Blue-Music (I am using Coffee shop as an example platform, however it can be any such public place where people come and spend time.)
Idea in form of writeup(1)
With presence of a mobile phone with youth which is a major customer to coffee outlets (for that matter any public place where people generally go and are from 15-45 years old) have a cellphone (this age group buys mostly high end phones, An assumption) which can play music(may be a very good phone to one which can just play some music with elementary functionality) and as well have a bluetooth inbuilt in mobile phone(which these people use to share their content among themselves).
With the recent announcement by Apple iPod's(check the link for news) will be available with a WiFi connection and will allow apple users while sitting in a Starbuck's shop in US buy music using WiFi store.
The public places can also offer such work flows to these mobile users described above with a Kiosk , which can play the content from user (music from users cellphone) library which is just temporarily transferred to Kiosk to be played using bluetooth. So the coffee shop is only renting its music players and does not have to procure the music.
It solves two problems for the coffee shop. First the user plays his own music( so they play what they want.) Hence it lowers the cost for running a kiosk for the coffee shop.
Second it also helps users build communities as they can showcase what they have to a wider audience, say a group having coffee and one of them wants to show his newly acquired/composed music.
So what we need to design for these users to connect is, A next generation Kiosk which can provide a functionality to play remote content (one in users mobile) by transferring music a piece, via bluetooth or by streaming and charging user a small amount of money to do that.
One of the possible work flows is that users sends an SMS on 4 digit number which gives user the pass code (connecting over bluetooth users need a passkey which is generally 4 digit) for session to do bluetooth pairing with Kiosk and he is able to put his music in queue to be played (Also sending this SMS will deduct the small amount required for music to be played on Kiosk, so the billing is also simplified, which as of now is manual).
In form of Q and Ans
Statement :
The solution provides a mechanism for mobile users to play their music to a wider audience using a bluetooth enabled Kiosk by a very simple workflow. Maybe by just sending an SMS to a premium number and then connecting to kiosk to play their desired music.
This is a big idea because it helps them to form communities and listen to their music on a high quality equipment in public places. The present solution requires users to go and play music on Kiosk by manually going and buying a token and then choosing from Kiosk library(No way to choose from their own library).
The problem:
Users not able to play their own music i.e. they are not able to showcase what they have (as on Internet we have youtube we need something which is more immediate to us, say when i sip coffee with my friends in a music shop).
There can be two big reasons for this.
1. Unavailability of high speed Internet in proximity.(so to have a chance to log in to youtube etc and show what i have.)
2. The personal music players are no good in public places and does not deliver a good experience to a group of people, because of small devices and lesser capabilities.
Also the opportunity here to exploit is that a large number of users have cellphone which has a connectivity mechanism(bluetooth) and music storing capability.
The solution:
So what we need to design for these users to connect is, A next generation Kiosk which can provide a functionality to play remote content (one in users mobile) by transferring a piece this music via bluetooth or by streaming and charging user a small amount of money to do that. One of the possible work flows is that users sends an SMS on 4 digit number which gives user the passcode (connecting over bluetooth users need a passkey which is generally 4 digit) for session to bluetooth pairing with Kiosk and he is able to put his music in queue to be played (Also sending this SMS will deduct the small amount required for music to be played on Kiosk, so the billing is also simplified, which is now manual).
There are 3 major benefiters here
The public place owner(coffee shop owner say)
It solves two problems for the coffee shop. First the user plays his own music , so they play what they want(if they do not have they can always go and play to the old Kiosks which provides music library too), Hence it lowers the cost for running a kiosk for the coffee shop.
Second it also helps users build communities as they can showcase what they have to a wider audience, say a group having coffee and one of them wants to show his newly acquired music.
For user they get to play what they want.
For Kiosk maker(which can be a simple laptop with the usability work flows designed for bluetooth pairing),this is where is the opportunity for companies like Nokia to build such smart Kiosks and license them to shop owners and server their mobile phone users in a better way.
The opportunity :
The segment is all the people who keep some music on their cell phones and have bluetooth connection on their mobile.
So it can be as big as a revolution like iPod in music player industry. It just touches the public side of music,i.e. building communities.
The competitive advantage :
There is no smart kiosk available in the market as of date with usability taken into account and also exploiting the vast number of users of high end cellphones(cellphones with some storage and blue tooth connection).
We also miss a You tube for our immediate community where we can share and collaborate in real time, in small groups with just a Kiosk present.
partners, resources and co-operation:
Definitely this could be easily done by companies like Nokia with a very small team or for that matter any mobile software company and resources required are not much as we just need to add the blue tooth capability to existing kiosks and the software to increase the usability.
It also requires teaming up with all possible public places like coffee shop chains etc so that we can cater to as big audience we can.
The money : (This estimation is vague!!!)
There would be a slight overhead of maybe not more than 50$ to the cost of existing kiosk.
Also It would not take much time to recover the kiosk cost although there is always an option to license this technology to vendors once it is made.
