Something's BREWing in Europe
Qualcomm's content delivery technology is making gains in the GSM heartland.
wirelessweek.com
By Brad Smith
December 15, 2006
Wireless Week
Qualcomm started offering its BREW content delivery platform five years ago and has had reasonably good success getting carriers to use it. Verizon Wireless has been a poster child for the technology, joining South Korea's KTF and Japan's KDDI as the first carriers to use the technology.
Currently, 69 operators in 31 countries use BREW, but one place it's noticeably absent is the GSM bastion of Europe. After five years, though, is a small chink in the European wall starting to widen?
BREW consists of three main components: the handset user interface called uiOne; deliveryOne, which carriers can use to deliver and manage advanced content and services; and marketOne, a hosted, turnkey content service designed for quick and easy set up.
INITIAL ENTRY uiOne created the first crack in the European wall in September when British carrier O2, owned by Telefónica, introduced the Ice 3G, a handset that uses the interface. The interface allows O2 to customize the appearance of the handset screen, creating different appearances for different services while keeping the O2 brand up front. Combined with the backend BREW content delivery platform, it is designed to make it easier to find and buy content.
O2 says it plans to use the uiOne interface on several of its branded handsets in the coming months, and it eventually expects nearly one-third of its subscribers to use these BREW devices.
ROUND TWO The crack opened a little wider in November when Telecom Italia's mobile unit (TIM) announced it will start using BREW both for the user interface and to deliver 3D games to its subscribers. The games initially available will come via Gameloft. TIM will use the uiOne platform to allow subscribers to download their own screen skins to personalize their phones.
TIM will initially sell two devices running BREW and uiOne – the Samsung Z630 and the Onda N5050. The handsets use Qualcomm's MSM multimedia chipsets for 3D graphics.
Bob Briggs, general manager for BREW, says TIM will offer several UI templates that its subscribers can use to change the look of their handsets. In turn, the UIs will make it easier to find the 3D games the carrier will offer. As part of the UI, the screen will carry a news ticker running across the bottom of the screen.
Briggs says TIM initially has three UI templates for its subscribers to use and may add more in the future. The advantage for the operator is that the UI will make it easy for subscribers to find and download the 3D games, driving additional revenue for TIM's 3G network, he says.
Briggs admits that for many years he has been asked when Europe and the traditional GSM community will open up to BREW. The O2 announcement was a milestone and the TIM deal adds to the momentum, he says. Neither deal was unexpected since both carriers spoke at previous BREW conferences, with Telecom Italia's handset chief, Luigi Licciardi, delivering one of the keynotes at this year's event.
PIQUING INTEREST Briggs says Qualcomm expects TIM to generate dramatic revenue gains because of the 3D gaming. Verizon Wireless earns 36 percent more on 3D games than it does on traditional 2-dimensional games. If TIM has that kind of experience and other European operators see what BREW can do for their bottom lines, Briggs predicts increased interest.
Qualcomm says BREW publishers and developers have earned more than $700 million from the sale of their applications and services since the platform launched in November 2001. That number doubled in the past year. Qualcomm cites published numbers by Verizon Wireless that 45 million BREW applications were downloaded over its network in the first three months of 2006.
BREW also is paying off on Qualcomm's bottom line. In its third quarter earnings report, Qualcomm said its wireless Internet business, which includes BREW, realized $180 million in revenue – $20 million more than the Merrill Lynch forecast. Of that, Merrill Lynch estimated that BREW brought in $41 million, up $12 million from the previous quarter.
Will BREW's adoption by O2 and TIM lead to further adoption by European carriers? Briggs isn't commenting, except to say that Qualcomm continues to talk with many carriers in Europe. With Strategy Analytics forecasting mobile data revenues in Western Europe to reach $52 billion by 2010, there's a lot at stake.
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