Web 2.0 Asia

Continued from the previous post...

6. Equivalent of ALT+TAB on mobile

If the small screen is one of the biggest limiting factors of mobile UI, why not provide a larger "virtual screen" that consists of layers of "sub-screens"? User can navigate through different layers by clicking on a hot key, equivalent of ALT+TAB on the PC. I'm talking about something like Apple's Spaces concept, only on mobile.

Yes, something similar to this may be available on smartphones today, but smartphones represent only (at max) 20% of the market - the rest 80% of users are still suffering from small screens, although to me this concept of "mobile ALT+TAB" doesn't sound something terribly difficult for the manufacturers to implement even on non-smart phones.

7. Better Java

Java certainly has its own limits, especially under mobile environment, but there's no doubt Java is currently the ruling platform for mobile applications.

The problem: mobile Java is supposed to enable platform-independent "one source multi use", but we all know that's not exactly the way it is now. The main culprit is different handset specifications - different MIDP versions, different screen sizes, etc.

So what should we do? Of course we should continue our efforts to move the whole Java ecosystem forward. But we should look to the present as well as into the future, and try to make the life easier for current Java content providers despite today's market inefficiencies.

So we can conceive a "Java sweatshop" - not so much a politically correct term, but I can't think of a better term. It's like this: Every manufacturer sends like 3 sets of every Java phone the company makes, as well as all the spec documents, to this Java sweatshop company. The company (can be either a non-profit or a for-profit) has specialists for optimizing Java apps for different phones, and also has applications testers. A Java application provider then just develops a single version using a standard Java SDK, submits the copy to this sweatshop, which will then optimize the app for all required phones. Possibly a good offshore opportunity here.

8. Killer accessories

With billions of people using mobile phones globally, I guess the world can now have a global-scale moblie phone accessories company. The Belkin of cell phones, so to speak.

No matter where you are in the world, you can check out this company's local online store to find the coolest phone accessories like audio speakers, arm bands, car kits, gaming pads, etc. Wouldn't that be cool?

I guess one hurdle to be overcome is the manufacturers not opening up their phone specs and software to the external parties, who can only produce these cool accessories after having full specs of the phones. This is especially true on the feature phones, which do not support "plug and play" by any means.

9. 10x better batteries

People talk about all kinds of reasons why the mobile data service market isn't taking off as expected, but the battery problem, arguably the most important issue, doesn't get mentioned very prominently.

I don't know if it's just me, but I assume quite a few people will have peace of mind only when they know they have at least one bar left on their phone's battery level indicator before they get an access to the charger.

You don't care as much when your iPod's battery goes dead as when your cell phone battery goes dead. Why? You don't know when someone will call you up or send a text message. The idea that the cell phone should be alive till the last minute deters some people from consuming multimedia content (music, TV, etc) in a lavish, free-of-worries way on their mobile phones.

By the way, I think I've read something about the cell phone holder-cum-charger I can clip onto my waistbelt. You attach your phone to this holder, plug the whole thing into the socket, and you charge the phone and the holder at the same time. Then the holder goes to your waistbelt, and when you put the phone back onto this holder, you are charging up the phone. So, in effect this is just like carrying two batteries, but more in style. I thought that was a cool idea - Is this thing around and used by many people ?

10. Improved refurb phone market

Indeed, no one wants a refurb phone. But what I'm talking about here is the specific practice of buying well-maintained secondhand phones from the developed world at a lower price and selling them to the underdeveloped part of the world.

Believe me, quite a few guys (especially youngsters) change their phones every 6 months. By the time they are trading their phones in, those phone are not exactly in bad shape - after all they've been around for only 6 months.

Even after 1-2 years of use, many phones remain still pretty usable - with a few quick fixes, the condition can improve even more.

To help things, can't we think of some kind of phone lease program, where deposits will be deducted depending on the phone's conditions as of the lease-end? To get more piece of the original deposit back, people might try to keep the phone's conditions good. This way we can source well-maintained secondhand phones in bulk, which can be shipped to underdeveloped areas and sold at a reasonable price.

I know that new phones are sold at under $100 in those markets - But then these phones are stripped-down versions that don't offer a lot of features. On the other hand, second hand phones from more developed countries will likely have a lot more multimedia features.

I haven't crunched the numbers yet so I'm not entirely sure if those secondhand phones can be sold at comparable prices as low-end new phones - but if they can, then these "high-end secondhand" models might be a quite good alternative to the sub-$100 new phones.