The of Mobile Services - Case Study Example

Introduction The mobile services market is new niche sector that promises to bring incredible return in the next five years for companies in this business sector. The market has plenty of opportunities for growth in different components or products that can create independent sales and create various distribution channels to expand the total capacity and delivery of the mobile services products. The report provides information about the mobile services industry by dividing the paper into four major parts: location coordinate models, mobile location services – current status, early entry: Google & Nokia and other players and the conclusion. Location coordinate models There are different ways to measure the position of an object in space. The four basic methods to obtain the coordinates of an object are cell of origin, distance, angle and locating patterning. Cell of origin is a technique that locates the nearest access point in Wi-Fi 802.11 system in order to find the cellular phone in the system. The RF finds the location inside the WLANS by nearest position to a tower. Appendix A illustrates a cell of origin example. The cell squares represent the RF towards in the network setup. A second technique that utilizes alteration to measure distance is the technique called time of arrival (TOA). Time of arrival systems are build based on precise measurements of signal arrival time from device to various sensors.(Cisco, 2006). The angle of arrival technique (AoA) locates the phone based on the angle of incidence that arrives at the receiving sensor. The picture below shows an illustration of AoA: A fourth way to determine location is a method called location patterning. This produre uses radio frequency sampling to determine patterns. Mobile location services – current status Mobile location services have come of age. They have evolved from simple user text messages services into sophisticated product offerings which are in high demand among cellular and other wireless devices that are able to receive information directly into their machines. PDA, PSP and IPOD are among the different electronic gadgets that are able to connect to the wireless networks and receive downloads from internet or cellular phone providers. The popularity of cellular phones has reached proportion of subscribers worldwide. The cellular phone has become more popular than residential land lines since the phone travels anywhere the person goes and the monthly service packages have become cheaper than the monthly charges for telephone service. The other reason in the rise of the popularity of cellular phones is the ability of these devices to transfer data in and out of devices and to receive popular downloads such as music, videos and games straight into the devices. A company that took it a step further and introduced an industry revolutionizing product is Apple Inc. This firm created the world’s first fully functional internet phone, the iPhone, a telephone that has full internet browsing capabilities. This company has emerged as a powerhouse in the location mobile services with its popular iTunes music download brand. The iTunes store has over 6 million songs on sale for as little as $0.99 (Apple, 2007). The size of the cellular population is immense. The projection is that by the year 2011 there will be 3.96 billion cellular subscribers in the world (Plunkett Research, 2007). In the United States alone over 75% of the population has a cellular phone. This is an electronic medium that reaches the customer directly. The advertising market potential of cellular services is worth trillions of dollars. As the world begins to close its spatial boundaries the birth of the convergence age started at the turn of the century, but at the start of the second decade on the 21stcentury the convergence age will truly start to flourish as the mobile, wireless, television, radio and other communication medium finally integrated an became one united communication media medium. Scanadavia for is a nation with 100% cellular phone penetration (CultureGrams, 2007). The world penetration is over a 55% rate. There are new phones that are hybrid tools which are better devices to generate sales since they have access to fastest networks to increase the downloads speeds by entering fastest network free of charge. The faster speeds are one their way with the beginning of G4 mobile technology. Interconnectivity among cellular phone has been sparked by Bluetooth technology which allows phones to interchange information with wireless transfer of data. Three other technologies and business opportunities within the wireless telephony services are RFID, electronic games and IP telephony. The RDFI market has a 77% annual growth projection over the next 10 years, the IP telephony has a 34 growth rate over the next 4 years and the electronic games has growth projection of 46% over the next 5 years (Plunkett Research, 2007). Samsung introduce in 2007 its SGH-P22 model cellular phone with VoIP technology which allows the telephone to travel from GSM, GPRS, EDGE and wireless LAN networks for free voice and data transfer and communication (Mobiledia, 2007). An alternative to cellular networks is access through wi-fi networks. In a small way these networks take business away from typical services, but they increase sales of data transfer from additional revenue generation mobile services. Satellite radio is another cellular added service that customer seek in their devices which is based on location base services. The radio is an experience many people enjoy, it is a traditional medium of transfer of information which is highly utilized by the baby boomer generation. Services such XM radio and Syrus satellite radio have exclusive rights to audio programming such as Howard Stern’s hit show and coverage of professional sports games such as MLB, NBA, NFL games. This product represents the sale of a monthly subscription service which is long term income array. Global positioning system (GPS) technology was created by the US military as a strategic tool to locate its troops while in battle to gain a competitive advantage. The basic original network of satellites had 24 units. To create a GPS coordinate there is need for three satellites to create the GPS image. The resolution of the GPS image is between 2 to 10 meters distance. The proliferation of the GPS ready telephone is reality of the marketplace with hundreds of models available with integrated GPS technology. Global positioning enhanced and allows system such as RFID, Bluetooth, RFID to operate efficiently. An alternative to GPS technology is the European Space Agency which plans to launch a new service next year with the capabilities gr aeater than GPS to locate more accurately and in higher to reach places an object or person. GPS are currently available in only 10% of the cars worldwide, thus the room for growth is tremendous. Telematics is the convergence of telecommunications, information, location, sensor and automotive technology (Comcare, 2007). Early entry: Google & Nokia and other players Google has been the world leading search engine during the last decade. The company has generated billions of dollars through its search engine advertising revenues through the year. The company beat out Yahoo during the last few years and eliminated MSN out of circulation, a move that lead to the creation of Microsoft’s new search engine Live.com. Google entered into the mobile technology services arena with a vengeance and quickly gained market share of the emerging business opportunity of a multi-billion dollar market. In 2007 Google generated a total of $33.2 million in mobile advertising services revenues, with a 2012 projection of $1.4 billion in revenues (Karpinski, 2007). The numbers represent an incredible revenue growth of over $1 billion in a short 5 year span. Google penetrated the market with its Google search and Google map mobile products, but the company has huge plans which are based on its new product called GPhone. The GPhone is a new operating system for mobile phones that has technology which enables advertisements to be send to the cellular phone screens of customers (Wsj, 2007). The success of this product will depend on the company’s ability to negotiate contracts with major cellular phone providers such as Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless to enable these companies as well as the cellular phone manufactures to utilize new phones with the GPhone software technology. Nokia is another global player that decided it was time to step it up and gained a market share of the mobile location based services market as it starts to move from the birth stage to the growth stage of the industry’s business cycle. Nokia utilized a merger & acquisition strategy to purchase Nafteq Corporation for $8.1 billion (Copeland, 2007). The company entered a booming market that will grow tremendously in the next 5 years. The current market generated $472 million in revenues in 2007, by the year 2012 the market for location based mobile services will grow to $3.2 billion (Copeland, 2007). The 5 growth represent an overall increase of 578% or 116% growth rate over a 5 year period time span. Nokia is one of many player with their eyes set on the price for market penetration and market share acquisition. Nokia recently advertised two new mobile advertising services: Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Connector. The two services are described in the table below: Service Description Nokia Ad Service Deploys global mobile campaigns Nokia Advertising Connector Enables delivery of targeted ads to mobile devices (3G, 2007). Nokia acquired an asset in the merger buyout of Navteq which represents an asset of an extremely profitable division for the company who as a whole own entity created $109 million in earnings with only a $582 revenue stream, which represents a net margin of 19% (Ewing, 2007). Another company that thrived in this industry since its inception is Yahoo and Microsoft. Both these players already have a market presence and they desire a piece market share and increasing acquisition of greater market value of the giant market. Many cellular providers have systems ready to compete at levels in this industry. The music industry is totally interrelated with the creation of goods to sell individually or in services packages to generate long term growth and revenue increase. Sony is a company that associated itself with many of the industry power players with the provision of mobile delivered services produced by content providers for cellular phones and their lines of PDA devices that are extremely popular in mainstream society and in professional circles such as medine, law and business. Conclusion The mobile based services niche in the telecommunications industry is an extremely profitable industry that is growing at tremendous rates, a characteristic that is beneficial for everyone involved in the industry. Companies are realizing the mobile services are a gold mine with the potential to become the fastest growing industry worldwide. The revenue potential of the industry is incredible and companies are preparing their gears to capitalize on the profits that are coming their way in bunches in the next twenty years and beyond for players that position themselves to win the game. The are multiple sectors within the segment such as RFID, VoIP, GPS, BlueTooth and G4 which are going to be the drivers of growth and turn this insignificant industry into a giant worth more than 25 billion dollars which is a conservative figure in the near future (Swedberg, 1999). Companies have to adopt their strategic focus to the wave of income possibilities the mobile market represent in the form of fees, subscription and advertising revenue among other sales of products that can be transfer electronically by the firm’s in this industry. References 3g.co.uk (2007). Nokia Announces Mobile Advertising Services. Retrieved December 10, 2007 from http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/March07/4421.htm Apple.com (2007). Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ Cisco.com (2006). Wi-Fi Location-based Services – Design and Deployment Consideration. Retreived December 11, 2007 from http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/solution/wifidesi.pdf Comcare.org (2007). Telemanics. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://www.comcare.org/telematics.html Copeland, M. (2007). Location, Location, Location. Fortune, 156(10). Retrieved December 11, 2007 from Business Source Complete database. CultureGrams (2007). Country Profile: Scanadavia. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from CultureGrams database. Ewing, J. (2007). Nokia to pay $8.1 billion for Narteq. Business Weekly, 00077185. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from Business Source Complete database. Karpinski, R. (2007). Google moves beyond ads. B to B, 92(23). Retrieved December 12, 2007 from Business Source Complete database. Swedberg, G. (1999). Erickson’s mobile location solution. Erickson Review, 4. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/corpinfo/publications/review/1999_04/files/19990406.pdf Mobiledia.com (2006). Samsung Launches the world’s first Cellular / WiFi Phone. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from http://www.mobiledia.com/news/48887.html Plunkett Research (2007). Celullar Industry Trends. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from Plunkett Research database. Plunkett Research(2007). Celullar Industry Statistices. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from Plunkett Research database. Google.com (2007). Images: Cell of Origin. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://images.google.com.pr/images?hl=en&q=cell+of+origin+technique&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Appendix A: Cell of Origin (Google, 2007). Read More