In other words, the more successful a phone is with its design, the more people want to use their phones various features, and so the more strain is placed on the battery and a phone's daily life expectancy falls.

Related research reports:
Mobile Devices - Meeting the Service Needs of Upgraders, published on August 16, 2008.
Mobile Music Phones, published on January 12, 2005.

Music Playback Competes with Many New Media Features for Battery Power

Latest is that the ASA has decided that Apple's iPhone should not be advertised as offering access to all the Internet.

Interesting points:

• There's an implicit assumption here that the Internet = the web. It doesn't. Think about Skype, instant messaging, email applications, iTunes downloads, peer to peer apps, etc. etc.


• Irony is that the iPhone does offer a much greater amount of the Internet and access to more different web sites than any other mobile phone.


• Double irony is that following the same ASA logic, the Mac could not be advertised as offering all the Internet either due to the number of sites that still require Internet Explorer. There is no Mac OS version of IE6 or version 7.


• For similar reasons, and just because they don't run Windows and Internet Explorer, many of the new tiny cheap netbook-class laptops running Linux can't access some websites or some parts of those sites. Will the ASA intervene here too?


• Many of the key sites that require Flash or Java plug-ins do work on the iPhone through specific iPhone applications, or special iPhone websites. Examples: BBC iPlayer; Youtube; Last FM; iTunes shop; Truphone; Palringo; AIM; Remote Desktop; Mocha VNC etc. etc.

My take - the spirit of Apple's advertising was correct.

The best current mobile applications and devices understand this, and download what content/messages they can as soon as they can. SMS works this way: messages are delivered direct to the handset. Blackberry push email's main benefit is that when a user opens their email, there is no wait while messages download.

This to my mind is the greatest advantage of building a mobile application, rather than a mobile website. Good applications work anywhere, anytime, whatever the network situation, and can use local storage and sync to deliver faster responsiveness than a website.

But Apple has made a strategic decision with the iPhone to target always-on behaviours.

The iPhone's entire design assumes that there is always a fast network connection present, for both the built-in Apple applications, and the bulk of those from the new app store.

Some examples:

• Google Maps (built-in) does not store any map data locally, even if the user has browsed that map before. Effect: the user has to wait for the map to download each time they open Maps, the speed depends on the vagaries of the mobile network. Despite the new GPS chip which works anywhere, the maps application is only usable if there's a data network. So, its usefulness in very rural areas is limited. Alternative approach: Nokia Maps automatically caches map data locally, speeding its responsiveness, saving the operator from unnecessary data transit, and avoiding data costs for the user if roaming abroad.
• Apple's iPhone email only automatically downloads the in box, not other folders, so there's a delay each time a user opens any other folder, and it doesn't work when there's no signal. How long the delay is depends on how many messages and the speed of the data network. With a 2G data connection and 20-30 messages I find it takes at least a minute or two. Similarly, there's no user setting to control how much of a message is downloaded, so routinely users experience partially downloaded messages, even if the iPhone has many Gb free space.
• Apple's new Exchange email support does not allow messages to be moved or deleted if there's no connection. Weirdly, Apple's IMAP support allows it. The experience when I tried to use Exchange email on the tube, above ground where there is patchy coverage, reminded me of the user access control alerts from Vista: the iPhone kept popping up warning messages.
• Sending SMS messages only works when there's a network present, and the iPhone does not auto-retry sending in the background until there's coverage. Effect: I write a message on London's tube where there's no signal and I have to remember to click send when I surface. I've seen the same poor behaviour on Windows Mobile 6. Alternative approach - my Nokia 7110 from 1999, write an SMS, try and send it, fails, but the text stays in the outbox and the phone auto-retries in the background. The SMS gets sent as soon as it's possible.

• Apple Weather app downloads weather each time the app is opened and has no local cache. Effect, doesn't work on London's tube. Slow to launch. No different in experience for the user compared with accessing a bookmark of a mobile website that has been saved to the iPhone home screen.
• Evernote (a great third party application) stores all notes on its servers with no local cache or sync, unlike the PC and Mac versions of Evernote that sync notes between Evernote's cloud and the local computer. Alternative approach - Windows Mobile syncs notes from Outlook to the handheld with a full copy of each note in both places.

• The newspaper applications for iPhone are little more than skinned websites, but which take longer to load than the iPhone's Safari web browser, and still only work with a live mobile data connection. Mobile News, Bloomberg, SFNetNews applications all require a connection to read stories, just like accessing a mobile website in Safari, yet take longer to launch and have a less standard UI as they are all distributed as separate applications. Alternative approach - antique Palm application Avanto Go, enables users to download content to their PDA for offline viewing. More recent Windows Mobile and Symbian versions offer over the air download. Local storage improves the speed to jumping between pages, so people read more, and see more adverts. The New York Times app for iPhone also appears to do this, but it needs a better UI to display when it has finished downloading stories.

If there's no data connection the current iPhone UI repeatedly nags the user to remind them to switch off flight mode (if the user has set it to on), or that there is no data connection if the mobile is "on" but has poor reception. This reminds me of the worst of Vista's user access control pop-ups (which can at least be switched off).

Bottom line - Apple needs to improve the iPhone's ability to operate where there is a slow connection, or when there is no mobile data network present. They need to add automatic local caches to their standard applications, and offer the user a few more settings to manage data roaming, beyond the current blunt on/off. Apple also need to make it easier for third party apps to store and cache data locally as well.

+ Examples of coverage issues:

In-building, 3G signals often don't reach or are weak. In rural areas, mobile networks routinely only offer gprs and sometimes there is no reception at all. Airplanes don't allow cellular radio use. Public transport often lacks good coverage: cellular masts tend to have been positioned along main roads, not along train lines, plus cuttings and tunnels break up the signal. London's tube has no underground mobile coverage whatsoever. If a 3g cell becomes very busy, speeds slow, and the geographical area that 3g covers actually shrinks. Etc. etc.

If a user is moving in a train or a car, there is no guarantee that a good mobile data signal, or any signal, will continue to exist as the user roams between cells and locations. They may start an activity in good coverage and then lose it.

Why build a mobile website? What's the best way of targetting the mobile Internet audience? This is an area we've debated extensively at Jupiter over the last year.

• Should the mobile web be separate from [PC] web sites?
• Should companies build mobile applications/widgets or should they build mobile websites, or both?
• What determines what tactics organisations should follow? Type of content or service, geography, or whether they seek a mass audience or a carefully chosen niche target segment?

The w3 alludes to this, but the main web standards body doesn't face the "why the web on mobile" issue head on.

Here's my take on why marketers need to ensure their organisations build mobile websites, in addition to whatever applications they develop:

• Websites enable marketers and publishers to target the broadest share of the mobile audience. Every modern handset has some form of browser, every modern smartphone has a web browser. Building one application will limit its the audience to one of the many different operating systems in use (iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile Pro, WM Standard, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Google Android, Java, etc.).
• Building websites is relatively cheap. Existing web staff, web tools, expertise, and equipment can be deployed. Often a few site designs will deliver content to all smartphones. To reach such a wide audience an organisation would have to build multiple versions of the application, most likely from the ground up, similar to writing software for the Mac and Windows. Building those applications requires many completely separate full software development projects. Maintainenance costs are also much higher again due to the multiplicity of handset platforms.
• Leverages normal PC website traffic which can be easily diverted to a mobile version. iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile users are already visiting PC websites but finding an uneven experience. This is a ready source of traffic that organisations should embrace.
• Are more compatible with email newsletter links. If a publisher or marketer is maintaining user engagement through email newsletters with links to full articles, a mobile website ensures that these links are successfully delivered when a user clicks on them on their Blackberry or other phone. Linking from an email message to content within a specific phone application is hard to do, and to my knowledge impossible to do in a standards, universally-compatible with all handsets way.
• Provides universally-compatible landing pages for mobile advertising campaigns, which can then link to the rest of an advertisers' mobile website. If a mobile advertiser wishes to solicit requests for follow-up information, they have two options: trigger a SMS-based interaction (as Blyk favour), or link to a mobile website. SMS is a completely universally compatible tool but is purely text-based. Mobile websites enable a richer experience suitable for branding.
• Enables marketers to get to market fast, test the water, learn, and then re-plan and build the case for a bigger budget. Mobile websites are quick to develop, as well as being cheap.

The "One Web" position is contained in the W3's just published guidelines for building mobile web sites, Mobile Web Best Practices. It's a good read and is full of common sense tips all collected into one neat place. While it's aimed at actual website builders as it's lucidly written most of the mandates are easy for marketers and strategists to understand, and should be appled to normal websites too to maximise usability. A few examples:

• Keep website addresses short.
• Do not use pop-ups / unders.
• Limit [page] content to what the user has requested [only].
• Avoid free text entry where possible.
• Provide pre-selected default values where possible.

To what kind of potential customers will this appeal the most? Those with big homes, who will tend to have higher than average incomes and/or wealth. Nice.

Key points:

- Availability to 10 million homes by 2012. This is fast.
- Mix of fibre to the home (FTTH) for new builds with peak 100Mbps speeds, and FTTC/VDSL2 for existing homes (peak speed of 40Mbps). Exact split between the technologies has not been announced.
- Dependent on regulatory response from Ofcom.
- BT will offer its fibre on a wholesale basis to other operators and ISPs.
- High definition TV cited as one of the key drivers.
- "Demand led" rollout indicates BT plans to revive the success of the community-led broadband campaigns of the DSL roll out to prioritise locations that receive fibre first.

Initial thoughts, ahead of the analyst briefing in five minutes time:

This is a game changer for the UK broadband market. The larger ISPs that have unbundled local loop networks (O2, Sky, Carphone Warehouse, Be, Tiscali) suddenly face the prospect of their copper DSL services becoming obsolete in just a few years. The small niche ISPs that have struggled to remain in business in the face of higher speeds and thin margins offered by the LLU players, now have a lifeline with BT's proposal to wholesale fibre.

However, there will be devils in the detail. 1.5 billion pounds is a suspiciously small sum to reach 10 million homes if BT were to achieve a high proportion of consumer uptake in the areas passed by fibre. I suspect the higher wholesale prices that BT plans for fibre, compared with DSL, will slow the uptake of fibre and so help BT save capex. Also, this announcement appears to be led by BT Wholesale, its uncertain how Ofcom will react given the division of the copper telephone line network into semi-independent Openreach. Ofcom may also choose to intervene to protect the copper/LLU investments of other operators, which could raise BT's costs and slow their roll out (for example by continuing to insist that new build developments receive copper as well as fibre). It's going to be extremely interesting to see if the LLU players choose to invest in fibre themselves.

More to follow.

The iPhone 3G's main goal is to grow Apple's share of the global mobile phone market by attracting new buyers.

For an existing iPhone owner the only reason to buy the 3G model is the new 3G hardware and GPS satnav, as the version 2 software is available for free to existing iPhone owners.

For a potential new buyer, or an existing owner, the v2 software is a really really big deal: it adds Exchange sync, the application store and lots of little improvements. As my colleague Michael Gartenberg has been saying all week this is as much about software as hardware. Exchange support and the app store will open up the appeal of the iPhone to a much wider audience.

Then there's the hardware. 3G offers a pile of benefits beyond the mere headline download speed. 3G enables a phone to receive or make a phone call while email or another application is connecting to the Internet in the background. HSPA offers better latency, which combines with that faster headline speed, to improve the web browsing experience. Anyone that has used ISDN (slow speed, great low latency, good browsing experience) or EDGE (OK'ish speed, terrible latency, poor browsing experience) or analogue modems (poor speed, poor latency) will understand what this means. 3G networks also routinely deliver better voice quality, and enable handsets to sidestep saturated 2G networks in busy city locations.

In countries where 3G coverage is good, like most of Europe, the 3G network will also have less of an adverse impact on iPhone battery life than the US reviewers found. From what I hear, AT&T 3G coverage is very poor indeed, even in urban areas. In situations where a 3G signal is weak, the handset has to work harder... result: the handset needs charging more often.

The GPS location finding should also work better in cities that lack the tower block canyons of New York, or Chicago. In European cities the handset will be more likely to see satellites and experience less signal echos. Again, this means the GPS should work better outide the US.

Then there is pricing. In many European countries iPhone 3G pricing is significantly below the original model. For example, in the UK, the iPhone 3G is available for free on a number of tariffs. The 8Gb iPhone 3G is now just 100ukp on the lowest tariff, compared with 269ukp previously. Unlike AT&T in the US, O2 has kept the monthly pricing the same, or better, than before.

This combination of 3G, lower handset price, the application store, and Exchange sync should dramatically increase uptake of the iPhone in Europe.

The 3G iPhone launch is Apple's big play to kick start iPhone uptake outside the US. That's a key reason for Apple's ambitious simultaneous multi-country launch. Looking at the offering on paper -- I've not used the 3G model yet -- Apple have a good chance of succeeding and hitting their end of year sales target.

In France, administrative authorities have ruled until recently in favor of TV stations, particularly the largest groups (TF1, M6 and Canal+). Broadcasters intend to use the UHF band to increase the number of DTT channels, expand DTT coverage to 85 percent of the French population and to launch HDTV. My colleague, Laurence Meyer, will soon publish a piece on this complex issue.

However, telecom operators are looking for new spectrum to optimize the launch of mobile TV and nationwide mobile broadband. They are arguing that they should benefit from the digital dividend since:

• They had to pay to acquire spectrum (e.g. 3G licenses) contrary to broadcasters (who have specific obligations to assume though)

• Low frequencies (< 1GHz) are the best solution to economically roll out mobile networks. Mobile broadband being in the 2GHz band, it is more difficult to offer nationwide geographical and indoor coverage in a cost-effective way.

• With the forthcoming roll-out of high-speed Internet broadband in urban areas (France is leading FTTH or IPTV European investment plans), rural areas will be totally outpaced.

• DVB-H is optimized for the UHF band. It could also be launched in the L band, but not with a viable business model.

Operators’ lobbying actions try to demonstrate the stronger positive impact mobile will have on regional development and economic growth.

It will not be a reality before the full extinction of the analog TV signal, at best at the end of 2011 in France. However, this is a key strategic issue most governments are facing. Last November, ITU decided to allocate five frequency blocks, among which the 790-862MHz band, for use by future mobile telephony technologies. Since then lots of lobbying took place and some claimed 56MHz for telecom players would be enough. Some others say it should be at least 72MHz so that a competition between several players can take place. Whether 56 or 72 or more, many observers say it is too early to be able to quantify precisely the digital dividend.

So what?

Given there are strong economic, social, cultural and military (some frequency bands are used by the army) issues, such an allocation can only be decided at a political level. It will actually be decided in France by the Prime Minister before the end of July.

Given France's role in the ITU decision last November, the importance of mobile broadband, I would not be surprised the debate is ruled for once in favor of telcos, but let's wait and see 2 more weeks.

Will keep you posted when back from holiday.

Jupiter is conducting its annual TV Executive Survey for the European Digital Home Service.

If you work for a broadcaster, a cable/satellite/IPTV TV operator, a rights owner, or a TV production company, and have a few minutes to spare, your answers will help us collect interesting data on the state the of the TV industry. You can take the survey by clicking here.

We will use this data in combination with our existing proprietary consumer survey data on consumer attitudes and behaviours for new reports this summer.

To thank you for your participation, we'll send you a free copy of the aggregated survey results.

Please also note that:
- Individual responses are strictly confidential.
- Responses are only used in an aggregate and anonymous form.

If you have any questions about this survey at all, or would like to be interviewed by Jupiter for this research, please contact me: ifogg /at/ jupiterresearch /dot/ com and I'll either help or forward your email on to my colleague Laurence Meyer who is leading on this piece of research.

Thanks! We're looking forward to hearing from you.

So exit "the Future is bright" and welcome the new vision expressed in the statement "together we can do more".

The rationale behind this global campaign is quite interesting. See excerpt from the PR: “The Orange brand was originally developed for one technology in one market – mobile telephones in the U.K” says Caroline Mille, Senior Vice President, Brand and Communications. Orange. “Today, just 14 years later, the brand now spans a range of technologies (internet, T.V content) and reaches consumers in 26 countries, covering very different cultures".

So contrary to some sarcastic comments I read in the UK press, this is not only about boosting the UK business but about positioning the company as the leading global provider of digital communications.

Interestingly and logically, Orange's claim that "Bringing people together is why Orange is here in the first place" is not that far from a certain "Connecting People".

France Telecom/Orange is entering a new stage of change, highlighted by recent news announced by the company:

- TeliaSonera's abandoned merger. "Too bad, we shall start by taking modest actions, which will not be on the front page of newspapers but rather in page 25" said CEO Didier Lombard. Indeed, there are few equivalent targets that could offer such a complementary geographic expansion, to the exception of Telenor. Strategically, it was also a way to be able to compete with the Internet giants and handset manufacturers with a larger installed base (handset procurement negotiations, return on investment on content/media investments, capacity to negotiate...). So now the company will continue its fight with other operators (Ghana is a good example) to acquire smaller companies in the developing world.

- new content strategy symbolized by the satelitte TV offering launched yesterday and the forthcoming Orange Foot channel. By the way, I attended a panel discussion at a conference from Daily les Echos the other day and was amazed by the agressive tone between Roverato (Orange) and Lafarge (Canal+). Not that common for such high-level executives.

- flaw of constant innovation with services just launched or announced in the coming months such as: Orange Musique Max, 3D TV (nice show off effect from the demo I saw - to be launched end 2009?), Warhammer Online (a MMORPG game expected in H2 2008), My personal TV adviser (easy and simple access to discover the VOD catalogue of 24/24 video - to be launched in 2009), Orange Maps (to le launched in q3 2008 in the UK, q4 in France and q1 2009 in Spain).