Submitted by Industry Comment on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:25

Diana Jovin, VP Corporate Marketing, at Telegent Systems comments on the latest development for SMS that will create a new social experience for mobile subscribers, and drive revenues for operators

Voice and SMS are still the most popular features on a mobile handset with subscribers. The latest figures from the Mobile Data Association indicate that more than 1.4 billion text messages are sent every week. However despite the popularity of SMS, there are still untapped opportunities for mobile messaging on the handset.

Mobile devices are increasingly becoming convergence devices; in addition to providing basic communications they are now a focal point for entertainment and services such as mobile broadband. As a result, there are now opportunities to tie SMS in with other handset features, with SMS serving as a communications infrastructure that can enrich the user experience for those features. One feature in particular that can be successfully integrated with SMS is free-to-air mobile TV, which presents operators with a new market opportunity and provides mobile TV users with an enhanced viewing experience. It also helps to drive a new business model for operators allowing them to benefit commercially from handsets that incorporate this free feature.

Socialising the mobile TV experience

With the global mobile TV market projected to grow at CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of more than 46% from now until 2013, it would appear that mobile TV is set to become as ubiquitous as having a camera on a mobile phone. In particular, free-to-air is a model that is gaining considerable traction globally, with Forward Concepts estimating that 85 percent of the anticipated 78 million, broadcast TV handsets that will be sold this year will support free-to-air TV standards. Free-to-air mobile TV resonates well with the industry and with consumers for three main reasons, which are content, cost and coverage. Taking advantage of the existing free-to-air broadcast infrastructure means that consumers can access the TV content that they already know and enjoy. It does not require additional investment on the part of operators, broadcasters or manufacturers beyond integrating a TV tuner chip into a mobile handset. And finally, free-to-air mobile TV delivers global mobile TV access, as analogue and digital TV standards are able to reach consumers in almost every corner of the globe.

While consumers are responding positively to the free-to-air mobile TV business model, operators still question how a free TV feature on a handset will benefit them. Up until now, the industry has been focused on trying to monetise the TV service directly as a subscription-based feature. However, free-to-air mobile TV offers a different path, which is to provide the TV programming for free, and then use that as a platform that can be monetised through different means.

SMS is one of the services that can be used to complement the TV viewing experience and provide the operator with access to new revenue streams. Viewing behaviour indicates that consumers are embracing interactive TV experiences, this has become evident through the success of reality TV shows that incorporate voting; audiences are increasingly combining PC use with big screen TV viewing. SMS integrated with a TV application on a mobile device addresses both of these trends. It enables consumers to interact with programmes on a mobile phone without having to leave the TV application. The feature also enables consumers to interact with one another while watching a programme, this could be to celebrate a goal scored by a preferred football team, text a work colleague about a breaking news story, or simply enjoy peer-to-peer communication while simultaneously watching a TV programme.

A new direction for SMS

Manufacturers are already embracing these trends in mobile devices. Arima, a well-known Taiwanese manufacturer of mobile phones, is one of the first companies to develop a handset design that enables consumers to watch free-to-air analogue TV, and send text messages at the same time.

Integrating text functionality into free-to-air mobile TV would transform both features into a new social experience, allowing consumers to interact with one another via SMS without interrupting their TV viewing. SMS over TV not only adds value to the free-to-air feature, but also provides operators with a way to drive revenue from a feature that, although popular with consumers, is not directly monetised through subscription.

As mobile phones become increasingly used as convergence devices, SMS could potentially complement a number of different multi-media features. Mobile TV might be just one example of how SMS can be integrated into multiple aspects of the handset experience, beyond standalone communications.

By Diana Jovin, VP Corporate Marketing, at Telegent Systems