The APAC One event in Malaysia this year was more like a party for the
twenty-eight Dialogic employees and 128 customers, who got together to
deliberate on mobile applications and solutions.
The three-day conference begun with a keynote by Dialogic CEO Nick Jensen,
who said playing with forms of video applications can help companies find a new
way to drive communications market.
The newer forms of mobile video are likely to become popular with Gen-next.
Video versions ranging from ring-back tones, videos SMS, user-generated content,
to mobile TV are some of the forms that have added more value to mobile
applications.
Latest entrants video SMS solution, video ring-back tones, video micro-blogging,
and video surveillance (home monitoring), are being projected as the hot new
services.
According to IDC it is too early to give a verdict on the success of
video-based applications, but what is certain is that video ring back tones and
video SMS will help companies reap high profits against traditional ring tones
and SMSes. Video also gives a personal touch, which was a key factor in making
audio ring-back tones a hit too.
Jim Machi, senior marketing VP, Dialogic said, “Value-added services is a
touch world, it requires continuous development and innovation. It may not
essentially be developing a new service each time, but can simply be adding a
feature to existing ones. Adding video to existing services like SMS is just
that.”
One basic element working in favor of video value-add, according to Dialogic,
is that it doesn't depend on 3G-level bandwidths to work, which implies a much
wider potential customer base, especially in non-3G markets like China and
India.
Yankee Group analyst XJ Wang said service providers are under greater
pressure than ever to find new value-added services to increase their ARPUs.
“The biggest challenge for operators is that both voice and SMS are becoming a
commodity, which means more price squeezing,” Wang said.
“Video could prove to be a key element of value-adding strategies going
forward, but only if it does not turn out to be very expensive,” he added.
Heena Jhingan
heenaj@cybermedia.co.in