Dan Calinescu

The Problem

Mobile operators are the rulers of the wireless world. They control the last-mile, the link to the end-consumers, through their private mobile portals. Due this massive control, they have the final say as to what sells and what does not. Users have a wide variety of content available in the mobile catalogue but browsing the products is difficult, and the true value of the product is not truly visible. Especially for games, a game title, a small text description and an optional screen shot is all the user gets. It is no wonder that it is the branded content that wins the user’s attention, and thus large publishers focus on large brands, spending large amount of money for development. The small developers are left out the operator decks, since they cannot afford big brands. In many cases, the end users are disadvantaged since unbranded content does not necessarily imply lower quality.

A Potential Solution

A disruptive, end-to-end mobile distribution model, giving small developers a fair playing field, while empowering end users with more control over the process of browsing and purchasing content, such as ring-tones, wall-papers, games and applications. This model would compete directly with mobile operators.

How it would work

1. The user joins the community by creating a profile on the community web site.
2. The user enters information such as email address and device information (i.e. phone #)
3. The user receives a WAP push message on the device, to download the mobile client.
4. The user may buy credits on the web-site, for later use in buying mobile content.
5. The user starts up the mobile client and logs into the community network.
6. The user browses for content, which is downloaded on demand by the mobile client.
7. The client makes requests and receives content responses from an HTTP server.
8. The mobile client displays text and images and plays sounds and animations.
9. The mobile client may also download short demo packs.
10. When the user decides to buy a product, the client checks if the user has enough credits.
11. If enough credits are available, a one-click button completes the transaction.
12. The client sends a request to the HTTP server signaling the transaction.
13. The server sends a WAP push SMS message to the user device.
14. The client displays a message telling the user to wait for an SMS message, then exits.
15. The user receives a WAP push SMS and clicks the URL.
16. The device opens a web browser and starts a download.
17. The user may follow the on-screen instructions to complete installation.

What happens if the Carrier blocks access to and from our servers?

Glad you asked. Let’s put it these way. They can block one, two, three, dozens of servers but not thousands. And where would we get thousands of servers? This is where P2P would come in. In a community-driven effort, P2P can always offer us a list of carrier “white-listed” addresses to and from our mobile clients.

If only the carriers would smarten up… Oh well, it’s up to the community - once again - to solve this problem.