Patent Application
20050289047
The present invention generally relates to wireless telecommunications and computer networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing an infrastructure for delivering services through a wireless telecommunications network.
Wireless devices, such as cellular telephones, communicate packets including voice and data over a wireless network. In existing wireless telecommunication systems, such as cellular telecommunication systems, fees are charged to the subscriber for the initial activation of a telecommunication device and then fees can be charged for ongoing airtime and device usage. However, existing systems typically do not account for other activities at the telecommunication device beyond airtime usage.
Further, if the subscriber of the wireless device desires to download and use a software application or upgrade the functionality of the telecommunication device, the user will typically either call a service provider or contact the service provider through another electronic means, such as through a separate Internet access. In some instances, the service provider can transmit the application to the wireless device across the wireless network (through a one time direct access download) or allow the user access a network site with the wireless device through the wireless network and at such site the application is downloadable or accessible to the subscriber. Otherwise service personnel of the provider must have physical access to the telecommunication device to install the software or upgrade the components thereof.
Further, the proliferation of computer technology has made it easier and cheaper to develop software application. A computer programmer can easily develop a video game or a utility application on a personal computer, and the programmer can tailor the game to run on different computer hardware platforms including on a wireless handset. However, the individual application developer encounters difficulty in getting the product to market, especially for applications that are executable on wireless devices. The developer must first create a full version of the application and then sell it to the carriers in order to derive any income. Consequently, creating application for the wireless device market is a huge investment by the developer without the guarantee of return.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a system and method that allows individual developers to bring their products and applications to the marketplace and make these products and applications available to wireless service subscribers. Such system should allow wireless services providers to give means for the subscribers to access applications while including the application developer in the proceeds generated from the additional services provided. It is thus to such a system and method for providing such a virtual marketplace that the present invention is primarily directed.
The present invention discloses a system and method for providing a virtual marketplace that supports transactions among multiple parties. The virtual marketplace allows independent software developers to sell their applications and services to network carriers and/or end-users of wireless device through a virtual marketplace. The system includes one or more wireless telecommunication devices where each wireless device selectively interacts with other computer devices on the wireless network and selectively downloads and executes applications, and at least one billing server is on the wireless network. The virtual marketplace is hosted by a computer device on the wireless network, which can be the billing server, and lists one or more applications or services that are accessible by carriers and end-users on wireless devices. Upon receiving a selection from a carrier or end-user for interaction with at least one of the applications, the billing server generates a bill for that end-user interaction. The billing server can then collect proceeds from the carrier or the end-user through electronic payment or other methods, and distribute a portion of the proceeds to the appropriate application developer for the carrier end-user interactions with that developer's applications.
The method for providing a virtual marketplace that provides access to one or more applications or services from developers and is accessible through a wireless network by carriers and wireless devices includes at least the steps of listing one or more applications in a the virtual marketplace, receiving a selection from a carrier or end-user for interaction with at least one of the applications in the virtual marketplace, and generating a bill for the end-user interaction with the at least one application. The method can further include the steps of receiving proceeds for the interaction, and distributing at least a portion of the proceeds to each developer for each interaction with the at least one application of that developer.
The present system and method thus enable individual developers to bring their applications and service to an existing wireless device marketplace and available to wireless service subscribers without needing to posses the requisite infrastructure. Through use of the system and method, the wireless services providers can more easily give value-added services of third parties to their subscribers and can include the third party application developer in the proceeds generated from the additional services provided.
Other objects, advantages, and features of the present invention will become apparent after review of the hereinafter set forth Brief Description of the Drawings, Detailed Description of the Invention, and the Claims.
In this description, the terms “communication device,” “wireless device,” “hand held telephone,” and “handset” are used interchangeably, the terms “server” and “virtual marketplace” are used interchangeably, and the term “application” as used herein is intended to encompass executable and nonexecutable software files, raw data, aggregated data, patches, and other code segments. Further, like numerals refer to like elements throughout the several views. With advent of 3rd generation (3G) wireless communication technology, more bandwidth becomes available for wireless communications, and handsets and wireless telecommunication devices, such as cellular telephones, pagers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) with increasing capabilities have become available. Now, users can check weather, receive e-mails, receive paging messages, traverse the Internet, and play an interactive game with a remote party all through his wireless handset, in addition to using it for maintaining audio communications with another party. At the same time, proliferation of computer technology has made easier and cheaper to develop digital media and deliver it to the wireless devices. The provision of more value added services, such as downloadable applications, can bring revenue to a wireless service provider or carrier, and one manner to achieve the additional revenue is to provide support to independent application developers. The present invention thus provides at least billing support for third party independent application developer's provision of applications and servers to end-users of an independent network carriers telecommunication system as is further described herein.
The PSTN 110 is connected to the Internet 120 and to the wireless communication network through a MSC 108. The PSTN 110 supports users accessing the Internet using a computer 116 through dial up services. The user utilizes the computer 116 and dials through a telephone line 118 to access an Internet service provider (ISP) 122. The ISP 122 provides connection between the user at the computer 116 and the Internet 120. Users at computers 114 may also access directly the ISP 122 through high-speed data connections such as digital subscriber line (DSL), T1 connections, and the like. The Internet 120 is a high-speed data network. A user may access the Internet directly by connecting to a hub on the Internet 120 or access through an ISP 122 connected to the Internet 120. A server 112 may be connected to the Internet 120, to the MSC 108, or to the PSTN 110. Preferably, the server 112 is connected directly to the MSC 108.
It is preferable that before a developer 202 is allowed to submit his product, such as an application, to the virtual marketplace 206, the developer 202 must certify that the product conforms to the standards established by the virtual marketplace 206. The virtual marketplace 206 publishes a set of standards for its environment that should be followed by developers who wish to submit their products to the virtual marketplace 206. Standardizing the products ensures the product can run without problems on a user handset that supports the virtual marketplace's environment. One example of such environment is Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW™) and BREW Distributed System (BDS) developed by Qualcomm Corporation. The product may also be required to be tested for conformance by a third party testing organization such as National Software Testing Labs (NSTL).
After the developer 202 submits the product, the carrier 212, through the virtual marketplace 206, can negotiate the price for the product with the developer 202. In one embodiment, the developer 202 and carrier 212 can perform an entity-to-entity price plan negotiation in the virtual marketplace 212. Moreover, the developer 202 can have independent negotiations with multiple carriers with a different price plan structure for the same application within in the same virtual marketplace 212. It should be noted that the price plan structure can be negotiated for different currencies and potential for barter of services between the developer and carrier, or any other potential exchange for value. The negotiation may be conducted directly between carrier 212 and the developers 202, through the carrier extranet 208 and the developers 202, or between the virtual marketplace 202 itself and the developers 202. If the carrier 212 is purchasing the application and making it available to that carrier's wireless subscribers, the product can be included in a product catalog and made available to the end-users 210 of communication devices 106. In relation to the price between the developers 202 and carriers 212, the mutually agreed to product price structure is stored in the virtual marketplace 206 and propagated with the suppliers product catalog, to their end-user consumer purchases of the product, through processing of carrier payment to the developer. The server 112 can track the catalog to the wireless device 106 to ensures the developer is paid based the agreed to price plan structure in effect at that time. Typically, the carrier 212 manages an independent list price to their wireless service subscribers (end-user consumers of the virtual marketplace 212) which is different from the price negotiated between the carrier 212 and developer 202.
An end-user 210 who accesses the wireless telecommunications services through the carrier 212 receives the product catalog from the carrier 212 as part of the subscription service. The end-user 210 can view the product catalog and select a product from the product catalog. The step of “selection” can be an application download, menu display, data transfer, diagnosis tool, upgrade, demonstration, subscription, pre-install, or any other computer interaction between the wireless device 106 and server 112 or other communication device. And the pricing structure to the end-user can be a flat-fee per transaction, and can also be based upon number of uses of the application or service by that end-user, the number of days the application or service is operational (e.g. an application that is usable for 90 days), the duration of use of the application, or any other known method to bill for value-added computer applications and services. Thus, through the virtual marketplace 206, the developer 202 can to host its applications in a single virtual store and control what suppliers (i.e., carriers) have visibility to sell that developer's 202 product.
The selection is sent from the user handset 106 to the carrier 212, which can transmit the ordered application to the end-user, or in another embodiment, can forward the request to the server 112 if the application is not resident at the carrier 212. The server 112 checks the selection and retrieves the product. The product is dispatched to the end-user handset 106 via the carrier 212. After receiving the product, the user 210 can activate it on his handset 106. For certain products, the carrier 212 or server 112 need not to dispatch the entire product to the user device 106, but only a user interface portion of the product. The user interface interacts with the user 210 through the user handset 106 and sends information back to the server 112 where the product runs.
The virtual marketplace 206 negotiates the price with the developer 202 after the product is received, as shown at step 304, and such negotiation further described above. As earlier stated, the price scheme paid to the developer may be different from the price schemed billed to the users 210. The price paid to the developer may be a fixed amount, a percentage of what is charged to the users, a combination of fixed price and a percentage, and the like.
After the price agreement is reached between the developer 202 and the carrier 212 within the virtual marketplace 206, the virtual marketplace 206 creates a product catalog for the product or includes the product in an existing catalog, as shown at step 306. The virtual marketplace 206 may maintain several product catalogs that list products available to carriers 212 or directly to wireless devices 106, and the products are listed in these catalogs by category. The virtual marketplace 206 may maintain, for example, a catalog for software products and another separated catalog for consumer goods. Before making the product available to the users 210, the virtual marketplace 206 sets an end-user price for the product and enter the product in the price list, as shown at step 308.
The relationship 600 shows the advantage of the present invention. For developers 202, the present invention allows for easy marketing of their products and eliminates the hassle of dealing with individual buyers or the trouble of searching for publishers to carry their products. For carriers 212, the present invention provides a way to make more products available to end users 210, thus providing new venues to generate more profits, without the need to hire a large number of software developers. For users 210, the present invention makes more applications available to the users 210 and maybe be eliminates the need for the users 210 to carry multiple electronic devices, such as pagers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or even game devices.
It can thus be seen that the system yields a method for providing a virtual marketplace 206 that supports multiple parties, where the virtual marketplace provides access to one or more applications or services from developers 202 and accessible through a wireless network by at least carriers 212 for wireless devices 106 that includes the steps of listing or otherwise providing one or more applications in a virtual marketplace 206 that are accessible by at least the carrier devices on wireless devices 106, receiving a selection from the end-user 106 for interaction with at least one of the applications in the virtual marketplace 206, and generating a bill for the end-user interaction with the at least one application. Such method can further include the steps of receiving proceeds for the end-user interaction, and distributing at least a portion of the proceeds to each developer 202 for each end-user interaction with the at least one application of that developer 202.
As shown
If the system is embodied wherein it sends a bill for the end-user interaction, the step of sending the bill for the end-user interaction can be to a network carrier 212 or directly to a wireless device 106. The method of can also include the steps of extracting marketing information from end-user 106 information received from the carrier, generating usage information, or testing the product on a plurality of hardware platforms.
In view of the method being executable on the computer platform of a computer device such as billing server 112 or wireless device 106, the present invention includes a program resident in a computer readable medium, where the program directs a server or other computer device having a computer platform to perform the steps of the method. The computer readable medium can be the memory of the billing server 112, or can be in a connective database. Further, the computer readable medium can be in a secondary storage media that is loadable onto a wireless device computer platform, such as a magnetic disk or tape, optical disk, hard disk, flash memory, or other storage media as is known in the art.
In the context of
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail maybe made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set for the in the following claims. Furthermore, although elements of the invention may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.
