June 19, 2008

Weekly Poll: What form of mobile entertainment (if any) will be the most profitable for the mobile internet ecosystem?

As expected, the 3G iPhone is following in the footsteps of its predecessor--the iPhone EDGE--and dominating the news cycle in the wake of its launch. Yankee Group's director of enterprise research, Carl Howe covered the pricing loopholes, bill of materials, profit margins and consumer expectations for the 3G iPhone for this week's Mobile Internet Trends.

Caroline Gabriel also focused on the iPhone this week by chronicling the ongoing debate over whether the iPhone should make use of Adobe's Flash. Apple CEO Steve Jobs won't deign to include Flash on the company's device because he claims the iPhone is too advanced for it, while Adobe holds out hope that Apple would eventually give in it is hard at work perfecting an iPhone Flash emulator.

The choice passage from Gabriel's column this week can be found in the final paragraphs, where she quotes one analyst group that staunchly refuses to categorize the iPhone as a mobile internet device. Why you ask? Because mobile internet devices, they claim, should feature screens four to six inches across with VGA resolution, plus TV-out and optional mobile TV capabilities.

The iPhone produces more traffic for the mobile internet than any other device! Safe to say the heights of mobile internet-related comedy don't soar much higher than that.

Last week we polled our readers to find out how often they use mobile banking services--Turns out about 50 percent of readers don't use them at all while 5 percent use them daily, 27 percent use them once a week, 14 percent use them once a month and 5 percent use them once a year. Certainly encouraging. This week's poll: What form of mobile entertainment (if any) will be the most profitable for the mobile internet ecosystem? Choices: Mobile television/video, Mobile gaming, Mobile music/radio or None--mobile entertainment won't be viable. Vote here!



LATEST MOBILE INTERNET WATCH

Opinions on the multimedia capabilities of the iPhone vary widely. On one side, some users desperately lament the absence of support for Adobe Flash. On the other, there is the view that Apple's Steve Jobs is right, and that Flash is not up to the job of supporting such a sophisticated handset, and therefore subscribers get a better all-round experience from the iPhone, even if some content is off-limits. Now it seems Apple is developing its own platform to bypass Flash, using a technology called SproutCore, while Adobe is working on Flash emulation for the new iPhone.

Whichever line you take, this is becoming an epic stand-off that is as much to do with industry politics as user functionality - both Apple and Adobe are in the front row of vendors that aim to drive the agenda for mobile internet standards, along with Microsoft, Nokia and Yahoo. Adobe, which has recently upgraded Flash Lite and announced a plan for a unified platform for developers that bridges the PC and phone, has also founded the Open Screen Initiative to increase backing for Flash to become a standard on all advanced handsets.

Recent Mobile Internet Watches


LATEST NEWS STORIES
June 19, 2008
Cannes Ad Festival: Mobile lags in USA
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-message-at-cannes-ad-festival-is-that-mobile-ads-lag-in-america-but-thr/
June 19, 2008
Nokia to open mobile advertising labs
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/nokia-open-mobile-advertising-labs/2008-06-18
June 19, 2008
Men dominate mobile browsing 9 to 1
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/study-men-dominate-mobile-web-browsing-9-1/2008-06-19
June 19, 2008
Advertising 2.0: More thoughts on the show
http://blogs.yankeegroup.com/2008/06/11/advertising-20-part-iiis-that-40-30-or-what/
June 12, 2008
Bank of America exceeds 1M customers
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/06/09/daily70.html
June 12, 2008
SMS makes magazine ads interactive
http://rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/FREE/176840902/1012
June 12, 2008
Nokia launches mobile advertising alliance
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-nokia-launches-advertising-alliance/
June 12, 2008
5 mobile social networks to watch
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/special-reports/five-mobile-social-networking-services-you-should-get-know
More News Stories


INDUSTRY PRESS RELEASES
June 5, 2008
Motricity sells PocketGear to its CTO
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080604/20080604005431.html?.v=1
May 29, 2008
MEF: Ad-funded mobile entertainment worth nearly $340M by 2013
http://www.m-e-f.org/index.php?id=1000
May 29, 2008
U.S. Cellular taps Jumptap for mobile search
http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/news/...
More Press Releases


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