Mobile Entertainment issue 58, December 2009

DECEMBER 2009 ISSUE 58

FOR EVERYONE IN MOBILE CONTENT www.mobile-ent.biz

What’s RIM building?

ME travelled to the BlackBerry DevCon to find out...

OUTSOURCING FOR GAMES

sales@babelmedia.com www.babelmedia.com

CONTENTS ■

ELITE SQUAD PAGE 12 ME’s annual Top 50 Execs rollcall should start the Christmas bickering early…

12

CUE QUALCOMM

18

BOLD STRATEGY

The chipset giant opens up to ME

RIM’s app plans for BlackBerry

15

APPS ADD ADS

22

DREAM COME TRUE

Display ads click into place

Every year ME publishes its top 50, and every year the snipers take potshots at it. Fair enough. Can’t please ‘em all. Bear in mind, though, we do ask the industry for suggestions – so it’s not just us making the decisions.

This year the list has changed more than ever. Like so many industry sectors, the big ‘gatekeepers’ seem to be losing their centrality. Hence, fewer operators and not so many traditional games publishers in the 50. Check out the top cats on page nine – and let us know what you think. Try to keep it clean.

On other pages, we report from SanFran on RIM’s attempts to make BlackBerry the app developer’s favourite platform, catch up with Qualcomm and talk to HTC about its stealthy rise up the smartphone charts. We also look into the inapp ad opportunity and loads more…

HTC’s unstoppable smartphone charge

4-6 News ● 24 Appointments ● 26 Shows ● 27 Databox ● 28 Charts/Subs ● 31 Marketplace ● 38 Discontent www.mobile-ent.biz

December 2009 3

■ NEWS

The single life ast month, I watched a TV programme where two scientists were attempting an experiment on a beach. When they paused to check the tides on an iPhone, I was reminded yet again of the transformation brought about by the app store concept. The notion of using your phone, not only as a phone, but as a utility, has gone insanely mainstream.

So, now, the big question for the industry is who controls distribution? In virtually every debate, the argument is always around the relative merits of the handset vendor versus the operator versus the open web-based store (such as GetJar or Mobango). But one obvious question is rarely raised: Why not have just one single app store for everyone?

L

AQA is a profitable company, with a sizeable in-house technical unit. It was able to develop a single app that detects and adapts for the flavour of Java on any given handset Well, it’s being asked now. Last month, the text-for-answers service AQA 63336 launched its first app, but chose to do so in Java for the widest possible distribution. Now, AQA is a profitable company, with a sizeable in-house technical unit. Thus, it was able to develop a single app that detects and adapts for the flavour of Java on any given handset (rather than having to make dozens of different versions).

The process consolidated AQA boss Colly Myers’ belief that the industry needs one crossoperator app store. Intriguingly, he suggests the UK operators are looking into it.

It sounds like a technical nightmare to me, never mind the difficulty of getting operators to agree to anything – look how long the GSMA mobile media project is taking. Then again, it worked beautifully when the collaborative approach was taken to GSM and then SMS. Of course, there is one massive argument against doing it: The browser.

For me, the question of whether the future belongs to downloadable clients, or browserbased applications, is the single most important question this industry faces. It affects everyone.

I’d like to give my personal opinion on this.

But I really don’t know what it is yet. tim.green@intentmedia.co.uk.

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Mobile’s billion dollar week…

Dare we suggest mobile media is hot again? Big money swoops for AdMob and Playfish suggest it just might be…

AFTER a quiet M&A period, deals for Playfish and AdMob saw a billion dollars ploughed into the mobile content space in a week.

First, Electronic Arts spent $250 million to snap up Playfish and add the social gaming specialist to its growing EA Interactive division, which is focused on the web and wireless. It’s a remarkable result for ex-Glu Mobile exec Kristian Segerstrale, who launched the firm two years ago to focus largely on games concepts built for Facebook and iPhone.

Then, just days later, Google made its third biggest ever investment, with a $750 million (in stock) swoop for AdMob. The deal is the biggest in mobile content for years, and has prompted observers to wonder whether a fresh landgrab in mobile advertising is about the restart. It’s been over two years since Microsoft bought Screentonic and AOL bought Third Screen Media – although Velti did acquire Ad Infuse earlier this year.

Google and AdMob say the deal will provide a more rounded digital channel for advertisers encompassing the fixed and mobile sites. Omar

Omar Hamoui, AdMob CEO, believes the time is now for mobile content

Hamoui, CEO of AdMob, said: “I believe this will be an important moment for everyone involved in producing, consuming, or monetising engaging products on mobile. Until now, it has always felt like this space played second fiddle to our online brethren. I believe that time is over.”

While the deal certainly gives Google extra mobile leverage, many have suggested it was a blocking measure against Yahoo and Apple, both of which were linked with AdMob. It also gives Google new insight into the iPhone ad ecosystem, which is dominated by AdMob. www.admob.com

… as VCs rediscover mobile content IMIOBILE and Millennial Media are among the companies to have received significant VC funding in a busy month for the space.

India-based IMImobile raised $13 million from the prestigious Sequoia Capital fund and existing investor First Mark Capital. It says the funding will enable it to embark on its next phase of growth, having recently expanded activity in Europe

with the acquisitions of UK digital content specialists dx3 and Mobytec.

Meanwhile, the US mobile ad specialist Millennial Media closed a $16 million funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates with existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, and Charles River Ventures.

UK-based Muzicall raised €9 million to accelerate the

Euro expansion of its offportal ringbacks play.

Muzicall’s big idea for ringbacks is to extend the sale and marketing of the product to third party entertainment retailers.

On a smaller scale, Adfonic secured $600,000 from tech entrepreneur Gordon Shields, who will now act as a mentor and advisor to the company. www.imimobile.com

www.mobile-ent.biz

Game over for Zeemote MOBILE peripherals firm Zeemote has closed down, with one of its key financial backers looking to sell off its assets.

The company released one product, the Zeemote JS1 gaming controller. It was an analogue Bluetooth joystick originally for playing mobile games, although more recently Zeemote launched an application – Zeekey – that enabled the device to control all aspects of a handset.

Zeemote struck deals with Nokia and Sony Ericsson, but it seems those were not enough to keep the company in business.

iPhone pretenders ready for battle But who would have thought that so much of the smartphone action would come from Motorola and HTC? NOKIA, Motorola and HTC have begun shipping three of the devices widely touted as capable of challenging the iPhone.

The first €500 Nokia N900 tablets are now selling across EMEA, Russia and North America, and carrying with them a huge burden of expectation from

the world’s biggest handset maker. The N900 is based on Maemo 5 software, has a touchscreen plus slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a

2010). It’s the flagship Windows Phone-powered device, built around Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor and

The N900 is based on Maemo 5 software, has a touchscreen slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a Mozilla-based web browser and 1GB of app memory Mozilla-based web browser, an ARM Cortex-A8 processor and up to 1GB of application memory. The OS is so open that developers can effectively re-build it however they like. Radical stuff, eh?

Elsewhere, the wind is behind HTC’s HD2, which has now launched in Europe and Asia (although the US will have to wait until early-

showcasing the firm’s Sense UI. Although Windows has a poor reputation in mobile, the HD2 has been earning rave reviews.

Finally, there’s the Motorola Droid, which sold 250,000 in its first week on sale with Verizon alone. The first Android 2.0 phone has been enthusiastically received in the US, and will go on sale in Europe this month. www.nokia.com

The first Android 2.0 handset, Motorola Droid, will go on sale this month in Europe

MobiTV’s new Euro assault FORMER Yahoo chief Jan Olin has been recruited by MobiTV to lead a fresh charge into European mobile TV space.

The appointment signals a change of strategy for MobiTV, which pushed hard into Europe in 2006/7 before withdrawing to focus its efforts on the North American region. Olin will concentrate on licensing MobiTV as a technical solution for delivering streaming TV and video on demand. He won’t be licensing content from broadcasters, as this was the policy in MobiTV’s previous European adventure. That proved untenable given the cultural and linguistic www.mobile-ent.biz

fragmentation of the European market.

Olin said: “Europe is fragmented compared with the US, and it’s hard to scale local deals for content.

That’s why we’ll focus on delivering CMS, ingestion and a scalable platform to content providers, broadcasters and brands.”

He is adamant that the new tech-centric approach can make MobiTV a potential partner to companies that might previously be considered competitors. “The BBC iPlayer – is it competition? I think our tech can help it, and others like it, to improve,” he said. www.mobitv.com

AQA: there should be one app store THE BOSS of ‘text for answers’ service AQA 63336 has urged operators to create one Java-based app store to wrest the initiative back from iPhone and Android.

Colly Myers believes that for all the undoubted achievements of existing app stores, none really meet the needs of developers, who want to address users on all operators using any handset.

He said: “What developers require is a single app store providing Java ME apps to all networks. They would then have one marketplace from which to promote their applications, and one commercial relationship.

And customers would only need to go to one location to find and download apps.”

Myers: one store only please

Myers claims they need to change their mindset from trying to control the space, to building channels that let others innovate.

This explains why AQA chose to launch its app last month using Java ME. The app lets users ask questions more quickly, view their entire history of questions and answers, and see the best ones texted to the service. www.aqa.63336.com

[IN BRIEF] Facebook is champ Social media behemoth Facebook, has topped the GetJar global downloads chart. Its app lined up alongside eBuddy, mig33, Nimbuzz and Opera Mini 5 to complete the top five downloads among users of GetJar globally in October.

Yahoo Go to go Search giant Yahoo will abandon its four-year-old downloadable app to focus on mobile web and smartphone platforms. Yahoo Go provided access to search, email and third-party services. It worked on more than 400 phones. The closure is part of Yahoo’s new emphasis on developing services that work either in the mobile browser or inside apps on high-end devices like Android and iPhone.

Samsung’s Bada bid Korean vendor Samsung will roll out a new app development initiative, Bada, this month. Bada, which means ‘ocean’, is an open platform that enables a richer user experience in applications. It includes what the company calls a next generation UI framework with feature sets and design elements that facilitate user interfaces for every bada app. The initiative follows Samsung’s Developer Challenge, $250,000 games fund and app storefront.

More Mobucks Mobile ad specialist Out There Media has released version 2.0 of its Mobucks platform with faster set-up, better reporting and more targeting The firm says the enhancements deliver ‘optimum campaign set-up and management, efficient campaign management and advanced data mining and profiling capabilities.’ Out There Media has partnerships with 15 operators across 15 countries and reaches over 100 million subscribers.

EU ringtone check An investigation by the EU has forced closure or changes on more than 200 dodgy websites. The EU’s Consumer Commission investigated 301 websites since June 2008, after constant complaints from parents and consumers about ringtone misselling. As a result, 54 websites were shut down and more than 150 were forced to change advertising after failing to make clear to consumers the charges they faced in breach of EU consumer law. The investigation was carried out in all 27 EU countries plus Norway and Iceland.

Headline: m-Qube changes hands again Mobile Messenger has purchased the US m-commerce business m-Qube from VeriSign for $17.5 million. The deal represents a final exit for Verisign from the mobile content market, after it sold all of Jamba to Fox last year. It will make Mobile Messenger the biggest player in the US messaging, with an end-to-end technology platform for brands looking to set up a mobile comms channel.

December 2009 5

■ NEWS

Will you all Ringbacks outselling listen to ME? ringtones in Germany The industry’s favourite mobile content publication is now a podcast: the ME-Cast ISN’T it about time the mobile entertainment business had its own podcast? We think so – which is why we have launched the ME-Cast.

This new, regular podcast will include irreverent comment from the ME team, spliced together with mobile content executive interviews, location reports and – we hope – feedback from listeners. We’re delighted to confirm UK video specialist Saffron Digital as the MECast sponsor.

Issue one will see the ME team discussing the big money buy-out of AdMob, decision time for Nokia on Symbian/Maemo, and what’s to come in 2010. There will also be an interview with Saffron about ‘domain based DRM’, and more. The podcast was being recorded

as ME went to press. We will make it available in early December direct from the ME website and from iTunes. www.mobile-ent.biz

REALNETWORKS has provided further evidence of the decline of ringtones, claiming that Germans now spend more on ringbacks.

The music specialist says that Vodafone and T-Mobile made €26 million selling ringtones in Germany last year, compared to €34 million from ringbacks. It adds that ringback revenues have stabilised despite the prevailing economic downturn. Andreas Spechtler, RealNetworks MD of EMEA, said: “It just proves the stickiness of the market.

People are not unsubscribing even though times are tough.”

Now, the firm intends to push on with more ringback platform deals in Europe. It already has four and will announce a fifth within weeks.

RealNetworks acknowledges the relative failure of the ringback market in Europe (compared with Russia and Korea), but believes operators are finally accepting of the

Spechtler: ringbacks won’t be quiet, despite the economic downturn

need to outsource the running of services, rather than run their own bought-in platforms.

It’s also confident of a more robust approach to marketing, and cites research showed 20 per cent of subscribers signed up for the service in response to a text campaign.

The firm’s signed a threeyear deal to power the music service for SRF, following deals with Mobikom Slovenia and Mobikom Austria, and it’s ASP services are currently available through 84 mobile operators in 45 countries. www.realnetworks.com

Mobile’s fair play Indian Space Gambling firm Betfair to make mobile a key part of its future plans ● Hires former Mfuse chief to devise strategy BETFAIR has begun a major push to make mobile central to its long term future.

The UK firm, which runs the largest betting exchange in the world, already offers a downloadable Java app and a mobile site, although it was only in July that it offered full registration and payment from mobile.

It is now pushing on with smartphone app development and has appointed for former Mfuse founder Charles Palmer to head up its mobile operation.

Richard Hewitt, product manager of Betfair mobile products, believes mobile can keep Betfair ‘front of mind’.

He also thinks it can unlock new gambling activities that take place during live sports events when it would be unrealistic 6

December 2009

Hewitt wants to make mobile a channel, not just an online add-on

to expect PC users to participate. He said: “Looking long term, we need to see mobile as a channel and not an add-on to the online operation.

“That seems to be the way the world is going, and it means we can develop new products and appeal to different demographics.”

Intriguingly, there’s already a Betfair app live on iPhone, not developed by the company itself and approved despite Apple’s careful scrutiny of what could be deemed adult content. That said, Hewitt is confident an official application can get through.

The firm is also working on Android versions of its products and services.

Although Betfair is closely associated with sports betting, Hewitt confirms that it will launch casino games (poket excepted) and various text-based alerts services in the near future. www.mobile.betfair.com

exploration UK ad-funded video specialist 3rd Space achieved 300,000 plus downloads in ten days in a campaign with Reliance.

The promotion for Sony Bravia TV was launched on R World, the Relianceowned WAP portal focusing on five million GSM users. It was promoted through WAP banners and an SMS campaign with links.

Reliance sent 700,000 SMS messages to a crosssection of its subscribers over ten days, and achieved a 43 per cent conversion rate from 30,000 recipients per day.

The videos, between two and 3.5 minutes long, featured international fashion shows along with Bollywood concerts and film clips, were all pre-rolled by a 15 second ad for Sony Bravia TV.

“While many have been sceptical about the adfunded model on mobile, the initial conversion rate achieved with Reliance is unique in terms of magnitude and response. It supports our belief that ad-funded is the future for rich multimedia delivery,” said Warwick Hill, CEO of 3rd Space. www.3rdspace.com

Learn more: Mobile World Congress 2010, hall 1, G05 or visit http://mwc.materna.com 8

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Top Left – Bottom Right: Gianluca D’Agostino, Ray Anderson, Marco Argenti, Andrew Gilbert, Andy Rubin, Antoni Muntaner, Bart Decrem, Daniel Ek, Diogo Salvi, Emma Lloyd, Fabio Pezzoti, Frank Meehan, Harry Dewhirst, Henri Moissinac, Iljar Laurs, Jon Von Tetzchner, Mark Curtis, Neeraj Roy, Neil Young, Paul Goode, Peter Knook, Phil Schiller, Ralf Priemer, Ralph Simon, Raoul Roverato, Richard Jackson, Rob Wells, Simon Buckingham, Stanislas Chesnais, KF Lai

TOP 50 ■

Senior

management

From a pool of thousands, Mobile Entertainment presents its annual top 50 most important people in the industry. Wasn’t easy...

www.mobile-ent.biz

December 2009 9

■ TOP 50

Daniel Ek CEO, Spotify It has been a crazy year for the Swedish music streaming firm. Ek speaks eloquently about the future of music, and clearly sees mobile as key to its long term prosperity.

Spotify is now live on Android and iPhone, and concluded a significant bundle with 3UK. ■

Mark Curtis MD, Flirtomatic Flirtomatic’s novel take on the social network – encouraging members to spend money on their own profiles and on treats for other members – has won it admirers and awards all over the cybersphere.

Curtis is a deep thinker who makes a compelling case.

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Marco Argenti Vice President of Media and Games, Nokia So many Nokia execs to choose from, but we’ve gone for Argenti, a former Dada executive who crossed over to Nokia last year.

Can’t have been an easy first 12 months, with Ovi’s teething problems, but Argenti is a highly thought of individual.

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Ray Anderson CEO, Bango Bango has evolved from the off-portal payments specialist it used to be. Still does all that, but has diversified to become an all round m-commerce consultancy with a fast growing interest in mobile site metrics.

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Simon Buckingham CEO, Mobile Streams Now ten years old, and one of the world’s first content companies, Mobile Streams was struggling a little two years ago, but has stormed back strongly in 2009. It’s now active virtually all over the world in D2C and B2O markets.

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Andrew Bud Executive Chairman, mBlox The enthusiasm of Bud for mobile content and his willingness to point out flaws everyone else wants to ignore makes him a towering figure in the business. mBlox has just celebrated its tenth birthday and Bud remains MEF chairman.

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Gianluca D'Agostino CEO, Neomobile Italy’s D2C giant is a huge presence across Southern Europe and Turkey.

It bought Arena Mobile for access to Spain and Latin America, and now generates nearly €100m a year across 13 countries.

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Chris Barton CEO, Shazam Music discovery specialist Shazam has been through a few changes since launching as an IVR-controlled consumer facing app. It is now the darling of the app stores, with 50 million users and a permanent top ten residence on various download charts.

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Stanislas Chesnais CEO, Netsize In continental Europe, Netsize remains a major influence in mobile payments and marketing services. It has moved quickly into in-app operator billing. The firm’s Netsize Guide is the best free industry directory money can’t buy.

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Russell Buckley VP of Global Alliances, AdMob The Google sale doesn’t make Buckley any less influential than before.

There’s an argument for having AdMob founder Omar Hamoui in the list, but we’ve kept in Buckley because he goes around the world being very persuasive about AdMob and its 11.5bn ad serves a month. Buckley is also chair emeritus of the MMA. ■

Jim Beddows Chair, MEF Americas Beddows recently departed MSN Mobile after four years, and is currently focused on his work with the MEF in the US. ■

■ Martin Blomkvist Director of Global Content Acquisition & Partner Management, Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson is currently trying to turn itself around after a miserable few years. Its new handsets, Satio and Xperia, are loads better, and the content strategy is as aggressive as ever. In the summer, the application store opened up to all developers for submissions.

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Ron Czerny CEO, PlayPhone Still a giant in D2C, but PlayPhone has smartly moved into a white label model that gives media companies like Wal-Mart, ABC Television, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and others an instant content play.

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■ Paul Goode SVP, Census Solutions, Comscore Goode’s been in the biz since the start and merits inclusion this year for his pioneering work on the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics project. The market research tool will deliver mobile media metrics to agencies and brands. Could be huge.

■ Harry Dewhirst COO, RingRing Media RingRing is focused entirely on mobile, and represents buyers rather than inventory owners. Even though it is barely more than a year old, the company has a $6m turnover, and is spending over $1m a month on behalf of clients in 200 countries.

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Julia Dimambro MD, Cherry Media If you’re going to have a representative of the adult sector on the list, it’s going to be Dimambro.

She’s been there since the beginning, and knows the space inside out.

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Bart Decrem CEO, Tapulous Tapulous gives hope to those that believe in the app store paid download. Its music games have been downloaded more than ten million times, and the most recent Tap Tap Revenge 3 uses Apple’s in-app payments system to let players buy new tracks from major label artists.

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Shashi Fernando CEO, Saffron Digital It’s taken years for video to establish itself on mobile, but Saffron has become a key platform provider in the space. Clients include Sony Ericsson, Paramount and Nokia, and it has just launched a US office too.

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■ Tanya Field Director of Mobile Data Group, Telefonica O2 Former head of content in the UK landed a massive job overseeing Telefonica group strategy in UI, advertising and mobile internet.

Michel Guillemot CEO, Gameloft Gameloft was a giant in the operator deck days, but has migrated seamlessly to an app store world, selling six million iPhone games. The company will have launched around 30 iPhone titles before the end of the year.

Barry Houlihan, CEO Mobile Interactive Group MIG’s heritage is in participation TV, but Houlihan read the runes correctly and built a company that can offer brands any kind of mobile interaction – from sites to apps to advertising. The launch of Kilrush might be the biggest MIG unit of them all.

Richard Jackson VP of Sales, Muzicall What’s wrong with the European ringbacks market? Plenty, but nothing that can’t be fixed with good marketing and a cross-operator offering. Muzicall has already made good progress, and is set to transform the space.

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■ Pieter Knook Director of Internet Services, Vodafone What was Knook doing for 18 months after his big money transfer from Microsoft? All was revealed in May, when 360 emerged as the long term successor to Vodafone Live.

Very ambitious, a complete re-think, 360 is the biggest operator response yet to the app store challenge.

Marcus Ladwig COO, Peperonity The German firm’s mobile social network peperonity was one of the first of its kind. It hosts more than six million user pages and is accessed by 12 million visitors a month.

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Andrew Gilbert President, Qualcomm Internet Services Qualcomm’s drive into widgets, TV and content distribution continues under the guise of a tall Englishman.

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TOP 50 ■

Antoni Muntaner Chairman, Binbit Mexico’s D2C giant Binbit is already a key player in the buoyant Latin American market, but the world started to really take notice when the firm bought South Africa’s Atinco and Singapore-based Acme Mobile to become a genuine global presence.

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■ Emma Lloyd Director of Business Development, Sky Lloyd has helped Sky develop into arguably the most successful major entertainment brand in mobile.

Sky sells its own ads and has developed excellent iPhone apps.

Ilja Laurs CEO, GetJar Lithuanian CEO Laurs launched GetJar as a developer resource for testing Java apps, but the site is now riding the app wave to position itself as the handset-agnostic app store alternative. It currently manages 55 million downloads a month.

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KF Lai CEO, BuzzCity BuzzCity’s myGamma social network service is a huge presence across Asia with well over 3.2 million members.

This network is also the basis of a mobile ad network that served 7.5 billion paid ad banners in Q2 2009.

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■ Tyler Lessard VP of BlackBerry Global Alliances and Developer Relations, RIM Lessard is the developer guy at RIM and has expanded his activities hugely as BlackBerry moves from enterprise/email to consumers and apps.

Frank Meehan CEO, INQ Mobile Brave to launch a mobile handset company from scratch. But INQ ended up winning awards and leading the trend for designing phones around social media applications.

Conquered Facebook. Twitter and Android next.

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Henri Moissinac Head of Mobile, Facebook Facebook’s unstoppable rise on the web made its move into mobile a nobrainer. After a laissez-faire start, 2009 saw a host of deals with operators and OEMs and resulted in 65 million regular mobile users.

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www.mobile-ent.biz

Phil Schiller VP of Worldwide Marketing, Apple With jobs out of action for much of the year, we’ve selected Schiller as our Apple rep in the list. He’s central to the on-going app store juggernaut, trumpeting achievements such as the 100,000 app milestone last month.

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Jon von Tetzchner CEO, Opera Software Tetzchner’s mobile browser Opera Mini brings speedy but rich browsing to 31.9 million users. The firm is keen to state how much it does to promote data use, while compressing the amount of data actually downloaded – 13.9 billion pages in August 2009 alone.

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Raoul Roverato Executive VP, New Growth Activities, Orange The youthful-looking Roverato has a very grown-up job, devising the content strategy for Orange as it moves beyond the WAP store era.

All eyes on the Orange App Shop.

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Matt Murphy Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers/iFund The $100 million investment vehicle has quickly emerged as a supporter of the most innovative iPhone app makers. Those funded include Booyah, ngmoco and Pelago, but the marquee name is Shazam, which received an injection in October.

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Luca Pagano VP of publishing, EA Mobile Europe Pagano made the switch to EA in the summer after many years as the face of Buongiorno in the UK. He inherits a company with a successful app store strategy and a solid legacy in WAP. He has big ideas about social gaming.

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Javier Pérez Dolset CEO, Zed It’s been a quiet year for Zed after the frenzy of PR in 2007/8. But still the D2C company acquired Player X to forge even closer links to operator content teams. It is also preparing a huge mobile push around Planet 51, the CGI movie run by Javier’s brother.

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Fabio Pezzoti CEO, Mobango Pezotti has fashioned a ‘social mobile app store’ that combines downloadable content with UGC sharing and now has over five million members.

Mobango charges developers for downloads and is building a whitelabel application store offering.

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Ralf Priemer MD, Arvato Mobile Arvato is a content aggregator with deep and longstanding links to brands and operators. It has a heritage in music thanks to ownership by BMG, but is now in the hands of the Abu Dhabi Group, giving it the funds and the contacts to build into fruitful Middle Eastern markets.

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Neeraj Roy CEO, Hungama Roy won ME’s ‘outstanding contribution’ award this year as a recognition of Hungama’s achievement in dominating the Indian content scene – and Roy’s own hard work proselytising for the market.

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Johan Rosendahl MD, Ericsson IPX Ericsson IPX connects to 60 operators in 15 countries and is a trusted billing partner for content providers. Its newest play is an in-app system that permits single click payments to the operator bill. This could be very significant.

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Andy Rubin VP of Mobile Platforms, Google A year on, Android is really gathering fans and establishing itself as a challenger to iPhone. Rubin has done much to define the platform and its partnership strategy.

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Diogo Salvi CEO, TIM w.e Portugal’s TIM w.e. is one of the vast companies that is easy for Anglo Saxon media outlets to overlook. We won’t. The firm is big in D2C, B20 and mobile marketing, and has 22 offices across 60 countries.

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Mauro del Rio Chairman, Buongiorno Buongiorno is one of those D2C giants that’s busy figuring out how to evolve from a world of ringtone revenues. Hence all those acquisitions of marketing firms and social networks. It remains a key B2O player.

Vince Staybl CEO, Gofresh Gofresh’s itsmy.com mobile community has more than 2.5 million users, managing pages containing ten million UGC items. It has moved to embrace advertising, viral marketing, social gaming and more ■

Ralph Simon Chairman Emeritus, MEF Americas He doesn’t need to, but still Simon roves the world getting very animated about the potential of mobile content to change lives and make money. He has the ear of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and even Capitol Hill.

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Are Traasdahl CEO, Thumbplay Thumbplay remains a leader in the US D2C market, but has diversified into mobile music marketing and apps. Will be interesting to see how it develops this strategy.

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Rob Wells SVP of Digital, Universal Under Wells’ watch, Universal has become known as the label most prepared to try new business models – such as Nokia’s Comes With Music and Orange Monkey.

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Neil Young CEO, ngmoco Former EA exec Young is in charge of one of iPhone’s most illustrious developers, a firm with multi-million selling games, funding from the iFund and a third-party channel for independent coders.

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December 2009 11

■ QUALCOMM

Innovate to accumulate Qualcomm makes the technologies that drive mobile towards ever faster data speeds. It also makes products that exploit what these speedy networks can do. Tim Green saw for himself… or seasoned mobile content people (like, er, me) Qualcomm has always been a bit tricky. It’s a company with a long, distinguished and very successful history in chipset manufacture and technology patents.

All perfectly fine. But hardly mobile entertainment.

However, Qualcomm’s pivotal role in migrating mobile from voice to data has prompted it to develop services that showcase what fast networks can do. Hence BREW, MediaFLO, Xiam personalisation platform and now Plaza.

F

Qualcomm’s Colm Healy believes m-commerce can help operators become the mobile equivalents of Amazon

175 million people in Western Europe use 3G. That’s a third of all subscribers, and it’ll be a half by the end of 2010.

The firm has had variable success with these offerings. For all its efforts, let’s be honest, it’s still seen as a chipset maker that does services rather than the other way round.

Despite this, Qualcomm remains as committed as ever to innovating around content. That much was clear from the Innovation Qualcomm showcase in London last month, at which the firm provided updates on existing services and demonstrated new ones such as Mirasol e-reader screen technology and Skitfer content sharing (see box).

On a macro-level Qualcomm EVP and president Andrew Gilbert began with the stat that 175 million people in Western Europe use 3G. That’s a third of all subscribers, and it’ll be a 12

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QUALCOMM ■

half by end of 2010. However, the fastest growth will be in ‘emerging’ regions. In Eastern Europe, 3G penetration will grow from seven to 11 per cent next year. And in Turkey, Qualcomm reported that there is now 60 per cent HSPA coverage, and that Turkcell recruited three million subs since the summer.

This growth is the foundation of data-oriented Qualcomm concepts such as: Plaza, the platform that lets operators launch an app/widget store embracing feature phones and smartphones; ‘smartbooks’, a small netbook running smartphone OS and functions; and FLO TV, a dedicated device for accessing broadcast TV on the go (see box). It also explains why Qualcomm is ‘platform agnostic’, making its chips work as well – and sometimes better – with Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian as they do with BREW.

many feature phones and where mobile browsing is in high demand but not always easy to do. Having a widget platform for mobile makes a lot of sense in these territories.

Can you see a company like Vodafone choosing Plaza when it is so focused on 360?

Clearly some operators have their own projects. I think others want to start digital retailing without necessarily building their own platforms. Look at Japan. There’s the same price squeeze going on there around data that European operators are experiencing now on voice. So they’ve been focusing on mobile commerce and there’s been an explosion is activity that gives an idea of what’s possible.

Don’t forget that Qualcomm also has products like the Xiam personalisation engine that can help

Qualcomm is platform agnostic, making its chips work as well with Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian as they do with BREW. So there’s the background. And here’s an interview we carried out with Colm Healy, VP of Qualcomm’s EMEA Services and general manager of Xiam Technologies.

those with an established channel.

There are thousands of apps on these stores, so anything that refines the experience for individual visitors has the potential to increase revenues.

Plaza sounds like a great idea – a cross platform app store that you can buy in ready-made. But you’ve launched it at a time when everyone wants their own channel not an outsourced one...

Clearly we’re in the foothills of the space, and people are trying different things. Longer term we’re offering operators the chance to do for mobile retailing what Amazon has done for online. I think that’s a pretty good idea. And we have a track record in the space with two billion downloads to date on the BREW platform and $2 billion paid out to developers. We know how to do this.

Why should developers work with you?

Plaza is cross-platform so it takes away some of the pain of fragmentation, but more importantly it reduces the need to deal with multiple supply chains.

But you only have two deals…

Like I said, early days and we’ll be making more announcements soon.

But the two we have announced are America Moviles and TIM Brasil.

Both massive companies with multimillion subscriber bases. I think it’s quite telling that the first deals are in Latin America, where there are so

Is all this stuff just a means to sell more chips – or does Qualcomm see its future in services?

Qualcomm is a successful company with shareholders that expect us to maintain that success. Chipset revenues won’t keep growing for ever and services are seen as a major growth area.

www.mobile-ent.biz

Is there a worry that apps are a blip and that the natural destination for mobile utilities is the browser?

That’s how the web has gone...

The mobile internet has a way to go before it can replicate the app experience in terms of ease and convenience. It would be wrong to wait for that.

Qualcomm the innovator You know about the chips. You know about BREW. But did you also know that Qualcomm wants to help you read e-books, share your holiday pics and check your blood sugar levels?

FLO TV

medical professional. This could even result in a mobile phone telling you your vital signs are unusual and you should seek help immediately. Could be massive. The comedy potential is endless.

Skifta

Rumours continue to fly around the MediaFLO service as hosted by AT&T and Verizon in the US. Is broadcast TV really what people want? Is coverage good enough? Is channel changing fast enough?

Credit to Qualcomm then, for grasping the nettle and launching its own FLO TV Personal Television mobile device. You need a subscription, but there’s no need for a mobile contract, and it’s available in the US through Amazon, Best Buy, Radio Shack and others.

This R&D service attempts to solve the problem of accessing and sharing digital content wherever you are – and without the need for lengthy set-ups or sign-ins. It uses DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) to search out and connect to mobile phones, TVs and other consumer electronics gear. This is a consumer behaviour experiment by Qualcomm. It’s impressively

Mirasol Qualcomm has seen the potential of e-books and wants in. Its MEMS subsidiary has developed a display tech, Mirasol, with the potential to display video yet consuming 37 per cent less battery life than existing displays. It’s teamed with Foxlink to make and sell the screens to third parties.

executed. The only question mark is whether, in the age of Spotify and Flickr, anyone needs to take content with them.

Smartbooks First the laptop, then the notebook, then the netbook. Is the smartbook next? Qualcomm thinks so. It’s working with Lenovo and others to create a new niche – ultralightweight PCs based on the Snapdragon chip that run Android or Linux and act as pumped up smartphones in a laptop form factor.

Mobile healthcare It’s a hypochondriac’s wet dream.

It’s LifeCOMM, a new Qualcomm unit dedicated to developing devices and technologies that use intellient patches and even tablets with embedded radios (true) to transmit medical information to a mobile device, and from there to a

December 2009 13

MOBILE ADS ■

The inside track In-app advertising has given brands and agencies their first shot at mobile campaigns with genuine targeting, ‘find my nearest’ and more. No wonder they love it so much, reports Tim Green… hree years ago I interviewed a mobile ad exec who told me, with great resignation, that he had recently met a group of agency managers, and not one of them had a 3G phone. His pitch fell on deaf ears – they didn’t know what he was talking about.

Fast forward to now, and the story couldn’t be more different. It’s the iPhone era – and nearly every ad exec has got one.

Today, agency types are at the forefront of mobile media, and, as a result, they are committing disproportionate resources to a format that actually represents a small percentage of the overall consumer base.

Obviously, mobile ad firms have responded in kind. Take AdMob, for instance. At the start of 2009 it launched download tracking to let advertisers assess App Store conversion rates (and thereby ROI), then shortly after it unveiled iPhone Advertising Exchange to give developers the chance to collaborate and place ads on each other’s apps for free.

For all AdMob’s success in WAP banners, there seems little doubt that the real reason for Google’s swoop was AdMob’s position in the iPhone app space.

If in-app advertising delivers back to ad buyers the metrics they crave, it will also give them more flexible formats – and ads that connect to the

T

Mark Slade, MD at ad specialist 4th Screen (left) and Carlos Taboada, CEO of Webmoblink

Location’s what mobile is all about. For years, advertisers wanted operators to give them location look-ups. Suddenly here’s iPhone with maps – anything is possible. features of the phone itself. Before, WAP banners were static, now there are ads that offer click-to-call, audio, streaming video and ‘find my nearest’.

The last is the biggie, says Mark Slade, MD of UK ad specialist 4th Screen. “Location is what mobile is www.mobile-ent.biz

all about, right? It’s what advertisers are most interested in. For years, they wanted operators to give them location look-ups, but the networks couldn’t deliver. Suddenly here’s iPhone with maps – and anything is possible,” he says.

If anything can rival location as a pull, it’s the ability to target specific users. Again, this is something operators have failed to deliver well, but it can be achieved inside an app.

Indeed, 4th Screen has begun targeting ads to Shazam users that interrogate the tagging information at the heart of the music ID firm’s operation. So, in addition to specifying recipients by handset type and time of day, advertisers can now target by music taste.

Like virtually all mobile ad companies, 4th Screen is now heavily committed to iPhone and has rolled

out its own rich technologies around it. The most recent is iSlide, which lets users click on the banner to expand the ad to full screen.

Importantly, iSlide minimises user drop off by keeping all the associated links and new page views within the same session rather than opening up a new tab. The first brand to make use of the format was Barclaycard.

Of course iPhone doesn’t have the monopoly on apps. Android is catching fast (interesting that the HTC Dream was second only to iPhone in the AdMob network’s top US handsets in September), and even the browser-based app stores, GetJar and Mobango, have created advertising programmes.

Of course, for brands who want an iPhone presence without an app, there’s always the browser. There’s a vast target market here, and every mobile ad company is cultivating it.

Relatively new market entrant, Webmoblink, has launched sitebuilding tools that enable advertisers to create iPhone-optimised websites in minutes. Carlos Taboada, CEO of Webmoblink, says: “Demand for iPhone pages is growing fast so we give clients the option to build sites based on different types of creative – and it’s all free.”

December 2009 15

■ SKY MOBILE

Sky

and the i Sky has achieved nearly two million downloads of its iPhone apps, and worked with Ad Infuse to create one of the most advanced in-app ad operations in media land.

Tim Green asked Sky’s head of mobile advertising, Tim Hussain, all about it…

When did Sky start in-app advertising?

We launched a news app in May with banner inventory along the bottom.

Our other apps are Sky Sports Cricket Score Centre, Football Score Centre and the Sky+ remote record app. The first advertiser was Bacardi.

confident they do. There are new formats that keep the consumer on the site, still offering the kind of rich and interactive experiences that advertisers want to give viewers.

So, not a mobile content brand...

No. And that’s one of the good things about iPhone advertising. Because of what it can do, and the awareness around it, we can attract mainstream brands with a good demographic fit.

We licence the tech from Velti/Ad Infuse, but we manage and sell the ads ourselves because we have a great range of properties and inventory. We want to give people choice and freedom – we don’t want to confuse them with multiple sales people.

How are click-through rates?

Typically two to three per cent, but they can hit four. It’s better than the fixed web, which is 0.01 per cent and the mobile web at around 0.7 per cent.

The top 30 agencies all have dedicated mobile management and that’s mostly due to iPhone.

Can iPhone maintain these high rates?

I doubt it. There’s a gradual drop-off in every media. But I do feel that iPhone can maintain its premium status because it has one advert per page.

Where do click-throughs take users?

In the case of Barcardi, they take users to the app store and the Bacardi app.

But others route you to a microsite or a video and so on.

Is it a concern that users navigate away from your app and don’t come back?

We’ve monitored it and we’re

Sky is unusual in that it runs its own ad operation. Why is that?

What does the Ad Infuse system let you do?

It’s moved on dramatically in just a year. There’s more alignment now with the kind of process flows we’ve been used to in the online space – you can pull off reports on specific areas quickly, and use cut and paste to create campaigns. Another thing that’s helped is being able to give clients a web-based log-in so they can see the metrics for themselves, rather than rely on us.

Agencies do love their metrics.

True. I’d say the top 30 agencies now each have a dedicated mobile manager, and that’s mostly due to iPhone. These guys like what you can do with the channel, but they also know how valuable the audience is.

For us too – 80 per cent of our mobile ad revenues are iPhone.

Video is a natural fit for a TV brand like Sky. What about ads in your programming?

We’ve already run pre-roll ads from Lucozade on video clips. Advertisers are keen, and it helps that the iPhone screen is big enough to support unmodified TV ads. www.mobile-ent.biz

BLACKBERRY ■

Boldly going How serious is RIM about its app store platform? Very, as Stuart Dredge discovered when he travelled to San Francisco for the BlackBerry Developer Conference… here were hundreds of people in the room when BlackBerry held its developer conference at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. Hundreds of people and one elephant. The pachyderm was, of course, the iPhone, against which every announcement and initiative was compared, even if it was rarely mentioned by the speakers.

That said, there’s nothing like competition to inject energy and innovation into a sector – and RIM absolutely delivered in this respect, announcing four ambitious new services for BlackBerry developers.

Before exploring them further it’s worth mentioning the sheer strength of RIM in the burgeoning smartphone space. According to Canalys, the firm increased its market share from 15.2 per cent in Q3 2008 to 20.6 per cent in Q3 2009. RIM overtook Apple, which shipped 7.4 million iPhones in Q3 for a 17.8 per cent market share and now lags only Nokia with 39.7 per cent.

That’s a pretty good base to ramp up developer love from. Here are the main planks of its new services quartet:

T

BlackBerry Advertising Service This will provide developers with ad units from a group of mobile ad networks, including Jumptap, Lat49, Millennial Media, Navteq, 1020 Placecast, Quattro Wireless and Sympatico.ca. It includes regular text and banner ads, as well as rich media ones designed to sit within BlackBerry apps. The latter will let adverts launch voice calls, add calendar and contact entries to the handset, or link directly to an app in the App World. www.mobile-ent.biz

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie. Bet he uses a BlackBerry

BlackBerry Payment Service In-app payment is the big idea here.

Developers will be able to sell content within apps, as well as subscriptions.

It won’t be available until mid 2010 – a year after the iPhone 3.0 SDK introduced the feature.

BlackBerry Push Service Due to go live in the first half of 2010, this service lets developers push alerts and up to 8KB of data to BlackBerry apps. It’s already being used by developers on the BlackBerry Alliance Program.

RIM’s plan for in-app advertising is intriguing – the first example of a handset firm jumping into the market in this way, on behalf of its developers.

Location services A suite of new services around cell site geolocation, reverse geocoding and travel time. The first, lets developers grab users’ locations in a faster, less battery-sucking way than GPS – ideal for apps designed to run in the background. Reverse geocoding converts co-ordinates to specific addresses for use in BlackBerry apps. Finally, Travel Time is an API for estimating travel time in apps – but only for destinations in the US and Canada.

Of course, questions remain. Inapp payments could be big, but what will the minimum payment be?

Equally, RIM’s plan for in-app advertising is intriguing. It’s the first example of a handset firm jumping in to the mobile advertising market in this way, on behalf of its developers.

On iPhone and Android, they’re left to their own devices, but RIM’s aim to make the process easier for developers seemed to go down well among attendees at this conference.

Much will depend on which networks December 2009 19

■ BLACKBERRY

RIM is competing hard for developer attention

7 heaven are involved, and how the business model works, particularly when operators are involved.

Taken together though, these innovations will offer BlackBerry developers features comparable to those available on iPhone 3.0 software. Actually, though, this is no bad thing. The unpalatable truth for all the smartphone platforms is that iPhone has the momentum right now when it comes to developer support.

Anything these platform-owners

One of the more meaningful buzzphrases in the conference keynote session was ‘BlackBerry Flow’ – the way apps mesh with the platform and with each other, rather than simply being standalone downloads. eBay and LinkedIn were two examples showcased (see box).

Overall, you can see how keen RIM is to promote BlackBerry as a consumer device. Executives like to point out that only 20 per cent of new subs are from business users.

RIM revealed it’s considering implementing age ratings for its store, prompting questions about the level of adult content allowed, and how this would compare to other platforms. can do to persuade iPhone developers to look beyond the App Store has to be for the best. RIM’s announcements – backed up by its market share in North America and its 80-20 revenue split on the BlackBerry App World – will also act as an incentive.

That said, RIM execs have been gently pushing the message that BlackBerry actually has some advantages over iPhone – principally the ability of apps to run in the background, and also to tie into the native features of BlackBerry handsets, including its messaging, calendar and contacts.

20

December 2009

But, that ratio hasn’t yet translated to the developer community, which is still top-heavy with enterprise applications.

Tellingly, no bands have yet followed U2 onto BlackBerry App World for example, and big entertainment brands are for now still focusing mainly on iPhone.

There are signs of changes in certain areas, though. Supporting the OpenGL ES standard will give BlackBerry gaming a shot in the arm, and it is interesting that the 7digital Music Store, which sells MP3s, scooped the ‘best application’ prize and is due to be joined by music

Music store 7digital – well, its developer partner DevelopIQ – won $100,000 for taking first place in the BlackBerry Developer Challenge in San Francisco.

The contest, sponsored by the BlackBerry Partners Fund, pitted 16 of the most innovative BlackBerry apps of 2009 against each other for the prize. 7digital’s music store walked away with the gong, with the runners-up prize going to BlackBerry game Fierce Towers, developed by Nickel Buddy.

A special ‘inventive’ prize was awarded to music app Kik, which will launch early next year.

Bidding for stickiness RIM is very keen on the notion of ‘BlackBerry Flow’, which helps apps mesh with core BlackBerry functions. It revealed eBay’s new app as a good example. This product lets users search for items and browse their details, complete with a carousel-style interface for looking at item photos.

However, the big news is the way the app ties into RIM’s push technology and the calendar. Users can automatically add a reminder to their BlackBerry calendar of a deadline for an item.

There is similar ‘native’ functionality in the new LinkedIn app, which ties in with the device’s messaging inbox, allowing users to respond to LinkedIn requests quickly.

BlackBerry and LinkedIn – it’s hard to think of a more perfect marriage. streaming startups like Kik and Rdio early next year.

Then there’s adult content. RIM revealed that it’s considering implementing age ratings for its store, prompting questions about the level of adult content allowed, and how this would compare to other platforms. Could this most North American of brands permit ‘mature’ content on its channel?

I came away from San Fran with the impression that RIM has a firm

idea of how its platform and store need to develop, and what the implications will be for application developers. It doesn’t seem to be panicking in the face of the threat from Apple, but rather sensibly bringing its platform in to line with iPhone, while trying to differentiate itself in subtle, but significant ways.

It is clear to see, that there are certainly many reasons for BlackBerry developers to be optimistic about 2010 and beyond. www.mobile-ent.biz

■ Q&A: HTC

Taiwan to watch Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC was the topic of dicussion at the Windows Phone launch in October.

Tim Green talks to its exec director, Jon French, about OS partnerships and being ‘quietly brilliant’... t the launch of the Windows Phone in October, one of the first questions asked by the press was whether Microsoft’s jazzy new UI would actually be hidden behind those of its handset partners – like HTC’s Sense, for example. Good question. And one that had Microsoft squirming.

The exchange was interesting for two reasons. First, because it illustrated that even when an OEM is prepared to build its device around a third party OS, it can still differentiate itself significantly through the interface. And second, because it showed how far HTC has come.

HTC was all over that press conference, not just on the lips of journalists, but also in the demo areas. It remains the key partner for Microsoft, just as it was when it was anonymously making SPV phones in 2005. But these days, it’s a consumer brand in its own right, with a broad range of devices (across Windows and Android) and a strong sense of itself.

ME sat down with HTC’s executive director, Jon French…

A

HTC has invested hugely in its Sense UI. Does it conflict with your OS partners’ own UIs? I’d clarify by saying that Sense isn’t so much a UI as a design philosophy with the fundamental aim of putting people at the centre of their mobile experience.

It revolves around three fundamental principles of ‘Make it Mine’, ‘Stay Close’ and ‘Discover 22

December 2009

Smartphone market shares

Nokia RIM Apple HTC Samsung Others

Units

Market Share

Units

Market Share

Yearly Growth

3Q09 m 16.4 8.2 7.4 2.4 1.5 7.3

3Q09 % 37.9 19 17.1 5.6 3.5 16.8

3Q08 m 15.4 6 6.9 2.1 1.5 9.5

3Q08 % 37.1 14.6 16.6 5.1 3.7 22.9

% 6.6 35.7 7.1 14.7 0 -23.5 Source: IDC

HTC’s executive director Jon French only took charge of HTC in the summer, but he’s already devised its biggest Euro ad campaign ever

the Unexpected’. In the case of Windows, there’s still a start button that takes you to that experience.

You’re strongly associated with Windows and now Android. Is there room for other alternatives?

We don’t favour any OS over another.

Nor are we tied to them; we look at all options. Ultimately, I don’t believe that anyone walks into a store asking for a phone with a particular OS.

HTC is currently embarked on a bold ad programme. Why now?

The HTC motto is ‘quietly brilliant’ which sums up our approach perfectly. It’s only two years old as a non-white label brand. Now, our products are sufficiently varied and differentiated enough to take that extra step. Especially in Europe, where the consumer is starting to choose phones based less on specs than on experience.

Five years ago, people were very loyal to handset brands.

There was a definite Nokia consumer, Sony Ericsson consumer and so on. That’s all changed in the last 12 months, as people are open to something different. I want HTC to be a creditable alternative to what used to be the top five. The campaign is six times bigger than any we have done before. It starts

with a brand advert, but there are three product ads to come too.

How can you convince people to make the switch, beyond advertising?

We don’t have the history of some of our competitors so our focus has to be the retail experience. We’re investing in product demonstrators for example, and we’ve set them up with Facebook and Twitter accounts.

They’re amazing. They’ve introduced me to things I wasn’t aware of, like the Augmented Reality stargazing app, for example.

Plenty of previously agnostic OEMs have now launched app stores.

Where’s yours?

We have no plans for an app store.

HTC is not in that business. For us, it’s all about how you integrate the app store – whether Windows Marketplace or Android Market – into the experience of using the device. www.mobile-ent.biz

www.mobile-ent.biz

December 2009 23

■ RECRUITMENT

Shah gets sucked Ex-Nokia man with the superb West Country accent

Agency Sales Director Mobile Ad Network London – Excellent basic equity

Business Development Director Mobile Advertising London – Excellent basic bonus

Business Development Manager Mobile Payments germany – Excellent basic bonus

Business Development Director Mobile Advertising Singapore – Excellent package

J2ME Developer Mobile Music

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

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

December 2009

SAPNA BURTON

The voluble KAMAR SHAH is back!

The former Nokia marketing chief is the new MD of mobile marketing specialist Vortex Mobile. It’s been a few months of golf for Shah following his departure from Nokia earlier this year, and the move takes him back to Canada, the location of his first tenure with the handset giant. Vortex clients include Labatt’s, Rogers, Dell, Scotiabank and Publicis.

marketing and development. The company says it will launch new products this year, and reach out to new channels.

CHARLES PALMER has returned to the mobile gambling space as the new head of mobile at Betfair.

Palmer left the UK firm Mfuse in the summer.

Movidius has appointed two new senior executives to its management team. JOHN BOURKE and BARRY JONES have joined as CFO and VP of software engineering respectively.

They join the mobile video processing technology firm shortly after its re-branding from Movidia.

Mobile Messenger has recruited a pair of senior execs as it commences a major new business drive. The Israel-based content distribution specialist has appointed EDWARD W. MCCORMICK as SVP of human resources and ISRAEL NIEZEN as SVP of strategic

London – Excellent package

24

KAMAR SHAH

The award-bejewelled social media company Flirtomatic has hired SAPNA BURTON as head of creative solutions. It’s a newly created role, and she’ll be responsible for generating new revenue via ad-funded content across Flirtomatic's mobile, web and email platforms. Prior to Flirtomatic, Sapna was a group account manager for Blyk.

M-commerce firm Monitise has strengthened its senior team by recruiting NEIL SENTANCE to its business development team. He joins from Symbian, where he was VP of sales. At Monitise he will drive support for the new generation of smartphones, including iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian and Android.

Changes at the top of Nokia: for CFO RICK SIMONSON is to head the mobile phones business, while TIMO IHAMUOTILA will replace him as CFO. Mobile Phones is one of two new entities within the Devices unit that came into operation in October, the other being Smartphones. Mobile Phones

■ 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 +44 (0)1992 535647 for more info. www.mobile-ent.biz

Sponsored by

into the Vortex to head Canadian mobile marketing agency years with the social media behemoth. In that time, Facebook has gathered 65 million subscribers to its mobile service.

JILL BRAFF has joined the exit from Glu to join Scrapblog as president and CEO. Scrapblog is a web-based service that lets users aggregate their social media from multiple sources using drag-and-drop menus. CARLOS GARCIA, who founded Scrapblog and served as CEO will now focus on partnerships and new biz.

ISRAEL NIEZEN

comprises all Series 30 and Series 40 devices.

Facebook Mobile’s director JED STREMEL has resigned after four

Sweden’s Bambuser social network has a new CEO. He is former MySpace Nordic CEO HANS ERICKSSON and he replaces cofounder JONAS VIG in the role.

NICCOLO DE MASI has ascended to the role of CEO at Hands-On Mobile from president. He replaces DAVID WHITE in the job.

Another recruiter takes the hotseat, as ME asks Datascope’s senior consultant Matt Hawkes about vomiting interviewers…

How did you get into recruitment?

Through a recommendation of a friend.

I had a background in sales and I love technology so it all seemed to fit.

Best thing about the job? technical I'm a geek so love keeping up to speed with the latest good. 'big thing'. The money's not too bad either if you're any Worst thing? or even Cowboy agencies who put CVs about without interviewing ers. prior consent. They soil the reputation of decent recruit Worst client experience? he had to My client was so drunk when interviewing a candidate excuse himself halfway to throw up.

Worst candidate experience? ewer.

One candidate made a very clumsy pass at the intervi What qualities make the best candidate? blag it will Enthusiasm and knowing your stuff. Lies and trying to ally. eventu k get you unstuc Worst thing you can say in a job interview?

They sacked me because...

How do you see the mobile sector’s current health? evolving My clients are optimistic about the future. Its a rapidly a big year. for l hopefu I'm sector with doors opening all the time.

www.mobile-ent.biz

December 2009 25

■ SOURCE: EVENTS

2009/10 Calendar December 2009

experts. It is aimed at scientific and corporate researchers, business developers and executives from marketing and HR disciplines.

December 2nd-3rd MEX WallaceSpace, London, UK www.pmn.co.uk/mex

March 9th-12th GDC 2010 Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, US www.gdconf.com

This UK conference has become a fixture for many on the experiential side of the biz, if such a thing exists. It specifically addresses UE and UI issues over two busy days of workshops and presentations. It culminates in an evening networking drinks party with an awards event.

Tickets cost £1,499.

December 3rd AIME Knowledge and Networking Seminar: Billing for content Grange Fitzrovia Hotel, London, UK www.aimelink.org

The world’s biggest games developer event returns to San Francisco, bringing together the community to share techniques, make connections and showcase the hottest upcoming technology.

Mobile World Congress (February 15th-18th). Inevitably the GSMA has cottoned on to app mania and decided to host an ‘app planet’ showcase in good old Hall 7. We’ll see you there

It’s back to the monorail, the slot machines and the grinding soulless despair of Las Vegas for CTIA 2010’s spring show.

Some people adore Vegas, but for the rest of us the conference centre is the best place to be – a location from which to escape the knuckle-dragging epsilons, and check out shiny new gadgets instead. Despite the downturn, CTIA attracts around 1,200 exhibiting companies and over 40,000 delegates.

AIME’s next seminar will take a look at the increasingly crowded payment services market for Web and Mobile Content Billing.

Topics include: In-app microbilling; credit/debit card billing and meeting the requirements of PCI DSS compliance; microtransactions; the roles of credit cards versus PSMS and Payforit in protecting merchant brands; single-click web and mobile payment systems; international billing. AIME members pay £50, and everyone else pays £80.

April 2010

January 2010 January 7th-10th International CES 2010 Las Vegas, US www.cesweb.org The colossal CES bandwagon rolls on, with its 2,000 plus exhibitors and 150,000 visitors.

Every conceivable consumer electronics item will be represented, including mobile of course. In fact, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is among the keynotes.

China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit (April 7th-8th) The conference, supported by China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, expects 150 delegates and a strong cast of speakers from the mobile industry MIDEM, was in doubt for a while, but will return to the Croisette in Cannes in January.

For the first time, it will incorporate the MidemNet digital and mobile programme into the main programme rather than as a precursor to the week’s action.

February 2010

January 24th-27th MIDEM Cannes, France www.midem.com

February 15th-18th Mobile World Congress Barcelona, Spain www.mobileworldcongress.com

The future of the year’s biggest music industry trade event,

The juggernaut returns to Spain. 2009’s show may have

26

December 2009

March 23rd-25th CTIA Wireless 2010 Las Vegas Convention Center, US www.ctiawireless.com

been smaller than in previous years, but still drew 49,000.

Not bad in a global recession.

This year, inevitably, the GSMA is climbing aboard the apps bandwagon with a new event called App Planet. It’ll be held in Hall seven, traditionally the home of mobile content at MWC, and will include conference sessions, an exhibition of apps, and a networking-focused App Lounge. The GSMA is now seeking three main sponsors for the event, as well as a separate sponsor for the App Lounge.

March 2010 March 8th The Mobile Research Conference 2010 Swissotel The Howard, London, UK http://www.mobileresearchconfer ence.com The Mobile Research Conference (MRC) is the only industry event entirely dedicated to mobile surveys, connecting scientific research and best corporate practice. It comprises workshops and presentations from industry

April 7th-8th China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit Beijing, China www.china-mis.com In January, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 3G licences to its three main telcos. Thus began an exciting new era in the world’s biggest mobile market. This summit is supported by the big three operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – and is also endorsed by the MMA and the MEF. The organisers are expecting 150 senior delegates, and among the confirmed speakers are the app VPs at the opcos, plus Jin Peng (VP of MySpace China), Lin Bin, (VP of mobile R&D at Google) and many more.

www.mobile-ent.biz

SOURCE: DATABOX ■

databox

A selection of stats from across the mobile industry...

Reality on the rise

Bumper October for Android games sector The launch of the HTC Hero handset and improvements to Android Market caused a 53 per cent rise in Android games revenue in October, according to FADE. The study by the mobile games app specialist suggests that Android Market generated $180,000 from game sales in that month. Yet, despite these increases, no-one is making a fortune as yet. FADE estimates

that Lupis Labs’ Robo Defense, the top-selling Android game, sold 7,600 units during October at $2.99, grossing just over $22,700 in revenue.

It also says that in the seven months since paid apps were introduced on Android Market, games firms have made a total of $850,000. However, it predicts that November will see sales jump 50 per cent to $270,000 as a result of more handset launches.

RIM and Apple lead smartphone charge Blackberry increased its smartphone market share from 15.2 per cent in Q3 2008 to 20.6 per cent in Q3 2009.

It was one of the big gainers in a sector that rose just four per cent year-on-year to 41.4 million, with a six per cent drop in EMEA shipments eating into the five per cent rise in North America, and 26 per cent growth in APAC. www.mobile-ent.biz

The figures from Canalys state that Nokia remains at the top of market shares after shipping 16.4 million smartphones in Q3, which is 39.7 per cent of the market. RIM overtook Apple, which shipped 7.4 million iPhones in Q3 for a 17.8 per cent market share. Sitting in fourthplace is HTC, having shipped 2.2 million smartphones in Q3 for a 5.3 per cent market share.

Augmented Reality is set to hit $350 million in revenue by 2014, according to an ABI Research study.

The tech, which overlays data and tags on camera images, has come to be regarded as the most exciting new technology on the market.

Already companies such as Layar have released local area information apps for iPhone and Android.

Joe Madden, ABI Research author, says: “Today’s customised, direct businessto-business AR supply chain will continue to see incremental growth in military, automotive, and entertainment applications.

But those businesses will be overshadowed by the massmarket dynamics of mobile handset application sales and advertising revenue streams.”

Most Apple apps are not stored Around 20,000 of the 100,000 iPhone apps available are not actively installed, says a report by AppsFire.

The findings will be a warning to developers that releasing an app for the iPhone doesn’t instantly give them a licence to print money.

In fact, even the most popular iPhone app has only been

installed by 1.76 per cent of iPhone owners – although on Apple’s own figures of 50 million iPhone and iPod touches, that would mean a not-so-bad 880,000 downloads.

AppsFire concludes that the App Store discovery process is poor and only best sellers are really making it.

Books beat games One out of every five iPhone apps launched in October was an e-book.

Analytics firm Flurry says this means that that the number of book apps has now surpassed games for the first time, with books accounting for 20 per cent of catalogue, against 13 per cent for games. This data gives more evidence to Flurry’s claim that iPhone is set to provide competition for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader.

Flurry also identified the extent to which some iPhone users are addicted to apps. It found that 1.2 per cent of the 40 million users tracked, fell into this category using an application more than 100 times a month.

December 2009 27

■ SOURCE: CHARTS

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

Tagging

Ringtones

Artists & handsets

Ringtones.com top Euro music tones, November

Song 1 2

Fight For This Love Bad Boys

Flycell US Top Ringtones, November

Cheryl Cole

Song

Artist

Model

Alexandra Burke

1

Down

Jay Sean

1

CU920/CU915/Vu

LG

Party In The USA

Miley Cyrus

2

SGH-A767 (Propel)

SAMSUNG

CF360 (Slider)

LG

Vendor

3

I Gotta Feeling

Black Eyed Peas

2

4

Watcha Say

Jason Derulo

3

I Gotta Feeling

Black Eyed Peas 3

JLS

4

You Belong To Me

Taylor Swift

4

(Wild Card) M1000

KYOCERA

Best I Ever Had

Drake

5

GR500 (Xenon)

LG LG

5

Everybody In Love

6

Oopsy Daisy

Chipmunk

5

7

Riverside

Sidney Samson

6

Paparazzi

Lady Gaga

6

CU720 (Shine)

Kings Of Leon

7

Successful

Drake

7

VX9100 (enV2)

LG

One Time

Justin Bieber

8

VX9200 (enV3)

LG

8

Sex On Fire

9

Down

Jay Sean

8

10

Don’t Stop Believing

Journey

9

Fireflies

Owl City

9

SGH-A867 (Eternity)

SAMSUNG

10

I’m Going In

Drake ft Lil Wayne

10

A455 (Rival)

MOTOROLA

Source: Mobilestreams

Source: Flycell

Ringtones.com top Euro funtones, November

1

Meerkat Let Me Out

TV Advert

2

Meerkat Message

TV Advert

3

Meerkat Simples!

TV Advert

4

Meerkat Brring, Pick Up Phone

TV Advert

5

Compare The Meerkat.com

TV Advert

6

Milky Bar Red Car & Blue Car Race

TV Theme

7

Market, Not Meerkat

TV Advert

8

Compare The Meerkat.com, Simples

Meerkat

9

Simples, Simples, Simples

Meerkat

10

SAW

Film Theme

Jamster top ringtones, November Song

Artist

1

Boys And Girls

Pixie Lott

2

Sexy Chick

David Guetta

I Gotta Feeling

USA realtone soundalikes, November

South Africa realtone soundalikes, November

Ringtones 3

Source: Flycell

Music

Source: Mobilestreams

Black Eyed Peas

4

Holiday

Dizzee Rascal

5

Supernova

Black Eyed Peas

6

She Wolf

Shakira

7

Never Leave You

Tinchy Stryder

8

Sex On Fire

Kings Of Leon

9

Sweet Dreams

Beyonce

10

Evacuate The Dancefloor Cascada

Source: Jamster Jamster games, November Game Publisher

Shazam Tagging November 1 Sweet Disposition The Temper Trap 2 Watcha Say Jason DeRulo 3 Fight For This Love Cheryl Cole 4 Anyway Duck Sauce 5 Oopsy Daisy Chipmunk 6 Empire State Of Mind Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys 7 Meet Me Halfway The Black Eyed Peas 8 Down Jay Sean ft Lil Wayne 9 Tik Tok KeSha 10 You and I Medina Source: Shazam

1

Sexy Chick

David Guetta ft Akon

1

Watcha Say

2

Hotel Room Service

Pitbull

2

Paparazzi

Lady Gaga

3

Celebration

Madonna

3

Empire State Of Mind

Jay Z ft Alicia Keys

4

She Wolf

Shakira

4

Down

Jay Sean

5

Million Dollar Bill

Whitney Houston

5

Party In The USA

Miley Cyrus

6

Down

Jay Sean

6

Sweet Dreams

Beyonce

7

Good Girls Go Bad

Cobra Starship

7

You Belong With Me

Taylor Swift

8

3

Britney Spears

8

I Gotta Feeling

Black Eyed Peas

9

Funhouse

Pink

9

Sexy Chick

David Guetta ft Akon

10

Evacuate The Dancefloor

Cascada

10

Use Somebody

Kings Of Leon

Source: Melodi Media

Jason DeRulo

Source: Melodi Media

Video & wallpaper FoneStarz top wallpapers, November

FoneStarz top videos, November 1

Sexy Cam

1

2

Lingerie Sensations – Hay Ling

2

Werewolf Ghoul Face

3

Fight For This Love – Cheryl Cole

3

Bikini Starlets

4

I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas

4

Tiger Watching

5

Wii Fit Girlfriend

5

Night Storm

6

Bad Boys – Alexandra Burke

6

Dolphin Pink

1

X-Ray Scanner

MobileActive

2

Need For Speed Shift

EA Mobile

3

...Millionaire?

Glu Mobile

4

Bejeweled Twist

Pop Cap

5

Partner Tracker 3.0

Fox Mobile Studios

6

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Glu Mobile

7

Looney Toons: Monster Match Glu Mobile

7

YouTube Baby Hulk

7

Thunder Lightning

8

Scrabble Mobile

RealNetworks

8

Sex On Fire – Kings Of Leon

8

Tiger Cubs

9

South Park Mega Millionaire

RealNetworks

9

Puppy Howl

9

Earth Moon

10

Are You Smarter...?

Capcom

10

Never Leave You – Tinchy Stryder ft Amelle

10

Nodding Pup

Source: Jamster

28

Flycell US Top Download Handsets Nov

Artist

December 2009

Source: FoneStarz

Source: FoneStarz

www.mobile-ent.biz

SOURCE: CHARTS ■

Bplay Smartphone Entertainment Charts Thru November 15, 2009 Top 20 games

Top 20 themes

Thru November 15, 2009

Smartphone Entertainment Charts

Smartphone Entertainment Charts

Title

Category

Publisher

Title

Category

Publisher

1

iBerry 2.0 Today Plus

Today Plus

Magmic

1

Texas Hold’em King 3

Cards/Casino

Magmic

2

iBerry Edge Today Plus

Today Plus

Magmic

2

Tetris Mania

Puzzle

EA

3

iWidgets

Next Gen

Magmic

3

Monopoly

Strategy/Board

EA

4

Glitter

Zen

Magmic

4

Chuzzle™

Puzzle

PopCap

5

Glitter Today Plus

Today Plus

Magmic

5

Guitar Hero 3

Action Arcade

HandsOn

6

iBerry 2.0

Icon

Magmic

6

Mahjong Solitaire

Cards/Casino

Magmic

7

Tinker Bell

Disney

Disney

7

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?™

2010 Puzzle

Capcom

8

Waterfall

Animated

Magmic

8

Hunting Unlimited

Action Arcade

THQ

9

Fireplace

Animated

Magmic

9

Sudoku

Puzzle

Magmic

10

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Disney

Disney

10

Twilight

Puzzle

RealArcade

11

Space Slideshow

Rotating Wallpaper Magmic

11

No Limit Casino 12 Pack

Cards/Casino

Digital Chocolate

12

Saltwater

Animated

Magmic

12

Need for Speed Shift

Action Arcade

EA

13

Rainforest

Animated

Magmic

13

Spades

Cards/Casino

Magmic

14

iBerry Neo Today Plus

Today Plus

Magmic

14

The Sims 3

Strategy/Board

EA

15

Snow Globe

Animated

Magmic

15

Spider Solitaire

Cards/Casino

Magmic

16

Flowberry

Next Gen

Magmic

16

Solitaire Legends

Cards/Casino

Magmic

17

Cities of the World

Rotating Wallpaper Magmic

17

Phase 10

Cards/Casino

Magmic/Fundex

18

Solar Slideshow

Rotating Wallpaper Magmic

18

Frogger

Action/Arcade

Konami

19

iBerry 2.0 Zen

Zen

Magmic

19

Bookworm

Action/Arcade

PopCap

20

Tinker Bell Pink

Disney

Disney

20

Ka-Glom

Puzzle

Magmic

Raise your brand profile: sponsor the industry's premier networking event!

It worked for Qualcomm, Nokia, Samsung, MIG, WIN, Hands-On and others. It’ll work for you.

An ME Event

Meet-Up sponsors recieve:

MEET-UP was created by ME magazine to bring together mobile execs for a night of networking and fun. With so many key industry

people in one room, it’s a superb opportunity for sponsors to launch products and boost brand awareness.

● Huge pre and post-event coverage via ME’s magazine, website and email alerts ● Branding at the event on interactive video walls ● Opportunity to invite clients and suppliers ● Access to list of all event attendees Meet-Up events take place at the 24 club in London’s West End.

For more information call Katy Grant on 01992 535646 or email katy.grant@intentmedia.co.uk.

Title

Publisher

Title

Artist

1

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Glu

1

I Gotta Feeling

Black Eyed Peas

1

Title Haters Make Us Famous

Category Pink Frosty

2

JONAS!

Disney

2

You Belong With Me

Taylor Swift

2

Red Dethklok Logo

Metalocalypse

3

Jewel Quest Deluxe

I-play

3

Breakup (ft Gucci Mane)

Mario

3

JEOPARDY! Clue Crew

Jeopardy

4

Hannah Montana Star Moves

Disney

4

Over You

Honor Society

4

Evil Mage

Dustin Meyer Imaginary Friends

5

Family Feud

Glu

5

Sweet Dreams

Beyonce

5

Bloo Screen

6

Build-a-lot

Glu

6

Swag Surfin'

F.L.Y. - Fast Life Yungstaz

6

One Shall Stand

Transformers

7

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Glu

7

Boom Boom Pow

Black Eyed Peas

7

Music/Rap & RnB 2

Graffiti

8

MTV Cribs

Real Networks

8

The Climb

Miley Cyrus

8

JEOPARDY! Silver Logo

Jeopardy

9

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Infusio

9

Trust

Keyshia Cole

9

Amazing City Scape

Pink Frosty

10 TextTwist Turbo

Real Networks

10

Here We Go Again

Demi Lovato

10

Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart Versaly

11

NBC's The Office Challenge

India Games

11

Knock You Down

Keri Hilson

11

I'm So In Love

12

Rock and Roll Jeopardy

Sony Pictures

12

Don't Forget

Demi Lovato

12

Peacock

National Geographic

13

G-Force

Disney

13

Ego

Beyonce

13

Naughty But Nice

Pink Frosty

14 God of War - Betrayal

Sony Pictures

14

I Run To You

Lady Antebellum

14

Purple Haze

Pink Frosty

15

Digital Chocolate

15

You're A Jerk

New Boyz

15

Butterfly

Fulep

16 Family Guy Uncensored

Glu

16

Deth Theme

Metalocalypse

16

Roses and Kisses

Pink Frosty

17

Collapse! Chaos

Real Networks

17

Beautiful

Eminem

17

Night in..

Romance

18

Call of Duty: World at War

Brain Tester 24-Pack vol 2

Fulep

Glu

18

Before the Storm - (ft Miley Cyrus)Jonas Brothers

18

The City

Unique

19 Casino Royale

Sony Pictures

19

If Today Was Your Last Day

Nickelback

19

True Love

Pink Frosty

20 Cars Radiator Springs 500

Disney

20

Fly With Me

Jonas Brothers

20 Plenty of Fish

Fun

MOBILE MARKETPLACE MOBILE ANALYTICS

MOBILE MARKETPLACE

MARKETPLACE INDEX ADMODA ........................................................08707 661 992 www.admoda.com ARTWIZZ ..........................................................01642 204350 artwizz@playwithhubb.com BANGO............................................................08700 340 365 www.bango.com BRIGHTSHARE ......................................+972 (54) 307 49157 www.brightshare.com DIALOGUE COMMUNICATIONS ...............08700 790 300 www.dialogue.net DYNAMO..........................................................01382 348 635 www.dynamogames.com ELITE ................................................................01543 268 826 www.elite-systems.co.uk FROGGIE ....................................................+34 954 98 08 48 www.froggie-mm.com GORILLABOX ...................................................01628 418 158 www.gorillabox.net HANDS-ON MOBILE DEVELOPER NETWORK (HDN) hdn-affiliate@handson.com......http://developer.handson.com/ INMOBI ....................................................+91 (22) 2671 7772 http://inmobi.com/

INTERACTIVE MOBILE SOLUTIONS

KATINA.............................................................078 3366 4075 www.rawmobileporn.com LOGIC3 ............................................................01923 471 000 www.logic3.com PARTNERTRANS ................................................01753 247731 info@partnertrans.com SPIEL STUDIOS ........................................info@spiel-s.com www.spielstudios.com SPLASH ..........................................................0870 934 2666 www.splashnews.com VENOM..............................................................01763 284181 www.venomuk.com XIAM..............................................................+353 1 483 2000 www.xiam.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 tom.roberts@intentmedia.co.uk t: +44 (0) 1992 535647 www.mobile-ent.biz

(

)

December 2009 31

MOBILE MARKETPLACE CONTENT DISCOVERY

DEVELOPER

PHONE & GAMING ACCESSORY SPECIALIST

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December 2009

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MOBILE MARKETPLACE ACCESSORIES FOR IPOD/IPHONE

MARKETPLACE NEWS

Mobile users: It’s personal

Nearly two thirds of consumers say they would spend more time accessing or purchasing content if it was personalised and easier to find, says a survey by Xiam.

The Qualcomm-owned personalisation specialist’s study of mobile content users in the UK and US found that 62 per cent want a more personal experience, while 80 per cent reported a problem obtaining content on their handsets. They said they would increase the amount of time per week accessing content by over one hour if

that content was easier to find. This equates to £4.80 more per user.

“One of the key messages from this research is that the industry has to evolve beyond simple search and move toward personal discovery, making the user’s experience more intuitive,” said Colm Healy, VP of Qualcomm’s EMEA Services and general manager of Xiam Technologies. “These results point to a huge opportunity for operators to increase mobile data usage and sales by providing personalised mobile apps and content experiences.”

Shazam releases its premium application MOBILE ADVERTISING

Music recognition specialist Shazam has added new features to its iPhone app, which it is retailing for £2.99/$4.99.

It’s called Encore, and it will sit alongside the company’s existing free app. The free version, which has also been upgraded (but now limits users to five ‘tags’ a month), has been downloaded more than ten million times from the App Store.

Encore, meanwhile, comes with a clutch of new features including music

recommendations, charts, search, and an in-car tagging mode (activated when the iPhone is docked).

Both Shazam apps are live in 22 countries and local language versions are available in English (UK and US), German, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Japanese. Last month the company took strategic investment from VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers – the company behind the $100 million iFund.

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

December 2009 33

MOBILE MARKETPLACE MOBILE GAMING PARTNERSHIPS

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

GAMES PUBLISHER

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December 2009

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MOBILE MARKETPLACE MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER

MARKETPLACE NEWS

eBuddy Selects InMobi Web and mobile messaging service eBuddy has teamed up with Indian mobile ad exchange InMobi to increase revenue payouts in 12 countries including the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Thailand, Australia, India and Indonesia. eBuddy says the two companies have seen a 100 per cent increase in ad revenue in a four month trial, and that these geographies already account for over 20 per cent of eBuddy’s total mobile ad revenue.

“We anticipate excellent results from our partnership with InMobi”, said JanJoost Rueb, CEO of eBuddy. “InMobi’s scale and strength in international markets combined with eBuddy’s 240 per cent year-on-year mobile IM growth and more than nine million unique monthly mobile users lays the foundation for a hugely successful partnership for both companies.”

Bang goes a decade Has it really been ten years since Ray Anderson thought it would be a good idea to help mobile sites charge for their wares? Oh yes, it surely has. Ray and the team celebrated Bango’s first decade at

the swanky Movida club in London.

From the pic below, it looks as if Ray had the night of his life. If you weren’t there, here are some pics to make you wish you were.

LOCALISATION

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MOBILE MARKETPLACE MOBILE MARKETING & ADVERTISING

MARKETPLACE NEWS

Spin the bottle this Christmas Inlogic has released a slew of games in the run-up to the festive period.

Spin The Bottle replicates the party game beloved of students and swingers everywhere. Players spin the bottle on the screen, and whoever it points at does something embarrassing – like removing clothes or supporting Arsenal.

Spin The Bottle is released in three variations: Classic, Sexy and XXX. The last one sounds interesting.

Inlogic’s Christmas games comprise Christmas Pairs, Gomoku Christmas and Sudoku Christmas. The firm believes they will appeal to players of all age groups.

Muzicall raises e9 Million

GAME DEVELOPMENT STUDIO

The UK ringbacks firm Muzicall claims a round of funding will help it accelerate its Euro expansion.

Existing investors BlueRun Ventures and Thule were joined by Orkos Capital, Veddis Ventures and GP Bullhound in the deal. Muzicall’s big idea for ringbacks is to extend the sale and marketing of the product to third party entertainment retailers.

Its platform therefore aggregates together all the various platforms used by different operators. The firm provides outsourced services to

operators including Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile.

“The completion of this round of funding puts us in an excellent position to expand throughout Europe, and demonstrate that the huge revenues RBTs are delivering for operators in Asia and the US can be realised here too,” said Patrick Allainguillaume, CEO of Muzicall.

Muzicall sees huge potential in Europe.

It says around two per cent of European mobile users currently have a ringback tone; in parts of Asia that number is approximately 40 to 50 per cent.

Green coloured Pixels Games developer Dynamic Pixels has gone all green, building a partnership with ecogroup Greenpeace.

The firm will be carrying out different nature conservation ideas and will start with a forest protection project. It intends to reach out to its network of affiliated developers for help.

Anna Lin, international PR and marketing manager at Dynamic Pixels, said: “Implementation of the project is based on a fellowship approach.

We have a big gaming community who we tell about the current Greenpeace projects, and impel all listeners to take small action in solving this big problem.”

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

December 2009 37

■ DISCONTENT

Send your pictures and gossip to tim.green@intentmedia.co.uk

FAVOURITES PHIL EAMES, CEO, iome Which phone do you currently own?

The iPhone.

He’s the governor Jan Olin, the new MD Europe at MobiTV, is a parent governor at his children’s school in South London. Well done, you’re all thinking. Very public-spirited. But get this, Jan doesn’t have any kids at the school. He’s just moved his family to Sweden for his new job. When ME met him last month, he was on his way to a meeting. For those of us who struggle to glance at their kids’ homework, it’s a sobering reality check.

Use the phone, fall over

BrickBerry ME was shocked to see RIM’s newest device at its DevCon in San Francisco. The firm has made real strides from Pearl, through Bold to Storm.

But its new handset is huge and made of Lego.

It’s a misstep that we just can’t see business users embracing.

One of Britain’s greatest traditions is the dragging of a key down the side of a flash car. It’s a noble tradition cherished by the envious and embittered everywhere. It has yet to extend to mobiles, but if it ever does then the Japanese have a ready-made response. DoCoMo has licensed Nissan’s Scratch Shield paint, which heals itself after damage. Miraculous, eh? They should combine it with the scented Sony Ericsson SO703i. Scratch ‘n’ sniff!

What phone would you like next? iPhone Nano!

Current wallpaper?

Picture of my boys.

Favourite mobile game?

Snake.

Favourite mobile Internet sites?

BBC.

Einstein said time moves more quickly for the observer than for the person on the move. Any fool knows that. Well, how would Albert have factored mobile users into his famous equation? We ask because a new study by Accident Analysis and Prevention found that college adults talking on a phone took 25 per cent longer to cross a road than mobile-free pedestrians. Some old people fell over. They were probably saying: “I’m on a survey!”

The results recall another study that found nearly three quarters of phone users failed to notice a nearby clown on a unicycle. Scientists call it ‘attentional blindness’. We call it an understandable fear of circus freaks.

DoCoMo is finished

What is the best phone you’ve ever had and why?

A Nokia phone from about ten years ago.

It was easy to use, had everything I needed at the time, and I could drop it and it wouldn’t break.

Anything you’d pay for on a mobile that you can’t currently get?

Micro payments for goods would be ideal.

Which content company do you most admire?

BBC. What’s the worst idea you’ve seen in mobile?

Text spam – not good.

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