Secrets of the Wireless Elite: Alexei Polyakov

By John Papageorge
2005-05-05


Who Has the Killer Mobile App?
Polyakov believes that the wireless industry has given up the quest for a single killer application and has instead tried to introduce a variety of applications for different market segments. He believes some applications might be very successful in terms of revenue and adoption, but only within the boundaries of their own segments.

"In my opinion, person-to-person communications services, such as SMS, mobile e-mail, or picture messaging will appeal to users strongly, compared to content-based services such as getting news, playing games, or downloading ring tones," he says. The "emotional experience" of using mobile e-mail or live video telephony will, he predicts, "definitely drive sales in both consumer and corporate data usage services." However, Polyakov believes that games still have a role to play in the handset market; with the number and variety of Java phones on the rise, downloadable games have a good chance of becoming "one of the main contributors to mobile data revenues too, because users are tiring of a standard set of games built in to their phones."

"Nevertheless, the compression applications or services that will give users the ability to save money by reducing download time and volume" are the next big thing, he continues. "As consumer and corporate data usage grows, the desire of users to cut the costs for downloaded data will prevail. I strongly believe that mobile data compression services are the area where 'killer applications' can emerge and generate stable revenues."

Tutorial Pages:
» Use Compression to Keep Costs Down and Performance Up
» Notes from Japan
» What Developers Should Know ...
» ... and What They Should Avoid
» What Challenges do Developers Face?
» Who Has the Killer Mobile App?
» Application Examples
» Lessons Learned in Japan
» In Conclusion
» Resources


First published by IBM DeveloperWorks

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