Japanese Thumb Tribes
When we were brainstorming for a name for our
new product we knew we had exactly what we wanted when we heard the word
"TRIBES" . This is because Tribes is all about social networks working together for the same goal - discovering good WAP content. Tribes is the hunter gatherer of the mobile internet.
Today our belief in the tribal concept was fortified when I came across the following statement on the homepage of Steve Flaherty's
Keitai Culture site:"Mobile culture has created what the Japanese mobile industry has dubbed oyayubi zoku or the 'thumb tribe'." (Keitai is Japanese for mobile handset)
Big News from FeliCa
This is an interesting
story.
Sony, JR East major railway company in Japan) and DoCoMo have got together to end the confusion. DoCoMo's "Mobile FeliCa" and JR East's "Suica" epayment systems will be merged into a single "Mobile Suica". This was getting very messy for consumers but now a single standard will apply for contactless payment with your mobile handset.
HOW long before we see consumers using their phone to get through the barriers at rail stations near you in Europe? Don't answer
Isolation from mobile content risk
The clever Scots in
MMS3 have isolated themselves from all the risk in the mobile content business. They provide a service whereby anyone who fancies themselves in setting up a ringtone or mobile games business can get set up in a matter of minutes with shortcodes and premium voice in most countries. The catch is you cannot provide your own content (which is fine for most people as they have a comprehensive up to date content list). Also they take a hefty chunk of the revenues. So all you have to do is market the service - the easy bit:-) !!! I hear these guys are making a fortune and their site says they've 9 million visits to their sites every month.
They also publish ringtone magazine in UK and Ireland
See alatto speak at Fixed Mobile Convergence Conference
I will be presenting two applications as case studies at the
fixed mobile convergence conference in London next week:
1. non convergent app: mobile browsing experience will always be different to fixed browsing. ne'er the two shall meet. Good opportunity to showcase
Tribes as it changes the whole dynamic of mobile browsing in a major way.
2. classic convergent application: ringback tones
Our Stand at GSM, Congress - and why I didn't go!
Every year around this time the mass migration to the Sud de France begins for all of us in this mobile industry we call home. See a nice view of our stand:
I didn't go this year. WHY? when you add up all the expenses (travel, stand , meals etc.) and the effort with dealing with the messers (tyre kickers) and the resulting pile of business cards you gain at the end of the week. The sums don't add up. It's nay worth it laddie! The EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES! You don't HAVE to be there to be taken seriously in this industry. Although next year it is in sunny Barcelona.....
A tyre kicker at alatto stand today.
alatto new website live
Check it out Some tidying up needs to be done but looks good. Just in time for the annual mobile industry Lovefest in
Cannes. Especially like the Tribes flash demo directed by yours truly and original (sic) music by my good buddy
Gavin Little
really excited by Tribes prospect as I firmly believe that it can:
- Double average user session times
- A truly personalised end-user browsing experience
- One-click content snacking
- Delivery of relevant, personalised content with viral recommendation & sharing
- Dramatic Increase in data service revenues
- Own and understand the user browsing experience, both on-portal and off-portal
