Cellular carriers are allowing their customers to share software, services, and content from independent companies. Finally. By Wade Roush
Over the last year, Verizon, Sprint, Cingular, and other carriers have begun to make their decks -- and, perhaps even more important, their billing systems -- accessible to outside companies. The result: just as the explosion in online services began with the emergence of the nonproprietary World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, a new generation of startups is giving cellular subscribers more ways to use their phones' computing capabilities.
And the timing couldn't be better. The Internet is now overflowing with user-generated content -- photos, videos, blogs, wikis, garage-band music. As it becomes easier to transmit this content over cellular networks, the phone -- arguably the first social machine -- is helping to make the "social computing" revolution mobile.
"There are two trends happening here: on the one hand, we have this explosion of user-generated content, and on the other hand we have the mobile operators deploying and diffusing a payment infrastructure," says Mark Donovan, senior analyst at M:Metrics, a Seattle firm that monitors mobile commerce. "Big players like Verizon are embracing partners who sell stuff 'off-deck,' which means I can now purchase content without having to go through the carrier's deck."
That's opened up niches for services such as Rabble, a mobile blogging service, and New York-based Thumbplay, recently rated by market research firm Hitwise as the most popular U.S. retailer of ringtones, games, wallpaper, and other content for cell phones. Customers who pay $9.99 per month for Thumbplay's subscription service go to its website to select content, which is then sent to their phones over the cellular network. So far, Thumbplay has won permission from Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Nextel, and Boost to charge customers through their billing systems; in return, the carriers take a cut of Thumbplay's subscription revenue. Furthermore, many of Thumbplay's ringtones come from independent musicians, rather than the big record labels.
Q121, too, is counting on amateur and user-generated content to drive use of its network. So far, its 50,000 members, mostly in their teens and early twenties, use it primarily to exchange music files, a large number of which were recorded and mixed by the users themselves. Q121 provides an "express signup" page for artists and bands who'd like others to hear their songs or use clips as ringtones. "It's a great jumping-off point for artists creating and distributing their own content," says Stollman. "We encourage that kind of viral marketing activity."
By opening up their networks and billing systems to outside parties, the cellular carriers are recognizing -- and realizing they can profit from -- the desire among users to put their phones to new uses, such as media sharing, says M:Metrics' Donovan. "The areas where we have seen the largest growth [in mobile-phone usage] center around creating, connecting, and sharing -- people taking pictures, capturing video, sending those files to the Web, and chatting through instant-messaging," he says. "Mobile subscribers shouldn't merely be treated as passive consumers."
Comments
This blog is the author's personal website. It is not affiliated with MicroVision, Inc. or any company. This website does not recommend the purchase or sale of any stocks, options, bonds or any investment of any kind. This website does not provide investment advice. Disclaimer and Notices: Disclaimer: This website may contain "forward-looking" information including statements concerning the company's outlook for the future, as well as other statements of beliefs, future plans and strategies or anticipated events, and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. The forward-looking information and statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the statements. The information on this website includes forward looking statements, including statements regarding projections of future operations, product applications, development and production, future benefits of contractual arrangements, growth in demand, as well as statements containing words like believe, estimate, expect, anticipate, target, plan, will, could, would, and other similar expressions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from the results implied or expressed in the forward looking statement. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements are included in MVIS most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the heading 'Risk factors related to the company's business,' and our other reports filed with the Comission from time to time. Except as expressly required by Federal securities laws, MVIS Blog undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in circumstances, or other reasons. Legal Notice: Although considerable care has been taken in preparing and maintaining the information and material contained on this website, MVIS Blog makes no representation nor gives any warranty as to the currency, completeness, accuracy or correctness of any of the elements contained herein. Facts and information contained in the website are believed to be accurate at the time of posting. However, information may be superseded by subsequent disclosure, and changes may be made at any time without prior notice. MVIS Blog shall not be responsible for, or liable in respect of, any damage, direct or indirect, or of any nature whatsoever, resulting from the use of the information contained herein. While the information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. MVIS Blog has not independently verified the facts, assumptions, and estimates contained on this website. Accordingly, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on the fairness, accuracy, or completeness of the information and opinions contained on this website. Consequently, MVIS Blog assumes no liability for the accompanying information, which is being provided to you solely for evaluation and general information. This website does not contain inside information, proprietary or confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements or otherwise.
Comments
Post a Comment