September 30th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »
The once-bloody battle for control of consumers’ mobile media consumption is heating up once more in the UK thanks to the power of mobile Java (J2ME). A few years back, when Vodafone Live! was known as Vizzavi and O2 Active as Genie, a range of different players were fighting to become the access point for consumers’ mobile data life. ISPs like MSN and Lycos and independent mobile portals like Iobox and Mviva all thought they could beat the operators at their own game. Fast forward a few years, with the transformation of the operators’ poor early efforts into today’s shiny Live! style portals, and the war seemed won.
In the last month or so, however, new contestants have begun lining up to stake their claim to the handset real estate. Media companies, ranging from giants such as News International, publisher of The Sun, and broadcasters like Endemol, to smaller players like computer magazine PC Plus, are all hoping Java will give them a new opportunity to form direct mobile relationships with consumers.
The list of media companies with plans to launch Java portals grows longer by the day, even if they’re not yet ready to go public. Talking to a veritable who’s who of the UK media industry over the last month reveals an excitement around new mobile technology that hasn’t been seen for a long time.
The advantages for media companies are obvious. “Mobile Java gives us the opportunity to build an interface to put all a broadcaster’s content in one area, from which consumers can navigate to from one place,” said outgoing head of interactive at Celador, Bruce Vandenberg. “TV is strong enough to tie people into brands like Big Brother.”
The ability to dynamically update content is what’s equally attractive to media owners like The Sun, which would be able to send the latest headlines direct to a user’s phone, for instance. More …
