Ziwen Liu's course blog for the MCDM

Presentation link

gzliuzw — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:26:24 +0000

A link to the presentation on Mobile Communication&Technologies:

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dg289dxs_93qmpwxf8

Filed under: Mobile Technology&Communication

Indians do not favor the mobile net?!

gzliuzw — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:19:44 +0000

In the mobile communication class I take in this quarter, we often talk about those cool and powerful mobile applications we have today. However, all these enthusiasm are based on these important hypothesis that we love mobile technology, we always ask for more from our mobile phones and most importantly, we are able and love to pay for expensive handsets and services fee.
However, this is aparently not the case in India.
“India’s state-owned BSNL, which the government allowed to launch 3G a year ago, now offer services in 300 cities, has just 700,000 customers, and has cut tarrifs at least twice.”, says Mehul Srivastava, the senior journalist in Business Week.
This is really bad for the operator considering that they had spent billions of dollars to bid on 3G spectrum and to build the nation wide network.
what even worse is that Indians not only do not appreciate 3G services, they simply don’t like the idea of “mobile net”. According to the Internet&Mobile Association of India, Of Indian’s 530 million-plus mobile subscribers, only 2 million regularly use the mobile Net, mostly to download pictures of cricket players and Bollywood stars.

Filed under: assignement, digital economic, Mobile Technology&Communication

Mobile data back-up-the missing opportunity?

gzliuzw — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:27:02 +0000

Losing data in your cell phone is a painful experience for most of us because we all know that it is difficult and takes long time to retrieve the lost data. But it might as well be an opportunity for mobile operators, retailers and manufacturers.
There has been an independent research conducted by CelleBrite, which provides mobile phone synchronization and management systems, suggesting that mobile operators, retailers and manufacturers are missing an important opportunity to increase revenues by failing to effectively market a mobile data back-up solution to users at the point of sale.
According to the research, only 18% of users who participated in the research(1000participants) back up their mobile data, in spite of the fact that 47% of them have already lost a mobile phone. Research also revealed that 47% of users were unaware of services offered by network operators in store to back-up and synchronize mobile data, and 48% of those expressed willingness to pay somewhere between £5 and £20 extra and wait up to 10 minutes to receive such a service.
Another significant finding was that only 16% of users change handsets more than once a year. 25% of respondents admitted that the difficulty in transferring mobile data dissuades them from upgrading to a new phone. The survey also revealed that 27% of users would change handsets more regularly if they could transfer their mobile content onto the new phone at the point of sale.
The 47% of them who have lost their phones admitted that recompiling the lost contacts and mobile data such as photos, music, text messages and videos can take up to six months and 24% admit that they never manage to fully recapture the lost data.

Filed under: Mobile Technology&Communication

Data gridlock?

gzliuzw — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:08:16 +0000

Ten years ago(perhaps five years ago?), mobile phone is only good for making voice calls and sending messages. Nowadays, the use of mobile phone is changing dramatically as it has became a more and more integrated platform, and more and more end-users largely consider their mobile devices not only as communication tools but also entertaining and business tools. One consequence of this change is that we have witnessed more and more content being consumed in mobile phone and lots of mobile applications which requires fast bandwidth being developed.
However, this might create real problems for end-users as well as network operators. Openwave CEO Ken Denman mentioned in his latest post(http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/) that “as mobile video consumption continues to rise and new devices such as the iPad become more widely available, consumers will continue to demand more and more from their mobile devices. However, many network providers won’t have the physical infrastructure to keep pace. And If this issue is not addressed soon, consumers will suffer as services grind to a halt.”.
Also, this problem might be bigger than we thought because it has been proved that data gridlock can not be addressed simply by adding capacity to the network, as Ken Denman mentioned that “operators are facing the prospect of seeing their traffic grow faster than the rate at which they can add capacity.”.
One solution I can think of here is to fasten the development pace of L-TE, which is inherently faster than 3G network, and has much bigger network capacity. However, the challenge here is that will operators and government or FCC be able to reach an agreement in time before the problem of data gridlock is getting out of control? And also, standard change means huge investments and potentially the sunset of 3G era. Will network operators be willing to take the chance for the sake of consumers and users?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Voice SMS-innovative SMS service in Uganda

gzliuzw — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:41:27 +0000

I just read an intereting article today in http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/. It says, “Ugandan mobile operator MTN says it has seen impressive take-up of its recently-launched Voice SMS service, and has ordered an upgrade to triple the capacity of the Voice SMS system.”
Voice message is really innovative to me because I thought it has disrupted the way we think of SMS communication. Also, the benefit of this service is pretty obvious, “It enables subscribers to communicate faster, with greater ease, and convey emotions as compared to limitations of text messages.”, as said in the article. Also, I expect this service will be especially popular in emerging markets given the fact that illiteracy rate is generally high there and this voice MSM service will free illiteracy people from typing. However, there are two questions I believe we should think of before getting too opstimistic: firstly, is the service expensive compared to normal SMS services? secondly, is the service reliable when we think of accuracy? But in either way, voice SMS is a start of changing the way we think of SMS communication.

Filed under: Mobile Technology&Communication

4G in China?

gzliuzw — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:36:10 +0000

China had released its first 3G license in January 2009, however, “this is just a beginning”, according to an insider from China Mobile. An exciting news came out recently that China Mobile will deploy its first TD-LTE trial network in Shanghai in 6/2010 and will bring it into trial operation during the 2010 World Expo. This is really a bad news for cable company in China because the well recognized definition for 4G is those services which can reach a downlink rate of 100 megabytes per second, which is a lot faster than cable company can offer(1/2/4/8 megabite per second). So, as a bystander, I am really curious about how those cable companies in China will respond to this news? Will they lower their price for their internet services? or will they develop new technologies which can deliver faster and better internet experience? But either way, this is a positive signal for mobile operators, because they will be expected to see another strong growth of value-added services they provide.(mobile tv, internet and etc.)

Filed under: Mobile Technology&Communication

What about Gphone?

gzliuzw — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:20:09 +0000

In China, a lot of buzz are going these days regarding to Google’s recent anouncement of shutting down their business in China. I checked out some Mobile bbs today, and saw a lot of fans of Google who already have a Gphone or plan to buy one complain that “if Google is outta here, what should we do? Are we still having access to abundant of Google apps? If not, our phone will suddently become a crap.”. I see their reaction reasonable, even though Google recently added that they are just planning to shut down Google.cn, and some business will not be affected such as Gmail and Gphone. However, I believe that Google should be giving an answer better than that. The position Google taking in China is far more than just Gphone and Gmail. What about those strong apps that we get used to everyday, such as Google Earth, Google talk, Google search and etc.? What about other smartphone based on Android system, such as OMS and Ophone? So I see Google’s decision has already affected or disappointed millions of their Chinese fans and this number is expected to continue to grow if they do not offer a more satisfactory response shortly.

Posted in Mobile Technology&Communication

Five things to consider before getting hands on Nexus One

gzliuzw — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:23:48 +0000

The launch of Nexus One is creating lots of buzz among Google fans, and it seems they all can’t wait to get a real thing in their hands. And even me, not a crazy fan of Google, is considering switching my Nokia 6110 for a Nexus One. But on second thought, hey! it is FIVE HUNDRED dollar phone, should I get one simply because it is cool? And we all know that cool doesn’t last long. So, I just did a little research online to see if I should get one. Then I found that most of reviews are pretty negative. I decided to highlighted five things that you want to consider before having a nexus one:
1 The interface design of Nexus One is terrible. One of the most important reason for their buyers to consider before getting hands on it is that whether or not it is cool or fashionable. But obviously Google delivered a poor answer to this question. You can’t certainly compare Nexus One to Iphone, Nexus One is just like other commercial 3G phone, black and old-fashion. You can’t even regconize it is a Nexus One if you missed the logo printed on the back.
2 Application. Google is only offering around 15,000 applications for their phone. And compared to Apple’s more than 100,000 available applications online, it is huge disadvantage that google will have to deal with, especially in terms of entertainment. That means a real lack of good games, no eBook readers like Kindle or Noook, no Slingplayer etc. Remember, phone is now becoming a platform for most people, a wide variety of applications is fundamental.
3 Security. No real password protection. Hardware or SD encryption. No remote management or wipe. Maybe Ok for consumers but hardly good enough to protect anything important.
4 Exchange. It’s nice to see Exchange support native (HTC has offered it for their Android devices for some time) to Android but it’s not a great implementation. Too many issues, especially in terms of calendar.
5 locked out? Google offers two options：Completely free phone, which means you can use it under any operator’s network, but the price is 529. Locked in phone, which means you have to sign up a two-year contract using T-mobile’s network, and the price is 179. So, I am just wondering why Google is claiming their phone locked out?

So, the result comes out that neither will I pay 530 for an immature product, nor will I sign up a two year contract with any operator.(Cause I already signed one)

Posted in Mobile Technology&Communication

disctinctive use of SMS in China

gzliuzw — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:46:16 +0000

SMS as a cheap and easily available form of communication is popular globally, especially in developing countries such as China. Even though business people in China make voice calls frequently, most mobile phone subsribers, including youth, communicate primarily through SMS. The number of SMSs sent out each year in China is estonishing. For instance, MIIT statistics showed the Chinese cell phone users have sent 692.1 billion text messages in 2007, with a daily volume of more than 1.6 billion, for an average of 1.6 billion/day and a daily revenue of 160 million yuan (around US $21 million) (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/08/content_7581868.htm).
The primary reason for the prevalence of SMS in China is because of the cheap price – the lowest cost of sending one test message is only 0.1 yuan (approximately 1.4 U.S cent).
Other than the cheap price, there are also some distinctive traits of SMS use in China. For instance, text messages in China are often self-written, but the use of pre-written is also common. These types of messages are widely available and can either be copied from books or downloaded from the Internet, though most people merely forward messages they’ve received. The contents are usually jokes, ads and holiday greetings. For example, during the 2008 spring festival in China, approximately 1.7 billion text messages were sent, and most of these messages were pre-written consisting of greeting words to send regards to friends, business partners and parents. Another reason I found out accountable for the prevalence of pre-written messages is to compensate for low literacy levels in rural area (especially difficulty with inputing characters).
Another distinctive use of text messages in China is for advertising purpose. Among 700 billion messages being sent out in 2007, 353 billion are messages were considered as spams or consisting of adverting elements, up from 93% from 2006. It is about 12.44 msgs/week/person. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_messaging#cite_note-18)
Last but not least, much like other developing countries, SMS is also being utilized as a tool for education in China. For instance, in rural China, farmers can easily subscribe to phone newspaper which mainly consists of agricultural and weather information.

Posted in Mobile Technology&Communication

Book Review On Groundswell by Charlene Li&Josh Bernoff

gzliuzw — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:03:19 +0000

About the author:
Charlene Li is an influential thought leader and guide on emerging technologies, with a specific focus on social technologies, interactive media, and marketing. She is the co-author of the business best-seller, Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies, published by Harvard Business Press in May 2008. Named “One of the Most Influential Women in Technology” by Fast Company magazine, Charlene is the founder of Altimeter Group which provides speaking and consulting services to organizations looking to understand and thrive in a new economy driven by social media tools and techniques.

Reflection:
Before I read this book, I was confident that I know what social media is because I have been using them ever since these social technologies emerge in China. Also, I believed that all these social technologies are just entertaining tools which do not have many business implications or usages. So, when my instructor told me to read this book which focus on social technologies, I thought:” well, let’s just see what something new or insights the author will provide us.”

After reading this book, I realized that I was well proved to be wrong in many ways because I could never have imagined that social media is such a broad sense which has implications in many ways of our life and definitely not just entertaining tools.

Basically, the author divided this book into three parts:

In the first part, the author focus on explaining the idea of groundswell, what kind of challenges and opportunities that groundswell presents to companies and why and how to develop groundswell thinking by taking advantage of the social technographics profile. Also, the other important message raised in this part is that it’fundamental to “concentrate on the relationships, not the technologies.”

In the second part, the author outlines five principles that companies should pursue in order to tap into the groundswell:
1 Listening
2 Talking
3 Energizing
4 Supporting
5 Embracing
To make these objectives seem more relevant to our daily business practice, I transform them into our business strategies: listening to the groundswell means researching and focusing on the conversation happening on the groundswell on your companies. Talking to the groundswell means participating in the conversation and asking for your consumers’ concerns and opinions on your companies or products. Energizing the groundswell means energizing your consumers or audience to be more active in the groundswell – to be able to provide more feedbacks, generate more meaningful conversation and eventually develop a more strong connection with your companies. Supporting the groundswell means providing more opportunities, channels and information in the groundswell to let them thrive. Embracing the groundswell means trusting and counting on the groundswell to get yours companies developed and thrived in this environment
The second part also goes into more detail as to how to leverage technologies to achieve these strategies. There are detailed case studies, and in some cases even some rough numbers outlining the ROI of the activity. The list of companies and case studies are impressive and help legitimize the movement. Not all of the stories are straight-forward ’success stories’, but each shows to highlight how an individuals’ vision and dedication made a difference.
In the last part, again, the author emphasize the business importance for companies to embrace groundswell to engage with their consumers. Also, the author outlines two main shifts of companies to in order to embrace groundswell: the first one is to ready shift controls.The author explains that a major consideration, and one that organizations are not always prepared for, is the notion of giving up control. However,
In the groundswell environment, people are powerful and they are in control of everything – your brand is not what you say what it is, people say what it is. So, I see this is an essential step to truly leverage the power of the Groundswell, but requires a fundamental change throughout the organization. The other one is to get ready to leverage the tools of the groundswell inside the company itself. I’ve seen many ceo or employees opening their blogs, facebook accounts and searching information in google.
However, it is simply not enough to only have several accounts. What is really important, as the author indicates, is that company’s leadership should fully recognize the significance of such relationships in the groundswell environment, and everyone within organization embrace this new way of doing business. To give a close to the book, the author paints a picture of what is the future of groundswell. And again, the focus is not on specific technologies or tools, but rather on how relationships are evolving and how to be prepared for them.

Wrap-up:
The author did a good job by giving us an amazing tour to the world of Groundswell. Her interpretation of Groundswell’s implications are also precise as well as far-sighted. My ending thought is that Groundswell is beautiful and it is time for giant companies to shift their power back to their consumers.Why? We have been hearing entrepreneurs working in giant multinational talking about making companies powerful and bigger. However, during the financial meltdown, we also have been witnessing those giants like AIG, GM bankcrupting in short time, which is pretty impossible for us to believe in just a few years ago. The reason behind these unusual phenomenon is that the economy is changing, transforming in a speed they can not catch up with. Under the industrial economic system, giants always win partly because of their rich capital, scale, and standardization which makes them quickly obtain the largest market shares. But what is even more important as I believe is that choices are scarcity at that time and therefore customers could only rely on a few companies to create whatever they want. However, this is not the case anymore. Now, we are entering the age of Groundswell and transforming into a new econmic model named infor-economy. Under such economic system, with all these cheap tools, technologies and rich channels available, choices are created quickly, and choices are abundancy. So, gaint companies offering limited choices today will fail or not fast enough to meet their consumers’ ever changing needs and start to lose their markets shares and revenues. But, for those individuals or SMES(small and medium enterprises) which sucessfully survive in the meltdown, they are young,dynamic and agile. They’d love to embrace groundswell technologies(cheap, ease of use,functional) and they are fast enough to change their focus and create choices and customization for their customers. Also, they are small and have little to lose compared to giants. If they win, they will hold on to their “groundswell thinking” essence. If they lose, then what the hell, they lose little and at least they are die trying.

Posted in book review, digital economic