yj and htj... when I asked NEOM for some keywords and qodes, they told me that others clicking on my code or using my keyword would cost ME (the owner of the code, 5 cents per click....so where is the charge to the consumer? I assume only thru the carrier charges, or do I have this wrong?
Dr. Mike
Dr. Mike,
I hate to have to do this but I am going to base part of my answer upon an assumption because I have a phone that does not support Qode. While there is a promise to support Blackberry in the near future, that day is not here. So, let's break this down into a few different scenarios (real world and hypothetical) and let's see how it goes.
1) Qode is downloaded to the handset by the user and the user interacts directly with the advertiser. Pay per click charges are assessed directly to the advertiser by Neomedia. Cell phone uses (this is where the assumption comes in) the data package purchased by the consumer to handle the transaction and the carrier gets no additional payment, regardless of the number of clicks.
2) Qode is once again downloaded by the user onto the phone and SMS is used to interact with the advertiser. Again, consumer either pays for each SMS individually or uses part of a pre-negotiated allotment per the user contract with the carrier. Advertiser still pays Neomedia per SMS as a click through. Carrier gets paid in accordance with the user agreement by the consumer.
3) Carrier pre loads Qode into the handset as an application. The consumer gets whatever plan the consumer wants whether it be Voice and SMS or Voice and Data. Advertiser pays Neomedia per click as usual but Neomedia pays carrier a predetermined amount per transaction in return for getting the Qode software pre-installed. (Again an assumption. Probably somewhere between a fraction of a penny and a penny per click depending on whether the sum is negotiated per click or per transaction) All Neomedia is doing is subsidizing the data use and paying for expanding the infrastructure to handle the additional data overhead used by the application.
I am sure there are a few scenarios that I left out because I haven't sat down and charted all of the variables. The deal with the carrier wouldn't be the most profitable net wise for Neomedia but it would garner the most exposure. The advertisers wouldn't really care because any one of the above three scenarios would work for the advertiser. Bottom line is that the infrastructure is already in place with a few caveats. One is that the carrier is and should be naturally paranoid of any application that could jeopardize their bandwidth. Two is that the revenue created by the agreement to pre-install the software would not be instantly profitable to the carrier because the carrier would have to use all or a portion to upgrade the infrastructure to handle the increase in traffic over the network. Three, success is a double edged sword. If a campaign is particularly successful, it could jam the circuits and deny regular users from making voice calls. Additionally, if some advertiser got smart and decided to do a short promotion to a captive audience (say a Michgan/Notre Dame football game) that lasted approximately five hours by posting the Aztec symbol on the stadium gates and having them printed in the program and bought some JumboTron time to announce the give-away/promotion, an unbalanced crowd (meaning that a majority of cell users were users of a single carrier) then the promotion could flop because the circuits would be busy. Having a crowd of 100,000 that are represented by 5 major carriers break down into an average share of 20% is an unreasonable marketing statistic so I would predict that one or more carriers would get overwhelmed and where does that leave the advertiser who paid for a live interactive promotion?
So, what does this mean? It means that until the carriers have adequate bandwidth, the carriers are going to be IMO reluctant to add Qode to the installed base of applications. However, if Qode is a downloadable application that can not be regulated by the carrier (again an assumption) because the action is data send and receive that has nothing to do with the carrier specifically, then the carriers are going to wake up at some point and realize that they are the shepherds of a business that they need a piece of. Not necessarily to be greedy but to facilitate doing a better job of making the network that they are supporting as useful and as satisfying to the user as possible.
If anyone knows specific carriers that have Qode blocked at an SMS or data level, please let me know. I will look into the logistics of it and post a follow up. I hate making assumptions but I feel like they are somewhat educated assumptions.
One more thing, once all of the carriers have a true data infrastructure in place most of these nagging problems will desist. Until then, the carriers have to be very careful how much of their bandwidth they allot to non proprietary functions. I hope you all understand why. IMO,
htj
