MT2 seeks to make Kingdom mobile-app hub of Asean

The group plans to achieve this using both outsourcing and branding models.

 

Supot Tiarawut, chairman of MT2, said the ultimate goal for MT2 is to make Thailand a regional hub for mobile development in the next five years. The huge growth in use of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, is expected to create a lot of room for mobile applications and software, and that is a great opportunity for Thai software developers and the Thai software industry, Supot said. 

 

The government’s project to distribute tablets to primary school students nationwide is also a big opportunity for Thai developers to create educational content via mobile applications. This year, MT2 will focus on three major activities: human resources development, entrepreneur incubation and go-to-market support. 

 

MT2 aims to develop human resources for mobile application development to increase the number of member developers. It will work with partners to boost the capacity of developers through activities such as university courses, seminars and workshops, and road shows at allied universities. 

 

Apart from that, it needs to increase the number of new entrepreneurs to build success. It plans to develop a community by organising monthly events, opening mobile application testing labs, and offering incubation programmes. The first mobile application testing lab is Kasetsart University’s Mobile Development Centre.

 

“Inspiring new generations of entrepreneurs is the key to future success,” said Supot.

 

Moreover, MT2 needs to build success in commercialising new applications in order to inspire other developers. It will work with partners to build success through application-development competitions including the SAMART Innovation Award, the National Electronics and Computer Centre’s National Science Contest, and the world’s largest pre-college science fair competition, Intel’s ISEF (Intel International Science and Engineering Fair). 

 

Finally, MT2 will provide monthly business-matching services.

 

“Last year, Thai mobile software developers were invited to experience an international roadshow by joining CommunicAsia in Singapore,” said Supot.

 

MT2 would become the centre for all stakeholders in Thailand’s mobile-application development ecosystem, pooling the resources and contributions of all alliance members. It will provide technological know-how, development facilities, training and assistance to commercial software developers, it said.

 

Mobile applications in Thailand grew from 8.8 per cent of the total software market in 2010 to 11.6 per cent in 2011. The value of the mobile application market increased from Bt3,959 to Bt5,799.

Mobile technology offers the opportunity for new generations of developers to access the world market because it bypasses network operators while gaining higher revenue share. It requires minimal investment and an average of around three months for development, and minimal manpower requirement, averaging three developers.

 

There are three potential models for monetising mobile application development: offering paid apps; offering free apps plus paid contents; and work for hire.

 

MT2’s founding members are the Telecommunications Research and Industrial Development Institute, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, Software Park Thailand, the Faculty of Engineering at Kasetsart University, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Microsoft (Thailand), Intel Microelectronics (Thailand), Samart Corporation and Spring Telecom.

 

Set up last year, MT2 had 504 members as of February 20 this year. They are 105 independent developers, 48 new graduates, 23 entrepreneurs, 208 private company employees, 22 state-enterprise employees, 40 government officers and 58 others.