Jonathan Jensen is back with his weekly contribution — this time, a little later than normal (Jonathan’s going to be publishing on most Thursdays). He’s focusing his attention on the elder generation this week — an oft overlooked subject, but an increasingly important one.

Over to Jonathan…

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In my quest to understand how Normobs use their mobile phones I decided to look at the older generation. It seems that even within this customer segment there is a wide variation in how phones are used. For this analysis I decided that two Grannies would be my user sample! Not sure if they’re representative but they’re certainly different.

One of them, we’ll call her Granny A, tends to keep her handset switched off in her handbag. Apparently she keeps it switched off because no one ever calls her on it. But then they wouldn’t would they if it’s never on! She’s also concerned that the battery will run down but that’s why they came out with chargers isn’t it? But she does find it useful to have with her when she’s out and about; perhaps walking the dog. However, when she’s away on holiday she turns into a text demon. So, she can do it if she puts her mind to it!

Now to be fair, part of the reason for Granny A not keeping her phone on all the time is the rubbish mobile coverage in her Sussex village. I’ve checked out all the operators there and it’s virtually impossible to get a signal. If you climb onto the roof you might get lucky. You would think that 23 years after the first cellular networks launched, coverage would have ceased to be an issue in all but the most remote parts of the UK (Sussex is not exactly remote). What would make a difference here? Femtocell devices (to provide high quality in-building coverage at home); but they’ve got to be easy for people to buy and use.

Next, we’ll turn to Granny B. Now Granny B is seriously connected! Her handset rarely leaves her side and she is texting on and off all the time to friends and family, from the UK to Australia, making a significant contribution to Vodafone’s bottom line! Not many calls, she tends to use a landline there. However if you want to contact Granny B you know you’ll reach her wherever she is.

So both Grannies see text messaging as the primary use for a mobile phone. Landlines are for voice and SMS is the mobile USP for them. Their adoption of mobile has been driven by its ability to offer a new communications medium, rather than a straight fixed to mobile voice substitution.

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Fascinating. Thanks Jonathan! You can find more from Jonathan at Sevendotzero.

It really does fascinate me as to what causes some older people to adopt new technology whilst others tend to shun it. What does your granny do, mobile-wise?

Mine as a handset — Vodafone that I bought her a few year ago and, to the best of my knowledge, she hasn’t actually taken it out the box!

So I went by the Spinvox stand yesterday. Seems I wasn’t the only one.

Richard Bliss, VP of Worldwide Marketing for GWAVA, has kindly agreed to write a series of posts from the CTIA show floor this week. GWAVA, by the way, make products for the GroupWise space however I was really taken with their ‘Retain for Blackberry Enterprise Server‘ service — a clientless solution that captures and archives text and pin-to-pin messages and makes them searchable. Genius for many industries, that. I’m thinking lawyers, accountants, big FTSE and Fortune 500s. If I was using Blackberry Exchange Server, I’d definitely implement that. Although I’m not sure if you can buy Retain for just one guy
A wee bit of an introduction for Richard. Prior to managing GWAVA’s marketing, he did the same for Novell GroupWise, as well as Allegro (the folks behind mail.com) and Sigaba (email security). So Richard’s pretty well experienced when it comes to messaging. I thought it’d be interesting to get his thoughts on what caught his attention at CTIA.

Here’s his first:

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Stopped by the Spinvox booth, (www.spinvox.com). Their pitch is to take spoken words and convert them to text and then allow you to send the text to a variety of different destinations such as email, and blogs. It also allows voicemail to be converted to text and emailed to you.

Their technology doesn’t have much to do with wireless or mobile other than using your mobile device to call in your thoughts and have those thoughts converted to text. Or to have your voicemail emailed to your device for you to read it without calling in.

I have used a similar service in the past, and although it sounds cool in theory, I found it very hard to change my way of thinking to capture ideas by calling them into a service.

The service is great for attorneys who already do voice dictation but if you aren’t used to dictating your thoughts it is a lot harder than it sounds.

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It’s fascinating to get, if you like, an ‘outsider’s’ take on SpinVox — I’ve been using it for so long.

Next up, Richard visited Teregram:

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Teragram, recently acquired by SAS, was showing off their Enterprise edition of MyGADs.

MyGADs allows a group of people to easily create information and then share it without relying on IT or email to distribute the content. You can create content from your mobile device that is posted to the MyGAD server where it is easily accessible by anyone on the team from the web or another mobile device.

The demo they showed me was pretty cool. He took my name, my birthday (It was a made up date for privacy reasons) and then posted this information to MyGAD. Then, using his texting capabilities from a cell phone he sent a text message to MyGAD simply saying “Richard Bliss Birthday”…a few seconds later MyGAD sent back the birthdate that was associated with my name.

My review doesn’t do justice to the technology and the poor guy doing the demo was visibly stressed once he realized I was there to write comments about his technology. He couldn’t stop shaking to punch in the data on his cell phone.

The challenge I see is how to get your teams to begin putting all of their data into MyGADs instead of the way they are used to, mainly by sending an email with the content and ccing everyone on the team. Even though this isn’t the most efficient, it is the easiest way for anyone to share. Getting people to change their behavior will be tough.

If you have virtual teams who are constantly working on projects and needing to keep track of information that needs to be shared MyGADS Enterprise Edition would be something that might help.

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I’ll publish Richard’s final experience tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time to write, Richard!

If you’ve got a CTIA perspective, whack it to me.

I bumped into Carlo, the noted mobile industry guru over at mobhappy.com and asked him to tell me exactly what he thought about CTIA so far.

Here’s a direct quote:

… That was it. He couldn’t think of one single thing to say that was nice about the show!

I asked for a follow-up and he pointed out that he actually lives in Las Vegas and didn’t even get a trip to somewhere nice. Ah well. Quite a few people are telling me that they haven’t seen much to excite them so far. I live in hope. I’m sure there is something out there waiting to be blogged!

Here I am with two of the mobile world’s leading bloggers: Darla Mack of darlamack.com and Bena Roberts of Gomo News. I managed to quickly snap this — can you tell it was quickly? — whilst at the ShopStoppers event last night.

Sir Richard is giving one of the keynotes at CTIA Wireless this morning. I’m heading off early to make sure I get some sort of seat. I hope there’s power for the laptop

I wonder what he’ll be saying? If there’s a chance for questions at the end, I am definitely going to try and ask him what mobile phone he uses.

Maybe he’s like the President or Prime Minister and doesn’t actually bother? (Tony Blair only got his first mobile after leaving 10 Downing Street).

Worth a read…

Link: The media industry’s rising stars: top 40 under 40 - Times Online

We present our list of “40 under 40” people from the media industry in its broadest sense - embracing broadcasting, computer games, venture capital and mobile technology. Most are up and coming; some have already made it.

Ricky was, for a while, a prolific contributor to SMS Text News. It was with a degree of sadness that we bade him farewell the other week — I say a degree, because we are absolutely delighted to hear he has become an Ambassador.

Alas, I don’t think the role includes a palatial residence, tons of lackeys and deeeplohhhmatik immuniteeeee (see Lethal Weapon). It does, however, involve Symbian S60 — something Ricky is both intimately familiar with and seriously knowledgeable on.

You can read more about what Ricky will be up to here. Every success Ricky and thank you for all your help!

Even while battling to save its mobile phones division, Motorola has brought in a new CFO, and oddly enough, CEO Greg Brown chose to look outside the company’s current ranks for the position. Paul Liska, who previously held the title of CFO at Sears, Roebuck, and Co, will step in on March 1 as the new CFO at Motorola. Liska’s last position was as a partner at several private-equity firms, and he will be joining Brown to stave off the proxy fight that Carl Icahn is working up.

Anything that could possibly help Motorola, at this point, is a good thing.

I like, many, was watching closely to see what Pat Phelan of SMS Text News sponsor, MAXroam, made of Mobile World Congress. It was, I gather, his first event. I wondered what he thought of it. He’s a busy chap — a veritable tornado of energy and it’s always a challenge guessing what continent he’s traversing as he seems to change daily. I managed to pin him down for twenty seconds to answer these three questions:

1. Tell me three things that Mobile World Congress did brilliantly:

Pat says:

a. The event itself was amazing, the layout was simple and the flow was excellent.
b. Location, excellent, way better than Cannes.
c. Transport, Taxi queues were pretty manageable and transport to the venue was excellent.

2. Tell me three things that Mobile World Congress screwed up:

Pat says:

a. Queues for food, totally and utterly ridiculous.
b. The innovation zone, hidden away in hall 7
c. Queues for registration
d. WiFi

4. The most memorable point during the event was….

Pat says:

The MAXroam/QIK dinner

4. The hottest startup I came across during Mobile World Congress was….

Pay says:

Modu Mobile

Thanks for taking the time Pat.

If you were at MWC, knock me over your thoughts by email and I’ll get them up.

I always peer closely to see what venture capitalists are doing. So it was with some interest that I noted David Hytha, formerly Executive VP of Terminals at T-Mobile Europe, has joined Sofinnova Ventures. David was part of the team who launched Web’n'Walk, the first major carrier in my experience to launch open access to the internet at reasonable prices. T-Mobile UK kickstarted the country’s data market and, ultimately, forced the other players to work out the own ‘unlimited’ offerings. Kudos David. I was one of the first users of that.

David’s been around the wireless industry. He started first at AT&T in the early 1980s, establishing both its semiconductor business in Japan, and its wireless infrastructure operations in Japan. He then founded the first department of Bell Laboratories outside the United States. Fast forward to 1994 and David developed new businesses for AT&T/McCaw Cellular and started what became FarEasTone, a major GSM operator in Taiwan. While at Motorola in 1994, David was awarded the world’s first 3GSM handset contract with NTT DoCoMo. Nifty. David was also CEO of LGC Wireless, where he shipped the world’s first distributed mobile antenna systems. Then, In 1998 he joined Silicon Wave where he shipped the world’s first standards-compliant Bluetooth chipset, which sold to RFMD in 2003.

He then joined T-Mobile Europe in 2003. That’s a bit of a career and a half, eh?

He’s now Executive-in-Residence at Sofinnova so if you’ve got an investment opportunity in the mobile sector, it might be worth dropping him a note. You can catch him via sofinnova.com.

Another piece of Blyk news after today’s BlykWatch diary: MobileToday are reporting that Dean Merrion, former head of Sales, Online & Marketing at Virgin Mobile has joined Blyk as Director of Member Sales and Marketing.

Every success Dean!

Caroline Lewko, founder of the Wireless Industry Partnership has joined Trutap as a Non-Executive Director — congratulations Caroline!

MTV’s Executive VP or Digital Distribution and Business Development, Greg Clayman, was recently caught at a National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) event and asked about mobile. The video can be found on MoCoNews.net, it’s under 6 minutes long and he gives a bit of insight into where mobile content will be headed in 2008, as well as some interesting facts about the ringtone market.

Mr. Clayman seems to think that mobile video (both creation and consumption) will really take off in 2008, and gives an idea of what’s really taking off. Content such as news, weather, and sports are obviously slam-dunks for being viewed on a mobile, but he also claims that music-related video content is doing phenomenally. He also mentions MediaFLO a little bit, and suggests that it will be interesting to see where that goes this year.

With Nielsen recently revealing that 46 million mobile users used mobile search functions in Q3 2007, the marketplace for mobile search and advertising is hotting up. Right there in the middle of it is JumpTap.

Business is good at JumpTap — so much so, they’re busy extending their team — and they’ve just hired an interactive advertising guru in the form of Paran Johar. Apart from speaking the language of the ad agency big wigs on Madison Avenue, Paran will be working to reinforce JumpTap’s relationship with advertising and marketing communities and to help brands and advertisers effectively employ JumpTap’s highly-targeted mobile search and advertising solutions.

Over to CEO Dan Olschwang:

“Paran provides a unique perspective, having integrated offline, online and mobile marketing strategies for large brands,” said Dan Olschwang, president and CEO of JumpTap. “His leadership and strategic insight will help JumpTap continue its global growth, product innovation and ability to offer a full suite of mobile search and advertising solutions that truly reflect the needs of advertising agencies and the clients they represent. Paran’s addition to the team fuels our prediction that 2008 is the year of mobile advertising.”

And Johar’s background?

Johar comes to JumpTap from MRM Worldwide, McCann’s digital division, where he was executive vice president of digital marketing for North America and managing director of the Los Angeles office.

So Johar knows a thing or two about interactive marketing. Before MRM, he was the top chap at the LA office of Tribal DDB, quickly growing their revenues to $80m+. Paran’s been working with the likes of GM, Microsoft, Wells Fargo (you can’t go a mile in San Francisco without coming across a Wells Fargo), Paramount, E! Online and Applebees (British: think TGI Fridays-ish).

How does Paran react to his new role?

“JumpTap is in an enviable position because it allows advertisers to reach a personal medium that is in everyone’s hands and which has yet to be fully leveraged,” said Johar. “With over 2.7 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, mobile search and advertising has enormous growth potential. Capitalising on JumpTap’s market leading search and advertising technology to deliver behaviorally targeted ads, one of my jobs is to place a quantifiable value on the incredible synergy between medium and message that only JumpTap can deliver to agencies and their clients.”

Exciting. Very exciting. We need more of this in the mobile industry. We need more interactive advertising geniuses to feel the force and work their magic with their heavily mainstream-focused contacts.

If you’re popping by New York any time soon, it might be worth connecting with Paran as he’s heading up the JumpTap NYC office. I’m going to try and catch him for an interview shortly.

PhoneBoy, other wise known as Dameon Welch-Abernathy (that’s definitely Scottish descent, it must be!), has been kind enough to take some time out his schedule and answer some questions from SMS Text News. Although intimately acquainted with Nokia (Dameon’s day job is with Nokia’s Software and Services division in the Security Support Services Product Line Support team - this is the kind of things he works with — see About PhoneBoy for more), he writes regularly at www.phoneboy.com about all kinds of matters relating to VOIP, wireless and technology. If you find yourself kicking your firewall for not behaving regularly, chances are you’ve read Dameon’s work. Here’s a screenshot of one of his firewall books:

.. and here’s the Amazon link.

I’ve had Dameon’s site in my ‘opinion formers’ part of my feeds for quite some time and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his recent comments on posts here, so I thought it was about time I found out a little bit more about the chap. I fired him over the list of standard questions I like to use (everyone tends to answer them differently) so here we go:

1. What was your first handset and network?
Some Qualcomm thing that I don’t remember now on GTE Wireless–an evil CDMA carrier. Forgive me, as it was before I knew the wonderfulness that is GSM.

2. Describe your current mobile setup.
I have both a T-Mobile SIM and an AT&T SIM that my employer (Nokia) pays for. My wife has a T-Mobile prepaid SIM.

3. How much was your last bill? Good value, do you think?
I don’t see the bill on my SIMs. On my wife’s prepaid SIM, it’s an excellent value. Only have to refill it once or twice a year tops.

4. What’s your background?
Systems Administrator turned Technical Support dweeb for Network Security products, many of which I have supported while working at Nokia.

5. How did you end up with your current company?
At the time, I was a pro at Check Point FireWall-1. Nokia (the part formerly known as Ipsilon Networks) needed someone who could support FireWall-1 very well. 9 years later, I’m still here working for that same group, which has, of course, evolved quite a bit over the years.

6. Give us an overview of what your company does? What are your key clients and services?
I think everyone knows or at least has an idea of what Nokia does, given they are the number 1 mobile handset maker in the world. However, what many may not know is that they also play in the Enterprise Network Security space as a hardware/software vendor competing against the likes of Cisco and Juniper. Nokia has been selling Check Point FireWall-1 on their appliances since 1997 when they acquired Ipsilon Networks. Recently, Nokia began selling an Intrusion Prevention Solution running Sourcefire, which provides a comprehensive solution.

7. What do you think is right with the mobile industry?
In the U.S. market, cheap unlimited data plans–at least if you’re on a postpaid rate plan. That’s about it.

8. And what’s wrong with the mobile industry?
Just about everything else in the U.S. market, but let’s cut it down to a few key points:

* The idea that you have to by your handset from a carrier. Apparently, the carriers all forgot about the Carterfone rules when they deployed their wireless networks, or they flat out decided to ignore them.
* The fact that prepaid data is not cheap or easy to get in the U.S.. AT&T sells unlimited data, but only on their prepaid plan that looks like a postpaid plan. T-Mobile only makes it available on prepaid if you got a Sidekick.
* Lack of handset portability. I understand a CDMA handset won’t work on a GSM network (and vice versa), but why is it so hard–especially on the CDMA side–to move your handset between carriers?

9. If you had to buy a new mobile handset tomorrow, what would you get?
Nokia N95-3. More battery life and US 3G. Need I say more?

10. Rate the US network providers in order of preference with a one line summary of each.
They all suck, but here’s my review of the 4 large carriers:

* AT&T: GSM, they have 3G, They do allow you to, in theory, bring your own handsets and buy them at full price if you want to go that way.
* T-Mobile: Also GSM, but no functional 3G yet. Your GSM service can include access to their WiFi hotspots, which I have used on more than one occasion.
* Verizon: If you’re a voice only kind of guy, you don’t mind being landlocked to the U.S., and you want the most reliable network overall, then go with Verizon. If you don’t want your handset to be crippled, or want to bring your own CDMA handset to Verizon, look elsewhere.
* Sprint: I really don’t have much to say about Sprint. Their EVDO is nice, which is the only thing I’ve used them for in recent memory.

11. What’s the hottest mobile service to catch your eye recently?
Jaiku, which I am disappointed Nokia did not acquire, given it was founded by ex-Nokia employees.

12. Pick 3 people that you admire and rate in the mobile industry and give us 2-3 lines about each.
I admire my co-workers in Nokia who are working hard to make us a serious contender in the North American handset market. I’m looking forward to see the results of some of this work during 2008, as others have indicated.

13. What services do you use the most on your handset?
Twitter, Jaiku and Nokia’s Share Online (upload photos direct to Flickr from my handset).

14. What’s the last thing you saw at the cinema?
I honestly can’t remember the last time I went to the cinema.

15. What’s your ringtone? What wallpaper (if any) do you use for your handset?
Nokia’s “Tinkle.” I change handsets too often to muck about with a custom ringtone. I typically use the default wallpaper.

16. When did you last send a picture/video message - and who was the recipient?
My wife when I had to show her what kind of lightbulb to buy for an outside light. Pity that MMS squashes 5 megapixel images down to useless.

17. What sites do you read to keep up to date with what’s going on in the mobile industry?
SMS Text News, of course! I also read IntoMobile, Engadget, The Smart PDA, The Mobile Technology Weblog (disclaimer: I blog here), Darla Mack, Symbian Guru, The Nokia S60 Blogs, and a mess of others I’m not thinking of right now.

18. Anything else we should know?
If it wasn’t clear from earlier questions, I have nothing to do with the mobile phone side of Nokia’s business. That being said, I take a great interest in that part of Nokia’s business and do what I am able to do in order to promote Nokia’s presence in North America.

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Dameon, thank you for taking the time!

(You can also catch Dameon at the S60 Convergence Zone.)

Nice one Stéphane and congratulations on the appointment!

SpinVox, the founder and global leader of Voice-to-Screen messaging, today announced the appointment of Stéphane Dubois as general manager for France. Dubois brings nearly 11 years of diverse management experience with LogicaCMG to SpinVox expanding European operations.

Initially joining LogicaCMG as a pre-sales engineer in 1997, Dubois was promoted to managing director, France, for Telecoms & Media in 2000 and named a member of the Board, LogicaCMG France in 2004, with responsibility for the company’s entire Telecom Products, IT solutions, Outsourcing, and Consulting business.

In 2005, he was also appointed as managing director for the Energy and Utilities market, executive sponsor for France Telecom, and started the Unilog Management Telecom Consulting practice in 2007, following Unilog’s acquisition by LogicaCMG.

In this newly-created role, Dubois will be responsible for creating and expanding strategic and carrier relationships in the French market.

SpinVox has already launched its service with Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa, and Six Apart and announced deals with Vodafone Spain and Skype. As a managed service provider any network or service can rapidly and cost-effectively implement SpinVox.

Nice one Bob. Virgin Mobile have been doing some super things in the States (and beyond). Whenever people mention the phrase ’successful MVNO’ they generally point to Virgin.

Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. today announced that Bob Stohrer, currently Vice President of Brand & Integrated Marketing, has been tapped as the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer. Stohrer will take on this role as Howard Handler, who has served as CMO since Virgin Mobile’s launch, leaves the company.

Handler and Stohrer joined the no-contract wireless service in 2003. Both have been instrumental in driving its growth from a start-up MVNO to one of the nation’s top 10 wireless providers, with a customer base of nearly five million. Following several years of impressive growth as well as the recent completion of the company’s initial public offering, Handler has decided to take the next step in his career.

Did you hear Om Malik had a heart attack? Good news that he’s ok and recovering.

I wish you a speedy recovery, Om!

Link: A Heart-to-Heart with GigaOM Readers - GigaOM

Happy New Year. As you may have noticed, my byline hasn’t been up on the site for a few days. That’s because the holidays weren’t exactly my most jolly.

I had a heart attack on Dec. 28. I was able to walk into the hospital for treatment that night and have been recovering here ever since. With the support of my family and my team, I am on the road to a full recovery. I am going to be OK.

Daniel R. Hesse, who was recently named the new President and CEO of Sprint Nextel, Inc, is going about taking care of other business surrounding his new job. The first of which, apparently, includes resigning from his position on the Board of Directors for our favorite Finnish company, Nokia.

Hesse has served on the board since 2005 and according to Board Chairman (and ex-CEO) Jorma Ollila, will be sorely missed. However, I find this fascinating. I was unaware that Hesse served on Nokia’s Board of Directors. Nokia doesn’t currently make CDMA handsets, and Sprint’s current network here in the U.S. is CDMA, though I suppose that serves to ensure there’s no conflict of interest for Hesse.

However, knowing that Sprint is working on launching a WiMax network soon, and that Nokia’s interested in anything that Qualcomm doesn’t have their paws into too much (such as WiMax) I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing some more Nokia-friendly things going on with Sprint Nextel.

Note: Sprint does indeed currently offer some Nokia handsets, but they are merely outsourced and then get the Nokia brand slapped on them. They’re not *truly* Nokia handsets.

Sprint Nextel today announced that they have chosen a replacement for Gary Forsee, who stepped down in October of this year. Daniel R. Hesse will be taking the helm as President and CEO of Sprint Nextel, effective immediately. Hesse has served in the same position at Sprint spin-off Embarq Corporation, and also has over 2 decades of experience with AT&T Wireless, including a 3-year stint as the President and CEO.

Following Forsee’s resignation, CFO Paul Saleh stepped in to cover the position until a replacement was found, and will now be returning to his normal duties.

Welcome to the team, Daniel, we look forward to see what Sprint Nextel will do in the coming year in the US wireless market.

Miyowa, the mobile instant messaging geniuses, recently hired Scott Stonham as their VP of Product Marketing. I’ve been following Miyowa for quite a while particularly since they’re focused on educating and assisting the behemoth mobile operators of our fair planet understand and implement mobile instant messaging for their subscribers.

I always enjoy seeing how people respond to the more or less standard set of SMS Text News questions — I find it fascinating to read viewpoints from people in the industry. Thus, let’s get going with Scott’s Q&A…

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1. What was your first handset and network?
A brick-like, bright green NEC phone on the Vodafone analogue network. I was a student at the time and remember I had trouble fitting it in my bag with my books and files. Nonetheless, I was the envy of the class until upstaged by a Motorola StarTac. I remember my phone falling out of my bag in a lecture and causing physical damage to the wooden benches.

2. Describe your current mobile setup.
I currently have a Sony Ericsson K550im on Bouygues, and an HTC MTEOR on Vodafone UK. I use the K550im for my mobile messaging needs, particularly for Microsoft Live Messenger and Yahoo Mobile Messenger using the Miyowa powered clients from Bouygues.

3. How much was your last bill?
My last personal bill was £128. I don’t know how much my last corporate bill was. The biggest “bill shock” incident I experience came whilst preparing a demo for 3GSM in Cannes. Vodafone called me to ask if I was still in possession of my phone, as the bill had just triggered the £4,000 alert threshold!

[You were lucky, Scott! They didn't bother phoning me when I ran up a 1k data bill in Cannes! - Ewan]

4. What’s your background?
Having a strong technical background is essential in this industry, no matter what your role or speciality. I graduated with a First class degree in Cybernetics and Control Engineering from Reading University, UK, having designed and built a three-wheeled robot that learned how to move and hunt for food. With Terminator skills in my veins, I made the obvious career move into a software role at a credit card authorisation company, and with a number of successful projects under my belt, I headed for the bright lights of Vodafone. I spent the next six years working my way through software, leadership and product roles in their UK, International (later to become Vodafone Global), Interactive (later to become Vodafone Multimedia, and then Vizzavi), Multimedia and Global business units. Having spent a number of years on Vodafone’s location services projects, I left to lead the market development activities for SnapTracks’ (Qualcomms’) gpsOne(TM) Assisted GPS products across EMEA. My next role as Marketing Director at Openwave took me firmly into product management and marketing capacity, working across Europe and driving their location services and mobile advertising activities.

5. How did you end up with your current company?
I was looking for something new and exciting, in a company that wanted to make a difference, and would give me the opportunity to help make that happen. During this process, I was approached with the role at Miyowa. Out of the numerous roles I had looked at, Miyowa ticked all the boxes.

6. Give us an overview of what your company does? Key clients?
Miyowa is dedicated to delivering value to our customer, driving adoption and usage of messaging data services. We are the market leader in Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) client technology, with support for all the major IM communities across more than 300 mass market devices, and growing at around 50 new devices per month. At this rate we plan to support worldwide MIM deployments on more than 1000 devices by the end of 2008. Behind the clients and helping deliver the compelling, engaging and addictive user experience needed to stimulate and grow MIM revenues, Miyowa provides industry leading Mobile Instant Messaging Gateway platforms and business intelligence services. Our client and gateway products are Mobile Advertising Ready, and currently being used in market trials to prove the value of the MIM inventory.

Miyowa has more than seventeen customers, across both the mobile carriers and mobile device vendors. Of our publically announced customers, Orange Group, KPN and O2 are our largest accounts.

7. What do you think is right with the mobile industry?
The mobile industry addresses the basic human need to communicate and be part of community, and continues to change our live more rapidly than any other technology on the planet. Awash in talent and exceptional people, innovation is never far away and although we often get caught up complaining about “12-18 month deal cycles”, in those months a lot tends to happen, relatively speaking.

8. And what’s wrong with the mobile industry?
Long deal cycles. Seriously, my feeling is that market saturation is stifling innovation in the mature markets at a time when competitive differentiation should be most important. The industry continues to face the bit-pipe threat and must either adapt and overcome through innovation, or acquiesce and embrace a new world of bit delivery.

9. If you had to buy a new mobile handset tomorrow, what would you get?
I plan on purchasing the HTC TyTn II. My background tends to bias me towards Qualcomm based devices, especially when they come equipped with Assisted GPS.

10. Rate the UK network providers in order of preference with a one line summary of each.
First: 3 – For the impact it has had, its vision and alternative business approach

Second: O2 – for the understanding of its customer base, and ability to target services accordingly

Third: Vodafone – For being the yard-stick, and setting the standards. I’ve always been a Vodafone subscriber, so too have my family. You know what you’re getting with Vodafone.

Fourth: Orange – It has had some great ideas, and been well positioned to bring innovation to the industry, but is often understated

Fifth: T-Mobile – Personally, I just haven’t seen T-Mobile do that much around the UK, unlike Germany and the USA. Perhaps I’m being unjust, and am simply not its target demographic. However, its Web’n’Walk service certainly helped the demolition of those garden walls, which in my book is a good thing.

Of the MVNOs, Virgin is top of my list.

11. What’s the hottest mobile service to catch your eye recently?
Whilst trying not to be too biased, I would have to say MIM. The reason I joined Miyowa was because of the potential MIM has to bring to the mobile industry. I see MIM as much more than just “another way to communicate”, and as an underlying framework for the future of mobile applications. MIM has the opportunity to deliver on not just the promise of next generation messaging, but will also lead the pack on IMS enabled applications, support the emergence of mobile advertising and make Mobile2.0 a reality.
Beyond MIM, it’s the wealth of new location enabled services coming to market on the back of GPS equipped devices. One that caught my eye in particular, mostly as a demonstration of the kind of ideas that the developer community can come up with if given the tools, was SatLav.

12. Pick 3 people that you admire and rate in the mobile industry and give us 2-3 lines about each.
There are quite a few individuals I admire, but to avoid the Oscar acceptance style speech, I’d like to answer this in terms of groups of people:
First, I admire those who work in the standards world. In my opinion, it takes a very special type of person to do this, and having worked with people who fly half way round the world to exotic locations, just to spend 5 days locked in an air-conditioned meeting room debating the merits of one call flow vs another, I have to acknowledge their work, since the industry would be a very different place without them.

Second, TAT. The Astonishing Tribe of Sweden are, in my opinion one of the leaders in forward-looking, slick UI designs. I met them for the first time at a conference in Amsterdam, and realised I had already seen their work in many different places. I guarantee you will have seen the Photo River concept in handsets today.

Thirdly, I have had the privilege to work with a number of dynamic and energetic people who decided to give up their comfortable lives in the hi-tech world and move to far-flung places to help the less-privileged. I admire them for both their achievements in this industry and the courage and compassion they have shown when moving on.

13. What services do you use the most on your handset?
In order of use: MIM, Voice, SMS, Music, Navigation, Camera, Photos

14. Do you have any pets?
Yes. 2 cats, 2 tree frogs, 11 fish, 2 tortoises, 1 macaw and 5 stick insects, previously we have kept 2 lizards, 4 chipmunks, and 2 chinchillas.

15. What’s the last thing you saw at the cinema?
Ocean’s Thirteen, Die Hard 4.0 and Transformers

16. What’s your ringtone?
The Whistler by Claude von Stroke on my MTEOR and Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin on my K550im

17. When did you last send a picture/video message — and who was it to?
Two weeks ago, to a friend whilst on a train to London.

18. What sites to you read to keep up to date with what’s going on in the mobile industry?
I don’t rely on any one or two sites, but in my browser cache today are: The Register, Telco2.0, BBC, WebUser.co.uk, MobileEurope.co.uk, eurocomms.com and, obviously, smstextnews.com.

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Scott, thank you very much for taking the time to answer!

Broca, the secure messaging specialists, have been coming across my radar frequently across the last few months so I thought it would be rather good to put some questions to their top man, Ian Price (Managing Director). Here we go!

1. What was your first handset and network?
It was a BT issue phone – the size of a brick – which I was given on joining. On Cellnet, naturally. I still have it in the garage.

2. Describe your current mobile setup.
Nokia N70 – nothing particularly sophisticated although I do have some (legal) SMS forwarding software on there to show people how unsafe plain SMS is.

3. What’s your background?
English Lit degree specialising in Old and Middle English. Started out in consulting where I wrote the Cable & Wireless business plan for what became One-2-One (now T-Mobile). Then joint a fledgling cable TV company in Camden and got headhunted by BT to lead the fight back. Spent 11 years with BT launching among other things the BSkyB partnership, BT 1571 and BT Click&Buy. Left BT to start up Digital Payments, the mobile top-up solutions provider part-owned by Vocalink.

4. How did you end up with your current company?
I was approached by 2ergo while at Digital Payments. They had bought the patents that Broca’s technology is based on. Broca demerged from 2ergo in March this year.

5. Give us an overview of what your company does? Key clients?
We are in the advanced messaging business with two products based on our patented technology: SAMS (Secure Advanced Message Service) makes SMS content 1) password protected 2) encrypted and 3) recorded delivery. The second product is Acquire which is targeted at data capture requirements. We have a number of channel partners that resell the products such as Vodafone, Rapide and Infinite Solutions. Recent wins through partners include Malaysia On Line. Also trialling Acquire with a major handset manufacturer and European network.

6. What do you think is right with the mobile industry?
GSM is a basically sound technology which gives most consumers 90% of what they need AND works in the developing world. It is a truly global technology – 2.3bn consumers can’t be wrong.

7. And what’s wrong with the mobile industry?
Disastrous lack of handset standardisation pushes the cost up for anybody trying to innovate in the industry.

8. If you had to buy a new mobile handset tomorrow, what would you get?
Nokia N95. Could be regarded as a safe choice but my main use is for business. I can hook one up to a projector and do on-screen demos.

9. Pick 3 people that you admire and rate in the mobile industry and give us 2-3 lines about each.
I would have to say Barry Sharples and Neale Graham of 2ergo as the first two. For one thing, they might read this. Genuinely, though, they have done great things in the mobile technology area. I would also pick Peter Erskine who has just announced he is leaving Telefonica/O2. I worked for him when he was at BT and remember when he took on what was then Cellnet.

10. What services do you use the most on your handset?
Aside from the everyday ones, I have been known to place the odd bet using the Blue Square Java Sportsbook I downloaded. I am pleased to say I am well ahead on aggregate – I must get round to placing something on the Hatton fight.

11. Do you have any pets?
Big domestic fault-line here: I and our 13-year old son are very strongly pro-dog. Wife anti. She seems to have the casting vote in spite of being in the minority. My son and I have been reduced to taking dogs out for a walk at the Dogs Trust in Harefield.

12. What’s the last thing you saw at the cinema?
Beowulf with my son. Either they’ve taken liberties with the original or I skim-read it at University too quickly and missed all the sex…

13. What’s your ringtone?
I’ve come to the conclusion that my musical taste is too esoteric to find a ringtone that suits – I was with someone yesterday at T-Mobile who has Cantaloupe Island but only the US3 version as he can’t get the original. Rather than be reduced to that sort of compromise, I prefer to stick with the default.

14. When did you last send a picture/video message — and who was it to?
I have never sent one. Received one once from my cousin who had her picture taken with Trey from the apprentice. (“You’re nothing to me” if you remember…)

15. Anything else we should know?
Watch out for a new consumer application we are planning to launch in Beta very soon. You will hear about it here first so watch this space…

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Ian, thanks for taking the time to answer those questions.

If you’d like to do a Q&A, drop me a mail.

There’s an HP mobile bloggers dinner going on this evening. I’m going along to see what’s cooking and to meet Hewlett-Packard hosts Gavin Duckett (Industry Consultant Communications, Media and Entertainment), Roger Fawcett (Director, Business Development, Communications Media & Entertainment, EMEA) and Jean-Marie Bulte (Solutions Architect Opencall Media Solutions).

There’s most likely a demo of some new technologies so I’ll take some pictures — and, obviously — some video. Likewise with my previous post, if you’ve got questions for Gavin, Roger or Jean-Marie, let me know. I’ll ask.

I’m going to talk to them about their HP iPAQ mobile devices. I like them. Just. Well. They’re a bit big, a bit bulky…

Got any questions for Peter Mercier, Head of Mobile for BBC Worldwide? I’m popping over to Charlotte Street to chat to him about what they’re up to in about an hour.

I first met Martin Smith (right) Co-Founder of Frith PR (and it’s parent, Sonus PR) on a cold day in October when I was hunting for advice on positioning one of my companies. Since then (and after a very successful acquisition driven by super PR), I’ve referred many a mobile or telecoms related business to Martin and his Co-Founder, Patrick Smith, for advice and perspective.

When I told Martin I was planning a Los Angeles Unlimited Drinks, I was delighted when he immediately called up and offered support as a sponsor — and readily agreed to come along to the event. It was shortly after then that I realised I hadn’t actually blogged much about him. So I demanded a Q&A! And here we are:

What is the one piece of advice you would give to companies to improve their profile?
I think most companies would do well to think more deeply about how they position themselves in the market. It is not enough, for example to decide that you are a ‘leading vendor of mobile data solutions’. So are hundreds of other companies so that description doesn’t resonate with anyone.

How does PR differ in the United States compare to Europe?
Some things are just the same. You need to pitch the story to the right people at the right time in the right way. I have to say though, conditions can be quite different. My PR skills were forged in the fire of the UK tech PR market, which has to be the toughest tech PR market on the planet – UK journalists are often proud of being highly cynical, plus UK agencies often have smaller budgets than their US counterparts without correspondingly smaller expectations.

And what are the biggest differences you see between the US and European wireless markets?
For me, the most interesting difference is people’s relationships with their devices. In Europe the mobile phone is so much more of a fashion item than it is in the United States. This recent post from Dean Bubley is a good example of one way in which that’s true.

What’s the most interesting story you see out there in the wireless market?
The US Federal Communications Commission’s 700-MHz auction is really interesting, partly because of the present-day political maneuverings and partly for its long-term potential to disrupt the status quo.

Who do think is the most interesting company in mobile right now?
Google. In the last 12 months, Google has been staking a claim on more and more aspects of the wireless experience.

How has PR changed over the last few years?
The rise of ’social media’ has to be the most significant change I have seen, and that’s clearly very much a work in progress. The PR industry is currently working out how to embrace this crazy, new world without forgetting the basics.

Why was Frith PR (and parent Sonus PR) set up as a telecom specialist?
We felt that technology had become so pervasive that it was no longer meaningful to be a ‘technology’ PR expert, so we founded the agency as a ‘telecoms PR’ firm, narrowing the focus and increasing the level of expertise we offer to clients.

Who’s your dream client?
I don’t necessarily have a dream client per se, but I do have a dream type of client - the type of company for which you know you are making a tangible, positive difference. That usually means a company where they are actually doing something really interesting or different and where your client contacts are humble enough to remain open to advice.

What’s your current mobile handset?
I have a couple of mobile phones. One is a Nokia E61, plus I have a Samsung SGH-A707. I am itching to get something new though.

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Martin, thanks very much for taking the time!

If you’d like to pick Martin’s brains, get him in San Francisco on +1 415 848 3035 and tell him I sent you or get in touch via these details.