You are not logged in [login] | [register]
RSS MAD is both an RSS feed archive and online feed reader.
You can browse our categories, search for a feed, or if you already have a URL, use our online feed reader.
Simply start browsing the site, and if you find some feeds you like, register to view them on your own personalized page!
you are here: home » computers & internet » network & wireless
Searching 180802 articles in 8938 feeds.
Do you like RSS MAD? Why not spread the news and tell a friend about it - it's as easy as filling out this form!
added: Wed, 28th September 2005 | 383 views | 0x in favourites
feed url: http://www.zelosgroup.com/rss/wirelessApplicationsResea...
Market for new wireless services and the market impact of mobile platforms.
The combination of offline, online and phone-based search applications for databases and listings products is a $65 billion market today. New advances in search and related technologies are ramping up the volume, thus creating new forms of paid search. Rather than give up the battle in the face of Google, integrated service providers should capitalize on owning two of three converging accelerants – location sentience and full-featured handsets (FFH) – that when combined with search evolution create powerful new user experiences.
Portals will vie with carriers in the photo applications market. Yahoo is trailing a path that others such as Google and MSN are sure to follow – as its Mobile Photo upload service provides a mechanism to monetize relationships established on the Web in the mobile domain.
Whereas sister News Corp divisions typically publish their own mobile game titles, Twentieth Century Fox has allowed their IP to be repurposed and published by a third party. Fox clearly views the mobile game as little more than a promotional conduit.
Public filings by JAMDAT and SEVEN Networks are a signal that the market for wireless applications is exiting infancy. Investments are risky in a hit-driven market environment where carrier business models are being redefined.
To succeed the OMTP must articulate a detailed technology roadmap for wireless Java. While operators are promoting an implementation by Savaje, buy in from others such as Aplix and Nokia will be essential.
New BREW-based services aim to disintermediate the live agent 411 revenue-per-call model. Because they are available as downloads that carry per-month or per-day charges, they make the subscription model, which has been so elusive in the past, within reach on selected phones offered by selected carriers.
Java and BREW are the two leading platforms used to download and run applications on mobile handsets. Java 2 Micro Edition, or J2ME, is the lightweight variant of the Java platform that has been adapted for use on mobile devices. BREW is a Qualcomm platform designed specifically to support a marketplace for applications and application components downloaded to mobile handsets.
Openwave’s acquisition of Magic4 establishes it as the clear leader in a highly competitive market for handset services software. The company still has work ahead to build a fully integrated handset platform for a market seeking modular solutions.
With about 15 percent of mobile subscribers expressing a strong need for a mechanism to backup contacts entered on mobile handsets, and interest expressed in backing up other handset content, Zelos Group estimates that current addressable market for mobile data backup (MDB) is between 15 percent and 20 percent of cellular subscribers.
New proprietary client/server architectures for delivering media to mobile devices are unproven. To succeed, providers of mobile media delivery (MMD) platforms should seek to integrate the social and viral communications contexts of mobility.
The wireless applications sector should rethink its focus on hard core gamers and mobile professionals. Survey data show that females and young consumers have a significantly higher propensity to adopt most mobile interactive services and advanced handset features.
To succeed in the handheld console business Nokia needs exclusive launch titles for its N-Gage. Ports of existing titles will not give Nokia the traction needed to compete with entrenched leader Nintendo. Nokia’s only differentiator is support for wireless multiplayer gaming – a feature it must promote aggressively.
The partnership between Vodafone and Warner Bros. further legitimizes the wireless channel. Carriers’ standard settlement terms will have to be renegotiated now that partnerships are closing with much larger media companies. As major media brands enter the market, pure plays will start to get squeezed out.
Its announced selection of Encorus as payment processor is an effort by Simpay to show further progress. The launch of carrier branded interactive services offerings may relegate the Simpay brand to the nascent market for offline payments when it launches in 2005.
The U.S. market for wireless applications will attract serious attention from major media brands as revenues from content pass the $500 million mark in 2004. The industry environment will be shaped by M&A activity as major vendors seek to pull together components of a supporting infrastructure.
Efforts by several major vendors to push through interoperability for push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) will fail. Any interoperable standard will result from experience garnered from trial deployments giving Nokia a strong say in its eventual shape.
The launch of Mobilevision signals the impending arrival of several major sports brands to the mobile video medium. Microsoft’s mobile video strategy is being further shaped by third parties like Vidiator and Oplayo.
Through its partnership with Yahoo, BT is adding a fourth dimension to its “Triple Play” services (voice, data and broadband) by adding personalization, real-time control of bandwidth consumption and content on demand to the services menu. The partnership shows how an integrated carrier will compete with the rapidly receding AOL for Broadband service.
The OSGi Alliance provides a new venue to foster the creation of a device middleware industry by launching the Mobile Expert Group (MEG). While the thinking behind the use of OSGi technology in the mobile domain is solid, handset resource constraints will limit its near-term potential to full-featured handsets.
In its 14th acquisition over the past several years, IBM plugs Product Information Management software play Trigo into its ever-expanding middleware stack. This new kind of PIM touches rich product and features data that can drive pervasive commerce.
Validation of VoiceSignal’s progress in the OEM handset space comes from rival Scansoft in the form of a patent infringement suit. While, as VS maintains, this may be “sour grapes” after acquisition talks between the two companies broke down, resolution of this case could have significance for carrier-facing speech developers.
Content publishers have struggled to do business with Cingular and will bemoan its acquisition of AT&T Wireless. The deal represents a new opportunity for providers of managed CRM and interactive services infrastructure.
Research In Motion (RIM) is well positioned to survive pressure from competing handset OEMs and wireless email gateway vendors. It has a well-articulated strategy to coexist with Microsoft. Solid finances, a large installed base, and co-branding options make it a safe, non-threatening option for carriers and enterprises.
Nokia’s announced acquisition of Psion’s stake in Symbian is not a big surprise and will have no major near term impact. Over the long term Linux licensees and PalmSource will benefit by positioning themselves as providers of open alternatives to platforms from Nokia and Microsoft.
Release 2.0 of OMA's DRM (digital rights management) specification will not have any discernible market impact for at least two years. A strong chance exists, however, that mobile handsets will become the first venue for broad adoption of an agreed scheme for DRM for digital distribution of complex media types like music files or electronic games
Nintendo’s new DS handheld is an expensive gadget for a niche within the hardcore gamer market. The DS represents a third product line for Nintendo and will not replace the Game Boy Advance. While Nintendo has the resources to provide superb software for the DS, third party publishers are unlikely to invest in the platform as development costs will be prohibitive and the installed base will be miniscule.
Adoption of full-feature handsets - devices based on full-feature OSes (operating systems) such as Palm, Linux or Windows Mobile - represents the next stage of the market for mobile handsets. These devices will provide significantly greater design flexibility to OEMs, ease the process of launching new mobile interactive services, and put new advanced computing capabilities in the pockets of consumers.
Hewlett-Packard’s iPod/iTunes distribution deal with Apple insures that it secures a portion of the primary revenue stream from music distribution which is sales of devices. Microsoft loses a potentially key partner for its portable media player.
Sprint's wireless services are at the heart of a new focus on service bundling. While its strategy is somewhat novel compared with strategies of competing mobile carriers, Sprint's focus on pragmatic innovation should yield dividends in 2004.
Text-to-speech is just beginning to make its presence felt among popular messaging services. E-mail reading, news reading and turn-by-turn directions should be next. Although SMS has been wildly popular in Europe, thanks largely to GSM (Global Standard for Mobile) and its support of inter-carrier messaging, carriers must keep introducing enhancements in order to justify the costs that users incur.
Despite ATI’s launch of new 3D co-processor for mobile handsets, 3D hardware acceleration will not be widely deployed in handsets for several years. While ATI is touting the IMAGEON 2300’s graphics capabilities for enhanced game-play, the chip’s primary application will likely be driven by video and still images.
The latest iteration of Verizon’s Lord of the Rings promotion is elegantly executed. Combining cash and prizes sweepstakes and tournaments with compelling content based on a successful license is an effective way to get subscribers hooked on mobile entertainment.
BellSouth’s decision to deploy MMS infrastructure from Openwave is a boost for the infrastructure company and helps to reestablish it a credible contender in a market that has been dominated by Nokia and Ericsson
The market for ring-back tones is evolving rapidly as carriers in the U.S. and Europe plan to launch services 2004. In a sign of what may come to be in markets for other content formats, major carriers will work directly with labels rather than content aggregators who cannot provide a great deal of additional value.
Intel’s write-off of certain wireless assets will result in lower-priced silicon for full-feature handsets and less investment dollars and other cash inducements for wireless application companies.
The FUD Factor (referring to “fear, uncertainty and doubt”) surrounding November 24 extends far beyond portability for wireless numbers. Unintended consequences will effect telemarketers, fixed line carriers, application developers, and handset manufacturers far more than the average wireless subscriber.
Through its merger with iPin to create Valista, Network365 fleshes out its offering to include a credible micro-transactions platform. Further consolidation can be expected in the mobile payments market as QPass seeks international expansion and major billing infrastructure companies focus on the sector.
“Pervasive imaging” is the best way to describe the combination of proliferating camera phones, wireless image transmission over Bluetooth and physical kiosks. As Zelos Group has maintained for some time now, a key aspect of pervasive technology is how it sneaks up on us.
The market for streaming services is being shaped by pragmatic moves on the part of content aggregators to address the installed base of “streaming ready” devices rather than waiting for standards-based technologies to be deployed. The distribution deal between Italy’s Acotel and helloNetwork exemplifies the trend.
Implementing an infrastructure for sharing common short codes (CSCs) in the U.S. is the first step in creating a new channel for telemedia services. Along with providing a new mechanism for direct response media, CSCs will threaten the primacy of 411 as a venue for enhanced directory applications.
It's back to the future for embedded speech as Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit - as opposed to the Speech BU - takes responsibility for rolling out speaker-independent voice command software for handheld devices running the PocketPC or PocketPC Phone Edition (2003) operating system.
Zelos Group revised its projections for the wireless gaming market to $77 million in 2003 in response to higher than expected use of services such as Verizon’s Get It Now, substantially higher price points for game content, and broad support for subscription-based pricing.
As mobile “pure-plays” earn real revenues, major media companies are beginning to allocate more than experimental dollars to wireless application initiatives. Handset platforms now provide a decent consumer experience. Carriers are providing open channels and API links for download and payment and are pursuing clearly articulated business models.
Its agreement with Vodafone to devise implementations of Web services standards makes Microsoft a more credible contender to provide infrastructure for wireless applications. Microsoft competitors should embrace the initiative a positive step for the industry and use it as an opportunity to promote Web services strategies in the wireless sector.
Only 10 percent of wireless subscribers call DA “at least once a month.” Still, at an average of $1.45 per call - plus minutes of use - DA is one of the top revenue enhancers for wireless carriers. The Cellular Telephone and Internet Association (CTIA) must balance caller convenience against wireless subscribers' inherent concerns over privacy.
Spam, which accounts for about 1 percent of all wireless messages, will become considerably more burdensome as mobile messaging infrastructures adopt Internet protocols. No quick legislative or technical fixes exist, and carriers must move carefully when adopting more open approaches to mobile messaging.
RealNetworks’ pragmatic multi-pronged approach in the mobile sector should serve as an example to other multimedia technology vendors. Ownership of a popular file format does not guarantee success and companies like Macromedia must play an active role in creating viable markets for mobile content.
For desk-bound users, avatars are a mature Web application employing both digital animation and text-to-speech technologies. Now Pulse, Digital Animation Group, and Anthropics (among others) rightly look to the growing installed base of wireless phones with color screens as a greenfield for carrier-provided avatar-based experience.
Rather than view the proliferation of new mobile terminals as a threat, Directory Assistance/Enquiry (DA/DQ) operators should eye opportunities to host and update network address books.
In a survey of almost 1,300 mobile subscribers, respondents were more likely to express strong interest in using push-to-talk or photo messaging services compared with other new network interactive applications. Over 20 percent were strongly predisposed to using these services compared with about 14 percent that currently access or expressed strong interest in accessing email.
» more
» more
Is RSS MAD missing something? Tell us about new feeds here.