Opinion Paper

Microsoft OneApp – bringing

mobile applications to
the masses?

Detecon Analysis and

Strategic Recommendations

2010 / 03

We make ICT strategies work

 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

Table of Contents
1 Executive Summary............................................................................................. 3
2 Product Potential Analysis................................................................................... 4
2.1 Product Facts .............................................................................................. 4
2.2 Success Drivers........................................................................................... 6
2.3 Possible Prohibitors ..................................................................................... 8
3 Strategic Business Impact ................................................................................. 10
3.1 Microsoft .................................................................................................... 10
3.2 Mobile Phone Manufacturers..................................................................... 11
3.3 Network operators ..................................................................................... 12
3.4 Application Developers .............................................................................. 13
4 Conclusion and Recommended Action ............................................................. 14
5 The Authors ....................................................................................................... 15
6 The Company .................................................................................................... 16

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

1 Executive Summary

Microsoft OneApp is a new middleware technology that enables the usage of mobile apps on
midrange mobile phones. The mobile apps must be specifically programmed for OneApp,
but run vendor-independent on the most popular midrange phones. By employing
components in the cloud and optimizing algorithms, the storage and computing power
required on the device is reduced. This balance between client- and server-based computing
increases the user experience of the offered mobile apps compared to applications
accessing the Internet directly through, e.g., mobile browsers. Furthermore, data traffic over
the network is minimized and allows usage of OneApp in regions with low mobile bandwidth.

OneApp addresses a major gap: midrange phones constitute more than one third of the total
phones sold and are technically capable of running compelling mobile applications. Still,
mobile applications are not popular on midrange phones. By creating a platform for midrange
phones comparable to the Android platforms for smartphones, Microsoft hopes to enlarge
the market for mobile applications by extending it towards the low-revenue end. For
Microsoft, this is an opportunity to widen its influence in the attractive mobile market beyond
its mobile phone operating system.

Microsoft offers OneApp as commercial off-the-shelf technology solution, consisting of a

mobile phone client, cloud systems, and a basic set of mobile apps. A service provider
interested in offering OneApp needs to deploy a OneApp instance. During this process, the
service provider can fully customize and brand the offering.

The primary target group as service providers of OneApp are network operators in emerging
countries. Microsoft has launched the first offering with Blue Label Telecom in South Africa.
Further implementations are planned with network operators from India and China.

For different market players, OneApp holds a number of opportunities:

Q For network operators, OneApp mainly helps to increase data revenue in
their mobile network. They can also use OneApp apps to differentiate
themselves from competitors by offering bundles with their regular tariffs.
Furthermore, happy OneApp users are happy upselling candidates for
smartphone-based mobile offerings.
Q For mobile phone manufacturers, OneApp offers a possible technology to
enhance their midrange phones. Money can be earned from selling phones at
a higher average sales price or by charging for the apps. However, revenue
potentials are limited because connectivity, the most valuable part of the value
chain, cannot be provided by the manufacturers. So only a few, if any at all, are
expected to bring OneApp to their phones as an own offering.
Q For application developers, OneApp is a priori an interesting target platform.
The attractiveness of the platform will depend mainly on the success or failure
of OneApp.

To summarize, OneApp holds a great potential to drive the market for mobile apps until
smartphones become more widespread. The major challenge for Microsoft and its partners
will be the establishment of an effective surrounding ecosystem, consisting of network
operators, phone manufacturers and application developers.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

2 Product Potential Analysis

2.1 Product Facts

Microsoft OneApp provides a runtime environ-

Fact Box
ment for mobile apps that is installed on a mobile
phone. It appears as a single application on the
Q Enables feature phones to run
phone through which users can easily access
mobile apps
and execute all their favorite mobile apps. With its
small and resource-conserving footprint (ca. 150 Q Runs on a wide range of popular
kilobytes), it aims at feature phones that are phones
positioned between basic phones (only voice Q Provides cloud computing
functionality) and smartphones (high-end graphic components for additional
processors and large built-in memory). processing power and storage

The OneApp phone platform is Java-based and Q Allows service providers to deploy
thus (almost) independent from the phone’s their own instance of OneApp that
operating system. Currently, it runs on the most can be fully customized (from look-
popular feature phones from Nokia, Samsung, and-feel to app portfolio)
and Sony Ericsson. Whenever an app is started,
Microsoft OneApp dynamically downloads and
launches only the currently needed parts of the app. This procedure avoids the storage of
large apps on the mobile phone as well as extra download and installation times.

Microsoft OneApp-enabled apps typically exhibit a

Available Apps
Source: Microsoft.
Windows Live Messenger, Face-
book, Tweetlite, Weather, Celebrity
News, RSS-Reader, News, Sports,
Stocks, Contacts, Mobile Wallet,
Games
very small footprint of at most 30kB (e.g. the
Facebook App for Microsoft OneApp has a footprint
of approx. 10kB). This numbers resemble the initial
download efforts – additional data traffic is needed
during the usage of the apps. In comparison, a
regular mobile web site is already much larger (e.g.
the mobile start page of “Spiegel online”, a German
news magazine, requires a download of around
150kB). This benchmark indicates that a good user
experience can be achieved due to low delay times
during usage.
Besides the lightweight phone client, the OneApp
concept comprises server components that are
provided via cloud services. The cloud services shift
the processing and storage efforts from the mobile
device towards the cloud. The network traffic
between the phone and the backbone is optimized
to further reduce data traffic.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

OneApp is a set of technologies and apps rather than a service. A service provider who
wants to offer mobile apps via OneApp needs to deploy an instance. OneApp allows
customizing of both the app container on the mobile phone, and the set of offered apps.

This approach allows service providers to roll out a fully branded and customized offering. In
addition to the applications provided by Microsoft, service providers can decide to offer other
third-party apps or develop their own apps. Full control over the offered app portfolio is in the
hands of the service provider. Application developers have no direct influence on the apps
that are being offered on certain OneApp implementations. They always have to work
through a mobile service provider.

Microsoft announced to provide a software developer kit (SDK) that supports development of
new apps using industry standards such as JavaScript and XML. The developer kit was
announced to be available by the end of 2009. OneApp only runs apps that were developed
based on the Microsoft’s OneApp framework. It does not yet support any other existing
mobile app frameworks.

With Blue Label Telecoms, Microsoft found a

first partner for its offering in South Africa. Blue
Label offers OneApp as part of its data traffic
service “mibli”. mibli initially includes a dozen of
popular apps, like Facebook and Twitter. The
Facebook app for example allows pictures
taken with the phone’s built-in camera to be
directly uploaded to a Facebook account
without having to store them on the phone. Mibli
also contains a localized app called “mobile
wallet”. Rather than carrying cash, which can be
dangerous, especially in South Africa,
customers can use their phones to conduct
money transactions or make payments in
shops. Blue Label already announced to offer
more such apps, addressing peoples’ basic
needs, e.g. health care services.
Product potential at a glance
+ Large market potential
+ Out-of-the-box solution and low
technology risk
+ Nearly unique selling point
+ High enduser benefit
+ High scalability potential
+ Mixture of global and regional
content
- Requires a solid, long-term and
fruitful eco-system around it
- OneApp is a Bridge technology.

Microsoft plans to establish further deployments

in China and India in the next rollout phase.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

2.2 Success Drivers

Large Market Potential. Even today mobile phones connect more than 4 billion people
worldwide, which corresponds to around 60 percent of the global population1. Mobile phones
have become ubiquitous and an essential contingent are feature phones. Around 2 billion
feature phones are currently in use, and an additional billion units per year are expected to
be sold until 2012 (see figure 1a). With OneApp, Microsoft helps to unlock this tremendous
potential of users for mobile apps.

Sales of mobile phones 6.4 billion units

(worldwide, billions of units)
2.0

1.5 Smart
Phones

Mobile phones
1.0 sold in emergent
countries
Feature 61%
Phones

0.5 Feature phones

25% sold in emergent
Basic countries
Phones
0.0 Sales of mobile phones 2010-2012
(cumulated, worldwide)
2010 2011 2012

Figure 1a: Global Sales of mobile phones, clustered Figure 1b: Global Sales of mobile phones 2010-
by phone type (based on Gartner). 2012, cumulated (based on Gartner).

The potential of mobile phones as an access channel to mobile apps is even larger in
emerging countries, where most people do not have their own landline or computer with an
internet connection. Analysts forecast that 61 percent of the mobile phones sold globally
within the next three years will be sold in emerging countries (see figure 1b). 90 percent of all
telephone subscribers in Africa own mobile phones, and the number of mobile phones is still
growing by around 50 percent per year in this region2. Figures from India and China plot
similar stories3. In India the usage rate of mobile phones almost doubles each year, and in
China by today nearly half of the total population uses mobile phones. According to analysts’
forecasts, feature phones are the main element in this game. 25 percent of mobile phone
sales worldwide until 2012 will be feature phones sold in emerging countries (see figure 1b).
This is the main target market that Microsoft addresses with OneApp.

1
Source: “Mobile Phone Subscribers Pass 4 Billion Mark,” Cellular News, December 23, 2008

2
Source: International Telecommunication Union, “New ITU ICT Development Index Compares 154 Countries,”
March 2, 2009.

3
Source: Normandy Madden, “China’s Mobile Phone Users Hit 650M,” AdAge China, March 11, 2009

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

OneApp could give this ever-growing part of the global population the opportunity to use
applications like social networks, instant messaging and simple games without the need to
own an expensive personal computer.

Despite the high attractiveness of OneApp for emerging countries, the potential in developed
countries should not be underestimated. Feature phones constitute a significant share in
developed countries as well. In addition, many users are interested in using mobile apps, but
are not willing to pay the premium for data flat rates and smartphones. OneApp is just in
between premium mobile application products and no mobile applications at all, and it could
become a market leader by closing this gap.

Out-of-the-box solution and low technology risk. OneApp makes it easy to enter the
mobile application business, as it is very much an out-of-the box solution. Microsoft provides
all of the technology and a set of basic apps. Provided that application developers get
enthused and engaged with OneApp, a multitude of apps will soon emerge and be made
available to the service providers. Initially, the service providers just need to deploy their
instance of the platform and ensure its operations. This should make OneApp a rather cheap
service to establish.

While Microsoft provides the technology platform, the service providers who implement
OneApp keep control over their specific instance. They can exclude apps from the offering
and add others at their will. The appearance of the OneApp instance may be customized in
such a way that it fits each service provider’s brand strategy.
So OneApp offers service providers the flexibility of a tailored solution, but at the cost of
buying it off-the-shelf. This should be an attractive offering and drive OneApp’s success.
Nearly unique selling point. OneApp’s combination of running on a large number of feature
phones and reducing data traffic is singular among large technology companies. The
Israeli/British start-up company Moblica has similar technology to offer. Their service, called
“Snaptu”, offers Web 2.0 apps on feature phones and can be downloaded for free. It claims
to run on hundreds of feature phones and the offered app catalogue already comprises
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Google Calendar and more. Moblica also talks about
achieving fast response time and great user experience by leveraging cloud technology.
However, network operators and application developers are more likely to go with an
established technology company Microsoft than an unknown, potentially unstable start-up.
So any network operator who is interested in targeting feature phone users over small
bandwidth networks is well advised to go with Microsoft.
High end-user benefit. Microsoft OneApp is designed to provide feature phone users with
easy access to mobile apps. With its low technical entrance barriers, it has the potential to
become the single entry point for mobile apps on feature phones. By minimizing the
necessary data traffic through cloud processing combined with optimized communication
streams, Microsoft tackles the generally low bandwidth of mobile connections in the target
markets. Most emerging countries, especially in their rural regions, do not have high-speed
HSDPA-networks at their disposal, but at present rely on GPRS-networks.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

Potential for scale. Besides the technical limitations – compared to smartphones – feature
phones exhibit a large variety of different standards. Therefore, it is a great help for
independent software vendors to design their apps and services for a single platform, rather
than having to deal with a zoo of 50 to 100 different handset types. Though success is not
guaranteed, OneApp is more likely to be successful than any similar initiative by service
providers or start-ups like Snaptu could be.
Mixture of global and regional content. The popularity of services varies across the globe.
While some are globally relevant (e.g. Facebook), others are only popular or make sense in
certain regions or countries (e.g. payment apps or games). An app could be a bestseller in
India while no one would use it in South Africa. Service providers can customize OneApp so
that it has a good mixture of globally relevant and regionally popular apps. These targeted
local markets will help OneApp’s attractiveness. It also makes it easier for the local
developers to distribute their apps on their home turf.

2.3 Possible Prohibitors

Establishing a solid, long-term and fruitful eco-system around the solution is a

challenge. One requirement for OneApp’s success is Microsoft’s ability to build up a
comprehensive eco-system around it. Microsoft needs to address the network operators as
potential service providers, the mobile phone manufacturers to enable a quick and wide-
spread rollout and the application developers to develop attractive apps.

Persuading the network operators to build up their own OneApp offerings seems to be the
easiest part, since they can engage in OneApp at a low risk and with low preparatory efforts.
Making the crowd of application developers join will be much more challenging.

The mobile world has already produced a number of app stores. Android Marketplace, Ovi,
and Apple AppStore – to just name the most popular – are trying to attract developers to
adapt their services and to get appealing content to their platform. OneApp will have to offer
an attractive value proposition to enthuse application developers. Three main factors will
determine this: the number of users, the opportunities to earn money from each single user,
and the effort needed to make an app.

As for the number of users, this is very much a hen-egg-situation: the more users OneApp
has, the more apps are programmed for OneApp making it more attractive for users.
Microsoft and its partners are well advised to create enough buzz around their offering – a
common feeling that OneApp will be a success will work as a self-fulfilling prophecy and help
OneApp over its initial phase until it has sufficient scale.

Incentives for third-party application developers are another important factor, but as of today
(monetary) benefits when participating in OneApp have not been revealed. Presumably, the
model will follow that of app stores in place: there will be a three-way revenue split of some
kind between Microsoft, the service provider (network operator or device manufacturer) and
the developers. On the user side, one-time download charges and subscriptions are
possible; in addition, advertising seems to be an option. It is possible that the benefits will
vary between individual OneApp implementations – this, however, would be daunting for
developers as it makes it difficult to come up with a solid business case for development.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

Another dark horse is the support for application developers. Not much is in place here yet.
A software development kit (SDK) has been announced by the end of 2009, but it is not out
to date (March 2010). Support forums are also missing.

OneApp is a bridge technology. OneApp’s value proposition is derived from three market
facts: smartphones are still too expensive, a zoo of mobile devices which makes it very hard
to program one application for all devices, and network bandwidth is limited. All these factors
are likely to be mediated sooner or later. The continuing progress of standardization within
the realm of software development will increase the degree of reusability of applications
across different platforms. At the same time, it is likely that consolidation of platforms will
take place. Thus, it will become easier to deploy an application on multiple devices.
Furthermore, the capacities of mobile networks will steadily expand as the mobile business
grows bigger and bigger. Therefore, OneApp very much has the character of a bridge
technology. This is very likely to limit the willingness of application developers and network
operators to invest in OneApp.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

3 Strategic Business Impact

3.1 Microsoft
The benefits for Microsoft are of direct and
indirect nature. Business Impact
Direct revenues for Microsoft will come from Microsoft
selling licenses for OneApp, in addition to
providing hosting services or cloud + Increasing user base for own service
infrastructure. Some additional revenue might sphere.
result from establishing usage fees of some + Complementing and supporting
kind for the apps. The scale of these revenues Microsoft’s existing efforts to conquer
is too small to make this a sufficient business the mobile web.
rationale for Microsoft.
Mobile Phone Manufacturers
The major benefits for Microsoft are likely to be
derived from contributions to Microsoft’s + Increase mobile phone attractiveness
technology portfolio. with OneApp.

Increasing user base for own service
sphere. In the first phase Microsoft will
concentrate on establishing OneApp in the
market. The newly gained user base will help
Microsoft to drive the reach and popularity of
other Microsoft (premium) services, e.g.
Microsoft Messenger.
- Competing with mobile phone
manufacturers’ mobile application
efforts.
Network Operators
+ Boosting data traffic revenues and
increasing upselling opportunities

On the backend side, OneApp is a proof-of- + Enabling application-related business

concept for the Microsoft Azure cloud models.
computing platform and helps to increase + Leveraging opportunities from mobile
Microsoft’s credibility in this new business area. payment.

Complementing and supporting existing Application Developers

efforts to conquer the mobile web. The + Yet another development platform,
mobile web continues to grow strongly, and but attractive potential.
Microsoft has tried to enter this attractive market
+ Business model opportunities from
for some time. The first and most radical
usage tracking.
attempt to link the PC and mobile worlds by
pushing a lightweight version of Windows on
mobile devices has been unsuccessful. In Q2/2009, Windows Mobile had a market share of
9% among smartphones, compared to 14% market share for the iPhone platform which
entered the market only recently. Microsoft’s second hope in the mobile web is Silverlight.
Silverlight is a cross-platform framework for bringing applications to all kinds of devices,
including mobile phones. It is still new to the market and currently is mostly limited to
Windows Mobile devices.
The most successful part of Microsoft’s mobile strategy is the mobile use of their web
services – search, email access, etc. Outlook on Windows Mobile is a major part of their
mobile offering for smartphones. The Windows Live Mobile services are really popular on
mobile phones, with millions of instant messaging and email users.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

Unlike Windows Mobile, Silverlight or the online services, OneApp is positioned in a less
competitive environment. Microsoft can use it to build trust in its capabilities and establish
partnerships, which will then help to support its other activities in the mobile world.

3.2 Mobile Phone Manufacturers

Increase mobile phone attractiveness with OneApp. Mobile phone manufacturers can
setup their own OneApp implementations and equip their portfolio of feature phones with
them. Utilizing OneApp’ customizing capabilities, manufacturers can integrate it tightly into
the phone’s user interface.

Thus, at rather little cost, manufacturers could implement an application business around
their feature phone models. Apart from achieving higher average sales prices for their
phones, they could earn some extra revenues from an app store business. As Microsoft
provides the necessary technology stack, the costs for this should be much lower than
building a similar application platform on its own.

On the other hand, the mobile phones that OneApp is targeted at only have a low average
selling price (ASP). Even a small extra cost for the OneApp platform might destroy the
profitability of this low-margin business. In addition, mobile data connectivity is an essential
part for the functioning of OneApp that is not readily available and cannot be provided by the
mobile phone manufacturer itself. This means either the user has to take care of it, which
stains the value proposition – or the mobile phone manufacturer has to partner with many
local network operators, which deteriorates the business case.

Overall, while offerings from mobile phone manufacturers are feasible, the obstacles are
high and we do not expect many of them to come to market, if at all.

Competing with mobile phone manufacturers’ mobile application efforts. All large
mobile phone manufacturers already offer, or plan to offer, mobile applications for their
phones.

Nokia, currently top dog in most emerging markets concerning mobile handset sales, is
driving its Ovi platform to the market. With a production of around a million phones per day,
Nokia can quickly reach a large user group. As of now, Nokia is mainly addressing
smartphones, but given the huge market potential of feature phones in emerging markets it
seems only a matter of time for Nokia to extend its efforts towards bringing mobile
applications to less capable phones. Nokia has already started to develop applications
focussing on the emerging markets’ requirements (e.g. Nokia Money). Moreover, Nokia just
recently announced its claim to quickly become the world’s biggest entertainment media
network. This is a strong indicator for Nokia’s intention to extend its Ovi offering extensively.

Further competition can be expected from Google with its efforts to bring Android to the
masses. As for Nokia the same rationale holds true for Google: they probably will not wait for
the world to buy smartphones but rather adapt their operating system to run on feature
phones. Samsung and LG have announced to launch app stores for their phones as well.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

Until now Apple has been the most successful manufacturer by tackling the mobile apps
domain with its famous AppStore, which hit the 3 billion download mark in January 20104.
Apple can be expected not to compete with OneApp as it will most probably stick with the
high end phone segment.

3.3 Network operators

Boosting data traffic revenues and increasing upselling opportunities. OneApp

increases the number of customers that are technically able to use mobile applications
without requiring large hardware investments on the user side. By offering suitable data
tariffs for OneApp, network operators can try to ”upgrade” voice-only customers to mobile
app users and thus increase their data revenues. The risk of cannibalizing higher-value
services is small, as the OneApp user experience will stay limited compared to smartphone-
based offerings. On the contrary: once customers got used to mobile apps and have
experienced the value proposition, they are good candidates for upselling them to higher-
valued data services with more bandwidth and a smarter end-user device.

Enabling application-related business models. The most presumable revenue model for
OneApp will charge the user for a set of apps and the data traffic. However, the setting
allows for many business model variants. Apps could be sold for one-time fees in a sort of
app store. This business model is particularly suitable for all kinds of fun apps that do not
need much network connectivity, if any at all. The cloud component also allows controlling
the actual app usage a lot better than it is possible with client-only apps. This enables time-
and volume-based charging. If implemented cleverly, marketing has a wide range of options
to generate money.

Leveraging opportunities from mobile payment. Many apps in OneApp will require billing
of some kind. Here the network operator, keeping the customer contact, can take the
attractive role of a broker. In emerging countries, cashless payments apps are particularly
attractive for network operators. They promise high turnovers and good margins. At the
same time, they have a high customer benefit due to the underdeveloped banking
infrastructure. Consequently, a mobile wallet is already part of the current mibli offer.

4
Source: Apple press release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/05appstore.html, January 5th, 2010)

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

3.4 Application Developers

Yet another development platform, but attractive potential. Even now, many
development platforms are out there vying for developer attention. Application programmers
will scrutinize OneApp for its business potential.

In terms of customers, this is large. OneApp taps a high potential of new customers which
can hardly be reached by any other platform. The downside is that these customers are
probably not willing to pay as much as users of smartphone offerings. Still, it should be
possible to earn some money by porting popular apps to OneApp.

Business model opportunities from usage tracking. The cloud component of OneApp
allows for accurate usage tracking. Application developers can use this to ask for usage-
based fees for their app. One example is replacing text messaging by advanced instant
messaging (including multimedia) and putting it into the context of a social network like
Facebook. Charging could then still be usage-based (per message or month of usage),
thereby replacing revenues from text messaging.

Usage analytics opens some more opportunities, since it can also be used for targeted
advertising. Also, developers can get feedback on the usage of their apps and make them
even more attractive.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

4 Conclusion and Recommended Action

Taking all considerations into account, OneApp is a promising enabler to reach yet untapped
market potentials. It offers a number of opportunities and strategic options for the different
players involved. But despite its potential, a success of OneApp cannot be taken for granted
yet. Ultimately, two things will be viable for Microsoft to thrive with OneApp: Microsoft’s
OneApp value proposition and the required ecosystem. One open question is if OneApp will
ever get enough scale. This effect is self-energizing – once a certain number of application
developers, network operators and potentially mobile phone manufacturers have adopted
the platform, it becomes more attractive for others to join. This, however, makes a prediction
very hard. All potentially involved players, namely the mobile phone manufacturers, network
operators and application developers, should carefully evaluate if and how they can benefit
in the OneApp game.

Network operators: Network operators in emerging countries should closely follow the
market uptake of the first OneApp implementations. They should evaluate their customer
base and research which apps (delivered out-of-the-box, or self-programmed) could be sold
at which price. This should quickly give an overview about profit potentials. In particular large
network operators in emerging countries (in particular in India and China) should evaluate a
OneApp implementation early. They can most easily profit from OneApp even if a worldwide
success fails to appear. Network operators in developed countries should start with a high-
level business case that weighs the cost of an implementation against the additional revenue
potentials generated by OneApp. In addition to evaluating potential killer apps (e.g.
Facebook access), an important factor in the business case must be the upselling potential
to smartphone-based mobile app services.

Mobile Phone Manufacturers: Mobile phone manufacturers can gain from OneApp by
differentiating their midrange devices in the market. As margins in this business are low, cost
of the implementation is critical. In particular, mobile phone manufacturers which do not have
a strong application platform of their own should consider the potential benefits of an
OneApp implementation in terms of cost and resulting user experience. Large mobile phone
manufacturers, such as Nokia, should continue their strategy of offering their own application
platforms. They should check whether the delivery model of applications via cloud services
holds its promises, and think about copying it for their applications. Another option would be
buying a startup with a similar offering (e.g. Snaptu)

Application Developers: The attractiveness of OneApp for application developers still

remains vague. A lot depends on the cooperation models between Microsoft, the involved
local carriers (or network operators) and the application developers. Application developers
need to direct their attention to the business details of OneApp and trying to answer
questions, such as who will decide on the set of apps offered through OneApp in a specific
market? Will apps be sold to customers, or offered as part of a monthly subscription model?
Who will participate, and to which extent, when OneApp revenues are split? In all likelihood
application developers will not be able to offer their apps on their own account in an app
shop. Therefore, they should focus on developing universal apps that are not heavily bound
to a specific cultural or regional background. This would increase chances to place the apps
into multiple network operators’ OneApp offerings and markets.

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 Microsoft OneApp – bringing mobile applications to the masses?

5 The Authors

Philipp Bodenbenner has been working as a management consultant in Detecon’s

Competence Practice Information Technology since 2007. His work is on subjects at the
interface between business strategy and information technology. He supports companies
mainly in the areas of data-centric business models and information management. Philipp
Bodenbenner studied Information Engineering and Management at the University of
Karlsruhe (TH), and at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

He can be reached at: +49 160 90981486 or Philipp.Bodenbenner@detecon.com

Marco Röder is a senior consultant in Detecon International GmbH’s Information

Technology practice. He advises companies on technology intelligence and the impact of
market trends. He holds a degree in mathematics and computer science from the University
of Bonn and a Masters degree in Mathematics from the University of Warwick. His
professional interests are product and business model innovation.

He can be reached at: +49 170 6364319 or Marco.Roeder@detecon.com

Brenden Lane is a senior consultant in Detecon Inc.’s Strategy and Innovation practice. He
advises companies on mobile internet strategies and business models. Recent projects
include creating a global go-to-market strategy for mobile applications for a large software
company and designing a cross-platform app store strategy for a telecommunication carrier.
He holds a Bachelors degree in Mathematical and Computational Science and a Masters
degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

He can be reached at: +1 650 430 1085 or Brenden.Lane@detecon.com

Claus Eßmann is active at Detecon as a senior consultant in the Mobile Architecture &
Services group of the Competence Practice Communication Technology. His focus is on end
user devices and the development of technology strategies for customer premises
equipment. Before Detecon he spent 3 years as a software architect developing new
generations of mobile phones for one of the worlds largest mobile phone manufacturer. He
studied computer science at the University of Oldenburg with a minor in psychology. Claus
has in total more than 12 years of experience in the areas of telecommunications, safety
critical embedded systems and software development.

He can be reached at +49 171 5650169 or Claus.Essmann@detecon.com

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6 The Company

We make ICT strategies work

Detecon is a consulting company which unites classic management consulting with a high
level of technology expertise.

Our company's history is proof of this: Detecon International is the product of the merger of
the management and IT consulting company Diebold, founded in 1954, and the
telecommunications consultancy Detecon, founded in 1977. Our services focus on
consulting and implementation solutions which are derived from the use of information and
communications technology (ICT). All around the globe, clients from virtually all industries
profit from our holistic know-how in questions of strategy and organizational design and in
the use of state-of-the-art technologies.

Detecon’s know-how bundles the knowledge from the successful conclusion of management
and ICT projects in more than 160 countries. We are represented globally by subsidiaries,
affiliates, and project offices. Detecon is a subsidiary of T-Systems International, the
business customer brand of Deutsche Telekom. In our capacity as consultants, we are able
to benefit from the infrastructure of a global player spanning our planet.

Know-how and hands-on expertise

The rapid development of information and telecommunications technologies has an

increasingly significant influence on the strategies of companies as well as on the processes
within an organization. The subsequent complex adaptations affect business models and
corporate structures, not only technological applications.

Our services for ICT management encompass classic strategy and organization consulting
as well as the planning and implementation of highly complex, technological ICT
architectures and applications. We are independent of manufacturers and obligated solely to
our client's success.

Detecon International GmbH

Oberkasselerstr. 2
53227 Bonn
Telefon: +49 228 700 0
E-Mail: info@detecon.com
Internet: www.detecon.com

Opinion Paper 16 Detecon International GmbH