Alltel Wireless Launches the Exclusive Glimmer by LG

Touch Screen Phone Combines Music and Media with Form and Function

Alltel Wireless and LG announced that the highly anticipated GlimmerTM by LG will be exclusively available in Alltel retail stores and online at shopalltel.com beginning tomorrow, March 13. With a slide-out keypad and touch-screen interface, the LG Glimmer incorporates traditional phone functions with the latest multimedia features.
The LG Glimmer is loaded with a 2 MP camera with video capabilities, an MP3 player with customizable equalizer, an expandable memory slot and is GPS capable. This slick phone is rich with several of Alltel’s Axcess applications including Alltel Navigation, Axcess Search, CityID and Axcess TV. In addition, users can listen to their favorite music while utilizing other multimedia features on the phone, such as taking photos, recording video or sending text messages. The Glimmer also features 3D graphics support and 128MB of internal memory.
“With touch-screen phones revolutionizing wireless, the LG Glimmer from Alltel has an innovative new touch interface while offering the convenience of a slide-out physical keypad,” states Brian Ullem, vice president of device strategy for Alltel Wireless. “Its large display and multimedia capabilities allow our customers to access and manage their video and music with a simple touch.”
“Consumers will appreciate the durable metal body of this elegant, user-friendly mobile phone,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy & marketing at LG Mobile Phones. “With its slim form factor and large sliding touch screen the Glimmer by LG is another example of forward-thinking technology and design.”
Alltel Wireless is offering the Glimmer by LG for $249.99 after a $100 mail-in-rebate. This discounted price is available to new customers who sign-up for a two-year service agreement and to existing eligible customers on qualifying rate plans. All Alltel customers who purchase the LG Glimmer and are on a qualifying rate plan are able to receive “My Circle,” Alltel’s exclusive calling feature allowing customers to receive unlimited calling to any five, 10 or 20 numbers, any network. In addition, Alltel was the first to offer Anytime Plan Changes, giving customers the flexibility to change their calling plans at any time, without extending their current contract.
The LG Glimmer also supports Alltel’s new service, Axcess Voice2TXT. The service, which is available on any Alltel Wireless SMS text message capable phone, quickly converts incoming voicemails to text messages in the customer’s inbox and also allows customers to store and forward converted voicemails as regular text messages.

Asia-Pacific Braces for Mobile TV Fever

The Asia-Pacific mobile video services market is expected to see huge growth potential as mobile operators continue to spend millions on developing innovative services and content to arrest the declining average revenue per user (ARPU). Mobile TV, essentially an extension of mobile video services, in particular is seen as a new killer application that could potentially bring alternative source of revenues for carriers.
New analysis from global growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan, Asia Pacific Tunes Up for Mobile TV, finds that the mobile video services market - covering 12 Asia-Pacific countries ex-Japan - earned revenues of over US$440 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach US$1.88 billion by end-2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 27.4 percent (2007-2013).
While South Korea (which accounted for 87 percent or US$383.7 million of the revenues in 2007) will remain as the biggest market for mobile video in Asia-Pacific (outside of Japan), other potential leading markets include Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
“Amid the growing interest in triple-play and mobile advertising, mobile TV has been the buzzword in the Asia-Pacific mobile and wireless market,” notes Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Shaker Amin. “The recent spate of trials and the commercial launches of broadcast networks in Japan and South Korea indicate that the mobile TV fever could well catch on throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”
Two of the regions most mature mobile markets, South Korea and Japan, have introduced mobile TV broadcast services (ahead of the other Asia-Pacific countries) built on homegrown standards. South Korea spearheaded the DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) standards, launching S-DMB (Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) in 2005. While Japan launched ISDBT (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial), or 1-seg, in 2006.
South Korea is expected to hit mass adoption in mobile video services between 2008 and 2010, when the rest of Asia-Pacific joins the commercial broadcast TV service bandwagon.
Other markets that have commercially launched DVB-H mobile TV broadcast services include Vietnam’s VMC (Vietnam Multimedia Corporation) in September 2006, and Philippines’ Smart Communications in February 2007.
In the rest of the Asia-Pacific markets, digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) and MediaFLO remain most commonly selected for trials. In China, T-DMB (a different version from South Korea’s) and CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting), both homegrown standards, are being deliberated for the country’s national mobile TV broadcast standard.
Pricing however remains the biggest hurdle to a wider uptake of mobile video and TV services. In 2007, the total mobile ARPU in Asia-Pacific stood at US$16.8 (including Japan), largely due to the region’s lower disposal income.
Furthermore, mobile TV broadcast service (multicast) requires compatible handsets, which are not widely available throughout Asia-Pacific as yet. In markets where an impending launch is expected, mobile handset manufacturers are still in the midst of finalizing handset requirements with the major mobile operators.
“In most markets, mobile video service becomes especially expensive when a user exceeds the stipulated amount of data in a ‘flat-rate’ plan,” says Amin. “Considering that this is a major restraint to greater uptake, mobile operators could follow the example of South Korean operators who have implemented an ‘eat-all-you-can’ flat-rate for data charges to encourage adoption.”

Funambol Does Mobile Social Networking

New Code Sniper Projects Encourage Community to Write Apps that Sync Contacts, Events and Photos and Between Mobile Phones and Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo and other Social Networks

Funambol, the leading provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source, today announced new Code Sniper projects to encourage its global community of mobile open source developers to write apps that sync content between mobile phones and social networks.
Code Sniper is Funambol's community program that rewards developers with monetary bounties to work on open source projects that benefit mobile users around the globe. This new slate of Code Sniper projects ranges from syncing pictures of friends on social networks to the address book on a mobile phone, to making it easy to invite your mobile contacts to join your
favorite social network. All of the apps developed as part of Code Sniper are made freely available under standard open source licensing.
"Funambol has always been about delivering cool new mobile open source services, apps and data to the broadest array of mobile phones for free or low cost, and these Code Sniper social networking projects are no exception," said Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol. "There's a tremendous amount of content on social networks that users would like to access on their cell phones, and these projects enable this. I personally can't wait to use some of these new mobile social networking apps."

iPhone SDK Downloads Top 100,000

Apple announced that more than 100,000 iPhone developers have downloaded the beta iPhone Software Development Kit in the first four days since its launch on March 6. The iPhone SDK provides developers with the same rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools that Apple uses to create its native applications for iPhone and iPod touch.
"Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Also, over one million people have watched the launch video on Apple.com, further demonstrating the incredible interest developers have in creating applications for the iPhone."
Apple also previewed the new App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to every iPhone and iPod touch user. Developers set the price for their applications -- including free -- and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues.
Leading developers such as AOL, Electronic Arts, Epocrates, salesforce.com and Sega have already demonstrated amazing applications using the SDK, and developer response continues to be phenomenal with more developers embracing the platform.
"The iPhone SDK gives us the tools we need to create powerful iPhone applications and is an important part of our overall mobile strategy," said Rick Jensen, senior vice president, Small Business Group at Intuit. "We're excited that the iPhone expands the ways our customers can solve key financial tasks wherever they might be."
"We're very excited about Apple's new SDK and reaching every iPhone user through the new App Store," said Scott Rubin, vice president, Sales and Marketing, Namco Networks. "We can't wait to show off great new versions of arcade classics like PAC-MAN and Galaga that use the revolutionary features of the iPhone and iPod touch."
"Apple's tools have provided our development team the flexibility to make the SuitePhone application richer and deeper," said Luke Braud, vice president, Software Development, NetSuite. "NetSuite is excited at the opportunity to give every iPhone customer access to their critical business data anytime, anywhere."
"Apple's become an important mobile game platform with the iPhone SDK," said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, PopCap. "The new SDK gives us the tools to innovate and reinvent games like Bejeweled, Zuma and Peggle. With the new App Store we can reach every iPhone and iPod touch user on the planet."
"Seventy percent of the retail price is hands-down the best deal out there in mobile. It's simple and motivating for developers," said Wayne B. Yurtin, president and CEO, Rocket Mobile, Inc. "We can't wait to get our first iPhone applications on the revolutionary App Store."
"Six Apart pioneered the mobile blogging experience with an iPhone-optimized blog service," said Chris Alden, CEO, Six Apart. "We're taking it to the next level with our native iPhone application for TypePad that's already in development."
"The iPhone is the mobile platform game developers have been dreaming of," said Scott Zerby, vice president, THQ Wireless. "We're looking at how we can use the iPhone's innovative user interface to create new game experiences for our big brand entertainment partners that consumers love."

AT&T to Offer Webalo’s Mobile Dashboard Service to Retail Sector

Easy Access to Real-Time Business Information on Mobile Devices Will Prove Critical to Retailers
Webalo, Inc. announced that AT&T plans to offer Webalo’s unique Mobile Dashboard service to the retail sector. The service enables mobile professionals to have easy, real-time access to business intelligence, and other corporate information, on their mobile, handheld devices.
“Retail is a real-time business – where knowing the status of sales figures and inventories on a moment-to-moment basis can mean the difference between profit and loss,” said Peter Price, president and CEO of Webalo. “Our Mobile Dashboard Service puts such information right into the hands – or smart phones – of retailers in the field or on the floor. With AT&T’s support and promotion of the service to retail, we are looking forward to a positive response, and a healthy adoption rate.”
Price said that there are a large number of ways in which retail professionals can use the Mobile Dashboard on their mobile devices. For example,
Managers can get immediate access to store/region/division/company key performance indicators;
Buyers and other executives can instantly access sales information for consumer package goods and other fast-moving products that can inform their competitive response; and
Retail executives can gauge the effectiveness point of sales promotions in real time.
The availability of the Mobile Dashboard service to AT&T’s retail-sector customers follows Webalo’s receipt in 2007 of AT&T’s Enterprise Solution Certification and inclusion of the service in the AT&T devCentral program.
Webalo also recently announced that the service is now available on an in-house server “appliance” that is valuable to large corporations, including retail chains, that prefer to install the Mobile Dashboard inside their own data centers.

Ifbyphone Unleashes the Power of `Phone Mashups’

Ifbyphone, the Chicago-area voice application platform company, announced it is offering up to 1 million minutes in free phone time per month and a new Facebook phone application to demonstrate to developers the power of phone mashups to connect the Web to voice applications.
“We’re funding this initiative because we believe so strongly in helping small businesses turn Web traffic into ringing telephones via mashups,” said Ifbyphone founder and CEO Irv Shapiro. “Interactive Voice Response systems and phone mashups should not be limited to large enterprises. By partnering with hundreds of independent developers this initiative will deliver this exciting new technology to businesses of any size.”
“Phone mashups” are Web applications that combine data from more than one source into a single integrated tool accessed from any phone.
Speaking at the eComm2008 Conference being held at the Computer History Museum here this week, Shapiro said: “Phone mashups unleash the power of all phones, from your mobile phone to your landline to your VOIP phone, even old-fashioned rotary-dial phones. That means owners of small- and medium-sized businesses with no knowledge of computers can have their phones ring from the Web. Ifbyphone launches conversation starters that lead to sales.”
There are three ways to take advantage of Ifbyphone’s offer:

Phone-Me-Now

This calling technology makes it possible to dial phones from a wide variety of locations, including Web sites, e-mail messages, Microsoft Word documents, PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations and more. Free Phone-Me-Now accounts are limited to 100 minutes of U.S. phone calls per month and expire in six months. At the end of six months, the subscriber may upgrade to a traditional Ifbyphone subscription beginning at $14.95 per month. Free

Ifbyphone Facebook Widget

Facebook users will be able to make anonymous phone calls to people on their Friends list. A friend visiting your Facebook profile enters a phone number and rings your phone. The first 1,000 Facebook users who sign up will receive free Ifbyphone’s Facebook Phone-Me-Now accounts. Users receive up to 100 minutes calling time per month for six months and then can upgrade to a traditional Ifbyphone account for $14.95. This widget was developed using the standard Ifbyphone Phone Mashup API. The widget is available under Applications at Facebook.com.

Developments for developers.

Ifbyphone has established www.phonemashup.com to encourage developers to build phone mashups. It includes discussion forums and blogs to get developers talking, along with the tools to create mashups and a repository for distribution of phone mashups. Ifbyphone also is offering developers free phone mashup accounts with full access to the Ifbyphone Phone Mashup API, including Interactive Voice Response capabilities typically only available to major corporations. Free Phone Mashup accounts are limited to 100 minutes of U.S. phone calls per month and expire in 6 months. At the end of six months, subscribers may upgrade to a traditional Ifbyphone subscription beginning at $39.95 per month. All Ifbyphone services also include complete Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities traditionally only available to major corporations. These IVR capabilities include interactive voice dialogs (Voice Forms), automated speech recognition and text to speech capabilities.

New Report Says 87 Million Mobile Users in Europe Will Be Using Their Mobile Devices for Mobile Ticketing Purposes by 2010

Revenues from mobile ticketing and mobile retail services will assist the global mobile commerce market by generating over $63bn worth of revenue by 2010, according to a new report from www.telecomsmarketresearch.com.
The report notes that by 2010, 32% of Japanese mobile users will be buying tickets using a mobile phone. It suggests that adoption rates in current mobile ticketing implementations is as high as 30% of the total tickets issued within the scheme.
By 2010, 87 million European mobile users (15% of the total) will be using their mobile devices for mobile ticketing purposes. The use of mobile barcodes is revolutionising the way we purchase and store tickets.
The bullish economies of India and China are fuelling the five-fold increase in annual m-retail transactions for the Rest of Asia Pacific forecast for 2008. The report predicts that there will be sufficient consumer demand, adequate payment schemes available and enough retailers supporting these schemes to see worldwide mobile payment revenues reach over US $10 billion by 2010.
The report reveals that innovative use of technology such as mobile barcodes and integrating RFID into a mobile device coupled with consumer demand for easy to use applications is driving up the adoption of mobile ticketing and mobile retail services.
Alan Goode, author of the report, noted: “The modern mobile phone and mobile network provides unparalleled levels of commercial potential. We are now beginning to enter the mCommerce era – and this era will see all of its expectations met.”

PhindMe(R) Makes Its Debut With a Cost-Effective Mobile-Marketing Solution for Local Businesses

PhindMe announced the availability of its low-cost mobile-marketing service, designed to help local businesses better compete against national brands.

With a focus on mobile-marketing solutions, PhindMe has created an Internet-based platform so that local businesses can improve consumer discovery, loyalty, and community. These services extend to consumers' mobile devices, helping businesses combine the power of online-marketing with the increasing use of cell phones and other wireless devices as tools to find business information.
"PhindMe's goal is to support small and mid-sized businesses by improving how they reach and directly interact with consumers to drive revenues," said Chuck Sacco, co-founder and CEO of PhindMe. "PhindMe is here to help the local business person better compete against national brands which are already deploying mobile-marketing to get and retain more customers."
PhindMe's low-cost platform makes mobile-marketing easier and more effective than traditional advertising methods such as print advertising. Current and planned features include a unique content management system which dynamically formats business information for any PC or mobile phone, an instant marketing system so businesses can interact with consumers via text messaging, and a mobile commerce solution that helps businesses increase revenues and decrease transaction costs. All features are accessible through a simple online tool.

AT&T Connects Business Customers With New Wi-Fi-Enabled BlackBerry Pearl 8120

New Handset Provides Simultaneous Voice and Wi-Fi Data Coverage Across Industry's Leading Domestic and International Footprint

AT&T and Research In Motion have announced the availability of the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 for business customers, a global handset with built-in Wi-Fi that combines business-grade communications and multimedia functionality in a small and stylish design.

"The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 from AT&T delivers the full power of the BlackBerry platform in a sleek and stylish handset that is ideal for both business and personal use," said Mark Guibert, vice president, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. "With a range of hardware and software enhancements, including built-in Wi-Fi, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is an ideal choice for customers who want a new phone with powerful communications and multimedia features in an incredibly small candy bar design."