Archive for January, 2009

MobileWeb.eu compiles all mobile sites

mobilewebeu-mobile-site-portalThe past few months, we’ve seen the launch of several mobile internet sites.  MobileWeb has recently developed mobile sites for Corelio (de Standaard, Het Nieuwsblad & Jobat) and VDAB.  But question remains: how can we find those mobile sites?

One technique, which is becoming a standard, is using the same URL as the Internet website, but replacing the ‘www’ by ‘m‘.  For example m.standaard.be
But some websites have opted for the .mobi domain extension.

MobileWeb is offering a better solution.  Direct your mobile browser to mobileweb.eu and you will see a neat mobile portal, linking you (so far) to more than 300 mobile sites worldwide.  They are conveniently categorized under news, sport, weather, travel, finance, technology, entertainment, communication, reference and search.  The country of origin is indicated with a small flag next to the link.   The quality of the site is awarded with a maximum of 3 green stars.

Do you know other mobile sites that aren’t included on mobileweb.eu?  All feedback and suggestions can be send to info@mobileweb.eu.  Or by leaving a comment on this blog post.

Happy (mobile) surfing!

2009
01/30
CATEGORY
mobile internet
mobile services
MobileWeb
TAGS



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New mobile music services are booming

The Apple iPhone, combined with the iTunes store, proved that mobile music is quite an interesting market.
Other mobile device manufacturers are jumping the bandwagon and rolling out new music services.

First there was Nokia’s “Comes With Music” (CWM) service, launched in October 2008, giving users unlimited access to 4 million tracks.  Sony Ericsson followed with improvements on their PlayNow platform. Also Blackberry came with mobile music applications.

Eric Nicoli, CEO of the EMI Group, proved the potential of the market, speaking at the annual MIDEM event:  “You only have to look at Japan, where 90 percent of all digital music sold is downloaded on to phones to see what a mobile download market can be.”
In other markets however, it hasn’t come quite that far just yet.  For a long time, the high price tag of music-enabled phones was an obstacle.  But manufacturers want to change that with their new product range.  Several operators are targeting the younger generation with mobile phone subscriptions that include access to the mobile music service.

mobile_music

2009
01/28
CATEGORY
mobile entertainment
mobile services
TAGS




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Palm presents new Pre smartphone

10 years ago, Palm dominated the PDA world.  Unable to hold on to their top position, they have since been pushed aside by the iPhones and Blackberries of this world.  Now they’re back in the competition with their new smartphone, the Palm Pre.

The Pre, expected on the market this semester, sports a 3,1″ touch screen in combination with a full keyboard.  Its Web OS allows multitasking, a benefit over the iPhone.  Other features include a build-in GPS, a 3.1 megapixels camera and 8Gb of storage.  With its 140g, it sure is one of the light weights on the market.  More details on its features are expected later.

palm-pre-smartphone

2009
01/26
CATEGORY
mobile technology
TAGS




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Mobile telecom is 4th biggest market

Economic crisis or not, mobile telecom is still one of the most profitable business markets in the world.  Only the food, weapon and car industry are doing better. These 4 markets are the only ones worth more than 1 trillion dollars (or 750 billion euro).   The telecom market is still growing, with now almost 4 billion mobile subscriptions around the world.

These numbers come from the telecom analist Tomi Ahonen of the Oxford University, who stresses the importance of mobile telecommunications.  He predicts that mobile phones will become more important than PCs to visit internet pages. 

Of the 1 trillion revenue, there’s 150 billion coming from mobile phone sales, 50 billion from network devices, and a 800 billion from mobile services.    Of the mobile services, there’s 600 billion for mobile voice calling, 130 billion for SMS texting and 70 billion for mobile internet. 

If telecommunication is calculated together (fixed, mobile & Internet), it is worth 1,8 trillion dollars, which would be second place behind the food industry.

silhouet-mobile-phone1

2009
01/23
CATEGORY
business sms
facts & figures
mobile internet
TAGS







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Obama proves success of mobile marketing

Obama 2008

At his inaugeration yesterday, US president Barack Obama promised Change.  One change that he has already implemented since the start of his election campaign is his embrace of modern technology, in particular the Internet and Mobile Marketing.

We already reported on this blog before how he successfully incorporated SMS Alerts and a Mobile Internet site into his campaign.  In the past few weeks, it was often reported in the press how Obama refused to give up his Blackberry, because the device gives him so much flexibility. 
Even after his election, the use of mobile marketing remained.  Supporters could receive information on inaugerational events by text message.  The mobile site offers many options and a separate application offers iPhone users one-button access to campaign information, volunteer, and donate time or money, among other things. 
The name of the vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden was first announced by SMS to more than 2.9 million mobile subscribers, which makes it the largest mobile marketing campaign to date.

While in the past year many companies realised the opportunities offered by mobile marketing, there was still a lot of scepticism in the market.  Obama could give a serious boost to the industry.   His campaign has already proven the wide variety of possibilities that are offered by mobile services. 

Compared to more traditional direkt marketing channels, such as e-mail marketing, mobile marketing represents an immediate call to action – avoiding the need to boot up a PC and often even eliminating the need for log-ins or other impediments to successful engagement. 
Mobile also represents a personal, nearly instant, way to reach people since most people carry their phone with them all the time, and consider it an integral part of their daily lives.

Obama’s mobile strategy combined text messaging with an easy to use mobile site supported by mobile banners.  Given its high success rate, we should see more similar campaigns in the business world in the weeks and months to come.  If the president of the United States shows that mobile marketing works, that sure is the best prove for the industry.

2009
01/21
CATEGORY
cases & campaigns
mobile internet
mobile marketing
TAGS




1 comment

No T-Mobile G1 in Belgium

The T-Mobile G1, the first smartphone based on the Google Android operating system, won’t become available in Belgium.  This time the problem is not due to the prohibition of combined sales, but to the fact that T-Mobile is not present in our country. 

But no worries, HTC is also working on an Android-phone, which should become available on the European market in this quarter.  Expect some more Android announcement on next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

As for the G1; he will soon get a brother, the G2 with a higher resolution, larger screen, a 5 megapixel camera and a lower energy consumption.   
Meanwhile, HTC is working on new smartphone models, that integrate elements from both Blackberry and iPhone.
Some pictures of a pink HTC model, labelled the ‘Hero’, also leaked online.

rozeg1_hero

2009
01/19
CATEGORY
business sms
mobile technology
TAGS






1 comment

Mobile Internet in China 2008

Last year, the adoption of the Mobile Internet in China has risen with 133%.  According to a report by the China Network Information Center, 117,6 million Chinese consumers accessed the web via their mobile device.  
The mobile market in China consists in total of 633.8 million mobile subscribers.

Students make up 43,5% of the mobile web users, using their phone to check out news sites, download music and check email.

More figures for China in this BBC article.

2009
01/16
CATEGORY
facts & figures
mobile internet
TAGS


1 comment

13y old sends 14.528 sms

teen-girl-sending-smsThe parents of a 13 year old girl in California were quite surprised when they received a phone bill that counted 440 pages.  It turned out that the girl had sent 14.528 SMS messages in a month time. That’s basically one message every two minutes that she was awake.  As explanation she said she just felt like talking. 

The bill could have been up to 2.100 Euro, but fortunately the parents had taken an “unlimited messages” subscription.

A survey, done in the 2nd semester of 2008, has shown that an American mobile phone user sends on average 357 text messages per month.  That number goes up to 1.742 for adolescents between the age of 13 and 17.

2009
01/15
CATEGORY
business sms
mobile news
TAGS


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New European rules should stimulate Mobile TV

The European Commission has announced new rules for mobile television.  At the moment only Austria, Finland, France & Germany have regulated mobile TV services so far.  The European rules should uniform regulation for all member states.

The providers can chose themselves which channel they want to broadcast on mobile, and network infrastructure can be shared with other parties.   Member states should also have a central point of contact, and all procedures and criteria to obtain a broadcasting licence should be ‘objective, transparant and non-discriminative’.  The rules also allow to take back any mobile TV frequencies, that have not been used for a certain amount of time. 

Viviane Reding, European commissioner for Telecommunications, thinks that the new regulations will stimulate mobile TV services.

2009
01/13
CATEGORY
mobile entertainment
mobile services
TAGS



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Mobile Internet in France 2008

Some numbers and figures for the Mobile Internet use in France in 2008.

* 71% of the mobinautes between the age of 15 and 20 years know Gallery.  72% of them already uses Gallery.

* 50% of the mobinauts, who have an unlimited data subscription, connect to the Mobile Internet at least once a day.

* 16% of the mobinauts have already connected to the Mobile Internet after seeing an advertising.

* 30% of the mobinauts say they subscribed to an unlimited access offer for Mobile Internet.

2009
01/12
CATEGORY
facts & figures
mobile internet
TAGS







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