On Sunday writer Chetan Sharma, in a guest column for GigaOM, posted a very thoughtful analysis on the current landscape of mobile content. The article takes a look at carrier aspirations to become content creators, analyzing the prospects of success versus that of media companies.
Carriers have long aspired to become content creators, fearing the dreaded association of being mere “dumb pipes.” Yet, as the article asserts, this perhaps oversimplifies the situation. The article suggests that the “engineering-focused” culture of mobile operators is not suited to the detailed creative/consumer understanding that media companies bring to the process of developing content. However, the carriers do have access to other information that they can leverage to their advantage, in particular assets like location-aware technology, detailed customer profiles and ability to standardize new technology across a wide base of users:
“To be successful over the long term, operators need to focus on the unique elements that only they can provide — such as location, presence, user profiles and platforms for applications; as well as device and network APIs — and build business models around abstracting this information so that the ecosystem can utilize them to enhance user experience and usage.”
In other words, these assets provide carriers with a sustainable advantage they can bring to third parties and to their customers. This stands in contrast to the realm of “content,” where carriers inevitably compete with other media companies and handset manufacturers, many of which create mobile content offerings of their own.
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