Content is King: Malaysian Industry Experts’ Point of View on Local Content for Mobile Phones

Abstract

Content is the most prominent aspect of the medium for communication. The trends of the content nowadays, especially in Malaysia, have shown the lack of local content in, for example, television, radio, films, the Internet and, in more recent years, mobile phones. In order to understand the situation in Malaysia with regards to local content for mobile phones, meetings were carried out with Malaysian mobile technology specialists. Given their extensive experience in this industry, they are knowledgeable regarding mobile users' needs. The findings show that there is limited local content. On the other hand, the Malaysian government has adopted a pro-active attitude to launch activities to motivate students in the universities to produce more local mobile content. Problems that need to be addressed include: low numbers of mobile content developers; lack of standardization of mobile phones; a limited business for Malaysian mobile content and limitation of bandwidth coverage in rural areas. The content on the mobile phone is also crucially important for the positioning of Malaysian local culture on the world map. One of the areas identified of importance for understanding use of mobile content is at the local institutions of higher learning. Thus, it is suggested to investigate mobile content for students and educators further on how it could benefit those participants.

Early Investigation of the Impact of Mobile Learning Ethics Student-Generated Activities for STEM Subjects in a Local Malaysian University Context

“…There are about 6 billion mobile phone users worldwide [19]. Mobile learning is a key driver to broadening access to education [2,3] by enabling learners to pursue their studies according to their own scheduled time, anytime, and anywhere [27]. More advanced approaches to mobile learning allow for authentic learning experiences [6,22,25].…”

A Preliminary Investigation of Malaysian Student’s Daily Use of Mobile Devices as Potential Tools for STEM in a Local University Context

“…The majority of the available mobile content is supplied by English-speaking countries, notably the USA and the UK; thus, making the content foreign and unsuitable for students, and, furthermore, discouraging the production of domestic content. The interviews conducted with six experts from the Malaysian mobile industry revealed a number of challenges to providing local content in Malaysia, including a lack of mobile content, low interest in developing content for mobile learning), and the narrow market for local content in Malaysia [2].…”

“…The Malaysian government supported this statement by initiating the digital content development program [21]. Despite government efforts, the initial concern persists, that is, foreign content, still impedes the progress of local content development in Malaysia [2]. This lack of local content in subjects, including STEM, has yet to be addressed [1].…”

Academics' Perspectives on the Challenges and Opportunities for Student-Generated Mobile Content in Malaysia

“…This foreign content is unsuitable for students studying the local culture and furthermore discourages the production of content domestically. Interviews conducted by the author with six experts from the Malaysian mobile industry revealed a number of challenges to providing local content in Malaysia, including: a lack of existing mobile content, low interest in developing content for mobile learning (mLearning), and a narrow market for local content in Malaysia (Ariffin, Dyson, & Hoskins-McKenzie, 2012).…”