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FOR EVERYONE IN MOBILE CONTENT

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 2010 ISSUE 62 WWW.MOBILE-ENT.BIZ

The MEX Manifesto A 15 point plan for enhancing mobile user experience in a multi-platform world

LEARN, DEBATE AND NETWORK The 7th MEX User Experience Conference & Awards 19th - 20th May 2010, London, UK

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The MEX Manifesto Silver sponsor

Innovation sponsor

WHAT 7th MEX User Experience Conference & Awards

WHY Learn how to enhance user experience across mobile games, services and devices, working side-by-side with 100 of the brightest thinkers in media, design and telecoms.

MEX is a very different style of event, combining strategic insight & in-depth working sessions, bringing together CxOs, VPs, designers and developers in the same facilitated teams.

WHEN 19th - 20th May 2010

WHERE London, UK

REGISTRATION pmn.co.uk/mex/ ÂŁ1499 (+ VAT @ 17.5% where applicable)

CONTACT Marek Pawlowski mp@pmn.co.uk m: +44 (0)7767 622957

MORE INFO

1. We believe mobile user experience will be defined by a desire to connect entertainment devices, health appliances, car dashboards, smart architecture elements and other digital nodes, leading to the new world of multiplatform experience.

2. We believe the industry is missing the opportunity to create new experiences with the voice network and is disproportionately obsessed with designing apps purely for the visual dimension.

3. We believe functional efficiency is a basic right, not a privilege, and true functional identity is achieved by imbuing interfaces with a sense of beauty and emotional connection.

4. We believe latency is the enemy of usability and must be eliminated before new interface technologies become suitable for the mass market.

5. We believe the increasingly diverse range of wireless form factors leads to increasingly diverse behavioural patterns and usage environments, where the established rules of mobile user experience must be rethought.

6. We believe data is specific to individuals, not devices, and requires new service architectures which afford users multi-platform access to their data, their way, according to their individual preferences.

7. We believe people enjoy serendipitous discovery of the world and, if the industry builds trust and designs playful, meaningful interaction flows, mobile devices are the ideal interface.

8. We believe the industry must learn from the usability failings of early touchscreens and intelligently combine new sensors, haptic mechanisms and improved touch panels to create a multi-dimensional input/output experience.

10. We believe mobile technology can bridge spacial and social distances by allowing users to indicate what they want and when they want it.

11. We believe wireless devices with larger displays and multiple screens drive new forms of content far beyond passively consuming games, video and music.

12. We believe enhanced call quality is a forgotten opportunity to improve user experience, allowing customers to recognise emotional nuance more clearly.

13. We believe multi-platform experiences must anticipate a state of continuous partial attention, where users rapidly switch their focus between several devices, screens and channels in ever shorter timer slots - the old rules of designing for a single point of focus no longer apply.

14. We believe the need for user control and undo functions increases in direct proportion to the number of multi-platform touchpoints and data sources.

15. We believe mobile advertising will succeed only once it is a one-to-one conversation, augmented by new contextual data and reflective of individual personality.

Speakers addressing the Manifesto include...

Parrish Hanna, Global Director of Experience Planning, Motorola | Jennifer Ouano, President, Elastic Entertainment | Christian Lindholm, Managing Partner, Fjord | Oren Horev, Strategy Consultant, Plan | Dr Jonas Landgren, PhD, University of Gothenburg / Ideaviate AB | Guillaume Largillier, Chairman, Chief Strategy Officer, Stantum | Heather Martin & Blake McEldowney, Smart Design | Marc Nagel, CEO, Pilotfish | Jane Sales, Ambient Industries | Itai Vonshak & Alex Rapoport, Co-founders, Elements | Chris Thomason, Managing Consultant, Seren

9. We believe multi-platform experiences rely as much upon physical as they do upon virtual connections, and seamless wireless transfers should be complimented by the reassuring tactility and solidity of well-designed hardware linkages.

pmn.co.uk/mex/ Cover photos from previous MEX Conferences

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CONTENTS APRIL 2010 | ISSUE 62

FEATURE

iTUNED OUT?

10 SO LO CAN YOU GO? Can mobile provide the vital link between virtual social communities and real world locations? ME investigates the start-ups flying SoLo.

FEATURE

FEATURE

13 ADDRESS TO IMPRESS

16 TEXT ALERT

Operators are building apps around address books and call logs to claw back their subscribers’ attention.

With iPad imminent and Kindle flying, 2010 could be the year of the e-book.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 4 OPINIONS

20 SHOWS

Who’s that shouting? ME gives airtime to its team and industry insiders for the letting off of steam.

No expenses spared in ME’s round-up of forthcoming conferences. The world is one delegate pass away.

9 MONETISING MOBILE

22 CHARTS

ME’s event is all about making money from apps.

You should go. It’s next month.

People still buy ringtones. The proof is here in ME’s chart compendium.

14 SOCIAL STUDIES

29 NETWORKS

Game-ification, vanity products and other top trends in mobile social networking.

Stat collectors, your operator data has been lightly toasted and is ready for you now.

18 APPOINTMENTS

30 DISCONTENT

It doesn’t get much hire than this. All the big money transfers in one place.

If you’re included here looking ridiculous, we mean it as a compliment. Better than being ignored.

25 MARKETPLACE YOUR GUIDE TO THE MOBILE CONTENT INDUSTRY

www.mobile-ent.biz

The ‘most views’ tab on the ME website is a highly reliable bellweather of industry preoccupations, and last month nothing came close to the revelation that 70 per cent of iPhone developers are heading to Android. Actually, that’s not strictly true. This story was absolutely trounced by ‘THQ Wireless is set to release a Bluetooth-enabled Lightsaber Duel app for iPhone’, but, well, Star Wars nutters and all that.

The Android news came from AdMob, which also divulged 31 per cent of developers in its network are working on multiple mobile platforms, and 47 per cent say they plan to do so in the next six months.

The survey results were released as AdMob unveiled new advertising SDKs that bring rich media ad formats and reporting tools to Android and Flash Lite – features previously only available within iPhone apps.

Of course, this drift is inevitable given AdMob’s proposed purchase by Androidowning Google. But it’s equally symptomatic of gathering momentum behind the OS. Android isn’t perfect. Multiple versions make it a variable platform to develop for, and the testing/approvals process is inconsistent too.

But set against that are dozens of handsets in development and, most interesting of all, a growing sense of grievance towards Apple. This is most strongly felt by adult vendors angered by the blanket banning of softcore apps last month. I’ve spoken to a few of them, and it’s not just the inconsistencies that irritate them, it’s the lack of any notification. One morning, booff, the app has disappeared.

Now, I’m well aware that the vice-like control – some would say inflexibility – of the iPhone set-up is what makes it work so beautifully.

Apple has created an ecosystem that some would say has saved the content business, so why should it pander to anyone? True, but to quote the little known film Mr Saturday Night, ‘you could have been nicer’. And it’s also the case that cool, Californian Apple is starting to look prudish and conservative. More like a company based in Salt Lake City than Cupertino.

It’s my belief that much of the momentum behind Android is down to a desire to kick smug Apple up the arse. It’s not entirely fair, given that every handset wants to be iPhone and every app store wants to ape iTunes, but it’s true.

Android will get its own kicking soon, I’m sure.

But for now, the wind is very much behind it.

Tim Green Tim.green@intentmedia.co.uk Mobile Entertainment April 2010 | 3

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4 trillion

5,000

32

...text messages are sent every year, says a Frost and Sullivan report

...apps were removed by Apple in its merciless cull of adultoriented products

Sandisk has pushed the envelope, releasing the world’s first 32GB micro SD card

IN BRIEF

OPINION

VOD gets Lost Disney will offer a selection of titles through video on demand via 3UK as part of a new subscription-based video on-demand service. Content includes hundreds of episodes of ABC shows including Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy, with a subscription costing £5.00 a month or £1.49 for a single day. Disney has partnered with Seachange-owned On Demand Group (ODG) to launch the service, which it says is available across any 3 handset.

The ODG technology enables users to play, pause and resume of all programmes at anytime.

Amdocs accepts MX UK premium messaging specialist MX Telecom is now part of Amdocs’ OpenMarket unit following a $104m purchase, net of debt and cash. It will be absorbed into the OpenMarket unit, which operates the Amdocs’ mobile transaction hub offering. The joint resultant business unit will provide a hosted platform to extend mobile payment and messaging capabilities through an integrated network and product portfolio. Jay Emmet, general manager of OpenMarket, said: “This will expand OpenMarket’s global footprint and substantially increase our market leadership in the rapidly growing mobile payments market that will extend well beyond messaging in the coming years.”

Comes With Music goes to India Nokia has announced that it will launch its Comes With Music all-you-can-eat music service in India in this year. No details have been confirmed about handsets, pricing or operator partners. Nokia launched its ala-carte Nokia Music Store in India last July, and the company has talked up its hopes for selling music and content there in recent months. Comes With Music has been regularly derided as a flop, due to poor sales of CWM handsets in the UK. However, in emerging markets like Singapore and Brazil, it’s been more popular.

Samsung goes app mad Handset maker Samsung hopes to get some great app ideas from UK users in its Planet App competition, which is based around the Android powered Galaxy Portal handset. Suzi Perry, TV presenter and gadget expert, will head the judging panel along with Jon Carney, CEO of digital agency Marvellous. They will decide which app idea is good enough to be put to the public vote to decide the winner. The winning applicant will get £2,000 and the app will be available to download from Android Marketplace for free.

4 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

Crunch time Mobile data traffic eclipsed voice for the first time last month. A cause to celebrate or a reason to worry? Stuart O’Brien speculates... t was going to happen sooner or later and in the end it was Ericsson that made the call – data has overtaken voice traffic on our mobile networks for the first time.

A process that began in 1991 when British engineer Neil Papworth wished a colleague at Vodafone Merry Christmas using SMS, has snowballed to the point where 140,000 Terabytes of data are now careering through mobile networks each month.

Let’s pause for a moment and consider the small steps that have culminated in a giant leap forward for mobile data. Many of them have been technology driven (WAP, i-mode, GPRS, 3G, HSDPA) and some of them commercial (probably none more so than the flat rate data tariff, but this wouldn’t have worked until apps and mobile broadband gave consumers a reason to buy).

For those involved in the content side of the mobile biz, those small steps occurred at an infuriatingly disjointed pace. Operators encouraged punters to surf the mobile internet – using WAP. Punters couldn’t have cared less at the time.

Then when mobile content did start to get compelling, punters were told they shouldn’t go near it lest they incur exorbitant data charges.

Thankfully, it all came together nicely at the end of the Noughties, when incumbent mobile providers realised they had to remove the bill shock factor before end users could embrace the delights on offer.

But they also had their minds focused by the arrival of dictatorial newcomers like Apple, whippersnappers like Google and emboldened incumbent handset vendors determined to carve their own destinies in the world of mobile data.

So, the only way is up, it seems – Ericsson reckons data traffic grew 280 per cent globally during each of the last two years, and has forecast that it will double annually over the next five years.

Emerging market subscribers and faster networks will see to this. At Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm said around a third of all subscribers in Western Europe have

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3G phones now, with that figure expected to rise to 50 per cent by the end of 2010. In Eastern Europe 3G penetration is about seven per cent at 30 million subscribers, which is expected to double this year, thanks to strong growth in markets like Poland and Russia.

What’s more, 70 per cent of 3G users are contract users, while 30 per cent are prepaid, which Qualcomm pointed out was quite a strong move towards the latter. The thinking here, is that it’s certainly not just the iPhones of this world that are driving uptake – the HTCs and INQs are making rich mobile internet an affordable experience.

But even a jubilant Ericsson was moved to issue a note of caution, suggesting that networks are ‘expected to require significant modernisation and transformation’ if the full potential of data services is to be reaped. It’s a point we’ve touched on at ME before, with particular reference to the battles fixed line ISPs have been fighting now that their information super highways are being filled with bandwidthhogging catch-up TV services (ironically, exactly the sort of stuff they promised to deliver in their expensive TV ads).

A report in the NYT, late last year, likened iPhone users to gas-guzzling Humvee drivers, with the device apparently using ten times more bandwidth than a typical family-sized smartphone. AT&T promptly reacted to doubts that its network was up to the task by announcing an $18 billion spend on upgrades.

Anecdotally, there’s evidence that the mobile networks are already struggling – any O2 customer who’s tried getting an internet connection on their iPhone 3G in North London will testify to that. And the Emirates Stadium, where O2 is a major sponsor? Forget about it.

We must assume that the greatest minds in mobile are fully aware of the looming bandwidth crunch and are planning accordingly, or else our bit of the market may hit a brick wall just as it was getting up a head of steam.

Interesting, though, that it was Ericsson that announced data had usurped voice – as a provider of network infrastructure, it might soon find its phone ringing off the hook.

Stuart O’Brien is associate editor of ME

Seventy per cent of 3G users are contract users, while 30 per cent are prepaid.

The thinking here, is that it’s certainly not just the iPhones that are driving uptake – the HTCs and INQs are making rich mobile internet an affordable experience

www.mobile-ent.biz

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MONETISING MOBILE

SPEAKERS: We have signed up a number of top speakers to share their experience in the app space. These include...

ANDREW FISHER CEO of Shazam

RUSSELL BUCKLEY VP of global alliances, AdMob

JUAN LOPEZVALCARCEL director of digital at Pearson

Monetising Mobile is a new kind of conference hosted by Mobile Entertainment

DAVID GIBBS general manager of mobile, Sky

JULES EHRHARDT head of biz dev, Ustwo

VOLKER HIRSCH strategy advisor, Scoreloop

Wednesday, May 26th • BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

How to make mobile apps pay their way NICHOLAS LOVELL founder of Gamesbrief

Conference & Dinner from £199 PATRICK MORK VP of marketing, GetJar An ME Event

CAROLINE VAN DEN BERGH head of product, Golden Gekko For sponsorship information contact: Katy Grant on 01992 535647 or email katy.grant@intentmedia.co.uk For delegate booking information contact: Jodie Holdway on 01992 535647 or email jodie.holdway@intentmedia.co.uk

RAY ANDERSON CEO, Bango ...and more to be confirmed

Gold Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

If you are interested in speaking at the event please contact Tim.Green@intentmedia.co.uk or call +44 (0)1992 535646

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30,000

957m

1.39 billion

... apps on Android. Up from the 16,000 it had in December

Chinese mobile internet users by 2014, says eMarketer

Nokia’s prediction for total handset sales in 2010

OPINION

IN BRIEF Bing’s iPhone thing

Shape shifting Why do all phones look the same? Will there ever be an end to our Stepford-like adherence to the touchscreen?

Tim Green wonders…

Microsoft has launched an updated version of its Bing search app for iPhone, which it says has been downloaded by more than one million users so far. Users can now bookmark maps, directions, websites, businesses and access them from the Bing homepage. The app now supports copying and pasting URLs, sharing search results via email and parental controls on the search settings.

Orange on HMV shelves hat kind of phone are you carrying around in your pocket? I’m not talking about the make, but the shape, the form factor. I’m willing to bet it’s a sleek rectangle, either with a touchscreen or a slide out QWERTY. Yes, what a boring bunch of arses we are. We may be no nearer to a reduction in device fragmentation (all those APIs, so many OS variants), but when it comes to the look of a handset, there’s really only one choice: do you want a slide-out keyboard with that or not?

It’s weird. It’s not supposed to be this way. I was listening to a TEDtalk podcast by the writer Malcolm Gladwell (best known for The Tipping Point) on the democratisation of choice in the pasta sauce space. Stick with me, there is a point to this.

Gladwell explained how, till the nineties, food corporations searched for the perfect cola, mustard, pasta sauce and so on.

But then psycho-physicist Howard Moskowitz realised that there was not one perfect pasta sauce, but many perfect pasta sauces. In other words, make loads of options to cater for loads of people.

That’s why we now have reduced fat, spicy, big ‘n’ chunky and so on. The pasta trade has never looked back.

Now, clearly there’s a huge numerical diversity of choice in mobile. One porting expert recently told me he has 50,000 devices on his database. But among the 90 per cent that are in active use in mature markets, how much variation is there really? The choice has become less, not more. Five years ago, there were sliders, clamshells, flips, candybars, even those weird rotating phones that Moto mucked about with.

Today, the phones look the same. The differences exist in the software. But even then, nearly every phone has moved from menus to icons, and every contacts book has Twitter and Facebook built-in.

So the question is, are we at the end of the line for form factor innovation? Or is new experimentation

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around the corner? I’d like to think the latter. This is a view held by Andrew Muir Wood, an expert in industrial design at Cambridge University. He spoke at last year’s MEX conference on user experience and has some fascinating insights into the area. Muir Wood observed that the US car market favoured lower and longer models until a point was reached at which it was inevitable that tastes would change. Sure enough, shorter higher vehicles – not least the notorious SUV – started to dominate.

Muir Wood thinks the market is maturing and therefore ready to embrace the design ideas seen in other sectors. We could see retro phones, for example, with pseudo ‘only-for-show’ aerials. And he reckons there’s plenty of room for the kind of colour and texture experimentation only really seen in Japan at present.

However, the really big changes will come with advances in technology.

After all, that’s what has happened up until now.

Bigger screens came with the arrival of colour and then megapixel cameras, QWERTY keyboards with email, and so on. Maybe 3D or flexible, roll-up screens will dictate radical new handsets, unrecognisable from today’s. Or perhaps those futurologists are right and the future of the phone is not a device but a wearable chip or even a kind of hologram that’s displayed on the skin.

Whatever happens, the designers of the future must not forget that phones are ultimately for communication. I’m convinced that the primary function of the mobile – whatever happens to browsing, apps, camera etc – will always be voice. It may not drive much revenue, but manufacturers overlook voice at their peril. Last month I went for lunch with two company directors, who each kept iPhones for rich media and basic Sony Ericsson candy bars for actually making calls. They made calls to themselves all through the meeting.

Tim Green is executive editor of ME

The designers of the future must not forget that phones are ultimately for communication. I’m convinced the primary function of the mobile will always be voice. It may not drive much revenue, but manufacturers overlook voice at their peril.

www.mobile-ent.biz

UK operator Orange and retailer HMV have announced plans to launch a Java mobile games store, called HMV Mobile Games. It will let customers on any mobile network buy J2ME games, with more than 1,000 handsets supported. The store, which will take the form of a mobile website, offers reviews, previews, free demo downloads, as well as new releases and premium games for £3-£5, and older titles from £1. Orange customers will pay via their phone bills, and those on other networks will pay via Pay-For-It billing. Orange UK’s business development director, Stephen Harris, said HMV Mobile Games will “allow us to increase our reach and build on our success as the number one mobile gaming operator in the UK.”

Spotify: 320,000 customers Streaming music firm Spotify has proclaimed the success of its move into premium subs, disclosing that it has 320,000 of them.

The firm’s CEO Daniel Ek told the South

by Southwest event in Texas that Spotify is gathering 1,000 new paid users a day. That 320,000 figure equates to around 3.2m euros a month or 38.4m euros a year. That’s still a fraction of its seven million users, across six European countries. Clearly, mobile is massively important to the firm, and there have been multiple announcements in mobile since the first Android and iPhone deals were confirmed last summer.

EMEA VAS boost Etisalat has teamed up with Indian content specialist Comviva to deliver VAS products to its 100 million subscribers. They include voice, video, apps, music and messaging services.

Etisalat is a dominant force across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, so this deal represents a major coup for the Indian VAS specialist, Comviva. Essa al Hadda, group CMO of Etisalat, said: “We’ve been very successful and more than doubled our revenues from content, data and VAS across the Etisalat Group. With the help of Comviva we are confident we can attract and retain customers and grow this segment of our strategy further.”

Mobile Entertainment April 2010 | 7

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CONFERENCE FOCUS

Wednesday, 26th May • BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

Apps that deliver Some firms make millions of dollars from apps. Others use them to extend their brand in exciting, creative ways.

How can you do the same? Find out at ME’s Monetising Mobile conference in May… ast month, a funny little title called Doodle Jump became the first paid iPhone game to pass three million downloads. It was the classic slow burner.

Developed by two-person team Lima Sky, Doodle Jump was originally released in March last year to little fanfare.

But, slowly at first, buzz grew around its 99c app, Lima Sky issued regular updates and watched sales rocket. The game took nine months to rack up its first million sales, but less than three months for its next two million. With a 70 per cent rev share, that’s more than $2 million for the company in less than a year.

At the same time as Doodle Jump was transforming from curiosity to blockbuster, Barclaycard’s Waterslide Extreme free iPhone game was downloaded more than 9.8 million times in 2009. Barclaycard had enjoyed huge acclaim for its waterslide TV ads, and this game, says Michael Schade, CEO of its developer Fishlabs, generated more than 650,000 extra hours of brand engagement.

In their different ways, Lima Sky and Barclaycard illustrate how apps can work beautifully for some participants.

So can they work for you? At the Monetising Mobile conference a group of experts will address questions such as:

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How do branded apps fit with consumerfacing marketing campaigns?

What’s the best way to use micropayments?

Which prices work on app subscriptions?

What are the relative merits of operator and credit card billing?

What is the best price point for your app?

When is ‘free’ the best price?

How do the various app stores compare?

Which development tools can reduce the cost of app development Monestising Mobile is based on the same set-up that worked so successfully for last year’s Mobile Music Now event.

There’ll be a late afternoon start, a series of short keynotes and panel discussions, and a buffet dinner at the end to give every delegate the chance to network.

Sign up straight away! www.mobile-ent.biz

Our speakers 1. Ray Anderson, CEO, Bango 2. Caroline Van den Bergh, head of product, Golden Gekko 3. Andrew Fisher, CEO, Shazam 4. Russell Buckley, VP of global alliances, AdMob 5. Juan Lopez-Valcarcel, director of digital, Pearson

6. David Gibbs, general manager of mobile, Sky 7. Jules Ehrhardt, head of business development, ustwo 8. Volker Hirsch, strategy advisor, Scoreloop 9. Nicholas Lovell, founder, Gamesbrief 10. Patrick Mork, VP of marketing, GetJar Phil Northam, Samsung Mobile Innovator

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Monetising Mobile: How to make apps pay their way Wednesday May 26th BAFTA • 195 Piccadilly • London W1 £229 plus VAT Sponsorship: Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk Delegate Bookings: Jodie.Holdway@intentmedia.co.uk +44 (0)1992 535647 www.mobile-ent.biz/events

Our sponsors Gold Partner: GetJar GetJar is the world’s biggest browser-based app store, with 50,000 mini-apps available. There have been over 750 million downloads to date.

Gold Partner: MACH Mach’s parent company has connections to 600 operators. It’s now leveraging this expertise to build billing solutions for app store owners.

Gold Partner: Metaflow Metaflow provides publishers, operators and service providers with the tools to discover, request, receive and process content in a cost efficient way.

Silver Partner: Bango Bango has been a key player in the mobile payments space since 1999, and is active in apps via its in-app billing and analytics services.

Mobile Entertainment April 2010 | 9

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LBS SOCIAL NETWORKING

Flying SoLo Social location services like Foursquare and Gowalla have been growing fast, but are they all hype and no monetisation? Stuart Dredge examines the social network chart… wing whatever the equivalent of a cat is in the blogosphere (a LOLcat?) and you’ll hit 17 stories about Foursquare.

Yes, the ME website is as guilty as the rest. In the last 12 months, there’s been a huge amount of excitement around Foursquare and rivals like Gowalla, Brightkite and MyTown. There’s even a plucky British startup in the space: Rummble.

These apps revolve around users ‘checking-in’ to locations in the real world, from pubs, bars and restaurants through to football stadiums, conference centres and public loos – wrapping game-like points and achievement systems around this.

The blogosphere buzz around these apps has fuelled their popularity. Foursquare had more than 600,000 users by mid-March, setting a record of 382,000 check-ins during a single day. Gowalla was estimated to have around 150,000 active users at the same time.

So what’s next for these social location services? How will they build this awareness and develop their businesses in 2010? ME has identified six key trends in the social location space that will define how it develops this year...

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1. MORE PLATFORMS AND COUNTRIES iPhone is currently the leading smartphone for all these SoLo services. It accounts for 66 per cent of Foursquare check-ins, and 88 per cent of Gowalla usage. However, these apps are spreading fast to BlackBerry, Android, Palm and Nokia handsets, while Foursquare also has a mobile web version for other phones.

In 2009, social location was an iPhone phenomenon, but in 2010 it promises to be far wider than that – which should help users spread the word beyond geek circles.

There will also be global expansion too, as the business models of these companies 10 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

will require them to take on more staff outside the US, which will in turn mean more content and promotions for users around the world.

2. MORE PROMOTIONAL PARTNERSHIPS Talking of spreading the word... These startups are keen to sign partnerships with media companies and operators to help boost new sign-ups. Foursquare has a deal with TV channel Bravo, and ran a contest at the recent SXSW conference with music magazine Spin. Gowalla ran a contest with mobile accessories maker InCase, and MyTown’s developer Booyah inked a similar deal with retailer H&M. Expect many more of these deals in the months to come.

Meanwhile, operators are quite excited about social location too. Vodafone recently agreed to promote Foursquare’s mobile web version on its MyWeb and Vodafone Live!

Portals, while also encouraging its customers to text a shortcode to be sent a link to the site. Deals like this could put social location services on the radar of millions of regular mobile users.

3. MORE GAME-IFICATION There’s a trendy theory doing the rounds of Web 2.0 circles called ‘The Game-ification of Everything’, which describes the act of wrapping game-like elements around realworld activities. It’s personified by Foursquare and Gowalla, but interestingly, there’s evidence that the more game-like you make a social location service, the more popular it is.

What evidence? Booyah’s MyTown is by far the biggest of these services, passing the 1.4 million active user mark in mid-March.

It’s like a real-world Monopoly, letting players buy the locations where they checkin and earn rent from other players, while

upgrading their virtual properties. Check the engagement stats too – the average user spends more than an hour every day playing the game.

Booyah’s MyTown social location service has proved a hit among users – passing the 1.4 million users mark in March

4. MORE OPENNESS AND AGGREGATION Until recently, the social location apps tended to be independent experiences – you had to use all these apps individually.

However, the SoLo start-ups are launching APIs to let other developers hook into their back-ends, and thus opening up. Expect to see more third-party apps making use of this – a recent example is SquarePik, which lets people check-in to Foursquare while associating photos and videos to those check-ins.

The latest version of Rummble, meanwhile, lets people see their friends’ www.mobile-ent.biz

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LBS SOCIAL NETWORKING

Mobile social location services reward people for braving the outside world and actually going into real venues like bars. Scary eh, kids?

check-ins from Foursquare and Gowalla.

We’re a way off ‘one SoLo app to rule them all’ – if indeed we ever get one – but the coming months should see these apps and services play more nicely with each other, while competing ferociously to out-innovate one another with new features, of course.

5. BIGGER FISH START TO BITE The firms listed already in this feature are the trailblazers, but there are several signs that the check-in phenomenon will spread to services from larger, more established companies. For example, in January location-based directory Yelp introduced a new check-in feature for its iPhone app, which had a 1.25 million user base at the time. www.mobile-ent.biz

Google’s own location service, Google Buzz, isn’t competing directly with the SoLo start-ups yet, but could evolve that way in the near future – it already lets users associate their status updates with individual places.

There’s a lot of anticipation around Facebook’s plan to make more use of location in its mobile service, although no one is quite sure whether that will mean squashing the Foursquares of the industry, or providing them with a platform for further growth.

Meanwhile, Apple recently filed a patent for something called iGroups, an app that would let iPhone users and brands create groups tied to specific locations and events.

In short, the big boys of the mobile industry are circling the social location phenomenon,

which of course makes the successful SoLo start-ups potential acquisition targets.

Rummble’s discovery engine points users towards points of interest based on a ‘trust network’ consisting of friends’ recommendations

6. THE MONEY THING Oh yeah, that. All these SoLo apps are free, so how will they make money? That is the (multi) million dollar question, and nobody has a convincing answer yet.

More game-like apps like MyTown are going down the virtual item sales route, while others are looking to advertising and marketing campaigns as their more realistic pot of gold.

It’s yet to be proved that you can make serious money from social location, in other words. But if the start-ups in this space can evolve their business models in 2010 as fast as they’ve evolved their apps in recent months, that proof may be forthcoming.

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OPERATOR SOCIAL APPS

They have contact Freaked by Skype, Google Voice and others, operators are now developing social apps around the contacts book to claw back some user ‘mindshare’, discovers Tim Green... emember when Vodafone sealed a deal with MySpace to pre-load a link to the social network on selected phones? That was in 2007, but it might as well have been hundreds of years ago, so quaint is the idea of limiting connectivity to one network and a few handsets.

Today, there’s a Facebook shortcut and a Twitter widget pre-loaded on just about every handset known to man. And for the rest, there’s always the mobile internet. The notion among operators that these web juggernauts are ‘the enemy’ that must be resisted at all costs has apparently withered and died. Rather, the networks are climbing over themselves to partner with such traffic-grabbing services.

If operators have conceded the whole social networking revolution to these giants, how can they claw back any ground?

Interestingly, perhaps, by going back to the most basic mobile services of all.

At Mobile World Congress, I sat down with Giles Corbett, the former CEO of InFusio (once the biggest games company in the world). He explained to me that, after several years of looking, he had finally found a concept that rivalled the excitement of creating the planet’s first mobile games download company.

That was ‘On’, which has just been launched for Android handsets by Orange Vallée, the mobile operator’s startup incubator. On is a downloadable app that simplifies the management of calls, messages and presence information. It dedupes contact books, automatically amends IDs when they change, shows the connection status of friends and groups contacts into a series of ‘worlds’ allowing users to choose what messages or status information they share with each.

What stands out is the attention paid to UI. For specifying the level of presence info to give out, there’s a simple slider. So, if the user was staying at the Ritz Hotel in London, UK would be at one end and Ritz at the other. Users simply slide the dial to change the level of detail.

Corbett believes services like On play to the strengths of mobile and could prove critical as competition for users escalates. “It used to be content that operators worried

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Orange Vallée has launched its new On app for Android handsets, which aims to make the management of calls, messages and information much simpler for the user. The straightforward interface ensures it’s easy to change what is revealed to which people

about. Now, with Skype and Google hovering, they fear that voice and contacts services are under threat as well. But this is what they know, and what they’re good at.

They should be able to fight back in these areas,” he says.

Orange has also been working on another obvious service for monetising social networking – sending update alerts via SMS. It’s one of the early adopters of NewBay’s LifeCache Notifier v2.0, which pushes texts about new activity on social networks and cloud services – giving users control of the frequency, delivery channel, notification type and filters.

The service is part of a suite offered by NewBay to give some impetus back to the networks. NewBay has built its business by powering cloud-based services for handset companies and operators. Typically, they let users click once to upload content – from pics and videos to messages and contacts – to a secure locker. In some cases there’s a

Top: Dr Nagappan Arunachalam, CMO at NewBay Bottom: Giles Corbett, former CEO of InFusio

‘zero click’ option when users give permission for uploads to take place in the background.

This is sticky enough. But now NewBay believes ‘stage two’ is afoot. Traditionally it built uploading clients in collaboration with partners, but now it’s opening up its APIs so that all manner of creative minds can make apps that enrich all that UGC goodness held on the cloud.

This could range from some kind of enhanced slideshow app for photos to games based around contacts and location.

Dr Nagappan Arunachalam, CMO at NewBay, says: “Operators have all this info about their subscribers and increasingly they have servers full of their content.

“There must be all sorts of new services to be built that could make this easier or more fun to use – with the end result that subscribers stay loyal or even pay more to use them. That’s why we launched the developer programme.”

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The popular What are the big trends shaping the mobile social networking space? Tricky question, but Tim Green has given it a go…

EVERYTHING’S A GAME The success of games such as Mafia Wars and others on the fixed web has proved the power of clever games design to generate income from real-life relationships. There’s a school of thought that ‘game-ification’ will eventually permeate all corners of life – from schooling to shopping. In a sense, loyalty cards are a very basic version of this.

The mobile channel, with its unique connection between the personal and the outside world, is seen as a test bed for such ideas. We’re already seeing companies like Foursquare and Gowalla encourage consumers to go out and spend money in the world by winning badges for doing things (see feature on page ten).

VANITY PURCHASES The idea of charging for access has long disappeared from the methodology of social networks. From today’s vantage point it seems idiotic to even consider limiting your reach by expecting people to play.

Access is free these days, and the received wisdom is that club members pay for 14 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

relevant pages on MyGamma. It keeps the ad revenue but takes no share of any resultant app purchase.

premium services and virtual items. But what still has the power to surprise is exactly what people are prepared to pay for.

Flirtomatic, one of the poster boys for mobile social networking, has discovered the power of what it calls ‘vanity purchases’.

It’s sold services that let people delete negative ratings from their profiles and even buy individual search terms. So, when someone searches ‘foxy’ for example, another user could pay to have their profile appear first. It’s adwords for individuals.

TESTING, TESTING Publishers of paid content recognise that one of the best ways to distribute their products is to make free version and go to where the users are. Increasingly, these users are found in mobile communities.

Both GetJar and Mobango have built established businesses on this premise, with GetJar now delivering 60 million downloads a month, and Mobango registering 23 million in December. The newest player on the block is BuzzCity’s new games and entertainment portal, Djuzz, which ties in closely to the MyGamma social network.

Just over a month old, it already has about 30 game developers supplying 2,000 games and generates 30,000 downloads daily.

Interestingly, because BuzzCity runs an ad network it links ads for the service to

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDSETS At first, mobile was a little suspicious of social networks, but then Bebo, Facebook, Twitter and the rest dominated the browsing patterns of consumers to such an extent that they simply had to be embraced. To begin with, phone makers and operators put links on their homescreens.

Eventually one firm went to the logical extreme and built a handset predicated on connectivity to the social network. On INQ Mobile devices, Facebook, Twitter, email, MSN messenger and Skype, are all deeply integrated. Widgets automatically push Twitter and Facebook updates to the homescreen and an active address book is presence-enabled, showing live statuses from all your contacts, letting you choose how to contact them.

Snap’s Cliff Lerner believes his ‘areyouinterested’ service can supercharge mobile dating; INQ leads the way with handsets built around social media

THE HUNGER OF EMERGING MARKETS Warning: massive cliché coming up. People in emerging markets don’t have PCs so they use mobiles to connect. Unforgivable cliché, yes, but also the factor driving eye-popping adoption of mobile social networking in Africa, Brazil, India and the rest. What’s fascinating is which services will win out www.mobile-ent.biz

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movement with this hungry new audience. At present, Google’s own Orkut service dominates, with the majority of its 100 million users in emerging markets. In Brazil, the Farmvilletype game Colheita Feliz had 14 million within the first three months of launch.

That’s more users than Twitter. But research also suggests that Facebook is beginning to cast its spell. According to Opera’s State Of The Mobile Web report for November 2009, it was the most popular mobile site visited in six African countries.

VIRTUAL ITEMS ON FLASH As ME reported last month, Yoshikazu Tanaka is the world’s first mobile gaming billionaire. And he did it on the back of selling virtual items for community-based games running on Flash. His company, Gree, has operating margins of 57 per cent and experienced 2,600 per cent revenue growth over the past three years. It has 15 million users. Users pay money for items that help them with simple games based on virtual fishing, gardening and pets. Now, Japan is a foreign country; they do things differently there. But the open-sourcing of Flash code can only help to populate it in mobile.

MOBILE DATING COMES OF AGE? Interesting how dating has been a slowburn on mobile. ME went to the launch of www.mobile-ent.biz

SpeedDater on mobile some years ago, and waited for more news thereafter, which never came. Meantime the hugely successful Flirtomatic has always distanced itself from actual matchmaking. The idea of finding likeminded singles in the same vicinity seems like a winner, but in reality it’s fraught with privacy and security risks. Also, before GPS became standard in phones, it was bloody hard to do. All of which makes the 100,000 downloads for SNAP Interactive’s areyouinterested app intriguing. This dating service is huge on Facebook, claiming more than 15 million users. The app lets users browse photos of singles in their area and tap ‘Yes’ on people they like, view their matches and find out who likes who. SNAP’s CEO Cliff Lerner says the key to making the service work is to use lots of hi-res pics, regular updates, a pain-free sign-up and tools for friend invitations – all Facebook wisdom.

FACEBOOK: THE MOBILE AD NETWORK ME was chatting to one of the world’s fastest growing mobile networks recently and when we asked where it felt its stiffest competition would come from, there was a one word answer: Facebook. Undeniably, it is a monster. It has 100 million active daily mobile users and relationships with 200 operators globally. For nearly three years, developers have been able to integrate

Why are these people wasting their time mingling and having fun? They could be staring at handsets running social media apps

mobile ads from AdMob into any app developed for Facebook Mobile. But there are currently no ads on Facebook’s apps, mobile websites or SMS. However, the potential for it to become a much richer mobile ad network that can offer ads by location and demographics is huge, and must surely be taken by the firm soon. After all, it makes close to $1 billion a year in ads on the fixed web.

Top UK mobile social networks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Facebook Bebo MySpace Sites Twitter Vodafone live! Friends Orange World Social Networks ShareThis Telefonica O2 Mobile – Social Networking Flirtomatic Windows Live Mobile – People Linkedin Zedge Digg Friendster Stylem Orange World Message Board Betawave Social Sites Buzz Media Orange World Chat and Flirt Hi5

Total Unique Visitors 18,912,037 6,323,562 497,299 371,424 346,560 188,699 188,521 187,675 148,262 126,808 118,541 73,797 61,263 60,424 59,956 59,460 59,203 40,910 33,872 30,946 20,716

Total Pages Viewed (000) 9,735,378 4,049,030 191,080 10,286 21,726 2,159 2,675 983 2,491 107,833 1,087 1,031 11,989 322 619 13,651 1,739 1,821 467 165 945

source: ComScore/GSMA

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E-BOOKS

Paper view The debate’s over; the mobile book is here. Time to put our bi-focals on and assess how those old music industry arguments about DRM, self-publishing etc will play out in books. Tim Green reports… he satirical UK magazine Private Eye features a cartoon called Snipcock and Tweed, which pokes fun at the dusty world of book publishing. In one issue, they are confronted with an e-book and conclude that it spells doom for traditional books. “Thank God for that,” they cry, as they ponder a bookshop window full of crappy diet books, TV spin-offs and celeb biogs.

Funny, but frankly it’s the same stuff that shifts on digital formats as paper. A glance at the weekly chart of Gospoken, the D2C storefront of UK mobile book distributor Mobcast, reveals the usual slew of James Pattersons and Jodi Picoults.

At least they’re selling. Indeed, it seems that the debate about whether books would follow music and go digital is over. There’s little doubt they will. It’s just a question of how completely e-books overwhelm paper.

This is not clear cut. After all, music fans like to take their entire music collection everywhere with them and want to have choice. But book lovers only have one or two books on the go at any one time. Is anyone really going to digitise their entire book collection?

Nevertheless, the e-book revolution has undoubtedly begun – as a bunch of recent announcements has made clear.

Amazon says: “Millions of people now own Kindles,” and that the reader was its best selling product over Christmas. It

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added: “When we have both editions, we sell six paid Kindle books for every ten physical books. The US Kindle store now has more than 410,000 books available.”

One out of every five iPhone apps launched in October 2009 was an e-book, according to analytics firm Flurry. It also says that in September, the number of new apps in the books category outpaced games for the first time.

ScrollMotion sold more than 200,000 ebook apps for iPhone in just ten months on the App Store. The company has a catalogue of more than 2,500 titles from publishers including Random House, Simon and Schuster and Penguin. Its Iceberg Reader allows people to buy e-books from within a single application.

Mobcast has customers that spend £200 a month on mobile books.

In the UK, Mobcast is almost singlehandedly driving e-books on mid-tier mobiles and smartphones. And it believes the success of the format could transform publishing. At an open event last month, Andy McNab, the author and co-founder of Mobcast, said: “We may see writers who don’t need traditional publishers if there’s no physical book to publish.” He’s suggesting that they could go direct to Mobcast.

This process is already under way at Ether Book Mobile Publishing. This firm, headed

by Maureen Scott (formerly of Openwave), is Andy McNab is the founder of Mobcast and an ex-SAS operative. He believes e-books will transform publishing.

But if we print a mugshot he’ll kill us with his bare hands

16 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

making itself available as a mobile-only distribution channel to authors of short stories only, as it believes these writers have been overlooked by traditional publishing and the form is suited well to the small screen.

Such moves may well prompt discussion of the whole ‘DIY artist’ thing that has hung around the music scene. The consensus is now that this has been over-cooked. After all, someone still has to do marketing, legal, technical formatting etc. Artists tend to be better at art.

Still, it’s interesting that book publishing is engaging these ideas. There’s another familiar one going on about DRM. At present, virtually all e-books have an embedded forward lock, with all the usual uneasiness. Arguments go something like this. ‘I can give a book to charity, to a friend or leave it on the bus. But I only own the right to read an e-book. Renting it, effectively.’ The queasiness around this subject hit the heights when Amazon reached into people’s Kindles and removed copies George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. There you are reading about Big www.mobile-ent.biz

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E-BOOKS

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX

Will e-books prove more popular than paper ones and start to phaseout traditional publishing...

Brother and the next morning he’s gone, removed by an authoritarian master involved in a copyright spat.

Couldn’t make it up. Well, I suppose Orwell could. Did. There was a good deal of support for the no-DRM idea at the Mobcast event. Tony Lynch, CEO of Mobcast, was quite forthright.

He said: “The current level of DRM is problematic. But ultimately, obscurity is a bigger problem than piracy. People need to be able to find what they want, and if they can they will buy. The single biggest complaint we get is about availability. That’s what we need to focus on.”

Evidence suggests that removing DRM can work and may indeed become the norm in e-books as it is in music. In the 18 months since O’Reilly, the world’s largest publisher of tech books, stopped using DRM on its e-books, sales increased by 104 per cent. Hard to assess how much of that growth was organic, but it’s still a thoughtprovoking figure.

Lynch did disclose that Mobcast is also assessing the viability of expiring wrappers and other forms of DRM that permit price www.mobile-ent.biz

Book publishers will miss out on sales if key titles aren’t available as e-books

and product experimentation. But generally, the market is at such a vibrant early-adopter stage, that the best approach would seem to be old-fashioned marketing. For example, Mobcast has been working closely with Vodafone, giving customers the opportunity to download e-books or games for free to their phone on one day in March. Fortytwo per cent chose ebooks, which is quite remarkable given the relative history and visibility of mobile gaming.

Mobcast has also created a bespoke book application for the Vodafone 360 app store, which permits on-bill payment offers over 10,000 titles. It will launch similar projects with T-Mobile and Orange shortly.

Of course, the market for e-books will get its biggest fillip since the launch of the Kindle when the iPad is unveiled this month. For the

trade, the question is whether Apple will blow everyone else away with its bookstore. For the consumer, it will be a chance to assess new formats incorporating music, video and images into digital reading.

And who knows how far this process could go. Earlier this year, for example, UK app developer Yuza Mobile unveiled the first e-book with Augmented Reality inside. The Hedonist’s Guide iPhone book app uses AR to let the user locate recommended locations and read full reviews inside 25 city guide books.

They also contain music playlists drawing inspiration from artists and sounds with strong links to those cities. Contributors include Judge Jules, Carl Cox, Tiesto and others.

Enough to make Snipcock and Tweed curl up inside a corduroy ball.

Obscurity is a bigger problem than piracy. People need to be able to find what they want, and if they can they’ll buy. The biggest complaint we get is about availability.

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Sponsored by

RECRUITMENT

TIM SATCHELL

ALEX VLASSOPULOS

MITCH LAZAR

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Satchell bags new role InfoMedia Services hires former BSkyB mobile chief Tim Satchell as its new commercial director...

InfoMedia Services has hired TIM SATCHELL as commercial director and also appointed him to its board of directors. Satchell was previously head of mobile at BSkyB where he oversaw the launch of 24-7 Football and managed Sky Mobile TV. The move will also see current incumbent MICHAEL TOMLINS promoted to InfoMedia MD. ALEX VLASSOPULOS has left Sony Music to join Omnifone as head of commercial. The dapper Greek with the cool beard, will help Omnifone’s drive into new platforms.

Glu Mobile has confirmed OLIVIER BERNARD as its new general manager for EMEA. Bernard has been at Glu for three years, previously serving as sales director for the same region.

LOURENS DE BEER has joined the fast-growing UK ringbacks specialist Muzicall as CMO after nearly two years of service with Minick.

SVEN HALLING has left End2End for a fresh challenge. Halling ran developer It’s Alive, which was bought by Terraplay, which in turn was acquired

by End2End. He certainly did his time.

Oxygen8 Communications has appointed JAMES HARRISON as its 18 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

UK sales manager. The new position comes a part of the company’s strategy to grow its business activities by 60 per cent over the next two years. He was previously with Orange and Phones4U. The clear-out at Yahoo Mobile has claimed its most high profile exit.

MITCH LAZAR, Yahoo’s European mobile MD has departed after four and a half years. His exit is merely the latest in a long list of senior executive departures. He follows MARCO BOERRIES, Yahoo’s EVP of the Connected Life Division, Chief Scientist MARC DAVIS and STEVE BOOM, SVP of Connected Life through the out door.

Thumbplay has lured PABLO CALAMERA from Apple to bolster its move into full-track music streaming and downloads. He oversaw the launch of Apple’s MobileMe cloud services.

Mobile transaction specialist Dialogue Communications has enticed ALEX CRISP from PhonepayPlus to be its new compliance manager. He has been brought in to take charge of regulatory matters affecting the typical UK aggregator like Dialogue.

And there are loads of those.

Buongiorno has strengthened its UK operation. ADHISH KULKARNI has been appointed head of B2B product development and management. He was previously MD of B!Digital UK and US. His role is now assumed by STEFANO DIEMMI who has been promoted from deputy COO – APAC. VJ ANAND has joined GetJar as VP of engineering. He will lead development of GetJar’s long awaited pay per download solution. Anand brings with him over 15 years of engineering experience within companies such as NetSeer and LookSmart. Over the past year, GetJar has doubled its employee count and tripled its monthly downloads.

Vodafone has a new group research and development director, SIAVASH ALAMOUTI. He has joined from Intel in the US, where he mostly worked in its Mobility Group. Alamouti is best known as the inventor of the Alamouti space-time block code, which improves the reliability of data transfer. This all sounds a bit like something from a sci-fi story.

Interop Technologies has assigned EDDIE DECURTIS to the newly created position of VP of AsiaPacific Sales.

XML co-inventor TIM BRAY has joined the Google Android team as developer advocate. This is an interesting appointment as Bray loathes Apple and is not unafraid to say so publicly. With the antipathy between Apple and Google ripening on a daily basis, long may Bray entertain us with his spleen.

InMobi is ramping up its European operation with the hiring of JOHN STONEMAN as European sales director. Stoneman has a decade of experience in the mobile advertising sector, including stints with Refresh Mobile and Nokia Advertising.

Vibes Media has raided AOL’s Third Screen Media engineering department and appointed RISHI BHATIA as head of engineering, MARK HOFFMAN as architect, and VARMA VETUKURI as senior QA engineer.

Does your firm have a position to fill? If so, you should advertise on the appointments page that’s read by everyone in the content business: yes, this one. We also offer a complementary online service. Either way, every exec in the business will be reading about your vacancy. Contact Katy Grant at Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk or call +44 (0)1992 535647 for more info.

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RECRUITMENT

Recruiters from digital, recruiting for digital

Senior Mobile Recruiter – £competitive package Are you a consummate entrepreneur with a sound understanding of the mobile industry? If so, this could be the job for you.

We need someone to join our team, as we are in the process of setting a new standard within the mobile recruitment market. With the growing demand for talented people with mobile media experience Propel London is expanding its offering with Propel Mobile. By bringing all of our existing mobile recruitment briefs under one roof we’re able to continue to deliver our recruitment services based around professionalism, industry specialisation and an extensive network of contacts.

You’ll be someone with experience of the mobile industry either in a sales capacity or as a recruiter. You’ll need the talent and drive to help us expand our great brand within this exciting sector. We’ll give you all the support and training you need to carve out an outstanding career for yourself in one of the most successful digital recruitment companies.

We’re looking for a clear thinker, able to juggle multiple tasks, thrive on an extremely varied job and be able to build strong relationships with brands, agencies and operators. You’ll also need to have an intuitive understanding of people and passion for delivering the best service you can.

Sales Director Mobile Advertising America – Excellent basic bonus

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If you’re looking for an opportunity to make your mark and be rewarded for your efforts then get in touch. Come and join the adventure.

Contact Emma McNamara – emma@propellondon.com 07855 421 627 – 0207 440 1002 +44 (0)20 7440 1000 hello@propellondon.com www.propellondon.com

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looking to further your career in the Mobile and Digital markets?

VISIT OUR WEBSITE for a full list of our current opportunities.

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EVENTS

2010 Calendar

This year’s diary is full to bursting with must-see industry events. Which ones are you taking your expense account to...?

APRIL 2010 April 7th-8th China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit Beijing, China www.china-mis.com This summit is supported by China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – and is also endorsed by the MMA and the MEF. April 14th-15th 2010 MMA Forum Singapore Grand Copthorne Waterfront, Singapore http://forum.mmaglobal.com The MMA’s global roadshow for mobile marketing stops in Asia Pac. This event brings together attendees from agencies, brands, carriers and other members of the global mobile marketing ecosystem. It features a variety of presentations discussing the latest technology developments, case studies and innovative ways of using the mobile channel for marketing. Tickets range from $75 for a single workshop to $995 for a Gold Package (early bird price). Speakers include Brian Stoller of Mindshare Asia Pacific and Hungama’s Neeraj Roy. April 23rd The AR Business Conference Intercontinental, Berlin, Germany http://www.arbcon.eu/ The inevitable first Augmented Reality conference is here, exploring the admittedly exciting new tech – and trying to figure out how the hell anyone can make money out of it. Day One will focus on the business perspective while Day Two is geared towards the technological side. Among the many ‘thought leaders and visionaries’ on the podium will be: Nancy Birkholzer, Fjord; Philip Lamb, AR Toolworks, Markus Tripp, Mobilizy and more.

MAY 2010 May 4th-5th The mobileSQUARED Roadshow – Asia Singapore Art Museum, 71 Bras Basah Road, Singapore mobileSQUARED Roadshows are regional events delivering research, insight, presentations and case studies. This conference kicks off new programmes of practical events pitched at anyone

20 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

The China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit (April 7th-8th) should attract lots of attention from those who can afford to jet to China for a few days. It has the backing of all three Chinese operators and features some very big hitters among the speakers. Who can resist the allure of 700 million mobile subscribers? interested in harnessing the power of mobile marketing. They comprise ‘how to’ sessions, four interactive workshop sessions headed up by industry visionaries, and much more. Confirmed speakers include: Jojit Alcazar, Head of mobile advertising, Smart; KF Lai, CEO, BuzzCity and Vince Parr, Founder, Deep Blue Asia.

May 19th-20th MEX WallaceSpace, London http://www.pmn.co.uk/mex This well-established London show addresses all things user experience related.

The show takes place over two days and comprises presentations alongside workshops that give practical advice and info. There’s also an awards programme that rewards innovation by entrants that span major corporates and student enthusiasts.

This year’s event will host speakers such as: Parrish Hanna, global director of experience planning at Motorola; Oren Horev, strategy consultant for Plan; Dr Jonas Landgren, PhD at the University of Gothenburg Guillaume Largillier, chairman of Stantum and many more.

UPCOMING...

April 7th-8th China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit April 14th-15th 2010 MMA Forum April 23rd The AR Business Conference May 4th-5th The mobileSQUARED Roadshow May 19th-20th MEX May 26th Monetising Mobile June 22nd-23rd Mobile Entertainment Markets October 6th-8th CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2010

May 26th Monetising Mobile: how to make apps pay their way Bafta, London www.mobile-ent.biz A major new event presented by Mobile Entertainment, putting the emphasis on commercial solutions in a conference devoted to the apps revolution. There’ll be keynotes, panel sessions and networking in an afternoon/evening affair. Subjects under discussion include advertising, payments, discovery and more.

JUNE 2010 June 22nd-23rd Mobile Entertainment Markets Park Plaza Victoria, London, UK www.m-e-f.org MEM will once again bring together the world’s content players for a two-day conference. The 2009 show attracted over 500 attendees, a 26 per cent increase from 2008.

Only date and venue details are available at present, but ME will be the first to hear when speakers and the agenda are confirmed.

www.mobile-ent.biz

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CHARTS

Charts

Check here every month for the best selling games, ringtones and mobile apps from across the market...

RINGTONES

TAGGING

RINGTONES.COM TOP EURO MUSIC TONES, MARCH SONG 1 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ 2 RUDEBOY 3 BAD ROMANCE 4 FIREFLIES 5 BELLA’S LULLABY 6 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ 7 UNDER PRESSURE 8 ONE SHOT 9 EMPIRE STATE OF MIND PART II 10 IF WE EVER MEET AGAIN SOURCE: MOBILESTREAMS

SHAZAM TAGGING, MARCH ARTIST JOURNEY RIHANNA LADY GAGA OWL CITY TWILIGHT GLEE CAST JEDWARD JLS ALICIA KEYS TIMBALAND FT KATY PERRY

1 2 3 4 5

RINGTONES

6

NAUGHTY BOY PRESENTS WILEY

RINGTONES.COM TOP EURO FUNTONES, MARCH

SONG 1 PICK UP YOUR PHONE, SIMPLES! 2 SILENCE I KILL YOU 3 GUMMY BEAR SONG 4 GIGGETY GIGGETY GIGGETY GOO 5 YOU HAVE A MEERKAT MESSAGE 6 I WON’T LIE TO YOU, YOU GOTTA TEXT 7 24 THEME TUNE 8 WHO THE HELL’S RINGING AT THIS TIME 9 ALL RIGHT, WHAT’S OCCURRING 10 SPIDER PIG SONG SOURCE: MOBILESTREAMS

7

ARTIST MEERKAT ACHMED THE DEAD TERRORIST

GUMMY BEARS FAMILY GUY MEERKAT NESSA TV SERIES PETER KAY GAVIN AND STACEY THE SIMPSONS HOMER

RINGTONES

SONG 1 BEDROCK 2 HOW LOW 3 DROP THE WORLD 4 IT KILLS ME 5 IMMA BE 6 HARD 7 BAD ROMANCE 8 MONEY TO BLOW 9 STEADY MOBBIN 10 I WANNA ROCK SOURCE: FLYCELL

ARTIST YOUNG MONEY FT. LLOYD LUDACRIS LIL WAYNE FT EMINEM MELANIE FIONA BLACK EYED PEAS RIHANNA LADY GAGA BIRDMAN FT DRAKE YOUNG MONEY SNOOP DOG

MUSIC

MELODI SOUTH AFRICA REALTONE SOUNDALIKES, MARCH SONG 1 FIREFLIES 2 RUSSIAN ROULETTE 3 SEXY CHICK 4 ALL THE RIGHT MOVES 5 RUN THIS TOWN 6 MEMORIES 7 DOWN 8 BAD ROMANCE 9 MEET ME HALFWAY 10 WATCHYA SAY SOURCE: MELODI MEDIA

FLYCELL US TOP DOWNLOAD HANDSETS, MARCH MODEL 1 8520 (CURVE) 2 8330 (CURVE) 3 VX11000 (ENV TOUCH) 4 VX9200 (ENV3) 5 SCP-3810 6 SCH-U450 (INTENSITY) 7 (WILD CARD) M1000 8 SCH-U350 (SMOOTH) 9 A455 (RIVAL) 10 ANDROID GENERIC SOURCE: FLYCELL

VENDOR RIM (BLACKBERRY) RIM (BLACKBERRY) LG LG SANYO SAMSUNG KYOCERA SAMSUNG MOTOROLA BROWSER WEB/WAP

MELODI USA REALTONE SOUNDALIKES, MARCH ARTIST OWL CITY RIHANNA DAVID GUETTA FT AKON ONE REPUBLIC JAY DAVID GUETTA FT KID CUDI JAY SEAN FT LIL WAYNE LADY GAGA BLACK EYED PEAS JASON DERULO

FONESTARZ TOP VIDEOS, MARCH ARTIST JASON DERULO RIHANNA ELLIE GOULDING ALICIA KEYS TIMBALAND OWL CITY JLS CHERYL COLE MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

LEONA LEWIS

SONG 1 TIK TOK 2 HEY SOUL SISTER 3 BED ROCK 4 RUDE BOY 5 BAD ROMANCE 6 FIREFLIES 7 BLAH BLAH BLAH 8 SEXY CHICK 9 HOW LOW 10 TELEPHONE SOURCE: MELODI MEDIA

ARTIST KESHA TRAIN YOUNG MONEY FT LLOYD

RIHANNA LADY GAGA OWL CITY KESHA DAVID GUETTA FT AKON LUDACRIS LADY GAGA

FONESTARZ TOP WALLPAPERS, MARCH

VIDEOS 1 LUCY PINDER 2 SEXY CAM 3 LADY GAGA – BAD ROMANCE 4 WII FIT GIRLFRIEND 5 SIDNEY SAMPSON – RIVERSIDE (LET’S GO) 6 YOUTUBE’S BABY HULK 7 JOURNEY – DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ 8 30H!3 FT. KATY PERRY – STARSTRUKK 9 IYAZ – REPLAY 10 FLYING HEARTS SOURCE: FONESTARZ

ARTISTS & VIDEO

GAMES

BINBIT LATIN AMERICA TOP ARTISTS, MARCH

JAMSTER TOP GAMES, MARCH GAME 1 TATTOO TYCOON 2 THE SIMPSONS ARCADE 3 JEWEL QUEST III WORLD ADVENTURE 4 BLOONS 5 EA SPORTS FOOTBALL MANAGER 10 6 MINIGOLF 99 CHALLENGE 2010 7 WOMENS MURDER CLUB 8 WORMS 2010 9 THE SIMS 3 10 THE SIMS 3 WORLD ADVENTURE SOURCE: JAMSTER

THE CAVE MUMFORD AND SONS 8 STARRY EYED ELLIE GOULDING 9 HOT INNA 10 WON’T GO QUIETLY EXAMPLE SOURCE: SHAZAM

FLYCELL US TOP RINGTONES, MARCH

VIDEOS & WALLPAPERS

JAMSTER TOP RINGTONES, MARCH

SONG 1 IM NY HEAD (INTRO) 2 RUDEBOY 3 STARRY EYED 4 EMPIRE STATE OF MIND PART II 5 IF WE EVER MEET AGAIN 6 FIREFLIES 7 ONE SHOT 8 PARACHUTE 9 HOLLYWOOD 10 I GOT YOU SOURCE: JAMSTER

SONG/ARTIST PASS OUT TINIE TEMPAH FIREFLIES OWL CITY IF WE EVER MEET AGAIN TIMBALAND FT KATY PERRY WHY DON’T YOU GRAMOPHONEDZIE EMPIRE STATE OF MIND ALICIA KEYS NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN

ARTISTS & HANDSETS

PUBLISHER HANDYGAMES EA MOBILE EA MOBILE CONNECT2MEDIA EA MOBILE DIGITAL CHOCOLATE I-PLAY EA MOBILE EA MOBILE EA MOBILE

22 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

SONG 1 COLGANDO EN TUS MANOS 2 FRUTA PROHIBIDA 3 COMO DUELE 4 NO ME DOY POR VENCIDO 5 LOOKING FOR PARADISE 6 DEJA DE LLORAR 7 THE SIMPSONS THEME 8 TABACO Y CHANEL 9 TENGO PRISA 10 AMOR DE ADOLESCENTE SOURCE: BINBIT

ARTIST CARLOS BAUTE DRAGON AND CABALLERO RICARDO ARJONA LUIS FONSI ALEJANDRO SANZ MAGO DE OZ GREEN DAY BACILOS DRAGON AND CABALLERO JOSE LUIS PERALES

WALLPAPER 1 LOVE HEART BEAR 2 TEDDY IN LOVE PETALS 3 HOT MARIA 4 BUTTERFLY SWIRL 5 PLAYBOY FLAMES 6 I LOVE YOU ANIMATION 7 LOVE ANGEL 8 SKULL STORM 9 TIGER STORM 10 MOON FAIRY SOURCE: FONESTARZ

BINBIT LATIN AMERICA TOP VIDEOS, MARCH SONG 1 SI NO TE HUBIERAS IDO 2 LABIOS COMPARTIDOS 3 TE AMO 4 UNO, DOS, TRES 5 EL REY (EN VIVO) 6 A LABIO DULCE 7 LIKE A VIRGIN 8 FRUTA PROHIBIDA 9 CORAZON PARTIO 10 AMIGA MIA SOURCE: BINBIT

ARTIST MANA MANA ALEXANDER ACHA MOTEL MANA ISKANDER MADONNA DRAGON & CABELLERO ALEJANDRO SANZ ALEJANDRO SANZ

www.mobile-ent.biz

23 ME62 Playphone Charts

18/3/10

16:12

Page 1

Title

Publisher

Title

Artist

1

Crash Bandicoot: Mutant Island

Glu

1

Vanilla Twilight

Owl City

1

Title

Category

Snarling Wolf

Versaly

2

Wheel of Fortune Deluxe

Sony Pictures

2

I Gotta Feeling

Black Eyed Peas

2

Blame It

Pink Frosty

3

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Infusio

3

Money To Blow

Birdman ft. Drake and Lil Wayne

3

Man In The Mirror

Mobile Streams

4

Brain Juice

Digital Chocolate

4

Sexy Chick

David Guetta ft. Akon

4

Kiss Me Thru Da Phone

Pink Frosty

5

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Glu

5

Bad Romance

Lady Gaga

5

CBreezy

NBC Universal

6

Red Bull Air Racing Championship

Artificial Life

6

BedRock

Young Money ft. Lloyd

6

Sunset Heart

conVISUAL

7

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Glu

7

Drop It Low

Ester Dean ft. Chris Brown

7

Annekke in bikini

Mobile Streams

8

Brain Genius 2

Glu

8

Russian Roulette

Rihanna

8

Dolphins True Love

Mobile Streams

9

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Glu

9

Baby By Me

50 Cent

9

Taylor Made

Airborne

10

Jewel Quest速 II

I-play

10

Do I

Luke Bryan

10

Garrett Hunk

Mobile Streams

11

Family Feud

Glu

11

TiK ToK

Ke$ha

11

Skull Pink

Pink Frosty

12

Let Go Of My Banana

Artificial Life

12

Say Aah

Trey Songz ft. Fabolous

12

The Spirit Of Christ

Versaly Fulep

13

Chips Unlimited: Texas Hold'em

Artificial Life

13

She Wolf

Shakira

13

Butterfly 2107

14

California Gold Rush

Digital Chocolate

14

Papers

Usher

14

Taylor Launter Very Cute

Versaly

15

Deal or no Deal: Million Dollar Mission I-play

15

Cowboy Casanova

Carrie Underwood

15

Hollywood Heartthrob

Airborne

16

Diamond Islands

Digital Chocolate

16

Throw It In The Bag

Fabolous

16

Cincinnati Bearcats Storm

Mobile Streams

17

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Glu

17

The Fear

Lily Allen

17

Dolphinheart 2

conVISUAL

18

Call of Duty: World at War

Glu

18

Lemonade

Gucci Mane

18

Neon Ying Yang

conVISUAL

19

Jewel Quest II 3D

I-play

19

Imma Be

Black Eyed Peas

19

I Love You

Pink Frosty

Artificial Life

20 Headboard

Hurricane Chris ft. Mario & Plies

20 Crystallized Eeyore Happy Hop

20 FC Bayern Munich

Disney

24 ME62_Final

24/3/10

16:21

Page 1

CHARTS

BPLAY SMARTPHONE ENTERTAINMENT CHARTS THRU MARCH 15, 2010 TOP 20 THEMES

TOP 20 GAMES

SMARTPHONE ENTERTAINMENT CHARTS THRU MARCH 15, 2010

SMARTPHONE ENTERTAINMENT CHARTS THRU MARCH 15, 2010

TITLE

CATEGORY

PUBLISHER

TITLE

CATEGORY

PUBLISHER

1

IBERRY 2.0 TODAY PLUS

TODAY PLUS

MAGMIC

1

BEJEWELED

PUZZLE

EA

2

IBERRY EDGE TODAY PLUS

TODAY PLUS

MAGMIC

2

TEXAS HOLD'EM KING 3

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

3

DISNEY'S MAD HATTER

DISNEY

DISNEY

3

MAHJONG SOLITAIRE

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

4

IWIDGETS

NEXT GEN

MAGMIC

4

SCRABBLE

STRATEGY/BOARD

EA

5

PLASMA

NEXT GEN

MAGMIC

5

THE PRICE IS RIGHT

STRATEGY/BOARD

GLU

6

TINKER BELL

DISNEY

DISNEY

6

THE SIMS 3 WORLD ADVENTURE

ACTION/ARCADE

EA

7

SALTWATER

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

7

TETRIS

PUZZLE

EA

8

FLOWBERRY

NEXT GEN

MAGMIC

8

COD: MODERN WARFARE 2

ACTION/ARCADE

GLU

9

PINK MAGIC

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

9

FAMILY GUY UNCENSORED

ACTION/ARCADE

GLU

10

EXPLORER 2.0

NEXT GEN

MAGMIC

10

SPADES

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

11

GLITTER TODAY PLUS

TODAY PLUS

MAGMIC

11

RISK

STRATEGY/BOARD

EA

12

SHAMROCK EXPLOSION

SEASONAL

MAGMIC

12

SUDOKU

PUZZLE

MAGMIC

13

GLITTER MOTION

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

13

AGE OF EMPIRES III

STRATEGY/BOARD

GLU

14

IBERRY PSYCHEDELIC

ICON

MAGMIC

14

SOLITAIRE LEGENDS

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

15

BEACHES OF THE WORLD

ROTATING BACKGROUND

MAGMIC

15

MONOPOLY

STRATEGY/BOARD

EA

16

IBERRY 2.0 ZEN

ZEN

MAGMIC

16

GUITAR HERO 5

ACTION/ARCADE

GLU

17

IBERRY PINK TODAY PLUS

TODAY PLUS

MAGMIC

17

PHASE 10

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC/FUNDEX

18

FLOWERS

ROTATING BACKGROUND

MAGMIC

18

CRASH BANDICOOT: MUTANT ISLAND ACTION/ARCADE

GLU

19

IBERRY PINK ZEN

ZEN

MAGMIC

19

SPIDER SOLITAIRE

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

20

DEEP BLUE 2.0

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

20

CHUZZLE™

PUZZLE

POPCAP GAMES

SOURCE: MAGMIC GAMES - BPLAY

24 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

SOURCE: MAGMIC GAMES - BPLAY

www.mobile-ent.biz

25-28 ME62_Final

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Page 1

MOBILE MARKETPLACE

MOBILEMARKETPLACEINDEX ADMODA 08707 661 992 www.admoda.com

KATINA 078 3366 4075 http://katinaleisure.com

ELITE 01543 268 826 www.elite-systems.co.uk

LOGIC 3 01923 471 000 www.logic3.com

IMPULSE PAY 0207 099 2450 www.impulsepay.com

PARTNERTRANS 01273 229030 www.partnertrans.com

INLOGIC +421 904 628 889 www.inlogic.eu

SMART SMS +966 149 403 46 www.smartsms.com.sa

INMOBI +44 (0) 20 3286 6785 http://inmobi.com

SPLASH 0870 934 2666 www.splashnews.com

The Mobile Marketplace offers a complete marketing package of print, online and editorial visibility, allowing companies to maintain contact with readers each month without the cost of full display advertising.

The Mobile Marketplace and its associated online version has also been designed to offer readers a directory of all products and services in the content industry. A presence in this section ensures that your company’s details are easily found, keeping you one step ahead of your competitors.

The standard package includes: 1/4 page advert in each issue Regular editorial coverage in the dedicated column Company details listed in the online directory with web link and marketplace index

To get your company featured here contact

WWW.MOBILE-ENT.BIZ/MARKETPLACE PUBLISHER

www.mobile-ent.biz

Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk t: +44 (0) 1992 535647 MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER

Mobile Entertainment April 2010 | 25

25-28 ME62_Final

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Page 2

MOBILE MARKETPLACE DISTRIBUTION

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

LOCALISATION

26 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

www.mobile-ent.biz

25-28 ME62_Final

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Page 3

MOBILE MARKETPLACE VIDEO/PICTURE AGGREGATION

MARKETPLACE NEWS

MIG expands into North America and Canada The fast-growing UK mobile services firm, Mobile Interactive Group, is heading west, launching its digital agency arm Jigsaw in Chicago and Toronto.

It says its move has been driven by growing client demand for Jigsaw’s implementation of multi-channel digital campaigns that pull on group resources across a range of online, mobile, and digital marketing and technology channels.

Other companies within the MIG family are 4th Screen Advertising (mobile advertising), Kilrush (mobile internet publishing), New Toy (experiential and mobile marketing) and Mobile Interactive Technology (Mcommerce, messaging solutions and interactive platforms). MIG will aim to create US and Canadian units for these divisions later this year.

Barry Houlihan, CEO and founder of MIG, said: “A core part of MIG’s strategy

MOBILE ADVERTISING

MIG’s CEO and founder, Barry Houlihan

has been to grow and internationalise the business and we’re right on track to fulfil these goals in 2010. The launch of Jigsaw in the USA and Canada is a result of incredible demand from existing major customers. We plan to grow all MIG businesses into these markets, and will make further announcements around other MIG companies launching in the very near future.”

Connect2Media aquires US Sennari UK mobile games publisher Connect2Media has announced that it’s acquiring US firm Sennari, which is bestknown for its play-for-prizes games.

The UK-based games and app specialist is planning to target operators with prize-play mobile games based on properties like Monopoly. It’s the first time Connect2Media has had a US presence, with Sennari founder Mike Cartabiano set to head up its distribution business on that side of the Atlantic.

The publisher plans to roll Sennari’s PrizePlay platform into its

roster of games. So far, the platform is being used by one US operator, Verizon Wireless.

“We anticipate that the PrizePlay platform will be a crucial tool in developing new models based around advertising, community and rewards, delivering new ways to help our customers engage and retain users,” said Connect2Media CEO, Eric Hobson.

As the announcement of the deal makes clear, the acquisition coincides with Apple’s new rules allowing playfor-prizes games on iPhone for the first time.

SEND YOUR NEWS TO TIM.GREEN@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK www.mobile-ent.biz

Mobile Entertainment April 2010 | 27

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Page 4

MOBILE MARKETPLACE SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

MARKETPLACE NEWS

BuzzCity’s Mobilizer trailblazer Asia Pac ad giant BuzzCity has launched a new service that takes an RSS feed and turns web pages into mobile pages instantly.

Mobilizer builds on BuzzCity’s strong presence in the mobile ad space. It says users will immediately start earning mobile display advertising revenue with a payout of up to 65 per cent of total ad revenues.

Publishers can choose the type, number and position of their ads that will appear on their mobile website.

Mobilizer is a free service with no hosting fees, and free publisher support. In addition, publishers receive a unique QR code to display on their website, newspaper or magazine.

Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR code, causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL.

BuzzCity’s CEO, KF Lai

“It is common knowledge that consumer behaviour is shifting.

Reading habits evolved from printbased media to web-based media and now mobile media is really coming in to play,” said KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity.

“It is vital that publishers are making content readily available on the mobile. Many have invested in apps for the iPhone but this will only serve a small section of the market.”

Bango’s insider deal UK payments specialist Bango has unveiled a cross-platform in-app billing solution that works across Symbian, Google Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and iPhone.

It claims it’s the first unified way to monetise mobile apps internationally, and says developers can use the service to collect one-time payments or start ongoing subscriptions within their app, using operator billing, credit cards or PayPal, via operator networks or wi-fi.

The system gives developers full control over when and how to charge the consumer, along with pricing and currency. They can also sell virtual goods and add-ons from within their app.

There’s an element of autonomy to the launch too, as the Bango solution allows developers to sell directly to their customers, without having to rely on app stores as their channel to market.

SMS SERVICES

InMobi goes local Rising ad network InMobi has launched a new service that lets advertisers target by city across the UK, France, Indonesia, South Africa, US, and India.

Advertisers will be able to target iPhone or feature phone consumers at a local level – and iPhone users will get ads that are tailored for the device, and include options such as video, search and local calls-to-action.

InMobi says the advantage of this programme is better ROI via millions of new targeting options and technology.

Rob Jonas, MD of Europe for InMobi, said: “Today’s enhancements allow advertisers to confidently target iPhone or feature phone consumers in Paris, London, Johannesburg, Jakarta,

and Mumbai knowing these customers will experience their brand in an optimal manner.

“It’s an example of our engineering prowess and the growing scale of our platform worldwide.”

SEND YOUR NEWS TO TIM.GREEN@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK 28 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

www.mobile-ent.biz

29 ME62_Final

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Page 1

OPERATORS

Network Subs Key operator subscriber numbers from around the world...

COUNTRY WESTERN EUROPE UK

GERMANY

ITALY

FRANCE

SPAIN

NETHERLANDS

IRELAND

SWEDEN

NORWAY

DENMARK GREECE

BELGUIM

POLAND

PORTUGAL

SWITZERLAND

AUSTRIA

www.mobile-ent.biz

OPERATOR VODAFONE T-MOBILE 3 O2 ORANGE VODAFONE T-MOBILE O2 E-PLUS FREENET (DEBITEL + MOBILCOM) DRILLISCH (VICTORVOX) VODAFONE 3 WIND TIM ORANGE SFR BOUYGUES VIRGIN VODAFONE MOVISTAR ORANGE YOIGO VODAFONE T-MOBILE KPN TELE2 VODAFONE O2 3 METEOR 3 (INCLUDES DENMARK) TELENOR TELE2 NETCOM TELENOR NETCOM TELE2 TDC SONOFON VODAFONE COSMOTE WIND (PREVIOUSLY-QTELECOM) T-MOBILE MOBISTAR (ORANGE) BASE BELGACOM MOBILE VODAFONE ORANGE T-MOBILE VODAFONE TMN OPTIMUS ORANGE SWISSCOM SUNRISE T-MOBILE

SUBSCRIBERS 18,704,000 16,608,000 5,591,000 20,960,800 16,110,000 34,774,000 39,330,000 15,400,300 18,712,000 17,621,000 1,969,000 22,403,000 8,931,000 17,900,000 31,921,000 25,354,000 20,226,000 9,894,000 1,600,000 17,069,000 23,993,200 11,620,000 1,318,000 4,708,000 5,474,000 6,739,000 417,000 2,119,000 1,717,500 1,200,000 1,017,000 1,423,000 1,958,000 3,343,000 5,608,000 2,977,000 1,650,000 463,000 3,202,000 2,018,000 6,255,000 8,800,000 4,967,000 9,064,000 3,421,000 2,992,000 3,829,000 3,451,000 13,736,000 13,482,000 5,813,000 7,084,000 3,326,900 1,566,000 5,543,000 1,487,000 3,387,000

COUNTRY EASTERN EUROPE HUNGARY CROATIA CZECH REPUBLIC

RUSSIA

UKRAINE SLOVAKIA ASIA PACIFIC AUSTRALIA

CHINA

HONG KONG INDIA

JAPAN THAILAND

SINGAPORE

LATIN AMERICA ARGENTINA COLUMBIA BRAZIL MEXICO VENEZUELA NORTH AMERICA CANADA

USA

OPERATOR

SUBSCRIBERS

T-MOBILE T-MOBILE T-MOBILE O2 VODAFONE MEGAFON MOBILE TELESYSTEMS VIMPELCOM TELE2 KYIVSTAR GSM UKRAINIAN MOBILE (MTS) O2 T-MOBILE 3 OPTUS TELSTRA VODAFONE CHINA MOBILE CHINA UNICOM TIBET TELECOM 3 SMARTTONE BHARTI AIRTEL BSNL IDEA CELLULAR TATA INDICOM RELIANCE VODAFONE NTT DOCOMO AIS DTAC TRUE MOVE SINGTEL STARHUB MOBILEONE

5,207,000 2,885,000 5,458,000 4,922,700 2,984,000 49,117,000 68,700,000 49,971,000 13,302,000 22,285,000 17,780,000 463,100 2301000 6,052,000 8,225,000 10,191,000 3,274,000 508,367,000 142,799,000 46,780,000 1,456,000 1,164,000 110,511,416 58,756,598 51,454,402 46,796,033 86,117,663 82,846,000 55,186,000 28,282,300 19,271,000 15,400,000 2,976,000 1,884,000 1,718,000

MOVISTAR MOVISTAR COMCEL VIVO CLARO TELCEL MOVISTAR MOVISTAR

15,453,400 8,810,900 27,357,000 48,847,200 42,278,000 58,360,000 16,518,400 10,613,800

BELL ROGERS TELUS SPRINT T-MOBILE USA VERIZON WIRELESS US CELLULAR AT&T

6,707,000 8,365,000 6,413,000 48,281,000 33,420,000 89,013,000 6,131,000 81,596,000

Source: Mediacells was established in 2004 to assist clients in making more money out of mobile. The company provides accurate and actionable intelligence to the mobile, media, retail, research and information sectors. www.mediacells.com

Mobile Entertainment April 2010 | 29

30 ME62_Final

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FAVOURITES

ty’s Johnson Check out Mon he was off to India, we wished

TERRY JACKSON CEO, Admoda

When Monty Munford told ME within weeks, missing him well and assumed he’d be back Kyle Show. But instead, he my Jere The London Pride, chips and You can see him in Q4 as stayed on and became a movie star.

Sey. He starts filming Jaan Jee Hum Major Johnson in Khelein dealer. drug a s play he re whe , soon ie his new mov one. that , Might involve some research

WHICH PHONE DO YOU CURRENTLY OWN? The iPhone.

WHAT’S THE BEST PHONE YOU’VE EVER HAD? The iPhone for email and reading blog s and news, but not for apps. They’re too often just for showing to other peop le.

Google, Apple, sharptoothed lawyers...

WHAT PHONE WOULD YOU LIKE NEX T? I might give an Android phone a whir l.

Eric Schmidt It seems a long time since Google CEO ne launch for a iPho the at e stag on Jobs e Stev d joine ionship big mutual love-in. Since then, the relat r than the faste ted riora dete has two the between arrival of Tim The ds.

Woo r marriage of Mr and Mrs Tige d heat things coul gle Goo for cate advo r lope Bray as deve ne vision of iPho “The ged: up even more. He recently blog sex, and rsy, rove cont s omit re futu net’s the mobile inter en gard d walle freedom... it’s a sterile Disney-fied ers.” Do keep it up, Tim. surrounded by sharp-toothed lawy

HOW MANY TEXTS DO YOU SEND A DAY? About 30-ish.

WALLPAPER? A picture of Morecambe Bay – and I’m not joking either.

GetJar’s secret weapon

FAVOURITE MOBILE GAME? Possibly Sudoku.

At a recent What did your dad do in the cold war? pany’s com n GetJar event, ME asked the Lithuania Curtain.

Iron the nd behi life t founder Ilja Laurs abou pon defence wea ear nucl gned desi r fathe his He said father of one of systems. Now, it turns out that the Accel, also stor inve ar GetJ at VCs rican the Ame the same time. at ms syste designed nuclear weapon trying to kill lly litera were r fathe his and “My father hope. we e, mor each other,” he told us. Not any

FAVOURITE APP? Google – yes, I’m that boring.

WHICH CONTENT COMPANY DO YOU MOST ADMIRE? Check out our client list ;) WHAT’S THE WORST IDEA YOU’VE SEEN IN MOBILE? The idea that you need to raise VC in order to grow a large, profitable and successful mobile company.

Hopping mad

bi’s ct vinyl LPs – but John Stoneman, inMo Some men collect toy cars, others colle pper – ndho grou a is n ema Ston nds. grou ball European sales director, collects foot better. ia as possible and the crappier the a football fan who visits as many stad turn poor a for ing pray was he ugh, ne Boro When he took in a match at Broxbour r npou dow ntial delighted to see a torre out, and blogged: “Awoke on Tuesday e figuring it would be another attendanc ght, thou I last, that may outside. Long zon.

Ama on The Road From Wembley limiter.” You can buy Stoneman’s book

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT SUBSCRIPTIONS UK: £50 EUROPE: £75 REST OF WORLD: £90 Tim Green

Stuart Dredge

Stuart O’Brien

Lisa Foster

Katy Grant

Executive Editor: TIM GREEN Tim.Green@intentmedia.co.uk

Sub-Editor: GEMMA MESSINA Gemma.Messina@intentmedia.co.uk

Production Manager: ABIGAIL FANGER Abigail.Fanger@intentmedia.co.uk

Online Editor: STUART DREDGE Stuart.Dredge@intentmedia.co.uk

Managing Editor: LISA FOSTER Lisa.Foster@intentmedia.co.uk

Subscriptions Manager: HANNAH SHORT Hannah.Short@intentmedia.co.uk

Associate Editor: STUART O’BRIEN Stuart.Obrien@intentmedia.co.uk

Advertising Sales Manager: KATY GRANT Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk

Publisher/Managing Director: STUART DINSEY Stuart.Dinsey@intentmedia.co.uk

Editorial Production Manager: HELEN FRENCH Helen.French@intentmedia.co.uk

Design: JAMES MARTIN James.Martin@intentmedia.co.uk

If you or one of your colleagues would like to request a subscription to Mobile Entertainment, please email mob.subscriptions@c-cms.com or call 01580 883848 Please note that this is a controlled circulation title and subscription criteria will be strictly adhered to.

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© Intent Media 2010. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owners. Printed by Pensord Press, NP12 2YA Mobile Entertainment is published 12 times a year

by Intent Media ~ Saxon House, 6A St. Andrew Street, Hertford, Herts SG14 1JA, England

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Here’s why: Monthly direct-todesk print circ: 8,012 Monthly digital downloads: 2,236 Online uniques: 68,134 (Google Analytics) Email news digest subscribers: 13,869 Need to get your message across? Work with Mobile Entertainment magazine to maximise your exposure and reach all sectors of the industry, using print, online and events.

Contact Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk for more details or call +44 (0) 1992 535647

EDITORIAL: +44 (0)1992 535646 ADVERTISING: +44 (0)1992 535647 FAX: +44 (0)1992 535648 30 | April 2010 Mobile Entertainment

www.mobile-ent.biz

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