The Mobile Entertainment Forum and Research In Motion talked-up the potential of apps using “smart enablers” in a Telefonica-backed web seminar this week, highlighting the potential to create applications that use intelligence from a number of sources to deliver products that deliver a more compelling experience to end users. 

Currently, most apps sit on a handset without any understanding of their own context, delivering the same experience to users across-the-board. However, by using “smart enablers” to access user information from the network, the device and the application itself, it is possible to deliver a personalised experience related to real-world use, leading to increased application take-up, and prolonged application use – with “relevance” and “reliability” identified as key.

Research In Motion has already run programmes to promote what it tags as “Super Apps”, through the BlackBerry Super Apps Developer Challenge. Sanyu Kirulata, team lead, developer relations, EMEA, for the company, highlighted the characteristics of super apps as including: always on, always connected functionality, with apps running in the background to listen for and react to events and then act in the appropriate way; tight integration with native apps, including the ability to invoke features from handset software and create custom messages for delivery to the BlackBerry inbox; highly-contextualised content, for example leveraging location-based content and services; and increased efficiency, in order to minimise demands on handset and network resources.

“It’s about making developers aware they need to take their applications to the next level in order to really monetise them. It’s taking a hard look at your applications, and looking at the things you can add to add value. How can you make your applications really great for specific users on specific devices, and bring them all the functionality they are looking for? If they are using your application every day, there is a lot of information you know about them. Are you using it, or just tossing it away?” Kirulata asks.

According to a survey conducted by the Mobile Entertainment Forum, 40 percent of respondents from across the ecosystem were not aware that smart enablers could deliver benefits such as increased revenue, a better consumer user experience, the creation of new business models, and more innovative applications to their companies. The expectations of different user groups also varies: while operators expect a “relatively modest” uplift from smart enablers, developers have higher expectations, due to the ability to create an enhanced user experience that can be sold to customers at a premium. 

One of the main issues identified by Suhail Bhat, Policy and Initiatives Director at the MEF, is the need for consistent developer application programming interfaces (APIs), to enable developers to address a wide customer base using common tools – as with other areas of the industry, fragmentation adds to the complexity. Among the initiatives underway here is the GSMA’s OneAPI, which is intended to create a set of “lightweight and web friendly” APIs  to enable operators to expose network information and capabilities to developers. In addition to the technical challenges, the creation and delivery of more intelligent apps leads to the creation of a more complex partner ecosystem.

“Stepping up to the smart enabler role means dealing with more content and developer partners than ever before. And a coherent framework is required for managing and supporting these players in the shape of a partner programme. A high quality programme can also be a point of differentiation for smart enablers, and provide a strong ability to attract what we might call best-of-breed partners to the table,” Bhat says.

The Mobile Entertainment Forum’s Guide to Smart Enablers is available here. A reply of the webcast is here.