Between Brackets

Christen Krogh, Opera’s Chief Development Officer, doesn’t believe in apps.

The basic idea is simple: there’s only one internet (no wired, no mobile, just one) and you can live on it as a company, without the need for building apps. Just reuse whatever you already have lying in the closet and you’re good to go. If you wait a couple of months, that is. Because now things are not yet perfect, but in a couple of months it will be better.

To be frank, the idea is interesting, but today this is not yet a reality. There’s only one internet, agreed, but the wired and mobile experience and needs are completely different. The iPhone proved us that when you offer value-added apps (that may or may not use the internet) you can earn money now. You can of course do nothing and wait a couple of months as the gentlemen suggested, and hope that the web browser really becomes the mobile internet experience they all hope for at Opera. But then again, maybe you shouldn’t wait for your competitors to get a head start…

One of their arguments is that the jump from off-line to online was enormous in the late 19 hundreds, and that the jump from internet media to mobile media is not that big at all. So you won’t enjoy being first for a long time.
I’m not really sure this is true. Once people get used to you application and you keep providing them the service they need they will keep you on their phone.

So I’d say: start playing with getting your services on the mobile devices any way you can. This way you can stay ahead of the competition and you will be prepared for when the real mobile wave comes (be it in the form of an app or a browser).

Last week I went to Amsterdam to join the Mobile Media Day 2009.

A day full of mobile media cases. And we had a couple indeed: Le Monde, Associated Press, and USA Today.

Forrester gave some figures about the industry, a gentlemen from Opera trumpeted the browser as the ultimate mobile internet experience (why? you don’t believe him?) and a mobile game case was presented.

Anyhow, I’ll be covering the three cases I mentioned earlier and the Opera presentation in follow-up blogs.

According to Engadget the Comes with Music service that was introduced in the UK last year is not yet very successful. According to the article, Nokia sold 23.000 which is not an impressive number by any standard.

The App Store concept has proven that consumers are willing to pay for things on their mobile. It is interesting to see whether there are other models such as subscription fee-based initiatives, i.e. ‘included with the purchase of the mobile device’. Based on this incomplete data the question is, is that model not working or is the consumer experience not yet good enough ?

XpressMusic phones like the 5800 are sold in a lot of countries now, without comes with music. Based on the UK results one should not expect this program to become available in a lot of other countries quickly.

Mosh is going to be added to the dead pool soon. That’s nothing new. Only, last week I got an e-mail asking me to download anything I ever liked about Mosh, because they’ll take the site down end of April. Why can’t they just integrate the existing applications into the Ovi store instead of disintegrating it completely?

Dear patrizz,

…

Sure, I have nothing else to do than downloading Mosh apps. Hopefully someone else will have some time and make a Mosh-cemetery

Good news!

Shortly it will be Mobile Monday Brussels time again.

On April 20th, you can hear about mobile mash-ups, and have a chat with friends and colleagues about the mobile landscape.

For registration, program and event details, please go here

According to a poll among 147 executives in the mobile industry, N-Gage is a dodo and jME is on its way out (even if this is an April’s fool joke, it is clear that N-Gage and jME are in trouble and are loosing ground fast to new contenders).

The new stars at the gaming firmament are -tatataah-: iPhone and Android.

It is clear that Nokia has to address the -lack of an- App Store phenomenon asap. They must make it super easy to buy and install games. Furthermore, they need to make sure consumers can re-install and play their games on any of their Nokia devices (now a game is bound to a specific device and when you buy a new phone, you need to buy and install all your games all over again)