Transcript slides
Mobile Browsers
Research Seminar on
Telecommunications Business
T-109.7510
Janne Hakola
Mika Lahti
Content
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Technology and Standards
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Possibilities for Different Players
Success Factors
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
www.tkk.mobi
How to remember?
Introduction - Browsing
Recent study showed the
importance of mobile browsing
Distribution of Packet
Data Usage by Services
63% of packet data usage
Participants were early adopters
Indicates good success for
mobile browsing
Source: Feller 2005
Content
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Technology and Standards
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Possibilities for Different Players
Success Factors
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 technologyindependent
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
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Technology and Standards
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Possibilities for Different Players
Success Factors
Solutions and Business Strategies
Conclusions
Success Factors
Content
Amount of mobile web content varies between
countries
Mobile devices can access HTML Web content
Japan, iMode (mobile web)
Europe, mobile web and HTML web
U.S., HTML web through PDA
-> 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
Source: Roto
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 Roto
Minimap
Success Factors
Bandwidth
When WAP was introduced, bandwidth was
limiting content
Today, with EDGE, data rates up to 384 kbps
Nokia 7110 - support for 14,4 kbps GSM (!) data
transmission
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
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Technology and Standards
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Success Factors
Solutions and Business Strategies
Conclusions
Possibilities for Different
Players – End Users
There could be identified two groups
Need-it-now consumers
Killing-time users
Accessed when they need some service or information
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
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Success Factors
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 28.11.2005
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
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Possibilities for Different Players
Success Factors
Solutions and Business Strategies
Conclusions
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?