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GSM Drives Business Opportunity for Consumer Wireless Applications

23rd November , 2004

US : GSM will drive business opportunities for the entire mobile eco-system from content developers to the consumer through a number of factors, including the massive scope of GSM/UMTS deployments which today encompass more than one billion subscribers worldwide. 3G Americas today published a white paper, The Business Opportunity for Consumer Wireless Applications, written for application developers, software developers and wireless carriers. The paper identifies the development approaches and business models for consumer wireless applications as well as substantiates the opportunity of this growing wireless data market with the GSM family of technologies.

"Mobile wireless data service is available in over 200 countries from 217 operators employing GPRS/EDGE/UMTS technologies today, which are providing the foundation for better wireless data capabilities than ever before," stated Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas. "Coupled with powerful devices, the GSM family of technologies is enabling a wide variety of applications with large numbers of consumers starting to utilize them."

The 3G Americas' white paper highlights some key areas of application development including:

There are significant differences between applications developed for wireline environments and those developed for wireless environments. Developers that take the time to understand these differences will be best positioned to succeed in this exciting new market area.
The ideal wireless application takes into account the distinct needs and desire of the mobile user, and is not just a mobilized version of an existing application.
Operators are offering value added services that can significantly enhance the effectiveness of applications. Services include Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) gateways, billing systems, DRM systems and location-based services.
The GSM/UMTS family offers significant flexibility in how data is delivered to users, including Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), WAP and general IP-based packet communications.
Language options for development include browser-based markup, Java and native applications, providing a set of tradeoffs between ease of development and application performance. Java is rapidly becoming the preferred application approach.
Wireless business models differ from wireline models. Developers can maximize their likelihood of success through partnerships with entities such as operators and wireless distributors, and through appropriate pricing models
Effective Digital Rights Management specifications and systems are now available to protect developer content.
Vicki Livingston, Director of Marketing for 3G Americas added, "There is a convergence of factors making the GSM mobile wireless data future promising. As highlighted by this paper, these success factors include a subscriber base of 1.18 billion users, increasing wireless Internet usage, effective Digital Rights Management, security mechanisms, and a substantial increase in services available over numerous new diverse devices."

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