Flash Apps on Android vs iPhone OS x vs Maemo

There is a big Mobile OS battle running out their. With every mobile phone manufacturers and software providers doing all they can to bring the fastest, sexiest and coolest mobile device out for the consumers. A lot has to do with applications or apps. built around these OS platforms which makes the platform look cool and involves more people and gets them excited.

Google Android Phone - Adobe on 7th January updated about the Flash 10.1 BETA support on google android phone.
Watch Video here

It's a significant advancement that the open handset alliance can rejoice this year and pass on the benefits to the consumers and break Apple's App Store monopoly.

iPhone OSx - Presently, any application built in flash can not directly run on iPhone. And off-course the Jesus Phone has millions of fan following. However, iPhone doesn't allow and doesn't intend to allow to run any flash app to work on iPhone directly, you need to develop it with the MAC SDK provided by Apple. This meant that the app has to be available through the Apple's store and Apple gets 30% of the revenue share in each app download. Sifting through pages on adobe's site, when you land upon adobe flash's support for iPhone, you will be surprised to see that * which says: Delivery through the App Store requires participation in the iPhone Developer Program and approval of the application by Apple. meaning 30% revenue share remains.

However, with Google and HTC and other partners of the open handset alliance coming together and launching the google android based phones and adobe extending their support to them, developers can now easily build content or port existing apps to the mobile devices. Which in a way can hurt Apple's App store downloads. Eg: If I am presently hosting my app at any website then I can just promote that link through Admob and other mobile ad service providers like that and get people to download apps directly without bringing Apple in the middle. 2010 will be a significant growth year for apps on open source and growth of google android and hardware devices based on it.

Nokia Maemo - Interestingly the OPEN source Vs BOX race has more contenders, the big-weight in race, yes the world's biggest manufacturer of mobile phones, nokia, is pushing it's agenda with it's ovi app store and Maemo OS, their linux based open source launch is a solid step towards it. They have been supporting flash from long ago, however, their smart phones just didn't pickup. With Nokia N900 device running on Maemo 5, they wish to change this. Their recent announcement of BETA launch of Qt port for Maemo 5 on 19th Jan which will enhance developers to develop cross-platform applications and GUI.

Hoping for a more OPEN environment in future.

Mobile Marketing: India Crosses US in telephony subscribers

According to latest release by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory authority of India), the total wireless subscribers base stood at 261.09 million at the end of March 2008, compared to 255 million subscribers in U.S. A total of 10.16 million wireless subscribers have been added in the month of March2008 as against 8.53 million wireless subscribers added in the month of February 2008.
Another landmark that march saw was reaching a total telephone connections to 300 million (wireline+wireless). The overall tele-density is pegged at 26.22% at the end of March 2008 as against 25.31% in February 2008.

Total of 96 million subscribers were added since March last year.

Comparatively, broadband connections have performed dismally with addition of only 1.56 million broadband subscribers since March 2007. The total broadband subscriber base stands at 3.90 million, far from 10 million subscribers that government had predicted by end of 2008.

Some time back I blogged about Why Mobile marketing will work in India. Here are more reasons now why Mobile Marketing will work in India. However, the sad part is the slow broadband growth. I think prices and lack of education are primary reasons for the same. Do share your opinion regarding the same.

Will Google Go Mobile? What if, it does…

Will Google Go Mobile? What if, it does…then in future you can talk to anyone on Gtalk running on a Google Phone running on a Google Android having a Google Prepaid or Postpaid connection and browsing Google.com to search for any product on Google’s retail website and buy it through Google Checkout.

Amidst the speculations from the media on whether Google will go the Mobile route or not, this is what you can expect if Google Actually goes mobile.

If google gets the Bandwidth, they will pose a big threat to the Telecom Companies, because Google already have the software ready for the hardware and there have been successful trials and prototyping done.

So if tomorrow Google gets the spectrum it won’t be surprising that they run a parallel program to the open handset alliance and come up with their own revolutionary device the much rumored Google Phone.

So what does it mean for the other Telecom providers? More competition, shifting customer loyalties above all focus on better services and best prices for customers.

If it does happen, the question would be: “Can Google fight the giants in terms of services?” and will a product company completely translate itself into a services company?

Now Just Swipe Your Mobile - atom "the" new way to pay

Future is mobile and Atom has just made it easier.

Mumbai, India, based technology company Atom technologies has come up with a new Mobile Payment option which is just similar to paying by your credit card, however, it doesn't involve a plastic card. So next time instead of swiping a credit card you might just hear "swipe your mobile". With atom "the" new way of payment, you are set to see the rise in M-Commerce and electronic transactions getting boosted and its bound to bring more secured, convinient transactions to its customers.

So how does this work?

There are two ways how this thing works.

Method 1 - Optical reading -You get something called Atom Card, which with the help of software will store the Credit Card information in a 2D barcode format and can be read by a simple webcam. This is a convinient method and something very similar to swiping your credit card. This would work more in cases of retail outlets, where there is an optical reader and you can show your mobile to the reader and authorize a payment. However, there is another method where you dont even need to show your mobile.

Method 2 - Wireless Transfer - In this you would need a JAVA MIDP 2.0 based mobile phone. You need a GPRS connection and a small software which will run on your mobile. So the next time you are in a shopping mall buying a favourite suit or dining in your favourite restaurant with your family you would have to just provide your mobile number and you would recieve a sales payment request on your mobile which you can authorize from any of your bank account which is confiured on your mobile and enter your PIN and authorize the payment.

How Secure is it?

Usage of PIN number makes the entire process secure, in case of loss of mobile phone, no body can use your mobile to make any purchases as its PIN protected.
Though, one question which any average user would ask is how secure is this transaction going to be. In case, someone infects the fone via some trojan/virus which captures the PIN number and sends it to someone else, you are exposed to the world. So the step of introducing mobile payments etc. should also be coupled with Mobile Phone security options. Also, I would reccommend ATOM to tie up with Mobile Antivirus providers or may be come up with some protection suite themselves to secure the mobile phones.

In 3 simple steps the process is going to be like this:

1. Merchant sends payment request
   o So lets say I am enjoying my dinner at Punjabi By Nature, restaurant, after finishing my lavish dinner, I ask for the bill and the attendant brings a paper to me and I write my mobile number on it. Then the person managing this enters his customer ID and amount and enters ATOM PIN and sends this payment request to me.
2. Customer confirms the payment
   o While I am sitting and talking to my friends and I get a message on my mobile to authorize a payment request. I choose which bank or credit / debit account I want to pay from and then I enter my PIN number and make the payment. Yes, that’s it, it’s Done.
3. Payment receipts
   o Now both the merchant and the customer get a confirmation message saying that payment is authorized and transaction is complete.

Interesting applications of this technology in various industry sectors...I will be discussing these in details in my next post.

Everyday, when I see Google Alerts on what's new in Mobile Technology, I see my belief in Mobile technology and advancement getting much stronger, day after day. And with this tiny little thing that people hold in there hands everyday and take along with them almost everywhere they go (oh I heard people take their mobiles even to rest rooms) you can pretty much think of marketing them even in those moments.

Even though the Telecom Operators like Bharti, RCom, Vodafone would be interested in providing such mobile commerce solutions, however, RBI hasn't yet approved the same. So you might see certain delay in this to become reality for you.

I Just iMobiled it! - ICICI Mobile Banking

Wife: “Sachinnnnnnnn, did you transfer the money to your parents’ account that I asked you to do? And the bill payment?”
Sachin: “Yes I did”
Wife: “Don’t lie to me, you didn’t even move an inch from your place for past one hour. And stop watching this stupid TV.”
Sachin: “I am not lying I just iMobiled”
Wife: “iMobiled? What’s that? Some new trick of yours?”
Sachin: “Oh common, you don’t know about the new iMobile service from ICICI Bank? ICICI bank has launched its amazing Mobile Banking Services, iMobile. Through this you can do transactions through your mobile. I can do a Balance Enquiry, I can do Cheque Book Request, View my Credit Card, Demat, Loan Account Transaction details, I can even pay bills, recharge my mobile phone and all this just sitting in my place without moving an inch, while watching India Business hour on CNBC TV18.”

Thanks to ICICI iMobile, I just iMobiled and it has made my life easy!

You might see some similar TV commercial running on air soon promoting ICICI bank’s mobile banking service iMobile. Here is the link to FAQs. With launch of this mobile banking service ICICI has become India’s first bank to launch Mobile Banking. However, this is not the 1st time in world when someone has launched mobile banking. Previously, in 1996 and 2000, Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC and some others have already burnt their fingers. The previous launches of similar services were unsuccessful because of the bad mobile phone handsets and the poor networks available.

However, now the networks are much better as well as the handsets have better capabilities, which makes the outlook more positive. I am a strong supporter of Online and Mobile methods of reaching out to customers. And I strongly support the move of Mobile Banking. I would say 2008 -2010 is the right time to get into the Mobile Marketing and service arena and take the early mover’s advantage. Establish your brand name and brand recall and star building your company’s association with the mobile services. Oh by the way did I say Mobile Marketing will work in India?

With mobile payment options now available, I guess it’s just got a little more easier to promote M-Commerce as well as promoting ads on mobiles as the purchase media vehicle is ready to carry the money. I see by 2010 onwards the company revenues will shoot up with revenues from Mobile purchases coming through higher ad conversions. However, it would be necessary that the brands start attaching themselves with the most modern “Mobile” identity.

Looking for more action in 2008 in the Mobile Front!

Will Telephony Calls be free in India? - Atleast for someone!

Will telephony become Free in India? Will telephony just become Internet telephony? Will 4G networks and IPV6 track the entire world with 300 Billion IP adresses? Will VOIP calls be much better than analogue calls? Will your thumb recognition become your worldwide biometric identity? Read to know more...

If we were to go by the growing clout of telecom operators in India and the fierce fight among them for Bandwidth, it's a rare chance that the telephony would become free. However, based on my previous post on how the TSPs might just turn into ISPs, this might just become true. Even the government of India through their BSNL and MTNL services is planning to launch 2MBPs free broadband internet connection by 2009.

At-least for Youth it might be...
There have been not so old instances of free service providers like Tiger etc which failed to attempt such a concept. Though, I guess it was too early for Indian markets. However, looking at how wireless telephony has expanded in India and why mobile marketing should work in India. I do see a large Youth market out there (Youth Ages 10-24, by 2025 is estimated at 349,200,000 by Population reference bureau) who would not mind listening to a 5 sec ad after every 15 minutes that they spent on phone; if there phone calls were free of charge. (Or probably the premium telephony for business users where they don’t get ads, but they pay higher rental charges.) Also they are given an option of a unique single online mobile wallet for multiple purchases in which they need to buy a monthly recharge wallet card varying anywhere between Rs 99 - Rs 1000.

So, what I am essentially saying is, having an online mobile wallet which gets recharged by a payment of Rs. X/month, like from a recharge coupon which can be bought from a local shop. (Even this will get eliminated when we will have 4G network and IPV6 so that every device will have an IP address and just a Biometric thumb recognition would be your worldwide identity.) Now, they get to talk free and have to listen to some Voice / Video Ads and probably text messages. What they just need to do is probably use the mobile wallet to buy the services being offered to them through promotions on their mobile.

Why should I buy from my Mobile Wallet?
Well anyways, wouldn’t you be buying your monthly required items like a deo or a Movie DVD (after watching the trailers on mobile) or may be a grocery or something similar? And if you get to buy the same through a Mobile phone through a special promotion being run and it gets delivered to your doorstep…obviously an hassle free shopping experience (oh did I say that Oil prices are always rising and travelling has become a challenge, specially if you have stayed in places like bangalore, mumbai, dubai etc). You can browse through the online store on your mobile and choose and pay directly through your mobile wallet safely by your biometric signature check on your mobile phone.

What’s in it for the Supplier?
Cheapest media to connect and advertise directly in the hands of the consumer. No large real estate investment, no large set-up required, no middle men’s commission, just pure B2C delivery of products.

How can you implement this?
Initially promotion of the Mobile Commerce or M-Commerce can be supported through certain specific low cost campaign launches from advertisers like contests, freebies etc. and over a period of 2 years when we see M-Commerce becoming popular, the TSPs (or WiISPs), would start charging the advertisers for the AD time which will again be contextual content ads targeted according to the buying or other behavior of the audience.

Is this model sustainable?
This is the question which we have to answer and will get answered only by looking at the response to the mobile advertising’s success in India. Would Indians accept the technology and would prefer to buy on Mobile or would still want to visit the store to buy? Would the telephone calls be completely free or the companies like Skype or Google charge the consumers to call? Would internet broadband become a reality on mobile phones or would it still be marred by the technology?

I see the light of positive hope and this approach of Mobile driven sales and marketing catching up in next 2 years time.

Will Telecom Network Operators finally become Internet Service Providers only?

Will Telecom Network Operators finally become Internet Service Providers only? Future of Telecom service providers? Would ISP and TSPs become one? A walk back from Future...

2015. AT&T today announced their Internet Services expansion to India. “We see India is the largest Mobile Communication devices’ consumer population worldwide followed by China and our high speed, reliable mobile Internet Services would help the regular Indian consumer to enjoy most advanced telephony and Value Added Services on their ARM Mobile 1.28 GHz processor driven, Google Android / Microsoft / Symbian based, mobile communicators.” said their SVP Worldwide Marketing and Product strategy at the launch function in New Delhi.

2010. Discussing the future of Telecom business at the Worldwide Telecom Forum, the heads of Top 10 worldwide telecom network operators conclusively shared a vision, with open mobile platforms like Google Android or Yahoo Open Mobile, telecom operations have virtually came to a halt with ever decreasing revenues from Mobile Phone networks consecutively for past 2 years while VAS and mobile ads revenues are increasing. There was a consensus that the TSPs would now concentrate on their newly launched Open Mobile VAS services along with the high speed 1GBPs wireless networks. Profitability will be driven by the Ads and VAS services and the telephony will be free of charge for the consumers. This will be on a revenue sharing model with the VAS operators.

If the above claims look strange, you may want to think about what’s conspiring in the world, on the mobile scenario, again!

With Apple’s iPhone, the mobile industry has seen a completely different face of information and communication. And with Google Android’s open mobile platform, you can imagine running a mobile software, which will be capable of Voice and Data communication processing in an ARM processor, and then transmission and reception over XG (3G, 4G, 5G…) internet services. Which means, the thing in your hand, is a PC which can run something like Google Talk or Skype and you can communicate (call someone, share a song, a video or probably send a vibe(vibrator ring)), with someone who has Google Talk or Skype running on a similar mobile communication device. And with IPV6 standards this mobile phone or communication wireless device will be having an IP address too. (You can track it for contextual or behavioral marketing – Did I say Push marketing was dead?)

So what is left for the TSPs? Probably a carrier…for Internet and not for telephony. And off course 2 important things Contextual Content, Contextual Ads (in various formats like Video, Text, Audio, probably Vibration or Touch Colors etc.).

Why companies like NTT DoCoMo, Digiweb, Reliance, Vodafone, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Tata, BT, Etisalat, Du and similar ones should now focus on a long term growth strategy of acquisition of VAS providers, content management systems and mobile application development on open devices seems obvious. Companies which can help provide Mobile Advertising solutions, Mobile Content delivery or High speed mobile internet are the real companies to look for in future. Companies which can challenge Google in creating a mobile Google checkout to purchase online and start building an online purchase history and complete behavior of browsing and purchase will become very lucrative and growth businesses.

I might be knaive and may not understand the internal dynamics, though, I do see such trends which will bring Telecom network providers to become ISPs and VAS providers and contextual content delivery in various media on a mobile communication device over Internet 4G networks would rule.

*This entry is based on my imagination and analysis and is more of an observant speculation.

Why Mobile Marketing will work in India? – Top Reasons (Statistics and Figures)

Why Mobile Marketing will work in India? – Top Reasons (Statistics and Figures) to notice. India is quick to join the Mobile bandwagon. Some statistics and figures that talk for themselves. A very clear indication on how India is adopting the wireless communication channel. And they say in marketing, FISH where the FISH is (FISH is in the Hands, show the worms on Mobiles). In the recent report from TRAI released on Jan 1 2008, the following are key points to notice:

• Wireless market in India grows by 13% with addition of 24.15 million subscribers in quarter ending September 2007. Meaning – More mobile phone users across India.
• Internet subscribers increased to 9.63 million at the end of September 2007. Meaning -higher proliferation of Internet across India.
• Broadband subscriber base touched 2.67 million at the end of September 2007. People are looking for higher speeds. (More online content and ads)
• The subscriber base for wireless services has increased from 184.92 million in June 2007 to 209.07 million in September 2007, whereas subscriber base of Wireline service has decreased from 40.09 million in June 2007 to 39.58 million in September 2007. -- Clear indication of decreasing wire line usage and proliferation of mobile value added services. (Alarm bells for Mobile Ads Companies and VAS Service Providers and carriers)
  
  Wireless Growth in Rural India
  Rural Wireline subscriber base has decreased from 12.27 million in June 2007 to 11.99 million in September 2007, thus showing a negative growth of 2.28%. The rural wireless subscriber base has increased from 37.40 million for the quarter ending June 2007 to 43.98, registering a growth of 17.59%.
  
  Making sense out of - ARPU
  
• Though the average ARPU declined ~7% at Rs. 275 for the Q3 ending Sep 07, though the overall average ARPU revenue increased as there was an addition of more subscribers.
  
• As well as I see, that Q3 is always the low spending quarter because most of the Big Indian festivals happen in Q4 including the Diwali, Christmas, BhaiDooj and New Year’s spending.

It’s a great opportunity out there to be tapped by the content and service providers and I am very positive that the Mobile Marketing should work in India.

India's First Mobile Phone Ads provider - Future Predictions ALIVE

Indians are hurrying to lead the race in 2008. Grabing that extra share in mobile Marketing Pie, is showing some early signs of rapid footsteps.

An early breakthrough attempt, which needs to sustain itself for atleast couple of years before their balance sheets would post break-evens or profits. With ZestADZ (www.zestadz.com) a pioneer in mobile advertising space in India, announcing that hey will now sell ads on facebook mobile platform allowing facebook developers to integrate mobile ads with their facebook mobile apps.
ZestADZ will be the first mobile ad platform from India to offer such service for Indian mobile developers.

Using this service, facebook mobile developers can monetize their mobile applications by embedding ads from leading advertisers from India. Through this development mobile developers can now tap into the Indian mobile market which currently has more than 200 million users, many of them moving upward using mobile Internet. The facebook India network has hundreds of thousands of users from India and it is expected that just like Orkut, facebook’s popularity will soar in India especially on their mobile sites.

It is evident, both sections of people are extremely optimistic, “Mobile Social Marketing is extremely important space for us to be in and we’re getting started with facebook which is very popular in India”, said Asif Ali, CTO mobile-worx adding that “We hope that this launch enable both advertisers and publishers to capitalize of the phenomenal growth of mobile Internet in India”.

Terry Uppal, President, Mobile-worx said “Advertisers in India will now have the perfect media platform to reach a large target audience on facebook with relevant and contextual ads to generate increase their brand awareness and revenues”.

About ZestADZ
ZestADZ - India's leading mobile advertising marketplace. ZestADZ is a multi-format (WAP, SMS and mobile-video) advertising platform. ZestADZ inserts highly targeted and relevant ads and delivers compelling value to users, publishers and advertisers. ZestADZ embodies the core tenets of Seth Godin’s permission based marketing.
For more information on ZestADZ visit http://www.zestadz.com

About mobile-worx
mobile-worx is a leading provider of mobility solutions with offices in US, India and Malaysia. Mobile-worx has offices in Chennai, Mumbai (Bombay), Los Angeles and Kuala Lumpur.
For more information on mobile-worx, please visit http://www.mobile-worx.com Contact Details: Shereen Begum, mobile-worx, +91 (044) 4257 6183 Or Email