Social Strategy & Design by @KarlLong

Nov 14, 2006

Are Mobile Operators stifling Mobile Innovation?

In his thoughtful post “mobile is a dud” Rodrigo states:

any business model build around mobile is doomed and that advertisers should ignore this medium for the time being.

So what happened to all the mobile entrepreneurs? Why haven’t we seen innovation on mobile phones as we say on PCs. The entrepreneurs were snuffed (1). Because they control the network the mobile operators figured they ought to make all the profit from any business using their infrastructure and totally control (own) the user experience (2). I know of three mobile-based start-ups, by friends of mine, all with reasonably good ideas, that fatally partnered with mobile network operators. The exception was – there is always an exception the defines the rule: ringtones.

Mobile network operators were (and are) too greedy. The only entrepreneurial mobile environment is iMode in Japan where DoCoMo charges a lowly 9% commission on sales.

Are the mobile operators the equivalent of AOL and CompuServe, trying to keep customers in a highly profitable a walled garden?

I think the recent mobile applications that google has put out there, both for mail and maps are great examples of apps that work within the constraints of mobile both from delivery and customer experience standpoint.

to get google mail on your mobile phone just point your phone at: gmail.com/app and to get maps point your phone here: www.google.com/gmm

Also related to mobile innovation are some great notes from the Mobile 2.0 conference that was recently in San Francisco (and a lot cheaper than the other 2.0 conference).