Mobile Monday Oslo was a great event and many thanks to Shaun and his team for organising it.

I am in Munich speaking at M-days but here is a quick post for the videos for MoMo Monday. Always a pleasure to speak alongwith Tomi Ahonen, Martin Sauter and Andrew Grill

The order of the speakers is: Shaun Tomi Ajit Steinar Andrew and Martin

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Techcrunch does a great job of showcasing the harman Bajwa facebook vanity page incident .. and it has profound implications

In a nutshell,

There is a guy called Harman Bajwa

who owns the facebook vanity domain www.facebook.com/harman

facebook has revoked it for allegedly ‘impersonating’ Harman international

And retrospectively sold it to Harman International presumably

with whom they are ‘working’

If your name happens to be ‘Harman’ – I think it is legitimate that you try to get the facebook vanity name ‘Harman’

This has profound implications

Facebook is a site … It is not the web

That’s why I don’t support such proprietary implementations MASQUERADING as the Open Web

This is an interesting episode and lets see how it develops but good on techcrunch again for this post

Pic – the REAL Harman Bajwa (as far as I am concerned!)

Update

Facebook gives back Harman his name and apologises

That’s good news

very cool! The future of browsing!

Shows the power of HTML5

If you had an HTML5 capable browser you can see it but if not this video will show you hhow it looks

see creator Guillermo Eteves blog for more

I am speaking at Mobile Monday in Oslo on this Monday.

Thanks to Shaun Thanki for inviting me

With Tomi, Martin Sauter and Andrew Grill as co-speakers .. this should be a great event

If you are attending, happy to meet up!

In the flurry of announcements for nexus one at CES, some important announcements did not get the coverage .. one such is the acquisition of Jajah by telefonica ..

I have a theory ..

a) all voice is going VOIP. Already the core network has IP(through IMS). The access network is supposed to get IP through LTE

b) However, voice is the big bottleneck for LTE – hence initiatives like VOLGA and 3gpp voice

c) Now, both of the above have limitations. They will take a while to be ‘global’. Meanwhile the world cannot wait for the telcos to interoperate

d) Now this is where Jajah gets interesting. Jajah has a virtual network through VOIP servers across the planet. As gigaom says

However, Jajah’s struggles didn’t prevent it from building its own virtual network with special VoIP servers across the planet, connected through leased fiber connections. It also connects with various PSTN networks (see map). Think of it as a virtual global phone company that allows it to route calls from one place, say New York, to another like Shanghai, at ultra-low prices.

e) This means – telefonica gets a VOIP network globally and does not need to rely on either Volga or 3GPP voice. It could easily ‘offload’ long distance voice calls to the Jajah VOIP network. This could work well especially for Telefonica’s latam footprint

f) There is also a seperate case for Voice as a platform see visionmobile post HERE

If the above theory is true .. then I think it is a very clever move.

It also shows that VOIP has truly arrived!

OMTP has launched it’s OMTP BONDI widget competition with a First Prize $5000

The competition detalls are HERE

The aim of the competition is to create a widget using the tools, tutorials and examples on the BONDI website and upload it to the Competition widget gallery. There is a great panel of judges from across the industry who will meet in the week before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and choose the best widgets. These will then be ‘demoed in all their glory on a number of great handsets at the event’.

This is truly great news because as developers, the ‘deployment on handsets’ is the holy grail and I am curious to see the great handsets

The competition closes on February 8th – so there is not a lot of time!

The BONDI blog is HERE

Note:

This is a longish blog post and I have included many links to validate some of the vision in this strategy which I have been covering for a long time on this blog. If you want me to add you to my mailing list, please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com. You can also buy my latest book Open Mobile – Implications for Telecoms/Devices, Web, Social Networks, Media and Personal Privacy

When the iPhone was launched, I said The iPhone is extraordinary not because of its UI but because it’s the tail wagging the dog…

Superficially, you could compare the physical features of the iPhone (touch screen, megapixel camera etc) versus existing devices, but in my view the iPhone’s potential lay in it’s ability to disrupt the existing value chain (for instance bypassing carrier billing through iTunes).

Hence, I called it ‘the tail wagging the dog ..’ Nexus one (Google phone) has a similar impact on the prevailing value chain.

As early as Aug 2007, I asked the question The Chicken and the Egg: The device and the network – which came first? i.e. The next time you upgrade, will you choose the device first or will you choose the network?

And I concluded then that

a) The chicken and the egg question is won by the handset manufacturers ..

b) But – both will evolve dramatically in the next year or so and especially the Operators will be forced to change existing policies and create differentiation

And also, on the same lines over the last couple of years I have been discussing themes like:

1) Will device manufacturers choosing Operators become the rule – rather than the exception?

2) Isn’t it time we put the customer at the centre of the mobile data value chain: A new value chain for the Mobile data industry

3) In an IP(IMS) world, the mobile device will drive convergence because services shift to the edge of the network – and devices are at the edge of the network…

4) Long tail devices

The Nexus one manifests that ‘chicken and egg’ vision which makes it disruptive much more than the ‘phone’ itself. ..(we come to the turkey later!)

The phone is expected to do well with Barclays Capital analyst Doug Anmuth estimating Five to six million units sold in 2010. Engadget has a great post about the hardware and workings of Nexus One. – so, here I am discussing the disruptive impact of Nexus One on the value chain and not the device features themselves

Nexus One , the Open Mobile philosophy and it’s impact on the value chain

According to Google, Android was developed with one simple idea: Open up mobile devices to enable greater innovation that will benefit users everywhere. and Google also sees Nexus one as a ‘convergence point for mobile technology, apps and the Internet’ sold through Google’s own web store under the strap line of ‘Web meets phone’. Google also indicate that ‘It’s the first in what we expect to be a series of products which we will bring to market with our operator and hardware partners and sell through our online store.’

This is very disruptive and Arstechnica calls it the Divide and conquer If a particular Google-branded phone is not on a particular carrier, then that’s only because that phone doesn’t have the proper radio to support its network. In addition to being unlocked, the phones will also have bundled plan options where the pricing and details are up to the carrier, but every carrier will offer a plan for every phone that’s radio compatible.

CNN confirms that Chicken and Egg philosophy which I alluded to when they say Instead of picking a carrier first and then a phone, the consumers can pick a phone first, and then decide on a carrier. leading the business insider to conclude that You buy the phone from Google – the carrier simply offers voice and data service. without using that dreaded word ‘Pipe’. To top it all, according to Andy Rubin of Google, it seems that Google is NOT trying to make a profit on sales of the Nexus One.. The obvious beneficiaries are the Open mobile advertising model (not the carrier specific/fragmented advertising model) as the acquisition of Quattro by Apple demonstrates.

Impact on carrier business models

Reading between the lines, the carrier reaction has been interesting and mixed. Here are some examples that caught my attention

1) Predictably, there are some concerns that the Google Phone May Add to Network Strain.

2) AT&T announced five Android phones breaking their dependence on the iPhone..

3) T-mobile is the Operator who launched the Nexus One but they say that Subsidised nexus one pricing is not available for existing t-mobile subscribers..

4) Verizon who so recently promoted the Droid says that Nexus One will only be sold by Google directly.

5) Vodafone who did not launch the iPhone initially, now promises Nexus in a few weeks.

6) It appears that Vodafone shop guys are telling customers to wait for the iPhone (and maybe now for Nexus One) – instead of Vodafone’s own 360.

7) Carriers may now seek partners which they resisted recently. Qualcomm seems to be the surprise winner on AT&T. and
AT&T now offers carrier billing support for Nokia’s Ovi Store.

What does this mean?

Google’s move into e-commerce is the big news here. You could call it ‘m-commerce’ driven by the Web. Overall, the Web players like iPhone and Android treat the Mobile ecosystem as a platform. The Nexus One does a lot to attract developers and can even be seen as Consider the developer bait. . This is good for third party developer ecosystem. Even the carriers seem to be convinced since AT&T CEO de la Vega said “This category is one of the fastest growing and a real sweet spot for developers, because these customers are hungry for applications,”

There had been a huge latent demand for unlocked cellphones .. but Google makes unlocked cellphones cool! Thats the key difference. It seems that soon the unlocked cellphone maybe the norm and people may look down on people who have ‘locked cellphones’. This subtle psychological shift will have a wide impact in the consumer space.

The next logical step of course is ‘ad funded priceplans’ – I fully expect that these will be on the way and in my view, are great for the customer. There have been half baked attempts in launching advertising subsidised priceplans like Blyk which I never believed in since they lack critical mass. And already, the ‘support’ function(which Operators so bitterly complained about), has been split into three parties: Google, HTC (the phone’s manufacturer), or the phone’s carrier for Nexus One. Finally, ofcourse, Google knows more about the customer since they gather more insights and analysis about the customer(now from mobile devices in addition to the Web)

The turkey (voting for Christmas)!

We have seen recent launches of Android from Dell , Motorola backflip. and Lenovo.

But Google may have ventured into unknown territory with Nexus One. In retrospect, Does a choice of Android seem like Turkeys voting for Christmas?

Even Microsoft did not attempt this (launching a platform and then launching their own device on that platform).

Google is being ‘selectively Open’ here i.e. open when it chooses to be in it’s own benefit. The recent Google Open Memo shows their philosophy(and indeed it has some caveats and contradictions) – but it does emphasise ‘speed’

However, there are some implications:

Firstly, Google could offer device vendors an alternate route to market through the Google store – and this has an impact on the value chain. Secondly, as long as you can uniquely customise it, Android does have value for device makers.

Conclusion

To conclude, we have to ask the question: Where is the value?

The platform strategy always devalues the platform features themselves and shifts value to a higher level of abstraction (in this case advertising) but also apps and services. In contrast, this strategy devalues devices, network and even Android itself.

But more importantly, we have to ask the question: Where is the value for the customer?

And here Google clearly wins ..

It can do this because it is a brand that the consumers for most part value and trust.

In that sense, Operators have for best part, not got the trust of the customer(Think complex priceplans here) . So, we could argue that the customers are the real drivers of this change.

Besides the elements discussed above(unlocked phones, e-commerce, chicken and egg), we have to remember that there will be always one or more breakaway carriers(in this case t-mobile). So, it is not really possible to prevent change even for the Operator community.

For a while, I have been discussing the impact of the change in the form of tectonic plates i.e. changes below the surface which could have a huge impact later.

If you failed to detect the movement of tectonic plate , then the roar of the ‘Open’ Tsunami cannot be missed!

As usual, comments welcome

If you want me to add you to my mailing list, please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com. You can also buy my latest book Open Mobile – Implications for Telecoms/Devices, Web, Social Networks, Media and Personal Privacy

Image : Scienceblogs

Tony Fish has finished writing My Digital Footprint which is a new strategy and business book on identity, privacy, trust and the direction of the Web. The book explores where next for the Web, the associated business models, who owns your data and how value and wealth will be created.

The book is about the digital data created from your interactions with electronic devices, such as mobile phones, web PCs and TV. This data has significant value, when analysed and fed-back, to create services with colour, focus and relevancy for you as a user, as well as to brands, who want to own your whole digital life experience. Digital footprint data is valuable and is the reason why the ownership of this data class is the Web’s next battleground.

The two central ideas which underpin value in My Digital Footprint are: the real-time feedback loop and the role of the mobile device in enriching the value of the data. The ability to get data off a mobile device lends itself to the unique advantage a mobile device has. The book explores how the mobile device once prevailed for the consumption of content and has evolved to enable the capturing of data on what and how we consume and with whom.

Like Marmite, some people like the idea of digital footprints and some do not, but, irrespective of personal preference, we all leave digital footprints behind us and they are about much more than just identity. Digital footprints are about where we have been, for how long, how often; with whom and the inter-relationships we formed in getting there. Digital footprints are memories and moments and not your personal identity, your passport, bank account or social security number.

Tony explains that the value is in capturing, analysing and creating value for your customer and has applied this learning with a unique and innovate route to monetise the book. You can buy it from Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Digital-Footprint-Two-sided-Business/dp/0955606985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262767141&sr=8-1) or direct from the FutureText and he will get your name and address. The complete book is available online for free at My Digital Footprint However, if you want to read others comments on the book or leave comments and join in the debate; where the real value lies, you have to declare who you are by registering, allowing Tony to build a self interested community and create wealth (he hopes)