Mobile Content Glossary

BREW, or Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless is Qualcomm's application development platform for mobile phones and is air-interface independent, meaning it can support GSM/GPRS, UTMS and CDMA. BREW is a piece of software that can download to a handset and run small programs for playing games, sending messages, sharing photos and the like. The main advantage of BREW for developers is the ease with which they can port apps between all of Qualcomm's ASICs. BREW runs in between the application and the wireless device's chip operating system so the programmer can develop apps without having to worry about system interface. The technology debuted in January 2001.

Digital Rights Management or DRM is the catch-all phrase that refers to any technology that enforces pre-defined policies for controlling access to games, music, movies, ringtones or other digital data and hardware. In more technical terms, DRM handles the description, layering, analysis, valuation, trading and monitoring of the rights held over a digital work. DRM critics say “digital restrictions management” is a better descriptor for such technologies, because they argue such technologies decrease the value of the content because they usually restrict it to one platform or limit the usage in terms of number of views or replays.

DMB stands for Digital Multimedia Broadcast and it’s a transmission system for sending data, radio and TV to mobile devices. DMB can operate via satellite (S-DMB) as well as terrestrial (T-DMB) transmission. The spec is yet another competitor to DVB-H and MediaFLO, but it is more like the former than the latter. T-DMB uses the MPEG-4 format for video. Germany will launch a T-DMB trial for the World Cup in 2006 and the U.K., Switzerland and Italy are all looking to do so this year as well. Paris already has a trial underway as does South Korea, which is testing both S-DMB and T-DMB.

DVB-H stands for Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld and it’s the European home-grown standard for broadcasting mobile television to handheld receivers, like mobile phones. The spec does not require a carrier’s network since it is a broadcasting technology it travels through the air—so it is not limited to phones alone. On the other hand, it requires a separate receiver within the handset. ETSI adopted the standard for DVB-H in November 2004 but launches are only just beginning in 2006 in places like Italy, the U.S. and Finland. The Mobile Digital Television Alliance or mDTV Alliance was formed in 2005 and is pushing for the adoption of DVB-H. The group is comprised of vendors across the mobile TV value chain. As far as R&D dollars and headlines go, DVB-H’s main competitor is Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology, which, like DVB-H, does not run over a carrier’s network but in FLO’s case, it requires its own.

IPG, EPG or ESG stand for interactive program guide, electronic program guide and electronic service guide, respectively. The terms all refer to an on-screen guide to broadcast television programs that allow the viewer to navigate, search and order content, whether from cable, satellite, IPTV services or mobile television. The EPG is an integral driver and enabler of the trend toward greater personalization and customization of video content. The first genesis of the EPG came in the form of on-demand content from cable companies, but this service is evolving to include databases of advertisements, interactive yellow pages and other services.

J2ME or Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a collection of Java APIs that enable developers to create software for resource constrained devices like PDAs, cell phones and other similar consumer devices. Sun Microsystems developed J2ME as a replacement technology for PersonalJava, which aimed to serve the same purpose. J2ME is mostly used as a platform for creating mobile games these days.

m-commerce or mobile commerce is a buzz word that many dare not speak after the bubble six years ago, but it's a term that is used to describe a sector that has seen a revival in the past year or so. M-commerce refers to mobile transactions and includes all business conducted over a handset's data services. The m-commerce sector has heated up in recent months, especially with the entrance of PayPal Mobile which launched at CTIA in early 2006. The company now only connects buyers and sellers on the mobile Internet, but also allows individuals to send each other money through the service. M-commerce, however, is mostly transactions that occur on WAP sites.

MediaFLO is a Qualcomm suite of products that makes use of FLO, forward link only, technology used for mobile TV broadcasts. Some details of the specs capabilities include QVGA 30 frame-per-second quality, according to Qualcomm. The standard is receiving a lot of pushback in Europe which favors its homegrown DVB-H spec. Some have compared the two technologies to other competing technologies like CDMA and GSM. While some criticize FLO for not having interoperable partners, Qualcomm says it plans on releasing those partners in short order. Also, much of the FLO technology was invented in Europe so the talk of Europe vs. American technology is a little off the mark.

An MVNO, or mobile virtual network operator, is a company that does not own a licensed frequency spectrum, but resells wireless services under their own brand name, while piggybacking on the network of an incumbent mobile phone operator. An MVNO is usually responsible for the customer care management of its service as well as offering special services like mobile television or mobile music applications. MVNOs emerged at the end of the last decade, but the MVNO trend is just starting to kick-off in 2006.

The industry recognizes Virgin Mobile as the first MVNO since it launched in the United Kingdom in 1999, and like most of the early entrants that followed it, Virgin focused on cheap prices as a motivator to would-be subscribers. The MVNO sector today is mostly comprised of so-called “lifestyle MVNOs,” which focus on value-added services and niche mobile content offerings to pull in subscribers.

SMS marketing stands for “short message service” marketing and refers to most mobile marketing campaigns to date, namely advertising campaigns that send out a text message to users usually promoting a new product or service through a contest. The Mobile Marketing Association has developed a list of best practices and guidelines for all forms of mobile marketing, but has a large section on SMS campaigns. It’s is incumbent on marketers to receive an “opt-in” from mobile users before sending them SMS marketing materials. Unsolicited SMS marketing is referred to as m-spam, mobile spam or sms spam. SMS marketing has been the most popular form of mobile marketing to date mostly because of network bandwidth limitations—moving forward advertising on mobile content is positioned to have a large presence in the mobile marketing sector.

TDtv is another mobile TV solution that IPWireless developed and unveiled recently. TDtv operates in universal unpaired 3G spectrum bands that are available throughout Europe and Asia: 2010 MHz and 1900 MHz. The technology allows UMTS operators to use their existing spectrum and infrastructure to offer mobile TV services. Most of the other options do not rely fully on the carriers’ networks themselves to deliver mobile TV services and since many carriers’ intended to build out 3G services to enable a data-rich experience for the end user, TDtv has quickly gotten a lot of headlines. IPWireless claims operators can offer up to 50 channels for standard mobile phone screens or 15 QVGA quality channels. TDtv also leverages MBMS to allow greater scalability.