4 BILLION WORLDWIDE MOBILE SUBSCRIBERS BY YEAR-END

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that the worldwide mobile cellular subscriber base will reach the 4 billion mark before the end of this year. The year-on-year growth of mobile cellular subscribers has averaged 24% between 2000 and 2008. While in 2000, mobile penetration stood at just 12%, it surpassed the 50% mark by early this year, and is expected to reach about 61% by the end of year-end. The surge in the mobile cellular subscriber base is mainly attributable to development in some of the world’s largest markets. Brazil, Russia, India, and China are expected to account for over 1.3 billion mobile subscribers by the end of 2008. China surpassed the 600 million mark by mid-2008, representing by far the world’s largest mobile market, while India had close to 296 million mobile subscribers by the end of July this year but with a relatively low penetration rate of about 20% indicating high-growth potential. ITU recently published two reports for Africa and Asia, discussing the developments of mobile telephony in the regions. While mobile broadband subscribers remain concentrated in the developed world, a number of developing countries, including Indonesia, the Maldives, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka in Asia-Pacific have launched 3G networks. -Smarajit Dasgupta

MYSPACE, RIM JOIN FORCES TO DELIVER MOBILE SOCIAL APPLICATION FOR BLACKBERRY

MySpace and Research In Motion (RIM) have partnered to develop an integrated MySpace Mobile experience customized for BlackBerry smartphones. The application integrates MySpace’s main social networking components with the BlackBerry platform to provide instant, push-based messaging to BlackBerry and MySpace users. The MySpace for BlackBerry smartphones application is expected to be available globally from October. "MySpace and RIM are at the forefront of the mobile social networking evolution," said MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. "Our partnership enables millions of BlackBerry smartphone users to leverage MySpace on the go and access content, friend networks, and status and mood updates anywhere at any time." The MySpace for BlackBerry smartphones application will offer a full messaging interface, including comments, bulletins, and messaging; real-time status and mood updates; finding, adding, and responding to friend requests; camera integration and optimized photo management; viewing and commenting on friends’ albums and photos; and notification of new MySpace events. RIM is also creating a BlackBerry Hub community page on MySpace for users to access the latest BlackBerry smartphone news, content, videos, games, ringtones, skins, and other features. eMarketer forecasts that over 800 million people worldwide will be accessing social networks via their mobile phones by 2012, up from 82 million in 2007. -Smarajit Dasgupta

CALL GENIE AND THE NUMBER PUSH TRANSITION TO INNOVATIVE LOWER-COST INTERNET MODEL

Hard on the heels of the introduction by T-Mobile of the first Google Android phone, which comes equipped with a separate physical context-sensitive "search" button, Call Genie announced that it will power an innovative new self-service advertiser initiative from 118//Media, a subsidiary of The Number UK Ltd., which is in turn a subsidiary of the kgb. Beginning on November 17th, UK advertisers will be able to log onto a dedicated 118//Media site powered by Call Genie to bid for placement of their ads on SMS text messages that follow mobile calls to 118 118. The system will let advertisers choose the specific inquiry categories and localities to which their ad message will be attached. 118//Media will use key components of Call Genie's CG Product Suite to allow 118//Media's advertisers to create their individual accounts, manage the creation and provisioning of SMS ad campaigns, and provide integrated support for secure payment infrastructures.

118//Media was launched at the beginning of 2007 and reported 7,000 advertiser accounts year's end from a staff of over 100. This self-service approach will dramatically reduce the cost of customer acquisition and customer service. “By partnering with Call Genie to produce this new ad solution, we fully expect to disrupt the mobile advertising landscape by offering advertisers the chance to take control of the whole process—the level of their ad spend, the frequency of their messaging, the category and locality of consumers that they want to reach, and the accuracy and accessibility of reporting” said 118//Media CEO Matt Leonard. -Stuart Whitaker

WHITEPAGES.COM INTRODUCES MOBILE CARRIER NETWORK LOOKUP FEATURE

WhitePages.com has released a Carrier Lookup feature that is designed to let users look up the cell phone carrier of their contacts. This can be particularly useful for users of mobile data plans that offer much cheaper or free unlimited “in-network” or “mobile-to-mobile” calling. One can use the Carrier Lookup feature to determine the mobile carrier network for a given phone number. The feature can also be accessed here. WhitePages.com lets people list their mobile phone and offers privacy controls including hiding the number. -Smarajit Dasgupta

DASH NAVIGATION, DIAL DIRECTIONS, TELLME, DECARTA SPUR VOICE SERVICES INNOVATION

Dash Navigation (Dash) was created as a "next generation" GPS device that would not only provide users with maps and directions, but also would capture and communicate traffic information. The Dash Driver Network sends and receives anonymous traffic data that helps drivers find the best options given real-time information. The current generation Dash Express device doesn't have voice recognition or voice input capability, but it does have data input capability that Dial Directions and Tellme are using to provide enhanced services. Dial Directions launched a voice service last year that provides directions from point A to point B in the US to users who call +1 DIRECTIONS (+1 [347] 328-4667). The new service allows callers to speak their destination and have the results automatically sent to their Dash Express device. The Dash Express device can then route the user from his or her current location to the destination device without the user having to manually input the information.

“Our “remote control” phone service bridges the gap between voice, mobile, and location-based technologies,” claimed Dial Directions CEO Adeeb Shanaa. Robert Currie, president and COO of Dash Navigation, said the announcement of the Dial Directions capability "marks an important milestone for the extension of the Dash connected navigation platform into voice services. Dash is committed to bringing creative and compelling features to the Dash community by working with companies, like Dial Directions, that are pioneering new types of GPS services while remaining committed to high standards of performance, quality, and accuracy.”

According to Amit Desai, Dial Directions' co-founder and chief product officer, Garmin and TomTom have a greater market share than Dash but not all of their Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) will allow input from voice providers such as Dial Directions. Whereas Dial Directions allows users to easily send location information to Dash devices, Tellme users can search for businesses and have the business information, including location, easily sent to users' Dash devices.

Dash is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Skymoon Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, Artis Capital, and ZenShin Capital Partners.

Geospatial software platform provider deCarta plans to integrate Dial Directions’ voice recognition technology in the next generation of Connected Navigation Services. “With a wide variety of location-enabled services potentially available to the consumer through connected navigation, streamlining the user-interface for ease-of-use is exceptionally important,” said Louis Bouchard, director of marketing at deCarta. “Having Dial Directions join deCarta’s value-chain consortium of connected navigation service and technology providers is a key component to increase service usage and user-satisfaction.” -Stuart Whitaker, Smarajit Dasgupta

NOKIA CONTINUES TO DOMINATE GLOBAL MOBILE SMARTPHONE TRAFFIC

Based on traffic to the more than 5,000 mobile web sites for which AdMob serves ads, Nokia had 62.4% of worldwide smartphone traffic in August, with over 50% share in each region except for North America. The top device was the Nokia N70 with 11.7% of total smartphone traffic. The Apple iPhone experienced the largest monthly increase in share, up 1.3% to 3.8% of total traffic, yet still ranked only ninth. The top five manufacturers were Nokia, RIM, Palm, HTC, and Apple.

Top Worldwide Smartphones
Rank	Handset	Models	Traffic	Change
1	Nokia	N70	11.70%	0.10%
2	Nokia	N95	5.70%	0.10%
3	Nokia	N73	5.10%	-0.20%
4	Nokia	N80	5.10%	0.50%
5	RIM	BlackBerry 8100	5.10%	-0.20%
6	Nokia	6600	5.00%	-0.30%
7	Palm	Centro	4.80%	-0.10%
8	RIM	BlackBerry 8300	4.00%	0.40%
9	Apple	iPhone	3.80%	1.30%
10	Nokia	7610	3.50%	0.10%
11	Nokia	3230	3.20%	0.00%
12	Nokia	6120c	3.20%	0.30%
13	Nokia	6630	2.90%	-0.20%
14	Nokia	6680	2.20%	-0.10%
15	Nokia	N81	2.10%	0.30%
16	Samsung	Instinct (M800)	1.80%	0.70%
17	Danger	Sidekick II	1.80%	-0.50%
18	Samsung	BlackJack II (i617)	1.10%	0.00%
19	Nokia	N72	1.00%	-0.10%
20	Nokia	3250	1.00%	0.00%
Total			74.00%
Top Smartphone Manufacturers
Rank	Manufacturer	Traffic	Change
1	Nokia	62.40%	1.00%
2	RIM	10.80%	0.10%
3	Palm	6.20%	-0.20%
4	HTC	5.00%	-0.50%
5	Apple	3.80%	1.30%
Total		88.20%

AdMob defines a smartphone as a device which has an identifiable operating system. -Stuart Whitaker

US CELL PHONE LOCATION DATA PRIVACY AFFIRMED

The US federal court in the Western District of Pennsylvania affirmed a magistrate judge's decision requiring that the government obtain a warrent to obtain cell phone location history. The government indicated it might appeal the decision.
-Stuart Whitaker

T-MOBILE / GOOGLE / HTC UNVEIL FIRST ANDROID DEVICE

T-Mobile, Google, and HTC launched the first Android-powered mobile phone, the T-Mobile G1. Aspects that distinguish it from iPhone include a pre-loaded Amazon MP3 application store, a pull-out keyboard, multi-tasking, open source software, absence of Microsoft Exchange support, absence of a desktop application, and implementation of online presence within the phonebook.

Three third party developers were showcased at the announcement. Big in Japan, which offers ShopSavvy (formerly GoCart), and Compare Everywhere, both use the built-in camera to scan product bar codes to deliver comparison shopping. The third developer, Ecorio, is designed to track, reduce, and offset carbon footprints.

The SIM-locked device will be available on October 22nd for US$ 179 and requires both a voice and a data plan. T-Mobile offers 3G today in 16 markets, will offer 3G in 22 markets by the October launch and 27 markets in November, which will cover 80% of US consumers. T-Mobile plans to launch the device with its biggest marketing campaign ever. -Stuart Whitaker

AFFLE POWERS SMS2.0 MOBILE SEARCH SERVICE FROM AIRTEL IN INDIA

Indian telecom service provider Bharti Airtel and mobile media company Affle have rolled out an SMS based search service in all of India. The service, dubbed Short Message & Search 2.0 or SMS2.0, is available to users for free and to download SMS2.0, the Airtel customer needs to send “SMS2” to 543210. There is no charge for downloading and for subsequent content delivery on this platform. The SMS charges are levied according to one’s existing mobile plan. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Mobile Services at Bharti Airtel said, “In India, the Mobile phone penetration far exceeds the Internet and thus there is a huge demand for new age platforms like SMS2.0, which give users an easier and intuitive experience to access the best of Content and Search features on the mobile for free. We are very excited to offer this revolutionary service which allows our users to Search – Airtel Live, Internet, Local search, Jobs, and Property listings, from their SMS screen.”

Affle CEO Anuj Khanna commented, “India is a very exciting mobile market and in Airtel we have found a great partner to take our services to users. We had tremendous success with the SMS2.0 service, and with the launch of Search, we feel that the value proposition to the user is even more exciting. Our research shows that the Search behavior of users on the mobile phone is very different from the Internet and hence integration of exciting local and other user relevant Search options on the easy to use SMS interface makes this experience very enticing.” -Smarajit Dasgupta