Mobile Entertainment Forum publishes ‘Smart Enablers’ Guide to accelerate growth of next-generation mobile media services
50 per cent of respondents to the MEF members survey expect the adoption of smart enablers to drive revenue by up to 25 per cent
23 June 2010, London – MEF today announces the publication of its member-only ‘Smart Enablers’ Guide which is the result of an industry-wide collaboration into the role of smart enablers in the mobile industry. The Guide shows how enablers provide clear benefits, not only for industry, but also for the consumer by facilitating a better user experience. The Guide is designed to help all parties in the entire mobile media ecosystem understand why the smart enabler role is important, the key challenges, benefits and opportunities available to industry as well as potential revenue benefits and new business models and commercial frameworks.
MEF Chairman, Andrew Bud, commented: “The concept of enabling services is not new and already exists in the shape of wholesale airtime resale to MVNOs, bulk SMS billing, such as premium SMS and third-party billing. These enablers are very useful and are now being joined by a richer suite of enablers with further capabilities. In fact, 50 per cent of respondents to our survey expect the use of smart enablers to increase their revenues by up to 25 percent. Yet there remains a lack of understanding about how to implement a coherent enabler strategy to grow these revenues. The MEF Guide will benefit the entire mobile media ecosystem and allow content owners and service providers to understand the opportunity enabling services provide for their businesses.”
The highest ranked smart enabler services from the MEF survey, relate to the essentials of good service delivery in the form of ensuring a good user experience (customer insights, device/network capabilities and settings) along with enablers that ensure smooth payment for a content item (billing support, credit checks). There are many other smart enablers to draw on and the Guide contains a full ranking order of 20 enablers / service functionality which respondents rated according to areas which were of greatest importance to their business.
Suhail Bhat, Policy and Initiatives Director at the Mobile Entertainment Forum, explains: “ The Guide presents a series of MEF Member use cases to highlight and show enablers working in practice and the clear benefits they provide as well as identifying the challenges that the industry faces, such as fragmentation. The production of the Guide is just the first step in the localisation of this initiative over the coming year in North America, EMEA, Asia, and LATAM.”
Of the members surveyed, approximately half confirmed that their preferred smart enabler service partner remains the mobile network operator. However, there are a huge range of third parties that can play a role in the provision of smart enabler services, such as content originators, aggregators, application developers, internet players and the advertising community. 50 per cent of respondents indicated a desire to work with these players, including network aggregators (40 per cent), handset manufacturers (32 per cent), internet players (25 per cent) and device operating platform vendors (22 per cent).
The MEF Smart Enablers Guide has been authored by Ovum with the leadership and invaluable support of the following MEF member companies: BBC, Dolby, Gracenote, IMImobile, mBlox, OpenMarket (formerly MX Telecom), Ovum, Telefonica O2 and Vodafone. The Initiative was project managed by Accenture.
The Guide has been published with the kind support and sponsorship of IMImobile, OpenMarket and Vodafone.
About our Guide sponsors:
IMImobile
IMImobile is a pioneer in the mobile data space offering a rich portfolio of managed services for mobile operators, media companies and enterprises. The industry leading DaVinci Platform™ powers a wide range of services created, delivered and managed by IMImobile including: social aggregation, contact management, mobile advertising, mobile marketing, messaging, storefronts, ring back tones and digital music services.
These services are enabled through robust technology platforms including carrier grade messaging platforms and gateways, voice platforms, content management and 3rd party application aggregation systems. IMImobile’s modular product portfolio delivers a ‘connected’ experience across consumers’ digital lives.
With over 500 employees and headquartered in Hyderabad, India, IMImobile has a global presence across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. The company hosts its technology platforms and services in data centers worldwide and currently enables over 77 mobile operators in 66 countries generating 40 million billing transactions every month and reaching over 780 million subscribers worldwide..
OpenMarket
OpenMarket is a leading mobile transaction hub in the US and UK. OpenMarket provides a comprehensive set of payment, messaging and emerging services to meet mobile business needs. From the largest consumer brands to the smallest new digital content ventures, OpenMarket empowers businesses to expand their marketing initiatives and strengthen customer relationships by leveraging the mobile channel. OpenMarket provides the most direct mobile operator connections in the US market today with rapid global expansion plans. OpenMarket is a business of Amdocs.
Vodafone Group Plc
Vodafone Group Plc provides a full range of mobile telecommunications services, including voice and data communications. Vodafone has equity interests in 27 countries and Partner Networks in a further 14 countries with almost all the Group's mobile subsidiaries operating principally under the brand name "Vodafone".
Vodafone's vision is to be the world's mobile communications leader - enriching customers' lives, helping individuals, businesses and communities be more connected in a mobile world. This vision is based on an understanding of the tremendous socio-economic benefits of mobile communication.