Naked Bits » Play

Can the SIM card become the future App Store?

dirk — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:48:17 +0000

It’s the dream of every operator: Regain control over the billing of content to their subscribers. We’ve had the walled gardens of Vodafone Live! and i-mode. And now operators are faced with handset manufacturers creating their own, successful content stores: Apple’s App Store, the Android Market, Microsoft its Windows Marketplace, Nokia the Ovi Store… Are operators reduced to becoming the bit-pipe?

It’s undeniable that app stores are a big success. Apple’s move created a new easy way to use all those web services you got used to on your mobile phone, anytime, anyplace. It showed that with an easy interface, where finding and purchasing/downloading new services is as easy as the click of one button, people are eager to explore and use their mobile phone for more than just calling, texting and playing music. The data streams are finally kicking! But the revenue streams on the content are completely by-passing the operator. Beside the developer, who usually gets around 70% of the revenue on all stores, the credit card companies, billing providers and the handset manufacturer are sharing in the revenue.

Is it bad? No, but we have to remember that the vast majority of subscribers are using feature phones rather than smart phones. And also that billing in an app store is usually done using a credit card, which can be a barrier for many. The operator is in a good position to regain a position in the content distribution value chain:

Often overlooked, but operators have some of the most advanced real-time billing systems you can imagine, with millions of billing transactions per day. Customers already have a billing relationship with them, so making purchase could be as simple as the click of a button.
Operators are in control of one standard element across all handsets, independent of the manufacturer: the SIM card.
The SIM card is evolving to become a full-fledged application host. One of these applications will be a web server that can serve pages to the browser of the handset. The pages can be updated over-the-air (!) and can make use of all the features of the browser

The browser is more and more becoming an application browser rather than a static page browser. With Javascript and HTML5, advanced applications can be made that look and feel like native applications. This is true for the desktop computer, but will also be the reality of the mobile phone.

I’m not predicting a demise of the native apps, like some believe for the desktop (see Google OS for example). Native apps always have an edge over the browser especially when it comes to fully utilizing the hardware capabilities (graphics card for games, gps, compass, accelerometer) of the device. But the market will remain fragmented: Android, Symbian, iPhone OS, Windows, Linux… I don’t believe this will change. Native app developers will need to invest in all those platforms if they want to target the biggest group.

The browser market on the other hand is finally starting to converge. Everyone seems to agree now that following the standards is the best way to go. The small tweaks needed to adapt your web app to the various browsers are a minor investment compared to that of porting a native app to another OS.

Operators would do well to think of an easily accessible, sexy portal for all their customers. A portal that makes it easy to find all these web apps written for a large base of handsets. A portal where it’s as easy to install an app on your phone’s desktop as it is on the iPhone or the G1. A portal where developers can bill their customers by one click of the button (either one-time fee or subscription). And finally a portal that doesn’t shut the doors, but also links to the other app stores out there based on the handset used.

The portal (with the installed apps) should be stored locally on the phone for quick navigation. And the best place for it is the SIM card. I know, handsets mostly don’t support it yet. But most handsets also don’t have advanced HTML5 with Javascript browsers yet. But it’s coming. And it’s the only way people will start using these services massively. So forget about the current feature phones as a means to get the massed on internet. Start investing now in your future App Store.

Links to more information:

Gemalto
The specification is ready: OMA-TS-Smartcard_Web_Server-V1_1-20090512-A can be found on the openmobilealliance website (currently page not found error).

The iPhone as a playground

dirk — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:04:27 +0000

Is it an overhyped mobile phone? A lot of press coverage everytime a big company launches an iPhone app, but probably only around 130,000 owners in The Netherlands, amounting to less than 1% of the mobile phone market. For companies with customers accross the entire population definetely not a platform to dedicate all their attention. But fact is that the iPhone offers a great test bed for things to come and a playground to try things out.

Since the launch of the 3G version in July 2008 (less than a year ago!) that offered the possibility to develop applications for it, more than 35,000 applications have been launched in the App Store. With the exception of news corporations, very few of them are based on existing services. That’s a shame in a time where large companies are desperately trying to reach their customers in a more direct way. What could be more direct than a mobile phone which resides in every customer’s pocket?

Building an application for the iPhone is actually not a very complex undertaking. Building an application that will run on almost all mobile phones out there is! Restricting an app to the iPhone means targeting only a small group of customers. But it prepares the ground ideally for a future where more customers will own smart phones that are constantly online. A good application for the iPhone can be built in a matter of weeks if you keep the following in mind:

Keep the application simple, focus on one main task it should perform. The best applications are good at one thing and don’t try to offer a myriad of functions to encompass all the company’s offering.
Base it on standard User Interface (UI) elements from Apple. Except for games, most applications can be designed using the existing UI framework. It will only make the application more easy to use if it’s following the same principles as most other applications.
Test early, even if it only exists on paper. Let people try it out at every stage of the development. Give them sketches and see how they react to them. Go back to the drawing board if need. Give away early versions to get feedback while developing.
It doesn’t have to be released in the App Store if it’s mainly aimed at being a test case. Apple also allows ad-hoc distribution of applications. You need to be in direct touch with the customer in order to get the app on his phone but it will also make it easier to request feedback.

So why not try a new communication tool with your customers? See it as an experiment! With the high feel-good atmosphere around Apple and the iPhone it can only lead to positive reactions.

Bridging the real world to the internet

dirk — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:26:49 +0000

A friend on Twitter drew my attention to a very promising project: ioBridge. This simple set of hardware modules makes it possible to control physical equipment from the computer. The big plus of ioBridge are its simplicity (you get some javascript widgets that make controlling the equipment really easy) and the price (for $100.- you can get started).

The dream is to have control over the real world from a website: Controlling home appliances, change a website’s appearance depending on the temperature or the ambient light (for example show different products in hot weather than in cold weather), switching things on and off from anywhere…

See here how Stephen Myers used ioBridge to be able to give treats to his dog even when not at home using his iphone as a remote!

While this is not new, it wasn’t until ioBridge that less technical people are able to create such applications. You don’t have to program complicated serial interfaces to control an on/off switch anymore. So it gives great room for experimenting with new ideas. Who’s got a great ULURU-like idea? We’ll build it and demonstrate it for you!