Experts' Opinion
Presentation of Prof. Dr. Berghaus
Prof. Berghaus (University of Mannheim, Communication Studies) presents eight theses for the potentials of mobile phones formulated from a communicational-theoretic background
- Human beings and technology together form a unity.
- Whenever new technology serves the archaic nature of mankind it succeeds.
- The mobile phone has the potential to become the universal tool of the human being, so to say the modern spear.
- Services of mobile technology comprise instrumental functions (getting on with the world, achieving goals).
- Services of mobile technology also comprise expressive functions (contacts, games, values).
- Features of the mobile phone technology which it ideally possesses are increasing sensuality (visual and acoustic), weight/size and performance.
- The mobile phone technology has to be human-oriented, not youth-oriented.
- Possible obstacles for the mobile phone to become a universal tool are non-transparency of the costs and social exclusion of certain population group (i.e. elderly).
Presentation of Thorsten Höpken
Mr. Höpken (Vodafone) starts with the observation that nearly everyone nowadays owns a mobile phone. Mobile phones have become a basic commodity. They have changed our daily routines and Vodafone has contributed to these changes.
A look back reminds us that originally people thought that mobile phones would be used by a small group counting not more than a thousand, while just ten years later 3 out of 4 people use cellular phones!
A leap for cellular phones has been achieved when multimedia services have been offered via mobile phones. As Vodafone life! demonstrates making multimedia mobile does not necessarily rely on UMTS.
Presentation of Holger Kennke
Mr. Kennke (software house Materna) gives the following three statements:
Currently there isn’t really a mobile Internet: Instead, there is either content on the internet or mobile content. This can be explained with the fact that content on the internet is mostly free of charge whereas mobile content is accepted as being charged for. There is high competition with other technologies like W-LAN access points.
Subscribing content is on the fore: Most of the subscriptions are done in erotic (29,5%) followed by news (24,9%) and sport (20%). “Branded” content is of importance, however, not solely. The appropriate presentation of content in respect to the medium is another factor of success.
Increase in revenues is possible: Due to persistent promotion activities in TV and print carriers have managed to push the MMS technology. More and more people own an MMS-capable mobile phone. With this goes a noteworthy increase of MMS being sent and received.
Presentation of Prof. Dr. Melcher
Prof. Melcher (University of Applied Sciences in Esslingen, Studies in Communication Technology) argues that there are already a lot of information around. So where lies the actual added-value of making content mobile? The success of mobile content depends on reliable sources, on well-selected information and on context-sensitive data (location- and situation-based).
What the location is concerned, it is already possible to trace people with an accuracy of 30 meter to 30 km. This is useful for reports on weather, traffic or train timetables. Location-based e-content presents an added-value for the user. A problem constitutes the tracking of 60 million users.
What the situation is concerned, there are waiting time, standby time so to say, for which games, music and film trailers are a fitting and welcoming change. Other situations in which mobile content can be beneficial is when looking for a doctor, online-banking or evaluating assurances.
Presentation of Elke-Maria Melchior
Mrs. Melchior (ACit, consultancy for user-centred design) claims that mobile services and mobile content have to ultimately satisfy user’s needs, which are diverse and likely to change over time. Projects in this area are cost-intense. It is thus desirable to anticipate users’ needs from early on.
Here the EU-funded project VNET5 has done valuable work (see www.vnet5.org). The consortium of VNET5 has designed and conducted coaching activities for user-centred product design. In particular the project comprised the development of mobile and cross-media applications with the user’s participation in the design process. Here two main pitfalls in the practice of conventional product design emerged:
- The development of technologies for the creation and presentation of content has precedence over the testing of new content.
- There is a great distance between designers and users. Users which are included in the design process often are not representative users like “early adopters”.
As a result of the project it is possible to give first answers to the crucial question why it is so difficult to predict the acceptance and value of new applications.
- Clear targets when applying user-centred design are missing.
- There are not enough resources allocated for including users in the design process.
- The effort to acquire the necessary competencies are underestimated.
- Methodological requirements for making user-tests are violated.
Mrs. Melchior concludes that
- New applications have to be technically realisable as well as constituting a real added-value for the users.
- There is a tendency to substitute (after all, the day still has just 24 hours).
- User-centred design will increase a product’s chance to be successful in the market.
- Surprises are for sure.
Presentation of Thomas Schneider
Mr. Schneider (regional newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung) presents two theses:
- News are amongst the most popular content online.
- Newspapers belong to the most requested offers.
News are of low value. Online news are even more short-lived than newspaper articles. There is little preparedness to pay for online news.
For the future Mr. Schneider predicts that newspaper articles will solely be offered online as paid content, that competition in the online news-market will increase and that suppliers of picture-intense news will have an advantage.
Mr. Schneider worries that although UMTS will not change the parameters for online and newspaper news, it will push the live character, the user’s need for just-in-time news.
Discussion
A common agreement among the experts has been that content cannot be simply put on a mobile platform. There is more to it. The discussion showed that mobile content couldn’t possibly be analysed as stand-alone. The form which would succeed (text, picture, moving picture) is of similar importance, following Goethe who said “Das Was bedenke sehr, das Wie bedenke mehr”. However, the quality of the content is and will be of importance for the (paying) customer.
The discussion was started with the question what content has to fulfil in order for mobile services to be successful. Or put in another way, will there be a killer application for multimedia cellular phone networks? Here the experts were reluctant. Mr. Hoepken, representative of Vodafone, questions that there would be a single driving application. Prof. Melcher in return argues that we do have the solution (UMTS) but that we need to find out what the problem could be.
Prof. Melcher sees the professionally used mobile phone as the modern shackle: the mobile phone allows employers to track their employees anywhere anytime. For young users the connotation of owning a mobile phone is the opposite: it gives a sense of freedom and social belonging. From a communication-scientific point of view this is one big challenge lying ahead: bringing into play user groups which have so far not be considered, like the elderly. This is a drawback of high relevance for the political agenda, i.e. the European Commission.
For local newspapers the mobile content market is extremely hard to get in. The content is locally-bound and thus has a quick obsolescence. Traditional content deliverer are therefore of great need for a business model. Although the demand for a thorough economic plan how to make a profitable business out of the online/mobile market is a challenge for most sectors, the traditional (regional) newspapers are effected in particular.
A critical issue right now in Germany is the pricing model: The rate for cellular phone calls in Germany is second highest in whole of Europe (just Belgians pay more). To send or receive an MMS costs currently 0,59€. All experts of the BRT bet with Vodafone that the prices will/have to drop. Apart from high rates it is the lack of transparency of the charges which experts of the BRT rank as a crucial problem for the mobile telecommunication market in Germany
