Monthly Archives: November 2011
Personal assistant apps reach Singapore courtesy of Novauris
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Having sat through the monotony that was the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S, GoMo News always thought the most significant announcement was the introduction of Siri. Part of iOS 5, Siri is a virtual personal assistant which acts as if it is your butler – like Jeeves. It responds to voice requests and performs all the usual tasks you’d expect to do with a mobile phone. Now Singaporeans have got one up on other countries around the world with a new app called Def!nd. Unlike Siri, Def!nd is able to search for businesses outside of the USA plus it can understand Asian accents. The app is supplied by local mobile operator SingTel, but Novauris has just received permission to say that its own technology powers this app. Continue reading
ZTE gets into embedded Android apps via Vringo
Rating: World’s fourth largest handset manufacturer differentiates itself
Here’s a really intriguing development. An alliance between ambitious mobile phone manufacturer, ZTE, and hot Android app creator, Vringo. The pair have just announced a deal whereby a Vringo app called Facetones will be preloaded onto ZTE Android handsets sold around the world. Facetones is mega-trendy app because it combines two major trends – social networking and video mobile apps. It almost doesn’t matter what the Facetones app does because it enables Vringo to participate in the estimated $7.7 billion preload software market. It helps ZTE because the Android handset market is getting so competitive. It’s also another feather in Vringo’s cap because the company only recently announced a major tie-up with the USA’s leading mobile network operator, Verizon Wireless. Continue reading
To dongle or not to dongle? That is the question for operators
Rating: Strand examines the pros & cons of chasing mobile broadband
Here at GoMo News, we just love mobile consultancy firms that are prepared it tell it like it is. And Strand Consult fits into that category perfectly. The firm has just published a new report entitled ‘Successful Strategies for the Mobile Broadband Market’. It has a sub-text which is: – small screen versus large screen – which screen size will be most profitable for mobile operators? Strand has grasped completely the apparently no-win situation over mobile broadband in which mobile operators find themselves at present. Do you chase the PC dongle brigade which will inevitably consume more and more of the available data bandwidth or do you try to entice more and more smartphones onto the network? Strand seems to have assessed this situation well by indicating that there are no simple answers to this dilemma. Continue reading
Adiquity Launches Asia’s first Real Time Bigging Exchange for Mobile Ads
Adiquity Mobile Ads Platform announced the launch of its Real Time Bidding (RTB) exchange for Mobile Ads. This places Adiquity alongside a select group of global mobile RTB exchanges, and the first mobile RTB exchange from Asia.
Adiquity enables Mobile Publishers generate higher monetary returns from their Mobile properties. The global mobile ads platform works for the mobile publishers/developers and applies real time optimization on global ad inventory accessible through its Ad network partners from across the world.
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Jumptap research Understanding the Mobile Audience
Second Study Reveals Dramatic Rise of Tablets as eCommerce Device of Choice; Rivals PC
CAMBRIDGE, MA. November 10, 2011 – Today, Jumptap, the leader in targeted mobile advertising, released its Wave Two in an ongoing proprietary research series Understanding Mobile Audience.
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Debate rages over “too expensive” W7 Mango comments
Rating: Telefónica’s Simon Lee-Smith stirs up hornets’ nest
A Telefónica executive, Simon Lee-Smith, has opened up a can of worms by telling Telecoms.com that he thinks the forthcoming W7 Mango phones “too expensive”. The European general manager for devices with Telefónica also complained that Nokia’s premium devices are “not yet at the right price point.” This has sparked a great debate as to where exactly the fault lies with Nokia wanting €420 for the Lumia 800 and Lee-Smith obviously not happy at paying such a price. Should Lee-Smith’s beef really be with Apple, not Nokia? And can Nokia really charge a premium price for Mango when the Microsoft OS clearly doesn’t merit it at the moment. Continue reading
Webinar from MACH on Advanced Messaging
[ November 17, 2011; 10:30 am; ] Build your own SMS business and generate immediate revenues with a Plug & Play solution!
SMS application messaging is currently driving the mobile advertising wave and is likely to remain a key mobile messaging medium over the coming years.In order to build your own SMS business in a challenging environment, you need to be able to harness the five key elements of mobile messaging. You need a partner who offers an effective and robust software solution. Continue reading
Gemalto sexes up NFC tech with free running video
Rating: Blink and you’ll miss what NFC is being used for
It seems that Gemalto is dead keen to portray NFC technology as being as trendy as possible. So it’s come up with a video to demonstrate NFC in action which has a particular twist. The video is called ‘Don’t Be Late- Parkour and Gemalto Mobile NFC Services’. The title might backfire a little since Parkour very definitely isn’t the French word for ‘jump’ but it is absolutely the French word for the sport that’s known as free running. That’s probably totally irrelevant as the video recounts the tale of a young black male – who just happens to be a ‘traceur’ or practitioner of the art of parkour – who’s late for a date with his girl. His jumping is so spectacular you forget to watch what he actually does with his NFC enabled handset. So you have to re-watch the video. Which we suspect is the whole idea. Continue reading
London Olympics will leave cellular networks paralysed warns Ruckus
Rating: The base stations won’t be able to handle it, Captain
There’s an extremely high chance – as the UK prepares for one of the largest influx of tourists it has seen during recent years in the run up to the Olympics – that the UK’s mobile networks will go into meltdown. That’s the opinion of Ruckus Wireless based on recent research published by infrastructure supplier, Ericsson, here. Total smartphone traffic is expected to triple during 2011 alone, according to Ericsson. So by late 2012 it will be even worse. One of the major culprits will be 3G ready culprits as well. Continue reading
Face for BBM isn’t quite what you’d expect
Rating: It’s still a really neat BlackBerry app, though
When we first discovered Facebook Chat for BBM from msonar, GoMo News thought it had struck gold. What we thought it did was use BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) as the bearer to reach those available to chat on Facebook. Which would have made those messages were free, of course. Sadly, it doesn’t. But it is highly efficient. Facebook Chat for BBM is also one of the few applications to use the new XMPP protocol for Facebook Chat – which offers faster communications and smaller data requirements. The other good news is that this app is free. Continue reading
QRvoice converts speech into QR codes for listening to
Rating: We’re puzzled by its business model
GoMo News has just received a message from one of our readers – Marcel Duran, who informed us that he’s managed to create a site – QRvoice – that converts speech into QR codes. You can find the site here. Then, when you scan in the QR code, it fires up your handset’s audio player and outputs the message as a synthesized voice. We tried it out and it seems to work very well. Now all we’ve got to do is figure out what this technology is best used for. Oh, and work out what Marcel’s business model is too, because there’s no sign of advertising anywhere in the process. Continue reading
Vodafone Rewardz 1 Net Refuzniks 0
Rating: Vodafone’s Rewardz scheme defeats boring old farts (BOFs)
It’s all well and good designing a customer incentive scheme when you are available and looking ror a educated, well-paid thirtysomething executive. However, there are a small but significant band of Vodafone prepaid customers who are completely baffled by the company’s incentive scheme – Rewardz– designed to reward those who Top-Up regularly. Continue reading
Daum is absolutely creaming AdMob in Korea
Rating: And 3rd & 4th players combined beat Google, too
It simply isn’t the kind of figures you’d expect but in the Korean mobile advertising market, a named probably totally unfamiliar to most of us is absolutely miles ahead in terms of monthly page views. According to a report on Asiaone.com here, Daum Communications with its mobile platform ‘Adam’, has monthly page views which total 10 billion. By comparison, Google’s AdMob platform has only just gone passed the four billion page views per month. Now you might think that’s a temporary blip on the horizon. Except that Google has plenty of other fierce Korean competitors in the mobile adspace. If you add the shares of third place Future Stream Networks and fourth place SK Telecom, together they have more views than AdMob. It’s proving that Google isn’t always an unbeatable player. Continue reading
France Telecom-Orange and Publicis Group launch venture fund
France Télécom-Orange and Publicis Groupe decide to launch a venture-capital fund to boost development of the digital economy
Paris, 7, November, 2011 – France Télécom-Orange [EURONEXT Paris : FR0000133308] and Publicis Groupe [EURONEXT Paris : FR0000130577] will announce today plans to launch a new venture capital fund. The fund will finance and develop budding entrepreneurs in the digital [...]
Ethnic MVNOs should offer sending money home
Rating: Forget just cheap calls to Asia says QiComm
More and more MVNOs [Mobile Virtual Network Operators] are emerging to cater for customer segments that can be overlooked by the major mobile network operators. The real growth area – according to Pat Nabhan, CEO of QiComm, is the ethnic MVNO market. But it’s not just about offering cheap calls. QiComm has established a way for its subscribers to make credit transfers to friends and relatives in their home markets; effectively allowing calls to be reverse charged. The trick is to ensure that any MVNO SIM card remains the prime card, QiComm asserts. Continue reading
