TWorld 'lacks local flavour'

Telecom has promised its TWorld mobile applications store will have a "local flavour", but Kiwi developers are yet to feature on the portal.

The TWorld portal can be accessed by customers connected to Telecom's XT mobile network, which was launched on Friday.

Mobile applications are services, games and tools that can be downloaded to mobile phones for free or at a price.

Norman Holtzhausen, general manager of information-technology consultancy Lateral Profiles, says it is working with Telecom to ensure existing text chat and tarot applications it has previously developed for the company will work on XT.

"We've proposed a whole bunch of new things, but haven't heard from them yet. They've been very focused on the launch."

Modica Group chief executive Stuart Wilson says it has had informal discussions with Telecom staff to ensure current services are compatible with the new network, but is not involved at this stage in developing applications for the portal.

Modica Group's Sonic Mobile division provides mobile marketing, customer and entertainment services to Telecom.

He says the TWorld portal will be a "huge opportunity" for local developers, because it will deliver a customer-base well beyond their individual reach and solves the problem of how to bill someone for a few dollars. But he understands the portal will be limited in terms of capability and not allow applications that stream content, provide text and multimedia messaging services or premium text services.

Mobile operators have rightly been concerned about opening up their networks to unknown developers, and developers may face an expensive and time-consuming process to have their applications approved, he says.

Telecom should provide local developers with a technical framework for creating applications for the portal and cheap access to the network for testing.

"In my experience, New Zealand is leading a number of countries in mobile thinking and campaign and application development, but there is very little recognition of this talent or any kind of inventory of who's out there doing what. In many cases, it's easier to work offshore with much larger operators than in New Zealand.

"Telecom and other operators in general are not inclined to take the advice of smaller but seriously capable industry players."

Mobile application developer SimWorks' chief executive, Aaron Davidson, says it often works with Telecom, but is yet to discuss local applications for the online store.

"We would be very interested in talking with them about the sort of things they might be interested in. I don't know of anyone else talking to them, but that's not to say Telecom isn't very busy doing something behind the scenes.

"It will be interesting to see whether Telecom looks for content specifically from the New Zealand ecosystem. It's a virtuous circle. They get us to produce great applications and we make their network look fantastic."

If Telecom ignores New Zealand developers in favour of those overseas, "our community would start to evaporate, and it's small enough as it is".

While high mobile data rates in New Zealand have stymied the development and uptake of mobile applications, the biggest barrier to their success has been the absence of a simple way for people to buy them, he says.

Telecom and Vodafone have previously provided limited services through their portals and have struggled to engage with developers.

"If customers wanted to buy applications, they had to go outside those portals and discover them for themselves. But for an operator, it's a no-brainer to provide those applications through their portals. They get to clip the ticket on the sale of applications, they can feature applications on their network to distinguish themselves from others, and customers will be using and paying for data."

Telecom spokeswoman Rebecca Earl says it will be revealing new local partnerships and content for TWorld in the coming months.

The company is working with several application providers and will focus on business and entertainment applications, she says.

Applications currently available through the portal are the Yahoo OneSearch search engine, a music store for downloading songs, and applications for social networking sites Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo, and for micro-blogging site Twitter.

Telecom mobile director Paul Hamburger said in February the TWorld store would have a local flavour and Kiwi developers would receive a share of the revenues from the applications and content they sold.

- © Fairfax NZ News