The wireless industry seems stuck on delivering the killer wireless application. And by stuck, I mean stuck on figuring out what that application is – and on how to make it happen.
Maybe part of the problem is that there are many pieces of the “value chain” required to deliver the end-all-be-all application. This fragmentation tends to create short term, narrowband thinking. Carriers focus on one step at a time – like unveiling a high speed network. Device manufacturers concentrate on – integrated WiFi or a thumbboard. Each piece of the puzzle looks at one or maybe two things it can do to accelerate adoption of wireless data, without looking at the whole picture of what users really want.
The only company that has been able to think through every aspect of what a great wireless data application would look like – at least in the US – is RIM. The company’s Blackberry solution is – just that – a complete mobile e-mail solution. Given that, it’s also a dead-end; Microsoft’s PocketPC and PalmOS platforms are completely open, industry-wide supported platforms that will (I claim) win in the long-run. But I think it’s worth analyzing what makes Blackberry so compelling, in the hopes of making its feature set ubiquitous on the long-term platforms and devices that will win. Here goes:
(1) Always on. Or the semblance of it. Mobile devices aren’t meant to be like PC’s – the expectation is that they are on and connected – when they are powered on. There should be no boot-time, and there definitely should not be a requirement for a user to establish a connection separately. When you turn it on, it’s connected. Like a phone.
(2) Push. A mobile device without the ability to receive data is like a phone that can’t receive a call. The network must be able to send data to the device, and so it must support push.
(3) Flat-rate, affordable billing. Blackberry pioneered a flat-rate data plan, which eliminated the need for users to budget their time or worry about usage. The result: increased adoption.
(4) The right input method.RIM innovated until it found the right input method for a device meant for email creation: the thumbboard. Not all mobile applications will need to be text-intensive, but for ones (like email) that are – the right input device is core to widespread adoption.
(5) Secure.End to end encryption of data is key. So is local security and local encryption of everything on the device. Mobile devices are easily misplaced, stolen, and lost – and their contents must not be compromised if they fall into the wrong hands.
(6) Easy-to-install, easy to use.
Jim, very insightful post. The title of the post is about killer app, but what you seem to flesh out is a high-level description of the platform. I’d be interested to hear your ruminations on potential killer apps. Or do we already have it? Namely: email.
Yeah, I suppose I do focus on the features of the platform, but in a way that’s my point: that all of the different companies who are needed to make a great application for wireless lose track of the big picture and what has to go into the apps to make them great for wireless.
To answer your question, I think email is a “Stage One” killer app for wireless – maybe the best one. Being able to read and reply to email from a mobile device is great, and “Crackberry” has earned its nickname. But I think there’s a Stage Two out there that involves intelligent rules and filters to the type of information sent to the device. And that’s something that we don’t have right now: all of your email comes flooding down to your device.
I take a few assumptions:
- convergence of phones and PDA’s won’t work
- people will still carry a mobile phone that needs to be small
- phones won’t have keyboards
From here, I figure that reading email will be critical, as will real-time access to contacts and other personal information. Also, timely alerts (meeting reminders, birthday/anniversaries, etc). In a “Stage Two” kind of application, I think the key feature will be content filtering: you don’t get all emails, just key ones you want to know about. You don’t get long winded mail threads, instead you get the first 200 characters. Something like that.
And that’s just the begining…
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