Consumers' mobile experience to improve drastically in coming years: CTIA panel

April 3, 2008

Smartphones, smarter consumers

LAS VEGAS – The consumer mobile experience is going to be drastically different in the next few years, according to a panel yesterday at the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference.

The industry-expert panelists gave their outlook for handset feature sets such as messaging, imaging, audio, application platforms, external memory, PANs, positioning and location-based services.

“The mobile market is moving toward openness,” said James C. Brailean, cofounder and president/CEO of PacketVideo. “We’ve noticed a trend towards device specialization. What impact will this trend have on non-specialized devices?”

Mr. Brailean said that there is a great need for platforms where service providers as well as consumers can service platforms for their needs

“I think we’re going to continue to have a balance,” Mr. Brailean said.

These days handsets already have many features that didn't exist in prior years. Studies reveal that often times mobile phone users are not aware of the capabilities their devices have beyond voice.

“If you look at today’s handsets, they have plenty of features and most of us don’t know what they mean,” said Muzibul Khan, vice president of product management and engineering wireless terminals at Samsung Telecommunications America.

“If there is a way to have these features categorized, we can call that a specialized device,” Mr. Khan said. “All the phones in the future will have a combination of features and a better interface.”

Mike Wehrs, vice president of evangelism at Nuance Communications, questioned whether the one device that can do many things will eventually replace a specialized device.

“How many phones out there have been able to play music for years?” he asked the audience. “There is value and it’s going to continue. As for general-purpose devices, the specialized class is going to be more of the overall market, until we can lick the complete ease-of-use in devices going forward.”

The panelistsl agreed that it all comes down to is what users want and being able to fulfill their wishes.

“We’re seeing a real change that is happening – it comes down to a marketing thing and what an individual wants,” said Bob Morris, director of mobile computing at ARM. “The iPhone set the expectation. Ease of use can be moved across many platforms and people will begin to expect that.”

Rob Katcher, senior product manager at Smartphones Palm Inc., said that marketing a new phone is important.

“Marketing plays a huge part in the success of a new phone,” Mr. Katcher said. “The Motorola Razr just nailed style. If the device really wasn’t stylish, it may not have done that well. What you say about a product and what it does is very important.”

Robert N. Shaddock, senior vice president of feature and mass-market devices at Motorola, said it's important to market a phone’s ease of use.

The panelists also talked about the major barriers to advanced mobile data and how they will be overcome.

“We have to start thinking about things as segmented and as a total experience.,” PacketVideo's Mr. Brailean said. “We need to think about these experiences. I think we have a lot of work ahead of us, as this industry is going into a whole new era.”

Motorola's Mr. Shaddock said a major barrier is that no matter how much power and bandwidth you provide, it’s never enough - it will be consumed.

“With that comes a financial barrier with building the networks,” Mr. Shaddock said. “The industry is about to persuade itself it needs to go into 4G. There’s some people that haven’t yet figured out how to monetize this.

“The key to this monetization – the barrier – is the usability,” he said.

Price is a major hurdle, too.

“Do you want to plunk down that extra money to get data on device?” Palm's Mr. Katcher asked. “People do want mobile data. Turn off your Internet connection for two days, it’s almost the equivalent of no hot water. I think there are lots of uses for mobile data.”