Entries tagged with “mobile content” from WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

eMarketer has released their take on the future of the mobile content, the demand will grow,  mobile web access will skyrocket, and mobile content providers should have learned from the web to pursue paid content.

Over the next several years, three major trends will fuel increasing demand for mobile content in the US: A growing number of mobile Internet users, a dramatic increase in the amount of money they spend on data plans and continued growth in smartphone sales.

eMarketer estimates that 68.6 million users will log on to the mobile Web at least once per month in 2009. By 2013, that number will increase to 126.2 million people.

Rihanna will perform from her Rated R, exclusively to a Nokia audience via a globally streamed live performance on November 16th 2009. The event in partnership with Nokia will preview tracks from Rated R - set for a November 23nd release worldwide - performed live from a secret London location.

Lexy announced the beta launch of their audios service that gives callers free on-demand audio clips to listen on phones by dialing 877-FYI-LEXY (877-394-5399) or by going to Lexy.com.

Listeners subscribe to brief interactive audio posts called "Lexycasts," created by knowledgeable people called "Lexycasters."

As part of this free service, Lexy is introducing "NFL on Lexy" and "College Football on Lexy" so sports fans can always keep up with their favorite teams anytime they want, from anywhere they want.

"We launched NFL and College Football Lexycasts so sports fans can have on-the-go access to customized highlights from the people who really know their teams," said Tony Levitan, Lexy Co-founder and Creator of Chaos, who along with Lexy Co-founder and Creator of Substance, Fred Campbell, launched the digital greetings industry when they founded early Internet success, Egreetings.

The smartphone app competition now has spread to the automotive market, demonstrated at the 2009 Internationale Automobil Ausstellung (IAA) in September--otherwise known as the Frankfurt Motor Show--where BMW, Nokia and Parrot SA all unveiled different approaches to bringing smart-phone apps to cars, notes  iSuppli.

The automaker approach BMW used IAA to unveil its newest aspect of its ConnectedDrive offerings: the Concept BMW Application Store. The store offers several different apps to users who can then download them to their iDrive via the car or a home PC and then transfer the applications to the car. So far, the apps available include multimedia travel guides from Merian, Geowiki, various games, Web radio, podcasts, Facebook, XING and Twitter. The Concept BMW Application Store also allows users to transfer contact data to the navigation system or mobile phone. In addition, the apps are able to pull vehicle-related information--for example, taking the car's location into account when using the social networking tool XING. BMW in the future also hopes to have a constant stream of new apps available for users.

IREX Technologies debuted the IREX DR800SG - a , 8.1-inch, touchscreen eReader that offers multi-mode 3G wireless capabilities provided by the Verizon network.  It has a large display area, electronic paper display, long battery life, touch interface and customizable zoom.

Users can purchase books, newspapers or magazines from a wide variety of sources.Multiple formats including industry standard ePub format and multiple DRM solutions are supported.

NBC.com teamed with Sprint today for a multi-platform, "Heroes."Beginning on September 28 and continuing for 10 consecutive weeks, an original "Heroes" story will unfold on the multiple platforms of NBC.com and Sprint. Viewers can watch TV and interact online and on mobiles at the same time. Mobile content includes graphic mobile novels, interactive texting, secret Sprint clues to mysteries and a $25,000 sweepstakes which links the interactive story.

Each installment in the 10-week run will be launched by a 30-second on-air scene, tied directly to a "Heroes" storyline, which will direct fans to online, mobile and interactive gaming sites. All of the creative content will run parallel to the on-air "Heroes" narrative as well as will allow fans to discover more about the characters through their interaction with the online games, stories, clues and mobile content.

Blockbuster will offer select BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand movie download service on select

Motorola phones.

Select Motorola phones will feature an exclusive Blockbuster OnDemand application, providing on-the-go download access to Blockbuster's digital library of thousands of current Blockbuster OnDemand movies.

"Mobile video entertainment is exploding, as consumers are demanding the widest selection of content: the movies they love in their living room and on their PC, now also available on their mobile phone, while on the go," said Christy Wyatt, Vice President of Software Platforms, Applications and Ecosystem, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Together with Blockbuster we intend to deliver an unparalleled portable movie experience on our next-generation handsets."

Currently, if you rent $99 worth of movies with Blockbuster OnDemand, you can get a free media player.  Mmmmn, maybe there are free Motorola phones on the horizon......

Independent mobile and web content platform Babelgum and Funny or Die announced an exclusive, wireless licensing agreement to bring Funny or Die videos to mobile platforms.

The agreement will bring new and library Funny or Die content to mobile users everywhere over the next two years. Plans include offering mobile users a stand-alone Funny or Die-branded iPhone application, as well as including Funny or Die content in all current and future Babelgum applications.

In addition, the Comedy channel on the Babelgum website ( www.babelgum.com/channel/comedy ) will include a Funny or Die branded section that will contain new content after Funny or Die premieres it on its website ( www.funnyordie.com ), along with favorites from the Funny or Die library including The Landlord, Good Cop Baby Cop, Denise Richards' Funbags, and other top-rated videos.

Major League Soccer, the U.S. Soccer Federation and AT&T announced that AT&T will be the official communications services sponsor of MLS and the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams.

As part of the multi-year agreement, AT&T is the title sponsor of the AT&T MLS All-Star Game, and in the future will enhance the soccer experience for fans by delivering exclusive content across the wireless device, TV, and PC. Plans also include development of an SMS fan platform and MLS wireless application protocol (WAP) page.http://fanzone.att.net

This agreement builds upon AT&T's existing sponsorship of the Mexican National Team and InterLiga, a Mexican club tournament that takes place on American soil.

For more information on AT&T's sponsorship of MLS and the U.S. Men's and Women's Soccer Teams, please visit: . http://fanzone.att.net

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) released the latest version of its U.S. Consumer Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services.

They say that their guidelines are the industry standard for cross-carrier mobile content services such as text messaging (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS), shortcode programs, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and mobile Web.

In addition to incorporating carrier standards, the new guidelines include revisions and additions to key areas such as:

• Standardizing the language "Msg & Data Rates May Apply"
• Allowing for more flexibility with PIN location in message-terminated (MT) messages
• Modifying the STOP requirement in Opt-in MT messages

The guidelines also feature a new reference ID system designed to make it fast and easy to navigate the document and find information. The guidelines help standardize practices across the industry which provides a better experience for customers by ensuring the consistency of mobile marketing campaigns across the four major U.S. carriers.

The guidelines are available for download at www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf.

The latest figures from VeriSign show no signs of mobile messaging slowing, its growing exponentially.

Mobile messaging volumes continue to shatter records, according to the latest quarterly index of mobile messaging statistics compiled by the Messaging and Mobile Media Division of VeriSign,.

During the first quarter of 2009, VeriSign, which delivers 60 percent of the text and mobile message traffic in the U.S. inter-carrier market(1), recorded a new high of nearly 84 billion messages delivered throughout the quarter. In 2008, the company successfully delivered more than 224 billion messages across its combined mobile messaging platforms.

VeriSign also delivered more than 1.06 billion SMS and MMS messages on Valentine's Day, which typically generates heavy message volume as texters exchange love notes. It was the busiest day of the quarter and the busiest Valentine's Day on record.

In Q1 2009, VeriSign's combined mobile messaging networks enabled an average of approximately 932 million messages per day. This is an 18.5 percent increase from the previous quarter and a remarkable 96 percent rise over Q1 2008. In total, VeriSign delivered 82.3 billion P2P (peer-to-peer)(2) and over 1.6 billion A2P (application-to-peer) messages in Q1 2009.

Mobile content is growing in popularity and use. 51 percent of mobile phone users access content using their mobile phone on a weekly basis, according to a new study released by research and consultation firm Frank N. Magid Associates

What's more, mobile content users spend about the same amount of time with content (39 minutes), as the average user does texting (38 minutes) or talking on their mobile phone (44 minutes). Consumers are no longer just using their phones for communication. Instead, these adopters of the mobile lifestyle are using their phones to keep in touch with and manage the entertainment, news, and social information critical to their lives.

Looking deeper, entertainment content is just as popular as utilitarian content. However, entertainment content, such as mobile games, music, and social networking activities, is accessed for longer periods of time overall than utilitarian content (such as news, weather and sports scores). Behaviors fall out expectedly along demographic lines -- 80 percent of mobile social networking is among 12-34 year olds, while news consumption is dominated (79%) by 18-54 year olds.

Trinity Wall Street Church has taken a mobile approach to Good Friday, they offer a web-based Stations of the Cross.

Stations of the Cross

A contemporary recreation of Christ's Passion, the online Stations allow you to meditate on Christ's final hours at your own pace. Experience the Stations in a modern dramatic recreation including photos, scriptural passages and prayers, and meditative music.

Users find a main image that consist of a cross made up of 14 squares, taken from black and white photos of a recent staging of the Stations in Lower Manhattan. When clicked, each square will open to reveal one station of the cross.

The Passion Play was Tweeted earlier today which  may have been the world's first Passion Play performed through the social networking application Twitter.

m.buzzwire.com is a mobile site with all the latest results, news and gossip on American Idol and Dancing with the Stars in one convenient place.

The Buzzwire "Song & Dance" mobile portal features all the latest on both shows and give fans anytime, anywhere access to the best related stories, gossip, blogs and more -- all from their mobile phones.

How to locate "Song & Dance" on Buzzwire

Anyone with a mobile phone and web access can go to m.buzzwire.com to get the latest on American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and any other entertainment news. Here's how:

• Go to m.buzzwire.com on your mobile device
• Click on TOPICS
• Click on "Song & Dance"

The Mobile Entertainment Forum published its first quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) for the $32bn global mobile entertainment industry. It shows the industry is confident it will continue to grow despite the economic downturn. MEF members, predicted an average revenue growth of 27% in 2009.

As well as being optimistic about the growth of the industry as a whole, the MEF BCI identified a number of areas within mobile entertainment which are set to grow throughout 2009. The top five areas of growth were cited as:

1. Social Networking.
2. Music.
3. Video.
4. Games.
5. Infotainment.

When asked whether demand for mobile entertainment consumption would be impacted by the credit crunch, over half of respondents said they saw mobile entertainment as a 'feel good' affordable purchase and it would therefore be resilient to the effects of the downturn.

The MEF BCI also reveals the spread of mobile entertainment revenues across the globe, with China and Central & South America being seen as hotspots over the next twelve months and respondents predicting growth in excess of 50% in both regions.

Sprint's Super Bowl content is now available on NFL Mobile Live, an exclusive application from Sprint, in a centralized web page, "Super Bowl XLIII," formatted especially for wireless handsets. To access the Web page, Sprint customers/fans can download NFL Mobile Live or text "TAMPA" to 7777* using Sprint or Nextel service. On the site, customers will find links to useful and entertaining Super Bowl material.

• Super Bowl XLIII NFL Mobile Live Application Features, include a recap of the season for both SBXLIII teams, keys to the game, rosters, stats, in-depth game analysis and opinion, polls, video highlights of past Super Bowls, and a guide to Tampa Bay, which includes information on Super Bowl events and attractions and a ZAGAT restaurant guide for the area.

Mobile content technology vendor m-Wise will be providing content management and Delviery sotlutions for mobile content provider Zero9.

Zero9 evaluated a number of mobile content technology vendors as potential partners for content management and delivery solutions before chosing  Zero9 .

"We are excited to launch this business relationship with Zero9, one of the largest wireless content companies worldwide," said Zach Sivan, Chief Executive Officer of m-Wise. "We have been investing significant efforts in developing and delivering best-of-breed content management and delivery solutions and this relationship with Zero9 is a great opportunity for us to expand the reach of these solutions in a significantly larger scale.

Google is now offering a mobile Product Ideas page  that allows readers to submit ideas that others can view and rate so you can see what other Google mobile users think about it, too.

The Product Ideas team will monitor ideas and write about them in the Google Mobile  Product Ideas blog as well as implement the best ideas.

Here are some of the top ideas as of today:

1. "Manage Google Calendar on Google Mobile (add, update, delete an event with all functionalities of the web application) (ex Phone : Iphone)"
2. "A "Google Product Ideas" for all google services."
3. "An application that speaks the driving directions in google maps Usefull to use the phone as gps car navigator." Namberwuan, Europe
4. "Mobile view of all type of documents in Google Docs"
5. "Google Calendar sync with iPhone, just like Google Contacts and Gmail does now."
   
6. "Real push mail available for all mobile users (not IMAP) including iPhone WindowsMobile phones, etc."

Fox Mobile has made available of more than 100 new and exclusive pieces of mobile content from The Simpsons.

Mobile content includes holiday-themes and The Simpsons Itchy & Scratchy Land mobile game from EA.

It is available at www.thesimpsonsmobile.com and www.jamster.com. There ares also exclusive wallpapers, made-for-mobile voicetones, polytones, screensavers and videos.

This new content is part of “The Yellow Plan,” a subscription service offering exclusive, made-for-mobile content based on  “The Simpsons.”

In The Simpsons Itchy & Scratchy Land mobile game, Homer, Marge Bart, Lisa and Maggie vacation at the Itchy & Scratchy Land amusement park. Players join the Simpsons as they navigate their way through Explosion Land, Unnecessary Surgery Land, Torture Land and Searing Gas Pain Land, avoiding traps and rampaging ‘bots in their most thrilling adventure yet.

“We are thrilled to be releasing a second game with EA Mobile, delivering new and original content to Simpsons fans everywhere,” said Denise Sirkot, Executive Vice President of Gracie Films.

go2 Media has teamed up with Zvents to create go2 Music, mobile music portal that offers local concert recommendations.
 
Mobile users can browse new music reviews, news, venues and local concert picks or to search for known local shows and venues, all for free.
 
"Local music is an area that has been underserved on mobile for too long," said Dan Smith, president of go2 Media.  "Today's mobile consumer needs anywhere, anytime access to trusted, local recommendations that inform and connect them to music events happening in their city.  By combining Zvents' comprehensive local event listings with go2's nationwide local editorial network, we have created a complete mobile experience for discovering local music."