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As mentioned in my last commentary, there was a contradiction at
3GSM when it comes to accessing the Internet. In one hall it was
almost impossible not to run into a company showing a newer, better
version of a WAP, HTTP or HTML browser, or applications designed to
provide the desktop experience on a wireless device with a small
screen and numeric keypad.
I was reminded of a statement
by the then-president of Phone.com (now Openwave) who said that for
every additional click on a mobile phone, you lose 50% of those
trying to access information. That was in the early days of WAP
browsers when they were mostly text-based, but I believe it holds
true today. I was amazed to see all of these vendors touting the
ability to quickly and easily provide the same access to the
Internet on our wireless devices that we have on our desktops.
In the meantime, there were a
number of panel sessions and discussions about what it will take to
drive data usage over the networks and increase wireless data
revenue. The consensus was that data access has to be easier and
quicker, take less clicks and provide information that fits the
screen of the device being used. Users should not need a magnifying
glass or have to scroll around a Web site using navigation keys.
New Breed of Applications
The good news, which I also
mentioned, is that a growing number of companies realize that the
browser experience on a wireless device won't drive the adoption of
wireless data services. They have developed new ways of getting to
information that is available on the Internet and behind corporate
firewalls, sometimes simultaneously.
Although they were not
exhibiting, I met with ClairMail. Its solution is to install an
"appliance" behind the company firewall that intercepts certain
emails, parses them and takes action, returning information to the
email box on the customer's device in a few seconds.
The demo I played with
simulated a salesperson who was going to make a sales call on Levi.
I sent an email to an address stored in the address book, crlevi@clairmail.com,
and received all of the sales information for that customer. The
information had been gleaned from salesforce.com as well as a local
database stored on ClairMail's own server. It was quick and easy and
I didn't have to touch a browser.
With this technology,
information can be gathered from many sources. Any updates coming
from the field are quickly and easily added to the original sources.
Of course, it does require one to be within a wireless coverage area
to receive the response via email. Once received, the email message
that contains the information is accessible on the device until it
is deleted. (Companies such as Valutus use a similar model but store
the data directly to the wireless device for access when out of
range.)
One thing that intrigued me
about this product was that I could request a form, have it sent to
me via email, fill it out and return it. This could apply equally to
expense reports or accident reports in the first responder
community, which could use this product to check with the department
of motor vehicles for verification of driver's license and car
ownership. This information would be automatically inserted in the
form for the officer.
I also spent time with Action
Engine. Its mobile device platform provides the ability to
interconnect various applications and it claims to be able to access
information 20 times faster with 80% fewer keystrokes than a typical
Web browser.
Action Engine's approach is to
use nine interconnected applications that learn and remember
customers' favorites (cities, restaurants, airports, etc.), and it
fully integrates with email, contacts, calendar, messaging and other
applications. It also provides access to a number of Internet search
engines including Yahoo, AOL, MSN and even in-house search engines
as well as Google. Its belief is that network operators want to
provide choices for their customers, not simply access to a single
search engine. I believe this is the right business model.
The company's newest foray
into the customer experience is to allow the insertion of ads into
the content stream. It does this in a non-intrusive manner and the
subjects of the ads are based on a customer's recent search history.
I am not convinced that ads on wireless devices will be well
received, but Action Engine and a host of other companies are
enabling them. We will have to wait and see how they are received.
My expectation is that if I am being sent an ad, I should get
something in return -- perhaps more services at no additional
charge, a discount on my monthly bill or some other form of
compensation, but I don't see this happening right off the bat.
Most Impressive
The most impressive "Active"
or "smart" content was demonstrated by Microsoft. The Communications
Sector Group has a product line called the Connected Services
Framework (CSF). Its stated goal is to "make it easier for customers
-- particularly telecommunications providers -- to offer new
Web-based services to end users. These services could be provided
directly by the telecommunications company or outsourced to a
partner and might included Web-based e-mail, VoIP, presence, advance
telephony (such as voice mail, multiparty conferencing, and hosted
PBS systems), document management, or multifunction services that
gather data from multiple online services."
The last part of this was
demonstrated to me and I think Microsoft finally gets it. The demo
began with an Outlook calendar on a smartphone based on Microsoft
Windows for Mobile. The calendar showed an off-site appointment,
including the start time. There was also a "have to leave by" time,
which was inserted by the CSF based on the calculated travel time.
In anticipation of the
appointment, the system was tracking the flow of traffic on the 405
freeway from Redmond to the meeting location south of Seattle. At
some point, it found a report of a major accident on the freeway and
recognized that rerouting would be required, so it showed the
alternate route and posted a new leave-by time on the calendar.
Additional information about the accident and blockage was
available, including being connected to the freeway camera system so
you could see the extent of the back-up for yourself.
In further conversation with
the group's representatives, I learned that this type of back-end
system is capable of providing information from a number of
different resources and stitching the information together in a
seamless presentation within the calendar. This could include sales
information, CRM, access to accounts receivable, the company's
latest stock price, access to news and other sources of information
designed to prepare a salesman to make a sales call.
Conclusions
Though other companies are
doing some exciting things in this area, I cited these three
examples because while they are using different user interfaces (ClairMail,
email; Action Engine, a client; Microsoft, calendar), they all
understand the importance of accessing information quickly and
easily with a minimum of user interaction.
It is difficult for some
within the wireless industry to realize that there is a difference
between taking voice mobile and taking access to information mobile.
The user interface for mobile voice is the same as on a desktop or
at home, but mobile information access should not mean moving a Web
browser down to a small wireless handheld.
It is gratifying to see that
some companies out there understand that to be successful with
wireless data services, network operators will have to offer a much
better user experience and not merely provide a browser with limited
features and functionality that requires customers to "drive" the
interface to access information they want and need.
The system should do most of
the driving, and it should be quick and easy. There is hope, and I
think we will see a lot of progress this year. I also believe that
once we become accustomed to "smart access" or Active Content on our
mobile devices, we will want it on our desktops and laptops. This is
an interesting concept since the wireless industry has historically
been about mobilizing our desktops. With this new genre of
applications, companies that understand how to provide better access
to information on the road might find a secondary market waiting for
them back at the office.
Andrew M. Seybold
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