Posted on Thursday, 18th February 2010 by Kash

As you probably know from this issue’s cover, Malaysia’s very own mobile brand CSL is celebrating its 10th anniversary. That’s an amazing feat if you ask me.

For a locally-inspired brand to have not only survived but actually thrived over a decade is truly amazing when you consider how many brands have come and gone over the years. Big and small brands have either fallen to the wayside or are on life support systems and yet CSL continues to grow. They’re even going regional through expansion into Indonesia and other countries. Way to go, CSL!

When I met CSL’s MD Dato’ Eric Chuah Seong Ling recently, I congratulated him and also told him that in honour of CSL’s 10th Anniversary, I would write a 10 point Mobility column in this issue. So here goes.

1. It is going be a good year for the mobile industry in 2010. Last year at this same time my column was entitled ‘Hang The Downturn, 2009 Will Rock!’ and I was right. Think app stores, mobile data and all those gorgeous smartphones that came out in 2009. You will agree that there was hardly any slowdown in the mobile industry. Well, this year will be even better as these trends are still going strong.

2. I also predicted that Android will be the OS to watch and that’s also turning out the way I thought it would be. Another thing I got right was that brands like Motorola and Philips were declining while CSL would go from strength to strength. I said Microsoft will fall behind and they ensured that prediction would come true with their dismal WinMo 6.5. I also got the 3G boom and the not-much-impact Mobile Number Portability right.

3. I said that Location Based Services would be big in 2009. Though I was right about this worldwide, it’s been slow in Malaysia mainly because there are no compelling apps here. I’m going to say I was wrong here. But, Foursquare app is here and there are a few more coming this year. I’m still bullish on this one. I was badly wrong on local search and NFC though.

4. I also said that WiMAX would not make a big impact in 2009 and I don’t know whether I was right or wrong. The ‘potong’ campaign certainly got P1 (and WiMAX by default) a lotof publicity but I am not sure exactly how many paying long term subscribers they have. Still, I’ll be generous to them and say that on average I got this slightly wrong too.

5. There are lots of reasons why I will like 2010. For one, it’s going to be a great year for the mobile industry. In fact, I believe that we have just entered into a period of massive growth for the mobile industry – one that will be powered by mobile Internet and apps.

6. On devices, the Nokia N900, Motorola Droid and a whole lot more smartphones are going to keep coming and coming this year. That means even more choices and lower prices so that means more cheer all around.

7. More choices on services too and especially when it comes to local content and applications. Even as you read this, plenty of developers are working on Malaysia-centric contents and apps. They have been spurred into action by the various content grants and funding that has been made available for the content industry through agencies like MDeC, MOSTI, Cradle and SKMM.

8. Call rates and SMS charges will come down. They have to as voice and basic data have become commodities. Plus if they want us to take up mobile data plans which will add to our bills, something will have to give and I think it will be call and SMS costs.

9. This could also very likely be the year of MVNOs. There’s Baraka, TuneTalk, XoX, Merchantrade, REDtone and counting. Plus, more WiMAX operators will be operating in the country so we will really be spoilt for choice.

10. Lastly, I am happy that finally someone is going to take care of our deplorable broadband. Now that we have made it into so many lists of worst broadband speeds, I’m guessing that panic buttons have been pressed. That means better mobile and fixed broadband services for you and me.

Have a prosperous and meaningful 2010!

Talk to Kash about mobility.
Email him at kash@oneworld.com.my
Follow him on Twitter: Twitter.com/kashminder

Note: This article appeared in the January 2010 issue of Mobile World Magazine

Posted in General, Mobile Lifestyle, Technology | Comments (0)

Posted on Wednesday, 6th January 2010 by Kash

The Google Nexus One is revealed; just before CES starts.

From my first impression it’s exactly what I thought it would be – a good first effort that unfortunately won’t match up with the iPhone.

But first efforts rarely do and this is where Apple ought to be worried. So I expect to see an Apple 4G sometime this year to counter coming enhancements from Google and of course Blackberry and Nokia.

Anyway, I’m excited to learn that the Nexus One allows voice dictation wherever you can type in the phone. That’s something Ive ‘been looking forward to on a phone.

The bummer is that when I visited the Nexus One website it said - ‘Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country.’ It’s  a GSM phone for God’s sake and where I am is GSM heartland so please get it to Malaysia fast.

Tags: Google, Google Phone, Nexus One
Posted in Mobile Phones | Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 4th December 2009 by Kash

Some interesting statistics that I gleaned from a Bernama news report on Celcom

On Subscribers

Celcom subscriber base surpassed the 10-million mark.

Celcom’s broadband subscribers touched 500,000 mark

Both postpaid and prepaid segments each added 130,000 and 314,000 new subscribers, respectively during Q3 2009.

Business performance

Pre-tax profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2009 rose by 9.5 per cent to RM541 million from RM494 million in the preceding second quarter.

Revenue rose by four per cent to RM1.61 billion from RM1.54 billion previously.

Posted in Telcos | Comments (0)

Posted on Wednesday, 2nd September 2009 by Kash

Nokia President Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo declared today that a new Nokia was being built and more importantly, that they were on attack mode and not defence mode.

The tough talk was backed by actions as Nokia unveiled a series of devices that underline the direction they have chosen. The new flagship device is no longer built on Symbian. The N900 is based on Maemo. Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, whonalso delivered a keynote address said that the N900 was a 4th generation mobile device starting from the Internet tablets that they built earlier. The 5th generation which will come later would be – according to Nokia – the future of computers. As it is, the N900 is pretty much that.

Nokia also unveiled formally the N97 Mini, the Booklet 3G and two music devices, the X6 and X3. Both music devices will come with the Nokia Comes With Music service.

Key points from the 2 keynotes delivered by Nokia today • All these devices are natural next steps for Nokia • No more vapour announcements any service announced at Nokia World will be available within 48 hours

• The new Nokia is all about openness

• It recognized that change was coming and moved to address the changing environment some time ago. Mistakes were made but Nokia is confident that it is on the right path.

• Nokia will address all segments with devices and services. It was not interested in just having one device for the elite. • For social networking, the future is location aware services. Users can now share not only updates but also their location using Nokia Maps on Facebook.

Olli-Pekka pointed out that critics may say that Nokia is not competitive but the numbers say otherwise. Going forward he said that Nokia would be even more successful once its strategy was fully in place

Posted in Telcos | Comments (1)

Posted on Wednesday, 2nd September 2009 by Kash

The selection by Nokia of the Porsche Design Museum for their developer’s awards night – Calling Al Innovators – was perfect.

We got to see all those lovely sports cars but more important for Nokia – it blended in well as Porsche is all about innovation too.

The results of the awards can be found here. A Singaporean won too with his credit card terminal application. Pretty cool app – it can turn an ordinary phone into a credit card terminal.

There’s a lot of buzz now around developers. In fact, Nokia said last night that developers are at the centre of their overall strategy. Nokia’s success depends on how well OVI takes off and for that to happen, a lot of apps have to be developed. Last night was a step in the right direction.

Posted in Telcos | Comments (0)

Posted on Wednesday, 2nd September 2009 by Administrator

Business is war they say which is why mobile phone companies are always engaged in ruthless take-no-prisoners wars.

It hasn’t been a single continuous war. By my count, we are witnessing the Third Mobile Phone World War. Motorola and Nokia shared the spoils of the First Mobile Phone World War which was fought in the eighties and early nineties. Motorola pretty much dominated the market in the first part of the period where phones were good for just making calls and text messaging. Nokia made a strong showing in the second half and by the time multimedia phones began arriving, it was just ahead.

The Second Mobile Phone World War began with camera phones. Skirmishes and outright battles continue to this very day as phones with more megapixels, video capacities and sound quality emerge. There’s no dispute as to who won this war. Nokia strengthened its position to such an extent that at one time it held a staggering 35% share of the world phone market.

There were casualties of course and other winners. Siemens and BenQ died and Motorola ended up badly wounded. On the other hand, Samsung and LG began their rise. Sony Ericsson did well at some stages but overall, it never quite posed a threat to Nokia. HTC was another major success story while almost under the radar; BlackBerry sets appeared in the hands of corporate bigwigs.

The current world war is about coming up with mobile devices that connect to the mobile web and make sharing easy. Consumers are now buying devices that make tweeting or Facebooking easy while on the go. Lately this war has got even hotter as apps become the new sensation.

So who’s winning? The war is far from settled but already some brands have seized the initiative. Apple essentially sent out just one warrior model but it was so spot-on that it has become an overnight sensation. BlackBerry is in the process of transforming itself into a hip consumer brand and so far, the strategy is working. Samsung, LG and HTC have reworked their device’s feature sets and are rushing out models that get consumers online easily.

As for Nokia, these are difficult times for the brand that used to pretty much own the space. The Finnish giant is in the midst of its toughest battle to date but don’t write it off so easily. The last one year or so has seen a new Nokia emerging, albeit with some hiccups and wrong turns. Mobile devices remain important but it has also moved into web services as well as mobile apps and content sectors. Nokia is also entering the netbook sector with its Nokia Booklet 3G. There are also strong rumours that it will unveil smartphones that run on an operating system other than Symbian – most bets are on the Maemo OS.

I hope to get a better understanding of where Nokia is heading when I attend, as a media guest of Nokia, the Nokia World 09 gathering that takes place 2-3 September 2009 in Stuttgart. It’s going to be pretty special – not because of the location – but rather because of its timing within the context of the challenges it is facing. It will be an interesting trip and I will share details next month of the weapons that Nokia will be using in the 3rd Mobile Phone World War.

The Third Mobile Phone World War of course, is far from over and woe betide any manufacturer that assumes it has won.
If you feel bloodthirsty and want to watch the action, one nice spot to observe this war is our GoMobile Expo in October. All major brands will be there and you will have the chance to assess who will do well this year.

The expo, I must point out, is just one-third of the GoMobile Show. There’s also the Mobile World Star Awards & Gala Dinner. We will be announcing in the next issue which phones have been shortlisted for the Mobile World Awards. At the same time stay tuned for details of the inOvation Malaysia recognitions which are open to mobile content, services and application companies. inOvation Malaysia accolades were conceptualised last year by Maxis and Malaysia’s leading telco will continue its involvement this year too. If you have a mobile app, content or service that you think stands out from the rest, nominate it for the inOvation Malaysia recognition. Details of how companies can nominate themselves will be available soon at www.gomobile.my.

There’s also a link on the website to the registration page of the GoMobile Conference – our contribution to the mobile industry. We won’t be charging anyone to attend this one day conference but seats will be prioritised for entrepreneurs and senior reps from the mobile, ICT, advertising and marketing industries. It will be a power packed session centred on the theme ‘Fast Forward For Mobile’.

If you’re into mobile, plan to be at the conference and dinner.

Posted in Mobile Lifestyle | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 1st September 2009 by Kash

Will it always remain status quo in the operator market? For the last few years it’s essentially been Maxis, followed by Celcom and then DiGi some way behind.

This was the topic of a discussion I had with some industry people recently. Some felt that it would be difficult to shake the incumbents as Malaysia is a mature mobile market with practically 100 percent penetration. Any new entrant would have to steal subscribers from existing operators and that is always a difficult thing to do. In countries like Indonesia and India, there are plenty of people without mobile phones. Millions of people are signing up monthly for new lines in these countries and thus new operators have flocked there.

U Mobile learnt how hard it is to break into a market which is saturated. Despite aggressive advertising and really low rates, it has not been able to make much headway.  Its foreign partners have been reported as rethinking their plans. True or not, the fact remains that the 3 incumbents have held on to their market shares for some time.

At first glance, it does look like it will be difficult for a new operator to penetrate into Malaysia or even for there to be major changes in subscriber numbers among the three major operators. I however think that it’s not impossible and infact likely happen over the next few years. There are two reasons why I think no operator can afford to be complacent in Malaysia.

The first is this wonderful service that has remained remarkably low key since its launch last year: mobile number portability (MNP). It may appear as if MNP did not make an impact in Malaysia but looks can be deceiving. I understand that there has been stead porting of mobile numbers since it began and that the rate has been consistent with the experience in other countries.

It doesn’t really matter how many people have ported their numbers since MNP began. The important point is that MNP has no time frame and it will always be around. That makes it a potent tool for any operator wanting to gain market share. So far, operators have kept their pricings fairly similar to each other but in the cut throat business of mobile, the time might come when one operator will decide to get really aggressive. It could be U Mobile when it decides to refresh its business plan or it could be one of the Big 3. Or it could be MVNOs like TuneTalk, Merchantrade and XOX. These MVNOs especially will have to depend a lot on people porting over to their side to viable business entities.

Whichever way, you can be certain that MNP will impact the industry over time.
The other reason for my optimism is the growing popularity of mobile broadband services. This is a brand new market and operators literally have tens of millions of potential subscribers to target. Over time a lot of people are going to sign up for mobile broadband packages. These mobile broadband packages will be separate from their current lines. They won’t be voice customers but they’ll still be mobile subscribers. So just like MNP, mobile broadband will contribute to a changed mobile landscape soon.

On a related but different area, I have a story to share that was related to me by someone who went on a business trip to Jakarta recently. He was very surprised to see how popular BlackBerry smartphones have become there. In his own words, “I even saw young girls in mini skirts carrying BlackBerry smartphones.” Leaving aside how he spotted the phones when his eyes were probably elsewhere; the Indonesian BlackBerry phenomenon is true because other friends too have confirmed that Jakarta appears to be the BlackBerry capital of the world. Anyway, here’s the clincher: On his last day there, he attended a meeting. Out of ten people present, nine were carrying BlackBerry smartphones. The odd one out was a Nokia executive.

Posted in Telcos | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 1st September 2009 by Kash

If you’ve been listening to BFM 89.9, Malaysia’s business station you might have heard me on air every Thursdays at noon. I’ve been doing a tech talk segment with them on mobility for nearly two months now. No, I’m not moonlighting because of the economy; I grabbed the opportunity to reach out to a new segment of Malaysians. So far I have spoken, with various guests from the industry, on subjects like smartphones, mobile apps and 3G technology.  The show will still be on for a few more weeks so if you have the time do catch it. All previous shows are also available as podcasts at www.bfm.my.

But that’s not the main reason I wrote about my BFM show. One of the shows that I did on mobile security has made me realise that the threat level has gone up sharply.  It wasn’t just that segment alone. In the last few weeks I also had the chance to meet up with Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure Corp. He’s based in Finland and I met him at the spanking new F-Secure Tower in the cleverly named Bangsar South development that is actually located in the Kampung Kerinchi / Pantai area.

We had a long chat and he told me that though mobile networks are built much more securely than PC networks, the world is still poised to be hit with major malware outbreaks. Then someone showed me an app that he had got from his classmate. It was the perfect zombie mobile phone app. All one has to do is to install it into someone’s phone and from that point onwards, as long as the Bluetooth connection was on, the person had total remote control of the compromised phone. The attacker can use the phone to make a call, take photos with it if it has a camera; basically control the phone totally.

That was scary enough; I had no idea that things are getting so bad on the mobile malware side. In the early years I used to advise people that there was no real need to install mobile security applications on their phones. As long as they switched off their Bluetooth connections, they would be generally fine. But it’s no longer the case. These days, phones connect to the Internet all the time. They have memory cards that are passed around like nobody’s business.

The danger has become very real. It hasn’t exploded yet, Mikko believes, because the financial incentives are not there yet. The crooks prefer picking the low hanging fruits right now as in Windows desktop PCs. But the time will come when they turn their attention to mobile devices. Especially when people begin to carry out more transactions with their phones.

I now recommend that you get a mobile anti-virus solution. There are quite a few solutions; mostly from the same people who develop the PC based security solutions. If you’re still not convinced, let me tell you about the latest threat.There are applications out there that can be installed on your phone, by a close one or perhaps a business rival or even a colleague. These applications, the very latest in spy software, will then monitor and report back to their ‘masters’ at predetermined times via internet connections. The apps can be programmed to send out logs late at night when people are asleep but phones are on. You won’t suspect a thing. Even if you’re phone savvy, it won’t matter. That app won’t show up anywhere in your phone. It will just run silently and send your complete phone behaviour information every day. So don’t just fret about the H1N1 virus, get some protection for your phone too.

GoMobile Moves Up A Gear
Over the last two months, we’ve been quietly working on putting together a super show for GoMobile 2009. Some of our plans are still being finalised but I can now share that there will be some sensational things happening at GoMobile 2009. For one, visitors can look forward to a fashion show. Yes, I said fashion show. Together with some partners which we will announce at our official launch, a ‘Fashion Inspired By Technology’ show will happen at GoMobile 2009. Imagine that, not only can you see beautiful phones at GoMobile 2009, you will also catch beautiful clothes. And models too!

Those planning to exhibit should talk to us very soon, space is selling very fast.

Posted in Mobile Lifestyle | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 1st September 2009 by Kash

The Communications and Multimedia Conference 2009 organised by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) that took place on 19 May, 2009 was the kind of intellectually stimulating event I like to attend. Unfortunately other work commitments meant I could only attend the morning half. Nevertheless I heard distinguished industry icons, SKMM COO Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, Maxis VP Nikolai Dobberstein, TM MD Zamzamzairani and DiGi CEO Johan Dennelind speak around the conference theme, “New Era of Cross Industry Collaboration”.

It was all about convergence and the big move towards mobile. Listening to the speakers and talking to the participants during the break, I could see that the excitement about mobile applications and services is surging among the Malaysian telecommunications players.
My most memorable moment of the conference came when a young man, wearing markedly casual clothes in contrast to the suits and ties worn by the industry captains took the floor. Alvin Woon, Co-Founder & Design Lead of Plurk had been invited to speak on the boring sounding subject. ‘Interface Design in Mobile Social Networking’. His presentation was anything but that. In fact, one line from him summed up the entire conference for me. It wasn’t just me; everyone sat up visibly when he said that the mobile web was growing 8 times faster than the PC web.

That line hit the point straight and hard. We named this magazine Mobile World seven years ago and it will be here soon. The world is going mobile, my friend, whether you like it or not and when the tipping point comes, all those who are resisting now will submit to its force. This remark is aimed at those people I meet all the time who tell me that they won’t sign up for 3G or surf on their phone. I always guess rightly, to their surprise, that they had resisted buying mobile phones some years ago.

Anyway, that’s not the main point I want to make. Since the world will go mobile very soon, are you and your businesses ready for it?

According to Alvin again, even the telcos are not. He shared that as part of his preparation for his talk, he had checked out their websites on his mobile and none of their sites could load properly on his mobile phone. I wanted to add at that point that pour telcos’ websites do not even run properly on PCs as it looks like all Malaysian telco website designers love to build huge Flash intensive websites that takes forever to just load but that is a story for another time.

Alvin went on to share some tips for mobile sites. His suggestions were plain common sense but apparently not many people and businesses are ready for a mobile world.

His main mantra: ‘content must come first; everything else later’. Alvin said that designers should not try to replicate the PC experience on mobile as mobile devices have limited memory, short battery lives, and slower Internet access speeds. From colour schemes to layout, everything has to be different for mobile. The best would be to have 2 sites, one for mobile and one for PC users and to have users automatically directed to the right site.

Alvin only spoke on interface design but the underlying message should be taken note by everybody. Getting ready for the mobile world has to be a top priority for every business and person.

Mobile World magazine humbly began preparing for a converged, multimedia, mobile world sometime ago. Today we have Mobile World magazine in print with a digital version that looks and feels like the print version launching soon, not to mention our mobile world website. We also have Mobile World TV running at www.mobile-world.tv and Mobile World Pocket available for Maxis subscribers. Nothing big, but it’s a start. In case you haven’t, I suggest that you take that first step soon.

Posted in Telcos | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 1st September 2009 by Kash

Even in the same industry, the outlook can be vastly different from one place to another. An event that took place last week in Malaysia and a milestone that was reached across the globe are perfect examples of this truism.

Last week, MDeC sort of brought together the mobile industry for their MSC Malaysia Mobile Content Dialogue event. I say ‘sort of’ because no phone brand was represented, which was a pity. Actually it wasn’t even a dialogue because there was no Q&A or feedback from the floor. Nevertheless MDeC commendably made an effort to bring the entire mobile content ecosystem together. Telco representatives, regulators, ministry officials and content developers were there for the half day event.

The dialogue got off to a predictable start with Kamil Othman, the MDeC content czar speaking about the tremendous potential of this sector. He was followed by another MDeC speaker who spoke about funding and other supports for mobile content developers.

Then it was the turn of mobile content providers. Azli Paat, the man behind the very popular DAPAT mobile services company spoke in his capacity as President of the newly formed Malaysian Mobile Content Provider Association. The presentation was very entertaining because it was one whack after another at the telcos and regulators. To listen to him, mobile content providers were being squeezed from every side. He spoke about the high fees to obtain SMS shortcodes; inability to use shortcodes for MMS services, different shortcode series that make them pay twice or more times when one series could suffice, mobile content companies being forced to pay for preventive gateway (SM anti-spam systems), content providers being sued for Universal Service Provision (USP) infrastructure contributions when they are service providers and most importantly, lopsided revenue sharing terms with mobile operators.

Azli painted a very depressing picture but it wasn’t anything new. I have been hearing these same complaints for years now and this subject invariably comes up at any discussion or forum on the mobile industry.

Now, it’s hard to say who is to blame for this state of affairs. Only one side of the story was heard at the dialogue. Mobile operators did not have the opportunity to respond to the claims made by Azli. A mobile operator executive that was present at the forum said that he would not have responded even if invited to because the situation was sensationalized and not reflective of current conditions.
I’m not going to judge who’s right on this. All I am going to say is that it’s sad we are still at the same spot after all these years because on the other side of the world, the situation is completely different. The mobile content business is booming worldwide as evidenced by the milestone I mentioned at the beginning.

By the time you read this, the Apple iPhone App Store should have had reached the 1 billion app download mark. Look at the figure very carefully; it’s one billion, not a million. To put it in perspective, there are only 6 billion of us humans walking around on Earth. Or to look at it in an even more appropriate way, many people are making big bucks. Apple makes 30% from those apps that are sold on the store with developers getting 70%.

The response from developers has been phenomenal. The web is filled with stories of developers that have made it big. This business model has unleashed innovation among developers with many amazing apps available for download. The Apple App Store is not the only avenue for developers worldwide; BlackBerry, Nokia, Palm and Android are all taking the same path.

Mobile operators are being left out of the equation which is a shame really because they could have owned this market if they had worked harder at building better relationships with developers and mobile content providers.

All is not lost yet, however. I still believe that our telcos can grab a fair share of the booming market for apps if they would just emulate the same model. Set up app stores that focus on locally developed apps while also selling hot applications from outside Malaysia. Remove entry barriers. As long as the app meets handset requirements, let the developers sell it on their app store. Cut revenue 30-70 like the other app stores and I’m sure developers will flock to this store because there is the tantalizing possibility of direct access to that mobile operator’s subscribers.

Mobile operators have been taking the larger share of revenue but they need to understand that their subscribers are no longer corralled within their network. Even as you read this, a Maxis iPhone user or a Celcom BlackBerry owner is probably downloading an app from the device makers’ app stores. I’m getting a BlackBerry Storm next month and the first thing I am going to do is download apps from the BlackBerry app store.

The window of opportunity to open app stores is short for mobile operators because even local developers are selling their apps on the international app stores. Mobile operators need to get app stores up fast so that people like Azli Paat will stop complaining and local mobile content providers will make money like the rest of their brethren around the world.

Posted in Mobile Lifestyle | Comments (0)