Next.

I’ve set my expectations to way below zero. I most definitely look forward to being utterly amazed and surprised. However I do have to wonder what more you could do with Facebook on a phone beyond what we’ve basically seen already.

I suppose I could have all my photos (and video) uploaded immediately to Facebook by default, rather than having to tap ‘share on Facebook’ on Windows Phone (for example).

It could be a useful technique for Facebook to help show the way for other manufacturers. We shall see. I wonder just how influential an ‘official’ phone can be nowadays given the various offers we’ve seen from the likes of Hutchison’s INQ Mobile or HTC’s own ChaCha with the nice blue Facebook buton.

Just when you thought Facebook couldn’t get any bigger and more powerful, comes the news that it is strongly considering launching it own phone.

Marky Z’s social network is said to have teamed up with HTC to create the first official Facebook phone.

via Turn Up For The ‘Book: HTC to Build First Official Facebook Phone | Phones4u News & Community.

I’ve been using it this last week, and it’s not perfect, but not bad either. I was skeptical because of Google’s massive social fails in Buzz, Latitude, Wave and +1 (although to be fair +1 on its own is a fail, and starts to make sense in the greater context of Google+), but Google+ is at least usable in a way that the others weren’t.

Now let’s extrapolate out a little. Given that Google+ is usable, and that they give you notifications EVERY time you go to Google.com to search, let’s just say it’s going to be big. While it may not ever replace Facebook, it may be the Pepsi to its Coke. Now, Google already has a Google+ Android app (naturally), but they have also submitted an iOS app. I don’t think that it’s a huge leap of faith to assume that Google will start baking Google+ into future versions of Android at the OS level, so you don’t need to install a separate app.

Think about that for a second. Hundreds of millions of Android users will have a native social networking experience on their phones–their primary tool for communicating and socializing with friends. Mobile is key to the next generation of social networking, and Google potentially has a huge advantage.

Apple famously snubbed Facebook in favor of adding Twitter OS level integration in iOS 5, and as much as I love Twitter, it is a much more shallow social experience than Facebook or Google+. Picture sharing is done with links, photo-tagging is nonexistent, and conversations are disparate ping pong matches.

But once (if) Google+ gets traction and is on hundreds of millions of handsets at the OS level, I have a feeling that Apple and Facebook might kiss and make up really quickly. An Apple alliance with Facebook would make sense in the whole “enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of way.

Whatever does happen down the road, Google+ is for real, and things are about to get interesting in the mobile social space.

More from David:

Now then, what happens if operators were to deploy these rather innovative plans such as the one mentioned above? It’s a topic I’ve been exploring whilst I’ve been on-site at MACH Insights 2011.

I explored this question in another video thus:

I could imagine many consumers simply loving the flexibility of being able to upload photos, reply to messages, add status messages and so on, whilst on holiday. There must be millions of people who simply do not bother because they are afraid to bill shock — or they’ve already learnt an expensive lesson about roaming abroad.

If operators charged for the service fairly and transparently, I think consumers may well respond positively to it. One of the key points about service-based charging (i.e. Youtube, Facebook, Google Maps Navigation) is that consumers understand it. They get it. They know what it means. Nobody knows what 1mb means.

However, let’s just assume one particular operator was really, really successful with a Facebook-style roaming offer. Remember it’s stupidly-easy to target consumers. You just need to modify your introductory welcome text message accordingly. You could even prioritise customers on higher price plans or who have a history of using Facebook domestically but who suddenly stop using it whilst abroad.

Assume that, I dunno, 2 million customers go on holiday in a given month.

1 million of them opt in for the service and actually end up spending a tenner each (say 5 days x €2) for Facebook. That’s a cool €10,000,000. Factor that up across an operator group with, say, 10 similar geographies. We’re now at €100m additional revenue.

Still with me? Suspend your disbelief whilst I continue the example, I know there’s plenty of holes. Let’s assume that the operator can achieve these revenues fully during one quarter (the summer months) and then only 25% during the rest of the year.

3 summer months = €300m.

9 months at 25% of €100m (9 x €25m) = €225m.

Stick it all together and we’re over half a billion Euro at €525m revenues.

Now as I said, there are plenty of holes. Plenty of holes. I’ve made a ton of assumptions.

But I think the point is still valid.

At what point does Facebook think it deserves a bit of that revenue?

I came across it in the ‘Demo Lab’ area at MACH Insights 2011. It’s showing off a MACH product by the name of the Data Roaming Engine which enables a massively flexible raft of policies and controls allowing operators to get rather inventive with their roaming deals.

The concept is this. You arrive on to a gorgeous desert island and you immediately put your phone into ‘no data roaming’ mode.

However you then get a text message from your operator encouraging you to browse (for free) the possible roaming options. One of the items in the shopping cart is (for example), the ability to browse Facebook free for a whole day for just €2. When you select and confirm, you can then use Facebook ’til your heart is content, for that hour/day/week/period.

There’s a few other options shown in the video.

This is the kind of inventive thing I’d like to see operators play with, especially given the fact that 42% of travellers deliberately do not use roaming (MACH’s figure) and the vast majority of the rest of the users are ultra careful about what they spend (my viewpoint).

Here’s the video:

And another point I’d like to raise is flexibility. If operators get themselves a decent roaming control engine, then they can easily test and experiment with different options without having to pay crazy amounts of money to change their billing systems for every little marketing test.

T-Mobile USA has launched itself onto Facebook, providing free VoIP calls between social networkers though the service is not yet integrated into the operators mobile network.

Bobsled by T-Mobile is a VoIP application integrated with Facebook to provide audio connections between users with a tap of the mouse, along with a voice mail service capable of pasting messages to the receivers wall. Thats far from unique; there are a handful of similar services, but the addition of the T-Mobile brand is a significant development.

via T-Mobile turns Facebook telco • The Register.

- – - – -

Facebook is shaping up to be a strong competitor to mobile operators that are in danger of underestimating the threat it poses, according to Ovum.

In a new report* the independent telecoms analyst states that Facebook is much more than a social network – this is just a starting point and its domain spreads much wider. However operators are being slow to wake up to the extent of Facebook’s ambitions and tend to view it as benign, non-competitive presence that they are keen to form partnerships.

Eden Zoller, author of the report and Ovum principal analyst, said: “Facebook is encroaching directly on mobile operator territory and should not be underestimated.

“It has come a very long way since it first launched Facebook Mobile in 2006. It is now a force to be reckoned with in mobile with over 200 million users interacting with the service via mobile phone. It is much more than a social network and is better viewed as an increasingly rich platform for communications and content. Facebook wants to integrate with everything and be the main way that people consume and share information, anywhere and on any device.”

Facebook has made several moves that have placed it in competition with mobile operators. It has an integration deal with Skype for voice communications and in November 2010 unveiled an email offering. Meanwhile, it is turning increasing attention to location-based services with its Places platform and is pushing into mobile advertising in the shape of the Facebook Deals ‘check-in’ service. Facebook apps dominate app stores across most smartphone operating systems.

Zoller continued: “There is also intense ongoing speculation that Facebook will come out with its own phone, which in some respects would be the final piece of the puzzle. However, we don’t think that Facebook is any rush to launch its own hardware just yet, although it could be interested in working with partners on a customised device platform. This would in effect make Facebook a social operating system.”

Despite this competition from Facebook, mobile operators are keen to partner with it, for example by offering easy access to its services and address book integration.

Zoller added: “While there are good reasons why operators should wish to partner with Facebook, they should be more alert to the fact that it is shaping up to be a strong competitor. It is only by understanding Facebook fully that operators can engage with it effectively, be that on a collaborative or competitive basis.”

- – - – -

I do wonder as to whether an official Facebook phone is necessary, given all the effort it would require — and given that the market is doing a pretty good job of this (witness, for example, the new INQ Android devices or the HTC ‘Facebook Button’ phones).

A much more exciting point would be Facebook deciding that the mobile operators are getting in the way and lease or buy it’s own mobile operator capacity to deliver next generation services to its users that operators are either unwilling or incapable of doing themselves.

One company I met on Sunday morning prior to MWC was apoplectic with rage about Facebook, Google and Apple. I won’t go into detail about the company’s identity except to say they’re a highly influential service provider to the mobile industry.

This company’s perspective was very similar to that of the France Telecom and Telecom Italia Chief Executives (detailed in this post). The collective view amongst many in the mobile operator space is that these ‘b@starding companies‘ (direct quote) ‘are screwing up the network for everyone and not paying a cent toward the network upkeep‘.

It was a fascinating discussion. I listened for a little while before asking this series of questions (I admit to teeing the guy up for the final one):

Q: Do you think it’s unfair that Facebook, Google, Apple and so on are not paying for the use of the mobile network infrastructure?

A: It’s insufferable. It’s ridiculous. It’s outrageous. (I’m paraphrasing his exact words. He used a few F-bombs too — highly entertaining.)

My next question:

Q: But the consumers themselves accessing Google, Facebook and whatnot, they’ve paid their mobile operators for the privilege, right?

A: Yes, but it’s highly irresponsible of these companies to keep on introducing new services that are causing [the industry] to have to spend more and more money maintaining quality of service. (Paraphrasing again)

My final question:

Q: Ok, so how would the industry react if, for example, Facebook simply switched off mobile access for every one of it’s 650 million users and charged the mobile operator £3 per month for the privilege of delivering Facebook content to the consumer?

A: [Silence for a few seconds, followed by a look of horror]

Heh. What happens when Facebook decides to tell the market that it can no longer afford to maintain it’s hugely expensive bandwidth and server infrastructure without the mobile operators coughing up. That could become a rather sticky conversation. Unlikely. But at least the example made this chap — previously apoplectic with rage — sit back and take stock.

I don’t think many people in the marketplace have thought things through when they argue that mobile operators are victims in the ‘data crunch’. It’s laughable that these giants are demanding the biggies like Google and Youtube cough-up when the consumers accessing these services have already paid to do so.

If the model is broken, fix it. Simply doing a T-Mobile and deciding that ‘unlimited’ means 500mb of data per month is silly. And offering ‘unlimited’ 250mb plans is ridiculous. It’s a guaranteed way to ensure consumers think twice about doing anything on their handsets in fear of bill shock.

It’s not about the race to zero. For some reason, the mobile marketplace is consumed with this race to zero. To be the cheapest. To offer the cheapest rubbish because that’s the only thing people will pay for.

Nonsense.

Innovate. Truly innovate. And we’ll see some excitement and delight spreading across the market from consumer to operator.

You can see some of the ideas I’d like to see from operators in terms of innovation here.

Meanwhile, it’s not just me speculating about Facebook. The industry analysts Ovum have been doing so too. I’ll be publishing a post from them on that subject in just a moment.

Jon over at TechnoBuffalo picked up a post from Pocketnow that reportedly outs the all new INQ Android device referred to as the “INQ Cloud Touch”.

It’s been quite a while since we heard from Hutchison’s handset manufacturer, INQ.

I thought the INQ Chat was an excellent budget device that most definitely gave BlackBerry a run for it’s money in the low-level PAYG category. So popular was the budget-QWERTY that Orange released their Rio device mid-way through the year — and at £55, it’s been selling very well indeed.

If the Chat was all about Twitter, the Touch is reportedly all about Facebook. Although there’s a heck of a lot of pent-up excitement about ‘the Facebook phone’, the concept of Facebook on an INQ is hardly new. Indeed they’ve had all sorts of pretty tight Facebook integration for years.

Here’s the description of the Cloud Touch from the Bluetooth filings:

“INQ Cloud Touch is an Android smartphone built to make messaging faster and smarter. It’s designed around the way people naturally communicate and has Facebook built into its core. The homescreen features multiple entry points to different Facebook functions, while a dynamic widget displays a feed of status updates, albums, videos and photos.”

Well then.

This all makes sense. INQ’s Android devices were slated for Q4 2010 — but I heard they’d delayed this a little. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve come up with.

Got a note in from reader Paul who is rather concerned by his discovery:

Hi Ewan,

I don’t know if you are user of the Facebook iPhone app, but mine seems to have silently uploaded by address book into Facebook.

Try going to Account->Edit Friends. You can then see a phonebook icon on the left hand side. I clicked on it and found that it had all uploaded all my numbers!

Plus the page to supposedly remove them doesn’t work AND the sync feature is turned off in the app!

Very dubious.

Regards,

Paul

Could it be that every one of your friends has filled in their phone number on their profile, Paul?

Can anyone shed some light on Paul’s issue?

And although it’s not strictly mobile based, I have to admit, I was particularly impressed at how Halifax have engineered the tool. So, we start with the premise that Halifax would like you to know about their travel money services. No problem. Their agency has come up with the idea of creating a Facebook app.

My initial response? Oh dear.

And when I heard what it does — “it’s a really clever destination matchmaker”, I did think ‘Oh dear’ twice. I clicked the link in the email and agreed to give access to my Facebook profile. And boom. Done.

“Congratulations Ewan,” the application reads, “You are an 80% match for Cairo!”

Well then…

The application read my profile, had a look at the stuff I’ve posted and determined that I’m an adventurous man. I like that. Here’s what it said:

Being the adventurous man you are, Cairo’s exotic culture will give you a real thrill, while exploring the famous souk with your partner will give you a real buzz! The thousands of years of history will make Cairo a truly memorable holiday destination.

It doesn’t stop there though. They’ve suggested a hotel I might like to consider (The Lotus Hotel). It’s a very reasonable $21.40 per night. I do appreciate the suggestion although I can be found more often at hotels where the WiFi charge is that per night. I’m not sure how my wife would react to very basic functional accommodation. Still…

The app also explains that a pint of beer is approximately £3, your average taxi fair is £3 and a horse drawn carriage ride is £32. Heh. The app has even suggested where I might eat, drink and reckons I might enjoy a trip to the Cairo Opera House.

And of course it’s even listed the weather in Cairo (28C, fair) and reckons I might enjoy Quantum Reality by Nick Herbert (“Unfortunately your book collection seems a little bare. Why not read this? After all Cairo is a long old way away!”) You know what, I actually looked it up on Amazon. It’s quite a good suggestion for me.

Just to test it out, I clicked on the other options at the bottom. I’m a 74% match for Las Vegas, it seems. And 74% for Chamonix. Although I don’t know about trying out Hydroglissing (“swimming through ice cold rapids with just a wetsuit, helmet and a floating device”).

Check out the Holiday Matchmaker tool and let me know what it selects for you?

I’d like to see a mobile app like this with a ton of different cities included. It’d be pretty cool to hit ‘next city’ or ‘next match’ and see what comes up.

As Murat Mutlu explains in this comment contributed on my earlier Nokia/Yahoo post:

Mate when I first joined Nokia, I put together a concept for Nokia s60 phones where they completely integrated with Facebook, including inbox, calendar, contacts, homescreen newsfeed as well as the main application which had chat etc. This was around 6 months before the Apple App Store was launched.

No one gave a damn internally, some even questioned why Nokia should build the app instead of Facebook (eer hello?). Nokia is so fragmented that no one knows who you should put your idea in front of, it’s amazing there is absolutely no incentive for staff to push to get their ideas developed, all you get is a 5 page ‘business case’ doc which you fill in and ‘assemble your own team’ to get it made.

As if you would bother go through all that along with your existing work! Like you said, Nokia has a ton of talented and passionate people but unfortunately none are at senior management level. I still don’t think Nokia has an app for s60 devices pre-5th edition do they?

Nokia is going no where fast, another re-org won’t solve anything, it’s the third one in 18 months. Their processes are retarded, their reputation is battered, they keep bringing out re-skined versions of exactly the same phone, and Symbian is still a utter and complete dog.

The thing is if Nokia just went for it and completely integrated Facebook Chat, they would seriously have a contender for Blackberry Messenger which has taken over the youth market. But they are too slow, too backward thinking.

Oh dear.

I just saw a study (coming out shortly) that backs up my assertion that — in the UK at least — women (young in particular) simply can’t get enough of BlackBerry, particularly the BBM functionality.

There’s a slight issue with BBM though — it’s hooked into your device ID on the BlackBerry network — commonly known as your ‘PIN’, an alphanumeric monicker that is a bitch to remember. Hardly a deal breaker I know.

BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 has a solution for it — in the form of a barcode or what we used to call ‘QRcodes’. Modern BlackBerries running BBM5 can use these barcodes to easily determine a user’s BlackBerry PIN without having them type it in. All you need is a facility to make one of those barcodes.

Enter the Facebook BlackBerry Messenger app. Just install it on to your profile in a few clicks and boom, your friends will be able to add you to BBM in a jiffy.

I tried it out this afternoon:

And here’s the output, customised to my specific BlackBerry model:

Get it on your profile from Friday: http://apps.facebook.com/bb_barcodegenerator/

And if you haven’t upgraded to BBM5, here’s the link: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/3729

I created a screencast for you to demonstrate. You can watch it here.

Originally posted here:
Ewan MacLeod: “MIR TV goes to Rome – Part Two: http://s3nt.com/d5c2” (via FriendFeed)

Read the rest here:
Ewan MacLeod: SXSW – where everybody knows your Twitter name (via FriendFeed)

Read the original here:
Ewan MacLeod: “Twitter’s grown 1,689% from February 2008 to February 2009 compared to FB’s 114% growth. Someone’s been eating their Weetabix…” (via FriendFeed)

The rest is here:
Ewan MacLeod: “How to tweet your way out of a job http://tinyurl.com/d5372c deary me!” (via FriendFeed)

Facebook
Let’s be honest, this is probably the reason why you bought this phone. When you first start the phone you are asked to pop in your Facebook log in details, it then asks you if you want to sync your contacts with Facebook. It then pretty quickly pulled my 500+ friends from Facebook, including their last status update and Facebook profile picture. What it does not do sadly, (which I think is restricted to the Facebook API) is pull down mobile numbers from their profile. I will be talking about the Social Phonebook in more detail later. Like Jonathan I found it was behind my browser version, and I found the application was constantly updating. This I found to be a constant pain, I really hope they implement options so the user can choose options ie update every 30 minutes. I really did not understand the need for the constant updating and I am sure this had an effect on battery life as well. Will this bring Facebook do your normobs? Yes it will in a big way, no pointing to the mobile Facebook URL etc just there one simply quick from your dock or the menu. The integration for new messages again I found this good something another manufacturer has never done before, any new messages, pokes or requests appear as a new alert in the messaging tab. I again found this to be slow, and behind the web version, which meant on occasions it said I had a new Facebook message when I had already read it. I think the issue is that none of the pokes, messages are stored on the device so if you cannot get online you cannot read your inbox. I think this is again possibly due to Facebook API restrictions.

Windows Live Messenger
Quite possibly the best application on the phone, it allows you to minimise and you can receive IM alerts in the back ground. Three have always had a good relationship in WLM and in the INQ 1 this really shows. Top Marks to the INQ 1 this application brings WLM to your mobile, anyone who has used messenger on their computer will be able to use this application.

Email on 3
Three have done it again with this application, 4 clicks and you have email set up. This has got all the standard email services set up Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and a whole range of ISP emails. If you have one of the pre defined email services as your provider you are laughing.

Skype
Please read my opinion on Skype here. I do not use Skype; I don’t see the point in it. I never used the application so I could not tell you my thoughts on it.

Last FM
This is a very small add on however it integrates with the music player, on a Nokia you would need to download an add on such as Mobbler to allow your track to be scrobbled, however the INQ chaps have got this in built all you need to do is put your username and password in.

Camera
The phone has a 3.2 mega pixel camera which is acceptable there is no flash, which is a real shame however you can shoot video as well. There are also options to send your pictures by MMS, Bluetooth, email and Facebook. It was a little bit sad to see that Flickr was not an option; however it was nice to see some ShoZu-like elements had been integrated into the handset.

Internet Modem Capability
This was a feature that we saw on the Skype Phone 2, where all you need to is plug in your INQ and it has all the drivers on bored to install a modem. This allows you to browse the web on your laptop in a matter of two minutes; the process is very quick and simple.

The Social Phonebook
If there is one feature in my opinion that the INQ1 will be remembered by it is this feature. All of the social networks allow you to download your contacts to your handset. The handset then allows you to merge all the contacts together, and then when scrolling the phonebook you can see in real time if that person is available on Skype, WLM or Facebook. An example is if Ewan is one of my contacts I have him on my WLM and Facebook. If I went down to his entry, I can choose to send him an Instant Message, Call, SMS, MMS, Email, Facebook Message or Facebook Poke. The other really clever feature is that for example if I did not have his number I can click straight through to his Facebook Profile and call him straight from there (providing he has his number made visible). When Ewan calls me, his current Facebook Profile Picture does pops up; some of you may say well you can do that on any handset which is true. However it is not as simple as putting your Facebook details in when you get the phone.

Summary
So what are my final thoughts on this handset? I feel that INQ have rushed this device, and there are some issues that I have highlighted over the past two weeks that have annoyed me. The main one being the constant refreshing of the Facebook Application, this is extremely frustrating and a battery killer. I am really looking forward to INQ bringing out some new handsets this year, there are rumours of a keyboard (a possible G1 or N97 rival) variant and hopefully a touch screen version as well. If INQ make social networking this easy, I believe we will see a massive increase in the amount of social networking done from a mobile in the future especially as some of the networks (here in the UK at least) have some good value data packages!

INQ is definitely a manufacturer we will be watching here at Mobile Industry Review I have a feeling they have some impressive handsets ahead.

One thing that I love most about Twitter is its openness. Anyone can tweet, anyone can follow, and everyone (whether or not you know them properly or not) can engage in some sort of conversation (mind you, Ewan wouldn’t totally agree on that point).

But it’s the openness that Twitter has that amazes me the most. Whist I don’t have nor aim to have hundreds of followers, those few that I do have are very insightful. Just having a platform that requires no time or dedication such as Facebook does for instance, Twitter is simple. It’s easy, fun and you can converse with anyone for as long or short as you so choose.

However, other than people who I know purely online (such as many MIR readers), there is not a single person who I am either following or being followed by who falls into the category of either “Friends” or “Family”… Not one.

This doesn’t surprise me, as actually many of my actual friends only became truly aware of what it is that I am doing when I am constantly texting Twitter all the time when Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry had a fairly notable conversation on the television.

Now I could say “Oh, well Twitter needs to change that! More young people the better!” but actually I disagree.

I love Twitter. I like the way it is now, I like the majority of the people who use it, and I think it’s a brilliant place just to sit back and watch. I don’t want it spoiled with constant streams of “Lol”, “LMAO” and all of the other acronyms that I don’t know the meaning of.

And this will happen if Twitter continues to get the recognition through its “Celeb Users” such as Mr. Fry or Jonathan; it will hit the same spiral of slowing decay that has hit Myspace, Bebo and even Facebook over the recent years. And as much as I hate to say it, it’s the teens that do it!

I mean can you imagine it, a surge of “Twitter Whores”, creating endless chains of “followers”, all of whom are about fifteen years old, and look somewhat odd in their display picture.

I hate to sound like an “old fart”, but I cannot stand this thought; and I bet I won’t be the only one either!

That’s why I think it should be preserved. Whilst it should be able to grow and become better, and improve, should that happen at such a cost to all of us who actually enjoy and utilise the platform?

Samantha
samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

The are 1.64m iPhone users accessing the site, closely followed by 1.56m Blackberry users. Another 1m come in from other sources (these are only accesses from officially sanction Facebook Mobile clients or through the mobile portal).

Opera reports that Facebook was the most accessed site through it’s Opera mini browser.

Blyk frustrated me; in return for receiving adverts matched to my preferences, and and every other user received 217 texts and 43 minutes per month. No data. No data AT ALL. The regular readers of Blykwatch will know I complained a lot about the lack of some kind of inclusive data along with competitive data rates ‘out of bundle’.

Well, to my delight this evening I received a SMS from Blyk;

You asked, Blyk listened. Blyk will be changing to a free monthly refill of £15 for you to use however you like.

*Fantastic* a company that listened to what the users want! Of course, having ‘a balance’ means you can use it on voice, sms, mms and data. The quid pro quo is immediately a lot more credible in my eyes.

However it comes at a price. At the same time prices on Blyk will now increase with call charges rising to 24p a minute from 15p. That’s STEEP. However text messages fall from 10p to 8p.

Now while this is fantastic for me — I can use my balance just on calls, or data — since I use Blyk as my secondary sim, for those using Blyk as a primary operator of choice, they’re now getting a bit of a raw deal.

The old system gave every user £28.15 credit (which made up the 217 texts/43 minutes). So if you’re used to using 217 texts and 43 minutes each month, that will NOW cost you £27.68.

But now, you’re only getting £15 ‘credit’ as thanks for receiving ads. If you wanted to maintain that same level of minutes/texts, you’d need to spunk out £12.68 extra per month.

That is a 46% percent decrease in credit and in return you get flexibility. I think the 46% is rather expensive for the value that flexibility brings. I understand that for a flexible plan you would expect to lose some credit ie 10 – 20% but certainly NOT 46%.

To me this suggests Blyk simply do not understand their user base. If you use the credit all on minutes you are better off than before the changes, however if you are a SMS user you lose out big style. Blyk is a MVNO only available for those who are aged between 16 and 24, users in this bracket (which I am part of) Text, MSN and Facebook each other. They are prolific texters, not callers.

As soon as I got the message concerning these changes I did a search on twitter to see if anyone had said anything (Ewan if you are reading this twitter IS useful).

Here’s what I sent out to my followers:

“You asked, Blyk listened”: 43 min 217 txt -> £15 +data,mms possibility.43min 217 txt=27.68.Cost of flex: 46% for mms, data. More flexible?

I received many responses — I don’t want to list them all so here’s a good summary one:

Am annoyed Blyk has decided to give £15 credit per month instead of free calls and minutes. It’s basically a guise for giving less.

I also jumped onto the forums, and I realised that Blyk had not sent this message in one go but had done a phased roll out, as a result the forums were very active on this topic. The main bulk were contained in two topics one was ‘bring back the old Blyk’ with 150 replies and a petition as well with 104 posts.

Not only that there are also two online petitions on sites on the internet:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?217_43
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-blyk-bo.html

The first has 92 names, the second has 99 names.

Checking the posts on the forum the first post on the change was on the 15th January at 4pm, so in less than 5 days this has been the response. I have been a user of Blyk for more than a year and a half and have never seen so much response on the forums. I think it clearly shows the opinion of the Blyk members.

I dropped an email to both Jonathan MacDonald and Alistair Crane (both part of the team who set up Blyk) to hear get their views on the changes.

“Businesses change their offerings. All of them. Blyk know more about what people want than all other mobile networks, in my opinion. I hope that that opinions about an offering change don’t cloud, remove or replace the fact that, for the first time ever, a media channel was built upon conversation rather than broadcast. We can and should have an opinion and it is more common for negativity to out-shine the positive. It is the way of the world sadly.”  Jonathan MacDonald

Fair point, but how much conversation was going on when they changed the game plan?

Let’s hear from Alistair:

“In January Blyk launched a comprehensive content portal and will be marketing the service heavily to members based on their profile information. By giving users monetary value to spend on whatever they want Blyk will drive content consumption, offer members an additional free service and most importantly, create increased inventory and another avenue for advertisers to access the profiled member base through traditional WAP formats (banners, text links etc.) as well as more creative pre-rolls, interstitials and ad funded content experiences (games, wall papers, ringtones).

Members will place a MASSIVE amount of value around flexibility and will love the fact that they can now access facebook, maps, email etc. using their free allowance. 

User created MMS will still probably stay low but is a good option to add to the mix.” Alistair Crane

I also got some words from fellow Blyk User and MIR Contributor Samanatha

“When I first heard about this, I’ll admit I was excited and happy. And then the reality of Blyk’s inability to comprehend the needs and desires of their customers finally sank in again. I don’t like moaning, and in fact I’m pleased they’ve finally realised that listening to their members is the right way to go about their business; but when there’s such a loss being made by each individual member, questions have to be raised.”
 

Blyk my final words to you are these, your idea is fantastic and it will work well however you tell me you listen BUT do you really?

Do you *really* understand your member base?

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A word from the Editor: Hi there, Ewan here. When you go live and tell your customers that it’s all about the conversation, that you’re listening, that you care, it’s good news. If you mean it. But then I suspect it’s a lot larger to wield the happy stick when you’re running a mobile operator. But… if you’ve asked your users for feedback — and they give you feedback, it gets rather challenging when, for whatever logistical reasons, you can’t necessarily deliver.

Over the months we’ve delivered some rather inspiring commentary on Blyk — chiefly from Ricky, the author of today’s post, and more recently from Samantha. Both are exactly in Blyk’s target range. Both are considered, smart, intelligent individuals, misled by the Blyk concept.

We stopped the BlykWatch coverage a while ago because it began to turn into a broken record. Despite the readers from all across the world — I reckon that a good 20-30,000 tuned in regularly for BlykWatch — when we were continually publishing news about forum posts not being replied to and lax or bored customer service, I thought that was it. Time’s up. It’s an operator. Their job is to deliver as many eyeball conversions as possible for their advertisers. It is not to ‘listen’ to their users and it is most certainly not to react to what users want unless there’s a direct profit. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this as a business practice. The disconnect is the users — such as Ricky and Samantha and a lot more besides — getting far too passionate about the service. At one point I think I said to Ricky to go and get a T-Mobile account and stop worrying about Blyk. That’s difficult when you feel passionately engaged by the company and when the company simply does not reflect that back. I’m sure Jonathan MacDonald — in his Every Single One Of Us guise — will have something to say about that. It ain’t good. But it makes cash. The Blyk customer is the advertiser. The user is the gateway to cash for Blyk.

Now, here’s is a viewpoint that I doubt will be received well by Ricky, Samantha and the array of Blyk fans they’ve spoken to about the news: It’s free so you have no rights and your opinion doesn’t count. Despite what the marketing tells you.

The only opinion Blyk want to know is whether you liked the Coca Cola or the Pepsi MMS ad better. If it’s a service level you want — you’re much better off demanding service from a traditional offer and wielding your own cash in return, rather than your data/opinions.

Swapping around the credit structure perhaps indicates at a challenge with the Blyk model. According to a BBC stat, there are about 7 million 16-24 year olds in the UK.

200,000 of which have got a Blyk sim card. Or, let’s be generous — let’s call it 300,000. I don’t know the current stats. No one from Blyk has contacted me with an update for years. So let’s work on the basis of 300k ‘penetration’.

Let’s now get real.

Ricky — one of the world’s most passionate Blyk users doesn’t actually use them as his primary account. He uses T-Mobile. So let’s strip a load out.

Let’s assume 300k sim cards activated. Let’s assume 20% converted to become regular Blyk users? I dunno if this is accurate. Let’s keep with it.

20% is 60,000 regular Blyk users.

How many of them are PRIMARY Blyk users — i.e it’s their ONLY mobile operator? That’s a difficult stat. Let’s say…. another 20%? Let’s be kind?

So 12,000 regular, primary users.

Assume 1% of them can be arsed to care about their ‘billing structure’.

Text them and tell them the credit structure is changing and about 100 of them hit the forums complaining. That sounds about right. Now, once again, these stats could be hugely incorrect and I’m happy for us to be corrected by Blyk.

But if they’re anywhere accurate, they’d explain why the company isn’t necessarily screaming about it’s successes and why it may well become necessary for them to shift around the credit structure to reduce their costs by 40-odd percent.

The value with Blyk is surely in the concept. The concept that — all things being equal — the brands are LOVING the ROI. They’re actually getting returns on their investment. Measurable and high percentages. Just, not with millions of teenagers. So I think the concept of Blyk is a success. Whether the MVNO will prove to be so? Well I don’t know. Let’s keep watching and wish them all godspeed.

(And swap to T-Mobile, Samantha.)

But a couple of months ago I signed up to a website to do with “students”, homework help, offers, competitions all that rather exciting rubbish really. And you know for some part it has been of some good use; then I got an update about a “Mobile Social Network”.

Originally, I though “ahh, I could review this, and see how incredibly wonderful it may or may not be!” then I clicked through, browsed at the website and spoke aloud to myself…

“Samantha, what are you doing? This whole idea is completely pointless, and certainly not “free” to you!”

It then suddenly hit me, like a brick that purely mobile social networks (Socials) are completely pointless, and useless.

The way I see it, with Facebook, Myspace and to some extent even the dreaded Bebo out there (plus many others), small little Mobile Networks such as “QEEP” which I was so close to reviewing, have not got a hope in hell to be of any use.

I’ll explain further; I was one of the first people out of my collection of friends to “migrate” to Facebook from Myspace; now encouraging my friends to move from their beloved Myspace accounts to something which in comparison offered no personalisation or customisation and looked rather bland was something of a headache. It was an even tougher job getting the Bebo users to realise what a pile of crap Bebo truly has become and convert them to Facebook also. Over a year down the line, if I want to see a certain friends’ latest photo’s I’ll still have to sign into Myspace of Bebo and have a browse.

Now as far as Mobile Socials go, I can’t see the point in it. A mobile phone for “most” people is merely a day-to-day tool; and I have to say there are still relatively few people I know who use their mobiles for any web-browsing need or desire. It’s simply not on the agenda.

Therefore it only appears apparent that for some young people Mobile Socials have absolutely no place in their lives.

Now for me, even though I do go on Facebook on my mobile (I think its part addiction), I go online because I know I have a few hundred friends, and that since the last time I looked at something it would have updated or changed. Similarly, I know that there is quite a large possibility I’ll have a status comment to respond to, or any other kind of notification.

But before any of that can even happen, you have to persuade your friends to migrate to this particular site or service. And that is by no means an easy task or feat; and then I realise, what is the point in having a Social just purely for the mobile?

As Facebook Mobile demonstrates, a platform you can enjoy on your Laptop, PC, Mac, PDA, and Mobile is quite possibly the best. Anyone can have access to it, and it’s relevant to you no matter what you’re doing. If I’m on Facebook at home, why would I update my under-populated profile on my Mobile Social?

There’s a time and place for Mobile Socialising, and I don’t know about anyone else, but for me it’s during times when I’m away from my computer, and when I have a bit of spare time on my hands. The hassle that I sense with even partially migrating to a new platform is pointless. There is nothing I can benefit out of a service which only serves a purpose at those very rare moments; I would much rather update my Facebook, or reply to a comment on my main form of internet socialising.

So does the purely mobile social network have any stability? Personally, I don’t think so; and just as the stories that have appeared on MIR over the past week about Twitter (and using it at home, work or play) just go to prove this. Any form of social network I believe, has to be usable and accessible no matter where you are, and what you’re doing. More than anything though, if you decide to migrate to a new platform you have to be able to ensure that your friends are going to want to follow you there; otherwise, what is the point?

I want to know what you think though. Am I completely wrong? Do you use a completely mobile, mobile social?  Feel free to send any e-mails into Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

Also, before I forget; I hope everyone has a very good Christmas too!

Sony Ericsson has just released a bunch of new panels for the Xperia X1 handset, just in time for it to arrive in the Americas.

These new additions to the phone’s UI act much the same way as many common place widgets do on other mobiles.

Besides a Facebook panel, they’ve also made public a Windows Live and Dashwire module too. Just to round off the new additions and it also saves launching just the one; obviously the announcement was all about the Facebook panel anyway.

The Dashwire pan-widget-el seems a nice bolt on and could complement the phone nicely. It’s from the site that offers syncing of a mobile’s content to its portal over the air. This is all with a view to share media on a range of social networking sites, plus having other funky features too.

Its Facebook module extends the basic abilities of m.facebook.com and x.facebook.com, by meeting half way towards the functions of the actual site. All this without killing your precious precious data allowance and bandwidth.

From a play around with the Windows Live panel, it also comes somewhere between the actual fully blown site and the lite mobile version. There’s a promise that other features of the Windows Live experience will be included later on, although we’re unsure if this will be updated over the air or with a new panel.

We were told by SE that they will be offering more panels within time for the handset, be on the lookout for more.

In the mean time, feel free to download and try these ones out here

In wrapping up the coverage from the launch event, we thought we‘d bring you some of the thinking and reasoning passed along to us as to why the development of the phone’s series by Hutchinson began. These were outlaid to us on the day by 3′s CEO Kevin Russell and the INQ’s CEO Frank Meehan.

These facts came along to us in the form of stats around the rise of data services over the 3 network, charted as an example from Nov 2007 until last month.

To be honest, we were a tad surprised over the figures knowing their frontend portal presented to their customers. Also we recalled some distant knowledge of 3 services being heavily firewalled to a severe degree, where not a great deal of access to outside websites was allowed.

So when we saw the number of users mentioned which started at 250,000 from last year and hitting the high of 950,000 of late, it took us back a bit. After digesting all and sundry plus getting hold of a three SIM card, all of these are actually supported and all works rather well too. It looks like their portal doesn’t scream and shout about it too much.

Just to back up their slide and doubly endorsing how 3 is used in today’s world of social networking, they went on to throw some more numbers at us.

On 3 handsets just over the October period, 2 million searches were performed, 3.5million emails were received by users on the network, 20 million minutes of Skype calls were made, 36 million chats were made on Skype, 200 million instant messages took place, 44 million pages on Facebook were viewed where there were only half that number six months ago. And a partridge in a pear tree.

Whilst you’re digesting all of that, it makes sense that a phone like the INQ should have come along right now. Even more so when you take into account news has reached us this week that mobile Facebook users have tripled this year, to the mighty sum of 15 million and counting.