On my Radio page, I’ve posted the mp3 of today’s show.  I was on for a full segment and ran through some cool gadgets!  Check it out.

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My Appearance on Rudy Maxa Show: Travel Gadgets for Summer

The UK based software company has spent the last few quarters optimizing their staff to deliver a great service offering to it’s customers. Shozu drew some heat in the last few weeks for choosing to charge for their application, a move that wasn’t warmly received in the blogging world.

I had a recent interview with ShoZu CEO Chris Wade where I asked him to introduced himself (he’s been recently added as CEO). The interview continues on from there:

There has been a recent changing of the guard at Shozu: what are the new priorities inside the company?

I have been in the telco industry for 30 years. Once as a part of Nortel and a few startups — largely based in the location/GPS market. I have been involved with Shozu since 2002, first as an investor and more recently I was Chairman of the board since the end of last year. I was named CEO about 4 weeks ago.

I am seriously invested in the company and I want to see it grow. The transition from the former CEO to myself was a mutually agreed upon decision, we felt it was time for new leadership for ShoZu to move on. We are now focused on moving forward…

Just a few weeks ago, we launched the iPhone application as a paid application. Our rationale for with the paid route: unfortunately, the company wasn’t making sufficient money with the previous models. Therefore, we couldn’t establish a good enough position with VCs to attract new capital and we needed to re-think our business model. Simply put, ShoZu had to do something fundamentally different with the business.

Under our previous model, the company was spending more money getting embedded on different handsets than we were making money on the application. Plus, the software reload process took too long for us to get new software versions into the system.

Recently, with the development of the mobile application stores on the various mobile platforms a new model presented itself. If we could charge a one-time app fee, the loyalty generated to the consumer would be twofold: first, we would have no need to place ads, and we could provide regular updates to consumers.

What steps are you taking to set ShoZu apart from the competition?

First of all, we are increasing the 10MB video upload limit.

There are many other advancements that we are working on that I can’t commit to or comment on right now.

Most of all, we want to adopt a model that sustains Shozu and has a better experience for consumers. We are also looking into other revenue models, such as monetizing new features int he application layer.

As a company, we have a high degree of intellectual property. We currently hold 9 patents and we are actively seeking new ways to draw value from these hard-earned wins.

How many people work at ShoZu?

We have strategically looked at our staffing and have downsized accordingly. As you know, Jason, VC funding is hard to come by these days, so we’re always looking for ways to best manage our finances. Currently, we are down to about 15 people a day. We were forced to scale back carrier-specific development and focus on applications and platforms.

Shozu supports a large array of phone models and operating systems…is this sustainable? Are you hoping for a middleware like Adobe AIR to help bridge the gap between mobile OS?

We are currently going after development for these platforms: Apple, Nokia, and Blackberry. We made a decision to embrace the app stores on these platforms.

What about Android?

Android: we are working on it. In fact, we have partnered with a major handset manufacturer. Android is big for us, as we view Android as a match for Symbian in terms of architecture and openness.

And the Palm Pre?

We are in a “wait and see” attitude with the Pre thus far.

Have you seen any slowdown of new user signups, since you went paid?

Before we charged for the app, we were seeing about 5000 downloads a night. Now we are seeing hundreds. However, I don’t feel bad about this as each paid app download means we are achieving sustainable growth going forward.

There are apps that do a lot of the same things as ShoZu. PixelPipe and the native uploaders for the various services – how does ShoZu stand out?

We know about PixelPipe. In fact, there are some relationships between our people and those at PixelPipe. Shozu will add features to create differentiation. For example, Share Online from Nokia features no geolocation or other two-way communications. The other apps, mainly, are just apps that merely upload your photos to a website.

Also, we have over 50 destinations that feed assets to, including Flickr, Facebook, and others. In our research, we found that the average ShoZu user uploads to 3 different locations

One factor that ShoZu hasn’t advertised yet, but sets us apart from our competitors, the ShoZu application is very data efficient. Our uploads generage 30% less data going over the wire. This is huge for those on data plans that charge by the megabyte, or US based carriers for carriers such as AT&T (who suffer from spotty network coverage).

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ShoZu Adapts, Focuses on Delivering Value [Interview]

Nokia sent out a press release about the announcement last week, but I wanted to dig further and therefore I interviewed Juha Kokkonen, Director, Discover Product Group.

First: a little primer on the N79 Active.

How the N79 Active is Unique

Well, the phone itself is no different – it’s the same recently released NSeries phone with 3G network speeds, Wi-Fi, 5-megapixel camera that can take great video, GPS and Symbian operating system.

However, the N79 Active comes with a few accessories that make in an active person’s dream setup. First, it features an arm band for wearing while you’re doing your sport, whether it be cycling, running, rowing, mountain biking, sailing or whatever. Most importantly, it features a Polar chest band that communicates with your N79 and a new 2.0 version of the Sports Tracker application.

Using the N79′s GPS chip, the Sports Tracker application has long been able to graph your speeds, altitude, average speeds and other workout data. But now with the heart rate information, you know metrics on how your body performed under these outside conditions.

A video of the N79 Active is below:

On with the interview!

Jason Harris: What was the path to creating and rolling out the N79 Active?

Juha Kokkonen: We looked at the big trends right now with our product line and two stood out to us including the Internet with web-based services and health/fitness.

Secondly, the Sports Tracker application and corresponding web service has been quite popular. We have millions of downloads and our users are reporting that they love tracking their workouts and sharing their data with their friends.

We’re always looking for ways to enhance our applications and Sports Tracker is a popular product, especially here in Scandinavia, that we wanted to add to. There are many active people here in Finland and we thought adding the body metric data to Sports Tracker would further enhance the Sports Tracker user experience.

Inside Nokia, we learned that heart rate information is very important to those doing exercise activities. What types of devices are these people using? Runners and cyclists are alreadyusing equipment that track their heart rate so they can measure their activities.

Jason Harris: What sports or activities is Nokia targeting with the N79 Active?

Juha Kokkonen: Any activity really: skiing, cycling, biking, running. I even used the N79 Active recently while I was sailing.

Also, I have a contact in Spain who is a cyclist. He uses the N79 Active to track his route, heart rate, but also to listen to his MP3′s along the way. He was then able to put his data online for his cycling friends to see and evaluate. The Spanish cyclist could also share his pictures and video he took along his workout and share them on the Sports Tracker website.

Also, with the heart rate information, Sports Tracker has a new realm of usages indoors. Before, when Sports Tracker only tracked location, the application wasn’t very useful to capture any indoor sports because there’s no GPS availability indoors.

Jason Harris: If you already have an N79, can you buy the Polar chest band separately?

Juha Kokkonen: Perhaps in the future, but now you have to purchase the N79 Active as a package to get the Polar chest band.

Jason Harris: Where are you currently selling the N79 Active?

Juha Kokkonen: Primarily in the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Finland and South Africa. These are the three initial countries where we are collecting feedback. So far the feedback has been great so we plan to expand the selling footprint as time goes on. We are not in a position to announce more countries at this point in time.

Jason Harris: How fast will you roll out sales to other geographies?

Juha Kokkonen: We plan to see how sales go in our existing markets and roll out the N79 in other areas accordingly.

Jason Harris: What technology provides the link between the chest band and the N79 phone, what other technologies are involved?

Juha Kokkonen: We are using a Bluetooth to link the chest band to the N79. The only other new technology involved is a new 2.0 version of Sports Tracker which is custom to this N79 Active package at this point in time.

Jason Harris: OK, so there is no reason the Polar chest band couldn’t be sold as a standalone product and made available for other existing Nokia devices that have GPS and Bluetooth?

Juha Kokkonen: That’s true. On paper, the Polar device could be used with an N95, E71, or other NSeries device. Yes – we designed this Polar hardware to be easily expanded to other Nokia devices. We are collecting feedback on the N79 and evaluate expansion to there handsets and a point in the future.

As time goes on, we may look at selling it as a standalone product, but right now the N79 Active is the way to go.

Conclusion

By releasing the N79 Active, the NSeries team inside Nokia has made the Nokia N79 even more versatile. As a result, the N79 will now be injected into yet another portion of active exerciser’s life.

Armed with body metrics that are combined with the distance, altitudes, pace and other exercise figures; we can track our workouts and their corresponding effectiveness. Also, with Nokia’s Sports Tracker website and Facebook application, active folks can share their workouts with friends and challenge others to the same routes. Sports Tracker, like Nike+, makes these solo activities such as running and cycling and makes them more social.

One note: I think Nokia is being too sheepish with the N79 Active roll out. I believe the N79 Active could be a very popular product within the active communities. I know many cyclists who use a Garmin GPS Watch combined with a chest band already AND carry around a cell phone in their bags as well. I think these folks would jump at a chance to use their NSeries phones as the collector of this data, especially since they can snap photos and video along the way and have all this media along in one central place.

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Exclusive Interview: Nokia N79 Active and Sports Tracker

This post is the first in a two-part series based on: 1) The African mobile marketplace and how Africans utilize their mobile phones and 2) how organizations are using social marketing to reach this highly mobile population for social change. The series is based on a conversation I had with Gustav Praekelt, a mobile entrepreneur located in South Africa.
This post is the second in a two-part series based on: 1) the African mobile marketplace and how Africans utilize their mobile phones; and 2) how organizations are using social marketing to reach this highly mobile population for social change.

The series is based on a conversation I had with Gustav Praekelt, a mobile entrepreneur located in South Africa. In this post we explore how mobile technology is being used for social good in Africa.

The Mobile Phone’s Expansive Reach and The Massive Outreach Opportunity

Africa is an expansive and growing mobile market. With 300 million mobile accounts and more being added each day, the mobile phone presents a far-reaching outreach opportunity for marketers. However, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are also excited at the possibility of being able to send messages to 300 million people at the push of a button.

The Praekelt Foundation, a charitable outreach of Praekelt Consulting , is taking their knowledge of web and mobile technologies and finding ways to help Africa’s needy. The Foundation finds, attracts, and incubates projects to reach out to Africa’s under-served populations. Praekelt Foundation’s current projects are all health-focused, but the organization is actively seeking other avenues to assist Africa’s Mobile-based under-served people.

SocialTxt

SocialTxt is a project that utilizes Please Call Me (PCM) systems. To understand what a PCM message is, one must look at the nature of the African mobile market. In North America, the vast majority of cell phone customers pay on a postpaid basis, meaning most of us pay X amount of dollars for Y amount of minutes. However in Africa, the opposite as true, roughly 85-90% of customers utilize pre-paid SIMs to make and receive mobile phone service. In some African countries like Nigeria, pre-paid customers account for as much as 95% of the mobile market.

In these pre-paid dominant markets, when you run out of call credit, you can’t make outgoing calls or SMS messages. To get someone to call you, you might ring them once or beep them. To respond to all this traffic generated on the mobile phone network, mobile network operators invented Please Call Me messages as a way to prompt your friends or family to call you back. A Please Call Me message is merely a SMS-like message that prompts the recipient to call the number of the requester. The PCM messages are free to send for mobile customers, up to 6 per day.

PCM messages are extremely popular in South Africa, of which 30 million messages are sent a day in a country with a population of around 47 million people.

PCM messages, in recent years, have been used by advertisers and marketers as a vehicle for marketing. Praekelt and his colleagues saw the PCM system as a tool for social change. The Praekelt Foundation thereby approached a network operator about a year ago and convinced the company to work with the Foundation to conduct a trial of positive social impact advertising.

The PCM message offers 120 characters that the Foudation and it’s partners to utilize. For example, a message can be sent to encourage the recipient to call an HIV call center or medical center. The messages fill a need, as Praekelt said, “This is not fancy technology and most of the PCM message users are at the bottom of the social economic chain. These are people who don’t have TV’s, so programs such as SocialTxt give companies and groups a great way to reach these previously un-reachable portions of the population.”

To enhance the PCM message, Praekelt Foundation, in partnership with health-focused NGOs, can insert a WAP link to a mobile website or a phone number to an interactive voice response system allowing for further health-related information to reach HIV-stricken patients.

With SocialTxt, the Praekelt Foundation has teamed up with partners such as the national HIV/AIDS Call Centeres, People Opposing Women Abuse, Netcare/Vodocom Cleft Lip Campaign, and Khomanani Zithande Campaign.

TxtAlert

HIV/AIDS is a health epidemic at the forefront of Africa’s focus for health outreach. Of 33 million people in the world who are HIV Positive, 22 million of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of those 22 million, 5 million are in South Africa alone. This means, as Praekelt points out, that roughly 10% of the world’s HIV-positive population lives in South Africa.

TxtAlert is a project that uses SMS messages to remind HIV patients to go to the health clinic for their next visit. In addition to notifying patients of the upcoming appointments, TxtAlert also requests them to reschedule if they are unable to attend. These efforts are aimed at keeping patients engaged in their treatment programs and to deter them from discontinuing their HIV/AIDS treatment programs.

The Praekelt Foundation’s research found that even though most of the partner clinic’s patients were jobless, more than 90% of these patients have at least one working cell phone in their household. Naturally, SMS is a viable communication method in such a situation.

In addition to prompting patients to attend their appointments, TxtAlert is being used by health clinics to incentivize those who come to the clinic as well. After a patient attends an appointment, TxtAlert will send the patient a text saying “Thank you for coming to the clinic, remember your next appointment is coming up on “. The patient will then receive a reminder text 90 days before the appointment, 2 weeks prior and so on. Well performing patients get free airtime and cell phones as incentives for coming in.

The Praekelt Foundation and partner clinics are experiencing favorable results with SocialTxt. On average, a typical clinic will have a 15% no-show rate for patient appointments. However, when a clinic utilizes SocialTxt, those rates drop to around 3%.

Praekelt points out that a great factor about SocialTxt is that deploying the system doesn’t require vast amounts of capital and infrastructure. The main building block is an electronic patient record system and the rest is done behind the scenes by the TxtAlert software. The system is highly scalable as usage and needs rise. The Praekelt Foundation is currently working with a pilot clinic with about 10,000 users on the system. However, they are adding more clinics and will soon be up to 120,000 users on the SocialTxt system.

A third project utilizing SocialTxt will be unveiled at the Pop!Tech conference in October. Pop!Tech gave funding to the Praekelt Foundation to send out thousands of PCM messages regarding HIV/AIDs education.

Mobilisr

Mobile messaging is a far-reaching conduit for reaching a mass audience. The Praekelt Foundation, along with co-lead organization Cell-Life, is working to build an open source, high speed and highly reliable mobile messaging platform called Mobilisr.

Mobilisr could be used for health-related outreach, but also be used by governments and public-safety organizations to send out messages relating to: human rights monitoring, elections monitoring, emergency alerts, conducting public surveys, or could even be used by a group to organize protests.

Prakelt also told me that Mobilisr is enabling customers to conduct SMS voting (much like American Idol’s text messaging voting system). The problem with the existing SMS voting systems, as he explains, is that they are built on proprietary systems. Te Prakelt Foundation is working with NGO’s (such as Cell-Life) to build SMS based pledge lines and incentive systems built upon WAP sites.

Mobilisr just launched on October 1st. It will be interesting to see how the technology is employed by NGOs and other groups for social good.

Conclusion

With mobile phone technology spreading so rapidly across the African continent, there are many opportunities to reach out to Africa’s under-served population. Any vehicle that offers access to the population should be exploited. It’s a shame that many people in these groups are being ignored, even though many of them have mobile phones.

It is great to see organizations such as the Praekelt Foundation working with mobile network operators, health clinics, and NGOs to connect Africa’s under-served population with the care and services they need to be happy, informed, and perhaps more healthy.

About The Author

Jason Harris is a technology and mobile enthusiast based in Portland, Oregon. To connect with Jason or read more of his posts, check out his blog at Techcraver.com.

Photo: Paul Watson

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Africa: A Booming Mobile Market And A Vast Outreach Opportunity, Part Two

Image Courtesy: Paul Watson

Editor’s Note:
This post is the first in a two-part series about 1) the African mobile marketplace and how Africans utilize their mobile phones; and 2) how organizations are using social marketing to reach this highly mobile population for social change.

The series is based on a conversation I had with Gustav Praekelt, a mobile entrepreneur located in South Africa.

This post is was also published as a guest post on ReadWriteWeb.

Africa: An Emerging Market?

Running Through the Numbers:

Africa is a continent which is inhabited by roughly 1 billion people. Astoundingly, the “Dark Continent” has been a fertile market for the mobile industry, with 300 million Africans currently carrying an active mobile account. This is an adoption rate of around 30% on a continent that is not known for having an affluent population.

In some African countries, mobile adoption nears 80-90%. Specifically in South Africa, which has a population of 47 million people, 42 million carry and use mobile networks.

Like the rest of the world, excluding North America, most African mobile customers opt for pre-paid mobile phone accounts. In South Africa, only 10% choose to have a service agreement with a specific mobile network operator. In some African countries, pre-paid customers account for 95-96% of the mobile customer base.

Going High Speed

More people in South Africa have 3G high speed-capable handsets than traditional wireline broadband. Praekelt says “traditional broadband is just not going to happen here.” He also added that South Africa was the second place in the world to receive an HSDPA network following only Germany. Because a strong traditional broadband infrastructure doesn’t exist in South Africa, there aren’t many Wi-Fi hotspots to accommodate wireless consumer needs. HSDPA gives customers high speed capable networks that are highly practical and portable at the same time.

Only a few countries on the African continent have 3G including Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Mauritius, South Africa, and Swaziland. In the next year however, many new countries will come on board with 3G data service. However, not all customers will be able to afford 3G handsets right away.

With adoption numbers around 30%, how many of these mobile customers are using the mobile Internet? According to Praekelt, only 1-2%. However, some mobile websites based in Nigeria are attracting up to 200,000 users. Prakelt noted that when he was recently in Lagos, he saw people with 3G handsets even though such a network has yet to be built.

Finally, I asked Praekelt how many African’s have smartphones. He replied by saying adoption is very low at around 5% at best. In some demographics, as much as 10% of mobile handset sales are smartphones. For example. his company built a mobile advertising platform that required a smartphone. The campaign, featured on a local radio show as a trial, drew 10% of 18-24 year olds.

Even though smartphone adoption may be low, 50% of African mobile customers use WAP services. Even though smartphones feature rich internet applications, most modern cell phones have browsers in them that enable users to download ringtones and use WAP sites.

Africa as An Inviting Mobile Market

Almost every African country has at least three major mobile network operators. However, initially in the 1990′s, none of the major international carriers thought Africa was worthwhile to explore as a potential market. A few key mobile network operators including Vodafone, Celltell (now called Zain), and MTN explored certain African geographies, selected markets and, as a result, cleaned up in terms of market share. In Africa, Vodafone network has 7 territories, Celltell has 10-15 territories and MTN has 21 territories. Local companies understood the emerging environment and the challenges ahead and built out wireless networks. Now they are benefiting from these early bets.

It is astounding how these mobile network operators are able to thrive in markets where average revenue per user (ARPU) is relatively low. For example, in the North American market, normal ARPU is around $60-$70 per month. But in markets such as Africa and India it is much less. AirTel in India has the world’s lowest ARPU, however, they area able to turn a respectable profit by making it up in volume with massive subscriber counts.

According to Praekelt, an inviting regulatory environment makes it possible for mobile network operators to come in and do business in Africa. Also, traditional copper phone lines take so long to get that wireless is a no-brainer to most customers who need communications solutions. The long wait for a traditional phone line, combined with firece wireless competition caused wireless phone service prices to go down, leading to success for mobile network operators.

Regarding Open Source and Mobile Handset Adoption, and the iPhone

I asked Praekelt what impact the open source on mobile movement would have in Africa. With developments such as the LiMo Foundation pushing Linux on Mobile, Nokia buying and open sourcing Symbian, and Google’s Android now on the market, how will this impact emerging markets? Prawkelt replied, “In a word: nothing”.

He expanded by illustrating that Finnish handset maker Nokia has gained such a solid footing in the mobile handset market, “almost everyone is on Nokia.”

Nokia is successful in markets such as Africa because they make such a wide array of handsets with a plethora of feature sets and price points. Nokia has a huge market share because they market cell phones that are cheap, expensive, and everywhere in between. Nokia has been able to be successful on both the high and low end of the price spectrum. Plus, Africans like Nokia handsets because they find them easy to use. Oddly enough, the Nokia E90 communicator is quite popular in Africa because it is the one phone that can do almost anything, as Praekelt points out. A very practical device, the E90 features 3G connectivity, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a large screen, adding to it’s popularity.

Additionally, application developers are attracted to the Nokia/Symbian platform because of its “openness”. For example, a programmer working on Symbian can release mobile applications and services in a non-walled garden environment, unlike Apple iPhone developers. Many African mobile users depend on functionality that is locked out by the iPhone, such as full access to the Bluetooth stack and MMS capabilities.

In Praekelt’s opinion, no one will be able to afford an Android handset. An entry-level Android handset might appeal to some Africans, but only if it’s offered at a low price but only time will tell, as Praekelt stated.

Also, looking at the iPhone, Praekelt doesn’t anticipate these devices taking off in South Africa as purchasing the Apple mobile phone requires a contract with a specific mobile carrier. Plus, at present, South Africans are unable to access the iTunes store for purchasing music and media. The iPhone will likely appeal only to extremely rich persons who are willing to pay $500 for a mobile phone.

This mentality regarding the iPhone carries over to other emerging markets as well. In areas such as Africa, India, and China, iPhone sales are not strong. This means you have 3 billion people who are overlooking Apple’s iPhone. The iPhone has been effective in advancing usability in the mobile phone industry through competitiveness, however, the platform is too closed off for many customers in emerging markets.

How Africans Use Their Mobiles: Making Easy Mobile Payments

Africa is home to the largest mobile-based payment network in the world, M-Pesa is a mobile payment system that allows users to exchange money via SMS. A cross between PayPal and Western Union, M-Pesa works with pre-paid mobile calling credit. If you wish to pay a friend or colleague, you can simply use SMS to transfer money his M-Pesa account, resulting in a credit to his calling balance. You can even go to an M-Pesa agent and get cash payments from your M-Pesa balance.

What makes Africa a great environment for a mobile payment system? It’s a matter of their economic and societal make up. Most of the one billion people in Africa do not have bank accounts. For example in South Africa, only 13 million out of 47 million people have bank accounts. Of these, only 2 or 3 million have traditional internet access that would allow them to log in to their bank account online to transfer money. For a population who deals mostly in cash, being able to transfer money via a mobile phone payment system presents a huge opportunity to them.

Leapfrogging PC’s and Going Mobile

If you look at South Africa’s mobile adoption, virtually 100% of the population has a mobile phone (actual adoption is at roughly 91%, but excluding children, it’s close to 100%). This drastic adoption has occurred just 10-15 years after the first GSM network was launched in South Africa.

Western based companies who are building their website and web presence tend to think of their mobile internet site as an afterthought. What is often forgot is formating and structuring the site to appeal to mobile internet users in addition to ‘traditional’ PC-based Internet users. Mobile websites, in Praekelt’s experience, are referred to as “the same thing” when in reality the requirements for mobile are quite different. This mentality is not relevant in mobile-heavy populations such as Africa. In a society where virtually everyone is reachable by SMS, new marketing opportunities present themselves.

Mobile customers in Africa are leapfrogging the “traditional” web and going straight for massive WAP and mobile web adoption. 3G phones are available in countries such as Ghanda, Tanzania, and South Africa. Combine this capability with inexpensive 3G data rates and a fully-capable 3G phone such as the Nokia E90 Communicator, and you have a population of mobile consumers that sees the online world through an entirely new lens. As Praekelt stated, “with these capabilities, who needs a PC with web access?”

In the markets described above, traditional DSL or cable-modem based internet adoption is relatively flat and growth is linear. However, the mobile adoption is exponential year after year.

Conclusion

The adoption numbers and usage models found in Africa point to a population who has quickly taken an enabling technology and woven it into their daily lives. The next part of this series will illustrate how the Praekelt Foundation has teamed up with social organizations and NGOs to deliver mobile-based social marketing solutions for social good.

About the Author

Jason Harris is a technology and mobile enthusiast based in Portland, Oregon. To connect with Jason or read more of his posts, check out his blog at Techcraver.com.

Photo: Paul Watson

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Africans and Their Mobiles, Part 1: Numbers and Usage Patterns

WiMax will be a major leap forward when the network is finally rolled out. If you’re unaware of WiMax, think of being able to access the Internet at Wi-Fi speeds, except over a network that spans miles from the tower, similar to cellular phones do now. WiMax is a high-speed data network that is much faster than today’s 3G network and will give mobile devices a new classification of mobile speed and reliability.

Currently ClearWire provides WiMax service in a few geographies, but the combined XOHM/ClearWire network will be prevalent in many more areas. XOHM is set to launch in Baltimore in a matter of weeks with other East Coast cities soon following.

At last week’s Mobilize ‘08 conference, I sat down with Rick and asked him about XOHM, WiMax, and how XOHM plans to operate their network.

The interview follows:

JH: What is XOHM focused on?

RR: We are currently focused on laptops, personal media players, and ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) primarily. We’re launching in Baltimore this month and the Nokia N810 WiMax device will shortly follow.

WiMax will mean, in essence, ‘a hotspot the size of a city’ so no longer will you be locked to, say, a coffee shop to do broadband computing… in the case of home modems you will have sort of a roaming hotspot where the XOHM modem will receive a WiMax broadband signal and using a WiFi router will be accessible to any device that speaks 802.11.

You can move the modem around, for example, you can take it another location and merely plug it in. We’ll have PCMCIA cards and USB modems as well. Eventually, handsets will be in the mix.

XOHM is trying to build a platform that will enable application developers and companies to think in this new paradigm of connectivity that WiMax represents. In 1-5 years, who knows what a ‘phone’ will be? What use cases will come about from having a broadly reaching wireless capability?

JH: What is the relationship between XOHM and ClearWire?

RR: Pending regulatory approval, we’re going to form a new company with investments from many companies (including Intel, Google, Comcast, and more). It will be a standalone company based in Kirkland, WA. We’ll have to figure out over the next few months how we marry the two current companies as there are organizational overlaps to overcome.

Luckily our spectrum holdings are complementary, so merging the network won’t be as complex.

JH What is the rollout schedule for XOHM?

RR: Later this month we will launch in Baltimore. Soon following will be Washington, DC, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The idea is to get it in a few key cities this year, then have dramatic growth next year.

JH: Yesterday, Nokia announced the possibility to having 3G in their tablet, how would XOHM view this development?

3G can be a nice complement to WiMax connectivity for dual-mode operation, obviously. In that situation if it were to happen, when you don’t have WiMax coverage, you bump down to 3G where it’s available. But I cannot speak specifically to the Nokia device.

JH: How does cable operator involvement impact XOHM? Where do the complimentary factors lie?

RR: They can take the shape of an MVNO for our services, possibly re-branded. Cable operators want to utilize our quality network to compliment their wired services.

JH: I’ve looked at ClearWire prices, and they don’t seem that competitive. Will XOHM pricing be better?

Yes, it will. The pricing for XOHM will be released very soon, but it will be very competitive. We realize that with the economy being the way it is, people will have to make decisions on which services they have in their home and we want to price XOHM to be attractive to the general public.

XOHM will not have contracts or early termination fees. We’ll have daily and weekly passes. ClearWire is currently built on the traditional telecom model (meaning they require service contracts and purchase your own equipment to utilize the network), and XOHM is trying to establish a new model.

JH: Would you lock out services? For example, would you only allow Comcast Voice service on XOHM, locking out competitive services such as Skype or Vonage?

RR: No. We will remain open and won’t lock out services. We want to remain customer focused so we’ll remain as open as possible.

We won’t block protocols or services and will not take a position where we are capping bandwidth for our users.

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Interview: XOHM and Rick Robinson, VP of Product and Services