Reality Check: Is mass market adoption of mobile data services a pipedream or an unfolding reality?

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
Mobile e-mail, advanced messaging and data services are no longer the sole province of smartphones and high-end devices. One of the most market-changing developments the mobile industry has seen in the past 18 months has been the growing mass-market adoption of mobile data services. Carriers have already begun aggressive rollouts of consumer-oriented mobile services on low-end devices. The key question is whether or not this will pay off?
There is no doubt that the explosion of mobile apps and services continues to accelerate — aided by online application stores and the preload of hot services onto devices before they hit the shelves. An emerging consumer wave is embracing cool, inexpensive devices that can provide everything from the latest baseball game results to access to company email on the run. Should we assume, though, that data services are ripe for mass market adoption?
We’ve all tried to access our favorite Web site or application through a mobile browser. Many of us have given up after a couple days of reentering our basic account information, and waiting patiently for the information to show up on every screen. What will make real applications take hold on mass market devices?
Keep it simple
Ease of use remains the paramount requirement for mainstream user adoption. Most customers want to access all their favorite applications on their mobile device and interact with them in nearly the same manner as on a desktop. They want new information as soon as it is available, they don’t want to waste time on manual tasks and they certainly don’t want to check for e-mail every 10 times and receive nothing — even when anxiously waiting for an important order confirmation at the end of the quarter.
Through continued dialogue with end users, operators and device manufacturers, Seven has bridged the gap between desktop and mobile for critical messaging and communication applications that customers feel need to be readily available — for their personal life or for business. We are all used to e-mail being reliable and providing us with the latest updates anytime, anywhere. Why should it be any less so with mobile?
End users want information quickly and immediately. Operators want to be able to monetize data so that they can keep their ARPU up and churn down and manufacturers want to create the right device package that has everyone coming back for more. To achieve all of this, Seven delivers a great user experience that eliminates wasted time and energy in accessing messaging applications — such as e-mail, IM, SMS and more — and make it easy for everyone by automatically pushing updates to end users.
From a device perspective, push-enabled messaging services such as Seven Mobile e-mail and IM extend battery life — a major issue that never seems to be sufficient — and give users a one-click approach to getting the information they want, when they want it. Operators benefit by increased usage and user reliance on the device, as eventually it becomes the lifeline for business professionals, soccer moms and anyone on-the-go.
By pushing application data and updates to users, and doing so within a consistent and intuitive user interface on the device, consumers are more apt to develop loyalty to a particular device and operator. This does not take anything away from being able to load other types of applications on a device, such as entertainment, games and other content but let’s be real — being able to easily communicate with someone in an instant or get automated information updates in real-time is where the root for real loyalty lies.
Isabelle Dumont is senior director of product and corporate marketing at Seven. Dumont is responsible for all global marketing activities, including the overall positioning of the company and its solutions to the market. Dumont brings more than 20 years of software marketing and business planning experience to Seven spanning enterprise, open source, business intelligence and SaaS solutions. Most recently, she was responsible for the Open Source line of business at CollabNet, including marketing, developer community and global sales of Subversion-related solutions and services. Prior to that, she was part of the senior marketing staff at Oracle where she led competitive go-to-market initiatives for the entire Oracle portfolio of products. Before moving to Silicon Valley, Isabelle held several business development and technical positions at IRI Software in Europe where she contributed to the company by opening offices in 12 different European countries. Dumont holds a Master of Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence from the Ecole Centrale of Lyon, France.