• The netbook. People already have portable devices suitable for reading news in web format. What is the real benefit of having to drag around yet another device?
• You might argue then, why a book reader is OK while news reader is not? Well, there are 2 things: 1) people rarely read more than a few articles in each newspaper so the need for paper like display is questionable 2) book reader is small form-factor while news reader is large form-factor. And then again, you don’t carry around dozens of magazines or papers so the usage scenario is totally different from book reader one.
• Price. There is tremendous amount of information available online, so why pay for it? If you really want to have the occasional paper, just pick one up as a paper version. No need to carry around another gadget just in case.

I understand this incentive from monetary perspective, as moving content to digital distribution channel might make for huge saving in the future when the whole logistics involving printing and distribution could be cut down. But once again, a good idea really should have more into it than the idea itself. Just take a deep look into the consumer behaviour and current capabilities to get the information they need and a dedicated device could be rendered pretty useless. You know, people are using their phones to listen music and web browsing and there must be a reason for that. And that reason is to not having to carry around so much stuff.

As the launch of Apple’s new revision of the iPhone is approaching, there has been growing amount of criticism towards Apple not introducing anything really revolutionary with the new product. This critique is normally heard from U.S. and that is understandable, given that U.S. is still lagging behind Europe when it comes to mobile infrastructure. As an iPhone 2G user, however, I must contradict some of these arguments. There are some unique selling points from European perspective:

• 3G. European 3G coverage is getting near 100% and for example in the Nordics, subsidized contracts are only allowed for 3G devices.
• iTunes & AppStore. Try to find as usable for any other mobile handset. You won’t.
• Cocoa Touch. Yeah, there are loads of Windows Mobile phones with touch screen, mainly in the U.S. market. I actively use Samsung SGH-i780 for my corporate tasks and I can only say that there are touch UIs and then there is Apple’s touch UI. Try to guess which one works.
• Mobile Safari. Only desktop grade mobile browser. Don’t even try to mention Opera, it is not even close.
• ActiveSync. While RIM rules the U.S. market, Europe is still wide open for corporate solutions. This might give Apple a chance.
• Battery life. Reviews say that iPhone’s battery life is bad. Well, compare that with any Nokia N-series phone, which are common in Europe, in similar usage scenario and iPhone is not that bad at all.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

It’s now been about one year since the original iPhone came out, but it’s the new version of the phone where things really start getting interesting. First of all, Microsoft has been pushing hard to make progress with Windows Mobile with help from HTC and SonyEricsson with their forthcoming XPERIA. On the Google front, Android platform has been gaining some vocal support and finally Nokia has also been busy copying the touchscreen support for their S60 Touch platform. So, from consumer perspective things are looking far more interesting than for a long long time.

The difference with consumer handset market, when compared to the earlier situation, is that mobile phone has grown into something different than a simple phone with maybe a calendar or email. The phone now is a content distribution and services platform – effectively an iPod on steroids. This is why we’ve seen Apple and Google enter the market as well as Microsoft making a strong push with their mobile Windows Live. It’s all about advertising using location based services and mobile entertainment using Apple’s iTunes or Nokia’s new Ovi as the content distribution platform.

Then, there is the enterprise aspect. Nokia, Research In Motion and Microsoft have traditionally been strong in the enterprise arena, all providing different solutions for mobile workers and ICT departments alike. Now, with the new software release, also Apple will be entering the enterprise arena with their ActiveSync connectivity and VPN solutions from Cisco and, more importantly, CheckPoint. So far, there has not been announced plans for Google’s Android, but this propably will change if there is enough consumer pressure to do it.

So, why all the fuss? The mobile internet market is still small when compared to the whole Web 2.0 craze. However, this will change as the handsets are getting feature rich and have fast data connections available practically around the globe. This means that traditional desktop browser apps like search, instant messaging and social networking will begin a shift to mobile, in essence providing a new advertising channel – to the one who owns the mobile page impressions. Also, the new mobile terminals will start replacing MP3 players and PMPs as the portable entertainment platform, thus emphasising the importance of owning the distribution chain to the end consumer.

This is why I think the whole mobile industry will be going through a very interesting period in the coming 5 years. Although there are players with dominant market positions at the moment (especially RIM and Nokia), the whole market will be going through some serious value chain changes. This, I think, will actually change the game and it is really hard to tell who will be winning different parts of the market.

My prediction is that in the first round, Apple will pull it off in the content distribution with iTunes, Google will take the advertising share with help of iPhone and Android, and finally Nokia will take the enterprise market, with RIM and Microsoft as strong challengers. However, the second round is harder. It just might be that Apple can actually also penetrate the enterprise market after gaining the top of mind position in the consumer’s minds. It is the same model that will eventually also force Mac into enterprise, regardless of ICT department’s will. In the end, the consumers will be the ones making the rules and that is why competitors should fear Apple. Jobs & co. know what the consumers want.

UPDATE: Also TechCrunch writes on the subject.