The CTIA (www.ctia.org) is hosting a forum on June 24, 2009 on mobile health (mHealth) solutions for America’s health care crisis. The CTIA believes that a significant part of the solution is something that more than 270 million Americans use daily – it’s their mobile wireless services. Speakers will be from the US Congress, the Obama Administration, and medical and policy experts.
-Stuart Whitaker
Saturday, June 20, 2009
TARGUSINFO PROMOTES WIRELESS CNAM.
TARGUSInfo (www.targusinfo.com), based in Vienna, Virginia, reports that it launched the first commercial wireless Caller Name (CNAM) service in the US. CNAM, also referred to as Caller ID, was introduced by MetroPCS (www.metropcs.com). Based on their analysis and experience, TARGUSInfo believes that regional wireless carriers with 18 million subscribers can generate an additional $12.3 million per month in gross revenue with a 30% penetration of subscribers choosing Wireless CNAM (WCNAM) as a value added feature (assumes $1.99 per month per subscriber).
| Potential WCNAM Monthly Revenue | ||||
| Penetration | 5 M | 15 M | 30 M | 50 M |
| 10% | $1.0 | $1.5 | $3.0 | $5.0 |
| 15% | $1.5 | $4.5 | $9.0 | $15.0 |
| 20% | $2.0 | $6.0 | $12.0 | $20.0 |
| 35% | $3.5 | $10.5 | $21.0 | $35.0 |
| Source: TARGUSinfo | ||||
Thursday, June 18, 2009
MOBILE SEARCH EXPLOSION
ComScore (www.comscore.com) reported that the number of people who sought local information on a mobile device grew 51% from March 2008 to March 2009.
-Stuart Whitaker
-Stuart Whitaker
Thursday, June 11, 2009
UK sees launch of directory assistance with mobile numbers
UK ICO GIVES TACIT APPROVAL TO MOBILE DIRECTORY SERVICE. Following years of effort to provide mobile numbers through directory assistance (DA), Connectivity (www.connectivityltd.co.uk) has begun the launch of its new UK DA service, 118800. The service is available online now (www.118800.co.uk) and, according to the web site, will be available in the future in the UK by dialing 118800.
While mobile listings are commonly included directory assistance databases in some northern European countries, databases in many other countries--including the US--have only a small fraction of total mobile listings. A European industry-wide effort to develop a mobile listing service never gained much traction--in part because of conflicting interests within the industry--though there have been other recent introductions, including Swisscom's Connect 1811 and Belgacom's "mailbox" service. An effort in the US being spearheaded by the CTIA, which had selected Qsent (subsequently acquired by TransUnion), ran into vociferous opposition from many parties, including Verizon Wireless and US legislators.
To use Connectivity’s online service, users are prompted at the home page to enter a first name, surname, and town. The service doesn't give out phone numbers to enquirers, but says that if it finds the subject of the search, 118800 will text the enquirer's details to the subject and charge the enquirer 1 GBP. The subject won't be charged anything by 118800, though standard mobile network charges apply.
Connectivity reports that its listings come from companies who collect mobile numbers from customers in the course of doing business and have been given permission by customers to share those numbers. Connectivity reports that it is regulated by PhonePayPlus (www.phonepayplus.org.uk) and the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) (www.ico.gov.uk). PhonePayPlus informed us that they regulate phone-paid services but that there had been no issues involving Connectivity's service. The ICO issued a statement to us saying Connectivity had discussed their proposed service and that the ICO provided advice on compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The ICO statement said, furthermore, that it understands that Connectivity's service will possess the following characteristics:
- it will be privacy friendly;
- it will only connect people when the recipient agrees to take the call;
- it will not divulge subject's number;
- it will not use numbers where there is any doubt about whether the consumer was happy for their information to be used by this service;
- it will allow subjects to opt-out;
- it will make opting-out as easy as possible.
We tried the service out, first by entering our mobile phone online in their database--address Russell Square, London WC1B 5BE. We confirmed the entry with the code we received via SMS from Connectivity. However, when we searched for our listing, it wasn't found. We were prompted to narrow our search to an area or borough in London, which we did, but still to no avail, with no further explanation. We also tried the service out by searching for Connectivity's CEO Raj Raithatha and marketing director Shona Forster. No luck there either, and no explanation.
The BBC (www.news.bbc.co.uk) reports that the company has 15 m numbers and that the service has angered privacy campaigners.
Connectivity, which is privately held, has received investments from 3i (www.3i.com) and DFJ Esprit (www.dfjesprit.com).
-Stuart Whitaker
While mobile listings are commonly included directory assistance databases in some northern European countries, databases in many other countries--including the US--have only a small fraction of total mobile listings. A European industry-wide effort to develop a mobile listing service never gained much traction--in part because of conflicting interests within the industry--though there have been other recent introductions, including Swisscom's Connect 1811 and Belgacom's "mailbox" service. An effort in the US being spearheaded by the CTIA, which had selected Qsent (subsequently acquired by TransUnion), ran into vociferous opposition from many parties, including Verizon Wireless and US legislators.
To use Connectivity’s online service, users are prompted at the home page to enter a first name, surname, and town. The service doesn't give out phone numbers to enquirers, but says that if it finds the subject of the search, 118800 will text the enquirer's details to the subject and charge the enquirer 1 GBP. The subject won't be charged anything by 118800, though standard mobile network charges apply.
Connectivity reports that its listings come from companies who collect mobile numbers from customers in the course of doing business and have been given permission by customers to share those numbers. Connectivity reports that it is regulated by PhonePayPlus (www.phonepayplus.org.uk) and the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) (www.ico.gov.uk). PhonePayPlus informed us that they regulate phone-paid services but that there had been no issues involving Connectivity's service. The ICO issued a statement to us saying Connectivity had discussed their proposed service and that the ICO provided advice on compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The ICO statement said, furthermore, that it understands that Connectivity's service will possess the following characteristics:
- it will be privacy friendly;
- it will only connect people when the recipient agrees to take the call;
- it will not divulge subject's number;
- it will not use numbers where there is any doubt about whether the consumer was happy for their information to be used by this service;
- it will allow subjects to opt-out;
- it will make opting-out as easy as possible.
We tried the service out, first by entering our mobile phone online in their database--address Russell Square, London WC1B 5BE. We confirmed the entry with the code we received via SMS from Connectivity. However, when we searched for our listing, it wasn't found. We were prompted to narrow our search to an area or borough in London, which we did, but still to no avail, with no further explanation. We also tried the service out by searching for Connectivity's CEO Raj Raithatha and marketing director Shona Forster. No luck there either, and no explanation.
The BBC (www.news.bbc.co.uk) reports that the company has 15 m numbers and that the service has angered privacy campaigners.
Connectivity, which is privately held, has received investments from 3i (www.3i.com) and DFJ Esprit (www.dfjesprit.com).
-Stuart Whitaker
Thursday, June 4, 2009
SONY ERICSSON ENTERS APP STORE MARKET
Sony Ericsson (www.sonyericsson.com), which reports that it began delivering online content in 2003, announced that it will consolidate its Fun & Downloads service into its PlayNow "arena," through which it will begin making applications available. Applications will initially be available in 13 countries that support PlayNow and to the 38 Sony Ericsson phones that are compatible with the PlayNow platform. The app store is being powered by Lithuanian developer GetJar (www.getjar.com). Users with accounts can download content to their phone and computer. Those without accounts may purchase content via premium SMS.
-Stuart Whitaker
-Stuart Whitaker
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Microsoft's Bing411 is Significant Enhancement
Microsoft unveiled a toll-free information service at 800-TellMe after its acquisition in 2007 of Tellme, and this service still operates, though the new 800-Bing411 has a much better feel and function. Matching many of Goog411's features for business searches, Bing411 provides listing information including a "star" rating and automatically sends an SMS message with details of the search result. In addition, it offers driving directions, the ability share the listing via text with another phone, and to automatically connect to the listing. On subsequent calls, Bing411 offers to provide information about the last listing. One problem we found was that on subsequent calls, we couldn't get the "tellme my choices" option to work.
-Stuart Whitaker
-Stuart Whitaker
VIRGIN MEDIA LAUNCHES ROUNDU LOCAL SERVICE
Mobile Commerce (www.mobilecommerce.co.uk) announced that Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) has launched a new mobile internet portal, available for all UK mobile users, featuring the RoundU local search service.
Friday, May 29, 2009
APPLE DOMINATES MOBILE AND HTML SITE TRAFFIC
AdMob (www.AdMob.com) released mobile metrics for April which showed that 43% of mobile requests to mobile sites and 65% of mobile requests to HTML sites originated from iPhones. iPhone represents an estimated 8% of the total installed base. AdMob reports that 3% of mobile requests to mobile sites and 9% of mobile requests to HTML sites originated from Android phones, which have an estimated 1% of the handset market. iPhone and Android devices are the only platforms for which share of traffic to mobile and HTML sites exceed their handset share.
The relation between mobile traffic to mobile sites versus HTML sites is reversed for Symbian and RIM devices. Symbian handsets, which have 52% of the market, generate 36% and 7% of the requests to mobile sites and to HTML sites, respectively. RIM handsets, which represent 17% of the market, generate 9% and 3% of the requests to mobile sites and to HTML sites, respectively.
Windows handsets, which represent 12% of the handset market, originate 3% and 6% of requests to mobile and HTML sites, respectively. Palm, which represents 2% of the handset market, originates 2% of requests to both mobile and HTML sites.
One conclusion from this information is that development of mobile sites is much more important for publishers who are interested in reaching Symbian and RIM users, and much more important in regions, such as Europe, where Symbian devices predominate. HTML sites are much more important when targeting iPhone and Android users. We think it is likely that mobile web sites will fall out of favor with publishers as the share of more-capable Internet handsets increases.
-Stuart Whitaker
The relation between mobile traffic to mobile sites versus HTML sites is reversed for Symbian and RIM devices. Symbian handsets, which have 52% of the market, generate 36% and 7% of the requests to mobile sites and to HTML sites, respectively. RIM handsets, which represent 17% of the market, generate 9% and 3% of the requests to mobile sites and to HTML sites, respectively.
Windows handsets, which represent 12% of the handset market, originate 3% and 6% of requests to mobile and HTML sites, respectively. Palm, which represents 2% of the handset market, originates 2% of requests to both mobile and HTML sites.
One conclusion from this information is that development of mobile sites is much more important for publishers who are interested in reaching Symbian and RIM users, and much more important in regions, such as Europe, where Symbian devices predominate. HTML sites are much more important when targeting iPhone and Android users. We think it is likely that mobile web sites will fall out of favor with publishers as the share of more-capable Internet handsets increases.
-Stuart Whitaker
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
MOBILE APPS FORECAST TO REACH $ 25 BILLION BY 2014
Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) forecasts that the total market for mobile applications, retail, and Value Added Service (VAS) revenue will increase by almost three times from 2009 to $ 25 billion in 2014. VAS includes subscriptions, premium events, and additional content. Juniper expects that by 2011, the majority of all app-related revenues will come from apps delivered via app stores rather than from non-store channels, and that the real value of non-store revenue will decline from 2012 onwards. Operators need to develop app store partnerships to share in the app store revenue.
-Stuart Whitaker
-Stuart Whitaker
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR: FREE IPHONE APPLICATIONS HAVE HIGHER INTEREST BUT LOWER RATING THAN PAID APPS.
Our review of the Apple iPhone App Store downloads finds that free applications continue to evoke much higher interest, as measured by the number of “ratings” the top twenty-five free and the top twenty-five paid applications have received, though the rating “score” is significantly higher for the paid applications than for the free applications. The top twenty-five paid applications have received 31,965 ratings with an average rating of 3.8. The top twenty-five free applications have received eighteen times as many ratings as the paid applications—588,718 ratings, with an average rating of 3.0. Games and entertainment dominate both the free applications, which finds twenty free applications in these two categories, and the paid applications, which finds twenty-one applications in these two categories. (Table available). -Stuart Whitaker
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