Hockey App a Hit with Maple Leafs Fans

Polar Mobile has revealed that the Maple Leafs Mobi application that it created for the Toronto Maple Leafs National League hockey team has attracted over 100,000 users in the 12 months since launch. The app is clocking up almost 3 million page views per month and has been opened over a million times in the past three months.
Maple Leafs Mobile is available for the iPhone, iPod touch and BlackBerry, and is an extension of the Toronto Maple Leafs digital and interactive content brand. Powered by Polar Mobile’s SMART Platform, the app delivers real-time content to fans, including up-to-date stats, video highlights, interviews and news. Other features include home screen notification of updates, a real-time scoreboard of live games, as well as an offline-supported, quick browsing experience.
Maple Leafs fans are evenly distributed when it comes to their mobile device of choice when it comes to accessing Maple Leafs Mobile, with 35% iPhone users, 35% BlackBerry users and 30% on iPod touch. BlackBerry users open the app on average 17 times per month, whereas iPhone/iPod touch users open the app on average 9 times per month. 17% of BlackBerry users have also shared Maple Leafs Mobile with a friend via email.
“We felt it was important for the Maple Leafs to be one of the first teams in the NHL to have their own mobile application and we're excited about the increasing popularity of our app since it launched a year ago," says Chris Hebb, Senior Vice President of Broadcast and Content for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. "Maple Leafs Mobi is an all-access app that lets Leafs fans consume the latest information about their favourite team, including blockbuster trades, where they want and when they want.”

Report Explains How Operators Can Slash Data Costs

Operators Could Slash Mobile Data Costs by 60% per annum. That’s the key finding of a study released today by Bridgewater Systems into the mobile data surge.
The report, ‘Towards a Profitable Mobile Data Business Model’, highlights the impact of growing 3G penetration, lower cost Smartphones and USB dongles, new tablets like the iPad, and the popularity of mobile applications on the growth in mobile data volumes traversing operators’ networks.
It investigates the causes of mobile network congestion and the best methods to alleviate it, based on exclusive research conducted by independent research firm Chetan Sharma Consulting. It also provides insights into new service models, underpinned by Bridgewater’s deployment experiences with operators, and customer case studies from Ovum and Morgan Stanley.
The report looks at both network congestion management strategies and operator data pricing models. It concludes that policy control could contribute substantial annual cost savings of over 10%, equating to more than $15 billion (£9.6 billion) in annual cost reductions by 2013 in the US market.
The report also says that operators deploying a data traffic offload strategy to wi-fi, femtocells or 4G could expect savings of 20 to 25% per annum by 2013, representing $30 to $40 billion in the US market. And the evolution to HSPA and LTE could save just under 20% in network costs by 2013, saving US operators $25 billion by 2013.
Bridgewater says that flexible, dynamic, and personalised pricing models that reflect subscribers’ preferences and context, bandwidth and application usage, and network conditions, will better align data revenues with network costs for the first time. New models include tiered and usage-based models that take a smarter approach to service personalization and fair usage; application-specific charging, to generate appropriate revenues from high-bandwidth services; time-based models that charge based on time spent on the network; and mobile advertising- and mobile commerce-funded approaches.
“Our new report highlights the importance of implementing a multi-pronged strategy to reduce mobile data costs and network congestion, including policy control, data traffic offload, and migration to 3G and 4G,” says Bridgewater Systems Senior Vice President, David Sharpley. “By coupling this strategy with personalized service models based on subscriber usage, operators can benefit from a more profitable mobile data business model.” 
You can download the report here.

Buongiorno Rolls Out Mobile Loyalty Program for Proximus

Mobile entertainment firm Buongiorno has announced the launch of a loyalty program for Belgacom’s prepaid mobile customers (Proximus) in Belgium, called Play&Gold. The service, which launched on 28 January, uses the same CRM platform that Buongiorno already uses successfully with Telefonica O2 Top-Up Surprises in the UK and Telecom Italia Mobile.
Buongiorno applies its proprietary technology and know-how to improve network operators’ CRM systems. Operators implement Buongiorno’s real-time solution, called Intelligent Mobile Marketer (IMM), to better understand their customers, reward loyalty with prizes redeemed in real-time, and in turn increase retention and customer satisfaction.
Play&Gold offers Proximus customers an instant reward every time they top-up their account with €15 (£13) or more. Once a customer has recharged their mobile account, they receive a text message containing a unique code and directing them to the relevant Proximus website to discover and redeem their prize.
Depending on the amount topped-up, the customer is eligible for different prize pulls: Silver or Gold. Everyone who tops-up more than €15 is eligible to play, and everyone that plays is guaranteed a reward.
Rewards are varied and changing. They include mobile-related prizes such as free texts or voice minutes, as well as physical prizes such as digital cameras, shopping vouchers, cinema tickets, race day tickets and spa experiences. Every recharge of more than €15 grants the Proximus customer a prize and each Euro recharged gives the chance to win the grand prize of a home cinema system, with the draw taking place in February.
IMM, is playing an increasingly important role within operators’ offerings, says Buongiorno. “Due to the heightened competitiveness of the market and challenging economic conditions, operators are increasingly seeking ways to reward and retain valuable customers, putting them first and improving their direct relationship with them.
“Within the European operator market, we recognised a need for our partners to find a new way to differentiate themselves by motivating and rewarding their customers,” says Adhish Kulkarni, Buongiorno’s Global Head of Products and CRM. “Buongiorno invested in developing a unique CRM platform, and this investment has now enabled us to become the specialist CRM partner as we roll it out for more operators, supporting them in developing bespoke reward programs, increasing ARPU and reducing churn of loyal customers.”

Incentivated Powers BA Flight Info Service

Mobile agency Incentivated is launching an SMS flight information service for British Airways, to give passengers, and those dropping them off and picking up from airports, the latest flight information on their mobile phones.
British and American passengers can use the service whilst roaming in other countries and access information on all BA flights. BA says it plans to extend the service to other nationalities. The mobile offering will complement BA’s flight information call centre service, which handles 1.5 million incoming calls each year.
The service, available for UK- and US-registered mobile phones, enables users to get up-to-the-minute flight information for yesterday, today and the next five days. Users text D for Departures or A for Arrivals followed by a space, the departure date of the flight (in the form DDMMYY or MMDDYY for the US) and the British Airways flight number (eg BAXXXX) to 60747 in the UK, 70615 in the US.
A spokesperson for British Airways says:
“BA has used outbound text messaging as a reliable, cost effective channel to send immediate flight disruption alerts and check-in reminders to our passengers and communicate with staff for five years. It’s a logical extension for us to launch this inbound FAQ text service for all flights.”

Movirtu Solution Seeks to Connect the Poor

Movirtu, which supplies innovative network infrastructure solutions for mobile operators servicing rural poor communities, says it will bring communications capabilities to a major new market with the launch of its MXInfo solution at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.
Movirtu notes that while wireless technology today can be used in emerging markets to enable people to communicate with family and friends, and to find information about crop prices, and access agricultural and health information, 80% of the people living below the poverty line do not own a phone required to access these services. They do, however, often share other people’s phones. 
MXInfo enables Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and welfare organisations to provide personalised information services through the mobile operator to people living on less than $2 a day, without the need for them to own their own mobile phone.
MXInfo makes it possible to have an active and a passive way of information gathering for the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ mobile communication users. It enables NGOs to provide personalised information via a simple menu structure which is accessed by an individual username and password on any phone available.
The system also enables users to enter information into local bulletin boards, and through the use of tagging, enables users to access specific local information.
“Information is power,” says Movirtu CEO, Nigel Waller. “By making information accessible to the poor, we are empowering them to escape poverty”.
MXPay will be available initially for hosting by mobile operators located in Africa and South Asia.

Mippin Readies Buzz Deck for the iPhone

Application developer Mippin is planning an iPhone version of its Buzz Deck application, which won Google's 2009 global app challenge in the ADC2 (Android Developer Challenge 2) Media Category. The iPhone app has been submitted to iTunes and, says Mippin, should be live within a few weeks. 
Buzz Deck brings together content from over 90,000 websites, from Reuters to Perez Hilton, with the content organized into channels including News, Music, Business, Fashion, Sport and others.
Buzz Deck also offers access to accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Bebo, MySpace and many more social networks simultaneously, plus other web services like eBay, Picasa and G-Reader are included. Users can navigate, use and explore multiple web content and services at the same time, without having to switch applications within the iPhone. Buzz Deck is also designed to be customised, so that users can choose their own version of the available content to match personal preferences and interests.

Survey Highlights iPad Confusion

An online survey conducted by YouGov in the days following the launch of Apple’s iPad shows that awareness of the product is high, but that there remains some confusion about its features and capabilities.
YouGov surveyed 2,047 adults between 29 January and 1 February. 70% of those surveyed, when shown an image and provided with a brief description of the Apple iPad, claimed to have heard about it. 72% of respondents recognized that the iPad has a touch screen, 68% that it can send and receive emails, and 65% that it can connect to the Internet via wi-fi.
The e-reader capabilities of the product are also well recognized with 64% thirds (64%) of respondents expecting to be able to read electronics books and magazines on the device.
Specifically and erroneously, significant numbers of respondents believed that the iPad can make telephone calls (37%); has a camera (38%); and most importantly has a fully functioning, multi-tasking operating system (54%). This figure rises to 61% among the key demographic for products of this type - those aged 25 to 44.
Marek Vaygelt, Head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting at YouGov, points out that misunderstanding of the iPad’s operating system capabilities is greater among existing Apple customers.
“Apple customers who own three or more Apple products have a very high awareness of the iPad but are way more likely than the population as a whole to believe it has a multi-tasking operating system,” he says. “While this is a software rather than a hardware feature, it suggests Apple’s core market might want to wait for an upgraded version.”
Despite this misunderstanding, while only 7% of total survey respondents believe they will probably or definitely buy an iPad, 23% of owners of three or more Apple products believe that they will do so.
With 40% of British adults owning at least one Apple product, YouGov estimates that the vast majority of iPad sales will come from existing Apple customers, with iPhone and Apple iMac customers the most likely purchasers.

Partnership Focuses on M2M Innovation

Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile and Telit Communications have signed a strategic collaboration agreement which will see the three companies working together, worldwide. The companies say they plan to identify relevant target markets in the telematics, fleet management, navigation, smart metering (remote metering), vending machine and security segments.
Telit is a leading provider of technologies for mobile machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. The partners in the venture will be working closely together on sales and marketing in their target markets and plan to jointly develop innovative M2M products and services. They say that customers will benefit from integrated solutions for the networking of vehicles, machines, measurement and control modules and other objects, as well as a comprehensive range of customised services.
“As the operator of an extensive, mature mobile phone network, the M2M market offers us enormous potential for growth,” says Mark Büsgen, Head of Business Development for Corporate Clients at T-Mobile Deutschland. “Partnering with Telit will enable us to exploit this potential even further and lastingly expand our customer base. Telit understands what users need and therefore represents an important partner for us."

Voice SMS a Hit in Uganda

Ugandan mobile operator MTN says it has seen impressive take-up of its recently-launched Voice SMS service, and has ordered an upgrade to triple the capacity of the Voice SMS system.
MTN launched Voice SMS using technology from Kirusa, a developer of mobile Value Added Services. 11% of MTN Uganda subscribers have taken up the Voice SMS service in the three months since launch.
Voice SMS enables subscribers to send messages by voice, eliminating the need to type. It enables subscribers to communicate faster, with greater ease, and convey emotions as compared to limitations of text messages. Use of Voice SMS by mobile subscribers is gaining global relevance for its benefits in surpassing the limitations of text messages.
Users dial * followed by the number to record and send a message. The recipient receives an SMS notification for each new Voice SMS and can listen to the messages by dialing *0* or a ‘DirectListen’ number embedded in the SMS notification. Users can send messages to other MTN users, as well as to subscribers of other mobile carriers in Uganda.
“We are delighted with the success of Voice SMS service with our subscribers,” says  MTN Uganda Chief Marketing Officer, Isaac Nsereko. “The service has been receiving an overwhelming response from our subscribers since its launch as they have found it an innovative medium to communicate. The richness of the Kirusa solution and the support from the Kirusa team has been instrumental in achieving this success.”

GeoVector Updates World Surfer App

GeoVector Corporation, which develops mobile technology that links digital information with real-world places, has unveiled Version 2.0 of its GeoVector World Surfer 2.0 iPhone application, which provides enhancements to GeoVector’s popular directional search and pointing application. The app is available for download from the Apple App Store. Version 1 of the app is available from Android Market for Android handsets, with an update due in the next few months.
Developed for compass-enabled GPS Smartphones, World Surfer allows users to point their phones in a particular direction to search for retailers, restaurants and other points of interest. The app includes free text search and the ability to save favorite searches. Version 2 also incorporates camera view Augmented Reality (AR) as a guidance enhancement to help users verify the distance, location and direction of their destinations.

Nimbuzz Strikes Indonesian Deal

Next-generation mobile messaging service Nimbuzz has announced a partnership with Indonesia’s largest mobile operator, Telkomsel, that will sees Nimbuzz delivered to more than 82 million Telkomsel subscribers via a new mobile data subscription plan.
The partnership is Nimbuzz’s first as part of a monetizable program, with Telkomsel using the added value offered by the Nimbuzz application to generate revenue via a Shortcode subscription service. It forms a core part of Telkomsel’s newly-formed Social Networking Portal, which will make Nimbuzz available free to subscribers as part of a flat-rate data package.
With subscribers able to enjoy unlimited use of the Nimbuzz application, the partnership is aimed at a mass market audience, and, says Nimbuzz, can be seen as an example of how Nimbuzz’s always on service supports operators in accelerating the take-up and consumption of mobile data services.
“Nimbuzz is the perfect application for the mobile services that our customers demand, especially our youth customers,” says Jajang Munajat, General Manager, Value Added Services at Telkomsel. “The launch of Nimbuzz services within Telkomsel Social Networking Services allows us to address (the) youth segment better, both for customer loyalty as well as for customer acquisition.”

DropZap Tops Chorus Paid App Chart

Social networking software developer envIO networks has released user data based on activity from its Chorus iPhone Application. The report focuses on the most popular free and paid socially recommended apps within the Chorus community.
Since its launch in November of last year, Chorus users have invited on average 75 friends. Chorus users are active and engaged, with over a third of the daily users generating activity, such as rating, reviewing and commenting on friends’ activities. envoi says that the Chorus community, which is based on shared interests and the discovery of applications, is booming, as people try to manage the vast amount of iPhone apps to hit the market.
Chorus is currently available on the iPhone and iPod touch, and envIO is also developing versions for other leading Smartphone platforms. 
Based on the latest data, the most popular free and paid apps for December were IMDb and DropZap, which took over from FunMail and Touch DJ respectively. Not one of the top recommended apps from November made it on to December’s top ten list.
The 10 most heavily recommeded apps in December were:  

1. IMDb
2. Accuweather
3. Dragon Dictation
4. AT&T Mark the Spot
5. redbox
6. Bing
7. fring
8. Ustream Live Broadcaster
9. Background Check App
10. Order Pizza

The top five free apps were IMDb, AccuWeather, AT&T Mark the Spot, Background Check App and Dragon Dictation. The top five paid apps, based on buy attempts, were DropZap, Santa’s Run (both $0.99), 1Password Pro ($7.99), Garters & Ghouls ($2.99) and AppButler – App Organiser ($0.99)
“Chorus has become an extremely popular and valuable tool among app users, helping them connect with the people they trust most to discover apps that are most relevant from the thousands of choices available,” says envIO VP of Marketing and Business Development, Vladimir Edelman. “Social recommendation of relevant apps is a paradigm shift in the discovery process, helping users save time and money. For app publishers, Chorus and its Social Genome engine represent an innovative way to track and reach their most avid fans and their friends.”

Whitepaper Looks at Mobile in Retail

GS1, a global standards organisation dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions in supply and demand chains worldwide, has released a Whitepaper looking at the opportunities for mobile in the retail sector.
The Whitepaper, ‘Mobile in Retail’, seeks to identify the potential for mobile to brands and retailers. It highlights 10 areas, including coupons and loyalty, where mobile is deemed to have a particular impact. The executive summary points to a number of areas of potential gain for businesses adopting mobile as a consumer engagement channel. These are increased sales; increased customer satisfaction and loyalty; and additional value to physical products and experiences through digital services.
In preparing the Whitepaper, GS1’s researchers were granted substantial access to key decision makers among the world’s FMCG manufacturers and international retail chains.
The report includes four case studies of operational schemes from around the world. One of these, SHOP SCAN SAVE, is a mobile marketing programme operated by Mobilize, which is currently available in over 23,000 convenience outlets throughout the UK. It has been running for over two years and demonstrates the value to retailers, brand owners, and consumers alike.
Mobilize has been working with GS1, and Managing Director Stefan Magnusson, believes the Whitepaper is a great step forward that will help any retailer looking to reduce costs and increase customer revenues. He says:
“Our experience, and those (experiences) of the participating retailers in SHOP SCAN SAVE demonstrates how powerful this form of marketing engagement can be. In addition, it demonstrates that consumers want this style of engagement that reduces some of the frustration experienced with paper coupons and plastic cards. Above all, it’s just relevant to their lifestyle. It’s a tough time for retailers right now and we are working across the sector, helping retailers realise the benefits of increased revenues and reduced costs.”
You can download the Whitepaper here.

Android Overtakes Apple in Smaato Ad Metrics

Smaato has published its Mobile Advertising Metrics Report for January 2010. January’s metrics show a significant improvement of Android device clickthrough rates compared to December, rising from 65 to 163, but Symbian handsets remain top of the list. The metrics also reveal the average response time of ad networks worldwide as 256 milliseconds (ms). The fastest response time was 43 ms, the slowest, 887 ms.
Smaato’s metrics are based upon 35 mobile ad networks and over 4 billion ad requests served in the Smaato Network of more than 2,300 registered mobile publishers in January 2010.
The boost in Android clickthrough rates comes on the back of a large uptake in Android ad requests in the Smaato network and newly-introduced Android devices, including the Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid and operator-branded handsets. Smaato believes the increase in Android clickthrough rates could also be partly attributable to new owners of Android handsets, who are curious about responding to mobile advertising.
Symbian handsets still hold the highest clickthrough rate of 173, compared to the averaged Index of 100, an increase on the figure of 161 in December. The iPhone and iPod touch score 104, down from 119 in decemberm, but this is still enough to put Apple in third place in the Smaato Index.
The report also measures the fill rate of ads across different mobile advertising networks. This is defined as the percentage of ads delivered per ad request, and varies by factors such as country, device and content type. The ad networks are not named in the monthly Smaato metrics, but are revealed in the dashboard of registered Smaato publishers reporting and analytics tools.
The top performing mobile ad network worldwide had a fill rate of 89% in January 2010, a 10% increase compared to the best-performing ad network in December. Despite this increase, the average worldwide ad network fill rate fell from 35% in December to 29% in January. This confirms that mobile advertising had a very strong holiday season in 2009. In the second half of January, the industry saw higher fill rates as campaigns and advertisers returned to business.
The average fill rate of mobile ad networks in the US was 47%, compared to 55% in December 2009. The fill rate figure for the UK is very low at only 7%, with the top-performing mobile ad network achieving a fill rate of 33% In India, the fill rate was only 8%, despite the presence of one very high performing network.
There’s more information about Smaato’s mobile advertising metrics in a Whitepaper, ‘Global Choices in Mobile Advertising’, which is available for download here.

GSMA Launches Mobile Media Metrics Service

The GSM Association (GSMA) and comScore, in partnership with operators O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK, have announced the official UK launch of the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) product, a census-level solution for mobile media reporting. Taking irreversibly anonymised mobile Internet usage data from all five UK mobile operators, the service aims to provide comprehensive insights into mobile media consumption, empowering brands and agencies to plan effective and focused campaigns for the mobile medium.
“On behalf of our operator partners, comScore and the GSMA, we are excited to be launching Mobile Media Metrics in the UK, our first market, and we anticipate that it will accelerate growth in the mobile advertising market,” says GSMA CEO, Rob Conway. “The underlying principle of Mobile Media Metrics is to deliver valuable and actionable reporting tools to the media industry, while respecting the privacy of individuals. Access to transparent measurement is essential in establishing mobile as a legitimate advertising medium, and Mobile Media Metrics is a critical element in advancing this process.”
The GSMA Mobile Media Metrics service is based on anonymised, census-level data for mobile Internet usage across mobile networks, which is augmented with demographic data that has been collected with the consent of a representative sample of mobile Internet users. The service provides an aggregated view of mobile Internet usage behaviour, enabling market-level analysis of site visitation and engagement metrics, such as page views, time spent on specific sites, and device types and features.
“The initiative undertaken by the GSMA and comScore is a great step forward for mobile media,” says Richard Foan, Managing Director of ABCe and Chair of JICWEBS. “Based on ABCe’s independent validation of Mobile Media Metrics, advertisers, agencies and media owners can rest assured that key metrics are compliant with and endorsed by the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS).”  Based on pre-production data from three operators, as the operators ramp up to full delivery of anonymised data to comScore, 16 million people in the UK accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in December 2009, viewing a combined total of 6.7 billion pages and spending an aggregate of 4.8 billion minutes online during the month. The top 10 sites accounted for 70% of both total pages viewed and total time spent online on mobiles during the month.
The top 10 sites and number of visitors were:

1. Facebook.com (5 million)
2. Google sites (4.6m)
3. Telefonica Mobile Networks (3.7m)
4. Orange Sites (3.6m)
5. Vodafone Group (3.3m)
6. Yahoo! Sites (2m)
7. BBC Sites (1.9m)
8. Microsoft Sites (1.6m)
9. Apple (1.5m)
10. Nokia (1.1m)

When viewed by the number of minutes spent on the site, the list looks pretty similar, but AOL (including Bebo),makes it in at No.5, and Flirtomatic is in at No.9. Telefonic and Nokia do not feature in the top 10 by minutes spent on the site.
GSMA MMM Core Reports is the foundation of comScore’s GSMA MMM suite of reports on mobile browsing. Full production data for the MMM Core Reports will be released in March 2010 based on February data. The GSMA and comScore say they are planning a full complement of additional MMM products to measure mobile usage of applications, search, reach and frequency, ad tracking, and ad effectiveness, as well as linkage of the MMM database to Kantar Media’s Target Group Index (TGI). The MMM service will also be expanded to include wi-fi traffic through site-centric measurement of publishers’ and ad networks’ sites, using comScore’s Media Metrix 360 solution, for a de-duplicated view of the online and mobile Internet. comScore says that pre-production data for January from four operators will be delivered later in February 2010, and that full production data from all five operators is anticipated early in Q2 2010.
All the operators are, not unnaturally supportive of the initiative. For 3UK, Neil Andrews, Head of Portal Advertising, says: “Network operators have long sought the independent verification which will allow them to monetise mobile Internet usage on their networks. Media buyers have also been excited about mobile for years, but have never had access to the independent statistics to justify large ad spend; hopefully Mobile Media Metrics will change all this. 3 is very excited about the opportunity provided by this initiative and we look forward to helping media buyers generate a higher ROI through the use of mobile advertising.”

Friendticker Unveils Check-in-based Mobile Ad Solution

Friendticker, which describes itself as “the first mobile customer loyalty platform to apply virtual check-in technology exclusively for brands and small-scale advertisers”, has announced the impending launch of its iPhone application in public beta mode at Mobile World Congress on 15 February.
The company says the app enables advertisers and marketing managers to identify the most useful data for a specific individual at a specific time and place. The platform provides advertisers with the ability to increase customer retention rates by adding virtual check-ins to a brand or venue.
Friendticker says it transforms the social media check-in concept and applies it as a marketing tool to directly interact with brands, and rewards interaction with the brand instantly. The app adapts the game-based, virtual check-in technology of current social applications to make it specific for a mobile marketing platform that brands can use to target their own customers within their virtual local community.
The company notes that in current social network companies that focus on virtual check-in, a badge has no real-life value. In the Friendticker model, instead of badges, the platform lets advertisers provide items of the advertiser’s choice. With Friendticker, each user receives items for his action and interaction with the brand, and the item becomes a representation of the real-world item. This allows the advertiser or marketer to define what the user receives and which items are exchangeable for real-world goods. There is no limit to the amount of items that a user can receive and the items could represent a free drink n a cafe, for example, or a money-off coupon. Friendticker is sold on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and CPL (cost per lead) model.
“Current virtual check-in applications are only scratching the surface of what's possible for local businesses through mobile,” says Friendticker Co-founder, Florian Resatsch. “Friendticker gives real-life value to a customer's mobile actions beyond the gaming aspect of first generation virtual check-in technology. By combining social networks, geo-placement and real-time search to add value on top of who you are,
what you are doing and where you are, local and small scale advertisers can create and launch mobile campaigns that reach their target audience."

185m and Counting for Camiant

Camiant, which provides policy control technology, has revealed that its PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function) deployments have surpassed the 185 million-subscriber milestone with its Multimedia Policy Engine (MPE). 
To date, over 30 operators around the world have selected Camiant’s policy control solution for dynamic management of Internet/broadband networks, supporting a wide range of applications including tiered Internet services, fair use management of congested networks, quality of service (QoS) for Voice and Video over IP services, and EU roaming controls. 
Camiant’s MPE platform enables operators to roll out a wide range of Internet-based services, with high levels of per subscriber customizations, and the ability to control usage, charging and quality of service on a per-application basis. The real-time control platform balances the needs of the application, the subscriber’s entitlements, and the network conditions, to proactively manage network congestion. 
Camiant’s IOT (Inter-Operability Testing) ecosystem has also grown and now includes interworking with over 35 applications, network elements and other gateway vendors, including Bytemobile, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Juniper Networks and Nokia Siemens Networks. As an independent policy control vendor, Camiant says it ensures integration with the widest variety of leading application and equipment providers, enabling operators to attain new levels of performance, reliability and control over next-generation networks.

Colibria Links Facebook to Mobile Services

Colibria has launched its Facebook Canvas application. It’s an operator-branded portal that allows users to communicate with their mobile phone contacts directly from Facebook. By integrating key operator services within the social network, the Facebook Canvas provides a link between the operator and the 350 million strong online community.
The app presents a dashboard view of the user’s mobile contacts within Facebook, allowing them to communicate with these contacts instantly, using operator services such as SMS, IM and VoIP. Users can also see their friends’ status and their location on a map, and are able to update their own status. The app also gives access to features that the customer may not have on their mobile device, such as birthday reminders, proximity alerts and the ability to send pokes.
Colibria says that the app, carrying the operator’s brand, will spread virally throughout the social network as users invite their friends to use it. Once added, the app is embedded on the user’s profile, making it visible to their entire network of friends. When the user interacts with the app, automatic updates are posted to their profile, further exposing the service.
Colibria says that the Facebook Canvas app gives mobile operators the chance to capitalise on the popularity of social networks, while also driving mobile usage. According to a recent survey carried out by YouGov, 30% of British 18 to 24 year olds spend five hours or more a week on social networks. Furthermore, 60% of all British social network users use applications, with 21% using them daily. The demand to deliver mobile services through social network applications is high, with 27% of social network users saying they would like to be able to access their mobile phonebook contacts and communicate with them from within social networks.
“There is a lot of innovation in the industry, but our Facebook Canvas Application demonstrates functionality that both excites the user and provides value to operators,” says Colibria CEO, Keith Gibson. “While operators do recognise that social network integration is important to the user, they also need to look at ways to harness the power of these sites for business. Apps are a great way to drive mobile usage, encourage customer loyalty and even win customers from the competition.”

Faith in SMS Pays Off for Fashion Footwear Chain

Fashion footwear retailer Faith required an interactive platform to power mobile marketing campaigns to enable the brand to communicate to its ever-growing database and mobile opt in customers. The purpose of each SMS campaign would be to provide new product information and promotional offers to drive footfall into high street stores and build brand loyalty.
To run the campaigns, it selected Mobile Interactive Technology’s (MIT) MIDAS Communicate platform. All opt in consumers received a text message containing a promotional code, which was redeemed in-store or online to claim their offer. To comply with industry regulations, the platform offers the facility for consumers to unsubscribe from the service at any time.
There were two separate campaigns, both of which ran online and in-store. Firstly, a ‘Friends and Family’ promotion offered 25% off full-price products, over a three-day period. The second promotion, run in conjunction with a high circulation fashion magazine, offered 20% off full-price products over a six-day period. SMS interactivity ran across both campaigns, and delivered impressive return on investment, brand engagement and customer loyalty.
The SMS campaign contributed to 47% of the uplift in revenue delivered by the Friends and Family promotion. It also contributed to 30% of the uplift iPublishn revenue delivered by the fashion magazine promotion. Over 70,000 SMS messages were distributed throughout both campaigns, with the redemption of promotional codes higher for the second campaign.
“SMS marketing has proven to be an extremely successful revenue generation tool for Faith,” says Faith’s Head of e-Commerce, Talin Vartevanian. “It is quick to set up, and once launched, the message is instantly communicated to the customer, which is especially beneficial if they are already out shopping. This makes SMS particularly strong at driving footfall in-store, but has also proved to be very effective in increasing online traffic. Licensing Mobile Interactive Technology’s (MIT) MIDAS Communicate platform has enabled Faith to have 100% ownership of all campaign delivery from start to finish, including real-time stats reporting.”

GetJar Launches DIY App Store Solution

Independent app store GetJar has unveiled App Catalogue Express (ACE), a white-label mobile application catalogue for networks, aggregators and partners to launch their own app stores quickly and easily.
ACE expands and builds on GetJar’s experience launching branded app store solutions with over two dozen global partners, including Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, 3UK, Virgin France and Opera Mini.
One of ACE’s launch projects is a mobile app store being created for mobile phone retailer The Carphone Warehouse by Spare Backup. The company has used ACE as part of the build for The Carphone Warehouse’s new customer portal, which includes a mobile app store. The Carphone Warehouse portal offers a selection of mobile apps to customers in the UK, including GetJar’s most popular apps, which are available for all major platforms and devices.
“The ability to integrate a multitude of cross-platform apps directly into a new app store, via GetJar’s App Catalogue Express, has allowed us to quickly and easily deliver mobile app store content to clients including The Carphone Warehouse,” says Spare Backup CEO, Cery Perle. “As the apps market gathers pace, we have experienced a surge in demand from clients requesting assistance in creating and launching a mobile app store, and we fully intend to incorporate GetJar’s App Catalogue Express into future projects.”

MoMac Launches Reseller Program

Mobile publishing platform provider MoMac has launched a Global Reseller Program (GRP), and created a new Reseller Division that is tasked with managing the growing number of international partners using MoMac’s GoMedia platform. The reseller program will see MoMac extend its reach worldwide, partnering with best of breed mobile technology and marketing organizations who will use the GoMedia Platform to service local media, web brands and mobile operators. All modules of MoMac’s mobile Internet suite are being made available through the program, enabling partners to replicate MoMac’s mobile operator and media relationships in new territories.
MoMac says the GRP is being launched after initial trials with partners in new territories exceeded expectations. In one such trial in S. Africa, MoMac’s partnership with a local mobile marketing company has helped create a rapidly expanding mobile Internet business, servicing a number of major media brands two mobile network operators. In 18 months, MoMac’s domain has become the 5th most visited off-portal domain in S. Africa, according to browser firm, Opera Software.
MoMac’s Reseller Division, which will initially be located across the company’s London and Rotterdam offices, will focus first on EMEA, with plans to expand into Asia and S. America later this year.
The Global Reseller Program is a key part of MoMac’s strategy to rapidly expand our geographical presence globally,” says MoMac UK Managing Director, Sham Careem. “We have built robust relationships with media and mobile operators in our domestic territories due to the quality and flexibility of our platform and services. Our challenge was to replicate this in new markets. The demonstrable success of our current reseller partnerships clearly indicates that MoMac’s technology can be rapidly deployed in a new territory with exceptional results.”

Amdocs Report Highlights Smartphone Support Issues

Amdocs, which provides customer experience systems, has released the results of an independent survey that examined customer care issues associated with Smartphones and the impact these have on user adoption and customer satisfaction.
The survey found that while Smartphones are becoming increasingly complex, the majority of customer support calls pertain to basic issues that can be resolved remotely, requiring little or no technical support. 
The survey polled more than 4,000 wireless device users from the US, Canada and the UK late last year. Those respondents who had contacted a call centre classified the reason for doing so as a “technical support” issue, even though the majority of these issues were basic “how to” enquiries such as device configuration (e.g., how to set up email); or menu navigation (such as how to enable wi-fi access). Amdocs notes that these enquiries could have been resolved quickly via web self-service, by Level One customer care agents, or by training the customer on basic usage at time of sale, saving service providers time and investment in support resources. In addition, a majority of the respondents who had difficulties in using their Smartphone stated that they had strongly considered returning their device because they could not resolve these basic issues.
The survey reveals that the call centre remains the first port of call. More than 50% percent of those surveyed made a call to the contact centre to resolve basic support issues, taking an average of  two calls to close their issue. On average, the report says, support calls lasted 17 minutes, indicating that call centre agents lack the technology and training necessary to resolve these basic customer inquiries at the first instance. As a result, consumers were frequently transferred to more costly technical support agents requiring more time, resources and cost. Notably, just 5% of those polled consulted the service provider’s website for support, indicating that Smartphone web self-service resources are underutilized.
The survey also found that unresolved issues often result in a return trip to the retail outlet, or product abandonment. 30% of consumers surveyed returned for customer support to the retail outlet where they bought their Smartphone, and one in three consumers considered returning or exchanging their device due to the inability to resolve issues. 65% stated that they prefer self-help alternatives and identified “knowlegeable sales representatives”, “faster procedures” and “web-based solutions” as ways to improve their customer service experience. 
One out of six consumers were unaware of their Smartphone’s advanced features or did not know how to use them. More than 70% said that it would have been beneficial for a sales representative to explain all the features at the time of purchase. The data suggest that with in-store tutorials or after-sale activities, service providers can drive additional application and data usage, Amdocs says. 
“The survey underscores that by equipping Level One agents and retail staff with the relevant technology and information, service providers can quickly address basic customer inquiries, reduce call handling time and increase customer satisfaction,” says Amdocs Vice President of Product Marketing and Solutions, Seth Nesbitt. “As devices become more sophisticated, service providers must ensure they have the technology to handle all types of inquiries to quickly and efficiently resolve basic or more technical issues via multiple channels.” 

SCCOPE Launches on Vodafone 360

Mobile Shopping tool SCCOPE has launched in the Vodafone 360 superstore for Vodafone 360 customers in the UK. To compare prices from 100 leading UK retailers, customers simply need to install the SCCOPE application, either by clicking on the ‘Shop’ icon on their 360 phone, and searching for ‘Sccope’, or they can get the app from the web shop at 360.com, which will then synchronise with their phone
SCCOPE provides consumers with immediate detailed information on prices and stock from leading UK retailers. The app focuses on electronics, games, books, DVDs and toys but also includes clothes and other categories. The site carries 280,000 separate product numbers and 4 million different price points.  Shoppers can also review hot deals and register for stock availability and price drop alerts, and receive filtered search results.

Open NFC Goes Open Source

INSIDE Contactless, which supplies open-standard, contactless chip technologies, is making its Open NFC commercial-grade NFC protocol stack (formerly MicroRead Software Foundation) available in a free and open source edition under the Apache Licence, Version 2.0. Open NFC 3.4 is available now for WinCE 6.0 (compatible with Windows Mobile 7 and Linux 2.6 platforms), while an Android implementation will premier with the planned release of Open NFC 3.5 at the end of March. 
“Our decision to release Open NFC under the Apache licence demonstrates our willingness to lead the way in bringing high quality, well documented NFC software into the open source arena,” says Philippe Martineau, Executive Vice President of the NFC business line for INSIDE Contactless. “Open NFC fits right in with the trend toward open platforms in the mobile industry, and will benefit device makers as well as software developers and others in the mobile ecosystem in several ways, providing greater impetus to implementing NFC solutions across a broad range of consumer products.”
Martineau adds that the availability of an open source NFC protocol stack should also improve the interoperability of NFC devices, and thus accelerate market adoption.
The Open NFC protocol stack provides a complete NFC middleware solution for mobile phones, embedded products and other devices. Open NFC supports several levels of functionality, from low-level RF control to high-level NFC Forum tag handling, plus peer-to-peer communications and Bluetooth and wi-fi pairing, as well as 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.
“Having an open-source NFC stack like Open NFC is a game-changing development, providing greater flexibility in sourcing NFC controllers and a consistent programming interface,” says Gary Koerper, Vice President of Engine Systems at  Motorola Mobile Devices. “We congratulate INSIDE Contactless for their contribution to the open source movement."
And John Elliott, Senior Director of Emerging Connectivity Technologies at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies says: "Qualcomm understands the increasing importance of open source and community-driven software to the mobile industry, and is pleased to see INSIDE Contactless taking this bold move to bring NFC into the open source movement. Qualcomm is already optimizing two of its UMTS and CDMA2000 NFC handset reference designs for use with the Open-NFC stack, and continues to invest in a number of open source initiatives as customer demand for open and flexible software coupled with powerful mobile hardware platforms continues to increase."
Open NFC was originally developed for INSIDE's third-generation MicroRead NFC chip that provides the broadest range of NFC options, enabling numerous new contactless applications, and was the first NFC solution to support the single-wire protocol (SWP). The award-winning MicroRead suite combines third-generation silicon, a full set of interfaces, NFC software libraries and APIs, a field-proven reference design and robust standards support to provide a turnkey contactless reader solution.
According to a report from Juniper Research, open source operating systems are now running on 60% of the Smartphones on the market, and the number of Smartphones shipped with open source operating systems will increase from 106 million in 2009 to 223 million by 2014.  

Opera Report Looks at In-car Browsing

Opera Software has released a report entitled ‘Web on Wheels’ which looks at bringing the web to in-vehicle computer systems. The report focuses on Opera’s partnership with Ford Motor Company to bring in-dash web browsing to Ford trucks and vans. While Ford is Opera’s first browser-to-car deployment, the company predicts a growing need for remote access to the office while on the road.
According to the analyst Strategy Analytics, almost 90% of vehicles produced in N. America and Europe will have some form of wireless connectivity in 2016.
“The rapid market adoption of Bluetooth, 3G, GPS and Smartphones will drive huge growth in the demand for connected infotainment in the vehicle”, says Jo Blight, Director, Global Automotive Practice at Stretagy Analytics. “Our surveys show email, maps, navigation, music and radio are the top priorities for consumers, but it will be in HMI (Human Machine Interface) and software where the automotive competitive battles are set to be won and lost.”
The report notes that using a traditional PC while driving is not safe without specific modifications for in-car usability and safety (in case you were wondering – Ed). While the experience can create an approximation of the full home or office web experience and should be comfortable and useful for the driver, it states, a driver may not actually need the full array of functions s/he has when not on-the-go.
There’s more information on the Ford deployment here. And you can access the report here.

Lightspeed Handed MMA Research Brief

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has appointed Lightspeed Research as its official European research partner. Under the terms of the agreement, the MMA will use the Lightspeed Research Panel to conduct monthly primary research into consumer attitudes on topics affecting marketers, enabling the provision of regular high quality research insight to its members.
The data, covering the UK, France and Germany, will be jointly promoted by Lightspeed Research and the MMA to provide insights into mobile usage and behaviour, extending the MMA’s series of monthly ‘Mobile Consumer Briefing’ reports to three of the most important markets in Europe. These reports provide up-to-date insights into the latest behaviour of mobile consumers. The first Mobile Consumer Briefing report will be on the subject of mobile banking. 
As an official research partner of the MMA, Lightspeed Research will provide expert advice to the Association on emerging issues in market and media research that affect the mobile industry and sit on the organisation’s committees to help facilitate best practice. 
“We are delighted to name Lightspeed Research as an official research partner,” says Paul Berney, MMA European Managing Director. “They have extensive experience in researching the mobile market and as such, will enable us to deliver timely, relevant and highly meaningful insights to our European membership base.”

Vodafone UK Opens Small Business Store

Vodafone UK has become the first mobile operator to open a retail store dedicated to small business customers.
The store, in London’s Cheapside, is the result of local small businesses sharing what they want from their mobile operator and builds on the network of dedicated business advisers Vodafone UK has in its customer call centres, 150 of its 400 retail stores nationwide and its online store.
The business store offers support workshops and seminars to help small businesses manage their fixed and mobile communications needs; in-store technical support;  advisers, dedicated to small businesses; live device demos; and an appointment service to suit business schedules.
The store was officially opened yesterday by the former head of the Confederation of British Industries, Lord Digby Jones, who said: 
“Small businesses are always looking for an edge and always looking to get that little bit more value for money. Vodafone's move to offer a dedicated service to the local business community will help to ensure that businesses get the most out of their communications needs.”

Besen Group Launches MVNO Seminar

The Besen Group, an international mobile data industry management consulting practice, has announced a one day Mobile Data MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) seminar titled ‘Mobile Media - A Cornerstone for Convergence’.
The seminar, which is delivered on the client's premises to an unlimited number of delegates, includes an MVNO Business Guide, MVNO case studies, and a session on Mobile Data Fundamentals, which promises to provide an insight into  mobile networks, convergence and mobile broadband technologies and applications.
Companies featured in the case studies section include Dell, Apple, Nintendo, Nokia, BMW and Google.
There’s also a workshops looking at strategy and business case development, including a brainstorming session that will review a client’s mobile strategy, partner selection, competition, and service offering. 
“With mobile broadband technologies, mobile media is paving the way for digital consumption and offers a new channel to promote, deliver and enhance services by flexible use of spectrum,” says Besen Group Founder, Alex Besen. “Our Mobile Data MVNO seminar is the only seminar of its kind in the world and provides a closer look at the mobile strategy of selected organizations.”
There’s more information about the event here.

SpiderCloud Raises $40m

SpiderCloud Wireless, a developer of wireless technologies and creator of the Enterprise Radio Access Network (E-RAN) platform developed for mobile operators, has announced the closing of its Series B financing round. The $25 million (£15.7 million) round was led by Opus Capital, along with new investments from Shasta Ventures and existing Series A investors, Charles River Ventures and Matrix Partners.
The company has also announced the addition of Behrooz Parsay as its new Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations. He has over 20 years experience in bringing wire-line and wireless products and systems to market and has previously held RF engineering and management positions with Aperto Networks, Ericsson, DIVA, Kestrel, and Lantern Communications.
SpiderCloud’s E-RAN platform is a scalable system comprised of a SmartCloud Services Node (SCSN) and Radio Nodes (SCRN). Advanced features bring ‘zero touch’ installation and low-cost routing options for voice and data to the world of mobile radio access networks. The result is a purpose-built and self-organizing wireless network capable of extending the enterprise’s full suite of voice and data applications and services to any standard handset or computing device. According to SpiderCloud, E-RAN brings together the functionality and security of cellular networks with the utility and economics of enterprise wi-fi data networks.

Mobile Ticketing to Boom, says Juniper

Almost 15 billion tickets will be delivered to subscribers' mobile devices worldwide by 2014, compared to just over two billion this year, according to a new study from Juniper Research. Western Europe will be the leading region in 2014 based on the number of mobile tickets delivered, taking over from current leader, the Far East & China region.
Juniper’s Mobile Ticketing report found that services are developing fastest in the transport sector, with SMS, barcode and, increasingly, app-driven services being offered by rail and metro companies and airlines.
But the potential of mobile ticketing does not stop there, Juniper believes. Major cinema chains, concert organisers and sports teams are latching on to the commercial viability, which is driven by both cost savings and the up-sell revenue potential, not to mention the added convenience for the user. There are also new entrants from a variety of angles such as apps start-ups and mobile commerce providers seeking to grasp the opportunities they can see.
“Although 15 billion sounds large, it is in fact it a small percentage of total tickets issued; there is plenty of scope for innovative solutions to penetrate this market,” says report Author Howard Wilcox. “Next steps will see more widespread purchasing on mobiles, as well as use of NFC tickets. Currently, however, there are only limited examples of NFC ticketing usage outside of the Far East, owing to the lack of device availability.”
Juniper interviewed leading mobile ticketing operators, application developers, consultants and vendors for the report, which includes a detailed, six -year market forecasting suite covering key market parameters.
There’s more information about the report here.

Iraqi Operator Turns to RoutoMessaging for Global SMS

Messaging firm RoutoMessaging has revealed that Iraqi fixed wireless voice and data provider, Itisaluna Abr Al Iraq, has begun using its global SMS services to enable subscribers to send and receive texts to and from people anywhere in the world.
Itisaluna began operations in 2008 and offers subscribers a range of products and services, including 3G and broadband, and SMS2TV, which enables users to interact with their favourite television programmes via text.
RoutoMessaging points out, however, that with more than 700 operators in more than 200 countries, the time and effort in establishing a global 2-way text messaging service could be considerable, so instead, Itisaluna has tapped into the company’s termination rates with mobile operators worldwide.
“Itisaluna aims to provide subscribers with the most compelling products and services on its state-of-the-art network,” says Itisalune CEO, Laoy Almalaeika. “Partnering with RoutoMessaging to provide customers with worldwide text coverage at competitive rates positions Itisaluna ahead of its Iraqi rivals, and augments our drive to remain the premier service provider in this country.”

Registration Opens for Voda 360 Developer Conference

Vodafone has announced the next phase of its engagement with the international developer community following the launch of its €1 million (£875,000) ‘Vodafone App Star’ prize fund to reward developers of the best app in Europe.
Registration is now open to the Vodafone 360 Developer Conference, to be held at Mobile World Congress on Monday 15 February. All developers who register now will also receive a free 4-day pass to Mobile World Congress.
Mobile and web developers can audition their app at the show, where the winners will be rewarded with prizes including €1,000, a Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 and other Smartphones. They will also automatically be entered into the Vodafone App Star competition with a further chance to win up to €100,000.
The Vodafone 360 Developer Conference will host interactive discussions on developer topics with a range of industry experts, and provide tips on how to create and publish apps across Vodafone 360 devices. To highlight the cross-platform reach of its apps developer platform, Vodafone will also be the headline sponsor of the App Planet developer zone at Mobile World Congress. 
In the three months since the launch of Vodafone 360, over 7,000 apps have been made available for download from the Vodafone 360 Apps Shop across eight European markets. By March 2010, Vodafone expects to have shipped more than 2 million devices across 50 different handset models that are capable of accessing the Vodafone 360 Apps Shop. 
“The sheer volume of applications that have been submitted and approved to ship in our Vodafone 360 Apps Shop is testament to our continued commitment to open web standards,” says Lee Epting, Director of Content Services at Vodafone Group. “Whether it’s helping to reduce development time or increasing the breadth of handsets on our platform, we are trying to make it as easy and as lucrative as possible for developers to work with us and deliver the most relevant, local applications for customers across our markets.”
You can get more information and register for the Vodafone 360 Developer Conference here.

SwissQual Tests Reveal LTE's Speed

SwissQual, the independent Swiss network quality measurement company, has carried out drive testing on the new TeliaSonera LTE network in Stockholm. The measurements were made using the Samsung Kalmia LTE 4G modem mounted in the SwissQual Diversity Optimizer platform. The Diversity Optimizer, in common with all of the probes in the SwissQual Evolution range, has been designed to easily integrate new handsets and modems for emerging technologies such as LTE.
The drive test revealed downlink data throughputs up to 47Mbps and TCP latency as low as 20ms from the new TeliaSonera 4G data service. This is approximately five times better than the performance typically seen in 3G HSPA+ networks.

emoze Powers Pelephone's Smart Mail Service

Pelephone, Israel's largest mobile operator, has launched its Smart Mail mobile email service, powered by emoze.
Smart Mail is a push email service that enables both personal and business email messages, including attachments, to be pushed in real-time to the subscriber's handheld device, even if it is not a Smartphone. Smart Mail is supported on over 13 Symbian and Java devices, including several Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets, with dozens more to be added in the coming months.
Pelephone notes that the rapid development of cellular broadband is fast closing the gap between the number of emails sent over the Internet and the number sent via mobile phones.
“Currently, there are more than 65 million emails sent daily in Israel alone via the Internet, but only half a million emails are sent via cellular phones,” says Pelephone Senior VP, Guy Bauman. “We believe that within three years we will witness the number of emails being sent via cellular phones increasing to about 10 million messages a day. We are focused on mobile broadband and mobile-mail is definitely an area of significant value for both the mass market and the business sector. We are confident that cooperation with emoze will assist us in reaching this untapped market, and significantly expanding our broadband customer-base.”

Handmark Launches TweetCaster for Android

Mobile applications and services developer Handmark has released TweetCaster, a feature-rich Twitter application available for Android phones.
TweetCaster is designed to make tweeting from Android-based Smartphones fast, easy, and fun. In addition to standard features, TweetCaster also offers multiple Twitter account support; integrated retweets and Twitter lists; offline tweet caching; push notifications for tweets, mentions and direct messages; URL shortening and previews; photo attachment; and threaded direct messages
“Handmark continues to enhance the mobile experience for customers around the world with the best connected applications,” says Handmark EVP of Marketing, Evan Conway. “TweetCaster delivers a fantastic experience for Twitter users looking to fully extend their experience to their Android Smartphone.”
A free, ad-supported version of TweetCaster is available here in exchange for a tweet about the application. TweetCaster Pro, a premium version of the application without ads, is also available for $4.99 (£3.13) in Android Market. For customers who download the free version of TweetCaster and wish to upgrade to TweetCaster Pro, an Upgrade Key will also be available in Android Market.

MMA Restructures

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has announced a restructuring of the organization, in which its four operating regions - Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America and North America - will be transformed into business units. As part of this shift, the roles and responsibilities of Managing Directors in these regions will expand to better address regional and local needs, and ensure global scalability.
Managing Directors will continue to foster strong member communities, launch new in-country local councils and perform MMA Forum events with full profit & loss responsibility, while overseeing adherence to the MMA’s Consumer Best Practices (CBPs) guidelines. 
The MMA says that these expanded responsibilities guarantee the business units will operate according to its vision, maintain consistency, and encourage the exchange of success cases and best practices across the globe. In addition to Paul Berney in EMEA, Rohit Dadwal will assume the role of Managing Director, APAC, while Michael Becker will becomes Managing Director, North America Branch. The managing directors will report to the MMA’s interim CEO, Federico Pisani Massamormile. He says:
“The restructuring enables us to address the growing popularity of mobile marketing and our increasing membership all over the world, while enabling a measure of ‘geographic specificity’ to how the organization operates. Each of the managing directors will assume financial management for their respective regions, enabling greater flexibility to achieve their business goals.”
In conjunction with the restructuring, the MMA has engaged executive search firm Diversified Search Ray & Berndtson continues to pursue a new CEO for the organization.

ROK Launches Free Mobile TV for UK Viewers

ROK Entertainment Group has announced the launch of ROK TV UK as a free download to UK viewers.
ROK TV streams TV channels in high quality over 2.5G and 3G networks, and via wi-fi. The service currently offers four channels: BBC One, BBC Two, E4 and ROK Tube. ROK says that more free-to-air channels will be added shortly.
So long as the viewer has a GPRS data package in their mobile tariff, or watches ROK TV over wi-fi, the service is free to watch.ROK TV will be launching in the US with US channels in the next few weeks.
You can register your phone and get a WAP Push link for ROK TV here.

Orange Top for Mobile Broadband

Orange offers the UK’s most reliable mobile broadband service. That’s the conclusion of a ‘Dongle Tracker’ survey carried out by YouGov, which polled 4,944 adults online, of which 2,037 used mobile broadband by means of a dongle, modem stick, or datacard. Orange’s mobile broadband sample was 187 customers.
Orange was ranked top in nine out of 15 categories, including upload speed, ease of use, getting connected, staying connected and reliability (day and evening).
“Retaining our position as the top mobile broadband provider in the UK is a great accomplishment which we’re really proud of,” says Orange UK Director of Broadband and Home, Asif Aziz. “This win is recognition of our strong focus on network quality and brilliant customer service and it’s our aim to build on these, as well as the products and services we offer, to ensure our customers continue to benefit from a high quality user experience.”

GSMA Adds to App Planet Line-up

The GSM Association (GSMA) has revealed that Google and Motorola will each hold application developer conferences (ADC) within the inaugural App Planet event being held at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, bringing the total number of individual ADCs to six. 
MOTODEV, Motorola's developer network, will host a Developer Day on Monday, 15 February. In this half-day event, MOTODEV will give developers an opportunity to spend the day getting the tools, guidance, go-to-market knowledge and community support they need to create a whole new generation of phenomenal user experiences on Motorola's Android-based devices. Developers will get access to the latest Android devices from Motorola, meet with MOTODEV experts and learn how to capitalise on the worldwide mobile market opportunity. 
Google will host an Android Developer Lab at App Planet on Wednesday, 17 February. The full-day session is aimed at current Android developers, as well as those who are interested in learning more about the platform. Participants will have the opportunity to attend a technical session, talk to the Android developer relations team, and meet other members of the growing Android developer community.  
Motorola is also a sponsor of the IMGA awards at App Planet.
App Planet will host more than 120 exhibiting companies and the GSMA says it expects between 3,000 and 5,000 mobile application developers to visit App Planet over four days. 
The full schedule of App Planet ADCs is:
Monday, 15 February – Vodafone 360 Developer Conference
Monday, 15 February – Developer Day hosted by MOTODEV
Tuesday, 16 February – BlackBerry Developer Day hosted by RIM
Wednesday, 17 February – Sony Ericsson Creation Day
Wednesday, 17 February – Google Android Developer Lab
Thursday, 18 February – WIPJam Application Developer Conference
 
In a separate move, the GSMA is partnering with Berkeley Mobile International Collaborative (BMIC) to launch the global ‘University Mobile Challenge’, a competition designed to spur mobile application development and innovation at the university level. BMIC is a non-profit organisation focused on bringing innovative, real-world educational and entrepreneurial opportunities and experiences to college students throughout the world. The University Mobile Challenge will bring together teams of students from universities that offer courses in mobile app development and entrepreneurship.
Groups of students form start-up teams to create an original mobile application in a category of their choice (personal utility, game, service, entertainment, etc.), Students must take the application from an abstract idea to a working model along with a business plan. In the final exams for the project, the competing teams will present to a panel of judges as well as their classmates, and will publicly demonstrate their mobile app, including outlining the market value, the business plan and go-to-market strategy. The winning team with the combination of the strongest mobile application concept and business plan from each university will be invited to a regional competition at a country level. Each national winning university team will be sponsored to go on to compete in the global final competition, the first of which will be held at the 2011 Mobile World Congress.

HDMI Chip Enables Mobile-to-TV Streaming

ST-Ericsson has unveiled a family of single-chip 1080p high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) transmitters to enable streaming of high-definition multimedia content from mobile devices to TVs. The transmitters will enable consumers to connect their mobile devices to their TV to playback HD videos, photos, movies and games.
“Today, mobile computing is rapidly moving into the high definition world, enabling superb 3D, HD, video and imaging on your mobile device,” says Patrick Duréault, Head of the Analog and Mixed Signal unit at ST-Ericsson. “We are driving innovation in high definition mobility by integrating key entertainment technologies to create a more enjoyable experience for consumers. Our latest family of transmitters will further enhance the role of mobile devices as entertainment hubs.”
ST-Ericsson notes that the broadcast and content industries are rapidly shifting focus to offer high-definition programming, while consumers are demanding consistent viewing experiences - anytime, anywhere and on any device. The company says the  HDMI transmitter family is the result of its close collaboration with customers to understand such market evolutions and offer market-ready technologies for application in wireless devices.
ST-Ericsson is launching two single-chip HDMI transmitters, the AV7100 and the AV8100. Equipped with one of the transmitters, mobile devices with 3G, 4G and wi-fi connectivity will be able to stream HD channels, such as YouTube HD, live from the Internet to their TV.

Apple's App Store Dominance to Continue, says Netsize

Netsize has released the first results of its ‘Mobile Trends Survey 2010’. Drawing from an online survey of more than 1,000 professionals and practitioners, the survey provides insights into key mobile industry trends, including the advance of mobile application stores, progress towards global mobile commerce, and the pivotal importance of mobile as a means to bridge our virtual and physical worlds.
87% of survey respondents believe that the Apple App Store will be the most successful app store in the mobile space. Google's Android Market is a distant second (60%), followed by Nokia's Ovi Store (30%) and RIM's BlackBerry App World (27%). App stores run by mobile operators finished low down the list, indicating that platform providers and handset makers may well dominate the space for a time to come.
When asked to rate the unique selling proposition of app stores over other software distribution and sales channels, 65% of respondents put convenience at the top of the list. This was followed by compatibility, choice, and ease of payment.
The complete survey results - including topics related to mobile entertainment, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile payments and mobile convergence - will be released as part of the Netsize Guide 2010, a comprehensive mobile industry analysis and almanac published by Netsize and written by MSearchGroove's Peggy Anne Salz. Netsize will launch the Netsize Guide 2010 on February, 2010 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

lastminute and VouChaCha Team Up for Mobile Discounts

lastminute.com and discount firm VouChaCha have announced the launch of snaffle, an iPhone application that provides discounts from shops to users’ iPhones. The app is currently on trial in the Covent Garden area of London and includes deals for restaurants, pubs, shops and beauty salons.
“We believe the best way of providing targeted discounts as an integrated part of your marketing strategy while protecting your brand is through the use of coupons, delivered directly to a user’s mobile phone based on their location,” says VouChaCha  CEO, Ben Brown. “The number of people actively searching for discounts during 2009 has grown by 30%. VouChaCha are very excited to be working with the lastminute.com labs team as this trend grows into 2010, using our technology to power the snaffle iPhone app.”
snaffle is available now as a free download from the Apple App Store.

What You (may have) Missed - Part 51

One down, 11 to go. Months, that is, and already, 2010 looks like being another frantic year for everyone in the mobile space. The year got off to a flying start as Apple responded to Google’s decision to buy AdMob by snapping up rival mobile ad network Quattro Wireless, closely followed by Amobee Media Systems, which announced that it was buying mobile media firm RingRing Media. And that wasn’t the end of the buying spree as, later in the month, Opera Software bought another mobile advertising firm, AdMarvel, and Mobixell Networks acquired mobile Internet firm, 724 Solutions.
Google unveiled its first Google-branded phone, the Nexus One, developed in conjunction with HTC. Not quite the same levels of excitement as that generated by Apple’s iPad later in the month, perhaps, but still a sign of Google’s commitment to the mobile space. The iPhone was, inevitably, in the news too, as Vodafone in the UK revealed that it had needed just eight days to sell 100,000 iPhones since the device launched on its network on 14 January.
Orange and Barclaycard launched a contactless credit card which offers customers the option to set their own spending levels and a choice in how they are kept up-to-date with their account. No one was saying when the mobile version might appear though. Orange also became the latest mobile operator to let advertisers target its customers on their phones with the launch of Orange Shots. The service is launching with 100,000 subscribers who have opted in to receive ads on their phone.
Still on the mobile advertising front, mobile media agency Fetch Media, which launched in November 2009 in partnership with cross media agency AdConnection, revealed that it had picked up five accounts in the two months since it launched, and said that it expects to be billing £100,000 per month by February. Any company that can take the pain out of buying mobile media deserves to do well, and probably will, while there are so few of them around.
A report from Juniper Research painted a bright future for Augmented Reality (AR), predicting that the annual number of mobile downloads featuring AR content would surge from less than 1 million in 2009 to more than 400 million by 2014. According to Juniper, location-based search apps will account for the majority of all AR downloads over the next five years, but by 2014, games will have achieved nearly 30% of all downloads per annum.
Another study, forming part of the Mobile section of the UK National Gamers Survey Report conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com revealed that UK mobile users spent £170 million on games for their phones in 2009. And on the mobile apps front, a report from Gartner forecast that consumers would spend no less than $6.2 billion (£3.8 billion) in mobile application stores in 2010.
Finally, digital promotions company Vouchercloud revealed that it had begun final beta testing for its mobile discount voucher iPhone application of the same name, which delivers money-off vouchers direct to the device. Retail chains signed up to the scheme include Fitness First, Slug and Lettuce, Karen Millen, and Chessington World of Adventures. So could this be the year that mobile vouchers take off? Who knows, but if you want to find out what is hot and what’s not in the world of mobile marketing, check back in regularly. If it’s happening, you’ll read about it here first.

David Murphy
Editor

Netbiscuits to Build Mobile Sites for Universal

Universal Music Group (UMG) is expanding its direct-to-consumer mobile content and services offering for music fans through an agreement with mobile publishing platform, Netbiscuits.
As part of the agreement, UMG will leverage Netbiscuits' B2B web software platform to launch mobile websites and services for UMG’s broad array of popular artists. By doing so, UMG says it will be opening up even more channels of content discovery and delivery to music fans everywhere. Through these artist-branded mobile sites, UMG will offer fans the ability to interact with other fans and to buy music directly from their handset. Based on the mobile websites, Netbiscuits will also enable UMG to set up smart hybrid apps for all major platforms, including the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile devices.  
Universal Music will also use the text messaging service suite that is integrated with the Netbiscuits platform to provide music lovers with SMS alerts whenever favourite artists are in town.
“Universal is committed to providing consumers with even more engaging interactive opportunities to connect with their favourite artists and music by personalizing their mobile devices,” says David Ring, Executive Vice President of Business Development & Business Affairs for UMG’s eLabs. “Thanks to the support we are getting from Netbiscuits, we’ll be in an even better position to extend these artist opportunities and products across the widest array of available wireless devices.
“Through their exclusive technology, we’ll be able to offer consumers truly engaging mobile music experiences, that include the chance to generate their own content, leaving comments, uploading pictures, and chatting with each other via these mobile sites.”  
UMG first began working with Netbiscuits in November 2009, when the two companies  collaborated on the successful launch of a mobile website for Bon Jovi (m.bonjovi.com).
Netbiscuits delivers any rich media content, optimized for more than 6,000 different mobile devices worldwide. The platform enables a next generation user experience on the latest Smartphones and provides optimized web content for the long tail of web-enabled phones.

Consumers Want RCS Features, says Colibria

Colibria has released the results of research that reveals that has found that an overwhelming proportion of British mobile phone owners want access to RCS (Rich Communication Suite) features. The survey was carried out online by YouGov between 6 - 8 January 2010 among a nationally representative sample of 2,361 adults. 
The research found that 31% of 18-t0-14 year old want to see their friends’ status from within their mobile phone address book, but that only 5% have phones that offer this feature. 51% would to like to see their friends’ location in their address book, something that has been recently added to RCS. And 24% would like the ability to send a ‘shout out’ to their contacts from their phone to say they are available to chat
Consumer demand points towards RCS needing social network integration, says Colibria, with 47%of mobile users wanting to be able to update their social network profile via their mobile phone. Colibria notes that this is currently being addressed by GSM Association’s (GSMA) RCS initiative.
Messaging services are also in demand, with 44% of young mobile users saying they would find it useful to see the messaging services that their friends subscribe to displayed in their phone’s address book. 
Other messaging services highlighted by young mobile owners who use a social network as important in any rich communication service include the ability to chat to social network friends using their mobile (35%); and the ability to send messages to their social network friends using their mobile (42%)
“Our research shows how important RCS is becoming, not only to the industry, but to consumers as well,” says Paul Kemps, General Manager for Convergence products at Colibria. While the current RCS initiative is rounding out nicely, there is clearly more work to be done, especially with social network integration. We know that the GSMA is looking to address this in its current release cycle. Colibria is particularly dedicated to achieving these goals.”

mmCHANNEL Launches Mobile Storefront API

Mobile marketing and digital content firm mmCHANNEL has launched a new b2b API (Application Programming Interface) Service, which will enable any digital agency or brand to launch their own digital download store as part of a marketing campaign.
The digital store can be built into an existing mobile portal or website. Customers can then choose whether to have content pushed to their phone via SMS or saved to their PC. Additionally, the company says, the service removes many traditional headaches such as delivery management, tracking and reporting content sales or managing digital rights. The service is available under a variable agreement to support 3, 6 or 12 month campaigns.
Service features include content management and delivery, usage metrics and payment collection. For consumers, the mobile or web store functionality includes content browsing, searching, content delivery and handset recognition.
There’s more information about the service here.

Level 3 and Zolmo Team Up for Cookery Videos

Level 3 Communications is working with software publishing company Zolmo to deliver caching, on-demand video content and geo-targeting services for the Jamie Oliver ‘20 Minute Meals’ iPhone application.
The app is a mobile digital cookbook, offering step-by-step instructions, full screen photography, a shopping list feature, and high-quality videos that that users can follow to create 55 healthy meals from the popular chef.
Level 3 is working with Zolmo to deliver caching and download services for the application over the Level 3 Content Delivery Network (CDN). Level 3 is also delivering token-based authentication and geo-targeting to give Zolmo the ability to customize delivery options to users. In addition, Level 3 worked with Zolmo to de-couple the video content from the application’s other content (recipes, photos, shopping lists) to enable users to download and install the application more quickly.
 “As more people turn to mobile devices for content, there is a greater expectation that the quality of the mobile experience will mirror that of the traditional online experience,” says Peter Neill, Senior Vice President of Content Markets for Level 3. “By leveraging the Level 3 IP backbone, we’re able to provide the scalability and reliability needed to ensure a first-class user experience.”
The app was developed by Jamie Oliver and London-based Zolmo, a software publishing and development company that creates lifestyle and entertainment applications for the next generation of digital devices.
“It was important to us that the application provided a clean, fast, hassle-free customer experience, and using the Level 3 CDN to deliver content directly to the mobile device is helping us to ensure that,” says Zolmo CEO, Tristan Celder. “Users now have faster access to the videos, targeted content and a great application that’s designed to work with their mobile lifestyle.”
The application gives users access to over an hour of video clips from the chef, demonstrating kitchen skills ranging from cutting and chopping to cooking techniques. The video on-demand feature allows users to choose the videos they want to store on the mobile device and delete the ones that they have already watched.
The app is available for download from the Apple App Store.

Femto Forum to Host Femtozone

The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, has revealed that it will be hosting a ‘Femtozone’ at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from 15-18 February. The Femtozone will serve as a one-stop-shop for all visitors interested in learning about the latest developments in the femtocell industry. The event takes place as the femtocell market experiences growth around the world, with 10 operators now offering services across three continents and further deployments expected shortly.
The Femtozone (hall 1, stand G19) will feature a daily schedule of public presentations from operators, vendors, analysts and other industry bodies on the major opportunities and challenges facing the femtocell market. This will include an exclusive presentation from independent analysts, Signals Research Group, which has conducted extensive research into the operator business case, using real world statistics from the Femto Forum’s operator members.
Other presentations will cover a variety of topics that impact operators, device vendors, component suppliers and femtocell application developers. The Femtozone will also showcase a wide variety of femtocell products and feature public demonstrations of devices and applications in action.
“With the technical and business challenges overcome, 2010 is set to be the year when femtocells start to become a mass market consumer technology,” says Professor Simon Saunders, Chairman of The Femto Forum. “Services are now live across three continents and operators are beginning to heavily promote their offerings. Mobile World Congress is going to be the key event where operators and vendors come together to share the lessons learnt in the first deployments and work together to take femtocells to the masses. The Femtozone is the perfect venue for show attendees to learn about, discuss and contribute to this exciting technology.”
There’s more information on the Femtozone here.

Dialogue Survey Reveals Demand for SMS Alerts

Dialogue Communications has released the results of a survey which reveal that people want to use SMS more in their daily lives. 67% of mobile users surveyed said they would like to receive reminders or alerts by text for everything from medical appointments to bill payments.
The findings support a recent report from telecoms regulator Ofcom, which showed that the UK is as a world leader in SMS messaging. Figures from the Mobile Data Association released yesterday revealed that in 2009, 96.8 billion texts were sent in the UK.
The Dialogue study, which asked participants how they usually receive appointment reminders and how they would like to receive them, found that although only 3% per cent of people currently receive reminders by text, with 83% receiving them through the post, 67% would be happy to receive text reminders or alerts in the future. Almost 60% said they would opt in to a text reminder service, and just over 80% said they would also be interested in a customer service text call-back request capability.
“People text all the time, and the survey shows they are more than happy to use it beyond normal social networking,” says Dialogue Managing Director, Guiom Peersman. With 67% of our study participants happy to receive SMS reminders, and only 3% currently doing so, our findings show that service organisations now need to be aware of this need and respond to it.”
The overwhelming reason participants gave for the move away from postal reminders towards SMS reminders was that it was more convenient. Some respondents said that text reminders were more environmentally friendly, while others noted that they were easier to sync with Outlook calendars.
Dialogue’s SMS applications have been used by a number of organizations, including local councils and police authorities, for many years. East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been using Dialogue’s ‘Text a Fraud’ community text service since 2005. Others include East Dunbartonshire Council, and Hampshire and West Yorkshire police forces.

Neustar Handed Digital Rights Locker Brief

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) has selected Neustar to provide a clearinghouse solution for the industry consortium. Neustar will develop and manage the consortium’s Digital Rights Locker, a cloud-based authentication service and account management hub that provides consumers with access to their digital - including mobile - entertainment. The launch of the Digital Rights Locker is targeted for the second half of 2010.
DECE is a consortium of leading entertainment, consumer electronics, and technology companies and retailers dedicated to developing the next generation digital media experience based on open, licensable specifications.
“Security, scalability and flexibility are key requirements for us in building the digital locker service for DECE,” says Mitch Singer, Chief Technology Officer at Sony Pictures and president of DECE. “Neustar has a track record for handling complex technological challenges across large operations – from governments to massive enterprises – in a secure, seamless and neutral manner.”
Neustar’s data management technology, infrastructure and customer support will power DECE’s Digital Rights Locker solution, providing consumers with access to all of their DECE-compliant movies, TV and other entertainment in one place; managing access to the content in the account; and registering or updating different devices for playback. DECE will provide open application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow any participating web-enabled storefront, service or device to integrate access to the Digital Rights Locker into their own consumer offerings. Additionally, the Digital Rights Locker will be accessible from the DECE-branded site.
“DECE’s digital ecosystem needs are right in Neustar's wheelhouse,” explained Jeff Ganek, chairman and chief executive officer at Neustar. “As a neutral third-party interoperability provider, we excel at enabling markets and helping industries realize their digital ambitions. We look forward to working with the consortium in its effort to empower consumers.”
There’s a full list of DECE member companies here.