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(VEN) - For mobile phone applications to be commercially viable, they
must be able to function with actual mobile phones and not just in a
simulated computer trial. Juniper Research, a European-based provider
of business intelligence, has predicted that the mobile phone market
will be a US$25 billion industry in five years. Will a small company be
able to enter this market and who among current businesses will be able
to survive the international competition that an industry of this size
is sure to attract?
Mobile phone applications as vast as the Internet Around
100,000 mobile applications are expected to exist by the end of the
year and this number is expected to climb to 10 million by 2020,
according to information technology (IT) specialists who spoke at the
2009 MobileBeat Symposium in July. This prediction was backed by an
Apple representative who said that its hand equipment alone has 65,000
mobile applications and has been loaded more than 1.5 billion times.
People in the US will spend about US$3.8 billion on mobile applications
this year, according to Compass Intelligence and its market surveys
show that the mobile application market in the US grew 20-37 percent
from 2006-2009. It's also projecting earnings of US$9 billion in 2011.
In
Vietnam there has been a phenomenal growth in mobile phone
subscriptions in the recent years with more than 74 million in late
2008 and mobile service providers are faring well. This is important
premises for the development of a mobile application industry. Viettel
has invested in mobile games (www.upro.vn) and plans to soon present a
mobile applications store, according to a Viettel Telecom source. Since
Apple launched its App Store, mobile service providers such as Nokia,
LG, Samsung, and most recently Microsoft have made available their own
mobile applications. However,
made-in-Vietnam mobile applications have been absent except for a few
games, a lunar-solar calendar and dictionaries. Very recently, Vitalk
(vitalk.vn) for chatting and Vimap (vimap.vn) for finding roads were
offered by Viet Thien Co (FPT), and Mpod (mpod-vn) for loading music
and Baomoi Mobile (baomoi.mobile) for searching information, offered by
Felix Studios, have also become available. These products indicate that
Vietnamese businesses are determined to get engaged in this market. Some
are asking what degree of market share Vietnam businesses will be able
to get in this market. IT specialists say that current mobile
application production in Vietnam is similar to that of computer
software production in the late 1990s and early 2000s. "It takes
millions of US dollars to produce one commercially viable mobile
application," said Felix Studios director Bui Truong Son, the developer
of Baomoi Mobile applications. He said that unlike computer
applications, mobile applications require careful testing in a real
environment. "Purchasing several hundred mobile phones which each cost
VND1-20 million to test a mobile application is a financial difficulty
for many businesses and a financial impossibility for independent
groups," said Mr. Son. If
large Vietnamese business groups can get a toehold in this
multi-billion dollar market then it could be said that Vietnam has
gotten a toehold in the market. The Corporation for Financing and
Promoting Technology (FPT) is encouraging its subsidiary, Viet Thien
Co, to go in this direction. A joint venture of nine businesses with
investment capital from IDG Vietnam, which has Vietnam smart phone
applications 2.0 and Lac Viet which has mobile Lac Viet dictionaries,
has formed to invest in mobile applications. The preparations the
Vietnamese hi-tech companies claim to be making raise the hope for
mobile application development here in Vietnam. What
are now needed are skilled personnel who can develop a mobile
application industry. IT students and young programmers find that while
they are able to work with computer applications, they have neither the
financial resources nor the technical capability to develop their
programming skills and creativity to work with mobile applications.
Mobile applications specialists have recommended that those who wish to
practice and develop their skills should make use of Sun's JavaME,
Microsoft's OneApp and Nokia's Widget. The
mobile application market is very promising. However, whether
Vietnamese businesses secure a position in this market (both at home
and abroad) depends, at this early stage, on their preparations and
plans. By Do Le & Thu Hang
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