If so, what specific services are we talking about, and who is best placed to offer them?

Post edited by: MJJoseph, at: 2007/06/14 23:38

Post edited by: abraham, at: 2007/06/20 19:19

Post edited by: MJJoseph, at: 2007/05/10 06:02

I think most consumers would like some level of MDM e.g. contacts backup, although pricing would be crucial. Initially I see that an operator could offer the service at a low price and then go onto some sort of bundling with other MDM features once the consumer sector has used and understood the attraction. Right now, they would probably not want it - you don't miss what you've never had!

I'm not sure there's much *conscious* demand at all at the moment from domestic users. I can see a few value-add examples such as automatic contacts backup (Orange do this in the UK, for example) to ease changeover to new handsets whilst reducing network churn, or even automatic backup of pictures taken with the phone to Flickr/photo printing companies etc.

In the enterprise, MDM is key, but in the consumer space I think there's a case to be made: it's just not been made convincingly yet.

I agree with R. Harris but from the operator point of view there are tangible benefits with Advanced Device Management or MDM when it comes to domestic users.

For example if I am carrying a Nokia phone and I am having difficulties with MMS or any other service I have to know which Nokia device I am carrying.

If I do not remember, I need to remove the battery from the phone and check from the sticker inside which model I have and then call the operator again.

That was just one example but if the operator would have for example an icon in the phone "Help Desk" or something similar the software could upload all the current information of the phone, configurations and software to the operator server prior the call.

This "remote diagnostics" procedure would reduce the troubleshooting time dramatically and also when the operator could configure the phone remotely that would guarantee better results than sending SMS messages today to the user.

Also application management is something that could bring lot of benefits to the operators.

To me the puzzling thing in all of this, is why it is taking the mobile operators so long to roll out some of these basic services that mterhonen and r.haris refer to. After all, operators can’t be blind to the fact that consumers might upgrade more readily to new handsets if they had an easy way of getting their contacts, pictures, games, etc onto the new handsets. They also can’t be oblivious to the number of ‘no-fault-found’ returns they have been getting as consumers struggle with performing basic functions on new ‘advanced’ handsets.

Granted, operators are wise to question whether firmware over the air update (FOTA) is a wise investment, and if so, whether it is they rather than the device manufacturers who ought to do the investing. But surely the case for automatic device detection (ADD) (instead of using up valuable customer service time getting the consumer to figure out exactly what device he or she has) should also be a no-brainer.

Of course the next logical step beyond ADD is automatic device configuration (ADC). But just how automatic this ought to be and what code of conduct operators ought to abide by when configuring newly discovered devices on their networks are issues open to debate.