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Monstermob to acquire iTouch

The mobile content market is consolidating with a number of Japanese and American companies aggressively buying rivials. This time Monstermob  is planning to acquire iTouch and both companies supply ringtones, pictures, games and screensavers. The combined company will have revenues of more than £75m and a market value of more than £230m

PurpleAce launches 3GSM ringtone competition

PurpleAce a pioneer of mobile content discovery solutions plans to showcase it's Ripple Discover product by launching a ringtone competition, hoping to set a record for virally spreading mobile content. Ripple Discover enables subscribers to pass on their purchases to friends (in a copyright protected environment), resulting in purchases "snowballing". More here:

The PurpleAce 3GSM Points Mean Prizes Competition gives loyalty points to those who share a specially prepared 3GSM ringtone, which is distributed to people registered on its website www.purpleace.com. The competition will culminate with the person with the most points receiving a prize on the final day of this year's industry showpiece event in Cannes.

Once recipients have the ringtone, which represents a first for the 3GSM exhibition, they can forward it to friends to accumulate points. They'll also be able to access the online PurpleAce 3GSM Points Mean Prizes leader board to get a real-time glimpse of how they're doing in the competition. Whoever has the most points at the end of the show, and has validated their entry at the PurpleAce stand, will win a crate of fine French wine, which will be sent to wherever they chose.

PurpleAce CEO Scott Sproule said: "This 'live' viral marketing display will demonstrate the power of our Ripple products, which are based on man's inherent social need to share. We're planning to set a record for the highest number of recommendations for a single ringtone with this demonstration. Ripple gives operators and content providers a way to differentiate their offerings and add a real increase in revenues."

The PurpleAce 3GSM Points Mean Prizes Competition is based on the company's Ripple Discover product, which gives loyalty points to users whose recommendations of mobile content (such as photos, ringtones or videos) result in a purchase. These points can be exchanged for further mobile content. Ripple Discover also identifies and recommends new mobile content based on a customer's past purchases.

WiFi gaming the next big thing?

According to a new IDC study, WiFi gaming is going to generate lots of revenue, overtaking ringtones n 2005, rising to nearly $1.5B annually by 2008. The gaming trend will shift from single player, device only gameplay towards virtual community oriented games. The uptake of community-oriented games has been the vision of Trip Hawkins the co-founder of Digital Chocolate.

Technically difficult from a network, content provider, and device perspective, there is nonetheless a demand for head-to-head play among users and, “ Supporting these users requires enhanced features such as player-to-player text communications, player profiles, game information, player matching features, and leader boards.”

Moreover, casual, community-oriented subscription game revenue will grow from a distinct minority of total revenues to market dominance by the end of 2008, says IDC.

“A data point illustrating this trend is that InfoSpace Mobile and Blue Lava Wireless recently hosted what was billed as the largest domestic cross-carrier mobile phone gaming tournament ever held,” says Schelley Olhava, program manager, Consumer Markets: Gaming.

“Tetris Tournament Mobile Championship competitors played more than a million games in September and October for a chance to win $10,000 in prizes. The grand champion reportedly played 2,300 games.”

More on community based mobile games:

: Social Mobile games

: Location based mobile games

Sachin Tendulkar mobile content on your cell

Mumbai based Nazara Technologies signs a worldwide exclusive deal with cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar to develop a wide range of mobile phone content such as games, wall papers, screensavers, themes, SMS trivia, mobile social services based on him and latest news on him. Deal is worth Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million). This was bound to happen as Sachin Tendulkar is one of the best cricket players out there and has been a ambassador for many leading brands in the world. He is basically treated like a God by cricket loving Indians all over the world.

"We expect strong demand from mobile operators, considering Tendulkar's brand recognition and image. We are already in discussions with operators in the UK for a major launch in their market with Tendulkar's games, based on cutting-edge mobile technology." The US was also a huge market with over 2 million Indians, a targeted consumer base, he added.

In India the Tendulkar mobile phone game will probably be priced at about Rs 100 and wallpapers for phones at Rs 10 each. In the UK, the game will be priced at about £5 and in the US at about $5. Nazara normally gets 40-65 per cent of the retail price, depending on the country of distribution.

Other recent deals signed by the company:

...with the Magna group in India to bring content based on their popular magazines such as Stardust to the mobile phone market. There was a growing worldwide market for mobile content based on Indian movies, he added. The company has also signed up with global American brands such as the evergreen Archie's Comics and British athlete Colin Jackson.

"The Archie's comic licence will allow us to develop fun games based on all the popular Archie characters, deliver wallpapers and screensavers based on them, as well as deliver the actual comic strips on the phone.

"The deal with them gives us exclusive access to over 60 years of comics in their archives. We expect to generate approximately Rs 20-25 crore (Rs 200-250 million) in revenue over the next three years through Archie," Mittersain said. "Several other top brands are under finalisation and we hope to announce 4-5 more deals in January," he added.

Mobile Blogging campaign for movie sequel

BonusLink partners with United International Pictures (Malaysia) to be the official mobile and loyalty partner for the Malaysian release of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

The most exciting of these is a mobile blogging/diary service that allows fans to maintain a diary just like Bridget Jones, except that their entries can be made via mobile phones and read on the BonusLink website.

The most interesting and regularly maintained blog stands to win a trip for two to Bangkok. 

There will also be other interactive mobile-based activities including “Secret Admirer”, “Love Calculator” and “Love Polling” services, as well as subscription-based services for friendship, dating, beauty and fashion tips - all appropriately themed on love and romance.   

This is a brilliant way to promote a movie and promoting a movie by moblogging will continue. The real influencers aren't reporters at big publications and entertainment news sites, but the bloggers who build an plugged-in audience based on quality and word-of-mouth.

Mobile emergency warning system

: From New Scientist:

The GSM cellphone standard already enables phones to receive short data messages from the nearest cellphone base station on a separate channel from normal voice and text message communications. The Cellular Emergency Alerts System Association (CEASA), a non-governmental organisation based in the UK, is campaigning to have the system turned into a disaster warning service.

The "Cell Broadcast" or "Area Information System" was originally designed to let network operators offer location based services, but is now rarely used.

To turn it into an early warning service, a customised PC needs to be installed at the headquarters of each network operator. This contains the geographical co-ordinates of all phone masts, enabling operators to target emergency messages to all phones in the required region.

: SMS.ac is working with foreign governments to create a mobile emergency warning system.

: BBC on text messages aiding disaster recovery

And that's when Mr Senanayake started to wonder if SMS might be put to more practical use. "SMS networks can handle so much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call," he says. "In every rural community, there's at least one person who has access to a mobile phone, or has a mobile phone, and can receive messages."

Mr Rampersad, who used to work in the military, knew how important on the ground communication can be in times of disaster.  He wondered if there might be a way to automatically centralise text messages, and then redistribute them to agencies and people who might be able to help.

Mr Rampersad said: "Imagine if an aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets, and had a central place to send a text message to that effect. "He can message the server, so the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-mail aid agencies and get it out in the field." He added: "Or, send it at the same time to other people who are using SMS in the region, and they might have an excess of it, and be able to shift supplies to the right places."

Mr Rampersad and others had actually been thinking about such a system since Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Caribbean and the southern United States last September.

Last week, he sent out e-mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for Asia. In only 72 hours, he found Dan Lane, a text message guru living in Britain.

The pair, along with a group of dedicated techies, are creating what they call the Alert Retrieval Cache.  The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help.

: More on the Alert Retrieval Cache

WorldChanger Taran Rampersad was on Public Radio International / BBC's The World today, talking about setting up an SMS-based alert retrieval cache, for coordinating immediate disaster relief and managing an event's aftermath. (You can hear the segment online, in .wma format, here.)

: Bottom up early warning system

: WorldChanging on The Future of Tsunami Warning systems and Disaster relief

: SMS to the rescue

Using SMS as an early warning system makes sense in theory, though it would be immensely difficult to carry out, according to analysts. Because cell phone owners typically carry their handsets with them, cell phones could be a much more suitable means of relaying information instantly to those in harm's way. Existing warning systems funnel warnings through various intermediaries and rely on televisions or radios.

Yankee Group analyst John Jackson said the effort could have an enormous upside, given that most phones now are capable of sending and receiving text messages. However, coordination could be a big headache. "It could mitigate the capital expense of setting up sirens and other bits of early warning systems," he said. "But one of the major problems could be who's going to assure that message actually gets through?"

There is precedent for such a system. Both Hong Kong and the Netherlands already incorporate SMS into their own emergency systems. To pull it off on a worldwide scale, all that's really needed is a database of telephone numbers to send messages to. But such efforts are gigantic and could take months to implement just on a regional scale.

Crunkie - Mobile social software service

WaveMarket a pioneer in location-based services recently introduced Crunkie - a location-based mobile blog virtual community service that allows users to find friends and post location-tagged messages, pictures and other media instantly retrievable by friends and other Crunkie users.  More here. Hat-tip: Mobile Community Design

Crunkie is a service that enables users to participate in a mobile social network -- combining location-based friend search, messaging and user- generated (or blog) mobile content. Users create, update and location-tag public blog entries via their wireless phones. Users may add blogs, comments, rankings and categories to specific locations and public places, like restaurants or nightclubs. All of this content is meant to be shared with friends or communities. Those reviewing posts may then look up blog entries based on their relation to a specific vicinity using a map-based interface, in addition to the more traditional categorical menu.

The service is designed for young, mobile users who want to keep up-to- date on the hottest venues and in touch with their ever-widening circle of friends. Crunkie users can check for messages or photos posted from nightclubs, bars and restaurants to search out the most happening scene, or read messages recently posted by friends who are close by.

Related:

: Howard Rheingold on Will Location Blogging Take Off?

Will location-tagged recommendation services emerge from the accumulated opinions of many consumers, Wikipedia style, instead of arriving in a lump like a commercial guidebook? Can time-and-place-tagged media aggregate into a historical record of your activities – and display the activities of any who choose to share their media stream?

As WaveMarket's "Director of Engineering, Weblog Products," noted blogger Russell Beattie puts it: "Location will soon be an integral part of just about every mobile application we use, but for most people out there, it's not a reality yet. However, just like we can't imagine anyone today without a phone or without an email address, there'll be a day very soon when we can't imagine not knowing our exact location at all times. We'll never believe we used to get "lost" on the way to finding a friend's place, or that we used to "just miss" seeing an old friend at a coffee house, or wondered where a picture was taken." This idea has been around for a while – Locative Media Lab, for example, has been talking about it longer than I have. And Emeryville, California, startup WaveMarket's "location blogging" services are proprietary, not open. But anyone who puts tools in the hands of users has my attention.

WaveMarket's product, "WaveSpotter" includes a map interface that users can navigate by scrolling a crosshairs and a mobile blogging interface that enables users to upload text and photos to blogs. Posts are signalled by icons that appear on the map. WaveMarket's first customer, SK Telecom, Koreas's largest wireless carrier, has launched a "Friend Nearby" service based on Wavefront's opt-in presence service, WaveAlert.

Social Mobile Games

Article talks about social mobile games and profiles two companies - Digital Chocolate and Tomo Software. 

Los Angeles-based Tomo Software Inc is expected to launch a mobile game that riffs off reality TV, mimics the addictive elements of The Sims and Tamagotchi video gaming worlds and employs the social networking grease of the Friendster online community.

A player establishes a personal character - an image of their real selves or an alter ego - within the persistent cyber world of Sora City.

The character forms relationships and can compete in game-within-a-game events in which other characters can help decide the winner. Players communicate through online journals, or blog, or by sending each other messages.

Click here for more articles on Digital Chocolate.

Nokia Lifeblog

Nokia Lifeblog - starting your multimedia diary today.

Nokia Lifeblog is a mobile phone and PC application that keeps an organized multimedia diary of the items collected with your mobile phone. In addition to new mobile and PC related features, Nokia Lifeblog 1.5 will enable personal mobile multimedia blogging.

"When you go to all your holiday festivities with family and friends, you will write many happy holiday messages, capture great photos, and shoot exciting videos. If you have a Nokia 7610, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6630 or Nokia 6260, then Nokia Lifeblog is your perfect holiday companion," said Christian Lindholm, Director, Multimedia Applications, Nokia Ventures Organization.

"And all that a lifeblogger need is a weblog account from a Nokia Lifeblog compatible provider, such as Six Apart's TypePad service."

In addition to the blogging capability, Nokia Lifeblog 1.5 comes with some usability additions. The ability to back-up to CD or DVD, a full screen item view, and enhanced sharing on the mobile, makes it more enjoyable to browse, search, and share.

Wonderful services indeed! More here.

Vodafone showcases 3G games

In a bid to promote the advanced capabilities of 3G technology, Vodafone has chosen Digital Chocolate to provide a range of 3G games. So far two exclusive games, Beach Mini-Golf 3D and Ferrari Experience 3D, alongside Extreme Air Snowboarding 3D can be found on Vodafones Java gaming platform VFX. All three games are published by Sumea.

More about Digital Chocolate:

: Interview with Trip Hawkins, CEO Digital Chocolate

: Verizon Wireless and Digital Chocolate Debut Two Innovative New Games

: Digital Chocolate launches BREW based games