Mobile Entertainment Issue 65, July 2010 by Intent Media (now Newbay Media Europe)

JULY 2010 ISSUE 65 WWW.MOBILE-ENT.BIZ

We are the global D2C expert in Mobile Entertainment… We are a mobile media group with a unique digital know-how. Our dis nc ve exper se & approach in selec ng content, packaging services and designing the most appropriate communica on allow us to give our Partners the best solu ons to win in the Mobile Space especially in these markets

Italy

Iberia

France

Turkey

Brazil

Mexico India

…the best choice to mobilize your business We oﬀer Mobile payment solu ons Support in design product/services op mized for mobile Connec on and valuable rela ons with Mobile Operators Technical development and Integra on Marke ng Support (including repor ng and customer care)

To Web and Media companies App Digital content and Applica on Stores

Social Networks and Da ng Game communi es

s time to monetize on mobil Our Goal: deliver high performances and generate mobile value to our Partners

ABOUT NEOMOBILE GROUP We are a mobile media company ac ve in 14 markets targe ng a poten al of > 2 bln mobile lines

We design, develop, market and distribute digital content and interac ve services for mobile users in collabora on with mobile network operators worldwide

Ac ve in the market since 2004, we are leader in Italy and among the top players in Spain, Brazil, Turkey, France and Mexico in distribu ng D2C (Direct to Consumer) mobile content and services

The Group is also leader The headquarters is in in B2B, oﬀering content Rome with oﬃces in and technology solu ons Europe, Asia and La n to operators and media, America. We are a team and in Mobile Marke ng of 200 professionals, thanks to the dedicated experts on mobile business unit: marke ng and technology Neomobile Marke ng Solu ons We are proud member of

2009 Finalist Best D2C Company

www.neomobilegroup.com - info@neomobilegroup.com

CONTENTS JULY 2010 | ISSUE 65

FEATURE

IN PROPORTION As every world-weary female reader of ME will know, phones can be a bit like men. You learn that size isn’t everything. Style and a seamless user interface count for a lot too. And if you could get a handset with a good sense of humour that liked your friends, well,

10 CREDIT WORTHY? After a few false starts the credit card and e-wallet companies are circling mobile again. Can they succeed this time with apps, NFC, bumps and jackets?

FEATURE

8 ZED SAID

17 CIRCULAR ON 360

How did a ringtone club company end up making TV shows? Read the Q&A of Zed to find out.

It’s nearly a year since Vodafone unveiled its big services fightback, 360. How’s it getting on?

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 4 OPINIONS

20 SHOWS

Why Apple is suddenly obsessed with who has the shiniest phone, and a look at the new world of HTML5.

All your air miles and falsified expense claims start here, in ME’s round-up of industry events.

13 NOMINATION STATION

21 DEALS

The ME Awards are open, so enter now. It’s free. But don’t do it till you’ve finished reading this issue of ME.

Illicit industry liaisons laid bare in our round up of who’s buying and who’s bagged a ton of VC cash.

14 FALLING FLAT

29 NETWORKS

Have O2 and AT&T ended the flat-rate data era? And can the replacements ease data congestion?

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

18 JOBS

30 DISCONTENT

Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s shaking it all about? And who’s looking to spend more time with their family?

Mobile’s effect on rabbit testicles. Now you want to read on, don’t you?

25 MARKETPLACE YOUR GUIDE TO THE MOBILE CONTENT INDUSTRY

www.mobile-ent.biz

you’d never churn again. Funny how the handset makers are getting very fixated on height and girth all of a sudden. Since the advent of iPhone and Android, homogenisation has been the watchword. A parade of rectilinear touchscreens have landed in store with little to distinguish them until you turn them on and see the UI. How much difference is there really between a Pop and a Jet? I always found this focus on software over hardware a little depressing. It’s like having identical cars each with a different approach to windscreen wiping. But I sense that finally, a tide is turning against this blandness. Much of it is to do with proportion. As my colleague Stuart Dredge points out this month, Apple is as proud of iPhone 4’s thinness and rounded edges as it is of its hi-def video recording. This is quite a departure from before. Meanwhile, check out the dimensions of the Xperia X10 and the HTC HD2. They’re bloody huge. As in life, it seems every phone wants to be taller and thinner right now. Well, either that or smaller and cuter. Yep, the other noticeable design fad of the moment is the ‘rise’ of the mini. Shortly after Nokia complemented its N97 with a more compact version, Sony Ericsson and HTC did the same with the X10 and HD respectively. Minis are everywhere, although some stats suggest they may drag down the RRP of their bigger brothers rather than add to the brand cachet. If there is a new design ethos coming, I think it’s fair to say the innovations are pretty subtle. At Mobile World Congress there were titters from cynical hacks when Sony Ericsson breathlessly introduced its design breakthrough – and it was a phone with a cambered back. It’s easy to scoff, but I reckon a fair number of bored consumers might well choose a Vivaz for its curves. And me, I prefer the HTC Legend to the Desire even though it’s not as powerful simply because it’s so beautiful. It’s Penelope Cruz in brushed aluminium. Looks matter. So it’s nice that phones are getting stylish once more. Still, wouldn’t it be good to see some nutty stuff though? Last month, Motorola revealed the Flipout – a swivelling phone that’s square. It’s a start. But not as mad as Moto’s rotating V80 from 2006 or Nokia’s bonkers 7600 teardrop. Those were the days. Crap phones, but with a good sense of humour. Tim Green Tim.Green@intentmedia.co.uk Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 3

10 million

250 million

5 million

Total downloads for the iPhone Virtual Zippo Lighter app. That’s a lot of Take That concerts

Adobe has promised 250m smartphones will be Flashenabled by 2013. Take that Mr Jobs

Tapulous has sold 5m songs in its Tap Tap Revenge games, and it’s shifting 500,000 featured tracks a week

IN BRIEF Unlimited data tariffs no more Can this be the end of the era of the flat rate data plan? Last month, both AT&T and O2UK confirmed they are ditching these tarriffs in favour of tiered plans tied to quantitive limits. O2 is describing its change as ‘a more transparent pricing model tied to usage’, and claims that 97 per cent of its customers won’t need to buy additional data allowances based on their current usage. Under the new rules, £25 includes 100 minutes of voice calls, unlimited texts and 500MB of data, while £60-a-month includes unlimited voice calls and texts, and 1GB of data. Industry watchers have been waiting for this to happen since iPhone put huge strains on networks and slowed down calls and web access.

GetJar the billionaire GetJar has served up its one billionth download – less than a year after hitting 500,000. The record-breaking moment happened on June 7th at 11:02am when the Geodelic location app was downloaded on an Android handset. It makes GetJar the world’s second largest app store – based on downloads. The firm launched in March 2004 as a developer resource for testing and appraising Java apps. In the last 18 months it has evolved into a commercially-focused store and provides more than 65,000 mobile apps to consumers in over 200 countries.

AppCity launches global online app store French firm AppCity has built a multilingual destination at www.appcity.com, that offers apps for iPhone, Android, Nokia Ovi, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile users. It claims 225,000 apps including all on Apple App Store, all available on a subscription only basis, with a typical price of five euro a week for access to any app. One-off downloads are not available (other than for free apps), but there’s no subscription lock-in after a week. It will go live with one French operator imminently and billing is via the phone bill.

Apple pays developers $1bn Steve Jobs has written a cheque for $1bn to the world’s iPhone developers. Figuratively, of course. Apple’s App Store has passed the five billion downloads milestone, and the firm confirmed that this equated to a bonanza for coders. You’d need more data on the ratio of free to paid downloads to start calculating an average revenue figure. Jobs also confirmed that there are now more than 8,500 native iPad apps available on the App Store, which have so far totalled more than 35 million downloads. That’s 17 apps for each of the two million iPads that have been sold.

4 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

OPINION

iPhone wears big specs In the past, Apple rose above hardware spec willy-waving. But that all changed with iPhone 4, says Stuart Dredge... ne of the biggest achievements of the iPhone – and there have been many – was the way it disregarded the fixation of hardware features so beloved of the other phone makers. The device shipped with what was regarded as a poor quality camera, for example, but few cared. The biggest selling point for iPhone was its user experience, rather than its individual features. The other big attraction, of course, was its 225,000-strong apps ecosystem – another key selling point that went beyond any specific hardware feature. Few would deny that Apple’s hardware design is attractive, but what’s been more important to iPhone’s success is its software and store design. Something that’s taken a while to sink in for some smartphone rivals. This is why the unveiling of the new iPhone 4 at WWDC was so interesting. Apps and software had a big role, but CEO Steve Jobs also spent a long time talking up the merits of the new device’s hardware. Uppermost was the ‘retina’ screen. “There has never been a display like this on a phone – people haven’t even dreamt of a display like this on a phone,” said Jobs, of its 326 pixels-per-inch resolution. “Once you use a retina display, you can’t go back.” The iPhone 4’s five-megapixel camera was introduced with talk of its backside illuminated sensor and photons-per-pixel stats, and Jobs also took time to expound the merits of the handset’s A4 processor and bigger battery. The structural design of the device also got an airing, with integrated antennas. “It’s never been done before, and it’s really cool engineering,” said Jobs. You get the picture: the iPhone 4 has a strong hardware focus, which says something interesting about how Apple is reacting to the competition posed by its rivals in the smartphone world. The fact that iPhone gets a new model once a year makes for exciting keynotes, but it also gives those rivals time to iterate their own technology over several handsets. Between the launch of the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, we saw the HTC Hero and Tattoo, the Motorola Dext and Droid, the Samsung Behold II, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, and Google’s own Nexus One. The current big buzz in Android circles, meanwhile, is HTC’s Evo 4G. Android smartphones have been getting more stylish and more powerful, while Google has also released a rapid succession of updates to the Android OS itself. When iPhone 3GS went on sale last year, Android was on version 1.5. It’s since gone through 1.6, 2.0, 2.1 and now 2.2 – code named Froyo.

Without getting sucked into the Silicon Valley way of seeing the smartphone market as purely an iPhone versus Android thing, you can see iPhone 4 as Apple’s direct response to the competition posed by HTC in particular, but also the other Android-supporting manufacturers. iOS 4’s 1,500-plus new APIs for developers, are designed to keep pace with (or even outpace) the Android OS’s evolution, but one of the big messages of the WWDC keynote was Apple’s intention to battle much harder on the hardware side too. There was even the boast that iPhone 4 is the thinnest smartphone ever, although that’s the kind of accolade that tends to change hands(ets) every few months. Battle has been well and truly joined, in other words. And that’s without mentioning the patent lawsuits. The sterner competition posed by rival smartphones, and Apple’s response with iPhone 4, can only be a good thing for the mobile entertainment industry. However, despite sexy tech specs being back on the agenda, the importance of apps ecosystems mustn’t be forgotten. iPhone 4 will be plumbed into a store that’s already paid out $1 billion to developers. Google’s Android Market Store – as well as Nokia’ Ovi Store and RIM’s BlackBerry App World – need to start evolving as rapidly as the handsets that are attached to them. Stuart Dredge is online editor of ME www.mobile-ent.biz

2.6m

74 per cent

Nokia’s much-vaunted N8 phone will be the first to ship with Symbian 3 inside. The future of the N series? Or the new 5800?

Apple is very keen to push Safari on its users, but 2.6m have downloaded Opera Mini

Orange has predicted a 74 per cent rise in mobile TV viewing boost during the World Cup. Come on England!

IN BRIEF Portuguese brought to book Portuguese operator TMN is to offer ebooks to customers following a deal with UK-based ebooks distributor Mobcast. The partners will offer international bestselling titles and Portuguese eBooks to download. They include Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, Charlaine Harris’ True Blood, and Portuguese classics from Julio Dinis and João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett. Titles are accessible through TMN's app store for between 1.50 euros and 9.99 euros. The eBooks are compatible with over 80 BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG and Android handsets. It's another nice win for Mobcast, which recently launched white-labelled and fully managed book stores for Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Flirting with Android UK social media firm and serial award winner Flirtomatic has developed an Android app. The company had to think hard about going down the app route such was its success as a browserbased service online and on mobile. But it launched its iPhone app in January this year, and says it’s become its largest source of new users. Now, inevitably, comes Android. Like its iPhone predecessor, the app lets users set up a profile in 20 seconds. Flirtomatic will also be available as a Blackberry and Ovi app later this summer. In a parallel development, the service has rolled out the next stage of Facebook integration across the website with ‘like’ buttons on user profiles. Mark Curtis, CEO of Flirtomatic, said: “Over the last two years people have become increasingly familiar with mobile apps. With this in mind it makes sense for Flirtomatic to be as widely available as possible by launching apps across the major platforms.”

News Corp snaffles Skiff Publishing giant News Corp deepened its commitment to digital media when it bought Skiff, the ereading platform developed by another big publishing group, Hearst Corporation.Skiff was designed to turn newspapers and magazines into epublications for tablets, smartphones, e-book readers and netbooks. News Corp appears to have bought the Skiff platform, rather than the physical Skiff Reader e-reader which Hearst unveiled in January. “Today’s developments underscore News Corporation’s ongoing commitment to create strong business models that support journalism at a time of great change in our industry,” said News Corporation's chief digital officer Jon Miller. The company has recently launched iPad apps for The Times and The Sun in the UK.

6 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

OPINION

Five alive Basking in the glow of Apple approval, HTML5 has gone from being an obscure web language to the future of mobile media. Momac’s Alex Rutgers ponders... hings have changed for HTML5 in the last few weeks. It’s gone from being the preserve of CTOs to being something CMOs have to think about. The reason, of course, is that HTML5 has received the backing of Steve Jobs as a ‘safer’ alternative to Adobe Flash. You may also have read that there’s now a Google email and YouTube client written in HTML5. HTML5 is the proposed next standard for the HTML language that web pages are written in. The crucial benefit is that it offers developers a suite of markup and APIs that allow them to build rich internet apps using HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. So what features of HTML5 are of special interest on the mobile internet?

Video and audio In HTML5 you can separate all controls (play, pause, stop, etc.) from the audio or video play area, which allows better looking pages, and synchronises control of multiple video areas with a single control. The video API also lets developers change the lighting, add 3D features, and even use face recognition. Today there are still limitations on mobile support for HTML5 video and audio. It’s absent on the Google Nexus One, for example. But the possibilities are exciting. HTML5 Dynamic Imaging with Canvas Here, developers are given a screen with the ability to manipulate pixels in any way they like. It’s what Google employees did when they ported the open source version of Quake II to HTML5. Now, today’s mobile CPU restrictions won’t allow most phones to run 3D games, but they will in time. The HTC Desire’s 1 GHz processor could handle it. The ability to combine Canvas with HTML5 video could lead to stunning effects that can be created on the fly in a browser, where normally more complicated video production software would be required. I can see HTML5 game shops opening, offering a range of casual games like Tetris, Asteroids and Space Invaders. Like app stores – but without the vetting process. And on the iPhone and iPad it will be the only browser-based gaming alternative to the forbidden Flash. HTML5 and mobile APIs When all the above capabilities are mixed with the proposed APIs, that when the full power of HTML5 on mobile really hits home. The Geo Location API, for example, gives developers direct access to the GPS coordinates via the browser. It’s already been implemented in the iPhone. But that is not all. The

Capture API retrieves audio, images and video data from the phone’s camera to open up possibilities such as video conferencing, VoIP and even real-time AR. In fact Google is giving us a peek preview with its GPS connected Google Maps & Street view. Other APIs include a Contacts API for access to a unified address book. HTML5 Local Storage When using browser-based apps, the storage of session data becomes vital (and preferable to using cookies and server side database like MySQL). With the HTML5 Web Storage API and Web SQL Database API it becomes possible to do this. This should extend the potential for personalising web pages, which is such a distinctive property of mobile applications today. HTML5 Drag & Drop With HTML5 every element in a page can be dragged and dropped. Now that touchscreens are becoming ubiquitous, this function will play a hugely important role in the usability of web-based apps. HTML5 Form Elements HTML5 defines an additional set of form input element types, like date, time and email. It means the browser can customise the UI and simplify the interaction. For example the screen keyboard will automatically include the @ when it processes input for an email address. HTML5 Structure and CSS3 These will bring improved markup structure and style capabilities such as rounded corners. Generally they free developers to be more productive, and not have to come up with workarounds as before. Clearly, HTML5’s time is coming. It might be a bit too soon to start implementing full HTML5 compliant mobile sites although support for elements like video and canvas is out there. In fact, the HTC Desire and Legend, Nexus One, iPhone and Pre already support most of its functions. HTML5 still won’t totally solve device fragmentation. But it is a force for convergence, and it’s moving fast. If budgets are low, you might want to wait for a more stable specification. Till then, make sure your platform can adapt the level of HTML5 features based on the current available browser support. Alex Rutgers is CTO at MoMac. You can download the full white paper on HTML at www.momac.net. www.mobile-ent.biz

ZED Q&A

Zed and back again Two years ago Zed grossed $100 million in a single month. How’s it doing now? Tim Green sat down with the company’s Miguel LopezQuesada to find out… hortly before CTIA 2007, ME received a phonecall from Zed asking to buy every ad in the show edition of the magazine. We were surprised on two counts. The first was obvious: people don’t generally ask to book the whole issue. But the second shocker was that such a query should come from Zed. Wasn’t this the Spanish company that sold ringtones? Well, yes it was. But Zed had sensed which way the wind was blowing and saw a big future in B2B services. It seems like a lifetime ago now, given the changes that have ripped through the industry – flat-rate data, iPhone, apps, carrier billing, etc. In the intervening years, Zed has acquired companies, expanded its footprint and launched an array of ambitious services. Some have failed and some have worked spectacularly. We asked Zed’s director general of communication, Miguel LopezQuesada, to reflect on the firm’s history...

Zed used to run mobile clubs selling ringtones and the like. You’ve obviously worked hard to transform the company, but how important is this D2C revenue? It’s still significant, but I’d estimate it’s now around 30 per cent of the total revenue. There’s still lots of demand for these products in emerging markets, and we’ve worked hard to establish Zed in Brazil, Russia and India over the last two years. The next targets are the Middle East, Central Europe and African countries such as Nigeria and Egypt. We’ll aim to launch there in 12 to 18-months. Three years ago, Zed was investing in concepts like the Zed Station social media service and Zed City, which was a bit like Second Life. What happened to them? They were D2C services that required handset manufacturer and carrier agreements to really establish themselves. That took time, but then the iPhone and the app revolution happened and the window of opportunity was gone. We decided we should re-direct our resources at what we call ‘Master Content Provider Service’ deals. 8 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

And how is that going? We have over 30 partners now using Zed to manage their content portals. The most recent was U.S. Cellular, our first in the States. We’re finding that operators are keen to outsource these services as they are not core. We offer the content and also reporting tools for tracking, billing and measuring purchases. Has Zed’s D2C background made it hard to convince potential B2B customers? That’s where the addition of Player X has helped. We’ve been able to enhance a strong D2C structure with the relationships and the expertise that come from B2B

Miguel Lopez-Quesada, Zed’s director general of communication

teams. That’s been the case especially in markets like the UK and Italy – and it’s transforming our US operation too. So what’s happened to all the big plans that Zed had for social media? We’ve learned a lot, not least that social gaming is where all the demand is at the moment. We moved our games developers into the Pyro Studio (Zed’s game development sister company) and built the Planet 51 online game, which is free to play and monetised with virtual items. It’s got players in 20 countries. Now, we’re working on seven more social games including Ingenious, which is a brain training concept. www.mobile-ent.biz

ZED Q&A

Zed’s TV shows (below) have been huge in Spain. The Planet 51 film (right) was less successful, but it hasn’t stopped Zed embarking on a second movie project

The Planet 51 movie was released in 170 countries... it got us noticed, and opened doors for Zed all over the world. Planet 51 was the movie developed by Zed and its sister company, Llion Animation. There’s a perception that it under-performed. Is that correct? Well, we released it in 170 countries, which is an incredible achievement for a European studio – it’s something only huge franchises like Harry Potter can do. And we built an animation software platform, so we are extraordinarily satisfied. The other major benefit is that Planet 51 got us noticed. It has opened doors for Zed all over the world. The film grossed $50 million in the US. Again, great for an overseas movie, but obviously not as much as we expected. What have you learned from this? That you need a strong US performance, and that it’s hard to achieve this when your distributor partners have their own IP to promote. I’m not criticising our distributor. The fact is, behind every other big movie there are all the resources of the major studios, yet behind Planet 51 was just us. Are you making another movie? Yes we are. It should be out in 2012 and it will be much closer to our core strengths in terms of story and positioning. The other big gamble for Zed was the move into TV production. That has been a tremendous success. How did it come about? Well, we could see an opportunity to present another model to broadcasters, away from the typical model of them paying www.mobile-ent.biz

£300,000 for a show and trying to monetise it through ads. Our idea was to make the TV show part of the marketing for a much bigger online and mobile concept that would exist outside of the programme itself. And it worked… Yes. We have a show called Instantly Rich that features contestants performing different challenges in order to get voting support from viewers via SMS or landline. It’s been very successful in Spain, and in Argentina 1.5-million people took part and the show got a 30 per per cent audience share. This year we will launch it in Columbia, Poland, Mexico, Venezuela, and hopefully the US and Germany. Which other shows have you created? We have a ‘mega promo’ show called The Great Opportunity that gives people the chance to buy products at 70 per cent discounts, and a dating show called CitaxCita that invites six new profiles a week onto the show. Viewers of the show are encouraged to send them messages to help find their ideal partner.

Find out more about Zed at the Meet-Up Come and meet Zed at the next Meet-Up social event on Monday July 19th… ME’s legendary networking party – Meet-Up – is the perfect channel for making new contacts and raising your company profile. It’s also a bit of a laugh. Which is why Zed is sponsoring the next one at the opulent 24 London venue in the UK capital. Come along and you’ll get the chance to find out about Zed’s new B2B focus in the company of around 300 mobile content execs. Please send an email to: meetup@intentmedia.co.uk. There’s no charge for entry. Please include your full name and job title in the email. If demand exceeds supply, we’ll allocate spaces on a lottery basis. Meet-Up 24 London 24 Kingly Street London W1B 5QP Monday July 19th Email: meetup@intentmedia.co.uk

How much are these shows contributing to Zed’s revenues? It was about 15 per cent in 2009, even though that was really just from Spain. It has surprised us. It has been very successful and it could get even more significant when we roll out across really big markets like the USA and Mexico. Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 9

MOBILE PAYMENTS

Let’s get

physical Mobile payments have come a long way since reverse-billed SMS. But they’re still used mostly for downloads. Think of the potential if the phone were to pay for real-world items. That’s exactly what PayPal, Visa and the rest are doing right now. Tim Green reports… very year, Americans alone spend $5.6 trillion on stuff. Imagine if the mobile were used to process just a tiny fraction of that spend? Instant multi-billion dollar business. It’s a nice idea. But it hasn’t happened yet. In most parts of the world, mobile payments still apply to virtual goods only. Such payments started with the first PSMS transactions around a decade ago. Today, we accept the mobile as a channel through which to buy a ringtone, a vote on a TV show or even an expensive city guide app. But not yet for buying physical goods or moving money to other users. Of course, the potential has always been there. The ubiquity of the phone and its personal nature makes it the perfect medium for small ticket everyday transactions. It was just hamstrung by the clunkiness of PSMS – and even when carrier billing grew widespread, there were still those 30 to 50 per cent operator charges to hold it back. At the same time, data coverage was patchy and expensive and handsets were relatively unsophisticated. Despite this, there were early attempts by Mastercard, Barclaycard, Visa, PayPal and others to establish a presence in mobile. None worked especially well. Mastercard tried to get its PayPass contactless tech into phones with little real success while PayPal never replicated its overwhelming online progress in wireless. This was mostly a user interface issue. Its service was all PINprotected and SMS-based because in those

days (2006/7) there weren’t the smartphones and the always-on connections to facilitate any kind of meaningful alternative. Now, obviously, there are. Flat rate data, faster networks, acceptance of the mobile web, smartphone proliferation and, most of all, apps have conspired to bring the ‘traditional’ payments giants back into the space. This time it looks as if they’re here to stay. And their participation surely suggests that the age of mobile as a payments medium – not just for digital downloads, but for real-world goods and services – is imminent. The analysts certainly think so. Juniper reckons mobile payment transactions will double in value to $200bn by 2012 while GIA says the sector will gross $264.8 billion by the year 2015. Needless to say the combination of touchscreen and mobile app has been a gift to the payments giants. PayPal's upgraded iPhone app has been downloaded well over a million times since launch in March, and the firm has also built Android and BlackBerry versions. The app lets people manage their accounts, withdraw money or collect it from others. It even features the ‘bump’ function for moving money instantly with other users merely by ‘bumping’ the phones together. Of course, it’s all very nice getting users to install your app, but the real challenge is to get merchants to build your payments channels into their services. This is why PayPal created an open payments system,

So far mobile NFC has been a a non-starter. But the app might offer a way back in for the contactless chip.

10 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

In the old days, people held their phones to their ears

PayPal X, which it is touting enthusiastically to the market. The idea is to get developers embedding PayPal for in-app purchases that can occur in one-click without having to leave the app. PayPal claims to have 100,000 PayPal X. Predictably, others have followed. Last month, MasterCard made available its APIs for the same purpose. The mobile app is clearly popular with users. However, there is an even more direct system for moving money by mobile: contactless scanning using ‘near field communication’ or NFC. So far, contactless technology has been a bit of a non-starter (outside of Japan, where operators have mandated it and made the ‘Felica’ system very successful). High profile trials such as the one between O2, Transport For London, www.mobile-ent.biz

MOBILE PAYMENTS

Monitise’s Richard Johnson believes the phasing out of cheques will speed acceptance of m-payments

Nokia and Barclaycard Visa in 2007 never made it to full commercial launch because of the inability of the participants to create sufficient handsets and readers. Intriguingly, it now looks as if the mobile app might just offer a way back in for the contactless mobile chip. A few weeks ago Visa teamed with DeviceFidelity to launch a case that plugs into the bottom of the iPhone via the dock connector. This ‘In2Pay’ peripheral has a slot for an SD card, which contains the contactless NFC chip. When used in association with a downloaded free app, it can pay for items like any contactless credit card. Similar plans have been unveiled by Barclaycard, which is arguably the biggest driver of NFC, having issued more than six million contactless cards in the UK since www.mobile-ent.biz

2007. The fact remains, though, that none of the major UK high street retailers is currently using the system. Hovering above all discussions of mobile money is the security factor. Online scams have, justifiably, made people worried. But there is a strong argument that mobile is actually safer than the wired web. Richard Johnson, chief strategy officer at Monitise, the UK company that powers mobile money services for all major banks in the UK except Barclays, explains why: “With mobile, you set up a transaction limit, so that reduces the risk. “Also, there are two authentication factors in mobile. Something you know – your password or PIN. And something you have – your phone. That’s more secure than the PC. Having said that, we have found that users

You have £0.11 in your account. Blimey

prefer at the moment to use their mobiles for balance checking and payment alerts, rather than actually moving money itself.” Johnson says a quarter of Monitise’s two million customers currently use the app, a quarter use interactive texts while half use simple alerts. It’s a softly softly approach, but the potential is obvious. “By 2018, there’ll be no more cheques and people will feel more comfortable about virtual payments. So, while we’re happy to focus on alerts now, we will experiment with basic ideas such as ‘text a tenner’ that will help people settle small debts from the mobile phone,” he says. For evidence of how to make such concepts work, the ‘mature’ telco markets will need to look to Africa. Or more specifically, Kenya. Here, the renowned MPESA mobile payments system operated by local operator Safaricom, has literally changed people’s lives. M-PESA hooks into the 100,000 small retailers in Kenya who already sell mobile airtime. More than 17,600 have signed up (outnumbering Kenya’s 840 bank branches). Customers pay to have money credited to their mobile wallet, which they can then use to pay for goods or transfer to others so that they too can buy stuff – or exchange credit for cash – in the same shops. It’s currently used by 9.5m people, or 23 per cent of the population, and transfers an astonishing 11 per cent of Kenya’s GDP each year. The system has transformed the lives of people who used to queue for hours to pay bills with cash. Unsurprisingly, it’s being copied all over the world, with Nokiabacked Obopay becoming a prominent force in the space. Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 11

How to get ahead in emerging markets India • Brazil • South Africa • Middle East • And more Tuesday, September 28th The Soho Hotel, 4 Richmond Mews, London

Conference & Dinner from £199

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ME AWARDS 2010

AWARDS

ME Awards are go It’s time to send in your nominations for the fifth annual ME Awards, which takes place on Thursday November 18th at London’s Royal Garden Hotel. Entry is simple and it’s free – so do it now. re you the best? Better than all the rest? Better than anyone you’ve ever met. Yes? Well, you’ll get no prizes for modesty, but you might scoop an ME award. Now into its fifth year, the ME Awards evening rewards companies doing outstanding things in the mobile content space. This year we’ve tweaked the categories a little to reflect changing trends in the space. We’ve introduced a new Best Location Company award to reflect the rise of companies making GPS-enabled products, and there’s also recognition for m-book specialists. On the services side, we’ve brought in a Best App Developer award to recognise agencies making utility apps for brands, and there’s also a Best B2B Content Provider to reward those aggregating products for operators and media portals. Finally, there’s now a Most Innovative Company award, which was conceived to identify the firm with the most outstanding new technology or business model. Think you can win? Then enter now…

ME AWARDS 2010 DEVELOPMENT & PUBLISHING Best Gambling Company Best Adult Company Best Games Company Best Location Company Best Social Media Company Best Mobile Book Company SERVICES Best Video Service Provider Best Music Service Provider Best Games Service Provider Best Transactions Provider Best App Developer Best Mobile Web Publishing Platform Best Advertising Network Best B2B Content Provider Best App Store OPERATORS & HANDSETS Best Handset Company Best Developer Programme Best Operator SPECIAL AWARD Most Innovative Company Outstanding Contribution to Mobile Content

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How can my company enter? Send a short pitch document (no more than 500 words), containing information about your successes and innovations in the mobile content space – and stating the category you wish to enter – to ME-awards@intentmedia.co.uk.

When is the deadline for submissions? July 30th.

What’s the nominations process? The ME team decides on the shortlists, basing its decisions on nomination pitch documents and consultation with industry insiders.

Can I sponsor the event? Yes. There are a number of promotional possibilities available. Please contact katy.grant@intentmedia.co.uk or +44 (0) 1992 535647

What’s the judging process? The winners are decided by a judging panel consisting of around 400 execs from all sectors of the business.

When are the Awards? Thursday November 18th at The Royal Garden Hotel, London, UK You could be in one of these pictures next year. But you have to be in it to win it. Or work at ME.

How much is it to attend? A single place costs £295 +VAT and tables of ten are priced at £2,750 +VAT. For details of table sales and other ticket enquiries contact katy.grant@intentmedia.co.uk or +44 (0) 1992 535647.

Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 13

FLAT RATE DATA

Gridlock!

So, farewell then flat-rate data. But can the operators’ new plans do anything to address the core problem of network congestion? Mobile Entertainment ponders…

e careful what you wish for, says the old aphorism. The world’s operators have no doubt been chewing on this as their fervent desire to monetise mobile data turned into something of a nightmare. Last month, they woke up – well, two of them did (AT&T and O2) – and abandoned the all-you-can-eat experiment that did so much to popularise mobile data usage while screwing up the networks. The experiment with flat rate began around three years ago when revenues from voice and SMS started to flatten. On paper, the networks’ drive into data was a spectacular success. Last month, for example, Vodafone revealed its data revenues hit £4 billion in FY10, a 19.3 per cent increase year-on-year. Vodafone says 50 million of its 341 million customers are now data users and that 31 million are mobile internet users.

Operators hope that new tariffs will force the small numbers of heavy data users to cut their consumption. This dizzying growth has been powered, of course, by increased smartphone penetration and the consequent access this gives to mobile web and rich media services. According to comScore, smartphone sales in Europe’s five largest markets grew 32 per cent in 2009, and by 70 per cent in the UK. Meanwhile, stats from Nokia Siemens Networks say 11 per cent of consumers accessed the internet using a mobile in 2008, but 33 per cent did so in 2009. Obviously, iPhone and Android are the real catalysts here, not only because their users consume so much data but because they popularise the habit for everyone else. Indeed, according to AdMob, smartphones now account for 48 per cent of its worldwide traffic, with the iPhone accounting for 49.5 per cent of that total. The other key factor crowding the networks has been the mobile broadband dongle. What a success it’s been. And what a drain on bandwidth. In the UK, 3 quickly grabbed a 40 per cent market-leading share of the space. 14 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

Just weeks ago, the firm confirmed it carries 75TB of data a day, which is double the quota from a year ago, and that its dongles carry 7.5 times the traffic of its phones. The cost of this success was a network so degraded that, last November, 3 suffered the ignominy of suspending mobile broadband sales in certain geographical areas because of poor service. It vowed to add 150 new sites a week to its network to address the issue. The ability of the operators to de-congest their networks is suddenly the pressing issue

These cars are moving at about the same speed as mobile data will be on the day iPhone 4 launches

of the day. Many observers question whether the new price plans do much to address this. Dean Bubley, who runs the Disruptive Analysis consultancy, is unsure. He says: “Clearly, the operators hope that the new tariffs force the small number of really heavy users to reduce their data consumption, and they can use the extra income to improve coverage. The easiest way to do this is to build new radio units, which is comparatively cheap. But long term you need new cell sites, which is pricey and not easy to do because www.mobile-ent.biz

FLAT RATE DATA

Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis is all wired up and ready to pronounce on the new data plans

The mobile data plan B Those new data tariffs dissected… Last month AT&T, much criticised for the quality of its data coverage, replaced its unlimited plan ($29.99) with two new plans: DataPlus (200MB for $15/month) and DataPro (2GB for $25/month), with the option of additional data (200MB for $15 or 1GB for $10). AT&T stated that these new tiered plans make the mobile internet affordable to more people, and that 98 per cent of its customers use less than 2GB of data a month, on average. O2 followed soon after, and like AT&T it was also at pains to stress that the vast majority (97 per cent) of its new subscribers will not need to buy additional data allowances, as the lowest bundle

(500MB) provides at least 2.5 times the average customer’s current use. Under the new customers on a £25 to £35 a month tariff get 500MB a month, those on £40 and £45 get 750MB and those on £60 get 1GB. There’s also the option to add a 500MB bolt-on for £5 or 1GB for £10. All O2 customers will continue to receive unlimited wi-fi through The Cloud and BT Openzone hotspots. Reports suggest all networks are now re-assessing their data plan strategies. Ronan Dunne, O2’s UK CEO, says: “There isn’t a chief executive or chief technology officer in the industry who doesn’t have this on their desk.”

500MB

750MB

1GB

500,000

750,000

1 million

Basic web page views

5,000

7,500

10,000

Rich web page views

1,500

2,250

3,000

Music track downloads (low quality)

100

Music track downloads (high quality)

YouTube video streams (4.5 mins)

120

Emails (no attachment)

www.mobile-ent.biz

Efficient Pipe: Process modernisation, integration of fixed and mobile units, sharing of network components and using advanced technologies in high-demand areas can all help improve efficiency. Pricing: New pricing models that reflect actual network usage, such as time-of-day and speed.

What do you get for a meg? Typical data usage

Dongling precariously: the rise and rise of the mobile broadband dongle has stuffed the networks alright

sites are hard to find and get approved. Ultimately, there’s the evolution to LTE. Of course, all of this has to be approved by investors who are always wary of CAPEX without significant revenue upside.” There’s already been unrest about the new plans announced by AT&T and O2, with users planning ‘chokedown’ protests. Others have questioned why those who don’t use their entitlement can’t carry it over to the next month. And commentators have pointed out flaws in the proposals and outlined possible scenarios. For example, Bubley believes some users might install an app that tracks usage and then hammer the network on the last day of the month just to use it up. Most problematic of all is that pricing data more equitably doesn’t solve the problem of congestion at peak hours. If all these sensible data users browse websites during the rush hour, the pressure will be unrelieved. To repeat, this can only be solved by building more capacity. This is why the industry will be watching Verizon’s imminent roll out of the first large-scale LTE deployments in the US. It says the cost of carrying 1MB of data over LTE is half to onethird of carrying the same data over 3G. In the meantime, networks are being urged to explore new ways of monetising data and making their networks run more efficiently. ‘Sender pays’ or ‘Comes with data’ business models – where content providers buy wholesale data – are being discussed seriously now, with examples such as that of the Amazon Kindle doing much to publicise the idea. Sharing of ad revenues in return for data carriage is another possibility. Amdocs, which helps operators run more efficiently, has been vocal in this area. A recent report by the firm suggested the following:

Embracing competition: Harnessing VoIP and other tech will retain and attract customers, and generate more revenue from data services. M2M: Expanding into industries such as energy and healthcare will generate new revenue opportunities. It’s all sensible stuff. Let’s hope a solution is found, so we can all go back to browsing for porn as speedily as God intended. Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 15

Free app coming soon If you want to be the first ME app sponsor then contact Katy Grant on 01992 535647 or email katy.grant@intentmedia.co.uk now!

VODAFONE 360

H rizontal growth Vodafone 360 has had a rough ride since launch last year. But Lee Epting, director of content at Vodafone’s Internet Services, says a more ‘horizontal’ approach is now paying dividends. Tim Green listened in… hen an operator messes up, the catcalls and the schadenfreude are louder than when a plucky startup does the same. And when it’s Vodafone, one of the giants, the din is deafening. The unveiling of 360 last September was not the operator’s finest hour. Industry watchers poured scorn on a launch marked by technical problems, underwhelming devices and a confusing marketing campaign. There were rumours of rows and pitiful product sales. Vodafone went a bit quiet. But whatever the truth, the fact is that operators have scale, retail and reach. They can afford to keep knocking on the door. By February, Vodafone said it had sold 300,000 Vodafone 360 H1 and M1 phones. It also claimed over 8,500 apps had been published to the 360 Shop. Last month, it confirmed its 360 app shop would be pre-loaded onto selected Android devices. It seemed to signal a broadening of the ‘horizontal’ approach that would break 360 into its component parts (rich address book, app shop, music service, My Web portal) and distribute them across different platforms. ME met Lee Epting to find out more…

What is the thinking behind the Android move? Until now, Android developers have only had Android Market through which to reach end users. Now we’re giving them a new channel not just for native Android apps, but also the cross platform JIL apps – of which there are now 9,000. We’re giving them a much better retail experience, which should generate more sales. What’s better about it? The store has a personalisation engine powered by Xiam that provides recommendations based on user behaviour, and we’ve found that four times more customers buy on the basis of recommendation than promotion. It’s also a store through which to sell music, graphics, ringtones, ebooks, videos and other entertainment products – not just apps. Do you think this choice of stores is confusing for the consumer? On the X10, www.mobile-ent.biz

users can get apps from 360, Android Market and PlayNow... No, not PlayNow. We have an arrangement with Sony Ericsson.

Above: Lee Epting at Vodafone’s 360 launch in September

The 360 launch wasn’t well received. Was the main problem technical or was it more about presentation? At first it was technical. If you launch with email problems, your customers will let you know how they feel pretty quick. And they did. But we fixed that, and the response from users has been excellent.

But Android Market? Android Market stays because it’s where users get their software updates from. But we’d remove it if we could. Nokia’s been rigid about retaining Ovi on its devices. Could you remove it? We’ll see.

So why didn’t you delay the launch? We thought we were ready. We’d tested and tested... Launching a 24/7 internet service on top of a network is extremely complex and it needs to work seamlessly. We found that our test cases didn’t cover everything.

Building a 360 Android store is a different approach from bundling all 360 services on one handset such as the M1. What’s the thinking here? 360 has different components – people, apps, music, My Web – and they can be utilised across different devices and platforms depending on what works technically and what a specific region demands. In some territories it might be a purely web-based approach. For example, in emerging markets we’re working with Opera, personalising the browser. So what is the future for the muchmaligned ‘vertical’ Samsung devices? There’ll definitely be a refresh. We’ve had criticism and rightly so. We’re learning, but

the new devices are fantastic. And crucially they’ll support native LIMO apps rather than Java, so the app experience will be improved.

The Samsung 360 launch devices will be updated later in 2010

Is 360 a confusing concept? Wouldn’t it be easier to just focus on address book, music, internet and so on without this over-arching brand? No, I think 360 is a nice catch-all that links all these elements together. It sums the approach up really well. But I’ll admit the launch campaign wasn’t spot on. Ultimately, we’re in this for the long haul. That’s the important thing to remember. It’s a massive transition for us, but it’s the right one and we’re getting there. Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 17

Sponsored by

RECRUITMENT

BRYAN BINIYAK

KATIE MCMAHON

VIKRAM THUKRAL

LIZ HUTCHISON

CrowdStar needs another Hiro Social gaming firm grabs Niren Hiro from AdMob to be new CEO and there are big moves at Transpera, Accel, MIT and others… Controversial former RealNetworks chief ROB GLASER is to join arguably the most influential of all tech VC firms, Accel Partners. He’ll be a venture partner there, bringing his experience to the digital space.

CrowdStar, the social game startup behind Happy Aquarium, has hired NIREN HIRO from AdMob as its CEO. He previously worked with Yahoo. The Glu diaspora continues, with the games publisher’s former CEO GREG BALLARD joining video ad company Transpera. Ballard is one of the industry’s longest-serving execs – he was on ME’s first ever cover. Now, he’ll be taking the same role at Transpera, which recently raised $9-million to drive its expansion. He’ll be joined by ALEX GALVAGNI, who was Glu’s CTO. He has been appointed COO. Mobile payments firm Boku has appointed two new execs to its team. DAVID YOO, the former SVP and chief product officer at AT&T, will become SVP of strategy. And KEVIN GRANT, former VP of sales for Mobi TV, is the new SVP of sales. The firm, which was founded by Netscape execs, recently raised $25 million. 18 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

BRYAN BINIAK has joined Nokia in the newly created position of VP and head of Ovi Publish. He’ll report to MARCO ARGENTI in New York. Biniak may be familiar to some ME readers – he headed up the mobile unit of American Greetings when it was making a major wireless push five years ago. More recently he was the CEO of Jacked, a TV-web software. After an epic tenure ILKKA PAANANEN is leaving Digital Chocolate for a bit of R&R. One of the original mobile games pioneers, Paananen spent four years at Sumea, and then six more at Digital Chocolate, after it bought the Finnish studio. He’ll be spending time with his family – until they get sick of each other. DOMINIC PRIDE has set up his own digital consultancy called The Sound Horizon. Pride is especially wellconnected in the music space after tenures with Shazam and Orange. KATIE MCMAHON has joined sound recognition firm SoundHound as VP of sales and marketing. It’s an obvious pick for SoundHound as McMahon was previously head of biz dev at

Shazam. And she was one of ME’s Top 50 women in mobile content. There is no higher honour… The Indian Twitter SMS GupShup has confirmed two new execs. VISHAL NONGBET is the new head of marketing, while VIKRAM THUKRAL joins as VP of media sales. SMS GupShup is built around one to many and many to many SMS, and has over 30 million users. Text for answers service ChaCha has hired SHAWN SCHWEGMAN for the newly created position of VP of web products. Schwegman left SAS Technology to join the US company. STEVE RAYMUND has joined the board of directors at casual games firm PopCap. He was CEO with Tech Data for more than 20 years. Former Hands-On and MindMatics exec ANDERS HAKFELT has joined Aricent as AVP of business and technology consulting. He’ll focus on user experience and design areas. MACH has welcomed back LENA WITTBJER to be its head of CEO Office. She’ll be streamlining decision

making and liaising with the GSMA and other regulatory authorities. Wittbjer was one of the first employees at MACH but left to join the Luxembourg Ministry of State. Mobile Interactive Technology has hired LIZ HUTCHISON as head of interactive production. She will oversee multiple interactive services such as TV competitions, mobile internet sites, SMS and MMS interaction and charity donations. Sounds like a lot of work. Major departures at Microsoft as the two guys who masterminded the Xbox are to leave. ROBBIE BACH, who has led Microsoft’s entertainment and devices group since it started five years ago, is stepping down, as is CTO J ALLARD. Ericsson has promoted OLA REMBE to head of corporate public and media relations. She has been with Ericsson since 2001. ROBERT DOTSON, the CEO of TMobile USA, is to leave the operator after 15 years. He’s not leaving for another year, though. That’s quite a notice period.

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

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RECRUITMENT

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Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 19

EVENTS

2010 Calendar

This year’s diary is full to bursting with must-see industry events. Which ones are you taking your expense account to...? JULY 2010 July 6th The Senior Mobile Market Royal Institution of British Architects, London www.seniormarketmobile.eventbrite.com The second instalment of this new event conceived by UK mobile guru Simon Rockman. He’s managed to bag legendary British racing driver Sir Stirling Moss for this one, who will be talking about his life, motor racing and technology. There will also be case studies such as the one about NTT DoCoMo selling 16m Raku Raku phones into the senior market. There’ll be lessons about how better audio makes phones suitable for seniors and what can be learned from other industries. Speakers include: Ian Hay (Orange) on the Universal Charger and the inclusive challenge; Mike Bradley (University of Cambridge) on how inclusive design is an ethos and how Ford dropped the ball with the Focus; Ewan MacLeod (Mobile Industry Review) on designing a service to connect Grandparents to media and Gus Desbarats (The Alloy).

AUGUST 2010 August 25th-26th Edinburgh Interactive Edinburgh Film House, Edinburgh, Scotland www.edinburghinteractivefestival.co.uk Edinburgh Interactive is pitched at professionals from film, TV and interactive media – and comprises conferences, keynotes, panel sessions, debates and game screenings.

SEPTEMBER 2010

Monetising Mobile: Emerging Markets (September 28th) ME’s second Monetising Mobile event will retain the formula that proved so successful with the 150-plus attendees of the app-focused show in May. But this time the subject under discussion will be the growing power of the world’s emerging mobile regions. We’ll be looking at how to get a foothold in these regions – and find out what they can teach the ‘mature’ territories too

OCTOBER 2010 October 5th-6th The Mobile Marketing Forum, Europe Thistle Marble Arch Hotel, London www.mobilemarketingforum.com

July 6th The Senior Mobile Market August 25th-26th Edinburgh Interactive

MMA’s moving roadshow rolls into the UK. October 6th-8th CTIA Wireless and Entertainment 2010 San Francisco, USA

September 28th Monetising Mobile: Emerging Markets Soho Hotel, London www.mobile-ent.biz

The autumn CTIA event is more contentfocused than its spring counterpart, and also a little smaller. It’s back to San Fran this year, so we can all wear flowers in our hair...

ME’s events team turns its attention to the market for mobile content in developing regions. Our second Monetising Mobile conference will examine the amazing potential of mobile content markets in regions such as Russia, Eastern Europe, India, Brazil and the Middle East. There’ll be a mixture of insights, panel discussions, dining, drinks and networking in a unique format that kicks off at 4.30pm and continues until midnight. We’ll be putting into focus what kind of content emerging market consumers demand, how it’s distributed and also learn about emerging market innovations that the Western market can adopt and exploit.

October 19th-20th Mobile Marketing Asia 2010 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

UPCOMING...

Top executives from brands, agencies and operators are scheduled to come together for an examination of the mobile marketing opportunity in Asia emergent territories. October 19th-20th Mobile Apps World Prospero House, London A new event hits the UK this autumn, exploring the many dimensions of the new

September 28th Monetising Mobile: Emerging Markets October 5th-6th The Mobile Marketing Forum, Europe October 6th-8th CTIA Wireless and Entertainment 2010 October 19th-20th Mobile Marketing Asia 2010 October 19th-20th Mobile Apps World November 17th-18th The GSMA Mobile Asia Congress 2010 November 30thDecember 1st GSM 3G Middle East Telco World Summit

apps space. Details are relatively scarce at the moment, but confirmed speakers include: Oded Ran, head of consumer marketing at Windows Phone; Mark Kirley applications project manager at INQ Mobile; Jerry Kramskroy, senior technologist of Future Media at BBC and Deepen Shah co-founder and CTO at Buzzd.

NOVEMBER 2010 November 17th-18th The GSMA Mobile Asia Congress 2010 Hong Kong www.mobileasiacongress.com Approx. 3,500 delegates will be expected for the GSMA’s Asia event, which will feature a version of the recently-debuted App Planet. November 30th-December 1st GSM 3G Middle East Telco World Summit Dubai, UAE http://me.comworldseries.com The annual showcase for all that’s mobile in the gulf states returns for its 15th year with new elements. These include a day dedicated to LTE and a stream dedicated to Iran. The organisers expect 2,000 attendees, 75 speakers, 45 operators, 120 exhibition stands and 18 hours of networking time.

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DEALS

Deals

It’s back by popular demand. Yes, the deals page has returned at last. And it’s now in 3D and with a free carry case… M&A iSuppli has aquired market intelligence firm Screen Digest, which has analysed the film, music and interactive fields for 25 years. HTC has purchased Abaxia for €11 million, adding the French company’s expertise in white-label operator services to its offerings. MIG snapped up the Manchester-based mobile marketing agency Piri. MIG hopes the deal will bring lots of new Northern customers.

DEAL

OF THE MONTH

Chip giant Qualcomm has made a logical move by investing in camera tech company Anteryon. Velti bought the Californian ﬁrm Media Cannon, getting a new bunch of mobile marketing tools to boost its ad serving solutions. Google has received regulator approval to complete the $750m AdMob acquisition. Content delivery company Akamai has purchased Velocitude, a ﬁrm that specialises in cloud services for smartphones.

FUNDING Digital Chocolate has secured a multi-million dollar revolving line of credit from Silicon Valley bank Bridge Bank. UK social location service Rummble has completed an $800,000 funding round which will help in its plan to take on FourSquare. Mobile video ad network Transpera has secured $9m in a third round of funding. It will help to pay for new CEO, Greg Ballard. Social TV app specialist Miso received funding from Google, fuelling speculation that it’ll be a future acquisition for the search giant.

SERVICE LAUNCHES Telmap has launched a mobile LBS service. It’ll supply Pelephone with the Telmap5 white-label mapping and navigation solution. AppCity has launched a browser-based global online app store. It boasts 225,000 apps from all major platforms. New UK MVNO giffgaff has officially launched. It’s based on the idea that users do all the customer care in return for rewards. German firm Skobbler has launched a free turn-by-turn navigation app for iPhone. Flirtomatic is now an app player. It’s just launched an app on Android, following success on the mobile web and as an iPhone app. Metaio has updated its junaio AR browser to incorporate a ‘glue’ that attaches info to real-world objects. FLO TV is to get live World Cup broadcasts. Subscribers will be able to watch all 64 matches via the firm’s deal with ESPN. Skype has finally enabled VoIP calls over 3G for the iPhone. Skype-to-Skype calls will be free until the end of 2010.

PARTNERSHIPS Accumulate has inked a wrapper deal with handset firm Alcatel. It will pre-load its Flexion wrapper technology in Alcatel phones. App developer Grapple is to build cross-platform apps for ten agencies including Ogilvy, LBi and McCann London. WIN has sealed its first non-UK alerts service deal. It will run the content portal for Hutchison 3G Austria. Bauer Media has hired Kilrush to mobilise key titles including Heat, FHM and Zoo. Nextel will pre-load the Opera Mini 5 browser on the Motorola i1 in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Buongiorno is to create localised mobile sites for Comcast, based around the celebrity-centred E! Entertainment channel. The Symbian Foundation has forged a partnership with Chinese search engine Baidu to establish a joint lab. UTV Indiagames will distribute a variety of Mobile Streams content via local operators and its own channels in India. Adobe and Greystripe have teamed up to create a rich media ad platform to rival Apple’s iAd. It will be based on Flash. Social gaming firm Cellufun has selected mOcean to serve ads on its service. mOcean is a subsidiary company of US ad network Mojiva.

Adobe/Greystripe Who knew that the mobile ad space would become so mired in political in-fighting, so merciless, so complicated. It’s like an episode of Dallas out there. Just as ME was going to press, Apple let slip that it would not permit ads to be served on its devices by companies affiliated with rival operating systems. This was clearly directed at AdMob, which sent shockwaves across the industry. Apple’s other big spat is with Adobe. And much of the row is about advertising. Interesting then that Greystripe should team up with Adobe to try to get Flash onto iPhone by the ‘back door’. The firms are working on a rival to Apple’s iAd system that will convert Flashauthored ads into HTML5, which Apple is fully behind. They’ll be delivered as Flash via Greystripe’s existing mobile ad network. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said Apple won’t be shutting rival ad networks out once iAd launches, but it will be interesting to see whether he lets this one through without enforcing any amendments.

Caller ID recognition specialist ADAFFIX has formed a partnership with directory ﬁrm De Gule Sider in Denmark. www.mobile-ent.biz

Mobile Entertainment July 2010 | 21

CHARTS

Charts

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

RINGTONES

TAGGING

RINGTONES.COM TOP EURO MUSIC TONES, JUNE SONG 1 FRISKY 2 STEREO LOVE 3 NOTHIN ON YOU 4 SURFIN BIRD 5 GETTING OVER YOU 6 OMG 7 MARCHING ON TOGETHER 8 SHE’S ALWAYS A WOMAN 9 RIDIN SOLO 10 TELEPHONE SOURCE: MOBILESTREAMS

SHAZAM TAGGING, JUNE ARTIST TINIE TEMPAH EDWARD MAYA B.O.B FT. BRUNO MARS THE TRASHMEN DAVID GUETTA FT. FERGIE USHER FT. WILL.I.AM LEEDS FYFE DANGERFIELD JASON DERULO LADY GAGA FT. BEYONCE

1 2 3 4 5

RINGTONES

EXAMPLE

RINGTONES.COM TOP EURO FUNTONES, JUNE

SONG 1 SILENCE I KILL YOU 2 GIGGETY GIGGETY GIGGETY GOO 3 FIRE UP THE QUATTRO 4 YOU HAVE A MEERKAT MESSAGE 5 YOU’VE GOT A TEXT! READ IT NOW! 6 THIS IS ALEXANDRER 7 THE GUMMY BEAR SONG 8 SHOULD’VE PUT THE PHONE ON VIBRATE 9 ARE YOU GOING TO LET IT RING ALL DAY 10 ALL RIGHT, WHAT’S OCCURING SOURCE: MOBILESTREAMS

ARTIST ACHMED THE DEAD TERRORIST

FAMILY GUY GENE HUNT MEERKAT GENE HUNT MEERKAT GUMMY BEAR FAMILY GUY FAMILY GUY GAVIN AND STACY

RINGTONES

SONG 1 RUDE BOY 2 BEDROCK 3 MY CHICK BAD 4 NEED YOU NOW 5 BABY 6 ALL THE WAY TURNT UP 7 ROGER THAT 8 BREAK YOUR HEART 9 4 MY TOWN 10 TELEPHONE SOURCE: FLYCELL

MUSIC

MELODI SOUTH AFRICA REALTONE SOUNDALIKES, JUNE SONG 1 NEED YOU NOW 2 STEREO LOVE 3 MEMORIES 4 BLAH BLAH BLAH 5 IN MY HEAD 6 HEY SOUL SISTER 7 NOTHIN ON YOU 8 TELEPHONE 9 EENIE MEENIE 10 WAVING FLAG SOURCE: MELODI MEDIA

FLYCELL US TOP DOWNLOAD HANDSETS, JUNE

ARTIST MODEL RIHANNA 1 8520 (CURVE) YOUNG MONEY 2 SGH-T749 (HIGHLIGHT) LUDACRIS FT. NICKI MINAJ 3 SCH-U450 LADY ANTEBELLUM 4 8330 (CURVE) JUSTIN BIEBER 5 SGH-A877 (IMPRESSION) ROSCOE DASH 6 GT365 (NEON) YOUNG MONEY 7 VX9200 (ENV3) TAIO CRUZ 8 VX11000 (ENV TOUCH) BIRDMAN FT. DRAKE 9 GR500 (XENON) LADY GAGA 10 SGH-A887 (SOLSTICE) SOURCE: FLYCELL

VENDOR RIM (BLACKBERRY) SAMSUNG SAMSUNG RIM (BLACKBERRY) SAMSUNG LG LG LG LG SAMSUNG

MELODI USA REALTONE SOUNDALIKES, JUNE ARTIST LADY ANTEBELLUM EDWARD MAYA DAVID GUETTA FT. KID CUDI KESHA JASON DERULO TRAIN B.O.B FT. BRUNO MARS LADY GAGA SEAN KINGSTON KNAAN

FONESTARZ TOP VIDEOS, JUNE ARTIST RIHANNA GERMANY HOWIE HEART ALEX BAND DIE ATZEN LADY GAGA FT. BEYONCE EDWARD MAYA KATY PERRY JUSTIN BIEBER EMINEM

SONG 1 NOTHIN’ ON YOU 2 HEY SOUL SISTER 3 BREAK YOUR HEART 4 AIRPLANES 5 OMG 6 BILLIONAIRE 7 BREAKEVEN 8 NEED YOU NOW 9 RUDE BOY 10 ALEJANDRO SOURCE: MELODI MEDIA

ARTIST B.O.B. FT. BRUNO MARS TRAIN TAIO CRUZ B.O.B FT. HAYLEY WILLIAMS

USHER FT. WILL.I.AM TRAVIS MCCOY THE SCRIPT LADY ANTEBELLUM RIHANNA LADY GAGA

FONESTARZ TOP WALLPAPERS, JUNE

VIDEOS 1 VERY HOT HAYLEY 2 BEDROOM NAUGHTINESS 3 LADY GAGA – TELEPHONE 4 WII-FIT GIRLFRIEND 5 LADY GAGA – BAD ROMANCE 6 YOUTUBE BABY HULK 7 A PUPPY’S FIRST HOWL 8 JEDWARD – UNDER PRESSURE 9 YOUTUBE DAVID AFTER THE DENTIST 10 CHERYL COLE – FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE SOURCE: FONESTARZ

ARTISTS & GAMES

GAMES

BINBIT LATIN AMERICA TOP ARTISTS, JUNE

JAMSTER TOP GAMES, JUNE

GAME 1 TEKKEN IRON FIST TOURNAMENT 2 DOODLE JUMP 3 EA SPORTS 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP 4 WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW 2010 5 BATMAN: GUARIAN OF GOTHAM 6 THE SIMS 3 WORLD ADVENTURES 7 BRAIN EXERCISE 3 WITH DR. KAWASHIMA 8 JEWEL QUEST 111 WORLD ADVENTURES 9 SIM CITY DELUXE 10 DISNEY MAHJONG MASTER SOURCE: JAMSTER

FRISKY TINIE TEMPAH 8 WAVIN’ FLAG KNAAN 9 GOOD TIMES ROLL DEEP 10 OMG USHER SOURCE: SHAZAM

FLYCELL US TOP RINGTONES, JUNE

VIDEOS & WALLPAPERS

JAMSTER TOP RINGTONES, JUNE

SONG 1 TE AMO 2 NATIONAL ANTHEM 3 LA BAMBA 4 TONIGHT 5 DAS GEHT AB 6 TELEPHONE 7 STEREO LOVE 8 CALIFORNIA GURLS 9 ONE LESS LONELY GIRL 10 NOT AFRAID SOURCE: JAMSTER

SONG/ARTIST GETTIN’ OVER YOU DAVID GUETTA FT. FERGIE STEREO LOVE EDWARD MAYA NOTHIN’ ON YOU B.O.B FT. BRUNO MARS SHE’S ALWAYS A WOMAN FYFE DANGERFIELD CALIFORNIA GIRLS KATY PERRY KICKSTARTS

ARTISTS & HANDSETS

PUBLISHER EA MOBILE GAMEHOUSE EA MOBILE

THQ WIRELESS GLU MOBILE

EA MOBILE EA MOBILE EA MOBILE

EA MOBILE DISNEY INTERACTIVE

22 | July 2010 Mobile Entertainment

SONG 1 MI PRIMER MILLON 2 SE FUE 3 YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL 4 BENDITA TU LUZ 5 PISANDO FUERTE 6 NENA 7 BEAUTIFUL STRANGER 8 LA INCONDICIONAL 9 WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS 10 CORAZON PARTIO SOURCE: BINBIT

ARTIST BACILOS LAURA PAUSINI JAMES BLUNT MANA ALEJANDRO SANZ MIGUEL BOSE MADONNA LUIS MIGUEL GREEN DAY ALEJANDRO SANZ

WALLPAPER 1 CURVY KRYSTAL 2 LIFE’S A BEACH 3 COOL SMILEY 4 PLAYBOY FLAMES 5 BUTTERFLY EXPLOSION 6 SKULL STORM 7 TIGER STORM 8 RAINBOW HEARTS 9 NON-STOP SMILEYS 10 DIAMOND BUTTERFLIES SOURCE: FONESTARZ

BINBIT LATIN AMERICA TOP GAMES, JUNE SONG 1 X-RAY SCANNER 2 LIE DETECTOR 3 ROCKETBOY 3 4 24 SPECIAL OPS 5 GHOST SENSOR 6 COIN FLIPPER DELUXE 7 3D STREET RACING 8 DEVILS AND DEMONS 9 FINGERPRINT MATCHMAKING 10 WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW ‘09 SOURCE: BINBIT

ARTIST MOBILEACTIVE KITMAKER INLOGIC THUMBSTARS GAMES MOBILEACTIVE INLOGIC THUMBSTAR GAMES HANDY-GAMES MOBILEACTIVE THQ

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