• by Lydia Loizides , Op-Ed Contributor, June 14, 2006

I started off this writing adventure with a declarative technology manifesto. One of the technologies that I identified was wireless. The following is just an example of some of the developments in this sector.

Chaperone. This is a new branded service from Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group. This announcement follows on the heels of Sprint's service, which was announced in April, and a Disney branded service with the same feature set.

Technology Value: High. This type of service is the precursor to location-based-services that will travel up the wireless food-chain into mainstream handsets and service packages.

Consumer Value: High. Parents will pay a premium to keep their children safe. Remember, services that are of value to the target will get adopted quickly.

Brand value: Low-medium. It is unlikely that advertisers will get to use this platform until the handsets move up a demo or two.

ESPN Mobile. After much ado about nothing, ESPN mobile has come down drastically in price. Handsets are being discounted heavily, as is package pricing.

Technology Value: Medium. If anything, this is an expensive experiment in what features and functions next-generation handsets should have, and how consumers value branded-technology and services.

Consumer value: Low. Content may be king, but is not persuasive enough to get even the highly engaged sports consumer to adopt on a mass scale.

Brand value: Low or high. With such a small group, you are either loving this crowd (the consumer is engaged) or abandoning ship (there is no consumer). It is the ultimate in mass versus niche.

IDC. While not a mobile company, it identified what its executives believe to be the Top 10 emerging wireless entertainment companies to watch. The are, in no particular order: Action Engine, Airplay, iLoop Mobile, LOC-AID, Neven Vision, Promptu, Roundbox, Surfkitchen, Third Screen Media, and Volantis.

Technology value: Medium. If you are a manufacturer, you likely do not have these guys on your radar. If you are an applications developer, you might have a clue.

Consumer Value: Low. Much the same way that consumers watch programs, not networks, they likely don't care about the companies themselves--only the services they provide.

Brand value: Medium to high. At least you can try and stay a couple of steps ahead of the marketplace by getting educated and getting ready. Moreover, the truly innovative brands will see it as a new product placement platform as much as an advertising vehicle.

.mobi. This new domain is a designation for Web sites that are designed specifically to be viewed on mobile phones. While this was approved by Icann (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) last year, it was not until recently that a company was able to buy this kind of domain.

Technology value: Medium to high. At best, this will provide an agreed-upon framework that will force development by a certain set of standards that have been developed by the W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium, which is the governing body for Web standards). At worst, the development community will ignore it and continue to try and massage Web-based content for an alternative form factor.

Consumer value: High. Any improvements over the experience that consumers have been faced with is high value. Remember that a good experience is a repeatable one.

Brand value: Medium to high. Any time standardization comes into play, metrics, measurement and formats are soon to follow. For anyone schooled in the art of explaining the return-on-investment, standardization and predictability are key variable of the equation.

While each of these developments may seem unremarkable on its own, the insights and opportunities that they represent in concert are important. Together, they point to the formation of a viable and sustainable mobile platform that is able to deliver content and services that will elicit a positive consumer experience. After all, isn't that the goal?