Nancy Gohring
Novenber 20, 2003
Nov. 20--You wouldn't have found a dating service or Cosmo Mobile on the initial version of AT&T Wireless' mobile data service, mMode.
That's because since last year, when the Redmond company launched the service, the bulk of the 1 million mMode customers were classic early adopters.
"They were the 35-year-old white male with a Pocket PC and a Palm," said Sam Hall, vice president of mMode services.
Taking the Cosmo Quiz from Cosmopolitan magazine on a wireless handset wasn't exactly the application those users wanted.
But recently, AT&T Wireless noticed different customers, including women and seniors, were starting to subscribe to mMode.
To attract more mass-market consumers, AT&T Wireless is announcing today it is launching an enhanced version of mMode with a slew of new services and capabilities.
"It's no longer just for the technophile," said Hall.
Subscribers of mMode use their cellphones to access Internet-based services to check sports scores, look up the weather forecast, play games and read the news, among other data. Rates depend on how much data they transmit, but typically subscribers spend $7 to $8 a month.
The original mMode underwhelmed many analysts and didn't approach the runaway success of its model: NTT DoCoMo's fabled iMode service.
AT&T Wireless isn't alone. Some observers say none of the wireless carriers in the United States has figured out how to aptly offer data services.
"At the end of the day you have to ask: 'Is the content compelling and is it easy to use?', and I don't think either one of those is in place," said Barney Dewey, a consultant with the Andrew Seybold Group, a wireless consultancy in Los Gatos, Calif.
AT&T Wireless' relaunch aims to address those problems.
Based on studies of cellphone subscribers and Web surfers, the company found that users of data services on cellphones were frustrated by the number of menus they must click through to reach a service. As a result, the top link on the new service is called My mMode, a folder where users can organize their favorite sites.
Other wireless operators also allow users to create bookmarks to their favorite sites.
Users can also click on a tab that reads "Where I've Been" to find a list of the last 15 sites they visited.
Hall said another tab called "Spotlight" updates weekly and tells readers of special deals offered by content providers, such as free ring tones.
He hopes the service is easier to use because of a new template that content providers must follow. The template includes four standard links that must appear at the bottom of each page.
New location-based applications will be part of the relaunch. One example is Match Mobile, a dating service that lets users browse through a database of other singles to find someone they may want to text message or call.
If they decide to meet, they can use a location service to find a nearby restaurant or bar.
Another new service, My 5 Nearby, lets users choose five categories, such as steak restaurant, ATM, gas station, Italian restaurant and coffee shop. They can call up a list of the places closest to where they are.
Some of the new offerings are exclusive to AT&T Wireless.
For example, only mMode customers can use Mobil Traffic, which collects data from the Department of Transportation to display real-time maps of traffic in 40 major metropolitan markets, including Seattle.
Content developers have created these new services using a language called xHTML, which is not yet widely used in the wireless industry. It is similar to the language used to design Web sites on the Internet; it allows developers to create pages on cellphones that look more like Web pages then previous platforms allowed.
AT&T Wireless sells only a handful of phones that support the language. The new mMode services will be available to other phone users but will appear slightly different.
AT&T Wireless plans to support the relaunch with a new advertising campaign and an event in New York's Times Square today featuring Charlie Maher, a runner-up on "The Bachelorette" television show.
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(c) 2003, The Seattle Times. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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