The model you mention (and the model that mobile operators push) is very much like early AOL / CompuServe style internet access with all that "branded" access thing and restrictions and branded software etc.

We've all seen how that worked (well at least globally, not sure is AOL and CompuServe are still like that in the US).

The unobtrusive, net-neutral, "we sell you access and bandwidth" ISP is the future of mobile operators. Because people are already used to internet being like that. Mobile operators aren't really used to that but it's just because they haven't really dealt with serving internet access that long. Compare their voice services offers to those of landline and VoIP providers and you can see their certain future in terms of ISP-ing.

WiMax in unlicenced bands and progress of WiFi will level the playfield sooner or later, and barrier of entry for serving mobile users will lower.

It's a cognitive dissonance between the industry and the customer. And the customer is always right… eventually. It's just a matter of which player in a competitive market learns that first.

DigitDiary

I'm glad it has sparked some debate

I totally agree that one of the biggest barriers to turning some of the concepts covered in the piece from vision to reality will be the culture and speed of execution from the MNO's. If any of you have seen me speak you will know how acutely aware I am of the reputation & credibility issues MNO's have to overcome with the Developer Community.

Only closer collaboration between the MNO's, tangible deliveries and a sustained and consistent approach to Developers will change this perception.

Of course this needs to be achieved in a rapidly moving competitive landscape where the bar is raised on an almost daily basis. Developers are not going to stop and wait for MNO's to get this right. It's a tough challenge, but certainly one that motivates me every morning!

Keith – you are right that many of these examples can be achieved by mashing together various 3rd party offers within the native app.

I guess my point was the Mobile Operator provides the operational wrap to ensure these enablers can sustain "industrial scale" usage, are accepted by the end user (the brand & trust topic), are device agnostic, and that the network enablers are server side, in the cloud, so they minimise the impact on the developer for maintaining multiple app builds per handset platform.

Finally something I didn't cover specifically in the article but was kind of assumed in my premise, is if we believe the mid to long term future of mobile services is delivery via the browser and not native apps, the server side network enablers from Operators become very hard to beat.

Almost everything above can be done without operator assistance.

"On the fly customisation of the App UI based on a detailed understanding of the device currently being used. Remember that increasing numbers of customers are SIM swapping" – I simply don't believe sim swapping is on the rise – can you back that up?

"On the fly customisation of content richness based on knowledge of the users current connection speed (e.g. 2.5g, 3G, WiFi)" – No need for operator assistance on this – an app can work that out….

"Personalisation of content and configuration of your App UI based on user demographics (gender, age, location, social economic profile, etc)" – I'll give you this.

"Targeting & profiling of the audience based on segmentation information e.g. travel profile (stationary, commuter, jet-setter), spend segment (>€100 per month, €50-100 per month, €30-50, etc)." – sounds the same as previous

"Micro billing to the customer’s mobile bill or debits from their pre pay balance at VISA like transactions rates" – I'm not convinced the operators will ever. match VISA rates. Most operators won't even match apples 30% rev share when using PSMS.

"In-App interactivity via messaging or calling" – can be done without operator involvement – see callspark.com

"Up -selling the customer from a basic service to a premium guaranteed service (for example low ping rate for multiplayer gaming apps)." – thats pretty obscure…

"Then for the owner of the App, post usage analytics providing data like who, where, how long their users are consuming their services" – all currently available without operator involvement, through companies like flurry.com

Right now I think the best thing operators can provide in addition to the obvious things like low price, customer service, bundles and a reliable network is providing a way for app developers to market to gender, age, credit rating etc – and not through ondeck – ondeck is dead.

an interesting article and I'm delighted to see that the crucial conversation between brands, the mobile content industry and the MNO's appears now to be underway in earnest.

I'm in total agreement with your underlying premise that "smart' apps need "smart" pipes to enhance both the user experience and retail and online brands increasingly sophisticated requirements for verifiable metrics and agile, efficient interaction with network enablers such as location and age verification to help maximise their marketing ROI in this space.

To ensure the optimal involvement of brands and their technology partners wishing to utilise this new, still immature yet potentially market-changing, technological development, will require a level of co-operation between ALL players in the ecosystem you describe, such as we have not yet seen to date.

I have no doubt that all parties involved will be working hard to achieve this, but it would be an unforgivable error if vested interests and corporate inertia contributed to the failure to capitalise on this opportunity fully, to the detriment of all. We are all aware of missed opportunities in the content and premium billing arenas over the past few years that were, in my view, in substantive part caused by an unwillingness on the part of the MNO’s to both comprehend the magnitude of the revenue-generating and customer-loyalty wins available in this space, as well as the lack of visionary leadership required to properly exploit this amazing market opportunity.

The mobile networks have a window of opportunity to take the lead in this evolutionary development in mobile by creating a network ecosystem which enables brands, technology providers and marketing creatives to deliver killer apps that go way beyond the "version 1.0" efforts that we see on offer today.

This will help MNO's avoid the "dumb pipe" scenario they so dread, whilst generating significant new revenues streams and brand loyalty of a kind only dreamt about today.

I shall be watching developments with interest!

All the best,

Iain Mac

You are spot on about this being a huge cultural difficulty for the operator to achieve these very laudable goals. But you don't mention an even bigger cultural problem – these services need to be offered compatibly across all operators for them to have real value.

Going forward no brand is going to want to target just O2 users, or just Orange users, they need to access their demographic independent of network.

And that's going to be difficult and slow.

Good luck with it, though, we've got start sometime.

rmm

Thanks to setup the floor to discuss about this examples of Mobile Operation enhancements to the customer experience, for several years, and I will reinforce several years big content / publishers providers within Games, LBS, Mobile Marketing, etc; has been trying to obtain permissions and willing to share rev with Operators in order to create smarter applications using many of these enhancements mentioned, like profiling & targeting, in-app up-sale; finding key roadblocks that many times are not only related to Operators old wallet garden approach, but also relate to customer privacy rules that applies on different countries.

The approach been considered based on your position as a an Operator, from my point of view will be more than well received from the developer community, is a matter then to apply the rules and explore how to manage the user profile data properly without clashing with market regulations.

Good Luck on this journey..!!