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Administrator on November 13th, 2007
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by Tim Green
MOBILE content advocates are very fond of stating the overwhelmingly personal nature of the device. How many conference sessions have begun with the old chestnut about ‘wallet, keys, mobile’ as the three things everyone has with them at all times? Too many, that’s for sure. But it’s true, of course: we all feel naked without our mobiles. Which begs the question, how to protect the content stored on them in the event of the device being smashed to smitherines. Or worse still, stolen? Especially now that phones no longer store
just contacts and messages, but also rich media too and maybe even pics with sentimental value. The need to back-up has always been recognised by handset manufacturers, many of which typically offer PC software for sideloading information from a phone. But this presumes a
certain degree of technical nous in the user – and it’s not exactly a mobile-centric solution either.
This is why a number of companies have now emerged, offering a back-up solution that is performed over the air and from the handset. Arguably leading the pack is Portugal’s MobiComp. Its MobileKeeper Backup and Restore product has been adopted by a bunch of operators including Vodafone, Optimus, TMN and various carriers in the Middle East, with Syria’s Syriatel and Saudi Arabia’s Aljawal among the recent takers. It’s also been re-sold by direct-to-consumer companies such as RemoteXT in the UK and Mobilporten in Norway.
The solution automatically backs up all types of mobile data encompassing contacts, calendars, text messages, photos, videos, music, bookmarks, ringtones and applications. The back-up takes place over the air, and it can even be set up to do so automatically in the background (with Symbian-based devices only right now) at certain times of day or after specified amounts of new data have been added.
Mobicomp sells MobileKeeper as a white-label product, with which it says operators can increase subscriber ARPU and customer loyalty. Typically, consumers pay around one-to-two Euros a month for access. As Jameel Al Molhem, general manager of Aljawal, says: “It not only gives users confidence to start using more advanced mobile data services, but it’s also offering a solution that is network-based, which is critical to any operator.”
Although Mobicomp is making the running in this sector, many others are active. In the US, the beleaguered content aggregator Oasys has launched Virtual Locker, while various operators have made own-brand products available. Verizon’s Backup Assistant costs $1.99 per month, for example.
In the UK, Mobyko offers a D2C service that’s free but offers downloads and texts for a £24.99 a month premium. Retail giant Carphone Warehouse has also entered the market, launching MyMobileMemory as part of its MyMobileServices family. And Ireland’s NewBay is currently powering O2 UK’s ‘My bluebook’ service, which allows users to store content by sending a message to shortcode 40202. Interestingly, My Bluebook also offers a sharing and community function, which reflects the eagerness of providers to evolve these lockers from simple back-up services to something far stickier that embraces social networking.
This is clearly on the agenda for MobiComp too. As a complement to its core locker product it now offers ‘Share it’, which lets people publish content to blogs and social networking sites. Then there’s ‘Discover it’, which merges the locker service with MobiComp’s Active mTicker application. This pushes information to subscribers via an always-on, scrolling ‘ticker’ that runs along the bottom of the screen when the deviceis in idle mode. Carlos Oliveira (pictured), CEO of MobiComp, says: “The idea is to make available the contents of a user’s locker directly to a community of friends using a ticker application. The good thing about this is the ease of discovery; you’re only one click away from the content.
We’re aiming it at the enterprise market too.” If phones are now digital repositories, where should we back up all our stuff? A number of ‘content locker’ specialists think they can help. Tim Greeninvestigates… to lockers
Providers of lockers are evolving them into something far stickier that embraces social mobile networking.
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Ringtone becomes Singtone - News - www.mobile-ent.biz
Ringtone becomes Singtone
Stuart O’Brien Today, 12:16pm
Singtones service brings karaoke experience to ringtone creation.
New PC-based software from UK-based Singtone enables users to record their own singing voices over well-known licensed tracks, then pay to use them as ringtones or send to friends.
Singtones are free to create and cost £1.50 to send or £5 for a bundle of four.
The PC software uses ‘VocALign’ to correct the pitch of the user’s voice so that it’s in tune, and both the ‘corrected’ and original voice recordings can be used as the final Singtone.
Users can then visit the Singtones website to comment on and rate the efforts of their friends.
A ‘lite’ version of the service is also available without the need for PC access - users just dial a number and sing into the handset.
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Administrator on November 9th, 2007
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Tim Green Today, 11:39am
Tesco says its mobile portal has over 250,000 unique visitors per month.
The UK’s market leading supermarket has 1.5 million subscribers on its own-brand MVNO and has set up its portal as its default WAP destination. The site, managed and hosted by UK firm InfoMedia Services, showcases a variety of downloadable content, infotainment services and Tesco services.
It also offers ‘new concept’ microsites with specific content shops for major content owners including Disney, Sky Sports, Gameloft, Glu and EA Games. These allow consumers to interact with their favourite brands within a branded area.
Tesco Mobile has also trialled third party mobile advertising with partners including the BBC, ITV and EMAP and plans to roll out banner advertising across the portal in November.
Michael Tomlins, commercial director of InfoMedia Services, said: “This is fantastic news that clearly demonstrates customers want to interact with trusted traditional brands via their mobile handset. Tesco Mobile and InfoMedia are working very closely to deliver even more customer friendly products and services on the portal, driving even greater uptake in 2008”.
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Administrator on November 6th, 2007
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We are witnessing a silent revolution: the birth of user-generated content and
social communities. Initially we might have considered it just a minor trend
offering highly creative (or bored) people some way to express themselves.
Later, as we began to see and hear more signs of its presence we may have
started to participate ourselves, not really knowing where all this would lead.
Suddenly we look around and the world has changed. Content is not what it
used to be!
User-Generated Content (UGC) is taking the place of “professional” content
in much of our daily routine. From product reviews to funny videos, from
reference encyclopedias to special events footage we are turning to content
created and published on the Web by our peers. This new world feeds on the
cooperative effort of millions of talented people who contribute their
knowledge, creativity and time for us to read, watch, listen and enjoy.
In addition to watching the world on YouTube and searching for reference
information on Wikipedia, some of us have begun gathering around virtual
“campfires” or Social Communities. Sites like MySpace and Blogger are
where you go to meet your friends, watch their pictures and videos and chat.
One of the most common forms of UGC is a “blog”, standing for “Web log”.
Used by teens and company CEOs alike, a blog is a simple and immediate
tool allowing people to publish their thoughts and experiences, often
accompanied by pictures, for the entire world to see.
The revolution is young, but User-Generated Content and Social
Communities sites have managed to conquer cyberspace. Currently half of
today’s 10 most-visited Web sites are UGC-based: YouTube, MySpace,
Orkut, Wikipedia, Facebook.
A Camera with You Wherever You Go
Since the early days of MMS, one of major barriers for adoption of mobile
multimedia was the limited availability of camera phones, but this is no longer
the case. Camera-enabled phones are the vast majority of new handsets
sales. According to iSuppli Corp., since 2005 shipments of sensors for
camera phones have outnumbered shipments of image sensors for all other
applications combined — including standalone digital cameras.
Recent years have also seen an immense improvement in the quality of the
imaging capability in handsets, in particular sensor resolution, quality of the
camera optics and storage memory. It’s common for medium-range handsets
to feature at least two-megapixel cameras, to record DVD-quality video and
be capable of storing several gigabytes of media. This is more than enough
for all but the most demanding applications.
The remaining challenge is: how do I share this multimedia with my friends?
Social Communities Go Mobile
In addition to the great improvement in multimedia capabilities, current
handsets are more connected than they have ever been. Whether over 2.5G
or 3G, the vast majority of users in advanced markets have the capability to
browse the “mobile Web” better than ever before as well as share high-quality
media via MMS or mobile email quickly and reliably.
It took years of slow and sometimes painful changes, huge investment in
mobile data infrastructures, gradual improvements in the penetration and
capabilities of handsets but we may finally have reached a “tipping point” for
mobile multimedia services. Mobile operators, content providers and Web
developers alike are realizing this, and they are leveraging these capabilities
to offer a growing variety of rich mobile content and services.
In the field of mobile UGC and Social Communities we can find the following
examples:
In addition to the great improvement in multimedia capabilities, current
handsets are more connected than they have ever been. Whether over 2.5G
or 3G, the vast majority of users in advanced markets have the capability to
browse the “mobile Web” better than ever before as well as share high-quality
media via MMS or mobile email quickly and reliably.
It took years of slow and sometimes painful changes, huge investment in
mobile data infrastructures, gradual improvements in the penetration and
capabilities of handsets but we may finally have reached a “tipping point” for
mobile multimedia services. Mobile operators, content providers and Web
developers alike are realizing this, and they are leveraging these capabilities
to offer a growing variety of rich mobile content and services.
In the field of mobile UGC and Social Communities we can find the following
examples:
- SeeMeTv: Launched in 2005 by H3G UK, this YouTube-like UGC service
allows H3G’s users to use their handset camera and MMS capabilities to
upload cool and funny videos to the mobile portal. Uploaded media can
then be browsed and downloaded by other users as premium content.
Since launch, more than 100,000 media items have been uploaded,
resulting in over 12 million paid downloads.
- Blogger.com: One of the earliest “blogging” services, Blogger.com is
now part of the Google family. If “blog” stands for “Web log” then
Blogger.com is also an “mblog” or “mobile Web log” since it allows users
to publish text and pictures directly from their mobile device. Posting text
and media can be done by MMS or email, directly from the mobile device.
Blogger also features a mobile version of the site, allowing users to
browse blogs while on the move.
- MOKO: Launched in 2005 in H3G Australia as Kink Kommunity, this
service was and still is a mobile-only social community. MOKO (for
MObile KOmmunity) has since reached H3G UK and is now launching in
the US market as well. MOKO users start a “chat room” by uploading a
picture or video via MMS to a short code. The chat rooms can be browsed
on mobile devices at http://www.moko.mobi. In order to be part of the
community MOKO members pay a monthly fee of GBP 1.5 in H3G UK or
3 US$ if in H3G AU. There are 50’000 paying MOKO users in H3G UK alone.
The Mobile Upload Dilemma: Which Approach?
Many more UGC services and social communities are out there, each with its
own approach to publishing. Rabble, a US “location-based social networking”
service uses a custom application that is available for major US handsets.
Mobile upload to Flickr, the photo blogging site now owned by Yahoo, has
been possible through an embedded application available on selected handsets. Mobile posting to YouTube is possible by sending an MMS or
email to your personal account’s email address.
In general, the upload and sharing approach of most communities falls into
the following two categories:
- Custom Handset Applications: The choice of services like Rabble or
ShoZu, these applications try to maintain the service look and feel in the
handset and often bypass the operators by using only direct data
connection to the service site. The communication costs depend on the
size of the media and the user’s data plan. The main challenge of this
approach is the need to develop and install the custom applications for an
ever-growing number of handsets. Furthermore, this approach does not
lend itself to smaller services and communities, which may not have the
critical mass to justify a custom application.
- Direct Upload via MMS: SeeMeTV, MOKO and others chose to skip the
development of mobile application altogether and take advantage of the
native handset capabilities: mobile browser to browse, MMS and SMS to
post and chat. Want to post a new picture and text to your mblog? Just
send an MMS to the service short code or email address. Want to chat
with your friends? Use either MMS or SMS. Service costs are according
to standard SMS and MMS fees.
Determining the Business Model
We have seen several examples of services. Some, like MOKO and
SeeMeTV, have a more direct business model, as they work in cooperation
with selected mobile operators, require a monthly subscription fee and/or
enjoy revenue sharing from the MMS or SMS used to communicate with the
service. Others, like YouTube and Blogger.com, work independently from the
operators, offering an indirect/direct business case as they use operators as
“bit pipes” for posting or mobile Internet.
While the jury is still out on the winning business model, we begin to see that
many services favor native applications such as MMS and SMS for mobile
posting. Modern handsets can send 300 Kbyte messages, and that limit is
growing as European operators begin to allow up to 600 Kbytes and US
operators already offer up to 1 Megabyte messages. That is more than
enough for high-quality pictures as well as high-quality video over a minute in
length.
Twitter, a leading mobile blog, chose to allow posting by Web or SMS only,
therefore restricting the direct upload of pictures from mobile. In one of the
blogs a user posted: “If Twitter supported MMS you would so be getting a
picture of a guy with a monkey on a motorcycle”. But it doesn’t, so you’re
not…
Action Items for Mobile Operators and Social Communities
It is in the interest of mobile operators to expose their users to mobile UGC
and mobile social communities and help them find new and exciting ways to
stay in touch with their preferred communities and contribute their content
from wherever they are. They already have invested in the data enablers and
infrastructures – now it’s time to bear the fruits by embracing such traffic-generating services.
It is in the interest of UGC sites and social communities to broaden the
access to their services by allowing the largest possible number of users to
post and communicate simply and directly while on the go by using standard
messaging tools such as MMS and SMS.
Service Integration Made Simple
As mobile UGC and social communities gain popularity, network operators
strive to make access while on the go as easy as using SMS.
Traditionally, the integration of Application-To-Person (A2P) services into a
mobile network was not an easy feat. Applications have to be able to send
and receive messages through the network’s SMS & MMS delivery engines
as well as integrate with the billing and prepaid systems. Once applications
have been deployed, their use of network resources has to be monitored and
managed, guaranteeing proper quality of service for all P2P and A2P
services alike.
These time-consuming tasks have raised the complexity of new service
integration to the point that mobile operators now ask themselves with each
additional service: “Is this worth the integration effort?”
The Comverse Messaging Gateway is designed to break this complexity
barrier and act as a single point of network integration, management and
control for all third-party messaging sources and applications. New services
added simply through open HTTP interfaces immediately gain access to the
network’s messaging, management and billing resources – increasing speed
and ease of deployment, and profitability of new services.
In conclusion: As users seek mobile access to an ever-growing number of
UGC sources and social communities, the Comverse Messaging Gateway
can allow unprecedented network openness while keeping integration and management complexity under control.
Article written by Dror Bin, (pictured) General Manager, Comverse Messaging source
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By
Administrator on November 5th, 2007
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source
Anna Lagerkvist
17 Oct 2007 10:32 GMT
Great news if you’re planning to buy an Apple iPhone - you’ll soon be able to pick one up contract-free, thanks to the demands of French law.
Apple has been forced to cave in to French consumer legislation stating that it’s illegal to offer exclusive deals on mobile phones. Thus Orange France will offer both locked and unlocked versions of the iPhone when it goes on sale on Friday 29 November - three weeks after the UK launch.
However you can expect to pay a good deal more for an unlocked iPhone than the €399 (£278) the Apple / Orange axis is asking for the contract model. What’s not clear at this stage is how much more: both companies have yet to set the price.
Of course even if the price is high, a French iPhone could still be worth hopping onto a Eurostar for. After all anything that gets you out of an 18-month O2 contract has to be good, right?
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Administrator on November 5th, 2007
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By Rafat Ali - Thu 01 Nov 2007 09:03 AM PST
After threatening to do so for the last few months, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) has launched its all-you-can-eat music service, a week before the UK iPhone debut from Apple. As we have reported before, it is working with music firm Omnifone that will make 1.2 million tracks available for 1.99 pounds a week flat rate rental through MusicStation. Besides the compatible phones the service is working on now, it will roll out on other handsets over the coming weeks including touch-screen devices and BlackBerry smartphones, reports Reuters.
The phones will be available from Vodafone and Phones4U shops. Users can create playlists and share songs with other MusicStation users on Vodafone network.
iPhone goes on sale in Britain on November 9 through its deal with O2 and Carphone Warehouse, while Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has also announced its online music store.
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Administrator on November 3rd, 2007
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Tim Green Today, 12:48pm
AdMob has announced mobile ad solution for third-party Facebook Mobile developers.
The AdMob for Facebook Mobile advertising solution allows developers to build mobile web applications for the fast-growing social community with optimised ads that can monetise these apps. Developers can start showing ads and earning money immediately.
The move gives developers access to an off-portal mobile advertising marketplace currently serving over 1.5 billion ads per month.
“It is exciting to see great new user experiences like Facebook for mobile devices,” said Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob. “AdMob’s mobile platform empowers advertisers and application developers to take advantage of the growth of the mobile web by serving high quality targeted ads that users will value.”
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Administrator on November 1st, 2007
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BBC NEWS | Technology | Google opens up social networking
Developers currently have to customise their designs for a particular site with many partnering with the hugely popular Facebook.
Google’s OpenSocial system will allow a wider distribution for tools like Facebook’s music recommendation service iLike and its Top Friends application.
It has long been reported that Google has big ambitions in social networking.
Last week it missed out on the chance to buy a stake in Facebook with the founders choosing instead to do a deal with Microsoft.
“Facebook-fear”
Google said that around a dozen social network partners had signed up to the system, including business site LinkedIn, Friendster and Google’s own social network Orkut.
Developers already onboard include Flixster, iLike and RockYou.
Unlike Facebook, OpenSocial allows developers to write in normal javascript and html with only minor adjustments needed for the code to work on its platform.
According to blog TechCrunch the plan is likely to be a big hit with developers as well as Facebook’s rivals.
“Developers have been complaining non stop about the costs of learning yet another markup language for every new social network platform, and taking developer time in creating and maintaining the code,” wrote TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.
He is impressed by the number of social networks that have signed up so far.
“Facebook-fear has clearly driven good partners to side with Google,” he wrote.
Technology writer Om Malik observed: “OpenSocial attacks Facebook where it is the weakest (and the strongest): its quintessential closed nature.”
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