All things to all mobile people

Given wireless carriers' obsession with beating Nextel Communications at its own game, it's only natural that the early buzz about fastmobile compared the upstart applications developer's fastchat app to Nextel's Push-to-Talk offering. (We did — see Wireless Review, July '03) But fastchat's functionality is much broader — and, considering the technological neutrality of the company's platform and its momentum in lining up compatible devices and distribution channels, fastchat has the potential to appeal more quickly to its mass consumer target demographic.

“We think we have a bigger idea here,” said Harry Eschel, fastmobile's co-founder and executive VP. He described fastchat as a “multimodal” application that incorporates press-to-talk (that's Nextel-style service without the trademark, thanks to the calls we got from Nextel's lawyers), group instant messaging (mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-PC), picture and video short messaging, and e-mail (including a capability for voice response). And because fastmobile has incorporated a record-and-play API into the application and hosts and distributes the service from its hosting center in Naperville, Ill., its breadth is not constrained by carrier boundaries or network capabilities — although the fact that Symbian is currently a GSM-only OS does limit things somewhat.

In other words, a customer with a compatible device on T-Mobile's network can send a video-based short message to a friend with a compatible device on the AT&T Wireless network. The AT&T Wireless customer, meanwhile, can choose from a bevy of response options while also replying to an e-mail message via voice.

The fastchat app is currently distributed via fastmobile's own site, independent mobile phone retailers and applications aggregator Handango. “Building consumer awareness is extremely expensive,” Eschel said. “That's why we rely on our distribution partners.”

While Handango offers users over 50,000 applications, fastchat is one of just 28 the company selected for inclusion on the top apps button on the Sony Ericsson P900. “Users love the fact that it is so cross-functional — it's not just a chat application, not just a walkie-talkie application and not just a picture messaging application,” said Handango marketing VP Clint Patterson. “It's also the kind of application that has a viral effect — it becomes more useful to all users with every new sale.”

Right now, fastchat works on devices that use the Symbian operating system, which besides the P900 includes Sony Ericsson's P800 and Nokia's N-Gage, 3650 and 7650. The company is targeting other devices from those vendors, Siemens, Motorola and Palm, as well as Microsoft's Pocket PC. And 2004 will bring Java and Brew versions of the service, Eschel said. “You can't do all the tricks in the software that you can with Symbian,” he said.

The distribution leap for fastchat would be if wireless carriers themselves started directly selling the app, or if it were pre-set on handsets — both routes that fastmobile is pursuing. “We're starting to look at more tightly-knit distribution arrangements with operators and device manufacturers,” Eschel said.

For now, fastmobile will not attempt to crack the corporate enterprise market that Nextel dominates. “The value proposition exists across demographics — what doesn't is the phones,” Eschel said. “You can't sell them into a corporate marketplace.”

So until handsets befitting the corporate environment hit the market, fastmobile is satisfied with setting its sights on an alternative demographic: the rest of the wireless world.