Late last year mobile phone penetration hit an important
landmark, expanding to reach 50% of the world's total population. As this explosive
growth continues, a parallel movement is taking place in mobile networks, which
are evolving quickly from voice-only to data based models. According to a recent report from Informa Telecoms & Media, Revenues
from mobile data services are set to exceed US$200 billion in 2008 for the first
time. Strategy Analytics estimates that the population of cellular data users will grow from 1.8
billion in 2007 to close to 2.5 billion in 2011 and also predicts that consumer
spending on mobile data services (including cellular data transport, messaging and
content) will ramp from $125 Billion in 2007 to just over $200 Billion by 2011.
These twin factors mean the next few years offer an unprecedented opportunity for
data-enabled application development.
Let's look at the state of the networks. As data networks evolve from 2G to 2.5G to 3G to 4G, increased bandwidth and connectivity provide better throughput and always-on connectivity to consumers. Manufacturers and operators, however, have continuing worries about performance, security, roaming (quality of service), and standardization. Meanwhile, alternate mobile broadband networks are being widely deployed; for example, WLAN has matured over the years and is now being made available from coffee shops to airports, with private homes and offices beginning to deploy WLAN solutions as well. WiMAX deployments may soon go even further, reshaping future devices, applications, and user experiences to fit their increased capacities.
The proliferation of wireless broadband networks is already beginning to make multi-mode phones essential. As users move across different data networks - for example, using the cellular networks when outside the house and a WIFI network at home - the device must keep up and adapt on the fly.
At the same time, regional differences are beginning to evaporate. The developed countries saw three types of data networks emerge - first dialups, then wired broadband and now wireless broadband services. In the rest of the world, however, the data infrastructure has leapfrogged directly into the wireless broadband sphere. So it's not only the traditional markets that are ready for rich mobile data applications; the whole world is following suit.
As data networks are widely adopted by consumers around the world, data pricing
will fall proportionately. Most carriers in the United States have recently introduced
a flat pricing model for unlimited usage, following a trend that has already taken
hold in other markets. Not surprisingly, it's the enterprise that's driving much
of this momentum. Overall, operators have seen an increase in the Average Revenue
per User (ARPU) for enterprise class users, even as the ARPU of normal users has
remained relatively steady. And although data networks have been around for quite
a while, the majority of usage is still for traditional needs: messaging systems
such as MMS and email, file downloading and Internet browsing.
Now is the time for new uses to emerge and take hold. The data network evolution,
with its capacity for file upload/download and smooth synchronization, has already
seen the birth of cool new data-enabled applications like:
- Web 2.0 based Widgets and applications that use data connections to pull data off a network server - some common examples are localized weather updates and RSS feeds on the home screens of devices.
- Rich Internet applications (RIA) which bring the functionality of full blown desktop apps to the Web - and now to the handset.
- Location-based navigation services such as real-time traffic, live local search and map updates, all prompting applications to use two-way real-time connectivity.
- Multimedia applications like See What I See, video telephony, photo and video sharing.
- Mobile social networking - not just connecting to popular social network sites like MySpace and Facebook, but also mobile blogging, music sharing or networked mobile gaming.
But despite this rapid influx, the next generation killer data application is yet to be found. It is for the developers like yourself to come up with the killer apps that use these data networks. With the adoption of data and broadcast data networks around the world increasing multifold, your next cool idea may also meet a massive revenue generation opportunity.
Perhaps the biggest play is to be made in mobile broadcast networks like DVB-H and MediaFLO. Quite a few operators around the world have run trials around these technologies, and operators like AT&T and Verizon in the United States have adopted broadcast networks and are providing consumer services. Although subscribers have yet to show a lot of interest in these services, it is also true that developers have yet to fully exploit the power of these new networks to introduce entirely new media experiences for consumers.
So, as a developer - are you ready to create the next best data enabled application?– Asokan Thiyagarajan, Motorola Technology Evangelist
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