Category Archives: Mobile Messaging
Facebook, email and IM available through SMS in the Dominican Republic
Rating: No need for mobile internet let alone a smartphone
A new service recently launched in the Caribbean’s Dominican Republic has showed hot it is possible to expand popular online services to low income mobile subscribers. The new service is called vSocial and is being offered by the local mobile network operator,VIVA, to its 700,000 subscribers. The service is based on software supplied by ForgetMeNot Software and enables regular handsets to use ‘internet-free apps’ to send and receive internet messaging on any GSM phone with SMS. Continue reading
Reports of SMS’ death greatly exaggerated says Acision
Rating: OTT services still not much of a threat
Apparently, the industry has recently been hit with a number of reports that SMS/text is on the demise. That would be stories like ours – ‘Smartphones’ unified mailbox are helping to kill SMS says Strand‘, then. Well, Acision says its recent (2012) research on consumer messaging habits, shows that 93 per cent of smartphone owners communicate via SMS, despite having access to Instant Messaging (IM) and over-the-top (OTT) services. The company actually says that, “The over-the-top (OTT) messaging services market is highly fragmented, and so far we have not seen one service establish itself as a main challenger to SMS.” Hence,”Predictions of the ‘death of SMS’ have been unduly presumptuous, as SMS continues to be a large part of operator’s revenues worldwide,” Acision says. Continue reading
PingMe for W7 Mango on its way
Rating: App comes to most mobile OS in 6 months
RadiumOne, the firm behind the PingMe Messenger app, has revealed that it hopes to unveil a version PingMe for Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) next week [April 2012]. Following an overhaul of its existing BlackBerry application, the company claims that in just six months, PingMe has [...]
Industry reacts positively to Apple’s iPad 3 launch
Rating: Rumours of iPad mini prove false, though
It wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret. However, the industry’s reaction to Apple’s launch of the iPad 3 yesterday [March 7th 2012] has been pretty positive. According to Mike Anderson, CEO with Chelsea Apps Factory, “The new device is also certainly going to be a shot in the arm for the apps business.” Mark Watson, an evp for technology and engineering with Antenna, observed, “The apps that Apple demonstrated as part of their announcement as well as the improved integration of services like iCloud suggest that this device is going to reinforce Apple’s position as first-choice tablet and market leader.” Significantly, Apple still needs to do more Fred Huet, md with Greenwich Consulting, thinks. “While the iCloud is a good offering, further functionality is needed in order to up Apple’s game against the likes of Google and Amazon,” he argued. Lynnette Prigmore, head of product with Proporta, also praised the hardware. “We’re particularly excited to see the much awaited 4G LTE feature with a 9 hour battery life,” she claimed. Continue reading
Synchronica gets in RCS via NewPace
Rating: Planning to offer RCS-e capability to operator clients
To date, there hasn’t really been much of a buzz around Rich Communications Service (RCS) – which is a GSMA driven standard that unifies different types of communication into a single service on a mobile handset. However, Synchronica has decided to cement an alliance with Canada’s NewPace Technology Development to cooperate in the development, sales and marketing of a Rich Communications Suite (RCS) product. No prizes for guessing that Synchronica is planning to offer RCS to its client base of over 100 mobile operators worldwide. GoMo News suggests that the company has spotted an opportunity which RCS can fill in developing countries without the need for high speed mobile internet. Continue reading
BARKCODE’s Erickson responds to QR code criticism
Rating: Why we are using Scanbuy’s EZcode not QR codes
Following our previous story revealing that Barkcodes are not standard QR codes here, BARKCODE’s Laura Erickson has responded to ciritcism of the company’s choice of 2D (two-dimensional) barcodes … As the co-founder of BARKCODE, I can tell you that we were the first to market with two-dimensional codes for the purposes of reuniting lost pets with their families. And, we actually started with QR codes. But while QR codes may be great as a marketing tool, we found that it didn’t quite cut the mustard for reuniting lost pets with their owners. Here’s why… Continue reading
Super Bowl Suzuki ad features non-standard 2D barcodes
Rating: But, hey, the US public probably won’t notice it’s a Barkcode instead
If you manage to mention 2D barcodes in a TV ad watched by around 111 million people, then it would be fair to say that they have entered the North American public’s consciousness. That’s what Mike Wehrs, Scanbuy‘s CEO, reckons. “If Super Bowl ads highlight what’s hot in American culture, then QR codes have officially become mainstream. It’s the latest example of how convenient and ubiquitous QR barcodes have become in nearly every part of American life.” It’s all thanks to Suzuki’s Super Bowl ad for its Kizashi sports sedan. It includes a promotion where dog owners can get a free ‘Barckcode’ tag. Scanbuy claimed that it had been estimated that around 60 per cent of viewers would have a smartphone capable of scanning that code. Unfortunately, BARKCODE isn’t using standard QR codes, it is using a 2D design of its own. Continue reading
RIM debuts BlackBerry OS 7.1 at CES
Rating: New BlackBerry Maps app supports coupons
BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion (RIM), took advantage of CES 2012, Las Vegas to showcase the latest version of its OS – 7.1. The biggest surprise will come for owners of Curve 9360 or 9380 models which will suddenly boast an FM radio. The radio circuitry was always there – but RIM hadn’t got around to implementing it. Unlike internet radio, FM radio doesn’t burn up your data allowance. 7.1 will also leverage the NFC capabilities of models which support it via the new BlackBerry Tag. The new OS also catches up with Android in allowing owners to turn their handsets into mobile hot spots – enabling device to take advantage of a 3G connexion via Wi-fi. An interesting development is the inclusion of coupons in the new BlackBerry Maps app. BBM has been improved, too. Continue reading
RIM probably isn’t trying to license BB10 – only its protocols
Rating: We also like the rumour about only one BB10 handset
BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion (RIM), continues to make the headlines. This time it centres on BB10 [BlackBerry 10 OS – formerly known as BBX]. In a Jeffries & Co research note co-written by analyst, Peter Misek, it seems to suggest that RIM is contemplating licensing its OS to the leading mobile phone vendors. GoMo News humbly suggests that other industry observers have got the wrong end of the stick and that RIM is actually considering licensing parts of its software. What used to be called the protocols. We also like the suggestion made in the Boy Genius Report blog here that RIM has decided to concentrate on making just the one BB10 handset aka Apple with its iPhones. Continue reading
Everything Everywhere extends mobile advertising Shots to T-Mobile UK
Everything Everywhere has started the roll out of its interactive SMS/MMS mobile advertising service to selected segments of the T-Mobile customer base for the very first time. The new service which launches on T-Mobile this month, provides a platform for brands to engage and interact with T-Mobile customers and follows the success of Orange Shots which launched last year.
Orange Shots? Continue reading
BBM Connected gets festive with Santa Dash
Rating: Great way to promote apps to 50 million+ userbase
Slowly but surely, GoMo News has noticed that more and more BlackBerry apps are cropping up boasting a facility which RIM is calling a ‘BBM Connected Application’. We decided to investigate and discovered that there is a very topical BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) connected app in the shape of Santa Dash. Naturally, this is an Xmas themed game and the good news is that it is entirely free. It also happens to be a good example of how BBM Connected works. That’s because you can select BBM contacts right from within the app and to invite them to download the app without having to quit what you’re actually doing. Continue reading
Carsten Brinkschulte moves on from Synchronica
Rating: We remember him best for the screaming phone
It has now been eight weeks since Carsten Brinkschulte resigned as CEO with Synchronica, but he tells GoMo News that it is time to move on and do something new. Brinkschulte remains a shareholder and supporter of the company which he co-founded seven years ago. He expanded the company from a small team in Berlin to the global leader in next-generation mobile messaging with more than 90 operator and 10 device manufacturer customers. However, GoMo News still remembers the early days when we visited Carsten in Munich which – by a happy co-incidence – just so happened to coincide with the Munich Beer Festival. Continue reading
Blyk hopes to attact Olympic sponsors to messaging
This is a cross-post of an article from our friends at Analyst House Mobile Squared
Blyk hopes to attract Olympic sponsors to messaging channel
Continue reading
Will services like BBM be the death of SMS?
Rating: Apparently not because there’s something called RCS-e
There’s been a great deal of doom and gloom cast over the fast growth of instant messging (IM) services such as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Apple’s iMessage, MXit, WhatsApp, Facebook Chat and Skype. Some are predicting that these so-called OTT (Over The Top) messaging services will spell the end for SMS/text. One figure banded about is the fact that last month [October 2011], it was revealed that over one billion messages are now being sent in a single day via the popular WhatsApp app. These developments have to be put in context and one such commentator is Tom Veldman, director of product marketing with Acision. He argues that the imminent demise of SMS at the hands of OTT service is an over-exaggeration. 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
