An interesting and pertinent artcile by Ofir Leitner

I have been hearing a lot lately from various people, especially those who are starting now new ventures, but also established companies about their tendency to develop their apps to the new kids in the platform block (iPhone and Android) while abandoning older and more established platforms, especially J2ME.

“” “”

The claim is that J2ME is too much of a hassle, first because of its porting problem, then because of the carrier related problems, and in the end the result on devices doesn’t look too good anyway due to the platform limitations.

I agree that J2ME hasn’t been very pleasant for developers in the past few years, and same goes for other platforms such as Brew, Symbian, Windows Mobile to some extent – each with its own problems (Flash Lite is somewhere in between it’s relatively new and promising but didn’t make as much noise as iPhone/Andorid). But things are changing and it would be a shame to drop these platforms just when they are maturing and go to new and shiny platforms that is still in its boot camp…

But let’s go back a bit, and ask first the very important question: Who is your target audience? This marketing 101 question will lead to the next question: What devices does your market audience use? (or in other words: What are your target devices?)

I believe asking this question, while ignoring technology aspects for a second, is very important since it makes the distinction between which devices your target audience uses to which devices you would have liked them to use…

Yes, there are new shiny platforms like the iPhone and delayed but soon to be launched Android, and yes, you can do great things with those. Things you wouldn’t have dreamed about doing in J2ME. But, your users are not necessarily using them. To be exact, whatever your target is, 0% use Android currently…. And as for the iPhone it is true that it has gained a very nice chunk of the smartphones market share in the US (27%), but its global marketshare when you take into account all phones (not just smartphones) is 0.14%…

Also actual handset market share data may surprise you sometimes. For example in the US you will find that the top phone is Motorola V3, which really doesn’t have a strong J2ME virtual machine, and my guess is that its Brew version strength is similar… Other phones in the top places are not that strong either. Note that I am not talking necessarily about currently selling phones, but about handsets that are currently in the hands of the American people, and until iPhone/Android will crawl up to the top of the table it will take time.

The reality is that sometimes your target audience uses low-end devices. Take gaming for example. I believe that the true promise of mobile gaming is bringing games not just to those with the newest smartphones, or niche gaming devices, but rather get them to everyone – to those “dormant” gamers, that would love to kill 5 minutes on their way to school/work/senior citizens house… And experience has shown that you do not necessarily need a game with killer graphics/FX – in fact the most simple games such as trivia games (who wants to be a millionaire, wheel of fortune) and puzzles such as Tetris have been the best selling games, you don’t have to take my word for it – check out Jamster’s top mobile games list.

So my bet is that J2ME will stay a solid platform for gaming and even the first choice as it is today, even if the new platforms offer more stuff.

On the other hand, if you are developing business applications that require anyway devices with good internet connectivity, big screens and maybe even full qwerty keyboard and/or touch support, naturally your first choices will be smartphones platforms like those who’ve been around (Symbian, Windows Mobile) and also the newer iPhone and Android.

In any case, don’t forget that all the childhood sicknesses that J2ME has been having in the past few years are still waiting to happen on iPhone/Android… It is true that iPhone is less problematic in the same way that Mac hardware and drivers was less problematic than what we used to call “IBM-compatibles” (now known as PCs…) – simply since in the PC world there were hundreds of hardware suppliers and in the Mac just one… However, Apple might also release several devices for different profiles – even now we already have 2 devices: iPhone and iPhone 3G. Now what about the rumored iPhone Nano (Some say it’s a hoax), or the other iPhone flavors that will be launched in the future? (iPhone Air?…)

One of things the mobile market has proved is that people like to differ themselves with cool new gadgets… The iPhone definitely hit that spot, but you can’t do it twice – people will be looking for the next cool thing, and I have no doubt Apple will know how to provide it, but once you issue different screen sizes and different capabilities, you break somewhat the promise of no porting problems (And don’t forget the iPhone look alikes coming soon from all the major handset vendors, each of those have the potential to become a hit, but they won’t have the same platforms at all..)

And the irony is that just now when people have given up on J2ME, it is finally getting stabilized… it is not there yet – but definitely going in the right direction. For example, many developers can tell you that porting to the new breed of devices is not that hard as it used to be. In fact MIDP 2.0/CLDC 1.1 devices actually sport reasonable if not good VMs that are less buggy and less quirky. This led to the one-JAR-fits-all approach, that could have never worked in the past, but surprisingly enough, it works now. It may not fit 100% of the devices, but it fits a very large proportion of the newer devices.

In addition, capabilities that in the past were non-existent in the Java world because of the sandbox approach are now available on most new devices: Starting with bluetooth, advanced networking (Not just HTTP), which were here for a long time now, going through addressbook and file system access, location based services, 3D graphics, vector graphics which are available on most new devices and till newer features like content handling (your java app can be registered as a handler for a content type, so you can write a video player that automatically launches when the user clicks on video file even outside of the java context).

And the best thing is that all those capabilities are better standartized than before. And also Sun is actually taking a proactive role both in the standartization and also in introducing new frameworks that makes things easier for developers such as their new UI toolkit, LWUIT.

To sum up – don’t get me wrong, I believe that iPhone and Android are both great and promising platforms that open new possibilities for mobile developers, and we can already see its effects on the platforms market. There’s nothing like a competitor “breathing on your neck” to get you finally going faster… But: Don’t focus all your energy there and pay attention to the platforms that are currently in the hands of your users, and that in spite of how things look like now, will probably stay there, at least enough to make you get used to them…

The small Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives has begun setting up a pioneering system which it hopes will make it one of the first countries whose citizens bank primarily using mobile phones.

All the country’s banks have been brought together under a single system to allow the islands’ residents to pay money in and out swiftly without the need to travel to the nearest branch – which could be many miles away.

“”

The Maldives received a US$7.7m loan from the World Bank in April, allowing it to begin establishing m-banking. It was seen as an ideal place to start up, with a relatively high GDP and lots of people with mobile phones.

“People are quite supportive, because the project is targeted at the rural islands, and especially the people who don’t have any banking,” Maldivian journalist Zahina Rashee told BBC World Service’s Culture Shock program.

“For example, in the 2004 tsunami, a lot of people lost all their life savings because they had them in a pillow or a tin can at home.”

Extending credit

Tom Standage, Business Editor of The Economist magazine, said that mobile banking has been a major success story in the developing world and is in fact ahead of the developed world.

He explained that in a typical developing country, for each extra 10% of people with mobile phones, an extra half a percentage point is put on GDP growth a year.

And he predicted that the next wave of economic development will be driven by “m-banking”.

“There’s are some very interesting things happening in Kenya, in South Africa, in the Philippines, with mobile banking – and this is taking it to the next level,” he said.

“What’s interesting about this system in the Maldives is that it’s an experiment, as far as I can see, that the World Bank is setting up as a way of extending credit to people.”

He added that it would be “very interesting” to see the impact of getting all banks together and applying a single system across the whole country.

“I think it’s a very promising area,” he added.

“Yes it does make money for the operating companies – essentially it costs the same amount as a text message to send money in or out – but even the poorest people who use this are prepared to do that, because there are benefits for them there.”

People are finally starting to notice the mobile web.. with its quirks, specific issues and hurdles and mostly its vast potential. Also driven by a mostly European impetuous developers are starting to realize that mobile web sites should be specifically designed and built. What I am trying to say is they aren’t just poor cousins of web sites… they fulfill another function. A function based on being mobile, on snacking content, on staying in touch always, on killing time pursuits.. and for the developing world on a replacement to the PC based web.

So what I would like to do is give a few resources that my team has found interesting. Following will be forums, blogs and tools that can be used for developers or managers who are getting acquainted with the mobile internet which todays latest mobile phones can easily access to.

I guess to start off is the people behind .mobi sub domain and who are based in Dublin and push very hard to make .mobi THE destination for mobile sites :

You can find many resources and info on their sites and blogs. They also link to many exemplary mobile web sites so you can see what is best practices and what should be avoided.

A pretty cool mobile web site that talks about .mobi is this one :

I would suggest that you visit directly from a few mobile devices and maybe an emulator so you can see the differences for yourselves.

The next place I would suggest you go is here :

These are the same people as .mobi and they provide quite a few pointers on how to develop a proper .mobi site.

Also with all the visibility that the iPhone is making for the mobile web it can be worthwhile to start right from th beginning to look at what it takes to make a iPhone and iPode touch compatible site. Apple gives here the stuff to start off :

The next place to visit is our friends over Mobility. They are a forum of mobile enthusiasts, developers, entrepreneurs and industry specialists.

You can visit from both a PC or from your mobile device.

To fully understand the user agent issues and to tap into the largest open source database of mobile device it is a must to visit Luca Passani’s WURFL here :

At this point hopefully you will have tried building your own site.. well then it is time to get a rating :

Once you know about all these things and you build your site it may be time to earn some money… that is where things like MobPartner.mobi come in :

Finally as we all know networking is super important.. well I found a small but growing network on Linkedin :

Here are a few great blogs that will help you understand the various issues surrounding mobile sites and the revenue models that are used :

http://www.developing.mobi

http://mobienthusiast.mobi

http://www.mobiadnews.com/

http://www.m-trends.org/

http://wapreview.com/blog/

http://igloo.mobi/

Nokia Interactive, the mobile advertising arm of Nokia, has announced a new alliance aimed at making mobile advertising easier for brands. The alliance will integrate advertising solutions from multiple companies into a single Nokia interface.

The intent of the program is to bring together a variety of mobile advertising formats to give brands a better way to increase consumer engagement. Through the alliance, advertisers will be able to plan, execute, and measure campaigns that include a wider variety of customer engagement points.

Several companies have already been certified as Members of the alliance, including i-movo, Mobile Acuity, Mobiqa, and uLocate. These companies provide a range of mobile advertising technologies, including digital coupons, image recognition, mobile barcodes, and location-based targeting.

This effort directly addresses one of the biggest issues in mobile advertising:
• a key strength of mobile is that it is very flexible and can actively engage a consumer in many ways at many times of the day.
• one of the biggest challenges often cited by advertisers and their agencies is the difficulty of running mobile campaigns, and the fragmented nature of the industry.

This objective has been appreciated by people in the industry. Scott Heron, Director of Digital Services at Wunderman said “To realize truly integrated advertising, it’s imperative that major brands can make use of a range of mobile services. The Advertising Alliance brings together the most innovative technologies in the market, and brings trust to brands who want to use them.”

Brian Bos, Senior Vice President, Convergence Director at MindShare-Team Detroit said “Mobile is maturing into an effective advertising medium, however, the fragmentation of certain technologies makes it hard for some programs to scale. We applaud Nokia’s efforts to streamline this evolving market and make it easier to manage our clients’ mobile advertising investment.”

Who says you have to share marketing space? Stand out from the crowd with a mobile campaign.

by Mike Baker – VP and head of Nokia Ad Business

An hour of television is sometimes taken up by 20 minutes of commercials; a page of the internet can often contain up to 16 ads; and almost every mile of highway has at least one billboard. With over-saturated advertising like this, it’s no wonder consumers have learned to just block advertising out.

Advertisers are fighting for share of voice in traditional advertising media, where they are forced to share space with their competitors and end up just being part of the white noise in the background of consumers’ minds. However, there is one channel where advertisers can achieve a greater share of voice in an uncluttered environment — mobile.

The mobile web page can’t be cluttered the way the traditional internet page can, so each ad unit is more meaningful or, at the very least, more likely to burn into a consumer’s synapses. Mobile simply delivers a share of voice that just isn’t possible in most traditional media.

Take, for example, mobile campaigns that ran during Super Bowl XLII. The Super Bowl represents complete over-saturation of advertising. Everyone is trying to make the most memorable impression, but some brands were able to do this simply by leveraging the mobile device.

For example, Budweiser held the “Bud Bowl,” and asked viewers to text in to vote for their favorite commercial; Hyundai’s mobile advertising campaign ran on Super Bowl Sunday to coincide with the auto manufacturer’s television ads featuring its new luxury vehicle, the Genesis.

Hyundai’s program featured banner ads that ran on an operator’s mobile portal and clicked through to the Genesis mobile website, where consumers could download wallpaper featuring the new vehicle, as well as ringtones featuring its engine’s “rev.”

The campaign received a 3.41 percent clickthrough rate, which is more than double what most traditional internet campaigns receive, and 11 percent of people who clicked through the Hyundai banner ad downloaded the “RevTone.”

The one-page, one-ad environment guaranteed Hyundai a share of voice the auto manufacturer just couldn’t achieve on other media. Additionally, Hyundai was able to capitalize not only on Super Bowl Sunday, but thanks to downloadable content, it also continued to make an impact even after the ads stopped running!

So where next?

Some industry observers (most of whom are not mobile specialists!) have predicted that clickthrough rates and returns from mobile advertising will level off once the medium becomes more mainstream — citing what happened online as evidence.

We’ve yet to see this transpire. Mobile keeps performing, thanks to the lack of clutter. With screen sizes growing, the canvas is expanding, and the temptation is there for mobile publishers to cash in as more brands enter the space. However, this would devalue the medium for publishers and advertisers alike, and drive consumers away in droves.

In the short term, publishers must strive to make the mobile medium as accessible to consumers as possible. Consumers realize that quality content cannot always be free, and that advertising is necessary. So instead of replicating the internet by having 10 simultaneous messages competing for your attention on a page, the ideal on mobile is that just one rewarding and relevant brand appears.

As the medium grows, innovative mechanics will be introduced that make mobile work harder than any other part of the marketing mix. The mobile device will remain uncluttered, as long as media networks continue to enforce strong user experience principles, and it therefore presents an unrivalled place for brands to stand out from the crowd.

The mobile world is abuzz with the news of Nokia’s plans to open source Symbian. There’s been a lot of great analysis of what this means for Nokia and its major competitors. If you aren’t up to speed on what it means, I recommend Micheal Mace’s in depth business analysis, Symbian changes everything, and nothing and Simon Judge’s developer perspective.

What I’m wondering though is how the existence of a free, high quality, open source mobile software stack will change the whole mobile ecosystem. I’m struck by two things:

* The barriers to entry for anyone wanting to manufacture advanced handsets have been lowered dramatically. There are hundreds of mobile phone makers in China and elsewhere with very low costs making cheap hones for the domestic market. Will some of them add Symbian or Android phones to their product mix? I think they will and that we will see direct to consumer online sales of generic smartphones before very long. Think zzzPhone or fake iPhone but toting a real OS.

* Open sourcing Symbian offers the possibility of community development based on the Symbian core. Imagine Symbian Kernel hackers branching off the Symbian core to create custom mobile operating systems. With the full source its possible to do things like removing the restrictions on unsigned applications and adding features that Nokia’s carrier customers don’t want you to have like VOIP over 3G. Someday will we be flashing our old S60 handsets with customized Symbian builds from a mobile hacker community?

A lot depends on just how complete Symbian’s open source offering is. I don’t think the software that manages the cellular radio or the boot loader needed to flash a new OS onto a phone are considered part of the OS. There’s a lot of licensed intellectual property tied up in cellular radio software that can’t open sourced. The would-be phone manufacturer and the hacker will have quite a bit of work to do to fill in the missing pieces.

Courtesy of Dennis at WapReview.com