Internet penetration in India: still not quite there. On the other hand: mobile usage very much there. That seems to be the general consensus of everybody.
Given this, I posed to myself the question: what are possible future mobile applications ? If we could answer that question, may be we will have insight into opportunities that entrepreneurs should be seeking out. Here, I try to answer this question by extrapolating trends in the Internet space into the mobile world.
Personalization
This is Amazon – personalized recommendations based on past behavior. Can we have a personalized “comedy service” – sending me jokes of my favorite genre? Personalized content for the sports lover, the stock broker and so on?
Ecommerce
Financial industry M-commerce is mainstream. As music download is kind of getting there. But it is possible to purchase a variety of goods – flowers for the sweetheart, clothes & CDs for oneself, airline tickets, real estate ….I also believe that auctions could lend themselves easily to the mobile world. Variation of ecommerce is sending money (or money equivalent such as talk time) in communities that do not have access to banking.
Promotion Campaigns
The Shoppers Stop and a hip nightspot in the city that I stay in send me SMSs on promotions and events. What I think is missing is tracking and customization to my individual tastes.
Publishing & Content
News, directories, maps, sports scores and movie reviews are interesting mobile applications with or without GPRS. But there are others. When I heard that the Japanese manga is going mobile, the possibility of Amar Chitra Katha on my i-mate, quickly crossed my mind.
Social Networking
This is interesting. Think of easy ways to build buddy groups and share news and views. Think of rating jokes, content and sharing this within the group. Think of passing recommendations on purchases. Think of organizing events as in Upcoming.org. And of course dating.
Games
Not snakes and ladder as you have today. Real games. Battleships. Bridge. Chess, if you are not too busy blogging.
I think interesting new ventures would be coming up in developing technology platforms for some of these applications. The other area that is interesting is technologies that would allow companies to seamlessly repurpose advertising content for mobile media and to track effectiveness at a user level.
I am researching companies that are developing these technologies and plan to profile them in a future post. If there is any company that you find interesting, send me a mail or add a comment.
Friday, November 17, 2006
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5 comments:
See www.changingworlds.com for personalization
Great post!
Voice is the biggest application on mobile phones. Few years ago we could not imagine that drivers would have a phone and we could call them. So the ability to reach anyone by voice and for anyone to make a voice call is the revolution.
So, one could think of reliable and qulaity services based on voice.
* Home style food delivery: Imagine a mobile number that one could call in any major city to request delivery of home style food. You mentioned personalization - what about the home style food personalized to one's taste. So the Bengali gets his macher jhol, the Andhraite gets pulusu.
I think the key here is quality and reliability of execution. Not the software.
Interesting thoughts, Sanjoy.
What you've mentioned here is an adaptation of all net content/services for the mobile. Some of them will succeed and some will fail, no doubt. The bigger question thus is, which ones will succeed? And why?
As each new medium emerges it uses the previous medium to form its own content - the spoken word became content for books; written text formed the content for radio and movies (talkies); movies provided content for the small screen (VHS/DVD) and now the internet is using all these and giving birth to some new forms of content - user generated content, blogs like this one etc.
So while some net content will directly work on mobiles, some will not.
One needs to look beyond exisiting content and applications to make a killing on this one.
Yes, a whole new experience is needed on the mobile - and it'll probably be a combination of the features you've mentioned. Today the mobile is merely a communication device, and to a lesser extent (in spread, not depth) a PIM tool. It needs to integrate better into life - and the crux in information. At Zook (http://zook.in) we've started off with this approach in mind and we want the handset to become the most useful tool - you already always carry it around.
We do/are adding soon :
* personalization
* useful networking, around content
* campaigns, promotions relevant to a user
* actions that answer the question "what next" after you've got you info. Zook content is primarily leisure focused.
The first step, is of course, the information, and being able to share it, or get advice from friends. We're doing restaurants, movies and events for now, apart from cell content downloads.
Frankly, the mobile's doing good. What more would one want from a mobile? It's mania any which way. It's transformed communication, it's brought us closer. I'm not a techno geek but haven't anything against those who enjoy bathing in technology and am all for gadgetry.
With all of what it has already done to our lives, including our ability to reach our drivers and our gardners at any given time, do we need more? People reach people - that's it....there's the touch, the voice, a whole new msging system in place which allows for and encourages joy to reach you whenever you wish for it....that's good for now and perhaps forever. But who's to stop the genius of the human from devising newer, meaner and faster methods at all times!
It's interesting though to note all the comments here.
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