Filed under: Asia e-commerce industry, Customized Market Intelligence covering all Asian countries, Infocom industry Asia, Korea market intelligence, Market research Asia, mobile telecom Asia market intelligence | Tags: Asia innovation strategy, Asia mobile music market size, Asia Mobile telecom marketing consulting, disruptive innovation consulting, innovation benchmarking, innovation stategy consulting, Korea mobile music market, singapore innovation, telecom Asia, telecom market research Asia
Mobile operators may soon be your music supplier . With the fast disappearance of CDs, new music distribution models are springing up around Asia .
Korea is already the world leader in online music sales with just over 90% of music sales coming from online technologies which puts Korea #1in the world. In 2009, mobile music sales in Korea will hit USD 390 million and at the current growth rate the industry should hit USD 500 million by 2015. Similar trends are observed in Japan.
Mobile operators in Korea have been the fastest to innovate and capture the mobile music market. Since 2008, Korean mobile carriers, especially SK Telecom view music streaming and downloading as the next cash cow for data services. In a quasi coup d’état the Korean mobile operators have transformed the music distribution platforms.
SK Telecom, has provided a mobile music portal service called ‘MelOn’ since 2004. MelOn is the first integrated, wired and wireless, music service that allows users to enjoy music virtually anytime, anywhere using a portable MP3 player, a PC, or a mobile phone. The key MelOn interface is a music download and streaming Internet portal, www.melon.co.kr. The service is similar to a rental service, with users “renting” tracks on a monthly basis for use on various terminals. MelOn users pay a 5000 won (US$4.50) monthly subscription to stream music or download tracks to their phone as long as their subscription is current. To download tracks onto the handset, users pay for airtime at regular call rates, regardless of the size of the track.
This end-user friendly platform has completely changed the music landscape and is now being reproduced in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand by local mobile operators.
How did the Korean mobile operators innovate and transform the music industry?
Filed under: Asia e-commerce industry, Infocom industry Asia, Market research Asia, Medtech Asia market intelligence | Tags: Asia mobile healthcare market, benchmarking services Asia, China marketing strategy, China mobile healthcare Asia, competitor intelligence Asia, Medtech market research Asia, telecom market research Asia
In a recent study Solidiance estimated that the Asia mobile healthcare business is currently growing at 80% year on year. With a booming Asian aging but tech-friendly population mobile healthcare is poised to boom. In 2010 the Asia Pacific mobile healthcare business will be estimated to be worth just under USD 1 Billion with 70% of users in more advanced Asian economies. The business is comprised of software & applications development, system integrators, mobile integrators, mobile marketing, mobile operators, handset players, hospitals and doctors. Applications are as wide as remote patient monitoring, mobile nursing, mobile medical records access, and access to free mobile healthcare information.
Asia Mobile Healthcare Market
Mobile healthcare innovation seems to be driven from Asia. Already Japan, Korea and Australia have seen home grown firms taking the lead in the region.
In Japan Mobile Healthcare Inc. is a Tokyo-based integrated solutions provider revolutionizing the healthcare industry by providing real-time mobile solutions in areas of chronic and lifestyle disease management. Lifewatcher combines Internet and cell phone technology to produce real-time mobile solutions for preventing and managing lifestyle-related chronic diseases. The company’s flagship product, Lifewatcher, is a mobile phone-based health management application for people with so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’ such as diabetes and obesity. Users can monitor their own conditions by logging blood sugar levels, calorie intake, exercise and many other variables into their ‘always on’ mobile device, creating a one-glance health portfolio, which collates daily, monthly and even yearly data. It also delivers vital medical information, reminders and alerts with escalating alarm-levels if goals are not met. Using real-time cellular technology, diabetics and lifestyle illness sufferers can also be in constant dialogue with medical practitioners to ensure health measures are in check or, if not, to spark intervention that could save lives. With the dramatic rise of diabetes and obesity to pandemic levels in countries like Japan and the U.S., doctors have been welcoming this self-directed management tool that affordably and easily increases drug, nutrition, exercise and monitoring compliance for sufferers.
Korea-based Healthpia launched the world’s first diabetic phone–that is, a mobile phone (Iphone friendly) with the ability to measure the blood sugar levels of diabetic users. Users place a drop of blood on the end of a strip of testing paper, stick the paper into a sensor located in the extra battery pack, and get a reading on the phone screen. The reading is stored in the phone and also forwarded to an online database, which can be accessed not only by the patients, but doctors.
Another example is Taiwan Mobile Healthcare Services. It provides high-bandwidth links for doctors treating patients at Taipei Medical University Hospital, Tri-Service General Hospital and Taipei City-Wan Fang Hospital. As part of the government’s M-Taiwan initiative, a wireless solution gives doctors virtual access to patient medical records, monitors the condition of long-term sufferers of chronic diseases, provides high-quality diagnostic images and video, and provides remote outpatient registration to improve healthcare services.
In May 2009 Bupa Australia launched an innovative software application designed to provide customers with access to free, mobile healthcare provider information. In doing so, Bupa became the first Australian health insurer to offer a customer focussed application designed specifically for people who have an Apple iPhone . The free application can be downloaded via the Apple iTunes store and then, with only a few simple clicks, people can use their iPhone to locate their closest optometrists, physiotherapists, dentists and chiropractors; as well as hospitals and Bupa customer service centres.
Damien Duhamel
