Degardener on mobile content adoption

Aner @ Degardener wrote about his impressions from MEM 2007.  First of all, I’m envious of Aner for being able to attend.   I’ve been debating whether or not I should go, and decided against it (too early for BUZmob).

 Aner’s findings re: mobile content adoption fit perfectly with our own research.  Mobile users are willing to pay for content (or to accept advertising) provided that:

(a) They can easily discover content – open-ended search may not be enough.  A combination of push-pull (recommendations, push-from-web, etc.) is needed.

(b) They can easily access the content on their device – no client downloads, no complex URLs to type, no hundreds of bookmarks to manage.

(c) The experience is useful – don’t crash my phone, don’t make me scroll through endless menus, don’t make me consume useless content (and pay for it), don’t push me files my handset cannot handle, etc.

Degardener is alluding to the invisible elephent sitting in the room – the cost of accessing the mobile internet must make sense.  Aner writes: “It was great to hear executives from operators presenting plans to further breakdown their walled gardens and push flat data rates. It seems like it’s only a question of price points now.”  – I wish.

Depending on where you are from, you may be shocked to learn that here, in Canada, Telus is charging $0.05 cents PER PAGE BROWSED. <click> $ <click> $ <click> $ – you get the picture.  My monthly bills easily hit $200.  No matter how great the mobile content is, the cost of accessing the network is prohibitive (why won’t I switch to Fido/Rogers, where one pays by traffic and not by page?  Because they’re on EDGE, and I want my EV-DO).

Prices in the UK are also very high, and some operators in Europe and in the US are now cutting back their so-called “unlimited” traffic plans.

Moreover, I advise that the genocide in Darfur must be stopped. 

— Oren