Microsoft's OneApp is a mobile application meant for feature phones rather than smartphones. It allows the user to access several different applications for things like messaging, banking and social networking, all by putting a very lightweight client app on the phone and doing most of the heavy lifting using the carrier's servers.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Apple Store Discount on Office 2008 for Mac - Home and Student Edition . Click here. More about Microsoft on Tuesday announced OneApp, a software application for feature phones.
Feature phones, which are essentially low-end mobile phones without any smartphone features, are widely used in both established and emerging markets. OneApp will give users access to mobile applications most often found on smartphones, including social networking, messaging and banking apps.
Microsoft's first partner for OneApp is South Africa's Blue Label Telecoms.
That makes sound business sense -- the African market is growing, and World Cup soccer championships will be held in South Africa in 2010, a fact that is expected to boost demand for mobile phones.
OneApp's Technology
OneApp takes a client/server approach to mobile apps. It has a lightweight client of about 150 Kb that sits on the user's feature phone. The server side will be deployed on wireless carriers' networks.
Wireless carriers offering OneApp will have the option of hosting it in Microsoft's Azure cloud service.
The apps are small -- about 30 Kb. Currently, there are 12 apps, including an RSS feed, mobile banking, Windows Live messenger, news, sports and stocks. More will be rolled out in the future, and Microsoft's carrier partners will decide which apps to make available to their customers.
OneApp dynamically launches the parts of an app that a person wants to use. The apps are updated automatically when the user turns on the phone.
Apps run between the phone and the server, so users don't have to download individual apps. OneApp is designed to minimize the load on phones and carrier networks, according to Microsoft.
OneApp runs on several Nokia (NYSE: NOK) More about Nokia phones, including E-series and N-Series models. It also runs on the Samsung More about Samsung U900 Soul and various Sony (NYSE: SNE) More about Sony Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY) More about Ericsson models, including several models in the W series and the C510, C902 and C905.
Starting the Dance Card
Microsoft is launching OneApp in South Africa with wireless carrier Blue Label Telecom. OneApp is available through Blue Label's "mbili" service at no charge.
The tie-in with Blue Label comes as no surprise to Julien Blin, CEO and principal analyst of JBB Research, who has just written a report on the South African user-generated content market. "Microsoft owns 12 percent of Blue Label," he told TechNewsWorld.
OneApp will be launched in more countries within the next year, Microsoft said. However, it declined comment when approached by TechNewsWorld.
Still, its move into emerging markets could be lucrative. "Over 80 percent of the world's population of nearly 6.8 billion people reside outside of North America and Western Europe," Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC, pointed out.
"If Microsoft doesn't target the developing world, its competitors will," she told TechNewsWorld. "Microsoft is quite literally following the money."
The World Cup Card
The African wireless market could be especially rewarding because it is a fast-growing and underserved market, Blin said. "Sales to the African region will help offset the decline in developed markets such as Western Europe and North America, and Microsoft understands that Africa presents huge potential for them," he said.
That potential will be even bigger than normal through next year, when the World Cup soccer championships will be held in South Africa.
There are 50 million wireless subscribers in South Africa today, and the nation is Africa's second largest wireless market after Nigeria, which has 67 million subscribers, Blin said. He expects the mobile user-generated content market to grow, especially as the World Cup nears. Mobile user-generated content consists of mobile chat and mobile blogging, Blin said.
Clever Choice of Apps
With the strong emphasis on mobile chat and mobile blogs, Microsoft's selection of apps was strategically dictated.
For example, Windows Live Messenger, which is one of the apps offered in OneApp, may see growth. "OneApp should help drive the adoption of Windows Live Messenger," Blin said. However, that is not likely to pose a threat for MXit, the leading mobile Internet messaging service in South Africa today, he said. MXit has 12 million subscribers.
Microsoft's selection of Facebook More about Facebook was also a clever move. Facebook is the most mobile blogging service in South Africa, according to Blin.
Its choice of mobile banking is also a good one. "Mobile banking has the biggest growth potential in Africa ,as it fits the needs of most Africans, who don't have a bank account and who have low income," Blin said. "Mobile banking has become the next gold rush in Africa."
That gold rush is luring other large competitors to Microsoft, including Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) More about Apple and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) More about Google. "Google is currently working with local content providers in South Africa to offer local content on its Android app store," Blin said. "Apple is likely to follow suit.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Microsoft bets on making "dumb" phones smarter
Microsoft today announced a new phone app service—not for smartphones, but instead for the world’s cheapest and low-tech handsets. Called OneApp, the software was developed by Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, which researches technology that can be used by poor people living in emerging-market nations. OneApp allows consumers with existing, non-smartphone devices to access Web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, in an efficient way.
OneApp’s been engineered to not require much in terms of data usage and memory; it runs only one individual application at a time. The graphics are lower resolution than those in iPhone apps. The phones running OneApp don’t need to eat up as much energy running the mini-software programs, either, according to Amit Mital, who heads the Unlimited Potential Group at Microsoft.
Why is Microsoft investing in making “dumb” phones smarter?
For one, the market for these phones is huge. Think about India alone: according to market researcher Gartner, mobile-phone market penetration in India is predicted to jump from 38.7% in 2009 to 63.5% by 2013. Gartner analysts say that this is mainly due to a focus on the rural market, more local Indian companies entering the sector, and the increased availability of cheaper phones. “The basic, or ‘feature’ [mobile] phone market as it’s known, is one with billions of customers,” says Mital. “Today, 'feature phones' are more common than smartphones. But there is a demand for apps, which are hard to find for these 'feature phones.'”
Two, Microsoft wants to introduce users of relatively low-tech mobile phones to Micrsoft’s “cloud” computing services via their handsets, which in essence the OneApp program does. This would increase its market share in this area.
Three, much of Unlimited Potential’s developing-world research eventually “trickles up” to mainstream products for the developed world. Consider the launch earlier this year of a simpler version of Windows, based on Microsoft’s Starter Edition for Windows, once available only in emerging markets, but now available worldwide on netbooks. Mital can't talk about how OneApp might affect Windows Mobile software in the developed world. But imagine how some design and engineering elements, such as sleeker, simpler on-screen graphics or the ability to deliver apps without eating up data usage, could come in handy when designing software for developed-world audiences, too.
Four, Microsoft also wants to be influential in the promotion and use of so-called “mobile wallets,” or turning the phone into a purchasing or banking tool. So OneApp will first be available in the next couple of weeks in South Africa, via Blue Label Telecoms, known for its mobile-wallet offerings. “BLT is already doing a lot in phone payments,” says Mital. “We saw this as a good fit for a partnership.”
Finally, Microsoft will open up the software developer’s kit for OneApp, making it possible for anyone in the world to create apps for these basic phones. The launch of OneApp will feature about a dozen free apps, but soon programmers and entreprenurs in both emerging and mature markets can potentially find new revenue streams if they charge for their apps.
Sure, smartphones like the iPhone and the BlackBerry might be the fastest-growing segment in the mobile-phone space—up 27% worldwide from last year, according to Gartner. But for those who can’t afford smartphones, and for those who are enterprising enough to capitalize on a surprising new market, yesterday’s “dumb” phones might just look like a clever new way to ride the app wave.
OneApp’s been engineered to not require much in terms of data usage and memory; it runs only one individual application at a time. The graphics are lower resolution than those in iPhone apps. The phones running OneApp don’t need to eat up as much energy running the mini-software programs, either, according to Amit Mital, who heads the Unlimited Potential Group at Microsoft.
Why is Microsoft investing in making “dumb” phones smarter?
For one, the market for these phones is huge. Think about India alone: according to market researcher Gartner, mobile-phone market penetration in India is predicted to jump from 38.7% in 2009 to 63.5% by 2013. Gartner analysts say that this is mainly due to a focus on the rural market, more local Indian companies entering the sector, and the increased availability of cheaper phones. “The basic, or ‘feature’ [mobile] phone market as it’s known, is one with billions of customers,” says Mital. “Today, 'feature phones' are more common than smartphones. But there is a demand for apps, which are hard to find for these 'feature phones.'”
Two, Microsoft wants to introduce users of relatively low-tech mobile phones to Micrsoft’s “cloud” computing services via their handsets, which in essence the OneApp program does. This would increase its market share in this area.
Three, much of Unlimited Potential’s developing-world research eventually “trickles up” to mainstream products for the developed world. Consider the launch earlier this year of a simpler version of Windows, based on Microsoft’s Starter Edition for Windows, once available only in emerging markets, but now available worldwide on netbooks. Mital can't talk about how OneApp might affect Windows Mobile software in the developed world. But imagine how some design and engineering elements, such as sleeker, simpler on-screen graphics or the ability to deliver apps without eating up data usage, could come in handy when designing software for developed-world audiences, too.
Four, Microsoft also wants to be influential in the promotion and use of so-called “mobile wallets,” or turning the phone into a purchasing or banking tool. So OneApp will first be available in the next couple of weeks in South Africa, via Blue Label Telecoms, known for its mobile-wallet offerings. “BLT is already doing a lot in phone payments,” says Mital. “We saw this as a good fit for a partnership.”
Finally, Microsoft will open up the software developer’s kit for OneApp, making it possible for anyone in the world to create apps for these basic phones. The launch of OneApp will feature about a dozen free apps, but soon programmers and entreprenurs in both emerging and mature markets can potentially find new revenue streams if they charge for their apps.
Sure, smartphones like the iPhone and the BlackBerry might be the fastest-growing segment in the mobile-phone space—up 27% worldwide from last year, according to Gartner. But for those who can’t afford smartphones, and for those who are enterprising enough to capitalize on a surprising new market, yesterday’s “dumb” phones might just look like a clever new way to ride the app wave.
Manmohan inaugurates new IIST campus
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over tele-link from New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday inaugurated the new campus of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), an institution moulding the next generation of space scientists for the country, at Valiamala, near here.
Functions were conducted simultaneously at the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi and at Valiamala at the southern end of the country, to mark the occasion. While the Prime Minister and three of his Cabinet colleagues and the top scientific community in the country were present at the function in New Delhi, four of the Kerala Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition and top people of the IIST and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) attended the function in Valiamala.
Besides the formal inauguration of the IIST campus, the functions also featured the distribution of ISRO awards to individual scientists and teams in IRSO and Defence Research Development Organisation for the contributions they had made in 2007 for the advance of Indian Space Science. While a few of the awardees received the recognition directly from the Prime Minister, many others were honoured at the function at Valiamala.
The Prime Minister also inaugurated a new Space Complex of the ISRO, by tele-link, at Sadiqnagar in New Delhi. This complex would set going ISRO’s endeavours to popularise space technology’s people-oriented and development-oriented services such as tele-medicine, tele-education, disaster management and village resource management in the northern parts of the country, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, said at the function in New Delhi.
IIST director B.N. Suresh, addressing the function at Valiamala, said the institution would be shifting to the new campus by January 2010. Post-graduate courses in space science disciplines would start at the IIST at the beginning of the next academic year. The institution has just completed admission to the third batch of students in B.Tech. programmes in Avionics, Aerospace Engineering and Physical Sciences.
With the addition of the third batch, this institution, started in 2007, will have nearly 450 students on its rolls. Those who attended the function included Ministers M.A. Baby, N.K. Premachandran, and M. Vijayakumar and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy.
Functions were conducted simultaneously at the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi and at Valiamala at the southern end of the country, to mark the occasion. While the Prime Minister and three of his Cabinet colleagues and the top scientific community in the country were present at the function in New Delhi, four of the Kerala Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition and top people of the IIST and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) attended the function in Valiamala.
Besides the formal inauguration of the IIST campus, the functions also featured the distribution of ISRO awards to individual scientists and teams in IRSO and Defence Research Development Organisation for the contributions they had made in 2007 for the advance of Indian Space Science. While a few of the awardees received the recognition directly from the Prime Minister, many others were honoured at the function at Valiamala.
The Prime Minister also inaugurated a new Space Complex of the ISRO, by tele-link, at Sadiqnagar in New Delhi. This complex would set going ISRO’s endeavours to popularise space technology’s people-oriented and development-oriented services such as tele-medicine, tele-education, disaster management and village resource management in the northern parts of the country, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, said at the function in New Delhi.
IIST director B.N. Suresh, addressing the function at Valiamala, said the institution would be shifting to the new campus by January 2010. Post-graduate courses in space science disciplines would start at the IIST at the beginning of the next academic year. The institution has just completed admission to the third batch of students in B.Tech. programmes in Avionics, Aerospace Engineering and Physical Sciences.
With the addition of the third batch, this institution, started in 2007, will have nearly 450 students on its rolls. Those who attended the function included Ministers M.A. Baby, N.K. Premachandran, and M. Vijayakumar and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy.
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