Tuesday linkage

Found this very cool picture editing site, Picnik, via Katie's Blog. Dead easy to use and integrates with flickr too. Well spotted Katie.

And then I found LibraryThing which is an online social network about books. You can review books, you can discover books, you can discuss books, but it's not about selling books. It's a mine of information and there's a ton of stuff on there. I have barely scratched the surface but I can imagine, given some time, I could really get into it.

Sony Ericsson is focussing on phones that can surf the mobile internet for its next wave of marketing on the back of new flat rate data plans coming in from the major UK networks. This has to be good news and the kind of boost the industry needs to get to the next level.

Pepsi's bluespamming folks at bus shelters in the US. Great concept but why they have to bluespam I don't know. And if you take a look at the picture how would you even know what was going on? The words are teeny tiny right at the bottom of the poster. Thanks to Carlo Longino for the tip-off.

The Mobile Web is Generation Y.. well read this post to find out and see if you agree.

I need to give this a go - The Nokia Wellness application for Series 60 phones. Maybe *after* my trip to World Telemedia ;) via Tom Hume.

Top tips on Mobile Search from search specialist Andy Hagans. This area isn't my specialism at all but Andy seems to know his stuff and he's actively seeking feedback and comments as it's a work in progress.

And finally, if widgets are your thing, then it's nearly time for widget week which is a joint effort between Chinwag, NMK and MoMoLondon. And mobilists out there reading this, you need to have a look at widgets... it seems they're just the ticket on the Nokia N95 [must get that upgrade!]

Marketing to the Over 50s Podcast available

I know it's taken me a bit of time, but at last we have the podcast available of our last Women in Mobile Data meeting. Dick Stroud from 20plus30 was kind enough to come and talk to us about the issues, challenges and opportunities of marketing to the over 50s and a fascinating insight it was too. The podcast is quite a chunky file, and it's quite long, but if you have the time, I think you'll find it well worthwhile. It'll make you rethink where the money is in the market (clue: not with 18 to 24 y/o men) and how we can no longer segment by age and postcode. Dick's blog is also well worth a read with lots of really interesting facts and commentary on marketing to seniors (although how you can call a 50 year old a senior beats me these days - Madonna will be 50 next year and I wouldn't exactly call her old).

A big thank you to podcast and video specialists Sarah at Kinura for recording it and to Lloyd at Perfect Path for hosting it for us. And of course to Dick for coming to speak to us and all the ladies (and gents) who attended. We really appreciate you taking the time and trouble to do this for us and support Women in Mobile Data.

So the link to the podcast again is here. Hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment here on what you thought.

The mysterious case of the Missing Bumblebees and the Mobile Phone

It seems the Independent didn't get it *quite* right when they ran a story claiming that mobile phones were the cause of the mass disappearance of bees in the USA and Europe. The real story is here. That puts my mind at ease... a bit.

Via Dan Applequist.

Oh dear oh dear, those premium rate scams aren't going away

See to the end of the post to get the latest updates on the story.

The recent premium rate TV scams just won't go away (Richard and Judy, Channel 5, and even Blue Peter et al). TV production companies (for they are not blameless) as well as mobile services companies have had their knuckles well and truly rapped by ICSTIS and having their names trailed through the press. But it seems the media hasn't had enough, and they may well be right.

Tonight, at 8.30pm, on the BBC, there's going to be a Panorama programme which alleges that 1000s of GMTV viewers (GMTV is a very popular morning chatshow for all you non-UK readers out there) have been ripped off to the tune of £45k per day (that's allegedly £10m a year) by entering competitions they had no hope of winning. What's even worse, is that they allege that the telecoms firm behind it, Opera, knew all about it for the last FOUR years. The BBC news report summarises it here where there's also a link to a video clip about it. And Brand Republic and The Guardian cover it too.

To say it's not looking good for GMTV or Opera is an understatement whether or not they are guilty - it's trial by media and who knows what the *real* truth is but there will be a general feeling of there's no smoke without fire so I'll be watching with great interest. And the word on the street is that Channel 4 is planning it's own Despatches programme on the same issue. So it's not terribly good for the premium rate industry as a whole. So I suspect there'll be a lot of discussion at World Telemedia this week in Amsterdam about how it affects us all in the industry - both client and supplier-side.

There's already some good debate on the issue over at SMStextnews (although I don't agree with some of it - but read for yourself and contribute and make up your own mind).

I suppose the good news is that the public now understand their chances of actually winning anything in these competitions (the odds are slim), the roles ICSTIS and OFCOM play in regulating this area (OFCOM is already providing more specific guidance on 'impossible' quiz questions like the infamous 'What's in a ladies handbag? Ans: A rawl plug.') and forcing the premium rate telecoms suppliers to clean up their act and put proper audit processes and systems in place. And long overdue that is.

This one ain't over yet.

Update: Opera has a statement on its website about the situation...

"Earlier this year Opera Interactive Technology took positive steps to improve its administration procedures and can confirm that all competition contestant entries throughout the entire competition period are now considered equally and fairly, whether handled directly by Opera Interactive Technology or by its telecommunications partners, using a randomised computer programme.

This process implemented as at 1st March 2007 has been observed and reviewed by Deloitte’s and has been successfully passed as satisfactory and in full compliance with the latest ICSTIS guidelines.

Opera has in no way benefited financially from any errors in procedure in the past and will continue to keep its processes in line with any future OFCOM or ICSTIS guidelines.

Opera Interactive Technology has today removed relevant staff from normal duties with regard to GMTV competitions pending further investigation."

Update 2: GMTV dumps Opera Opera declines to comment. And these are the same people who won an award for 'best management team' from the folks who compile the annual Media Momentum list. Hmm.

I made it into Carnival of the Mobilists #70 this week

This week's Carnival of the Mobilists is up - no #70 in the series - and it's a very comprehensive round up of what's up in mobile in the last week by Michael Mace from Mobile Opportunity. And I make it in too which is even better! Go have a read and see what's going down.

You can find the links to previous Carnivals at the Carnival of the Mobilists website. You can also find out there how you can contribute to the Carnival.

Bango Nexus Cafe - How to make money on the mobile web

Just had an email pop into my inbox about a Bango Nexus Cafe breakfast briefing in London at the lovely Soho Hotel on Wednesday 16th May at 9am where you can learn how you can make more money on the mobile web.

If you're a content provider or brand with content ready to sell, or already selling mobile content via the traditional Premium SMS route, make sure you don't miss out as you'll find out more about the market opportunity, how it works and some interesting case studies to boot including some experiences from Houssain Elguertit from Gameloft and what they did around mCommerce. And I'm expecting the networking will be fun too (well, I'll be there if that's any help and I know the Bango folks are friendly!).

It's just £19.99 to attend if you book online, but if you're very quick and register before 24th April (that's tomorrow dear readers) then it's a bargain £9.99. To register for the £9.99 offer, just text GO CAFE to 85080. And all attendees get a copy of Bango's very useful 'Practical Guide to Mobile Marketing' as well. Can't be bad.

Today's letter is J

Well, it feels like it. I was about to write up a piece on Jaxtr and how it compares with JaJah but The Voip Girl has beaten me to it with a rather good round up and she even throws in Jangl for good measure so I'll leave it to her rather than reinvent the wheel.

And if it wasn't so late and I wasn't so tired, I might find the energy to properly test SugarCandy or SgrCndy if ur in txt spk mde. Looks to be a group text messaging service but it uses email addresses rather than mobile numbers so I'm a bit confused. Perhaps the SugarCandy guys can explain how it works to us SMS shortcode addicts here in the UK?

Of course, we already have Hotxt here in the UK but that does necessitate downloading a java app to your phone, but once done, is pretty easy and cheap to use - and it looks a LOT easier to use than SugarCandy. How are you supposed to remember all those commands? And then there's also Phuser which I haven't yet had chance to try out which brings messaging and social networks together. George, I *will* give it a go, I promise!

Seems to me the digital world is a very exciting but complicated place. I can see how normobs (Ewan's term for normal mobile users) could get very confused and just not bother even trying to find out about this stuff and it's going to take some educating of the market to get this stuff to take off beyond the geeks and enthusiasts.

Interesting mobile statistics from M:Metrics

The folks at M:Metrics have just released some of their research into mobile usage on to the world. It's pretty comprehensive stuff. Did you know...?

• 50% of US mobile phone owners own a cameraphone rising to 63% of French mobile owners and 3 out of 4 (or 75%) of us in the UK - seems we Brits like our cameraphones (good news for the guys at Moblog!)
• Figures for using MMS have remained stable for the last 6 months with about 30% of UK phone-owners using MMS
• 85% of UK users use text-messaging vs 39% of US mobile phone owners so the US has a little way to catch up, but I have no doubt they will over time.
• Mobile internet browsing is a little bit down in most countries vs the last quarter but it's still . (Hmm, I wonder if poxy data charges and slow speeds have anything to do with that?)

M:Metrics runs regular web briefings where you get to find out some of the latest statistics and findings. Find out more about these on their website. In the meantime, below are the various data tables I received from them which make for interesting reading.

Used network services for photos/video

	Aug-06		Feb-07
Country	Subscribers	Percent	Subscribers	Percent
France	8,796,960	20.5	9,432,842	21.2
Germany	9,238,968	20.5	9,590,281	20.8
Italy	13,156,342	31.3	13,779,059	31.3
Spain	8,671,452	28.4	9,316,644	29.1
UK	13,363,233	30.7	13,187,929	29.6
US	28,218,336	14.5	30,692,545	14.8

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2007. Survey of mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 31 August, 2006, n= 12,458 French, 15,078 German, 11,909 Italian, 12,228 Spanish, 15,051 UK and 35,016 US and the period ending 28 February

M:Metrics applies trusted media measurement methodologies to assess the audience for mobile content and applications. As the world’s most authoritative mobile market measurement firm, M:Metrics delivers the most accurate mobile market metrics through the world’s largest monthly survey of mobile subscribers as well as automated data collection methodologies. Below are the findings of its February Benchmark Survey of mobile statistics for France, Italy, Germany, Spain, UK and the USA. All the information is the copyright of M:Metrics Inc. 2007.

French Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications

M:Metrics Benchmark Survey: February 2007

Activity	Subscribers (1000s)	Percent	Percent Change
Sent Text Message	32,811	73.70%	2.50%
Used Photo Messaging	9,433	21.20%	0.80%
Browsed News and Information	3,308	7.40%	1.90%
Used Personal E-Mail	2,851	6.40%	3.80%
Purchased Ringtone	2,297	5.20%	-0.10%
Used Mobile Instant Messenger	1,431	3.20%	1.20%
Used Work E-Mail	1,086	2.40%	8.90%
Purchased Wallpaper or Screensaver	932	2.10%	-4.70%
Downloaded Mobile Game	630	1.40%	-1.60%

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2007. Survey of French mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 28 February, 2007, n= 12,847

German Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
M:Metrics Benchmark Survey: February 2007
Activity	Subscribers (1000s)	Percent	Percent Change
Sent Text Message	37,541	81.60%	1.60%
Used Photo Messaging	9,590	20.80%	5.20%
Used Personal E-Mail	2,633	5.70%	1.50%
Purchased Ringtone	2,311	5.00%	6.10%
Browsed News and Information	1,531	3.30%	3.00%
Used Mobile Instant Messenger	1,488	3.20%	3.50%
Used Work E-Mail	1,349	2.90%	4.00%
Downloaded Mobile Game	1,277	2.80%	6.50%
Purchased Wallpaper or Screensaver	922	2.00%	-0.30%

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2007. Survey of German mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 28 February, 2007, n= 15,834

Italian Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
M:Metrics Benchmark Survey: February 2007
Activity	Subscribers (1000s)	Percent	Percent Change
Sent Text Message	37,326	84.80%	-0.20%
Used Photo Messaging	13,779	31.30%	-1.90%
Used Personal E-Mail	3,777	8.60%	-5.30%
Used Mobile Instant Messenger	2,550	5.80%	-3.60%
Browsed News and Information	2,536	5.80%	-11.70%
Purchased Ringtone	2,227	5.10%	-5.60%
Used Work E-Mail	2,006	4.60%	-1.50%
Downloaded Mobile Game	1,468	3.30%	-6.70%
Purchased Wallpaper or Screensaver	1,283	2.90%	-1.50%

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2007. Survey of Italian mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 28 February, 2007, n= 12,864

Spanish Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
M:Metrics Benchmark Survey: February 2007
Activity	Subscribers (1000s)	Percent	Percent Change
Sent Text Message	27,302	85.30%	2.20%
Used Photo Messaging	9,317	29.10%	5.60%
Used Personal E-Mail	2,686	8.40%	1.90%
Used Mobile Instant Messenger	2,176	6.80%	1.20%
Purchased Ringtone	2,158	6.70%	-3.50%
Browsed News and Information	1,825	5.70%	-3.10%
Downloaded Mobile Game	1,777	5.60%	-0.80%
Used Work E-Mail	1,616	5.10%	0.10%
Purchased Wallpaper or Screensaver	837	2.60%	-0.10%

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2007. Survey of Spanish mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 28 February, 2007, n= 13,354

U.K. Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
M:Metrics Benchmark Survey: February 2007
Activity	Subscribers (1000s)	Percent	Percent Change
Sent Text Message	38,080	85.60%	0.30%
Used Photo Messaging	13,188	29.60%	-1.40%
Browsed News and Information	6,092	13.70%	-4.00%
Used Personal E-Mail	3,136	7.00%	-1.70%
Downloaded Mobile Game	2,252	5.10%	-6.60%
Purchased Ringtone	1,949	4.40%	-5.70%
Used Mobile Instant Messenger	1,854	4.20%	-0.60%
Used Work E-Mail	1,571	3.50%	-6.00%
Purchased Wallpaper or Screensaver	895	2.00%	-1.10%

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2007. Survey of U.K. mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 28 February, 2007, n= 15,536

U.S. Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
M:Metrics Benchmark Survey: February 2007
Activity	Subscribers (1000s)	Percent	Percent Change
Sent Text Message	81,184	39.20%	3.70%
Used Photo Messaging	30,693	14.80%	4.30%
Browsed News and Information	20,480	9.90%	-0.50%
Purchased Ringtone	19,999	9.70%	-0.10%
Used Personal E-Mail	17,343	8.40%	2.40%
Used Mobile Instant Messenger	13,797	6.70%	9.10%
Used Work E-Mail	10,187	4.90%	0.00%
Purchased Wallpaper or Screensaver	6,839	3.30%	-0.90%
Downloaded Mobile Game	6,752	3.30%	-7.40%

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2007. Survey of U.S. mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 28 February, 2007, n= 31,832

A couple of offers from the folks at Spinvox

I've been a big fan and customer of Spinvox (the visual voicemail people - i.e. the service where your voicemail messages get turned into text messages) pretty much since they launched here in the UK. Well the good news for my Stateside readers is that they've launched their visual voicemail service in the US too. And even better, they're giving away a limited number of free US voicemail accounts valid for one year and guaranteed no spam (I don't know how many are up for grabs, so best be quick if you're interested as they can stop the offer at any time).

So how do you get your mits on one of these accounts then? Well all you have to do is Click on this link to indicate that you are in fact in the United States and then fill out the form. To get the free one year account, you need the 'golden key'... which is where you need to put 'technokitten' in the Company field. If you don't put 'technokitten' in there, you won't get a free account. If you don't do this, you'll just get the free trial rather than a one-year account. You have been warned!

And if that's not enough, Spinvox has also launched their Spin-my-blog service which offers bloggers the opportunity to call in with their blog posts and they automatically get transcripted and posted to your blog. I'm going to be trying this out myself as it seems a really cool idea and a good way to blog when you're out and about. And what's more, they've got some free blog accounts for my readers too. If you're in the UK, then you can click on this link.

If you're in the UK, you'll automatically be set up with a Spin-My-Blog number and then all you have to do is save the numberon your phone and save or remember your PIN and call the number issued whenever you want to use the service. If you're in the US, then Spinvox will be in touch with you to set it up. It looks like the service should also work in Germany, France, Spain and Canada.

Even more kulcha this week - Korean stylee

It seems I have friends in high places these days as I was a guest at the first night of Break Out! at the Peacock Theatre. I had no idea what to expect as I'd been told it was hip-hop breakdancing Korean stylee but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So Katherine and I pitch up and we have great seats near the front and it's an almost full house with lots of young people there (makes a change - it's mostly over 50s you get to hang with at the theatre - no offence to you over 50s, but diversity is good!).

The show opens with a projector show and an off-the-wall comedy mime scene, at which point Katherine and I exchanged glances and wondered what was in store. And then the show moved into action. A really innovative mix of comedy, great soundtrack, totally amazing breakdancing (I mean really stunning), a generous sprinkling of slapstick and a good story line to boot.

It's the story of some prisoners who find an enchanted book which leads them to breaking out of prison and experience a series of adventures. I particularly loved their tunnel scene where they donned mini-me suits to give the effect of crawling through a tunnel. The 3 girls in support were fab and managed to shift from being prison officers to nurses to nuns with the greatest of ease. And the whole cast had us gripped and in stitches throughout the performance.

It's on until Sunday and it's well worth catching it while you can.

Instant Karma Party Right Now

Well so say The Pinker Tones from Barcelona (it's one of their tracks). They were playing on Tuesday night at La Linea Music Festival at Cargo in Hoxton and very good it was too. Think electronic (like Kraftwerk), lounge (like The Gentle People), chillout like Air or Zero 7 mixed with a hefty slice of rock, very convincing air guitar, dancing and a Barcelona upbeat vibe. I loved it. Especially as I missed their gig in February in Barcelona.

It was an enthusiastic crowd with lots of their Catalan fans and TPT showed their appreciation by really pumping out the tracks from their latest album The Million Colour Revolution but remixed and revamped with a rockier feel than the album which suited the crowd at Cargo.

And then we got to meet them afterwards and they're the loveliest young men you'd care to meet - really friendly, no pretensions, just really pleased to be able to share their music to a willing audience and to be able to do their thang. I really hope they go from strength to strength as they deserve every success, and I do hope we see them in London again sooner rather than later.

More pictures over on flickr.

I want my MTV

I'm really excited to be on a very prestigious panel at next week's Music Tank event, 'I want my MTV'. The keynote speaker is James Scroggs who is VP Marketing MTV UK and Ireland and he's going to be talking about the fact taht the old world of music TV is a shadow of its former self and its role in the music marketing world is up for debate with newcomers like Joost, YouTube, MySpace et al.

The chair is Keith Harris (no not Orville's master AFAIK) and fellow panellists are Assia Grazioli-Venier who heads up Ministry of Sound TV and Malcolm Gerrie who is Chief Exec of WhizzKid Entertainment, and who created the legendary 80s music show, The Tube.

It costs £20 to £30 to attend and is on at Bertorelli's Restaurant and Bar on Frith Street from 6.30pm.

So if you're not going to Mash-Up or didn't get your ticket in time for Chinwag Live's PR Unspun, then why not join us?

Moblog UK has had a *major* revamp

And it's looking good!

Additions include a tag cloud, better search facilities, a cleaner look and feel, and generally making it more inviting to mobloggers new and old.

And while they've been doing that, they've even had time to launch a new moblog for Three's X-Series.

Now all they need to do to make it *perfect* is to come up with a middle-ground pricing structure so that it's in line or cheaper than flickr to complement their existing free and paid-for versions. Not all of us need the all-singing, all-dancing but need a bit more than the very generous free option.

Well done guys! Seriously impressed.

Free Pollen Count text messages from Asthma UK

Just spotted this via Brand Republic. Asthma UK is offering folks free tips on controlling their asthma including a free text message service to advise sufferers when there's likely to be a high pollen count.

I don't suffer from asthma, but I do suffer badly from hayfever (last year was *really* bad) so I've signed up to get the text alerts. However, from experience, I know pretty quickly how high the pollen count is by how snuffly I am as the effect on me is pretty immediate. And there's a limit to how many anti-histamines a girl can take without falling asleep.

Maybe it's time I did the Tony Robbins detox again*? After doing that a few years ago I stopped getting hayfever.. well until my body retoxed a few months later at least!

*The gist of it is over 10 days you eat nothing with a head (fish, meat, honey, dairy), no irritants (vinegar, onions, salt), no sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol, salad with every meal, don't mix proteins and carbohydrate at a meal, don't drink 20 mins before, during or up to 20 mins after a meal, nothing but raw fruit or veg before midday and exercise 6 days out of 10.

CNN Mobile site... any good?

I was planning to do a bit of a recce around a few mobile news sites to do a compare and contrast job in relation to something I'm doing for a client. So having heard a month or so ago via MocoNews that CNN was doing an all-singing all-dancing wap site with help from Ericsson, I thought it was worth a look. And I was also reminded about it in the latest CNN email newsletter which popped into my inbox yesterday.

Anyhoo, I head off to CNN on my 'puter to see what the service consisted of. It seems there's breaking news, video and also the wapsite which was the bit I was interested in. I type in the address http://m.cnn.com on my phone browser (Opera Mini) and get 'Forbidden. Your client is not allowed to access the requested object.' So I try again on my operator browser (T-zones) and get the same message. And indeed the same message on my PC. Hmm, maybe they're updating the site or something?

Err, it seems not. It seems that unless you're on a network with one of CNN's preferred partners you don't get access. Except, that with Opera Mini, of course, I can just go to CNN.com and see everything I want to see, albeit in a not as nice format I expect as the made for mobile site. So much for CNN 'making mobile news easy'! So I have to agree with Denis at WapReview... CNN really doesn't 'get' mobile.

Doh!

In-flight SMS being trialled on Qantas

Don't get too excited about the potential for mobile usage on planes just yet - this is just a trial, it's data only and on just one plane. Passengers on the selected Boeing 767 flying between Australian cities in the next 3 months will be able to send and receive SMS and access GPRS services for email and wap usage, but no voice facilities will be available. Passengers will need to have international roaming enabled as the aeroplane will operate like a roamed-to network and of course, there will be the associated cost.

I think this is kinda neat, but don't they already have broadband access on international Japanese flights or did I just dream that up?? I'm 99% certain that a friend of mine on a recent trip to Japan was instant messaging me from the aeroplane.

Via El Reg.

Charge up your phone battery over the air

Now that's truly wireless. I once said to an industry colleague about 5 years ago, that to be truly wireless, we'd have to find a way to do away with plugs and cables entirely. He laughed at me saying we'd all be electrocuted and that that would be impossible. But it seems that that isn't the case.

In the article in Business 2.0 magazine, Powercast's platform uses nothing more complex than a radio--and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device's battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

This is revolutionary stuff. The company behind it is PowerCast and they have a nice video explaining it all on their website.

I've seen a wire-free charging up device before called SplashPower and pretty cool it is too, especially for in the home as it's also quite nice to look at. I'm no guru when it comes to exactly *how* things work. But it looks to me like it works along similar lines to PowerCast in that you need a receiver attached to the device you want to charge up - the main difference being that your device then needs to touch the SplashPad (pictured left) as opposed to PowerCast where you need to be within 3 feet of the transmitter.

This is huge as it's an amazing technology breakthrough. Assuming they pass all the safety tests required with the various manufacturers they're partnering with you can imagine the scope for this - especially as the technology improves over time, which I'm sure it will.

Imagine the scenario with something like the Starsight Project... The solar-powered and wi-fi'd up streetlights could have these transmitters in them and the local people can charge up their mobile phones at their local lampost. I can imagine that being a real hit in developing nations. I guess that's a little while away, but hopefully sooner than we might think.

Via Tom Hume and Textually.

Mobile TV viewers are male, 18 to 34 and tech savvy

No big surprise there then! However, at a recent conference, Telephia claims there are 6.2m mobile TV subscribers in the US, 70% are males aged 18 to 34 and that Hispanics are three times more likely to subscribe to mobile video services. 80% of viewers watch for more than 5 minutes at a time. Also mobile video subscribers are more tech-savvy (well, they'd have to be wouldn't they to understand how to even get mobile video on their phones I reckon) and tend to use more mobile applications and two thirds are also using the mobile internet. I'm surprised that last figure isn't higher actually.

I don't know much about Mobile TV in the US but I'm wondering what it is they're actually watching... Anyone know or care to hazard a guess?

Via FierceMobile.

Last chance for a reduced rate ticket for Chinwag Live's PR Unspun event

Chinwag Live is running an event on Tuesday 24th April (that's next week) in Central London called PR Unspun. It will look at how the PR industry is adapting now that social media is heading for mainstream adoption. It's just £20 if you book before midnight tonight (19 April). Check it out at http://live.chinwag.com/prunspun. Judging by past events of theirs that I've been to, it's always a good panel and discussion followed by great networking. Well worth it.

And if you do go, be sure and say hello to the Chinwag team, for they are lovely.

Support Alan Johnston

The BBC is very concerned for the safety of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston who was abducted in Gaza on 12 March.

More than 35,000 people have signed a petition calling on anyone who has any influence on the situation to increase their efforts to secure Alan's immediate release.

In addition, there's a button you can add to your blog, myspace page or whatever to show your support. Find out how to do it over at the BBC.

Pay as you go data charges. Grr, grr and double grrrr

I've just been digging around to see what the state of play is around Pay as you Go data charges in the UK having downloaded a half a meg *free* video file. So, what did I discover...

• Vodafone £7.50 per megabyte. Yes, that's right, a whopping £7.50 per megabyte. Mr Vodafone, justify yourself!
  

• O2 is typically £3 per megabyte or you can have a bolt-on of £5 a month which gives you 4mb browsing and downloading. So that's like err 4 videos then, if you're lucky.

• Orange on their pay as you consumer rate is £4 per mb or £1 a day browsing or £4 a month for 4mb.

• T-Mobile - I couldn't really get a straight answer from their website. They have varying packages from £1 a day to £22.50 pcm but I'm not sure what they do or don't cover and I didn't have the time or inclination to really delve.

• Tesco Mobile - £4 a megabyte.

• Even three doesn't escape scot free with a charge of 50p for 60 minutes and up to 2 mb of data (which is around 200 pages of *mobile* websites or £1 for 24 hours and up to 4 megabytes of data). So that means, you click on a link quickly and you've just spent 50p. At least it's capped at a £1. It's not clear however what happens after you've reached your 4mb limit.

So what conclusions do I draw?

1. Data charges are unacceptably high and unacceptably complicated to understand. How are you supposed to know how much data you're using anyway? Grrr.

2. It was really really really hard to find out what the data charges were. They weren't promoted, they weren't explained and they were too expensive. There are even some networks who are still selling wap minutes. What good is 30 wap minutes pray tell? And what is it anyway - pretty meaningless to most normobs (normal mobile customers) I imagine. Grrr.

3. I know lots of mobile industry folk, including network operators, who are pushing for a mobile internet. And amazingly enough, despite these ridiculously high charges, still 30% or so of the UK are browsing and downloading from wapsites in the UK. But I wonder how different the scene would be and how much more vibrant if we weren't penalised so greatly for doing so. We have a burgeoning wap advertising industry and a successful mobile content industry. How much more successful could they be if the operators and the way they charged were more customer friendly? And I wonder how much more that would affect the operators' bottom line in a positive way in terms of greater ARPU and more subscriptions? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

I'm still hopeful we'll see a change this year and for me, it hinges on engaging PAYG customers into using and enjoying wapsites and mobile internet services.

Oh What a Night!

A huge thank you to everyone who came to Swedish Beers last week. It was, by all accounts, a rip-roaring success and we were incredibly busy with both old and new faces and everyone seemed to have a good time. Some of the feedback to me personally was lovely:

"Wicked event, you really move the (mobile industry) crowd!"

"Thoroughly enjoyed the evening and met some great people...This dude had a great time and is eagerly looking forward to the next one!"

"Well that worked then didn't it! Congrats on a really good night out!"

"Wow! When's the next one?"

"Thanks for a very good event last night at Nordic Bar"

"many thanks for a successful evening – it was a warm welcome from a good cross section of UK/London’s mobile community"

And a HUGE thank you to our very generous sponsors Tanla Mobile who were out in force making everyone feel thoroughly welcome.

Did we manage to stick to our tried and tested formula "drink beer, talk mobile, drink more beer, talk nonsense"? Well, you'd have to ask those who were there from as far afield as Australia, Italy, USA, Germany and Finland including [drum roll please]...

Sky, Skype, Phoniq, News Optimus, Financial Times, Warwick Worldwide, Yahoo!, Google, Vodafone, BeepMarketing, O2, Leiki, flytxt, ARN Consulting, Sony Pictures, Respond Mobile, Otodio, MBlox, Fathom Partners, W2Forum, OITG, Mobile 365, Arcarnus, Bango, Telemix, PNC Telecom, Phuser, Gisdata, Metastorm, ShopQwik, Renzoo, Xtract, Mbites, Mobile Entertainment Magazine, VSC Consulting, W2Forum, ENO, Mercury Mobility, Minick, MIG, Chinwag, Masabi, Mobizines, Future Platforms, Hotxt, Colibria, Ymogen, Admob, m:metrics, LinguaFranca, AdInfuse, Moblog UK, PeekabooTV, ICSTIS , Informa, Pitch, and a ton of other people too. If you were there, feel free to add a comment below. Indeed, perhaps you can fill in some gaps on the photos on flickr as to who's who? And if you have any photos yourself, please either let me have them or add them to the Swedish Beers group pool on flickr.

If you want to find out about the next one via email, then please add your email address to the Feedblitz box on the left-handside on the Swedish Beers blog or click the feedblitz link here.

See you at the next one!

skål

The Serendipity of Blogging

Musings of a Mobile Marketer reader, Jason Delport, recently commented on my blogpost about twittering and suggested I give Twitlet a go. It's a java interface for twitter and it worked for me straight out of the box. If you like twittering but don't want to send lots of SMS but have cheap data, then give it a go. Rudy, I think that'll get round your international SMS charges a treat. You can download it for free from your mobile if you go to http://mobile.paxmodept.com

I did however notice that Whomp! FM designed their logo and I thought it was an interesting enough name that it was worth checking out. I'm so glad I did. It's a site for vinyl junkies and it streams mixes of some of their favourite vinyl tracks. And I'm lovin' it. I particularly enjoyed Dad's Old Record Box and Keramick and Lobo. Enjoy - it's free!

karaoke ringtones

Singtones has just soft-launched their new service which is essentially karaoke ringtones.. you sing your tune down the phone line, they clean up the vocal, add a backing track and send it back to you as a ringtone. I'm a big karaoke fan, but I'm not sure the world is quite ready to hear my dulcet tones every time my phone rings, but I reckon some folks will definitely like it.

The reckon that their service is better than karaoke as it's you who's sounding great in the mix and that they can magically put your voice in tune and in time in just seconds. It's free to record your tune and preview it, you only pay when you confirm the download on to your phone. And in fact, some of the choons are free anyway which is nice. They've got lots of up to date choons to choose from including Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs and Grace Kelly by Mika as well as classics like Abba's Dancing Queen and Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Go on, it's Friday afternoon, give it a go! I will be trying it later in the privacy of my own home.

mobile web will overtake pc web

Yahoo! states "more people will be accessing the internet via their mobile phones than their PCs in 10 years time". Of course this is on the back of a news item that Vodafone's European operations is in discussions with Yahoo! about hosting mobile ads and developing voice activated search technology, with a view to introducing the mobile ad format by the end of the year.

I do believe they're right though about global internet access - it will be predominantly via mobile, especially in developing nations whose subscription growth rates are phenomenal. The latest stats I read were that there were more mobile phone subscriptions in China than the whole population of the USA and that Indian subscriptions were growing at a rate of 6m a month. Food for thought.

Do you twitter?

If so, you might want to check out some best practice rules for twittering. I'm not sure I agree with them all... lots of us just use twitter for the social side of things and to keep our friends up to date with what we're up to, which is often as mundane as 'isn't it a lovely day today' or 'enjoying lunch'. However, once you're into it this so-called nano-blogging, it can be quite addictive and it is a nice way of keeping up with your mates. There are celebrity bloggers out there (Robert Scoble being one), then they attract a different kind of following who are interested in their pearls of wisdom as opposed to knowing what they're eating for lunch. I do wish they'd sort their wap service out though... it just doesn't work properly on Opera Mini on a Nokia N70 on T-Mobile UK.

Are you going to World Telemedia?

I will be there in Amsterdam as I'm speaking on a panel on the Thursday afternoon about how the advertising and branding world is following TV and print media in to using interactive media for marketing and revenue generation. I will be ably accompanied on the panel by some interesting folks...

Sven Tollmien, Senior Trend Consultant, Prodiction & Marcel Pirlich , Arvato Mobile & Christopher Quente, Berger Baader Hermes Digital
Helen Keegan, MD, Beep Marketing
Marco Priewe, MD, Atlas Interactive
Mark Slade, MD, 4th Screen Advertising
Dolf Kars, CEO, Video Strip
Dave Barker, MD Europe, EnPocket
Mark Brandon, COO, Siren
You can check out the full programme on the World Telemedia website.

And then if you're interested in the future of mobile adult entertainment, my friend and colleague, Steve Flaherty, is speaking on a panel covering just that, with his particular specialism being mobile TV. The panellists are:

Patrick Fischer, Product Manager Mobile, NEXT ID GmbH
Steve Flaherty, Co-Founder, Respond Mobile
Richard Skaife, Managing Director, 739 Mobile
Christian Amicabile, GM, Candywall
Markus Kritscher, Regional Manager CEE, Mindmatics
Ofer Zur, Business Development Manager, Mobival

And if you are going to be at World Telemedia, then be sure to join the Tanla Mobile party on the Thursday night (26th April). Judging by their generosity at Swedish Beers this week, I reckon it'll be a really good one and I've just been tipped off by Lee, their lovely marketing lady, that it's being held in the downstairs bar of the Supper Club from 10pm onwards which is just a few minutes walk from the Grand Hotel Krasnapolski. To get your (free) ticket, please visit Tanla Mobile's stand at World Telemedia. And I'll see you at the party.

Are you a freelance J2ME developer?

Then there's a nice bit of contract work going with the lovely Justin from NinetyTen on his Buddyping project. Find out more on his blog.

ROK apologises for not attending Swedish Beers... too busy raising lots of $$$

I had an email from Bruce at ROK (the mobile TV people) yesterday apologising for his absence from Swedish Beers but they've been rather busy raising a serious amount of cash ($7m) prior to floating the company later this year. This investment values the ROK Entertainment Group at $70 million. So I guess we can forgive him this time during this busy period! Just the once mind Bruce... we expect to see you next time!

Seriously Mobile Event on 20th April 2007

Anyone here interested in going to the Seriously Mobile Summit?

"Seriously Mobile 2007 is a one-day thought-leadership seminar for learning professionals and managers to explore the business drivers and solutions to better address the learning and performance needs of increasingly mobile workers."

It looks like it's going to be an interesting event aimed at those responsible for learning in their organisations and in particular learning via digital means including mobile. Worth a look if this is your thing as it's a very reasonably priced UKP395 + VAT.

Great inventions that never made it...

Here's one that I just stumbled across on flickr whilst looking for something else... it's a printer attached to your telly box so that you can print off stuff from teletext. Which would have been pretty cool had the interweb not been invented. Ho hum.

Photo courtesy of DG Jones

a few links for a Tuesday afternoon

Twitter is vulnerable to SMS fraud. It seems you can spoof the caller ID if you're using websites to send in your SMS. And Twitter isn't the only one that's vulnerable. [(As it happens, we suffered a similar problem with ZagMe back in 2000 but we got round it somehow - you'd have to ask the techies how they did it though).

Adults are catching up with the kids when it comes to SMS and MMS usage in the USA according to LogicaCMG.

"The thirty-something crowd is rapidly catching up with their younger counterparts when it comes to the adoption of new cell phone technologies in the U.S., and their older counterparts aren't very far behind either," said Wayne Irwin, President, North America, LogicaCMG Telecoms."

There is also increased interest in mobile advertising as a business model according to a very un-scientific study also by LogicaCMG at CTIA.


Moka launches mBooks to the world including titles from Louise Hay, Plato, Kahlil Gibran, Buddha and Marc Allen. The idea is that the Moka team abridges the book into text message or email format. These messages are then sent to you daily as part of your subscription package (which is pretty reasonably priced). So you'll see a lot of self-help and religious titles there as the medium lends itself particularly well to those genres.

"Moka mBooks pick up where your favourite books left off. Delivered directly to your cell phone or email, mBooks are mobile teachers that help you apply the wisdom of world-renowned authors to everyday challenges. Whenever you need essential insight, wherever you need guidance, mBooks delivers answers at the speed of life."

I'll be at Swedish Beers tomorrow night which is officially Tom and also Carlo's favourite mobile networking event. Praise indeed. Come and see me and a host of others there alongside our generous sponsors Tanla Mobile.

MoMoLondon registration is open for its next event on LBS (location based services) including presentations and demos from Seeker Wireless, Plazes, Buddyping, Sportsdo, Locomatrix. I'll be there hoping to see interesting stuff that's about context rather than geography. Best be quick to sign up though - at the last count over 180 had signed up and although it's at Centrepoint, I'm not sure how many the room can actually take.

Update: Registration is now closed for the event but if you would like to be put on the standby list, then please contact Dan Applequist.

Today's useful links

Popuri.us is a free site where you can see how popular (or not) your website is. It uses several different criteria including Alexa, Google, Technorati and Bloglines to give you a ranking so you can compare yourself with your peers or whoever you like. It seems that my little technokitten blog is doing better than I thought. Still some way to go to catch up with smstextnews and mobhappy, but I'm happy with the results nevertheless.

10 things to know about shortcodes in the USA. According to the CTIA, you can't sent out religious, political (news is ok) or porn messages (except that Playboy runs a service) via text. I wonder if that includes if you've opted-in to receive those text messages and you're over 18 or whatever? And how do you police that effectively? And isn't that against the principles of free speech and liberty? Sounds as barmy as the Isle of Man law that said it was illegal to swear in a text message (no really, that was a law I read about in the local newspaper on holiday there back in 2001, and no, it wasn't April Fools Day!).

What is ambient intimacy? An essay on intimacy via services like twitter, flickr, myspace, facebook et al

How not to do mobile marketing via bluetooth

Another grumble today (well, yesterday actually, just getting round to writing it up today having read coverage at Finextra). I spotted on the BBC London evening news last night that HSBC was trialling bluespam bluetooth marketing in London's Regent Street. It seems that if you have your bluetooth switched on, and passed by HSBC on Regent Street, you get sent a bluetooth message with an offer about ISAs.

The BBC reporter interviews several passers-by and not a single one of them wanted to get the message and all felt it was intrusive and definitely spam.

HSBC was not available for comment but said:

"that they're running a small scale trial and the feedback from passers by and customers to date has been very positive."

The reporter aptly pointed out, that the way to *not* get the messages was to turn your bluetooth off (assuming you know where the bluetooth controls are on your phone or that you even have it)!

I'm very suprised that HSBC is running a trial at all for something that is still a very grey area legally. I've written about bluespam before and I still don't see what's legal about sending me a message to my phone that I haven't requested in the context of the laws around electronic marketing. Just because you don't know my phone number doesn't mean you can send me anything you fancy.

Update: One of my readers pointed out to me via email that this 'trial' has been going on for at least a year... now that doesn't sound like a trial to me anymore...

Comments on any of the above anyone?