the look of the default avatar is somewhat different... Anyway it's one of very few worlds in which you can actually build freely and upload objects, and not limited to just simple customizations. Also, they have now an English translation of the interface (downloadable from the link above).

Planet 9 Studios

"Building Virtual Earth.. polygon by polygon" - this is Planet 9 Studios slogan, and indeed that's exactly what they do... They have a database of 3D cities data (of about 40 cities) which they update annually and can be licensed and used with several viewers (including Google Earth). This database can be used for Augmented Reality applications such as adding layers of data over the real buildings etc.

3Di - Movable Life

Movable Life from 3Di is a web-based thin client that allows users to connect to Second Life without launching the regular client, the idea being that you can chat and IM with other avatars, see 2D maps and more, but not see the fully rendered 3D world. This can be useful both when you can't launch the real client for some reason (Playing at work again?...) or if you don't want to launch it since you just want to chat with your friends and you are tired of the client crashing every 5 minutes... Of course I should also mentioned AjaxLife that works on the same principle and was online even before and also SLeek which is another thin Second Life client in the form of a windows application.

inDuality by Pelican Crossing & IBM

And another client solution is the still unreleased inDuality from Pelican Crossing, which was shown at the IBM booth. Unlike MovableLife, this is an in-browser full featured client for Second Life (and other virtual worlds). As far as I understand it downloads in the background a plug-in for each virtual world you want to connect to, which I guess weighs as the regular client (since it is fully functional), so while it's better in some ways than thin clients, the edge of doing things fast and from "dumber" devices is lost. Anyway, it's good to have variety...

Miuchiz by MGE Entertainment and Active Worlds

Miuchiz is basically a handheld virtual world... It is based on the Active Worlds technology and the MGE Entertainment brands and targets mostly kids. The device comes in several "flavours": Bratz (for girls), Monsterz (for boys) and Pawz (for both genders). The kids can play on the device and then synchronize their actions to the main grid using the USB connector that is built-in the device. Neat...

Active Worlds Facebook Application

Social Networks and Virtual Worlds are supposedly coming all together with this Active Worlds Facebook application. Once installed in your Facebook profile, you can enter the world from your profile page. However, the real value here is not very clear, since there is no real integration with Facebook. You might as well open the regular Active World app, and when you want switch application to your browser.


MoiPal by Ironstar Helsinki

MoiPal from Ironstar Helsinki is a mobile virtual world. It is still very small in terms of users, but it would be very interesting to see how this world evolves. This is one of very few mobile virtual worlds currently available, and it looks quite good and well adapted to the mobile form factor. The founder of the company is well aware that people will only use mobile in their idle time - and that's a good starting point. The question is whether users will engage in virtual worlds from their handset which they currently use in their idle time mostly for casual gaming.

Mobile and Virtual Worlds

On the mobile side, I asked virtual worlds operators' executives and it appears that everybody has mobile in mind. They all know that allowing mobile access to their worlds is one of the next steps, but as one of them told me not necessarily one of their top-5 priorities... There are others however that feel more strongly about it and are currently developing a mobile solution in-house, but are not willing to say much more about how or what it is going to be... In that aspect, virtual worlds are somewhat behind social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook that have a decent mobile interface. But I guess the challenge with a virtual world is bigger. The only world that I see as having a solid mobile solution in the short-term is Habbo Hotel. I spoke with Sulake's CEO, Timo Soininen, and he told me that as a result of Mini Friday's success, they are going to launch a mobile version that is both connected to the main grid and also supports a multitude of phones (Currently Mini Friday supports mostly Series 60 phones).

Interesting Statistics

According to Parks Associates 6% of all Internet users use some virtual world at least once a week, while 18% visited at least one at some point in a virtual world. These numbers are rising of course, but they still are quite low compared to the usage of social networking sites: For example in ages 18-24, 10% use virtual worlds, while 71% use social networking sites (!)... That's not very surprising since virtual worlds are new in town, but still this shows how much more it can grow (or not...).

Growth

As for the expected growth of users in virtual worlds, KZero forecasts that Second Life and the kids world Club Penguin will multiply their user base, There will grow from 1M users to 7M (!), Whyville from 3M to 10M, the relatively new player Kaneva from 0.6M to 3M and the upcoming Chinese HiPiHi from 0 to 10M.



Well, That's all for now, soon to come are the reviews of the Mobile 2.0 Conference and the E for All expo. Stay Tuned!

Virtual Worlds 2007, Mobile 2.0 Event and E for All reviews coming soon...

I haven't posted for a while since I have a very busy schedule. I am currently in San Francisco heading today to Los Angeles after I have been in the Virutal Worlds 2007 conference and the Mobile 2.0 conference both here in the Bay Area.

There's a lot happening in both spaces, and I am preparing a thorough post on each of those. In addition I am attending the E for All expo (formerly E3) tomorrow, and naturally I am going to write about that as well.

Probably will get around to writing next week when I am back in Israel. In the meantime, watch out for the upcoming CSI:NY and The Office episodes: Both will be about Second Life, so the are bound to be interesting/entertaining...

The CSI episode was announced by CSI creator Anthony Zuiker in the Virtual Worlds conference (See Reuters), and I heard about The Office episode in one of my meetings here, with the creators of the Second Life content featured there (See Virtual World News for more on that).

The episodes are going to be aired Oct. 24 (CSI) and Oct. 25 (The Office), so be prepared for the Second Life grid to get overloaded...


BTW - No picture this time since Blogger has some sort of a bug...