Carriers can milk high mobile demand
By David Legard, IDG News Service
June 19, 2002 12:00 PM ET
IDG News Service - Cellular operators struggling to find killer applications should take heart from a wired-up Canadian dairy cow whose owner beeps it to come in when it's time for the herd to return from the field for milking, according to U.K.-based telecommunications consultant Tomi Ahonen.
"There are several areas where mobile applications can achieve a competitive advantage and are inherently better than other methods," Ahonen said at the CommunicAsia show in Singapore Wednesday. "We will be empowering devices, gadgets, cars and even pets."
Advanced mobile phone technology that can support data transmission has a clear advantage in the following areas, said Ahonen:
- Micropayments for goods and services costing less than $0.95, or the reverse application where users get paid for viewing ads on their mobile devices
- Digital content designed for portable devices, such as music and games
- Queue-busting applications such as buying tickets for public transport, theaters and sports arenas, and hotel checkout
- Intangible services such as lotteries, buying insurance and obtaining licenses that require no transfer of physical goods
- Interaction with machines, perhaps using speech-recognition and translation technologies
- Personal services such as medical and banking applications, dating and adult entertainment
- Location-based services
- Urgent services such as news, stock prices and Short Messaging Service
Several applications along these lines are running in Europe, according to Ahonen.
Denmark already has a microcash system in which an automated teller machine dispenses cash in response to a phone call, while commuters on trams and trains owned by Finnish company Helsingin Kaupungin Liikennelaitos pay for their transport with their mobile phones.
There is no need for gloom in the mobile phone industry, because it's still outperforming almost every comparable industry in growth terms, Ahonen said.
"In April, there were 1.1 billion mobile phones worldwide, which is almost as many as the number of televisions," he said. "By the end of this year, mobile phones will overtake TVs -- there will be 1.3 billion people with a mobile phone."
And one cow, apparently.
CommunicAsia runs through Friday.
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