Mobile Contents

What do you think a powerful company wants more than anything? More power of course.

Such is the case of the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart and its big ambition to dominate the mobile content arena. It recently launched Wal-Mart Mobile, an online store and WAP portal selling ringtones, games, and wallpapers.

While there are already many established companies jumping in this bandwagon, Wal-Mart will use its massive offline network to push this new venture.

It will be promoted in more than 4,000 Wal-Mart brick-and-mortar retail stores using shortcodes and other point-of-sale (POS) initiatives. Simultaneously, its online presence is also a big push.

The marriage of online and offline marketing activities has the potential to influence trial and purchase. This unique advantage puts Wal-Mart ahead of the competition.

The big question is, can Wal-Mart deliver the same cost advantage they now enjoy and promise everyday low prices…everyday?

Via Mobile Entertainment

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As if we don't know…but a little confirmation really helps.

Google will probablybid in the Federal Communications Commission's upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 megahertz band.

It basically means the search engine giant has officially declared a protracted war against the big mobile networks in an effort to gain a strong traction in the wireless industry.

“We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are. Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet,” said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, in a press release.

Consumers are the biggest winners because this bid will allow users download any software application they want on their mobile device, and to use any mobile devices they would like on that wireless network.

Still, I hope Google wins so it can spread its competitive spirit like brush fire and if they uphold their commitments, free the mobile consumers from cumbersome policies.

More details at the Official Google Blog

Via Marketing Pilgrim

Photo via nullgel

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With half of the world's population owning mobile phones, there's still plenty of room to introduce new mobile phones. The new study by MultiMedia Intelligence reports that the worldwide shipments of multimedia feature rich mobile phones will exceed 300 million units in 2008, outnumbering shipments of TV sets.

Multimedia phone is defined as a handset equipped with an image sensor, MP3 audio support, and video playback. It is estimated that 9 out of 10 handsets are multimedia phones by 2011. According to Frank Dickson, Chief Research Officer for MultiMedia Intelligence:

“Voice services are suffering under increasing price pressure, forcing operators to leverage data services to sustain revenue growth and offset declining voice ARPU. Handset manufacturers are racing to meet the consumer and operator demands for increasingly feature-rich multimedia handsets, while controlling handset cost and power consumption. The result is the mobile phone has become the world's most ubiquitous entertainment platform.”

Given the increasing number of multimedia phones, it is now a major factor to retain and gain new customers.

Via InformationWeek


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Aiming to break the language barriers, Japanese electronics company NEC has developed the first automatic translation software tailored for mobile phones.

Although the technology to translate Japanese to English exists a long time ago, this is the first time it's used in mobile phones without any external help.

It can recognize more than 50,000 Japanese words and the translation process takes only seconds. However, Akihabara News pointed out, the software has a tremendous difficulty to translate some basic English words used in the everyday Japanese like for example “New York” or “Jet-lag”.

The software is in still in the development stage and hopefully all these problems will be resolved before its public launch. NEC is also studying the possibility of vocal translation.

If you're looking for a decent translation device in your mobile phone, you can try Steape's talking translator for cellphones.

Via Wired

Photo from Akihabara News

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Mobile content provider Cellfish has added another interesting feature, Add-to-Phone. It basically gives publishers and bloggers the power to download or stream Web contents like music, videos, photos, and news feeds directly to mobile phones without spending a single cent.

All you need is a WAP-enabled mobile phone. No mobile apps needed and it works on 100 countries worldwide.

Just click the Add to Phone button, enter your number, and you will receive a text message with a link to the content. Much to my delight, Cellfish automatically formats the content based on the user's handset.

If you're interested, just visit http://www.addtophone.com/tools/ and integrate this service either as a widget or an API.

Feel free to watch this video to fully understand the benefits of this free service. Although, I hope Cellfish could come up with better videos to supplement this cool service.

Thanks to Michael Selvidge

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Packet8 MobileTalk is another mobile application claiming it can reduce international phone bills and maintain high international voice quality at the same time.

What makes it different from calling cards and other so-called reduced-rate international mobile calling services is that mobile consumers need not dial numerous keystrokes or operate cumbersome mobile applications.

Instead, we can dial the same way we place ordinary calls on our mobile phones. All you need to do is sign up for an account, download their mobile app, and you can dial right away.

Whenever you make an international call (dialing starts with 011… or starts with '+'), the MobileTalk application will automatically route the call to the Packet8 network and you will save up to 90% or more on your international cell phone calls.

It is compatible with about 450 mobile phones available in the market today. Check their list of supported devices before trying this service.

With the proliferation of many mobile applications helping mobile users to save money on international calls, I wonder why those big mobile operators are still not willing to lower down their rates.

See full article.

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Europe Takes a Different Route on In-flight Mobile Use – 18 October 2007

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The success of Black Friday and Cyber Monday indicates the start of yet another very busy holiday shopping season for many of us. Good thing your mobile phone can be a powerful ally in getting good deals.

I listed some of the mobile sites of major shopping search engines so you can do your shopping while on the go and avoid the crazy crowd. Don't forget to bookmark your preferred sites so you won't have to type it again and again.

Mobile sites

Barcle.com
This is a new site where you just need to enter the product's 12-digit barcode and it will let you know the shops selling it for the lowest price. I hope this will enable barcode scanning via camera phones for typing barcodes can be very tiring.

http://mobile.barcle.com/

PriceGrabber
http://www.atpgw.com/

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/access

eBay
http://m.ebay.com/

Yahoo! Shopping
http://shopping.yahoo.com or http://us.wap.yahoo.com/p/shopping

Overstock
http://www.mobile.overstock.com/

SMS

Smarter SMS (text the product description to 610-7627837 and you will get the lowest price online)

Frucall (Text the barcode to 37811 to get the lower prices available)

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Mobile apps might be a more effective alternative over mobile ads. According to adweek, multinational companies like P&G, Vicks, and Coca-Cola are experimenting on mobile apps that are useful to customers and relevant to their brand image.

Spending on mobile apps instead of running annoying mobile ads is more practical because it puts more emphasis on mobile consumers – developing apps that will help them perform their tasks betters. The crucial thing here is how to tie this app with the brand's identity.

The idea is really simple yet very sweet. In fact, it is basic branding. Understanding consumers' needs and wants is the first big step in any marketing endeavor.

In a way, it reminds me why Blyk's strategy i.e. free calls and SMS in exchange for 6 targeted ads per day is quite successful – they know what their target market wants.

Via MarketingVOX


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Study: 79% of Consumers Annoyed with Mobile Ads – 17 April 2007

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Mobile Ads Least Credible Form of Advertising – 10 October 2007

Latest Mobile Marketing Study Released – 19 November 2007

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So I’m speaking at the very nice cmf2007 conference at Aarhus on Wednesday, November 7th. I’m actually delighted to be joined by Jukka Zitting and Steve Millidge. Jukka’s on the expert group for JSRs 170 and 283 while Steve’s on the expert group for JSRs 168 and 286.
In the end, hopefully we’ll have [...]

In an earlier post about Fatwire, I’d written:
However, I wonder where are the other so called Web 2.0 features like blogs, wikis and so on?
I’d like to believe Fatwire noticed that . They recently acquired Infostoria, which has offerings in this space. Infostoria also had a SaaS offering called zeegzaag.com offering hosted wikis. It will [...]