Wireless Federation

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the new BlackBerry® TourTM smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM) available from Sprint on America’s most dependable 3G network1, staying connected won’t be a worry domestically, or when you travel around the world.

The BlackBerry Tour smartphone is a powerful mobility tool that operates on Sprint’s nationwide 3G (EV-DO Rev. A) network domestically. It also roams on other high-speed wireless networks around the world for reliable voice and email communication without missing a beat.

The BlackBerry Tour is a sophisticated smartphone that enables customers to be more productive and better equipped to manage both their busy personal and business lives. It is ideally suited for those who want to stay socially connected, and lets you share moments through pictures and videos via MMS and instant message on popular IM services or BlackBerry® Messenger. It also offers easy access to your favorite social networking sites like Flickr®, MySpace and Facebook®, and you get smooth integration between the BlackBerry Tour smartphone and your Facebook events and friends giving you a great view of what’s happening both personally and professionally. This is the most powerful business smartphone in Sprint’s line-up with instant access to emails, calendar, contacts, robust business applications and location-based services, leveraging the best performing networks both domestically and abroad.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia has unleashed a new range of handsets including Nokia E72 smartphone. Nokia E72 comes with a full QWERTY keypad offering services like mobile e-mail and instant messaging. Users can set up instant messaging accounts provided by Nokia Messaging direct from the homescreen.The handset will begin shipping by Q3′09-end.
Nokia also unveiled the 5530 XpressMusic device, offering a touch interface and ’scrolling’ contacts bar giving direct access to 20 contacts and their latest conversations and media updates. The phone comes with a homescreen featuring one-touch shortcuts to content and social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace; and is expected to begin shipping in Q3.
The handset manufacturer has also uncovered the 3710 fold phone which comes with Ovi content services and is expected to be available in the Q4.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: AT&T has added a new feature, titled as Send to Mobile to att.net, enabling subscribers to push content from the web portal to AT&T mobile devices. The subscribers can register for a free att.net account, which includes e-mail with unlimited storage. From that account, they can push links to content such as news, weather, sports and entertainment to supported mobile devices. Additionally, he subscribers can also add links to access the mobile versions of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Fandango, ESPN and others.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Etisalat reportedly experienced 10,000 new customers signing up for the BlackBerry services in April. The operator offer seven handsets and three tariff packages to choose from.
Etisalat subscribers are also being benefited from a free promotion for the BlackBerry Domestic Unlimited package which started on April 7, 2009 and ends on May 7, 2009. The promotion offers 3 months free subscription to the BlackBerry Domestic Unlimited package and gives subscribers unlimited access to Internet, email and mobile applications such as Facebook, MSN, MySpace and much more.
“What we are seeing in terms of customer response is a reflection of Etisalat’s success in   creating a strong value proposition with attractive packages and a choice of handsets on offer for both consumer and business users,” said Abdulla Hashim, VP, Business Solutions, Etisalat. “Our ability to deliver a great customer experience through Etisalat’s 3.5G mobile broadband service with coverage of up to 99% of the populated areas in the UAE has also been a strong selling point with our customers.”

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Cellcom, the Israeli mobile operator, has introduced a new application dubbed as 8hands that allows the subscribers to link to various social networking sites. 8hands is a downloadable application available on Cellcom’s website or via a handset’s portal. 8hands supports Facebook, Flicker, MySpace, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.
The service is being offered for free of cost for a one-month trial period, after which it costs ILS 5.90 per month.

The main focus of GSMA at the Mobile World Congress was based on the expansion of MMTP’s (Mobile Money Transfer Programme) scope. It enters in a strategic partnership with Belgacom International Carrier Services and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Acer is anticipated to launch two Android based devices in 2009.

HTC, at MWC showcased the dream mobile phone, dubbed as ‘Magic’. This mobile phone is Google Android based handset is launched in collaboration with Vodafone. HTC Magic adornes an Android-optimized Webkit browser, as well as Google applications, Google Maps and Google Search, YouTube, reports Tech Fragments.

Nokia unleashed its 8 mega-pixel handset named as N86 whereas Garmin and Asus together unveiled location based ‘phoning’ with the Nuviphone.

LG demonstrated the X120, a 3G supporting netbook that marks its way into the netbook market. LG also unveiled its wrist watch mobile phone with features like touchscreen interface, HSDPA capabilities and video calling. It comes with a curved tempered glass face, metal casing and is 13.9mm thick. Orange announced that it will be the first operator to offer the LG Touch Watch phone (LG-G910) in Europe.

Yahoo comes up with a new ‘Yahoo Mobile‘ carrying all its services in one device, which is likely to be available by the end of Q1′09. The phone is festooned with features like Discover - consisting of OneSearch and Today; Connect with email, IM and social networking and Stay Informed with News and OnePlace, which lets consumers add their favorite news topics and sources, RSS feeds, weather conditions, sports scores, stock quotes, websites/blogs, horoscopes and movie theaters on their mobile.

Navteq is in partnership with weather service firm Foreca to provide the API & RSS feed.

i-mate’s showcased credit card sized Windows Mobile Standard Smartphone and SIM cards with Motion detection sensor.

Palringo in collaboration with Gigafone’s Ochre to tackle market fragmentation in the digital media campaigning domain. These two companies are likely to introduce four major components of the mobile advertising ecosystem - campaign creation, planning, distribution and result measurement - together.

An iPhone application dubbed as Documents To Go was instigated by DataViz, which enables iPhone users to modify Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint document from their handsets.

MySpace introduced a new mobile version that widens branding and advertisement opportunities.

Nokia and Qualcomm together will launch UMTS mobile devices in mid-2010.

GSMA and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation teamed up to Expand Availability of Financial Services through Mobile Phones

Skype proclaimed that Nokia N series will soon have VoIP pre-loaded.

OgilvyOne will ink a dealwith Mobixell to deliver a complete commercial and technological package which includes: advertising, brand management, consumer profiling, campaign planning and execution, ad serving and rich media delivery

A voice to text service was launched by SpinVox for Italian and Portugese.

The Airtel-T9 India Consumer Vernacular Messaging Campaign has won the GSMA MWC award for the “Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

RIM is leading the chart with maket share of 54% in US smartphone market. It proclaimes a series of new initiatives poised to increase its dominance in this sector. With the social networking giant MySpace, develop an integrated MySpace Mobile experience customized for BlackBerry devices. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie announced a new partnership with Microsoft to launch Live Search optimized for the BlackBerry platform, as well as an agreement with digital video recording solutions provider TiVo to introduce customized wireless TiVo services. Balsillie said, “It’s important to create an environment where you support diverse messaging services”. We’re now seeing a convergence of the four screens–your cell phone, your home phone, your home Internet and your home content, Balsillie added.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Marc Andreessen (Founder of Ning) and Ben Horowitz (VP and GM of HP’s Business technology oragnisation) have funded Qik (mobile video streaming service). The amount is not yet disclosed. The live video streaming field is very competitive, Qik has integrated a bunch of services, that is Twitter, YouTube, Mogulus, MySpace, Orkut and Justin.tv in its service. The service allows users with a camera phone to stream live video, and get feedback from other “followers” online. It is admired among the bloggers and other citizen journalists.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Almost half (44%) of UK mobile phone subscribers belong to an online social network and of this group, 25% use their handset for social networking-related activities, according to new findings from Neilsen Mobile.
 
Around 812,000 Britons each month, or 1.7% of all UK mobile subscribers, visited a social networking website using their mobile during the first quarter of 2008
 
Facebook is the most popular site for mobile social networking, being visited by over half a million Britons (557,000) from their mobiles, or 9% of all UK Mobile Internet subscribers.

It’s interesting news for marketers increasingly looking for new ways to reach media savvy young consumers.
 
Client Services Manager at Nielsen Mobile, Kent Ferguson, said, “Social networking is already a global phenomenon, and mobile could be the next big thing in the space.

“Large numbers of people are interacting with their social networking profiles while they’re on the move.”

He added, “There could be increased consumer demand for mobile social networking driven by the flat fee price plans offered by the leading operators that give subscribers unlimited mobile Internet access.”

The four most popular social networks on the mobile mirror the four most popular on the PC: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Windows Live Spaces.
 
However travel social network WAYN is a one to watch. It has the strongest performance on the mobile compared to the PC, ranking 7th on mobile Internet compared to 21st on PC Internet
European Internet Analyst at Nielsen Online, Alex Burmaster, explained, “The increasingly competitive nature of social networking online is being replicated in the mobile space.

“The leading players remain the same but networks such as WAYN and Faceparty have considerably improved on their PC ranking in the mobile world.”

He added, “In an effort to differentiate their offerings and pull ahead all the networks are looking to what the mobile medium can offer – particularly when it comes to attracting 15-24 year olds, a group highly representative amongst social networking addicts.”
 
One in five (21%) Britons who use their mobile for social networking activities, use it to add friends. Bur most popular activity remain sending messages and mail (55 per cent).

Burmaster concluded, “It’s all about adding value. By tapping into the key elements of mobile phone activity, such as text and images, the social networks can increase engagement and ‘stickiness’ amongst their members as well as maximising audience numbers and activity on their own site.
 
For example, within minutes of a social networker making a new friend whilst out and about, they can add them to their digital friends list. This simultaneously enhances both the phone and the network as an extremely important modern-day social utility.”

Facebook was recently reported to be in talks with Nokia in a bid to drive it’s online offering.

Meanwhile Bebo has struck a deal with Intercasting Corp. to allow the site’s 40 million users to produce and share content on their mobiles through the Anthem platform.

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