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Intohand @ Mobile Monday London

22 October 2009

MitchelLakes intrepid European correspondent, JDR tracks down Mobile applications and services entrepreneur Keiren Gutteridge post Mobile Monday London

At the last Mobile Monday in London where the topic was Java and Mobile, Kieran Gutterdige was one of four speakers from the industry. I was struck by his succinct and clear answers that helped unravel the mystery of java and mobile. Keen to find out more, I caught up with Kieran when he was back at the Intohand office in Bath…

1. First up let’s talk about Intohand; you are one of the founders of the company, how did it all begin?
A number of us were all working in the games industry and we realised that there were great opportunites within the growing mobile industry back in 2006. We decided to move across and we started doing branded content, applications and mobile web work. We currently have a small but growing team and we're based in Bath U.K.

2. So tell us a little bit more about Intohand and what you do, what are your plans for the rest of the year?
We try to encourage our clients to really think about their mobile product and what they are trying to achieve. Often clients will contact us and say ‘I want an iphone AP,’ our job is to make them think beyond an iphone AP and consider Android handsets, Blackberries or even the Playstation3. It’s quite possible to produce something that’s compatible with the majority of handsets on the market rather than just the one or two that are usually targeted. One of the advantages of coming from the games industry was that we learnt how to distribute globally; we can develop aps for international markets and hit huge numbers of handsets. We've done apps for operators such as Bell Canada, 3Sweden, TMobile UK, Orange UK, AT&T USA and brand owners such as Tesco, Heinz and BMI Baby. Going back to the discussion from the last Mobile Monday in London, when it comes to java, don’t limit products to just java, take a concept and deliver it as widely as you can. In terms of Intohand and our plans I can’t give too much away at the moment but watch this space, we will be launching some interesting and useful products in the New Year!


3. The White paper on your website talks about device fragmentation in java, what are the implications of this for companies trying to set up a mobile presence?
Mobile needs to be made a lot easier for people and businesses to navigate through. There is a lot of jargon associated with mobile and that doesn’t make things easy for a company attempting to start using it as a channel. I guess what we are trying to point out in the paper is that there are many stumbling blocks when you decide to develop for Java Mobile. We can certainly help solve the majority of people’s problems in this regard; a lot of this comes from the design of the AP in the first place. So it’s important to be aware of these things from the beginning. You can ususally get a product to be compatible across a wide range of handsets but it needs to be thought about at the start, not at the end! For more information about mobile development in java see Intohand’s whitepaper.

4. What would be Intohand’s greatest achievement this year?
I think that would be our software toolkits coming of age and being refined with customer input; we are looking forward to releasing them to wider audiences in 2010

5. Broadly speaking how much growth do you predict for mobile web in the next 12 months?
Back to why we set up intohand in the first place, it was the nokia N80 that made us sit up and think yes! It was a 3G phone, it had wifi built in and we thought that this was going to be the start of something huge for mobile web. Of course mobile web still has a long way to go and we're still reeling from the ramifications of bill shock, as cliché as it sounds. Luckily we are moving away from that now with flat charges and all you can eat data packages. The uptake of smartphones in increasing and as long as people can be encouraged to have a second and third experience on mobile web, then things are only going to get bigger. Carriers who are promoting things like ‘free facebook for a month’ are helping to re-build the trust that was lost through subscription services and data charges. Apple’s no nonsense attitude with consumers and in particular their campaign promoting iphone aps does help to demonstrate the possibilities to consumers.

6. What are your thoughts on the Apple Tablet rumours and potentail iphone killers?
Well i’m not a big believer in the Apple tablet rumours that have been circulating. The distance between a laptop and a mobile just isn’t so great that a larger intermediary screen is necessary. Of course now that I’ve said that, Apple are going to prove me wrong! Realistically the larger the screens are, the harder it is to maintain battery life and this is a huge limiting factor. We have had 4/5 years of huge variety in handsets, now most new devices have the same dimensions (such as 240x320); there are only a few exceptions. This makes it cheaper for developers and mobile companies to develop more things, so everybody wins. I think Palm is a good idea and Android is a very interesting platform from a developers point of view, their not really iphone killers though. The differentiator now is the software that’s built into the phone. The problem is that consumers continue to get bored, even if something is very sucessful. Look at the Motorola RAZR V3, how many times did Motorola re-badge it and bring it out again? But in the end, people needed something new. I think that is where Apple keeps getting its success from and no doubt they will come up with something else soon.

7. What is the most common problem you encounter when dealing with clients who want to have a mobile presence for their brand?
Billing, once you get over the fragmentation issue, monetising content becomes the next problem as it’s still difficult to monetise content. For example, if you were creating an application for a book reseller it would be difficult to charge per item, which is what you would ideally want. Therefore what are the options? Advert supported? Subscription based? Pay before download? This is an ongoing issue for most people. Premium SMS isn’t a great way anymore, people are scared of it and think they will be locked into something; I feel it’s an untrusted payment mechanism. It’s also difficult in terms of revenue division, if you are charging the consumer £1, the carrier and the aggregator require their share, leaving the content producer with a very small amount.

8. Do you think that O2 losing the iPhone exclusivity deal to Orange will have any major repercussions for consumers in the U.K?
I think it will help but I don’t think it’s a major breakthrough. In the US market the iPhone has hit $99, which is a huge milestone. This pitches it at a completely different market and makes it more affordable to more people broadening its base. The iPhone's limited slice of the market is its only major limitation. The Apple AP store is available in all territories and this means as a developer you can distribute more effectively, provided you meet Apples guidelines. Java is different, getjar only currently supports limited business models, what Apple have done isn’t that difficult but it’s made it easier for everyone to enter the market. 3 years ago you couldn’t distribute a Java AP on 3 UK off portal, now you can. From a developer’s point of view, the appeal of Apple or Androids app stores is the revenue share and easy distribution. The bad press about the long approval process with Apple's app store is not as bad as people makeout and it normally takes just as long to get an application through Java Verify, which costs significantly more.

9. Columnist Charlie Brooker recently wrote in the Guardian about 'nauseating' apple people or the ‘brotherhod of mac,' are you pro Apple or anti?It doesn’t really apply too much to Mobile but I think the equivalent would be Blackberry users; they are similarly very loyal to their devices. In the UK recently, mobile developer Simon Maddox developed an app for Android that turned 0845 numbers into normal local numbers, saving the mobile user the extra charges for calling an 0845 number. Once out in the market place and getting press, everyone wanted the app but it was only available for Android. After 429 days Apple finally approved it and it is now available in the Apple store for iPhone. The reason for the delay was supossedly due to someone in the value chain not approving the AP, surprise surprise! As soon as people heard about it again being available and now for iphone, the cry went up, where is the Blackberry version? This highlights the danger of targeting just one type of handset.
(For more information about the 0845 AP see the UK Telegraph)


10. Any plans for expansion Down Under?
We have a number of contacts in Australia, one of our senior developers spent 3 months in Sydney last year. In terms of major expansion we will see growth into Europe then most likely the U.S and other emerging markets first. Australia is on the cards but due to our knowledge of Europe and also our existing relationships with other carriers, the Australian market is a little way off for us just yet!

Kieran Gutteridge - CTO and Co-Founder at Intohand

Kieran is a pioneer of application development in the mobile space, where he has led the deployment of innovative client-server solutions which deliver a diversity of mobile services. He has broad expertise in software development but also the skill to develop small footprint, efficient mobile applications, including Java mobile solutions. Kieran is CTO of Intohand and responsible for all technical projects within the business.

Written by: Jess Dunton Rose

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