Zannel Opens Developer API

Zannel announced that it is launching an open API that will allow developers to leverage the power and functionality of Zannel's Instant Media Messaging (IMM) platform to create media-rich mobile applications, widgets and mashups. With access to the IMM platform, developers can take advantage of a rich messaging system that can deliver text, picture, and video messages across SMS, MMS, and email systems and format them for web browsers or mobile devices. "The Zannel Open API is built on top of the same robust platform that powers our web and wap products," said Harry Evans, VP, Technology at Zannel. "We look forward to seeing all the creative ways developers leverage these capabilities." Along with the Open API, Zannel has expanded its list of export feeds, so that users can instantly publish their mobile video, picture, and text updates to Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, and Blogger, among others. Custom tags can be added to Flickr feeds, and Facebook feeds can update user status or media albums based on the content contained in the message. Friends can view these updates on the web or their mobile phones. "Our team has been working together on mobile media technology for years, and we are excited to share our capabilities with the broader developer community and help everyday users get more out of their camera phones -- to capture an image once and have it be viewable everywhere," said Braxton Woodham, CTO, Zannel.

Nokia introduces the Nokia 6124 classic exclusively with Vodafone

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced the launch of the Nokia 6124 classic, exclusively available from Vodafone in Vodafone markets. The Nokia 6124 classic is a compact multimedia device offering Vodafone customers faster and easier access to all of Vodafone's high speed Internet and entertainment services.

Vodafone and Nokia will make it easier to access the Internet quickly at the click of a button on the Nokia 6124 classic. Customers will get the full suite of communications, content, Internet services and browsing, through seamlessly integrated Vodafone services on this Nokia device.

Available exclusively for Vodafone customers world-wide, the Nokia 6124 classic features superior data rates with 3G broadband offering downloads up to 10 times faster than 3G networks. A large 2.0" display with outstanding brightness and clarity adds more pleasure for internet browsing and video streaming. Taking pictures is convenient with the 2 megapixel camera, flash and panorama mode. The external memory card slot allows the user to expand the memory up to 8GB, which offers plenty of space for favourite images, videos and music.

"With the Vodafone exclusive Nokia 6124 classic we continue the successful collaboration we started with the exclusive Nokia 6234," says Jens Schulte-Bockum, Global Director Terminals at Vodafone "We are proud to offer the new Nokia 6124 classic which will allow our customers to access the complete suite of Vodafone communications, browsing, content and Internet services. In addition, the exclusive Nokia 6124 classic offers customers further improvement in their experience with many of Vodafone's services already launched with leading Internet partners."

"The name says it all, as the Nokia 6124 classic represents the iconic design familiar to the Nokia brand, now made exclusively for Vodafone customers. It's a great example of our collaboration and shows Nokia's commitment to customers, says Markku Suomi, Vice President, Connect, Nokia. "3G broadband appeals to users who want convenient access to the latest information, as the device can even be used as a fast modem to access the internet from the PC."

Based on S60 and Symbian OS, the Nokia 6124 classic enables the user to download additional applications and content on the phone. It also allows the user to run several applications on the device at the same time - making it easy to browse the Web while listening to your favorite music or talking.

The Nokia 6124 classic will start shipping in Vodafone markets in the second quarter.

Boost Mobile Expands Unlimited by Boost Handset Assortment with Introduction of MOTOKRZR

Mobile Phone Choices Now Include Boost-Branded MOTOKRZR™, Motorola c290 and w385
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Boost Mobile, a lifestyle-based telecommunications brand and wholly-owned division of Sprint Nextel today announced that it has added the MOTOKRZR phone to its Unlimited by Boost service handset offering. The Boost-branded Motorola phone is available in black with a reflective finish, and includes the first month of service free of charge with new service activation on Unlimited by Boost.
The Boost-branded MOTOKRZ handset features an MP3 Music Player with Touch Sensor Music Controls, 1.3 Megapixel Camera with 4X Digital Zoom and Video Recorder, Bluetooth® wireless technology¹, GPS, Text and Multi-Media Messaging, Wireless Web and Email capabilities², access to AOL, Yahoo! and MSN Instant Messaging, Hands-Free Speakerphone with Voice-Activated Dialing and Voice Recorder, MicroSD Card slot for optional upgradeable memory, Bright Color TFT Internal Display and Java enabled games and applications.
The phone also includes “The Latest,” a new pre-loaded service that provides fast and convenient access to the most useful and local information throughout the day. Basic channels include breaking news, sports news and scores, stock market updates, showbiz and weather information. Premium channels provide street level maps and driving directions, Oxford American Dictionary with over 250,000 definitions and Unlimited Directory (411) search. For a limited time, The Latest is being offered for free for the first seven days. Following the 7-day promotional offer, a basic channel subscription will cost $2.99 per month and $4.99 per month for a premium channel subscription.
“Now is the perfect time for us to introduce the popular MOTOKRZR™ to our Unlimited by Boost handset lineup,” said Neil Lindsay, vice president of product development, Boost Mobile. “We doubled our base from 224,000 to 500,000 Unlimited by Boost customers in Q4 alone, and introducing this feature-rich handset will help us keep the momentum going.”
Currently available in 13 states including: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, Unlimited by Boost offers unlimited local and nationwide long distance calling from within a large home calling area for a low fixed monthly price. The monthly service fee excludes applicable taxes, including sales taxes, and customers making or receiving calls outside of their home calling area are charged 15 cents per minute. As with all service plans available from Boost Mobile, there are no contracts, credit checks or activation fees.
Mobile phone options for Unlimited by Boost now include the Motorola c290, w385 and MOTOKRZR. The suggested retail price for the c290 is $99.99, $129.99 for the w385 and $249.99 for the MOTOKRZR. Unlimited by Boost phones and service can be purchased at participating wireless dealer retail locations, Sprint, Wal-Mart and Radio Shack stores

99Bill Upgrades Mobile Payment Services

BEIJING, March 3 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- 99Bill Corporation ,

a leading third-party electronic payment services
provider in China, released upgraded mobile payment service to enable
mobile users in China to conduct transactions over the mobile phones. The
upgraded service is set to make the adoption of the mobile payment easier
for both the end consumers as well as for the merchants.
99Bill is the first payment company in China introducing email and
mobile number based payment services targeting 210 millions internet and
500 millions mobile users. With the massive adoption of the WAP enabled
mobile phones in China, the WAP-based payment service is becoming the new
and convenient option for sending and receiving payments. 99Bill's upgraded
mobile payment services support real time account setup, sending and
receiving payments, transaction inquiring, bank cards and prepaid cards
transactions and acknowledgement.
"Mobile phones are the convenient device for payment transactions, and
99Bill incorporates the mobile phone number as payment account ID right
from day one. This major upgrade is another step to expand mobile payment
functionalities for 500 million mobile users in China," said Oliver Kwan,
founder and CEO of 99Bill.
The steady growth of the mobile phone users in China has created huge
demands for mobile payment services for both personal and business
applications. 99Bill's upgraded WAP-based payment service will provide an
open platform for partners to develop applications with 99Bill's mobile
payment built-in, in turn, create even faster adoption by consumer and
business.
Besides WAP-based mobile payment service, 99Bill has been providing a
wide range of electronic payment services, including credit and debit card
processing, prepaid solutions, foreign currency, bank and post wire
processing, stored value accounts, and digital vouches. In addition to
mobile phone, 99Bill's services already cover multiple end devices, such
as, PCs, Telephones, IVR and Point of Sales devices. The company plans to
introduce more mobile based payment and billing services in the coming
months.

ScoresToSMS.com Launches New Service, Sending Live Sporting Updates to Mobile Phones Internationally

STARA ZAGORA, Bulgaria, March 3 /PRNewswire/ --
- With the Recent Launch of ScoresToSMS.com, Soccer Enthusiasts can Keep Their Heads in the Game Whenever and Wherever They Want. The New Mobile Service Relays Virtually all Kinds of Soccer Updates and Information via SMS to Cell Phone Users Around the World
With the recent launch of www.ScoresToSMS.com, the match never has to end. The new mobile service enables soccer enthusiasts of virtually any kind to receive live scores and other information on their favorite team or league anywhere in the world via SMS.
Through the www.ScoresToSMS.com website, users can select various information options to be text delivered to their cell phones, including specific tournaments, games, teams, and leagues. Updates will then be sent to users' mobile phones in real time during a match.
Among the sporting updates available through ScoresToSMS.com is information on game odds. Live betting odds from major bookmakers can be accessed and compared in an aggregated look in the ScoresToSMS.com "Best Odds" (http://www.scorestosms.com/?odds) online section.
During the month of March, ScoresToSMS.com is offering to match its new users' initial deposits up to 50 percent. To take advantage of this special service launch offer, simply use the coupon code "MarLaunch" after making an initial deposit through the website.
From Europe to South America, Africa to Asia and back again, ScoresToSMS.com keeps soccer addicts around the globe in tune with their favorite teams, their rankings, best odds, and much more. The ScoresToSMS.com site includes stats and information on the English, Spanish, Italian and German leagues as well as all other country leagues around Europe, South and North America, Africa and Asia.
UEFA Champions League and Cup, Copa Libertadores, Arabian Championships are just a few of the group stats included on the website. In addition to live matches, previous days' game history, as well as future fixtures, are available as a site feature.
Registration is free. Users are charged a one-time fee to receive live score updates but are not charged any additional fees for receiving SMS messages from ScoresToSMS.com. The average price for SMS is about EUR 0.11. This price is approximate and depends on country and mobile operator. The exact charge will be determined with the first test message.

United Kingdom Court Rules Qualcomm Patents Invalid

ESPOO, Finland, March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nokia
announced that a United Kingdom High Court judge issued a ruling in
favor of Nokia in the action brought by Qualcomm against Nokia on 24 May,
2006. In the ruling the judge determined that all of Qualcomm's asserted
GSM patent claims are invalid. Therefore Nokia does not need to compensate
Qualcomm for these patents.
"We are pleased with the Court's decision that the patent claims are
invalid and believe it is consistent with and supported by the facts,' said
Rick Simonson, Chief Financial Officer, Nokia. "This is the second court to
conclude that Qualcomm does not have relevant and valid GSM patents."
In a separate case filed by Qualcomm against Nokia, the US
International Trade Commission (ITC) last week decided against Qualcomm's
petition for review of Judge Luckern's Initial Determination issued on 12
December, 2007. Judge Luckern concluded that Nokia does not infringe the
three alleged Qualcomm patents in the case and that one of the patents is
invalid. This ITC investigation has now been terminated.
"The UK High Court and US ITC findings are further evidence of Qualcomm
overstating its position as an industry innovator and demanding
compensation for patents that are not relevant or valid," Simonson added.
Similar patents, asserted against Nokia GSM products, are at issue in
separate cases filed by Qualcomm against Nokia in China, Europe and the
United States. The parties have agreed to temporarily stay these patent
infringement lawsuits pending court proceedings in the Delaware Chancery
Court. Patent invalidation actions, filed by Nokia against Qualcomm patents
in suit, continue in China and Germany.
Qualcomm has yet to prevail in any patent litigation action against
Nokia despite having filed 11 lawsuits around the world over more than two
years.

T-Mobile and Nokia Introduce Nokia 6650 Exclusively for T-Mobile Customers

    ESPOO, Finland, March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At CeBIT 2008,
T-Mobile and Nokia announced the Nokia 6650, a stylish and easy to use
device optimized for use with T-Mobile services. Available exclusively for
T-Mobile International customers, the Nokia 6650 is equipped with the
latest wireless features, such as an integrated GPS and multimedia player,
allowing T-Mobile customers easy access to a wide range of services such as
web'n'walk, MyFaves, Mobile Jukebox and NaviGate.

  The Nokia 6650 will be available from T-Mobile during the third quarter
at T-Mobile sales points across Europe at a very attractive price. In
Germany for example, the Nokia 6650 will retail for just 1 euro together
with the Relax 100 rate.

  The Nokia 6650 - exclusive multimedia device

  The stylish, stainless-steel clad fold design is equipped with
state-of-the-art multimedia features and supports T-Mobile's services such
as web'n'walk, a service that allows easy access to the Internet on mobile
devices. High-speed HSDPA data connectibity enables fast web browsing and
downloading while the 2.2" TFT QVGA color display can display up to 16
million colours, making browsing and viewing photos, videos and menus a
pleasure. T-Mobile service My Faves keeps you in touch with the people that
matter the most while benefiting from the device's extensive talk time.
Mobile Jukebox users will appreciate the dedicated keys for the music
player. Furthermore, the Nokia 6650 has built-in AGPS (assisted GPS) to
enable quick positioning with NaviGate route management.

  The Nokia 6650 comes with a 2 megapixel camera with flash, 30 MB of
internal memory and a micro SD card slot, FM radio and many other features.
Images and videos can be uploaded to the web, sent from phone to phone via
a wireless Bluetooth connection, or viewed in full color on the device's
large display.

Virgin Mobile launches in India, targets youth market

MUMBAI, India (AP) - Virgin Mobile launched new services in India Sunday, targeting the youth market in one of the world's fastest growing regions, the company said. Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson said the British company would offer music, entertainment and news on India's film industry, sports and stock markets to about 400 million young
Indians in the 15 to 30-year-old age group. The British billionaire said his company would launch Virgin Mobile handset services through Tata Teleservices Ltd, a top Indian mobile operator, in 50 cities initially, expanding to more than 1,000 cities by December.«India looks very, very promising. We need only a small percentage of the market to do well,» Branson told reporters at a news conference.Branson said the size of India's youth market was staggering. «It's six times the size of the U.K.'s population and we are bound to have lots of fun here,» he said. Branson did not divulge financial details, but said he hoped to attract a customer base of 5 million subscribers . India is a key mobile phone market, adding more than 6 million new connections every month with its economy growing at more than 8 percent annually.

Weekly Recap

• Completion of Core Mobile NFC Standard to Spark New Services

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has adopted the technical standards governing Mobile Near Field Communications (NFC) services supported by the Association and its members. The completion of the core of the technical standards removes a potential obstacle, enabling mobile operators to prepare for the rollout of contactless payment services and other applications that make use of this flexible short-range radio technology.

• Completion of Core Mobile NFC Standard to Spark New Services

Mobile Phone Industry Expected to Resist Economic Downturn as Majority of Growth Will Come From Emerging Markets. Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users surpassed 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16 per cent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million, according to Gartner, Inc. Mobile phone sales at the end of the year were consistent with the yearly trend, as fourth quarter sales reached 330 million units.

• 950 Million Users Will Access Social Networking Sites via Mobile Devices

Today's active social networking members represent more than one-third of the total worldwide Internet user base, for a figure of 530 million members worldwide. Looking ahead, Pyramid Research expects social networking sites to gain prominence as sites add increased functionality and more people are introduced to them by friends and acquaintances. By the end of 2012, there will be 950 million users accessing social networking sites via their mobile devices.

• Priceline.com Launches New Mobile Services For Travelers

Priceline.com announced the launch of a suite of mobile services that enable travelers with Web-enabled wireless devices to search hotel inventories, pricing and availability in real-time, book rooms, check the status of their flights, and see recommended restaurants and local attraction reviews from Zagat Survey.

• Internet Service, GPS Driving Chinese Smartphone Market

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.

• Sprint Launches Revolutionary $99.99 “Simply Everything” Plan

Sprint announced it will launch a US unlimited pricing plan that gives customers unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TVSM, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, Direct Connect and Group Connect for $99.99 a month.

• Mobile Gaming to Grow as Gamers Move to Newer Channels

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.

• Vodafone UK Sat Nav Powered by Telmap Available for Consumers

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

• MELODIS Corporation Launches midomi mobile

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.

• LocaModa Connects Social Networks to Social Locations

LocaModa 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.

• Mobile Music Adoption Revenues Set to Reach $17.5bn by 2012

Juniper Research reports global ringtone revenues heading for a decline while the global mobile music market is expected to continue to rise. The total value of the global mobile music market is expected to rise to more than $17.5bn by 2012, driven by rental music services and full-track downloads.

• Report Buyer Says China Mobile Phone Subscribers Hit 738 million in 2010

Report Buyer, has added a new report which finds that the number of mobile subscribers in China will reach 738 million in 2010.

• Panasonic Begins Delivery of P905iTV Handsets

Combining the design concept of Panasonic large-screen flat-panel TV 'VIERA' and its high-quality picture technologies, the P905iTV is a sliding handset featuring "One-segment" mobile TV.

• Nokia and University of Cambridge Launch the Morph - a Nanotechnology Concept Device

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might bestretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobiledevice into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimatefunctionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexiblematerials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.

Completion of Core Mobile NFC Standard to Spark New Services

ETSI decision adds a key piece to the Mobile NFC jigsaw puzzle

London, GSMA Press Release 2008: The GSMA is pleased that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute has adopted the technical standards governing Mobile Near Field Communications (NFC) services supported by the Association and its members. The completion of the core of the technical standards removes a potential obstacle, enabling mobile operators to prepare for the rollout of contactless payment services and other applications that make use of this flexible short-range radio technology. Last week, members of ETSI selected the software protocol to control communication between the handset’s NFC chip and the SIM card, completing the standards necessary for handset makers to begin production of NFC-enabled phones in large volumes. As part of the GSMA’s Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, 13 mobile operators are running, or preparing to run, trials of contactless mobile payment services that make use of NFC technology. These trials are the precursor to commercial services that will enable consumers to use their handsets to quickly, easily and securely pay for goods and services in shops, restaurants and train stations. "ETSI's approval of the specification for a dedicated interface, or 'Host Controller Interface' (HCI), helps end uncertainty, complete the core mobile NFC standards and is an crucial milestone for the plans of the GSMA and its members to deploy contactless mobile payment services,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer of the GSMA. “The software protocol solution chosen by ETSI will make these new services easier to use by enabling consumers to access all the secure applications on their handset, no matter where they are stored, through one common interface."