NEW ORLEANS-Whether it’s downloading video clips, buying ringtones or simply sending a photo to a friend, the key to enticing consumers to spend more on wireless data can be summed up in one word: simplicity.
That was the message from carriers, content providers and software developers at last week’s CTIA Wireless 2005 in New Orleans hoping to drum up wireless data usage. While sexy applications like mobile TV and full-track downloads make headlines, the industry is looking to developers who can gently take the users’ hand and lead them quickly and simply to those profit-generating services.
“Increasingly, usage is really driven by the user interface,” said Richard Wong, general manager of the messaging products group at Openwave Systems Inc., a mobile technology company that provides software for wireless Internet browsing, MMS delivery and other applications. “That’s increasingly important both to retain the user as well as stimulate new growth.”
Openwave has teamed with First Hop, a Helsinki, Finland-based developer that specializes in user interface software. Other developers focusing on simplified user interfaces include Wireless2Web, Irish developer ChangingWorlds, and SurfKitchen, a U.K.-based company.
Last week, Openwave and First Hop launched an application-to-person messaging product designed to allow carriers to quickly and seamlessly integrate new content on their decks.
“It’s all the same look and feel,” Wong said of the interface. “It doesn’t feel like a bunch of `silo-ed’ things on my device.”
It’s no secret that carriers are looking to new applications to shore up the razor-thin profit margins voice usage generates. As 3G networks come online and handsets combine the capabilities of several typical household devices, many wireless users have their choice of content and applications never dreamt of just a few years ago. Subscribers can send and receive video clips, watch mobisodes of hit TV shows, play three-dimensional games or use their phone as a portable radio.
Still, most subscribers see the phone as simply a phone-not as a camera, camcorder, radio or TV screen. Despite the proliferation of camera phones, for instance, studies show new users are inclined to snap enough photos to fill the phone’s memory only to revert to using the phone for nothing but voice communications.
“We need to simplify,” said Stan Sigman, president and chief executive officer of Cingular Wireless. “Devices are so robust, networks are so robust, that we need to simplify the experience for users.”
A lack of MMS interoperability hasn’t helped, as subscribers often can’t know if the photo they try to send to a friend will actually be received by the friend’s handset. And with technologies advancing so quickly, many users aren’t aware of the capabilities of phones and networks. SNAPin, a Bellevue, Wash.-based developer, has launched software that instantly invites a user who has taken a photo to send it to a friend. The product can lead gamers to a new title, or music lovers to a recent release they could purchase over their handsets.
“(With the software), the operator is capturing that moment when you might want to send an MMS,” said Tom Trinneer, vice president of marketing and product management for the 2-year-old SNAPin. “It takes them exactly to the (application), and walks them right through it.”
The simplified user interface movement reaches beyond entertainment applications, as well, into such applications as mobile e-mail. There’s no doubt that users would love for their interaction with a handset to duplicate their experiences with a computer, but a phone’s diminished screen sizes and decreased memory will always result in a less fulfilling experience.
So some developers are working on software that delivers a stripped-down, customized version of desktop information to phones. Wireless2Web, a Los Angeles-based developer, offers an e-mail application that allows mobile users to see just cursory information of some e-mails with the option to view the entire message or postpone reading the note until later. The application can be used for MMS transmissions, allowing the receiver to choose between accepting a photo on the phone or on a computer.
Regardless of the applications, though, observers agree that a quality user interface must have three features: it should allow the user to move seamlessly between applications, it must be carrier-branded to present one face to the consumer, and it should gently push the subscriber toward making purchases with the phone.
“Operators want to get their brand on the device” as much as possible, said Scott Allen, marketing director for SurfKitchen, which is eyeing the U.S. market. “Whether it’s (stock) tickers, (TV) channels or concert tickets, it should stimulate the user to make a purchase or download a product.”
