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And the second question is: How will this work?  Read it here.

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At a related ITU workshop on this topic on Rauno Granath, Nokia’s Director of New Growth Markets and Networks, predicted that the worldwide number of subscribers to mobile telephony will reach 4 billion by 2010, and about 80 per cent the growth will come from lower income, emerging markets.

How will the Evolution of business models evolve to reach low-income consumers? This huge rowth in worldwide mobile subscribers means new business models must be created to meet the needs of low-income subscribers in emerging markets. The illustration below is an interesting way to look at it.

Source: “Voice services in new growth markets,” presentation by Rauno Granath, Nokia.

The paper also has a good number of illustrations, tables and data.

1.Mobile phone makers would like to integrate content into their own platforms instead of allowing others to control content.
2. Customers will select a service provider that has a platform which is convenient to use and enables access to diverse content and channels.
3. Hyper-customization will decide the winner.

Here are excerpts from the article (emphasis is mine):

The current consensus is that mobile terminal makers stand to gain the most from the fact that customers must first connect their devices when using content and services.

Up to now, the core elements of success of the mobile phone have been the hardware characteristics of the equipment itself, such as price, function, quality and outside design. But in Mobile 2.0, it is a means of accessing the mobile Web, not just a means of talking by telephone. This implies that design of the mobile platform embedded in the terminal is going to be important – it must enable user interfaces, UCC production and full browsing.

Due to the sharing of open operating systems and equipment middleware platforms in order to reduce costs, the possibility of functional differentiation will decrease in terms of quality and general functions. Therefore, if convenience is maximized by innovating the small screen and input device, which are regarded as the maximum constraints, terminal makers will exert a tremendous influence on the mobile service market.

Mobile phone makers, led by global No. 1 player Nokia, are trying to integrate content into their own platforms. Their strategy is to move into the content portion of the mobile value chain with convergence of digital equipment. Nokia is utilizing its powerful brand and domination to become a mobile media platform operator that provides related media content including advertisements, images and games.

In order to strengthen the competitiveness of its platform, Nokia has introduced mobile advertising platforms such as Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Connector, and developed a game platform, N-Gage.

Apple offered a service that can be used in linkage with iPhone after purchasing all the content such as TV programs and movies from iTunes using Mac. That is, media content including music, broadcasting and movies and terminal lines such as mobile phone, PC and TV are provided simultaneously. This allows us to get a glimpse into Apple’s strategy that customers can enjoy everything within the platform called Apple by providing them with total service ranging from software to hardware.

In the Mobile 2.0 age, the platform that gives value to the customer when he purchases a terminal will become one of the core purchase elements. In Korea and Japan, mobile operators such as LG Telecom and DoCoMo are considered one purchase category, and terminal makers such as LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson as another purchase category. In Europe, where the GSM system is used, terminals and mobile operators are also different purchase categories.

But in the future when terminal makers, internet portals and mobile operators all provide mobile services, the criteria for purchase will become different. The platform will become an important element, overtaking the design of the terminal or the charging system of the mobile operator. Mobile platform services offered by internet portals such as Google and Yahoo! will also compete with mobile operators and terminal makers.

Customers will select a service provider that has a platform which is convenient to use and enables access to diverse content. So they will evaluate the platforms of mobile operators, terminal makers and internet portals before they choose one they like. This is because the “prosumer” (producer-like consumer) can use open sources to create new services by combining the existing technologies. The most convenient platform, and one with the most differentiation, will therefore be the most popular.

Hyper-customization will win

What are the requirements to be a winner in Mobile 2.0, that is, making Web 2.0 mobile? To satisfy the needs of customers who are changing moment by moment and diversifying all the more, we should build a platform focused on hyper-customization.

Hyper-customization is providing necessary information and services at the right time and in the right place by capturing the needs of the moment based on customers’ individual tastes and preferences. The service provider can maximize the hit rate of the target customer, and the customer can receive only the information he needs.

The mobile phone, already a personal and constant means of communication, should be the machine that knows “me” best. The moment the mobile phone is turned on, “my number” recognizes “me.” On the internet, you have to log in at every site, but the mobile phone logs in automatically, finds out your position, and recognizes your consumption pattern. Accordingly, the service provider can know what you need at what time in what location and under what conditions.

Companies can optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of strategy implementation and marketing with a very precise target segment. Customers can learn information about themselves, subdivided by time and situation, that they themselves were not aware of in order to participate directly in developing and making more in-depth products and services.

Although device makers, portals and operators access the Mobile 2.0 market at different points, all are aiming at the same goal: absolute participation of customers.

Terminal makers are oriented to innovation of UI and terminal platform design, internet portals concentrate on securing customers’ accessibility and information processing, and mobile operators are trying to create new revenue streams with value-added services. The question is to what extent operators can they provide a platform that is more convenient and provides value to customers in a situation where closed content operation is difficult due to open access. Thus, the winners in this Mobile 2.0 era will be the players who provide a hyper-customized platform.

By Kim Min-seok

About the group: An informal grid of Telecommunication and Network Services professionals and insiders of Pakistan. Inspired from the fact that the collective authors and respective audience of the relatively few technology blogs that relate to Pakistan can be team up as a virtual pool of guys with an interested in communications technologies. This assembly can be used to enhance social interaction between the members, get-together events, private discussions, rumor sharing and rumor milling etc.

Join in now.

Thanks to TM for the idea and the writeup for this post.

The paper mentions how this effort will help:

Setting up a base station in space would ensure calls for help reach the relevant authorities in time, allow people to confirm loved ones’ safety without clogging regular mobile networks and relay calls to and from places that have lost connections.

The stationary orbital satellite with an antenna more than twice the size of any existing satellite antenna, would be used to secure mobile phone connections when ground base relay stations have been knocked out in an earthquake or other natural disasters.

Cell phones that use communications satellites are already in use, but the large size of the equipment for sending and receiving signals restricts it to users with special handsets.

The Yomiuri adds:

The ministry’s plan would require equipment capable of receiving satellite-based signals to fit in normal-sized cell phone handsets. This requires a larger antenna on the satellite. For an average-sized cell phone handset to use a satellite phone service, the antenna would have to be more than twice the size of the largest existing communications satellite–the test satellite Kiku No. 8, launched in December by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that has an antenna 19 meters in diameter. The new proposed satellite would have an antenna 50 meters in diameter.

The ministry plans to spend five years from fiscal 2008 developing this mega-antenna, which would be sent into geosynchronous orbit 36,000 kilometers above the Earth–the same orbit used for broadcast satellites.

The ministry plans to set up a consortium of relevant ministries and agencies as well as communication firms and cell phone manufacturers to start technical studies into the system. The ministry also plans to ask for about 2 billion yen for research and development in the budget request for fiscal 2008. The ministry said the total cost of developing and launching the satellite has not been determined.

The orbital relay station, when fully operational, will allow people to call for help even in mountainous areas or at sea, where no ground station is available. The ministry also is considering making the system available for areas not normally covered by cell phone stations.