Barcelona Diary: Blogging from MWC 2012

It’s Mobile World Congress time again, and as it has done for the past few years, the GSMA sponsored World Congress is being held in Barcelona, Spain from February 27 to March 1. (There is a smaller Asia themed GSMA congress held in Hong Kong usually in November). The World Congress is the biggest mobile tech show of the year, eclipsing events like the American-themed CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. At least 60,000 attendees are expected this year, so this is one major mobile gig indeed.

Starting with this post, I’ll be posting a  daily “Barcelona Diary” chronicling the events of Mobile World Congress 2012 aka “#MWC“. My reasons for doing so are simple. I think the events of this week will have a profound effect on the mobile industry for the rest of the year – and doing a journal will be an effective way of forcing me to take note and remember. Because an announcement on Monday just change the whole landscape for 2012.

For sure there are going to be major announcements from Google – the search and mobile OS behemoth was a non presence at CES. But my sources there have informed me that they intend to “complete dominate” #MWC 2012.

The name of the game is Android, and it is going to be hard to miss the green droid character all over MWC.

Expect a gargantuan Google booth area,  some major Android announcements (after Ice Cream Sandwich,  enter JellyBean), and people trying to collect Android pins from the booths,

Android devices from the major South Korea (Samsung and LG), Taiwan (HTC and Asus), and Chinese manufacturers (notably Huawei and ZTE) will be all over the place. The Chinese companies are very aggressive this year – Huawei has an entire hall all to itself.

Other Mobile operating systems will be jostling for the spotlight as well. Ubuntu for Android will be debuting, and there’s talk of a Mozilla Mobile OS as well. Hence the Firefox booth I spied being setup in Hall 7.

And what about Microsoft, the erstwhile behemoth of the 90s? Windows 8 “Consumer Preview” will manage to make its Feb deadline and will launch on Feb 29 (the last day of February).

I’m here as part of a team manning the WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) booth at Hall 7 (7C82 to be exact). WAC is a global community of operators who have banded together to develop operator-friendly app development standards (embodies in SDFs and APIs) Situated inside the “App Planet” area, the WAC presence at #MWC will herald the first “WAC 2.0″ HTML5 based apps out of Korea and apps developed using Network APIs for in-app charging from Korea and the Philippines.

And if all that is whizzing past over your head, here is a WAC primer I found this may explain this better:

Ka-Ching: In-App Mobile Charging is Now in the Philippines – and the World

This PR just in from Smart – the first Android mobile apps using the WAC NAPI (Network API) are out – and they are all coming out first from the Philippines. 

What’s the significance? Well apart from the Philippines being a development hub for these WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) apps – the Network API enables what mobile developers in this part of the world have been clamoring for some time: In-App Operator Charging.

What this means is that mobile developers who sign up to use the API can now charge customers for use of the app from inside the application itself. And instead of requiring some form of credit card registration for online payments, the payment (purchase, or whatever) will be charged to your cellphone. For prepaid users this means it can deduct from your load, and for postpaid users it means this amount gets added to your bill.

For a society where the lack of widespread use of credit cards has hampered online purchasing, this is a pretty big deal. It opens up the floodgates for all sorts of transactions via mobile.

And just as importantly, it opens up a new method of monetization for mobile developers in the Philippines and the rest of the world.

A WAC app with charging APIs doesn’t just work in the Philippines, it will work in any country with a WAC operator partner.

Available first for Android devices, the API will eventually be available to other platforms and the mobile web. Apple permitting, maybe even on iOS apps (well if Apple relaxes its policies on in-app purchasing that is…)

More on this development in subsequent blog posts, but in the meantime, the full global PR announcement is below:

SMART Always ON + Operamini present “Win a Mini”

SMART’s “Always On” volume-based data plans combined with the Operamini browser have always been a good match. The Volume-based plans provide mobile internet at an affordable price, and the Operamini browser (available for Java, Symbian, Android, and iOS) utilize caching and up to 90% data compression for a highly optimized mobile web surfing experience – even on a poor data connection. 

The Operamini browser also stretches your data volume allocation. The data compression ensures that you can do more with your data plan. We’ve seen users on a Volume plan switch to Operamini for web browsing and only use as little as 40MB of data for an entire month.

So it’s not such a big surprise that the two have teamed up – SMART is the exclusive sponsor of Operamini in the Philippines, and one of the fruits of this team up is a joint promotion – the “Win a Mini” promo kicking off today.

Downloading and using OperaMini and signing up for a SMART “Always On” data package gives you raffle points that can enable you to win an “Opera Red” Mini Cooper.

Operamini users on SMART will see a special button on the default speedbutton screen that allows users to view a page (available only to Operamini users) with all the promo mechanics.

Here’s a diagram of the contest procedures:

This isn’t the first time Operamini used a MINI Cooper in a promotion. Here’s a video of a promotion that took place in Barcelona, Spain in 2003:

SMART Extends its Facebook Mobile App for Java Trial All the Way Till October 31

They said it was going to be free. And they were right. They said the free trial was going to last until October 14. But in that case, they were absolutely wrong. Because in a dramatic turn of events, tantamount to a mobile internet product manager momentarily taking leave of his senses, SMART’s Facebook for Java Mobile App free trial has been extended all the way till the end of the month, to October 31.

That’s right, Facebook nation. If you belong to the smartphone-deprived 95% of the nation’s mobile phone population, why let the upper 5% have all the fun – the fun of using mobile apps for social networking that is.

Facebook’s Mobile App for Java allows the previously lowly feature phone – who just happens to have mobile internet, a web browser, and the ability to run java apps – to run a full featured app from Facebook itself. Thus giving feature phone users a taste of the convenient app-driven mobile lifestyle enjoyed by the upper crust with their iPhones, Androids, Blackberries and other tools of the capitalist class.

Forget those graphics-challenged Facebook Zeroes. The Facebook Mobile app for Java is a full fledged Facebook client. Users can manage status updates, leave comments, reply to comments, check notifications, read and respond to private inbox messages, “Like”, upload photos, view photo albums, and all the accoutrements  of a Facebook app, using the phone you already own – which based on studies is most likely to be the feature phone you already use for texting and calling. Facebook claims 2,500 Java capable handsets are supported. A partial listing of compatible phones compiled by Facebook is posted on SMART’s Facebook app FAQ page here.

And best of all it’s FREE – free to download, free to use by SMART customers, until October 31. Thanks to a close partnership with Facebook, SMART has decided to offer this for free for a limited period. No internet charges to pay, just download, install, and Facebook away. Greet your friends, leave a funny comment, take a photo, spread a meme. You can absolutely go to town with this – right till October 31.

Complete details of the offer are posted here.

In a nutshell, let’s assumed you checked out your phone, established that it has a web browser (and can thus access the internet). Just to be on the safe side you can test it by accessing the Smart mobile portal at m.smart.com.ph – go on try it, that’s free (no internet charges).

Having established that, you can get the Facebook mobile app download link by texting FB to 211. This sends a free SMS to the phone with the link to http://fbapp.smart.com.ph (well the SMS does save you the trouble of typing that).

And here’s a video that explains what its all about if, like me, you happen to like videos.

 

Video: How to install the Facebook Mobile app on SMART

In response to one of the more common Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about using the Facebook Mobile app on the SMART network, the SMART customer care group produced and uploaded this video on their YouTube channel.

This hopefully should be a clear procedure for any but the densest of individuals:

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Another Frequently Asked Question is, is my phone supported? After all, Facebook claims support for 2,500 Java-compatible phones. Facebook has provided a list of for operators of the most commonly supported phones, which you can view here. 

Facebook Mobile app for Java: FREE Access on SMART

Update: Thie free trial ended October 31. Service is still available at just P10/day.  Read all the details here. 

In response to some recent Tweets I made, I received a few questions from people curious about SMART’s free offer on Facebook. Yes, it’s true that the Facebook Mobile app for java phones is offered for free on SMART. That means, free to download and free to use – Internet charges are waived. After hearing enough of these questions, I decided to write it down here for a ready reference for anyone curious.

“Facebook for All”

SMART just launched a “Facebook for All” campaign which offers pinoys different ways to access Facebook on Mobile depending on your budget and the mobile technology available to you.

Why Facebook? Like it or not, Facebook represents the Internet to many Filipinos. Based on the latest stats, over 25M Filipinos are on Facebook. Considering there’s an estimated total of 26M online Filipinos,  that’s over a 90% penetration of the PH online population. In fact, Comscore rates the Philippines as#1 worldwide in terms of Facebook penetration.

And now the Facebook communication experience can be made more mobile for more Filipinos.

One of the Facebook services offered in the lineup is the new Facebook Mobile app for java phones. Through SMART’s partnership with Facebook, data access for users of this app on SMART is FREE for a 3-month trial period (ending October).

This brings the “Facebook App” experience of smartphone users (typically on Android, iOS, and Blackberry) available to feature phone users, and at no cost to try it out.

Facebook also refers to this as “Facebook For Every Phone” in its international campaign, and this was rolled out globally on the week of July 12. This app runs only on java handsets for now. Here’s the video that Facebook released for this that explains the vision for this type of app:

So what’s a Feature Phone? 

Feature phones are typically Java-capable (can run Java apps like games) and can access the mobile internet, but don’t have full-fledged smartphone operating systems. Smartphone use is still tiny in the Philippines (single digit market shares), while Feature Phones have been around since the heyday of MMS.

This is a wide range of phones (Facebook claims 2,500 models) that includes old favorites like Nokia Series 40, Nokia Series 60, Sony Ericsson, and those new inexpensive China-made MTK phones from the likes of MyPhone, Cherry Mobile, etc.

Here’s a step-by-step procedure for installing the free app on a java-capable feature phone on SMART:

1. First of all make sure the phone is set up to access the Internet.

2. Text the command “FB” to 211

3. You will receive a free text with the download link (http://fbapp.smart.com.ph)

4. On many phones, you can just click on the URL in the SMS to connect to the download link.

5. Your java phone will download the app (a small file, around 120KB) and install it. On SMART this download is “zero-rated”, aka FREE.

6. Locate and Run the app. (depending on what phone you have this will be installed in a folder like “games”, “Installed” etc.)

7. Here’s what the app looks like running on my antique Nokia 6680:

8. Using the app is FREE during the 3-month trial period. Keep it on as long as you want.

9. As long as you’re using the Facebook features (newsfeed, comments, likes, photos, etc) use of the app is free. If you try to access 3rd party applications available in the program – this will lead you out of the Facebook app and you may be charged for access – there will be a warning shown on your screen if you venture out of the free zone.

As long as you stick to the Facebook features – you should have no worries about charging and you can continue to use the app for Free.

Update: Here’s a video that demonstrates how to install the app on SMART.

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Update: Here is a phone compatibility listing in Google Docs directly maintained by Facebook. You can check this list to see if your phone is compatible with the app.  If not, you can still try it out yourself.  Facebook claims “2,500 phones”.

Finding SMART “Libreng Tawag” centers and free medical assistance

This info just in from SMART Public Affairs regarding efforts by SMART as part of  Typhoon Ondoy relief efforts. These range from free phone call and mobile charging stations, to free medical assistance care of PLDT medical services.

SMART Libreng Tawag Centers at the following: Barangay Barangka Hall in Marikina City; Ever Gotesco Mall in Pasig City; and Cainta Municipal Hall. Affected residents may make calls for free and/or charge cellphones for free. Another Libreng Tawag Center to be set up ASAP in San Mateo, Rizal.

SMART Relief Goods Distribution Centers will be set up within the week right by the SMART Libreng Tawag Centers at Ever Gotesco Mall in Pasig City and Cainta Municipal Hall.

PLDT Medical Services at Barangay Barangka Hall in Marikina City provides emergency medical assistance. Additional medical assistance to be set up by Makati Medical Center and Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital ASAP beside the other stations SMART Libreng Tawag Centers (Pasig, Cainta, and soon San Mateo).

SMART relief distribution will also be done within the week in Marilao, Bulacan and Arayat, Pampanga.

How SMART subscribers can help in the typhoon Ondoy relief drive

This just in from SMART Public Affairs:

Via SMART Money – SMART Money accountholders may help victims of typhoon Ondoy by donating to the PLDT Smart Foundation Inc. (PSF) Ondoy-Smart Money account.  Text ONDOY <amount> to 270. Or go to your Smart Money menu > purchase > mpay > store code (ONDOY) > pay from > choose card > amount > confirmation (OK) > enter W-Pin.

Via RED CROSS – SMART subscribers may help victims of typhoon Ondoy by donating to the Philippine National Red Cross via text. Text RED <10, 25, 50, or 100> to 4483. Example: To donate P100, text RED 100 to 4483. Only donated amount will be deducted from your current load. No other charges applied.

DONATION IN THE FORM OF RELIEF GOODS may be turned over at the following SMART Wireless Centers: SM Muntinlupa, SM Bicutan, SM Sucat, Festival Mall, Ali Mall, Gateway, SM Fairview, SM North Annex, ATC South Mall, and Megamall. Selected PLDT business offices (locations to be announced) will also be accepting donated relief goods.

Smart’s UZZAP: Behind the Bits

Yesterday, July 6, 2008 was probably notable for one of those rare occasions in sports history – such as when Ateneo actually manages to beat La Salle in a UAAP basketball game (having had 16 years of formal Jesuit schooling myself, I know that of which I speak). But apart from that unusual event, July 6 was also the auspicious day that SMART Communications had chosen to launch its new mobile messaging product, “Uzzap“, and roll it out under the Smart Buddy brand. The TV commercial aired, the print ad hit the presses, the billboards were rolled out, and the website (currently located at Uzzap.com) went online.

Uzzap, as you can find out from the aforementioned media, is a mobile “messenger” – it allows you take the PC instant messaging experience with you on your mobile phone. That includes the usual amenities such as Instant Messaging (IM) and e-mail. But wait, there’s more (drumroll puh-leaze). Everyone knows the #1 mobile messaging application remains SMS. So Uzzap builds in IM-to-SMS and SMS-to-IM integration in a uniquely seamless manner. All that, and a chatroom area to boot, for those of you who still find the rambunctious experience of live mobile anonymous chat appealing.

It’s a mobile internet app, so naturally, you need a phone that can handle GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA and whatnot. On the Smart network that is, or any of Smart’s roaming partners.

The service is being offered to the public for a free trial period from July 6 to July 20. Yup, and that includes the mobile internet connection to the Uzzap server. Free, as in Libre.

Insert pinoy TV commercial voiceover style here: “So anong hinhintay niyo, download na at Uzzap na tayooohhhhh”

And so that should end right there. Not!

Based on blogs and forum comments that managed to pick up the story so far, there’s an odd confusion among the local technocrati as to what the product actually is and what it does. Maybe it’s because the Smart Buddy “me na me”, “d2 na u?”, and “uzzap na me” theme likes to keep things simple for the me na me generation. As far as the message goes, downland na u to your fone and connect na u to all ur buddies. Happy na me!

Well that’s all and well and good, but there’s a great deal to the product that meets the eye that just needs to be put out there. So in a series of blog posts, I’ll try to unravel some of the layers of this application and service.

For those of you who want to dive straight into the nitty gritty, Smart provides a user manual for downloading in PDF format, right here.

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Start Me Up

Let’s start off with what the application is. It’s an internet app available in five different clients. For the mobile version, it’s available as a native Symbian app for Nokia Series 60 2nd edition and Nokia Series 60 3rd edition. The Symbian clients are the most feature-rich (Sorry Sony Ericsson UIQ fans, no UIQ client as of this time). For all other phones – there’s a J2ME client with slightly lesser features.

Someone had Twittered me about Windows Mobile support (a certain Abet dela Cruz I believe!). As long as the Windows Mobile handset can run J2ME, it should be ok (I’ve seen it working on an O2 Atom).

For PCs, there are two versions – a Windows version (XP/Vista) and a Linux version that supports Ubuntu, Kanotix, Mepis, and Debian variants. No Mac OS X right now, but the Mac fanboys can always install Windows or Linux through VM Ware or Parallels if they really want to run this baby.

You can find out the download link by sending a text message with just the keyword UZZAP in it to access code 7272. (That’s for free, by the way) That returns the download link (currently at http://uzzap.com/download). You can click on the hyperlink if your phone supports this, or just fire up your mobile browser and go straight to that URL.

Connecting straight to the download link will have the download server detect what device you’re connecting from and will try to push the version most appropriate to your device and operating system. PCs download the EXE installer, S60 downloads the sis file, and so it goes.

On J2ME handsets, your mileage will vary, mainly because of the wide variety of J2ME handsets on the market. I’d stick to the main brands before trying anything off-the-wall like that Russian handset from an Uzbekistan operator you have in your bottom drawer.

Installation involves registration, and the following are mandatory: Your name, your UserID, your password – and since this is a mobile app – your Smart mobile number. Your number will be validated during registration. It’s also a good idea to include an e-mail address if you want to advantage of the mobile-to-email and e-mail to mobile features. In addition, if you manage to forget your password, entering an e-mail address here will ensure that your password can be mailed to your e-mail address if you request it.

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Buddy me, pare

After installation, Uzzap kicks in with probably one of its most unique features – “Automatic Buddy Matching,” a feature found only in the Nokia Series 60 versions. This features goes through your contacts directory and tries to find out which of your contacts are already registered as Uzzap buddies (by matching the mobile numbers with the numbers in the member database). You get to confirm which of these Uzzap users would you like to be added as your buddies. These buddy candidates in turn need to confirm the invite. Don’t want to add your ex? No problem.

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What is this EM of which you speak?

Here is where the meat of the Uzzap messaging style comes in to play. You may be wondering about that big “EM” logo in the main menu. EM stands for Extended Messaging. As a term, “Instant Messaging” or IM is a little anemic compared to the mobile messaging options available in Uzzap. So throughout the Uzzap universe (the “Uzzapsphere”?) messages are often referred to as “EMs”.

Extended Messaging allows you to do any of the following with your Uzzap buddies:

• Send E-mail (assuming they have a registered e-mail address)
• Make a GSM call
• Send an SMS-R (Uzzap’s term for SMS sent through their messaging server)
• Send your Contacts List to a buddy
• Start a Conference (involving two or more Uzzap buddies)

Now here’s the thing. If you send an e-mail or an SMS-R from Uzzap, when your contact replies, the message should pop up in the Uzzap client.

Considering that Uzzap is also available as a PC-based Internet application, the whole gamut of possibilities emerges. PC-to-Mobile, Mobile-to-PC, SMS-to-EM, EM-to-Email, Email-to-mobile, etc etc etc.

In future posts, we’ll peel away the layers of this app and take a look at other Uzzap features. I’d write more now, but to quote the immortal words of the comedian Henny Youngman, “I just flew in, and boy my arms are tired.”

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Note: For some reason, Uzzap users have started to use this post as some sort of a support board for their questions about the service. Please contact the Uzzap team at Uzzap.com instead.

Or you can also use the Uzzap forum at Sandbox – check out http://www.mysandbox.com and look for this in the forum area.

In the meantime, commenting for this post has been disabled.

Small Wonder: Philippine Telcos Discover the Asus eee

I’ve been a fan of the Asus eee PC ultra micro laptop for sometime, and like many enthusiasts I’ve succumbed to the obnoxious habit of playing the part of an eee evangelist on occasion. I must admit I’m always a sucker for small cheap gadgets, especially miniature wi-fi laptops that cost around the range of a mid-priced cellphone. (I got mine for around PHP 17,000 around November 2007).

But the eee has proven to be a trusty daily companion and a respectable enough workhouse. I have another laptop at home, a full-sized Toshiba Satellite, and there are days when that device doesn’t see the light of day, since the eee monopolizes my attention. It’s replaced the book or magazine by the bedside, and the morning newspaper is a distant memory from a bygone era – I read aggregators like Google News and Google Reader over breakfast instead.

Even in the workplace, the eee is the machine I bring to meetings to take notes with. It’s during those meetings that I have to stop what I’m doing and do my usual eee demo from the moment I open the lid and power it up. The women all ooh and ahh about how cute and tiny it is, as I play the part of a computer salesman for a few moments, enumerating the features like a real smoothie. This is fun at first, but it tends to become an annoying routine after awhile.

So I’m glad that there are moves afoot to make this machine a little more mainstream. This way, it becomes less of a novelty, and people would leave me alone so I can actually get some work done.

It just so happens that the country’s two leading telcos have discovered the Asus eee at the same time, and have taken to giving it away as a low cost laptop, or as an alternative gadget to the usual iPods and 3G phones.

SMART now offers the Asus eee as a giveaway (in lieu of a phone) with its SMART Gold postpaid subscriptions. The 2GB version of the eee is offered free with a Smart Gold Plan 1800. As an alternative, the eee is included as a bundle with a mobile phone with Plan 2500.