Internet Service, GPS Driving Chinese Smartphone Market

WEBWIRE – Wednesday, February 28, 2008

The smartphone is evolving to become a mobile Internet device, with cellular voice communication just one function of the converged appliance, and Chinese consumers are responding to its capabilities, reports In-Stat. The Chinese smartphone market grew by 37.7% in 2007, with total shipments of 14.4 million. The introduction of feature-rich mobile Internet service and GPS-based services will fuel the market over the next several years.

A recent report by the high-tech market research firm found the following:

* Revolutionary UI and UE, enabled by touchscreen and 3D sensor technologies, will be widely used in the next generation of smartphones.

* Smartphone shipments in China are expected to hit 33 million in 2012.

* The GPS-enabled Smartphone is in its infancy, but will have an increasing impact on the Smartphone market during the forecast period.

Sprint Launches Revolutionary $99.99 “Simply EverythingSM” Plan

Plan Defines Simplicity, Offers Customers Unlimited Voice and Data

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In an industry-defining move, Sprint today announced it will launch a domestic unlimited pricing plan that gives customers unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TV^SM, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, Direct Connect^® and Group Connect^® for $99.99 a month. The new pricing plan is available to existing and new customers beginning tomorrow.

“This is a bold, unprecedented move,” said Dan Hesse, president and CEO, Sprint Nextel. “Wireless today is about much more than just voice. It is about data services – texting, email, video, pictures, music, navigation, surfing the Web and more. Customers want these applications, but without complexity and without having to worry about their bill. The $99.99 Simply Everything plan delivers it all right to the palm of their hand now.

“Today’s handsets are powerful data devices. Each day they get better, faster and easier to use with more intuitive user interface designs and full Internet access. Our high-speed networks were built with this in mind and it’s where we believe the battleground lies – offering fast access to the best content and data services. We are removing the barriers for customers to feel free to use all of the features of their phones.”

The $99.99 Simply Everything plan is available to customers on both Sprint’s CDMA and iDEN networks. Existing Sprint customers can switch to the Simply Everything plan without extending their current contract either by contacting Sprint customer service or by stopping by any participating Sprint retail location. New line activations require a two-year agreement.

For families, Simply Everything includes an incremental $5 discount for each incremental line, up to five lines on the same bill. For example, two lines would amount to $194.98 ($99.99 + $94.99); a third line would cost an additional $89.99. This is in sharp contrast to the multi-line unlimited rates offered by some competitors. The Sprint plan offers significant savings the more lines a customer adds.

The move to unlimited pricing that includes data signifies a turning point for the wireless industry. Nationally accepted measures of voice quality now show very little, if any, difference among the top wireless providers.

“All major carriers have good voice networks,” Hesse said. “Our network is about more than voice and more than just being the largest wireless data network. It is about allowing customers to connect with people, information and entertainment. It is about simplicity, usability and real value. The $99.99 Simply Everything plan eliminates overage surprises and provides a worry-free environment.

“Our investments in innovation and speed are becoming the new areas of differentiation. These are the areas where we perform best and where we can deliver a wireless advantage for our customers.”

Britannica Reference Work Available for iPhone

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - February 27, 2008) - If you're thinking of getting an iPhone but just haven't done it, you now have another reason to cave in and join the wireless elite: Encyclopaedia Britannica. An extensive encyclopedia from the editors of the famous reference work is now available on Apple's über-smartphone.

Thanks to an application created by Britannica's engineers, anyone with an iPhone can access tens of thousands of articles covering all subjects at http://i.eb.com/. The application boasts a look and feel tailored to the iPhone, with full-text searching, thousands of high-resolution thumbnails that expand to full-size images, and page layouts optimized for cell phone bandwidth. It's fully searchable and hot-linked, similar to Britannica's Web editions. It also works for the iPod Touch.

"It's been live for about two weeks, and I can't get enough of it," said Chicago-based executive Dan Smith, a self-described iPhone junkie. "It's fast, easy to use and the articles look stunning."

Resco Releases Resco MobileBusiness Toolkit for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 add-on for mobile application developers.

Bratislava, Slovakia (PRWEB) February 27, 2008 -- Resco, a supplier of advanced developer tools and components for mobile devices, today announced availability of Resco MobileBusiness Toolkit, a Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 add-on for mobile application developers, especially Sales Force Automation/Field Service application creators and Enterprise Resource Planning/Customer Relationship Management integrators. The resulting mobile application can be run on rich variety of Windows Mobile-based Smart phones.

“We understand that developer companies tend to use suitable software components to speed up the development and thus reduce the costs,” said Radomír Vozár, director of Resco, Enterprise Solutions. “By releasing Resco MobileBusiness Toolkit we provide the developer community a well-documented solution dedicated for mobile business application development which can be easily customized using the features of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.”

The whole solution consists of:

• MobileForms Toolkit – set of versatile Visual Studio 2008 controls for the Microsoft .NET Framework designed specifically for mobile devices.
• MobileBusiness Controls – set of Visual Studio2008 user controls that demonstrate how to solve typical problems that developers of mobile business applications run into. MobileBusiness Controls are provided with the Microsoft Visual C# source code.
• MobileBusiness Forms – set of forms which serve as a container for MobileBusiness Controls as well as other components which all together create MobileBusiness mobile application. MobileBusiness Forms are provided with the Visual C# source code.

“Microsoft is pleased to see that Resco created a solution using Visual Studio 2008 that helps developers build basics of a mobile business application,” said Jay Roxe, group product manager for Visual Studio, Developer Division, at Microsoft Corp. “By using the features of Visual Studio 2008, Resco MobileBusiness Toolkit demonstrates how simple it can be to fit a mobile application to particular requirements.”

Mobile Gaming to Grow as Gamers Move to Newer Channels

(openPR) 27. February 2008 - According to The New Frontier: Portable and Mobile Gaming, gamers will soon begin migrating from the traditional carrier deck, which refers broadly to the carrier-maintained storefront on the handset, to newer, more innovative channels. This new Parks Associates report finds mobile game revenue generated through carrier decks will decrease from 90% of the total U.S. mobile gaming revenue to 72% in the next five years. By 2012, off-deck channels and ad-supported or subsidized mobile gaming will account for 28% of the market.

“Lack of competition has left most carrier decks with an uninspired user interface and poor merchandising environment, which contributed to the recent market stagnation,” said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director of Broadband and Gaming, Parks Associates. “Off-deck marketing and distribution, combined with new business models such as mobile game advertising, episodic content delivery, and micro-payments, will rekindle industry growth.”

Parks Associates reports that many market forces are driving off-deck distribution of mobile content and services, including the growing influence of established media companies, experiments with alternative distribution channels and advertising models, and recent efforts to open carriers’ walled gardens, including the Open Handset Alliance and Nokia’s Ovi services.

“Many mobile game publishers are working on off-deck initiatives,” Cai said. “Even carriers like AT&T are building business-to-business platforms to allow game publishers to market and distribute games directly to mobile gamers.”

The New Frontier: Portable and Mobile Gaming studies market trends in mobile and portable gaming, examines new business models, and profiles more than 30 companies.

Vodafone UK Sat Nav Powered by Telmap Available for Consumers

Vodafone UK extends its Sat Nav service to mass market consumer mobile devices

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vodafone UK and Telmap, the world leader in advanced mobile mapping and navigation solutions, are today introducing Vodafone Sat Nav– an operator branded mobile navigation solution available for the UK consumer market.

The launch of Vodafone Sat Nav for consumers, powered by Telmap, is the first operator-branded mobile navigation service aimed at consumers in the UK. The solution has already been successfully launched into the enterprise market, where it is available on a number of devices.

Vodafone Sat Nav provides users with a complete mobile navigation experience, including both in-car and pedestrian navigation. Featuring 3D maps that enhance the navigation experience, up-to-date maps and directions it also gives the customer instant access to live traffic alerts and millions of points-of-interest such as hotels, restaurants, shopping and attractions.

“Following the success of Vodafone Sat Nav with our business customers, we know that consumers too want Sat Nav on their mobile phones,” says Ian Shepherd, consumer business director, of Vodafone UK. “By partnering with Telmap, Vodafone UK customers can now benefit from advanced Satellite Navigation on a range of handsets. We will continue to deliver location, navigation and mapping solutions that will appeal to all customers regardless of the type of mobile device they use.”

“This consumer launch further strengthens the partnership between Telmap and Vodafone UK and allows us to build on the success we have achieved with Vodafone Sat Nav in the enterprise market,” says Oren Nissim, CEO, Telmap. “As the first operator-branded mobile navigation service for UK consumers, this launch marks a significant milestone for both Telmap and the industry in bringing a fully featured Sat Nav experience to the mass-market mobile phone.”

Vodafone Sat Nav is available on a variety of consumer mobile devices; launching initially on three of Vodafone UK’s GPS embedded handsets – Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia 6110 as well as the new BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8110 smartphone. The subscription to the service costs £5 per month with the first month free. When using the service data charges apply. Customers can purchase the service from any Vodafone retail stores, through telesales or directly from Vodafone live! Customers who purchase the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 will get 12 months Sat Nav included.

The solution has already been successfully launched into the enterprise market, where it is available on a number of devices including the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8310, Vodafone UK’s fastest selling BlackBerry smartphone ever, and the BlackBerry Pearl 8110.

MELODIS Corporation Launches midomi mobile

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pioneering search and sound recognition company MELODIS Corporation today announced the launch of midomi mobile, its music search application for mobile devices.

midomi mobile allows users to search for music by singing, humming or even whistling into their mobile devices. The application accesses midomi’s online user-generated database of songs and uses MELODIS’ patented Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System (MARS) to identify what users are searching for.

The midomi song database has become the largest user-generated repository of its kind since its launch in January 2007. The free, membership-based midomi community is also a vibrant social-networking destination on the Web — providing a forum for amateur and professional musicians, talent seekers, and music lovers around the world to discover and be discovered.

Available for download free of cost at mobile.midomi.com, midomi mobile offers users a wide range of functionality. Having found a song using midomi mobile, users can play back the snippet from the rendition that matched their query or listen to other members’ renditions that helped identify the song. midomi mobile also enables users to search for music videos playable on mobile devices through services such as YouTube. And, users can connect to midomi’s social network through midomi mobile to access member profiles, recordings, playlists, and more.

The company will soon offer additional functionality for midomi mobile users. Future releases will allow users to identify original music content, such as music broadcast through the radio. Users will also be able to search for music by speaking out the song title or artist’s name, or by typing it without having to know the exact spelling.

The initial release of midomi mobile is designed for mobile phones using the Symbian OS and the popular S60 platform. MELODIS plans to release support for additional platforms such as the S40 Java platform in the near future.

“An increasing number of music-enabled handsets are sold each year, and we aim to make midomi mobile available on all of these handsets. With the exciting functionality we’re continuing to develop for midomi mobile, it will become the ultimate music search tool for the mobile market,” says Keyvan Mohajer, CEO, MELODIS Corporation.

The commercial potential of midomi is growing rapidly, according to Mohajer: “Both at the website and on midomi mobile, we’re providing advertising opportunities that are easily and quickly accessible for viewers and advertisers alike. This is allowing us to continue growing the services we can offer to our users and partners.”

Recognizing its potential, Nokia has recently selected midomi mobile as the Application of the Week.

KNFB Reading Technology, Inc. Premieres Reader Mobile Product Line

The kReader Mobile from knfbReading Technologies, Inc., allows the blind, vision impaired, and learning disabled to portably access print in real world situations, where receipts, menus, signs, and everyday objects were previously unreadable.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KNFB Reading Technology, Inc. will premiere its Reader Mobile product line—featuring the first cell phone that reads to the learning disabled, vision impaired, and blind—at the Learning Disabilities Association of America Annual Conference 2008.

The pocket-sized device is the first of its kind, and enables users to take pictures of and then read most printed materials at the push of a button, using the high-resolution camera in the state-of-the-art Nokia N82 cell phone. Users can hear documents, signs, menus, receipts, even currency – most any printed text – read aloud in clear synthetic speech, at an adjustable speed.

KNFB Reading Technology is the brain child of Ray Kurzweil, a thirty-year innovator and pioneer in assistive technologies and the inventor of the world’s first print-to-speech reading machine. The kReader uses a combination of unique intelligent image-processing software with text-to-speech and text-tracking features, which makes interpreting text much easier for individuals with learning disabilities. They can now enlarge, read, track, and highlight text using the phone’s large, easy-to-read display.

"This innovation gives people with learning disabilities a mobile tool to cope with the large amount of reading required in business and everyday life. It gives them easy access to print, almost instantaneously, anywhere and at anytime,” said Ray Kurzweil, President and CEO of KNFB Reading Technology, Inc.

Playboy Mobile Launches National Model Search: 'Miss Playboy Mobile 2008'

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Playboy Mobile recently announced its 2008 strategy for extending the Playboy brand to a broader audience via its newest mobile initiative -- the inaugural "Miss Playboy Mobile 2008" model search. Harnessing the power of the online community and coupling it with the millions of mobile-phone users nationwide, Playboy Mobile will invite sophisticated, sexy women to register and build online profiles in their quest to be crowned Miss Playboy Mobile 2008. Visitors to the online and mobile sites can view the beautiful candidates and then vote for their favorite -- bringing her closer to the 2008 crown, a $5,000 cash-prize, and a professional photo-shoot at the world-famous Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Voters must cast their ballots via mobile phones.

"We are very excited about the inaugural Miss Playboy Mobile search, one of many new mobile initiatives we are launching this year," stated Edward Lang, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Mobile and International Online, Playboy Enterprises, Inc. "This campaign is entirely consumer-driven -- from submissions to voting -- and we designed it specifically to reflect the fun and sexy lifestyle shared by Playboy fans and mobile consumers. We look forward to crowning our first winner on April 2 in Las Vegas, home of the Playboy Club, as well as the site of the CTIA Wireless Association Convention."

To enter this nationwide search, women 18 years and older can register and submit their photos for initial voting on http://www.mspbm.com. Round-One voting recently began, and concludes on March 15. Voting on the finalists will extend from March 16 through March 31, after which all ten will be flown to Las Vegas. The winner will be crowned "Miss Playboy Mobile 2008" at a VIP celebration at the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa at the Palms Casino Resort on April 2, during CTIA.

LocaModa Connects Social Networks to Social Locations

BOSTON, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- LocaModa Inc. today introduced
breakthrough social connectivity to its interactive Out-of-Home platform.
LocaModa 3.0 enables mobile consumers to control and interact with social
media around them using any mobile phone on any network, while also giving
their friends online a window into what's happening via websites such as
Facebook.



  "By connecting social networks to social locations, our platform is
uniquely positioned to deliver the same kind of measurability for
Out-of-Home networks as advertisers and brands expect from the web," said
Stephen Randall, CEO LocaModa.

  LocaModa 3.0 offers a full range of mobile interactivity that
seamlessly enables multi-channel integrated marketing. Out-of-Home
advertisers can now extend their reach to the web and the phone, while
networks and location owners can tap into web-based user generated content
and bring in incremental revenue via online advertising.

  Applications designed for LocaModa 3.0 can run on existing digital
signage platforms or be installed as part of a complete LocaModa
interactive Out-of-Home solution. The platform is ideal for cafes, bars,
colleges and public spaces, but can also be used for conferences,
conventions and campaigns.