The Praized Blog

Logging-in to the Wayport Wi-Fi access of Austin’s Bergstrom International Airport, I was happily surprised by the home page displayed. It seems like Wayport has partnered with Yahoo! to display geo-targeted local information. The home page shows you the map of the neighborhood (in this case, the airport), a series of top category links and a search brick. Local weather and news complete this mini hyperlocal portal.

What it means: just as I’m writing a blog post covering the excellent muni Wi-Fi session I attended yesterday afternoon at SXSW, this home page pops in front of me. Smart move by Yahoo! Local. There’s an interesting case to be made in matching local search with Wi-Fi providers.

As this week’s Mobile World Congress slowly winds down (tomorrow’s the last day), I thought it was appropriate to summarize the top 10 trends of the conference as identified by Infoworld magazine.

1. GPS on board. Amongst the manufacturers, Nokia “plans to sell 35 million phones with GPS” this year.
2. Better cameras with “face detection, image stabilization, and the ability to take better pictures in the dark”.
3. Linux. Google Android prototypes. ’nuff said.
4. Movies on your phone.
5. Geotagging that “combines built-in support for navigation and photography. When you take a picture, your location is also saved. Then you can overlay that information on services like Google Maps and see where you’ve been.”
6. Windows Mobile. “Four out of five of the biggest phone makers have phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system”
7. High-speed mobile Internet
8. Wi-Fi on board.
9. FM transmitters.
10. Touch-based interfaces.

What it means: phones are becoming more and more like mini-portable computers and trying to be at the center of your mobile life. In addition, more GPS on board and the geotagging functionality are very exciting stuff for a local search freak like me! I was also intrigued by the better face detection. Expect a day where you can take a picture of someone and, with his/her permission, become a “friend” in a social network…

Skyhook’s technology uses signals from WiFi hot spots to triangulate and find a person’s location, instead of using a chip that lets a mobile device communicate with the satellite-based Global Positioning System.Skyhook, founded in 2003 by Ted Morgan and Michael Shean, has gathered and catalogued the WiFi fingerprint of streets in thousands of US cities and towns by driving along roads and collecting the unique signatures of 23 million WiFi signals that flow out of houses, businesses, and public access points. The company uses that data to let WiFi-enabled devices know where they are. (…)The software upgrade that includes the new location feature - it’s available free on an iPhone and for $19.99 on an iPod Touch - allows people to simply press a button to see where they are.

A map displays a bull’s-eye that’s centered on the user’s location; Morgan said Skyhook’s technology typically is accurate up to about 165 feet. The technology builds in the likely margin of error and draws a circle on the map, taking into account the likely error of the location technology, so that the user will be within the radius 95 percent of the time.

(via Boston.com)

(flickr photo by tibopoix)

What it means: I believe Apple is betting that location-based services represent the future growth for their iPod line of product. During Apple’s Q1 2008 conference call, their execs called it potentially the “first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, running all kinds of mobile applications”. With the upcoming release of the iPhone SDK, we should be monitoring the growing installed base of these devices.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal summarizes the various elements of Google’s mobile strategy:

• Developed Android software for mobile phones.
• Made Google applications — including email, chat and mapping — available on cellphones.
• Sells advertisements for certain Web sites accessed by cellphone.
• Enables users to do Web and business searches with cellphone browsers, by text message or with a call.
• Is testing an advanced wireless network at Google headquarters.
• Operates a free Wi-Fi network in Mountain View, Calif.
• Expected to bid for wireless spectrum in a January FCC auction.

What it means: very serious, multi-prong wireless strategy. Google definitely sees the opportunity in mobile. BTW, I find myself blogging more and more about mobile internet. This must mean something…

Nokia used the Web 2.0 Summit to launch their new Nokia N810 Internet tablet (specs here). Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Multimedia, took the stage to explain to us why it was a great device. I managed to capture in video the portion of his speech related specifically to local search.

What it means: portable computer + GPS + Linux-based open platform (built on Maemo) + Mozilla-based browser + wi-fi + potential integration of NavTEQ data = one mean local search machine… I’m really excited about that one! In related news, the New York Times has an article about GPS-enabled cell phones.

Scott Karp from the Publishing 2.0 blog lists five arguments explaining why mobile is not yet very exciting:

1. Wireless carrier networks are SLOW
2. Public WiFi access is a SCAM
3. Sites aren’t formated for small screens
4. Mobile device screens are too small
5. Advertising gets in the way

What it means: I agree with his assessment, especially in North America. I’ve often been asked by traditional media publishers: “How do we leapfrog Google, Yahoo, MSN?”. I think one of the potential answers is Mobile. I’ve never been really excited by mobile’s potential until I attended the Web 2.0 Expo last April. I got the feeling when I was there that mobile is about to become real. Something in the zeitgeist, about the convergence of the various interests of hardware manufacturers, content publishers and the technological community. I think we’re still 24 months away from tangible results but, if you operate a local media business, you should be thinking hard about mobile today. You should have a couple of dedicated resources working on the mobile strategic plan, thinking about user experience specifically adapted for mobile browsing and the 3-inch screen, thinking about what kind of ads will be most efficient in that medium. Send that team to Japan or South Korea to see what people are doing with their mobile devices there. Invest some dollars now. Mobile is all about local and you can’t afford to miss that wave.

Update (& related topic): my friend Colin talks about overpriced mobile data plans in Canada

According to this Business Week article, it seems like the excitement level around municipal wi-fi deployments is going down.

(…) While 415 U.S. cities and counties are now building or planning to build municipal Wi-Fi networks, “deployments are slowing down slightly,” says Esme Vos, founder of consultancy MuniWireless.com. Vos’s tally still marks a nearly 70% jump from mid-2006, when there were 247 muni Wi-Fi projects on tap, but that’s down from the torrid pace of a year earlier, when deployment plans doubled. Perhaps the clearest hint of trouble ahead is that some of the companies partnering with cities on these projects, including EarthLink and AT&T, are having second thoughts about remaining in the municipal Wi-Fi business. (…)

Though EarthLink doesn’t disclose specific operating results for that business, there’s little hope it will turn profitable soon. “The Wi-Fi business as currently constructed will not provide a return,” Huff said during the conference call. (…) AT&T, which made a splash as the only major telecom player to embrace the muni Wi-Fi market, is also showing some doubt. The company is “evaluating” whether to pursue any new deployments or even whether to continue working on its four existing projects, says Ebrahim “Eb” Keshavarz, vice-president for business development at AT&T.

When EarthLink and MetroFi first bid for Wi-Fi contracts several years ago, they often agreed to foot the bill for network build-out, operations, maintenance, and upgrades. They also frequently agreed to pay cities to lease public facilities, such as light poles, to hold Wi-Fi transmitters. If that wasn’t enough, the companies also promised some cities a chunk of their subscription and advertising revenues, as well as free usage of the Wi-Fi networks by city workers. (…)

One major flaw in these arrangements has been that initial forecasts for Wi-Fi subscriptions used to justify the investment in these networks have proven to be overly optimistic by a wide margin. In many cases, 15% to 30% of an area’s population was expected to sign up for muni Wi-Fi. But only 1% to 2% have signed up so far figures Glenn Fleishman, editor of an industry blog called Wifinetnews.com. While rising demand for advertising on municipal Wi-Fi networks is helping offset the shortfall in subscription revenue, there’s a catch-22 at play here: Higher user numbers might generate more ad revenue, but network operators might need to cut fees to attract more users.

What it means: according to the article, it looks like advertising in muni wi-fi networks is helping offset the shortfall in subscription revenues but that traffic numbers don’t warrant high ad revenues. Why don’t wi-fi providers move to a completely ad-supported model? Wi-fi networks are great for very targetted, hyperlocal ads. Who would be a better partner than directory publishers to sell these ads given their large local sales force? Newspapers could also be good partners for that purpose. I think it’s time for Telcos (most of whom have sold their directory operations in the last few years) to reconnect with their old friends and discuss business.

Via the Center for Media Research:

A new report by Media-Screen finds that, although more than 60 percent of U.S. broadband users currently own an Internet-enabled mobile device, only five percent of them, approximately five million, use the mobile Internet. The report concludes that they are reluctant to partake in online mobile activities due to extra fees and difficulties establishing and maintaining Internet connections.
(…)

Jean Durall, Media-Screen’s Director of Research Service, says “Broadband users… have historically driven innovation of online applications by being the first to adopt and embrace new services on the Internet… Understanding this group of influential consumers will help carriers, content providers and marketers develop new offerings.” (…) Over 50 percent of respondents say that the mobile Internet access does not “fit with their lifestyle.”

The study reports that the top mobile Internet activities are:

• Sending email 47%
• Playing games 27%
• Read the news 16%
• Watch TV programs 13%

More info can be found on the Adotas web site.

What it means: Wow. The way the market is buzzing about mobile Internet, you’d think everyone was using it. I’m still surprised that number is so low. But when I think about it, even I (an early adopter) is not using my mobile device for Internet needs. I’d love to be connected all the time and I’ve sent e-mails, played games and read the news on my mobile device before but I wasn’t too pleased with the experience. I think form factor is a definite issue. I still think we haven’t see the killer app in terms of device. I had high hopes for Apple’s iPhone but it’s unfortunately going to be built as a closed platform. I think WiFi/WiMax-enabled phones (to help reduce usage costs) and open platforms (to make your device more relevant for you) will speed up adoption in the future.