3 ms·

Plus handests have different proprietary apis for the more advanced stuff in j2me. Certainly as soon as you start trying to do anything 'interesting' it becomes

by danw 20y ago

Plus handests have different proprietary apis for the more advanced stuff in j2me. Certainly as soon as you start trying to do anything 'interesting' it becomes a nightmare and there is a lot of space to improve. Mobile widgets might prove to be a good solution. I forgot another problem: uncertainty about monetization. Theres no proven way to make money on mobile yet. Do you go ad supported? Sell to operators, device makers or users? Charge micropayments or subscriptions? It's hard to pitch a mobile startup when you dont know how you're going to make money from it!

Tichy 20y ago
Here in germany several companies are making good money with mobile phones. Usually the payment is all through "premium SMS", which can cost up to 5. So you can sell an application for 5 by having the user send an SMS to a certain number (you can also make it a monthly charge of 5, if you are lucky). Not sure how it works in the US. A huge share of the 5 goes to the operator, I think at least 40%, but it still works. I think there is room for Ad Support for mobile devices - is anybody even doing it yet? One could start a company focussing on that - making interesting applications available for "free" might also give the whole business a boost. At the moment it has a very bad reputation where I live because mostly the industry was ripping of kids. I don't think there even is a portal to check for serious applications. The mobile games portals have some serious applications at times, but I don't think the target audience is likely to stumble upon them there.
- danw 20y ago
  it has a very bad reputation where I live because mostly the industry was ripping of kids Same here in the UK. There are a lot of companies tricking kids into premium subscription services for ringtones, etc. Perhaps there is an oppertunity for a mobile marketplace/portal for applications? I think there are plenty of these for games, but are there any for apps? If the portal handled distribution, easy installation, etc it could work.
  - Tichy 20y ago
    I'd like to think there is. How did the Palm Pilot homepage fare, anyway, they used to sell serious applications for Palm Pilots? At least in Germany the established players seem to have a firm believe that the only ways to make serious money are through excessive TV advertising and abo schemes, or to be on the WAP pages of the actual carriers. There must be a huge untapped market out there, though - I don't know anybody who ever surfed their carriers WAP pages. I am currently setting up a dedicated homepage for my mobile phone application, hoping to tap some other channels. I guess I will report back to YC news in a few weeks about it's success or failure.

by danw 20y ago

Tichy 20y ago

Here in germany several companies are making good money with mobile phones. Usually the payment is all through "premium SMS", which can cost up to 5. So you can sell an application for 5 by having the user send an SMS to a certain number (you can also make it a monthly charge of 5, if you are lucky). Not sure how it works in the US. A huge share of the 5 goes to the operator, I think at least 40%, but it still works. I think there is room for Ad Support for mobile devices - is anybody even doing it yet? One could start a company focussing on that - making interesting applications available for "free" might also give the whole business a boost. At the moment it has a very bad reputation where I live because mostly the industry was ripping of kids. I don't think there even is a portal to check for serious applications. The mobile games portals have some serious applications at times, but I don't think the target audience is likely to stumble upon them there.

danw 20y ago
it has a very bad reputation where I live because mostly the industry was ripping of kids Same here in the UK. There are a lot of companies tricking kids into premium subscription services for ringtones, etc. Perhaps there is an oppertunity for a mobile marketplace/portal for applications? I think there are plenty of these for games, but are there any for apps? If the portal handled distribution, easy installation, etc it could work.
- Tichy 20y ago
  I'd like to think there is. How did the Palm Pilot homepage fare, anyway, they used to sell serious applications for Palm Pilots? At least in Germany the established players seem to have a firm believe that the only ways to make serious money are through excessive TV advertising and abo schemes, or to be on the WAP pages of the actual carriers. There must be a huge untapped market out there, though - I don't know anybody who ever surfed their carriers WAP pages. I am currently setting up a dedicated homepage for my mobile phone application, hoping to tap some other channels. I guess I will report back to YC news in a few weeks about it's success or failure.