HTC Developing Phone for Android (Google OS)

MobileCrunch has the scoop on HTC's upcoming phone, which will use Google's Android mobile operating system:

High Tech Computer (HTC) is developing a mobile phone that will use the open-source Android software created by Google for its operating system. The phone will be called Dream and have a large touchscreen and full QWERTY keypad. The handset is over 5 inches long and 3 inches wide and has a keypad that swivels out from underneath the screen.

So what will it be? A Google phone or an iPhone...

Wireless Spectrum Auction Raises $19 Billion

The New York Times reports on the recent wireless spectrum auction:

The government announced on Tuesday that it had closed the most lucrative government auction in history as wireless companies bid more than $19 billion for the rights to radio spectrum licenses.

In the coming days, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to publish a list of the winning companies. The major participants included AT&T, Verizon and Google, although many experts said they did not expect Google would bid much more than the minimum reserve price of $4 billion for one of the more attractive groups of licenses.

Why the mention of Google?

While Google was not expected to post a winning bid, it has already achieved an important victory by influencing the auction rules. The commission forced the major telephone companies to open their wireless networks to a broader array of telephone equipment and Internet applications. It remains to be seen whether a variety of technical and regulatory issues can be resolved to make the promise of more open networks a reality.

Well played Google, well played.

Apple Set to Reveal Road to Third-Party iPhone Apps

Today is the day for the iPhone SDK:

At this point, it's still not clear whether Apple intends to officially release the SDK at Thursday's event or just make some announcement. At any rate, the SDK will be in programmers' hands soon, and analysts and developers expect a wide variety of applications to blossom in the coming months -- everything from photo-editing apps to motion-sensing games that take advantage of the device's orientation sensor.

The possibilities, as Mac developer Daniel Jalkut recently noted, will be limited only by developers' imaginations.

Those possibilities will be also influenced by a number of outstanding questions about Apple's planned app-distribution method, the vetting process it will use, and any iPhone access restrictions the company imposes on developers. The company is expected to provide answers to those questions as well on Thursday.

Even more important though:

At the very least, Thursday's SDK event will involve an announcement about new enterprise features for the iPhone, according to an invitation circulated last week.

While enterprise software may not be as sexy as movie and game apps, its inclusion could be huge for Apple's ability to meet its goal of 10 million iPhone sales by the end of the year.

By adding features like push e-mail and cultivating relationships with corporate-software vendors, Bajarin says, the iPhone could become one of the major communication platforms in business, making it much more competitive with the corporate-friendly BlackBerry.

Read more @ Wired News.

 

Study: Cell Phone Passes Land Line As Hardest To Give Up

How important is it to be marketing your message mobile-ly?

NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS HAVE used mobile devices for things other than talking, according to a new study on mobile data usage by the Pew Internet Project.

The Pew report found that 58% of U.S. adults have used cell phones or PDAs for text-messaging, taking a picture, looking for directions or surfing the Web. A full 62% have either used a mobile data service or logged onto the Internet via a laptop away from home or work or via a handheld device.

Text-messaging and taking a photo were easily the most popular non-voice activities, with 58% of mobile users doing both at least once. Playing a game (27%), sending e-mail (19%) and accessing the Web for news, weather and other information (19%), rounded out the top five.

All good things to hear...but how do they feel about their mobile phones?

It also showed for the first time that the cell phone would be the hardest communications technology for people to give up. More than half (51%) said it would be very hard to give up their cell phone, compared to only 38% in 2002.

"Even in 2006, the landline phone was still the most difficult device for people to do without," said John Horrigan, associate director of research for the Pew Internet Project. Underscoring the premium placed on mobility, the cellphone now also trumps the Internet, TV, e-mail and the BlackBerry or a wireless e-mail device.

Head over OnlineMediaDaily for more insights from the report.

Marketing Feedback Cards Go Digital Via Cell Phones

Here is a very interesting story from MediaPost, about a, well, non-traditional use of text messages:

WALK INTO ANY APPLE, JCPENNEY, Sony, or Wal-Mart store and provide instant feedback on products via text messages from cell phones. That's the long-term vision of Glenn Allison, who along with several other Northwestern University graduate students co-founded tech startup Mimieo to develop software applications for marketers.

It may be a long-term vision, but they've already got the technology in place:

The most recent, an online and mobile poll, asked consumers to rank how well they liked the entertainment value of each ad during the Academy Awards, and whether they were more or less likely to purchase the product after seeing the commercial.

On Oscar night, a panel of graduate students analyzed the data from polls and has published a report on the findings. High marks were awarded by viewers to JCPenney, MasterCard, Coca-Cola, and L'Oreal.

JCPenney introduced the American Living brand. The ads gave glimpses into American life, and a new brand catering to "family and home." A high percentage of both men and women enjoyed the ads, and indications of their preference for the brand increased. Mastercard's "Studious Pupil" commercial was one of the most entertaining. The ad featured a twenty-something guy in a shrunken shirt and red tie "searching for the priceless things in life."

The commercial got favorable responses from poll respondents, and ranked high in entertainment value, particularly among Facebook users. Coca-Cola and L'Oreal were winners, too, according to Allison. Consumers could vote through Facebook online and Apple's iPhone.

Read more at MarketingDaily.

The iPhone Is Changing Everything

Last week the Financial Times published an article about the iPhone, and some surprising data that Google uncovered. What Google found is stunning:

Google on Wednesday said it had seen 50 times more searches on Apple‘s iPhone than any other mobile handset, adding weight to the group’s confidence at being able to generate significant revenues from the mobile internet.

“We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,” Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s mobile operations told the Financial Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The iPhone represents the future of the mobile device market. As soon as device manufacturers  figure out how to produce phones as intuitive and web-friendly as the iPhone, we should see a dramatic shift in the way consumers use their phones, and in turn, the web. Google is confident that this is going to happen:

If the trend continues and other handset manufacturers follow Apple’s lead in making web access easy, the number of mobile searches will overtake fixed internet searches “within the next several years”, Mr Gundotra said.

Read the entire article @ the Financial Times.

Study: 1.1 billion mobiles sold around the world in 2007

Is the mobile phone destined to become the largest advertising platform in the world?

More than 1.1 billion mobile phones were sold around the world last year, and developing countries in Africa and elsewhere should maintain the momentum in 2008, according to a study released Thursday.

Head over to Yahoo News to see how the major phone manufacturers fared.

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

Wired Magazine has a must read article about the development of the iPhone and how it has already changed the entire landscape of the wireless industry in America:

It was a late morning in the fall of 2006. Almost a year earlier, Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple's boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn't just buggy, it flat-out didn't work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, "We don't have a product yet."

Head over to Wired to read the entire piece.

US Consumers Want Next Gen Cellular Data Services

Fox Business has an interesting story about the average American wireless subscriber,  and the new services that he/she wants:

A survey of more than 3,300 customers of Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Sprint in North America has revealed a series of new consumer attitudes about the way voicemail services are provided currently.

--  The ability to avoid dialing into voicemail to retrieve  messages

--  Not having to write down details within a voicemail

--  Being able to discreetly read messages without having to listen

--  The ability to respond to messages with a single click as a call, sms or email.

The organization that took the survey believes that the iPhone has raised the bar for consumer expectations. As the inevitable copy-cat devices come to market we can expect to see wireless subscribers who are more and more educated about data-rich applications.

Read more at Fox Business.

AT&T confirms 3G iPhone due next year

AT&T let slip some exciting news last week:

A long-anticipated 3G version of the iPhone is guaranteed for 2008, AT&T's head has told a meeting of the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, California. "You'll have it next year," said CEO Randall Stephenson.

Apple, notoriously tight-lipped, refused to comment on the AT&T CEO's remarks. Some people have begun to speculate about the uncharacteristic leak:

...the better question is why Stephenson said it and why now?  For AT&T, his announcement looks, frankly, stupid.

Here's a guy who is head of the largest telephone company in America and its largest mobile phone company. He has a five-year iPhone exclusive giving AT&T the number one selling U.S. smart phone and a huge generator of primo subscribers mainly poached from other carriers. Christmas is a month away and 1-2 million Americans have been planning to give -- or hoping to get -- an iPhone. So what does the guy do? He lets it slip that next year Apple will release a faster iPhone that will make the existing model obsolete. The only impact this can have on current iPhone sales is to stop them in their tracks, unless Apple offers a free 3G upgrade, which believe me they never intended to offer and may not.

So, what is AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson up to?

I don't think Stephenson's statement was by accident and I don't think he is out of touch with reality. I think, instead, he was sending a $1 billion message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

It is no coincidence that Stephenson made his remarks in Silicon Valley, rather than in San Antonio or New York. He came to the turf of his "partner" and delivered a message that will hurt Apple as much as AT&T, a message that says AT&T doesn't really need Apple despite the iPhone's success.

It's one thing to have a private disagreement between companies but quite another to take it public in a way that costs real money.

What I believe is troubling the relationship between AT&T and Apple is the upcoming auction for 700-MHz wireless spectrum and AT&T's discovery that -- as I have predicted for weeks -- Apple will be joining Google in bidding. AT&T thought its five-year "exclusive" iPhone agreement with Apple would have precluded such a bid, but that just shows how poorly Randall Stephenson understood Steve Jobs. Steve always hurts his friends to see how much they really love him, so AT&T probably should have expected this kind of corporate body blow.

To his credit, Stephenson took the dispute to the streets this way, showing he isn't intimidated by Jobs. It was a bold and rare response for big business and was definitely unexpected by Cupertino, which won't underestimate AT&T again.

Read more analysis @ PBS.

Short Code Basics

RCR Wireless News published an informative article about Short Codes last week.  Whether you're thinking about launching your first mobile marketing campaign, or your a seasoned pro, it's worth a read:

At almost every event I attend, whether for mobile specifically, digital, advertising, etc., dialogue almost always shifts to a discussion around Common Short Code (CSC) mobile campaigns. Those five- or six-digit text messaging (or SMS) numbers marketers provide to consumers so they can interactively engage in a mobile marketing campaign.

Why is everybody talking about Short Codes?

...although many companies are talking about the image-rich opportunities, like video, MMS and so on, text-based campaigns still serve the lion’s share of the initiatives today.

There is a lot of information, but for a quick overview of what a Short Code is and how it works, read on:

One of the most popular examples today in America is “Deal or No Deal." Viewers may participate in the program by texting the Lucky Case to 59595 for a chance to win $10,000. Rather than have consumers enter a long telephone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx), marketers offer the CSC to simplify participation and drive consumer interactions. It is that simple!

In the United States, the CSC process is managed by the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) and is supported by all of the wireless carriers, mobile application service providers (MASPs), and aggregators. Any company may acquire a short code, but it must work within the guidelines and application process outlined by the CSCA in order to obtain their codes. Brands should also be aware there are monthly leasing rates that apply to each and every short code, very similar to the URL process, although rates are higher than what you might have paid for your Web site. Once your application is submitted to the CSCA, the CSCA will work with each of the carriers to ensure the short code is configured across your selected operator’s networks (for example, some programs may select all carriers, while others may select only one carrier on which to deploy).

Currently, there are two types of short codes available: random and vanity. Random CSCs are numbers the CSCA randomly assigns; vanity CSCs are selected based on the brand's requirements (and obviously availability of the number from the CSCA). For example, 01234 would be a random number, whereas NIKE1 could be a vanity code for Nike.

Read the entire article @ RCR Wireless News.

The 101 Gadgets That Changed The World

The Belfast Telegraph recently unveiled a list of 101 gadgets that changed the world. Though the Abacus comes in at number one, mobile technology certainly makes a showing on the list:

10. Blackberry, 1999

Ask the average office worker they think of their Blackberry and they will variously call it a boon and a curse. Developed by the Canadian firm Research in Motion and unleashed in 1999, the gizmo has provided legions of roaming desk jockeys with a hotline to their inboxes, and enabled armies of bosses to keep employees digitally shackled to their swivel chairs. The addictiveness of the device led it to be dubbed the "Crackberry".

37. GPS, 1978

Determining your location used to require such cumbersome devices as a map, compass and ruler. Now a single press of a button (and up to 32 satellites) will pinpoint your precise position to within a couple of metres. Great for explorers, paramedics and pilots – not so good for unwitting Latvian lorry drivers sent on cross-country wild goose chases by budget sat-navs. Developed by the US military in the 1970s, the Global Positioning System has been globally available since 1994.

54. Mobile phone, 1947

There are more than two billion mobile phones in the world, and the EU is home to more "cells", as the American's call them, than people. It is difficult to quantify the economic and social impact of the device – of all the gadgets in the average person's arsenal, it is surely the one we would be worst off without. Those who disagree can blame Bell Laboratories for their invention; the firm introduced the first service in Missouri in 1947. Widespread coverage in Britain did not begin until the late 1980s.

76. SMS, 1992

Linguist purists H8 txtspk. The Short Message Service (SMS) has developed the thumbs of a generation of communicators who have devised their own shorthand, textspeak, to stay in touch (and uncover extra-marital affairs). The British engineer Neil Papworth sent the first (unabbreviated) text 15 years ago. It read: "MERRY CHRISTMAS". Their popularity exploded in the late 1990s and now in the UK alone we send millions every day (a record 214 million last New Year's Eve).

How the Blackberry is 44 places higher than the cellphone itself is a bit of a head-scratcher, but the list still makes for an interesting read.

101 Gadgets That Changed The World (via 160 Characters Association)

Google Finally Phone Plans - Open Source Mobile OS 'Android'

The Google Phone has arrived, sort of, but not in the long-rumored embodiment that many had expected. Google announced this morning that it has developed a new mobile OS called "Android"—a result of its acquisition of a mobile software company of the same name in 2005—that will allow the company to get Google's mobile apps into as many hands as possible starting in mid-2008. Android is Linux-based and open source, and aspects of the platform will be made available to handset manufacturers for free under the Apache license.

So who's involved?

Google's handset partners upon launch will include Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and LG, confirming many of the recent rumors that Google would not be developing the hardware on its own. Google has a number of carrier partners worldwide as well, such as T-Mobile and Sprint in the US, T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom in Europe, and China Mobile in China, to name a few. The whole thing comes as part of the Open Handset Alliance—also announced by Google today.

Read the entire article @ Ars Technica

iPhone Opens Up - SDK Coming In February

Since it's launch there has been one persistent criticism of the iPhone and that has been its closed platform:

Apple made it very clear from the start that AT&T was going to be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone, and two weeks before the iPhone went on sale, CEO Steve Jobs let everyone know that because of security and reliability concerns, native third-party applications weren't in the cards for iPhone 1.0.

"We have been trying to come up with a solution to expand the capabilities of the iPhone by letting developers write great apps for it, yet keep the iPhone reliable and secure," Jobs told developers at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. That solution was Web-based applications, which is sort of like being told that you can't buy a DVD because HBO shows that movie every month or so, and it was met with tepid applause by Apple's developers.

If you live in New York City (and especially if you ride the subway), you probably know that Nokia even launched an advertising campaign promoting the 'openness' of its phones, taking a jab at Apple.

Well, the walls are coming down:

Steve Jobs made it official Wednesday morning: third-party applications are coming to the iPhone.

Apple's CEO posted another of his open letters to the world Wednesday on Apple's Hot News section of its Web site, confirming reports that a software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone will be released to developers next year. It's coming in Februrary, rather than January as reported, but application developers and iPhone owners will probably be able to wait the extra month.

Why the change of heart?

It always made sense for Apple to go down this road, since it was never going to win a hacking war and users clearly want third-party applications on their iPhones and iPod Touches, which will also be opened up by the SDK, Jobs confirmed.

Head over to C|Net for more information about the SDK, including Apple's response to Nokia.

Details Emerge About The GPhone. It's Not A Phone.

Today's issue of the New York Times addresses the long running Google Phone rumor mill:

For more than two years, a large group of engineers at Google has been working in secret on a mobile phone project. As word about their efforts has trickled out, expectations in the tech world for what has been called the Google phone, or GPhone, have risen, the way they do for Apple loyalists ahead of a speech by Steven P. Jobs.

But the GPhone is not likely to be the second coming of the iPhone — and Google’s goals are very different from Apple’s.

Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, a small market today, but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile phone makers to offer phones based on its software, according to people briefed on the project. The cost of those phones may be partly subsidized by advertising that appears on their screens.

Whatever Google winds up releasing, it's going to be a while before we have it in our hands:

Google is expected to unveil the fruit of its mobile efforts later this year, and phones based on its technology could be available next year.

Read more @ the New York Times.

Nokia Bids For Map Maker Navteq - Analysis

The big news in mobile today has been Nokia's bid for digital map supplier Navtaq (Google News: Nokia Navteq).

Hot on the heels of TomTom's plan to acquire mobile-mapping company Tele Atlas, Nokia has announced an agreement to acquire Tele Atlas rival Navteq for $8.1 billion.

Analysts say the moves, if approved, will effectively create a duopoly in the mobile mapping market.

"There are no independent map suppliers left in the market,” said John Strand, CEO of Copenhagen-based consulting firm Strand Consult.

The deal calls for Nokia to pay $78 for each share of publicly traded Navteq in a transaction that will be financed roughly half by debt and half from Nokia’s cash horde. (Red Herring)

So what does this deal mean? Reuters has already put together a short analysis:

The $8.1 billion bid for Navteq, if successful, could make the world's largest cell phone manufacturer a leading player in the navigation business, which is one of the technology industry's fastest-growing segments.

Nokia's financial resources, wireless technology and carrier relationships may give it an edge in creating phone-based navigation devices, analysts said. What's more, it could damage Garmin's ability to influence design decisions at Navteq, Garmin's biggest map supplier.

Of course there is the Google angle:

An industry executive speaking on the condition of anonymity said Google may decide it needs access to a digital map database, especially if the widely rumoured Google phone turned out to be a real product. Google is already taking comprehensive pictures of cities for its online maps system.

And what about TomTom?

TomTom's position as Europe's leading maker of car navigation devices could also be threatened by an aggressive move into the navigation segment by Nokia, if it can convince consumers they do not need a separate navigation device.

"That is not an imminent risk, but a couple of years out, if Nokia has the ability very tightly and nicely integrate functions, get the form factor and services and the pricing right, it could prove a very interesting alternative," Oberdorfer said.

Control The ATM With Your Cell Phone

Information Week reports that Diebold has acquired a number of patents that promise to change the way you use the ATM:

Diebold said that the technologies will allow mobile phone owners to find ATMs, order cash withdrawals remotely, generate electronic checks, transmit wireless payments and conduct other transactions more securely and conveniently than they do now.

Sounds exciting. Unfortunately we won't be seeing these applications for a while:

The company said it is in talks with technology partners that could bring Diebold's tested applications to market in three to five years.

At Information Week (via textually)

Text Messaging For Productivity

Though we usually cover the ways that SMS text messaging is changing advertising, the fact is, text messaging is popping up all over the place. Case in point--yesterday, Web Worker Daily published an informative article, 7 Ways to Text Message for Productivity. If you're constantly out of the office, some these tips could prove extremely useful. We've pulled out a couple of our favorites below:

Check your daily agenda. Google Calendar makes it easy to find out what’s on your schedule. Text “next” to GVENT (48368) to get your next appointment, “day” to get that day’s agenda, or “nday” to get tomorrow’s agenda.

...

Read your voice mail. Get the gist of a voicemail message by SMS, with CallWave’s Vtxt service, free while it’s in beta. You won’t get an exact transcription — less important comments like “hello” and “ummmm” will be left out — but that keeps the message down to about the size of a text message.

Read the entire list @ Web Worker Daily.

Breaking Down The Walls Of The Mobile Web's Garden

The FCC recently issued a ruling that partially opens up the American airwaves:

The agency approved rules for an auction of broadcast spectrum that its chairman, Kevin J. Martin, said would promote new consumer services. The rules will let customers use any phone and software they want on networks using about one-third of the spectrum to be auctioned.

No one is quite sure yet how open things are about to get, but in the meantime, today's Wall Street Journal observes that some consumers have broken out of the walled garden themselves:

Ever since wireless companies began offering Internet services on cellphones, users have shared a similar complaint, largely because the companies want to control which sites their customers visit. Phones come with browsers designed to go mainly to the Web sites the carriers chose -- usually the ones they have revenue-sharing deals with. It is possible to go to sites outside this "walled garden," but the experience is so slow and cumbersome that most users don't try. And some of those outside Web sites won't work with the carrier-approved browsers.

But now those walls are beginning to break down, in a development that harkens back to America Online's failed attempt to limit its Internet subscribers' surfing in the 1990s. "Having a Web browser and the ability to browse the open Internet on your mobile phone will be a given in the future," says Tony Cripps, an analyst at research firm Ovum in London. "It's a capability that eventually people would expect to be there, just like text messaging and camera."

Since it was launched in January 2006, more than 15 million cellphone users around the world have downloaded the Opera Mini browser, which is available for free and usable on most cellphones. Early versions of the Opera Mini, developed by Opera Software ASA in Norway, display Web pages in a single column, which works well on cellphones with small screens. The latest version shows Web sites in full-page views that are even more similar to the look on a PC.

Read the entire article @ The Wall Street Journal.

SMS Your ECG To The ER STAT!

Science Daily has an interesting article about a prototype Bluetooth/SMS enabled heart rate monitor:

A Bluetooth heart monitor could text your local hospital if you are about to have a heart attack, according to research published today in Inderscience's International Journal of Electronic Healthcare. The device measures electrical signals from the heart, analyses them to produce an electrocardiogram (ECG) and sends an alert together with the ECG by cell phone text message.

The process involves a couple of steps, but it's a pretty simple idea that might save lives in the near future:

Thulasi Bai and S.K. Srivatsa of the Sathyabama University in Tamil Nadu, have developed a wearable cardiac telemedicine system that allows post-cardiac patients renewed mobility.

Thulasi Bai's prototype Bluetooth heart monitor records periodically an electrocardiogram (ECG) and transmits the information via radio frequency signals to the patient's cell phone. The modified phone has an added analyzer circuit that checks the ECG signal for signs of imminent cardiac failure. If errant signals are detect, such as any arrhythmia, the cell phone alerts the patient and transmits a sample of the ECG signal to the nearest medical care centre, via the SMS text service, together with patient details.

So How Many iPhones Did Apple Sell Last Weekend?

About a month ago we covered some predictions about iPhone sales made by a Credit Suisse Analyst:

Credit Suisse has come to the party with analyst Rob Semple predicting that Apple will sell 5 million iPhones this year and 15 million next year, which is ahead of Apple’s own predictions.

Well, the iPhone has been out since Friday. While it will take some time to see if Mr. Semple's predictions prove accurate, we can check on first weekend sales.

At the San Jose Mercury News, we have this cryptic statement from AT&T: "AT&T said the two partners sold more iPhones in a weekend than AT&T has sold of any gadget ever in an entire month."

Bloomberg quotes a number of analysts at the major brokerages.:

Shoppers may have bought as many as 700,000 units over the weekend, Goldman Sachs Inc. analyst David Bailey said, twice his projection of 350,000. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster pegged sales at about 500,000, more than twice his original 200,000 estimate.
...
J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.'s Bill Shope said sales may have reached 312,000 in the days following the device's June 29 debut. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu, who called his initial 50,000 estimate conservative, said in a note today that Apple may have sold five times as much.

So Apple probably sold at least 250,000 iPhones, and maybe as many as 700,000! If you'd like to browse a few hundred more estimates, check this Google News link.

Nokia Launches Photo Printing Service

mocoNews is reporting that Nokia has launched a photo printing service for owners of its various smartphones in Europe. More info is to be found in the official press release:

Users of compatible Nokia Nseries multimedia computers now only need one device to capture images, edit them and order prints. You can also have your favorite images printed on stickers or gift items like mugs, jigsaw puzzles and T-shirts, and have them delivered to a friend.

The mobile printing service is accessible from the device's Gallery application. Simply select the images to be printed, insert address and other requested information, and press 'Order now'. The order is then processed by CeWe Color and prints are delivered to the entered address.

Payment methods commonly include credit card as well as other possible local payment solutions depending on the country.

While Europe consistently scores these sort of services months (often years) before they appear in the United States, at least we have the iPhone first.

Read the article at mocoNews or the press release at Nokia.

US Consumers Expect To Be Searching On Their Mobile Phones

Online Media Daily is reporting that a recent study done by Ingenio has found that nearly a quarter (22%) of US consumers expect to be Googling on their mobile phones by the end of the decade. That's about triple the adoption rate today.

The most interesting result of the study was buried a few paragraphs into the article:

Ingenio found that only 30% of users surveyed had seen or heard an advertisement on their mobile phone, but some 10% took action based on the ad, whether it was visiting the relevant Web site from their phone or another Internet connection, or calling for more information. And 13% surveyed said if they saw an ad, they would want to call or visit the Web site "directly from their mobile phone."

Read the entire Online Media Daily article here.

Mobile Gaming Revenue to Grow 50% in 2007

Gartner has a new research report ($) out on the state of Mobile Gaming. As MediaPost's Online Media Daily reports, the picture is rosy:

WORLDWIDE MOBILE GAMING END-USER REVENUE will grow from $2.9 billion in 2006 to $9.6 billion in 2011, according to a new report from Gartner, Inc. Worldwide mobile gaming revenue in 2007, meanwhile, is on pace to total $4.3 billion in 2007, a 49.9 percent increase from 2006.

Of course most of these revenues are to be made outside the United States; nonetheless the U.S. market is big and it's growing:

In North America, where adoption of wireless technologies has been slower than in Asia and in Europe Gartner forecast that mobile gaming end user revenue will reach $716.9 million this year and $1.7 billion in 2011.

Check Online Media Daily for more.

Technorati Tags: mobile gaming, gartner

YouTube Is Now Available On Your Cell Phone!

Last week we reported on YouTube co-founder Steven Chen's comments that YouTube would soon be available on the mobile web:

Taiwan-born Steve Chen, co-founder of wildly popular video sharing Web site YouTube, said Saturday consumers in many parts of the world will be able to access the site on mobile phones by next year.

Well, Forbes is reporting that when Chen said "by next year," he meant by next week:

As of this weekend, cellphone users with Web browsers could check out and play a limited library of YouTube videos via a new mobile Web portal, m.youtube.com.

Read the entire article at Forbes (via FierceMobileContent)

Technorati Tags: youtube, mobile video

YouTube Is Coming To Your Mobile Phone

The Associated Press has is reporting on some exciting comments made by YouTube co-founder Steve Chen:

Taiwan-born Steve Chen, co-founder of wildly popular video sharing Web site YouTube, said Saturday consumers in many parts of the world will be able to access the site on mobile phones by next year.

Chen made the remarks as he spoke to hundreds of enthusiastic Web users at a forum on Internet developments in Taipei.

Commuters on subways or buses are likely to access videos of between 30 to 60 seconds each, while people traveling on longer train journeys would probably go for files of up to 10 minutes in length, he said.

mocoNews notes the significance of this development:

The company’s stated intention to allow greater mobile access to its content signals a shift in its strategy. Indeed, until now YouTube has barred redistribution of its content (even going to far as to lock out an encoding company that enabled access) and let mobile operators partners play the role of gatekeeper.

(via mocoNews)

Technorati Tags: you tube, videos, phone, tech, wireless

iPhone Mania: How Many iPhone's Will Apple Sell?

D-Day. VJ Day. June 29th - iPhone Day.

mocoNews is reporting on some astounding sales estimates for the iPhone coming out of Credit Suisse:

Credit Suisse has come to the party with analyst Rob Semple predicting that Apple will sell 5 million iPhones this year and 15 million next year, which is ahead of Apple’s own predictions.

Now this number, 20 million iPhones in 18 months is even ahead of Apples own sales predictions--so why is Mr. Semple so confident?

“We expect Apple to capitalize on the evolving trend of middle market consumers paying significant premiums for 'New Luxury' goods, thus yielding a new supply-demand dynamic where higher prices are coupled with higher volumes,” he says.

Interesting take on things, as most predictions are made around the slick graphics, the multi-touch interface, and the rest of the technological innovations.

For coverage around the web, check out the Google News coverage of the iPhone.

SMS vs. SMTP Text Messaging

If you've been looking in to text messaging for your business, chances are you've come across two acronyms--SMS and SMTP.  They refer to two very different types of messages, and today we're going to break down the important differences. First, we need to define the two acronyms.

SMTP - Simple Mail Transport Protocol. SMTP is the standard for email on the internet and it's over 25 years old! Most cell phones are able to receive text messages in this format. In essence the phone  receives an email, and in fact, a message delivered in this fashion is sent to an address like 12125551234@mycarrier.com.

SMS - Short Message Service. SMS is a message system designed for cellular phones. Unlike email, SMS messages are sent to phone numbers, not addresses. They are routed through a gateway, which connects directly to the carrier's network. For our discussion SMS can be seen as interchangeable with SMPP--the Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol.

If you are looking into commercial text messaging, you need to be looking at SMS. Why? There are a number of reasons, and now we are going to explore them.

1. An SMS message is sent via a gateway directly to the cell phone carrier, while an SMTP message, like any other email, bounces from server to server (this can often happen a half-dozen times) before it arrives.
2. SMS messages travel over a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and are thus secure, while SMTP messages travel unencrypted around the Internet.
3. Cell phone carriers (often reluctantly) deliver SMTP messages for free, while they charge a toll for SMS messages. Because they charge this toll, carriers have a much greater incentive to make sure SMS messages are delivered in a timely fashion. Further, as these messages are routed directly through their computers, carriers can provide you with delivery information--messages which do not arrive are called bounces. With SMTP you never know if your messages arrive.
4. Perhaps the greatest benefit of SMS messaging over SMTP messaging is its two-way nature.  This allows your subscribers to respond to messages you send them. More than just a value-adding feature, two-way capability is necessary for commercial messaging under current United States case law.

The fourth point--about the law--leads us to an important discussion. In 2003, Congress enacted the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act to curb spam. As required by the Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that prohibit sending unwanted commercial e-mail messages to wireless devices without prior permission. This ban took effect in March 2005. The FCC’s ban covered messages sent to cell phones and pagers, if the message used an Internet address that included an Internet domain name (as seen in my Cingular example above).

The FCC’s ban did not cover “short messages,” typically sent from one mobile phone to another, that do not use an Internet address (such as an SMS/SMPP message). To help enforce its ban, the FCC required wireless service providers to provide all Internet domain names used to transmit electronic messages to wireless devices. The FCC published this list on its Web site.  Senders were prohibited from sending commercial e-mail messages to any Internet domain name on this list without the recipient’s express prior authorization.

In other words, the SMTP protocol is pretty heavily regulated when it comes to sending messages to subscribers who did not give their “express prior authorization.” However, the CAN-SPAM Act provided no regulation when it came to the SMPP protocol. Still, that doesn’t mean that you are free and clear with SMPP, thanks in large part to a widely interpreted provision of the  Television Consumer Protection Act of 1991.

One of the articles of The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA), includes sending text messages to cell phones using an automatic telephone dialing system. The TCPA prohibits the sending of such messages “to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged” 47 U.S.C. §227 (b)(1)(A)(iii).

This prohibition encompasses both voice calls and text calls, including SMS messages sent to wireless phone numbers. While it might be argued that that the SMPP protocol is not an automatic telephone dialing system, this is still a legal gray area. Moreover, the underlying directive of the TCPA can be easily extended to include the SMPP protocol, which didn’t exist when the law was initially instated. The intent of the TCPA was to make sure that consumers expressly consent to automated calls or messages sent to wireless devices given that consumers may be charged to receive such calls or messages. Since the act covers such a wide range of devices (at the time, wireless messages were meant for pagers), it is definitely possible that newer wireless technology also falls under these general guidelines. The key  again is the notion of “express written consent”, which, in the case of text messaging, means some sort of opt-in proof.

With SMS/SMPP customers can reply to messages, which is essential to the Double Opt-In process. With Club Texting's Service, new subscribers to your list receive a confirmation text message. By replying to this message, they have Double Opted In, which is commonly accepted in the industry as proof of written consent. This Double Opt In process simply does not exist in an SMTP scenario.

When you put it all together, you can see that SMS offers you more reliable delivery, secure messaging, carrier support, extended information, and most importantly, legal protection. While there are still businesses that offer SMTP messaging, flouting the law, the pennies you might save are hardly worthwhile.

SMS Enabled Interactive Street Performance Art

As text messaging has proliferated, it was only a matter of time before some tech-savvy artist figured out a way to integrate the power of SMS into a piece of art. Enter TXTUal Healing:

TXTUal Healing is an interactive public theater piece. It looks at the cell phone as a device not just to remove oneself from a physical space, but to interact with and explore  it.

Using 'always on' technology, cell phones with SMS allow an audience to interact with public space through projections on the structures that surround us, like the facade of a building for instance. The Speech bubbles are positioned near windows and doors to encourage an audience to create the conversations happening inside. The public audience receives a flyer with a cell number and simple instructions. A participant sends a text message to the provided phone number and it is then displayed inside the speech bubble. Multiple bubbles may be used and the audience can direct their input to a specific bubble.       

The piece explores the use of mobile technology to trigger dialogue, action and create content for a staged public performance. By using the facade of a building the intention is to engage an audience to think about the physical spaces we move through, live in and share. I'm trying to address public vs. private space and what kind of dialogue might transpire if we shared out private thoughts. The piece was designed to encourage play, idea sharing, thought, discourse, and entertainment.

Some cool examples:

• Graffiti in the style of the famous Jesus Saves, on the sides of Brooklyn apartment buildings.
• An interactive, text-bubbled Last Supper: One Of Your Will Betray Me
• And, in a cool juxtaposition of the past and the present, text messages projected on the walls of the Roman Coliseum.

(Via Textually)

NY Times: "New Bar Codes Can Talk With Your Cellphone"

Has the successor of the CueCat finally arrived? And will consumers embrace it this time around? It appears that the answer to both of those questions is Yes, in Asia at least.

It sounds like something straight out of a futuristic film: House hunters, driving past a for-sale sign, stop and point their cellphone at the sign. With a click, their cellphone screen displays the asking price, the number of bedrooms and baths and lots of other details about the house.
...
With a wave, the phone can read encoded information on everyday objects and translate that into videos, pictures or text files on its screen.

“The cellphone is the natural tool to combine the physical world with the digital world,” that executive, Cyriac Roeding, the head of mobile-phone applications for CBS, said the other day.

What kind of applications are we talking about? Well, let's look at some of the examples already in use in Asia.

In Japan, McDonald’s customers can already point their cellphones at the wrapping on their hamburgers and get nutrition information on their screens. Users there can also point their phones at magazine ads to receive insurance quotes, and board airplanes using their phones rather than paper tickets. And film promoters can send their movie trailers from billboards.

...

In Japan, some highway billboards have codes large enough for passing motorists to read them with their phones. Hospitals put them on prescriptions, allowing pharmacies to instantly scan the medical information rather than read it. Supermarkets stick them on meat and egg packaging to give expiration dates and even the names of the farmers who produced them.

One of the most popular uses in Japan has been paperless airline tickets. About 10 percent of the people who take domestic flights of All Nippon Airways now use the codes on their cellphones instead of printed tickets.

So what's the holdup here?

Advertisers say they are interested in offering similar capabilities in the United States, but cellphones in the States do not come with the necessary software. For now, consumers have to download the technology themselves.

So it's simple a matter of time--two things need to happen. 1) We need phones with higher resolution cameras, and 2) we need phones capable of running simple software. What might speed up the deployment of those two pieces of the puzzle? How about the impending release of the iPhone.

Ultimately, though, it will be up to marketers to let the major cell phone carriers know how badly they want this technology in consumers hands:

In Japan, the codes did not become mainstream until the largest cellphone companies started loading the code readers on all new phones a few years ago. Now, millions of people have the capability built into their phones, and businesses, in turn, are using them all over — on billboards, street signs, published materials and even food packaging.