Mobile Browsers Research Seminar on Telecommunications Business T Janne Hakola Mika Lahti

Content MOBILEBROWSERSMOBILEBROWSERS Technology and Standards Success Factors Possibilities for Different Players Solutions and Business Strategies Conclusions

Mobile Browsers - Introduction Development of browsers Not only WAP, but also Internet Challenges for devices Challenges for browsers.mobi suffix to identify mobile web How to remember?

Introduction - Browsing Recent study showed the importance of mobile browsing 63% of packet data usage Participants were early adopters Indicates good success for mobile browsing Source: Feller 2005 Distribution of Packet Data Usage by Services

Content MOBILEBROWSERSMOBILEBROWSERS Technology and Standards Success Factors Possibilities for Different Players Solutions and Business Strategies Conclusions

Technology and Standards How to access Web content? Direct access PC-content -> mobile Rendering at mobile Consumes bandwidth Source: modified from Lawton 2001

How to access? WAP gateway/proxy Server to convert HTML-> WML or xHTML Servers renders the page No need for mobile to compute Less data to be sent Faster Source: OneUpWeb 2005

How to access? Caching One-way Content is first downloaded to device’s cache Download magazine to read it later Bidirectional User makes some offline changes to the content and synchronizes the content with gateway Sales representative

Technology and Standards Wireless Application Protocol - WAP Markup language and a transport protocol for small device usage Manufacturer-, vendor-, and technology- independent Early hype and exaggerated claims WAP is in key role to realize mobile browsing and its widening success

Markup Languages for Mobile Browsing At the beginning everyone had their own language International agreements (WAP forum) -> common language WAP 2.0 defines xHTML Mobile Profile (xHTML MP) and WAP CSS as standards Benefits for Mobile Browser Content providers Users Technicality-issues Several browsers Source: Openwave 2006

Content MOBILEBROWSERSMOBILEBROWSERS Technology and Standards Success Factors Possibilities for Different Players Solutions and Business Strategies Conclusions

Success Factors Content Amount of mobile web content varies between countries Japan, iMode (mobile web) Europe, mobile web and HTML web U.S., HTML web through PDA Mobile devices can access HTML Web content -> No lack of content No mobile web content – no users More users browsing – more content

Success Factors Price Traffic tariff + content price Content with a price tag Easy payment should be possible Easy access at later time Content without a price tag (Web) Flat rate is preferred Pricing by bits Web content usually contains ads – Who is willing to pay for them? -> Menu | No pictures -> Browsing is not like in PC-Internet - bad for mobile browsing

Usability Three layers of mobile browsing Holistic experience for the user Should work with all types of content Easy to use solution is likely to get success Different solutions to display web pages Narrow layout Browsing on Mobile Phones by Virpi RotoBrowsing on Mobile Phones by Virpi Roto Minimap Source: Roto

Success Factors Bandwidth When WAP was introduced, bandwidth was limiting content Nokia support for 14,4 kbps GSM (!) data transmission Today, with EDGE, data rates up to 384 kbps And of course 3G PC with modem connection, only 56 kbps Mobile content need’s less bandwidth -> Mobile browsing should be at acceptable level with current bandwidth

Content MOBILEBROWSERSMOBILEBROWSERS Technology and Standards Success Factors Possibilities for Different Players Solutions and Business Strategies Conclusions

Possibilities for Different Players – End Users There could be identified two groups Need-it-now consumers Accessed when they need some service or information Killing-time users waiting for example buss and use time to find information they need in future or just use entertainment services Makes possible to reach Web content anywhere Banking in summer cottage etc.

Possibilities for Different Players – Operators Mobile browsing generates 63% of packet data traffic (Jan Feller) Forecast good success for mobile browsing Good revenue opportunity for operators SIM-based billing Identified through SIM card and after the use of the third party service operator adds service fee to user’s phone bill Revenue for operators by taking care of billing Nokia Kanavat

Content MOBILEBROWSERSMOBILEBROWSERS Technology and Standards Success Factors Possibilities for Different Players Solutions and Business Strategies Conclusions

Solutions and Business Strategies Mobile browser vendor strategies User-installable mobile browsers Default browsers used by major mobile phone and PDA vendors User-installable solutions: Opera Supports all current standards CSS2, JavaScript, Ajax, WML, and XHTML Obtains Web content directly to device

Solutions and Business Strategies – Opera / mini SSR (Small Screen Rendering) mode in browser Need quite a lot ram -> used mostly in PDA or smart phone devices Commercial / License fee Opera mini Launched in January 2006 Low- and mid-end handheld devices Communicates with Opera’s proxy servers which re-process page before sending it to the phone

Solutions and Business Strategies – Opera / mini Available for free Company offers branded and customized versions for operators and content providers Co-operation with Google Default search function in Opera mini

Solutions and Business Strategies – Series 60 Browser / Pocket IE Default browsers used by major mobile phone and PDA vendors: Series 60 browser Standard component of Symbian S60 Platform Based on open source components (WebCore and JavaScriptCore) Main innovation Minimap feature

Solutions and Business Strategies – Closed Content Browsers Browsers which can be used only to browse limited content Nokia’s Kanavat multimedia browser Launched User can only browse content that is specially designed to Kanavat browser All Finland’s biggest medias creates content to Kanavat browser (MTV3, Yle, Helsingin Sanomat) Browser is available for free via Nokia’s Web site Nokia also includes this Kanavat browser in new mobile phone packets

Content MOBILEBROWSERSMOBILEBROWSERS Technology and Standards Success Factors Possibilities for Different Players Solutions and Business Strategies Conclusions

Industry is currently moving from situation with many different standards, technologies and vendors towards the times with fewer players dominating the field Only six percent of 3G mobile users accessed Internet with their 3G devices in Finland (Elisa) Only early adopters use mobile browsing in Finland The best vendor strategy for mobile browser software is to pre-install it into the device Easy, only small minority of users downloads and installs software from the Web to their mobile devices

Mobile Browsers Thank you for listening! Questions?