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Mobile Entertainment & Commerce
...the analyst view
Edition Twenty Four - 19th June 2007 | |
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Dear Industry Executive
Could iPhone-mania see the content market boom?
With just a week to go before the much anticipated Apple iPhone hits the US market, it looks like the gadget of the year is having a pronounced affect on the mobile market. Research suggests that in the US, 19million consumers are seriously considering buying one — many saying they would ditch their existing network deal AND spend the $300-odd to get their hands on the new device. Considering most high end mobile devices occupy essentially a niche in the handset market, this is quite stunning.
But that’s not all. While Apple has announced a couple of weeks ahead of the AT&T roll out of the device that it will be sort of open to third party application developers, those in the industry are looking at how to make existing mobile offerings competitive with this flashy new piece of lifestyle kit.
In Europe, network operators are jockeying for position to become the operator that will have the iPhone on an exclusive deal as AT&T does in the US. Vodafone’s name keeps coming up, but the others are already looking at what can be done to offer products that will tap in to this desire for an ultra-cool device, but one that isn’t made by Apple.
Developers are working up a storm to develop touchscreen access and a range of handset based apps to drive up use of these more dynamic phones. LG already has a cool little number poised to hit the streets ahead of iPhone in Europe with a touch screen, but the real boon is that the growing frenzy around iPhone and how it makes the handset much more of a PDA than just a phone could well have a profound effect on the content market.
The simple act of a range of much more functional devices hitting the market could well see users demanding more, handsets being able to deliver more, the mobile web becoming much more affordable and functional and, as a consequence, more elaborate content being developed and sold — all for more money.
Obviously we won’t see the true impact of the iPhone on the content and device market until this time next year, but already the industry is buzzing.
Yours
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All-you-can-eat full-track music goes live as Omiphone signs deals with leading music publishers
UK mobile music company Omniphone is pinning its hopes on all-you-can-eat, full-track mobile music downloads to kick start the so far sluggish mobile music market, with its service that allows mobile phone users to gain unlimited access to full music tracks on industry-standard mobiles for a small weekly fee, going live this week — launching with Telenor in Scandinavia.
The company has also announced licensing agreements with Universal Music Group, SONY BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music International and many major independent labels such as Beggars Group, Vital:PIAS Digital and leading global mobile distributor VidZone Digital Media.
As well as Sweden, Omnifone confirms it has now entered into partnerships with 30 mobile operators with networks in the following territories: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.
"MusicStation’s launch heralds the beginning of the next generation of mobile music. Hundreds of millions of mobile phone subscribers worldwide will soon gain the ultimate music freedom - the ability to download and play unlimited amounts of music, wherever they are, through a fantastic easy-to-use digital music experience, which works on almost any phone," says an up-beat Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone.
“Consumers will have the ability to legally access, download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from an international and localised music catalogue, supported by the whole music industry, all for a small weekly fee. MusicStation users can download music, wherever they are, at any time and with no charge for data," he says.
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Nokia funds foray in to UGC-based mobile TV blogging
Nokia’s investment arm, Nokia Growth Partners, has made its first mobile web-specific investment, putting cash in to kyte, a broadcasting platform that lets users produce and broadcast live TV channels via mobile or on the web.
Kyte allows anybody to create their own interactive TV channel on their website, blog, social network or mobile phone using a combination of instant messaging, social networking and user generated video content.
Neither Kyte nor Nokia would reveal how much as been invested in the San Francisco based company, but Nokia joins a raft of investors, including Swisscom and Atomico, the investment company co-founded by Niklas Zennstrom, the man behind Skype and Joost.
“This investment is of great strategic importance to kyte.tv. We are proud to have the combination of a media company, a service provider, and the world’s number one device manufacturer investing in our company. This provides us with key access to distribution across Europe and beyond,” says Daniel Graf, co-founder and CEO of kyte.tv. “Through their mobile devices, Nokia provides people with a wide range of experiences in mobile video, television, music, and imaging. This partnership allows kyte.tv to enrich this experience even more.”
Currently available free to certain Swisscom users who have the right Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets, the services is expected to go live on a wider scale in Europe and the US later this year.
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LaNetro-owned MonsterMob opts for mobile ad strategy to grow in China and beyond
UK content brand MonsterMob, part owned by Spain’s LaNetro Zed, is partnering with mobile advertising consultancy, Advertising2Mobile (Ad2Mob), to launch a mobile advertising strategy designed to enable MonsterMob to reach a wider audience through banner ads on other mobile internet sites around the world.
LaNetro Zed, which has a 52 per cent stake in MonsterMob, is looking to extend its reach into China, Russia, North America, Bangladesh and the Philippines. As web browsing via mobile phones becomes increasingly popular, mobile advertising presents an excellent opportunity for MonsterMob to target these new territories, as well as existing markets with its latest range of mobile content – including video on demand, interactive services, real-music ring tones and next-generation java games.
“By creating a Mobile Advertising strategy, we are able to reach a broader target audience, by running a series of mobile banner ads and also by maximising our mobile search engine rankings,” says Simon Walshaw, Marketing Director for MonsterMob. “In addition, we can sell advertising space on our own Mobile Internet sites to other media companies, and we also have the opportunity to create a number of reciprocal deals.”
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BREW adds personalized content targeting in deal with Xiam
Xiam Technologies, the Ireland-based pioneer of wireless content targeting solutions, today announced an agreement to supply QUALCOMM with content discovery and recommendations technology for use with QUALCOMM's BREW solution, which will allow operators to make personalized recommendations tailored to the mores of individual customers.
Xiam's My Personal Offers System (MPOS) technology enables license operators to make personalized, individual tailored offers using advanced profiling techniques. The technology can be used to make highly relevant personalized offers of new and exciting content over wireless and Web channels both before and after purchase, as well as enable content bundling.
The system also allows users to rate content and automatically presents top selling content related to the user's interests.
"Content targeting enables [operators of QUALCOMM’s] BREW to more effectively merchandize their services based on their past purchase history and tastes," says Mitch Oliver, vice president, solutions and marketing for QUALCOMM Internet Services. "Xiam's unique recommendations technology, which is designed to address the various challenges and opportunities facing the mobile environment, will personalize the consumer shopping experience, expand the discovery of content, and generate increased revenue for service providers."
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Global money transfer by SMS available to world’s operators
Irish SMS application company Anam Mobile and TR2 Communications have launched a new service that will allow global money transfers via SMS. Anam has partnered with TR2 Communications, which is providing the cash transfer application to add to Anam’s portfolio of value-added SMS services.
The service is easy-to-use for consumers, following an intuitive three-step procedure. To send money a user writes an SMS that begins “#cash” followed by the amount to send, then selects the person they want to send it to from their address book. The money is transferred once pin-checked and once complete a text message confirmation is received. The recipient of the transfer receives a text message to tell them they have been transferred money.
The money transfer service is available immediately for all global operators and Anam will offer a full consultative approach to create a smooth roll-out of the service to subscribers.
Gerry McKenna, CEO of Anam says that, “The beauty of this service is that it does not demand consumers to alter their behaviour; it just adds another function to what they can do with SMS. Money transfer is an application that we believe will have a huge take-up. Whether it is used to repay money lent by a friend, or to send money to relatives internationally, by using SMS it becomes an easy to use, intuitive service.”
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Texting finally revealed as the cash cow it really is
Why do mobile operators put so much store by voice and text services rather than going hell for leather in to selling content? Because on a per megabit basis, voice and text are huge revenue generators.
Research by UK-based mobile VoIP company Vyke reveals that if a user sends a 160 character text message — approximately 160 bytes of data — it costs about 12p typically. On a per magebit basis that works out at more than £700 per MB. By way of comparison, NASA spends £61.50 per MB downloading data from the Hubble Space telescope located some miles above the Earth.
Aside from being the main reason why MNOs have dragged their heals on introducing flat rate data charges, because they don’t want their expensive networks clogged up with relatively ‘cheap’ content data services when they could be carrying voice and text, Vyke is highlighting the costs in a drive to educate users that there is another way.
From this week, mobile users worldwide will be able to send free text messages worldwide using Vyke Pro, an easily downloadable programme that is compatible with all recent Java enabled handsets. It offers UK mobile users the opportunity to drastically reduce the exorbitant charges they are currently paying by using its smart message routing technology.
This allows Vyke Pro users to send free text messages to other Vyke Pro users around the world, or to send normal text messages to non Vyke Pro users for as little as 1p per message. Vyke Pro is also able to remotely start-up the recipient's Vyke Pro software and deliver messages instantaneously. This "wake up" technology replicates the always-on-time delivery of messages that has been a key part of the popularity of SMS.
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Gaming Executive Summit Europe 2007
InterContinental, Madrid, Spain 10 - 12 July 2007
13 CEO’s, 6 senior director’s, 2 world-class workshop hosts & 1 great event. The GES is the only Pan-European gaming conference to target the TOP executives across the industry from online and offline operators. Benefits of attending include, gaining crucial insights into the opportunities and issues facing the land based and interactive gaming sectors and the opportunity to hear from the industry leaders of today and the decision makers of tomorrow.
For more information please click here
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Channel Manager - Mobile Content
£30k-36k, Mobile Streams UK
Mobile Streams is looking for a Channel manager to join the existing channel management team. Solely responsible for a content sector, the successful candidate will need to demonstrate expertise in the content field.
Channel management involves the wholesale managed retail and direct to consumer marketing of mobile content. Mobile streams supplies content and manages channels of content for all the major network operators in the UK and over 100 network operators globally.
We are looking for a leader and business developer who will motivate and influence those around them. Mobile Streams is committed to equal opportunity and diversity, then please apply.
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QUALCOMM and Sagem Communication Sign WCDMA Subscriber Unit License Agreement
QUALCOMM, a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and mobile data solutions, today announced that it has entered into a WCDMA subscriber unit license agreement with Sagem Communication.
Under the terms of a royalty-bearing agreement, QUALCOMM has granted Sagem Communication a worldwide license under its patent portfolio to develop, manufacture and sell 3G WCDMA subscriber units at QUALCOMM’s standard worldwide royalty rates.
Marvin Blecker, president of QUALCOMM Technology Licensing said, "QUALCOMM is pleased to license its patented technologies to Sagem Communication, enabling yet another European company to compete in the dynamic and rapidly growing opportunities for 3G WCDMA products."
Motor salvage leader bluecycle predicts £1.5 million sales increase with Alpheus, the mobile telecoms consultancy
Internet auto-salvage auction site bluecycle is predicting a £1.5 million increase in 2007 sales by working with leading mobile telecoms consultancy Alpheus Solutions Ltd to open the mobile channel to its customers.
Alpheus has deployed RefreshMobile’s Mobizine technology to deliver a daily, magazine style catalogue of vehicles for auction direct to customers’ mobile phones. This innovation has been selected as a finalist in the prestigious Mobile Messaging Awards 2007.
Piers Wilson, Head of Market Development, bluecycle said, “By interacting with our customers through their mobiles we have created a whole new revenue stream and reinforced our leadership in motor salvage. Alpheus’ consulting skills made the deployment process straightforward and allowed us to quickly extend our offering to the mobile channel.”
Consumer MVNOs
Current Status, Future Markets & Strategies (2006-2012)
Price: £1490 (Single User) £1990 (Multi User) £2990 (
Enterprise Wide)
The defining nature of what constitutes an MVNO is often difficult to grasp. This haze has proven a strong contributor to variations between statistics, forecasts & regulations, making it a highly subjective market to understand and reducing the reliability of business cases that might be used for investment purposes. This report cuts through the uncertainty, and clarifies the market while affording valuable insight and direction for industry players. It combines a detailed market status from strategically important regions, with an exhaustive range of market forecasts, and case studies of successful implementations around the globe;allowing you to make informed strategic decisions on MVNOstrategy, both now and into the future.
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