For one part there is full agreement: The higher than predicted growth of packet switched applications with ever increasing bit rates, as well as the astonishing increase of mobile telephony suggests that a new market exists for applications and services employing wireless high bit rate communications.

However, as the telecom service provider can not address two markets at the same time, the board has to chose between the plan of Mr. Levevre (for the professional market) and the plan of Ms. Jones (for the consumer market).

Defending his strategy for the professional market, Mr. Levevre argues that also a few decades ago professionals were the only ones willing to pay the initially high price of mobile phones. Now technology has come so far that professionals in areas such as emergency and disaster management and, for example, maintenance of complex and expensive machines, will have great benefits from using mobile multimedia –even if expensive. His strategy is to market a service that provides wireless circuit switching for voice and interactive video in combination with wireless packet switching for all other forms of communication such as shared databases and professional application software.

Advocating full emphasis on the consumer market, Ms. Jones maintains that truths of yesterday are not necessarily valid today. Now it is more beneficial to deploy new services where high numbers of users are to be expected. The new rules of high volume electronics imply that consumer goods like PCs and GSM phones will evolve much faster than professional products. The potential of the Internet Protocol to accommodate all services, will make this the convergence layer on which the company should concentrate. New consumer devices like Sony’s PlayStation III with build-in wireless packet switching will be able to be adapted to all mobile multimedia services that anyone could ever think of.

What is your advice? Choose a market for which (you believe) the revenues will greatly surpass the costs, either in the near or far future. Try to be as specific as possible. Predict in your report what will be the "killer application(s)". Your report should also include a requirements specification of the capabilities and performance (i.e. numbers on delay, reliability, quality) of the service to be marketed.

Your quality as Mobile Multimedia Consultant (i.e. your grade) will be judged from:

• Presence during introductions and participation in discussions.

And, if you have chosen for this assignment, from the effort + quality by which the points below are executed by your engineering firm (i.e. by you and your group):

• Two sheets with bullet points, supporting the relative advantages of the Levevre or Jones strategy, respectively. These sheets will form the starting point of the discussion. It will help you in working out your report.
• The report (already mentioned above) detailing the advice of your engineering firm.
• A 20 minute presentation of your report.
• A management summary of, say, two or three screens, written in HTML, that convinces the board that your choice is the best way to proceed.