iTunes alternative doubleTwist outlines carrier strategy

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes-alternative doubleTwist got a significant ally this week when it announced T-Mobile (NYSE:DT) would promote and pre-load its media synching service on some of the carrier’s Android devices. The inability to synch media, including music, videos and pictures, between mobile devices and the PC is a pain point for most consumers who don’t own an iPhone. doubleTwist is aiming to fix this problem for the masses, and it is looking at carriers to do so. Vidya Ravella, doubleTwist’s vice president of marketing, spoke with Connected Planet about the importance of synching and why carriers would be remiss to overlook it.

On carriers’ missing piece: We’re pitching ourselves to carriers as, first-off, a media management solution. They are all trying to compete with the iPhone, so this is a missing piece that they know the need after launching a few handsets and reading all the reviews. All the reviewers are saying you need a desktop synch in order to actually make a phone a media device. There’s the utility on that side, but we are going to reach beyond that with several of our conversations with carriers. There really isn’t any money in synching to a desktop as a utility, so value-added services, handset clients, cloud services strategy – those are all things actively being discussed.

On how to add value to mobile synching: With the Apple’s acquisition of LaLa, it’ pretty clear where they are trying to take things, and with how successful Spotify has been in Europe, it’s clear what they are trying to do. We are testing things like radio, integrating a premium Pandora client-type in or a real could services strategy to stream music to handsets. The networks aren’t ready for it. It’s a moving target on the capability side for carriers, but it’s also a long development lead time as well.

On why T-Mobile is the perfect starting point: They are young and hip and like music, and it’s a very urban demographic. [T-Mobile] likes introducing new things. They took a risk with us, preloading a piece of desktop software on their phones. No one does that.

On how doubleTwist beats out iTunes: The biggest advantage over them is you can synch any device. The other thing is we don’t force a synch. If you plug an iPod into iTunes it forces you to synch a certain way, whereas with doubleTwist I can plug certain iPods into and drag and drop songs over…The other thing I love is we transfer video. If you have video in some format, it doesn’t automatically work if you just drag and drop it in Windows Explorer or Finder. We transcode it. We know the resolution for hundreds of devices you might plug in. We’ve added support for the Nexus One. We know what the resolution is so if you’ve shot a home video and want to take it with you on the Nexus One, it will play easily without you having to think about it.

On why carriers are crucial to doubleTwist’s ultimate goal: We’ve always been dedicated to having an open seamless media for people to enjoy their entertainment they own anywhere they are. The mobile screen is quickly becoming more and more important. The most effective way to get to the screen is through the carriers. OEMs won’t do a deal with you unless the carrier tells you too. The carriers own the billing relationship, and we don’t want to create a new billing platform. They are always looking for ways to drive revenue and add value. We hit their sweet spot well because we are making their handsets more valuable and allowing them to compete on their own terms.

On avoiding the AT&T/Apple paradox: AT&T loves and hates the iPhone. It drives astounding data revenue and loyalty, but at the same time depletes their brand. They are just a dumb pipe. Verizon refuses to be a dumb pipe. That’s why they spent so much money on the Droid. It’s still a lot of Google, but they get to put their services on it. It’s the Verizon Droid. It’s not the Apple iPhone brought to you by AT&T. We fit into that story very well. For T-Mobile, it’s still doubleTwist, but it’s customized for T-Mobile. They got to decide what modules it is in or not in or decide to add later. They got to add features and things like that. They got to have it for their handsets. It helps the customers enjoy their phones more, and that’s what they care about – keeping their customer happy, so they don’t churn.