May 2008 Archives
Embedded wireless broadband (3G) capability for laptops has been difficult for enterprises to justify because of upfront purchase costs, monthly costs and asset protection, but new pricing plans and technology evolution will force changes in strategy, according to Gartner, Inc.
“Our standing recommendation against embedding wireless WAN (WWAN) cards in notebooks — except for applications with a clear return-on-investment justification — has been based on lack of global coverage, high costs and poor asset protection,” said Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, new technologies and pricing due by the end of 2008 have the potential to eliminate the problems of embedded, wireless 3G notebook purchases.”
Gartner analysts said organizations can consider embedded 3G in new notebook purchases for moderate to extensive travelers in 2009.
“Various influencing factors are transitioning to a point where embedded 3G will become superior from a cost perspective compared with previously used alternatives, such as Wi-Fi ‘hot spots’ and hotel broadband for wide-area use,” said Leslie Fiering, research vice president at Gartner.
Historically, embedded WWANs have been tied to specific technologies and service providers, meaning that users could not just swap cards out when they moved to an area not covered by a certain carrier. Ongoing service costs at an average estimate of $600 a year were difficult to justify, and roaming charges could drive costs even higher. Additionally, the tremendous churn in WWAN technologies and frequencies could make a WWAN card obsolete within two years inside a notebook with a three-year expected life.
Infineon Technologies AG announced the
availability of its new generation 3G platform family. This new
platform family addresses all major 3G market segments and includes a
high performance HSPA modem solution, a feature phone solution enriched
with high multimedia capabilities and a cost-efficient 3G solution.
This platform family is a further step on Infineon’s integration
roadmap: it reduces the number of devices in the chipset from three to
two and the component count of a typical platform by 50 per cent.
The new 3G-solutions offer the industry’s smallest PCB (printed
circuit board) footprint with a space reduction of up to 40 per cent.
Furthermore the standby power is reduced by up to 30 per cent compared
to existing HSDPA platform solutions.
“Our new platforms enable our customers to fully reuse their
hardware and software developments and launch multiple phones covering
all feature phone market segments with lower cost and faster
time-to-market,” said Prof. Dr. Hermann Eul, Executive Vice President
of the Infineon Management Board and President of the Communication
Solutions Business Group.
“Given the compelling size of our new Baseband and RF devices and
the low component count of our platforms, we are offering the world’s
smallest platform footprint, enabling manufacturers to build slim,
feature rich HSUPA / HSDPA phones for all 3G market segments.”
Infineon uses its own dual-mode 3GPP release 6 Protocol Stack,
which enables the company to provide complete in-house system
solutions. Having the ownership of each and every platform component
eases completing lab tests (GCF, PTCRB and IOT), field tests and
operator approvals on Infineon’s reference platforms, which in turn
accelerates customers’ phone projects substantially.
The Road to 100G Alliance announced that the Sprint Nextel Corporation (Sprint), a leading supplier of comprehensive wireless and wire-line services, and NetLogic Microsystems, Inc., a leading provider of knowledge-based processors, have joined the alliance as contributing members.
The Road to 100G Alliance is a global community of leading hardware, software and equipment vendors, along with service providers, dedicated to accelerating the adoption and ongoing development of a new era of next generation networking platforms.
“We welcome Sprint as our first service provider representative to the Road to 100G Alliance. Sprint’s perspective will help guide the Alliance in terms of new services and applications for advanced network and telecom equipment, and will certainly bring to light many important issues,” said Bill Weisinger, Road to 100G Alliance Chairman and President. “We are also excited to have NetLogic Microsystems join our Alliance as they will bring their broad perspective on high-speed integrated circuits that accelerate the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia content for high performance networks.”
Unlike many existing standards bodies, the Road to 100G Alliance is focused solely on identifying and addressing the complex implementation and integration issues which might compromise the adoption and proliferation of next generation telecommunications and network solutions. The Alliance exists to make recommendations which ensure interoperability between the myriad of technologies that enable equipment for a variety of new applications.
The average reported purchase price for wireless mobile phones is now $9 higher than reported in 2007, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study(SM)-Volume 1.
The study finds that the average reported purchase price for a wireless handset has increased substantially for the first time in two years. The average purchase price cited by customers for a mobile phone is $101 — up $9 from just six months ago — and marks the highest average price paid for a wireless device since the study’s inception in 2003.
The increase in the average purchase price can be partially attributed to the recent surge in popularity of smartphone devices, such as the RIM Blackberry, Palm Treo and recently introduced Apple iPhone, as well as music- enabled handsets, both of which typically have higher price points when first offered. The current average reported purchase price for smartphone devices is $208, much higher than the average price paid ($58) for phones with fewer features.
“As more customers start to upgrade to mobile phones that offer real-time connectivity and access to Internet content — particularly those offered by smartphone devices — we should continue to see the wireless handset price point rise,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. “Sales of smartphone devices have increased considerably over the past year to 6.3 percent from 1.7 percent in overall market share at the beginning of 2007.”
IN-FUSIO, a leading digital-content publisher,announced it has licensed mobile gaming rights for the upcoming motion picture Get Smart, from Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. Based on the highly anticipated motion picture from Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, the Get Smart mobile game will combine mission-based gameplay, puzzle solving and combat with the trademark Get Smart humor.
In the movie, CONTROL secret agents Maxwell Smart and the lovely-but-lethal Agent 99 are on a mission to thwart a plan for world domination by the evil crime syndicate KAOS.
Assuming the role of CONTROL operatives, Get Smart mobile game players will battle KAOS henchmen in a variety of locations, including a training facility, city streets, agent Krstic’s mansion, nuclear facilities and prison dungeons. In addition to gadgets collected along the way, Maxwell’s signature “hwa-rang-do” martial-arts moves and powerful insult-based combat offer creative ways to take on the forces of evil.
In addition to the mobile game, special content from the movie, wallpapers, voicetones and theme music will be available. The Get Smart mobile game will be available this summer on a variety of wireless carriers in North America.
Skweezer, Inc. announced a major upgrade to its Skweezer Ads service, which allows customers to serve ads to a wide variety of mobile, desktop, and other Web-enabled consoles through a single ad feed.
This latest release of Skweezer Ads includes innovations that are firsts for the online advertising community. One such innovation is a patent-pending algorithm that dynamically converts conventional text-based cost-per-click (CPC) ads into mobile-friendly ads complaint with standards set by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). Another key innovation is Skweezer Ads’ cut-and-paste code that detects a visitor’s device type, retrieves appropriate mobile or desktop ads accordingly, and optionally reformats and compresses the Web content for mobile viewing.
Skweezer Ads is now available to publishers through ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, or JavaScript code. This latest version of Skweezer Ads uses “short URL” for easier inclusion into Web sites, RSS feeds, mobile applications, and SMS messages.
Buzzwire, Inc. announced that it has signed a syndication deal with RooftopComedy, the Internet Comedy Channel and foremost interactive media provider of stand-up and sketch comedy. The partnership will commence at the Aspen RooftopComedy Festival, May 30-31, which will bring together the best, most innovative stand-up comedians from across the U.S. The festival will feature the National College Comedy Competition Finals, and some of the biggest names in current comedy, including Chris Porter, Tig, Robert Hawkins, Jimmy Dore, Vince Morris, and many more. Select clips from the two-day event will be available on mobile phones through Buzzwire.
Buzzwire gives consumers access to the original Web programming through one-click mobile access. In addition to the Aspen comedy festival clips, Buzzwire will feature stand-up comedy from clubs across the U.S. and the U.K. RooftopComedy fans can use Buzzwire to watch their favorite clips on the go, create their own personalized mobile media channels, and share their favorite clips with family and friends.
RooftopComedy records, produces and distributes live comedy performances from the best comedy venues every night of the week. These are published to RooftopComedy.com and the RooftopComedy Network, which now includes Buzzwire. Performances are recorded from locations through the U.S. and an expanding number of venues in Europe and Asia.
Qualcomm In announced Plaza, a platform-agnostic wireless Internet service that provides a common framework for the development and support of widgets that will enable operators to provide their end users with quick and personalized access to the mobile Internet. After the introduction of Plaza, operators and developers can produce and deliver Internet-based content across their devices, in order to drive the usage of wireless data services, improve subscriber stickiness and ultimately increase operator ARPU.
Plaza is focused on enabling operators to bring more simplicity and personalization to their subscribers' mobile Internet experiences. When combined with subscriber intelligence and available device real estate, Plaza's end-to-end widget framework and user experience provides operators with a solution to drive use of the mobile Internet. An integrated marketing platform also plays a role in driving additional revenue to Plaza operators by allowing for targeted campaigns within the widget ecosystem.
Plaza extends benefits to content providers by allowing them to easily create useful widgets that drive users to their service offerings. Whether it is traditional Web sites, information services or other content stores, Plaza will enable a host of indirect discovery benefits and increased product and/or service monetization. Plaza's use of open standards for widget development will allow the existing Web development community to create widgets for the mobile Internet, while not excluding traditional mobile application developers, and even allowing for user-generated widgets. Qualcomm is actively working with operators to define and refine the full Plaza experience prior to commercialization.
What do
Virgin Mobile USA customers and Sir Richard Branson have in common? Branson
and the lucky 15,000 customers who buy a Virgin Mobile Festival Special
Edition Wild Card phone by Kyocera Wireless will all have special access to the Virgin
Mobile Guest Lounge at the upcoming Virgin Mobile Festival
(http://www.virginmobilefestival.com) on August 9-10 in Baltimore.* Customers
simply have to show their new handset for admittance to the special guest area
at the Festival, where Kyocera Wireless continues its 3-year run as the
premier handset sponsor.
Available nationwide from May 25 through July 31 exclusively at Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com) and Best Buy Mobile stores for $99.99, the Virgin Mobile Festival Special Edition Wild Card also comes with 50 music downloads from eMusic and a one-year subscription to SPIN Magazine.
The Limited Edition handset will be easy to spot with slick white casing, blue keypad buttons, exclusive wallpapers, and graffiti-style Festival graphics around an internal screen that imitates a concert stage. One of the Limited Edition’s many wild features is the easy texting that has made the original Wild Card such a success. All Wild Card handsets open lengthwise to reveal a full QWERTY keypad, ideal for texting and instant messaging. All Wild Cards also include a 1.3 megapixel camera and support streaming music tracks.
comScore, Inc. a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the acquisition of M:Metrics, Inc., the recognized leader in mobile measurement. The acquisition makes comScore the immediate leader in measuring the emerging and strategically important mobile Internet market and adds to comScore’s leading position in measuring PC-based Internet usage.
The transaction involves a cash payment of $44.3 million and the issuance of approximately 50,000 options to purchase shares of comScore common stock to certain M:Metrics unvested option holders.
net mobile AG, Germany’s leading
provider of mobile entertainment services, and Dadango, a mobile content marketing, publishing and distribution
company, signed an extensive franchise agreement for the innovative
`net-m maxmedia’ distribution platform in the US market.
Dadango, based in Sunnyvale, California with international branch offices in China and Taiwan, is one of the most important mobile content aggregators in the US. Furthermore, Dadango is partnering with mobile operators (carriers) and content providers for marketing and distribution around the world.
This agreement with Dadango gives net mobile AG immediate access to important customers of the network operators and media environments across the US. This new partnership has considerable revenue growth potential for net mobile AG.
With the expansion of the franchise business by Dadango in the US market, net mobile AG reaches with a short time - after the already announced partnership with 8 Elements Ltd. from Hong Kong in July 2007- another strategic milestone for its core business and internationalisation strategy
After wowing the developer crowd with their Android prototype demonstration,
the developers sat down for a Q&A session. The hardware was based on a 528MHz Qualcomm
processor, the smartphone used a Synaptics capacitive touchscreen and
the UMTS cellular standard; the demo itself was carried out using a
3.6Mbps HSDPA connection. Android's memory requirements continue to be
reasonable: the prototype had 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash.The developer was not disclosed.The entire Q&A is available at Android Community.
The latest figures from IMS Research show the combined forecasts for users of contactless mobile payments, mobile banking and over the air (OTA) transactions to reach 884 million in 2012. This is the cumulative number of users expected to adopt new technologies, platforms and services who are expected to complete 62 billion transactions between them in that year.
IMS Research’s latest 200 page report on Mobile Wallet Applications and Services discusses the fact that mobile penetration in many developing markets is far higher than that of banking or fixed line infrastructure, meaning that mobile is often the only means of access available. This contrasts strongly with more developed markets where mobile is an alternative but personalised means of access. Orascom has announced a “unique service” launch this year across a number of markets, probably based upon a pre-paid credit model. By doing so it joins operators such as NTT DoCoMo, KTF, Vodafone, Globe, Smart, TIM, AT&T and Sprint amongst others, adding to the growing momentum around mobile financial services.
The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has published a report
that takes an in-depth look into the impact of ad-funded mobile
entertainment (AFME) on the mobile entertainment market in the U.S. The
report forecasts that the U.S. AFME market will be worth a total of
US$336.35 million by 2013, expanding the already burgeoning mobile
entertainment market by 4.6%.Brands subsidizing content will contribute the majority of the revenue (US$262.7 million) as they look to capitalize on mobile's captive audience, and the remainder will come from premium content up-sells (US$73.7 million). Mobile video and TV will generate 41.4% of ad-funded revenues by 2013, with music at 34.5% and games at 24.1%.
"AFME is just beginning in the U.S., and its promise is clear," said Andrew Bud, Chairman, MEF Global. "Its contribution of US$336.35 million by 2013 to the mobile entertainment business shows that it will have a real impact on the future of our industry."
Qualcomm Incorporated and Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the BREW Mobile Platform
with integrated Adobe Flash
technology and new platform features.
BREW Mobile Platform, which
leverages Qualcomm’s widely deployed BREW Client software, greatly
expands the capabilities for developers and enables them to create rich
applications and Web content in Adobe Flash for the BREW environment.
The software will fully integrate and deliver Adobe Flash technology to
mass market handset devices. By combining the strengths of both BREW
and Flash technologies, BREW Mobile Platform brings the mobile
application and Web content development communities together, setting a
new standard for mass market handset platforms.
In 2005, 68.8 million US enterprise users had mobile wireless services, with 25% using a mobile wireless broadband solution. By 2016, the US is projected to have 81.9 million mobile enterprise users, with 83% using wireless broadband.
Additional findings include:
- In 2005, the productivity value of all mobile wireless services was worth $185 billion, greater than the total value of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry (according to BizStats.com).
- An adjustment of Ovum's original estimate of the U.S. economy's productivity gains attributable to mobile voice services in 2004 from $118 billion to $157 billion.
- In 2005, mobile wireless broadband services generated productivity gains to the U.S. economy worth $28 billion per year.
- Between 2004 and 2005, the productivity enhancements generated by the use of mobile wireless broadband tripled in value.
FusionOne, the leading provider of mobile phone backup and migration services, announced that it has created an ecosystem for the wireless industry based on its operator-branded Mobile Content Transfer Solution. Announced at Qualcomm’s BREW 2008 Conference in San Diego, FusionOne’s mobile content ecosystem will provide the wireless industry with a platform for backing up and migrating licensed mobile content. Based on FusionOne’s unique MightyBackup Premium product, this solution arbitrates the digital rights issues associated with moving licensed content from one mobile phone to another. FusionOne will showcase its products including MightyBackup Premium in booth #402 at the BREW 2008 Conference, May 28 - 30.
The Mobile Content Transfer Solution creates a solution that is comprised of operators, device manufacturers, content providers, billing system providers and technology providers such as Qualcomm. This solution will offer wireless subscribers the option of restoring their licensed content when they purchase a new mobile phone. With the Mobile Content Transfer Solution, subscriptions and credits are seamlessly migrated to a new mobile device and customer relationships with the subscriber are preserved.
“This holistic approach to the protection and migration of licensed mobile content is unique to the wireless industry,” said Mohan Sadashiva, senior vice president of marketing for FusionOne. “Wireless operators can substantially reduce revenue leakage by making it easy for subscribers to reacquire their applications and other content. Likewise, content providers will benefit from increased customer loyalty and retention, while subscribers themselves will no longer have to delay purchasing a new mobile device due to the inconvenience associated with restoring their applications.”
Starent Networks, Corp. a leading provider of
infrastructure solutions that enable mobile operators to deliver
multimedia services, today announced its successful participation in
interoperability testing to further validate the company's
involvement in the development and promotion of the WiMAX industry.Starent Networks has successfully performed interoperability of its WiMAX solutions with ZyXEL Communications, a leading provider of secure broadband networking, and TECOM, a leading Taiwanese manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The products tested were Starent Networks' Access Service Network (ASN) Gateway and Home Agent for WiMAX, the ZyXEL WiMAX Base Station MAX-2021 and TECOM Macro Base Station WM5070.
Mobile social networks are quite popular with the Millennial generation, just as social networking is, reports In-Stat .
Blogging, photo and video sharing, location-based socialization
services, games, SMS, and IM will eventually be combined to afford the
mobile user the entire social networking experience from a handset
application, the high-tech market research firm says. The mobile
handset will simply become an extension of the user in most aspects of
life.
"The critical issue most mobile social networking
site and application developers struggle with is how to make money with
their services," says Jill Meyers, In-Stat analyst. "There are three
primary methods of revenue generation for mobile social networking
applications-- advertising, subscription services, and premium upgrades."
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
-
In-Stat predicts a steady growth rate culminating in the number of US
millennials subscribing to mobile social networking reaching nearly 30
million by the year 2012.
- Social network advertising continues to be experimental to marketers, but 2008 revenues are predicted to be over $1.5 billon.
- Last year's introduction of the iPhone enabled the least techno-savvy user to surf the Internet, download and play music, take pictures, send messages, and record videos, all on a thin, touch-screen-operated unit.
This has changed mobile phone users' expectations.
Intel’s next-generation Centrino 2 will not be introduced until July 14, reports several sources.
It will be Intel’s first Centrino processor Relevant Products/Services technology to offer integration both Wi-Fi and WiMAX possible in notebook designs.
The ultimate success of WiMAX is essential to Intel, which announced a $1 billion investment in a revitalized Clearwire last month. Intel has made a total cash commitment in excess of $1.6 billion toward the rollout of WiMAX nationally in the U.S.
The Intel WIMAX website states:
Intel WiMAX will deliver extended broadband Internet beyond Wi-Fi. With wireless high-speed broadband connectivity for your PC, WiMAX-enabled laptops and mobile devices will provide you the freedom to connect to the Internet just as you do with your cell phone service. With speeds similar to DSL or cable and faster than using your cell phone service to connect, WiMAX will allow you to access all the data-intensive applications you love, including streaming media on the Internet, live video conferencing, mobile TV and more while on the move.
Dolan will also be responsible for writing and editing two publications: Mobile Internet Trends and WiMAX Trends.
Before joining Yankee Group, Dolan served as the editor of FierceWireless. While at Fierce, Dolan also founded publications covering the mobile content industry and IPTV.
Verizon and Motorola announced that the MOTO W755 is now available exclusively online at http://www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Communications Stores, including those in Circuit City.Available in purple and black, the MOTO W755 features a 1.3 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom that enables users to easily capture still and video shots, including self-portraits. Recorded videos and images can then be shown on the 1.9-inch internal display.
Other features of the MOTO W755 include:
V CAST Video -- download or stream video from the best names in news, sports, entertainment and more
VZ Navigator-capable -- get audible maps, turn-by-turn directions and location information
Text, picture and video messaging
Mobile IM and chat capabilities
Mobile Web-capable -- customizable, enhanced wireless acess to the latest in news, sports, weather and more
Media Center-capable -- download games, ringtones, wallpapers and more
microSD card memory port with up to 4 GB support with an optional memory card
Phonebook with up to 1,000 contacts
Hands-On Mobile, Inc., developer of connected games
and applications, announced that Guitar Hero III Mobile was the number
one selling mobile game on Verizon Wireless phones in the first quarter
of 2008. Initially released exclusively by Verizon Wireless, Guitar
Hero III Mobile is striking a chord with fans all over the world,
shattering mobile game records with nearly 1 million downloads,
including monthly subscriptions, across all wireless service providers.Guitar Hero III Mobile has become one of the fastest selling games in mobile gaming history. More than 250,000 songs are played every day by mobile subscribers across the U.S. The most played songs include "Slow Ride" (re-record), "Mississippi Queen" (re-record) and "Black Magic Woman" (re-record).
In addition, Hands-On Mobile announced the Guitar Hero III Mobile June Song Pack, a feature that offers subscribers the opportunity to download three new songs every month. Songs available to wireless users on June 1 include "Stricken" (original recording), "Talk Dirty to Me" (re-record) and "Rock and Roll All Nite" (re-record). Through the Song Pack downloads, players will be able to access more than 50 songs and 150 unique note charts across all three difficulties (easy, medium and expert) within one year of the game's release.
Featuring four authentic guitars and three venues, Guitar Hero III Mobile challenges players to hit number keys in synch with colored notes that appear on a scrolling fret board. The game offers 15 instantly accessible tracks taken from the console series.
JuiceCaster, the multi-award winning mobile social-networking service, unveiled location-based geotagging, developed initially for Qualcomm's BREW solution. With geotagging, JuiceCaster users can send pictures and videos that automatically include their location to various social-networking platforms, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
JuiceCaster provides one-touch, real-time sharing of pictures and videos directly from a camera phone to many social-networking and blogging sites. Users update their status with pictures and videos captured on their mobile phone using the wireless application. Through its new location-based geotagging feature, JuiceCaster now allows individuals to see a video's location information, which can be used as a friend-finding service. It also immediately notifies users when someone updates their status in a nearby area.
Since all uploaded pictures and videos are geotagged, users can also look for content based on specific location criteria, making searching for videos on JuiceCaster powerful and accurate. In addition, JuiceCaster's 'Who was here?' feature enables individuals to see a list of pictures and videos previously uploaded by friends and other people for a specific location, as well as add their own pictures and videos to its history. Location is only viewable by authorized friends and the feature can be turned off.
With Mobigamz, Verizon Wireless customers can choose the hottest Flash games from a current catalogue of sport, arcade, puzzle, and board categories. Mobigamz are specifically designed for mobile phones and are very intuitive to play, with simple joystick-keystroke interactivity, multiple levels and game session storing.
Verizon Wireless Get It Now customers can purchase and download Mobigamz from the Get Fun & Games shopping aisle in the Get It Now® virtual store for $2.99 one-time use, $5.49 for three uses and $8.49 for six uses. Mobigamz is available on a number of popular Get It Now-capable phones, including the MOTORAZR V3c, MOTORAZR V3m and the MOTOKRZR K1m; the LG VX8100, LG VX8300, V by LG, enV by LG, and Chocolate by LG; and the Samsung SCH-a930 and the Samsung SCH-a950. Download charges vary and airtime or megabyte charges may apply when browsing, downloading and using certain applications. Customers need a Get It Now-enabled phone and Verizon Wireless digital service to access the Get It Now virtual store.
Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group’s AddictingGames (www.addictinggames.com),an independent gaming site for teens with more than 3,000 games, and Verizon Wireless, builder and operator of the nation’s most reliable wireless network, announced that Qwikies are now exclusively available to Verizon Wireless customers. Marking its first extension off of the PC, AddictingGames’ Qwikies are Flash-based mini-games which allow Verizon Wireless customers to play popular AddictingGames’ titles from the palms of their hands, including “Fling the Ferret,” “50 States,” “Flip the Bird,” “Escape the Locker,” “Fly Squasher,” “Whack a Mole,” “Jungle Gym,” and many other original titles.
Qwikies have launched with fully functional high-score capabilities that enable customers to post scores to a daily community leader board from their phones or text their scores to friends. New games and content will be added every month.
Pricing and Availability Verizon Wireless customers can access Qwikies in the AddictingGames section in the Get It Now® virtual store for $4.99 for two uses, $6.99 for four uses and $8.99 for six uses. AddictingGames’ Qwikies are available on a number of popular Get It Now-capable phones. Download charges vary and airtime or megabyte charges may apply when downloading and using certain applications. Customers need a Get It Now-enabled handset and Verizon Wireless digital service to access the Get It Now virtual store.
VeriSign, Inc, a provider of digital infrastructure for the networked world, announced that its Mobile Messaging Index for Q1 2008 indicates single-day and quarterly mobile messaging records have been broken. In addition, the numbers strongly suggest that the annual mobile messaging record will be shattered in 2008.
VeriSign’s combined mobile messaging networks enabled more than 43 billion messages in Q1 2008, up more than 34 percent from Q4 2007 and an increase of approximately 154 percent from Q1 2007. That total includes a single-day record 538 million SMS messages on Valentine’s Day handled by VeriSign’s network alone. Based on that number, VeriSign estimates roughly 2.12 billion mobile messages were exchanged across all networks on Valentine’s Day.
Annual mobile messaging records for totals and revenue, set in 2007, are almost certain to be eclipsed. As the use of mobile messaging continues to skyrocket, the annual record VeriSign set in 2007 — over 96 billion mobile messages handled — could be surpassed by the end of Q3 2008. As of March 31, VeriSign already had handled 45 percent as many mobile messages this year as it did in all of 2007. In doing so, VeriSign enabled more than $1.6 billion in revenue in Q1 2008 for mobile messaging customers worldwide — one-third the total revenue enabled by VeriSign in this market in all of 2007.
Boosted by 3G network deployments, cellular modems are providing wireless connectivity to laptops, UMPCs and even desktop computers. 2007 data contained in a new study from ABI Research reveals that cellular modem sales, including PC Cards, Express Cards, USB modems, embedded modems and 3G/Wi-Fi routers cumulatively, increased more than 300% compared to 2006. The firm forecasts that by 2013, shipments of cellular modems will exceed 200 million units.
According to principal analyst Dan Shey, “2007 saw cellular modems established as an important connectivity technology for operators as well as for the mobile customer.”
However the incredible growth of 2007 did not benefit just traditional market share leaders such as Option Wireless, Sierra Wireless and Novatel. Asia-Pacific vendors including Huawei, ZTE, and C-motech now control the majority of worldwide sales and they are bringing a completely new set of capabilities to the marketplace. Says Shey, “The leading Asia-Pacific cellular modem vendors have robust portfolios of other telecommunications products and services. This positions them to compete for operator sales at a very different level, and is forcing changes to incumbent modem supplier business models.”
The factors driving this market go beyond a very competitive modem supplier market and 3G networks. Enterprise customers have been the traditional buyers of these devices, but operators have expanded their portfolio of mobile broadband price plans, opening up the market to SMB and consumer demand. In addition, Qualcomm’s Gobi, the eventual consolidation to GSM 3G and 4G networks, and WiMAX will all have positive effects on the supply chain, creating cellular-enabled devices which will drive up sales of embedded modems.
AT&T and Pantech Wireless Inc. announced the Pantech Breeze( from AT&T. Available in all company-owned stores and online beginning May 27, the Pantech Breeze a simple easy-to-use phone.
At its core, the Pantech Breeze is an uncomplicated mobile phone, specifically designed for people needing an easy way to stay in touch with friends, caregivers and loved ones. From its clean and uncluttered design to its simplified menus, oversized display with large keypad and quick-call keys, the Pantech Breeze includes a host of convenient features in a comfortable, modern design.
The Pantech Breeze is the direct result of AT&T and Pantech’s collaboration to build a device on the principles of Universal Design — the practice of designing products and applications that are usable by the most customers possible. AT&T recently published the company’s approach to Universal Design to encourage application developers and handset manufacturers to consider the needs of seniors or customers who have disabilities when creating products and services.
“Universal Design helps define important design criteria to meet the wants and needs of as many of our customers as possible,” said Carlton Hill, vice president of Product Management, Voice Products and Affiliate Marketing for AT&T’s wireless operations. “The Pantech Breeze is a result of our efforts to meet these criteria and offer a great-looking phone that’s a breeze to use for everyone — from tweens to great-grandparents.”
Research and Markets has announced the addition of “Global - Mobile Data - Overview & Analysis - 2007” to their offering.
By 2015 it is expected that mobile revenue will mostly come from data. This depends however on business models changing to become ones that offer low cost mobile data services as the norm. For many mobile operators this will require significant changes to their current voice-centric business models. So far competition has also not led to the development of a mass mobile data market, and despite all the hype about mobile wireless broadband, most HSPA services are aimed at the top end of the market, for business users and professionals. Wireless broadband is much more suited for the delivery of mobile data, and the infrastructure also has better potential for the delivery of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These are two reasons why wireless broadband could start challenging 3G in the next decade. This report includes an overview and analysis of the mobile data industry. Statistics for mobile content and services can be found from a separate report.
The Mobile Giving Foundation (MGF) announced that Qualcomm Incorporated
through its Wireless Reach(TM) initiative, has become the
organization’s founding patron to fulfill the MGF’s mission to create a
single “mobile giving channel” that allows more than 250 million wireless
users in the U.S. to make charitable contributions instantly through SMS
from their cell phones.
The MGF will facilitate charitable giving across wireless operators by acting as the messaging gateway, compliance entity, billing settlement and records clearinghouse between operators and participating charities. By using text messaging, donors can choose to send a small donation in support of specific causes. These transactions will be recorded on the donor’s wireless bill, with the MGF providing data feeds that will allow annual notifications showing total contributions per donor, if desired.
The law requiring California drivers to use hands-free devices while
talking on their mobile phones is likely to save hundreds of lives a
year, particularly when the weather is bad or roads are wet, according
to a new study released today by the Public Policy Institute of
California (PPIC).The study estimates that after the law takes effect on July 1st, California will experience 300 fewer traffic fatalities a year. The state currently logs more than 4,000 traffic deaths every year.
These findings differ from previous research that has questioned the effectiveness of hands-free laws in improving traffic safety.
Concern that phone use contributes to traffic collisions and fatalities has prompted many industrialized nations to require that drivers use hands-free technology while talking on the phone. In the United States, hands-free laws are in effect in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia, as well as in several cities, including Chicago and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Washington state has a hands-free law that also takes effect on July 1st.
Verizon Wireless reminds customers who choose to talk on a wireless phone while driving to do so responsibly and safely when travelling over the holidays:
Drive Responsibly Drivers should use common sense and obey all vehicular laws if they choose to talk on a wireless phone while driving, whether across town or across the country. Verizon Wireless offers the following reminders for using a wireless phone or service responsibly while driving:
When behind the wheel, safe and responsible driving is always your first priority.
- Using a wireless phone while driving may increase your risk of distraction, whether or not you use a hands-free device. To eliminate this risk, consider turning your phone off and allowing calls to go to voice mail. If you choose to talk and drive, always use a hands-free device. Make sure your hands-free device is on and working before you begin driving.
- Turn your phone to speakerphone or use a headset. Many phones have
speakerphone capability. Headset models available from Verizon
Wireless range from Bluetooth(R) devices for individual use to
hands-free ear buds compatible with devices from many wireless
providers.
- Do not manually dial or look up phone numbers when driving. Pre-program important and frequently dialed numbers and use the voice-activated and speed-dialing features of your phone.
- Never view or send text or multi-media messages or video downloads while driving.
- If you're taking advantage of any navigation service, including VZ Navigator(SM), program the address into your phone -- either directly to the handset or online -- before you leave the curb; then you'll need only to listen to the directions.
- Do not engage in complex, stressful or emotional calls while driving.The risk of using a wireless phone while driving may be increased during hazardous traffic or weather conditions. When driving in these conditions, consider turning your phone off and allowing calls to go to voice mail.
Verizon Wireless is committed to educating the public on the safe and responsible use of wireless phones while driving. For more information on hands-free options and responsible driving, customers can visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store or http://www.verizonwireless.com.
"Wi-fi on steriods." That's one of the many potential uses for the wireless spectrum that is now lying unused between TV channels, Larry Page told the New America Foundation in DC this week.
But why does Google care about helping more people get access to the web, whether it's through enhanced wi-fi or other means? As Larry put it, Google's mission is to organize the world's information -- but if no one has access to the Internet, what good is that effort? That's one of the big reasons Google has become steadily more engaged in spectrum policy debates in Washington. In his talk, Larry said that:
- The U.S. has slipped from third to sixteenth in broadband penetration rates, in part because the U.S. has not shown leadership in encouraging greater broadband access. Utilizing the unused TV "white spaces" for broadband access would be a tremendous opportunity to bring the Internet to more Americans -- including those in rural areas and first responders. Because of the much longer range of these spectrum signals, wireless broadband access utilizing the TV white spaces could be brought to more consumers using fewer base stations -- in effect, "wi-fi on steriods"
For more information go to the Google Public Policy Blog.
There will be two versions of the service, ad supported free access and paid subscriptions.
"Though the iPhone is an amazing device, I challenge anyone to make a call faster than with the HOP1800," says Hop-On CEO Peter Michaels. "With the cost of living and roaming fees going though the roof, the HOP1800 is also the perfect iPhone traveling companion. Just buy a local SIM card and you can use the HOP1800 with over 40 domestic wireless carriers," Michaels said.
Both HOP1800 phones, one a Dual-band 850/1900MHz or the 900/1800MHz for Europe and Asia, weigh a scant 77 grams, offers 4 hours of talk time, 150 hours of standby time and polyphonic ring tones. Though low in cost, the HOP1800 uses reliable Infineon chip sets for excellent audio quality, reception and call stability.
At a $10 price point in the US retail and convenient stores, the HOP1800 could be considered disposable, but the company offers a $5 rebate for returning the phone to encourage recycling the phone to "Keep it Green".
Comment from Wireless & Mobile News:Although this phone seems super cheap often savvy buyers can get a fuller functioning refurb phone from prepaid carriers online. We found a $15.00 phone at Frys with $10.00 worth of airtime that has web access and a color display.
The head of the FCC said he
wants to regulate fees charged to cell phone users who cancel their
wireless contracts early, reports the Associated Press.At a news conference, FCC chief Kevin Martin said he supports regulating the fees at a federal level, even if it affects a series of class-action lawsuits against carriers in state courts.
In the first quarter of 2008, Verizon Wireless delivered nearly 58 billion text messages from coast to
coast. But for those looking to control text messaging, such as on their
child's cell phone, Verizon Wireless offers numerous consumer-friendly
options to block some or all text messages.
These options include: Blocking: Customers can log into http://www.vtext.com or http://text.vzw.com using their mobile number and password, choose preferences, then text blocking, then select from several options --
1. Block all messages from the Web/Internet (where most spam is generated)2. Block all messages from e-mail
3. Block messages from up to 15 specific domain names or e-mail addresses.
4. Allow only texts sent to a nickname@vtext.com.
Premium SMS Blocking
Log into "My Verizon" on
http://www.verizonwireless.com, choose features, then choose
add/delete to block only text messages for short code campaigns that
involve premium charges.
V-BLOCK: This option prevents a specific mobile number/cell phone from sending or receiving text messages. The only messages the customer
will receive are voicemail alerts.
Customers can also add any of these options by calling Customer Service.
The
Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has more to celebrate this week
than just the 10th anniversary of its launch. According to an annual
survey conducted by research firm Millward Brown, global awareness of Bluetooth
technology is at an all time high with 85 percent of consumers
recognizing the wireless technology. This is the fifth consecutive year
awareness of Bluetooth technology has climbed, according to the annual survey conducted by research firm Millward Brown.
Consumers in China, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, the US and UK say they have heard of Bluetooth technology and are also overwhelmingly aware of the Bluetooth logo (68 percent) and products that use Bluetooth technology. Products consumers noted included:
• Mobile phones (79 percent)
• Headsets (61 percent)
• Computers (56 percent)
In four out of the six countries polled, at least 60 percent of respondents claim to own a Bluetooth enabled device. Of those consumers who heard a lot about Bluetooth
technology, 78 percent said they are willing to pay more for products
that include the technology and 57 percent of respondents say Bluetooth technology “makes their lives easier.”
Verizon Wireless ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction for
wireless data service, effectively meeting customer expectations and
requirements of both large enterprise and small/midsize business
segments, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Business Wireless Satisfaction StudySM released today.
Now in its fourth year, the study measures customer satisfaction of small and midsize businesses (fewer than 100 employees) and large enterprises
(100 employees or more) with their wireless voice and data services
across eight key factors. In order of importance, they are: call
quality (23%); sales representatives/account executives (16%); company
image (12%); customer service (11%); billing (10%); offerings and
promotions (10%); cost of service (9%); and performance and reliability
(9%).
Verizon Wireless performs particularly well in
both business segments in five of the eight factors: call quality,
billing, performance and reliability, company image and customer
service. T-Mobile follows Verizon Wireless in the rankings in both
segments and received high ratings from customers in the small/midsize
segment in cost of service, offerings and promotions, and sales
representatives/account executives factors, and in the large enterprise
segment in billing and cost of service.
AT& announced t that the company has
shattered its text messaging record of 64.5 million by generating more
than 78 million messages this season of “American Idol” — the most
popular show on television.
Since AT&T introduced text message voting in season 2 of FOX’s “American Idol,” text messaging has continued to play a significant role in the Idol interactive experience. In fact, during last week’s hometown visits, a new text messaging component was used to inform the final three contestants of the Producer’s Choice selection via their Apple iPhones, an AT&T-exclusive handset.
By texting their votes this season, AT&T’s wireless customers helped crown a new “American Idol” champion, David Cook, and made it possible for AT&T to capture a new text messaging milestone for television’s No. 1 show.
There have been several confirmed reports that Sprint will offer the Samsung Instinct on June 20. The phone, expected to cost between $200 and $300, available in limited markets to customers who sign up for the "Simply
Everything" plans. Sprint said the phone is expected to be in short supply initially, and recommends customers pre-order onlineSprint is battling the iPhone with ads touting the advantages of the Instinct over the old iPhone....We will update our Review of Reviews of the Instinct when reviews come out.
Sony Ericsson announced that five-time
Grammy Award-winning artist Usher will headline Sony Ericsson’s Walkman
music phone campaigns in North America. The partnership covers the
United States and Canada, in addition to more than twenty countries in
Europe and will include title sponsorship rights for Usher’s North
American tour later in the year.
Sony Ericsson will engage in joint marketing activities with exclusive wireless operator, AT&T in the United States.
“This partnership with Usher is the ideal campaign for us to build on the leadership that we’ve established in the mobile music arena,” said Karen Morris, Sony Ericsson vice president of marketing in North America. “Consumers will be able to get the ultimate mobile music experience, thanks to Sony Ericsson and Usher.”
Friendster announced Friendster’s new mobile site, accessible at
m.friendster.com from any web-enabled mobile device. The new mobile
site is the first in a suite of forthcoming mobile offerings referred
to as Friendster Mobile.
In the coming weeks, the site will be available in multiple languages. Indonesian will be the first additional language, given Friendster’s large and highly mobile user base in Indonesia where Friendster has over 8 million registered users and 4 million monthly unique visitors to Friendster.com, as of March 2008. Shortly, users will be able to also register directly on m.friendster.com, create an account and instantly begin participating in the Friendster global community.
Call Genie Inc, a provider of mobile local search
and advertising solutions that connect 'ready to transact' consumers
with local businesses, and Vlingo Corp., a leading provider of speech
recognition solutions, announced they have partnered to deliver a
comprehensive multi-modal mobile search platform that enables 'on the
go' consumers to access information anytime, anywhere.Together with Call Genie, vlingo lets mobile phone users say what they want, when they want, without limitations or scripted grammars. Consumers interfacing with Call Genie's CG Product Suite will be able to simply speak using natural language. For example, instead of the traditional "city, state" structure for 411, now a consumer can say, "I am looking for a coffee shop in Seattle near the University of Washington."
The combined solution will provide Call Genie's customers with increased automation rates for directory assistance and local search inquiries. This is expected to provide a broader and better consumer experience as well as allow Call Genie's customers to reduce operational costs by decreasing reliance on operator call handling. The end result of this solution is a more comprehensive and high quality consumer experience as well as complete multi-modal (voice and data) access to information through Call Genie's CG Product Suite.
Call Genie will continue to support Nuance and other voice platforms through its open voice XML interface capabilities.
Nearly three out of four consumers agree that mobile phone usage on airplanes should be restricted to silent features only according to a new survey commissioned by Yahoo! Inc. and conducted by Harris Interactive. The survey demonstrates that U.S. consumers today view their mobile phone as more than just a phone, it's a computer in their pocket with a wide variety of features. Consumers surveyed support the ability to access mobile phone features like e-mail, text and IM while in-flight, but made clear their preference for no talking.
"There is an increasing debate about the use of mobile phones on airplanes,"said Bruce Stewart, vice president and general manager, Connected Life Americas, Yahoo!. "This new survey overwhelmingly proves the desire of consumers to stay connected to the people, information, interests and passions that are important to them while in-flight, but they don't want to be forced to listen to the conversation of the passenger sitting next to them."
I Want My Mobile Phone
Across the U.S.A., but especially in the West, most consumers agree that mobile phone usage on planes should be restricted to non-talking features only:
- West: 83 percent
- Northeast: 72 percent
- Midwest: 73 percent
- South: 69 percent
More than half of consumers (60 percent) would want to use silent features while flying on an airplane such as:
- Text message: 38 percent
- Access e-mail: 28 percent
- Play games: 29 percent
Age impacts consumers' mobile phone service preferences while in flight:
- 35-44 year olds: 43 percent, more so than any other age group, would want to check e-mail on their mobile
- 18-34 year olds: 62 percent would want to text and 29 percentwould want to instant message (IM)
Social networking and Internet commerce are compelling smartphone users to spend an average of four hours and thirty-eight minutes per month browsing the mobile Web in the United States and two and a half hours per month in Britain, reports M:Metrics, the mobile media authority.
According to March data from the measurement firm's metered smartphone panel, active mobile Web users in the United States spent an average of one hour and thirty-nine minutes in the month browsing Craigslist on their smartphone, the longest duration of any site among the top twenty domains visited. In the United Kingdom, Facebook commanded the most time spent browsing in the month, with visitors dedicating an average of one hour and forty-five minutes using the site, which is also drawing in users in America. There, Facebook ranks fourth in terms of time spent browsing, after eBay and MySpace, with Disney's Go.com rounding out the top five. In the UK, the remaining top sites by browsing time are the mobile operator 3's portal, Sky TV, Microsoft's Live and BBC.
"People are becoming increasingly engaged in the mobile medium," said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, M:Metrics. "Among smartphone users in the United States, mobile browsing has increased 89 percent year over year, and pageviews have increased 127 percent. Consumption is quickly evolving from brief transactions, such as checking the weather or flight status, to time-intensive interaction with mobile Web sites -- even without an iPhone."
Top Domains by Time Spent Browsing per Month: United States
Domain Company Total
------ ------- -----
Total Total 4:37:48
craigslist.org Craigslist, Inc. 1:38:51
ebay.com eBay Inc. 1:25:41
myspace.com News Corporation 1:25:13
facebook.com TheFacebook, Inc 1:24:09
go.com The Walt Disney Company 1:07:04
Top Domains by Time Spent Browsing per Month: United Kingdom
Domain Company Total
------ ------- -----
Total Total 2:24:58
facebook.com TheFacebook, Inc 1:44:47
three.co.uk Hutchison Whampoa Limited 1:30:51
sky.com British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc 1:15:28
live.com Microsoft Corporation 1:11:06
bbc.co.uk British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 0:48:10
AOL and Virgin Mobile USA announced that Platform-A will serve as
the exclusive display advertising and sales partner for Virgin Mobile
USA’s WAP banner inventory. Under the terms
of an agreement between the parties, the Platform-A sales force will
manage Virgin Mobile USA’s WAP banner inventory, while fully leveraging Platform-A’s Third Screen Media mobile ad serving platform. Third Screen Media (http://www.thirdscreenmedia.com) is Platform-A’s mobile ad serving platform and network.
Virgin Mobile USA has an audience of more than 5 million subscribers and is the largest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in the United States.
Motorola announced the initial results of a new study on
the influence and behaviors of the Millennial generation (young adults
ages 16-27) regarding consumer technology decisions and rich media
consumption habits. Motorola's study among 1,000 young adults found
that Millennials are not only looking for more rich media, they are
also greatly influencing the buying decisions for the services and
technologies in the home and on the go.The study, commissioned by Motorola's Home & Networks Mobility group, explores how the preferences and habits of today's Millennials are shaping the future of content consumption. By understanding the interests of end users, Motorola will better help cable operators and service providers customize their offerings to accelerate the delivery of personalized media experiences to their current and future customers.
"With the Millennial generation, connectivity is an absolute must-have, as they've grown up with technology and the Internet," said Eduardo Conrado, corporate vice president, global marketing and communications, Motorola Inc. "Millennials are now looking to make their connectivity more personalized and take experiences from 'primetime' to 'my time.' This study provides a clear barometer to share with our customers that shows the changes in demand and growth opportunities as these critical users continue to increase their buying power."
Greater Expectations
Motorola's findings pinpointed the differences in Millennials' expectations and the influence that they are already exerting over buying decisions of their parents for video and broadband products and services.
- 71 percent have influence over parental decisions about cable, DSL or dish-satellite services, including young people who no longer live with their parents.
- 62 percent have influence over which HDTV set and programming package to buy.
- 70 percent feel their expectations and demands are far greater than their parents' for rich media experiences (such as mobile TV or video) and on-the-go broadband access.
- a touchscreen display
- camera
- mini-phone extender, My Dior that clips onto the outside of a purse
By the end of June, connecting to AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband service will be as speedy as logging onto the high speed Internet service that many consumers enjoy at home.
AT&T announced that, in the next month, the company will deploy High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology in the six remaining markets across AT&T’s entire 3G (third-generation) wireless broadband network. When done, AT&T will have completed its deployment of HSUPA technology, which complements existing HSDPA technology (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), making AT&T the only U.S. carrier to have fully deployed HSPA technology in its 3G network.
Today the superfast AT&T 3G network is available in more than 275 markets. By year-end, the AT&T 3G network will be available in nearly 350 markets.
With the new addition of HSUPA technology, AT&T 3G users can enjoy uplink speeds between 500 and 800 Kbps. The technology is available in all but the few remaining AT&T 3G markets and will be included in all future deployments. The new upload speeds complement AT&T’s 3G download capabilities, which currently offer up to 1.4 Mbps across all markets for customers who have capable devices, such as AT&T’s LaptopConnect wireless modems.
AT&T announced that qualifying LaptopConnect customers can now access more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hot spots free of charge. Users can access Wi-Fi at nearly 7,000 participating Starbucks locations plus thousands more AT&T Wi-FiSM locations, including restaurants, airports, hotels and other convenient locations across the United States.
AT&T LaptopConnect uses AT&T's wireless network to keep customers connected to e-mail, the Internet and business applications almost anywhere they can make a phone call. Qualifying LaptopConnect customers will now automatically receive a pop-up message alerting them to Wi-Fi availability when in range of an AT&T hot spot. At that point, customers who have downloaded the latest AT&T Communication Manager software to their laptop PC just need to click Connect to access the Wi-Fi connectivity. The offer is available to customers who subscribe to a DataConnect plan of $59.99 or more.¹ AT&T Communication Manager comes with new LaptopConnect cards and is available for free at www.att.com/laptopconnect.
T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced the availability of the
much-anticipated Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone. Starting May 28, T-Mobile
will offer the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic which offers a variety
of features, including easy-to-use external music controls, stereo
Bluetooth connectivity, wired stereo headsets, a USB cable for
side-loading music and a memory card -- all at
an affordable price.Customers can bop their heads to the music right away, since the device will come preloaded with two exclusive new hits -- one from rock sensation Panic At The Disco and one from Phantom Planet. As an added bonus, the Nokia 5310 is also loaded with Panic At The Disco's latest video, "That Green Gentleman," plus an exclusive making-of video with a greeting from the band.
Nokia 5310 XpressMusic
The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone blends an array of features with an iconic design in a sleek finish. At only 0.39 inches thick and weighing as little as 3 ounces, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic fits comfortably in a pocket or small purse. For music fans, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic offers up to 18 hours of music playback, with memory for up to 3,000 songs2 on an optional 4GB microSD card. The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is available in three stylish color combinations exclusively from T-Mobile: black/red, black/purple and black/orange. Additional features of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic include:
- T-Mobile myFaves®-enabled
- Music player with dedicated external music controls
- MP3 and video ring tones
- Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
- 2.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
- Video capture and playback
- FM radio
- 1GB microSD card included in box (support for up to 4GB)
- Digital music player (supports AAC, eAAC+, MP3 and Windows Media Audio formats)
- 2-inch QVGA 240x320 display with up to 16 million colors
- Stereo wired headset
- 3.5 mm headphone jack, compatible for use with most music player earphones
- Hands-free speaker
- Voice dialing, voice commands and voice recorder
- Tri-band 850/1800/1900 MHz GSM, GPRS, EDGE
- Dimensions: 1.76 x 4.09 x 0.39 inches, 3.0 ounces
The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone will be available beginning May 28, 2008, at select T-Mobile retail stores and online at www.t-mobile.com. Customers can purchase the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic for $49.99 with a two-year contract.3
Spurred by the popularity of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and its elegant user interface, global shipments of touch-screen display modules are expected to more than double from 2008 to 2012, according to iSuppli Corp.
Given this strong expected growth, about 60 companies plan to show off their touch-screen sensor, module or system technology during the 2008 Society for Information Display (SID) International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition.
The worldwide market for touch-screen modules will amount to 341 million units and $3.4 billion in value in 2008. iSuppli forecasts that the market will grow to 833 million units by 2013, expanding at Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.5 percent from 2008, according to iSuppli’s new forecast issued this week. Global touch-screen module revenue is forecast to grow to $6.4 billion by 2013, rising at a CAGR of 13.7 percent from 2008.
Samsung Glyde (pronounced Glide) SCH-U940 Verizon Rated 3.5 out of 5 by Wireless and Mobile News Review of ReviewsThe Samsung Glyde has a touch screen with haptical feeedback on the outside and a sturdy slide-out keyboard on the inside with a ton of features. Reviewers all liked the keyboard but many found the interface and menus difficult to confusing. Web browsing was rated mixed to good. GPS services worked well. The camera was rated decent to downright poor. However, Bluetooth, video, voice activation dialing, voice mail as text, and screen colors were mentioned favorably.
Since there are no mouse-like navigation buttons, navigation through menus and clicking on weblinks was a problem. Data speeds were good to great and email (text only) worked. The inability to sync to PC data and absence of Wi-Fi were seen as shortcomings.
The Samsung Glyde is seen in the best light for heavy text and email users, who need some web browsing, GPS, and music.
Nokia and KONAMI, a leading global developer,
publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties, y announced that KONAMI mobile titles will be added to the N-Gage
mobile games platform. The mobile version of the award-winning METAL
GEAR SOLID® will be the first title in the games line-up. METAL GEAR
SOLID MOBILE has received top honours at the 2007 International Mobile
Gaming Awards (IMGA), taking both the Grand Prix and Operator’s Choice
Awards.
The Rural Cellular Association (RCA), a group of more than 80 small and rural wireless providers, filed a petition today with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate and, as necessary, adopt rules to prohibit exclusivity arrangements between wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers. The petition asks the FCC to prohibit unfair arrangements between carriers and manufacturers that stifle consumer choice, decrease competition and violate the Communications Act.
Due to exclusivity arrangements, many Americans are unable to use some of today’s most popular cell phones. Those affected usually live in rural areas where service from some wireless carriers is not available. Examples of some of the best-selling handsets still unavailable to many Americans include AT&T’s Apple iPhone and Verizon’s LG Voyager.™
YuuZoo the fast growing new global mobile content, media and advertising firm has joined forces with Celebrity Astrologer Maria Shaw to provide top-notch astrologic advice and daily horoscopes to mobile device users around the world. For $9.95 a month.
Called YuuStars the new service is accessible by more than one billion mobile users in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
“I’m thrilled to be able to offer my audience a unique opportunity to receive my daily horoscopes instantaneously,” explains Shaw. “With YuuZoo I can reach people worldwide, enabling me to reach new demographics and create an ever larger fan base.”
n2go International, Inc. announced that it has selected Limelight Networks, Inc. as the Company’s exclusive Content Delivery Network (“CDN”).
en2go is developing next-generation applications, content and media assets targeting the billions of computer desktops, television, PDAs, iPhones, iPods, cameras, mobile phones in use worldwide. Limelight Networks will be active in the beta-phase testing of en2go’s proprietary new high definition streaming application Flyxo(TM). The successful testing and launch of Flyxo has the potential to redefine online delivery of digital media globally.
Flyxo is the first of en2go’s beta-phase applications. It is a media delivery platform that broadcasts movies, images, music, flash, quartz and slideshows directly to the user’s desktop for superior multimedia experience. Unlike most video streaming technologies, Flyxo delivers a stream of mixed clips from HD video to high-resolution images to user’s desktop. Flyxo enables content owners to easily create their own channel by mixing video with interactive media, then broadcast it to anywhere in the world. Flyxo is in essence a super-powered media player combined with an online TV station, home movie theater, radio station, picture viewer, gaming facilitator and a multi-purpose media software all-in-one.
The Limelight Network CDN was selected by en2go to provide the back-end infrastructure and high-speed delivery pipeline needed to deploy the Company’s streaming software. Limelight Networks provides a robust and scalable rich media delivery infrastructure by using direct connections to more than 800 networks around the world.
Kajeet, the cell phone service made for kids, and Turner Broadcasting System’s Cartoon Network today announced a deal to bring mobile content from Cartoon Network to kajeet handsets. The deal brings some of the top names in kids’ entertainment to the unique pay-as-you-go cell phone service.
“As the only cell phone service focused on super-serving kids, it makes perfect sense for us to join forces with Cartoon Network,” said Daniel Neal, CEO and founder of kajeet. “We think it’s important to offer kids mobile content that they love and which reflects their varied interests. Cartoon Network helps us with that goal. “
Drawing from the world’s largest cartoon library, the deal with Cartoon Network will bring select mobile content from the network’s original television shows, such as Ben 10: Alien Force, Chowder, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Powerpuff Girls and more, to kajeet handsets. kajeet users will be able to easily access the best in ringtones, wallpapers and games from Cartoon Network through their phone’s browser.
Opera has released a new report on mobile web usage, State of the Mobile Web: First Quarter, 2008 and social networking is a top dras. Almost 40% of traffic worldwide is to social networks. In some countries, such as the United States, South Africa and Indonesia, the social Web accounts for more than 60% of the traffic.
One Web will triumph over WAP content
Full Web surfing comprises more than 77% of all traffic. Content on WAP
and .mobi sites accounted for 23% of mobile Web traffic. This share
continues to decline as more consumers both use Opera Mini to access
rich Web content and become more comfortable browsing the Web on their
phones.
Part 1: Growth
Cumulative Users
Opera Mini has become the world's most popular mobile browser. Since its worldwide launch in 2006, more than 44 million people have downloaded and used Opera Mini. More than 11.9 million people used Opera Mini in March 2008. In the last quarter, the number of people who downloaded and used Opera Mini grew 26% over the prior quarter in 2007.
Napster announced the launch of the world’s largest and most comprehensive MP3 store at www.napster.com/store.
Napster’s download store is more than 50% larger than any other MP3 store and boasts not only the largest major label MP3 catalog in the industry, but also the largest library of independent music available anywhere. All Napster download sales in the U.S. will now be in the user-friendly, DRM-free MP3 format, which is compatible with virtually any MP3 player or music phone including the iPod and the iPhone. Napster is the first music subscription service featuring major label content to offer 100% of its catalog in the MP3 format for download sales.
Pricing for download sales will remain at 99 cents for single MP3 tracks and $9.95 for most MP3 albums, Napster confirmed. The vast majority of the MP3 catalog, including all major label content, is available at a high-quality 256kbps bitrate, and downloaded tracks include high-resolution album art. Consumers can visit and browse the download store with no obligation or commitment, and can also choose to subscribe to Napster’s on-demand streaming service, which is web-based and can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer without downloading software.
Napster gives music fans the freedom of choice to discover, experience, and buy music on their own terms. With its web-based, open, innovative products and services, Napster gives consumers the ability to enjoy music across their desktop, living room, portable music player, and mobile phone.
Dovel & Luner LLP today announced that a Los Angeles jury has found Sprint Nextel liable for infringing two
patents owned by California company Enovsys LLC. The jury returned its verdict late Friday, May 16, 2008, and awarded Enovsys
past damages of $2.78 million.
The patents relate to a privacy system used to protect and manage the disclosure of the precise location of a user’s cell phone (e.g., the phone’s GPS position). Enovsys had alleged that Sprint Nextel’s wireless networks use the patents in managing location-based services provided by the nation’s third largest wireless carrier. Testimony at trial showed that Sprint Nextel is the market leader in the growing field of location services and saw a 50% increase in related revenues in 2007 over the prior year.
Inventors Mundi Fomukong and Denzil Chesney applied for the first of the patents in 1997, several years before location services were first offered for cell phones. Enovsys is an intellectual property holding company privately held by inventor Fomukong.
ASOCS, the leading developer of wireless Multi-Communication processors and system solutions for handheld devices announced today the launch of the MP100, the world’s first wireless MultiComms processor capable of running up to three wireless air interfaces concurrently.
Customers using ASOCS’ single-chip MultiComm processor can reduce the bill of materials (BOM) by up to 50% and reduce power consumption by as much as 70%, whilst supporting wireless standards such as GSM/EDGE/GPRS, WiFi, HD Mobile Digital TV, and GPS. The software reconfigurable ModemX(TM) core in the MP100 further enables handheld device manufacturers, OEMs, and ODMs to move into the 4G era smoothly by developing software-based Super 3G, LTE, and Mobile WiMAX products today.
Row 44, provider of
airborne broadband systems for commercial aviation, is scheduled to perform commercial trials with Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines in North
America this summer.
Airline customers will pay a fee to access the service.
Traffic.com, provides drivers across the United States Memorial Day road trip planning tools to save time and avoid the frustration of summertime driving delays. Here are some ways to check on Memorial Day Traffic.Toll Free Number
Save 1-866-MY-TRAFC (1-866-698-7232) to a phone favorites list before leaving home. This free hotline provides speed dial access to Traffic.com--ideal for avoiding heavy traffic, construction, and accidents on the way to the beach.
Mobile Web
Use your wireless handheld device to connect to the Web with MOBI.TRAFFIC.COM. Visit http://mobi.traffic.com, a free wireless Web site for the same great traffic information you get from Traffic.com online--ideal for keeping up with the kids' busy summer schedules.
SMS
Send a SMS text message to get real-time traffic information for city hotspots. Simply text your CITY CODE, (NY, CHIC, PHL, LA, etc.) to TRAFC (87232). Traffic.com city codes can be found at http://help.traffic.com/city-codes-used-for-sms--ideal for getting instant traffic information after a baseball game.
NAVTEQ anounced the availability of NAVTEQ Traffic Patterns North America v3.0, a significantly updated historic database which includes typical traffic speeds on nearly one million miles of primary and secondary roads across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada.
NAVTEQ Traffic Patterns gives product developers and service providers a reliable, easy-to-use data set for a variety of smart-routing applications. Routing applications utilizing NAVTEQ Traffic Patterns put at drivers’ fingertips the information they need to decide when and how to avoid typically congested areas. From commuters to emergency service providers, NAVTEQ Traffic Patterns enables more accurate route planning and improves trip time estimates based on likely traffic conditions.
NAVTEQ Traffic patterns is created using historical observations from GPS probe and sensor data which is aggregated, verified and then matched to traffic location codes in the NAVTEQ Map database.
Covad Wireless, , has successfully completed a WiMAX lab test and field trial in the San Francisco Bay area. As a result, Covad will move forward with plans to roll out WiMAX service later this year with Santa Barbara-based Axxcelera as its preferred WiMAX equipment vendor.
The trial included field testing for the reach and performance of Covad’s service with Axxcelera’s AB-MAX platform WiMAX equipment. The trial confirmed a total symmetric bandwidth of 8.0+ Mbps at 5+ miles and registered less than one percent packet loss and less than 50ms network latency.
Covad will use Axxcelera’s WiMAX equipment to power its flagship “Super-T” product, which offers up to 6.0 Mbps of symmetric, business-class broadband access. Covad will begin deployment of its new WIMAX equipment at existing base station locations in Los Angeles, Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Deployment will continue throughout 2008 and into 2009.
Boost Mobile y announced that it has launched exclusive retail stores. In addition to offering the company’s complete product line-up, the new retail locations also offer products from Boost Mobile’s “Boosted” division, including distinctly styled, multi-device stereo headphones and lifestyle accessories.
Located in Huntington Park, Calif., Hialeah, Fla. and in Houston, Tex., the new retail stores are enabling Boost Mobile to interact with customers, identify trends in the marketplace, and respond with new wireless products and services designed to meet consumers’ evolving lifestyle needs. Each store is approximately 1,500 square feet, and features furniture and interiors constructed of recycled materials. Conceptualized as “home bases” for the Boost brand, all three retail locations offer customers the chance to learn about Boost Mobile products and lifestyle in a hands-on, contemporary environment.
According to The NPD Group, , mobile phone handset sales to consumers in the U.S. reached nearly 31 million units in the first quarter of 2008, which is a 22 percent decline since the same period a year ago. NPD estimates total first quarter 2008 consumer sales of nearly $2.7 billion, down from $2.9 billion a year ago.
“For the first time since NPD has tracked handset sales, we’ve noted a decline in sales during the first quarter after the holidays,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD. “Cellular phone service has become a practical necessity in modern life; however, with looming economic concerns on the horizon, many consumers may be holding back on new handset purchases, especially those tied to new pre-paid plans.”
Following is the breakdown of the top five manufacturers’ share of units purchased in Q1 2008:
- Motorola 27%
- Samsung 18%
- LG 17%
- Nokia 8%
- RIM Blackberry 5%
Greystripe, the world's leading distributor of ad-supported mobile games and applications, announced another Tier-one game publisher deal to distribute free mobile games from world-renowned game publisher, Sega.
Three classic game titles from the Sega collection will be delivered across mobile phones worldwide through all 50 of Greystripe's Catalog Platform partners in addition to GameJump.com, the world's largest ad-supported mobile game portal. Additionally, Sega will monetize their mobile game content via Greystripe's AdWRAP advertising network, which includes brands like Diet Coke, Yahoo!, New Line Cinema and eBay.
To launch the partnership, Sega and Greystripe are launching three popular mobile games:
Sonic Jump - Go vertical with Sonic the Hedgehog. Play through familiar fast-paced action with an addictive new style as Sonic jumps from platform to platform in a race to stop the evil Dr. Eggman.
Afterburner II - A classic Sega arcade favorite, players can use their mobile phones to jump into the cockpit of a fighter jet and combat swarms of supersonic enemy fighters.
Golden Axe - In the epic "side-scrolling beat 'em up" Golden Axe, choose one of three powerful heroes to embark on an adventure to save the land of Yuria from the evil forces of Death Adder!
In the next five years the telecom market will change so dramatically and rapidly that government intervention and market engineering will be inevitable in some countries, according to Gartner Inc. At the center of this is the global trend toward telecom “structural separation,” which Gartner defines as the deconstruction or breaking apart of a telecom carrier’s vertically integrated business model into a more horizontally structured model.
“In the past 20 years, carriers have increasingly focused on operational efficiency — via a tighter coupling of business assets (vertical integration) — to compete more effectively against new market entrants with lower cost structures,” said Alex Winogradoff, research vice president at Gartner. “Despite government moves (such as unbundling and accounting separation) to encourage competition and stimulate investment, progress has been meager in most countries. Regulators believe that continued vertical integration is the primary reason for this lack of progress and are increasingly seeking separation as a policy tool.”
Sprint is running funny videos comparing the Samsung Instinct to the iPhone with caption "Watch the Instinct defeat the iPhone.For GPS, the Instinct pinpoints the exact location while the iPhone estimates a "ginormous circle".
There just ain't no live TV for the iPhone.
Instinct wins the Internet connection speed test.
Instinct can shoot video - iPhone can't.
The music and sounds of the comparison videos are a hoot.
Now that the 3G iPhone is available the competition is closer. Reviewers liked the Samsung Instinct and gave it good reviews for some features not found on the iPhone 3G. To see what they wrote, read our updated Review of Reviews of the Samsung Instiinct. We also have a chart of iPhone 3G vs Samsung Instinct for a feature by feature comparison.
If you are planning on getting an Instinct be sure to read the fine print:
Instinct requires activation on a Sprint Everything pricing plan offering unlimited data starting at just $69.99 per month and a two year contract.
CA ADACTUS and DBT GLOBAL announced that for the first time they will offer the ability to view movie trailers at the Cannes Film Festival 2008 through mobile phones. Distributors will be able to send, view and distribute information about their films and company to their customers using the mobile phone.
Nu Image, a full service production company and distributor servicing both domestic and international markets, has already signed on to have their trailers delivered via the Adactus system at Cannes 2008. “I think that this will have an enormous impact on how content is going to be delivered and the Cannes Film Festival is the right platform to start. Our customers will be able to see trailers and gather information on our line-up of films such as BAD LIEUTENANT, CONAN, RIGHTEOUS KILL, BROOKLYN’S FINEST, STREETS OF BLOOD, WAY OF WAR, and NINJA instantly. It’s truly amazing” says Christian Mercuri, President of Nu Image of International Sales and Distribution. The mobile site is nuimage.mobi
All of the information and film trailers are accessed from a custom-built portal designed for mobile phones. Trailers and information are accessed instantly. All film trailers are streamed or downloaded from the Adactus Mobilize Video platform and ensure an optimal video experience for each user.
Alltel has chosen the Long Term Evolution standard over WiMAX for its transition to 4G. To many pundits it was not a suprize because Alltel often follows Verizon’s lead.
Alltel also showed an 11% increase in revenue and reported an additional million gross wireless customers during the first quarter.
FlyTunes Inc announcedseveral major changes to its mobile content network, popularized on the
iPhone and iPod Touch. FlyTunes is adding video and audio
podcasts, a new user interface, and a customizable channel guide. As the
first content network specifically focused on mobile devices, the FlyTunes
network has experienced explosive user growth since its launch in January
at CES.
With over 200 new channels available immediately, the new video and audio channels cover a wide range of topics, including news, entertainment, politics, kids & family, health, comedy, business and technology. With today’s additions, FlyTunes now offers users over 350 channels of music, talk, video and podcast entertainment choices, far more than fee-based satellite radio services.
Dada Entertainment (www.dada.net), the joint venture between Dada USA, Inc. and SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, announced the addition of DRM-free MP3s to its product suite. The new offering complements the full range of mobile products that Dada already makes available to its members through mobile and Web storefronts, including ringtones, mobile wallpapers and games.
Music fans who sign up for Dada are given 15 tokens per month for only $9.99. Each token can be redeemed for one download of a ringtone, or other mobile content including wallpapers and games. In addition, and as an alternative to downloading only mobile content, Dada members now have the option to download full songs in the MP3 format to their computer. These MP3 tracks can subsequently be transferred to any mobile phone, iPod or digital music player. Dada expects to be able to offer users over-the-air MP3 downloads to mobile devices in the coming months.
SONY BMG’s catalog is currently available through the network, and the joint venture expects to add content from other labels in the near future. Dada users are billed for the service through their phone bill via Premium SMS.
The service is currently available to users from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, Virgin, Cellular One, Boost, Cricket, and Nextel.
Sprint and Samsung Electronics Corporation Ltd. announced that a new broadband wireless network offering the speed and
mobility of WiMAX has met Sprint’s rigorous
commercial acceptance criteria including overall performance, handoff
performance and handoff delay. This key technical milestone has been
passed after extensive evaluation both in the XOHM lab environment and with the commercial service network being built in
the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. Sprint plans on launching
commercial WiMAX service in those cities later this year.
Cricket Communications, announced updates to its flat-rate, unlimited service plan. T
One new feature now included in the Company’s higher-value service plans, is unlimited text messaging to Mexico, a popular feature previously offered a la carte.
Cricket continues its tradition of “rolling” popular features into service plans by offering this service on an unlimited basis to customers in the $40-$60 plans. Additionally, Cricket has included unlimited Mobile Web, previously included only in the $50 plan, at the $45 price point, and has added a bundle of 30 nationwide roaming minutes to the $50 plan. Caller ID is now included in all service plans.
Cricket has added a new entry-level $30 service plan to its offering that includes unlimited anytime minutes, plus the option to add several features such as text messaging and Mobile Web. Cricket’s higher value plan offers unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance and 200 nationwide roaming minutes for only $60 per month.
Cricket’s new rate plans all include caller ID and are as follows:
$30 Rate Plan: Unlimited anytime minutes
$35 Rate Plan: Unlimited anytime minutes and unlimited U.S. long distance
$40 Rate Plan: Unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging and unlimited text to Mexico
$45 Rate Plan: Unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico and unlimited Mobile Web
$50 Rate Plan: Unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance and 30 nationwide roaming minutes
$60 Rate Plan: Unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance and 200 nationwide roaming minutes
Facebook has a brand new Sugar Mama, thanks to a unique new application that lets friends earn
wireless airtime for other friends who are Virgin Mobile USA customers. The
national provider of wireless communications services and plans without
annual contracts has designed the “Fund My Phone” application, allowing
Virgin Mobile USA’s more than 5 million customers to get their Facebook
friends to help pay for their wireless minutes.
“Fund My Phone” is an extension of the popular Sugar Mama mobile marketing program first launched by Virgin Mobile USA in 2006. Customers who opt in to Sugar Mama are invited to earn up to 75 minutes per month by viewing a variety of ad spots and other creative materials and answer a few questions. Customers also earn airtime by completing surveys online, responding to branded text messages or forwarding Sugar Mama spots to friends to share. Over 700,000 Virgin Mobile USA customers have opted-in to Sugar Mama since its launch, earning more than 26 million minutes of free airtime.
“Developing a special Facebook application was a natural next step for us,” said Bob Stohrer, Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Mobile USA. “The interaction among Facebook users mirrors the strong community among Virgin Mobile USA customers. Now, customers can add to their minutes by having friends contribute to their talk time and share cool content. And Fund My Phone also offers a powerful vehicle for Virgin Mobile USA’s brand partners to reach audiences beyond our customer base.”
SendMe Mobile, announced a partnership with participating IAC sites, where SendMe Mobile will deliver ringtones, wallpapers and games to visitors of the IAC mobile web pages that offer mobile utilities and premium content.
Now anyone who discovers IAC mobile content, such as Mobile by Citysearch or Evite Mobile, can discover SendMe Mobile’s premium mobile content that includes ringtones from today’s pop culture sensations and niche independent creations, wallpapers featuring today’s top celebrities, and one-of-a-kind mobile games that keep consumers entertained on-the-go.
“At SendMe Mobile, we’re all about giving people access to their favorite mobile content — so they can express themselves and stay entertained wherever they go,” said Russell Klein, co-founder and CEO, SendMe, Inc. “We are excited to extend our catalog reach and continue our work with IAC to deliver premium mobile content to users in new and innovative ways.”
Amika Mobile, the pioneer in the delivery of key mobile content
including emergency alerts to any mobile phone, and Firehot Solutions
Inc., provider of IT System Management Solutions, announce that they
have signed a partnership agreement to offer key Email-to-SMS content
for any mobile phone on the Firehot Mobile-Message portal.
This mobile Internet service by Firehot Solutions provides users
with a cost-effective critical Email to SMS solution for consumers and
business users at 10% of the cost of typical mobile messaging
solutions. The service supports mobile message alerts from multiple
email accounts, including all the popular ones such as, Hotmail, Gmail,
Yahoo Mail, Rogers and Sympatico, allowing you to monitor and read your
critical email content from anywhere, at anytime, and any place on any
mobile phone from any carrier in North America.
Berggi, a leading mobile applications provider,announced Ads@Berggi, a groundbreaking advertising platform for mobile applications. Ads@Berggi solves the single biggest problem for mobile applications providers — monetizing their advertising-driven mobile traffic. The new platform also greatly expands the reach and effectiveness of mobile campaigns by overcoming several major barriers to successful advertising on the “third screen,” including advertisement placement, opt-in capabilities and user behavioral profile targeting.
The Ads@Berggi platform offers three unique capabilities that advertisers are demanding:
— Advertising Placement - previously, mobile advertisers were limited to showing advertisements only at the entry and exit points of a mobile application. With the Berggi platform, advertisers can select advertisement placement anywhere within the mobile application.
— User Opt-in - Berggi has brought the interactive element of web advertising to the mobile phone arena, overcoming previous barriers to a high quality mobile user experience. Users can now register or interact with advertised products without leaving their mobile application. In addition, advertisers have a variety of options for choosing how their advertisements interact with users.
— User Behavioral Profile Targeting - until now, mobile advertisers targeted advertisements based on generic or static user profile information, and could not target based on audience usage patterns. Ads@Berggi takes advantage of highly focused user profiles to improve contextual advertisement targeting, which continuously improves as the platform follows and learns from user activity.
The global market for Mobile Web 2.0 will be worth $22.4 Billion in 2013,
up from $5.5 Billion currently, according to a new report by Juniper
Research. Embracing social networking & User Generated Content
(UGC), mobile search and mobile IM (Instant Messaging), Mobile Web 2.0
provides a framework for delivery of collaborative applications,
further enhanced and contextualised via LBS (Location Based Services).
In its latest report - ‘Mobile Web
2.0: Leveraging ‘Location, IM, Social Web & Search’ - Juniper
examines how a fundamental shift in Internet usage patterns is shaping
Mobile Web development, driving subscriber adoption and forcing
structural changes within the industry. At the core of this evolution
is the user as a creator and consumer of content (i.e. the prosumer),
and the ‘social web’ - which describes a wide variety of social
computing tools enabling users to develop detailed Web identities,
create online communities and communicate with like-minded individuals
LiMo Foundation, a global consortium of mobile leaders delivering an open handset platform for the whole mobile industry, announced the addition of Infineon Technologies, Kvaleberg AS, Mozilla Corporation, Red Bend Software, Sagem Mobiles, SFR, SK Telecom and Verizon Wireless as new member companies. Expanding LiMo’s membership to 40 since the foundation’s launch in January 2007, these companies join with existing LiMo members to collaborate on the LiMo PlatformTM-the world’s first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices.
“This latest group of new members demonstrates the rapidly expanding reach of the LiMo ecosystem, and we are very excited by their commitment to further enrich the LiMo Platform and accelerate its adoption within all markets,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation. “It is now clear that LiMo’s transparent and participative governance model and total focus on the handset operating system-which are designed to avoid value-chain distortion-are proving to be very attractive to the whole industry.”
I
BM and RIM announced a strategic partnership to help mainstream workers move beyond basic communications (email, phone, etc.) to working with their peers wirelessly on the road as if they were in the office, including holding meetings, finding experts, analyzing and sharing data, instant messaging and co-authoring new works.
IBM and RIM announced t IBM Lotus Connections, IBM’s Web 2.0 social networking software for the enterprise, will be available on the BlackBerry - along with personalized portal dashboards, business intelligence and advanced collaboration and unified communications software.
They also announced IBM’s new hosting capabilities to support the BlackBerry platform. IBM has also joined the BlackBerry System Integrator (SI) Alliance Program.
IBM will expand its portfolio of Managed Wireless Services for the BlackBerry platform, leveraging its already successful services offering that currently hosts more than 100,000 enterprise end users globally. The offering builds upon the strength of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server product line with a far-reaching suite of services that include hosting, consulting, systems integration, and deployment of enterprise applications on the converged platform.
Opera Software announced the availability of Opera Mini 4.1, the
newest version of their award-winning browser that works on nearly every
mobile phone. Opera Mini is available from http://www.operamini.com.
Opera Mini 4.1 introduces the following new features:
- Opera Mini 4.1 is up to 50% faster than Opera Mini 4.0
- The new Opera Mini will automatically suggest URL completions, making address input easy and intuitive
- Web pages can be saved for later off-line viewing
- Opera Mini 4.1 gives you quick access to the word or phrase you want in Web pages
- Images, ringtones and other content can be downloaded without leaving Opera Mini.
An exploding 'Culture of Connectivity' is forcing enterprises around the world to change the way they do business faster than ever before or risk the opportunities of Hyperconnectivity passing them by. A new global IDC study sponsored by Nortel found that not only is the speed of technology adoption accelerating - impacting business policy and IT investment - but the global workforce is increasingly expecting employers to provide similar levels of "everywhere, all the time" connectivity.
Phones more important than wallets and keysWhen asked which item people would take if they had to leave the house for 24 hours more than 38 percent of global respondents chose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop and MP3 player. Less than 30 percent chose their wallet first. In Latin America, more than 50 percent chose their mobile phone over any other item. The hyperconnecteds preferred their laptops.
iPass, Inc, , announced a roaming partner agreement with Aircell, provider of airborne
communications, that will allow iPass enterprise users or individual
subscribers to connect over Aircell hotspots on commercial aircraft in
flight.Using the iPassConnect mobility manager software on their laptop or smartphone, iPass customers will have one-click access to the Aircell Gogo network. This news marks Aircell's first roaming partner agreement and effectively bridges a significant gap in nationwide connectivity for iPass' 1,000,000 quarterly users at more than 3,500 companies.
The Aircell Gogo network joins the iPass global virtual wireless broadband network, which includes more than 100,000 business-grade broadband locations (Wi-Fi hotspots and hotel Ethernet), as well as 3G mobile broadband in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and dial-up in more than 160 countries. Pending the necessary integration steps, iPass expects to make the service available to iPass customers later this year.
Jones reportedly was on the phone to talk to a hospital about his father's care whose heart had stopped and a cardiac unit needed to talk to him immediately to discuss care options.
Police in Dallas met the plane at the airport to ticket 50-year-old Joe David Jones of Austin accusing him of disorderly conduct, reports the Associated Press..
EarthLink notified its Wi-Fi customers in Philadelphia that EarthLink is terminating its Philadelphia Wi-Fi service and that EarthLink is providing its customers a thirty-day transition period through June 12, 2008.
After months of negotiations with the City of Philadelphia and a non-profit organization in which EarthLink offered to transfer to either the City or to the non-profit — for free — the entire $17 million Wi-Fi network, as well as pay cash and donate new Wi-Fi equipment, the transfer unraveled due to unresolved issues among the City, Wireless Philadelphia and the non-profit, notes the Earthlink news release.
“EarthLink has worked diligently for many months to transfer our Wi-Fi network to a new owner — at no cost,” said Rolla Huff, EarthLink’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Unfortunately, our hope that we could transfer our network to a non-profit organization that had planned to offer free Wi-Fi throughout Philadelphia will not be realized. Since we have exhausted our efforts to find a new owner of the network, our only responsible alternative now is to remove our network at our cost and assist our Wi-Fi customers with alternative ways to access the Internet.”
Dilithium, announced the Dilithium Content Adapter (DCA), a high capacity and scalable solution that automates the real-time adaptation and delivery of video content over multiple networks to any device. Dilithium’s patented technologes perform real-time, on demand media conversion with minimal latency, avoiding the need for costly off-line transcoding. DCA enables service providers and content owners to deliver a superior customer experience, increase revenue streams, and attract and retain new customers with minimum capital investment.
The DCA includes a number of key features and benefits including:
- Real-time Media Transcoding: Conversion and delivery of streamed media (on-demand) as it is downloaded or streamed from the content source.
- Flexibility: Easily integrated with external platforms such as subscriber databases, billing systems and content management systems. Scripted applications allow control over the content to be played, target bitrates, frame sizes, codecs and file formats from a wide range of sources.
- Easy Integration: DCA uses the industry standard PHP as a common scripting language leveraging the wide range of standard interfaces to other systems. DCA supports a wide range of service and billing models, including dynamically generated content, subscription services and pay-per-view.
- Scalability: DCA can be scaled from small scale trial installations of tens of sessions through to distributed systems suitable for very large scale services through the use of service node clusters.
- Efficiency: Innovative caching facility means that content need only be transcoded once for a specific device or network and can be served to a large number of clients with minimal additional overhead.
- Reliability: A comprehensive management application allows all elements of the system to be monitored and configured and a wide range of performance statistics recovered.
Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) announced an agreement to provide Microsoft Windows Live services on BlackBerry smartphones.
The integration of Windows Live services into the BlackBerry platform will allow customers who use Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on their BlackBerry smartphone to benefit from the BlackBerry platform architecture with the ability to communicate in real time using push technology. Customers will also be able to seamlessly access their Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger account from their BlackBerry smartphone by simply entering their Windows Live e-mail address and password once.
Leap Wireless International,, the parent company of Cricket Communications, Inc, , will begin offering its Cricket services in Las Vegas, Nev. and surrounding communities, starting today.
Cricket service will be available in the Las Vegas area at eight Cricket retail stores and approximately 100 authorized dealers where customers will be able to choose from a wide variety of rate plans, ranging from $30 to $60 a month and including an assortment of features from unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance and nationwide roaming minutes.
Las Vegas customers will also be able to experience unlimited high-speed mobile broadband with Cricket Wireless Internet Service for one low, flat rate with no long-term commitments or credit checks - the same principles that Cricket was founded on in 1998. Cricket Wireless Internet Service is available for $40 a month for unlimited usage, and customers who also have Cricket mobile phone service receive a $5 discount to pay just $35 monthly..
The results from Android Developer Challenge
Part 1, Round 1 were announced by Google. We can only image what they do for now.
- AndroidScan - Jeffrey Sharkey
- Beetaun - Sergey Gritsyuk and Dmitri Shipilov
- BioWallet - Jose Luis Huertas Fernandez
- BreadCrumbz - Amos Yoffe
- CallACab - Konrad Huebner and Henning Boeger
- City Slikkers - PoroCity Media and Virtual Logic Systems
- Commandro - Alex Pisarev, Andrey Tapekha
- Cooking Capsules - Mary Ann Cotter and Muthuselvam Ramadoss
- Diggin - Daniel Johansson, Aramis Waernbaum, Andreas Hedin
- Dyno - Virachat Boondharigaputra
- e-ventr - Michael Zitzelsberger
- Eco2go - Taneem Talukdar, Gary Pong, Jeff Kao and Robert Lam
- Em-Radar - Jack Kwok
- fingerprint - Robert Mickle
- FreeFamilyWatch - Navee Technologies LLC
- goCart - Rylan Barnes
- GolfPlay - Inizziativa Networks
- gWalk - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus ten Hagen, Christian Klinger, Marko Modsching, Rene Scholze
- HandWx - Weathertop Consulting LLC
- IMEasy - Yan Shi
- Jigsaw - Mikhail Ksenzov
- JOYity - Zelfi AG
- LifeAware - Gregory Moore, Aaron L. Obrien, Jawad Akhtar
- Locale - Clare Bayley, Christina Wright, Jasper Lin, Carter Jernigan
- LReady Emergency Manager - Chris Hulls, Dilpreet Singh, Luis Carvalho, Phuong Nguyen
- Marvin - Pontier Laurent
- Mobeedo - Sengaro GmbH
- Multiple Facets Instant Messenger - Virgil Dobjanschi
- MyCloset - Mamoru Tokashiki
- PedNav - RouteMe2 Technologies Inc.
- Phonebook 2.0 - Voxmobili
- PicSay - Eric Wijngaard
- PiggyBack - Christophe Petit and Sebastien Petit
- Pocket Journey - Anthony Stevens and Rosie Pongracz
- Rayfarla - Stephen Oldmeadow
- Safety Net - Michael DeJadon
- SocialMonster - Ben Siu-Lung Hui and Tommy Ng
- SplashPlay
- Sustain- Keeping Your Social Network Alive - Niraj Swami
- SynchroSpot - Shaun Terry
- Talkplay - Sung Suh Park
- Teradesk - José Augusto Athayde Ferrarini
- The Weather Channel for Android - The Weather Channel Interactive Inc.
- TuneWiki - TuneWiki Inc.
- Wikitude-the Mobile Travel Guide - Philipp Breuss
- Writing Pad - ShapeWriter Inc
Those of you following along carefully at home (or who bothered to read this far) will notice that there's only 46 in this list. 4 winners opted to continue their efforts in secret and so while we congratulate them too, we can't list them here.
The market for mobile digital commerce services grew to $1.1 billion in 2007, according to recent research by MultiMedia Intelligence (http://www.MultiMediaIntelligence.com). Digital commerce service providers processes the financial transactions that monetize premium content from music, video and gaming companies over the mobile operator’s network.
By 2012, the market for mobile digital commerce services will grow to $1.9 billion. Although digital commerce service providers percentage share of the premium content market will decline, growth in new premium content categories will grow the overall market. Video will drive the majority of new growth. “Leading digital commerce services companies are turning the art of mobile content sales into a science,” according to Frank Dickson, Chief Research Officer with MultiMedia Intelligence. “However, there is a long way to go. Competitive differentiation relies on robust, transparent and instantaneous reporting; better transaction validation; and better automation.”
Rubicon Consulting conducted a
detailed survey of 460 randomly-selected iPhone users in the US.
Here are some of the key findings:
- iPhone users are very satisfied.
- E-mail is the #1 function.
- The iPhone increases mobile browsing... More than 75% of iPhone users say it has led them to do more mobile browsing.
- ...but it has drawbacks. About 40% of iPhone users say the iPhone has trouble displaying some websites they want to visit.
- The iPhone is expanding the smartphone market.
About 50% of iPhones replaced conventional mobile phones, 40% replaced
smartphones, and 10% replaced nothing. Among conventional phones,
Motorola Razr was the phone most often replaced. Among smartphones,
Windows Mobile and RIM Blackberry were most often replaced.
- A third of iPhone users carry a second phone.
There have been anecdotal reports of iPhone users carrying a second
mobile phone, either for basic voice calling, or for other functions
like composing e-mail. The survey confirmed those reports.
Funambol, a provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by
open source, and Laszlo Systems, a Rich Internet
Application (RIA) software and developer of the OpenLaszlo open source
development platform, announced that they are integrating the
commercial versions of their award-winning Mobile 2.0 and Web 2.0 messaging
solutions.
The joint offering combines Laszlo Webtop, a unified web-based
communication suite that includes email, contacts and calendar, with
Funambol’s push email and PIM sync software, which is deployable across 1.5
billion mobile phones. The combined solution enables service providers to
rapidly transform their email operations into a compelling new way for
consumer and business users to access email, contacts and calendars over
the Internet and on mobile devices. The offering also enables service
providers to leverage an ad-based model for online and mobile users,
providing an important new revenue stream.
RIM and Thomson Reuters ( announced plans to launch the BlackBerry Partners Fund, a US$150 million venture capital fund, to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry platform and other mobile platforms. The Fund is to be co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund will not restrict the development of mobile applications and services to any single mobile platform or any specific industry segment. The Fund will be designed to advance the industry by fostering development and driving the entrepreneurial spirit to create the most innovative mobile offerings for customers.
“The mobile world has evolved well beyond phone calls and simple messaging to require more empowering and liberating solutions that connect people to everything that matters most to them, wherever and whenever they want,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “RIM, RBC and Thomson Reuters share the common belief that mobile applications and services will propel the industry forward and the BlackBerry Partners Fund is being formed to help fuel innovation and activity in the mobile ecosystem.”
Googling the word iPhone gives some interesting news today.First it was reported Apple lowered the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399 and dropped the 4GB iPhone model altogether.
Then its online store ran out of iPhones, giving rise to rumors that a new improved iPhone is due out soon.
Research In Motion introduced the admirable BlackBerry Bold smartphone. It is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world and comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities in a 480x320 half-VGA display.
“The new BlackBerry Bold represents a tremendous step forward in business-grade smartphones and lives up to its name with incredible speed, power and functionality, all wrapped in a beautiful and confident design,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion.
AVAILABILITY The BlackBerry Bold smartphone (model number: 9000) is scheduled to be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this summer. It expected to sell between $300 and $400 and be offered from AT&T
For more information please visit: www.BlackBerryBold.com.
Sprint's figures are in and wireless business showed 52.8 million total subscribers at the end of
Q1, a loss of 1.06 million subscribers."As expected, our wireless business delivered weak financial results," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said. "While the business will continue to face challenges in the short term, we are making progress in methodically attacking the sources of our performance issues."
Mpowerplayer, a provider of online mobile game trial and merchandising for the wireless industry, and Movaya, the complete web-based, e-commerce software platform for mobile-content transactions, announced a partnership to integrate Movaya’s PlugNPlay purchasing solution into Mpowerplayer’s desktop arcade.
“Mpowerplayer’s user base of consumers wanting to test drive mobile games from their PC continues to grow,” said Joe Ariganello, vice president of business development at Mpowerplayer. “Movaya’s plug and play has clearly emerged as a perfect complimentary platform to integrate purchasing into our desktop mobile arcade, making the purchase process seamless and easy for seasoned or new mobile game consumers.”
“Mpowerplayer’s offering to consumers interested in mobile games is a natural fit for our PlugNPlay platform,” said Phil Yerkes, CEO of Movaya. “Our technologies complement each other and give publishers more options to help drive sales and deliver mobile games to more and more consumers.”
Aces Texas Hold’em No Limit and Aces Blackjack by Concrete Software (www.concretesoftware.com) will be the first titles enabled with Movaya’s PlugNPlay technology at the Mpowerplayer arcade, with several new titles planned to be added soon.
Sprint with the help of mFoundry and PayPal have launched MyMoneyManager a downloadable application that gives Sprint users the ability to send money via PayPalThe PayPal blog states,
"And the best part is that it's free and easy. Just go to https://www.paypal.com/sprint to download the application on your Sprint phone. Then, look for the PayPal Send Money icon. With just a few clicks, you'll be sending money instantly to anyone with an email address or mobile phone number via your PayPal account."
Say, for instance, if you want to pay your sister who just bought Mom flowers. " Within a minute, your sister will get a phone call, text message or email letting her know she has money in her PayPal account. Pretty cool? Yeah, we think so, too!" wrrote Menekse Gencer at the PayPal blog.
V
The MOTO Q 9c is a smartphone for business professionals and offers powerful capabilities, including access to more than 14 million points of interest with Verizon Wireless' popular VZ Navigator service.
Pricing
MOTO Q 9c will be available for $249.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and
a new two-year customer agreement. An additional $100 credit toward the
purchase of the handset is available for customers who sign up for
qualifying voice and data plans at the time of purchase. Verizon
Wireless Nationwide E- mail plans for MOTO Q 9c begin at $79.99 for 450
anytime voice minutes and unlimited e-mail. VZ Navigator is also
available for $9.99 for monthly access.
The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) unveiled the winners
of this year's Meffys awards at a gala dinner in Cannes.
The Meffys, sponsored by Nokia were hosted
by popular TV presenter and Gadget Show guru Suzi Perry.
The new
categories of: Quality of Experience, Off-Deck Service, and, Emerging Markets were added this year.
This year's winners were selected from more than 200 submissions from 21 countries covering four continents, underlining the universal appeal of mobile entertainment.
Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director, said: "A focus on discoverability, interactivity, usability and affordability were the common strands shared by this year's winners. Above all, the companies selected by the Meffys judges clearly focused on putting the consumer first; attracting and entertaining subscribers though a variety of appealing offerings including innovative new ad-supported, communities and subscription-based models."
To see the winners and also rans, continue reading.
RealNetworksannounced that it intends to separate its global casual games business into an independent company and distribute shares of the newly created games company to its shareholders.
RealNetworks’ casual games business is a leader in the casual games industry worldwide, with a vertically integrated development, publishing, licensing, distribution and retail business. Casual games are family friendly and easy-to-learn but hard-to-master. Played on personal computers, mobile devices and living room consoles, casual games include board, word and hidden-object games and puzzles. In the first quarter of 2008, RealNetworks’ games business revenue rose 33% from the first quarter of 2007 to $31.8 million. For 2007, games revenue was $108.5 million, up 26% over 2006.
“RealNetworks was a pioneer and has been a leader in the casual games industry since we introduced RealArcade in 2001,” said Rob Glaser, Chairman and CEO of RealNetworks. “We believe that spinning off our casual games business will give it the best opportunity to continue to flourish and lead.”
Orb Networks (http://www.orb.com) announced the world’s first way to stream live TV to the iPhone and iPod touch. For the first time, iPhone users can enjoy the immediacy of live sporting events and fast-breaking news on their phone.
“TV on the iPhone is now real,” said Joe Costello, CEO of Orb Networks. “Steve Jobs may think that buying shows from iTunes is the same as watching TV, but iPhone users know better. When the NBA playoffs are on, you want to see the game, live, wherever you are. Free.”
Orb was the first company to enable the live streaming of TV from users’ homes to almost any mobile phone with a streaming player and a web browser. To get around the iPhone’s extreme limitations on supported video formats, Orb created a special application, OrbLive, to enable the streaming of any video format to iPhones.
The Orb solution requires a TV Tuner in a PC or Mac and or webcam and a Jailbroken (unlocked) iPhone or iPod.
dotMobi — the company behind the .mobi internet domain name for mobile phones and the dev.mobi developer forum — announced it has acquired the intellectual property assets of Mowser, a San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile browsing company.
dotMobi plans to integrate Mowser technology into new business-grade and consumer-grade mobile development tools as well as include aspects of it into dotMobi’s popular content creation tools like http://find.mobi, DeviceAtlas and http://ready.mobi, all of which help businesses more easily create device-aware mobile content.
“At its heart, Mowser is a PC website-to-mobile website content adaptation engine,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “dotMobi has been vocal against ‘blind’ content adaptation because it doesn’t allow site owners to have control over their content. dotMobi believes that brands and businesses should always have the final say over how their material is presented, and that the content should uniquely take advantage of the capabilities of a mobile device. This has been one of our core philosophies all along, and something dotMobi is looking forward to addressing with the integration of the Mowser assets into the dotMobi product line.”
During The Federal Trade Commission's Town Hall meeting on May 6-7, 2008, FTC commissioner Jonathan Leibowitz announced that the FTC intends to take enforcement action against deceptive or unfair content offers from cellphone content providers who should do
a better job of showing costs consumers pay for
downloading services for their mobile pone atLeibowitz noted that messaging, games and video services marketed to children and teens are a great concern.
The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Group announced, they will petition the FTC to probe privacy issues in the mobile space
A webcast with transcripts of the event is available at at the FTC website.
In the wake of personal navigation devices’ success, cellular carriers have started to offer on-board and off-board navigation solutions, as well as a range of LBS (Location Based Services) such as friend finder and local search on GPS handsets. Community and social-networking-related functionality, such as the sharing of POIs (Points of Interest) and geo-tagged pictures, is also becoming popular and is expected to boost GPS-enabled handset uptake as carriers, handsets manufacturers, and service providers look to capitalize on the LBS trend. More than 550M GPS-enabled handsets are expected to ship by 2012, notes ABI Research.
“While most CDMA handsets are already GPS-enabled and GPS is set to become a standard feature in GSM smartphones, GSM feature phones are next on the agenda to be equipped with GPS technology,” says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. “GPS chipset vendors increasingly target handsets, looking for new markets and spurred on by the recent dramatic growth of personal navigation devices.”
ShoZu Inc. announced that it has expanded its mobile social media
service to Photobucket, Dailymotion, Friendster, Twitter and four
additional Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 communities. With these eight new
integrations, ShoZu now enables mobile users to interact with their
choice of 36 social networks from a single screen on their handsets —
reducing the time, effort and money required to upload images, update
social profiles and check friends’ latest
posts from the phone.
ShoZu’s newly expanded menu of communities enables mobile users to:
- Upload images to Photobucket, the most popular photo site in the U.S., and also have their most recently posted photos sent to the handset for sharing on the go.
- Upload videos to Dailymotion, the second largest video sharing website worldwide with 36.2 million unique visitors (Comscore March 2008)
- Upload photos as well as change their social status on Friendster, a global social network that ranks as the 35th most highly visited website on the planet.
- Sign up to the latest friend and personal “tweet” timelines and post replies from Twitter, the hit micro-blogging service.
Boost Mobile announced a new daily pay as you go offer enabling customers to talk and text to more people for a dollar a day.
Boost Mobile’s dollar a day Chat Plan offers unlimited nights and weekends and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Boost Mobile’s mobile-to-mobile calling includes more than 40 million Boost®, Sprint® and Nextel® subscribers. Plus, lower daytime rates are provided for 10 cents a minute. Customers still have the option to use Boost’s Nationwide Walkie-Talkie for an additional dollar a day.
With the Chat Plan, unlimited domestic text messaging is also included at no additional charge.
$1/DAY CHAT PLAN INCLUDES: * Unlimited Nights: Mon - Sun 9pm - 7am * Unlimited Weekends: Fri 9pm - Mon 7am * Unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile * Unlimited Text Messaging * 10¢ Daytime Minutes: Mon - Fri 7am - 9pm .
The Pope will send daily text messages to young people during World Youth Day and Telstra is providing the technology to send his message.
Pope Benedict XVI will send text messages of hope and inspiration directly to pilgrims, reaching young people in their social space.
Telstra will provide voice, data, mobile, broadband and broadcast services to WYD08, connecting 8000 volunteers, 2000 clergy, 3000 media and an anticipated 225,000 pilgrims to more than 700 locations around the greater Sydney area.
Telstra services planned for WYD08 include:
- Daily inspirational text messages from Pope Benedict XVI
- Digital Prayer Walls at event sites
- Hosting the official WYD08 online social networking site, XT3.com
- Telstra precincts - on the ground interactive centre’s including wireless internet, green screen studios, commemorative WYD08 photo messaging and music downloads.
- Next G™ Regional Catechesis webcasting
Verrizon Wireless, announced today that VZ Navigator (Version 4) is now available on select consumer phones. First announced during CTIA WIRELESS 2008, the newest version of VZ Navigator allows customers in 75 cities from coast to coast to access information about traffic incidents on major roadways, obtain traffic updates and find detours around traffic congestion and accidents. More cities are expected to be added in the coming year. In addition, the new version of VZ Navigator offers a 3D perspective view of maps, a movie and events finder, weather reports and forecasts, and gas prices at nearby gas stations.
Verizon Wireless’ VZ Navigator service is a location-based service (LBS) application that utilizes location-based technology and real-time and historical information feeds. The new version of VZ Navigator offers customers the following features:
- Traffic Integration
- Gas Finder
- Weather
Pricing and Availability VZ Navigator (Version 4) is available today for $9.99 for unlimited monthly access or $2.99 for one-day use on select Get It Now(R)-enabled phones in the Get Going section under Travel & Guides or Featured Apps. Airtime or megabyte charges and specific terms of use apply when browsing, downloading and using the application. Traffic integration is only available in certain areas.
A growing number of mobile phone subscribers
worldwide are taking online social networking to the streets, research
conducted by The Nielsen Company reveals. The U.S. has the most mobile social networkers totalling 4,079,000.The findings, released by Nielsen Mobile, a service of The Nielsen Company, show that the U.K. leads Europe in mobile social networking on a percentage basis -- with the U.S. boasting comparable numbers.
Leading PC Social Networking Sites are Also Tops Over Phones
In the U.S., MySpace.com, the leading social networking site among PC
users is also the most popular mobile Internet social networking site.
The site logged 2.8 million unique mobile users in December 2007.
Also
in December, Facebook, which has the second largest audience among
social networking sites, had 1.8 million unique mobile users.
In
contrast, Facebook led mobile social networking sites in the U.K. with
557,000 unique mobile users per month in Q1 2008, while MySpace
followed with 211,000 unique mobile users.
While Facebook and MySpace.com were also among the top social networking sites in other European countries during the first quarter of 2008, MSN's Windows Live Spaces led in Italy (154,000 unique mobile users per month) and France (106,000), and ranked second in Germany (45,000) behind MySpace, which boasted 52,000 unique mobile users per month.
PlayPhone, Inc. (www.playphone.com), which operates a network of mobile content
destinations in North America, announced that it has joined forces
with Pitch Entertainment Group, the global mobile entertainment company.
This strategic procurement fortifies PlayPhone’s existing business and
leverages Pitch Entertainment’s leadership in more than 20 countries across
Europe, Asia and Africa for the worldwide delivery of PlayPhone powered
mobile entertainment.
A new analysis of the global opportunity for WiMAX 802.16e forecasts that up to 12% of the global DSL installed base will be substituted by WiMAX by 2013. The Far East will lead with over one fifth of the 47m subscribers in 2013.
A region by region analysis by Juniper Research found that there is a significant opportunity now for WiMAX as a DSL substitute technology. The study explored how WiMAX is well suited to rapid deployment in the many underserved areas, not only in developing areas, but also in developed countries.
Report author Howard Wilcox said: “WiMAX will be an attractive offer in areas where there are no wired networks, and in areas where the existing DSL speed is suboptimal. WiMAX will solve the broadband access problem for users located at the fringes of DSL coverage. This is in fact the case in a number of developed nations such as UK, USA, Ireland and Scandinavia, and WiMAX network operators are deploying networks to address this market need. Additionally in developing countries - such as India - network operators are aiming to provide basic connectivity.”
Crush or Flush is announced that it is live on T-Mobile's deck,.The T-Zones portal is featuring Crush or Flush in its WAP directory as a key site for social networking and chat.
With a U.S. community of more than 1 million people, Crush or Flush is the largest mobile community in terms of unique and validated mobile registered users. The service is currently promoted on-deck with 90 percent of the major U.S. carriers (AT&T, Alltel, Boost, Cricket, SunCom,T-Mobile, Virgin).
Gender break down: 59% men and 41% women
Adults only: 77% of the membership base is between 18-30 years old. 56% are 18-25 years old.
# of Meets The service has made 1.1 million connections, also called mutual crushes, between members. The average member has 20 friends on the site. The most popular lady on the site has 2,513 mutual crushes.
Top 5 mobile states: The states with the most members on Crush or Flush are: California, Texas, New York, North Carolina and Florida.
The 12th Annual Webby Awards announced winners in seven categories honoring mobile
Websites.
Achieving critical and popular consensus, ESPN.com Wireless won both a Webby Award and a Webby People’s Voice Award in the mobile Sports category.* The New York Times *won in the News and Listing & Updates categories.
Other winners ranged from major brands like NBC’s “Heroes” (Entertainment), Chase SMS Banking (Mobile Marketplace & Services), and Nike 10R (Gaming) to emerging mobile brands like Zannel (Social Networking).
Winners will be honored at the star-studded 12th Annual Webby Awards Gala in New York on June 10th. Hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers, the ceremony will showcase winners delivering the Webbys’ famous five-word speeches. The winning mobile Websites will be saluted alongside a remarkable slate of special achievement honorees, including Stephen Colbert (Webby Person of the Year) and musician and producer will.i.am (Webby Artist of the Year).
The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) announced today that they intend to amend their 2006 complaint on interactive marketing techniques and threats to consumer privacy to include newly emerging mobile marketing practices.
The announcement was made as part of the testimony given today by Jeff Chester, executive director, Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), at the Federal Trade Commission’s “Beyond Voice: Mapping the Mobile Marketplace,” a two-day “Town Hall” meeting. Chester spoke on the “Mobile Advertising and Marketing” panel. CDD and USPIRG’s November 2006 complaint directly led to the FTC’s current inquiry into online advertising and privacy, contributing to the release of proposed consumer protection principles for online marketing issued last December.
In the upcoming amended complaint, the marketing-oriented technologies that are helping shape the mobile platform will be addressed. It will discuss, for example, the implications of the so-called “Personalization Engine” from Enpocket, which describes it as a system of analytical models that scores mobile users based on their past behavior. It enables us to predict which products and services a customer might purchase next. That way, we can provide the right message, advertisement or promotion to the right person at the right time. It can also forecast events, such as customer churn and will recommend effective customer engagements to preempt attrition. When integrated with the Marketing Engine, the result is highly relevant marketing messages, personalized recommendations, less churn, and higher sales of mobile consumables.
Sprint and Google announced a partnership
aimed at more deeply integrating Google applications and services into
Sprint customers’ mobile experience. As part
of the deal, Google will become Sprint’s
preferred mobile search provider and Sprint users will have easier
access to Google Maps for mobile, YouTube
and more.
Clearwire Corporation (and Sprint Nextel Corporation y announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company.
The new company, which will be named Clearwire, will be focused on expediting the deployment of the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network to provide a true mobile broadband experience for consumers, small businesses, medium and large enterprises, public safety organizations and educational institutions.
Sprint and Clearwire also announced today that five innovative technology, content and communications leaders - Intel Corporation ) through Intel Capital, Google Inc.), Comcast Corporation: Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks - have collectively agreed to invest $3.2 billion into the new company.
Upon completion of the proposed transaction, Sprint will own the largest stake in the new company with approximately 51 percent equity ownership. .
Virgin Media has teamed with Nortel and Juniper Networks to prepare to meet ongoing network demands from its customers for ever-increasing speed and bandwidth.
The 40G North-South trial, on Virgin Media’s existing 10G network, shows how Virgin Media is ready to respond to the growing customer appetite for bandwidth-hungry entertainment services such as catch-up TV, video-on-demand, advanced multimedia communications and high speed Internet with up to 20Mb and 50Mb now in trials.
The successful 40G trial, conducted over a 350km (217 mile) span of Virgin Media’s current UK 10G network, demonstrated the economic feasibility of optimizing existing optical network assets and scaling the network to achieve market-leading transmission rates.
Frengo, a provider of social mobile services, announced
the availability of a suite of applications that run on top of and
across Facebook, MySpace, hi5, Orkut and Bebo. Frengo focuses on social
applications that are available anytime
and anywhere - from a Web enabled PC or mobile
phone. These applications not only allow users to interact with friends
and friends-of-friends, but also create new
connections by discovering others across social networks who share
common interests.FLIRTABLE, the most-used mobile application on Facebook and a top 20
application overall, boasts four million members who use the social
browsing and dating application globally. This application allows
participants to surf profile pictures, send and receive private messages
and virtual gifts and make introductions to friends. This is one of the
first applications to interoperate amongst leading social networks. In
addition to Facebook, FLIRTABLE is now available on MySpace, hi5, Orkut
and Bebo.
FLIRTABLE users can now interact with other users distributed across those networks. For example, a MySpace user can interact with other MySpace users as well as users of Facebook, hi5 and Bebo. Furthermore, FLIRTABLE MOBILE provides access to all of the above features from any Web enabled mobile phone.
HTC unveiled its new flagship phone, the HTC Touch Diamond with 3g AND 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. TouchFLO 3D provides animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more. In addition, HTC is introducing a new innovative touch-sensitive control for interacting with Touch Diamond.
With the introduction of the Touch Diamond, HTC delivers an entirely new mobile Internet experience that utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Committed to improving Web browsing, HTC provides a new customized mobile web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of websites in the way they were designed. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view.
SNAP Mobile, an end-to end solution for connected mobile gaming in Java technology, has announced its latest Software Development Kit (SDK 2.0) for Nokia devices. After several years of market deployment and continuous technology development based on developer feedback, the SNAP Mobile SDK 2.0 has evolved to make game development even more intuitive with a simpler API, faster emulation and testing tools. The SDK is free of charge and available through Forum Nokia, the largest mobile development community worldwide with 3.4 million registered members.
The SDK 2.0 can be downloaded at http://www.forum.nokia.com/snapmobile
Qwest Communications and Verizon Wireless announced they have signed a 5-year agreement for Qwest to market and sell Verizon Wireless service beginning this summer.
Under the agreement, Qwest customers will have access to the full line of Verizon Wireless handsets, smartphones and BlackBerry devices, as well as high-speed broadband wireless services for e-mail, Internet access and multimedia services. Residential customers will be able to choose “wireless only” and be billed directly by Verizon Wireless, or include Verizon Wireless service as part of a Qwest bundle with their home phone, Internet and video services, and receive one bill from Qwest for all services.
Qwest residential customers will be able to buy Verizon Wireless products and services via Qwest’s call centers, Qwest’s retail stores and kiosks, and online at Qwest.com. Once billing systems are coordinated, residential customers will be able to elect to have their Verizon Wireless service charges included on their Qwest bill. Qwest customers will receive information in the near future about the Verizon Wireless products and services that will soon be available to them.
Neurotic Media, will provide Hastings Entertainment a hosted downloads service. The upcoming Hastings Entertainment downloads store will feature pre-licensed multimedia catalogs from major and indie labels - including music MP3s and WMAs, online music video downloads, and ringtones and wallpapers that are delivered to customers’ mobile phones. The service will also support mobile product text-to-shortcode ordering. The Hastings download store is slated for a July launch as part of a broader website re-design by Hastings Entertainment.
T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced that the company has taken the first commercial step in the rollout of its third-generation (3G) wireless network by launching its UMTS/HSDPA network in New York City. T-Mobile plans to continue the rollout of its 3G network across major metropolitan markets through the year. By year’s end, T-Mobile expects its high-speed data network will be available in those cities where a majority of its subscribers currently use data services.
T-Mobile’s 3G network supports voice and data services consistent with available service and handset offerings. The company offers multiple phones that are able to operate on the UMTS network. The phones are designed to automatically connect to the best available network (3G or GSM/GPRS/EDGE) to provide the great call quality and rich communication services customers expect from T-Mobile.
Customers using a 3G-capable handset from T-Mobile will also experience faster data speeds when accessing the Web, or downloading content from the T-Mobile t-zones content portal, for example.
In the coming months, T-Mobile plans to offer its first HSDPA device, along with new and compelling data-centric, all-in-one devices that help make the most of T-Mobile’s high-speed data network.
As a part of the two-year anniversary of “My Circle,” Alltel Wireless, is giving one lucky “My Circle” customer the opportunity to connect with their ‘circle’ of family and friends during a luxury vacation in one of the country’s top vacation destinations in Alltel’s “My Circle Reunion” text-to-win sweepstakes.
Between May 5, 2008 and May 31, 2008, customers can enter to win the “My Circle Reunion” sweepstakes by texting CIRCLE to 102102 or visiting www.alltel.com/circlereunion.
The grand prize package includes a four day and three night stay in one of three relaxation hot spots: Key West, Las Vegas or Palm Springs, Calif; a variety of activities including golf and spa packages; and a special meal prepared by celebrity chef Ted Allen. In order to help the group stay in touch after their getaway, Alltel Wireless is also giving the winner and ‘circle’ of guests a new [handset] and a $200 Alltel gift card.
Cellular South and BancorpSouth, Inc. unveiled a mobile banking application that brings banking to wireless phones.
The free wireless application is being offered in collaboration with mobile payments provider Firethorn Holdings, LLC, a Qualcomm company, and allows Cellular South customers to view account balances and history, transfer funds and pay bills from their mobile handsets through a secure, PIN-protected gateway.
Mobile banking users will need to have an account with a participating bank, such as BancorpSouth, along with online access to their account, which is free at most banks.
After signing in, users can initiate the mobile banking process through a “mobile banking” link at the top of the online banking sign in page. The link will take them to a form requesting information including the wireless provider, phone model and phone type. Users can access and monitor multiple bank accounts from the same application and PIN.
The site will provide a secure initialization code once an applicant submits the finished form. To activate mobile banking, users must enter the code into the mobile banking section of their handsets and set up their secure PIN. Processing takes just a few seconds.
Brightpoint, Inc. and Research In
Motion announced that they
have entered into a global master distribution agreement. Under the
terms of the agreement Brightpoint may distribute RIM products to
various territories globally that may include North America, Latin
America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific. Pursuant
to the agreement, Brightpoint will support a wide range of RIM’s
BlackBerry smartphones and help in the global expansion and
penetration of BlackBerry products and services via Brightpoint’s
expansive customer base of more than 25,000 B2B channels globally.
MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. unveiled a new embedded micro fuel cell prototype design for handheld global positioning system ("GPS") devices at the 10th
Annual International Small Fuel Cells Conference in Atlanta.
MTI Micro is showing a micro fuel cell powered GPS prototype alongside its full range of functional prototypes for use in
handheld electronic devices.
MTI Micro's new Mobion powered GPS prototype provides three times as much energy as GPS devices powered by four disposable AA batteries. On a model with a large, full-color screen, this fuel cell design generates up to 60 hours of continuous power and provides weeks instead of days of typical usage.
The new Mobion powered GPS prototype includes a USB interface, allowing the prototype to also be used as an independent energy source for a variety of purposes, including for recharging mobile phones, digital cameras, portable media players and other handheld electronic devices. The Mobion powered GPS prototype can be immediately recharged by refilling it with methanol.
MetroPCS announced the launch of its wireless service in Jacksonville, Florida.
MetroPCS’ wireless plans range from $30 to $50 per month and allow subscribers to talk all they want, 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week. Unlike most carriers, MetroPCS does not require a signed contract, which means that consumers can activate service without going through a credit check or paying a deposit. Many of the plans include unlimited features such as voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling, text and picture messaging, push e-mail, mobile Internet browsing, mobile instant messaging, and Metro411, a voice-activated, premium directory assistance service.
Apple announced that new movie releases from major film
studios and premier independent studios are available for purchase on
the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com)
on the same day as their DVD release.
New releases and catalog titles purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac®or PC or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV, with new releases priced at $14.99 and most catalog titles at $9.99.
New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store this week, concurrent with their DVD release, include “American Gangster” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Other popular titles now available for purchase include “Juno,” “Cloverfield,” “I Am Legend,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”
The Nielsen Company today reported that mobile Internet extends the
audience reach of many leading Internet sites by an average of 13
percent over home PC traffic alone. For some categories, such as
weather and entertainment, the extended reach can be even greater.
The cross-platform insights come from TotalWeb, a new report from Nielsen that integrates data from Nielsen Mobile and Nielsen Online to show the unduplicated, unique audience for more than 200 leading Internet sites across the PC and mobile Internet space. Nielsen’s data show that for many Internet publishers, mobile Internet increases the overall size of their audience.
Nielsen released data that show - by category - how mobile traffic increases, or “lifts,” Internet audience levels. Weather sites get a strong lift from mobile, meaning there are people who access the sites over their phone but not over their home PC, while shopping sites have a mostly duplicated audience, meaning that mobile users who access shopping sites on their phone likely also do so over their home PC.
T-Mobile and Nokia announced that they are collaborating to
accelerate the availability of new Internet services and personal social
communities on mobile devices. T-Mobile and Nokia will offer T-Mobile’s web’n’walk Internet services as well as all to Nokia’s Ovi
Internet services on a wide range of Nokia devices.
T-Mobile and Nokia will together drive the mobilization of social
networks. The companies will partner to further enhance T-Mobile’s
community-oriented MyFaves service.
For T-Mobile customers, Nokia will customize its devices to provide a
dedicated suite of T-Mobile services which will be seamlessly integrated to
Nokia devices. Similarly, T-Mobile customers can access Nokia’s Internet
services, such as music, maps and games, through their Nokia device, which
will offer T-Mobile customers a great opportunity to enjoy best-in-class
Internet services.
The LG Vu is due out any moment and we just looked at all the reviews and they weren’t as positive as the first looks were from CTIA. We’ve had to completely rewrite “Review of Reviews of the LG Vu” with one reviewer writing “the phone looks pimp as hell,” In order to figure out what “pimp as hell” means we looked up “pimp” in the urban dictionary, which is defined as “something badass or new and fresh.” Getting hell to be new and fresh is the hard part.
After averaging all the reviews together our rating came in at 4 out 5. If the iPhone didn’t exist, it would probably have been higher.
Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile )announced
charging stations in terminals at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Orlando
International Airport (MCO). TThe Samsung Mobile Charging Stations offer travelers the convenience of free re-charging of their mobile phones, laptops and other personal electronics.
Samsung Mobile Charging Stations have four outlets per station, allowing several travelers to re-charge their electronic devices at the same time. The charging stations are designed to re-charge personal electronics designed for U.S. voltage (i.e., 120 volts). The charging stations are also equipped with a small shelf to hold travelers' mobile phones and other electronic equipment.
Samsung has installed charging stations at some of the nation's largest airports, including 54 stations at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and 51 stations at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), along with eight Samsung Mobile Travel Centers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW).
DoubleClick, digital marketing technology and
services, announced that DoubleClick Mobile, the company’s
advertising delivery system for mobile devices, is integrating with
mobile ad etworks including AdMob, Google’s
AdSense for mobile content, and Millennial
Media’s premium MBrand network as well as its
Decktrade performance network. This upgrade
helps mobile publishers fill more of their available inventory and
ultimately earn more revenue.
Now, publishers using DoubleClick Mobile can sell mobile display inventory indirectly, through automated access to one or more networks of mobile advertisers. Publishers, of course, can continue to sell directly as they have always done. DoubleClick Mobile provides an accurate view of what inventory is available to sell, what has been sold directly and what has been filled by ad networks. By managing inventory across direct and indirect channels, DoubleClick Mobile helps publishers better monetize their mobile web content.
- In the first three months of this year, PhonepayPlus received more than 4,500 complaints related to mobile. This equates to 80% of all complaints received, a 40% increase on mobile related complaints over a similar period last year;
- In 2007, PhonepayPlus adjudicated on 33 mobile services with total fines in excess of £360,000;
- By March 2008, PhonepayPlus had already adjudicated on 15 mobile services, resulting in fines of £223,500. Today, PhonepayPlus published adjudications on four more cases, resulting in fines of £68,000; and
- 45% of premium-rate numbers and short codes checked by consumers on PhonepayPlus' website this year related to mobile services, as comparedto 24% this time last year.
identify issues affecting UK consumers. Of particular interest to PhonepayPlus at this early stage are:
- Unsolicited promotions, especially text messages;
- Price transparency and the use of words that indicate content is 'free'; and
- Subscription services (e.g. ringtones) and the 'STOP' command
Virgin Mobile USA has teamed up with Burger King Corp. and Warner Music Group to
bring music-loving customers more of the tones they want - at a price that will
make mouths water. For a limited time, Virgin Mobile USA
is bringing the popular BK Value Menu concept to the mobile channel, delivering
a selection of hot ringtones from artists like Mana and Flo Rida at $1.00 a
pop.
The Virgin Mobile Ringtone Value Menu powered by BURGER KING allows Virgin Mobile USA customers to choose from a list of available options via the VirginXL WAP deck or online at www.virginmobileusa.com for $1.00 each. The WMG artists featured were chosen to appeal to a wide range of music tastes and also include Buckcherry, Casa De Leones, Danity Kane, Estelle, War, Group 1 Crew, James Otto, Plies, and more.
Adobe Systems announced the Open Screen
Project, supported by a group of industry leaders, including ARM,
Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola,
Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson,
Toshiba and Verizon Wireless.
The project is dedicated to driving rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. Also supporting the Open Screen Project are leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to reliably deliver rich Web and video experiences live and on-demand across a variety of devices.
The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment — taking advantage of Adobe Flash Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR — that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and devices, including phones, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and set top boxes. Adobe iwill remove all license restrictions on swift file format and FLV/F4V specifications, and remove all license fees on embedded players.
The Open Screen Project will address potential technology fragmentation by enabling the runtime technology to be updated seamlessly over the air on mobile devices. The consistent runtime environment is intended to provide optimal performance across a variety of operating systems and devices, and ultimately provide the best experience to consumers.
AT&T and MediaFLO announced today the May 4 availability of the AT&T Mobile TV with FLO service. This new mobile television service will provide around-the-clock access to some of today’s most popular television programs, live and in color on the mobile phone. To take advantage of the medium, AT&T is introducing two new exclusive handsets: the Vu from LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A. Inc. (LG) and the Access from Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung).
- LG Vu: A sleek and stunning device, the Vu gives you a clear view of TV, Web, pictures or videos on its large interactive touch screen. It also lets you get the utmost in mobile entertainment with a music player, 2.0 megapixel camera and Bluetooth(R) capabilities. The LG Vu is available for $299.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.
- Samsung Access: This handset features a large landscape display, ideal for delivering a rich viewing experience and an internal antenna for exceptional reception. It’s a device for customers who are looking for advanced multimedia capabilities such as a camera, external stereo speakers, stereo Bluetooth, AT&T Music, CV, of course, AT&T Mobile TV. The Samsung Access is available for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.
