MOBILE INTERNET: The Hype is Over —Let’s Get Down to Business

More than twenty small keys to press to get the word "-sonu25"–a

SMS chat command–on my Nokia 3310 phone screen! This was in order to send a

message to the mobile person in Delhi who had a chat handle by this name. How

does one reckon SMS chat in this present form to really catch on?

No

surprise, it hasn’t. And neither have most of the text-based services that

cellular operators and independent mobile content providers introduced in India.

Both mobile operators and application developers have failed to develop a basket

of services that would catch on the imagination of mobile subscribers in India.

A recent survey conducted by Voice&Data in seven top Indian cities

reinforces this fact. Even in these commercial centers, while about 79 percent

of subscribers are aware of SMS, a much less 58 percent use it. Though 74

percent know of information services, just 47 percent use them. And when it came

to WAP, only about 31 percent of the subscribers are aware of it leave alone use

it. The situation points to the fact that the currently available applications

and services are a far cry from being the Indian mobile killer application. And,

as the constant quest for this holy grail continues, Indian players are waking

up to complex obstacles that lie on the road to Indian mobile data services’

take-off. That apart, they are learning from their mistakes.

The Awakening

The biggest mistake that early adopters of WAP and SMS-based information

services make is copying the web model to the wireless world. "People

thought they would be in business by converting shorter web pages into WAP decks

and making web applications accessible through a cellphone without realizing

that mobile Internet is all about providing the right content at the right time

without much use of keypad", says Mukul of Cellmania who heads the

applications development team of the company in India. Cellmania, which has

developed a WAP site search engine called mFinder, has, at present, around

20,000 verified WAP/HDML/SMS sites available in its directory. Out of which, 175

are Indian. A good number, but the problem is that most of these sites are at an

experimental stage. And they have not been attractive enough to generate a

traffic worthy of a mobile population, which is now more than 3 million. The

general perception about these sites and applications are that they are not

worth spending one’s time and money. On both factors, the applications/sites

really test the patience and pocket limits of users. These are OK when accessed

through the Internet. But, from a cellphone–god forbid if one is not a tech

geek.

The

content sites are full of outdated info and mundane applications which are

better accessed from a PC at one’s leisure. They also have a tendency to beat

about the bush–lacking short and precise processes to reach to what one really

wants. From a cost viewpoint, what this complicated web of processes means is a

big hole in the pocket. Leave alone several communications between the WAP

servers and the clients, under present circumstances, each pull and push process

takes double the time than what it otherwise would have taken, using the

Internet.

Unfortunately, Indian operators have been too busy with consolidations,

policy matters, and voice operations to swim beneath the shallow waters of the

mobile Internet. Yes, most of them have now implemented SMS-based services and

some of them WAP services as well. But the introduction of these services

clearly lacks a sense of direction. They all look alike and the companies

providing them seem to be only scratching the surface rather than being really

serious about them.

One cardinal sin committed by the mobile fraternity has been the failure to

realize the importance of partnership. Here, operators are especially to blame.

Successful mobile operators like NTT DoCoMo have shown the world that partnering

with independent content providers only leads to a win win situation for both

the operators as well as the content developers. One cannot live without the

other–this is a lesson that the Indian mobile industry should have learnt from

successful models like iMode. In India, present circumstances have bred an

atmosphere of discontent among content partners who have now started washing

dirty linen in public. Operators are accused of being high-handed and

self-centered. For example, Taron Mohan, CEO, Phoneytunes.com, recently received

a check of Rs 400 as his share of revenue for services delivered using his site.

Taron returned the check asking the Delhi-based operator to keep it. Says Taron,

"I have no clue how the operator decided my share was Rs 400 for the ringer

tones and graphics that subscribers of the operator downloaded using WAP access.

Operators must realize that the survival and thriving of content providers is to

their own advantage–that only healthy partnerships between the two can make

mobile Internet prosper."

With poor response to such text-based services being the norm, cellular

operators are not in the best position to pay their content partners. But some

structure or methodology needs to be put in place where both the parties share

the responsibilities of developing and marketing mobile Internet to the public

and, most importantly, sharing the Returns on Investment (RoI). Content

providers do not make their applications out of thin air. They too, have sunk in

large investments and have operations to sustain.

Yet another gap that needs instant filling up is awareness. Cellular

operators have miserably failed in educating the public about the new services

that they have introduced. But for a few exceptions, one hardly sees mobile

operators launching campaigns to educate people about the mobile technologies

and the options of services that they are bringing to them.

It is certainly not that operators are cashless. They are getting several

long television advertisements aired at primetime slots and have also been known

to book entire pages of newspapers to keep their corporate brands flying high.

Yes, everybody has to invest in brand building–but who will take in the

responsibility of educating and creating awareness about simple things like

sending SMS? The Web is a good alternative to create awareness. But, are the

operators interested? Voice&Data’s subscriber survey indicates that only

about 8 percent of subscribers know their cellular service provider’s web site

address. This either means cellular service providers have yet to wake up to the

Internet or that people have no idea about the web sites and do not think it

worthwhile to find out.

The Silver Lining

About

a year back, this state-of-affairs would have been more acceptable. But today?

Most Indian cellular operators have already introduced these services. The

latest mobile phones including WAP-enabled phones are available anywhere at

rates between Rs 2,500 to Rs 10,000 in the booming grey markets for mobile

phones. SMS is already very popular. Operators like Airtel and Orange are

reporting heavy SMS traffic on their networks. SMS already contributes an

estimated 25 percent of the mobile operators’ total monthly revenues. Then,

why are SMS-based applications/information services and mobile Internet services

not attaining the popularity that they have in other parts of the world?

It is the Indian culture, say many. Mobiles have traditionally been

affordable to only the top executives of companies, earning members of wealthy

families and businessmen who may or may not be educated.

For them, mobile has been more of a mobile connectivity tool, an alternative

to the plain telephone, and a status symbol. Pick up the phone and say hello!

That was about it. As far as saving time through using mobile information

services was



concerned, Indians have all the time in the world. "In India, there is
almost a complete lack of map culture", says Karan Chopra, vice president,

marketing of Manchitra which is trying to introduce in India, the concept of

location-based information services–both through Internet and cellular

services. "One has to first realize the amount of time and money that can

be saved just by knowing the shortest and best way of reaching a place", he

adds.

It is only in the last one year that people’s attitudes have been

transformed as more and more members of both upper class and middle class

families in cities start carrying mobiles. Corporates too, encourage their

junior employees to go mobile through partial or full-funding of services

charges.

It is this segment of below 30s that mobile Internet is hinging its hopes on.

It is also with these people that temptation marketing is likely to work the

most.

Despite this sweet note, success of cellular data services will take some

more time. For, while the young are mobile, they cannot, on an average, afford

the latest phones having features like WAP, chatting, and picture messaging. On

the other hand, senior citizens are capable of owning the latest phones but do

not think them useful enough yet.

The Opportunities

The dust is slowly but finally settling down over desperate cries about the

uselessness of WAP which followed equally strong hype over it. Now is the right

time for protagonists of the mobile Internet to take stock of things and be

clear about what they want to achieve. There is no doubt about the potential

that lies ahead. Also, there is no escape. Mobile Internet is just too good an

objective to remain a dream. The key will be to assess what the short term and

long term opportunities are.

Unlike other countries which saw SMS uptake much before information services

like WAP, India is relatively new to both. This is both an advantage as well as

a disadvantage. People have the choice of not deploying infrastructure for

providing SMS-based services and straight away going in for WAP-based services.

At the same time, one does not know how long it will really take for WAP to be

accepted by subscribers and whether to go in for a stop-gap or additional

provision of SMS-based services. So, the trick for Indian players could lie in

being agile and fleet-footed. Also, one does not really know whether the

consumer segment or the enterprise segment is going to be the main driver for

cellular data services and applications. While there may not be any easy answer,

one must keep in mind that it is the quality and viability of the

services/applications that is being developed that will decide its final

acceptance by both the consumers or the corporates. Issues like the ultimate RoI

that will ensue the deployment of the SMS or WAP



solution, have to be kept in mind.

No enterprise or service provider (cellular, ISP, etc.) will deploy wireless

applications for the sake of fashion. Also, in the case of consumers, even

though there is an element of fashion involved in using cellular information

services and applications, the ultimate verdict of the subscriber will depend on

the value that he or she gets from using the wireless application or services.

Already, many companies are working towards what could be the big

opportunities of tomorrow. Some of these being GIS/location services, mobile

music and graphics, and search engines. The mobile Net is in its infancy. And

there is a huge world out there waiting for Indian wireless players. However,

while chasing these opportunities, they need to be realistic, too. And not

expect miracles to start happening to them.

Nareshchandra Laishram in New Delhi