Mobile Marketing Magazine

ERCOM Launches Secure SMS

ERCOM has launched a 'Secure SMS' service as part of its Cryptosmart Mobile Suite, which it released in 2008. The patent-based and certified solution protects both voice and data transmission, encrypts data stored on the device, and blocks MMS, SMS and Internet attacks.
Ercom says that Secure SMS offers confidentiality, through the encryption of SMS messages; authenticity, since the sender’s indentity cannot be falsified; and integrity, as users can be confident that messages have not been modified.
ERCOM is a telecom solution provider, dedicated to improving usage and confidence in telecommunication networks. The company’s focus is on  secure communication solutions and 4G network validation systems.

AdMob Updates AdWhirl

AdMob has announced an update to the AdWhirl mediation solution for application developers that it acquired last year. The update enables developers to use an unlimited number of ad networks in their apps. Previously, developers could add one ad network of their choice, in addition to AdWhirl’s explicit support for AdMob, JumpTap, MDotM, Millennial Media, and Quattro Wireless for iPhone apps and AdMob and Quattro Wireless for Android apps.
AdMob has also built upon AdWhirl’s existing support for Quattro Wireless to fully support iAd, Apple’s upcoming ad network, when it becomes available. Developers who plan on using iAd when it launches can be confident that AdWhirl will support their needs, the company says.
AdMob has also updated the AdWhirl House Ads functionality to give developers the ability to centrally manage their House Ads across their iPhone and Android apps. Developers can use House Ads to cross-promote their apps and to serve ad campaigns that they sell directly to advertisers. AdMob says it has also made AdWhirl’s user interface more intuitive and powerful, so that developers can easily manage their inventory across multiple applications.
Prior to this announcement, AdMob had previously made AdWhirl open source to give developers complete control and full transparency over how they utilize their ad inventory, and also recently added support for Android apps.  
In a blog post, AdMob VP Engineering, Kvin Scott, says:
“We believe that open source mediation plays an important role in the mobile ecosystem by giving developers the control they need to manage their business. The improvements we’ve made to AdWhirl have all been based on input from the developers who are using it and contributions from AdWhirl’s growing open source community. There are now more than 1,700 apps actively using AdWhirl, including more than 175 Android apps – up from 1,300 apps just 4 months ago. Daily ad requests have also jumped significantly from 40 million when we open sourced AdWhirl to more than 100 million today.
“We plan to continue to invest in AdWhirl and launch additional functionality that will help developers manage their increasingly sophisticated inventory management needs.”

Openwave and F5 Team Up for Policy Solution

Openwave Systems has announced a partnership with F5 Networks. Through the technology partnership, Openwave Smart Policy a context-aware policy management solution, and Openwave Integra, a traffic and policy management solution, will be integrated with F5 BIG-IP solutions.
The integrated Openwave/F5 solution makes extensive use of F5’s advanced layer 7 functionality including F5 iRules, an event-driven scripting language that provides operators with the control to directly manipulate and manage IP traffic. Leveraging F5’s scalable VIPRION platform as the policy enforcement point, the solution is designed to provide a cost-effective way for mobile operators to apply dynamic and context-aware policy rules using a set of data sources, including existing policy and traffic management systems, enabling operators to more effectively monitor, manage and monetize the mobile Internet.
“Data usage is growing tremendously on mobile networks, with the potential for creating network congestion and poor experiences for customers,” says Jan Dawson, Chief Telecoms Analyst at Ovum. “Even with the increased capacity and efficiency gains expected from LTE and other 4G technologies, operators need to pursue other options for managing traffic on their networks to ensure the best possible experience for customers.”
Openwave Smart Policy adds application-specific policy dimensions, complimenting overall network policy, to mobile broadband traffic. Through dynamic feedback and greater visibility into the traffic flow, says Openwave, Smart Policy enables creative service plan options. Policies based on factors such as the access network used; the user social group; the volume consumption per service and/or time of day/week; and the bandwidth usage level in different areas of the network, allow operators to have better control of the user experience and cost of the service delivery.
Openwave Integra can seamlessly update an operator’s WAP environment to embrace Internet protocols, preserving and maximizing existing investments with new opportunities to develop revenue. OPenwave says that Integra is focused on orchestrating and mediating a set of mobile Internet services, which are driven by a rich policy rules-engine that allows each transaction processed to be appropriately treated, depending on factors such as user profile, device capabilities, content being accessed and network. Integra’s plug-in services architecture enables all value-added services provided by Openwave to be easily installed and deployed on top of Integra. The operator may also choose to develop or avail of other third party services through this plug-in API.

ALK Readies CoPilot for the iPad

ALK Technologies has submitted CoPilot Live HD, a turn-by-turn satellite navigation and trip planning app designed specifically for 3G models of Apple’s iPad, to the Apple app store. With street maps stored on the device, CoPilot Live HD takes full advantage of the iPad 3G’s in-built GPS receiver and high resolution touch screen to provide a large-screen voice-guided navigation experience.
A new split-screen driving view combines uncluttered 3D or 2D map displays with clear, non-distracting turn instructions. As with CoPilot Live for iPhone, the HD edition auto-switches between portrait and landscape, uses pinch-zoom functionality and offers access to iPod music controls from within the app.
Initially launched in N. America to coincide with the US release of GPS-enabled iPad 3G models, detailed street-level maps are stored directly on the iPad. Apps for additional regions will be launched as the iPad 3G becomes available worldwide in coming months.
CoPilot Live HD also enables travellers to plan door-to-door itineraries on their iPad. Users can enter multiple stops for a single journey and optimise to calculate the most efficient route.  Advanced features include integral access to local search, real-time weather information, and the ability to create customised routing profiles that best suit personal preferences.
ALK says that CoPilot Live HD N. America is expected to be available to buy for iPad 3G in early May. Pricing will be the same as for the CoPilot Live iPhone app with no ongoing fees or subscriptions.

junaio Set for May Launch on Android

metaio has launched a closed Beta version of its junaio Augmented Reality (AR) app for Android developers. Until now, junaio has been available for the iPhone and the number of registered developers has reached over 250 since opening up the API in February 2010.
As with the iPhone version, the closed beta-version for Android allows registered developers to create AR-mashups, information channels or game concepts with the open API. As with other AR-browsers, users can find nearby POIs (Points of Interest) like shops, restaurants or train stations by simply pointing their mobile phone`s camera at the local environment. Additionally, since Android allows access to the videostream, the Android version will be the first free and open mobile platform to provide natural feature tracking to the developer community.
"We expect these capabilities to revolutionize outdoor or print advertising, packaging and mobile gaming", says metaio CTO, PeterMeier. “Users now can point their phone at a billboard and virtual characters might be jumping out of it. The software recognizes the image and overlays dynamic data, true to position, scale and target group into the real world view of the camera.”
The client version of the app should be available for Android phones mid-May.

Jobs Lays Into Flash

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has published an open letter outlining the problems the company has with Adobe’s Flash platform.
Jobs points out that the two companies used to have a good relationship, noting that Apple owned around 20% of Adobe for many years. He then talks about Apple going through “its near death experience”, while Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with its Acrobat products, but says that today, apart from the fact that Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products, there are few joint interests.
Then the fun starts. The rest of the letter is a summary of why Jobs, and Apple, don’t like Flash. His first point is that it’s proprietary. Jobs concedes that the OS for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, but goes on to point out that Apple has also adopted open standards such as HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
His second point is that the H.264 video format negates the need for Flash for watching video on mobile. His third is that, according to Symantec, Flash had one of the worst security records in 2009 and that: “We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash.” Jobs goes on to say that Apple has been asking Adobe to show the company Flash performing well on a mobile device for “a few years now”, then adds: “We have never seen it.”
Battery life is Jobs’ fourth target. He says that Flash drains batteries on mobile devices. Next up is Touch. Flash, says Jobs, was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers, so most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. “If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?” Jobs asks.
Finally, and most importantly, says Jobs, Apple does not like the idea of Adobe encouraging developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on its mobile devices.
“We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform,” he says. “If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.”
In a scathing summary, Jobs concludes that Flash is a format created during the PC era and that in the mobile era, it “falls short”. He says: “The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content ... New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.”
Seconds out...

Fitness App Takes Voda's UK App Star Prize

18 year-old Computer Science student Mark Salvin from Leamington Spa has been revealed as the winner of the UK leg of the Vodafone App Star competition, winning a total prize fund of €25,000 (£21,700).
His ‘JoggerTracker’ app uses GPS to calculate information such as the amount of calories burned and distance travelled during a run, and displays as well this information on a graph along with information from previous runs. Judges praised the app’s user experience. Richard Wilson took second place, and a prize of  €15,000 for his ‘Pokerzzle’ app, while third place and €10,000 went to Nick Sheard for his ‘TrailTrak’ app.
Salvin will now go head-to-head against the seven other country winners in a public vote to decide the overall winner of the competition and a total prize of €100,000. He says: “I am delighted to win the UK round of the Vodafone AppStar competition. Central to my strategy was creating the best user experience possible, allowing users to quickly and easily monitor their performance during a run, as well as keeping track of their progress over time. Developing for Vodafone 360 has been a seamless experience, and it’s great to see an operator provide the level of support that Vodafone has throughout the whole development process. I look forward to publishing a lot more apps in the future.”
The other regional winners were as follows:

• Germany – Lootogo. The world’s first toilet search engine where you can evaluate toilets and find the best toilets wherever you are.
• Greece – Social Whale. An extended social media client with support for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Identica and Google reader.
• Ireland – Dublin Bus Info. Uses your mobile GPS to find bus stops near you in Dublin whilst providing bus stop and timetable information.
• Italy – Cool Traveling. Allows you to plan a trip around Italy in a simple and cost effective way with all services (train, plane, weather forecast and accommodation) directly available from your mobile.
• Netherlands – Happy Birthday. A new, improved version of the best birthday reminder there is. Don’t ever forget the birthdays you most care about again.
• Portugal – FlickrShow. Accesses Flickr in an unprecedented way, offering stunning slide slows and the ability to search photos by keyword, username, colour and even by location using the phone’s GPS.
• Spain – Yata! A location-based app enabling users to share information and vote for the best things in any given area of Spain. It offers user generated geo-located info created by other users in the area, so users can easily see their recommendations and tags on a map.

Between now and 21 May mobile enthusiasts can view the entire shortlist and vote for their favourite here. Voters will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win one of 10 Samsung H1 devices. The results of the public vote, and the overall winner of the Vodafone AppStar competition, will be announced on 24 May.
“We are delighted to see such high quality apps come through the competition and we’re proud to recognise the innovation and effort of developers everywhere with big monetary rewards,” says Lee Epting, Director of Content Services at Vodafone Group. “The public vote now has the tough job of deciding who will be crowned the overall winner. With the quality we’ve seen across the board, we’re expecting it to be a close contest. Given customer demand for our mobile apps is incredibly high, we felt it was important for the public to have the final say in this competition.”
The Vodafone AppStar competition is part of Vodafone’s ongoing engagement with developers. Vodafone recently announced a new publishing process for developers via the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) portal, enabling developers to use open web technologies to create, monetise and distribute apps to customers with JIL-enabled handsets. Apps submitted through JIL.org are supported by 50 different handset models across multiple European markets, and according to Vodafone, offer an attractive revenue model for developers. In addition, developers benefit from a quick and transparent review process, which sees all apps assessed in 10 business days.
There’s more information about developing for Vodafone here.

InMobi Unveils AdROIt Solution

Mobile ad network InMobi has unveiled AdROIt, which offers advertisers automated, cost per acquisition-based performance tracking to improve ROI for their mobile advertising campaigns. InMobi says that AdROIt for advertisers expands on its focus to provide detailed, transparent analytics that seek to improve performance for its network partners.
AdROIt utilises ‘goal seek’, allowing advertisers to track key mobile advertising campaign objectives (e.g. quotes for car insurance; reviews on a new digital camera; requests for hotel rates) on a cost per acquisition (CPA) basis,  and then link this performance to a myriad of influences such as the advertising creative, publisher, and consumer targeting details. Using real-time reporting and automated performance feedback, InMobi creates a self-learning network that according to the company, improves performance for advertisers with every impression and every click.
Craig A.  Owensby is Chairman and CEO of PT Code Jawa, an Indonesian content provider and mobile technology developer. He says:
“Over the last six years, we have found that the key to profits is accurate, meaningful information about the effectiveness of our distribution channels. For WAP advertising, the situation is no different. PT Code Jawa has been using InMobi's AdROIt technology for the last two months, and we can say, without question, that the impact has been huge. In the past, we would need to make educated guesses as to which ads led to the needed conversion rates - now we know. Using AdROIt, we know which kinds of publishers generate the best results for us, which means we can spend more in order to drive up market share for those publishers that work, while de-targeting those who do not generate good results. In my opinion, InMobi's AdROIt technology is a game changer in the WAP ad industry.”
Sridhar Ranagathan, VP of Product Management at InMobi says the benefit of AdROIt lies in its ability to incorporate feedback in real-time and automatically adjust the campaign performance accordingly.
“In a mobile advertising industry that is increasingly competitive and complex to manage, we continue to deliver innovative products such as AdROIt, to help advertisers to effortlessly improve performance and feed our self-learning network technology,” he says.
There’s more information about AdROIt here.

HP Buys Palm for $1.2bn

HP is buying Palm for approximately $1.2 billion (£785 million) or $5.70 per share of Palm common stock. 
HP says the combination of its global scale and financial strength, and Palm’s webOS platform, will enhance its ability to participate more aggressively in the Smartphone and connected mobile device markets.  It adds that webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications.
“Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices,” says Todd Bradley, Executive Vice President, Personal Systems Group, HP. “And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The Smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market.”
Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company

Mobile Payments under the Spotlight

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Mobile Payments for Digital & Physical Goods - Players, Markets & Opportunities, 2010-2014.
The report focuses on two major sectors within the mobile payments industry: digital goods payments (mobile entertainment such as a music track and SMS/barcode ticketing); and physical goods payments (mobile purchase of almost any consumer product such as a book or DVD using the mobile Internet or an application).
Within two forecasting suites, the number of digital mobile payments users, along with digital mPayments traffic and transaction value, are projected over the next five years. Gross merchandise sales values (GMS) are forecast for the total digital and physical goods market.
The report examines a number of key drivers for the digital and physical goods payments market, such as the spread in the developing world of money transfer providers partnering with digital and physical goods providers. It also considers a number of constraints for the market, including an examination of the viral impact of poor user experience when using an mPayment service.
The report considers how many mobile subscribers will make remote mobile payments over the next five years, and which will be the leading regions in the market in 2014. It also looks at the size of remote mobile payment transaction values, and at the trends, drivers and constraints affecting the development of the market.
There’s more information about the report here.

Nescafe Gets Into Augmented Reality

Nescafe has launched a free Augmented Reality app for Android and the iPhone in Chile. The channel,  which uses the Layar AR platform, was created by digital agency Wunderman Chile, and enables users to discover places and events within 5km of their current position. After downloading the app, users simply enter a keyword, (e.g. ‘Music’) and point their camera in any direction to see relevant places and events displayed on their phone.

Blackberry Launches Developer Challenge

BlackBerry Partners Fund has launched the third annual BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge.
This year’s Challenge focuses on ‘Super Apps’, and invites developers to showcase applications that take advantage of the BlackBerry Application Platform’s unique capabilities. For the first time, the Challenge will recognise BlackBerry Smartphone applications on a regional basis across four regions – N. America, Latin America, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific.
Applications can be submitted to the Challenge now today and entries will be accepted until 6 September, 2010. Applications will be judged on quality, user experience and how effectively they have incorporated Super App characteristics. Last year’s winners included 7Digital and FierceTowers.
Judges will evaluate applications submitted in seven categories: Productivity; Fun & Games; Knowledge, Sharing; Navigate & Explore; Multi-media; and In the Know. Regional selections will be notified week commencing 27 September, 2010.  Regional Semi-Finalists in each category will be named by 1 November, 2010.  Regional Winners and Regional Finalists will be announced on 18 November, 2010.
Developers of applications selected at each Finalist level will receive prizes to support their development on the BlackBerry Platform. Up to four Regional Winners will each receive a prize pack valued at $85,000 (£56,000), including application promotion services, BlackBerry Smartphones, BlackBerry App World marketing support, and an Elite membership in the BlackBerry Alliance Program.
Up to 28 Regional Semi-Finalists will each receive prize packages worth over $16,000 and up to 12 Regional Finalists will each receive prize packages valued at almost $35,000. Up to 400 Regional Selections will receive a free BlackBerry Smartphone for submitting their application into the Challenge.
“The BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge has grown and evolved over the last three years and this year we will be rewarding the BlackBerry developer community at many levels to benefit more developers than ever before,” says Kevin Talbot, Co-managing Partner at BlackBerry Partners Fund. “BlackBerry Partners Fund is celebrating innovation that can only be achieved on the BlackBerry Application Platform, by creating apps that people cannot live without.”
You can apply to compete in the Challenge here. The Challenge is open to both newly-developed and existing applications.

Colibria Offloads IMPS Business to Synchronica

Colibria has completed the sale of its Open Mobile Alliance Instant Messaging and Presence Service (OMA IMPS) business to Synchronica plc. Colibria says the divestment will allow it to increase investment in core areas of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) application servers.
Colibria has seen increasing growth in SIP convergence products over the last 18 months, having won a further three new customers in Q1 2010, in addition to the six new customers announced in Q4 2009, Colibria’s portfolio consists of a SIP Instant Messaging Server; SIP Presence Server; XDMS Servers; and a Social Network Gateway and Internet Instant Messaging Gateway - integrating and interfacing messaging and presence with existing services like Windows Live Messenger and Facebook Chat.
“Colibria's move to focus on the convergence market appears well timed, with the IMS equipment market seeing increasing momentum worldwide, with sales in 2009 up 142% over 2008 and expected to reach $1.44 billion (£950 million) by 2014,” says Diane Myers, Directing Analyst at Infonetics Research. “We have seen particular growth in Rich Communication Suite, LTE trials, enhanced mobile IM, and presence services - all areas that Colibria are embedded in as a leading independent vendor.”

Crowdsourced App is Made for Sharing

iwikiphone, an independent, international community for iPhone users, has released Scrappbook, a crowdsourced app that enables users to create and share scrapbooks of their videos, pictures and audio content. The app costs £0.59.
The original idea for the app came from 16-year old Alistair Heath, and was refined by community members in the US, Bahrain and the UK. Heath, and the members who helped refine the app, get a one-off payment from iwikiphone and a share of the first month’s sales revenues. Scrappbook is already popular with highly social iPhone users in the US and is number five in the iTunes Photography section. It is also included in the ‘New and Noteworthy’ section on the US App Store homepage.
Scrappbook includes geo-localisation for each picture and video; a range of themes, bubbles, notes and signs to choose from; and direct sharing to Facebook. Users can also archive several scrapbooks and export them to PDF for printing. It is available on iTunes in the UK and US, with local language versions on iTunes in Spain France, Germany and Italy. You can see a video of Scrappbook in action here.
“The idea behind the model is that we only develop apps that people actually want,” says iwikiphone CEO, Luca Di Cesare. “Scrappbook is already up on iTunes and selling well. Members of the community that helped develop the app are likely to be our first customers, but I’m sure that it will be very popular with the vast majority of iPhone app users.”
Ideas for apps are suggested, refined and selected for development in iwkiphone’s App Farm. It has bee operational since December 2009, and in the five month since it launched, 600 suggestions for apps have been posted. 16 apps have been published to be reviewed by the community, and four chosen for development. 
Community members can find out about the latest and coolest apps on iwikiphone through Video Reviews; 
AppLists; Circle of Friends (updates from trusted community members); and APPscriptions, which are 140-character user-generated definitions of cool apps.
iwikiphone also provides community members with recommendations on new apps that maybe of specific interest to a member. The app selection is based on the information collected from community registrations and ongoing monitoring of app developments outside of the community.

Zeemote Launches Android SDK

Zeemote has launched an Android SDK (Software Development Kit), enabling developers of Android games and applications to integrate support for the Zeemote JS1 Controller.
The Zeemote Android SDK supports Android versions 1.6, 2.0 and upward and offers developers the opportunity to differentiate their application by adding unique and interactive controls offered with the Zeemote JS1 Controller.
Current Zeemote developers can download the SDK here. New developers can register here. Registered developers have access to download the modified source code of the kwaak3 port project that integrates Zeemote JS1 game control for Android.
By integrating Zeemote SDKs into their existing and future applications, Zeemote says that developers can provide a superior mobile gaming experience across multiple supported platforms; deliver true analog game control; and enable multi-player mobile gaming, using two controllers with one device.
Zeemote says that in the next few weeks, it will announce a developer programme, which will provide support, promotion and “unparalleled routes to market” for game developers, including access to 100 million consumers a year.
“By adding the exciting Android SDK to our stable of supported platforms, we are able to give developers an excellent way in which to make their applications really stand out from the crowd,” says
Jim Adams, Head of Business Development at Zeemote. “The Android community is proving itself to be wildly creative, pushing the boundaries of convention for mobile applications. When combined with the Zeemote JS1 Controller we expect to see some radical application creativity coming out of the Android community.”

EARTH Aims to Save the Earth

A group of 15 telecommunications service providers, component and infrastructure vendors and academic institutions have launched ‘EARTH’ (Energy Aware Radio and neTwork tecHnologies), a consortium whose goal is to achieve a 50% reduction in the energy consumption of advanced 4G mobile networks within two-and-a-half years. Other members include Ericsson, DoCoMo, and Telecom Italia, as well as a number of universities.
EARTH’s approach will be to consider the energy efficiency of mobile networks at a comprehensive system level rather than focusing on discrete network elements. The consortium members say they will research approaches to allow for unprecedented energy savings in the area of wireless networks, their components, and radio interfaces. Based on this, EARTH will develop a new generation of energy-efficient network equipment and components, craft energy-oriented deployment strategies, and conceive energy-aware network management solutions.
The EARTH initiative supports the European Union’s Work Programme for Information and Communication Technologies under the objective “Network of the Future”, which has the goal to realize the new generation of telecom infrastructure, network and Internet technologies. The project is funded within the EU's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) that seeks to play a crucial role in achieving goals of growth, competitiveness and employment by bundling all research-related EU initiatives together under a common roof.
Dr. Rainer Fechner, Head of Bell Labs in Germany and member of the management board, Alcatel-Lucent in Germany, says: “What makes EARTH so compelling is that it has the potential to deliver tangible benefits to society on a number of levels: reducing energy consumption of networks and their impact on the environment, while making broadband wireless service available to a greater number of people in Europe. The value of our contribution derives from deep experience and innovations in both green technology and advanced wireless systems.”
The EARTH research project was launched in January 2010 and will run until June 2012. There’s more information here.

Flytxt Rolls Out Latest Version of Neon

Flytxt has launched the latest version of its mobile marketing platform, Neon. Flytxt says it delivers a step change in marketing agility and effectiveness, compared to existing marketing systems, enabling mobile operators to run closed loop marketing campaigns within minutes, from a single web desktop, without the help of IT specialists.
The entire marketing loop, comprising of behavioural analytics, segmentation, campaign execution, ROI tracking, reward fulfilment and reward confirmation, is automated in real time in a single integrated platform. 
“With existing marketing systems, it takes days or weeks to draw in necessary subscriber intelligence, design, run and analyse campaigns,” says Flytxt Co-founder and Senior Vice President - Product and Technology, Thomas Schuster. “They are too slow and unsuitable for the real-time medium, mobile, and the dynamic and diverse marketing environments of mobile operators. The latest release of Neon addresses the above challenges and shortens campaign cycles to the point where it is quicker to test a campaign concept than to debate it in a meeting.”
A major part of the new release is the centralised inventory management function, which gives mobile operators complete control and visibility over their marketing inventory across channels. Neon automatically manages and intelligently maximises the return of all marketing impressions, and at the same time increases customer satisfaction, as communication frequency limits are automatically and centrally enforced.
“This version of Neon sets a new benchmark in mobile marketing as it transforms marketing agility for operators and allows scaling marketing processes across different product teams, business partners and advertisers with a single centralised technology,” says Schuster.

Nokia N8 Set For Q3 Launch

Nokia has taken the wraps off the N8, its latest Smartphone, which is set to launch in the UK during the third quarter of 2010, at an estimated retail price of €370 (£320).
The Symbian^3-powered device offers support for gestures including multi-touch, flick scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. It also offers multiple personalisable homescreens which can be loaded with applications and widgets. The new 2D and 3D graphics architecture build into Symbian^3 takes full advantage of the Nokia N8’s hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. Symbian^3 also allows more applications to run in parallel.
Other features include a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash, and a built-in editing suite. The handset also offers Web TV services that deliver programs, news and entertainment from channels including CNN, E! Entertainment, Paramount and National Geographic, with additional UK-focused Web TV content also available from the Ovi Store.
The handset comes with free global Ovi Maps walk and drive navigate, and is also social networking-friendly. Users can update their status, share location and photos, and view live feeds from Facebook and Twitter in a single app on the home screen. Calendar events from social networks can also be transferred to the device calendar.
The device is also the first to be integrated with Qt, a software development environment designed to make it easier to build applications once and deploy across Symbian and other software platforms. Nokia has also made the Nokia Qt SDK available, in beta form.

Telefónica Hands Social Networking Task to Myriad

Telefónica has selected Myriad Group to provide social networking aggregation services to its mobile subscribers across 12 countries in Latin America.
Marketed under Telefónica's ‘Movistar’ brand, Myriad’s services will enable mobile users to simultaneously access multiple social networks, via mobile browsers, downloadable apps and other mobile technologies. The aim of the partnership is to deliver a richer social networking experience for Movistar customers, over a broad range of devices, including Movistar-branded phones.
“Latin American consumers are enthusiastic users of social networks. This agreement will bring them a compelling and affordable way to access these sites from their mobile phones,” says Luis Miguel Gilperez Lopez, Managing Director of Telefónica Latin América’s Mobile Division. “One of the most appealing aspects of Myriad is its focus on mass-market phones rather than just high-end devices, which will enable Telefónica to reach the widest possible audience and make the most of this exciting opportunity.”
According to comScore, two out of three global web users visited a social networking site in December 2009. In Latin America, the adoption rate exceeds 80%.
Telefónica currently serves more than 80 million mobile users in 12 Latin America countries, including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

E-Dialog Snaps Up M3 Mobile Marketing

Email marketing firm e-Dialog is expanding its mobile marketing capabilities with the acquisition of US-based M3 Mobile Marketing. M3 creates and executes full-service mobile marketing programs for global enterprises, while e-Dialog provides e-mail marketing services and solutions with parent company GSI Commerce’s Marketing Services Division.
“The mobile arena holds so much promise and many marketers are excited but simply don’t know where to start,” says e-Dialog President and CEO, John Rizzi. “Nearly all mobile users are carrying a text-enabled phone right now. To ignore that reach would be missing a tremendous opportunity. The passionate team at M3 has already navigated the early challenges of this channel and has built award-winning solutions from which marketers new to mobile can immediately benefit. Our clients can now devise and implement marketing programs that let them create a meaningful customer experience on mobile devices.”
M3’s proprietary platform, COREtxt, was developed for both full-service and self-service applications. It has the ability to segment by any attribute that is stored in the client’s custom mobile database. Since all of COREtxt features operate in real-time, broadcast segments will reflect the most up-to-date mobile activity. The platform incorporates live reporting features, enabling targeting via gender, age, geography, customer preference and other segmentations.
The company also builds data exchange services to import data into COREtxt. Data can also be exported into the client’s CRM system via batch feeds, or, where immediate action is required, a web service API.
“e-Dialog is a company that has been helping organizations effectively connect with consumers through e-mail for years,” says ME Predient and Co-founder, Gary Ackerman. “Our companies share the same core values as it relates to intelligent marketing, and we look forward to empowering e-Dialog’s expansion into mobile. The multichannel marketing vision this represents will truly pay dividends to clients and their consumers.”
M3 will operate as a subsidiary of e-Dialog. Its full team will remain intact and report to e-Dialog CEO, John Rizzi. Gridley & Company, a New York City-based boutique investment bank, provided e-Dialog and GSI with advisory services on the deal.

GetJar in Indian Apps Alliance

Independent app store GetJar has announced a strategic alliance with Indian telco Reliance Communications. The alliance will see GetJar offering Reliance’s 100 million+ subscribers its extensive catalogue of over 65,000 free mobile applications through Reliance’s VAS (Value Added Services) platform, R-World.
Reliance Communications will offer the GetJar Apps Store across GSM and CDMA networks. Customers will have access to applications including games, social networking, sports, entertainment and productivity applications. Popular apps such as Facebook Mobile, Yahoo!, Opera Mini, and Nimbuzz can be downloaded to more that 2,300 handsets across all major platforms. RCOM will offer the service at 50 paise per MB of usage, with the app download and offline usage free. GetJar currently averages over 1 million downloads per day globally. India is currently adding more mobile phone subscribes each month than any other.
Reliance’s application store strategy is directly linked to a move to increase data traffic, increase data plan adoption, and the sale of other services through the use of free applications. Reliance believes the strategy of giving away free apps will help achieve mass mobile data plan adoption and mobile Internet use.
“We wanted to partner with the largest, most experienced, “open” application catalog provider to address virtually any device being used by our customers,” says Anil Pande, Head – VAS at Reliance Communications, “Our partnership with GetJar means that all Reliance Communications customers will instantly have access to thousands of applications, ranging from games, shopping and lifestyle, to sports, entertainment and productivity applications.”

Rubberduck Moves Towards HTML TV Streaming

Rubberduck Media Lab, which provides streaming Mobile TV services, has completed the first phase of an ongoing program to provide a new streaming infrastructure built around HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) streaming, which it says will enable a more robust and flexible live TV and video-on-demand service.
HTTP is now being widely adopted for video delivery to mobile devices. Apple uses it for the iPhone and iPad OS. With this move, Rubberduck says it is ensuring that its customers can continue to deliver high quality web video to a new generation of mobile devices. In addition, new features such as ‘Step Back in time’, allowing users to rewind while watching videos, are now possible using HTTP.
“As a leading international Mobile TV provider, Rubberduck looks to the future and positions itself to work with the best in breed technologies as these are adopted in the market,” says Rubberduck CEO, Erling Paulsen. “We have been leading this mobile space with RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol), and now we are able to extend our award-winning capabilities to HTTP-based services.”

Droid Leads the Way for Android in AdMob Stats

AdMob has released its March 2010 Mobile Metrics Report, which takes a closer look at Android Operating System (OS) traffic in its metwork.
The report finds the diversity of devices in the Android ecosystem is increasing, driven by the launch of new devices from different manufacturers with various form factors, capabilities, and OS versions over the past seven months. In contrast, the iPhone OS runs on devices from a single manufacturer, a single form factor (until the launch of the iPad in April), and all devices have the ability to upgrade OS versions.
In March 2010, there were 34 Android devices from 12 manufacturers available to consumers, according to comments from Jeff Huber in Google’s Q1 2010 Earnings Call. In AdMob’s network in March 2010, 11 devices accounted for 96% of Android traffic, up from two devices in September 2009. The three primary versions of the Android OS all drove significant traffic in March 2010 – Android 1.5 (38%), Android 2.0/2.1 (35%) and Android 1.6 (26%). Motorola and HTC were the leading Android device manufacturers with 44% and 43% of traffic respectively.  
Highlights from the report include:

• Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset in March 2010 generating 32% of Android traffic, while the Google Nexus One drove only 2% of Android traffic.
• At least 54% of Android traffic came from devices with a QWERTY keyboard.
• Three devices – the iPhone 3GS (39%), second generation iPod touch (25%) and iPhone 3G (20%) – generated 84% of total iPhone OS traffic.
• iPhone 3GS traffic share has increased from 30% in September 2009 to 39% in March 2010. The 1st Generation iPhone only generated 2% of iPhone OS requests in March 2010.
• Total worldwide traffic in AdMob’s network increased 18% month-over-month.

You can access the full report, plus archived reports from other months, here.

MMA Updates Cross-carrier Content Guideines

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released the latest version of its ‘U.S. Consumer Best Practices (CBP) Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services’ The guidelines cover cross-carrier mobile content services such as text messaging (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS), shortcode programs, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and mobile web.
Produced by the MMA’s CBP Committee, the new, version 5.0 guidelines provide measures of acceptable and unacceptable practices for all players in the US ecosystem. They also serve as the benchmarks for the four largest US wireless service providers – Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA – eliminating the need for brands, agencies and marketers to refer to four separate carrier playbooks.
Major updates and additions include new guidelines for affiliate marketing for premium rate programs, with examples; new guidelines to ensure ‘STOP’ and ‘HELP’ keywords work in each program’s native language; and updated guidelines to ensure clarity for all members of the mobile marketing ecosystem
Version 5.0 also features a new format for faster navigation, using tiered sections such as General Guidelines, Standard Rate, Premium Rate and Free to End User Programs. The new format includes ‘MMA IDs’, which make it easy to find related sections in previous versions.
"The MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines continue to provide the industry-standard reference that every member of the mobile marketing ecosystem turns to when they need definitive answers for ensuring consistency and protecting the consumer experience,” says Kristine van Dillen, Director of Industry Initiatives and Partnerships for the MMA. “Through regular updates, the guidelines are designed to anticipate and address changing industry needs and opportunities, while meeting two goals that haven’t changed since the first edition: ensuring consistency and protecting the consumer experience.”
The guidelines are available here.

Comverse Turbocharges Mobile Internet Hub

Comverse has taken the wraps off a new, ultra-high capacity configuration for its Mobile Internet HUB platform to manage today’s booming mobile data traffic growth without the immediate need to build out network infrastructure.
With a throughput of up to 40 gigabits per second, the Comverse Mobile Internet HUB handles tens of thousands of web transactions per second, or hundreds of thousands of multiple data streams, yet requires only a single cabinet of front-end servers.
“With such applications as video streaming and file sharing driving up data consumption, operators today are challenged to meet skyrocketing traffic demands,” says Gabriel Matsliach, President of Products and Operations at Comverse. “By better using existing resources, Comverse’s ultra-high capacity solution allows operators to delay expensive capital outlays and lower operating costs, while still knowing they can deliver superior mobile broadband service long into the future.”
The Mobile Internet HUB’s ultra-high capacity is made possible by the optimised processing core, controlled by an accurate and efficient real-time smart service policy manager, enhanced with fully integrated deep packet inspection (DPI). The modular design of Mobile Internet HUB’s blade-based server technology also helps reduce cabling and power consumption, the company notes.
Comverse adds that the Mobile Internet HUB effectively enforces traffic management and charging decisions at fast rates, by applying real-time identification and processing for multiple traffic layers, including layer-7 applications like web browsing and video streaming. Users enjoy consistent high-quality service, and operators benefit from dramatically improved network use and increased profitability, it says.
The Mobile Internet HUB is part of Comverse HUB Value-Added Services, spanning voice, messaging, mobile internet and mobile advertising.

Mobile Ad Spend Up 32% say IAB/PwC

The UK mobile advertising market grew by 32% in 2009 to reach £37.6 million, according to the second annual study of the market carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Every quarter in 2009 showed consistent, strong growth with Q4 delivering a record display advertising spend of £5.5 million – an increase of 28% over Q4 2008. The study also identifies Entertainment & Media as the biggest mobile advertising category, a long way ahead of Telecoms in second place. 
Here are the highlights of the report:

• Mobile search was the fastest growing format – up 41% to £20.2 million and a market share of 54% compared to 50% in 2008
• Mobile display – which includes banners, text links, tenancies, pre- and post-roll video and in-game advertising – grew by 24% to £17.4 million and a market share of 46%, compared to 50% in 2008.
• Spend on banners and text links was 26% year on year to £14.6 million
• Tenancies were up 17% year on year to £1.4 million
• Other formats, including display advertising within SMS/MMS, were up 26% year on year, to £1.2 million.
• The top five display advertising categories in 2009 were Entertainment & Media (61.5%); Telecoms (14.7%); Finance (8.1%); Consumer Goods (3.2%); and Government, social and political (2.7%).

Jon Mew, the IAB’s Head of Mobile says: “While market conditions saw many advertisers reduce their investment and testing on mobile, these findings paint a positive picture of a compelling new advertising medium. Mobile is an effective, highly targeted and complementary advertising channel. Signs are that 2010 will be important year as confidence and budgets increase.”
But  PwC’s Eva Berg-Winters points out that: "A successful year for mobile has been underpinned by mixed performances. There were two distinct approaches from advertisers and publishers. They either cut spend or continued to invest and develop their use of mobile - with a view to come out on top following the downturn. Recent investment in mobile has significantly outweighed the budget cuts. This signals the belief that it is set to become an important medium."
The study reports on actual media spend, in order to ensure fair comparison to other media, including display advertising. Figures do not include SMS/MMS production and delivery costs, nor other mobile marketing revenues such as app production. All growth figures are like for like, meaning that the results compare companies that submitted in 2008 and 2009. 17 companies representing “hundreds” of websites, took part in the survey. The figures in the report are based on participants’ data, except for search figures, which are derived from “modelling and industry estimates”.

MEF Makes M-commerce Move

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) North America has unveiled a Mobile Commerce Initiative designed to help brands, content producers, and retailers better understand how to leverage the mobile phone to drive customer acquisition, retention, and conversion. The first phase of the initiative will consist of an educational and informative webinar and m-commerce Guide that will contain commercial best practices examples and case studies that aim to demystify and simplify the mobile commerce landscape.
“There is no more timely and definitive resource,” says Gary Schwartz, CEO of Impact Mobile and Vice Chairman of MEF North America.  “Across the US, brands, retailers, and content owners are exploring ways to effectively reach their mobile shopper. The MEF M-Commerce Guide will help these stakeholders to identify ways to drive revenue on the phone or via the phone. This resource will be a good first step to simplify the myriad of options in-market.”
m-commerce services make it feasible for businesses to handle an extremely large volume of low cost sales. In addition to purchases like ringtones, music tracks, and games, the growth in micro-payments has come from the purchase of items like car parking and cinema tickets. Additionally, mobile is beginning to impact commerce at bricks-and-mortar point of sale through incentive and m-couponing programs driving sales and customer retention.
“m-commerce is a global opportunity, and MEF’s initiative shows how the mobile connected device can be leveraged to effectively enable all types of commerce – not just for services and content consumed on the device but also for the purchase of physical products and services,” says Suhail Bhat, Policies and Initiatives Director for MEF. “The North America guide is the first step in the globalisation of the initiative, which will be localised over the coming year in EMEA, Asia, and LATAM.”
On Tuesday, April 27 at 13:00 EST, MEF Americas will host the webinar titled: ‘Demystifying the World of M-Commerce.’  The webinar serves as a precursor to the content which will be contained in the M-Commerce Guide. You can register to attend the webinar here.
The M-Commerce Guide, to be published next month, will include sections entitled ‘Mobile State of the Union’; ‘Planning’; ‘Case Studies’; ‘Things to Consider’;and ‘What Does the Future Hold?’  It will be developed as a living document over time, and has been authored with the 19 MEF member companies, including 2ergo, Billing Revolution, Netbiscuits, Nokia, Samsung and T-Mobile.

WIN Powers Mobile Music in Qatar

WIN has launched a mobile music service called Mozaic Music* with Qtel, a telco in Qatar. WIN built and delivered the service and will manage it on Qtel’s behalf. The service is live now and available to Qtel’s 2.2 million customers in Qatar. WIN already provides similar mobile music services for companies including Orange and Sony Ericsson.
WIN’s fully managed mobile music service has been integrated directly into the existing Qtel Mozaic portal, providing a range of local and international full-track music as well as ringtones and music videos. WIN is also responsible for the marketing promotion of the service which includes refreshing and adding content, updating the news and charts, and aligning closely with Qtel’s marketing team in order to place and highlight the latest offers and promotions.
“Mobile music is a key growth area and one that mobile operators around the world are looking to deliver,” says WIN CEO, Graham Rivers. “We’re thrilled to be working with Qtel in this exciting growth market and we’re confident that our tried and tested mobile music service will be a hit with Qtel customers.”
According to a September 2009 IE Market Research mobile music revenues in the Middle East, are forecast to reach $274 million (£177 million) in 2013.  

Mobile Commerce Study Puts the Spotlight on Search

Mobile Commerce has released a Whitepaper, ‘Mobile Search: What are people searching for and how do they search for it’. The Whitepaper addresses how this affects search bidding, natural mobile Internet and web results, and shows how mobile sites can be monetised by adding a search box.
Mobile Commerce handles over 25% of the searches coming from the 17.38m mobile Internet users via UK operator portals plus a growing number of other portals seeking to monetise their mobile assets. Having built an analytic tool in 2002 to analyse the increasing numbers of search requests and clicks, a growing element of Mobile Commerce’s core business model is the development of monetised search using paid listings, thus connecting mobile users with advertisers. This generates additional revenue for network operators (through off-portal traffic) and gives advertisers distribution. Mobile Commerce says its solution gives up to a 70% uplift in search clicks compared to a raw search engine implementation.
The Whitepaper finds that the volume of searches on mobile devices has more than doubled in the last 12 months, and cites figures from the UK Mobile Data Association, showing that there were 17.38 million users using the mobile Internet in December 2008, up from 16.5 million in May 2008.
The reports says that part of the growth in search terms can be accounted for by new mobile Internet users buying flat rate data bundles and having handsets with improved capabilities that make them easier to use, plus existing users trying the search function for the first time.
The average number of searches per unique user is rising much faster. It has grown from eight searches per unique user per month to more than 13 searches per unique user in the last 12 months. This is a clear indication that once users try the search box, they continue to use it in greater and greater volume every month. This is because of changes in the behaviour of the use of the mobile phone, with users becoming more reliant on the mobile Internet.
The Whitepaper notes that a mobile phone has a much smaller text input device than the keyboard of a PC. This makes input errors much more likely. Mobile phone screens are small, so the user sees less information before there is a need to pan left or right or scroll down. This makes navigation around pages, or down through different levels on a portal, a greater challenge. Therefore, the number of searches for items/content that are already somewhere within the portal is much higher than for the PC.
Bookmarking on a mobile is much less prevalent than on the PC. Although it is possible to do, users tend not to – so they are much more inclined to use search to get to the content that they visit on a regular basis. This is one reason why ‘Facebook’ was the single most searched term of 2009.
Date and time are also strong drivers of search terms e.g. ‘The Boat Race’, ‘The Derby’ (the horserace not the city) and ‘The Eurovision Song Contest’. TV is also an influential driver of search terms and searches – ‘The X Factor’, ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Dancing on Ice’ all generate significant numbers of searches’ but only when the program is showing. These terms tend to last for a few weeks, increasing dramatically towards the final episode and then disappear until the following season. Perhaps not surprisingly, events and news are also big drivers of mobile search activity.
Mobile Commerce has a monetised search API that enables publishers to place a search box on their site. The API is configurable, so the publisher can decide on what results they want to display to produce an optimal experience for their consumers. The Monetised Search API also supports “Did You Mean” and “Also Try” functionality, which interprets requests and gives an alternative if relevant.
For ad network aggregators, the company provides a search feed, enabling ad network aggregators to offer their customers both display and search advertising. All customers have access to online reporting, and the company also supplies dynamic tag clouds, so that within a set of results for a subject like ‘games’, a list of the most searched games can be displayed, making it easier for users to select a game that they are probably familiar with and that other users have been searching for.
You can access the Whitepaper in full here.

Solaris Expands Hybrid Mobile/Satellite Network

Solaris Mobile is expanding its Paris-based network to cover Rennes and Nancy (France) and the surrounding areas. The company says its network, launched in November 2009 to demonstrate the broadcast of TV and radio services to mobile phones, other handheld devices and cars within Paris has been very successful to date.
Solaris Mobile and its partners in the collaboration, Alcatel-Lucent and towerCast, have built a hybrid network based on satellite and terrestrial mobile technology. Based on its success within France, Solaris Mobile says it is looking towards a pan-European roll out programme in the near future.
The collaboration sees Solaris Mobile providing satellite capacity and spectrum rights, while Alcatel-Lucent manages the system integration and is providing transmission equipment, and towerCast is providing its antenna sites, in and around, Paris.
The resulting ‘hybrid network’, under the overall management of Solaris Mobile, combines the instant coverage of satellite with the deep network capabilities of cellular mobile systems, making it the first such network to be deployed within Europe.
Such networks, operating across the whole of the EU, in frequency bands adjacent to the existing 3G mobile bands around 2GHz, will open up new opportunities to deliver next generation broadband and broadcast services to people on the move. Video, data downloads and ubiquitous voice services delivered to people’s phones, or cars, will soon match the range currently available only with fixed-line services in their offices or homes, the company says.
The hybrid network was enabled after the European Commission and the 27 EC member States authorised Solaris Mobile to operate services in 2 x 15 MHz blocks of S-Band spectrum across Europe in May 2009.

Starhome Welcomes Anti-SoR Ban

Starhome, which provides roaming services for mobile network operators, has welcomed the decision made by the GSM Association's (GSMA) BARG (Billing and Accounting Roaming Group) to prohibit the use of Anti-SoR (steering of roaming) tools.
Anti-SoR is defined as “any technical network-based methods that can effectively frustrate, counteract or undo the effect of SoR when applied without the consent or participation of either the Roaming Subscriber or the HPMN Operator” (BARG BA.30).
In layman’s terms, Anti-SoR solutions are able to block update location messages from reaching the steering platform and are also capable of sending misleading signalling to deceive the steering application. Anti-SoR practices not only result in a substantial loss of revenue for operators, but also disrupt subscriber services by not supplying the optimum services given by the home network operator.
To identify potential Anti-SoR activities, the home network operator must instigate a lengthy three-phase manual process that includes a daily examination of roaming revenue distribution, signal tracing and testing.
The Starhome Anti-SoR Detector continuously monitors traffic statistics, and allows the operator to detect potential revenue leakage by identifying Anti-SoR activities, such as the blocking of update-location messages from reaching their steering of roaming platform, locking roamers into a network, and simulation of manual selection.
Starhome’s Anti-SoR Detector has built-in logic to identify exceptional drops or peaks in traffic statistics, as well as unexpected signaling. Upon detection, the Anti-SoR Detector has the ability to apply resistance signaling to defeat Anti-SoR attempts, and to trigger the appropriate alarm to the operator. Starhome’s Anti-SoR Detector solution interoperates with Starhome's NG-IPN (Next Generation Intelligent Preferred Network) solution).
On user request, the Anti-SoR Detector displays the top 10 networks with the highest gaps. Operators can then focus on these networks and generate detection reports to discover whether Anti-SoR techniques have been employed.
“The roaming market is an extremely competitive market, and, unfortunately, illegitimate tools, such as Anti-SoR, are still being used to steer traffic away from preferred networks, which, of course, results in a substantial loss of revenue for the operator,” says Starhome Co-founder and COO, Shlomo Wolfman “Starhome’s Anti-SoR Detector detects potential use of Anti-SoR activities to protect the operator’s business.”

Corbis Launches Low-cost Web and Mobile Images

Visual media provider Corbis Images is making nearly its entire premium-quality collection available in new, simple Web and Mobile resolution file sizes that can be licensed for as little as £5. The new affordable file sizes are designed specifically for use on web sites and in applications and mobile publications for computer tablets and mobile devices.
To coincide with the release of its Web and Mobile file sizes, the company has also released  the findings of a YouGov study of more than 2,000 UK Internet users that reveals that 74% think online display ads are “boring” rather than “interesting” or “exciting”. The same research shows that 53% of all adults surveyed say that more interesting pictures or illustrations would make them more likely to notice online display ads and 52% say they would be more likely to click on relevant ads if they contained interesting photos or illustrations.
“Creative and media professionals no longer have to settle for lower quality stock photos or illustrations when creating ad creative or publishing on the web or for mobile applications,” says Corbis Images CTO, Rajiv Jain. “Our new Web and Mobile resolution file sizes of our world-renowned photos and illustrations are the perfect fit at an affordable price, and people now have the opportunity to demonstrate their best creative work online.”
Corbis Images’ Web and Mobile images are priced according to pixel size, licence model and price tier. For royalty free (RF) images, Corbis Images is offering one simple 400 pixel file size ranging from £5 to £20. For rights-managed (RM) images, Corbis Images is offering two files sizes – 400 and 600 pixels – with prices ranging from £15 to £60.
“There is no doubt that online ads could be far more effective and that outstanding photography and illustrations could certainly make a real difference,” says Daniele Fiandaca, Founder of Creative Social,  and former European Chief Executive of digital ad agency Profero. “Corbis is recognized for having an incredible collection of stock photos and illustrations, and it’s fantastic that the design community is now able to license them so affordably.”

Three Team Up for NFC Payment Solution

INSIDE Contactless, Sagem Orga and TazTag have announced the joint development of a new method of delivering NFC (Near Field Communications) payment functionality. Based on TazTag's TazCard, the new device is currently in pre-alpha testing and shows the feasibility of an option that facilitates NFC contactless payment transactions, while providing full NFC functionality for other applications as well.
“(This) announcement marks a milestone in the development of commercial products for NFC payments and other NFC applications, and demonstrates the flexibility of our TazCard NFC platform," says TazTag CEO, Eric Fouchard. "TazTag is excited to be partnering with technology leaders like INSIDE and Sagem Orga to develop a variety of innovative solutions based on our TazCard platform."
About the size of a credit card, the TazCard is a special-purpose, Java-based handheld device capable of supporting a variety of NFC applications, including payments. For this new payment device, INSIDE's Java-based test payment application has been installed on a Single Wire Protocol (SWP)-enabled SIM card developed by Sagem Orga, which is connected to the INSIDE MicroRead NFC controller built into the TazCard. The MicroRead suite combines third-generation silicon, multiple host interface support, the Open NFC protocol stack and APIs, a field-proven reference design, and robust standards support. With a 3.5-inch color touch screen, the TazCard is able to provide the user with a full NFC experience for payment and other NFC transactions.
"This TazCard innovation clearly demonstrates the versatility of our NFC-enabled SIM card and our interest in reaching beyond mobile phone applications to provide secure elements for innovative NFC products," says Jean-Christophe Tisseuil, Head of Marketing and Business Development, Telecommunications Product Line at Sagem Orga. "We believe this device will enable card issuers to provide their customers with a viable NFC bridge - a key success factor towards market adoption of mobile NFC payments."

Optus Goes Social with Myriad

Australian mobile network operator Optus is to offer its 8 million customers social networking services, powered by Myriad, whose software is in over 2 billion mobile phones worldwide.This is the first social networking deal announced by Myriad since acquiring Xumii, which pioneered the use of cloud-based technologies to simultaneously connect mass-market phones to multiple social networks.
The Myriad-powered Optus SocialView service seamlessly adds social networking features to Optus’ existing mobile portal, Optus Zoo. Using a mobile phone browser, Optus users can now view friends’ messages from Australia’s most popular social networking sites – Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr. Users can also post their own updates and tweets, either to a specific site, or to all of their social networks simultaneously.
The service requires only a standard mobile browser, and customers also have the option of receiving free text alerts, including social network updates and one-click access to SocialView.
“Social networking services are a sure-fire way for Optus to increase the appeal and popularity of Optus Zoo,” says Jennifer Zanich, Myriad’s General Manager for Xumii services. “Viewing friends’ updates and changing status are the most common actions on social networks. Enabling these features on a single screen creates a quick and easy way for mobile users to stay in touch throughout the day, which will increase visits to Optus Zoo and ultimately drive the adoption of other services on the portal."

MIG App Shows Real Talent

Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) says the free iPhone App it created for ITV1’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ show has been an immediate success, jumping to the top of the iTunes app charts in a matter of days. Britain’s Got Talent is one of the UK’s most popular TV shows. The app produced by talkbackThames digital in collaboration with MIG, launched on Thursday 15 April. It was created by MIG company Kilrush Application Studios (KAS), designed for iPhone and iPod touch users who are avid fans of the show and is available for free via the App store. In the four days after its launch, the app was downloaded 200,000 times.
The Britain’s Got Talent app enables viewers to watch the latest videos and access exclusive back stage footage; keep up to date with breaking news, gossip and hot stories; browse photo galleries of the acts and judges, and rate and share them with friends and family; and participate directly with ITV2’s ‘Britain’s Got More Talent’ show during live episodes. Additionally, the app has been integrated with social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to allow fans to explore and share content on the move and is accessible 24/7.
The App has been monetised through integrated sponsorship packages, with Domino’s Pizza taking lead sponsorship, enabling viewers to order pizza and have it delivered directly to their door via the app. All mobile advertising is powered via 4th Screen Advertising’s ad serving platform, Mpression.

Boomerang Unveils Boommail SMS Solution

Boomerang SMS Solutions has unveiled Boommail, a new offering enabling businesses to use two-way SMS technology from the desktop. Boommail enables users to send and receive multiple text messages via Microsoft Outlook at the click of a button. Boommail says the patent-pending email SMS solution is the first of its kind to allow two-way communication by SMS without the need for costly inbound numbers. 
Distribution of the software is centrally managed, to facilitate instant and inexpensive roll-out to a widespread user base. This not only offers businesses the opportunity to instantly communicate with both customers and colleagues, says Boomerang, but also provides an organisation with a comprehensive audit trail, status tracking, user control and detailed reporting, ensuring compliance and generating quantifiable time and cost savings for any business.
“Many organisations continue to plough money into technologies such as mobile apps that they believe will improve customer interaction. However, this is a costly approach and is often limited to just iPhone, Blackberry and other Smartphone users, which also rely on the customer to download software to facilitate its use,” says Boomerang Managing Director, Peter Tanner. “The use of SMS socially has continued to grow exponentially and similar growth is evident at business level, as people have come to prefer a more succinct and less invasive method of communication that allows for a response at a time that is convenient to the recipient. A product such as Boommail helps to increase the capacity for usage, whilst generating high level response rates as a result of its instantaneous nature.”
Boommail enables text messages to be delivered from the desktop into the hands of the recipient, irrespective of location or mobile device. The solution integrates with all versions of Microsoft Outlook, allowing staff to distribute multiple text messages from an email account in seconds. Once installed, Boommail streams information from Outlook, merging with both Microsoft and Active Directory contacts, to provide users with instant communication to key recipients such as customers, staff, suppliers, contractors, engineers and bespoke groups that have been created within a user’s address book.
In addition, Boommail’s administration capability enables multi-level, permission-based control across the organisation, together with a full audit trail, to ensure the solution is used effectively based on each person’s role within the organisation and their need for communication via SMS. 

Sony Ericsson and 3 Team Up for Spotify Offer

Sony Ericsson and 3UK have unveiled the final phase of their Spotify promotion, with the launch of  www.sonyericsson.com/musiceverywhere  which is home to a selection of personal playlists from an eclectic mix of artists ranging from The Stereophonics, Keane and Ellie Goulding to The Courteeners and Mumford & Sons.
The artists have collaborated to provide a playlist of songs inspired by recent journeys they took. The Stereophonics for example, created a playlist inspired by their tour bus travels from Newcastle to Glasgow, while Keane travelled a lot by night train on their last tour and have put together a soundtrack for rail journeying through the night. Other playlists can be found from Amy MacDonald, Erick Hassle and Delphic.
The campaign was created to support the partnership between 3UK and Spotify that gives customers buying the Sony Ericsson Xperia  X10 or Vivaz a free Spotify Premium subscription for two months.
To take advantage of the offer, XPERIA X10 and Vivaz owners should text ‘Spotify’ to 39000. They will then receive a link by text which will let them create a new Spotify ID, or use an existing Spotify ID to get the 2-month pass. Just make sure you remember to cancel it if you don’t want to keep it running, because if you don’t, you’ll find a fee for £9.99 per month on your mobile phone bill until you do.
Other campaign elements include a series of print adverts, along with a competition on 3UK & Sony Ericsson’s Twitter site, Twentertain_Me, offering consumers the chance to win a trip to a concert or festival of their choice.
The Xperia X10 is Sony Ericsson’s first Android phone on 3. The handset features multi-tasking applications like Timescape which includes a scrolling application that shows updates from Facebook, Twitter, recent photos, text messages, emails and Spotify tracks.
Spotify is a digital music service that offers access to millions of tracks from major record labels. With Spotify Premium users can stream their favourite music to their PC and mobile instantly.

Mobile Subscriber Numbers Hit 4.7bn

The global mobile market grew by almost 200 million subscriber connections in the fourth quarter of 2010 to reach 4.7 billion by year-end, according to the latest Wireless Intelligence report, ‘Quarterly World Review: Q4 2009’. Asia-Pacific remained the world's largest region, accounting for over 45% (2.1 billion) of global mobile connections, mainly due to strong growth in India and China. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 62% of the net new connections added in the quarter. 
In total, 192.8 million mobile connections were added in Q4 2009, an annual rise of 16% and up 4% on a sequential basis. GSM connections accounted for 80% of total connections, while WCDMA and CDMA accounted for 10% each. Prepaid connections accounted for 73%, while postpaid (contract) connections accounted for the remaining 27%. Wireless Intelligence calculates that total global mobile penetration reached 69% by year-end.
The quarter also saw the launch of 30 new mobile networks, including the first two networks based on the next generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile standard.
"2009 was a positive year for the mobile telecoms industry and one that saw it outperform global economic trends," says Joss Gillet, Senior Analyst at Wireless Intelligence. "Nonetheless, the fact that developing countries account for half of the world's connections today demonstrates how mature markets are reaching capacity. From Europe to the Americas, the prospects for the year ahead depend on how quickly mobile operators can boost revenues generated by data services. By contrast, in regions such as Africa and the Asia-Pacific, many price-sensitive markets require investment to expand 2G and 3G networks, which have been delayed by the global recession. In such a challenging competitive environment, time-to-market is more critical than ever to sustain growth and differentiate from competition."

Regional Highlights
Asia-Pacific (2.1 billion connections, 45% of global total) - The world's two largest mobile markets – China and India – were responsible for the majority of growth in the Asia-Pacific region. India surpassed half a billion connections during Q4 2009, adding 53.4 million net additions and closing the quarter on 525.2 million connections. Indian growth is linked to the fact that many existing operators launched their networks in new circles (service areas) in the quarter, while new market entrants also appeared. Meanwhile, China added an average of 9 million net additions per month during 2009, ending the year with a total 726 million connections – 16% of the worldwide total. Chinese 3G connections reached 10 million by year-end. Third-placed operator China Telecom is doing better than expected on the back of bundled deals, and is doing especially well in 3G, helping it catch up with its two larger competitors.

Western Europe (519 million, 11%) - Connections growth in Western Europe improved in the second half of 2009, following a slow start to the year. However, the number of operators reporting negative quarterly net additions increased in Q4 2009, with TIM Italy having a particularly bad quarter. On the plus side, revenue from 3G data services is growing is most markets, which is beginning to have a significant effect on data ARPU. Notable network launches in the quarter included three HSPA+ launches in Finland (DNA), Spain (Telefónica) and Switzerland (Swisscom), as well as the first two LTE network deployments in the world launched by TeliaSonera in Oslo (Norway) and Stockholm (Sweden) in December 2009.

Americas (504 million, 11%) - The Americas region grew by 11% in the quarter to exceed 500 million mobile connections by year-end, reaching 86% market penetration. Brazil still accounts for one third of connections in the region, and grew its installed base by 16% in 2009 to 176 million connections, adding 8 million net additions in Q4. Mexico and Argentina are the second- and third-largest markets adding 1.7 million and 1.5 million connections, respectively, in the quarter. However, many markets in the region are approaching high levels of maturity, which has seen operators look to data services in order to gain revenue share. Regulatory initiatives (including taxes and mobile number portability) also affected operators in many regional markets. 

Eastern Europe (480 million, 10%) - Eastern European operators continue to show signs of market slowdown. The region is showing signs of a high level of maturity, reaching 120% market penetration in the quarter, and mobile connections growth is mainly driven by replacement and multiple SIMs. The region passed the 480 million connections mark by year-end, representing a 7% annual growth rate – way below the world average of 15%. There are promising signs in Eastern Europe of strong 3G connections growth, though future progress in this area will depend on extra network investment by the large operator groups in the region, many of whom scaled back such investments in 2009.

Africa (464 million, 10%) - Nigeria remains Africa’s largest mobile market with total connections reaching 73 million by the end of 2009. The addition of 4.1 million connections in Q4 2009 made it Nigeria’s strongest quarter for a year. Over half of these net additions were gained by market-leader MTN, which reached 30.8 million connections. In South Africa, SIM card registration (introduced from August 2009) has had a significant impact, with Q4 witnessing a second consecutive quarter of connection losses in excess of 1 million.

USA/Canada (309 million, 7%) - The US market witnessed its strongest quarterly connections’ growth in three years by amassing 5.9 million net additions in Q4 2009. Market-leader Verizon ended Q4 2009 with 91.2 million total connections following net additions of 2.2 million, the operator's highest pro forma net additions since Q3 2008. Second-placed AT&T reported 2.7 million net additions – the operator’s second-highest quarterly total ever. AT&T’s figures were boosted by the completion of its acquisition of Centennial Wireless in November, which added 863,000 connections. In Canada, Bell Mobility (BCE) and Telus Mobility launched their shared HSPA/HSPA+ network in November, which they claim is four times larger than market-leader Roger Wireless ’ HSPA+ footprint.

Middle East (261 million, 6%) - Turkey ended 2009 with 62.9 million connections, maintaining its position as the largest market in the Middle East region despite a decline of 918,000 connections in the last quarter and 3.1 million year-on-year. The quarterly decline was led by market-leader Turkcell, which reported its fourth consecutive quarter of negative net additions with a loss of 600,000 connections. In Iran, the second-largest market in the region, MTN Irancell reported strong connections growth in Q4 with net additions of 2.6 million, enabling it to increase its market share to 40%.
The new Wireless Intelligence report Quarterly World Review: Q4 2009 is available to registered members and select members of the media. For more information send an email to: [email protected]

Orange Sees 3-fold Increase in Mobile Data Usage Among SMEs

The last year has seen a phenomenal rise in the use of data on mobile devices, according to the inaugural ‘Business Index’ from Orange. Usage is up an average of 150% on the previous year across Orange’s entire business customer base, with SMEs (small and medium-size enterprises) seeing the greatest leap – up 290%. Business Index is a new report from Orange which provides a snapshot on business trends within the mobile market, and how data use continues to explode in businesses of all sizes.
Anthony Keyworth, Director of Products at Orange UK, says the huge increase in mobile data usage has been driven largely by the rise in popularity of mobile email and web browsing from mobile devices.  “Without a doubt, 2009 was the year of mobile email,” he says. “With more Smartphones on the market than ever before, accessing email and browsing the web have never been simpler. In particular, small businesses have truly embraced Smartphones to help them stay in touch, whether this is in the office, out with a client or on the way home. Now, when a customer is looking for the right phone, email is at the top of their requirements. In 2010, we expect this figure to grow even more.” 
Keyworth adds that while email drove most of the increase in mobile data usage continue to be a key driver during 2010, Orange is also expecting to see mobile applications for businesses to thrive throughout this year.
“We are already seeing increasing demand for solutions that allow remote workers to transmit data directly back to head office, as well as growing use of office apps and CRM solutions via Smartphones,” he says.

Sky Bet Launches Election Mobile Microsite

Mobile marketing firm mkodo has launched a General Election mobile microsite for Sky Bet. The site covers betting opportunities for all key General Election activities, such as bets on the marginal seat wins, hung parliament odds, and also, a whole series of specials on the televised debates. The site is launched today as the election campaign enters its most critical phase with the second of the televised debates taking place this evening.
The mobile microsite will be promoted through mobile banners. mkodo’s Portal Builder product enables the Sky Bet team to create and manage deep links from the banners in real-time.
“Giving our clients the ability to provide a range of mobile betting opportunities on special events and draw customers to them via mobile advertising is key to maximising the success of such events,” says  
Mark Gibson, mkodo’s Business Development Manager. “We are delighted that Sky Bet has taken the initiative to promote mobile interactivity in what promises to be the closest General Election in 30 years.”
To get a link to the site sent to your phone, text ELECTION to 64221. 
 

Skype Hits Out at Mobile Operators

Jean-Jacques Sahel, Skype’s European Director of Government & Regulatory Affairs, has hit out at mobile network operators who are trying to charge Internet companies fees to run their data on their networks, justifying the move by arguing that the practice of accessing the Internet via mobile devices is a drain on their networks.
This issue of heavy data usage, of course, was a key one at this year’s Mobile World Congress, and there seems to be a consensus from executives that we have spoken to that network operators will begin restricting heavy data usage at peak times for people on basic flat-rate plans, or ask for more money from users who want guaranteed bandwidth.
But in a blog post, Sahel says the idea of networks charging content providers a fee to enable people to access their services via mobile is not on, making the point that the Internet “does not belong to anyone – it has grown thanks to more than 40,000 networks voluntarily interconnecting to form an open, decentralised network of networks. The operators making the complaints right now only carry the data for a small part of its journey around the web. The rest of the Internet ecosystem is based on a successful business model that does not and never had such subsidising of infrastructure companies by content providers. Should water companies be allowed to charge garden centres, pasta makers and coffee producers for encouraging demand for water consumption?”
Sahel also argues that charging online companies threatens the very innovation that will drive people and businesses to start using the Internet on their mobile device. He writes:
“In Europe and across the world there are teams of software developers creating apps and services that will drive demand for data plans sold by operators. These are not get-rich-quick-teenagers making millions of dollars every day. They are hard working small and mid-sized companies that are fighting for survival in a tough environment.
“Alongside these heroes of the (mobile) Internet are thousands upon thousands of companies, big and small, who rely on the Internet to distribute their goods and services. It is an affront to ask all these engines of economic growth to pay a fee to large multinational telecommunication companies.”
It was clear from Mobile World Congress that operators would have to address the issue of heavy data usage among their subscribers. But if they are hoping to get money out of big web players like Skype, Facebook and Google to invest in increasing the capacity of their networks, then if Sahel’s comments are any sort of guide, they’re going to have a fight on their hands.
You can read the full post here.

Motally Adds to Advisory Board

Mobile analytics firm Motally has appointed former M:Metrics and Jupiter Research executive Seamus McAteer, and  web analytics veteran Rand Schulman, to its Board of Directors and Advisory Board.
McAteer brings almost two decades of experience in the wireless and online media sectors both as an analyst and entrepreneur. He is currently Managing Director of Market Research at Majestic Research, and was Chief Product Architect and co-founder at M:Metrics, which was acquired by ComScore in 2008. As an analyst McAteer headed up technology coverage as Research Fellow at Jupiter Media Metrix and was a Senior Analyst with SRI International.
Schulman is Principal at Schulman+Thorogood. He has worked as Chief Marketing Officer at both InsideView and WebSideStory, the latter of which was acquired by Omniture in 2008. Schulman also founded the Web Analytics Association and was also the founder and CEO of one of the first SaaS companies, Keylime Software, which was acquired by Overture in 1997. BtoB Magazine named Schulman as one of the top 100 BtoB marketing executives in 2005.
Founded in 2008, Motally recently added iPad and mobile gaming analytics to its service portfolio. It says it is the only analytics firm to support analytics for applications on the iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry platforms, as well as the mobile web, all in one interface. Motally also offers white-label solutions to enterprise customers.

Jumptap, Medialets and Crisp Launch Rich Media Ad Platform

Mobile advertising solutions provider and ad network Jumptap has teamed up with Medialets and Crisp Wireless to create what it says is the industry's first Unified Rich Media Ad Platform, delivering highly-engaging, rich media ad units for mobile apps and the mobile web.
The combination of the three mobile ad providers gives advertisers and publishers a single point from which to run diverse rich media ad units across multiple devices, technology platforms, browsers and publishers, from one ad network. In addition, Jumptap's published open standards allow any rich media provider to plug into its ad network.  
"Advertisers have an opportunity to capitalize on the personal, always-on nature of mobile devices with rich media ad units designed to interact and capture the minds and hearts of its users," says Jumptap Chief Product Officer and General Manager, Adam Soroca. "Rich media campaigns are proven to drive higher levels of user engagement, more than any other media, with demonstrated increases in message lift association and higher CTRs."
The Unified Rich Media Platform offers various new and creative formats to capture consumers’ attention. These include banners; video and web interstitials; configurable click through actions; tap-to-video; tap-to-audio; scrolling shakable; take-over-branding; location-aware, and more. The ad units are designed to retain the experience within the app or on the mobile site.
Jumptap will initially be offering its unified rich media support on mobile websites and with an iPhone SDK. Android and iPad rich media support will be coming soon.  
"Brands are willing to make a deeper financial investment for the highest engagement opportunities, rapidly accelerating demand for these interactive innovative units," says John Swafford, President, Swafford & Company Advertising. "We've seen rich media campaigns generate a 10 - 30% increase in engagement. Jumptap's new platform should make it easy to implement rich media into our mobile campaigns."

Portaltech Updates StripeyLines Shopping App

eCommerce systems integrator and consultancy Portaltech has enhanced its StripeyLines iPhone application with the official release of StripeyLines V1.0. Originally launched at the end of 2009 in beta, StripeyLines is a shopping companion for bargain people who want to ensure they are getting the best deal for a product, whether online or on the high street. 
StripeyLines enables shoppers to scan the barcode of goods in-store to compare pricing, or to check product and customer reviews. Shoppers can also use the app to create wishlists of products they want to buy at a later date. For example, a user could use the Wishlist function to create their weekly food shopping list by scanning everything they throw away. The app also links to Facebook and Twitter to share information with friends. 
The app can also be used to link a scanned CD to iTunes and listen to the CD in the shop via the phone. The customer then has the option to choose to buy in store, download the track to their iPhone from iTunes, or go to Amazon or Google to check pricing and customer ratings. 
All items scanned using the app can be synchronised with a dedicated StripeyLines website, allowing the user to continue their research online later. A recent report by Eurostat found that 64% of customers are using the Internet to research a product and 50% of customers use the Internet to browse before purchasing in store.  
Portaltech is reaching out to all major UK retailers to get involved in providing price and product data for StripeyLines. The company is keen to ensure that users of the application have all the latest retailer data, barcodes and pricing to inform their decision making process, turning browsers into purchasers.
The company says it can also build retailer ‘plug-ins’ to provide retailer-specific functions. This could be as simple as providing promotional pop-up ads or vouchers at the point of purchase, or creating a brand building, or m-commerce plug-in for apparel retailers who want to cross-sell a look or collection.
“The plug-in feature on StripeyLines means that retailers don't need to build their own iPhone application,” says Portaltech CEO, Andrew Walker. “Instead we can just create a web application as a plug-in to StripeyLines, which is then beamed to the StripeyLines iPhone app. For example, if a wine merchant wanted to have an application that recommended wine based on what an iPhone user had scanned in a supermarket, all they would need to do is create a website that compared wines. The location of this website would then be beamed to the iPhone and when the user scanned some wine, StripeyLines would give them the opportunity to run the plug-in. This system could be applied to any product category for cross-selling purposes.”
Portaltech believes that mobile will be an increasingly important channel in retailing. The company’s Head of Brand & Retail, Rachel Wilkinson, says: “Mobile phones are now being used for product information and browsing whilst shoppers are out and about or when sitting in a high street coffee shop. Retailers mustn’t ignore this adapting behaviour, or see price checking as a threat, but harness it.
“These are latent purchasers who simply need an enabler like StripeyLines to convert them from browsers to purchasers. Mobile phones and devices should be utilised to leverage this opportunity and to join up the multi-channel experience. We can help retailers to develop an engaging solution, whether that’s a standalone mobile commerce app or a plug in to StripeyLines.”

Zavvi Attracts 10,000 New Customers With Sponge Mobile Campaign

Entertainment retailer Zavvi.com has attracted over 10,000 new customers with a re-launch mobile marketing campaign.
The campaign, created and executed by mobile marketing agency Sponge, encouraged people to text in and enter a draw to win £1,000. All entrants received a unique code sent to their handsets to obtain a £1 discount on any order placed on the Zavvi.com website. Posters throughout the tube network in London promoted the competition.
Over a one-month period in December 2009, 24,000 discount codes were issued, with over 19,000 redeemed, generating over £150,000 of revenue and adding more than 10,000 new customers to Zavvi.com's database.
Zavvi, which folded on the high street last year, re-launched online in November under new owners The Hut Group. The company appointed Sponge to increase consumer interaction with the Zavvi.com brand, and to drive people to the website. Sponge, which specialises in mobile marketing campaigns, high-end mobile websites and apps, also worked closely with Zavvi.com to use social media and offer forums to publicise the campaign.
"Sponge over-delivered in terms of creative planning of the project, and the quality continued throughout the campaign,” says The Hut Group Commercial Director, Richard Chapple. “I'd recommend the company to any retailer looking to penetrate the m-commerce space."
Over 10,000 campaigns by some of the biggest international retailers and brands have run across Sponge’s TG3 platform, resulting in hundreds of millions of interactions with consumers.
“Using a simple mechanic to engage Zavvi.com’s audience was key to the campaign,” says Sponge Chairman, Alex Meisl. “By offering an easy-to-enter promotion, which was quick and cost-effective to set up, Zavvi.com successfully generated a significant number of new customers in a short timescale at a low cost.”

INSIDE Releases Open NFC Stack

INSIDE Contactless, which provides open-standard, contactless chip technologies, is making its Open NFC protocol stack more widely available, placing the full source code and API documentation on SourceForge.net for free download. The source code for the core Open NFC version 3.5 software - including Android, Windows Mobile, Linux and Java (JSR-257) editions - and API documentation will be available on SourceForge.net from 15 May. There’s also a web site with more information on Open NFC here.      
The Open NFC protocol stack brings well-documented NFC software into the open source arena, providing a complete NFC middleware solution for mobile phones, embedded products and other devices. INSIDE says that it benefits device makers, software developers, and others in the mobile ecosystem in several ways, providing greater impetus to implement NFC solutions across a broad range of consumer products. Open NFC supports the trend toward open platforms in the mobile industry, and INSIDE says it welcomes contributions from the developer community.
Open NFC supports several levels of functionality, from low-level RF control to high-level NFC Forum tag handling, peer-to-peer communications as well as Bluetooth and wi-fi pairing, interactions with single-wire protocol SIMs and other secure elements, and compatibility with smart cards and RFID tags based on Felica, Mifare and ISO 14443 standards.
"INSIDE's Open NFC software has received support from a broad array of participants in the NFC ecosystem, including major handset manufacturers, developers and carriers, and we are already in discussion with major industry players to support Open NFC as the de facto standard NFC stack for the Android, MeeGo, Linux and Windows Mobile platforms," says Philippe Martineau, Executive Vice President of the NFC business line at INSIDE Contactless. "Open NFC offers a number of benefits to these stakeholders, including an open, consistent API across all NFC hardware, faster time to market and greater flexibility."
Martineau adds that INSIDE's Open NFC protocol stack will be proposed to the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) as the reference implementation for Android to sit on top of the hardware abstraction layer. The company expects to release an NFC chip simulator and board to developers by the end of the third quarter of 2010. 

The Mobile Movement Launches To Help Good Causes Using Mobile

A team of mobile specialists including MSearch Groove Founder Peggy Anne Salz, ex-MMA President Laura Marriott, and Carol Glennon, Founder and CEO of Renu Mobile, have launched The Mobile Movement, a coalition committed to bringing mobile capabilities to not-for-profit organisations to enable them to reach people in need by leveraging mobile devices, networks and innovative applications they will create in partnership with social entrepreneurs.
Peggy Anne Salz says she has sharpened her focus on ways companies can combine mobility, creativity and compassion to help organizations reach out to people in need ever since expanding the focus of the Netsize Guide, an analysis of mobile trends, to include mobility in verticals such as healthcare and education. She says a moment of clarity came during n interview with James E. (Jim) Nalley, Co-Founder and CEO of EmFinders, a US technology firm that has harnessed the mobile channel to provide new support to caregivers and new freedom to a growing population of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and a range of cognitive and developmental disabilities.
EmFinders facilitates the rapid location and recovery of wandering or missing adults and children through EmSeeQ, which combines a small, watch-like, wireless device without buttons or a screen, and a location service that uses triangulation through the cellular network – and with 911 emergency response systems – to accurately determine a person’s location.
“I was struck by Jim’s dedication to his work (more like his mission), stemming no doubt from his own personal experience with his father, who - like some 5.6 million other Americans - had Alzheimer’s disease,” says Salz. “His respect for his father’s quality of life and personal freedom inspired him to develop a solution that doesn’t track individuals like a Big Brother, potentially limiting their feeling of autonomy and self-worth. Instead, the EmFinders solution is designed to give some peace of mind to the caregivers and to the families, and ensure that – if the impaired person wanders off – then the service can recover them quickly.”
Since the interview, Salz says she has examined the needs of non-profits and explored how they might harness mobile to extend their reach and help people everywhere. “Fortunately, I was able to connect with other entrepreneurs, academics and humanitarians who share my passion,” she says.
In addition to Salz, Marriott and Glennon, other members of the advisory board include film maker and philanthropist Avis Richards; Cynthia Artin, Managing Director of Auster Capital Partners; social entrepreneur Kevin Patrick; Dr. Mary Cronin, Boston College professor of management, consultant and author of mobile and smart product strategy analyses; and Simone Schmidlkofer, Founder of Cause2Connect, global strategy and branding agency
“Thousands of non-profits are not yet using mobile messaging to serve their community because they lack the technical expertise and budget,” says Salz. “The Mobile Movement fills that gap by connecting non-profits with sponsors and – more importantly – tools such as mobile texting, mobile petitioning, mobile barcodes and mobile website creation/design, to achieve amazing results. We’re keeping it simple to scale quickly and have a positive impact on the causes that seek our innovation, support and collaboration.”
Anyone who manages a non-profit or would like to find out more about how to get involved, should email [email protected] or head for the Mobile Movement website.

SPB Launches Language App for Android

Mobile application developer SPB Software has launched SPB Flash Cards for Android. It’s an app, designed to help language students expand their vocabulary quickly and easily.
The Flash Cards app teaches users new words through the use of mental agility exercises and images. Available on all touchscreen phones running Android OS version 1.5, the app provides over 1,000 cards in 14 languages including English, French, German, Czech and Chinese, all dubbed by native speakers.
"Learning is a very individual process which people tackle in different ways," says SPB Software CEO, Sebastian Schmidt. "SPB Flashcards for Android lets the learner take a step back from the 'one size fits all' approach and explore techniques that work for them."

GetJar Measures Conversion of App Dowloads to Users

Independent app store GetJar says it is the first app store to enable developers to measure the conversion rate of mobile downloads to users across all open platforms, including Android, BlackBerry, Flash, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile.
GetJar notes that developers want users, not downloads, but says that until now it was very time consuming to set up tracking codes and analytics to measure the conversion of app store downloads to users. GetJar has now automated this process, enabling developers to analyze the performance of their application by phone, country, and network. In addition, the Conversion API, used in conjunction with GetJar’s Pay per Download (PPD) promotion system, can help developers manage their cost per active user and optimize their marketing efficiency.
Traditionally, says GetJar, there was no inexpensive way for developers to test their app on every phone. There are over 2,500 different mobile phone models that can browse the web and download apps and each of these has different variations for operators over time. GetJar tracks 25,000 different variations in total. Even developers with the best intentions couldn’t possibly discover and test every carrier and firmware variation, the company says. Thus, users became defacto testers and were subjected to many apps that simply didn’t work on their phones.
“With GetJar conversion tracking, developers will know where their apps run, and where they don’t,” say GetJar VP of Product, Chris Dury. “This conversion data will allow developers to improve their apps, increase conversion, and gain an advantage over the competition, by increasing users, not just downloads.”
Developers can also host their apps on their own sites using GetJar App Download Page (ADP) and can track conversions for app downloads. ADP is a free, white-label hosting solution for mobile app developers to deliver app downloads from their own websites and convert their existing traffic to mobile app users. Consumers simply click a download button and ADP automatically detects the phone and downloads the appropriate app version.
To get started, developers simply add a conversion code into their apps published on GetJar. When the app is opened for the first time, it will notify GetJar. Developers can then see the results in the analytics on the GetJar developer site. For more information and complete documentation, you can create a developer account here.

Heathrow Offers Premium App for Free

Heathrow Airport is offering passengers a free version of its newly launched mobile application for the next four weeks to provide passengers with the latest information and updates on the status of flights operating in and out of the airport.
Heathrow’s first ‘Airport Guide’ app is designed for anyone travelling to, from or through Heathrow, and will enable passengers to plan their airport visit from the palm of their hand. There are two versions of the app: a free edition and a paid for premium pro version, which normally costs £1.79 per year but will be available to download at no cost until the end of May.  
The free version helps passengers locate and book the most convenient method of transport to the airport, and provides information on check-in procedures, airport news and terminal details. Once at the airport, the app provides detailed terminal maps, shop locations and retail offers.
The pro version also offers the ability to access flight information updates and to track flight progress. It contains six months of scheduled flight timetables for every airline at Heathrow, as well as five-day weather forecasts for over 220 global locations. 
The Heathrow Airport Guide app is available now for the iPhone and iPod touch, Vodafone 360 and Android, and is coming soon to Blackberry and Java-based Smartphones. There’s more information here.