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Editor-In-Chief Juhani Viherlahti
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MOBILE TRENDS IN 2001

Mobile communications technology and contents production may finally meet each other. There are important new trends in the mobile business like better business client services and new content for the users.

In April 2001 a series of announcements made by the Japanese telecom NTTDoCoMo suggests that the company is moving beyond the praises of i-mode. NTTDoCoMo’s i-mode service has not sparked widespread interest among those in the Japanese corporate sector. To change this the well known e-business solution provider SAP is going to conduct a series of feasibility studies to develop mobile business solutions for NTTDoCoMo. In the near future the two companies will work together to deploy and market the solutions worldwide.

Also Compaq has announced new wireless services for the business customers. The new mobility solutions, called iPAQnet™ solutions, including iPAQnet Mobile Email, iPAQnet Mobile Internet, and iPAQnet Mobile Intranet. They are now available for the Compaq Armada notebook PCs. Internet services include Novatel Wireless Merlin™ Ricochet PC Card and WorldCom’s Wireless Internet service, which is available in 13 U.S. market areas.

There is also another important trend which directs us towards better contents. International telecoms should shift their preoccupation from technology to content in order to make profit. It might be true that in the long run technology is nothing; content and applications are everything. If we still keep the technology viewpoint there seems to be a need for instant messaging where content is provided by the users themselves.

Wireless Village

Instant messaging is rapidly evolving to include rich multimedia content, such as audio and video clips and images with traditional text messaging. Presence services provide a system for sharing personal information about the user's status, (e.g., on-line, off-line, busy), location (home, work), and the moods of their friends and colleagues (happy, angry). Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia announced at the end of April that they have established Wireless Village, the Mobile Instant Messaging and Presence (IMPS) initiative, to define and promote a set of universal specifications for mobile instant messaging and presence services and create a community of supporters. The specifications will be used for exchanging messages and presence information between mobile devices, mobile services and Internet-based instant messaging services. The protocol will be optimized for the requirements of mobile devices and wireless networks.

Text messages for fair visitors

Another important test is conducted by the Finnish Fair Corporation and Sonera Entertainment. The wireless info channel allows the Finnish Fair Corporation to provide current information related to the fair for fair visitors by means of text messages, targeting the information at desired customer groups. The fair visitors have been asked for their permission to this in connection with the registration. The fair visitor can cancel the reception of text messages by sending a text message to a number given. The channel was in use for the first time at Mobile Communications 2001 Expo on April 24 and 25, 2001, where the info channel service was available for fair visitors who had registered in advance. In the future, the service will also be used in other events of the Finnish Fair Corporation where pre-registration is in use.

 

 Juhani Viherlahti