Relevance key to phones of future

Customers want mobile services that are relevant to their daily lives rather than novelties. Picture/ Kenny Rodger

Most New Zealanders own a mobile phone for texting and calling, but the billion-dollar question is how that small, metallic, buzzing object will become a remote for people's lives.

There are many theories on what services are relevant for mobile phones and just as many views on how people will use them in future.

But one common theme is emerging: customers are gaining control over the technology and starting to use it for their own benefit, and in ways that are relevant to daily life.

In the past, telecommunication companies have tried to foist converged services on to consumers, not surprisingly without success.

Companies have discovered that people, for instance, are not particularly interested in downloading a tiny clip of a TV show on to their mobile when they can buy the series for the same price at their local DVD store.

Customers want to use their phones for services that are relevant to them in their daily lives, and at the top of the list is security.

Phone companies are quickly tapping into the modern culture of fear and heightened awareness about security.

Telecom's head of emerging technologies, Miki Szikszai, said the industry was looking into options for a culture that was increasingly security conscious.

Developing products, he said, included the prospect of being able to keep an eye on your house using your mobile.

"We are looking into putting security cameras in the home, connected by broadband, and people being able to keep an eye on what's happening in their home through their mobile."

Szikszai also said Telecom was looking into options for people using their mobiles as a wireless lock for their homes.

Next month Telecom will launch a car-security product which combines mobile phone, internet, GPS satellite tracking and alarm services.

Product delivery manager Garry Mitchell said it was the first product of its kind, and Telecom planned to sell it overseas to other telecommunication companies.

The service, called Silent-i, instantly notifies vehicle-owners by mobile phone when their vehicle is being badly driven by a known user or outside of a set geographic zone.

People will be able to use their mobiles to turn the car siren on and off, lock or unlock doors, geo-fence an area, arm and disarm the alarm system and cancel the alarm.

From the website, people will be able to check the alarm status of their car, all alerts over the past 30 days and car location, and will be able to reset and activate a panic button.

The alarm can be sent to five escalation points before it is answered by the security company ADT.

In developing the technology, Telecom has joined the GPS satellite company Navman as well as ADT, and the product is being targeted at health boards, vehicle rental companies and individual owners.

Mobile Commerce head Serge Van Dem said people wanted instant access to their banking details and easy payment options, but telecommunication companies were not really addressing the demand.

"Apparently Kiwibank has signed up over 20 per cent of its customers to SMS balance inquiries, but telecommunication companies are not responding to this."

Van Dem said development of payment systems by mobile was also constrained by privacy issues and factors such as Kiwis' attachment to eftpos.

"A lot of this stuff is technically feasible, but may not be the stuff of great transformations for consumers."

He said it was a totally different ball game in the Third World.

The Philippines had 7 million accounts which were operated by account holders using only their mobile phones where telecommunication companies stored funds on behalf of their customers. "This is particularly useful for people who are not credit worthy or do not have a bank account."

Van Dem believes there is a market in New Zealand for people on low incomes and/or don't have internet access to check their bank balance during the day using their mobile.

He said location-based services were also in demand - people, say, wanting to look at weather forecasts immediately. "If I am out skiing, for instance, I want to know if it is worth staying another night by quickly checking my mobile."

Paul Johnston of Renaissance said telecommunication companies had to be careful they did not cram everything into one device so that it would take a tech-head to use all the services the phone provided.

He said mobile phones as music players had not been very successful.

"It's all about functionality, and how you can best suit the services to the individual."

His company was developing a website called txttunes which would distribute music for independent bands via SMS.

"For young people who don't have credit cards, they can visit the website, choose a song and send a text message to the site.

"They will then receive a code to the mobile to enter into the site to unlock the song, and can download it on to their MP3 player."

Telecom statistics show that text messages and photo messages are continuing to grow significantly, but the the biggest growth is in video messaging.