Telco 2.0 round up on 'digital yoof'

The Telco 2.0 initiative is about brainstorming how telcos, handset manufacturers, media companies et al can generate revenue in an IP based world. They had a recent brainstorm session at the end of March and the write up of the session on digital youth is now on the website and is well worth a read.

Some highlights include:

Research from Peter Miles from SubTV, the UK student TV network

1. 90% access the internet daily in 2006 (up from 82% in 2005 and 65% in 2004)
2. 51% of students visit social networking sites each week
3. 99% own a mobile (and 74% ‘would lose their mind if they lost their mobile’)
4. They are VERY good at multi-tasking and filtering - normal marketing messages may not get through

Nick Bassett from Vodafone's research unit tell us of the key phone requirements for the predominantly pre-pay 'Tireless Texter' :

• Modern. Yup, the device must be cool ‘n’ funky.
• Have good quality camera. To capture those young fun-lovin’ moments…
• Include Bluetooth. So those pics and games can be exchanged with friends for free.
• Have lots of memory. To store those illegal music and video downloads.
• An MP3 player. To play those (still) illegal downloads

Alfie Dennen from Moblog reiterates the need for sensibly priced flat-rate data plans to encourage mobile web usage without fear of billshock and appealed to the operators to come up with alternative (improved) revenue share models.

Well worth a read.

The Kaiser Chiefs tell us to Unpluggit..

..our phone chargers that is as a plea to do something about climate change.


The Kaiser Chiefs are heading up a campaign for unpluggit where they're encouraging us to unplug our electrical equipment when not being used - especially mobile phones which tend to get charged up overnight and kept plugged in during that time, when in fact they only need an hour or two's charge. They're putting together a petition to ask the handset manufacturers to do something about this with the way they make the chargers too so they switch off when the charging is complete. Seems like a good idea to me. Go add your name.

I'm very excited about seeing the Kaiser Chiefs at Glastonbury too :)

Bank Holiday links

As the Bank Holiday draws to a close, I thought I'd better capture a few links that might be of interest, so here goes...

Comeks raises cash but I still don't know how to get it on to my phone or my 'puter so I wonder if it's a network operator specific service? If so, it's a shame, as I reckon it would go down a treat with the community at Moblog UK. It looks to be a great service that gives you the tools to turn your photos and images into a comic strip so you can create those photo-love type stories as seen in The Sun (print version) or in days gone by the much missed Jackie magazine. Thanks to Dan for the tip-off.

Talking of which, they've been very busy of late at Moblog UK with new moblogs for Channel 4's Binwatch, a new anime moblog for Gong Studios (and there's prizes 'n everything on offer) and the official launch of the Big Art Mob, again for Channel 4. It’s the UK’s first comprehensive survey of Public Art – based entirely on pictures from the camera phones of art-lovers nationwide. It aims to record for posterity the wealth of artworks in public places right across the country and serve as the focus of a dynamic national conversation. Go check the site out and take part yourself.

Vodafone/Cingular (USA) has included in its website terms and conditions to disallow deep links to their website, and also disallowing bloggers or anyone really from saying anything negative about them. Now that just seems barmy to me. I understand copyright issues and libel or slander and that's fair enough, but to stop free speech and hyperlinks seems ridiculous. Although it does appear to be legal. I imagine monitoring this will become nigh on impossible as the internet and blogosphere both grow exponentially. Ewan has also commented on this over at SMStextnews. It seems to me that the days of 'controlling' your message are long gone and these ts and cs seem a bit last century.

Kajeet launches an MVNO in the USA for tweens with snazzy mobile phones *and* related, targeted content aimed at kids aged 8 to 12 and it looks pretty good to me. The characters they've invented are appealing, the handsets look ok (although they won't be as funky as their older siblings' Razr and Krazr handsets from Motorola), it's well priced, a lot of thought has gone into keeping both parents and kids happy so maybe this is one MVNO that will work. Their aim is to sign up 175,000 customers in their first year.

Wii style gaming comes to mobile

I wonder how long it will be before we get these in the UK? In Japan, DoCoMo has released a handset on to the market with motion-senser gaming capability. Now that's very cool. I think.
I'm not quite sure how this motion senser stuff will work on a phone as part of the appeal of the Wii is that there's a screen that you're aiming at and others can see what you're doing.

At World Telemedia last week, the bright sparks at ARN recruitment bribed one of the team's nephews to borrow his Wii and they set it up on their stand so you could play Wii Sports. And it was a great hit too with the expo delegates. And it's great fun to play judging by how long people were hanging around to join in and play golf and ten-pin bowling.

DoCoMo seems to be innovating a lot in the handset market with recent phones having a touch sensitive screen and another that gives off a scent when you use it. Whatever next!

Nokia and Mastercard are teaming up on mobile payments

This looks like an interesting mobile payments development...

"Consumers will be able to use a phone as a wallet or as an access card simply by waving it over a wireless reader -- and in some cases punching a PIN number into the phone -- similar to how travelers in Tokyo and London access public transport (referring here to the brilliant Oyster Card that we use in London for all London Transport services).

...The world's biggest payment card company, MasterCard, is also involved in the initiative, which is cheaper and much faster than other wireless payment experiments, like those using SMS text messages. Trials with the new standard are set to start in October." (via Reuters)

So I wonder a) if this will take off and if it does b) where this will leave the likes of Paypal by mobile, Luup and the like. The mobile payments war is definitely still not won yet and this is still very early days.

So much to write about, so little time

Ok, this post is going to be a little random as I'm very short on time but need to capture a few things on my blog before my firefox explodes with having too many tabs open simultaneously.

So it seems to be conference season.. World Telemedia last week in Amsterdam where I talked about mobile marketing in the PRS (premium rate services) world and then on Tuesday I was moderating a panel at Internet World around mobile marketing in the age of personalisation with very able speakers Stephen Pinches from the FT.com and Robert Thurner from Incentivated. I'm also due in the Heist Conference for Education Marketing today (I've got as far as my wonderful hotel room at least) and I'd really like to catch some of the sessions to help set the scene before I'm on this afternoon with Robert Thurner again and also Ramesh from Active Media. So I digress, lets get on with the links 'n stuff.

Voip and MSN/Yahoo/Skype messaging on your mobile from fring. Has anyone tried it? Looks like it's a pretty neat application that sits on your mobile phone allowing you Voip and integrates with your existing messaging apps. My poor old Nokia N70 is due for retirement so I'll hang fire in downloading this until I upgrade. But if anyone else has used it, please comment here.
Update: Alfie's done a rather good review of Fring over on his moblog. And both he and Whatleydude recommend it. So I guess I'll just have to get on and download it and use it myself then!

MP3tunes locker - this looks like a good idea - you can back-up all your mp3s from your 'puter for free and then you can access them anywhere over t'internet thus allowing for a back-up of your music but also the chance to access those choons wherever you are. It'll even stream over mobile (make sure you're on a flat rate data charge mind!). Another one I must try I reckon.

Limbo has raised USD8m for their reverse auction company. The founders are ex Enpocket (who were always good at raising cash it has to be said) and seem to be doing a good job of bringing the reverse auction concept to the US masses. As it happens, reverse auctions were in the news last week as well as Million-2-1 (who are one of the largest UK reverse auction houses) were up for a Eureka award last week at World Telemedia but lost out to ZoneMedia's made-for-mobile horror short series 'When Evil Calls' (it's not for the faint hearted!).

It seems teens are interested in receiving ads on their mobile phone so that should bode well for Blyk provided they can work out the economics to pay for it all as I discussed with one of the Blyk team in the back of a cab to Victoria after the W2F party (ably sponsored by our friends at Tanla Mobile).

Emma's Diary launches on mobile for expectant mums whilst GMTV and Opera's in a pickle again amid allegations that for some of their competitions potential winners were picked on the basis of their location and type of abode thus ruling out those living too far away or in tower blocks as these were too tricky for cameramen to reach. Opera brazened it out last week at World Telemedia and I've heard tell along the grapevine that they are in current negotiations with a very large UK broadcaster for a very large phone and text service despite the fact that it was said broadcaster who exposed them in the first place. The plot truly thickens and I'm sure we haven't heard the last of it and I'm quite sure we don't have the full story either. I guess it'll all come out in the wash..eventually.