Mobile Innovation

IFA Berlin, which runs from September 1-6, 2006, at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds, will emphasize new consumer electronics — particularly high-definition TV — in response to an expected 'breakthrough' for the segment in Europe.

Nearly all full-range suppliers have announced their participation at IFA 2006. For the 2006 show, the organizers gfu and Messe Berlin estimate the total number of exhibitors to be on the same level as in 2005. Leading companies are also increasing the size of their display areas. At the same time, the decision to hold IFA annually has stimulated increasing interest by the telecommunications and IT sectors.

According to the organizers, the increasing number of trade visitors in 2005 compared to IFA 2003, which rose between 40 and 170 percent for the various countries represented, is proof of Europe’s willingness to participate at the show.

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DVB-H stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld. DVB-H is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to handheld receivers and was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2004. The DVB-H specification (EN 302 304) can be downloaded from the DVB-H Online website. The major competitor of this technology is DMB.

Technical Explanation

DVB-H Frame structureDVB-H is the latest development within the set of DVB transmission standards. DVB-H technology adapts the successful DVB-T system for digital terrestrial television to the specific requirements of handheld, battery-powered receivers. DVB-H can offer a downstream channel at high data rates which can be used standalone or as an enhancement of mobile telecoms networks which many typical handheld terminals are able to access anyway. Time slicing technology is employed to reduce power consumption for small handheld terminals. IP datagrams are transmitted as data bursts in small time slots. Each burst may contain up to 2 Mbits of data (including parity bits). There are 64 parity bits for each 191 data bits, protected by Reed-Solomon codes. The front end of the receiver switches on only for the time interval when the data burst of a selected service is on air. Within this short period of time a high data rate is received which can be stored in a buffer.

DVB-H Service Launches

In France, nationwide service launch is planned in 2007.

In Finland, the license to operate a DVB-H network was awarded to Digita in March 2006. In May 2006 they announced that they had signed a contract with Nokia to use its DVB-H platform for the service. The network will cover almost 30% of the country by the end of 2006, with the service launching in most of the major markets.

In Italy, 3 Italia launched nationwide services in May 2006, both TIM and Mediaset in June 2006, Vodafone is expected in September or October.

In Germany, nationwide service launch is planned in 2007.

In Spain, nationwide service launch is planned in 2007.

In the USA, a nationwide service will be rolled out by Modeo a company owned by Crown Castle Mobile Media. The service will begin in 2006 in New York City and will roll out to the top thirty markets in the USA during 2007. Modeo owns 5MHz of spectrum nationwide at 1600MHz. At the NAB trade show in April 2006, a second service launch was announced by SES Americom and Aloha Partners. Titled Hiwire Mobile Television, the service is set to begin trials in Las Vegas in Q4 2006. Hiwire owns two 6 MHz channels of spectrum at 700MHz covering most of the country.

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CBS is starting a trial in New York City, installing five interactive posters in Gran Central terminal, which will allow users to download video clisp on their mobile phones, using Bluetooth. These clips will be scenes from one of the CBS’ four new prime-time programs — “Shark,” “Smith,” “Jericho” and “The Class” — as well as its hit show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

A viewer can later delete the clip, or save it and pass it along. Some Bluetooth campaigns have already been launched in the U.S. Absolut Vodka streamed a song from rock star Lenny Kravitz through billboards in NYC and LA.

Channel 4 has also launched a similar campaign in UK earlier this year.

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While Google purposely pursues a much wider agenda that goes to the heart of mobile advertising, (in all the excitement many missed the news that Google has launched coupons linked to Google Maps - a move that dovetails well with location-based mobile advertising somewhere down the road), its efforts are scattered in comparison to those of rival Yahoo In fact, a closer examination of Yahoo’s recent raft of mobile services and search deals, shows Yahoo is not only more focussed than Google, but potentially much better positioned.

Unlike Google, Yahoo has soothed operator fears that branded search must result in brand dilution and a raw deal. Indeed, Yahoo has become expert at selling itself as the missing link in operator’s emerging fixed-mobile content access and search strategies. It is also an indispensable part of their search monetization schemes.

This was the message that came through loud and clear in a discussion I had with Mark Joseph, Head of Content at 3. The UK operator recently sealed a world-first global agreement to provide Yahoo services and search. The milestone move sees Yahoo taking the top-notch position as the default Internet search engine on 3 handsets and on Planet 3, the operator’s mobile portal. According to Joseph, the tie-up with Yahoo is core to 3’s strategy to “bring trusted Internet brands to our network in a way that enhances [users’] overall customer experience”. Search monetization is also high on 3’s agenda - especially since Yahoo will abide by 3’s business rules to also deliver a mix of on-portal content offers promoting 3’s own content partners and the wider Web in search results (which Yahoo will also transcode for delivery to mobile devices). Geraldine Wilson, Yahoo’s VP of Connected Life at Yahoo Europe, tells me the plan is to present “3 content followed by paid-for placements, sponsored links and then the Wider Web”.

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Just one year old and the mobile search market is already fighting off controversy and confusion.
Vodafone is replacing its white label search engine with a new Google paid search partnership. Rumours have it that the partnership is already in turmoil see (read).

If Vodafone is not reviewing its relationship it should be. Once again mobile operators are missing the plot with their wireless Internet strategies. Indeed, money needs to be made but pushing advertising via search is not the answer. Operators are trying to squeeze advertising revenues from the mobile Internet before the mobile Internet has peaked. Operators desperate for ROI are not giving the mobile Internet the time it needs to grow, produce and deliver.

Mobile operators need to push the search engine first and let technology ensure that consumers finally find what they are looking for. This will increase uptake. Once search engines deliver – then and only then – is it time to introduce paid advertising. Consumers at present are searching for services to find what “they” are looking for and NOT what advertisers “want” them to see.

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Google announced today that they’re extending their reach into the location-based marketing business, with the launch of a couponing product. Local businesses can offer coupons against their products and services via Google Maps and users simply print them and then then redeem them as usual.

But where’s the mobile element? Google Maps already offer the facility to send driving directions to your phone, so why not get the coupons sent there too? You could simply show the phone at the point of sale and that’s it.

Many of the problems associated with redemption of phone-based coupons aren’t applicable in this instance. If the target market is expected to be owner-run businesses, staff education about the redemption process ceases to become an issue - whereas for someone like Walmart to introduce mobile coupons, the physical redemption process becomes a huge hurdle to overcome. In any event, the option to make the coupon mobile could be given to the merchant on sign up, so they can decide if its something they can cope with.

In addition, malredemption of coupons isn’t an issue here, as all these coupons are all self-liquidating offers, so the more redeemed, the better. This must be the case, as by partnering with Google Maps in the first place, the merchant has made an unlimited number of coupons available, in theory.

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Today, consumers typically sign up for cellular service and select a phone made by a cell phone manufacturer. But soon, service providers may start offering their own brand of cell phone. Would consumers select these phones, or want to stay with the brands they know? The latest survey of cell phone users(1) by Harris Interactive shows that a slight majority (54%) of U.S. adult cell phone users say they have no preference for an existing brand or a new one offered by their service provider, while the rest differ in opinion between interest in a new brand (27%) and an existing brand (19%).

These are the results of an online survey of 1,870 U.S. adult cell phone users conducted by Harris Interactive between July 14 and 18, 2006.

About two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adult cell phone users agree that more competition among cell phone manufacturers will lead to product innovation and 40 percent believe it will ensure more choices in the marketplace. Other benefits of having cell phones and service from the same company could be increased compatibility between the handsets and the networks, according to about half (48%) of adult cell phone users, as well as overall lower plan costs (32%).

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Pocket Picks is a new mobile news blog from the UK. Created by the team behind the UK’s leading mobile games site Pocket Gamer, Pocket Picks is a brand new site designed to help you make the most of entertainment on your mobile.

Pocket Picks will feature news, hands-on tests, practical how-to guides, in-depth features, opinion pieces, interviews and competitions in every area of mobile entertainment.

Although it was launched today, there's plenty to explore already, including news of ITV's imminent mobile TV services, the latest on Nokia's plans to take on Apple with music downloads and Skype's entry into the mobile space, plus a guide to uploading your cameraphone snaps to the web, a hands-on trial of Gmail on the go and a handy introduction mobile citizen journalism.

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Despite investment by operators in services such as i-mode and Vodafone Live, 73 per cent of respondents to a new survey said don't access the net from their mobile. Slow-loading pages (38 per cent) and navigation difficulties (27 per cent) were among the reasons cited why people would rather hook up to the net using a PC rather than a phone. A quarter (25 per cent of sites were unavailable to those with mobile phones.

The survey of 1500 UK consumers, commissioned by hosting firm Hostway, also found that surfing habits varied depending on how people got online. People were content to browse using a PC than when accessing the net from a phone, where they often wanted to find a specific piece of information. Slightly more consumers would rather access maps (49 per cent) than read news and sport (47 per cent) from their phones.

"At the moment, most websites just aren't flexible enough to be accessed on mobile phones," said Neil Barton, a director of Hostway. "There's nothing wrong with having a flash website with all the bells and whistles you can muster, but you've got to be aware that mobile users simply aren't going to be able to access it. The research illustrates that even if people do wait for sites to load, quite often it's impossible to actually get at the content itself because of the way that sites are built."

The study suggested that users aren't inherently adverse about using the net on the move. Nine in ten said they'd use mobile internet services providing they could be sure that pages would load faster and they'd avoid high charges.

Basic services created the most interest. Survey respondents said that if they could access services quickly, simply and cheaply they would want to access their email on the move (71 per cent) with around half saying that they would also access news and sport (47 per cent) from their mobile.

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Scientists at The University of Manchester have a launched a new project which seeks to combine website accessibility with mobile phone technologies. The aim of the three-year project is to develop a host of new software with the potential to make the mobile web as simple to use as the internet.

Currently, websites generally have to be re-designed to work on mobile phones. This is due to the fact that many conventional websites can't be displayed on small screens. Consequently, both the content and the choice of websites available on the mobile web are limited.

The RIAM project will draw on the experiences of blind and visually impaired users and the technologies they use to surf the internet, such as screenreaders, in a bid to simplify the content of conventional websites so that they can be accessed via the mobile web.

A core part of the project will be the development of a validation engine which will screen websites to ensure they are accessible and mobile web compatible. The validation engine will work in tandem with a transcoding programme which will de-clutter web pages and reorder them into a web mobile friendly format. Once transcoded the aim is to let the user determine how the pages are displayed on their mobile phone.

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French outdoor advertising company JCDecaux has plans to launch a bluetooth/wi-fi advertising service. The main difference between this service and similar ones elsewhere is that consumers choose to receive the messages — they have to download and install a particular piece of software and then fill out a profile. “We are switching from a one-time active response to the user’s blanket acceptance of many digital messages,” said Albert Asseraf, director of strategy, research and marketing at JCDecaux.
It seems that the advertising industry is waking up to the whole idea that permission-based marketing doesn’t involve contacting someone every time you want to advertise to them. This quote from Jean-Paul Edwards, the London-based head of media futures for Manning Gottlieb OMD, a media buying agency: “A cautious and permission-based approach is vital when using technologies that touch consumers so directly…”When you bridge the gap between something so public as a street poster and something so private as a mobile phone, there are inherent dangers…It is extremely powerful to get into somebody’s pocket, but you also take the risk of annoying them.”

Interestingly, there are more than advertising plans in the works. An application called UbiBoards will “will show information in the language spoken by a majority of the people nearby”, based on the mobile phone details of people who have registered. Another application, called UbiQ, aims to “allow people in a location like a bank, cinema or fast- food restaurant to give information by cellphone about what they want before getting to the front of the line.”
All of these services require people to register, and it needs a critical mass to make the venture worthwhile. Obtaining that critical mass might be tricky, but there are some obvious ways to promote it…and that’s what advertising companies do, after all.

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