First the mobile phone industry put a handset in everyone's pocket. Now, with third generation mobile technology, it is creating a whole new industry by turning the handset into a mobile internet terminal. But according to a new report by BRC and EPS of London, this will be a different world from conventional publishing and the internet, leading to a new generation of dot.com millionaires.
Mobile operators and content providers will jointly target niche customer groups with specialised services that play to the unique capabilities of mobile. "The top three providers in any niche will dominate hits and revenue and cut the best deals. The rest will share the crumbs" according to Michael Vadon, Director of BRC. "A compensation for the rest is that mobile internet also provides opportunities for many new kinds of service as yet undreamed of. These will be taken up by innovators, with many becoming millionaires" he adds.
Once content was king, but content is much more valuable if it is just a click away than if the user has to search for it. The report predicts a battle royal between mobile operators and leading digital content providers for dominance of this anticipated new multi-billion pound market. Some operators will want to present their users with a `walled garden' of proprietary content from which they cannot escape. Content owners will strongly favour open access and would like their content to be available to everyone everywhere.
"The key to early success will be messaging, as shown by the explosive growth of short messages on GSM" says Vadon. Mobile internet will provide access to real mobile e-mail. Other successful services will be access to corporate intranets and directory services enabling fast, reliable searches. Each operator will initially try to establish its own branded portals, but those who try to establish global branded portals will find that content is essentially local. The winners will be those who are first to provide niche portals that attract and retain specialised communities of interest.
These are some of the messages from a new report, from BRC Consultancy Ltd and Electronic Publishing Services of London, called `Capturing the Mobile Internet Customer' which describes the new relationships and opportunities emerging from the convergence of mobile networks, IP, digital content and e-commerce. This report covers not only the essential technology of third generation cellular (3G) worldwide, but importantly, also covers the structure and history of the digital content industry, how it will approach mobile internet and the business models available.
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