Keith Higgins, VP, Marketing at Aricent, argues that in todays ultra-competitive world, user experience is key

Wireless customers expectations are growing exponentially. More bars and unlimited bandwidth have become table stakes for carriers, and subscribers are now choosing their service providers based on their overall user experience. Similarly, voice and data services are being eclipsed by application stores and cloud-based services. The winners in this new marketplace will be the service providers who shift their understanding of the user experience beyond just the mobile phone and user interface (UI). These companies understand that the most competitive user experiences will be created through a harmonisation of a multitude of wired devices, with a variety of wireless broadband access alternatives and a wide range of cloud services.  

More devices = more complexity
At the tip of the iceberg, and among the most visible experiences to the user, is the device itself. Responsible for enabling high performance rich-media interactions, the device experience involves many of the users senses, including the visual, tactile and aural. The device is also the workhorse of the user experience, interoperating with the rest of the communications ecosystem to deliver a compelling, branded application the ultimate window to the experience soul. From the rise of app stores to the constant development of new functionality such as HD video on the device itself, the handset and the high value real estate that is the UI has been the focus of incessant innovation, as vendors search for the edge that will differentiate them. 
Handheld and portable devices are an extremely complex integration of radio frequency, baseband, protocol multimedia, graphics, and HID hardware and software engines, together with the mobile platform OS, including application middleware libraries and applications. Couple this with physical constraints such as computing power, memory and battery life, and it becomes obvious that implementing a high performance user experience in such a complex environment requires a deep understanding of the device environment and the interplay between all these elements.
Despite this complexity, however, the market opportunity is massive. As the worlds leading mobile operators plan to also announce a myriad of new connected devices, ranging from electronic book readers such as Amazons Kindle, to portable navigation devices that provide motorists with real time traffic information, the market for connecting new types of devices is forecast to be $93 billion (55 billion) by 2013. 
Users are married to their mobile devices and wired consumer electronics, and select them based upon capabilities and traits which in some way reflect their own personalities and desires. However, even a perfect device implementation will leave a subscriber unsatisfied without other key elements of the user experience, including high-speed wireless access and a world of rich, cloud-based applications.

New generation
Mobile network operators are now enabling a new generation of Internet applications by providing service developers with a single point of access to their networks and global subscriber base. The intent is that content and service provides can create a single version of applications to reach tens of millions of subscriber regardless of their device type and also leverage mobile network operators existing billing systems. This also provides content and service providers, such as media or game makers, with an efficient payment system for mobile subscribers.  These same developers can also benefit from mobile operators advanced network intelligence, such as information about a subscribers location, preferences, and more, enabling them to further tailor their cloud-based services.
This significant improvement in the mobile Internet experience is made possible through the establishment of network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).  These APIs enable service developers to very simply connect in a centralized, highly controlled fashion, to mobile operators networks. Cloud-based content and service providers get efficient connectivity between their applications and the worldwide subscriber base of the mobile operators. 
Mobile network operators benefit from offering their subscriber base a richer set of content and applications, and further, through a revenue-share arrangement, participate in sales growth from their content ecosystem partners. Third-party service developers get instant access to tens of millions of subscribers worldwide, improved time to market for new products and services, and an efficient payment system. Mobile subscribers get a wide range of new applications and services, without any additional payment complexity, a unified user interface, and consistent access methods and performance characteristics in their service area.

Fundamental shift
Mobile operators are experiencing a fundamental shift in the need for new levels of system integration, the complexities of which are unprecedented. New devices, networks, services, and the need for holistic engineering around delivering an innovative subscriber experience, have dramatically changed how service providers go to market and grow subscriber bases. Mobile voice and data providers now compete on the user experience as opposed to the cost, coverage and capacity checklists which attracted the modest loyalty of mobile subscribers past. Now network operators are opening network APIs to cloud services, betting on the stickyness of Internet-based applications and features. And, as the numbers and types of connected devices explode exponentially, the need to roll out new and improved wireless access capability is paramount.
These challenges present a specific need for service providers to identify a complementary capability to traditional outsourcing and consulting. Today, strategic suppliers are needed, who can address the need for a highly complex new carrier system integration capability which provides a unique combination of innovation and commercialisation skills and can tailor services specifically designed for harmonising devices, networks, cloud services and OSS/BSS into differentiated user experiences.  Unlike historical consulting, this effort represents a multi-phase engagement process, from discovery to support and requires an advanced engagement model and delivery processes.
Delivering this experience requires a holistic approach to engineer all the moving parts into a single, innovative subscriber experience from the device to the network to cloud services. Developing the ultimate user experience requires an integrated innovation and implementation process to eliminate inefficiencies, creating a fined-tuned platform for highly differentiated services and user experiences.
The next wave of innovative user experiences will come from service providers who realise the power of harmonising all of their available assets into a single, highly differentiated user experience. And they will be the winners in this bold new world.

Editor's Note: This is a revised version of the article originally submitted, at the author's request