Subject: [seamoby] Mobile Internet Industry Goes Into Recession

From: "Phillip Neumiller" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 12:25:52 -0600

Thought folks might find this article interesting.  Hope its not viewed as spam.  :-)

Quoted from mobileipworld.com

30 January 2001 
 
From Simon Buckingham of Mobile Lifestreams...

The start of 2001 has seen a substantial squeeze in the mobile Internet industry, 
as a result of the combination of factors that Mobile Lifestreams reported on in 2000:

· The slow uptake of technologies such as WAP and GPRS
· The sub-optimal business models involved with these technologies
· High prices paid for 3G spectrum
· Handset shortages and continued turbulence in the fundamental change in the requirements for nonvoice centric terminals compared to voice ones
· The change in venture capital investment sentiment against the sector
· Overfunding of certain key sectors such as portals, B2B wireless aggregation and corporate wireless enablement, leading to huge competition. 

This has led to start up companies going out of business or laying off staff or terminating
or outsourcing handset projects. 

For the mobile Internet to be a success, there are two critical success factors that must
be taken into account:

· Business Models have to be fair for all players in the value chain such that the application
developers and content creators to earn revenues from the usage they generate

· We need to recognize that the Mobile Internet is five years away from critical mass. Those
companies that will succeed will be those who are patient enough to ride the inevitable delays
that happen whenever a new mobile service or technology is rolled out to reach critical mass.
Everything from SMS to Smart Messaging to voicemail to other services took at least 24
months from point of first launch to reach critical mass.

The Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS, see www.mobileMMS.com) service upon which
so much of the future of the mobile Internet relies, is at least five years away from critical
mass.

"The best things come to those who wait- but only the things left by those who hussle."