Welcome to Gigigo Mobile Services

The Jil is not really a new party or whatsoever. It is a very interesting alliance (http://www.jil.org/) created by 3 of the most important mobile operators in the world: Vodafone, China Mobile and Softbank. These 3 operators are putting together their experience to work on some nice projects; the first one has been a Widget Platform.

We don't know yet if this has been developed by all 3 or one of them. What we know is that Vodafone is launching a very interesting concept both for users and developers: Now+. Although we have seen some similitudes with the Apple Store for Iphones we think this new approach is really relevant for mobile companies. (We all should be now preparing our business plans to be compliant with this new business model)

Now+ is a "bit" different from Vodafone Live!: almost everything has been designed (user experience for instance) to target a more mature user (personalization features). Also the platforms (service itself, billing, CRM, LBS,...) have been thought to ease life to developers and service providers (finally).

What we like about this new concept?

1 - Service has been designed (is being currently designed) targeting a more mature user: personalization features, "I choose" content options and much more.

2 - Developer Platforms: believe it or not this alliance is putting the bases on standard: billing, processes, widget developments, etc...

3 - Opportunities: can you imagine Mr. John Chou in Shangai downloading a premium game done in Alcobendas (Madrid)?

We like it but there are still some questions:

How many handsets will be compliant with widgets?Will users massively adopt this? In the PC mobile widgets are still not very popular.Business Models? Mobile operators are expecting to receive a share on advertising revenues? Apple does not receive them.Premium Billing? Will the operators understand that 50% is still too low?

We will keep you updated on this.

Have fun and thanks for reading until this line.

Sergio Llorens

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