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Upward Mobility

Written in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit

As business interaction increasingly takes place via mobile Internet, companies need to explore how mobile digital media can work to their advantage. Mark Desautels, Vice President of Wireless Internet Development at CTIA, an international wireless industry group, explains how.

As 3G wireless networks and advanced mobile devices proliferate, the use of mobile Internet for private and business purposes is expanding. In the U.K. alone, the Mobile Data Association reports that 16.5 million people, or one-quarter of the population, accessed the Internet using mobile phones in May 2008.¹ The group expects the number of U.K. users to expand by 20% in 2009. Companies will need to boost their mobile digital media capabilities to continue to effectively do business with these users.

Mobile digital media is only beginning to be fully exploited by companies, however, believes Mark Desautels. Data that could be used effectively on mobile devices is often locked up in “siloed units,” without being integrated into the mobile sphere. To be fully exploited, says Desautels, “mobile devices and networks need to be as capable as desktops — you cannot expect users to have inferior experiences on mobile.”

Desautels believes that, in many ways, mobile networks and devices are close to catching up with their fixed counterparts in terms of digital media communications. For example, it is now possible to travel by train and stay connected to the office VPN for the whole trip. “It's nearly at the DSL level — even with tunnels and bridges,” he says, adding that manufacturers are introducing significant numbers of laptops with wide-area modems to connect to wireless networks.

How to demonstrate to customers the added value of mobile content? According to Desautels, providers of mobile content should take into account that the individual is likely to be consuming it “between activities” in a short time frame. The provider should “work on the user's behalf in the background. The task should be rendered with the minimum amount of user attention required.”

As an example, an application is now available that “listens” to a song playing in the ambient environment, and enables the mobile device to identify the song and even offer to download it as a full track or ringtone, thereby reducing the customer's interaction with the device. Likewise, camera phones are emerging that can be used to take pictures of a product code or any object the user wants to learn more about. The device then uses the image to search websites to obtain information about it, requiring very little customer interaction with the device.

Although third parties are typically used today to convert content for mobile devices, Desautels believes this will get easier. “An ecosystem is emerging to handle this, but it is still a nascent area,” he says. Mobile video quality also is becoming acceptable at 30 frames per second, a speed appropriate for webcasts, for example. Good-quality mobile TV services that can generate profits are further away, he believes, but developing quickly.

The best way a company can start to embrace mobile digital media, maintains Desautels, is to define when it “could reach a customer any time, any place.” He believes that firms should first ask the question, “If I could reach the customer right now, what would I want to do with him or her?" and then proceed to build that application. Companies need to prepare for more intimate relationships with individuals on mobile devices.

Desautels is upbeat about development and distribution of media on mobile devices. “Adoption will accelerate,” he says. Companies will not have to make incremental investments to adapt media for mobile devices; they will just extend existing applications. “Rather than forcing companies to accept the restrictions of wireless, wireless is advancing to become more like the desktop environment.”

¹ Mobile Data Association Quarterly Data Report, July 2008