Snippets from a recently released report from Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c54950)...
Mobile messaging is an integral and vital part of the mobile industry and contributes significantly to worldwide total mobile service revenues. This extensive new report offers a complete study of worldwide mobile messaging markets, forecasting SMS and MMS traffic volumes and revenues for the period 2007-2012, and forecasting mobile email and IM user growth for the same period.
The report studies the major categories of mobile messaging, i.e., short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), mobile e-mail and mobile instant messaging (IM).
The worldwide population is expected to rise from approximately 6.55 billion to approximately 7 billion between 2006 and 2012, and at the same time we forecast the worldwide mobile subscriber base to also increase from 2.65 billion to 4.81 billion.
Asian markets, which are growing at a staggering pace, are expected to account for 50 percent of the total worldwide subscriber base by 2008. Also, the rise in mobile penetration in Latin America and Africa will contribute significantly towards the overall growth of the mobile market.
Although revenues from voice calls still comprise 80 percent of worldwide total mobile revenues, operators globally are focusing on data services for increasing their average revenue per user (ARPU).
Of the various data services available, while attracting none of the glamour as a leading product in most MNOs service portfolio's, SMS actually accounts for approximately 75 to 80 percent of non-voice service revenues worldwide.
After a slow start, MMS has also started experiencing significant growth in several regions, especially in North America. Since interoperability agreements were finally put into place in 2005, the North American market has enjoyed rapid growth in MMS traffic. While North America and Europe now enjoy growing MMS traffic and revenues, MMS is still quite weak in much of Asia and other regions, namely Latin America and most of Africa and the Middle East.
Apart from SMS and MMS, mobile e-mail and mobile IM are showing strong future growth prospects in some geographic regions. Apart from North America and Europe, mobile e-mail is expected to grow significantly in the mobile markets of the Asia Pacific region. The success of mobile e-mail is largely driven by the growth of more advanced handheld devices, such as PDAs and smartphones, so obviously growth of these services will be broadly restricted to the wealthier, more advanced markets for the immediate future.
In response to the last bit... They obviously haven't reviewed / considered the unique positioning of MeOnGo" :)
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Mobile Email - Can Pull be a "Disruptive Technology"?
Came across an interesting debate titled Mobile Email: Push vs. Pull which got me to think and post as follows...
More than 2 billion mobiles world-wide, of which smart-phones account for less than 4%. 1.5 billion email accounts world-wide. And how may mobile email users do we have so far? 10M at best!!
How come no one is questioning this? As critical as email is in our life these days, why is it that only half-a-percent of email users find mobile email appealing?
My take is that mobile email, as is on offer currently... is targeted at high-end users, having high-end devices, requiring high-end email infrastructures - not to mention the ongoing high-cost of using it (data plans, license fees etc.) Many services which claim to be "mobile email for masses" require downloading and installing a client on the phone – requiring mostly a smart-phone and an entry level data-plan.
The above pretty much rules out users in emerging economies… Where internet connectivity and computers are not pervasive. Where people have mobile phones but still continue to use cyber cafe's to access email. Where "value-for-money" is paramount. Where people have browsing capabilities on the phone but data-plans are still expensive. These, accordingly to me, are people who will find great use for mobile email… provided its adoption and usage costs are attractive.
It is with this scenario in mind that our service MeOnGo was developed and launched. A comprehensive PULL mobile email service that works purely in the mobile's browser. Nothing to download, nothing to install and no complicated setups - simply go to the m.MeOnGo.com, enter your email address, password and get going.
The service is designed ground-up to work with any mobile... whether it is an old GPRS phone with only WML support or a cutting-edge smart-phone. The service, though free, provides comprehensive email functionality… there is support for multiple mailboxes, viewing of attachments, SMS alerts for new emails and much more.
In the ongoing debate of Pull vs. Push... Pull would surely fit the bill of Clayton Christensen's definition of "Disruptive Technology"...
A new, possibly lower performance, but less expensive product that addresses an existing market. The disruptive technology starts by gaining a foothold in the low-end, and less demanding, part of the market, then moves up-market through performance improvements, and finally displaces an incumbent's product.
More than 2 billion mobiles world-wide, of which smart-phones account for less than 4%. 1.5 billion email accounts world-wide. And how may mobile email users do we have so far? 10M at best!!
How come no one is questioning this? As critical as email is in our life these days, why is it that only half-a-percent of email users find mobile email appealing?
My take is that mobile email, as is on offer currently... is targeted at high-end users, having high-end devices, requiring high-end email infrastructures - not to mention the ongoing high-cost of using it (data plans, license fees etc.) Many services which claim to be "mobile email for masses" require downloading and installing a client on the phone – requiring mostly a smart-phone and an entry level data-plan.
The above pretty much rules out users in emerging economies… Where internet connectivity and computers are not pervasive. Where people have mobile phones but still continue to use cyber cafe's to access email. Where "value-for-money" is paramount. Where people have browsing capabilities on the phone but data-plans are still expensive. These, accordingly to me, are people who will find great use for mobile email… provided its adoption and usage costs are attractive.
It is with this scenario in mind that our service MeOnGo was developed and launched. A comprehensive PULL mobile email service that works purely in the mobile's browser. Nothing to download, nothing to install and no complicated setups - simply go to the m.MeOnGo.com, enter your email address, password and get going.
The service is designed ground-up to work with any mobile... whether it is an old GPRS phone with only WML support or a cutting-edge smart-phone. The service, though free, provides comprehensive email functionality… there is support for multiple mailboxes, viewing of attachments, SMS alerts for new emails and much more.
In the ongoing debate of Pull vs. Push... Pull would surely fit the bill of Clayton Christensen's definition of "Disruptive Technology"...
A new, possibly lower performance, but less expensive product that addresses an existing market. The disruptive technology starts by gaining a foothold in the low-end, and less demanding, part of the market, then moves up-market through performance improvements, and finally displaces an incumbent's product.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Coverage in ET
Economic Times (ET) recently covered our mobile email offering... Titled Net4Nuts Rings in Pull Email (by Kamran Sulaimani) the story seems to have appeared in most editions of ET.
What surprised me most was the kind of response it invoked. I got a call from one of the mobile operators requesting more information. A person from an industry association also contacted me saying that their members (mostly SMEs) would largely benefit from a service like MeOnGo. Not only that, a couple of end-users also called to say this was a very handy service and that they would no longer need to scout for cyber-cafes for email access, when they are travelling.
Good to know that we are bang on target with our assumption that "mass-market" needs a mobile email service that caters to their needs (and their wallets).
Interestingly, the article positions MeOnGo as a replacement for Blackberry. While MeOnGo is also a mobile email service, the target audience, positioning, costs and features are aimed at a completely different segment / class of users. More on this in my next posting.
What surprised me most was the kind of response it invoked. I got a call from one of the mobile operators requesting more information. A person from an industry association also contacted me saying that their members (mostly SMEs) would largely benefit from a service like MeOnGo. Not only that, a couple of end-users also called to say this was a very handy service and that they would no longer need to scout for cyber-cafes for email access, when they are travelling.
Good to know that we are bang on target with our assumption that "mass-market" needs a mobile email service that caters to their needs (and their wallets).
Interestingly, the article positions MeOnGo as a replacement for Blackberry. While MeOnGo is also a mobile email service, the target audience, positioning, costs and features are aimed at a completely different segment / class of users. More on this in my next posting.
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