MDA Presentation

I was deeply honoured to be asked to present the keynote address at the Mobile Data Association's "Monetising The Mobile Internet in Tough Times".  I was a last minute stand-in for Henry Stevens of the GSMA.

You can download the day's presentations directly, but as slides only tell half the story, I've written a brief commentary to what I was presenting.  Naturally a presentation or blog post cannot capture all the questions & and answers (nor my "inimitable style") but I'll do my best.

Overview of the Mobile Internet and its current usage

We think that we are living in interesting times.

All of this has happened before...

Mobile data is blooming. We're at the start of a glorious adventure. Literally anything we can conceive will come to pass. I want to show you a concept advert that we've been working on to explain why mobile data is so important. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z1S2tL51dE As all of you know, Palm is preparing to release a phone which will revolutionise mobile data access.

I've got a very special treat for you ladies and gentlemen. May I present The Palm....

Treo 180. 16 MB of internal memory and a 33 MHz Dragonball CPU.

Touch screen. Handwriting recognition. Full access to emails. An application store with hundreds of thousands of free and premium application. The ability to play music and view your photos.

With GPRS, you'll be able to access the internet at a faster speed than your home connection. The Blazer web browser works with WAP, HTML and i-mode.

...And All Of This Will Happen Again

Mobile data is blooming. We're at the start of a glorious path. Literally anything we can conceive will come to pass.

I want to show you a concept advert that we've been working on to explain why mobile data is so important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmM2zKDu7yU

As all of you know, Palm is preparing to release a phone which will revolutionise mobile data access.

I've got a very special treat for you ladies and gentlemen. May I present The Palm....

Pre.

Touch screen. Handwriting recognition. Full access to emails. An application store with hundreds of thousands of free and premium application. The ability to play music and view your photos.

With HSDPA, you'll be able to access the internet at a faster speed than your home connection.

I think you get the point. To understand where we are now, we need an appreciation of where we've come from and where we want to be.

I want to focus this morning on where we are right now.

Vodafone Results

There has been an astonishing rise in data revenues. Data revenues are now where SMS was 3 years ago. Undoubtedly, high end phones are important - but of a far greater impact, in my personal opinion, is pricing is an issue. Moving to flat rate & bundles has increased data usage and revenues just as it did for text & voice. We still have the "Unlimited" issue...  Customers find it very hard to know what a MB is - or how much of one they've downloaded.  Various companies have experimented with time based charging, session charging and even page charging.  I think that "Unlimited" may be the way forward - but only if us geeks get to know what the "Fair Use" policy is.

Devices

Personally, I find it disappointing that only 44% 3G. Having said that, good devices are useful but NOT essential.

UK Usage

The ONS has a wealth of data on UK Internet usage - here's a sample.

Shockingly low, but growing.

Lessons From Voice

We've been on the cusp of a mobile data revolution for several years now. To understand what's driving it, we have to understand what drives people to use data.

So, slightly counter intuitively, let's look at voice.

Who here knows what the killer app for voice is?

The killer app for voice is... ...your mother! ...pregnant wife! ...Women in general.

Essentially - talking to people all the time is a great driver to use voice as much as possible.

In the same way, the killer app for mobile data is... fixed line data.  Getting great services which people want to use with their fixed line is a key driver to getting people on to mobile data.  It only takes a few missed emails, Facebook pokes, etc., to make people desperate for connectivity where ever they go.

Once people have experienced web, IM and email, they want to continue using those services. Bus stop, train journeys, in the toilet.

30% browse the internet on the loo. Who knows what percentage wash their hands afterwards? Because 21% browse at the dinner table.

People want data so much, they'll take it everywhere with them.

Popular Handsets

The GX-10. This was the first Vodafone live handset. GPRS, 16 colour screen. Basic HTML browser. It's a dog. It's decrepid. It's old. Obsolete.  It's still used by several thousand people every month. The Nokia 6300 - outsells everything in the UK.  It's several times more popular than the iPhone.

Eastern Europe

Several parts of Eastern Europe have very little land-line infrastructure.  This means that for many the first experience of the Internet is mobile.  And it's a pretty good experience.

Emerging Markets

Vodafone India recently reported that it signs up 1,600,000 new customers every month.  Other markets report similarly startling growth.

Vodafone Egypt also has caught the data bug

But many - not all, but many - of the handsets there are cheap.  They are low-tier devices with low feature-sets.  Generally GSM, small screens - not always colour.

Opera

Vodafone recently signed a deal with Opera to place their mobile browser on low- and mid-priced mobile devices.

In a trial with Vodafone Egypt there were 400,000 installs in a single month.

This is software which will eventually be installed by default on Very Low Cost ($25) handsets.  This opens the Mobile Data market to a huge and previously neglected segment.

Now, no one is saying that the Opera software turns a cheap and nasty device into an iPhone - but that's not what it's there for. It's to connect the previously unconnected.

So, Where Are We?

There are currently 3,804,064,939 mobile phone connections in the world. (Data supplied by GSMA Mobile Infolink on 22/09/08)

Go and visit the site - see how many 3G devices there are.  See where the connections are located around the world. It may surprise you.

We Have Been Here Before

We like to think that the latest craze we've invented is somehow original.  We couldn't be more wrong.

Gameline is a revolutionary new system.  You plug your games console in to your telephone line and you can download as many new games as you want! (1983)

XBAND is a revolutionary new system.  You plug your games console in to your telephone line and you can download as many new games as you want!(1994)

Xbox Live is a revolutionary new system.  You plug your games console in to your telephone line and you can download as many new games as you want! (2005)

This Is The Year Of The Mobile Internet

We need to break the cycle.  We need to make sure that, this time, it works. There is a Global Critical Mass of ~3,805,374,038 Global GSM and 3GSM Mobile Connections. There are more internet phones than internet PC / Laptops (GSMA - http://www.gsmworld.com/)

How do we do that? That's up to you.