Killer mobile applications

From its humble - if revolutionary - beginnings as a communication device when on the move, the mobile phone has come a long way. Today, speaking on the mobile is almost a minority usage, there are so many applications on offer.

For the Middle East, with mobile phone coverage ramping up rapidly, phone use, like the rest of the world, can be starkly different. This split can be between the countries and equally between young and old.

But the make up of the Middle East also means some services that would be less popular in other parts of the world can succeed here. One of the hold grails for mobile phones has long been the idea of using them for micro-payments. Although that is still not happening here yet, the first steps are being put in place.

Micropayments

Take for instance, the Salik road toll in Dubai. Road users aren't able to pay for the toll via their phone yet, but do get a text message when their account is low. It's not such a big step now for the service to done on a mobile, where users text back their top up, which is then added to their phone bill.

O2 in the UK recently began a six month trial of technology to offer cashless payments via a mobile phone. Participants have been given phones using a system called Near Field Communications (NFC), and can pay for transport or purchases under $20 using it.

Cath Keers, Customer Director, O2 UK said the technology would 'fundamentally change the way people use their mobile phones'.

She added: 'This trial is going to provide insights which will prove crucial to getting the customer experience right as we bring NFC on mobile to market. But the trial is just the start of this journey. For this to work we will need the whole ecosystem to come together which means mobile operators, banks and retailers all working together to fulfill a shared vision.'

In Dubai again, Etisalat recently launched its service to allow workers to use their phones to send money back to their home countries. It may not be the obvious, headline grabbing killer service, but it is likely to prove successful among some chunks of the emirate's expat community that want to regularly transfer money. Initially aimed at workers from the Philippines, Pakistan, India and Egypt, Etisalat started with a deal with Smart Telecommunications in the Philippines, and is spreading the service to other regions.

Khalifa Hassan Al Shamsi, vice president of marketing for consumer and SMB at Etisalat, recently told AME Info: 'People send money back home at money exchanges. We think we can provide a simple method to send this money home, so that there's no need to travel across town or for spending time standing in line [at an exchange].'

Original killer: humble SMS

The first hot application for mobile phones turned out to be the simple SMS, and even today it continues to be a well-used application (in our survey it was the most popular mobile application among AME Info readers).

The phone companies confidently predicted that picture messaging, or MMS, would replicate this success, only to see the service fall flat on its face. It suffered from being too expensive in the eyes of users and never really recovered. The failure of MMS is but one of the 'killer' mobile applications that have come and gone without setting the market alight.

Mobile TV, much touted over the past few years, has also stumbled as customers have found that while it may be a nice to have application, it's not a hot, 'must-have' application. 'There was a lot of hype around mobile TV but that has died down,' said Nitesh Patel, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics in the UK.

Mobile TV is hampered by its limited choice. Customers access it through a subscription package with the operator and can watch only the channels they offer. It is likely become more popular given time, but not in its early form. In Japan companies are designing phones with a second aerial, able to pick up TV independent of the service operator and their changes.

Social networking

The hottest trend now that operators are leaping on is mobile social networking on flat rate plans. Rumours abound that sites such as Facebook will be banned, which would stop the trend catching on in the Middle East.

So far only Syria has banned Facebook but if other mobile operators - which largely control the fixed line telecoms and broadband access - think they can make money from such sites, there will be less impetus to ban them. In the UK Vodafone has teamed up with MySpace and people already use Facebook on their mobile.

'The whole idea of flat rate data plans and low cost browsing is to lower the barrier for people to do things on their mobile. And then encourage them to use other services, such as video on demand and music' said Patel. 'Social networking companies also believe that they can extend their presence into the mobile realm, so the [impetus to do this] is coming from both sides.'

Many of the 3G phones now available come with instant messaging software, giving owners the ability to keep in IM contact when out and about. Email has also become a hot application, particularly in the business community. Where once it was Blackberry or nothing that ruled the push email roost, now many phones have the capability.

Wireless is another obvious advance, and this also brings with it a thorny issue for operators. As wireless coverage grows - and it gets easier to find free, open wifi networks - it also gets easier to make Voice over IP Calls, using software applications such as Skype.

It may not be quite as intuitive or simple as using the software on a computer, but these mobile applications need only be fired up to make free, or low cost, calls.

A service that has not really taken off big time elsewhere, but is predicted to be popular in some regions of the Middle East is video calls.

To date it has made little impact in the Middle East, but in the more restricted societies, where it is difficult for teenagers of the opposite sex to meet, analysts believe video calls will offer the chance for a virtual meeting or date.