December 14, 2007

MyRAP
Hits & Misses in Mobile Content
By Rhonda Wickham

As 2007 draws to a close, I have been considering what the most significant mobile content developments of the year have been. Since you, my kind readers, have been so vocal throughout the year (I love that, by the way), I thought I would ask you first. I have my own ideas, but this being more of a mobile content community e-newsletter, you get to weigh in on the subject.

I will take all of your suggestions and share them in our next installment.

So tell me, for you, what are the Hits and Misses of the Year. Which efforts advanced the sector or set it on its heels? Anything in the mobile content space is fair game. It can focus on a sector such as mobile advertising, gaming, social communities, music, or other. It can be a specific service, though be forewarned, I will be weeding out the self-promotional company hype. Or it could be something more societal like viral distribution or user-generated content. The sky's the limit.

Send your thoughts to rhonda.wickham@advantagemedia.com

MOBILE ADVERTISING

Additional Funding Lifts Mobile Posse
By Rhonda Wickham

Mobile Posse, a mobile content and advertising solution provider, has raised $10 million in series B equity financing. New investor Softbank Capital led the round, which also included Court Square Ventures, Columbia Capital and individual investors.

The new funding will target ongoing trials and commercial implementations as well as expand the advertising sales division to market the solution to a larger audience.

Mobile Posse's claim to fame is it offers idle screen insertion advertising for interactive content delivery. The platform delivers mobile content and interactive promotions that enable subscribers to receive relevant content at various intervals of their choosing. This allows marketers to enhance their reach, targeting and qualified conversion rates. The company recently announced its first commercial rollout with a regional U.S. carrier and is currently engaged in other carrier trials.

According to Steve Murray, a Softbank Capital partner, consumers have responded positively as evidenced by click-through rates, and that response has outpaced other forms of interactive media such as the Internet. "Ultimately, success in this market will be about the consumers' desire to deeply engage and early returns from Mobile Posse are very encouraging," he said.

"Mobile Posse's technology is very appealing for carriers, especially because trials have indicated that offering the idle screen solution not only drives higher ARPU but also increases subscriber loyalty," said Harry Hopper, Partner at Columbia Capital. "We're confident that Mobile Posse's current market traction will continue."

MUSIC

Music Lounge Encourages Viral Distribution
By Rhonda Wickham

phling! MusicLounge service has extended its relationship with EuropaMP3.com to enable music fans to discover, listen and share indie bands using their mobile phones and virally spread their favorites through the MusicLounge social networking environment.

This new form of mobile music distribution lets new bands show off their music to a network of music aficionados who also use the MusicLounge to provide real-time wireless access to their own PC-based music, media collections, Internet Radio as well as access to the music of their friends. phling! enables bands to promote their music, gigs, news and events directly to the mobiles of their fan base.

With 2,000 artist members, EuropaMP3 is one of Europe's leading catalogs of unsigned music talent. EuropaMP3.com recently announced its wikisik music widget service that lets bands and their fans add music to their own Websites using the wikisik code. phling! helps bands promote their music and drive fans to the EuropaMP3.com to obtain the wikisik widgets.

phling!'s MusicLounge is available to subscribers of Switzerland's Orange, Swisscom Mobile and Sunrise.

Network and device independent, phling! is the first live mobile music service with an integrated set of social networking features.

CONTENT DELIVERY

So Fast It Goes SWISH
By Rhonda Wickham

MatrixView recently surveyed more than 500 U.S. mobile device users and found that slow delivery speeds and wait times got in the way of them using the mobile Web. For instance:

• 50% said slow mobile Web response causes frustration, abandonment or limited use
• 81% expressed frustration with the speed of mobile Web search
• 40% of users have abandoned their searches due to long load times
• More than a third didn't even try to search the Internet on their phone

This sort of data is causing mobile operators, marketers and content delivery companies to sit up and take notice, especially as they seek to boost their wireless data ARPU figures. Not surprisingly, MatrixView Limited, which focuses on information transmission and storage optimization, has a solution to help out. The company recently unveiled its dynamic Web acceleration technology that shortens content delivery times for online, mobile searches and Website transmission.

Dubbed Speeding Web Information and Search Hypertext, or SWISH, it tackles today's Internet traffic congestion and rich media drain by speeding search and Web content delivery times. SWISH uses intelligent algorithms that model and compress the right data at the right time, and improves the user experience by optimizing the delivery of dynamic Web content. In some cases, it offers a 2X improvement in compression ratios and time to load the pages over other commonly used compression technologies. Its Adaptive Learning Scheme (ALS) feature optimizes the transmission of dynamic Web pages by search engines, which significantly reduce the online and the mobile phone browsing wait time.

SWISH reduces the number of packets required to transmit dynamic Web content, thereby speeding up the transmission process known as the SWISH Effect. SWISH causes zero impact on content's visual fidelity and data is not lost in the compression process. SWISH can be deployed on both static and dynamic Web pages.

MVNOs Use OTA, Too 
By Monica Alleven

Over-the-air (OTA) technology isn't just for making the backend processes run more smoothly. Telespree Communications is using OTA to make things run more smoothly for end-users.

Last month, the company announced that Virgin Mobile USA had deployed Telespree's OTA solution to automate its handset programming process. With the solution in place, end-users can pick up a Virgin Mobile USA handset at a retailer, such as Target or Wal-Mart, and call to activate their phone any time of day or night - no human customer service agents required.

The concept is no different than the self-service options available in other industries, such as the self-service kiosks that airlines offer. "We facilitate a great user experience and let the customer service themselves," says Bill deKay, CEO at Telespree. "We involve the customer in the process, if you will, and it's always a better experience."

Telespree had been working on a soft launch with Virgin Mobile since July, with the MVNO making its commercial rollout in December. Telespree works with other MVNOs as well, including Movida and Embarq, with solutions tailored to each carrier's needs.

Virgin Mobile offers prepaid minutes, but the solution is capable of operating on postpaid systems as well and can perform credit checks.

MOBILE CONTENT

Wapple Puts Users to Work
By Wireless Week Staff

Wapple, which specializes in mobile Internet site creation, management, billing integration and solutions deployment, has launched a competition to design the most innovative mobile Website using its Web-based development tools. The winner will get free Mobile Internet site hosting for a year, an unlocked Nokia N95 8GB multimedia handset, and a Nintendo Wii with any choice of game. Three runners-up will win a Nintendo Wii. The competition is free to enter and runs until the end of February.

"The mobile Internet is fast becoming an essential marketing tool but there is still a lot of confusion about what makes a good mobile Website," said Anne Thomas, business development director at Wapple. "Wapple makes it possible for anyone to quickly design a highly functional, professional mobile Website that is instantly optimized for any mobile phone or device. But unlike other development tools, Wapple doesn't force users into fixed structures or layouts and gives them the freedom to implement their own creative ideas. Entrants certainly don't need in-depth design or technical knowledge to win and we are looking forward to seeing what people come up with."

The competition package is available at http://wapple.net/winregister. Wapple also is providing a free Wapple Partner Package until the end of the competition that enables users to design up to 10 sites for their clients or for themselves.

Sites will be judged by an in-house team and winners will be announced on March 10, 2008.

SendMe to Red Carpet Treatment
By Wireless Week Staff

Mobile media company SendMe Mobile and Corbis, a creative resource for advertising, marketing and media professionals, are teaming up to bring the red carpet to mobile phones users. The relationship will provide SendMeMobile.com members with access to images from the Corbis Entertainment collection.

SendMeMobile.com members now get exclusive front-row access to images shot by celebrity photographers – from A-list stars at Hollywood's most high-profile events to emerging talent from top rated television shows and film. The broader Corbis mobile library also will be available through SendMeMobile.com with a wide range of premium made-for-mobile photos.

SendMe offers ringtones, wallpapers, sweepstakes and SMS text promotions. www.SendMeMobile.com

Thumbplay, iLike Go to Facebook
By Wireless Week Staff

Thumbplay's ringtones are now contextually featured throughout iLike.com and the iLike application on Facebook Platform, allowing users to discover, purchase and download ringtones to more than 2,000 supported and compatible mobile phones.

Across iLike, "Get ringtone" links to Thumbplay are now featured alongside links to iTunes in every relevant song module on artist, album and song pages, as well as users' shared playlists. Similar links are incorporated into the iLike Challenge, so users can discover and purchase ringtones of songs played in the game.

iLike features more than 15 million registered users. iLike helps people share music recommendations, playlists and personalized concert alerts. The iLike Sidebar for iTunes and Windows Media Player suggests new music, creates automatic playlists, and connects people through music. iLike offers musicians and labels a Universal Artist Dashboard from which to reach fans and manage their presence across multiple channels: Facebook, iLike.com, Ask.com, iLike Sidebar plugins for iTunes and Windows Media Player (and soon, through adoption of Google OpenSocial, also Myspace, orkut, hi5, Ning, and other leading social networking sites).

Thumbplay Taps MSN Mobile
By Wireless Week Staff

Mobile entertainment content destination Thumbplay will begin providing ringtones, wallpaper, games and video clips to MSN Mobile, the mobile portal of the MSN online network (msn.com). MSN reportedly is visited by more than 120 million unique U.S. visitors a month.

Thumbplay's content will be integrated within the MSN Mobile (mobile.msn.com) Web and WAP portals. This will give visitors access to purchase and download relevant ringtones, wallpapers, games and video clips over-the-air to more than 2,000 supported handsets, including 16 unique Windows Mobile-based devices.

Thumbplay and MSN Mobile worked in tandem to help ensure the maximum amount of content and purchasing options are available to users across the most carriers and handsets. Thumbplay ensures that Alltel, AT&T Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless subscribers can purchase content across their wireless networks, while navigation provides MSN co-branding and easy access back to the MSN Mobile portal.

Mobile Content News Briefs - December 14, 2007
Companies in this edition: Virgin Mobile USA, Kyocera USA, Streamezzo, Acision, HipCricket

• Virgin Mobile USA has added pop singer Chris Brown to exclusive First Dibs ringtone program. Virgin Mobile USA customers can access exclusive versions of tracks from Chris Brown including "Kiss Kiss (Like a Bandit)" and "With You (You Need In Me, What I Need in You)" from "Exclusive" in addition to the holiday soundtrack title "This Christmas (Hang All the Mistletoe)." Chris Brown fans can visit http://www.jiverecords.com/chrisbrownfirstdibs to enter a sweepstakes offering a grand prize of a Chris Brown blinged-out Virgin Mobile USA Wild Card handset by Kyocera Wireless.

• Streamezzo, provider of rich media solutions and platforms for mobile communications, has appointed Alex Middleton as its general manager for the Americas. Middleton will now be responsible for Streamezzo's growth goals for the Americas region. Middleton joins Streamezzo from U-turn Media Group, where he managed sales and operational excellence initiatives within the rich mobile media sector for North and South America. Prior to U-turn Media, he worked for Soltima, a global provider of wireless infrastructure software and services.

• Messaging and charging company Acision has appointed Chris Jenkins to executive vice president of marketing and market development. In his new role, Jenkins will be responsible for Acision's marketing strategy, global communications and market development. Jenkins joins Acision from Openwave, where he was vice president of commercial development, having previously founded data services consultancy TractionPoint and network solutions company Bytemobile EMEA.

• HipCricket has named Steven Siegel to the position of vice president of Brand Solutions. Siegel has developed successful mobile marketing programs for brands and agencies such as Dunkin Donuts, The History Channel, McDonalds, Snapple, Verizon Wireless, Viacom, Mediacom and Ogilvy. Most recently, Siegel was vice president of Mobile Marketing & Solutions at Enpocket (now Nokia Ad Solutions).