GoMo Mobile Search News

Bubble and speak text to Airtel customers

Rating: I'm forever blowing operator cash, pretty operator cash in the air

byTony Alton

Billions of Airtel subscribers across India can now save their voiceboxes for charity work thanks to this announcement from Airtel and BubbleTALK. For those of you who thought Bubble was just a greasy babyfaced Big Brother reject with a penchant for RUBBISH hats think again, it is actually a mobile service which turns your SMS into voice and delivers it straight to your mates in voice form.

Now - call me cynical - but  I have never been able to picture a mischief-free situation where voiceSMS is useful.  Is it a consumer thing, will i be using it to text my deeply patient girlfriend to tell her to put the plastic sheeting out again?  Or is it an enterprise thing which will be used by the NHS or Pizza Hut to inform patients of terminal illnesses and imminent meaty treats? Good luck to them though, they have certainly got the awards and customers to back up their robotic chat.  Think i will sit firmly on the fence on this one because if i condemn it they are bound to get bigger than Google and take over the world.

Related: http://www.gomonews.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/07/voice-sms-pione.html

Novarra very quiet even after USD 50 million funding

Rating: WTF

by Bena Roberts

This morning I saw a blog post saying that Novarra received USD 50 million in funding from Qualcomm.... So like a good girl I asked Novarra if it was true – ten hours later (after every other blog and their dog has posted the story) Novarra’s PR agency come back to me and say “we can’t comment”.

Knock Knock?
Hello?
Why would you want to be quiet about USD 50 million after all the bad publicity received after the Vodafone bodge?
1. Its not true and the original post got it wrong and Novarra only got USD 5 million
2. ******** ** ****** ** ****
3. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
Novarra is not doing itself any favours especially as I am writing Opera vs Novarra right now and guess which browser is in the lead.

Prexar signs agreement to acquire Amp’d Mobile assets

Rating: Prexar who?

Apparently Prexar Mobile is a nationwide provider of voice and its ensuring Amp’d Mobile users “uninterrupted wireless services” and “seamless transition to Prexar Mobile”.

From the press release
“Amp’d Mobile worked diligently on an agreement that would guarantee continuity of service for their former customers and a way to seamlessly transition to a compelling offering with the same rewarding user experience they have always enjoyed,” said Bill Fogg, CEO of USA Telephone. “We have a proven track record in delivering reliable phone service to customers nationwide, and believe we can, going forward, offer a full-featured, content-rich mobile service built around each user’s unique and demanding communications lifestyle.”

Nellymoser introduces Mobile Advantage Packs for Media Companies

Rating: Moser MAPs

Nellymoser the on-device portal company has announced MAPs – Mobile advantage Packs, UI clients for mobile sites.

From the press release
“The Mobile Advantage Packs were designed with the goal of giving consumers fast, intuitive access to compelling content on their own terms,” said Todd Griffith, VP Creative of Nellymoser. "Our innovative design techniques have changed the overall user experience to one that is more interactive and, as a result, has dramatically increased retention and brand loyalty." The Infotainment On-Demand MAP has been designed to deliver news, information, and sheer entertainment in an exciting and interactive format. Infotainment users can participate, interact and stay up-to-date on their favorite topics. They can read articles, browse photo galleries, search program schedules, listen to audio, watch video, view exclusive features, and provide feedback—resulting in a rich and rewarding mobile experience.

“Combining our technology and world-class design capabilities, we created these Mobile Advantage Packs to help media companies engage consumers, expand their mobile channel presence and drive incremental revenues” said Susanne Bowen, CEO of Nellymoser. “These packs take advantage of our platform, which uniquely delivers high quality, interactive and personalized mobile media services to the broadest audience.”

What we think
From what we gather these maps are designed for media companies and serve as high-end face lifts offering unique features and user interfaces full of content. This allows media on demand and instant access to video or audio content direct to the consumer. Sounds innovative but we haven’t seen it yet.

GoMo News gets congstar

Rating: You can’t go through Frankfurt or Darmstadt without seeing at least 20 congstar posters

Deutsche Telekom’s new baby congstar is everywhere. So today we signed up and it was pretty harmless. Signing-up is only available in Germany (big mistake there are a lot of Brits in Germany that can’t speak German and would love a flexible contract).

The only thing was that at the end I had to accept the terms and conditions and one of them was to receive advertising SMS and MMS from Deutsche Telekom. At this time we are not sure if this is related to the congstar service ONLY or to all forms of advertising and marketing. But we will let you know.

We also get a username and password instantly for instant to-up or status checks, cancellation etc. We will cancel the service in the next two months and report back on whether or not it is as easy as fast food.
But fast food is greasy, slimey and makes you fat … will congy be the same?

More: http://www.gomonews.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/07/deutsche-teleko.html

Media Groove BETA launches new real-town social networking service Chipuya Town

Rating: virtual insanity

Media Groove is launching a new BETA social networking service called Chipuya Town. This town is a 2D Flash-based version of real-world Tokyo youth hotspot Shibuya. The social network offers avatars and interaction around the town and even a virtual currency system to purchase goods or clothing.

Comment from Wireless Watch Japan
While Chipuya Town doesn’t feature mobile games (as opposed to mobagetown), it does seem to have a more advanced virtual economy, and to be taking a cross-platform approach: In an Second Life-inspired take, users can use a free PC-based Flash application to actually create avatar items such as clothes and avatar home accessories themselves, that they can then use for own their own avatars or sell to others in virtual Shibuya - the mobile version, that is.

Media Groove is also planning on selling virtual store branches to real-world companies feeling a need for a presence within Chipuya. Recruiting customers will start August 1. Customers will be given several tools to pitch their goods to the avatar masses, including advertising outside and inside their virtual stores, in-store promotional events and – this sort of boggles my mind – a virtual advertising truck that will drive around and hand out virtual leaflets to avatars. Starting at JPY 1,000,000 per month (USD 8,000), rent is quite steep in absolute terms, but may pay off if Chipuya Town sees growth rates similar to mobagetown.

iPhone hype – was hype

Rating: I phone, phone home

Put bluntly – ET (phone home) is bigger than the iPhone and sales have disappointed. AT&T stated that it registered 146,000 in the first few days has lead to Apple shares slipping 7.5%. (Source)

What we think?
Well if we remember correctly there were some huge registration problems with the iPhone when it launched so it’s a bit too soon to tell if the device has failed to hit the spot. But what is clear is that 146,000 sales in the first two days (after all that hype) is a lot less than you, me, him or her expected.

White label mdate

Rating: take me to the ball!

by Bena Roberts

Mobestar is a compoany that offers white label mobile dating solutions. Today its partnered with Datech Limited. Datech provides dating services to 7,000 websites around the world via World Dating Partners. This new partnership will allow online dating service providers to use Mobestar’s mDate solution to go mobile.

From the press release
Commenting on the agreement Peter Richards, Mobestar CEO said, “The agreement with Datech serves to consolidate our position as the partner of choice for companies offering white label dating solutions. Our mDate solution provides a trouble free route to a full service offering that compliments existing web based services with fully mobile delivery platform that opens the door to new revenue generating opportunities.”

Robert Fathers of Datech added, “Mobestar’s mDate solution is fully aligned with our current client proposition. It enables us to offer a turn key integrated platform for fixed and mobile environments that enhances the end user experience and takes advantage of the obvious requirement for mobile dating services.”

What we think
The best thing about mDate is the incorporation of location based services. I have been writing about LBS for years and the services have never really taken off. But something like dating or finding love or mobile love search services might work.

Another plane another train another music service in the brain

Rating: here I go again…(please pick up air guitar and sing along to Whitesnake)

by Bena Roberts

AT&T Mobile Music has launched with eMusic Mobile. The new service is an over-the-air music download service from eMusic (an independent music retailer). The service has a catalog of 2.7 million songs and will now become part of AT&T’s Mobile Music platform.

From the press release
"eMusic Mobile is not your typical over-the-air service," said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data Services for AT&T's wireless unit. "This service, which is as unique as the independent artists found in the eMusic catalog, differentiates itself from the competition through its ease of use, subscription pricing model and the ability to play these tracks in any MP3 player."

"eMusic Mobile will expand the audience for mobile music beyond the youth market by offering an alternative to the mainstream pop hits that have so far dominated over-the-air music," said David Pakman, eMusic president and CEO. "AT&T is a terrific partner for this service, and we look forward to offering AT&T's more than 63.7 million subscribers access to a rich catalogue that ranges from legends like Paul McCartney and Miles Davis to new independent stars such as Spoon and Arcade Fire."

What we think
Another day, another music service – its getting boring. We are not sure if music is the killer service that users want and crave and need. Music is a stepping stone and an interest magnet for mobile operators buy paying or subscribing for USD 7.49 for five tracks a month is a headache.

OK to be fair the price sounds reasonable but it might not be legal but we all know that you can download music for free and for as long as there are alternatives consumers (especially mobile youf) will use them.
This weekend I got my first ever iPod Nano. I thought I never needed an iPod – but it was a nice present. Its silver, sexy and small. But now I have it – I refuse to pay to download any songs to it. Why? I don’t know but if I am refusing to pay 99p for a full track download then (good golly) I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Editor's note: This is DRM free so it has at least one huge differentiation

Vringo gets USD 12 million Series B funding

Rating: you have definitely been vringo’d

By Bena Roberts

Vringo the video ringtone company has USD 12 million in funding from a Series B round led by Warburg Pincus.

From the press release
"Vringo set out with an ambitious goal to make video ringtone sharing finally work," said Jon Medved, the founder and CEO of Vringo. "We are delighted to be working with Warburg Pincus, a firm that shares our vision and recognizes the enormous consumer potential in sharing video ringtones. Their extraordinary track record, truly global reach, corporate relationships and strategic insight will bring huge value to Vringo as it grows."

"We are very excited to be involved with Vringo at a time when consumers are poised to benefit from the explosion of multimedia mobile devices," said Mr. Allen of the New York-based firm, which has been a premier investor in technology, media and telecommunications. "Vringo is uniquely positioned to shape and ride the second wave of mobile personalization, and the company has the talent to make it happen."

What we think?
The idea behind Vringo is great. Its simple and users can view, upload and share video clips when they are dialling a number. We have liked this from the start. But there is competition coming and Vringo is still in BETA which means that it must use this money to start a commercial service and more importantly seek handset support. Launching a service such as this on one or two devices is not going to fuel growth. Handset interoperability is the key, moving forward.
More: http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/05/vringo_shared_v.html
http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/04/video_ringback_.html
http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/01/vringo_new_serv.html

Happy Days with the Foonz

rating: Cheap Group action

by Tony Alton

Imagine the scenario: You have just stepped out of the saloon into the blinding sun after drinking whisky in a dirty glass all day. Your spurs create a small cloud of dust as you jump off the boardwalk onto the main road through town and you notice a noise in front of you.  You look up and see Texas Pete and five of his nastiest looking enforcers ahead of you chewing nails and looking like they are going to shoot you full of holes.  In a single move you eject a fountain of chewing tobacco from you mouth as your hand slides into your holster, pulling out your N95 and texting the word START to 36669 (US mobiles ony) which initiates a free foonzMobile conference call with your posse.  After a quick chat they come riding out of the sun and save the day - pretty cool.  Probably also works in non-fiction situations to help arrange football matches, only in the US at the moment, but needs to hurry up and get over to Blighty so i can irritate the crap out of my friends. 

Billions Bedding Busty Blackberry Beauty

 Rating: Good sized packet delivery plays well in bed

According to AOL’s third annual ‘Email Addiction Survey’   (they are doing this every year now? Jesus) 59% of Americans are checking their mobile email device whilst in their pyjamas in bed.  Firstly, the most serious point to address here is that 59% of people in the

US

wear pyjamas. For a country fighting lots of wars, it does the hard man image no good to broadcast that 59% of every Marine in Baghdad, Apache pilot over Afghanistan and special forces soldier in Kashmir tucks up in their sleeping bag looking like Wee Willy Winkie. Bad AOL, expect a knock from the Psy-ops division of the Department of Defence.    

The main stats show the shameful lows to which many helplessly addicted Crackberry addicts are now sinking. Four in ten people are supposedly planning vacations (holidays) with mobile email access in mind and 40% have checked their email in the middle of the night. I’m sorry but I used to have a girlfriend who would smoke 40 fags a day and even she didn’t wake up in the middle of the night for a hit (she did smoke Superkings in bed though). Additionally 53% of Americans also apparently check their email whilst in the bathroom. Bearing in mind this means ‘on the toilet’ in

America

and it doesn’t leave a pretty image of what John from accounts was doing last time he sent you a

PO

number.

Dear lord, please stop the madness (but he probably won’t because 12% check email whilst in church and that has got to have pissed him off). I think

America

needs a voice of reason to shake these people up, where’s Governor Schwarzenator when you need him? Arnie wouldn’t stand for this, he would burn the addicts with his big petrol gun and say something like “you have been stopped by the firewall.”   

 

Action Engine raises USD20m to on-device portal apps

Rating: aggressive growth, GRRRRR

By Annie Turner

Action Corporation, which specialises in on-device portals announced it has raised USD20m of equity in its latest round of venture funding. This round was led by current investor, Baker Capital, with participation from other current investors: Northwest Venture Associates and The Spangler Group. It brings the funding raised to date to USD 65m.

The company says that the funding will be used to accelerate investment in the company’s sales, marketing and customer implementation functions. Action Engine pioneered the technology for delivering mobile on-device portal (ODP) solutions to media companies and mobile operators in 2000. ODPs are downloadable clients that reside on the mobile phone to make content, like music, city guides and video, easier to discover and use.

P. Kevin Kilroy, partner of New York-based Baker Capital. "They are capturing market share faster than anyone else in the industry, and this additional funding will help them continue that momentum." ARCchart, the ODP market is now poised for aggressive growth and is forecast to reach USD 1.4bn by 2009 with a compounded annual growth rate of 166% while Strategy Analytics reckons this segment of the market is projected to reach USD 14.4bn by 2011. Action Engine has recently signed up MSNBC.com and TiVo as clients.

The last word goes to our very own Bena Roberts, senior analyst at BKI Media, who says, “On-Device Portal technology is starting to shake-up the mobile market in a big way. Action Engine is positioned as the leading ODP provider in the US, and this additional funding will likely strengthen its foothold.”

Cgogo talks of search reaching maturity in China

Rating: Have to walk before you can run

By Annie Turner

According to data released by iResearch, the size of Chinese mobile search users in 2006 reached 28 million, an increase of 366.7% compared to 2005. Search specialist Cgogo reckons this year will be a key one in mobile search's evolution towards a mature market. Not sure we’re talking about maturity, so much as getting out of nappies or whatever you call those britches babies wear without a seat in them.

MVNOs keep banging on the mobile door

Rating: come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough

by Bena Roberts

Alice France is planning an MVNO, Tiscali Italy has signed with Telecom Italia for an MVNO, Qualcomm wants to offer a healthcare MVNO… the list goes on.

In the same breath Amp’d dies, ESPN is dead, Blyk is delayed, Extreme is a wet dream and The Ministry of Sound is turning into the Sound of Music…

Having attending MVNO Conferences twice last year and the W2Forum's Mobile Youth conference last year I have met or spoken to a number of the MVNO’s listed above.

Extreme was everywhere but has now gone silent and the Ministry of Sound mobile guru sat next to me at one event and said big things were coming. Hmmmm. Now that was nearly a year ago and as one idea crumbles another one seems to seed.

But, we are slightly more positive on MVNO’s from Alice France and Tiscali than pure media companies. Why? Because telecom providers know about voice and its voice not content that will make an MVNO successful. Triple Play is already underway and Quad Play will be created with mobile – offering a stronger combined solution. This is more of a natural evolution than a brand new business case.
GoMo News believes that Triple Play MVNO’s will be more successful in the MVNO space than media companies and suggest that Media companies start looking at the reseller or JV model moving forward.

InfoSpace Find It vs Google

Rating: No Brainer

This article made us howl. Finally consumers are starting to test applications made for mobile devices by white label search providers vs do no evil. Guess who is winning – well white label mobile search of course….

More on InfoSpace Find It here:
http://www.gomonews.com/pushing_the_barrier/2006/12/infospace_gives.html
http://www.gomonews.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/03/infospace_find_.html
http://www.pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/04/att_renews_part.html

Femtocell is the new Klondike

Rating: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is

By Annie Turner

Interesting piece in BusinessWeek today. It reports T-Mobile USA’s claim that the main reason people swap mobile service supplier is to get better mobile coverage within their homes, where between 27% to 41% of all mobile minutes are accounted for.

The article also points out that the rush to perfect a commercial femto cell offering is underway. In February, Motorola bought start-up Netopia while on 20 July, Google was part of a group of investors that handed over USD 20m investment in British femto cell start-up Ubiquisys.

This was hard on the heel of French conglomerate Thomson, the world's largest maker of DSL modems, striking a deal with Nokia Siemens Networks to develop the technology. While on 2 July, Netgear, which makes Wi-Fi routers, co-founded the Femto Forum, promote femto cell standards and use. Other forum members include Airvana, ip.access, picoChip, RadioFrame Networks, Tatara Systems and Ubiquisys.

What’s generated all this frantic activity? Predictions such as that made by ABI Research that by 2012, there will be more than 150 million people using femto cell on 70 million access points worldwide. Plus of course the hardcore telco equipment makers are desperate to be central to the action (they’ve had some very tough years since 2001), while the likes of Google are eyeing a way of cutting the established telecoms providers out of the loop.

This blog is also a curious juxtaposition with the one below on the demise of BT Movio (the nascent mobile TV service) because if femto cells take off as quickly as predicted and are able to provide enough bandwidth, people will use their mobile phones for much, much more than making calls in the house. Already there are reports of people watching TV on the mobile phones as well as sort of watching the boring old big box in the corner at the same time.

On the other hand, I’ve been writing about telecoms almost since the Ark grounded and heard the hype around ISDN and Bluetooth, among, many, many other communications technologies that were going to change the world. Don’t hold your breath. If anything happens at all, it takes generally takes much longer than predicted by experts.

Bye Bye BT Movio

Rating: what a shame

By Bena Roberts

Last year, before Virgin Mobile launched its DAB TV services I had at least three briefings with BT Movio’s Managing Director Emma Lloyd. At the time, I was also scoping out the product for an MVNO Go Polski that was in the pipe line. But it seems, just as MVNOs are a difficult pill to swallow so is mobile TV.

The demise of BT Movio is a great shame and my warm regards and wishes to the whole team.

Mobile TV was supposed to be the carrot at the end of the mobile stick that made consumers hungry for multi-media on the device and addicted to watching day time hits on the phone. But quality issues, prices of data transfer and handset compatibility have meant that dreams have not become reality.

Is anyone to blame for this? Perhaps not. But the demise of Crown Castle earlier this week and now BT Movio reflects the state of a challenged mobile entertainment market. Do consumers want mobile TV? It’s the same problem as with made for mobile Internet or the Internet; made for mobile snacks or TV on the phone. We remain fans of a made for mobile Internet and made for mobile TV.

GoMo News Update

Rating: tagged, man

First of all we are delighted to welcome Millennial Media as a premium sponsor of GoMo News. Please check out the services by clicking on the banners.

Secondly, Tony Alton is our first male blogger on GoMo and he is doing a great edgy job – thanks Tony and welcome.

Our daily newsletter is finally coming out of BETA and we now boast 500 readers. You can sign-up in the panel menu above. All in all GoMo News is getting bigger and stronger and all in six months. We are very proud of ourselves!

Parent company BKI Media has also hit a milestone boasting several new subscribers in the mobile operator, entertainment and search markets. (We wanted 40 companies to subscriber by the end of the year - but we already made it!) Because of the increased competition in the advertising space we feel that the Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst title doesn’t reflect the thought leadership that it provides in the UGC, mobile IM, mobile coupon and gaming space – So in September we are going to re-launch it with a new brand name.

Lastly I have been tagged by Paul Ruppert on his new blog Mobile Point see: http://paulrruppert.typepad.com/blog/2007/07/8-random-things.html
I met Paul in the US at the Orange Partner Camp and I enjoyed spending time with him as he has a vibrant personality. He has tagged me to write 8 random things about myself. OH GOD. That actually sounds easier than it is and then I need to ping 8 additional bloggers? I am not sure that I even know 8 more bloggers….. Hmmm.

So in an edgy way: I’ve two kids; love dogs, eat lots of chocolate; used to own a company called Rate Your Night; have 80 mobile devices; speak several languages; have a house in Germany; keep losing mobile phones.

Tagged: Annie Turner; Tony Alton; David Dalka; Helen Keegan; dlethe; cromei; brough

TSM reaches more parts

Rating: so what?

By Annie Turner

Third Screen Media says its advertisers can reach nearly 50% of US mobile content sites, according to Telephia. These include top weather, sports, news and social networking sites. Third Screen Media’ also states that it executed twice as many campaigns in the second quarter 2007 than the same period a year ago. Oh, and its recent acquisition by AOL’s Advertising.com, signals increasing opportunities for advertising on the mobile platform. Well, it would say that wouldn’t it?

Apparently the growth in reach and the number of campaigns is down to the increased amount of on-deck carrier ad inventory, organic growth and the addition of AOL’s mobile properties to its TSM|Network.

Prior to the acquisition in spring, Third Screen Media’s customer and partner list including Bank of America, Cisco, Fandango, FedEx Kinkos, MSNBC, Toyota and The Weather Channel. Now its added Verizon Wireless Mobile Web portal and Discovery Communications. The latter plans to use Third Screen Media to implement ten to 12 campaigns this year, in addition to the two recently completed.

What I want to know is who the advertisers are, what they think, how much is repeat business, what the consumers concerned think and what’s happening off-deck? How targeted is targeted? Where do you get the information from? Has TSM can the legal right to use it? – for starters. Bald numbers just don’t do it for me. Where’s the substance?

Google signs up as Sprint’s exclusive WiMax search provider

Rating: good move for Google, not so sure about Sprint

By Annie Turner

Google is to offer exclusive Internet search services through a web portal that Sprint Nextel is developing for its WiMax service. This is something of a coup for Google and represents the first close alliance it has with a US mobile operator, unlike its rival Yahoo! Sprint thinks it will boost web usage across WiMax.

The agreement is Google's closest alliance with a big US mobile service provider. It is expected to boost Web access over Sprint's new network and improve use of Google's search and communications services on mobile devices.

Sprint will not charge users for Google services, rather they will be supported by search-related advertising. Google and Sprint will share advertising revenue. The operator said it would combine technology for detecting user location with Google tools, including e-mail and chat, on devices running on a high-speed network Sprint was building based on WiMax technology.

This is a big step. On the one hand, the search company that has yet to demonstrate any real expertise on mobile (as readers of the Mobile Search Analyst will know) and on the other, location-based services are easier said then delivered and this is without the complication of integration.

There are other concerns too. Although operators clearly understand the difference between mobile and WiMax wireless technologies in terms of coverage, analysts are questioning whether they have a firm grip of their different business models.

Also, even before the ink is dry on the agreement, Google is arguing with the US regulator concerning the auction of spectrum in the 700MHz range that is scheduled to take place in January 2008.The company has said it will take part in the auction and meet the minimum required bid of USD 4.6bn if regulators add clauses to Google’s liking, concerning the opening up of the mobile market. In other words, if it wins the argument, it could be competing against Sprint.

T-Mobile adds banner advertising to Web ‘n’ walk with InteractiveMedia GmbH

Rating: interactive media, man

by Bena Roberts

Starting immediately advertisers can purchase banners on T-Mobile web ‘n’ walk portal in Germany. The service will be managed by InteractiveMedia CCSP GmbH a 100% daughter of Deutsche Telekom.
Position for mobile advertisers will include the start-site of Web ‘n’ walk or within themese such as Such &Find, Shopping or Erotik (erotic). All the pages and sites will be optimised for mobile and available on every Web ‘n’ walk mobile device.

What we think?
Finally Deutsche Telekom starts getting its act together. After being heavily criticised for using Google as the face of its mobile Internet sacrificing its own brand identity…. Its cleverly creating its own mobile advertising channel. InteractiveMedia isn’t the most creative of names – but it does the job. It’s also owned by DT meaning cash stays in the company and a new revenue stream is created.
Darmstadt is the new HQ of Interactive Media (also the HQ of T-Online). This is also strategic and all online advertisers will probably be bundled mobile adverts in the short term to build ad-inventory fast.

Recent interview with T-Mobile here: http://www.gomonews.com/pushing_the_barrier/mobile_content/index.html

Razz Partners with Tagged

Rating: Razzed up and Tagged mate

Audio content service provider Razz has announced a strategic partnership with Tagged. Tagged?
Tagged is a social networking site with 50 million members and Razz will make its Tones and ShoutOuts available to the tagged teen social portal.

From the press release
“We are very excited to begin this new venture with Razz,” said Greg Tseng, CEO Tagged. “With the growing desire for self expression among the expanding youth market, our users will truly be able to personalize their ringtones and personal pages at Tagged, allowing our member base to grow and maximize visitor frequency and overall time spent on our site.”

“Tagged is growing like wildfire. We are excited to bring our unique Razz audio content services to the expanding Tagged user base,” said Jeff Malkin, CEO of Razz. “Young consumers today have a strong desire to create original content to express their individuality. Combining the Razz Tone and Razz ShoutOut products with Tagged’s robust social platform will create a compelling and entertaining experience for Tagged users to continue personalizing their social communications.”

What we think?
The tones provided by Razz are all about self-expression and appeal to yoof. Basically within the social network users will be able to personalize services and features from within the social network to emphasize their style. These tones can also be sent to friends or shared via SMS, email or audio widgets.
Audio Widgets? Yes apparently it’s the new craze – or will be. Small audio files which can be flirty, fun or sing names etc and sent via the phone.

Razz Tones will be available for USD 2.99 each.

Wapple launches Ad-Funded Mobile Website Creating

Rating: Wapple or not, here we come

Wapple is not offering free design, hosing and managing of a mobile website. The catch is that it will have to be flooded with third party banner advertising from AdMob, Admoda and Millennial Media (Decktrade).
The new service comes under the new Wapple ad-funded solution which is part of Wapple Canvas.

From the press release
"The Wapple ad-funded model not only removes all the barriers to
creating an essential mobile presence by making it quick, easy and free,
it also allows anyone to create a highly functional, professional,
mobile-search ready site that looks good and actually works properly on
some 5,000 mobile devices including PDAs, the Sony PSP and new iPhone,"
said Rich Holdsworth, CTO at Wapple.

"Our simple set-up wizard and templates guide users through the design
process and give them the freedom to brand and style their sites totally
as they want. It is also easy to add extended functionality, interactive
elements such as polls and user feedback, as well as rich media content
including games, videos and music," adds Holdsworth.

What we think
This is a sort of three advertisers for the price of one WAP site promotion. If its all set up and users only have to approve ads via Wapple the service will be great. At the moment there are a couple of hiccups in the transparency between AdMob and Wapple (with regards to auto-approving) adverts. But within a WAP package it’s likely that there will be only one management facility making it easier to manage and include banner ads on mobile sites.

Admob, Admoda and Decktrade are the big guns in the mobile publishing/advertising “pure player” space so adverts should be displayed quickly and constantly.

Europeans like sport best, Americans the weather

Rating: not what we were expecting

By Annie Turner

Weather is the most popular information accessed by mobile subscribers in the US (4.7% of users), while 3.3% of Europeans like sports news best, according to M:Metrics. News is in the number two spot in both the United States and Europe.

M:Metrics found many similarities in the browsing behaviours of Europeans and Americans apart from having different favourites, despite the relative maturity of the European market. Below are the top 10 categories of news and information accessed by 23 million Americans and 19 million Europeans in the three-month period ending 31 May, 2007.

The others in the top ten are entertainment news, weather, movie & entertainment (not clear about the distinction here), maps & directions, financial account access, financial news, business directories in travel.

Surprising, eh? The reason must be that Americans don’t play soccer and Europeans are doing their best to ignore the weather this summer – widespread flooding all over the UK and some 500 people killed by the heat wave in Hungary.
http://www.mmetrics.com/press/PressRelease.aspx?article=20070724-weather
For more information on gender preferences and European countries’ favourite subjects individually, see http://www.mmetrics.com/press/PressRelease.aspx?article=20070724-weather

Windows on the world

Rating: 2.0, it says 2.0! must be good by Tony Alton Bill Gates has taken some time off from saving the world from the evil Apple hordes to update his mobile search application. The new Windows Live Search version 2.0 features a new user interface (better buttons) and expanded local info (all new kebab houses, pikey video shops and intimidating builders merchants) which promises to give things like film times and traffic updates. The code monkeys have also made sure that it works on a load of new handsets. 

This means that you, the lucky user, can now get movie ratings and times relevant to your location, consumer reviews of local businesses, better maps and directions should you be lost. However, if you are like 99% of the population and can't use mobile Internet, then you are still going to be watching Hot Fuzz and eating a rat burger whilst sitting lost and in traffic.

Bena's Note: We will be taking a more intense look at the features in The Mobile Search Analyst

Quick, dump Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, here comes another one

Rating: Hey! Hey! Shine that light on me while I gather bodies by Tony Alton

There’s another one. Not content to let the goliaths swedge it out in the ring of social networking GNS Europe and Excite Japan have just launched a new mobile social networking site called Mobikade. The site will let users do all the usual update stuff (Tony is picking belly button fluff), as well as downloading games and earning credits to get free text messages and ‘other fantastic prizes’, such as sexy models, free cars and houses. Sorry, I made that last bit up.  Oh and it’s ad-funded, so expect to have your minds warped by The Man whilst you do get busy socialising.    

From the press

Yuki Wada, VP, international business at Excite says “mobikade has changed my life to the point where I’m actually going to live in London". Crikey.  Expect to pay a tenner for a botlle of Asahi.

What we think:

Mobikade is going to have to enter the fight with a pretty big weapon, like an axe or a flamethrower, or battle like a true guerilla. Myspace and Facebook, which both have a decent mobile offerings,  have just started hitting the mainstream to the point where people like my dad and even Radio 4 are talking about them.  This to me signifies that it is going to be an uphill struggle to get a significant amount of people to use Mobikade. It’s crucial they do this otherwise their ad-funded model is going to shrivel and die, leaving a small dried up skin populated by wierdos and social networking tarts.

Good luck to them though, no seriously, I am always up for the small guy in a fight. I once backed a weasel in a fight against a tractor. Lost though.

Download your fave music from your PC to your phone - free

Rating: it ROKS

By Annie Turner

ROK Entertainment Group, the UK-based mobile technologies and applications development company, today announced the launch of ROK Media Store, after a four month trial and testing process.

ROK Media Store - www.rokmediastore.com - is a web-based application, available free of charge, which enables users to upload their music collection to their PC and then sideload it to the memory card on their mobiles. Music and video content is also available to buy online, delivered to the purchaser by ROK's proprietary content-compression and copy-protection technologies.

ROK believes Media Store is a good alternative to buying an iPod, exploiting what you have already - your favourite tracks and mobile phone. According to M:Metrics, 12% of people in the UK already download music to their mobile phones. Can’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be a hit.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

Rating: Jack is

By Annie Turner

Jack Nadel International, a marketing and merchandising agency, (www.nadel.com) is offering its clients keywords to print or emboss on their speciality products. Those who receive keyrings or pens or other promotional goodies can text the keywords to 78247 (q-t-a-g-s which is providing the technology), and receive unique message and offers, and links to dot-mobi, or phone-enabled websites.

Extra incentive to read other people’s T-shirts.

EU prepares to release GSM bandwidth for 3G

Rating: will we see the benefits?

By Annie Turner

The European Union's executive arm has proposed opening radio frequencies allocated exclusively to GSM to other wireless technologies including 3G mobile data.

The mobile industry reckons the achieve cumulative cuts in capital expenditures of up to 40% in network costs over five years. "In the EU, we must remove regulatory barriers and facilitate the deployment of mobile communications by allowing new technologies to share spectrum with existing ones," EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said.

Will we see a 40% reduction in our 3G bills though?

The proposal would abolish 20-year-old EU legislation that allocated the 900MHz to 1,800MHz frequencies to GSM. In a strategy for radio spectrum unveiled earlier this year, the Commission said it wanted frequencies not needed by mobile operators, or those freed up through the move to digital broadcasting, to be opened to other businesses.

The EU executive also wants to talk to member states about how spectrum allocation process could be made less restrictive.

Collectively, the industry using radio spectrum earned between EUR 240bn and EUR 260bn (USD 331.4bn to USD359.1bn) last year, the Commission estimated.

No doubt the mobile industry will use its considerable clout to move this along, in direct proportion to the opposition it put up against reduced roaming charges in Europe. Or more to the point, the way it scuppered British regulator Ofcom’s plans for ultra wideband (round 3.1 - 10.6GHz) spectrum as they might have faced competition from alternative technologies, god forbid.

Browser, Browser BROWSER Yahoo chooses Novarra Vision for oneSearch

Rating: confused – you should be

By Bena Roberts

OK, I am on holiday at the moment but in true passionate mobile ways – I still have several mobile devices with me and I am testing them as sit on the beach, go the zoo and read books to the children.

I have been doing thousands of tests on browsers and I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject – but what I do realise is that finding out which browser you are using is often not easy and user experience is linked heavily with device.

Now, I am one of the few that have always been a Novarra fan and I realise the value of making Internet sites mobile. But something BIG has happened. What?
Well….

1. Orange has given me a Samsung i600 Windows Mobile device.
2. Sony Ericsson has given me a Walkman W800i device.

Both devices make the GoMo News blog look heavenly. So far on my Nokia device with Vodafone GoMo News has flopped. So I have put a call into Orange and SonyEricsson about which browser is being used but it’s a difficult question. As when I use Google to find a mobile site or when I use Go To web site the experience is vastly different.

This might get only more confusing now that Yahoo! Go has signed up with Novarra. So now everytime I want to view a site I find on Yahoo! Go – it will be pushed or rendered via the Novarra browser. So unlike when on the Internet you know if you are on IE or Firefox – on a mobile its not so simple.

All I know is that Orange has souped up its mobile browser. Two weeks ago when I wrote about Novarrafone I used the Samsung i600 to test the GoMoNews Site. It only rendered the middle column. Yesterday, when I checked it again I got a perfect blog. I couldn’t complain – it was clean simple, easy to read the most relevant information and extremely impressive.

Then when I used the SonyEricsson Walkman; the user experience was even better. The browser seemed to know that it was using a blog and even terms such as technorati links appeared but were not simply copied for mobile. They were linked and if users wanted to navigate or see them they could but the most pertinent information was viewed first.
My immediate thought was do I really need a mobile site now? The banners, the experience the style of GoMo News blog looked heavenly and I doubt a pure mobile only site would look any different.

But my point – be in masked here, is that do and will consumers know which browser they are using? Or will they care? I suppose if the experience is awful they will care but if its great – will they not want to make sure that they are using the same browser at all times.

For example, was Orange behind the new rendering on GoMo News or was it Microsoft (as it’s a Windows Mobile 5.0 device)?

Looking at other sites on the Novarra browser have been great – but GoMo News didn’t come out right at all. Who is to blame? The device, Vodafone or Novarra?

But anyway, back to the point. Yahoo! has chosen the Novarra Vision server version 6.5 to provide web transformation for Yahoo!’s oneSearch service.

From the press release
The Vision platform provides a visually rich, fast and intuitive user experience for Web sites, across mobile phones, browsers and networks.
Novarra’s Vision platform processes Web content to deliver a full, rich Internet experience on mass-market and high-tier handsets. Built on open standards, the platform supports all deployed and new industry handsets and WAP, cHTML, and HTML browsers out of the box.
Commercially tested on hundreds of phones and browsers, web sites are automatically adapted for optimal presentation, usability and speed on handsets, supporting unique capabilities such as screen size, memory, and CPU.

William Hill lets punters loose money wherever they are

Rating: Out of pocket in your pocket

By Tony Alton

William Hill has just announced a deal with mobile infrastructure provider MobileAware to let people bet from their phone. The fact that the press release speaks of a ‘revenue-generating’ model leads me to believe that the 4:30 at Newbury has already failed on a few unlucky punters in favour of William himself.

The new mobile site lets more than 400,000 subscribers see live sports results, and other betting events as well as letting people bet on races that have already started It doesn’t however let you tear up your ticket and stuff it down Dave’s throat when you loose your weeks food money on a single race. No bitterness there at all.

More on Mobile Aware:
http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/06/dinner-with-the.html

http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/06/novarra_vodafon.html

Mobiles more popular with Kiwi kids than sheep

Rating: All Black nippers become world champion mobile users

By Tony Alton

An MTV and Nickelodeon survey into chidren’s usage of mobile and other technology has shown that kids from New Zealand are the highest users of their mobile phones. There are corresponding unfounded rumours that Premium SMS companies have chartered a special flight down-under to start an intensive marketing campaign.

The brave television channels, dragged a load of 8-24 year olds off a variety of street corners to ask them questions on their uses of technology, found that the average NZ child uses their mobile phone more than any other nationality.

The survey also found that as people move towards 30 they are far more likely to develop a beer gut, have hangovers that last for days and spend days pondering over what colour to paint their hallway.

Willy WoNokia looks to hand out golden tickets to game developers

Rating: Who wants to play at SNAP?

By Tony Alton

Nokia’s mobile Java gaming company SNAP mobile is giving the little people the chance to come and play with them. The mobile game platform provider is giving independent developers the chance to get their game off the ground as a part of its Mobile Rules! (their exclamation mark not mine) competition. The lucky oik is will be given the chance distribute their game globally.

Winners will be announced in early 2008. To find out how to submit your papier mache model go to www.mobilerules.org/multiplayer

Shiny new Blackberry picked fresh off the production line by Orange

Rating: Citrus tasting RIM to lure important businessfolk   

by Tony Alton

All this story needs is Apple to be involved and I would have had the perfect mobile fruit salad gag.  Alas, I will have to do with telling you that Orange have teamed up with Blackberry to launch the ‘world’s first’ (a banned term in my posts from now on) dual-mode cellular and WiFi Blackberry smartphone called the 8820.  Translated: this means it can be used by businessmen in their offices over WiFi and also out on the move over traditional GSM etc networks.

The perplexingly acronym loaded press release says the Blackberry is chock full of QWERTY GPS GPRS Wi-Fi MicroSD EDGE WEP WAP 802.11 a/b/g goodness. WTF? Well, it is basically the wet dream for every thrusting young punk looking to shake down a buck or two whilst checking emails and making phone calls whether over WiFi or on the Orange network.  It’s got GPS too so Nigel can make sure he picks his way between Latte vendors without getting lost down the backstreets and tripping over the poor people.

Australian regulator Marketing company fines marketers over spam mobile calls

Rating: told ya

By Annie Turner

A marketing company has been fined almost USD150,000 for sending unwanted messages to mobile phone customers. DC Marketing Europe was fined by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) after being found guilty of making hundreds of spam marketing calls.

ACMA said the company had sent short duration calls to mobile phones which left a missed call message on the phone. Customers who rang the number to check on the call then received a marketing message.
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said the penalty imposed on DC Marketing was the largest yet for breaches of the Spam Act. Mr Chapman said the calls were illegal because the missed call messages were unsolicited, did not identify the sender and did not contain an unsubscribe facility.

ACMA has announced plans to step up its anti-spam monitoring activities this year.

Just right too. It’s good that the Australian authorities are taking action against the cowboys to protect genuine marketers, but of course it’s hard to say exactly who they are. We predicted this and expect many more such actions by regulators around the world, including against mobile network operators for not doing more to protect their customers.

Object lesson in how to run an MVNO

By Annie Turner

Rating: the dangers of received wisdom

Amp'd Mobile is likely to be no more after the end of this month.

At the same time, another MVNO that also targets younger people, Virgin Mobile USA, plans an initial public offering to raise USD 506 million, pending approval from the authorities.

Virgin’s use of pre-pay is one of the reasons that its offering will probably be massively over-subscribed after Amp’d bites the dust, dogged by kids who wouldn’t pay their bills and following a number of other high profil