Internet is a standard platform and entrepreneurs only need to focus on the websites themselves. However, it is a different story in wireless landscape. First of all, wireless network is still an expensive network, which is controlled by national carriers. All the successful cases need a consistent image which involve content service, software on cell phone and hardware. It is hard to entrepreneur to coordinate all those resources and offer a service to consumers.
Although “living circle” is a relative blank spot, entrepreneur still needs to avoid the thought that they can build up the entire ecosystem by themselves. However, there are many technical hurdles that need to be addressed before “living circle” can really work for consumers. Amidst those difficulties, security is the biggest concern. For the entrepreneurs, if they can find some solutions for those security issues, it is possible to convince giants to adopt those technologies.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Chapter 4: Blank spot - Opportunity
If we look at Mobile Phone only as a moving personal computer and try our best to migrate every application, which is popular on Personal Computer, we will miss the game. Only 35% of population is willing to pay extra money for mobile data service. Although it is a big enough market, it can’t satisfy a lot of giants’ ambitious. Google’s free model might be a balm. However, it is possible that people will only buy Google’s phone but not subscribe any data service. That means Google’s business model is also hard to appeal other 65% population.
How to appeal other 65% population? The answer is laid in the “living circle”. Not everyone needs to browse Interest when he is moving, but everyone has a credit card. It is a commonplace that one has too many different cards to hold in his wallet, or he even doesn’t know his financial statue in every credit card. This is only an example among tons of living applications. Those applications can offer real convenience to consumers and takeover outdated methods.
However, besides navigation and instant message application, we cannot find any other application, which belongs to the “living circle” and has already achieved significant achievement. We also can’t find any mobile operating system vendors or mobile phone manufactures have made breakthrough for living circle. There are conspicuous opportunities there that worth every player to go after.
How to appeal other 65% population? The answer is laid in the “living circle”. Not everyone needs to browse Interest when he is moving, but everyone has a credit card. It is a commonplace that one has too many different cards to hold in his wallet, or he even doesn’t know his financial statue in every credit card. This is only an example among tons of living applications. Those applications can offer real convenience to consumers and takeover outdated methods.
However, besides navigation and instant message application, we cannot find any other application, which belongs to the “living circle” and has already achieved significant achievement. We also can’t find any mobile operating system vendors or mobile phone manufactures have made breakthrough for living circle. There are conspicuous opportunities there that worth every player to go after.
Chapter 3: How current players fit into the graph and their movement
Everyone knows iPhone is a successful entertainment mobile phone and Blackberry is a dominated cell phone for business. The reason they can poise themselves successfully is that they can support some applications perfectly. I drew every mobile operating system’s turf in this 3 circles’ chart.
iPhone:
Multi-media Playing, Mobile Game and Web-surfing are the most important applications for entertainment consumers. iPhone takes entertainment turf squarely by perfect supporting those applications. iPhone’s large 2-points touch screen along with automatic zooming functions make the Internet surfing very comfortable. In term of a survey done by RUBICON, 77% of the iPhone users agree that the iPhone increase mobile browsing. Albeit iPhone doesn’t have any key, the
players can sway the iPhone and the accelerometer, which takes the role of joystick, can sense the change of direction.
Blackberry
We can’t say email is the most important business application, but it is the most common software for every business man. By fully supporting the enterprise email system, iPhone becomes the most popular gadget for business man. The excellent design of Blackberry’s screen and QWERTY keyboard give consumers great convenience to look up and edit emails by cell phone. On the other hand, it offers comprehensive functions to support enterprise email, such as the gateway to different email system, encryption mechanism, etc…
Windows Mobile
Windows mobile operating system exists, but Windows mobile phone doesn’t exist. It is hard to give consumers a consistent image because Microsoft doesn’t produce by itself. I would like to assort Windows Mobile into business circle. Outlook for Windows Mobile and Office for Windows Mobile are powerful and free software. Moreover, It is easy to develop window mobile compatible application, therefore customized client software can be easily developed by Windows Mobile Platform. The reason that Windows Mobile can’t appeal more entertainment consumers is that entertainment cell phone has higher requirement for the hardware and appearance design and that is Windows Mobile’s pitfall.
Nokia N95
Nokia N95 is the most advanced mobile phone, which has been rolled out. It is fair to evaluate Nokia’s strategy by this phone. Nokia almost upgrades every feature and specification of N 95: larger screen, more storage space, more advanced camera. However, N95 is only a upgrade, not a innovation. Based on Nokia’s big brand, it is possible that N95 can be sold with a huge number, however, N95 will not bring any innovation data service.
Android
Where is Android? It is hard to say since we can’t find a real Google Phone so far. But one thing must happen: Google will embed a lot of software into it, such as Gmail, search engine, YouTube and Google Map. From those functions, and the introduction we can find from Google’s website, we can say it is a entertainment phone. Embedding software into a mobile phone is easy but ask consumers to use it is hard. Because Google needs to work with cell phone manufactures, it is onerous task of offer a consistent entertainment gPhone.
iPhone:
Multi-media Playing, Mobile Game and Web-surfing are the most important applications for entertainment consumers. iPhone takes entertainment turf squarely by perfect supporting those applications. iPhone’s large 2-points touch screen along with automatic zooming functions make the Internet surfing very comfortable. In term of a survey done by RUBICON, 77% of the iPhone users agree that the iPhone increase mobile browsing. Albeit iPhone doesn’t have any key, the
players can sway the iPhone and the accelerometer, which takes the role of joystick, can sense the change of direction.
Blackberry
We can’t say email is the most important business application, but it is the most common software for every business man. By fully supporting the enterprise email system, iPhone becomes the most popular gadget for business man. The excellent design of Blackberry’s screen and QWERTY keyboard give consumers great convenience to look up and edit emails by cell phone. On the other hand, it offers comprehensive functions to support enterprise email, such as the gateway to different email system, encryption mechanism, etc…
Windows Mobile
Windows mobile operating system exists, but Windows mobile phone doesn’t exist. It is hard to give consumers a consistent image because Microsoft doesn’t produce by itself. I would like to assort Windows Mobile into business circle. Outlook for Windows Mobile and Office for Windows Mobile are powerful and free software. Moreover, It is easy to develop window mobile compatible application, therefore customized client software can be easily developed by Windows Mobile Platform. The reason that Windows Mobile can’t appeal more entertainment consumers is that entertainment cell phone has higher requirement for the hardware and appearance design and that is Windows Mobile’s pitfall.
Nokia N95
Nokia N95 is the most advanced mobile phone, which has been rolled out. It is fair to evaluate Nokia’s strategy by this phone. Nokia almost upgrades every feature and specification of N 95: larger screen, more storage space, more advanced camera. However, N95 is only a upgrade, not a innovation. Based on Nokia’s big brand, it is possible that N95 can be sold with a huge number, however, N95 will not bring any innovation data service.
Android
Where is Android? It is hard to say since we can’t find a real Google Phone so far. But one thing must happen: Google will embed a lot of software into it, such as Gmail, search engine, YouTube and Google Map. From those functions, and the introduction we can find from Google’s website, we can say it is a entertainment phone. Embedding software into a mobile phone is easy but ask consumers to use it is hard. Because Google needs to work with cell phone manufactures, it is onerous task of offer a consistent entertainment gPhone.
Chapter 2: Address application in term of the dimension diagram
The second step to carry on the analysis is to address every application in each circle and research on their functionalities and status quo. Many applications are charted in the overlapped spot, such as “Cyber Surfing”. We define “Cyber Surfing” as surfing Internet by one’s cell phone. Since there are tremendous entertainment, business and living resources on Internet, Cyber surfing is the key feature for all the dimensions.
2 dimension bar-codes has become a popular application in some countries. The popularity of bar-codes represents a series of functionalities that cover both living and business applications. An exemplary case is a name card application. You can print a bar-code in your name card and this bar-code stores the same information as you print out explicitly on your name card. After you friend receives your name card, he can use the camera in their cell phone to picture this bar-code and then, the software in you cell phone decrypt and store the information to his cell phone. Another application is to buy film ticket online. After you buy a film ticket On Internet, the seller sends a MMS to your cell phone, which is a bar-code. You show this bar-code to a special machine when you enter into the decrypt. By using the format of bar-code, camera as an input equipment and screen as output terminal, the cell phone becomes a data collection and an identification and authentication tool. Because you take your cell phone everywhere, by integrating those functions into your cell phone, consumers can enjoy a lot of convenience. Camera and screen are not the only ways to input data. There are other ways, such as blue-tooth and infrared. Anyway, data input and store, validation and authorization are a series of very important functions.
All the applications in this graph have been applied somewhat. Mobile data application is a novel thing for most of consumers. Therefore the success of an application depends on both the software and hardware support derived from mobile operating system and handset. Some mobile operating system and handset have poised themselves successfully because they offer a consistent software and hardware combination that can support applications perfectly.
2 dimension bar-codes has become a popular application in some countries. The popularity of bar-codes represents a series of functionalities that cover both living and business applications. An exemplary case is a name card application. You can print a bar-code in your name card and this bar-code stores the same information as you print out explicitly on your name card. After you friend receives your name card, he can use the camera in their cell phone to picture this bar-code and then, the software in you cell phone decrypt and store the information to his cell phone. Another application is to buy film ticket online. After you buy a film ticket On Internet, the seller sends a MMS to your cell phone, which is a bar-code. You show this bar-code to a special machine when you enter into the decrypt. By using the format of bar-code, camera as an input equipment and screen as output terminal, the cell phone becomes a data collection and an identification and authentication tool. Because you take your cell phone everywhere, by integrating those functions into your cell phone, consumers can enjoy a lot of convenience. Camera and screen are not the only ways to input data. There are other ways, such as blue-tooth and infrared. Anyway, data input and store, validation and authorization are a series of very important functions.
All the applications in this graph have been applied somewhat. Mobile data application is a novel thing for most of consumers. Therefore the success of an application depends on both the software and hardware support derived from mobile operating system and handset. Some mobile operating system and handset have poised themselves successfully because they offer a consistent software and hardware combination that can support applications perfectly.
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