Social networking tool tops global, UK and US charts.
GetJar has been working with the social networks for some time to direct visitors on its mobile site to its downloadable applications.
In fact, six of the top 10 apps in the GetJar global chart are from the Social & Messaging category – namely Facebook, eBuddy, Numbuzz, mig33, Snaptu and qeep.
(Source: ME)
Add comment February 9th, 2010
There may be trouble ahead for iPhone apps and mobile ad networks looking to make use of location-based advertising.
In an ‘App Store Tip’ posted on iPhone Developer website, Apple appears to have nixed the idea.
“If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information,” says the tip.
“If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”
(Source: ME)
Add comment February 5th, 2010
The Mobile Conclave was organized by CellStrat and Amity Innovation Incubator at Amity University campus in Noida on 22nd Jan 2010. The conference saw dignitaries from the mobile industries presenting their views, optimism and apprehensions on future of mobile advertising and VAS. The conclave was kick-started by Vivek Singhal (CEO, CellStrat), he presented the facts and trends prevalent in recent times in the mobile industry in India and abroad. Vivek was followed by Milind Pathak, Vice President of Comviva who talked about various key issues and aspects facing the Indian Mobile Media environment and service providers.
The first panel deliberated on “Mobile Advertising in India: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond”. The main debate happened around the point that mobile penetration is almost ten times the penetration of internet and substantially more than any other form media, but can mobile as a media can be compared to other traditional advertising medium- TV, radio and print. The panelist were not very judgmental on future of mobile advertising because of some hindering factors like small screen size, low speaker fidelity and penetration of high end multi media phones. The successful role of 3G services are what everyone is looking out for which would for certainly enhance the multimedia experience of the consumers and that would give the much required fillip to the mobile as an important advertising medium. Currently the new advertising media contributes to only 1% of the total advertising pie, which for certain is going to increase, as per the panel members.
The second panel had their discussion focused on “Mobile Value Added services”. The panelist had representatives from VAS producers and mobile service providers. It was interesting to know that there were around more 200 VAS services available in the market, but far too less are subscribed, mainly it’s the ABC (Astrology, Bollywood , Cricket) trio which have succeeded, so the mobile service providers have to look out for ways to promote the other Value-Added Services which are more relevant for the consumers to subscribe. M- Commerce which includes mobile banking, mobile money and mobile payment was agreed upon as one of the VAS services which have a lot of potential in the market. Mobile social aggregation was also touted as one service which could become popular amongst the mobile trendy younger generation.
The third panel debated the Mobile Web and Mobile Apps ecosystem in India. The panel said that while the West has seen the likes of venerable iPhone create a robust Mobile Apps environment, Indian market is still to mature on this front due to lack of 3G services and high-end handsets. Two panelists from top GPS firms (MapMyIndia and SatNav) listed the opportunities in mapping apps in India and recognized the lack of mapping data in the Indian context. The panel agreed that Mobile Apps is the future of Mobile growth in India especially in the urban segments and India-focused App Stores are now being announced. The speaker from Spice Digital Vinish Kathuria announced the Idea Telecom App Store developed by Spice. All panel members agreed the Western Models like the Apple App Store need localized apps to take off along with high-end smartphone growth before the apps space will become a bigger market in India. But all agreed that this phase is round the corner with 3G spectrum to be conducted soon and several home grown App Stores in the process of being launched now.
The next panel was on VC and Angel Investing in the Mobile and Telecom space. As expected, the audience had plenty of questions on what the VCs are looking for in the startup space where they would like to invest. All the Venture Capitalists were stressing on one point :- however innovative the idea is, if it is not scalable to at least pan- India level or a large enough scale, then it’s fairly hard to attract investors – VCs are looking for scalable viable models which have been proven to some level of success at least. “A man and a plan” strategy without a working prototype and no customers typically will not see investors who want to invest in the venture.
Add comment February 1st, 2010
Airtel’s Snr. VP (Entertainment VAS) Saleem Mobhani, Milind Pathak, Comviva’s VP Milind Pathak, SatNav’s President (Sales) Surinder Saini , Canaan Partner’s Harish Gandhi also speaking at the Conclave among others… Register here…mobileconclave.
Add comment January 18th, 2010
£600!
As part of the acquisition, Nuance paid around £40 million in cash, but Cellan-Jones explains that this went towards paying off an emergency loan taken out by Spinvox last summer, at the height of its troubles. The most controversial aspect of the news is that at the same time as taking out that loan, Spinvox was asking staff to accept shares in the company instead of their salaries. Shares that have now turned out to be worthless.
3. Saleem Mobhani, Snr. Vice President for Bharti Airtel to deliver keynote address in Mobile Conclave on 22nd. Jan’10.
4. Airtel Acquires 70% In Warid Telecom.
5. BSNL & National Fertilizers To Offer Rural Mobile Services.
6. Maneesh Dhir, former EVP (International) and MD (India) for AOL, is joining Apple India as Country Sales Manager.
(Source: Excerpts from Mobile Entertainment)
Add comment January 13th, 2010
Generally wireless but some times entertainment technology also fascinates me. Some years back, I used to see my cousin who used to bring any and all kinds of toys (how so ever technology heavy they might have been) for his son. His son will showoff his new PSP and small electronic bikes to all in his circle of friends…Some of them used to be latest and costliest in the market and I just used to wonder at times if this is the right age for kids to have those kinds of tech-heavy gadgets.
Then some years back, I stayed in China for about an year and was again exposed to all kinds of technology gadgets be it for children or for adults. Most Indians visiting China for business or pleasure used to take flat panel digital TVs back with them.
Just last Saturday I got to attend a Technology @ Home workshop organised by Samsung in a coffee shop named Chocola in popular Khan Market of South Delhi. Other attendees inluded 20+ bloggers including Mr. Madhavan Narayanan and a handful of other guests.
There I met Mr. Kishore Bhargav, a technology consultant regularly sought by NDTV, BBC and other media for his expert views on technology issues. Also met India’s leading interior designer Rekha Nambiar.
Mr. Kishore elaborated on how he consumes media for entertainment. He told the audience that he has more then nine wireless gadgets in his home and how all are connected to a single repository in his study where he store tons of movies and music.
Samsung team demonstrated their latest 2.99cm, 3rd. generation LCD TV. With most digital devices used for entertainment@home having ports like HDMI and USB along with WiFi in many cases, the idea is to build, organize and manage a single repository of media – be it music, movies or pictures and stream it across devices within the periphery of your home. In case you can understand what a static IP is, and can manage a fast enough Internet connection, you can have the privilege of running a media server too! He said, WiFi is the word and seamless connectivity is the need of the hour. He also mentioned that he wishes and some times able to access music on his repository at home while roaming elsewhere in the world. Now that’s entertainment 2.0.
After a long time, I was hearing about technology in an entertaining fashion and thus this post here, just as a small break from wireless.
Look forward to more such events in Delhi from blogworks.
Add comment January 11th, 2010
Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile announced the appointment of new president and CEO Niccolo de Masi. He replaces former Glu president and CEO Greg Ballard. Glu co-chairman Bill Miller has served as interim head.
(Source: FireceWireless)
Add comment January 9th, 2010
India – the world’s second-largest, and fastest-growing, mobile market – has reportedly again delayed plans to auction 3G spectrum and introduce mobile number portability (MNP). Dow Jones Newswires today reports that a senior official at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has said the 3G license auction will now be held in February, with a date to be confirmed soon. Today’s news follows a number of reports over the holiday period suggesting that the previously proposed 14 January date could be missed due to uncertainty over defence forces giving up spectrum.
(Source: Dow Jones Newswires)
Add comment January 7th, 2010
Bangladesh’s telecoms regulator has given India’s Bharti Airtel permission to invest an initial US$300 million in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh’s fourth-largest mobile operator, paving the way for Bharti’s takeover of the firm. “We have asked Bharti Airtel to submit a detailed investment plan for Warid Telecom to BTRC [Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission] within 30 days,” said BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed, reports Dow Jones Newswires.
Add comment January 6th, 2010
Yes, to prevent loss of control on mobile advertising, Google’s acquisition of AdMob forced Apple to acquire AdMob’s competitor Quattro Wireless for $275 million.
Founded in 2006, Quattro employs its proprietary Q Elevation targeting platform to deliver advertising across thousands of mobile websites and iPhone and Android applications. Clients include Ford, Procter & Gamble, NetFlix, Viacom, Disney, Visa and Microsoft–network partners include Gawker, the National Football League, Univision, CBS Interactive and Time Inc. According to mobile advertising estimates published in December by research firm IDG, Quattro generated $20 million in 2009, controlling 7 percent of the overall U.S. market.
(Source: FierceWireless)
Add comment January 5th, 2010