November 11, 2006
Helio Introduce GPS Buddy Tracking on Cell Phones
With instant messaging programs, it's easy to tell whether a friend is at the computer, ready to chat. Despite its immense popularity, the concept of the buddy list hasn't made a smooth transition to the mobile world.
Now a small cell phone provider named Helio LLC is introducing a service for its youthful target audience that not only lets you know whether a friend's phone is turned on, but tells you where that person is.
The new "Buddy Beacon" feature uses GPS satellite technology to track up to 25 fellow Helio subscribers. Their locations are plotted on a map displayed on the screen of a pricey new handset that's also being launched on Thursday.
The user can see the nearest address for each buddy's location. If one user notices that a friend is nearby, a call can be placed directly from the application. As you might expect, a person has to consent to being tracked on someone else's list of Beacon buddies.
The telecommunications bubble of the late 1990s included countless unfulfilled promises about the impending arrival of cell phones with robust location-tracking capabilities.
Posted by richard ting at November 11, 2006, 05:16 PM
Why mobile will be the largest media market of all time
There's a great article by Fierce Wireless' Monthly Columnist Gerry Purdy. In this month's column, Gerry offers his analyis of the mobile media market and speaks to his theory that "Mobile will be the largest media market for advertising of all time." While that's a rather profound comment in light of the billions of dollars spent in advertising for print, TV, radio and Internet, mobile is destined to be very important - likely the most important - media market of all time.
Go read about it on Fierce Wireless.
Posted by richard ting at November 11, 2006, 02:48 PM
VeriSign, Coca-Cola enable mobile payments
[from FierceWireless]
The idea of purchasing a soda via a mobile phone appears to have come full circle. Six years ago everyone was looking at Japan and saying, "They even have the capability to buy sodas from a vending machine with their mobile phone! Look how far ahead Japan is!"
Well, six years later, VeriSign's intelligent software is enabling wireless customers in Austria to make purchases at Coca-Cola vending machines. It's good to see other markets finally catching up with Japan, albeit six years later. VeriSign announced a deal with wireless carriers mobilkom austria and the ONE to bring this mobile payment function to more than 2 million customers. VeriSign developed the technical interface between Coca-Cola machines, cellular operators and the payment system for the more than 100 beverage vending machines around Austria enabled for mobile payment.
Posted by richard ting at November 11, 2006, 01:59 PM
Nokia: Growth opps in China
[from FierceWireless]
Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, said China provides the biggest growth opportunities for the company and the wireless industry in the years ahead, which is a sentiment in keeping with the company's strategy as outlined last month. China added nearly 49.7 million new mobile subscribers in the first nine months of 2006, bringing the country's subscriber base up to 443.2 million. Over the next three years, Nokia expects 160 million more subs in China. Current subscribers are going to want to replace their handsets: 55 percent of subs will do so this year and 80 percent will look for a replacement phone come 2010, according to Nokia.
"In China, the mobile phone is very much a substitute for a PC, meaning that people get their first Internet experience via mobile phones instead of PCs," Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasuvuo said. "I think we can take value from the PC market in this domain--maybe more easily than in the markets that are dominated by traditional PCs."
Posted by richard ting at November 11, 2006, 11:50 AM
November 09, 2006
Nokia preinstalls Yandex search engine on phones for Russia
Finnish telecommunications equipment and mobile handset producer Nokia has started offering users of its smartphones a search engine provided by Russian major Internet portal Yandex, Nokia said in a press release Thursday.
Nokia's smartphones have an application called Mobile Search, which provides users direct access to search engines. A spokesperson with Nokia's Russian representative office told Prime-Tass that initially Mobile Search had access only to Yahoo's search engine, while now users would have an option to choose between the two engines.
The Yandex engine will be preinstalled in Nokia N80 Internet Edition smartphones, which is scheduled for sale in Russia sometime in January-March 2007, while users of Nokia's other smartphones can download Mobile Search with Yandex support from the company's Web site, Nokia said.
Nokia accounted for 26.5% of the Russian market's sales in physical terms in January-June, Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset reported earlier.
