Yet another non-story about a mobile virus, following last week’s non-story about the US.

ZDNet reports an “infestation” in Australia now.

But, it was only on one phone. In my book, “infestation” normally implies at least several occurrences, but let’s let that go, for now.

However, the guy who spotted it is the CEO of a software company, called Bullant Software. Among other things, Bullant make a mobile service delivery platform. They are a partner of SimWorks, who (you guessed it) provide anti-virus software for mobile phones, including the Cabir. Spot a vested interest here?

By the way, this isn’t a brilliant piece of investigation and deduction - it’s all in the press release, sorry, I mean ZDNet story.

But it gets worse. This CEO (who we’re meant to trust to sort out our enterprise quality software) says that after being asked if he wanted to install the virus:

“Somehow, I’m not sure whether I pressed yes or no but it ended up in my handset. When I rebooted my phone, the anti-virus software said I have a virus and asked me whether I want to delete it from my inbox,” Wooldrige said.

OK, we all make mistakes and press “yes” when we mean “no” - let’s be generous. Although if I sold software installations for a living, I’m not sure I’d admit it, quite so readily.

But what Mr Woolridge doesn’t say, is that he’d have to do that 3 times in order to install the thing. There’s a mistake and then there’s incompetence bordering on the crass stupidity and that’s what he’s admitting to here.

But phew! The virus was then “easily neutralised by the mobile antivirus product on Wooldridge’s phone” Any guesses whose mobile antivirus product Mr Woolridge might have installed on his phone. Might it rhyme with BimWorks?

And this non-story gets worse again. Apparently, it’s not the first time Cabir has got rampant in Oz. Last year, SimWorks received a report of another outbreak around a Sydney station:

“Although we investigated it, we never managed to confirm if it was true. I expect there would be other unconfirmed instances around where people really donít know what it is about and how to get rid of it,” he [SimWorks' CEO Mr Aaaron Davidson] said.

Is that so, Mr Davidson? Sounds like us mobile phone owners should cancel our Australian holidays right now. Thanks for the warning.

Or, I guess, maybe we could always protect ourselves and buy your product! Why didn’t you just come right out and write that in your press release? Don’t leave us in danger of misunderstanding your subtlety here, please.

Tom Hume spotted this article in The Times, which I find just weird.

The writer starts off by rehashing the old idea that with everyone listening to iPods, it tends to cut them from their environment. Actually, this isn’t a new riff anyway. Dr Michael Bull, a Senior Lecturer at the UK’s University of Sussex, has been studying and writing about this for years - first with the Walkman and more recently, with the iPod.

What’s actually happening, according to Dr Bull, it’s all about controlling your environment (from a Wired article last year):

People like to control their environment, and the iPod is the perfect way to manage your experience. Music is the most powerful medium for thought, mood and movement control….

Music allows people to find pleasure in the place they’re existing. (Personal stereos) make the user’s life much better. It helps them manage urban life…. Urban life is one of the reasons they’re using these devices. How often do you talk to people in public anyway?

But then The Times article takes this cocooning effect of the iPod playing your favourite music as somehow evidence that technology generally actually narrows people’s lives:

You get your news from your favourite blogs, the ones that wonít challenge your view of the world. You tune into a satellite radio service that also aims directly at a small market ó for new age fanatics, liberal talk or Christian rock. Television is all cable. Culture is all subculture. Your cell phones can receive e-mail feeds of your favourite bloggerís latest thoughts ó seconds after he has posted them ó get sports scores for your team or stock quotes of your portfolio.

Technology has given us a universe entirely for ourselves ó where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves or an opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished.

Errr…not sure where to start with this.

Firstly, people have always selected their media based on what they want to hear and read. Why else does the UK’s The Sun or The Mirror sell any newspapers? Or The Times, for that matter, if you want an Establishment, right wing view of the world. Bias in media is as old as the printing press.

Socially, people have also tended to mix with people they like, which normally means people whose view of life is pretty similar to their own. It’s just not much fun socializing with those you despise or violently disagree with all the time.

But more than that. I’d suggest for the vast majority of people, technology has opened far more minds than closed them. I’ve been exposed to far more ideas, people, learning experiences, writing and opinions than the old grey world before 1995, when I first went online. Plus, I’ve been exposed to art, culture, books and music I would never have heard of, but for the web.

The web has also allowed the Long Tail to emerge in the arts and culture, leading far more variety and choice than at any time in the history of mankind.

Finally, the article makes an appeal to us all:

Not so long ago I was on a trip and realised I had left my iPod behind. Panic. But then something else. I noticed the rhythms of others again, the sound of the airplane, the opinions of the taxi driver, the small social cues that had been obscured before. I noticed how others related to each other. And I felt just a little bit connected again and a little more aware.

Try it. Thereís a world out there. And it has a soundtrack all its own.

To quote a line from the great Fawlty Towers. “Pretentious? Moi?”

If this is the best old media can come up with, no wonder they’ve left the door open for bloggers to enter their inner sanctum.

The Australian Government have identified that having a mobile is essential to success for today’s job seekers. Strange that no one thought of this before.

After all, you need to be able to make and take calls from would-be employers and a mobile is a pretty expensive indulgence if you’re claiming unemployment benefit.

So they’ve started to give out “loan phones”, which has increased a job seeker’s chances by a massive 30%.

So simple, yet so effective. If only all politician’s ideas were thus.

Image shows the previous initiative.

Source: Textually reporting a story in The Age. Having said that, the link to the story in The Age doesn’t work, but if Emily says it was so, then that’s good enough for me

One of the stories that came out of 3GSM last week (and got overlooked in the excitement) was a speech by Daniel Taylor, managing director of user group the Mobile Enterprise Alliance.

Companies spent $16 billion on mobile tech last year, so it’s quite an important audience. It’s also an audience that is far from convinced that 3G is for them, right now, according to Mr Taylor.

This is clearly bad news for operators as they have a huge way to go before they can recoup their massive investments in infrastructure and license fees.

I find this story rather odd, to be honest. If I was an operator the business sector would be one I’d be targeting relentlessly. For a start it’s one that is relatively price insensitive, providing the solution solves a need. And it’s also a sector where you can offer a clear user benefit - quick and easy access to data, especially email, on the move.

In comparison, the non-business user has proven to be mainly turned on by cheap calls, principally as there’s no very clear user benefit otherwise - despite some operators continuing to try to sell that dead duck, video calling.

The other part of the story that I find odd is Mr Tailor saying:

‘We also need devices without digital cameras,’ said Taylor. ‘You’d think it a simple request, but this is a hot enterprise topic. Most firms won’t let cameras anywhere near their business.’

This seems naive, at best, on behalf of businesses. I assume they’re worried about security. But if so, why pick on camera phones? Why not photocopiers, voice recorders, floppy discs, email, scanners and even pencils - you can copy down secrets, after all.

If you’ve got a spy in your business, they’ll find a way to spy and banning camera phones ain’t going to even slow them down.

Story source: VNU

Strategy Analytics have announced that investing in Mobile TV might not be such a good bet, which I’ve been saying for a while. Still, it’s nice when the pro’s agree.

I tend to look at simple stuff like if people will use it and, as importantly, pay to use it. It’s not going to be cheap and the user experience is going to be pretty poor. This is not what mobile phones have been designed to do. Most successful mobile applications tend to be about two way communication, not broadcast.

So, once users get over the novelty factor, it’ll slowly die. It’s like when I first got my first mobile phone. I stood in a field and phoned my Mum and said “Hey, guess where I am - in the middle of a field??!!” (Note: it was a long time ago when mobiles were the size of bricks and phoning from fields was rather unbelievable).

Anyway, once she had recovered from the shock of talking to someone in a field and I had got over my delight, I never did it again. So it’ll be with mobile TV.

Anyway, the pro’s also say:

ìBeyond the basic business case and potential cannibalization factors, mobile TV faces four key challenges: The technology roadmap is far from stable; regulation and low spectrum availability may also act to slow the spread of services; beyond the technophile segment there is slow diffusion of media-enabled devices; and uncertain revenue models and value chain reconciliation will deter content industry participation.î

But the amazing thing to me is that investors in this sector are forecasting ROI within 2 to 4 years. Sorry, but that’ll just never happen.

The trouble with this type of investment though is that management are faced with very tough choices, which actually favour poor decision making.

Let’s take the scenario that everyone in a sector is rushing to invest in say, pork bellies. As a management team, you can either follow the herd or stand your ground.

If you don’t follow the herd and pork bellies are a good investment, you’ve lost a brilliant opportunity and your shareholders will crucify you.

If pork bellies don’t come good, you’ve kind of won, but not many brownie points accrue from NOT doing something.

If you do follow the herd and pork bellies succeed, you’ve done the right thing. And if they don’t and you loose a packet, the whole industry was wrong, so how can you be blamed?

So, is it really surprising that when an industry has a big idea, even if it’s transparently the wrong thing to do, that everyone piles in?

That’s exactly what’s happening here. Mobile TV won’t pay back. It’s as simple as that.

Disagree? Leave a comment, though that’s very slooow (and being fixed). But drop me an email russell at mobhappy dot com and I’ll post it for you.

Story source: Moco News

49PM have launched a RSS reader for Java enabled mobile phones. This means that you can view blogs (as an example) on your phone, but that any images are reformatted and optimised to be displayed on your handset.

You could also use the app to view Flickr photostreams, as an example. If you set up a stream for you and your friends/family to use, the latest will be streamed to your phone for you to see. Then, you can save the ones you like on the handset, if you want.

The addressing works intuitively - just enter the URL and the app will find the right feed for you. And only the unread feeds are displayed, meaning that you don’t have to download posts that you’ve already seen.

Pretty useful if you’re out and about and need to feed your blog reading habit.

Annoyingly, UK’s Link operator of cash machines is launching what it’s calling MobileATM. Users will be able to download the Java app onto their phones and enjoy some of the functionality of an ATM.

No, they won’t be able to get their phones to spit out cash. But they will be able to check and transfer balances. Plus, they promise a facility to top up pre-pay mobile accounts directly from bank accounts, which is pretty cool.

So why is this annoying? Well, I was pitching this same concept to banks and building societies in the UK two years ago. Back then, polite “that’s really interesting” type of comments was the best result I got.

I don’t think it was my sales ability either. Like so often, I was just too early and I never seem to learn this lesson. So by the time they were ready to talk I was on to the next big thing. Being right isn’t nearly as cool as being rich - or at least making the sale.

One of the hardest and most unfair aspects of business is the right timing. Show me a brilliant idea with a great team and it’ll fail if the time’s not right. Mediocre teams and ideas can thrive if they surf the wave right*.

You won’t read that in many business books.

*By the way, I got the “surfing the wave” thing from the unlikely source of Duran Duran’s Simon le Bon. About 25 years ago (yes I am that old) I was sitting next to him in a hairdresser - he was at Birmingham Poly and I was at Aston University. It was before Duran were famous, but they were enjoying some success locally.

The hairdresser asked him how things were going and he said “Well, you know man, it’s like there’s a kinda….wave and you know, you just gotta ride it, this wave of success….or you, you know, will kinda…fall off and drown, man.”

No, honestly, that’s what he said.

I thought to myself:

“Pompous, stoned, no hoper, looser.” Clearly, I was wrong again.

Story source: VNU Net. Obviously not the bit about Simon le Bon. And he probably wasn’t stoned, either.

I’d like to welcome Christian Ehl, as an occasional Guest Blogger to The Mobile Weblog. Christian runs an interactive agency here in Munich called Hillert & Co Interactive and I’m impressed with their understanding of the mobile space. More importantly, they understand that mobile is just one part of the marketing channel and mustn’t be viewed in isolation. As I’ve written before, I don’t think there’s much future for a stand-alone specialist mobile agency.

Today, Christian writes about how ski resorts need to get more savvy about how they attract visitors and keep them coming back:

Going skiing in the Stubaier Glacier in Austria the other day, I noticed how many people take their mobile phones with them on the slopes. Everywhere I looked I saw people taking photos, SMSing to arrange meeting points, kids playing games in the restaurant or listening to music on their mobiles, and wherever a crowd gathers, you can hear a symphony of ringtones. Nearly everybody out there must be carrying a mobile phone and more astonishing, lots of people are using them.

This is a natural opportunity for some great mobile marketing. So, come and see what Stubai will start offering soon. Other ski resorts take note!

Russell adds: I’ve been doing a lot of skiing this season too and have also been struck by the way mobiles have penetrated this area of society. One of the things I like about skiing is the peace and beauty of the mountains themselves. And it’s disconcerting to be standing there and have a mobile go off next to you.

Some people stop half way down the piste to answer calls!

But this just proves Christian’s point - there’s lots of potential demand for some very fine mobile marketing.

If you want to be a Guest Blogger on The Mobile Weblog, drop me a line russell at mobhappy dot com and give me some ideas. We have an audience of 50,000 or so readers, so it’s nice exposure, if you’re looking for it. 70% of the readers come from the US, with the remainder mainly in Europe and Asia.

One of my predictions for 2005 was that

More and more mobile virus stories will hit the headlines. Only for the real story to emerge that to catch one you’d have to be as unlucky as to get struck by lightening on a clear day while standing in a rubber suit at the bottom of a swimming pool.

In the last few days, there’s been a flurry of these non-story stories. Cabir has been discovered on 2 mobile phones is the US - one in a mobile phone store. Pretty obviously, someone did this deliberately by polling available handsets in the store and pressing “yes” that they did want to install it. As any Bluejacker worth their name knows, mobile phone stores are good targets.

160 Characters has an excellent (if rather long) article by Nick Hunn of Bluetooth specialist Ezurio.

Here’s what you have to do to install one of these Bluetooth spread viruses:

1. Have a Symbian phone in the first place.
2. Activate Bluetooth, so your phone is discoverable.
3. When an unsolicited message appears, open it.
4. When your phone then asks you if you want to install a program that you havenít just deliberately downloaded, press YES - three times. (Asking you three times is built in to Bluetooth standards precisely to avoid non-morons accidentally installing stuff).
5. Apply for life membership of your local Stupid Society.

Still worried? It’s easy to make Bluetooth on your phone invisible by going to the Bluetooth menu and setting it to be ìnon-discoverableî or ìhiddenî. It’ll still work with your headset, PC, PDA and other Bluetooth devices ñ you just need to temporarily make Bluetooth visible when you set them up . But it means your phone ignores any legitimate Bluetooth messages which happen to be floating around. Or more prosaically you’ll avoid the fun and serendipitous experience of being Bluejacked.

The article also hints at a possible conspiracy theory - we love them, don’t we? It stands to reason that operators don’t like Bluetooth, as it doesn’t make them any money when you use it. Plus, it could actually cannibalize revenues by allowing savvy users to swap content (like ringtones) without paying either the data cost or the content cost.

That’s why, for instance, Verizon recently disabled Bluetooth recently as it allows them to keep control of your phone, in the classic walled garden strategy that never works.

So instead of disabling Bluetooth, they could spread viruses by Bluetooth and then get frightened users to ask their operators to disable Bluetooth. Brilliant!

Obviously complete rubbish*, but brilliant anyway.

Actually, a far bigger danger for the transmission of viruses is by MMS, but operators have been very canny about protecting us from this by making sure that MMS doesn’t work properly. Now that is clever
*Nick Dunn’s article doesn’t conclude this either, by the way.

Not that we ever doubted that we’re obsessed with mobiles, as a culture. But if you had missed it…

Firstly, from Japan, we have Keitai Vyuun (via Gizmondo) which means, roughly, “mobile zoom”. What you get is a pair of stick-on wheels for your mobile, which you can wind up and race….presumably against other mobile phones.

Something so utterly pointless is going to be mega-huge this Summer.

And then we have a rather memorable quote from Jay Cordenberg (via Iconoculture):

“Even a night out with the girls seems to be an occasion to change their [mobile] wallpaper - to match their shoes or handbags.”

OK, admittedly, Jay is the publicist for Crazy Fun Babe, a Canadian wallpaper seller. But that doesn’t mean to say it’s not what happens.