My Mobile Day by Dr Arun, Chief Marketing Officer of NewBay

I’ve been watching NewBay Software for quite a while. They’ve been doing some rather smart stuff for mobile operators for some time. For example, enabling operators to offer mobile blogging facilities (“rich-media services”) to their customers. They’ve deployed services to over 250 million subscribers. So they know what they’re doing.

I talked to them recently and asked if Dr Arun (above), their Chief Marketing Officer (and a proud user of the Nokia E90 like me), would be up for doing a My Mobile Day. If you haven’t seen one of these before, it’s where we ask an executive to tell us what their average day looks like — from the perspective of their mobile use. It’s always very illuminating. Here, for example, is the My Mobile Day of Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol.

They operate services for a who’s who of the mobile industry (think: T-Mobile, Telefonica O2, Alltel Wireless, Orange, Vodafone, Swisscom, Bell Mobility, Maxis and SETAR NV).

With that in mind, how does their top marketing chap manage his mobile life? Let’s take a peek. Over to you, Dr Arun.

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07:00 – I am woken to the soothing sound of Bob Marley playing through my iPhone, which is hooked up to my recently purchased BOSE SoundDock. The sound quality is excellent, although I realise my playlist definitely needs updating. I get up and ready myself for the day ahead.

07:30 – I tuck into my breakfast whilst checking my e-mails and diary on my iPhone using my home Wi-Fi network, and prepare for the day ahead. I am flying to Ireland later today, but I have a couple of meetings in town first.

08:00 – I leave home armed with my favourite handsets, my iPhone, Nokia E90 and Samsung Soul and head off. Prior to locking the front door I quickly perform my mental check list – phones, wallet and keys. These are the three simple words which I repeat like a daily mantra every day before leaving home.

I reserve the iPhone for internet browsing and checking e-mails, whilst I enjoy the Samsung Soul for its tactile touch screen and ease-of-use. I originally used the Nokia E90 to demo the 02 Bluebook service which is powered by NewBay, but soon fell in love with it for its over sized display screen and QWERTY keyboard which is perfect for texting.

09:00 – I have a meeting at the Sherlock Holmes Hotel on Baker Street; however it’s been quite some time since I have been there and so I quickly use Google Maps on my iPhone when I leave Baker Street Station to find its exact location. I am there in two minutes. The triangulation and Google Maps feature on the iPhone is a feature I use a lot.

I am looking forward to a greater proliferation of services that make more use of geotagging. I believe one of the obstacles to the rise in UGC has been the lack of an effective search mechanism; however geotagging allows users to store, categorise and find images based on geographical location such as holiday destinations or special events. NewBay’s LifeCache Client automatically adds location tagging such as latitude and longitude to image files and from there they can be uploaded to a geotagging friendly site such as Flickr, which then automatically displays them on the user’s Flickr map.

10:00 – Meeting over, I use my Nokia E90 to make some calls to the office and reply to text messages. I love my iPhone, however I am still more comfortable using a “traditional” phone to make calls and send text messages.

10:15 – I am going back to the office in Paddington to pick up my bags before dropping in on a client of ours, the Head of Development and Innovation at Orange. I will then head over to the NewBay Head Office in Dublin.

On my way I spot Denise Van Outen walking past and quickly snap a picture. My phone instantly prompts me, asking whether I wish to upload this photo to Facebook. I press “yes” and the image is uploaded in full resolution. This type of prompt is fundamental to driving mobile UGC forward, as the industry has clearly demonstrated that complicated processes don’t work with normobs.

The ability for operators to quickly add new social networking sites to this type of function is also key and our LifeCache Social Networking Gateway solution allows operators to effortlessly do this without having to worry about managing the different relationships with the Social Networking Sites directly. This makes them more able to meet rapidly changing end-user demands.

11:30 – I arrive at my office and use my inclusive minutes to call a cab to pick me up from Orange at 12:45 and to take me to the airport. I then pop over to see our customer.

12:55 – I chase my cab company to find out where my taxi is and after a couple of minutes they tell me it will be with be shortly, ensuring me that an SMS message will be sent when its nearby.

13:00 – My cab arrives and I jump in and head towards the airport.

14:00 – I arrive at the airport; check-in using the e-ticket terminals and head towards my departure gate. I pass the traditional check-in and spot a lot of people waiting and wonder why they don’t simply use the e-ticket terminal.

I am one of the people eagerly awaiting the roll out of mobile ticketing services, as I think it will save travellers a lot of time and also save the airlines a few pounds in administration fees.

14.05 – I get an SMS announcing that my cab will be with me shortly J

14.30 – I fly through security and head towards my gate. I find a seat and check out a few of my social networking sites using the Vodafone Communities service. We are extremely pleased to be behind this service as it demonstrates how social networks can be optimised for mobile viewing.

15:00 – I board the flight and following take off, put my iPhone in flight mode and sit back and watch a film seamlessly downloaded from iTunes earlier in the week.

16:30 – I escape from the airport quickly and head to NewBay’s Head Office in Dublin. We have recently moved and are in the process of increasing our workforce in the US and Ireland, so the atmosphere is buzzing.

17:00 – I have a meeting with the Management Team. I have my phone on silent but am constantly monitoring it, responding to urgent texts and emails.

19:30 – After the meeting we venture to the local pub to catch-up on non-work related items, though of course the discussion invariably leads to the mobile industry. I talk about the fact I am keeping a diary of My Mobile Day and they all nod knowingly, jokingly suggesting things I could say to make it more exciting e.g. that I regularly check my 02 Bluebook Account whilst sky-diving!

Surprisingly this is the service I have probably used the most today, without even knowing it. Every SMS, MMS and contact I have added to my iPhone today has been automatically uploaded to my own personal online space. Thousands of messages from birthday wishes to Happy New Year messages I have received from friends have been automatically stored, as well as all the photos I have uploaded to social networking sites and sent on to friends. I never have to worry about losing a precious message or photo again. Happy days!

01:00 – I get to my hotel. It was a late night but a good one. I (belatedly) check in, using the code saved in the e-mail on my iPhone. I get into my room, grab a shower and turn in for the night. I fall asleep humming Bob Marley; I really must remember to update my playlists.

02:00 – Dreaming about mobile phones, of course!

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Excellent, thanks for taking the time, Dr Arun! You know what? I never knew NewBay were behind o2’s Bluebook service.