You are herenews aggregator / Sources / Mobile Content Publishing
Mobile Content Publishing
Interview: Pelago's CEO Jeff Holden Maps Out Vision For Mobile Social Networks
Last week, I caught up with Jeff Holden, the CEO of Pelago, which is developing Whrrl, an application for mobile phones that lets people share opinions about events and restaurants and organize meet-ups with friends. Pelago has the distinction of being the first investment of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer's iFund, which is dedicated to funding iPhone applications. It subsequently also raised funds from T-Mobile's investment arm, among others. But Holden, who is a former Amazon exec, is distinctive in his own right. From his office in downtown Seattle, where he was wearing cargo shorts and a polo shirt on a rainy day, he covers ground quickly, and makes whopping predictions. One is that Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) will become a hardware company and the second is something he's banking on—that Apple's (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone will evolve from a niche device to one that gains double-digit market share. When it comes to explaining his company's vision, he references scenes from sci-fi movies and uses made-up words and phrases, like "foot-streaming" and the "digital augmentation of the physical world." He addressed the challenges they faced with the first iPhone app, the new version; integration into Facebook and Twitter, and the carriers Whrrl will launch with soon. Holden summarizes his excitement by drawing parallels between Pelago and Amazon: "Whrrl makes people's lives a lot better. Amazon made their lives a lot better, too. I get charged about that."
Here's a summary of our conversation:
-- The iPhone app: The Whrrl application launched In July with the App store, but received hundreds of complaints on its landing page for not using GPS and not being able to zoom to find restaurants. Holden said it still was downloaded more than 100,000 times over the first few days, and that iPhone users have been more active and engaged than users on the Blackberry platforms. A new iPhone version launched in the last week solves the zooming and location issues (the app now updates your location every 90 seconds in the background).
The rest is after the jump…
-- Mobile advertising: The company just announced that it has hired John Kim as VP of advertising products to figure out the company's plan for how to make money. Kim was most recently vp of product management and marketing for mobile search company Medio Systems, and before that was Yahoo's (NSDQ: YHOO) senior director of strategic product marketing. Although Whrrl doesn't have any advertising yet, Holden believes they have a big opportunity. "We have patient investors, who are looking for the long-term return. We'll make money along the way and it will off-set our burn."
-- "Foot-streaming": "Foot-streaming" is the reason why Holden believes that they can demand high rates for their ads. Foot-streaming is the act of tracking where people go using GPS: "You are able to say people—who go to these places—also go to these places." Sound familiar? Amazon does that all the time, by showing people what other people buy when they buy a particular book. "This has never been done in the physical world." With Whrrl, advertisers will be able to target people who go to competitors, and then actually find out if that person walks into their restaurant (using GPS). Holden is targeting the $100 billion local advertising market, which normally places ads in newspapers, yellow pages, etc. Those advertisers are difficult to get on a national scale without a localized sales force, but without providing details, Holden said "We have some interesting thinking going on about de-fragmenting that market."
-- Carrier decks: Pelago has deals in the works to get on the carrier decks of Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), Alltel (NYSE: AT) and T-Mobile USA. Right away, the Verizon and Alltel application will be LBS-enabled, with support coming later for T-Mobile.
-- Social network integration: There's a ton of social networks, so instead of fighting them, Pelago is embracing them. It launched a Facebook app called "Been Here? Like it or Not," and also integrated into Twitter, so that status updates in Whrrl are sent to your Twitter followers.
-- The competition: Whrrl is often compared to Loopt, the friend-finder. Yelp and other restaurant review sites also compete. But Holden says each company is tackling a small piece of the market. Loopt is like candy because you can see where your friends are, and with Yelp, likely only 1 percent of the audience is really engaged, he says.
Related
Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download.
Mobile Video Services Launched On Telcel And Cricket Carrier Decks
Cricket Communications and Mexico's Telcel both announced two separate mobile video services today:
-- Cricket is rolling out a flat-rate unlimited streaming mobile video service for $5 a month. Subscribers will get access to one-to-four-minute video clips including music videos, artist interviews, music documentaries, sports clips, entertainment news and Spanish-language content. The service can be personalized to include the most popular clips downloaded or recommendations based on previous usage. (Cricket release).
-- Telcel hooked up with ROK (LSE: ROK) Entertainment Group to launch Ideas TV, a streaming live and on-demand mobile TV subscription service that will include three live channels and seven pre-recorded channels that will play on a loop. The service, which will feature content from MTV, Nickelodeon, TV Azteca, History Channel and the Discovery Channel, will be available for a daily rate or monthly subscriptions. ROK said its technology will play streaming video at up to 24 frames per second over 3G networks. (ROK release).
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Text Messages Increasingly Used To Send Alerts, Ringtones, Video Clips, Etc.: Report
The number of text messages sent during the second quarter jumped 20 percent to 52 billion messages, compared to the previous quarter, according to VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN), which compiles statistics based on the messaging traffic it sees from its media division. Although the figures are skewed because they come from one vendor, a number of impressive records were hit, including a single-day record of 648 million texts and a one-hour record of 42 million messages. However, some of the more interesting information was found at the bottom of the press release. VeriSign also tracks news alerts, ring tones and promotional video clips that were sent by text message, which the company calls "application to person messages." It found that people increasingly using text messages to receive content. The number of application messages rose almost 34 percent to 249 million messages in the second quarter from 186 million in the prior period. VeriSign attributed the rise to mobile banking services. Release.
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Sony's Chief Says A Solution Must Be Found For Sony Ericsson
Sony's (NYSE: SNE) CEO Howard Stringer was quoted as saying in a German newspaper on today that its mobile-phone joint venture with Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) must do better, Reuters reported. "We have to work together again as we did two years ago. Or the joint venture will have to find its own solution," Stringer said. Asked whether Sony is planning to put an end to Sony Ericsson, Stringer said in German paper Die Welt: "It's certainly been a difficult year but buying out a partner is never an easy thing."
Sony Ericsson, which is often being coined 'the next Motorola' (NYSE: MOT) for its troubles, reported last quarter that profit plunged 97 percent while its biggest market — Europe — is seeing phone sales fall, and mid-high end handset margins are coming down.
Stringer said one of the complexities of the business is being nimble while still checking in with two different companies. "You're always engaged in discussion and negotiation. We and Ericsson are always discussing ways of making Sony Ericsson as successful as it possibly can be."
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Orange Admits To Capping iPhone 3G Speeds
Maybe it's not all Apple's fault after all. French wireless carrier Orange has admitted to capping 3G network speeds at 384Kbps for iPhone customers, AppleInsider reports. Perhaps that's why iPhone users on Germany's T-Mobile network were reporting speeds as high as 1800Kbps while Orange customers' data moved at a much slower pace. As with other carriers that recently launched the new iPhone 3G, Orange's customer care lines lit up. In some cases, representatives were able to dramatically increase specific iPhone users' speeds to as much as 3Mbps by simply altering some technical parameters. Orange told FranceInfo that the network speeds were capped to preserve network stability, but that it intends to raise the download cap for iPhone users to 1Mbps by Sept. 15.
It's doubtful that will resolve the concern of many Orange customers that have signed a petition saying the artificial limitation is in direct violation of Orange's service agreement, which should allow for HSDPA speeds up to 7.2Mbps. And it's likely to stoke the debate on whether iPhone 3G connection issues are the fault of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) or the carriers. Is AT&T (NYSE: T) doing the same thing in the United States? Apple may not want to rustle the feathers of its carrier partners, but it would serve the company well to deflect criticism if it's not a chipset or software problem that's crippling iPhone 3Gs. If the blame rightfully belongs elsewhere, why hasn't Apple said so? My guess is there's a group of snafus gathering here, the fallout of which we'll be seeing for some time to come.
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
All-Digital Beauty Mag VIV Dials Up iPhone
Beauty and fashion online-only mag VIV, which relaunched this past week, is readying an iPhone-specific version for next month, MIN reports. The title started as an all-digital magazine last year. The magazine is backed by Fiji Water founder David Gilmour, whose firm has also bought VIV's technology provider, digital mag producer Zinio. VIV's iPhone extension is one of the few mag titles with a dedicated app for the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) device. MIN regards the launch of VIV's iPhone app as a redux of Zinio's similar features for magazines that it made for the Tablet PC. Last month, the NYTimes.com launched its iPhone version, so it's reasonable to expect a deluge of other digital newspaper and mags made for the device will start bubbling up over the next few weeks.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Smartphone Sales Will Jump 52 Percent This Year To 190 Million Units: Report
Consumers worldwide are expected to purchase as many as 190 million smartphones this year, representing an increase of 52 percent compared to last year. Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi told Dow Jones: "We are expecting the smartphone market to grow strongly with royalty free operating systems like Symbian, Android, and Linux pushing deeper down into product portfolios. Apple's (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone isn't huge in sales volume, but it helped energize the market. People are now walking into stores and asking for a smartphone, something that didn't really happen in the past." If sales go as expected, smartphones will make up about 15 percent, or $65 billion, of the overall 1.28 billion handset market.
2012 expectations: Looking further out, Milanesi expects smartphone unit sales to reach more than 700 million of the 1.8 billion handset market by 2012. At those levels, smartphones will represent 65 percent, or $200 billion of the $312 billion total mobile phone market. The driving factors are royalty-free operating systems that help reduce the cost of handsets.
Device manufactures: Going forward, dominant smartphone manufacturers will continue to be Nokia (NYSE: NOK), while Chinese manufacturer ZTE and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) will begin to do more strongly. In addition, Samsung is trying to make the transition to more smartphones, while LG (SEO: 066570) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) are struggling. Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 isn't expected to make a big splash.
Related
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Mobile Search Firm JumpTap Raises $26 Million For Expansion Plans; Bumps Up Total To $72 Million
Cambridge, MA.-based JumpTap, a white-label mobile search and advertising company, plans to announce today that it has raised $26 million in a fourth round of funding, bringing its overall total to $72 million. The latest round was led by Alliance Bernstein L.P., a publicly traded global asset management firm. All other existing investors, including General Catalyst Partners, Summerhill Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Valhalla Partners and WPP, participated. JumpTap said the company is worth more following the round, and that the capital will go towards accelerating the company's advertising efforts and expansion plans in Europe.
The large bankroll will surely help the company grow and compete against several companies, including brand name online search providers, such as Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), but also other white-label search companies, like Seattle-based Medio Systems. A report last week said the company laid off employees in certain areas (although JumpTap maintains that the report was untrue), and now it is unknown what will happen with Alltel (NYSE: AT), one of JumpTap's main customers, since Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) has acquired it and been reported as being close to securing a deal with Google and Medio for its search and advertising needs. Yesterday, I talked to Paran Johar, JumpTap's CMO, who painted a rosy picture of a company that's expanding, adding staff, and even close to announcing a deeper relationship with AT&T (NYSE: T). Here's excerpts from our talk:
Current customers: JumpTap works with 17 carriers in nine countries, including AT&T, Alltel, U.S. Cellular, Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM), Boost, Rogers, Bell Atlantic and Telefonica (NYSE: TEF). As far as whether JumpTap will continue to work with Alltel: "They don't know, nor do we. I hope we can evolve it [our relationship], but we aren't seeing any change thus far."
Much more after the jump…
Employee situation: The company has about 125 employees, and is expanding based on needs and skillset. As far as layoffs, "that's not at all true. The company is growing, and we are bigger now than we were a couple of months ago. We adjust our resources accordingly, and we have increased our sales group by 600 percent. We make adjustments of resources based on market, but the report was false."
On the Verizon-Google Deal: "I think what people forget is that this deal has been in the works for at least a year, and what they've been negotiating is what will Google's revenue share be, and who will have access to the rich customer data. And as more and more carriers recognize that they are a critical component, no matter how big the check Google writes, it's the Trojan horse knocking on the door."
Three business models: Johar said there's business relationships JumpTap has been entering recently. In the first scenario, he says carriers completely to Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, and become a bit pipe. In the second, he says carriers will hedge their bets and use a company like JumpTap to manage the relationship between themselves and Google, Yahoo or Microsoft. In the third, the carrier signs up for all three of JumpTap's services and involves them in white-label search, managing the customer's data and using their salesforce to monetize search and sell ad inventory. Johar: "In every single case, we have carriers moving up the food chain. We are expanding with AT&T and really restructuring that relationship and getting close to announcing industry-changing news." JumpTap has been working with AT&T for a couple of years, and currently provides white-label search on its MediaMall.
State of the Industry: Currently, the mobile advertising industry is a bit up in the air. Some people are speculating that prices have been artificially high, but now that there are more reporting standards starting to surface, prices are adjusting and unsold inventory is rising. Johar would not share the company's revenues; would not provide a range for how much mobile ads are selling for, but did elaborate a little on how well ad inventory is selling: "Being sold-out is difficult, and it depends on the market. In Spain, we have 90 percent sell-out rates, and in Sweden, it's lower, and in the U.S., it's lower. It's an evolution of the market." When asked if the U.S. sells more than 50 percent of its inventory, he said: "It's over that, but I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head."
Forecast: CEO Dan Olschwang said in the release: "Internet advertising is currently growing at a compound annual rate of 18.3 percent and will reach $73 billion in 2011. What is really exciting about mobile advertising is its ability to eclipse Internet advertising." When asked to elaborate, and what kind of time table we should expect, Johar said: "If I could put a time schedule on that, I would be the richest man alive, but the amount of traction we are seeing is up across all fronts." He said that includes everything from operator interest—both new and existing customers increasing their relationships—to publishers and advertisers.
Related
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Mobile Content Bits: Obama Texts 2.9 Million; Kinoma Player, Hi5 Mobile; USOpen.org WAP; MailTXT
-- 2.9 million text messages sent from Obama campaign: Nielsen Mobile estimates 2.9 million people received a text message from the Obama campaign that named its vice president over the weekend. Nic Covey, director of insights at the firm: "While much has been said of the timing and the scoop by news outlets, Obama's VP text-message still ranks as one of the most important text messages even sent and one of the most successful brand engagements using mobile media. The value of the message goes far beyond the 26 words and 2.9 million recipients. Here, Obama branded himself as cutting edge, inflated the already enormous press attention paid to his VP pick and further established a list of supporters' most coveted form of contact: their cell phone numbers." (Release).
-- Kinoma releases mobile media Browser and player: Kinoma has launched Kinoma Play, a new mobile media browser and player that brings media capabilities to Windows Mobile smartphones. The application includes Kinoma Guide, a built-in search mechanism and catalog of more than a terabyte of media available online. Kinoma Play costs $29.99 and is compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 and higher. (Release).
More after the jump…
-- Hi5 Mobile launches in 26 languages: San Francisco-based Hi5 launched a mobile version of its social network service in 26 languages, CNET reports. The site, which is used a lot in Latin America, has been optimized for the iPhone, BlackBerry and handsets from Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Samsung. Hi5 doubled its visitor count over the past year, and recent comScore statistics show the social-networking space in Latin America has grown by a third since mid-2007.
-- USOpen.org launches WAP site: USOpen.org has launched a WAP site and a variety of fresh mobile content (http://www.usopen.org/en_US/interactive/sms/index.html?promo=hp_features) along with almost 50 different types of text alerts, MobileContentTodayreports. The site also launched a mobile sweepstakes with an opportunity to win a trip to the 2009 U.S. Open.
-- Daily Mail offering 50 SMS messages to new users: The Daily Mail (LSE: DMGT) is giving new MailTXT users 50 SMS messages that can be sent to any mobile network worldwide. The service, which launched in the spring, has become an important promotional, informational and advertising tool, the paper said. MailTXT aims to give wireless customers a less expensive alternative when it comes to SMS, but also give customers access to the paper's headlines and weekly polls.
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Apple iPhone Ads Misleading; Not "All The Internet" : UK Ad Authority
Well, someone stood up for it: the Advertising Standards Authority in UK has ruled that one of the most prominent Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone ads is misleading for the consumers, reports BBC. This is the ad which says that "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone", when in fact it did not support Flash or Java - two programs that form part of many online sites, the authority says. Apple, on the other hand, argued its claim referred to availability of webpages, rather than their specific appearance.
The ASA said the ad "gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone", and should not be aired again. The ruling was in response to two complaints about it to the firm.
From the ruling: "We noted Apples argument that the ad was about site availability rather than technical detail, but considered that the claims "You'll never know which part of the internet youll need" and "all parts of the internet are on the iPhone" implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety. We considered that, because the ad had not explained the limitations, viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a website normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website."
The specific UK ad in question, embedded after the jump…
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Olympics Review: NBC Olympics 2Go On AT&T's MediaFLO Lineup
More often than not, video on mobile phones is a lackluster experience. MediaFLO has been the most obvious exception to that rule in the United States since its service launched in March 2007. Although its nationwide rollout has been slow and customers aren't paying $15 a month for the broadcast-like TV service in droves, one thing's for sure: MediaFLO's got the best mobile video around. No buffering, pixilated mess here. As the Olympics approached, AT&T (NYSE: T) used its position as an Olympics sponsor and the official telecommunications provider to the U.S. team to squeeze out an exclusive channel from NBC on its MediaFLO lineup. Throughout the games, AT&T had sole rights for live competition footage on the MediaFLO platform.
-- Features: Other than the unmatched video quality, the features are pretty basic. It's a streaming feed of video, much like you get at home on TV. Sometimes the programming matched up closely with what NBC was airing on television, but not often. The channel, like others on the platform, routinely used optimized graphics to display text and statistics legibly on the small screen.
-- Passive experience: Mobile is a pro-active environment and it's on this point where MediaFLO goes into a tailspin. Mobile is supposed to be ahead of the curve or at least in line with the norm, and while MediaFLO is ahead on video quality, its content library is lagging. On-demand content would be an outstanding addition to the MediaFLO system. The Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) subsidiary knows it and has hinted it at it for years, but doesn't appear any closer to making that a reality. How cool it would have been to pull up some of the major athletic milestones achieved during the games in video snippets. Or what about the opening and closing ceremonies? I could watch that a few times over.
Much more after the jump…
-- Conclusion: Why was the NBC Olympics 2Go channel already blacked out by early Sunday? Why not leave the channel running for another week with highlights? MediaFLO still has a major leg-up on the competition. Video services delivered by carrier networks all include an on-demand component, but what's the point of pulling up a clip if the end result is still freeze frame after freeze frame? Short lived, special events channels like this one do a decent job at highlighting the service's potential, but also shed more light on its limitations.
-- Ads: Like the other MediaFLO channels, commercial spots are quite similar to what you'd expect to see on TV. The commercials were the same ones aired on TV with a few NBC- and MediaFLO-related promotional spots mixed in.
Staci adds: While Matt was reviewing AT&T's MediaFlo, I spent some time with Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) version via a Voyager. The AT&T exclusive meant Verizon mobile viewers were in yet another alternative NBC universe, one showing hours in a row of reality-show reruns when I checked at one point. The video delivery was fine; just nothing I wanted to watch. On AT&T, I tried Mobi, which was fine, but discovered I preferred VOD highlights and spent most of my Tilt viewing time with AT&T MediaNet. I also checked out the video from NBC's WAP site and found a real difference in quality between that and the faster-to-load MediaNet video direct from the carrier. The Stromotion videos kept going to buffer hell. AT&T re-encodes for its devices while NBC relies on device recognition, which it is working to improve.
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
News International Merging Mobile Unit Into Digital, Commercial Groups
Andrew Bagguley, the head of mobile strategy at News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) News International UK news publisher, is leaving next month, a further casualty of the corporate-level reorganisation ensuing from Boston Consulting Group's recent review. News Int's titles - most prominently, The Sun - had developed some attractive mobile content offerings, like 24-7 Football live score updates and QR codes as well as plain 'ol mobile websites. But now Bagguley's position is being dissolved under a merger of the mobile unit with the digital and commercial groups, NMA reports. Bagguley tells Journalism.co.uk he's seeking similar projects.
Related
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Mobile Web Usage In U.S. Will Soon Surpass The U.K.: Report
Usage of the mobile web data is gaining traction in the U.S. at such a rate that in the next month it will surpass the United Kingdom, which has long been thought as the more advanced wireless country despite having fewer overall subscribers. The data was released today by Bango, which helps publishers track usage of mobile Web sites. Bango (AIM: BGO) identified the top five countries based on the percent of user visits to mobile Websites in July 2008. Here's the breakdown:
-- UK (19.35 percent)
-- U.S. (18.88 percent)
-- India (10.82 percent)
-- South Africa (8.82 percent)
-- Indonesia (4.08 percent)
Adam Kerr, VP of Bango North America: "The USA share of the browsing market has grown as an increasing number of phones come with bigger screens and service contracts that include unlimited internet access. We fully expect the U.S. will overtake the U.K. in this ranking as early as this month."
Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download.
Visual Voicemail Patent Holder Sues Verizon Wireless And Eight Other Companies
If there is a lock on visual voicemail, Judah Klausner holds the key. The inventor has protected a series of patents he holds with tenacity and a track record to back it up. This time he's going after Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), LG Electronics (SEO: 066570), Comverse Technology, Citrix Systems, Embarq, Cox Communications, PhoneFusion and RingCentral, Reuters reports.
Klausner filed his latest patent infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Tex. Tuesday, involving "visual voicemail" patents he holds in various countries dating as far back as 1992. Verizon has filed its own pre-emptive suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York earlier this month. Two months ago, Apple, *AT&T and eBay* all settled a similar suit filed by Klausner in December. He's also sued and won settlements from Time Warner, AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Vonage Holdings. Comcast settled on a licensing deal with Klauser, he told Reuters, and he remains in talks with Cablevision. Sprint Nextel made no mistake about it; without ever being sued the carrier signed a licensing deal with Klausner that covers the voicemail features on its Samsung Instinct. In a barrage of suits filed last December, Klauser said he was seeking $360 million in damages and royalties from seven companies. The new lawsuit targets nine companies.
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Mobile Ads Will Be Worth $12 Billion By 2011; Carriers Must Work Hard To Get A Piece: Report
The worldwide mobile advertising market will be worth more than $12 billion by 2011, Gartner forecasts, but cautions that carriers must be careful if they want to get a piece of the pie, especially since well-established players such as Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), MySpace and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) are all pursuing the mobile revenue opportunity as well. King-Yew Foong, a Gartner research director, said operators should take advantage of their position, and use SMS and MMS, email, mobile search, location-based services to deliver targeted advertising messages, while at the same time regulating spam and a user's privacy. The report also found that they have to convince advertisers and marketers of how they are different from the internet search giants such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, and other traditional advertising mediums, such as newspapers and TV. The report concludes that right now, carriers are not credible players, but they can successfully leverage their relationships with customers, knowledge of local markets, extensive customer databases, network control and multiple channel access. Release.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Adobe Photoshop Launches a Mobile Version; Only Upload and Download
The ubiquitous image software Photoshop is going mobile, though it is a simpler version: Photoshop.com Mobile beta is Adobe's (NSDQ: ADBE) first attempt at creating a mobile version of one of its consumer offerings, although the app will primarily remain a vehicle for simple uploading and downloading to and from the revamped Photoshop.com, reports Webware.
Based on the Flash Lite Player, Photoshop.com Mobile beta will let you upload all the photos on your mobile phone to Photoshop.com, which will then automatically sync to either Element 7 app, if you have one, the story says. There will be no photo-tagging, titling, or captioning in the initial release...which really doesn't make it an image management and manipulation software...not yet.
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Mobile Video Streaming Service Qik Gets Funding From Andreessen
Qik, the popular-among-bloggers mobile video streaming service, has received new funding from Marc Andreessen and his longtime business partner Ben Horowitz. Andreessen is the founder of Ning, and Horowitz is the VP and GM of HP's business technology organization unit these days. The Foster City, CA-based company did not disclose how much the two invested.
The live video streaming field is heavily competitive, but Qik has done a nice job integrating a bunch of services, including supposed rivals: it has integrated Twitter, YouTube, Mogulus, MySpace, Orkut and Justin.tv in its service. The service allows users with a camera phone to stream live video, and get feedback from other "followers" online. It has been popular among the bloggers and other citizen journalists touting high end phones like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95...Robert Scoble has been the biggest proponent of Qik.
VentureBeat: Both also join the board of advisors following the "significant" investment.
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
iPhone Sales: T-Mobile Hits 120,000; Russia May Sell 3.5 Million In Two Years
Two separate reports released today confirmed that the iPhone is selling well despite initial activation problems, and that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) believes that it will continue to sell well after launching in various countries.
-- T-Mobile International said it has sold more than 120,000 iPhone 3G devices since it went on sale July 11, Reuters reported. CEO Hamid Akhavan told German weekly magazine Focus that delivery problems and activation problems will be cleared by the end of the month, and despite those issues, "Our expectations were surpassed." In Germany alone, the carrier sold 75,000 iPhones. To put that in some context, Apple said the official number of iPhones sold in the first weekend totaled 1 million.
-- Apple expects to sell 3.5 million iPhones in Russia over the next two years, according to Reuters, who quoted market sources familiar with the deal being struck between Apple and Russian carriers. The estimates may be based on the 600,000-or-so iPhones that have flooded the black market in Russia through unauthorized channels. An official deal will likely be signed with Mobile TeleSystems, Russia's largest carrier, with sales probably starting in October. Other carriers Vimpelcom and MegFon are also talking to Apple, Reuters said. Eldar Murtazin, an analyst with Moscow-based Mobile Research Group, said based on conversations he's had, he expects "total sales by the Big Three carriers will amount to 3.5 million iPhones within the next two years."
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Twistbox Buying European Mobile Content Firm AMV Holding
Twistbox, the mobile entertainment firm which is owned by OTC-traded Mandalay Media, is in the process of buying out European mobile content firm AMV Holding. For now, this is an LOI stage, and may not necessarily go through. AMV, founded in 2004, has brands such as Bling, Phonebar and GameZone.
Mandalay tried to buy Green Screen Interactive Software earlier this year, but canceled its plans later.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Microsoft Invests in Heavily-Backed HD Online & Mobile Video Service Move Networks
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has done an undisclosed amount of strategic investment in already-heavily backed online and now mobile HD video tech provider Move Networks. This is technically part of its third round, when it earlier closed $46 million from investors such as Benchmark Capital, as well as Cisco, ComcastInteractive Media, and Televisa. Prior to Microsoft coming in, the American Fork, UT-based company had raised $67.3 million in funding.
The company touts a higher level of quality than other video providers, including HD, and it claims to be able to eliminate buffering. Among its customers are ABC and ESPN, both Disney (NYSE: DIS) properties (hence it also has backing from Steamboat, a Disney VC fund)...it recently announced it was going to adapt its HD media player for mobile Internet devices (or MIDs) using Intel (NSDQ: INTC) processors and Linux software. Move is already in crazy-money-raised territory, and this one adds to it...more on paidContent.org.
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
