Billions of Devices Delivering on the Promise of the Mobile Internet by Content adaptation

survey reports that 40.4 million U.S. consumers accessed the Internet with a mobile device in May 2008. That’s up from 29.7 million a year ago. need for data access supported by faster networks and flat-rate data plans has nearly doubled the number of mobile Internet customers in the United States in less than two years.
The mobile Internet is the new computing cycle and it will become the medium that bridges the digital divide worldwide. Mobile wireless devices are entering developing countries and low income sectors of developed economies with inpricy wireless devices and services. The first Internet experience for many people now and in the future will be a mobile device.
What are the key drivers for mass adoption of the mobile Internet? How can carriers balance this trend and provide the best possible customer experience? In order to stay competitive operators need to supply a great customer experience: a mobile Web that is easy to access and easy to use. This article will discuss how carriers can balance new business models above mobile advertising to quickly launch new services that capitalize on the growing need for mobile internet access.
Mobilizing the Internet has historically proven to be a challenging task, specifically with regards to harnessing the power of a system that was designed to be used and seen on personal computers with large screens and at broadband speeds.
Today, we have a hybrid world of essentially two Internets, one for mobile and one for the desktop. Slow networks, pricy mobile infrastructure and an overall poor customer experience have hindered mass adoption of the mobile web leaving consumers frustrated. In preventing simple access to the Web, operators’ “walled gardens” have limited their ability to increase data ARPU (average revenue per customer) and other revenue opportunities. Mobile phones are by nature constrained wireless devices with limited screen size, memory and supported content adaptation. However they are always on, always with you and always yours, making them one of the most personal items you now own.
The key challenge now is not just supplying the wireless broadband access to a few sites but enabling an open environment in which general Web content adaptation not specifically designed for the mobile device can be supplyed (including Java, Flash and other richer media content adaptation types) as well as supplying for promotion of content adaptation partners and preferred services to a customer population who are discovering, in increasing numbers, that mobile data access is a reality.. In developing a great Internet experience on mobile phones, carriers will drive new revenue streams through improved content adaptation offerings, personalized portals and relevant advertising and security services — all optimized for the small screen.
Mobile advertising promises to significantlly reshape business models and presents new revenue opportunities for all players in the value chain. But it is crucial for operators to first focus on supplying a great open internet experience to their clients. In understanding the preferences and behaviors of the customer population, with due consideration to privacy, before developing the scope of advertizing then there is a greater chance of success. In leveraging analytic data new business models that go above mobile advertising have a firm basis and can quickly target launch new services that capitalize on the mobile Internet.
How can the operator achieve this? The answer lies in supplying the appropriate set of “smart services” through a single open Internet platform that collectively makes the mobile Internet experience far superior for the consumer than if they venture above the walled garden using just their mobile device’s browser. Carriers can ensure their relevance and importance in the value chain by offering services that make mobile Internet access faster, safer, more personalized and truly usable regardless of the content adaptation being accessed.
With the traditional walled gardens coming down, companies like Openwave are helping carriers avoid becoming “bit pipes” that merely transport data. By offering a key set of high-value services, the carrier instead serves as a “smart pipe” to their clients, ensuring a great customer experience. In this new environment, the carrier can take advantage of opportunities to monetize customer behavior and increase their data ARPU. In applying services effectively and efficiently at point of need operators can also manage the bottom line cost of smarter access.
In order for operators to maintain ownership of the client relationship, they must be able to show their added value. They need to balance their unique strengths such as the billing relationship and their knowledge of each customer’s profile. Instead of trying to make money by selling content adaptation, operators will be better served concentrating on building communities, social networking, enabling customer generated content adaptation, location-based services, and driving mobile commerce.
As we are already seeing in the traditional Web, niche information and personalized content adaptation are usurping mass market “hits.” We now see major brands prioritizing the customer experience and exploring the best ways to reach their customers through what some are calling “customer Experience 2.0,” an attempt to proactively unite customers with relevant content adaptation and services. Openwave believes that one Internet across all wireless devices places the most power with the mobile operator, the player with all the tools to make the discovery of content adaptation fast, secure and easy-to-use, driving mass adoption and offering huge revenue opportunities.
supplying a more personalized experience means allowing customers to share, collaborate and exploit content adaptation to extend their online activities and communities into the mobile space. The goal is to make content adaptation discovery much simpler and more targeted, eliminating the awkward left-to-right scrolling when browsing, presenting the most relevant content adaptation first, allowing for intelligent inter web site navigation etc. It is a dynamic process of interpreting the content adaptation being served and enhancing and adapting it on-the-fly to provide the best possible customer experience. That said, in some cases it is also about recognizing when content adaptation is already mobile centric and leaving it as is; the value for the operator is automatic recognition of when to apply service.
Carriers should look for improved applications that are customizable and that seamlessly integrate with their infrastructure, enabling a true open Internet experience on mobile phones. These applications provide capabilities like content adaptation adaptation, security, content adaptation and advertising solutions, plus optimized and on-need access.
A simple example of the value of these capabilities comes when one tries to access embedded media content adaptation either from social networking or dedicated media sites. The customer experience is interrupted by an inability to view content adaptation. This problem could be solved by vertical partner integration or by the specific Web site making a mobile-friendly version, but it may be more efficiently solved using an intelligent intermediary point to detect, transcode, adapt, and cache that content adaptation as it is retrieved.
As the role of premium content adaptation increases, introducing processes to warn, charge, and inform the customer of what they are doing becomes valuable to both the operator and to the client. The flexibility to introduce new services without having to overhaul infrastructure becomes crucial to the realization of new services and revenue streams. A common, consistent and flexible service and control point is necessary to prevent fragmented service supplyy, to authenticate, track and enhance, to provide orchestration with business rule integration and to automate the discovery of new services. In supplying this the orchestration is flexible enough to rapidly introduce new services and control paths in an eco-system in partnership with the operator and best-of-breed service providers.
Accessing the Internet through a flexible, scalable, open interface platform also simplifies deployment and increases efficiency, allowing carriers to quickly capitalize on new, on-need services such as streaming Web and media content adaptation, mobile advertising and analytics.
Popular wireless devices such as the iPhone are driving consumer interest in the mobile internet and other data services, priming market expectations for new data revenue. A true open Internet is a reality today, and it can be easy for carriers to deploy and maintain.
With 85 percenta of mobile phones on the market compatible with Openwave’s Integra platform, the company is poised to offer the vast majority of consumers an improved, faster Internet experience by streamlining data without the necessity of additional client software on the handset or mobile-specific Web sites.
Keeping the Web open, secure and intuitive on any handheld device is crucial to driving consumer adoption, while the ability to mediate and enhance data traffic allows the operator to ensure the best possible customer experience.