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Part 1: Scandinavia
Ira Kalb (irakalb@KalbAssociates.com)
President, Kalb & Associates
1 May 2001 Scandinavia is firmly established as the innovator of mobile telephones and networks, and has been for many years. We think it's time to explore this trend, so developerWorks staff asked Ira Kalb to talk with key decision-makers at a number of progressive companies in Finland and Sweden. Here's what they passed on to us. One glance at a globe shows that, of the populated regions, Scandinavia
is at the top of the world. More than that, this part of the world
is at the top of the wireless strata as well. A 1999 Time
magazine article (Time, August 23, 1999) said, "When it comes to
wireless technology, the Finns rule." In some aspects of the technology,
such as mobile phones, this is certainly true. However, the Swedes
might argue when it comes to mobile networks, as they are believed to have
the lead there. In any case, whether it is Finland, Sweden, or any other Scandinavian
country leading the wireless pack, most wireless developers don't care.
What they are likely to care about are:
- Why Scandinavia has become a wireless Mecca
- Who the potentially important players are that could be customers,
information sources, partners, and suppliers
- What these players are doing on the current wireless stage
- What is predicted to be the wireless future
To answer these questions, Ira Kalb interviewed key players, correlating
with secondary research. Why Scandinavia has become the cradle of wireless civilization
The culture
Scandinavians are generally reserved people, who are often more comfortable
talking on a mobile phone than engaging in face-to-face conversation; this
contributes to their being early adopters of high-technology products.
Scandinavia has a relatively homogeneous, well-educated population with
a climate, infrastructure, and topography that fosters cooperation, technological
interest, and communication.
Gravitation towards Nokia and Ericsson
Nokia and Ericsson -- two of the world's top three mobile communications
companies -- were developed there. They, in turn, have attracted wireless
suppliers, alliance partners, and technical resources in much the same
way that Silicon Valley and Hollywood drew computer and entertainment resources
to California. Furthermore, manufacturers and network system operators
cooperated to make sure that coverage and quality was as high as possible,
and they joined with other Europeans to adopt GSM (Global System for Mobile
communications) as a single standard and to create roaming agreements that
allow cross-border mobility.
Government support
In the case of Finland, the Finnish Eduskunta is the only parliament
in the world to have a permanent Committee of the Future. Chaired
by Martti Tiuri, this committee creates a climate in which the Finnish
government does far more than give lip service to wireless activities and
high tech in general. It supports education, research, and organizations
such as Tekes (Finland's National Technology Agency), Spinno, Medipolis,
and Teknia, just to name a few, that support the efforts of entrepreneurs
of wireless and other technologies. In a recent interview with Martti
Tiuri (who once taught at Ohio State University), he talked about a position
paper he wrote entitled The Future of Finland in the Knowledge Society.
In it, he points out that the Parliament of Finland enacted a law giving
the universities a 10% increase in their research funds each year.
In 1999, the share of R&D in (Finnish) GDP reached 3.1%. The
results have been excellent. The electronics and electrical industries
have grown rapidly from 1991 onward and are now equal in size to forest
products. The growth has been fastest in telecommunications products
and applications. The scoop
The recent interviews of some of the key people in the wireless arena
resulted in an enthusiastic response by Scandinavian wireless organizations.
What they had to tell us was insightful to the degree that we felt this
article warranted a continuation -- Part 2 will cover the exploration
into Finland and Sweden. To begin, we asked similar questions of each person,
and got a number of interesting perspectives. Sami Linnainmaa
We first spoke with Sami Linnainmaa, director of products and technology,
Nedecon (Network Development Consulting, PLC). This Finnish IT company
provides management consulting and comprehensive e-business solutions to
large corporations based on wireless and internet technologies. It
is listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
Why is Finland considered a leader in wireless technology?
Finland has been a forerunner in mobile communications and wireless
technology ever since the early 1970s when the first public cellular network
was taken into use in Finland. The first real breakthrough in bringing
mobile communications to a wider audience took place in the early 1980s
with the introduction of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) network.
This was the first fully automatic cellular network in the world, and it
was developed in cooperation with all the Nordic countries -- Denmark,
Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It was also the first mobile network
to enable roaming in other countries that had NMT networks. Finland also participated very actively in the development of the world's
first second-generation digital mobile communications standard, Global
System for Mobile communications (GSM). The world's first commercial
GSM network was launched in Finland in 1992. The introduction of
this European-wide network, that has since spread all around the world,
fueled the growth of the Finnish mobile market even further and it has
constantly been exceptionally rapid. The penetration of mobile phones
in the Finnish market is currently the highest in the world. Over
70% of the Finnish population, including senior citizens and children,
has a mobile phone. This high penetration of mobile phone users has made Finland an ideal
test lab for new technology and service concepts. It has given the
Finnish companies a competitive advantage, being able to test their new
technology and concepts on a very wide and accepting audience. Many
international IT companies have also established mobile test labs in Finland
in recent years to take advantage of these exceptional conditions and to
interact with the key players shaping the future of the mobile market.
Who are the important wireless players in Finland?
The key players shaping the market are the mobile phone and infrastructure
developers, such as Nokia; the mobile network and service operators, such
as Sonera; and the numerous IT companies, such as Nedecon -- all developing
the services for the mobile users either independently or together with
the operators.
What do these companies do that might be of interest to wireless
developers around the world? How do they fit into the wireless picture?
The phone and infrastructure developers, such as Nokia, are building
the foundation on which the other players can build new services.
Nokia, for example, is divided into Nokia Mobile Phones, which develops
mobile handsets from ordinary phones to PDA devices with built-in wireless
technology; and Nokia Networks, which develops wireless networks and service
platforms for mobile network and service operators and IT companies.
The network and service operators, such as Sonera, build and maintain the
basic mobile networks and develop value added services on top of these
together with the various IT companies with which they partner.
Sonera, for example, operates both as a network and service operator.
There have also been several spin-offs in recent years; for example, Sonera
Zed is currently an independent company developing value-added mobile content
services for all network operators worldwide. Another spin-off is
Sonera SmartTrust, developing secure mobile solutions mainly for the financial
sector, but also for other companies that want to build high security mobile
services. The network operators, on the other hand, are in a key
role in developing location-based services together with the mobile phone
and infrastructure developers. The IT companies, such as Nedecon,
develop the actual end-user solutions. Most of them partner with
one or more network and service operators, and also with the mobile phone
and infrastructure developers, but they also build solutions independently
for their customers. All of these players interact very actively
with each other -- creating a tightly bound developer community.
What do you see as current and future trends?
A lot of development is currently going on in mobile commerce (m-commerce)
and location-based services. There are several pilot projects investigating
mobile payment methods involving banks and companies like Visa International
in addition to the traditional mobile players. There are also some
pilots in which mobile users can get location-dependent content, such as
the address of the nearest pharmacy, based on where they are at the moment.
In the future, improvements to the second-generation mobile networks, such
as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), that already enable up to 56Kb
of wireless data transfer in limited areas in Finland, third-generation
mobile networks based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
(UMTS), and the developments in mobile devices, will enhance and expand
the forms of content that can be delivered to the mobile devices.
For example, the users will be able to get a map on the screen of their
wireless device showing their current location and the location of the
nearest pharmacy instead of just getting the address of the pharmacy.
And the same device will work as an electronic wallet enabling the users
to pay for their purchases either at the point of sale or at a remote
location ordering the purchases to be delivered to them. Nedecon
has already developed a service together with a Finnish company specializing
in electronic maps, called Genimap, and Finnish mobile phone vendor, Benefon,
enables downloading maps from an e-commerce site to Benefon's new Esc!
phone, that has a built-in satellite navigation system based on the Global
Positioning System (GPS). Nedecon has also developed several B2B m-commerce
solutions that enable companies to browse product catalogs and place
orders at remote locations with a mobile device.
How can wireless developers use Nedecon's products to your company's, and their own, benefit?
Nedecon usually bases its cooperation with other IT companies on building a particular service or solution, such as the Nedecon-Genimap-
Benefon cooperation.
What else do you think is important?
Technology in itself is only the enabler of these new wireless services
and solutions. It is very important to establish the business case
and find the benefits that can be achieved by building the wireless service
or solution before investing time and money into the actual development.
This is why Nedecon, for example, has a group of business consultants who
specialize in knowledge management and supply-chain management and who
are able to find the business benefits of investing in a wireless service
or solution first and thus are able to calculate a return on the investment. Rami Korhonen (Vice president, Products and Marketing, Small Planet, Ltd.)
Why is Finland considered a leader in wireless technology?
Finns are early adopters, eager to try new things. Almost every Finn
has a mobile phone, and the Internet penetration here is one of the highest
in the world. It's no wonder that Finland is developing leading-edge technology.
Of course, Nokia's influence has been huge, and we can't forget the strategic
input from innovative telephone operators like Sonera.
Who are the important wireless players in Finland and Sweden?
In addition to big players like Nokia and Sonera, there are plenty
of smaller application providers, like Small Planet. On an operator side,
Radiolinja, a new player DNA, and Swedish Telia try to challenge current
market leader Sonera, whose mobile portal zedT is also trying to shape
the global wireless markets.
What does your company do that might be of interest to wireless developers
around the world? How does your company fit into the wireless picture?
We are innovative and experienced. We have a
strong track record with plenty of products in actual use. We currently
operate in three business tracks: information services, communications
services, and entertainment services. The company's key products are: CMC,
a mobile content distribution platform; MFriend, a mobile dating platform;
and CollectM, a mobile collectable games platform. When it comes to mobile
dating solutions and SMS gaming concepts, Small Planet's market lead is
at least six months.
What do you see as current and future trends? How about emerging
standards?
So far we've only [scratched] the surface. In the future, no
matter what the standards are, everything that can be mobile will be.
At the end of 2001, the mobile access to Internet services will be
a part of the everyday lifestyle in Europe. In 2003, mobile devices
will be used for accessing multimedia services and people will be able
to be online 24 hours a day regardless of time and space. We
at Small Planet are more than ready for that kind of truly mobile future;
all of our products are created by using scalable technologies.
In the end, it's the service users who will decide what applications and
standards survive.
How can the developers visiting the developerWorks site use Small Planet's products
to benefit both themselves and the company?
Small Planet's three-year dedication to mobile media development,
and its more than 15 commercial launches, serve as a guarantee that our
products are reliable and tested. We produce high-quality and innovative
products with a short time-to-market before people even dream about them.
Our mission is to bring a mobile dimension into the modern lifestyle from
a service-oriented perspective. Jonas Petersson (systems architect at Internet Technologies,
Adcore)
Why is Scandinavia considered a leader in wireless technology?
This is not something that I can be sure about, but presumably
it is the combination of a foundation built on Nokia and Ericsson, and
then a fair number of aggressive startups in the arena in the past few
years. Getting the tech/stock/press attention in the past few years
seems to have been quite easy, thanks to "the new economy."
Who are the important wireless players in Sweden?
The obvious answer is, of course, Ericsson. Although they seem
to be backing out of the mobile phone arena, they have a good grip on a
lot of the related systems. There are heaps of companies that work in the
wireless area and, as far as I know, very few of them are making any significant
profit. Yet since the number of useful products is small,
I personally find a few interesting such as AXIS, CTech/Anoto, BlueTronics, and those of my
company, Adcore. And we should not forget about all the broadband
fibers connecting a fair amount of homes, even down to villas like my
own.
What do these companies do that might be of interest to wireless
developers? How does Adcore fit in to the wireless picture?
I'll leave Ericsson for someone else to describe. The ones I
just mentioned work with different kinds of specialized hardware that seem
promising. AXIS has their own processor and builds a range of products that solve
basic needs in an efficient and cross-platform way -- some of them are
not directly wireless at all. Obviously they know their way around a lot
of standards and protocols to achieve this; for instance, they work with
jini and Bluetooth. What I think is a good move is that they have lately
started to base their new products on Linux and, among other things, released
their open source Bluetooth driver. CTech and their daughter company, Anoto, work in the low-end handheld
arena. Their clever Cpens have the potential to become the personal
control unit for the different wireless equipment [by which] we will be
surrounded. Right now it is basically a very small PIM with a scanner
(in the case of Anoto it uses a special paper, too) and has worked with
an IR in the past that isn't very exciting. The new Bluetooth range of
products, combined with the base technology being very easily extensible
(built around plain objects files produced by something like a gcc compiler),
could work miracles if Bluetooth takes off the way a lot of people think. Bluetronics, in turn, is pushing their specialized Bluetooth modules
to become affordable everywhere. Adcore is an integrator, creating bridges between legacy systems and
new technologies. Add to this that broadband connection fibers are providing a fast link
to a point that is likely to be in your range, and you can become truly
wireless.
What do you see as current and future trends?
To contradict what I've said above, I can describe my own situation:
I have a 10Mb fiber to my house, and I have my own firewall/gateway (Linux)
which connects to my own network wirelessly using an Apple AirPort.
My laptop connects wirelessly wherever I am in my house (or in the garden),
as does my hand held iPaq running Linux. What I use is IEEE 802.11b, a.k.a
Wi-Fi, which (as opposed to Bluetooth) has been available for quite some
time. Because it also uses the same frequencies as Bluetooth, I can predict
some problems. The drawback with Wi-Fi is that it currently uses
a lot more power, but the result is also more impressive. Because I carry the laptop to work everyday, I have made a little clever
hack which automatically reconfigures it according to the nearest access
point -- this type of autoconfig is what I seriously hope we will see a
lot more of. As another example of this autoconfig, I would like for mobile phones
to sense positioning. Sure, there are things on the horizon that
can solve it in an elegant way, but you can already get something very
useful by combining the GSM cell ID with the time of the day, and from
this, automatically change your profile. The Nokia 9110 has all this
potential. With a little freeware product, I can even let specific
people query my position using SMS.
How can wireless developers use your products to their benefit and
yours?
We should regard the various technologies as components that enable
us to use back-end applications. We are not really into reinventing
wheels, but instead, providing new ways to make use of the old ones.
Most of what is referred to as "wireless Internet" does not stand up on
its own, but can cooperate with others in order to achieve the best "view"
of a certain application in each case. To this end, Adcore often
works as an integrator, creating bridges between legacy systems and new
technologies. In many cases, there is a lot of hype even though there are
significant problems and limitations that still need to be addressed.
It may, therefore, be sensible to handle the deployment with some care.
Mission-critical applications and cases where security is important may
not be the best place to start. From this standpoint, it is somewhat odd
to see that banking applications often try to be at the frontier.
Of course, micro e-Payment is a very good carrot. Victor Donselaar (Open source specialist at Adcore Finland, Digital Business Creators)
Why is Finland (Scandinavia in the case of Swedish companies) considered
a leader in wireless technology?
The penetration rate of mobile phones is very high; Finland is the
first country where ring-tones and logo really took off. A lot of mobile
games and applications are being developed by many startups. Nokia has
two main research centers in Tampere and Helsinki, and there is a high
Internet penetration rate.
What are the important wireless companies in Finland?
Nokia Nokia Nokia, Sonera, Saunalahti, Radiolinja, Telia, DNA (new
operator), Accenture (Internet center of excellence), and IOBox.
What do these companies do that might be of interest to wireless
developers around the world? How does the Adcore Finland branch fit
in to the wireless picture?
Nokia has a lot of research going on that could interest developers.
Nokia lets developers build applications on top of a communicator. Lots of ring-tone and
logo development, payment systems, Linux (on PDAs, Phones, Palms, other
devices). It fits in the wireless picture by having a lot
of development on wireless communication. Also, convergence between
industries (content, telco, PC, and other IT-related industries) and the
new possibilities are actively being researched in Finland. Adcore
was one of the first members of the WAP forum, and is continuously working
with new technologies. Adcore creates many solutions for clients
based on SMS or WAP. Adcore is also responsible for the marketing
and branding strategies, implementations, and technical documentation related
to Bluetooth. Adcore is a leading European digital business consultancy. Adcore has
three global practice offerings: strategic consulting, the transformation
of business models, and technology implementations. Adcore is now globalizing
rapidly, and is a very strong presence in the Nordic region. Adcore was
voted the number one Internet consultancy firm by industry-related companies
in the February issue of Sweden's >Guru magazine.
What do you see as current and future trends?
Current trends are toward packet-switched networks, high-speed networks,
application development, content development for high-speed networks, and
payment systems. The future trend is in home communications -- access
from anywhere, to anything, doing virtually everything.
How can wireless developers use your products to both their benefit
and yours?
We work closely together with wireless industry players offering
them strategic and technical solutions.
Do you want to make note of anything else you think is important?
IBM is making a significant investment in open source, and
therefore you need open information and access to the source code of software.
The developer site allows this, including documentation, tools for development,
forums, and project hosting. Companies such as Nokia and Ericsson
are also creating products based on open source software, so this is an
important issue. There are some real benefits for developers, but
I think developers are interested in learning new technologies and using
them to develop applications. The wireless world -- a fast-spinning top
These interviews paint a picture of a very dynamic, exciting, and fast-moving
wireless environment in Scandinavia. The activities of mobile
handset and infrastructure suppliers, mobile telecommunications operators,
wireless middleware/security suppliers, mobile portals/services, mobile
technologies and solutions, and wireless systems integrators present many
opportunities for wireless developers in the United States and around the
world to find partners, vendors, and customers, and to share knowledge.
Come back next time for Part 2, when we'll hear from other key players
at the top of the wireless world. Resources - Visit the Lotus Web site for mobile and wireless resources.
- The IBM pervasive/wireless home page offers useful links to IBM wireless technology solutions.
About the author
Ira Kalb is a consultant, author, part-time professor, and President of Kalb &Associates, an international consulting and training firm. He teaches courses in marketing, sales, management, and business systems for major universities and organizations around the world. He is also an artist and a woodwind musician who served on the board of directors of the Jazz Bakery -- a non-profit corporation showcasing world-class musical talent in a world-renowned venue. He can be reached at irakalb@KalbAssociates.com. |
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