mobilecontentnews

Mobile Advertising Guidelines Released

2008-04-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

The Mobile Marketing Association has released the first set of global mobile advertising guidelines.

“The creation of ad guidelines by the MMA ensures that the industry is taking a proactive approach to keep subscriber experience, content integrity and simplified execution as the driving forces behind all mobile advertising programs,” says MMA President, Laura Marriott.

You can read more about the new guidelines on the Mobile Marketing Magazine blog here.

Mobile Projection

2007-04-12T02:23:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever suffered using projectors during a presentation your prayers could be answered with a new mobile phone projector. From the site:

The DLP pico-prototype further advances TI’s mobile projection technology, building on the 2006 introduction of DLP-based pocket projectors. These products are in the market today from manufacturers, including Mitsubishi, Samsung, and Toshiba. Pacific Media Associates (PMA), a global research firm, expects this pocket projector category to grow to more than 1M units by 2010. TI demonstrated the viewing experience advantage of showing mobile phone content on a pocket projector in January 2007. The introduction of the pico-projector capabilities will provide manufacturers and end-users even more options on how they can view and share information and content.

GPS gaming

2007-04-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

Very interesting project being developed by Tom Hume, Locomatrix is a GPS game that forces players out into the real world. Whereas before gaming was limited to pushing buttons on a controller – games such as, ARG’s and Geo-caching are extending the game world beyond a screen and into a real world environment. From the site:

Gaming is heading in a new direction. Where once photorealistic 3D worlds were the future of gaming, the Wii phenomenon heralds something new: a world where gamers get out into the real world.

Locomatrix is a new digital game publisher with a mission to bring gaming back to the outdoors. The brainchild of Brighton entrepreneur Richard Vahrman, Locomatrix have partnered with Future Platforms to bring this vision to life.

This is no blue-sky dream: the first working prototype using mass market technology was built and tested at the end of 2006, and we're now working on a full production version.
The game is built in Mobile Java and can therefore reach most handsets on the market today
It uses standard matchbox-size GPS units, available from several mobile accessory retailers

The game communicates with the GPS unit over Bluetooth - again available on most mobile handsets on the market. A "game designer" allows players to create their own games
The prototype is a multi-player game.

Gathering in a field with a mobile phone and a GPS unit each, players hop into the game and then start wandering around the real-world playing field, picking up letters and bringing them back to a home-cell. As the team progresses, they see their letters come together to spell a word.

Romancing the phone

2007-04-12T02:18:00.000-07:00

Mills and Boon novels are to be offered for users to download to their mobile phone to combat the “embarrassment factor” of carrying around the books. From The Times article:

“Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins have all signed up with ICUE, a British company offering the capability to transfer books into mobile phone-friendly content. None, however, has pursued the idea with as much vigour as the company founded in 1908 by Gerald Mills and Charles Boon.

Our Japanese operation has had great success selling our books in mobile-phone format,” Ms Byrne said. “Japan is normally 18 months ahead of the UK. They are finding that it’s women who like reading on phones and romantic fiction that’s rising to the top.”

Museums go mobile

2007-04-12T02:16:00.000-07:00

A number of museums have now gone mobile – they will offer images of famous works of art, photographs of historic personalities, voice and sound recordings, music and video for download to mobile devices.

They will offer some of the following content (from the press release):

“· Masterpieces as Wallpapers – Historical Recordings as Ringtones ·
Masterpieces from various epochs are available for download as wallpapers or screensavers or to be forwarded as greeting cards. From Breughel and Rubens to Schiele and Klimt, and from Cezanne to Van Gogh to just name a few of the present artists. The multimedia experience is enhanced by:

• Music by some of the world’s greatest composers, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Original voice recordings, for example from the emperors Franz Joseph of Austria and Wilhelm II. of Germany, the German chancellor Hindenburg or Max Planck

• Films and interviews of Sigmund Freud • Recordings of ethnic or religious music as well as dialects from the last century from a variety of countries and cultures. The first multimedia-museum for mobile phones also offers background information, newsletters, up-to-date exhibition news in German and English and a greeting - cards section.”

Mobile Visa card launched.

2007-04-12T02:13:00.000-07:00

A mobile Visa debit card has been launched by T-Weed. This follows the predicition by, chief executive of Visa Europe, Peter Ayliffe, that Paying for goods with notes and coins could be consigned to history within five years. Ayliffe said that, by 2012, using credit and debit cards should be cheaper and more convenient than cash.

From the press release:

“T-Weed's Wireless Visa Card intends to give unbanked Americans, small business owners, immigrants, and families the freedom of a bank debit card that can be used in coordination with a current bank account, powered by employment direct deposits or deposits made at Money Gram or Safeway locations. New Wireless Visa customers do not need to have a previous bank account or credit history, only a cell phone and a US address.”

UK mobile users tune into radio

2007-02-23T08:59:00.001-08:00

From Moconews:

New figures from RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited), an organization that operators the UK’s audience measurement system, reveal over half (55 percent) of the UK population now listens to the radio using a method other than a radio.

A few highlights:

• 11 percent of mobile phone users (3.9 million) use their phones to listen to radio content - a rise from 10 percent in Q3

• 25 percent of 15-24 age bracket listen to the radio on their mobile, up from 23 percent in Q3

• 2.1 million users (or 17 percent) of mp3 player owners use their mp3 player to listen to downloaded podcasts, up from 15 percent in Q3

The complete presentation can be found here.

UK mobile users tune into radio

2007-02-23T08:59:00.000-08:00

From Moconews:

A few highlights:

• 11 percent of mobile phone users (3.9 million) use their phones to listen to radio content - a rise from 10 percent in Q3

• 25 percent of 15-24 age bracket listen to the radio on their mobile, up from 23 percent in Q3

• 2.1 million users (or 17 percent) of mp3 player owners use their mp3 player to listen to downloaded podcasts, up from 15 percent in Q3

The complete presentation can be found here.

Top 50 Mobile companies announced:

2007-02-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

From Moconews Article:

Mobile operator O2 and Real Business Online, a major British business magazine, have joined with a panel of judges to review and rank the country’s top 50 firms. Leading the 50 to Watch in Mobile list is YoSpace, a YouTube-type company enabling mobile uses to create and share content.
The Top 10:

1) YoSpace 2)

2Ergo (Back-end specialist)

3) Piccochip (Fabless silicon designer)

4) Arieso (removes network blackspots)

5) Mobile Interactive Group (mobile consultancy)

6) Sponge Group (ran a mobile Win an iPod campaign for a snack food brand)

7) I-Play (mobile games company)

8) M-Spatial (local mobile search firm)

9) Volantis (mobile TV enabler)

10) Apertio (puts operators’/subscribers’ data in one place)

Click here for the full list of companies

Mobile Content and Services will be worth $150 billion by 2011.

2007-02-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

From Moconews:

Informa Telecoms & Media has predicted that the global market for all mobile content and (non-voice) services will grow to $150 billion by 2011, reports Reuters. The analysts think that most of that will come from messaging, with SMS, MMS and IM generating more than $93 billion by 2011, up from $60 billion in 2006. Entertainment services (including games, music, TV, adult content and gambling) would grow to $38 billion by 2011 from around $18.8 billion in 2006, according to Informa. The mobile music share of this will fall from 40 percent last year to 36 percent in 2011. User-generated content and communities are forecast to be worth $13.2 billion by 2011. Also, Informa predicts that by 2011 just under half of all mobile subscribers worldwide (that’s more than a billion people) will use mobile browsing, facilitated by new offerings from operators such as T-Mobile’s Web n Walk and 3’s X-series services. Still, SMS will generate over half of the data revenues in 2011

UK users don’t pay for downloads

2007-02-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

From Moconews:

The Guardian reports a new study into music downloads by Q Research found around 85 percent of users in the U.K. own MP3 players such as iPods, yet nearly half of them pay nothing for music downloads. The study surveyed 1,500 people between the ages of 11 and 25. Of paying users, one-third spend less than GBP5 ($9.70) on downloads per month.

Youth mobile market slow to adopt mobile Internet.

2007-02-23T08:40:00.000-08:00

An article in The Times that indicates that young mobile users are not using mobile Internet as they were widely predicted to. From the article:

The average young customer spends €25 (£17) a month on their bill — about 20 per cent more than the €21 (£14) spent by the wider population — and the majority of additional spending after the monthly contract goes on text messages, ringtones, picture messages and television voting.

The growth of mobile internet use, by comparison, remains sluggish. More than half of respondents said that they never browsed the internet, and only 8 per cent said that they used it once a week or more. When it came to daily use, the figure dropped to 1 per cent.
A separate study by Q Research suggested only 3 per cent of young people aged 11 to 25 had downloaded music directly to their mobile phone, with the high cost of doing so the main dissuading factor. By comparison, two thirds of those aged 20 to 24 spend up to £10 a month on music downloads to their computer, and nearly half of those under 16 spend a similar amount.

Worldwide SMS revenues to hit $67bn

2007-02-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

A report by Portio Research predicts a healthy future for SMS. From the press release:

Although the growth of SMS revenues will not be as aggressive as the growth of SMS volumes due to declining prices, by 2012 global SMS revenues are expected to reach 67bn USD, driven by 3.7 trillion messages. The report, ‘Mobile Messaging Futures 2007 – 2012’ outlines an exciting future for other mobile messaging technologies especially instant messaging and mobile e-mail amid continued strong worldwide subscriber growth.

Number of page views for websites using mobiles

2007-01-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

M:Metrics has released some data on websites with the most views from mobile phones. The following are the most visited sites on a mobile (by page views):

--google.com 21.9 m

--yahoo.com 20.9 m

--msn.com 13.7 m

--craigslist 7.5 m

--facebook 5.1 m

--cnn 4.4 m

--live 4.4 m

MySpace.comes in at around 2.2m page views. 20 percent of the population of the US sites visited from a mobile.

Original Source: Moconews

British more likely to use mobile social networking applications.

2007-01-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

Research conducted by M:Metrics suggests that the British are more likely to use mobile social networking applications than American or German mobile users. The study shows that 10.1% of Britons, 7.2% of Germans, 6.7% of Americans and 6.5% of the French have all uploaded photos or videos to the web, used chat or dating applications.

For a more detailed statistical breakdown of the report, click here.

Mobile games market set for bright future

2007-01-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

The future of mobile gaming looks healthy, with market intelligence firm,
iSuppli forcasting continued success for the genre.

Mobile video will continue to drive mobile growth.

2007-01-16T09:07:00.000-08:00

A new Juniper Research study predict that mobile video across 3G networks will have will grow from a 2006 value of $4.2 billion to $9.5 billion by 2011. Juniper says Europe will account for 40 percent of those revenues, with the Asia Pacific market ringing up 33 percent and North America chipping in 18 percent

Click this link to read the full article:

Mobile media entertainment market will continue to increase over next few years.

2007-01-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

Informa Telecoms & Media have forecast that the mobile entertainment market will be worth $38.1 billion worldwide in 2011 in comparison to $18.8 billion earned in 2006. According to the company, music an graphics accounted for 64% of the mobile entertainment market over the last year.

For the full article, click here.

Ringtone Wars between Labels and Publishers

2007-01-10T03:54:00.000-08:00

The Register has an informative article on the current battle between labels and publishers regarding ringtones. Although all four major labels also own the four major publishing. Despite this fact they are involved in what The Register terms a “civil war”. The main dispute between the two sides is if ringtones come under a compulsory licensing law in the US. If the law changes it could see ringtones from acts such as The Beatles become available for the first time as ringtones. From the article:

“The labels pay production costs running into millions for the production of master recordings, but publishers control songs simply by signing a songwriter to a contract. The compulsory license provided by Section 115 of the United States Copyright law…permits anyone to make a mechanical or digital copy of a full song for only 9.1¢; So some publishers, for instance those controlling songs by the Beatles, Aerosmith and Jimi Hendrix, have refused to license their music for ringtones for any price, thus denying the labels significant potential revenues. Therefore, it was hardly a surprise that last September the labels, through their trade organization, the RIAA (Recording Industry Ass. of America), challenged the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to determine whether ringtones are subject to the compulsory license provided under Section 115 of the US Copyright Act.”

Users will be able to influence TV drama with text messaging.

2007-01-10T01:34:00.000-08:00

In a move to involve users more with television, The Guardian reports that British broadcasting companies are set to use new technology that will allow users to vote for what they want to see happen in drama programs via SMS. French broadcasters have already used similar methods and have seen an increase in revenue to their programs. Other types of TV programmes, such as news and documentaries, are also looking at introducing similar technology.

Nielson Ringscan announce the top US ringtone downloads for 2006

2007-01-10T01:33:00.000-08:00

Nielson Ringscan have announced the top selling mastertones and ringtones in the US for 2006.
Title/Artist Sales Title/Artist Sales

Mastertones
1 Smack That/ Akon 1,574,362
2 Lips of An Angel/ Hinder 1,270,996
3 Sexyback/ Justin Timberlake 1,215,058
4 Irreplaceable/ Beyonce 1,039,231
5 We Fly High/ Jim Jones 1,012,949
6 Money Maker/ Ludacris 944,581
7 Chain Hang Low/ Jibbs 927,899
8 8 My Love/ Justin Timberlake 901,369
9 I Wanna Love You/ Akon 884,912
10 Walk It Out/ DJ Unk 753,487

Ringtones
1 Super Mario Bros./ Theme 747,900
2 My Humps/ Black Eyed Peas 517,757
3 Grillz/ Nelly 499,935
4 Ms. New Booty/ Bubba Sparxxx 455,550
5 Laffy Taffy/ D4L 367,106
6 Pink Panther/ Theme 347,217
7 Gold Diger/ Kanye West 310,763
8 Halloween/ Movie Theme 291,077
9 Mission Impossible/ Theme 284,335
10 Candy Shop/ 50 Cent 282,203

Universal agrees deal for SMS jukebox service

2007-01-10T01:32:00.000-08:00

Universal Music Enterprises has agreed a multi-year licensing deal with Akoo for its m-Venue music service. From the article: “Customers can queue up songs using SMS or mobile internet similar to a jukebox, find information and buy content on the song playing, and eventually order full track downloads.”

http://www.moconews.net/entry/universal-music-signs-on-for-mobile-jukebox

Technology Trends 2007

2007-01-10T01:31:00.000-08:00

Oppenheimer & Co., have released a report on the top trends of 2006 and what they consider to be the top 10 trends of 2007. The report indicates that the mobile media market will continue to grow significantly over the next year.

Mobile Media: Large and Growing
1. Over 1bn mobile devices are expected to be sold in 2007, compared to 200mm PCs and
200mm TVs. As a result, the market offers a significant platform for the addition of features,
such as video, cameras, and music.

2. Significant growth is expected in the wireless gaming market. According to IDC, the U.S.
wireless gaming market is expected to reach $1.5bn by 2008, up from roughly $600mm in
2005 (35% CAGR). With its recent purchase of JAMDAT Mobile, Electronic Arts (EA) is now
the leading wireless gaming publisher with revenues in the $140mm range in FY07.
According to Telephia, mobile gaming revenue increased 63% YoY to $140mm in Q2 with
EA’s Tetris and Bejeweled the number 1 and 3 ranked games in the US carrier market. The
key driver in the market will be the growing installed base of game-capable handsets, which is
expected to grow from roughly 300mm units in 2005 to 745mm units in 2009 (Informa data).

3. Additionally, 2007 could be an important year for Mobile TV. Verizon plans to launch
QUALCOMM’s MediaFLO solution in early 2007, using handsets from Samsung and LG.
Launches of mobile TV using the DVB-H standard should occur over the next several years in
European markets. Increased utilization of mobile video services, including broadcast,
download, and unicast, could create demand for microwave backhaul equipment, which could
be positive for companies such as Andrew and Harris.

Source: http://media.twango.com/m1/original/0030/6e044c8c9de94fde8784e0d28a136a25.pdf

mobile game market will continue to grow

2007-01-10T01:30:00.000-08:00

The mobile game market will grow from $1.8 billion in 2005 to $6.1 billion in 2010, according to iSuppli, a compound annual growth rate of 27.2 percent. The number of users by 2010 is predicted to be 134 million per month (it was 38 million in 2005).

source:

News Corp. to use mobile barcode technology

2006-12-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

The News of the World have teamed up with NeoMedia Technologies Inc. to bring interactive content to its audience. The technology called “qode”, enables users to take a photograph of a barcode with their camera phone or enter keywords to be connected to Internet information on their mobile phones.

From the press release:

“Mike Anderson, managing director of News Group Newspapers for News Corp. said News of the World will use qode mainly to bring TV clips of English Premier League football (soccer) to its readers via their cell phones over the mobile Internet. He said qode technology could also be used by News of the World advertisers to offer readers discount vouchers, or additional product information via their handsets.”

Orange Photography service: 1 million photos uploaded after the first 5 months.

2006-12-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

According to this press release, the Orange Photography service in the UK has had over a million photos uploaded over the last five months. The service also allows users to share images with friends. Orange gives some of the credit to Pixota, a mobile imaging client developed by NewBay

Preference for Mobile Data Services

2006-12-13T07:18:00.000-08:00

This report has some interesting information about which services mobile users have a particular preference for. For the full article, click here.

Service and Ranking

1 Text messaging (SMS)

2 Email

3 MMS

4 Alerts via SMS/MMS

5 Instant messaging

6 Web browsing and searching

7 Location-based services

8 Mobile radio

9 Financial transactions

10 Downloading content

11 Mobile TV

12 Video calling

13 Video sharing

14 Gambling

Music companies make up for lower CD sales with singles and ringtones

2006-12-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting article about how sales from ringtones and other mobile products are actually producing a substantial amount of revenue for record companies, from the article:

“According to the data, sales of the CD still accounted for roughly 74 percent of the U.S. revenue earned by the company, or roughly $17 million. But sales of an array of individual digital products added almost $6 million. About two-thirds came from ringtones of hit singles, but the figure also included roughly $330,000 from mobile phone games related to the artist and $94,000 in sales of cellphone “wallpaper,” or screen backgrounds.”

Encouraging findings for mobile TV in the UK

2006-12-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

A new study released by GfK Technology (this article in Revolution has some information on the results) shows encouraging findings for mobile TV usage among users in the U.K.

Overall, the study found 70% of active subscribers are using the service at least once a week. However, the vast majority actually watch mobile TV for less than half an hour at any one time, and only 38% claim that the typical length of a viewing session is for more than 20 minutes.

Over half of the respondents (the study conducted 280 online interviews with users of mobile TV over the last three months) said they watched mobile TV for something to do during their downtime; 18% said they watched to catch favourite programs when they were away from their TV at home; and 10% said they wanted to catch a particular program on-the-fly. The three most popular forms of content on mobile TV are: News & Weather (65% watch often or sometimes), Sports (56% watch often or sometimes) and Music Videos (46% watch often or sometimes).

Source: moconews.net

2006 Sprint Productivity Survey

2006-12-13T06:29:00.000-08:00

The recent Spirit Productivity revealed some interesting findings and trends among wireless mobile users in the US. Around 93% of Americans take their work-related mobile phones with them on holiday. The report also found that respondants thought that technology was essential to their levels of productivity.

From the report:

Productivity with Mobile Phones
When asked what services on respondents' mobile phones help maximize their lives (respondents could choose more than one), respondents said:
Text messaging (64 percent)

Email (62 percent)

Camera (60 percent)

Wireless Web (59 percent)

Music (58 percent)

Instant messaging (58 percent)

Location-based services (driving directions, GPS tracking) (55 percent)

News (55 percent)

Games (51 percent)

Similarly, when asked which feature on their mobile phone helps respondents make the most of their time, voicemail led the way. Respondents said:

Voicemail (86 percent)

Phone book (82 percent)

Speed dial (65 percent)

Speakerphone (65 percent)

Camera (56 percent)

Text/instant messaging (53 percent)

Calendar (51 percent)

For the full report, click here.

Mobile Internet Continues To Grow

2006-11-24T08:48:00.001-08:00

The number of mobile phone users accessing the Internet on their handsets is rising. According to figures announced by the Mobile Data Association (MDA), a total of 40.7 million users were recorded as having used their phones for downloads and browsing the mobile Internet in the UK during the third quarter of 2006.

The total number of users recorded in July was 13 million, which had increased to 14 million by September.

According to research from Nielsen/NetRatings, a WAP-enabled mobile phone is the second most popular digital device owned by Britons, after the PC, with 57% of the survey owning a phone that could access the internet. (source: BBC.co.uk) Click here for the full press release.

Mobile Internet Continues To Grow

2006-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

The total number of users recorded in July was 13 million, which had increased to 14 million by September.

Text To Buy

2006-11-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

Magazine publishers, tired of being lumped in with "old media," are embracing one of the newest media, mobile text messaging.Thanks to a new technology from a New York firm called ShopText and eBay unit PayPal, consumers this holiday season have the option of buying and sampling some products with their cell phones.

Magazines like Details, CosmoGIRL!, Glamour and Brides are rolling out ads with short codes for text-to-buy transactions. ShopText also worked with Lucky magazine for a program in the publication's September issue.

Such text-to-buy technology is in its infancy this holiday season. "In 2007, this is really going to explode," said Mark Kaplan, founder/CMO of ShopText.Click here for the full article

Mobile TV Needs Time

2006-11-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Executives from ITV ON, Orange and Freemantle Media today said that to be commercially viable, mobile TV would need time to develop as a platform.Talking at the Next Gen TV conference in London, Nicholas Wheeler, managing director of mobile news service ITV ON said: "It's got to be allowed time to grow and we need to make the customer experience better." He said the platform needed to move away from "girls, gaming and gambling" content, to focus on content consumers actually wanted.

Click here for the full article

Mobile Video User Statistics

2006-11-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

Mobile Video User Statistics
M:Metrics reports that although only one percent of mobile subscribers viewed video on their phones in September, there is pent-up demand for the service.
According to M:Metrics monthly Benchmark Survey, 6.1 million mobile subscribers said they were likely to view mobile video in the coming year. In comparison, 5.3 million downloaded a mobile game in September.

Mark Donovan, vice president, products and senior analyst at M:Metrics said. "Mobile video is still very much an early adopter phenomenon, with males under 35 demonstrating the highest propensity to have used it”

UK Video Stats:
Likely to subscribe to live TV service 6.4% Likely to download and watch video clips 6.0% Likely to stream video programs on demand 10.3% For more detailed statistics visit M:Metrics.

SMS generates more revenue than advertising

2006-11-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

French televison company, M6 has found that revenue generated by SMS voting on shows actually surpassed revenue generated via traditional advertising. The company encouraged audience members to text in to influence the outcome of shows and the SMS voting.

SMS voting has become an important revenue stream fro French televison, with revenues generating 100m Euros in 2005.
Link to the referring article.Original Post: http://blog.brandexperiencelab.org/experience_manifesto/2006/10/french_televisi.html

Google Chief: Ad Supported Mobile Services Are The Future

2006-11-17T08:07:00.000-08:00

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has said that in the future he believes mobile phones and mobile services will be free to users and will be supported by advertisements and sponsership.

According to this story: "Your mobile phone should be free...It just makes sense that subsidies should increase” as advertising rises on mobile phones. Schmidt says it enjoying early success in its strategy to win phone network allies in Japan, where TV viewing and shopping on phones is advanced...he did say his own company had no plans to directly give away phones itself, nor is he aware of any effort by partners such as phone makers Nokia or Motorola or mobile operators like Vodafone to make such a radical move.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2006-11-13-google-free-phones_x.htm?csp=34
http://www.moconews.net/entry/google-ceo-sees-ad-supported-mobile-phone-services

Vodafone and Yahoo team up to launch targeted ads.

2006-11-17T08:06:00.000-08:00

Yahoo to deliver sponsored ads to U.K. users. The companies said they expect to launch the mobile advertising service in the first half of next year. Under the agreement, users who agree to accept targeted display ads on their phones will also save on certain Vodafone services. According to the press release, this proposition “could extend to key Vodafone mobile assets including the Vodafone live! portal, games, television and picture messaging services.” Earlier this year Vodafone said it would consider offering customers free mobile TV, cheap calls, free mobile web browsing or free games and music downloads if they accept adverts.

Original Sources: http://www.moconews.net/, http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2006/11/14/125938.html

m:Metrics report: short code response rates

2006-11-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

Across the five countries for which it measures mobile content consumption, M:Metrics found that monthly use of text message short codes in response to ads was as high as 29.1 percent of mobile subscriber. For more detailed analysis, click here.

VoIP Company raise $20m to expand services

2006-11-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

Swedish company, Rebtel have acquired $20m in VC funding to expand its services. International calls from a mobile will be considerably cheaper than making the same call using the mobile operators.

A quick explaination of how the service works:

For each contact number a customer enters on the Rebtel Web site, the company creates a local phone number the contact can call. So if a Rebtel user in Paris enters on the Web site the cellphone number of a friend in San Francisco, the person in Paris will be given a local number to call, and a San Francisco number the friend can call. To avoid the per- minute cost, the customer in Paris calls his or her local number, the person in San Francisco answers, then hangs up and calls back his local number.

Mobile company, T-Mobile remain sceptical about the service. Klaus Czerwinski, a spokesman for T-Mobile said, "We don't think this will be any more successful than other new services where you have to do several steps to make a phone call," "People prefer simplicity."

However, a small operation like Rebtel has the oppourtunity to make a huge impact in the mobile market as co-founder Hjalmar Winbladh explains, "For us, getting $1 a week for unlimited calls is a good business, but for somebody like T-Mobile, it's bad business because of all the costs the company has," We are an organization with 20 people - our entire cost base is probably less than what it costs T-Mobile to run the reception in their headquarters."

http://www.benchmark.com/news/europe/2006/10_02_2006.php

Yahoo Begin Beta Testing Mobille Advertising Platform

2006-11-09T08:39:00.000-08:00

jgxglgkYahoo are currently beta testing a new advertising platform that will show both graphical banner ads and interactive sponsor messages that are specifically tailored to mobile devices.

The service is currently only available in the US, but the service is likely to expand into other countries.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/tc20061107_512323.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology

Samsung WI-Max 3- in One Phone

2006-11-09T06:13:00.000-08:00

Samsung WI-Max 3- in One Phone

A new phone is to be realised Early next year in Korea that can be used as a phone, personal computer and video/music player. The device uses Wi-Max, which promises fast connections over long distances. If this product takes off it could revoltionise the notion of computing.

From the article:

The device weighs about a pound and contains a fold-out keyboard, 5-inch screen and 30 gigabyte hard drive. It runs the full version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system and also supports the CDMA mobile phone communications standard, which is used in South Korea and other countries including the United States.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110700650.html?nav=rss_technology

2006-10-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

This site has an interesting post about Mobile 2.0 (From the post):

"Mobile 2.0 is almost as much about the end user as it is about the device or the service whereas Web 2.0 doesn’t exist with out the combination of the two. In a similar vein, Mobile 2.0 is morphologically amorphous - the form of the device is constantly changing and shifting. As Walter Mossberg said at a keynote last year, Mobile is the most important new technology but we have no idea what it is going to become."

What will mobile devices become in the future? Perhaps the closest answer lies with the pioneering work by Mark Weiser and Xerox Parc labs and their Ubicomp framework.

“Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.”

Video Capture Adoption Rates: US and Europe

2006-10-31T08:02:00.000-08:00

According to research conducted by Telephia, nearly 8 million mobile users now use their mobile phones to record personal video clips. That is approximately 3% of all mobile users in the US.

This rate nearly doubles to 6% among new mobile subscribers. The US adoption rate pales in comparison to the rest of Europe. Spain lead the way with 15% adoption rate, followed by Italy with 14% and UK with 12%. Sweden is at 10%, France and Germany are both 9%.

Source: Telephia (PDF file)

US and European Mobile Phone Use

2006-10-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

Recent research conducted by comScore indicates that Europeans are much more likely to use the web on their mobile phones than Americans. The research found 29 % of European Web users in Germany, France, Italy, UK & Spain regularly use their cell phones to access the Internet in comparison to just 19 % in US.

In the UK 24% of mobile phone users use the web on their mobile phones. Germany and Italy were top with 34% each.

In the USA, Google, MSN and Yahoo dominate the market having 74% mobile traffic. In Europe web portals don’t have anywhere near the same market share. The highest in Italy (34 %), followed by UK (31 %), Germany (29 %), Spain (28 %) & France (24 %).

The study also revealed that men are more likely to access the web through their cell phones than women. 55 % of mobile phone users that were surveyed were men.

The study also found that news websites were visited more often than commerce sites by mobile users.

Source: http://www.rncos.com/Blog/mobile.html

Mobile TV struggles to hit the mainstream.

2006-10-26T08:21:00.001-07:00

Research firm, Ovum, have highlighted the key issues facing mobile operators trying to push mobile TV into the mainstream.

Ovums senior analyst, Eden Zoller, claims that while huge mainstream TV programs such as Lost are popular, they are not made specifically for mobile and so offer nothing new to the user.

Zoller also claims that the mobile specific content hasn’t fared that much better. One of the main problems was that mobile specific content is expensive to produce and it is difficult to challenge established mainstream television programs.

Zoller highlighted the mobile specific spin-off series of “24” and it would seem that this is probably the best method for mobile TV to capture an audience. Web episodes such as those created for “The US Office” would allow for lesser characters or story-lines to be developed and could also overlap with the major TV storyline.

The recent Lost Experience ARG also seems to indicate that there is a growing interest for cross-media promotion campaigns and mobile TV could certainly play a part in any future ARG type campaings
Source: (NMA 26/10/2006/, page 13)

Sega complain that handset manufacturers are stopping mobile game growth

2006-10-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Sega COO, Mike Haynes, has complained that the mobile games industry is waiting for handset manufacturers to release the necessary technology to enable next generation games to be played on them.

While Sega are still currently releasing mobile games, most notably, the ever popular Football Manager series, Haynes insists that mobile game development will not see a significant increase in growth until handset manufacturers release technology that is capable of playing next-generation games up to the standard to the Nintendo DS.

Source (NMA 26/10/2006/ page 11)

Microsoft Launches Windows for Mobiles

2006-10-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has announced plans to launch Windows Live services for mobile phones. Currently in beta stages, the service will officially begin next month. Microsoft have created specific mobile pages and will initially sell “tenancy” advertising on their site, however, it’s expected that once user numbers increase they will switch to CPM advertising.

Source: (NMA 26/10/06/ page 1)

02 launch “made for mobile” videos

2006-10-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

02 will become the first mobile operqator to release videos that were specifically made for mobile phones. Rather than use re-purposed video content, 02 feel that their “made for mobile” content is key and they are looking at increase their commitment with independent content producers. They hope that by using indpendant content producers, they can share the burden of production costs. Graeme Riddell, 02’ head of mobile content said,

“This may involve us commissioning content and providing joint funding to get ideas of the ground”

Source: (NMA 19/10/06/, page 11)

Brands can now offer free-text service.

2006-10-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Brands can now cover the cost of consumers replying to competitions or campaigns. Similar to the freephone number, brands can now make sure that end users don’t need to pay to enter competitions or other services. O2 launched the service last week. MX Telecom are the first company to use the service.

Source (NMA – 19/10/06, Page 2)

Paypal Mobile tries to lure customers with 1p Porsche

2006-10-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

Paypal Mobile is offering the chance for users to win a Porsche for a penny in an attempt to increase the use of its text-to-buy service. Paypal have also announced that they plan to launch a WAP payment product. Paypals independent third party status and it’s ubiquity on the web,may mean that, rather than operators, it will become the number one payment choice for mobile users in the future.

Source: (NMA 19/10/06/, Page 3)

NMA say SMS Marketing is not dead

2006-10-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

According to a recent NMA article, SMS marketing is only just beginning to be fully realised as a marketing tool. While sending out untargeted SMS ads will probably result in people trusting a brand less, targeted SMS ads actually have a 3-8% response rate.

Gone are the days of buying a database from a third party, now companies are compiling their own databases of people who have decided to “opt-in”, meaning they have a market who are only too willing to have relevant messages sent to them. Whereas before SMS messages were often perceived as spam, with targeted SMS messages there now exists the potential to directly reach consumers who are interested in what a company has to offer.

Source (NMA 12/10/06 p.25)

Mobile Internet usage expected to increase in 2007

2006-10-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

Jupiter Research analyst Sharon Armbrust has outlined her thinking for an increase in consumer use of mobile internet next year. She claims that one of the main reasons for the slow uptake is “the widespread lack of opportunity consumers have had to sample mobile broadband, either at all or in any manner that renders a rewarding experience”. However, a host of new developments this year should lead to an ability for consumers to sample the mobile internet enjoyably, which should in turn lead to purchasing.Source: http://www.moconews.net/

Mobile Radio

2006-10-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Interesting article found via this blog on the future of mobile radio: From the article:
“It would let listeners use radio stations as a tool to explore music in a way that is impossible on other devices, they'd have their favourite DJ guiding them through a world of music they don't have time to sift through themselves.
And if the stations got a share of the purchase price from selling tracks as impulse purchases, this would give them an incentive to play a lot more new music, as larger playlists would offer more tracks to buy. Stations would put a lot more thought into the music they play, and it might even lead to an increase in the quality of music as they try to entice people into clicking on the "buy" button. It would also allow make them a lot more influential in the music business as they'd be frontline retailers rather than just promoters.”Click here for the full article.

Mobile Video Sharing

2006-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

Cable and Wireless and Telecom Italia Sparkle have reportedly completed the first international mobile video sharing trial. “Mobile video sharing allows users to view live or pre-recorded video content together during a normal voice call. This means that consumers could resolve disputes over whether a goal went over the line, or a player was offside, by watching video clips on their mobile phone during a call - and continue the discussion after the video had finished.

Source: http://www.moconews.net/

Former Vodaphone director claims 70% of downloads is adult content

2006-10-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

Former Vodafone Group’s director of global content development, Graeme Ferguson, gave a talk recently saying that adult content drives the mobile content market — “At Vodafone we denied this, but the fact is that 70% of downloads are of adult content.”He also gave some tips to small content producers: “Small producers with mobile content need to approach operators via content aggregators. Or, “Sell it to Yahoo instead. If you don’t have a big brand or marketing budget, the mobile user won’t find you.”

(source: http://www.moconews.net/_)

Disney say, "mobile TV will be huge"

2006-10-13T02:24:00.000-07:00

"Industry analysts predict that mobile television could be a global market worth as much as $27 billion by 2010," Sweeney said, adding that 500 million new wireless connections have been made globally in the past year.
Disney already has deals in place with Vodafone Italy and Orange Mobile in the U.K. and has just finalized a deal to stream Disney Channel via France Telecom's Orange service. Disney has a deal to distribute the ABC hit "Lost" to 3.2 million mobile-phone customers in the U.K., and plans to bring the network's "Desperate Housewives" to 24 million Vodafone Italy subscribers.

Click here for the full article

"Classic" tracks to drive ringtone growth

2006-10-13T02:20:00.000-07:00

While hip-hop acts may rule today's ringtone charts, yesterday's stars are introducing the format to a broader audience and drive tomorrow's growth.

Only about 10 percent of wireless subscribers buy ringtones today, primarily young adults purchasing hip-hop and R&B-themed content. Record labels and wireless operators are keen to expand their market, particularly as the dominant format shifts from polyphonic ringtones to master recording clips. Exploiting the vast library of catalogue music, they say, is emerging as a key strategy in that effort.

Acts like Devo, the B-52's, the Ramones, the Allman Brothers Band and Jimmy Buffett are generating healthy ringtone sales, and even Pink Floyd has found its way onto the mobile deck. Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" is one of the best-selling catalogue ringtones of all time, with more than 1.2 million units sold, and became the first licensed track to appear in a mobile videogame.

Click here for the full article.

Women Leading the Way For Mobile Downloads

2006-10-13T02:12:00.001-07:00

Research conducted by M:Metrics indicates that women are now leading the way in terms of downloading content for phones. From the article:
“The number of females consuming ringtones and games grew by 27 percent and 21 percent, respectively, year over year. Corresponding numbers for males were growth of 15.4 percent in males downloading ringtones and a decline of 11.3 percent in the number of males downloading games. Females now account for a clear majority, or 55 percent, of ringtone purchasers. While males still have a higher propensity to download games, the ratio of male to female game downloaders has dropped from 61 percent male in 2005 to 54 percent male in 2006.”

http://www.mmetrics.com/

Sony BMG upbeat about mobile music

2006-10-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

According to this article: “On average, 4.1 million, or 2.1 percent of the 190 million U.S. cellular subscribers, used their mobile phone as a music player in August, according to M:Metrics Inc. The research firm estimates that number slides in Europe to 649,490.”
At Sony BMG, digital music sales contributed 19 percent to U.S. revenues during the first six months in 2006. Korea led the way with 32 percent; Japan, 11 percent; Italy, 10 percent; United Kingdom, 8 percent; France, 5 percent; and Germany 4 percent.

Click here for the full article.

BP Looks to mobile to help build brand

2006-10-06T05:04:00.000-07:00

BP’s coffee chain, Wild Bean Café, is hoping to build brand loyalty via mobile phone. Customers can get free products when they register their details online. Vouchers are sent to customers via SMS and which can be redeemed at stores nationwide.

Source: (NMA 05.10.06 / page 3)

Mobile games revenue expected to grow

2006-10-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

From this article: “Juniper Research estimates that global revenues for mobile games will grow from $3bn in 2006 to $10.5bn in 2009. Looking further into the future, continued growth of mobile subscribers in developing markets and a continuation of the demographic shift will propel the global mobile games market to annual revenues of $17.6 billion. This will produce a cumulative revenue stream of nearly $57 billion over the six years. The Asia Pacific region has dominated the market since its inception, with the Japanese and South Korean markets in the vanguard. Asia Pacific is forecast to contribute 38% of cumulative revenues 2006 to 2011, Europe 31% and North America 22%.”

36.5 million people respond via SMS to adverts.

2006-10-05T03:55:00.000-07:00

Mobile data company, M:Metrics has found that a large percentage of mobile subscribers are responding to short codes in advertisements or other media. Spain is leading the way with a response rate of 29.1%, next is the UK with 18.5%, France 10.1%. USA with 7% and Germany with 3.4%.

For full story click here.

Coca Cola to launch Barcode Mobile Game

2006-10-05T03:52:00.000-07:00

Dutch/Swedish company, OP3 has signed a deal with Coca Cola to run a ShotCode promotion on 40 million bottles of Sprite in Mexico. “Once scanned a Sprite trivia question is automatically presented. Answer this question correctly and you’ll instantly know if you’ve won one of millions of prizes. The prizes range from free pizzas at Dominos Pizza to DVD’s at Blockbuster Video. Every winner receives his/her prize instantly in the form of a jpeg image. This image is a digital coupon that contains a unique code to claim your prize, an innovative mechanism introduced in this campaign for the first time.”

For more in-depth look at ShotCode, click here.

Ringtone sales will continue to fall.

2006-10-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

Dodgy sales techniques, piracy and full-track downloads are all being blamed as the bottom falls out of the ringtone market. Research by MusicAlly tracks UK ringtone sales growing from £34.8 million in 2000 to £177.3 in 2005, but predicts that will fall to £143.5 million this year and £78.8 million by 2007. The report also claims that misleading sales subscriptions are also a factor because users often don’t trust ringtone services.M:Metrics data for Europe shows a 42 percent drop in sale.

(Source: MocoNews.net)

Social Network Sites and Mobile Devices.

2006-10-05T03:45:00.000-07:00

Social networking sites, such as, Myspace and Bebo, are looking to add the ability for users to use mobile devices to update their profile and blogs.. As the number of users grows, so too will the desire to access blog and social networking spaces on the move," says Tim Cole, of mobile content specialist Tao Group. "Mobile phones are the obvious medium to facilitate this." From the article:

“…mobile operator 3 UK has signed up over 50,000 users to its Kink Kommunity in just two months since launching, who are making 350,000 postings a day, and submitting 80,000 MMS messages a month. However, most observers think the key will be partnerships between the mobile operators, and the online social networking sites”

Click here for the full article.

The writing is (literally) on the wall for text messaging.

2006-10-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

From this story in the economist :

“New technologies allow text messages to be displayed on the sides of buildings, on public screens in cafés or on vast digital displays at sporting events and festivals. Such “digital graffiti” can be used in various ways: to capture the mood of a gathering, boost a brand, or to spark public dialogue”For more information check out Wiffiti (Wi-Fi Graffiti) or this article at the Chicagoist website.

Boost for The Open Mobile Alliance as key players sign-on.

2006-10-02T04:12:00.000-07:00

The Open Mobile Alliance who aim to create a mobile gaming standard have been boosted by the news that leading industry players, such as, Nokia, Samsung, SK Telecom, Square-Enix, Symbian, Tao Group and Texas Instruments have all joined the initiative, which intends to streamline the development and delivery process for mobile gaming.

Full Article

MTV Europe launches quiz game

2006-10-02T03:59:00.000-07:00

MTV has launched a new quiz game to coincide with the MTV Europe Music Awards due to take place in Novemeber. The quiz is available in 12 different countries and costs 3 Euros to play. High scores can be stored both locally and online

Full Article

Mobile TV Viewing Figure Times.

2006-10-02T03:56:00.000-07:00

Prime time for mobile TV viewing (including video clips) has its prime time in the afternoon and early evening, between noon and 8pm. “According to Telephia’s Mobile Video Diary Report, 30 percent of mobile video users watch mobile TV and video clips on their cell phones during the hours of noon and 4 pm, and 31 percent watch during the early evening commute hours of 4 pm to 8 pm”. The rest of the time slots are about 9%, except for 2-6am which is just 3%. “Mobile video users claim nearly one-fourth (22%) of their viewing happens while they are at home. Similarly, twenty-two percent of their viewing is also done while they are commuting, sixteen percent while they are shopping, and 14 percent while they are at work.”There’s also a disproportionately high level of middle-aged viewers, as well as hispanics. For more detailed stats, please see the table above.

(http://www.moconews.net/#post-21667 )

Text messages break UK records in August

2006-10-02T03:42:00.000-07:00

2006 has regularly seen record-breaking figures for text messaging in the UK with August no exception as the total number of text messages sent soared to over 3.6 billion. This is an increase of 100 million on the previous highest total recorded in July, according to figures released today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

Click here for the full article.

mBlox enables eBay’s new SMS re-bidding service

2006-10-02T03:39:00.000-07:00

mBlox has announces that it is working with application service provider Dynetic to deliver an exciting new SMS re-bidding service to eBay in Spain. The service, which will enable users to be close to eBay whenever they need to, will be powered using mBlox mobile terminated and originated premium SMS services.

Click here for the full article.

Moblabber- launched mobile social networking site.

2006-10-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

Feedtext has launched Moblabber - a social networking service that is optimised for both web and mobile phone interaction.

Because Moblabber is available through the web and optimized for viewing on mobile phones, subscribers of supported US carriers can register and make use of all the online services either through their web browsers or through a simplified text messaging version on their mobile phones. In addition, subscribers can opt to receive message alerts via text message when a new event has taken place such as group announcements, group replies and private messages.

“This is the advent of wireless community building,” says Vince T. Yamat, Chief Executive Officer of Feedtext, Inc. “The very fact that you can access your group of friends from anywhere with a cell signal opens up creative possibilities whether it be to find help-on-the-go or indulging in casual banter

Click here to visit the original source.

FreeBe TV offers free mobile music video promotion.

2006-10-02T03:17:00.000-07:00

The worlds first free mass-market 2.5G GPRS multi-channel mobile TV service, FreeBe TV, has issued an invitation to independent record labels and bands to submit their music videos for inclusion on it's new You-Made-It channel.
FreeBe TV launched earlier this month and has already received more than 100,000 hits on it's website www.freebe.tv and more than 2,500 people are now enjoying free mobile TV worldwide.
"We'll be compatible with 100 major handsets by the end of the year" said Bruce Renny of FreeBe TV "but what's really exciting is that people are already viralling the news that free mobile TV exists to their friends, so uptake is growing exponentially day by day.
FreeBe TV’s “You-Made-It” is a mobile version of YouTube.com where users can upload their own video clips and perhaps signals a further step towards user generated content on mobile devices.

http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2006/09/29/144452.html

Music companies reach settlement over digital music delivery.

2006-10-02T01:45:00.000-07:00

Companies representing a substantial majority of the UK digital music market have reached a settlement relating to the royalties paid to composers, songwriters and music publishers for the digital delivery of music for online and mobile use

The three-year deal has been agreed between the MCPS-PRS Alliance representing songwriters, composers and music publishers, British recorded music trade association the BPI, iTunes and four UK mobile network operators, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. It sets a rate of 8% of Gross Revenue less VAT to be paid to composers, songwriters and publishers when their music is offered in a digital environment, with a lower rate (6.5%) for non-on-demand services. These rates are subject to minimum royalties.

(http://www.cellular-news.com/story/19630.php )

McDonalds and Sony BMG Announce Mobile Partnership.

2006-10-02T01:44:00.001-07:00

Akoo and McDonald’s at Woodfield Mall today announced the launch of m-Venue™, a patent-pending entertainment and marketing platform that enables McDonald’s customers to search, select, and “activate” in-store digital content -- including music, music videos, and movie previews -- with their mobile phones or Internet-connected mobile devices.
m-Venue allows patrons to choose a wide variety of audio and video content from Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Sony Pictures, among others, via text messaging (SMS), the mobile Internet, or a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop. Selections are performed on demand in designated multimedia zones within the restaurant or placed into a queue if another selection is already playing. For a limited time, the service is available at no cost to customers, compliments of participating McDonald’s locations.

(http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060925005576&newsLang=en )

Social Networking continues to grow on mobile devices.

2006-10-02T01:44:00.000-07:00

3UK has reported that over 50,000 users have signed up to its social networking site Kink Kommunity in the two months since its launch, at 20p a day or £1.49 a month. Also, “its You Tube-like video sharing service SeeMeTV has now reached 12m downloads”.It’s also released some statistics: “Since its July launch, Kink Kommunity has seen an average of 350,000 postings a day, with 80,000 MMS submissions a month…80% of users choose the monthly option, women are the most active users, and usage is evenly spread across the 18-29-year-old age range. Over 15,000 subscribers are over 30.”3 is also in the process of integrating this service into the rest of its offerings, such as allowing people to chat about the content they’re buying. (http://www.moconews.net). User generated content for mobiles was also given a further boost by the news that Webaroo has now included wikipedia content onto mobile

Furthermore, Vodafone will launch its own version of MySpace on mobile phones by mid October. Though the telco is coy on the details, the service will likely be similar to existing websites such as MySpace and Bebo, but designed for the small screens of mobiles

(http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3807071a28,00.html?source=email)

Mobile TV Revenue Surpasses Ringtones.

2006-10-02T01:41:00.000-07:00

Vodafone – Mobile TV more successful than ringtones. Half of all Vodafone customers now subscribe to mobile TV. This sector looks set to continue growth with IMS Research forecasts that by the end of 2011, nearly half a billion people will be watching TV on their cellular handsets. Driven primarily by the adoption of broadcast-based services such as DVB-H, mobile digital TV will experience 50% year-on-year growth through 2010 (NMA/ 21.09.06/p.1)

(http://www.w2forum.com/i/446_Million_Watching_TV_on_Their_Cell_Phones_By_2011_IMS_Research)

MMA (Mobile Marketing Association)

2006-10-02T01:40:00.002-07:00

Advertising standards committee for marketing and mobilesThe MMA is a global organization with representation in over fourteen countries. MMA members include agencies, advertisers, hand held device manufacturers, carriers and operators, retailers, software providers and service providers, as well as any company focused on the potential of marketing via mobile devices.

(Marketing/ 20.09.06/p.2) (For more information about the MMA visit:
www.mmaglobal.com

Games Revenue On The Rise

2006-10-02T01:40:00.001-07:00

Only 5% of mobile users currently download games for their mobile. However, revenue for games is expected to increase over the next few years.Total revenue for mobile games for 2006 will reach over a $2.4bn / £1.27bn for mobile games. This trend is set to contine, and by 2011 it is expected to reach $7bn (£3.81bn). Of games downloaded 70% come from mobile phone networks themselves (orange/o2 etc..) 10 % of games come from “off-site” portals.

(source: Informa) (NMA/ 14.09.06/ )

Vodafone first to completely knock down “garden wall”.

2006-10-02T01:40:00.000-07:00

Vodafone has embarked on a three year strategy that will see them fully integrate Vodafone Live! With its third party business providing wholesale services for content providers.

Vodafone is the first operator to fully merge its portal and third party teams. The strategy will see Vodafone Live! Opened up to third parties through advertising and directory placement. (NMA/)
(NMA/ 213.09.06/ p.15) (NMA/ 21.09.06/ p.11)

Mobile content revenue news

2006-10-02T01:38:00.000-07:00

Mobile Content News Mobile content revenue is set to reach £15bn (EUROS 23.4bn) per year by 2011. Half of all 16-25 year olds are happy to receive ads through their mobile phones in exchange for content. While Mobile Content looks set to continue to increase in revenue, there are less positive signs regarding mobile music. In a recent survey only 4% of respondents considered themselves likely to start downloading music.
While numbers of people interested in downloading music of their mobile has risen from 21% to 25%. 4/10 people claim they are not interested at all in downloading music for their mobile. (NMA/ 21.09.06/ p.11)