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May 31, 2007
Orange business price plans ..
Orange have launched a new set of price plans for business. This is the first time I think an Operator has targetted the business market by segmenting them in this way. This is interesting for me(apart from the price plan itself) because I believe that the business/SME space is ripe for mobility 'beyond email'
I think we will see a lot more activity in this space ..
From the Orange literature
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Orange Solo is a tariff for people who work for themselves and includes everything you would expect from Orange with additional business benefits such as Orange Care which ensures lost, stolen or faulty handsets are replaced within 24 hours. It provides value on simple minute based plans at three price points of £30, £35 and £40 ranging from 400-800 minutes with fifty per cent extra minutes for those taking 24 month contracts. It also includes a promotional offer of free megabytes of data: 1Mb, 2Mb and 3Mb respectively for those business owners that wish to discover the benefits of mobile email and Internet. Recognising the importance of staying in touch with customers at all times Orange Solo additional promotions also include a choice of unlimited calls to landlines or unlimited texts
Orange Venture lets you make the most of your time at work and at home. It is aimed at small businesses, typically with 1-10 employees, and usually run by entrepreneurial owner managers that are always on the go, trying to juggle communication with customers, suppliers, cash-flow and above all their work / life balance. It is a simple minute based tariff with flat rate sharer fees and comes in seven price points with minute bundles ranging from 275 to 3,400 minutes. Orange Business Additions include unlimited calls between sharers and mid contract reviews. There is a three month promotional offer of unlimited off peak calls to landlines and Orange mobiles to help manage the work / life blur and 20% extra minutes for 18 month contracts and 40% extra minutes for 24 month contracts. Prices range from £28 to £165 per month.
Orange Momentum is a tariff aimed at larger businesses. These businesses typically need to be fast and adaptable so want a package that supports the dynamic work style of its various employees. In answer to this Orange Momentum is based on a simple minute based plan with nine price points for a closer tariff to calling pattern fit. Price points range from £155 for 2,500 minutes to £3,000 for 45,000 minutes. Orange Business Additions include unlimited calls and texts between sharers to allow colleagues to communicate freely. A three month promotional offer of up to 25% extra minutes or unlimited calls to other Orange mobiles is available on longer contracts.
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Posted by ajit at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Platform Disturbia
It was a pleasure to meet Padmasree Warrior at her keynote in JavaOne. Padmasree mentions me on her blog(thanks for that Padmasree!) and she also follows the OpenGardens blog – which is flattering to know.
Padmasree has one of the most interesting tech blogs I have seen (and not just for the technology but also covering various issues she feels passionately about – such as women’s education, teaching maths and science etc)
At the Javaone keynote, she spoke about "Platform Disturbia” – which she blogs about on her blog in greater detail on her blogPlatform Disturbia certainly addresses the right issues, such as fragmentation, feature overload and avoiding monolithic programming.
Padmasree also adds ..
"Platform Disturbia" is a great opportunity for developers, but brings with it significant challenges. As content and communications go mobile - How do you move content easily and transcode it from one format to another? How do you set the hooks between different networks and mobile devices so the hand off is seamless? With personalization, where should the authentication and personalization engines be located - on the mobile device or on backend servers? Should context and location awareness work with authentication; how much should they reveal and to whom?
Clearly as applications go mobile developers have to think differently - Is the app itself a service that exists somewhere in the network cloud? or something you should architect right into the device? It is hard enough dealing with the sheer number of different mobile handsets, screens and separate operating systems. Now we want those devices to talk effortlessly with enterprise infrastructures - to enable secure communications and data sharing with field service people. We want to extend into the home and be able to upload and download content automatically from set top boxes. And deliver a whole new generation of location and context-based services that will make mobile devices even more personal and interactive.
I will be watching this with some interest because Platform Disturbia sounds interesting and also because of my belief that
In an IP(IMS) world, the mobile device will drive convergence because services shift to the edge of the network – and devices are at the edge of the network ..
Posted by ajit at 12:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 30, 2007
Life 2.0: the genetic code is 3.6 billion years old ..
Life 2.0: the genetic code is 3.6 billion years old .. It’s time for a rewrite!
Like many people who like science and technology in general, I follow branches of science other than what I work with in daily like(mobility/wireless/web). One such branch is genomics – specifically the work of Craig Venter
This week’s newsweek (International edition) has an article called Life 2.0 – Playing God based on Craig Venter’s new work in the field of Synbio(Synthetic biology)
This is well worth a read if you interested and the article has that memorable headline .. The genetic code is 3.6 billion years old .. It’s time for a rewrite!
Makes perfect sense in context of synthetic biology(which is essentially the science of creating new life forms – based on synthetic DNA, synthetic genes, synthetic genomes and ultimately whole organisms)
By the way, there is much to learn from someone like Craig Venter .. one of my role models .. he combines science with a ruthless practicality, vision and focus .. which sadly is an exception amongst many technologists today.
Posted by ajit at 11:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 29, 2007
Mobile Web 2.0 and IMS course at Oxford university ..
In July, I will be conducting a course on Mobile Web 2.0 and IMS course at Oxford university. If you are interested, please register via the above link
Posted by ajit at 6:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The 75th Carnival of the mobilists: at VisionMobile Forum
The 75th Carnival of the Mobilists is at Andreas Constantinou's VisionMobile Forum . I follow Andreas's work and like his thinking, so its flattering to be selected amongst his top 10 posts. Enjoy the carnival as usual!
Posted by ajit at 4:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 27, 2007
Quotations book – Web 2.0 business models and designing a Web 2.0 site
I met Amit Kothari, founder of Quotations Book when we were both interviewed by Robert Scoble for the Scoble show. He had just launched his site and we discussed some ideas around it. Quotations book is an interesting site for two reasons: It’s a Web 2.0 site from the ground up and Amit set it up for less than £20,000 (which is roughly around $40,000).
Here is a synopsis of his site and what I learned from it in an interview format
How did you got the idea?
The site has been active for several years in a previous incarnation. The original site had thousands of visitors a day and RSS feeds of content – which was used by answers.com for syndication. However – it lacked community and a real interactivity based on the focal point – which is quotations. I was looking to deepen my interest in quotations, understand the domain in a simple way, and then create a new venture based on various lessons learned.
What is the unique selling point?
The site is the only one that currently uses the data at Project Gutenberg to provide context to literary quotations – from the most popular books in Western literature. In terms of our general domain, there has been hardly any innovative activity in the area of quotable text content – we are the first to address this important problem. At the Future of Web Apps in London (February 2007) – where we talked about quotationsbook – various people saw a very significant missing piece of richness on the web, simpler than video or photos - which we are addressing. Comments from a couple of people are on our press page
What is your strategy?
We are guided somewhat by our users, but our plan going forward is outlined very briefly on our blog , where updates in the future can also be tracked -
How have you publicised your idea?
At present, our core visitor base is stable and increasing – a legacy from the old site. We’re still building a lot of features, and hope to kick off press and promotion activities in the future. We sponsored and spoke at the Future of Web Apps in February too.
What are your biggest challenges?
The most significant problem we faced is within the content system – since users adding their own quotes poses difficult problems which is very different to adding user generated video or photos. There are issues about accuracy, and how the community can contribute to spotting them – and also problems around attribution – in that sources are often not entirely web-based or reliable. The community process and conversations that are not subjective are the most difficult to handle, because we have to create a process to report inaccuracies not simply to us, but to the owner of the quote (the person that added it). It would suffice to say that discussing the accuracy and context of a quote in a group, even in the real world, is a fairly difficult problem!
What is your revenue model?
We don’t intend to have ads as far as possible. Current revenue generating ideas include chargeable mobile content services, as well as printing books of your favourite quotes. There are far larger plans ahead that I can’t disclose but would potentially have disruptive potential as solid business models. Once we have an API, an interesting observation to make is that it assists any other ventures – in that quotes do not have to be tied tightly into any subsidiary venture we decide to create. Depending on our growth and its geographical bias, we hope to introduce our users to activities in the real world, especially in London and the UK.
Posted by ajit at 2:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 26, 2007
Mobile 2.0 - A conceptual diagram ..
When I spoke at the keynote at Web 2.0 expo , I ended up speaking about Mobile 2.0.
I have traditionally defined the term Mobile Web 2.0 as opposed to Mobile 2.0 (which is the title of the book Mobile Web 2.0 written by me and Tony Fish ).
In our book Mobile Web 2.0, we define the term Mobile Web 2.0 as extending the idea of Web 2.0 to Mobile devices. A more complete definition and the approach behind it can be seen in the blog Of Web 2.0, Mobile Web 2.0 , Blue chairs, Blind men and Elephants – but essentially, it is technology agnostic because we can view the root principle of Web 2.0 as ‘harnessing collective intelligence’ and then extend Mobile Web 2.0 as ‘harnessing collective intelligence using mobile devices’.
Thus, the definition of Mobile Web 2.0, as we define in our book, is
a) Technology agnostic(i.e. any mobile technology can be used to capture intelligence from a mobile device)
b) Capturing intelligence at point of inspiration. The mobile device lends itself very well to this purpose because it is available at the point of inspiration
c) Adding metadata to the harnessed information (for instance location metadata)
d) And in future, we will define ‘Intelligence’ more broadly: For instance through Mobile communities, Identity, Location based tagging and mashups between the Web and the Telco world. Hence, see blogs like Bothered 2.0 from Tony ..
However, coming back to Mobile 2.0 (as opposed to Mobile Web 2.0)
Mobile 2.0 is a term first used by Daniel Appelquist and then also elaborated by Rudy De Waele .
For my O Reilly Web 2.0 expo keynote, I referred to some work by both Dan and Rudy and came up with the diagram as below.
Its self explanatory and it also follows from my work with IMS at Oxford university , talk about IMS in Monaco and my work with Frauenhofer fokus .
Essentially, we talked of abstracting the network at an API level. The first step in evolution is IMS – the ultimate stage is a ‘mashup’ for the lack of a better word between the Web and the Telco world.
To come from the world today to the world of Mobile 2.0, we need a few other things to happen – for instance Open Standards, Devices accessing multiple networks and so on
Seek your thoughts on this
Feel free to use the diagram referring back to this blog. Download a high res version here: Mobile 2.0 conceptual diagram
Posted by ajit at 2:00 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 24, 2007
Feedburner story: The increasing irrelevance of journalists when compared to bloggers
Sam Sethi of Vecosys first reported on the story of feedburner being acquired by Google. Today, Mike Arrington of techcrunch confirmed it.
This is significant because journalism and old media (like newspapers) were primarily concerned with two things: Breaking news (the latest developments which have value the quicker they are reported accurately) and Analysis.
Increasingly, with the rise of blogosphere, the function of analysis is becoming democratised because the wisdom of all the blogosphere is better than the analysis of the few journalists – no matter how good they are
What is more interesting is: the function of ‘news reporting’ is also leaning towards blogosphere.
Admittedly, many blogs like my own blog OpenGardens are not about news i.e. we are not geared to report the latest developments in the industry. We focus only on analysis
However, the news of feedburner’s acquisition was reported by Sam Sethi – a blogger and confirmed by Mike Arrington (another blogger). Previously, Google's acquisition of YouTube was also reported by Techcrunch and Mike Arrington talks about consequent techcrunch bashing where he says: I am surprised that traditional media is starting to see TechCrunch as newsworthy enough to attack. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
There was a time when highly paid hacks with considerable resources at their disposal, would be the first to get the story.
To me, it seems increasingly that the blogosphere is reporting it and confirming it – with the journalists left on the side.
This is a good thing in my view. It is a sign of the times that the big media/few journalists are becoming increasingly irrelevant with the wisdom of crowds.
If you doubt that the rise of blogosphere is a good thing: think about this – there is a collective wisdom of journalists as well! Most journalists and big media globally supported the Iraq war .. and now almost all ‘collectively’ oppose it .. where is the objectivity in that?
Far better to decentralise and globalise the viewpoints rather than a few big publications and a few journalists spoon-feed us with their views
Posted by ajit at 7:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 23, 2007
Stats: UK online spend could overtake TV within the next three to four years
source: the bbc
very interesting .. even today printed press remains the highest percentage spend of advertising and television is the second highest spend
Spending on outdoor adverts grew faster than that on radio and TV
Money spent on UK television adverts fell last year for the first time since 2001, according to new research.
TV advertising spend declined 4.7% from 2005 levels to £4.59bn - but still accounted for the second largest advertising medium after the press.
The printed press sector also suffered a 2.7% drop in spend, according to the Advertising Association (AA), although directories bucked the trend.
UK spending on internet adverts topped 10% of the total for the first time.
"I believe online spend could overtake TV within the next three to four years," said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau, the trade association for the internet marketing industry.
Apart from the internet, the largest gainer was outdoor advertising.
The figures to be published next month in the AA's Advertising Statistics Yearbook 2007 show advertising spend in the UK exceeded £19bn, up 0.7% from the year before.
Regional newspapers snubbed
The printed press accounted for by far the largest share of total advertising expenditure at 43.7%.
Advertisers snubbed regional newspapers and consumer magazines, but national newspapers registered a marginal increase and spend in directories grew by 3.8%.
Spend on Outdoor advertising increased 4% to £1bn, beating radio which dropped 7.7%.
Online surged 47.5% to £2bn, 10.6% of total expenditure.
Posted by ajit at 1:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
If you STILL don't understand Web 2.0 ..
See this video
Great!
Posted by ajit at 12:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
mukuru.com - mcommerce in Africa(Zimbabwe) again ..
See my broad vision for Mobile and Africa in The Mobile phone will do more for Africa than Live 8!
Simple, practical stories of mobile commerce from Africa continue to be inspiring
Source: the BBC
Mobiles beat Zimbabwe fuel queues
By Lucy Fleming
BBC News website
Shamwari Lucy, Uri bho here? Thanks a bunch for using Mukuru.com
Mukuru message
Text messages from abroad have never been received so eagerly by cash-strapped Zimbabweans.
The "beep beep" signals an end to hours spent queuing at petrol stations.
"Hey... you have been sent a Mukuru Voucher for 40 litres of Petrol from..." reads the message.
A voucher number follows which allows the recipient to swap the pin number for coupons redeemable at certain garages.
This is all the handiwork of Mukuru.com - a website set up by Zimbabweans in the UK to help their fellow countrymen in the diaspora pay for petrol, satellite TV or transfer money to their friends and relatives at home.
It properly got off the ground last year, and its customers are steadily growing as news of it spreads.
Little fuss
Within seconds of opening an account and sending an order to a grateful guinea pig in Zimbabwe, I received an email from Mukuru.
Zimbabwe suffers from constant fuel shortages
"Shamwari Lucy, Uri bho here? (friend, how are you?)" it began in conversational Shona.
"Thanks a bunch for using Mukuru.com - we have sent an email to (your friend) notifying them of the order below."
The next morning, another email arrived to tell me the funds had cleared and a voucher had been issued.
At the same time, my friend in the capital, Harare, got a text message and went off to collect the petrol coupons - valid for three months. Forty litres costs $40 - the going black market rate.
Several days later they went to fill their car, with little fuss from one of Zimbabwe's garages allowed to import fuel using foreign currency.
"I arrived there at 3pm and looked in the book and they must've sold more than 500 litres that day," my friend said.
Groceries
I was left in no doubt about my generosity, receiving texts to let me know about every moment of the transaction right up until the petrol was gushing into the tank.
I think Zimbabwe would be dead right now if wasn't for imports - it would be on its knees
Zimbuyer spokesman
For one of the founding members of Zimbuyer.com - another new website allowing Zimbabweans to buy groceries for people at home - this control is what makes these services popular.
"They're a lot of people who left Zimbabwe and, for example, have left their children over there," he told the BBC News website.
"But sometimes the money they have sent home for the care of their children is diverted into other things.
"With our service, people buy the stuff - we deliver them to the recipients so they know that they're buying."
Shopping on Zimbuyer - run by a team of four in the US and UK - is like doing a supermarket shop online in the UK, with a little less software finesse.
The prices are marked in British pounds, but the products are Zimbabwean staples such as sadza maize, Cashel Valley Baked Beans and Ingrams Camphor Cream - delivered to addresses in Harare, Chitungwiza and Bulawayo.
Lifeline
Zimland.com offers a similar service for customers from 52 OK supermarket branches nationwide. Its website says it gives Zimbabweans abroad "a quick and efficient way of ensuring their families did not starve in Zimbabwe".
We're running it as a service to help people
Dr Brighton Chireka
With Zimbabwe's economy spiralling out of control, high unemployment and one of the highest HIV rates in the world, people in the diaspora can literally provide a lifeline.
UK-based Dr Brighton Chireka and his wife Prisca, a nurse, have set up Beepee Medical Services, allowing Zimbabweans abroad to pay for doctor's appointments, prescription drugs and surgery for relatives at home.
"Mostly we're running it as a service to help people," Dr Chireka told the BBC News website, adding that since its launch last September BPMS now gets about two consultation bookings ($30 an appointment) a day.
"It should be able to pay itself... We've employed people who are working full-time in Zimbabwe. This side it's on a part-time basis to answer the calls."
Dr Chireka says they have to review their prices every two or three weeks because of the rampant inflation which stands at 3,731.9% - a climate ripe for a flourishing black market.
This is something Zimbabwe's no-nonsense central bank governor is keen to stamp out.
Legal
Last year Gideon Gono banned several money transfer agencies, accusing them of abusing their licences by doing deals on the black market.
Satellite systems and subscription services are also popular
Zimbuyer says their service - which at the moment attracts about 10 customers a day - is a way around this for Zimbabweans abroad who are loath to send money back at the official rates.
Last week, the black market rate was Z$29,000 to US$1 - compared to the long-standing official rate of Z$250 to US$1. This week, the black market rate for the US dollar has risen by Z$4,000.
"The government it is cracking down on the black market or foreign currency dealers - they buy money in Zimbabwe or take the wealth outside Zimbabwe which is something we're not doing," the Zimbuyer spokesman - which imports most of the products - told the BBC.
"I think Zimbabwe would be dead right now if wasn't for imports - it would be on its knees."
Mukuru.com also allows customers to transfer money - at the black-market rate - to accounts in Zimbabwe; it has also started this service to South Africa.
Their customer service line says a "dispersment agent" deposits the money in Zimbabwe.
All the services are clearly being careful not to antagonise Mr Gono, and offer tight security and the online payment system PayPal for their clients.
And as Mukuru's petrol fame spreads, what are Zimbuyer's most popular products?
"Cooking oil and sugar - right now we've run out of the sugar we have it bought in from Botswana.
"And power generators are proving popular because the electricity always goes off nearly every day."
Posted by ajit at 12:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 22, 2007
Global Wireless Data Market Update 2006
by 
By Chetan Sharma
In 2006, mobile data industry grew across every geography. From the true and trusted SMS messaging to new services such as Mobile TV, LBS, and others, different services helped in adding billions to the revenues generated for the year. Japan and Korea remain the envy of the global markets and the countries to study and learn from. The US market has been steadily making strong comeback and is soon going to become the biggest mobile data revenue generating market in the world. Chetan Sharma Consulting conducted its bi-annual study of the global mobile data industry. We took a look at wireless data trends in over 40 major countries - from developed and mature markets such as Japan, Korea, UK, and France to high-growth markets such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia. The study also took a detailed look at over 30 prominent operators. This note summarizes the findings from the research.
2006 was a great year for mobile data. Revenues from mobile data were up in all major regions and for all major carriers with data contributing double digit percentage to overall revenues in most cases. The overall subscriptions rose to approximately 2.7B and we should be crossing 3B by the end of 2007. The wireless industry is on its way to gain the quickest billion subscribers within the next 3 quarters.
Japan led the way with almost $20B in annual mobile data revenues. US and China were next with $15.8B and $9.2B respectively.
NTT DoCoMo became the first carrier to cross the $10B barrier for a given calendar year amassing $10.5B for 2006 in data revenues. The Japanese market was followed by China Mobile at $6.9B, KDDI at $6.6B, Verizon Wireless at $4.5B, and Cingular Wireless at $4.3B. They were followed by Sprint Nextel, SK Telecom, Softbank, O2 UK, and China Unicom to make up the top 10.
A majority of countries we tracked got double digit growth in mobile data ARPU except for a handful of countries which registered a decline from EOY 2005. Some of the prominent ones being US (33%), Czech (40%), Brazil (32%), Netherlands (31%), UK (20%), and Japan (14%). Japan registered the largest dollar amount increase with $2.08 increase from 2005 levels. US and UK data ARPU levels grew by $1.72.
In 2006, SMS’s vice like grip on data revenues loosened a bit with many carriers seeing an increase in non-SMS data revenues. On an average, Japan and Korea have over 70-75% of their revenue coming from non-SMS data applications, US around 50-60%, and Western Europe around 30-40%.
The top 10 carriers increased their revenue by 13% during the second half of 2006 to reach an aggregate amount of $46.8B for the year in data revenues.
In terms of data ARPU, Japan continues to lead the pack with almost 30% of its revenues coming from data services amounting to almost $17 data ARPU. Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, UK and South Korea also registered significant data ARPU. US crossed the ($5, 10%) block, where $5 is the data ARPU and 10% represents the % share of overall ARPU. As of Dec 2006, US stood at ($7, 13%). For detailed US Wireless Market update, please see "US Wireless Data Market Update 2006" (For more details, please refer to the 9-box diagram in the ppt”; for 2005 comparative numbers, please refer to our paper from last year titled “Perspectives: Wireless Data ARPU”)
NTT DoCoMo’s position at the top of the wireless data world has been challenged recently by several carriers esp. by its archrival KDDI which surged past DoCoMo and remained ahead pretty much for the entire year. Their data coordinates stand at ($17, 31%) and ($17, 30%) respectively. However, it is 3 UK that is inching towards ($20, 30%) mark with $26 in data ARPU contributing over 29% to its overall ARPU. 3 Italy with ($16, 35%) is also amongst the leaders.
The biggest % contribution by data ARPU has been consistently registered (since mid 2002) by two Philippines carriers – Smart Communications and Globe Telecom with almost 50% (or $3) contribution coming from data services.
Even though China reported approximately $9.2B in data revenues, and the % contribution is over 20%, data ARPU is around $2, confirming what we already know – it’s a volume game.
For India data ARPU is just under $1. Approximately same for Brazil and Russia. Actually, in 2006 the overall wireless service revenue for US was two times the overall revenues of the four BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries combined. So, lessons are pretty clear as to which markets to approach for what products and services.
In terms of overall ARPU, it has been a mixed picture compared to 2005. Of the 40 countries we looked at, it was an even split, with half of the countries registering increase in overall ARPU while the other half were at the same level or experienced decline in ARPU. US, China, and India all registered declines while Japan, Russia, Italy, UK, and Canada had an uptick in their ARPU numbers.
All the carriers in the top 10 wireless carriers by wireless data revenues list exceeded $1B in data revenues for the second six months of 2006 and $2B for the year.
Western Europe officially crossed the 100% wireless subscriber penetration mark (primarily due to multiple SIMs and double reporting) with several nations reporting up to 140% subscriber penetration. US crossed the 75% penetration mark.
China crossed the 400M subscriber market in 2006 and is on its way to cross the 500M mark this year. However, its growth rate was overtaken by India which is experiencing tremendous growth. Its net-adds approached 7M subs/month compared to 6M/month for China (though in March 07, monthly net-adds dipped below 4M probably due to the pressure from the government to prove the reported numbers). India crossed Japan and Russia to stand number 3 behind China and US and is going to get past US in terms of total number of subscribers by 2008.
As expected, China Mobile is way ahead of the second ranked Vodafone w.r.t total number of subscribers. China Unicom, América Móvil, Telefonica, SingTel, Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), and Orange (France Telecom) are the next six largest telecom groups in the world. In terms of individual carriers, Cingular and Verizon now occupy the #3 and #4 spot respectively ahead of NTT DoCoMo, which is at #5. The two Chinese carriers round up the top two positions and are likely to stay perched at their lookout vistas for some years to come.
Telecom groups in mature markets are under enormous pressure to either come up with a global expansion strategy or accelerate their existing plans. Carriers in Japan and Korea are the most under duress.
Japan became the first nation to have more than 50% of its subscribers using 3G. DoCoMo and KDDI have 60% of their subscriber base using 3G devices. Korea is close second approaching 50% 3G penetration. 3G is starting to pick-up steam in both western Europe and
North America per our discussion in the cover story article “3G: Hitting the Mass Market” published in Wireless World Magazine. US and Western Europe crossed the 10% mark for 3G penetration (Italy stayed ahead with over 25% of its subscriber using 3G phones). The difference between 2G/2.5G/2.7G and 3G is palpable, for example, for DoCoMo the difference FOMA (3G) and mova (2G) was approaching 200%.
China and India represent the biggest opportunities for Infrastructure providers. China has postponed its 3G decision for the umpteenth time and is having technical and political problems to get something in place before the 2008 Olympics. India is going through its 3G spectrum policy but unlike China is likely to resolve the issues in short order. Some of the biggest infrastructure contracts will come from these two countries that are looking to expand coverage.
Carriers with nationwide 3G networks and good distribution of handsets are seeing uptick in data ARPU. The Japanese and Korean carriers along with operator 3, Verizon, Sprint Nextel are all seeing benefits of rolling out their 3G service. Deployment of 3.5G technologies such as
HSDPA and EV-DO Rev A (and B) are also gaining momentum. Networks are getting deployed and market is being seeded with some of the early handsets.
In terms of applications, messaging accounts for lion-share of data revenues. However, other services such as Mobile Music, Mobile TV and video streaming, Mobile Games, IMS, LBS, Mobile advertising, and others have captured industry’s imagination. Though not much talked about, enterprise applications are also being adopted widely esp. in North America as more workers become mobile and corporations seek efficiencies in their operations and supply-chain.
China Mobile overtook Vodafone as the most valued telecom operator in the world which in turn was surpassed by AT&T though China Mobile is likely to get its title back within a few quarters.
Your comments are always welcome.
Chetan Sharma
Downloads:
PPT
Posted by ajit at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
OpenGardens blog – soon to accept advertisements
We are revamping both the OpenGardens blog and Horizon channel and will soon be accepting advertising on both. If that’s of interest, please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com
Posted by ajit at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Horizon channel: Relaunch using a rich FAQ format: seek feedback ..
Hello all
As many of you know, I launched Horizon channel earlier this year. I have been running it in Beta for some time now – trying to understand how to provide the best value to the community
So, based on that feedback (many thanks for that!), here is how I see Horizon channel evolving
Of course, I seek your feedback on this!
Horizon channel is a next generation media channel. The overall objective of the Horizon channel is to showcase the best research, innovation and cutting edge thinking.
The Web, as we know it, is a rich but unvalidated repository of information.
As the web matures, there is an increasing need for validated content. Wikipedia has been successful in covering a range of content but lacks the authority in specific sectors due to its existing format. Thus, we now see sites such as Encyclopaedia of Life which work in specialist niche areas.
Horizon channel aims to emulate this strategy of mastering specific niche topics using the concept of Rich FAQs
Horizon channel is based on the format of a Rich FAQ (Rich frequently asked questions) i.e. an FAQ that includes video and audio in addition to a traditional list of frequently asked questions. The FAQ format is well understood . It lends itself to user generated content and also a moderated FAQ can be used to capture insights about a specific topic from the community and can be fed back to the community in the same format.
Hence, by combining multimedia(embedded video clips), we create a content repository which we call ‘Rich FAQ’. Its characteristics include
- The Rich FAQ is based on a theme which Horizon channel initiate(for example Widgets , Mobile Ajax and Social networking to start off with)
- The Rich FAQ includes multimedia elements(embedded audio and video)
- The Rich FAQ can be enhanced by other users
Horizon channel will provide an NPOV (Neutral point of view). Its editorial skill (including topic identification and validation of changes) is it’s key function
Advertising will be the key revenue model – but other revenue models will also be explored
The first Rich FAQ will be the long overdue Mobile Ajax FAQ followed by one on Mobile Widgets(which includes video podcasts).
We will continue to enhance the FAQs by adding updates, links and more importantly video and audio podcasts. Of course, we welcome your input i.e. if you want to suggest improvements to an FAQ that will be included in subsequent updates provided it is approved.
I seek your thoughts on
a) This format
b) Topics you want us to work with(the three topics we are working on are Mobile Ajax, Widgets and Social networking. What else should we consider?
Many thanks for this!
Posted by ajit at 1:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 21, 2007
Bling software: Over the air mobile ajax client ..
I met Roy Satterthwaite, CEO Bling Software when I spoke at the O Reilly Web 2.0 expo,
Increasingly, the space of 'Javascript running on top of Java APIs' is becoming quite crowded with Sun itself getting into the ring with Java FX. However, Bling is unique because it's client can be distributed over the air!
I have yet to see another company making that claim and it could be disruptive because it solves the client distribution problem and widens the scope of the target audience. I would be interested to hear any views about this approach(or anyone else who claims similar)
From their web site
>>>>
Bling Software is the first and only technology vendor to develop a fully extensible, cross platform, JavaScript interpreter for the mobile handset that is small enough to be distributed with content to consumers over-the-air.
KEY FEATURES
Bling Software is the first and only technology vendor to develop a fully extensible, cross platform, JavaScript interpreter for the mobile handset that is small enough to be distributed with content to consumers over-the-air.
Standards based JavaScript authoring environment for fast and easy development
Asynchronous communications for faster loading and less delays
Easy data integration to existing websites and content via XML (E4X)
Rich media support for audio and video
Infinitely scalable, no server requirements
Over-the-Air downloading and updating of content-small footprint for easy fast and easy loading
Simple elegant declarative XML applications with embedded standard JavaScript
Cross-platform VM. Run across all different kind of handsets and operating systems from different manufacturers
Cross-carrier. Run on all the different operators
<<<
Posted by ajit at 11:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Carnival of the mobilists No 74: Martin Sauter's blog
The 74th Carnival of the mobilists is up and running at Martin Sauter's blog
Posted by ajit at 11:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
social computing v.s. multi nationals
My friend Duane Nickull Senior Technology Evangelist, Adobe Systems posted this on his blog
Duane says:
It occurred to me a natural aspect of social computing is rising up against multi nationals. After getting ripped off by a company named Rheem, I felt compelled to post this on my blog:
His blog entry is HERE
Posted by ajit at 10:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 20, 2007
Mashup event by Tony Fish in London on Location ..
Tony Fish is organizing Mashup* events in London. Mashup events are monthly sessions for digital professionals who want to debate interesting topics.
Registration is open for the next mashup* Event on 19th June. This mashup* event will focus on the value of 'where you are' and aim to address if location is 1.0 and heading South or 2.0 and going North. Within the context of this theme they will be exploring where and what the value of location is. They will cover the value of maps, direction, find, discovery, direction, detection, presence and mashup for both web and mobile but will not cover the technologies that give location.
They already have significant numbers of pre-registrations from those who gained value from previous events, so if you’d like to join please register at Mashup events. They had over 220 people at the last event. The venue is to be confirmed but will be central/ west London.
Posted by ajit at 10:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Mobile Messaging
I am going to extend and revamp this blog soon alongwith horizonchannel.
So, I am forming a number of strategic partnerships. For Mobile messaging, I will be blogging on the blog Mobile messaging. Quite a few people I know(like Chetan, Oliver and Russell are already there. So, should be good
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BI(Before iPhone) v.s. AI(After iPhone) era ..
This is typical Tomi Ahonen post .. very good and insightful ..
Tomi talks of a BI(Before iPhone) and an AI(After iPhone) era looking at all the ways our lives will change from the Era Before the iPhone (BI) and in June entering the Era After the iPhone AI. Not only handset makers but media, advertising, the IT industry etc will all change.
The full post is HERE
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May 19, 2007
Link to download openIMS
Considering my previous post about Frauenhofer Fokus OpenIMS, here are the links to download OpenIMS.
and
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YouTunes: Pink Floyd and why don’t we pay for YouTube?
Today, after many years, I saw a video of a song which had a profound influence on my life.
This is probably my favourite video ever!
The song is Pink Floyd’s ‘Learning to fly’, and I saw it today on YouTube .
I spent (wasted!) most of the afternoon listening to this song.
On YouTube ..
For Free ..
The video of Learning to fly is deeply symbolic and metaphysical . It speaks of a young man leaving his secure existence and then ‘learning to fly’ at the risk of falling off a cliff.
I first heard that song when I was in a boring job in India and considered a job overseas – something which was a huge leap for me since I had never left India at that point.
I will talk more about why this video has deep symbolic meaning ..
However .. I must have viewed it at least 20 times this afternoon.
Why 20 times?
For one thing, I always found live performances of this song(and not the video which I was really looking for) – so even when I could see a DVD in store, there was no way of knowing if the DVD had the video(which I wanted) or the live performance(which I did not want). In case, you don’t know, Pink Floyd is actually more famous for its live performances (So, you get mostly live performances than video in DVDs)
Secondly, the search facility of finding video in YouTube is very useful(metadata is almost as useful as the data) as is a fundamental principle of Web 2.0 and we say in Mobile Web 2.0
Thirdly, the video had many other songs, which I may not like(although that’s not such a big issue in case of Pink Floyd!)
And finally of course, because I love the song and it has a deep meaning for me!
Let’s see where my allegiances lie: There are three players here: The producer(CBS/EMI), the artist(Pink Floyd) and the distributor(YouTube/Google)
Like many people, I am very much ‘pro’ Google.
I am a capitalist – hence I believe that CBS/EMI should get paid.
However, my biggest allegiance lies with Pink Floyd – who I definitely believe should be paid for my viewership!
Thus, most people, like me, are not opposed to paying and in fact, in this case, would be most happy to pay(for this particular song)
So, maybe what’s needed here is a iTunes like model for video (YouTunes!)
Maybe, micro pay for the song ‘third viewing onwards’?
This could well happen in my view
So, now coming back to why this song is so symbolic /metaphysical ..
There are other interpretations of this song – firstly it could be truly about ‘learning to fly’ since Dave Gilmour, who produced it, is a pilot . There is another explanation of ‘getting high’ on other things! But I prefer the metaphysical/transformational interpretation – which was so close to me when I first heard it.
Here is my interpretation ..
A young (possibly American Indian) man works on a mundane job(on a farm)
He is inspired by the hang glider and wants to fly
Cant keep my eyes from the circling skies; Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, i
But there is the sinister scarecrow in the background .. Doubts and the prophets of doom
At some point, the young man decides to fly
He is alone
No navigator to guide my way home
He goes to the cliff
He throws off his coat(his old persona)
He has almost flimsy instruments(feathers for wings) – the odds are against him
For one last time, the scarecrow appears – on the cliff!
And then he takes the leap ..
He flies ..
He soars above the scarecrow’s shack
And he transforms into a hawk .. And is thus metaphysically transformed
And he ends the song with
Theres no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss
Cant keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, i
At the back of it all, there is a spirit who guides him .. as if to counter the evil scarecrow
Metaphorically.. The young man could be me (or you!).. Or for that matter anyone who has left home, embarked on a new venture, left a space of security and so on ..
Thus, it is an archetypal song
In fact, there was one comment on YouTube saying that it signified Dave Gilmour’s decision of managing Pink Floyd solo after Roger Waters left Pink Floyd!
So, I hope I see a (micro) PAID version of YouTube soon .. and that may not be such a bad thing for us all!
Lyrics from lyricsfreak
And here is the video! I hope you enjoy it. Its beautifully made with a wide angle lens(like Peter Jackson’s movies especially the Lord of the Rings)
Many thanks to my friend Claire Louise Hegarty – a Shaman .. for whom I was searching the song in the first place as an example of symbolic/metaphysical music videos.
Posted by ajit at 2:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 18, 2007
Bothered 2.0! By Tony Fish
Note: This post is by Tony Fish May 2007
Source: Tony Fish at etribes
Why does “Eric Schmitt” the CEO of Google say that “mobile, mobile, mobile” is the next opportunity. My viewpoint is that the ownership of mobile originated data is the opportunity.
Within my understanding; 2.0 as a movement is about the network effect, collective intelligence, wisdom of crowds, tribes, clans, clubs and all other manner of long tail matters. Web 2.0 is the passing phase from1.0; which centred on cost reduction and brand values. Moving from 1.0 to 2.0 is the same as moving from separation, isolation and solitude to relationship, engagement and conversation. Consumerism 2.0 will be built on mobility and trust.
Eric Schmitt, the CEO of Google, said “mobile, mobile, mobile” as the next opportunity at the O’Reilly Web2Expo in San Francisco last month, where I was speaking on Mobile Web 2.0. I fully agrees that the mobile platform provides an opportunity that can advance faster and further than any other platform; such as the Web, TV, radio or newspaper. The mobile based form factor will be both the preferred method of IP access globally and, being always with you, will be the prime source of collecting your data or ‘Digital Footprint’, which Google would like to own and exploit!
Our mobile device is not only with us, it is increasingly part of us; it has become for many users the most personal thing. Published research suggests that we notice the loss of the mobile device faster than our wallet. The mobile device, if capable, can capture your ‘Digital Footprint’ [My first impression of this was described as ‘the slug trail’ in Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte 1996. Digital Footprint is also known as a ‘Lifestream.’ ‘Lifestreams’ will soon be structured using APML as a common data interchange format for attention or iPALS - identity, Presence, Attention, Location and Services.] which is our daily actions and activities; when we start moving in the morning, what information was searched, requested or delivered, where we have been, where we stayed and for how long. Relationship analysis using our contact base would detail who we were with and who was nearby. Other Screens of Life [‘Screens of Life’ is a phrase explored in Mobile Web 2.0 as a mechanism to describe how we interact with media; both as a consumer of content and as a creator. The screens of life being Cinema, TV, PC, HeadRest (Airplane or Car), Mobile Device, Informational (iPod)] will be unable to repeat this data collection feat, at best a fixed access Web model may get 10% of the available data of your daily pattern, TV maybe 1%, but the mobile device opens the possibility of 90%
Assuming privacy laws and big brother objections can be overcome, this Digital Footprint of captured data or its aggregated trends has a use and a value. The use is personalisation, the exploitation of personalisation is sales and marketing, the value is based on ownership of Digital Footprints. This Digital Footprint being made up of clicks, attention, location and is the focus of our converged industries. 2.0 as a movement has a fascination with this data, in O’Reilly language ‘the next Intel inside.’ Digital Footprints are about where we have been, for low long, how often and the inter-relationships. Digital Footprints are not about individual identity, passport numbers, bank account details or social security numbers. Digital Footprint metadata comes from the Screens of Life – the digital metadata of who we are, the true value to marketing income based companies who need this data for personalisation and why the ownership of this data is the battle ground to be won and lost, the reason why I speculate that Eric Schmidt wakes up thinking about how to own an individuals mobile metadata before he looks at his email or worries about the value of Double Click or improving the search algorithm.
Bothered 2.0!
I would contend that this Digital Footprint or metadata belongs to me - its creator. However, who will I trust with my Digital Footprint if I don’t want Google, Amazon, Ebay, Vodafone, News Corp or Disney to have ownership of it. I need a trusted, open Digital Footprint store, collecting, collating and serving my metadata, through an open API across all platforms and services. I recognise the value of sharing a Digital Footprint, as it leads to service companies improving my mobile, Web or TV experience through personalisation and offsetting cost. But who should I trust and what should I trust them for; as most 2.0 corporations want my Digital Footprint metadata to justify the business model; as owners of Digital Footprints will control advertising revenue. As Google only controls the Web footprint, control of the mobile is critical, especially as mobile devices adds two whole new classes of unclaimed data platforms, availability and location.
Should I be bothered or not?
Posted by ajit at 12:31 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Seeking feedback: My address to EIF/European parliament - June 5
On June 5, I have been invited to speak at the EIF foundation (www.eifonline.org) at the European parliament in Brussels.
The audience are policy makers from the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission in addition to NGOs and other industry players.
The EIF is a European Parliament and industry collaboration which is really a policy network. They hold open and balances debates on key issues of concern. The speakers usually come from government, academia, consulting, industry or NGOs - essentially every stakeholder group.
So, I will be giving the opening vision speech at the dinner which talks about Web 2.0, Mobile Web 2.0 and beyond. This is a broad vision and I will be covering
- Web 2.0, Definition, Significance, Evolution
- Mobile Web 2.0 and User generated content
- Convergence and the wider impact on society
- From information overflow to relevance (communities, taxonomies and information sharing)
- Emerging business models, architectures and technologies
This is indeed a unique opportunity and I thank MEP Piia Noora-Kauppi for it.
I have an overall vision of Open standards, Open Gardens, converged networks (speeding up deployments of WiFi, Wimax, Mobile TV etc ) etc which will be of course reflected in this vision.
I would welcome your feedback as to what can be covered here(considering my topic and the audience – i.e. policy makers).
I would also like to thank Sean Paavo Krepp Deputy Head, Nokia EU Representative Office for suggesting my name for this!
Posted by ajit at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Web 2.0 / Social media business models research study - VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland
This study by the VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland may be useful for you.
Their summary is:
"Social media is becoming more and more attractive to Web users. However, the majority of social media services do not have a clear business model. Typically an innovative idea gives birth to a service, which people can use free of charge. The most common way to create revenue is via advertisements: Google ads appear in many services. In the long run, however, social media has to adopt alternative means for making money.
At the moment there are a few alternative business models, of which four larger themes are reported: Crowd-sourcing, revenue sharing between services and users, developing and selling underlying technologies, and adopting social media tools and approaches for professional use. Some examples of these approaches already exist.
The report also identifies and defines some core concepts of social media, as well as investigates various phenomena co-occurring with social media, namely user activeness, identity, copyrights, mobility, trust, and side-effects. These phenomena should be kept in mind when designing and launching social media products and services."
The full report is: (pdf) HERE
Any comments welcome and I shall try to add to it
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May 16, 2007
Carnival of the mobilists: No 73 at Xen's blog ..
The carnival is up at xen's blog. Always a good read! see HERE
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California tech showcase: An opportunity for California based companies in Europe ..
In June, I am giving a keynote at California tech showcase in France. This should be a great conference to attend for networking opportunities (and not just because I am giving the keynote!– read the post below to
find more)
This conference should be interesting since the audience will be CIOs/CTOs from the Euro 500 and the companies will be Californian companies.
I think there is still some company slots they are looking for, so if that’s of interest(only companies based in California contact me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com – and I shall introduce you to the organizers)
Personally, it’s great to be invited to give a keynote here since I have now been focussing so much on the USA and especially the West coast – considering expansion of futuretext and Horizon channel. Thus, there is a contra need for this type of conference – for US companies coming here. Also, it’s more oriented to ‘sales’ i.e. tangible results because audience is decision makers and influencers in Europe – and it is difficult to meet them all under one roof. So, the payoff may be just one deal which you could strike in Europe especially since there is a lot happening here when it comes to mobile, convergence etc etc
And then there is the synergies with the world investment forum conference.
In addition, the California tech showcase is held in conjunction with a much larger conference called World investment conference – held at the same venue
The world investment conference is a mini-Davos economic forum. There will be prime ministers, the president of the EU, and also ministers of trade, commerce, foreign affairs, and CxOs there, as well as global press coverage of the two events (Wall Street Journal,
International Herald Tribune, CNBC, EuroNews, BBC, BSkyB, CNN, etc). This year’s focus is green technology.
There is no cost to apply. And just by applying, companies get exposure to the selection committee, which includes senior execs from British Telecom, Siemens, T-Mobile, SAP, Société Générale, ST Microelectronics, and Electricité de France.
(Note the final agenda will change over the next few days - but broadly the theme is as above)
Please contact me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com if you are interested in attending
Posted by ajit at 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IMS :Seeing is believing, Fraunhofer FOKUS ,Open IMS, Mobile Web 2.0 and IMS
I spent a fascinating day on Monday at Fraunhofer FOKUS at the invitation of Dr Thomas Magedanz – Director of the Competence centre – (Next generation networks) - pdf bio and Niklas blum - the deputy head of Fraunhofer fokus.
Fraunhofer FOKUS is a part of the Fraunhofer Institute, one of the world's largest research institutes - based in Berlin
From their web site ..
>>>
Fraunhofer FOKUS provides R&D services for the development of seamless personalizable communication systems at all stages of the innovation process – from the original innovative idea and project-related R&D right through to testing, prototype development and implementation.
<<<
Fraunhofer fokus is best known for Open IMS playground, which you can download here for free from their link
At Frauenhofer fokus itself, there is a lot more development around Next generation networks(which includes IMS). Thus, the full setup at frauenhofer fokus includes the software plus the hardware setup – for instance IPTV, DVB-H etc.
This is of interest to me .. because of my work on Mobile Web 2.0 and IMS.
I spoke at IMS world in Monaco recently. See my views on the state of play of IMS HERE, HERE and HERE
My problem with IMS can be encapsulated by ‘There is so much more to IMS – especially network abstractions and SDP – but Operator after Operator talks only about Voice!’
I discussed this with Thomas, who was also a speaker at the event, and then Thomas invited me to visit their labs in Berlin.
Their motto is ‘Demo or Die’ – a nice attitude compared to so many in the industry!
I must say, when you see some of the IMS demos in action(including convergence scenarios around IPTV, DVB-H etc), the power of IMS is apparent – provided there is a vision to create new services. I could see the vision at Frauenhofer fokus; but sadly not at most of the Operators speaking at IMS world(the three exceptions, in my view, being : Telecom Italia Mobile, Telia sonera and T-mobile)
The frauenhofer institute has very good synergies for my work .. because to explore Mobile Web 2.0 and IMS – I have to be able to understand the network. If I work with equipment vendors, I make my research proprietary and limited. Hence, by working with the Frauenhofer fokus, I can be agnostic of the network elements(and infact can get the best features of many network equipment manufacturers). In addition, I can extend my understanding to IPTV, Mobile TV etc ..
Of course, many of you know that I am also doing a PhD in a related topic .. so this is of interest to me in more than one levels.
So, expect a lot more from me with exploring Mobile Web 2.0/IMS working with Frauenhofer fokus(including perhaps a book called Mobile Web 2.0 and IMS)
Have a look at the OpenIMS platform which you can download from the link above
Posted by ajit at 2:26 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
May 15, 2007
In praise of US customs and border security force ..
Every time I visit America, it’s very nice to note the helpful nature of the US border security forces.
For instance, this time round, a young mother with kids needed some help and indeed she was moved up the queue. These folk work under some difficult conditions and perhaps don’t always get the kudos they deserve – hence this blog
Posted by ajit at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 14, 2007
Ajaxworld feedback - Mobile Ajax
I have been meaning to blog this for a while, but obviously I have been delayed with all my travels
I spoke at Ajaxworld in March
When I first started talking about Mobile Ajax, I was a lonely voice. Today, with support from Nokia – following the pioneering efforts of Opera and Soonr, Mobile Ajax has become very much mainstream - especially through Widgets.
Practically every Mobile browser vendor and device manufacturer has some form of Mobile Ajax support now – and those who did not until too late are in trouble (for instance Openwave)
I first started speaking about Mobile Ajax at Ajaxworld and every Ajaxworld I speak at, the audience becomes bigger and bigger.
Here is some feedback from the last Ajaxworld I spoke at (in March in New York)
richard monson-haefel sr. analyst, burton group
says
>>>>
Ajit,
It was a pleasure to meeting you at Ajax world. Your insights on Mobile Ajax and Mobile Web 2.0 were very interesting. I agree that Mobile Ajax and Widgets are going to play a major role in the development of the mobile platform and the web in general - I'm less sure about WICD. I also found your insights about the iPhone and its probable use of Ajax at the operating system level very intriguing - it explains why Jobs was bashing Java ME and Adobe Flash.
Also, thank you for the copy of your book "Mobile Web 2.0". It is an excellent read (I read most of it on the flight home) and I plan to keep up with your blog every day. In short, I hope we can continue to talk about the developing "Mobile Web 2.0" space and mobile application development in general - your insights are extremely important to my research.
All the best,
Richard(His company blog is HERE
<<<
Richard from mobitree posted the following(and it seems he came to Ajaxworld only to listen to my talk .. I am flattered!)
>>>>
What I learned at AJAXWorld
Posted by Rich
Last Monday I ran into Manhattan for a day to attend a little bit ofAJAXWorld. I just bought a day pass so I could go to Ajit Jaokar’s talk, “Deploying Web-Based Applications to Mobile Devices Using AJAX Techniques“, but I also got to run around to some booths.
Things I learned:
• Laszlo is working with Sun to be able to compile Laszlo AJAX apps to run as J2ME.
• Adobe Apollo is going mobile… at some point. When I pressed about how they see Apollo and Flash Lite competing, I couldn’t get a straight answer.
Ajit’s talk was great - a nice primer of why, when and a little bit of how to use mobile AJAX. Of course Soonr was used as the golden child of mobile AJAX, but it just emphasized the big mobile browser fragmentation problem. All the cool AJAXy stuff doesn’t work on my Windows Mobile device, but yet Pocket IE claims to have limited AJAX support.
What it basically comes down to is browsers claiming “AJAX!” when they really just support XMLHttpRequest, but don’t have the depth of Javascript support or DOM manipulation to back it up.
So the big question of “Will the mobile web be a unifying element on phones?” in my opinion is still not answered - even though Ajit thinks that browsers will evolve and standardize to make it so. Right now, to play the mobile AJAX game, you’re limited to Opera (not mini), Nokia’s S60 and up browsers, and… um.. Yeah that’s it.
Then there’s the iPhone. Disruptive? Oh yes, but in what way we don’t know yet. If they really just throw full-blown Safari on a mobile, you are really limited by CPU horsepower and battery drain. Try running GMail and Google Maps on a battery-driven device for a while an all that asynchronous network updating will suck it dry. So there is still a need to create a nice mobile AJAX standard to optimize for these types of devices.
Will WICD’s mobile profile become that standard? It’s still super early, but I’ll let you decide. Check out this primer by Daniel Appelquist. What about AHAH? Sure it limits what you can do on the device, but simplifying asynchronous updates to just blocks of XHTML certainly addresses power consumption. Forget about your cool real-time image zooming in the browser though.
So what would I pick right now if I don’t want to become a porting house? Straight XHTML. If you can figure out a streamlined, simple UI for your service that can get your logic completely serverside - do it.
<<<<
Posted by ajit at 5:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The mobile Ajax FAQ coming this week …
This is a post designed to put pressure on me :)
The mobile Ajax FAQ coming this week …(finally!)
This week, we plan to release our FAQ on Mobile Ajax. So, watch this space …
Bryan and Rocco have been doing some great work while I have been jetting around .. and thus the main bottleneck … But this week, we launch!
Thanks for all your help Bryan and Rocco
Posted by ajit at 12:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 13, 2007
Widget development workshop: London May 17
When: Thursday May 17, 10 am
Where: Liverpool street address as per THIS link
How long: Half day workshop
Cost : £20. For payment, and confirmation, please pay by paypal at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com. Note confirmation is necessary by payment since it’s not a very big room!
Who is the presenter?
GANESH SIVARAMAN: Senior Product Marketing Manager, Software Platforms, Nokia
Ganesh Sivaraman has global marketing responsibility for creating awareness, interest, and excitement of the highly acclaimed Web Browser for S60, the world’s leading smartphone platform, to consumers, customers, partners and the like. Prior to joining S60 Browser Application, he was in charge of application management of S60 Rich Call and had the global responsibility for product creation, management and strategic direction. He also represented Nokia as the lead delegate in mobile standardization bodies, such as SyncML and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), as co-chairman in SyncML and vice-chairman in OMA Data Synchronization groups. He has been with Nokia since 2000 and has a master's in science degree in Electronics
Agenda
Overview
- Why widgets are important for mobile?
- Biz opportunity for widgets on mobile
- how does S60 enable Widget development?
- What is the product offering?
How to develop widgets?
- briefly touch on how existing Web page development tools can be
leveraged to develop widgets
demos
Q and A
Please note that you have to confirm by paypal (ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com)
Posted by ajit at 9:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Håkon Wium Lie CTO of Opera software - Significance of Widgets - Web and Mobile
I am reposting this podcast because I am now looking at Widgets very strategically. We recently did this podcast with Opera (Håkon Wium Lie ) and we are also doing more with Nokia(see following post)
Expect a lot more talk of Widgets/books on Widgets etc etc
Posted by ajit at 9:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
futuretext announces a partnership with Hinchcliffe & Company
I am very happy about this! The official press release says it all ..
Press Release:
PR Contacts:
Rob Vonderhaar
Hinchcliffe & Company
P: +1 703 297 8670
robv@hinchcliffeandco.com
Ajit Jaokar
Futuretext
ajit.jaokar@futuretext.com
Hinchcliffe & Company Partners with Futuretext to Bring Web 2.0 University Event to London
International Authorities on Enterprise Web 2.0 Combine Forces to Address Growing European Demand for Premium Web 2.0 Education
Alexandria, VA and London, England – May 8, 2007 – Hinchcliffe & Company, the acknowledged leader in Web 2.0 education and consulting services, today announced a partnership with London-based Futuretext to bring its ground-breaking Web 2.0 University™ program to London for the first time on July 24, 2007.
This first international delivery of its flagship event, the Web 2.0 Bootcamp™, will be co-presented by noted industry thought leaders Dion Hinchcliffe and Ajit Jaokar. The event provides business and technical leaders alike with a solid overview of the latest Web 2.0 trends and strategies to grow online revenue, build competitive advantage, and improve customer interaction.
“The rapid success of our Web 2.0 University illustrates the intense interest in Web 2.0 from businesses across every size and market category,” said Dion Hinchcliffe, president and CTO of Hinchcliffe & Company. “It also reflects the organization-wide need to understand Web 2.0 concepts and how to transform business models to leverage these new rules for doing business online.”
“A recent McKinsey study indicates that Enterprise Web 2.0 has now become mainstream,” added Ajit Jaokar, founder and CEO of Futuretext. “Mirroring a global trend, Web 2.0 is also growing within the enterprise space in Europe. Hinchcliffe and Company’s Web 2.0 University events are the premier education programs in the industry, and we are excited about working with them to bring this event to European enterprises.”
Although details of the London event are still being finalized, online registration is now open by visiting http://web20university.com.
About Hinchcliffe and Company
Hinchcliffe & Company is the acknowledged leader in Web 2.0 education and consulting services. Through a strategic partnership with O’Reilly Media, the firm that introduced the term ‘Web 2.0’ to the industry, the company helps organizations worldwide transform their products, services, and processes to fully exploit Web 2.0 concepts and technologies.
Its Web 2.0 University courses have rapidly become acknowledged as the premier Web 2.0 training events and are now offered regularly in key cities across the U.S. Customized versions of these events have also been selected for delivery at major industry conferences operated by CMP Media, SYS-CON Events, IDG Events and more. Over 1200 technical and business professionals have attended Web 2.0 University courses as of May, 2007.
The company is headed by Dion Hinchcliffe, recognized as a key industry leader and visionary in Web 2.0 and social networking. In addition to consulting directly with clients, he serves as editor-in-chief for both the Web 2.0 Journal and AjaxWorld Magazine and writes hugely popular blogs for ZDNet and SYS-CON. Dion also presents and chairs tracks for a number of major industry conferences. The company’s corporate website is hinchcliffeandco, and information about Web 2.0 University is at web20university.
About Futuretext
Founded in 1999, Futuretext is a London-based publishing company specializing in mobility, digital convergence and other emerging technologies. Its authors include industry visionaries such as Tomi Ahonen, Tony Fish, Mark Curtis, Alan Moore and Rakesh Radhakrishnan, whose books serve as key resources for decision-makers and entrepreneurs globally.
Futuretext’s founder and CEO is Ajit Jaokar, an innovator and pioneer in the mobile data industry. Ajit is the author of Mobile Web 2.0 and is a member of the Web 2.0 Workgroup. His OpenGardens blog was recently rated a ‘top 20’ wireless blog worldwide and is syndicated on the W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative/Planet Mobile.
Ajit chairs Oxford University’s next-generation mobile applications panel. He is a regular speaker at technology events worldwide and has delivered recent keynotes and seminars at 3GSM, Web 2.0 Expo, Stanford University, and MIT Sloan among others. For more information, visit futuretext. Ajit’s blog can be found at www.opengardensblog.futuretext.com.
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