Silicon Valley Himalayan Expedition

Carnival of the Mobilists #71

A pleasure to be hosting the 71st Carnival, which must mean it has been at least a year since I hosted last.  Congratulations to the great people who have been making this happen week over week.  For me hosting represents my best chance to dive into a world of divergent perspectives, new ideas and amazing analysis within the industry.

For me, the best post of the week was Ricky Cadden's Why I Won't Use a Music Phone (Yet) posted at Symbian-Guru.com.  I think it's such an important topic in the upcoming release of the iPhone as operators are nervous about taking on Apple heads on with music related devices.  Ricky's first bullet point nails it in my view though: ease of transfer.  iTunes, the music store and the consumer integration experience that goes with them is Apple's competitive edge.

Mark Logan presents Mobile Marketing Principles posted at bemomobi.  While Mark humbly points out that it's not rocket science, he is starting to put a framework together that clients can actually understand and reference.  If you are at all working within mobile advertising, I'd join in on the discussion with Mark.

On the same topic of mobile marketing, Troy Norcross writes about Mobile Measurement – The right end of the stick? posted at Mobile Marketing & SPAM.  This is an insightful piece reminding advertisers to really understand their campaigns, and not just run them.  A useful point - don't worry about it too much, just do it in some way!

Tim Trent presents SMS - Text Message - Marketing is scary for permissions posted at Marketing by Permission.  As someone involved in SMS marketing, this is a good reminder post.  Do you know what a director of mobile marketing told me at a major record label before signing our contract:  "You are the first mobile company where I joined an sms list and did not receive spam."  Wow.

This post titled Global Wireless Data Market Update 2006 by Chetan Sharma at Always On Real-Time Access almost made my favorite for the week, only because I love data so much (and for some reason when it's free I love it even more).   If you're into data to help run your mobile business, go see what Chetan and his smart team is reporting on what is going on.

Leaping over to the application side, Zach presents TalkinSilent by Silent Communication posted at Nokia S60 3rd Edition Applications Review.  This app is pretty wild - I'm a huge believer in multi-modal use cases (I'm dying to try out one of the voice to sms voice mail service for example).  I don't know if it can be done as successfully in real-time as these guys are trying but fun to learn about it.

At the end of the post, Zach talks about the difficulty in buying the app, which is what Little Springs Design's post titled on-selling applications is all about at the Little Springs Design blog.  They've put down some specific ideas to help bolster the methods for better selling and point out that if application junkies don't get excited, then how are ordinary consumers supposed to!

We know many operators think they already do ok at this, so you have to appreciate Tarek Esber in his post Operators, Internet Telephony & The N95  on the tarek speaks mobile blog.  He's trying to strike the balance between his passion for and commitment to an open carrier phone network (where operators don't mess with phones and apps) and the realities of an industry.

You can bet that Tarek hasn't seen anything yet if Google releases its own phone, which is a nice lead into Jimmy Atkinson's Five Things I Want Google Phone to Offer that iPhone Won't posted at VoIP Now.  I guess I am not the only one who looks to Google to solve all of the worlds needs.   I like his open platform point - I think you're going to see an operator embrace a hacker phone in a big way, but I'm guessing Google's to mature at this point to offer it.

Ajit at Open Gardens really covered these points and a whole lot more when he moderated a panel with carriers (an assignment he could not refuse) and wrote about it in the post How should Operators integrate third parties into their network.   Here's his view: in an IP world, as the Mobile Internet mirrors the Internet, the Operator should focus on the core of the network and leave the edge of the network to third parties.

I can't help but think of a similar post I wrote when I read Ajit's comment, and also Erik Starck's The Mobile OS of the future is... posted at The Mobile Web Tablet.  Not to kill the drama of the title, but he thinks it's the web.  Here's a challenge remaining with the promise of the mobile web - this morning I dropped by for the opening remarks of a conference at Stanford that turned out to be tomorrow.  When I got there I was confused so to learn why no one else was there, I decided to phone my friend vs. looking it up on the mobile web (Verizon Edge).  So if basic information collection isn't a slam dunk yet, how long until mobile web apps are?  Or would that just be a North American behaviour?  (Or worse, the CEO of a Palo Alto mobile company - yikes).

A quick aside on mobile content (surprisingly the only post in this area this week) before getting more technical...  Jason at Skydeck makes the bold call that content will be free.  Given the statistics he kicks off the post with, it's hard to see it happening all too rapidly without the full arrival of an open mobile web supported by the carriers. 

Think tank Vision Mobile Forum on its blog delivers an excellent outline of issues facing the SIM industry in a post titled Prague or Berlin.   Andreas Constantinou covers two recent conferences and offers his own insights in this must read for anybody trying to figure out where SIM is headed.

Malcolm Lithgow discusses the "Command Line Interface" (aka CLI) and presents A bit more on the CLI posted at Smart Dreaming: smartphone industry commentary.  There is a lot of discussion happening about CLI  happening in the industry (and particularly SMS in the US).  CLI and graphical user interfaces are the most successful whenever the user reward:user input ratio is highest, so that ratio can be put to the test in the head to head debate.

And close to finally, young Tarek El Ghazali in Egypt at Symbiano Tek provides a short and useful definition for what is S60. 

In the horribly conflicted category, Justin Oberman at Mopocket writes about an amazing comedy group called the Late Night Players and points to the production of a Spiderman text your adventure that uses keywords from my company Mozes.  Go text your chosen fate for Spidey.

I believe Steve Litchfield is next week's host.  Should be interesting given the title of his blog:  rants and raves.  I can think of at least one I'll try to submit.  Hope you enjoyed this week's Carnival!

"If you can't run a business without advertising..."

Russell Buckley had a great post about a year ago called "Who gave Google permission to be the judge and jury of mobile content".   If you haven't read it, you should, but I'll summarize: Google alters users' mobile experience by repurposing content if you get to the page via Google mobile search or, as I learned in the scenario below, via Gmail on the phone's browser.  You may not have time to read the 55 comments that Russell's post generated, but there are some good  ones, including my favorite from a defender of Google.  In response to the possibility that Google might strip out ads, he wrote: "I don't want to see your ads.... If you can’t run a business without advertising, I don’t think you should bother."  Right on brother!

I stumbled into the issue Friday when our intern from last summer wrote on my wall in Facebook.  It was the first such post (feel free to go wild) and I was excited to get the message in my gmail while waiting for a flight at LAX.  When I clicked through to read it, I was required to login to Facebook but encountered a slight problem:  the entry forms were disabled so I couldn't enter a user id or password.   The fix exists: you just have to switch to regular html which Google allows you to do way down at the bottom, after of course it gives you the chance to bail out from this "broken" Facebook site back to Google home.

Google's biggest defenders like the one above who cite Google's obsessive history of improving the user experience probably can acknowledge a slip up now and then.  Yet it is easy to take issue with Google's general approach to the user and mobile when almost any mobile search you do on Google reveals exactly one ad and zero search results on the screen.  I'm not sure what kind of success Cellfire has in offering a free video on the mobile device, but you've got to appreciate the prime spot they get in results for an LA Restaurant.  Perhaps a more absurd example is the search for driving directions, where the first and only click on the screen is actually an ad for Mapquest called "Driving Directions".  Don't blame me for thinking that's actually a relevant search result!  It reminds me of that old saying they had at Google in the early years: "If you can't run a business without advertising..."

The future of wireless

As an entrepreneur, it is often hard not to get carried away with possibilities for the future.  Many, not all, entrepreneurs have a strong passion to do something different and creative, and it's not just about money.  The idea of instigating change that may affect a large amount of people 5 or 10 years out can be exciting in of itself.  If you do want to make any money, however, it's pretty important to think about how you can improve the present lives of people around you.

As I walked around the CTIA conference last  week, I was struck by how many companies were pitching "the future of wireless".  There is just  something so wrong about that theme, which I feel has hung around the wireless market for 10 years.  Everytime I encountered the concept, I kept thinking to myself - why don't any of these companies want to be the present of wireless?  It is no wonder that the 250 location based services companies of 1998 have been replaced by the 250 of today.

When I was selling enterprise software for my previous company, I kept reminding myself and the sales team to sell in the context of present conditions, and not the future promise.  We were definitely introducing some very new concepts to some old style folks, and it was not uncommon because of our own excitement by the future to get carried away with all things we might one day be able to do for the customer.   I soon realized that it is almost always impossible to sell the future to anyone because by definition it doesn't exist.   The minute you paint a picture for what the future could be like, you are on an immediate downhill ride when it comes time for the customer to start really evaluating how you compare to it.  The quickest path to close any sale was to solve an immediate problem that customer was having today.

It's not that the possibilities for the future don't exist or shouldn't be discussed at all: they do entice people to enter into discussions in the first place.  It's just that what really matters to people who matter to a business is how you can affect and improve their lives today.   It was a great reminder for any mobile company:  if you want to be the future of wireless, you better make sure you are 100% focused on what you can do for people today.

Carnival of the Mobilists No. 20

Great to host such an outstanding  group of writers for this week's carnival.

My recommended reading is from Rudy De Waele (from m-trends.org writing at gotomobile blog) for his post about context and the mobile web.  Why?  Because I think context and user behaviour is one of the most important things anyone creating mobile services should be paying attention to.

Justin Oberman at MoPocket tells the tale of how music lovers could TXT for sweet relief at SXSW, and gives us lots of good reasons why  a perfect storm may be brewing to make the mobile phone and cause marketing a perfect couple.

Scott Smith over at Mobile Weblog gives us lots to think about on mobile interface design.  Don't you think more improvement in this area along the lines Scott suggests is kind of important?

Nabeel Hyatt at everypoint stirs up some great discussion on his blog about when to build a mobile brand (or at least when not to).  He says that web properties porting over content or services to mobile will likely win their category.   I'd agree if the mobile company is thinking mobile only, but what if a mobile/web oriented start-up leveraged the phone to beat the web properties at their own game?

Daniel Taylor at the Mobile Enterprise Weblog boldly says that RIM doesn't have a strategy, at least not one that enterprise mobility managers will support.

The exceptionally informative Emily at Smart Mobs posted some research finding that 3G mobiles' change social habits.  We know we're only at the beginning ...

The always inspiring and forward thinking MobHappy crew are still waiting for mobile advertising.  Carlo gives us some great insight into the disconnect betwen the consumers' unwillingness to pay for rich content, and the carriers' hunger for more revenue. 

Darla Mack at the coincidentally named darlamack.com blog reveals to us secrets of the Nokia mobile sites.   Imagine the day we can see and use all great mobile applications from around the world on our own phone?  Darla gives us an excellent glimpse.

Ajit Jaokar at Open Gardens introduces us to bird mimicry.  I have already ordered the "Sparrows that sound like electric can openers" ring tone.

Dennis at Wap Review does his usual fine job of offering developers a great project, this time trying out the Opera Mini on Palm OS 3.5 and 4.   He concludes that it might run reliably on pre Palm OS 5, except for slow load times (there is some irony there right?)

Keeping things technical, Martin Sauter continues a perfect three part series on Wireless VOIP demystified,  helping explain some serious industry shifting tech.

Tomi Ahonen,  from the blog Communites Dominate Brands, points me to his fantastic article on 3G-TV Convergence.   If you're doing anything related to video content on the phone, go read this now and save us all from some mediocre approaches that Tomi writes on how to avoid.

Xen Mendelsohn at Xellular Identity asks  Confused?  Don't be.   She reminds us that we're still figuring out all the social norms of presence and accessibility (and, to me at least, the technology too).

Troy Norcross of Mobile Marketing & Spam does some excellent consumer advocacy with a review of hard or soft boiled opt-in.

I hope I covered all the great links sent my way as editor of the week.  If I didn't, then this 30 second video clip and my week's entry is for you!

Russell Beattie Notebook - Helping the Mobile Mashup Discussion

Link: Russell Beattie Notebook - Helping the Mobile Mashup Discussion.

Russell Beattie is helping guide the discussion at today's Mashup Camp.  Thanks Russ! I'll try to raise some of these points (and counterpoints) in the mobile discussion if no one else picks them up.  And as far as the Amazon mobile mashup goes, Mozes plans to demonstrate that today at some point so I'll let you know how that goes too!  (Here's my first trackback to you - I am still bummed you turned off comments).

I can't wait for 2006

John Battelle has kicked off a great conversation to end 2005 that I predict will carry over well into 2006.  Fred Wilson picked up on it and made it the basis for number 7 of his New Year's Resolutions.

John was letting us know about the amazing work of Phil Torrone of Make Magazine.  There are many people in the world who pretend to be extremely busy and fewer who actually are.  Phil Torrone is one of the busiest guys on the planet.  Phil is associate editor at Make (in addition to being an author, artist and engineer).  If you don't know of Phil but want to get a small glimpse of what I am talking about,  check out the MAKE: Blog.  Not a day goes by that Phil hasn't written at least a post or two, if not 4 or 10.  He not only blogs to tell us what other amazing people do but also fills us in on his incredible trials, errors, experiments and inventions (like how he celebrated New Year's tonight). 

Phil created the MAKEbot.  In John's opinion, it sets the stage for how mobile gets plugged into the web in a way that makes sense for the average person.  John's post generated a lot of comments on the last day of the year, and it should - he believes that Phil's work might just spearhead something truly new and important for mobile.  I'd bet Phil agrees with him, and I'd bet even more Phil already has about 50 ideas that will truly stun John and everyone else once they are released.  That's the kind of thing Phil tends to do.

IM is an important input/output vehicle for what Mozes is doing in building a platform for many types of mobile services.  We see SMS as probably more important for the business early on, but there is no doubt in my mind that a ubiquitous free wireless Internet (see Fred's number 5 resolution) means that over the long term non-carrier means will really drive innovation.  We registered an IM account for Mozes for all 4 major networks in September, but the possibilities that John writes about get really interesting if and when IM networks converge.  As C. Enrique Ortiz wrote just a few days ago:  With respect to mobility, this convergence translates to a real-time, dynamic alternative to SMS and MMS.

In 2 weeks, Mozes will have a real website and production environment (not a vicious circle).  We also have our own AIM bot that I hope many people will want to help test as well.  I disagree with a few of the comments on Searchblog because like John I see Phil's work as truly innovative.  Even though it wasn't Mozes who made another one of John's predictions come true in 2005, we can't wait to be a contributor to the success of it in 2006.

(When searching for the post to Phil's location based dog video, I noticed Make's new section called "Something I want to learn to do..." - I want to learn how to get as much stuff done as Phil does).

 

Carnival of the Mobilists

This week's Carnival of the Mobilists is up, and hosted by Debi Jones, aka Mobile Jones.  If you want to get some kind of a handle on the Research-in-Motion/NTP dispute, check out the post by Daniel Taylor of the Mobile Enterprise Alliance.

Why it's like 1995 all over again

A few weeks back the blog post title "It's 1995 all over again" arrived in my reader from Scott Rafer's Wireless Ink blog.  I clicked on it, but the post was gone.  I'm not sure what happened, but maybe he didn't want to let the world in on his recently discovered secret.  In fact, it was the second time I had heard the phrase in as many weeks - the first time came when I was chatting with an investor.

Last night I was at the Mobile Monday event watching demos and there is a feeling generated there that doesn't quite compare to any other meeting I attend in the valley.  Of course there is the  wonderful buzz around web 2.0 (thanks primarily, more recently, to the tireless efforts of Michael Arrington to keep us informed and excited), and I enjoy that a lot too.  But mobile has a different kind of buzz.

No one is talking about the evolution of mobile applications, as they do the web, and no one is talking about what comes next in mobile once this phase is done.   There is no large consumer base of  application users in mobile that anyone owns, but we universally recognize the appetite for heavy usage will come.  There has not yet been a single killer app that clearly defines the opportunity (unless you count jamdat bowling, which I hope you don't).  While we all know they might try, there is no lurking sense that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft is capable of putting an impenetrable stake in the ground.  There has  been the slow build around the mobile monday event since Mike and Russell kicked it off as BAMF (check out these cool photos of the first meeting, compared to this).

When you attend these meetings, you sit beside interesting people and when you ask them where they work, you hear answers like "Oh, nothing to do with mobile.  I just love it."  When you watch the demos, you hear things like "I'll show you the slides instead", "You won't see this interface anywhere else" (and you haven't), "I'm operating on one bar so bear with me" and, the famous "It was working just before I got here."  And every excuse gets you more excited about just how early it is.

We are still in the exploratory phase, still figuring out what mobile applications are and what it will mean.  I know that carriers make things a little different, and I am a big believer that the mobile phone will heavily relate to the Internet in all countries down the road.  Those things do not take away from the fact, however, that the mobile world is a blank canvas today, and  no less restricted than the Internet felt next to the PC in 1995.

(I acknowledge this is probably a very North American centric view).

 

Carnival of the Mobilists

Building on the Carnival of the Capitalists idea (who built on the Carnival of the Vanities idea), Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino over at MobHappy have introduced Carnival of the Mobilists.  It's a great idea, intended to reach into the long tail of mobile bloggers to publicize work and share ideas.  Residing somewhere close to the point of that very long tail is me, and my piece on One Internet to Rule the World was included in the First Carnival.  Thanks to Russell and Carlo for making this happen.  They've published some really great stuff from some fine mobile bloggers, and it should only get better as months go by.

Any bored investment bankers out there?

All the talk lately about Bubble 2.0, and I've started to think that investment bankers should start thinking about a few big mergers in order to get in on the action (since we know all the web 2.0 IPOs are still a few months years decades away).

As I've been mulling the mobile Internet and seeing the desktop and mobile phone become more and more interconnected, I've been thinking about whether Apple and Nokia should merge.

Apple Computer, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of personal computers and related software, services, peripherals, and networking solutions worldwide. It also designs, develops, and markets a line of portable digital music players along with related accessories and services, including the online distribution of third-party music and audio books.

Nokia Corporation manufactures mobile devices principally based on global system for mobile communications, code division multiple access (CDMA), and wideband CDMA (WCDMA) technologies.  The Multimedia division focuses on bringing connected mobile multimedia to consumers in the form of advanced mobile devices, including 3G WCDMA mobile devices and solutions.

The combined company would be committed to innovation and community on an unprecedented global scale, stemming from the shared admiration for those concepts that both companies already have.  Their design teams would have a lot in common, learn a lot from each other and probably realize they're working on similar stuff anyway.   The merger would provide a new platform for mind-blowing, cross-device innovation and it would cause countless identity crises on the parts of other companies.  Of course, it would also be the biggest technology merger ever, with a combined current market cap of $115B (but not the biggest ever as I think GSK has those honors at roughly $160B).

Am I crazy?