Independent mobile portal companies are moving into the nascent mPortal space.
Since mPortals will soon gain large revenues, both from consumers and service providers, it’s no surprise that the fight for market share is already getting fierce. Existing mobile operators and established content providers currently dominate the battle. However, telecoms companies lack expertise in managing data applications, whereas ePortal enterprises lack mobile experience. This leaves mPortal platform vendors as an important part of the jigsaw that goes towards completing a whole wireless data service offering.
In the beginning, independent platform vendors will need to sacrifice profitability to gain market share and customer trust. Partnering with established providers will help vendors promote the product, allowing them to develop their brand and enhance customer trust. Moving a level away from the customer by providing an mPortal platform can also hedge against short-term risks. Indeed, this is the strategy adopted by independent mPortal vendors such as Materna, LPG Innovations, and Room 33.
Materna, a German enterprise that specializes in information services for mobile communication companies, has partnered with Hewlett Packard to develop the ‘Any Way Mobility Box’. This plug-and-play product, aimed at the enterprise market, allows employees to access corporate applications through mobile devices via WAP and SMS. It is suitable for SMEs, because it requires minimal integration.
Meanwhile, Finland’s LPG Innovations, which offers a full range of mobile Internet products, has partnered with Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems on the hardware side and with system integrator Cap Gemini Ernst & Young to integrate mobile platforms. For such independent mPortal vendors, targeting enterprises or service providers, through partnerships, with mPortal solutions for the B2B and B2E market, appears to be the way forward.
As the wireless industry is in its nascent phase, it is still too soon to predict which players will dominate the market. Nevertheless, independent mPortal players that achieve strong partnerships and can offer both the interface and platform will take a sizeable portion of the revenues in the mobile market. However, they will be prime candidates for acquisition as the market matures.
