Google's AdMob Deal Analyzed

We’ve spent some of today canvassing opinions from various parts of the mobile marketing business concerning Google’s acquisition of AdMob for $750 million, announced yesterday.
The consensus seems to be that the move is a welcome one, and not just for AdMob. Mick Rigby, Chairman of mobile media and strategy agency Yodel Digital, says he had mixed emotions when he first read about the deal, but concluded that it is a good move.
“AdMob is a great business providing an excellent service and my initial thoughts were that they would completely get swamped by Google and become a faceless monolith,” he says. “In retrospect, however, I think this is both a good move for AdMob and for the mobile business as whole. For AdMob, they will be able to tap into all the global Google relationships and grow rapidly. The mobile advertising business gets a huge shot in the arm of increased credibility. Google has said that in the future it believes it will be making more money from mobile than from the fixed line Internet. In buying AdMob, Google has shown massive commitment to mobile advertising and by the nature of this relationship, it will accelerate the growth of the sector.”
Adhish Kulkarni, Managing Director of B!Digital, says the acquisition is an important step in validating mobile as a sustainable, profitable advertising medium at a time when other mobile advertising brands have exited the market.
“Admob being primarily linked to CPC (cost-per-click) performance marketing still leaves the premium space open - one of the reasons B!Digital recently launched our own mobile advertising marketplace,” says Kulkarni. “Given the rapid expected growth of the medium, we feel there is lots of room for competition to thrive as long as you keep focus. Finally, this move cements Google’s strategic emphasis on mobile, which also means they may be looking to fill other gaps in the mobile advertising marketplace such as SMS marketing, which are today out of scope for Admob.”
Mark Slade, Managing Director of 4th Screen Advertising, also draws a distinction between AdMob’s CPC-based, ad-exchange model, where advertisers can “buy inventory blindly and cheaply on a CPC basis, with the price being dictated by the ad-network provider or buyer” and premium ad networks.
“Using Google’s muscle AdMob will no doubt be able to increase its share of this sector considerably, which means some tough times ahead for many of its direct competitors,” he says. “However, premium mobile ad-networks such as 4th Screen offer advertisers the ability to provide a highly engaging experience that can deliver a precise and targeted campaign at premium inventory, that draws on advanced handset features and an array of mobile marketing techniques.”
Slade concludes that the Google/AdMob deal can only serve to increase the value brands place in mobile advertising per se, and that the industry will experience a benefit at both the CPC and premium ends of the market.
Zohar Levkovitz, Founder and CEO of Amobee, which delivers advertising solutions to mobile operators, says that the move signals to operators developing their own mobile advertising offerings that there is no time for complacency.
“The marriage between Google and Admob is a clear indicator that the mobile advertising industry has a bright future. Industry innovation will also stand to benefit from Google entering the competitive mix,” says Levkovitz. “While operators still own the mobile market in terms of reach, and the subscriber in terms of trust, billing relationships, user demographics and targeting information, it is undeniable that Google’s acquisition is a game changer.
“Nevertheless, there are still challenges to overcome and fragmentation continues to be a stumbling block. In order for mobile advertising to have a strong, viable future, we believe that the solution must be more centralized around the unbeatable assets of the mobile operators. Major brands and media buyers want a one-stop shop solution and access to the operator’s premium inventory. An operator-centric approach will play a key role in making this possible and further accelerate adoption.”
Xen Mendelsohn, Product Marketing Manager at Comverse Mobile Advertising, echoes these views. He says:
“Many of today’s mobile campaigns use mobile display banners offered by mobile ad networks, such as AdMob and others. However, bypassing the operator in the mobile advertising value chain provides advertisers with inferior results.
“Ad networks, like Google Analytics over the web, can provide information about the OS and handset used to display the ad, the amount of time that the ad was displayed, the country, IP address, etc. But they’re unable to provide real information about who the users are and surely no indication of their interests and habits.
“Mobile operators hold key assets of great value that can’t be replicated by any other player, not AdMob or Google or even the two combined. Operators know their users and their interests – information can be tailored accordingly to reduce the risk of spam and irrelevant ads. Operators can also offer incentives such as free or reduced-price mobile services in return for receiving ads on your phone. And operators also have access to more channels than pure mobile internet display ads, from ringback tones, to P2P SMS/MMS, visual voicemail, video etc. The options are almost limitless.
Mendelsohn notes that while many operators have acknowledged the growing activity in the mobile advertising arena and their unique assets, they have been hesitant to jump in with both feet; mostly due to a lack of knowledge of how to turn into a media company that sells ad space.
“The size of the Google AdMob deal shows the advertising web giant sees huge potential in this domain,” he says. “And it will certainly reassure and encourage operators that there is big business for them in the mobile advertising market; especially when the latter are in possession of unique assets that trump the off-deck mobile advertising framework.”
Jo Wall, Mobile Advertising Specialist at Acision, says the purchase of AdMob will strengthen Google’s mobile advertising position, which to date, she feels, has been limited, predominately focusing successfully on mobile search.
“Linking the capabilities of the two companies should produce more innovation within this space, hopefully this will be more than just mobile Internet advertising,” says Wall. “The multi-channel potential from mobile Internet, messaging, on-device, games, applications and more is what makes mobile advertising exciting. However, for mobile advertising to flourish it is critical that privacy, preference and permissions are at the heart of any solution going forward. It will be interesting to see how Google’s Ad Preference Manager will be extended to the AdMob’s Ad Network capabilities to benefit both the advertisers, by providing greater targeting data for more effective campaigns, and the end users by ensuring more relevant ads are received.”
Mark Curtis, CEO of online and mobile dating service Flirtomatic, says the move is very good news for mobile overall.
“I’m not surprised,” says Curtis. “Admob had been very clever at setting up a system that, like Google Adwords, was super easy to use from anywhere in the world to buy placement anywhere in the world. It also marks out how very serious Google is about the mobile space. What I'm hoping for now is innovation in mobile advertising and there is a strong chance Google will drive this.”
And Stephen Upstone, VP Sales Business Development at Velti Plc, says he believes that Google’s investment in AdMob is a strategic play for the Android ecosystem and the ambition to quickly scale Android to become much larger than Apple and, longer term, Nokia’s Symbian.
“The strategic value here is how AdMob will help make revenue flow to application developers and handset manufacturers using the Android Operating System,” says Upstone. “This strategic importance could have had an influence on the valuation in the deal, especially if there was competition from other potential buyers.”
Ben Tatton-Brown, Managing Director of mobile media planning and buying agency RingRing Media, describes the acquisition as “a milestone for our industry, that highlights the potential of the mobile advertising market.”
Tatton-Brown says he believes the valuation is justified regarding the size and the growth of the market.
“I am very confident for the future of mobile advertising,” he says. “Especially since RingRing Media is now spending in excess of $1 million a month buying advertising for our clients and seeing significant month on month growth.”
And Mike Wehrs, CEO and President of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), says that if there remained any doubters of the value of mobile marketing, the sale of AdMob to Google at this valuation puts those concerns to rest. 
“Mobile marketing and advertising represent unique capabilities for advertisers and marketers and a new level of information access for consumers,” says Wehrs. “These characteristics have shown already the incredible impact on a company's marketing efforts that embracing MMA guidelines and best practices in their Mobile Marketing efforts can have.”
And what do we think? Well for what it’s worth, with no axe to grind and no vested interests, we agree with Mick Rigby that it’s a deal that gives the mobile marketing business increased credibility at a time when there is still much frustration in the air that budgets are still small, brands still ignorant of what mobile can do for them, and the very act of buying mobile media is still far too difficult. As David Fieldhouse, Head of Mobile at media agency Mediacom put it at an event last week:
“When you can spend £1m online in an afternoon and it takes three days to spend £50,000 on mobile, there’s your answer.”
The fact that, despite all this, Google feels that this a market worth being in can only get more brands to take mobile seriously. Perhaps even the mobile operators too. On the subject of which, for those following our attempts to get more information out of O2 about their marketing database of O2 subscribers which they are making available to brands, we followed up our email of last Thursday with another this morning, asking all the same questions. Still no reply, but we’ll share all the details with you as soon as we have them. Perhaps, hopefully, they’re too busy talking to Google.

Football League Seeks Mobile/Web Partner

FL interactive (FLi), the Football League’s online arm, is putting its network-wide advertising contract out to tender. FLi is seeking a new partner from July 2010 onwards.
FLi manages the Internet and mobile rights for 80 football clubs in The Football League, Premier League and Football Conference. Its General Manager, Kieron Kilbride, says:
“FLi is one of the largest football networks in Europe and its websites receive more than 120 million advertising impressions every month. This is a great opportunity for the right company to make a connection with our network’s six million individual users.”
Interested parties should contact James McEvoy, FLi’s Head of Business Development via email on: jmcevoy@football-league.co.uk

Taptu and OneRiot Offer Real-time Mobile Search

Mobile search engine Taptu has joined forces with OneRiot, which operates a “real-time search engine” to launch what the claim is the first ever real-time search solution for mobile. 
OneRiot crawls the links that people share on Twitter, Digg and other social sharing services, and then indexes the content, to provide socially-relevant, real-time search results. The tie-up with Taptu means the service is now available on mobile at Taptu.com.
Taptu makes use of OneRiot’s real-time search API, while retaining Taptu’s mobile-touch friendly interface. 
The companies say the partnership fulfills a need for people to discover real-time, socially-influenced content on the go in a mobile-friendly format. The service is available on major touch devices, including the iPhone, iPod touch, G1, Nokia N97 and 5800, and the BlackBerry Storm. OneRiot’s real-time results will also soon appear within Taptu’s iPhone app.
Steve Ives, founder and CEO of Taptu: “Taptu introduced touch search to meet the specific needs of mobile users, and adding real-time search to this offering is a great feature,” says Taptu CEO Steve Ives. "For the first time, mobile users will be able to find out what is going on right now in a mobile friendly format.” 

LinkedIn Ties Up with Twitter

LinkedIn and Twitter have announced an integration partnership that allows members to share status updates between their LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. The cross integration of the two networks through the Tweets app allows members of LinkedIn to automatically share their updates on the professional network with their Twitter followers. They can also select Twitter status updates to share with their LinkedIn network by adding the #in hashtag to tweets on the microblogging site. LinkedIn says the partnership with Twitter is the first of several integrations its members will see over the coming weeks.
The integration will allow members of LinkedIn to immediately increase the sharing of information and business insight across their wider professional network. LinkedIn members will be able to track and manage their Twitter feed from within their LinkedIn profile, making it easier to keep track of the latest news and conversations around their industry.
There’s more information on the LinkedIn blog
http://blog.linkedin.com/

Web Browsing and App Downloads on the Rise, says Nielsen

Browsing the web was the fastest growing activity on UK mobile phones between the second and third quarters of 200p, according to new research from The Nielsen Company. The number of Britons using mobile Internet increased by 1.6 million, from 8.8 million in Q2 2009 to 10.4 million in Q3 2009. This means over one-fifth of people in the UK with a mobile now use their handset to browse the web.
Downloading applications or software was the second-fastest growing activity. Driven mostly by Nokia and iPhone owners, the number of Britons engaged in this activity increased by just over one million, from 3.1 million in Q2 to 4.1 million, or 8% of Britons with a mobile, in Q3.
The number of people using their mobile to send and receive email rose by almost 800,000, while the number using their phone to send texts and to receive text alerts both rose by 700,000. But newer forms of mobile technology also feature prominently, with video being the sixth-fastest growing activity (up by half a million) followed by location-based services, which were used by 400,000 more Britons in Q3 2009 than in Q2.
Despite this, Edward Kershaw, Vice President of Mobile Media at The Nielsen Company says:
“Although there have been sizeable increases in the take-up of new mobile technologies, such as video and location-based services they remain niche forms of behaviour. Although the era of the handset as a truly multimedia device on a mass-market level lies somewhere on the horizon, the key for companies to successfully harness mobile lies in a realistic understanding of what media activities people on a large-scale are actually doing on their handsets now.”
The number of people in the UK using Smartphones increased by 10% between Q2 and Q3 2009 from 5.6 million to 6.2 million – over 577,000 new users. Despite this increase the Smartphone share of the UK market grew by just 1%, from 14 to 15% of all UK mobile phone owners.
Although Nokia remains the dominant manufacturer in this sector, with 2.7 million users or 44% of Smartphone owners, its share has been eroded by BlackBerry-maker RIM and Apple. BlackBerrys increased their share amongst UK Smartphone owners from 14 to 19%, while Apple increased its share from 14 to 17%. BlackBerrys were the fastest-growing Smartphone, with almost 382,000 new UK users. This was 50% more than the iPhone, which had just over 254,000 new users.
“Although the number of Smartphone users increased by 10%, they still only account for one in every seven mobile owners, says Kershaw. “Whilst Smartphones get all the media attention, it’s important not to overlook what the vast majority of Britons are actually using. It’s easy to be blinded by the hype, but this results in a distorted picture of the mobile market. It will be interesting to see if the recent launches of BlackBerry’s Storm 2 and the Palm Pre - dubbed the ‘iPhone killer’ - will result in a great leap of Smartphone market share in the UK.”

O2 Offers Free Broadband with iPhone Tethering

O2 has launched the ‘iPhone Total Connectivity Bolt On’, which offers customers who buy the  iPhone Internet Tethering bolt-on a standard O2 Home Broadband package completely free.
Pay Monthly iPhone customers who buy the discounted £9.79 per month 3GB Internet Tethering Bolt On before 31 December 2009 will be entitled to the O2 Home Broadband standard package for free. The 3GB Internet Tethering and O2 Home Broadband package is compatible with all 3G iPhones. Alternatively, customers can claim a £7.34pm discount against any other O2 Home Broadband product, including Premium, Pro or O2 Home Broadband Access.

SwissQual Handed Operator Rating Task

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BRTC) is to rate the country’s mobile operators for quality using technology from SwissQual.
The BRTC will publish monthly ratings for operators from January 2010. The ratings will cover a number of indicators, including coverage, dropped calls and customer care. Following consultation with operators, BRTC plans to publish a draft regulation regarding the rating procedure in mid November.
SwissQual’s Diversity Benchmarker system will be used to carry out the measurements, simultaneously comparing six operators at a time for voice and data quality, plus other parameters.  
“The fact that SwissQual is completely independent of any of the network infrastructure vendors gives regulators a great deal of confidence that the measured parameters are not subject to any kind of commercial bias,” says SwissQual CEO, John May. “They also appreciate the Diversity Benchmarker’s use of an individual processor for each channel, together with a very high standard of operational reliability. These factors all lead to a system which delivers results that people can trust and can therefore be used as part of the regulatory process.”
Founded in 2000, SwissQual currently serves more than 160 customers in over 70 countries.

Cortado Launches 'Apps Need Printing' Contest

Cortado has launched a competition offering BlackBerry developers a chance to win marketing funds. The contest calls on developers to test Cortado's new, Java-based CHAPI (Content Handling API, JSR-211) interface and submit suggestions for the best and most original use of printing within an application.
Interested developers can find out more information and apply for access to the beta version of the latest Cortado solutions with CHAPI interface here.
The deadline for submissions for the ‘Apps Need Printing!’ competition is 9 December 2009. In addition to originality, expected market opportunity will also be a factor when deciding the winners. First, second and third place winners will receive a Cortado marketing and partner package worth $5,000, plus a Nintendo Wii.
“A printing function could increase the usefulness of many mobile apps, thereby improving market opportunities,” says Thorsten Hesse, Director of Sales for Cortado. “Our standardized print interface makes it very easy to enable any other type of mobile application which works with the same CHAPI interface to print.”
One example of an application that is already equipped with a CHAPI interface to work with Cortado Workplace is Documents To Go, the mobile Office Suite of DataViz, a strategic Cortado partner.
“Our customers, who work with Word, PowerPoint or Excel on their Smartphones, can now print their documents while away from the office,” says Shari Hoffman, Product Manager, Documents To Go at DataViz. “This has been a highly requested feature from our Documents To Go customer base and we are pleased to see the feature now available.”
By the end of the year, Cortado plans to provide BlackBerry users with its printing service for free. Providers of BlackBerry Smartphone apps will benefit by being able to add the ‘Print’ function to their own app at no cost.

AdMobHappy

What a way to end the day. For AdMob in any event. The best-known and longest-established mobile ad network is being bought by Google for $750 million, representing Google’s biggest move into mobile yet.
It’s a deal that will likely send shock waves around this nascent industry, or at least round all the other mobile ad networks out there. Yesterday, they were up against AdMob. Today, they’ve got Google to contend with. 
We’ll try and round up some views and analysis overnight of what the deal might mean for Google, for AdMob, for publishers, for brands, and for the mobile marketing and advertising industry, and present these tomorrow. In the meantime, you can read more about what Hamoui makes of the deal here.
As for AdMob VP, Global Alliances, Russell Buckley, he might have to consider renaming his long-running blog MobHappy. AdMobHappy is surely more like it.

Google Buys AdMob for $750m

Google is buying mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million (£448 million). AdMob says it is extremely excited about the new partnership and what it means for its publishers. In a statement to publishers, Admob Founder Omar Hamoui says:
“AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to effectively monetize mobile traffic – no interruptions.  Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns.
“After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you.”
Hamoui concludes by saying that he believes the deal will benefit the company's developer and publisher partners by:

• Building even more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.
• Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.
• Improving the already high level of service and support the company delivers to its publishers.

T-Mobile and Orange Merger Agreement Signed

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have today signed the final agreement to combine their UK operations, T-Mobile and Orange, into a 50:50 joint venture company, following completion of due diligence. The binding agreement confirms the terms of the transaction announced on 8 September 2009.
Completion is conditional upon approval by the relevant authorities and remains expected in the first half of 2010 as previously indicated. The agreement is subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom and the Board of Directors of France Telecom.
Timotheus Höttges, CFO of Deutsche Telekom, says the joint venture is based on the full commitment of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom to a long term partnership.
“I am very pleased to say that the spirit of this partnership is reflected in the way we conducted and concluded our talks,” says Höttges. “Our joint venture, which has now passed a major milestone, will set new standards in the UK mobile sector.”
Gervais Pellissier, Deputy CEO of France Telecom in charge of Group Finance & Information Systems, says he wants stress the excellent cooperation between the teams of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, which enabled the two companies to deliver on the timing and process objectives which they set out in September.
“This is an important step towards our objective of establishing an excellent platform to deliver operational synergies and offer innovative and high quality services to our customers,” says Pellissier.

QR Codes Used To Promote Passion Pit Album

 
Columbia Records and We Love Mobile are using mobile QR (Quick Response) Codes to support sales of ‘Manners’, the debut album by Passion Pit.
The rich mobile codes feature artwork from the album, and will be available via posters, flyers and printed marketing collateral, as well as via the web, including the Passion Pit Myspace and Facebook pages. New codes will be posted over the coming weeks, each one revealing a new free track or video. To maximize reach, fans can also use a standard Shortcode – text MANNERS to 88600 - or URL (passionpit.mobi) - to access the same content.
The campaign is being run in partnership with 7Digital and independent record stores throughout the UK, delivering online and offline discounts for Manners as further reward for interaction with the campaign.
Users will be encouraged to interact with the codes to download exclusive content directly to their phones. They will also be pushed links and money off vouchers to paid-for downloads via partners, including a reduced-price full album. All mobile interactions and downloads are trackable, and Sony Music and We Love Mobile will be closely monitoring and assessing response rates and ROI across the campaign.

Bell Turns To NSN for HSPA Solution

Bell Canada has launched an all-IP HSPA (evolved High-speed Packet Access) network, offering its residential and business customers more handset choice, and the ability to send and receive data at faster speeds. By utilizing Nokia Siemens Networks’ (NSN) HSPA solution, Bell has also reduced its network’s energy consumption and costs  
“The innovative solutions provided by Nokia Siemens Networks allow Bell Mobility to offer our clients the latest technologies and devices on the fastest, largest and most reliable wireless network in Canada,” says Bell Mobility Chief Technology Officer, Stephen Howe. “We are extremely pleased with the network’s performance and how the Nokia Siemens Networks team worked with us to accomplish our objectives for this new network.”
NSN deployed some of its most advanced solutions to enable HSPA through an end-to-end approach that includes the Flexi Base Station and radio network controller, Direct Tunnel enabled packet core, subscriber data management, and the NetAct operations support system. In addition to being environmentally friendly, the Flexi Base Station software can be easily upgraded to LTE (Long Term Evolution).

Italian Job for Movial RCS Client

Movial has been selected to provide its RCS-ready Communicator mobile client for Symbian Series 60 based on the GSMA Rich Communication Suite (RCS) initiative standard, for the multi-operator Italian rich communication services trial. The company has also launched its Communicator PC client for RCS release 2.  
RCS is a new service package that fits the lifestyle communication needs of ‘always-on’ users, designed to make multimedia social networking simpler. Movial was chosen for the multi-Italian operator trial specifically for its Communicator Mobile client’s full integration with devices’ native phonebooks that complies with RCS specifications, from both a service and a user experience perspective. 
“Participation in the Italian trial is another milestone for Movial as well as for RCS,” says Movial CEO and Co-founder, Jari Ala-Ruona. “Not only does this show how RCS is gaining momentum among large carriers like Telecom Italia, but it also underscores the importance of our new products that include full integration with a device’s native phonebook and gallery, taking the user experience and our vision of converged user experiences to the next level.”
Movial has also developed a fully compliant RCS PC client, Communicator PC, following Release 2 of RCS specifications. The client supports the multi-device environment operators are targeting for their next-generation converged services, the company says. Communicator PC for RCS 2 provides an integrated end-user experience, including one-to-one chat, group chat, video calling, instant sharing of images or video during a voice call, and file transfer - all enabled with Presence technology. According to Movial, Communicator PC embodies the first extension of a complete solution for synchronized rich multimedia communication across handsets and computers.

Shazam Encore Debuts on the App Store

Mobile music discovery service Shazam has launched its Shazam Encore application on the Apple App Store. Shazam has enjoyed over 10 million downloads from the App Store to date, and Shazam says the new app will make it even easier for iPhone and iPod touch users to learn more about the music they love.
Shazam Encore offers faster performance, enabling users to tag tracks more quickly; music recommendations; a search facility from a database of over 8 million songs; and a ‘Drive and Tag’ feature, which automatically switches Shazam into ‘Car’ mode when the iPhone is placed in an in-car dock to make it simple to discover what’s playing on the radio while driving.
Shazam will continue to support the existing free Shazam app on the App Store with new users limited to five Tags per month. This free app has also been enhanced with services such as the ability to share Tags onto a Facebook mini-feed. 
“Since our launch on the App Store, Shazam has achieved a huge following with iPhone and iPod touch users, and is now one of the most popular music apps in the world,” says Shazam CEO, Andrew Fisher. “We have listened to our iPhone and iPod touch users and have created a new app which answers their requests to take them on an enhanced music journey that will change the way music lovers experience and learn about music.”
The Shazam Encore app is available for £2.99/€3.99/$4.99, depending on location, from the App Store. Both Shazam apps are live in 22 countries across the world, with local language versions available in English (UK and US), German, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Japanese.

iPhone Worm on the Loose in Australia

IT security and data protection company Sophos has warned iPhone users of the world's first iPhone virus that is spreading in the wild in Australia.
The virus, dubbed the ikee worm, breaks into iPhones, changing their lock screen wallpaper to an image of 1980s pop star Rick Astley with the message: ‘ikee is never going to give you up’.
But the virus can only infect users who have ‘jailbroken’ their iPhones in order to allow them to run applications that have not been approved by Apple.
The worm, which appears so far to be confined to Australia, is capable of breaking into jailbroken iPhones if their owners are running a utility called SSH (Secure Shell) with the iPhone's default password, ‘alpine’, still in place. Once in place, the worm attempts to find other iPhones on the mobile phone network that are similarly vulnerable, and installs itself again.
“The first indication that anything is wrong with your iPhone is if you see a picture of Rick Astley,” says Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos. “Fortunately, the worm doesn't do anything more malicious than that - it doesn't steal information, access your emails or snoop on your calls. But the source code has been made available on the Internet - meaning other hackers could create more dangerous versions of the worm.”
Sophos researchers say that the worm appears to have been created by a 21 year old Ashley Towns, a student from Wollongong, New South Wales, according to a Twitter entry where he admitted writing the worm.
Towns, who claims that he created the worm out of boredom, wrote in the worm's code that he found it “stupid” that he found 26 out of 27 accessible iPhones he tested were vulnerable, as they had not changed their password from the default.
“The worm's author may be unrepentant about what he has done - but it should be remembered that breaking into someone else's iPhone and changing their data is against the law,” says Cluley. “This is a wake-up call to iPhone users around the world to take greater care about their security - especially if they jailbreak their phones. Businesses also need to ensure that they don't have staff who are endangering corporate data by running insecure Smartphones. Other inquisitive hackers may also be tempted to experiment, and could take the code of ikee and adapt it to have a more sinister payload.”
A Sophos survey has revealed that 97% of people believe the iPhone will suffer from further virus attacks in the future.
There’s more information, including screenshots of the worm and statements by its author, here.

Summit Focuses on Business Customer Needs

IIR’s 2010 Telecoms Business Customer Summit takes place from 25 – 28 January at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London.
The event focuses on how telecoms operators can develop more effective strategies to address the needs and expectations of their business customers. The Summit will also address how to enhance the customer experience, embrace new business models, move into the provision of ICT and other non-telecoms services and respond to the impact that the current economic downturn is having on business customers.
It includes interactive discussion sessions on key topics, including issues and questions that are raised during the morning presentations. Delegates will also be able to hear about the needs of business customers from business customers. Presentations from large corporations and SMEs/SoHos from different industries will outline their ICT needs and expectations and reveal how effectively operators are addressing them.
Finally, there’s the ‘Idea Bubble’. Delegates can share their thoughts and ideas with fellow delegates by writing or pinning them on the ideas wall that will be set up in the refreshment area. At the end of the Summit, all ideas will be collected and delegates will be able to download the list of ideas from the event website.
There’s more information about the event here.

Myxer in Day and Date Mobile First

Mobile entertainment firm Myxer and global animation collaboration Mass Animation are partnering in the first ever ‘day and date’ theatrical and mobile movie release. The movie in question is ‘Live Music’, a 6-minute animated short, which will appear ahead of Sony Pictures’ screening of ‘Planet 51’, a full-length animated movie. Live Music will be available for purchase on mobile on 20 Nov, the same date that Planet 51 launches theatrically. .
Live Music started with the creation of a virtual studio on Facebook and an open invitation to artists around the world to collaborate in the making of an animated short film. Over 58,000 fans worldwide joined the community with 51 finalist animators from 17 countries credited in the film.
“Myxer is thrilled to be part of the ground-breaking collaboration, Live Music, as it ties in with so many of our passions - music, innovation and content contributions from tens of thousands of individuals,” says Myxer CEO, Myk Willis. “The mobile entertainment industry continues to evolve at such a rapid pace; we’re excited to part of this first-ever simultaneous release in theaters and on mobile.”

ALK Updates CoPilot App

ALK Technologies has released an update to its CoPilot Live iPhone app. The latest update brings a number of improvements, including enhanced GPS performance, as well as iPod controls within the application. The update is free to all existing users.
CoPilot Live holds the top position among the paid navigation apps on the Apple App Store.  The CoPilot application also holds the number one position in the iTunes Top Grossing Apps chart.
CoPilot Live for iPhone is available as UK + Ireland version for £25.99 or a Pan-Europe version for £59.99. Single region versions are also available for most European countries for €33.99 (£30).

Voda Nabs Crook from Gap

Vodafone has appointed Danielle Crook, European Brand Director at Gap, as Brand Director, Vodafone UK, with effect from early December. She previously worked at Vodafone in a global role as Head of Brand Integration and Customer experience as well as General Manager, Brand and Communications in Vodafone Australia, before joining Gap. 
Her new role will include Vodafone UK's brand engagement initiatives, advertising and sponsorship activity across consumer and enterprise customers. She will report to Ian Shepherd, Director of Consumer, Vodafone UK. She replaces Charlie Smith, who leaves the company with immediate effect.

Neusoft and NSN Target Chinese Apps Market

Spurred on by the recent launch of 3G mobile services in China, Neusoft and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) are enhancing their partnership to effectively address the country’s growing mobile applications market. The two companies say they will look to transform their existing joint venture - Nokia Siemens Networks Neusoft Commtech Company - into a powerhouse for the development, sale and delivery of software and services in the mobile data and applications field.
“Together with Nokia Siemens Networks, we have delivered a variety of data service systems to the country’s leading mobile players,” says Neusoft Chairman, Liu Jiren. “Now, with the launch of 3G, we are committed to continue to provide our customers with high quality products and services. The enhanced scope of our joint venture will enable us to do just that; assuring China’s subscribers a truly superior experience.”  
The two companies say they will jointly address new and emerging market opportunities in applications, security, service management, business support systems and CRM, bundling their sales, development and delivery resources to strengthen the combined overall offering.
“We see a huge opportunity for 3G applications, with 300 million new 3G subscribers emerging in the Chinese market over the next three to five years,” says Zhang Zhiqiang, Head of Greater China Region at NSN. “Subscribers are becoming increasingly discerning and are constantly on the look out for new and unique applications. By enhancing our local competence and development capabilities in the mobile application sphere, we are arming ourselves to win in the new 3G world.”

Bright AI Scores Footie Deal

Mobile content and applications company Bright AI has been selected by FL Interactive (FLi) to develop a range of branded and bespoke football-themed games, content and applications for 80 clubs across England and Wales including Bolton Wanderers and Premier League newcomers Burnley, who have surprised many this season with their bright, inventive football, which saw them beat champions Man United in their first home game of the season.
The content and applications will be hosted on Bright AI’s Boximo platform, which seamlessly integrates with any website to create a virtual ‘plug and play’ store front, enabling clubs or brand owners to sell official or third party mobile content and applications direct to fans. Boximo provides clients with an easy to use web-based interface through which clubs can manage their content, control pricing and view sales statistics and reports.
In addition to wallpapers and ringtones, Bright AI has developed a range of branded games, including ‘Football Manager’, ‘Keepy Uppy’ and ‘Penalty Shootout’. The games and content will be available for all Java-based phones by the end of October, and Blackberry and Android phones in the coming months.
The FLi contract takes the number of football clubs using the Boximo platform to 100, bolstering Bright AI’s existing portfolio of football clients, which includes Tottenham Hotspur and Everton.
Boximo can distribute content to customers on any UK network, and Bright AI plans to launch an international version in the New Year. This will enable clubs to service a global audience, allowing fans in any country to purchase and play with mobile content from their favourite clubs.
“Football fans love to demonstrate their club allegiances, and branded mobile content provides a great way for supporters to personalise their phones and show their support,” says Bright AI Managing Director, David Lane. “The deal with FLi clearly demonstrates the appetite for branded mobile content and by using the Boximo platform, clubs of any size can easily sell content direct to fans from their existing websites.”

Normal Service or Lip Service?

No response yet from O2 to the questions we asked about its opted-in marketing database, which I was told last night could actually number more than 1 million subscribers, rather than the 300,000 we reported yesterday.
It will be interesting to see how forthcoming O2 is with answers, given a conversation that took place last night at the networking event following the mobileSQUARED Taking Internet Mobile roadshow.
The point under discussion was whether mobile operators really take mobile marketing seriously, or whether they merely pay lip service to it, given the minuscule contribution it currently makes to their revenues, compared to voice and text.
A comparison was made with the fixed Internet. 25  years ago (roughly, it’s not that important), there was no Internet, then it emerged from the primordial soup of academia, and so companies set themselves up as Internet Service Providers with a very clear business model of charging people a set fee each month to provide them with access to this thing called the Internet. In some cases, these companies, like BT, also did other things, but they took a conscious decision to set themselves up as ISPs because they could see a revenue stream.
Look at the mobile web and things are slightly different. Here, you had mobile operators raking in millions, billions even, from voice and text, when along comes all this data stuff that they didn’t really ask for or push for. Rather, it’s been driven by mobile content companies looking for an obvious distribution channel for their goods, and by brands and, to a greater extent, their agencies, who can see great potential in mobile as the ultimate, personal, customer engagement channel. Meanwhile, the operators, arguably, would rather focus on the stuff that makes the money here and now.
This theory would explain why 3, which had no legacy voice and text business when it opened its doors for business has, arguably, been the most innovative of the UK operators when it comes to anything closely related to data services or mobile marketing.
The operators may argue otherwise, and it would be great to hear someone from one of the major UK operators put their point of view. A response from O2 about that marketing database would be a good place to start.

David Murphy
Editor

HulloMail Updates Blackberry App

HulloMail has launched an upgraded version of its BlackBerry app on the Blackberry App World app store. The app is also available for free download from the HulloMail website.
HulloMail converts standard voicemails into digital MP3 files that can be saved, emailed or shared regardless of the user’s network operator. The new version of the HulloMail Blackberry app is optimized for the Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Tour, and Blackberry Curve 8900, and offers user the ability to upload contacts from large address books. It also offers improved handling of weak network connection, and integration with Google contacts. An iPhone version of the app wil be available before the end of the year.

TheStreet.com Launches on Android

Polar Mobile has announced the release of TheStreet.com Mobile for Android on Polar’s SMART platform.
TheStreet.com is a digital financial media company, whose network includes TheStreet.com, RealMoney.com, Stockpickr.com, BankingMyWay.com, MainStreet.com, Rate-Watch.com and Promotions.com
The Android application features push-delivered market data, a customized stock portfolio, articles and commentary from Jim Cramer and more. Add to this the benefit of blazing fast browsing with the ability to personalize content, and TheStreet.com, now on Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone is one of the strongest cross-platform financial applications in the market today.
“The buzz around Android is undeniable,” says Polar Mobile CEO, Kunal Gupta. “With Motorola, Verizon, Samsung, LG and other major players taking a significant bet, it is essential for Polar to extend our SMART Platform to support Android devices for our customers. The application market is heating up and we get that media brands need help getting their content out across multiple platforms.”
The application can be downloaded from m.thestreet.com or via Android Market.

Mobile Insights from Flirtomatic

Still at the mobileSQUARED Taking Internet Mobile roadshow, where Mark Curtis, CEO of Flirtomatic, has given his usual interesting and insightful presentation. In essence, it was the story of how Flirtomatic got from where it started out, to where it is today, with no attempt to gloss over some of the mistakes the company made at various points along the way. There was no one theme that emerged from the presentation, but I thought there were several points he made, that were worth sharing in bullet point form, namely:

• Having tried and rejected traditional media as a way of driving traffic to the Flirtomatic mobile site, the company found it 270 times less effective than mobile advertising.
• 10% of payments on the mobile site for premium services and virtual gifts come via credit card.
• Curtis believes that a new medium will emerge for mobile advertising, which he said could be a series of sequential banners. “New formats always emerge when new media emerge,” he said.
• Offering the Flirtomatic mobile service via a mobile website gives the company fantastic reach, without the complexity or hassle of developing different versions of apps for different platforms. The top performing handset is responsible for only 5% of data traffic. In fact, only four handsets generate more than 1% of data traffic on the site.
• Despite this, Curtis says the company has no alternative now but to enter “Appland” with an iPhone app. The app will be available by Christmas, and will be free.
• And despite this, Curtis believes that the future of mobile content will be Web Runtime, and that “apps will disappear over the next four to five years”.

Fascinating stuff, as ever. Whether you have any interest in online and mobile dating and flirting or not, Flirtomatic is a brand that's well worth watching.

David Murphy
Editor

O2's Opt-in Revolution

I’m at the mobileSQUARED Taking Internet Mobile roadshow in London, and prior to that, attended a roundtable discussion this morning, hosted by Airwide Solutions, the theme of which was: ‘Challenges to Incorporating Mobile into a Business Strategy’.
Much of the roundtable debate centred around mobile advertising, and within this, what the operators could do to help brands target consumers. Mike Short, Vice President, Public Affairs, explained that O2 can already profile its subscribers by age, place of residence and other factors, but I was interested to know how brands could benefit from this information. Would it result in more targeted ads when subscribers visited the O2 mobile portal, or was it available to brands in some other ways?
It was at this point that Short revealed that O2 has an opted in database of subscribers that it is beginning to talk to brands and media agencies about. James Tagg, Head of Mobile at Starcom Mediavest Group, told me he believed the database numbered around 300,000 subscribers.
This, I feel, is a fascinating development. While the database is tiny compared to Turkish operator Turkcell’s database of 7.6m (at the last count) opted-in subscribers, it is the first time I have heard of a UK operator building such a database, (with the exception of Blyk, of course).
I have emailed Shaun Gregory, who heads up O2 Media, to find out more about the database, such as how the people on it were recruited, and incentivised to join; what sort of profiling is available to brands; and how it plans to market it to brands. We’ll share all the details with you as soon as he comes back to us.

David Murphy
Editor

Appsolutely Fabulous

Jason Lackey, Marketing Manager at Innopath considers the future for operator-branded app stores

Operators are in a tough position. Voice revenues are declining, yet bandwidth and support costs are rising, putting them in a bit of a bind. But while Smartphones and superphones are creating heavier burdens, they also present new opportunities. One of those opportunities is the App Store. While not the first, Apple’s effort is the high-water mark of the genre, and represent both a missed opportunity and an extreme threat to the operator.
One of the greatest fears of many operators is that they will become a ‘dumb pipes’. In some ways, the Apple/AT&T deal has come to represent the sum of all fears. Control of the handset lies with Apple. Control over updates lies with Apple. Support lies with Apple. Branding and the customer experience are all owned by Apple. Additional revenue in the form of software sales also lies with Apple. Looks like a bit of a disaster for the operator, but what can they do?
One of the things that operators can do is to launch their own app stores. Verizon Wireless is taking this approach and with its app store, Verizon will handle the billing, sharing a generous split with the developer. Verizon-branded handsets - remember, on CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint, operator-branded devices are pretty much the only option, unlike the inherently more open GSM networks like AT&T, T-Mobile and much of the rest of the world outside North America, including Korea and Japan - will not come with platform app stores out of the box, although a subscriber could download them if so inclined. Of course, with offerings such as Ovi and the Windows Mobile efforts, finding and downloading the app store application is sometimes a lot easier said than done.

Billing relationship
This model is similar to the iTunes/App Store model where the folks running the app store have a pre-existing billing relationship with the subscriber. This provides an advantage, in terms of logistics and execution, when it comes to impulse buys, which are less likely to happen if you have to whip out that credit card and do a lot of awkward input with the limited keyboard of a mobile device. This is an advantage that is not shared by the Platform app stores such as Windows Mobile, Nokia’s Ovi or the Android Market.
One advantage that Apple’s approach will have over any operator app store is the fact that Apple is able to reach, more or less, its entire global installed base with a single App Store. This brings critical mass and the potential for very large sales numbers for developers of successful apps. Additionally, Apple has so far managed to avoid fragmentation of the market, such that developers can write an application once and be done with it. Interestingly, it is rumoured that Google is working on an open market Google-branded device, which could help address device fragmentation by providing a referential centre of gravity for development efforts.
In the past, operators such as Verizon may have had something like a unified platform with Brew, but as Smartphones have come to eclipse featurephones running Brew in the hearts and minds of high-value, and increasingly mainstream subscribers, platform fragmentation will be a concern for operators. Again, taking a look at Verizon, not only does it have Brew, but also Windows Mobile, Blackberry/RIM, Android and other platforms to support. While it may have a very large subscriber base, it is fragmented across these several platforms. That said, at least localization and cultural issues don’t really come into play, as they would with a global app store such as Apple’s.

The operator’s advantage
Indeed, here is where operators have an advantage. While the platform providers have the choice of either facing a global market and installing mechanisms for avoiding offending the easily offended (the number 13 is unlucky in the west, Chinese gamblers don’t like the number 4, some colors are bad, some dates unlucky), or of eating the overhead of having multiple sub-stores, each with its own local standards and practices, operators are usually in a better position. By being based in the markets that they serve, they will, by nature, be more in tune with the cultural sensitivities of their subscribers than a remotely-located platform provider is likely to be.
Technological evolution has also helped strengthen the app store. Early iterations were ghastly, grim little ‘WAPpy’ affairs with a small, sad little assortment of things barely rising above the “Hello world” muck, unlikely to surprise and delight. Network operators have come a long way. Now app stores usually offer some sort of optimized client, as well as refined, sophisticated web interfaces. The presentation is different, the technologies are different and the subscriber experience is better.
While sideloads (web to PC and over to phone via cable) and http downloads have taken us far, the future of mobile content distribution, like the terminals themselves, is going to be evolving and changing like the world of laptops and PCs. This should come as no surprise, as mobile devices have, in effect, become small computers. Standards for the management and delivery of software Over-The-Air (OTA) are also coming into existence. The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) defines a standard Software Component Management Object (SCOMO), for doing such things, including the delivery of the bits, as well as later activation and/or removal of applications. Peer-to-Peer networking, including Bit Torrent and other similar mechanisms, provide for massively-scalable, easy-to-implement and cost-effective content distribution networks. Mirroring the transition from sideload to OTA content, support will follow the same model.

Virtuous circle
While it is not entirely clear what the future of the app store will be, it is clear that the mobile subscriber is in for a treat. Better hardware, more capable platforms and a far wider selection of applications are all factors converging to create not only a better end-user experience but also significant opportunity for developers, device makers, platform providers and operators. The coming of the Superphone is creating a virtuous circle, where better devices feed demand for apps, which feed the demand for better devices.

Sybase 365 in Money Messaging Deployment

Sybase 365 is working with The Western Union Company, to enable the money transfer specialist to engage with its consumers via SMS-based notifications and mobile marketing campaigns.
Sybase 365 delivers text messages to Western Union loyalty card members who send money transfers from nine countries worldwide, including the UK, Belgium, Denmark, France, Gabon, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The notifications are available in the senders' preferred language French. When consumers send money, they can receive an SMS message confirming the funds have been paid out. The service will be extended to Western Union Gold Card members in six additional countries by year-end.
Sybase 365 will also deliver SMS-based messages to Western Union consumers who have opted-in to receive offers such as coupons, promotional codes and additional information on products and services.
“There are now more than 4 billion mobile phones in use worldwide,” says Gail Galuppo, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Western Union. “In select markets, we are already putting the power of Western Union in our consumers' hands by offering transactions via mobile phone. By furthering our agreement with Sybase 365, we are able to bring even more value to our consumers by notifying them that their funds have been received and by offering discounts and special offers directly on their mobile phones.” 
This agreement builds on an alliance with Western Union announced earlier this year, where Sybase 365 was selected to participate in Western Union's Digital Vendor Program with its mWallet and mBanking Platforms. Facilitating mobile finance initiatives in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Sybase 365 says that such programs will help build the mobile finance ecosystem, benefitting enterprises and end-users worldwide.

Mogreet Unveils Mobile Video Marketing Platform

Mogreet, which offers a mobile video messaging platform, has launched the Mogreet Mobile Video Marketing Platform. Mogreet says the platform can deliver short-format videos to more than 200 million US mobile devices, while measuring the effectiveness and ROI of each campaign in real-time. The company adds that its clients routinely experience open rates, video views and clickthrough rates 15 to 25 times higher than other forms of advertising media. And by virtue of the fact that mobile customers react to text messages in 20 seconds on average, brands see results almost instantly. Marketers also benefit from the inherent viral nature of Mogreet Mobile Video Marketing, as mobile messages can easily be shared amongst friends, resulting in five to 10 times additional reach.
“It’1993 all over again, only this time, rather than email, the race is on to harness mobile to build a direct relationship with the end consumer,” says Mogreet CEO, James Citron. “The ability to deliver your message in video to just about every mobile phone in the US, and not just Smartphones with Internet plans, means marketers are not forced to sacrifice reach when they add mobile to their marketing mix.”
Mogreet Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Jay Goss, adds that over 150 million US consumers do not own a Smartphone, and most have never seen a video on their mobile phone. “With Mogreet, we have designed a way to reach these consumers and enable brands to communicate in rich, engaging media, creating an iPhone-like experience across all major networks and phones,” says Goss.
Mogreet is expanding marketers reach by harnessing the power of over four-billion text messages sent each day in the US from consumers of all ages, including adults aged 35 – 44, who now send more texts than they place calls. Mogreet’s platform has been used by leading brands in numerous verticals from hospitality to apparel, retail and entertainment, including four No.1 box office film releases.

Teleca Teams Up with Iconmobile

Teleca, which supplies software solutions and engineering services to the mobile industry, has entered into a partnership with iconmobile group, a mobile design agency and technology supplier. The companies say their combined offer will assist equipment vendors, network operators, service providers, and the automotive industries in creating better and more compelling products, reducing time-to-market and improving quality. Teleca will bring its software engineering, testing and platform integration expertise and offshore scale to iconmobile’s specialism of concept development and user interface design for mobile channels.
“Our business ideologies complement each other well”, says Andrew Till, Teleca’s Head of Solutions Marketing. “iconmobile’s concept and design skills, and their understanding of platform capabilities, combined with Teleca’s development and testing services and global reach, will give our customers better and more compelling products that are faster, quicker, and cost less. On a company level we expect this partnership to contribute to a profitable growth for both companies”.
Separately, Teleca has also joined the LiMo Foundation, the global industry consortium of mobile leaders dedicated to creating an open, consistent Linux-based software platform for use by the whole mobile industry

US Users Take to Touchscreen Phones, says comScore

comScore has published a study of touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the US, which shows a growth rate of 159% during the past year, to 23.8 million users in August 2009. According to comScore, the growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63% growth in US adoption of Smartphones overall.
The Apple iPhone ranked as the top touchscreen device family, with 32.9% of touchscreen device users age 13 and older, nearly four times the market share of the next largest device family, the LG Dare (8.7%). LG Voyager ranked third with 7.8% of the market, followed by the Blackberry Storm (7%) and Palm Treo (6.5%).
“The iPhone clearly set the trend in the industry for touchscreen devices, so it’s no surprise that it has the largest share of the market,” says comScore Senior Vice President of Mobile, Mark Donovan. “But as other players have entered the touchscreen market with compelling devices, competition is clearly heating up.”
The comScore report notes that Smartphones in general, and touchscreen devices specifically, tend to be more popular among younger users. While 38.8% of all mobile subscribers (aged 13+) are under the age of 35, 51.4% of Smartphone users are in this age group, as are 57.7% of touchscreen device users. In fact, a significant 20.6% of touchscreen users are in the 18-24 age group. Meanwhile, less than 5% of Smartphone and touchscreen device users are aged 65 and older, compared to 13% of the total US mobile audience.

Sybase 365 Launches iPhone Banking app

Sybase 365 has released a mobile banking application for the iPhone, which is available to financial institutions worldwide through the Sybase mBanking 365 platform. The company says that the app serves as a turnkey mobile banking solution for financial institutions, allowing them to quickly and easily roll-out full-service banking capabilities to their customers, with Sybase 365 managing the infrastructure. Sybase 365 has also announced BBVA Compass as one of the first adopters of the app.
Delivering connectivity across all mobile banking channels, including SMS, mobile browser, and a downloadable mobile client, Sybase 365 says it is the only mobile banking provider that offers built-in global network connectivity, by working with 800 mobile operators around the world to ensure customers can always access their banking information and services.
With the deployment of the Sybase mBanking 365 iPhone application, BBVA Compass customers can check balances, view posted and pending transactions, transfer funds between accounts, and interact securely with bank representatives, all from their iPhone.
“It was most efficient for us to turn to Sybase 365 to manage the entire project and deploy all of the technologies,” says Chris Causey, Vice President, Internet Banking Department at BBVA Compass. “This new service helps BBVA Compass retain and attract new customers, providing another avenue of banking for users beyond visiting branches, calling by phone, or accessing accounts via the Internet.”

iPhone Apps Top 100,000

Apple has revealed that there are now over 100,000 applications available in its App Store, in 20 categories, including Games, Business, News, Sports, Health and Travel. App Store users have so far downloaded over 2 billion apps.
Travis Boatman, Vice President of Worldwide Studios at EA Mobile, says the Apple App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry.
“With a global reach of over 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users, the App Store has allowed us to develop high quality EA games that have been a huge success with customers,” says Boatman.
Apple says it is continuing to improve search and discovery for apps, with new features including Genius for Apps, App Store Essentials selections, sub category listings and more customer reviews.

Buongiorno Rebrands to B!Digital

Digital marketing and ad agency Buongiorno Marketing Services has rebranded to Buongiorno!Digital (B!Digital). The company says the move aims to address the convergence of mobile and Internet campaigns and reflects the extensive marketing and advertising portfolio that it offers throughout the digital space. B!Digital builds campaigns that integrate mobile, web and social media tactics, matching the consumer’s digital behaviour, all with measurable results. The rebrand will be backed by a €500,000 investment to promote the company across Europe.
The new B!Digital website introduces a mobile advertising performance marketplace, in beta, for B!Digital’s customers. The company says the marketplace is based on premium European inventory that has been aggregated, whilst keeping the B!Digital network quality high. Each advertiser will have a clear range of campaign and budget allocation choices and will be supported by regional sales and account teams to maximise investment.
“The new brand and interactive website represents the best way for us to present our offering to the market, which now needs a variety of options,” says B!Digital UK Managing Director, Adhish Kulkarni. “Companies in the early stages of digital marketing require end-to-end managed services, while more mature players want to build and manage their own campaigns. B!Digital’s website will act as a central point of entry for prospects and clients accessing B!Digital’s portfolio of market offerings.”
B!Digital capitalises on the company’s on-the-ground presence across eight countries (UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Russia, Netherlands and the US), and existing relationship with over 120 telco’s globally to offer international planning and buying capability with local expertise via its network, managed via local account managers and teams.

MMA Launches Turkish Arm

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has announced the launch of MMA Turkiye, headed by two elected co-Chairs: Sukru Dincer, ALGiDA Marketing Director at Unilever, the first brand marketer to be elected as a local council co-Chair; and Elvin Altun, Mobile Marketing Project Manager at Turkcell. The objective of the local council is to foster the burgeoning mobile marketing industry in Turkey through local participation from industry stakeholders, driving the early integration of global standards and industry guidelines across the mobile channel in the country and providing a powerful platform for knowledge sharing.
“More and more brands are executing mobile campaigns because of the huge return on investment it offers,” says Dincer. “Mobile marketing offers personalised and direct interaction with consumers, which is a very exciting prospect for brands, I’m honoured to be part of the MMA Turkiye team assigned with driving the growth of this channel and helping mobile to flourish in Turkey.”
The Co-Chairs will work closely with the European Board of Directors and MMA Managing Director for Europe Paul Berney to determine in-country strategy and local priorities.
“The rapid growth of mobile in Turkey and the eagerness of local brands and agencies to adopt mobile as an integral aspect of the marketing mix has been the driving force behind the launch of MMA Turkiye,” says Berney. “The overwhelming Turkish participation at our recent Mobile Marketing Forum in Berlin is testament the country’s vision and enthusiasm for mobile. Through our local presence, we aim to provide the tools and global expertise to help guide brands and agencies in Turkey to deliver effective mobile marketing campaigns with international skill and local know-how.”
MMA Turkiye boasts 27 founding member companies and anticipates doubling this in the next 12 months. The council is the second to be established in Europe this year following the launch of MMA Germany at the Mobile Marketing Forum in September.

Oculus Launches Mobile Optimisation Service

Oculus, a UK-based marketing and brand communications agency, has launched a service to optimise its customers’ websites so they can be easily viewed and used by people accessing the web from a mobile device.
The company notes that the mobile web is taking off in the UK. Nielsen Mobile estimates that 7.2 million Britons used their mobile phone to access the Internet in the third quarter of 2008. Research conducted by Orange among 2,000 UK mobile media users in March 2009 revealed that most of these users want to be able to view content that is made for mobile, rather than trying to navigate content that is adapted from other media.
The Oculus service combines consultancy with professional web design and development, and promises to optimise an organisation’s online presence for mobile viewing and fine-tune any web-based applications to ensure an ideal mobile user experience.
“The mobile web presents huge opportunities for businesses and the public sector,” says Dr Adrian Garcia-Sierra, Head of Digital Strategy at Oculus. “Smartphone users look to the web for information and to catch up on news and entertainment while in transit. But it’s crucial that websites are tailored for the very different circumstances of accessing the web on the move. Users with slower connections, small screens and not much time don’t want to read an entire website – they want the ability to search easily and quickly for products, services, news or events.”
The resulting fine-tuned website will detect the mobile device being used and give the user the option of choosing to visit the organisation’s main website or the optimised website. On choosing the mobile-optimised option, the user will be taken to a website that preserves the organisation’s brand values and offers a clean user interface, focused content, navigation options and functionality, all tailored to the needs of the mobile user and to the characteristics of the device being used.
Oculus’s mobile optimisation service is available immediately. Initial consultation is free of charge, with subsequent pricing tailored to the individual project. There’s more information here.
www.oculusdigital.co.uk/mobileweb

D&AD Awards Open for Entries

The 48th D&AD Awards are now open for entries. The Awards have included a Mobile Marketing category since 2007, and readers are invited to submit their entries for the 2010 awards. There are two mobile categories: Mobile Marketing; and new for 2010, Mobile Applications.
D&AD has celebrated and nurtured outstanding work in design and advertising since 1962. The Yellow Pencil is recognised the world over as a symbol of true creative achievement. The judging criteria is simple: original and inspiring ideas that have been exceptionally well executed and are contextually relevant.
Winners are announced at the D&AD Awards Ceremony, published in the D&AD Annual and celebrated online, offering international exposure for the winning campaigns and companies.
Entry cost is for the Mobile Marketing and Mobile Application categories is £145 per submission, with a 10% discount for entries submitted by Wednesday, 18 November. The final deadline for entries is Wednesday, 27 January 2010. There’s more information here.

eBuddy and InMobi Strike Mobile Ad Deal

Mobile and web IM (Instant messaging) service eBuddy has formed a mobuile advertising partnership with mobile ad network InMobi, effective in 12 countries, including the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Australia and India. The newly formed partnership in these geographies already accounts for over 20% of eBuddy’s total mobile ad revenue. eBuddy says it has struck the deal with InMobi based upon the positive results it has seen working with the company over the past four months.
“We anticipate excellent results from our partnership with InMobi,” says eBuddy CEO, Jan-Joost Rueb. “InMobi’s scale and strength in international markets, combined with eBuddy’s 240% year-on-year mobile IM growth and more than 9 million unique monthly mobile users, lays the foundation for a hugely successful partnership for both companies.”

Orange Launches Oranges Wednesdays App

Orange has launched its first UK exclusive iPhone app, Orange Wednesdays. The app brings the popular Orange Wednesdays cinema experience to the iPhone and iPod touch, combining the latest film reviews and trailers with up to date info on what's on, where films are showing, information on how to get there, and the ability to redeem the 2-for-1 Orange Wednesdays cinema voucher on an Orange iPhone, when it launches in a week’s time. The Orange Wednesdays App is available to download for free from the Apple App Store.

GSMA Unveils Mobile Manifesto

The GSM Association (GSMA) has unveiled a European Mobile Manifesto, which sets out how the mobile industry will help achieve key European Union objectives to boost economic performance, improve efficiencies, protect consumers and increase the use of green technology. To do this, the mobile industry has undertaken to work more closely with governments, education and health authorities and technology manufacturers. The mobile industry is also calling upon the EU to provide a number measures to support the initiative.
Through the Mobile Manifesto, the mobile industry outlines its goals to increase Internet connectivity and drive productivity through widespread mobile broadband access, on the move and at home, in cities and in rural areas; engage consumers and improve efficiency by enabling the ‘mobilisation’ of commercial and public services, particularly eCommerce, eLearning, eHealth and eGovernment; build a greener mobile planet by reducing Europe’s carbon footprint through M2M (Machine-to-machine) technologies; and empower users and maintain consumer trust by providing mobile privacy tools.
“Mobile is a key element in today’s society – it is the most ubiquitous, connected and personalised communications tool that we have, and it holds significant potential to improve the lives of European citizens and the economic performance of the region through social inclusion and continued investment in innovation,” says GSMA CEO, Rob Conway. “Europe has contributed considerably to the global success of the mobile industry, and it is an area where Europe continues to be a forerunner. Together, the leaders of the industry have developed this Manifesto showing where mobile will help to create a more prosperous, green and inclusive Europe for all.”
The Manifesto focuses exclusively on the role mobile can play in achieving the ICT policy objectives of the European Commission, and iterates the support that the mobile industry is seeking to facilitate the Manifesto. Specifically, the industry is asking the EU for more spectrum to develop a harmonised roadmap for release; for roll-out support to remove barriers to eco-efficient coverage expansion; to be pro-mobile in public services, utilities and infrastructure; to help educate the consumer and promote user responsibility for online data and security; and to provide continued flexibility in network management to preserve choice and quality of service and experience.
The Mobile Manifesto outlines specific, detailed goals from the industry and highlights Europe’s existing strength in mobile and estimates the economic, social and environmental benefits of these goals. The effects of these goals, the GSMA says, are measureable. Calculations show that mobile teleworking can reduce carbon emissions by 22.1 MtCO2e a year, or energy savings of €7.7 billion by 2015; mHealth calculations show a saving of up to €78 billion (£48 billion) by 201,5 and increasing connectivity through mobile will deliver greater productivity, which is estimated to add an aggregate of up to €349 billion (or 2.9% of EU GDP) by 2015.
The mobile sector represents 1.3% of EU Gross Value Added, 1.2% of EU GDP, and employs over 600,000 people. Within EU telecoms, mobile now accounts for approximately 61% of revenues, up from 47% in 2002. The sector continues to invest in its next-generation infrastructure, providing a strong economic stimulus. Current estimates suggest that the mobile industry in Europe will deploy €145 billion in capital expenditure through 2013, creating direct and indirect employment for more than 4.7 million people. Mobile is expected to make a significant contribution to recovery from the current downturn and to Europe’s longer term fulfilment of the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy, which are aimed at making the European Union the most competitive economy in the world, and achieving full employment by 2010.

Opera Launches Opera Mobile 10 beta

Opera Software has unveiled the beta version of Opera Mobile 10 for Nokia and other Symbian/S60 handsets. The release includes Speed Dial, tabbed browsing and password manager features, and is available for free download here.
According to Opera, performance has been prioritized in this beta. It is twice as fast as the previous Opera Mobile released for Symbian/S60, and, the company says, users will see significant speed improvements when downloading pages, zooming and panning. Opera Turbo is also integrated, saving end users both time and money with its server-side compression technology.
“Today's powerful Smartphones deserve an equally powerful browser, like Opera,” says Opera Software Jon von Tetzchner. “This beta continues our work to extend the desktop web experience to mobile phones, allowing users to surf the web without limitations, even while on-the-go.”
Opera Mobile 10 beta is available for Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung Smartphones running Symbian/S60, 3rd and 5th editions. The beta is free to download to your computer here, or directly to your mobile phone from http://m.opera.com/mobile

eBuddy Tops GetJar Download List

Cross-platform app store GetJar has named eBuddy, Opera Mini, Nimbuzz, mig33 and Facebook as its five most downloaded apps to date. The five apps have achieved a combined total of more than 100 million downloads and also comprise the top five GetJar downloads for October 2009.
Downloads from the site have rocketed from 15 million in October 2008, to 55 million in October 2009. GetJar has released the figures to coincide with the launch of its new, consumer-facing website.
With the exception of the hugely popular Opera Mini browser, the top five apps are focused on social networking. This, says GetJar, reflects the huge consumer demand to stay connected on the go via their mobile phone, even when there is the option to make a phone call.
Download figures are as follows:

• eBuddy - Instant Messaging: 27.4 million
• Opera Mini - mobile Internet browser: 25.3 million
• Nimbuzz - VoIP calls and Instant Messaging: 21.6 million
• Mig33 – Instant Messaging and community application: 15.4 million
• Facebook – mobile access to the hugely popular social network: 14.4 million

“As these figures show, the popularity of GetJar continues to grow as consumer demand for mobile apps becomes more and more global,” says GetJar CEO and Founder, Ilja Laurs. “The exciting news for developers and brands is that apps are in high demand not only from consumers using Blackberry, Symbian and Android phones (all of which are supported on GetJar) but also on feature phones of all types such as the Sony Ericsson W995 and the LG Viewty.”
Quizzed as to why these particular apps are so successful, Laurs says:
“The social networking phenomenon has changed the way we communicate and users want to continue to stay in touch on the go, via their mobile. In addition, apps on GetJar are free and work on over 1,700 handsets across all major platforms, so whether you are using an Android phone or just a plain Motorola you’re guaranteed to find all the apps you need in just one place.”
GetJar’s new website is now live, offering a new, more intuitive user interface and more apps for more types of handset than ever before. The site can instantly show the right apps for a user’s phone, upon submission of the user’s mobile phone number.

Bouygues Telecom Selects Openwave

French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom has selected Openwave Systems’ traffic management solution to manage and optimise its network traffic. Openwave’s traffic management solution will monitor and dynamically control a diverse range of IP (TCP- and UDP-based) data flows within the Bouygues mobile network. Openwave says its monitoring features will enable Bouygues Telecom to obtain better insights into network usage patterns and help the operator to define and anticipate new subscriber behaviours. Openwave’s traffic management solution will also allow Bouygues Telecom to offer a variety of tiered subscriber plans that reflect actual usage. 
Using Openwave’s traffic management solution, Bouygues Telecom will be able to apply a policy for each subscriber initiated IP session, including access control based on destination IP and port of content or application being request; access control based on subscriber plan/level of service; source/destination network address translation (NAT); and monitoring of predefined time and volume session limits. The Openwave traffic management solution will also allow information to be logged on each IP session to enable ‘hot-billing’ based on duration and volume consumed.
“As data demand continues to increase, and bandwidth-intensive services gain in popularity but also in complexity, we needed a solution to dynamically manage our network traffic and provide us with a greater element of control and tuning,” says Thibaut Keraval, who heads up the Mobile Services Solutions team at Bouygues Telecom. “Openwave’s traffic management solution will help us to optimise the Smartphone traffic on our network and ultimately offer our subscribers more personalised service plans with flexible pricing.”

Sony Ericsson Unveils Debut Android Phone

Sony Ericsson has unveiled its first Android phone, the XPERIA X10. It will be available from Q1, 2010.
The handset introduces a new UX platform that will evolve across the product portfolio and expand over time continuously introducing new features and capabilities. The UX platform builds on top of the Open OS and according to the firm, creates a unique Sony Ericsson user experience by combining best-in-class entertainment features with signature applications, unrivalled integration of social media services and a rich graphical user interface. The X10 is the first mobile phone to truly humanise the way people interact with their phones, the company says. 
“The XPERIA X10 is a fantastic example of our make.believe philosophy because we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and demonstrating that anything consumers can imagine, we can make possible,” says Sony Ericsson EVP and Chief Creation Officer, Rikko Sakaguchi. “With the X10, we are raising the bar we have set ourselves with entertainment-rich phones like Aino and Satio by making communication more fun and playful, multiplying and enriching opportunities to connect.”
The phone comes with Sony Ericsson Timescape, which manages all communications with one person in one place; and Sony Ericsson Mediascape which collates music, photos and videos from multiple sources and presents them on the handset. There’s also an ‘Intelligent Face Recognition’ feature that recognises up to five faces in any picture, automatically connecting them with your social phonebook and all other related communications with that person.
Apps for the phone can be downloaded from a variety of app stores, including PlayNow and the Android Market.

In Praise of Apps

Amit Gupta, Co-founder and Head of Business Development of mobile ad network InMobi, pays homage to the power, and advertising potential, of mobile applications

Mobile applications are a fast growing area in the mobile ecosystem, and are a hot topic in most industry forums these days. Due to their unique format and captive audience, they offer a huge potential for mobile marketing and advertising. In fact, it has become one of the preferred modes of mobile advertising for many brands and agencies for a lot of reasons.
Using mobile apps for advertising is all about leveraging Smartphones' inherent rich media and platform capabilities. Mobile advertising used to miss the wow factor; apps fill that gap. I am personally very excited about it.
The fundamental reason for this is that mobile apps can deliver a richer and more compelling user experience than most other modes of mobile advertising. As the phone’s capabilities start to get better, the feel of the application also improves. For example, a game with motion sensors to move in different directions is way more attractive than a game with button controls. Hence, as better phones begin to hit the market, more innovative apps are developed that use the enhanced features of phones, giving users a very engaging experience. Hence, an increasing number of brands have begun to sponsor an entire application and provide it for free for consumers, creating a big opportunity for brand awareness.
The apps on mobile phones can make use of all the phone’s features, such as the camera, GPS, media player or 3D graphics. If ad campaigns are designed to effectively utilize the mobile phone’s capabilities, it can lead to very engaging and successful ads.
Apps that provide value to the user usually stay on the user’s phone, and offer the potential for viral distribution. Moreover, if the app is designed such that it does not need to be connected to the Internet, then it can also be used when the user is offline. This boost usage of the app, in turn resulting in higher brand impact.
These are just a few of the advantages that in-app advertising can provide. Since the potential of  in-app advertising has been revealed, the ads on the apps are becoming as innovative as the apps themselves. You can have a full-screen ad before the app loads, or ads can be embedded into the application. A racing game app with ads shown around the race track is a good example.
While in-app advertising is definitely gaining momentum, there exists another school of thought which believes that the future of mobile will be driven by the mobile browser. The ever-decreasing rate of data charges is driving the use of the mobile web, and there may soon come a time when users are always connected to the Internet on their phone, removing the need for offline or in-app advertising.
Considering that both ideas have credit, one can only wait with anticipation for the mobile future to unfurl.

Non-smart Touchscreens Drving Down ARPU

The new generation of non-smart touchscreen mobiles have brought about a significant drop in the value generated from UK bills, according to new research from TNS ComTech.
Since the iPhone’s launch, touchscreen technology has taken the mobile market by storm, and today, touchscreen phones account for 43% of all UK sales. Despite their success, however, non-smart, cheaper touchphones, like the Samsung Tocco and the LG Viewty, are accelerating the decline in average spend per user (ARPU), which is now 13% lower than it was this time last year, at the height of the recession.
While users of non-touchscreen handsets are spending 12% less on using their mobile per month than they were at the same time last year, the comparable decrease amongst users of non-smart touchscreen handsets is 23%. The result is severely squeezed margins for both carriers and handset manufacturers that are developing and promoting the phones. In stark contrast, ARPU among touchscreen phone users with advanced operating systems, such as Apple’s iPhone and Blackberry’s Storm, is up by an average of £5 per month.
The research behind the study was extracted from the TNS ComTech consumer panel in the UK. Data included within this piece was taken from around 240,000 interviews conducted in Great Britain over the year to July 2009.
The study reveals that consumer misunderstanding of the different mobile technologies is to blame. Consumers are not aware of the difference between a phone with an advanced operating system and a touchscreen phone with a non-advanced operating system. As long as a phone looks like a high end Smartphone, the average Brit will think that it is one and go for the cheapest deal they can find. The message for manufactures and carriers is clear, says Comtech: choosing to grow their customer base at the expense of their margins is not a sustainable strategy.
“Although it is all too easy to attract value driven customers with non-smart touchscreen phones, carriers and manufacturers alike need to think long and hard about their handset portfolio and the effect that handset types are having on customer value,” says TNS ComTech Director, Paul Moore. “They should take care to educate consumers about the differences between operating systems and not simply punt phones that drive volume sales but contribute negatively to value. Conditions in the mobile market are tough and will remain so for some time. It is up to the industry to find long-term solutions to better engage consumers, rather than quick fixes that will escalate the drop in the value of the market.”

Voda Portugal Rolls Out Comverse Visual Voicemail

Comverse has revealed that Vodafone Portugal, which has more than five million mobile phone users, has become the country’s first operator to offer visual voicemail for the iPhone.
Vodafone Portugal began offering Comverse Visual Voicemail on the iPhone earlier this year. Instead of dialing in to retrieve voice messages, users can see information about each voice message, such as the sender, time of call and duration, in a message inbox on their mobile phone, and then click and listen to messages in any order. Users also can delete, forward and reply to any message.
“This deployment with Vodafone Portugal is a significant step forward for visual voicemail in its progress towards becoming the next-generation voicemail standard around the world,” says Dror Bin, President, Global Products and Operations at Comverse. “Visual voicemail delivers so many benefits for both users and operators that its potential for rapid market growth in the near future is strong in all regions.”
Visual Voicemail is part of the Comverse Voice HUB, a single platform for multiple voice-related services, such as next-generation voicemail, ringback tones, and call completion. Operators can reap cost savings from the Voice HUB’s unified platform, says Comverse, because it reuses major components and takes advantage of centralised operation, maintenance and provisioning.

Orange Launches £4m 3G Coverage Campaign

Orange has launched a £4 million advertising campaign to raise awareness of its 3G network, which currently covers over 93% of the UK population – more than any other network. The campaign, created by Fallon, will run in print and outdoors until mid-December, appearing across train stations, buses, digital panels, in airports and shopping malls.
The campaign uses conversational language and is designed to make people feel as if the ad is talking directly to them. The ads play on the idea that no matter who you are or what you are doing, you are likely to be covered by Orange’s 3G network.
“This campaign was devised to have a fresh and fun appeal to ensure that people see different versions of the adverts wherever they go, keeping the campaign new and intriguing,” says Orange UK Brand Director, Spencer McHugh. “At Orange we’re proud of our network and we wanted to remind customers about this great reason to be on Orange.”

PayPal Appoints Billing Revolution as m-Commerce Partner

Mobile payments company Billing Revolution has been appointed as a Mobile Commerce Partner by PayPal, enabling PayPal merchants to immediately begin conducting mobile credit card transactions using their existing PayPal Payflow Pro gateway accounts.
PayPal has roughly 45,000 merchants that process transactions via their Payflow gateway, and these merchants now have the ability to sell digital and physical goods to any consumer on a mobile phone. Under the agreement, Billing Revolution will become a reseller of the PayPal Payflow Pro gateway service, while PayPal can promote the Billing Revolution service to its merchant base. Payflow Pro connects a company’s online store to an existing Internet merchant account. The secure and scalable payment service can be used along with a merchant account to manage credit card transactions.
“We are pleased to bring the PayPal Payflow Gateway to merchants utilizing Billing Revolution’s credit card solution for mobile transactions," says Eddie Davis, Senior Director of Channel Sales at PayPal. “Billing Revolution’s customer base represents one of the most innovative segments of e-Commerce and mobile transactions. Together, we provide merchants with the products and services they need to be successful and deliver on the needs of their customers.”