Customer experience rules!

I’m just glad that the SMS promo frenzy of last year has finally cleared. It seemed that every week saw the launch of some trivia-based text promo being undertaken by a neophyte content provider with no marketing clue whatsoever and hawking some skewed product. I used to get numerous inquiries from you wireless folks on the credibility of some of these so-called SMS-based promos, and memorably, even from a furious church figure who would continuously criticize a now defunct text gaming company. Today with the proper controls in place by the DTI and Pagcor, only legitimate SMS marketing endeavors are now allowed to run.

This bubble blew up just in a nick of time (don’t you think?) just when we all got too distracted and had forgotten the meaning of quality SMS value-added services, content and applications. I’m glad we still have wireless developers like Chikka, which continues to focus on its core applications like its Instant Messenger, which has added a new and easy way to use HTML version for your speed messaging needs. It’s obvious by now that these types of core applications have continuously grown virally, even without any marketing budget whatsoever. No fad here, just a good product that offers basic communications to common folks. The same unparalleled value proposition that also has me hooked to services like Globe’s Starcodes movie schedule service and Smart’s Catextism, which by my standards, are both "idiot-proof" in terms of accessibility.

Now that we are all in agreement that consumers want easier, more affordable access to quality content and services that enable them to save time, stay in touch, have fun and increase productivity while on the go, what’s next for content on the next-generation 3G?

Just my ten cents’ worth, the future is obviously 3G and it’s always on connectivity but with current inherent limitations like a choppy network that makes you restart when a connection is "dropped," limited coverage (tunnels, elevators, etc.), tiny display screens and such, approach for access of service should maybe veer away from the browser model. Browsing is great for PCs that have uninterrupted bandwidth, but it is far from perfect for wireless devices. As far as I’m concerned, when I need info fast the last thing I want to do when I’m on mobile is to browse for it. I want my time-critical information always available for me, even when I’m not connected to a network. How is this possible at least in theory?

Let’s simply start off by having the user define his profile upfront and subsequently after, every data transmission would provide an opportunity for the mobile phone software to aggregate more user data. After continuous usage, your mobile phone thus becomes "smarter." Let’s say I’m booking movie seats over 3G, normally if my connection gets cut I have to restart from scratch as such leaving a sour user experience. The smarter software, on the other hand, should remember where you left off and have you simply resume after getting back on the network. Soon after the confirmation of the movie booking arrives, you should simply be able to click on a button and forward the movie booking to friends or click on the address of the theater and have a map appear. Now that’s more efficient use of a data transmission, wouldn’t you say?

Important to a mobile subscriber is not only the quality of the content, but also the experience of actually retrieving it. I have been mislabeled a techie at times, but even I have no patience and would pass on extracting great content if it was burdensome to access. Like what many have said, focus on customer experience rather than technology and they will come.

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According to a new report published by industry group Analysys, global revenues from mobile messaging are set to double to $70 billion by 2007. This will be driven by further growth of SMS or text messaging in new market segments and new applications, as well as the take-up of advanced messaging services such as MMS and mobile instant messaging. In terms of total messaging volume, Analysys predicts that this will quadruple over the next few years, from 670 billion in 2002 to 2,600 billion in 2007. However, at the same time, Analysys said it is critical for operators to stimulate growth of new messaging services, such as MMS, which are being held back by high prices, lack of interworking and lack of critical mass of users. It believes that network operators should follow Japan’s lead by setting affordable prices and packaging MMS with a range of services.

Patrick R. Garcia is the managing director of Bidshot Wireless Services. For comments or suggestions, text your message to 233011 (Globe) or 2430018 (Smart), or e-mail [email protected].