Google testing location-based ads

According to BusinessWeek (print edition dt April 20, 2009), Google is testing location-based advertising to drive more bang for the advertising buck. In March, Google started placing local-business ads on Urbanspoon, A GPS enabled mobile app. This app has capability to identify the user’s location and then recommends places to eat nearby. This allow Google to provide a better return on advertising dollars. In a down economy, advertisers are looking to get better return on their advertising investments.

Attended Wireless Technology Forum’s Mobile Media SIG event

Had the pleasure of attending the Wireless Technology Forum’s SIG on Wireless Apps and Mobile Media. Today we had the iPhone Product Manager for autotrader.com – Nick Park presenting. 

Excellent presentation Nick. Thanks. Enjoyed the session

Nick was speaking about autotrader’s mobile web app. Some key aspects from his presentation :

Autotrader is primarily focused on iPhone but its web app works on BlackBerry and Windows Mobile too. AutoTrader’s app is about finding new and used cars, their pricing and nearby dealerships based on a number of criteria. AutoTrader is part of the Cox family. Some stats on autotrader :

• 14 million unique visitors each month
• 40000 dealers use AutoTrader
• 3 mill cars in inventory
• 250K private sellers
• 220 employees

Audience of AutoTrader :

• 78% visitors are males
• Average age is 43.7 years
• Average income $74300
• 40% have graduated college
• 63% are married

Basically the primary market audience is mid-market customers.

Another interesting stat : 83% of AutoTrader’s audience are looking for used cars. Only 10% visit to sell their cars on AutoTrader. So not a big selling platform. It is primarily search and find.

Critical aspects of AutoTrader strategy which also define its mobile app are : Portable, Rich Media, Local, Brand. Portability was a challenge as earlier strategies involved print media localized to communities. The mobile app was originally developed for portability reasons (in-pocket accessibility) and also to keep the brand fresh and young.

AutoTrader thought best to go with a mobile website as opposed to a device app. This was the easy thing to start with as it allowed them to leverage most of the backend web app and data environment. Mobile resident app would be more work and is in the future.

AutoTrader’s other brands include : AutoTrader Classic (Classic cars), AutoTrader Latino (heavy SMS usage), and AutoMart (popular with women). These three profiles require a different strategy in mobile world too.

Dealers have a substantial presence on AutoTrader. The latter enables inventory management, merchandising and auction support for dealers. AutoTrader has deep relationships with Kelley Blue Book, MSN Auto, Univision and NADA Guides.

Mobile version of AutoTrader was a result of a need to provide scalability to distributors. The mobile web app is being tightly coupled to the main web app. There is an effort to merge the business and analytics engine of the mobile app with the main web app. This helps in fast turnaround on changes and experimentation.

Functionally speaking, searching a car requires a lot of parameters to return an accurate result set. Also getting credit for referring customers to dealers has been difficult for AutoTrader so they are experimenting with coupons and such. The mapping function of the AutoTrader mobile app finds the nearest dealer having the desired car.

                                                               

                                                       autotrader.com on iPhone

Some key aspects needed to sell cars :

- photo is critical for used cars

- video is important and useful with lot of mobile users checking auto videos on mobile phones

- maps are popular to find cars in nearby vicinity dealerships

 

Next steps for AutoTrader mobile consist of : experimenting with more iPhone apps, developing for other platforms like Android, mobile / web hybrid apps and fast turnaround on application development and releases.

Thanks to WAMM (Wireless Apps and Mobile Media) SIG at the WTF for arranging this excellent presentation.

A Primer on LTE – link on wikipedia

Our post on “A Primer on LTE” is now referenced on wikipedia on the main LTE page :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution

Let us know your feedback. Thanks for the excellent feedback on a similar post on ”Primer on WiMAX“ and referenced on wikipedia on the main WiMAX page.

A Primer on LTE

LTE or Long Term Evolution is a 4G wireless technology and is considered the next in line in the GSM evolution path after UMTS/HSPDA 3G technologies. LTE is espoused and standardized via the 3GPP or 3rd Generation Partnership Project members. 3GPP is a global telecommunications consortium having members in most GSM dominant countries. 3GPP specifications are based on GSM evolution path of wireless communications. GSM is the most prevalent wireless standard in the world and has maximum number of subscribers globally.

The impact of LTE is so big that even powerful carriers which were on the alternate CDMA path like Verizon Wireless of United States, have decided to go with LTE in their next generation 4G evolution. Firms like Verizon and MetroPCS of USA have all but dumped the CDMA technology path almost dealing a blow to the CDMA owner Qualcomm, although the latter is much more diversified so it is not really short of business models.

LTE vs WiMAX
Whereas WiMAX emerged from the WiFi IP paradigm, LTE is a result of the classic GSM technology path. LTE is behind in the race to 4G with WiMAX getting an early lead with the likes of Sprint ClearWire and several operators in Asia opting to go with WiMAX in the near term. So where WiMAX has a speed to market advantage, LTE has massive adoption and GSM parenthood to back it up.

It is widely believed by market analysts that LTE will win ultimately but WiMAX will find adoption in frontrunner communities and niche business models which tend to take up technology faster. WiMAX vendors will have you believe that speed to market is too important to ignore. History suggests otherwise in case of wireless industry. It is also believed that ultimately, wireless industry will figure out a way to wed the two 4G technologies so the end product in few years might be a nice amalgam.

So ultimately, what standard an operator uses might be a moot point in the long run. The inter-operability would be just too great to get hung up on the wireless standard. The fact that both WiMAX and LTE are all-IP means that a cross-connection will be a piece of cake at some point in future.

In terms of speed, Fixed WiMAX lacks LTE in speed but Mobile WiMAX may catch up with LTE on this front. For an overview on WiMAX, refer to our post “A Primer on WiMAX“.

LTE Technology
LTE builds on 3GPP family which includes GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) etc. LTE is an all-IP standard like its peer WiMAX. LTE allows for rich applications and business models which include ultra-high speed voice, video and data. It also enables integration with the classic internet infrastructure which is all-IP based.

HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), the 3G GSM standard popular over near-term, offers uplink speeds of 11.5 MBPS and downlink of 28 MBPS. Whereas LTE offers 75-100 MBPS Uplink speeds and 250-300 MBPS downlink speeds. Compare this with 20 MBPS U-verse speeds of AT&T wired broadband network U-verse and 50 MBPS speeds in Verizon FIOS TV service. In a nutshell, LTE will beat the fastest wired broadband delivery High Def TV today (in USA) by order of 1 to 4 or 1 to 2 depending on which wired broadband we are talking about. That said, many carriers like AT&T believe that HSPA and its faster cousin HSPA+ will compare well with early WiMAX speeds and so there is no rush to LTE yet for these kind of carriers.

Some key characteristics of LTE are described below :

• Increased Data Rates and High Efficiency : LTE is based on OFDM Radio Access technology and MIMO antenna technology (just like its cousin WiMAX) which offer excellent modulation technique for achieving powerful spectral efficiency.  Think of the OFDM wireless spectrum as a series of very fine and narrow wireless  bands and each band gets allocated to various service providers.  LTE offers higher data transmission rates while utilizing the spectrum more efficiently. This translates to an ability to support many more multitude of subscribers than is possible with pre-4G spectral frequencies. LTE is 2 to 5 times more efficient in spectrum utilization than the most advanced 3G networks.
• Radio Planning : LTE signal goes far and wide and covers a larger geographic territory. LTE signal is way faster than the existing wireless transmission resulting in higher user response times.
• IP environment : LTE is all-IP which permits new enhanced applications like real time voice, video, gaming, social networking and location-based services.  The concept of wireless ubiquity comes alive with LTE processor chips in everything from netbooks to mobile phones to consumer devices; all these devices talk to each other seamlessly and effortlessly.
• Inter-operability : LTE IP network co-operates with circuit-switched legacy networks resulting in a seamless network environment and signals are exchanged between traditional networks, the new 4G network and the IP-based internet seamlessly.

LTE Applications
LTE will enable applications previously unheard of. Wireless ubiquity is a given. All consumer devices. communication and computing resources may be enabled on the wireless network courtesy of chipmakers like Intel who are eagerly building in WiMAX and LTE in future chipsets which will be embedded in all sorts of technology devices that one can imagine.  Social Networking and human-technology interaction (HTI) will take on a new meaning. Human-technology interface and resultant communication could be as seamless and as effortless as the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report makes it out to be (ok we are bragging a bit now).

Web 4.0, if you will, may just comprise the Wireless as an integral element of the hyper-connected world via LTE and WiMAX enablement.  Broadband TV might not need wired cables anymore and new MVNO service providers may emerge who enable wirelessly driven TV and broadband internet. Business users might exchange massive amounts of data while on the go at the flick of a button (or touch). Interacting with your Flickr and Picasas photo streams from mobile devices might be a breeze. Games will cross wired / wireless domains and mobile location will figure in the gaming context naturally. Location-based may take a new meaning with location being the true IP beacon determining the application context in a flash, thereby offering a ultra-personalized mobile experience to the user.

LTE Timeline
Operators are just now fully deploying 3G using WCDMA or UMTS/HSPDA. WiMAX is coming in via ClearWire in USA and several operators like BSNL in India and many others in Middle East and Africa. The first LTE deployment in USA is with relatively tiny MetroPCS which may just beat the big 3 LTE carriers (AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile) in the race to 4G. Verizon is claiming 2010 LTE deployment and AT&T is taking a more patient approach and states that LTE is in 2011-12 timeframe. China is unique, as usual. They have taken the TD-SCDMA 3G route which is a “unique to China” standard.  Chinese 4G strategy is not clear still. India is more LTE centric like the West with major carriers like Airtel and Vodafone adopting the LTE route. LTE in India is many years away as India’s regulator TRAI has not even awarded the 3G spectrum licenses yet.

Japan, we won’t even go there..

A Primer on WiMAX – see our post referenced on wikipedia

Our article on “A Primer on WiMAX” was liked so much that a link to it was created on wikipedia under Notes and References section of the main WiMAX page :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX

Thanks to the team or individual who put our post on wikipedia. So we have decided to create “A Primer on LTE”. LTE is the competing 4G technology and coming a little later than WiMAX. Stay tuned for the LTE primer on this blog.

5 LBS Apps on iPhone

Apple’s new iPhone software with the iPhone OS 3.0 update will include Google Maps integration. With this I feel there will be an explosion of location-based apps to start appearing in the App Store. This again will be followed by other app store hope-fulls like RIM, Nokia etc. There are already a few location-based apps available now and here are five that are worth a look.

uSonar (Free)

There are lots of apps available that let you keep up with your social networks while you’re on the go, but what about when you’re bored and want to find someone local to hang with? uSonar lets you know who’s around and what they’re up to, whether they are someone you already know or not. Members post “blips” about their activities and locations, then you can message them directly through your iPhone or iPod touch. Everything about uSonar is opt-in, so you’re in control of who can see where you are, or send you a message or email. You can even post anonymously if you’d like.

Loopt (Free)

If you want people outside your immediate location to be able to find you, try Loopt. This app lets you broadcast your whereabouts or send pictures to everyone in your social networks, like Twitter and Facebook. It works across all major mobile phone carriers and supports over 100 different models of phones so your buddies without iPhones can find you. It’s famous among youth of UK

Hear Planet (Free)

If you like to go sightseeing when you travel, then you’ll love Hear Planet. It uses geolocation to determine where you are, then feeds you tons of information about the area’s landmarks, famous buildings, historical sites, and more via your headphones. More than just an audio tour guide, listen while you drive around running errands and you just might learn something you never knew about your hometown.

Whrrl (Free)

Some folks love micro-blogging so much that they want to document every minute of their day. If that’s your thing, let Whrrl help. Use your iPhone’s camera to snap pictures of your lunch, trip to the market, and visit to the dentist, uploading to Whrrl as you go. You can even add text and messages if you choose. Your location and micro-stories are shown on a map, which is really neat if you happen to be around other Whrrl users doing the same thing as you. Imagine attending the IPL Cricket matches and updating the experience as it happens, while simultaneously watching someone else across the stadium do the same.

Traffic ($1.99)

This app will let you know what the traffic conditions are like in your area and display them in list form or superimposed on a map. Traffic gives you details on how severe the traffic situations are. The app automatically locates where you are, but you can enter the location of your choice so you can get traffic conditions anywhere.

iPhone 3.0 OS Overview

I wanted to write about the new Apple news – that of iPhone 3.0 software. Apparently it is a version which will fulfill many of the things which were missing before :

- 100 new features
- Search iPhone
- Cut, copy and paste capability – sorely lacking in prior versions
- Send photos, contacts, audio files and locations via MMS
- Read and compose email and text in landscape mode. Earlier the safari browser allowed this but not the email and message box. Now the latter will allow landscape also.
- 1000 new APIs for developers
- enable in-app purchase of content like subscriptions, additional game levels and other content
- apps can communicate with other hardware via Bluetooth
- push is available to developers to push content
- multitasking so multiple apps can run simultaneously
- developers can use the map feature of iPhone in their apps
- developers can access the iPod music (or podcasts etc) library stored on the device and use them innovatively in their apps

 

This is a sample list – we will write more as we learn about this exciting new announcement from Apple – we remain die-hard fans of iPhone which is a true mobile revolution as far as we are concerned.

Attended the Wireless Technology Forum (Atlanta) General Meeting on Wireless Consumer Apps

I visited the Wireless Technology Forum’s General Meeting today. WTF is the top wireless networking group in Atlanta with 550 members and growing rapidly. The topic for today’s session was “Where is the Money in Wireless Consumer Applications?“

The WTF session today had an excellent panel :

Ken Hayes, EVP – Carrier Relations, ThumbPlay

Rob Hyatt, Executive Director, AT&T Mobility

Andy McGuire, VP Mobile Innovation, GSM Association

Andrew Dod, VP Marketing, Whoop Mobile

Ron Kozoman, Director, Mobile Operations, Turner Broadcasting Systems

Moderator : Maury Margol, Sr. Director, Client Relations, Nielsen Telecom Practice

Here are some highlights from the panel discussion :

As one would expect, iPhone has come to dominate all things mobile internet in current times. Basic theme all throughout the discussion was that the iPhone is a game changer in mobile app world. It has shown the world how the mobile user experience should be and how to influence consumer adoption with a compelling application portfolio.

Which mobile apps are making money today ? Ken suggested it is the iPhone apps with its AppStore strategy.  3 years from now, it will be LBS which will be main revenue generator in mobile apps. Andy McGuire suggested that 800 million iPhone application downloads so far is the tip of the iceberg. It is an indicator that developers and consumers are there if the ecosystem is right.  He mentioned that in future, one might see utility models like medical and home apps on mobile phones. One panelist opined that in spite of all the iPhone AppStore hoopla and massive no of apps available, money is still being made in limited categories like games and music.

On the question of wired devices, the panel was of the opinion that in future there will be lot of wireless devices which will preclude the need to have a wired network but higher speed apps will still find a use for wired networking eg in case of high speed TV. Andy quoted Sony CEO’s statement that in the future, 90% of devices may be wirelessly-enabled. Clearly wireless is the future for all networks but for reasons of speed and niche uses, wired devices and network will still prevail in some areas. Some interesting uses of wireless will be wireless blood pressure monitor, reservoir monitors etc.

On the question as to how a carrier like AT&T makes money in “open mobile” environments like iPhone AppStore, Rob from AT&T mentioned that iPhone has increased data plan sales for AT&T and also AT&T itself makes some of the iPhone apps.  Plus AT&T attracts a huge no of new subscribers due to the iPhone exclusivity. In essence, AT&T has lots of monetization models around iPhone type of devices where the volume of customer adoption more than covers for the revenue lost due to “open” mobile gardens like iPhone AppStore.

Next there was a question – how can developers make money in mobile apps? The panel was of the opinion that there are lot of apps being made and put out most of the times for free. Lot of these apps are simply experimental in nature or are hobby apps with no business model around them. The panel suggested that developers need to think through the business model when writing apps. Most apps peak and then are forgotten in the ever increasing mass of mobile apps on iPhone AppStore. As to mobile ads inside the mobile apps, it is a nascent idea at this point but in future, this will become a bigger source of revenue vs a download fee. One panelist suggested that considering the fact that there are 4 times the no of mobiles in the world compared to no of PCs, there is a dearth of content for mobile so that is an area which developers can look at. Also RIM has stated that minimum pricing for BlackBerry App Store app will be $2.99 – this may invite more serious developers who have a revenue-generating business model in mind.

Per Robb Hyatt from AT&T, iPhone took AT&T Mobility from “2nd innings straight to 5th innings” in mobile data; I found this interesting.

When asked where does Google come into picture, the panelists mused that it is one of many players unlike in internet where it dominates via search. One interesting aspect about Google Android is that it has reduced manufacturing costs for OEMs (read cellphone makers) dramatically. Eg Samsung or Motorola no longer have to spend tons in maintaining custom mobile OS for its phones. It can focus on making compelling phones and just use Android for mobile OS.

On Mobile Payments, the panel thought that Near Field Communications or NFC payments are still in infancy although other countries are slightly ahead of USA in this area.  Also consumers need to become comfortable about security before mass adoption of Mobile Banking will be seen. Andy gave an example of “Banking for the Unbanked” in Kenya on Safaricom network and its mobile payment offering called m-pesa. The 7 million m-pesa customers use mobile as a payment mechanism and receive paychecks on it. This is excellent innovation in mobile payment. Everybody agreed that mobile payments and banking is a trust model as much as it is a technology model.

Then the natural question : has recession effected mobile apps business ? Apparently not, per the panel. It seems consumers will not give up mobile and its little entertainment oriented apps just like they won’t give up on movies in a downtime. Mobile is an essential device today for a consumer.

All panelists agreed that there is lot of innovation remaining in mobile app arena. The primary gaps remain in user experience and business model evolution. iPhone experience is the beginning and not the end.

Well, very informative and highly intuitive discussion. Thanks to the panel and to the organizing team at the WTF – Maury Margol, Bob McIntyre and Steve Bachman.

CellStrat Annual India Mobile Media Survey 2009 – status

We are pleased to report that this survey that we started recently is progressing well. We have received some excellent responses from top executives who have shown high interest in mobile media and related applications on the mobile channel. Some very interesting observations are emerging (this is a sample from responses so far,  survey is still progressing so not done yet) :

- As suspected Airtel is most common operator in use and Vodafone follows after that.

- 93% execs use mobile phone for uses beyond talking

- All execs feel that mobile represents the biggest opportunity in next 5 years

- SMS is the killer data app with IVR also getting high marks

- Browsing, Search and Directions are most popular mobile web uses in that order. Banking is still low relative to these other uses – we feel trust factor is keeping banking low

- Mobile marketing campaigns are primarily about information disbursals rather than for promotions or customer service.

- Most execs give very high marks to mobile advertising. Of course SMS is the main theme here.

Well – we are confident that you will be enriched with the results of this survey. It is indeed coming out very well. We encourage media, marketing and technology heads to participate and others to get access to this survey. It is the most critical and actional business intelligence on the latest and most exciting media channel of today’s time – the mobile device.

To participate or get access to the survey report, please contact us at :

http://www.cellstrat.com/mobilemediasurvey.html

The final survey report will be available at the end of April.

VS

Top Trends in Mobile Space

Next 2-3 will see radical changes happening in mobile space, making smartphones, netbooks and yet-to-be introduced devices even more indispensable parts of our lives. Here I am quoting ( from CIO Zone) some of the developments in US and will also try to give my views from India’s persective that will power this next phase of evolution?

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

The so-called fourth generation of mobile (4G) is expected to be rolled out across North America over the next three years, making it possible for corporate users to run business applications on their devices simultaneously with Voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities. Where as in India 3G is yet to roll out for masses. People are eagerly waiting for the same as slowly people are switching on to smart 3G phones.

WiMax

As LTE and WiMax networks are deployed in the U.S. through 2012, expect to see more netbooks and laptops equipped with built-in radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless support. We sometimes get queries in India for development of applications in healthcare etc. but simple are not able to serve these clients due to unavailability of wimax infrastructure India wide.

3G & 4G interoperability

Sprint has developed a dual mode card which will enable mobile device users to work on both 3G and 4G networks. Other carriers are expected to follow suit.

Smartphone applications

Third-party software vendors will increasingly make enterprise applications available for smartphones, including inventory management, electronic medical records management, warehousing, distribution and even architectural and building inspection data for the construction industry.

GPS

Global Positioning Systems will increasingly be used to identify end users by their whereabouts and also to analyze route optimization for delivery workers and service technicians.

Security

As new and different types of mobile devices are introduced, corporate IT departments will find it increasingly challenging to identify and authenticate individual end users. As such, expect to see a combination of improvements in both Virtual Private Network (VPN) software and hardware-based VPNs to support multiple device types.

Tody, I was in Nokia Forum and there I came to know that last year, they had selected an pplication in International level competition where in with the use of cell-phone, you can convert your television into a touch screen device. These are the kinds of technologies that will change the world and bring all kinds of functionality of operating virtually anything, right in the hands of the mobile device owner.