MUMBAI: While mobile companies spend a lot of time on product innovation and brainstorming on new ideas, they should look at innovating on the service front as well to build entertainment consumption on the mobile.
The interface is equally important. This was one of the points made at the Mobile Innovation Conference organised by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
The session was ‘Refreshing mEntertainemt – Five Steps to be taken’. The speakers were Hungama Digital Media Entertainment COO Albert Almeida, Idea Cellular senior VP, head Vas, mobile commerce and long distance Narayanan SP, Mauj Mobile CEO Badri Sanjeevi and Vuclip VP, BD, MD India, Middle East Salman Hussain.
Almeida made the point about innovation being important in both products and services. “Pricing is an innovation. Different models can co-exist. Promotional channels can also be innovative. It is interesting that while the mobile is a personalised device the services are not personalised. It is important that the stakeholders understand consumers better,” he said.
Music, video and gaming will continue to drive entertainment on the mobile, he added.
Almedida touched on the point of government regulation saying that the industry hasn’t been responsible and mature enough to self regulate. “In television we told the government that we would put a mechanism in place to self regulate content. In mobile too we need to adopt best practices that are in the best interests of the consumer.”
Narayan noted that there is interest in launching app stores by different parties including operators. “Our aim is to address a broad spectrum of consumers. App stores of OEMs will co-exist with app stores of mobile operators,” he remarked.
According to Narayan, commercial models will evolve. Things are easier if there is pull based content. If content is uniquely available, then consumers will pay. While costs are growing for unique content, they are also coming down for non unique content.
The issue of revenue sharing was also discussed at the session. While controlling cost is an issue, revenue is a bigger factor. Revenue will grow if a company is able to manage a high level of consumer engagement. Companies have to see what will grow their business in the long term.
Hussain said that it is important to keep in mind the consumer’s criteria in choosing a service and product. That criteria could rest on many things including what is cheapest. Video consumption on Vuclip used to be search based. Now it is increasingly based on sharing. So videos of Bindra, Nehwal winning Olympic medals get heavy traffic, he added.
