NEW YORK-Motorola Inc. “is learning our way back because we have made a lot of mistakes,” Janiece Webb, senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Internet Software and Content Group, said in a keynote address at the recent Internet World Wireless 2001 conference.
Recognizing that “handsets by themselves will become commodities,” the equipment maker has embarked on a multifaceted strategy not only to adapt to the new era of wireless communications, but also to help shape it, she said.
Motorola has accepted aggressive, though by no means universal, projections that the mobile Internet and mobile data will account for more than 50 percent of total telecommunications revenues by the end of 2005. For that to happen, consumers will need a suite of desirable and easy-to-use applications, Webb said.
“We, as technologists, more often than not over-engineer stuff. AOL says give ’em a little bit first, then build on it. …We need to get very sophisticated in how we market. We need to take all the techno babble out of it. Speaking for myself, if it comes with a manual, I don’t use it,” Webb said.
“That is our challenge, to create user loyalty to a device and to a network.”
Motorola is looking at ways to make the user experience seamless through the use of smart agents with artificial intelligence, and smooth handoffs between wide area networks and local area networks. It is developing object-oriented technology that gives end users “one-button access to information,” and is also “spending a lot of money on battery technology,” Webb said.
While it believes voice communications and e-mail will remain important, the company also sees several other killer applications: corporate productivity tools for mobile workers; personalization of information that is “relevant, actionable and simple”; short message service and instant messaging; and telematics.
“We had the PageWriter, but we got too conservative in marketing it and took our eye off the ball in messaging. That’s a shame because we have such a history in messaging, which has broadcast and simulcast capabilities,” Webb said.
“We need an ecosystem for apps. As a company, we will never do it alone, so we are starting to sponsor developers all over the world, everyone from four people in a garage to major corporations.”
Location-based services are an integral part of the personalization Motorola believes is a killer application for wireless data. The company is working on computer servers that will enable a trial of location-based wireless services in Europe this spring. In the United States, Motorola will roll out such services when emergency 911 services become a mandate.
In the evolving world of wireless data, Webb pointed out the strategic value of Motorola’s 2000 merger with General Instrument Corp., a heavyweight in broadband technology expertise. She also noted Motorola’s work in General Packet Radio Service, or 2.5-generation wireless, saying the equipment vendor was first to develop GPRS handsets.
“As an industry, we need to get behind GPRS. It’s real and it’s here. Three carriers in the United States are ready to roll it out,” Webb said.
“Let’s not let what happened to WAP happen to GPRS. WAP isn’t over by a long shot, but as an industry, we didn’t get that (user) experience right.”
In July, Motorola plans to introduce a programmable GPRS phone with built-in speaker that has a slim form factor reminiscent of the PageWriter. “All our devices from a certain level up will be programmable. … No more will we hold the customer hostage because nothing is proprietary. All is open,” Webb added.
Also later this year, the handset maker plans to expand from Asia into Europe the commercial availability of its phone that uses the Palm Inc. operating system. The company also is developing internal infrared modems for existing models, which now have these as external features.
“If we have our own, we’ll put it out, but we will cooperate with other players. We are involved with Symbian. We are looking at what’s going on with Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft,” Webb said.
“All the competition from Japan and Korea will improve things. They know how to make consumer electronics.”
The data revolution at hand is bringing together “strange bedfellows” from the computing, communications, Internet and entertainment industries.
“People who have never been a room together have to get together. … I don’t know if it will be any one winner of the race. I think there will be a lot of combinations,” Webb said.
Among wireless operators, consolidation and large capital outlays on networks and licenses have laid the groundwork for a high-stakes battle for customer loyalty. The winners will be those companies with a successful approach to differentiated voice and data services, Webb said.
