Messaging Blues

3jam Launches SuperText

2008-06-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

Mobile messaging firm 3jam announced the private beta launch of SuperText, a web-based text messaging service that employs patent-pending PresenceText technology to route texts to a user's computer or mobile device based on their location. According to 3jam, SuperText enables users to begin text conversations via PC, enjoying the benefits of a full QWERTY keyboard and free messaging--they may also continue the dialogue on their mobile device. SuperText also promises familiar IM features including conversation threading, online message history and Reply All communication.

For more on SuperText:read this release

Happy Birthday SMS!

2007-12-05T21:52:00.000-08:00

SMS has had such a huge impact and become so pervasive in such a short period of time that it is hard to believe that it is just 15 years since the first ever SMS was sent. The party to celebrate the event in London brought together both the sender and receiver of that historic first SMS.

On 3rd December 1992 a young engineer at Airwide Solutions, Neil Papworth, sent the world's first ever commercial text message to Vodafone Director Richard Jarvis at a staff Christmas party. Although text messaging has often been accused of causing irreparable damage to the English language, this did not start with the first message which was simply 'Happy Christmas'.

Intended originally as a pager service, it was some years before users discovered they could send SMS to each other. Neil Papworth, still working for Airwide, was then working for the company as a test engineer and today is Principle Software Engineer said “I was a young engineer working on new communications technologies. We thought SMS was a clever way for a company’s staff to send simple messages to one another. I’d never have predicted that it would spread into the consumer world and become what it is today. At the time it didn’t seem like a big deal.”

Some facts and figures about SMS

2007-11-07T23:45:00.000-08:00

* The first text message was sent in December 1992, and SMS was launched commercially for the first time in 1995
* 1998 - Interconnect between UK Operators O2, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile
* The first recorded monthly text message total was 5.4 million in April 1998
* August 2001 was the first month in which over one billion messages were sent in the UK
* December 2002 - 1 billion SMS per day were exchanged globally
* The MDA has forecast that 36.5 billion messages will be sent throughout the UK during 2006, with an average of 100 million messages being sent per day
* 65 million UK subscribers were registered as active on UK networks as of the end of December 2005 of which over 70% send text messages
* 95% of 16-24 year olds use text messaging regularly, each sending an average of 100 texts per month
* On New Year's Day 2003, the number of text messages sent in one day topped one hundred million for the first time
* On New Year's Day 2006, the highest daily total ever recorded by the Mobile Data Association was reached, when 165 million messages were sent
* Annual SMS totals: 1999 - 1 billion; 2000 - 6.2 billion; 2001 - 12.2 billion; 2002 - 16.8 billion; 2003 - 20.5 billion; 2004 - 26 billion; 2005 - 32 billion
* Britons sent 120 million text messages on Valentine's Day 2006, compared to the estimated 12 million cards sent.
* On average, 4.1 million messages are sent every hour in Britain.
* 72% of women v 70 % of men text regularly (source - ICM Research)
* More women than men use picture messaging, while men are bigger users of the mobile internet (WAP) (source - Enpocket)
* The peak hours for texting are between 10.30pm and 11.00pm
* There is a huge range of services that can send you text updates e.g. Movie reviews, bank balances, sports, and weather.
* The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP became the first UK Prime Minister to use text message technology to talk directly to the people on 25th November 2004, answering questions submitted in advance by text message from members of the public as well as in real-time in a mobile phone chat-room, transmitted live from No.10 Downing Street.

British Are Highest Text Users In Europe

2007-09-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

According to Guardian report mobile subscribers in UK send more text messages than any other nation in Europe.

An average of 100 text messages are sent by UK mobile users each month, according to a worldwide survey of 10,000 mobile phone owners by media agency Universal McCann.

Read more here

Four New Handsets From Nokia

2007-09-06T22:42:00.000-07:00

Nokia unveiled four new handsets at Nokia GoPlay event in London.

N81 & N81 8GB - dedicated music and gaming keys, new slider, 3G, WLAN, quad GSM/Edge & WCDMA — 430€
N95 8GB/N95 (US) - update to the N95, 5MP Camera, built-in A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and a 2-way slideUS market — 560€ / $699 (US Version).
5610 - features amusic slider key that automatically launches the music player, quad-band GSM/EDGE and dual-band 850/2100 WCMDA 3G, supports upto 4 GB of miscroSD storage — 300€
5310 - a candy bar design with dedicated external music controls, tri-band GSM/EDGE, supports upto 4 GB of miscroSD storage — 255€

Yahoo to Offer A Network For Web Ads On Cellphones

2007-04-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

Yahoo is moving to secure a position on the next Internet battleground: Web search and advertising on cellphones.

The company plans to announce on Tuesday that it is creating a mobile advertising network that will allow marketers to place ads not only on its mobile services, but also on those of other online publishers. And Yahoo is offering tools to help publishers customize their content for easier use with its mobile search service.

Yahoo’s network of publishers at this point is tiny — three Web services, including MobiTV, a video service to be used with cellphones; Opera, a maker of Web browsers; and Go2, a Yellow Pages site. But the company said it planned to expand the network quickly over the next few months.

“We are being very aggressive on mobile and moving extremely fast to get the building blocks in place,” said Steve Boom, Yahoo’s senior vice president for broadband and mobile. “We felt that business services for publishers is something that was lacking.”

From nytimes

Music to dominate mobile content by 2011

2007-03-22T02:25:00.000-07:00

According to a new report issued by market intelligence firm iSuppli, premium mobile content providers and aggregators earned $7.7 billion of the total $16.3 billion mobile content market in 2006--mobile operators raked in $4.4 billion from content, while content enablement platform providers claimed the remaining $4.2 billion. iSuppli forecasts the overall mobile content market will grow to $35.3 billion by 2011, $19.3 billion of which will line the pockets of providers and aggregators--the report adds that full-track downloads, ringtones and related music services will account for nearly half of all content revenues.

"Bringing content to a handset is a very complex and fragmented process with an assortment of partners and ever-changing proportions of on-deck and off-portal transactions," said iSuppli, principal analyst for multimedia content, services and infrastructure Frank Dickson in a prepared statement. "In some instances, players in the value chain will be partners and in some instances, they will be competitors. However, we will see a more simplified ecosystem in the future as companies such as Amdocs, Nokia, Real Networks and Sybase have led a wave of acquisitions in the space that measures in the billions of dollars. Furthermore, the acquisition wave seems to be intensifying."

Report

Apple patents OTA iTunes downloads for iPhone

2007-02-08T01:29:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent filed by Apple that appears to be for over the air (OTA) downloads of iTunes songs for the iPhone. The patent looks like it was written before the iPhone launch so the general terms used make it hard to pin down, but one key line: "The computing device 102 may be a mobile telephone that is configured to also operate as a portable media player. The user may interact with the portable media player application, which then wirelessly (e.g., via a cellular or other wireless connection) interacts with the service."

The obvious conclusion is that Apple intends to allow offer over-the-air (OTA) downloads to iPhone users. But as with most things iPhone, this leads to more questions than answers. Will OTA iTunes downloads cost the same? Who will pay for the bandwidth? Will OTA downloads even be offered as an iPhone feature?

Source

Nokia, Six Apart come together on mobile blogging

2007-01-12T05:43:00.000-08:00

handset maker Nokia announced a partnership with blog services developer Six Apart to equip its N-series multimedia handsets with the firm's Vox free personal blogging app. The Vox service promises consumers a simple interface for uploading video, photos and text from their handsets to their weblogs; the Vox website will host the multimedia content, although users may also post their pictures and video clips to sites like MySpace and Blogger. The Nokia N93i, also introduced at CES, is the first product to include the Vox service.

"People want to share their discoveries instantly with friends and family, and Vox is a perfect service to share your videos and photos," said Nokia's director of multimedia experiences Mikko Pilkama in a prepared statement. "We want to make sure that Nokia N-series offers the best possible way for people to participate in Web 2.0 communities when they're mobile. Nokia and Six Apart are making it easy for people to connect and share their photos, videos and life experiences without being tied to a PC."

Source

Nokia, Yahoo! partner on mobile messaging

2007-01-11T05:40:00.000-08:00

Nokia announced that it would expand its existing partnership with Yahoo! to include Yahoo! Mail and Messenger services on its Series 40 platform mobile handsets. "Our extended partnership with Nokia will allow tens of millions of people to access their favorite Yahoo! services on the move," Yahoo! senior VP of connected life Marco Boerries said in a prepared statement. "Yahoo is looking forward to continuing to work with Nokia to bring users compelling mobile Internet services on an even wider range of handsets." Nokia declined to disclose financial terms of the deal. It first teamed with Yahoo! in April 2005.
Source

Cingular to increase SMS rate

2006-12-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

Cingular Wireless is set to increase its fee for text messages from 10 cents to 15 cents, effective January 21 of next year. Cingular will use the increased fee as a way to encourage subscribers to sign up for a bulk SMS plan. The carrier's hike only affects subscribers who do not subscribe to a bulk SMS plan. The affected subscribers are eligible to cancel their contract with Cingular without an early termination fee, since the contract specifically provides that loophole when rates increase for any service. Sprint made the same increase for SMS rates in October, but did not disclose how many subscribers left as a result. T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless still charge 10 cents per SMS, but it's likely the two will raise that rate next year. Their ARPU's may depend on it.

Source

Skype SMS also powered by Mobile 365

2006-07-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

Looking to expand its mobile reach, Skype is turning to Mobile 365 to enable its customers to send SMS messages to mobile subscribers. The agreement is part of Mobile 365's push of messaging interoperability.

With Mobile 365's technology, Skype can offer customers the ability to send messages to contacts, even if they are offline. Mobile 365's global interoperator network facilitates the delivery of the message to the mobile device. Mobile 365 launched its global intercarrier MMS service last month. The company calculates it facilitates 2 billion messages a month in the personal messaging space. The total inlcudes both MMS and SMS messages.

When Skype decides to unleash premium SMS services, the company plans to again turn to Mobile 365, although no timetable was given for such a launch.

Skype was attracted to Mobile 365 as a partner because the company had the ability to access difficult but important markets such as China and India, according to Skype Director of Paid Products Michael Jackson.

SOURCE

SMS emoticons that display on receivers' clothes

2006-05-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

A company called MoBeeline has developed a service that allows users to send emoticons via SMS to the receivers' clothes, which have LEDs on the garments that light up accordingly. Senders can modify colors, patterns as well as the variations on the smiley face. If nothing else, this could be a nice feature for the MVNOs looking to target toddlers, as such clothing seems best suited for that age group. Picture and a video are available at the source blog.

SOURCE

UK: Virgin Mobile offers customers free texting

2006-05-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Virgin Mobile has launched a "Summer of free texts" promotional campaign in the U.K., where the MVNO plans to give away 20 billion text messages to its customers through September. New and existing subscribers can send up to 1,000 free SMS per month as long as they're to other Virgin subscribers. A print and outdoor campaign will support the promotion.

SOURCE

Australia: MSN Messenger for 3G Operator 3

2006-05-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

3 mobile, Australia’s first 3G network, today announced MSN Messenger is available to their customers. With 4.1 million users, MSN Messenger is Australia’s most used free instant messaging service. The alliance with the country’s largest and most advanced 3G network will, according to 3 mobile’s General Manager of Content and Services, Scott Taylor, drive further change in the way people use their mobile phones.

“With the launch of MSN Messenger, the opportunity for 3 mobile customers to choose how and when they communicate with each other is now greater than ever before,” he said. From today 3 customers will be able to see MSN Messenger contacts and exchange messages when their friends are on their PCs or on the move with 3 mobile.

“From customer feedback we know that the ability to have instant conversations with your friends, wherever you are is very compelling and we expect to see even more frequent interaction between mobile-to-mobile and PC-to-mobile customers,“ said Mr Taylor. Download MSN Messenger from Planet 3 today and enjoy unlimited for just $5 for 30 days. MSN Messenger is launching on the following 3 mobile handsets: Sony Ericsson k608i, and z800, as well as the LG 8138, 8180, 8330, 8360, 8380, u880, u890 and Motorola v3X.

Read more at SOURCE

VeriSign to scoop up m-Qube for $250M

2006-03-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

Seems there was some truth to my gossip column two weeks ago: VeriSign has agreed to acquire m-Qube for a cool $250 million "net of cash," or after cash already on hand at m-Qube. m-Qube is a MoCo enabler that helps brands develop and sell mobile content and messaging services. m-Qube claims to reach more than 200 million wireless subscribers in North America and has already powered mobile storefronts and marketing campaigns for customers including Sony Pictures, CBS, Major League Baseball, Warner Music Group and Reuters.

Last week, analysts railed on VeriSign's mobile unit, with one even calling it a "disaster." Insiders recently told me m-Qube was low on cash and that an acquisition was likely. The addition of m-Qube to VeriSign's mobile unit should perk things up for the company. VeriSign recently acquired wireless applications service provider 3united and Kontiki, which specializes in managed peer delivery systems for video and digital content.

For more on VeriSign's acquisition of m-Qube:
- see this press release

SMS to encourage voting among youth

2006-03-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

Nonprofit agency Music For America plans to kick-off an SMS campaign called TXTVoter at concerts throughout the U.S. in June that aims to increase voter turnout in the 2008 elections. The campaign takes celebrity involvement in "getting the vote out" to the next level: Musicians will ask concert goers to register for the SMS service during the live show by texting a word of the musician's choosing to a short numerical code. Fans will then get a reply asking for their name and address to receive voter registration forms in the mail. They'll also get an SMS reminder to vote on Election Day. The MfA claims more than 350 member musicians, including Green Day, Moon Zappa and Death Cab for Cutie. Mobile Voter partnered with the MfA to enable the technical aspects of the campaign.

The Election Day reminder is a nice touch, but there's a disconnect there between soliciting the concert goer's name and address and actually getting them to sign up. Celebrities lobbying young voters to register has proven effective in the past, but really harnessing the mobile to do something as easy as voter registration could allay a lot of the frustration and laziness that leads to low voter turnout. Mobile content can also be sold this way, on the spot at concerts and at the behest of the performers.

For more on SMS and voting:
- take a look at this article from CNET

Fixed Line Voice Messaging In Malaysia

2006-03-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

Telekom Malaysia has launched a short voice messaging service from fixed line phones

Launched under the brand name “MyVoice”, the new Telekom Malaysia service permits fixed line users to record and send short voice messages to any phone user, fixed or mobile. By dialing a 4-digit short-code (1555#), users can record a message up to twenty seconds longwhich can be sent to either fixed line phones or mobiles. Background music, sound effects and other greetings can be added. The receiver can also reply to the message by pressing the "#" button on their phone.

The system has been developed by TM Applied Business (TAB) of Kuala Lumpur combined with TelcoBridges' TB640 System-Blade™, IVR and StreamServer™ technologies with TAB’s Virtual Communication Services (VCS) application solution.

"The service has been very well accepted by large organizations, the public sector and the visually-impaired, all of whom find it very fast and easy to send short voice messages to single or multiple numbers", said Abdul Malek Aziz, TAB’s Head of Marketing. TAB is now marketing system globally.

TAB is using the TelcoBridges' technology to develop a voice messaging on-line portal offering the broadcasting of voice messages to phone users via the Internet to be launched in April.

"Consumers in Asia are very open to innovative voice services" said Gaetan Campeau, President, Founder and Executive Vice-President, Worldwide Sales, TelcoBridges Inc.

SOURCE

O2 Is Top Of The Texts

2006-03-08T23:00:00.000-08:00

Although is only about half a million more subscribers in the UK than the other operators, its subscribers send nearly twice as many mobile messages. According to the latest Ofcom figures mobile voice usage remains flat in the UK, while messaging increases.

Two Phones Each

At the end of September 2005, Ofcom’s research showed that there were 62.5 million mobile subscriptions – a figure that is higher than the total UK population. Ofcom’s tracker research shows that the proportion of UK adults with a mobile phone (about 40 million) has been stable at around 80% over the first three quarters of 2005, confirming that a significant number of people now have two or more mobile subscriptions.

Ofcom figures show that there were 62.5 million UK mobile subscriptions at the end of September 2005, 9% higher than a year earlier with MVNOs now accounting for over 5.5 million subscriptions in the UK. The numbers of reported active subscriptions for each of the four largest networks are still reasonably close, although it should be noted that the figures for T-Mobile include 4.2 million Virgin Mobile subscriptions and O2’s figures include around 750 thousand Tesco Mobile subscriptions. In addition to the four largest networks, 3 had over 3.3 million subscriptions in Q3 2005.

However while MVNO and independent service provider customers made up 13% of UK mobile subscribers, Ofcom estimates that they only accounted for 9% of total mobile revenues.

  Vodafone  O2  T-Mobile  Orange
2005 Q3  14,279   15,086  14,600   14,479

(O2 subscriber numbers do not include Tesco Mobile but T Mobile Virgin Mobile customers are included).

MMS Peeks Over The Horizon

Nearly a quarter of mobile subscribers used their handsets to take photographs. Although the average number of monthly MMS sent is still only a fraction of SMS volumes, there has been a significant increase in usage, with 36% of consumers sending or receiving multimedia messages in the three months to the end of 2005, up from 22% in Q1.

Over half of mobile users aged between 18 and 34 now use MMS, according to research carried out by Enpocket. Particularly interesting is the fact that older age groups have shown the highest jump in usage patterns: 38% in the 35-44 age group and 33% of those between 45-64 used the service in Q4, representing an increase of almost 20 percentage points for both age groups

Volume of SMS & MMS (millions)

  Vodafone  O2  T-Mobile   Orange
2004 Q3  1,462   2,382  943   1,387
2004 Q4  1,592   2,757  946   1,563
2005 Q1  1,661   3,052  986   1,668
2005 Q2  1,671   3,251  1,072   1,825


2005 Q3  1,752   3,457  1,110   1,864

T-Mobile figures for SMS & MMS do not include figures for Virgin Mobile.

READ COMPLERE REPORT HERE: SOURCE

aMSN : an open source MSN Messenger clone

2006-03-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

aMSN is an free open source MSN Messenger clone with lot of features.

It is available for Linux, Macintosh, Windows.

You can download it from here.
aMSN MAC unofficial website.

Features:
» Display pictures
» Custom emoticons
» Multi-language support (around 40 languages currently supported)
» Sign in to more than one account at once
» File transfers
» Group support
» Normal, and animated emoticons with sounds
» Chat logs
» Event alarms
» Webcam support
» History in color
» Ability to autoclose the filetransfer window when it is finished
» New plugins log window (Alt-P)
» Plugins compatible with supported languages
» Faster loading skin window
» Skins in chatwindow
» Resizable chatwindow bottom
» When you add a new user, you can define in which group you want to add them
» When a contact change status, the top of the chat window changes color ( green for away, grey for offline, etc.)
» New panel GUI to alert when there's a new aMSN version
» Possibility to download the new release directly by aMSN
» Automatically update language files and plugins from the web
» New gui for deleting users (also possible to block on deletion)
» Possible to add notes for each user (XML)
» Support for MSN Mobile service
» Tabbed windows so you can group conversations using tabs
» Status is displayed inside a frame, so it won't dissapear when you scroll
» Display picture in notification alert (like MSN 7)
» Statistics for history (logging)
» Now possible to choose any state for your login status (before it was only possible to login invisible or online)
» Timestamping

But that's not all! More features can be added to aMSN with plugins or for the adventurous, completely change the look of aMSN with different skins!

Trojan - SMS.J2ME.RedBrowser.a targets smart phones running java applications

2006-03-01T02:03:00.000-08:00

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, has detected a new piece of mobile malware. Trojan-SMS.J2ME.RedBrowser.a is the first malicious program which infects not only smartphones, but any mobile phone capable of running Java (J2ME) applications.

The Trojan spreads in the guise of a program called "RedBrowser", which allegedly enables the user to visit WAP sites without using a WAP connection. According to the Trojan's author, this is made possible by sending and receiving free SMSs. In actual fact, the Trojan only sends SMSs to premium rate numbers. The user is charged $5 - $6 per SMS.

The Trojan is a Java application, a JAR format archive. The file may be called "redbrowser.jar", and is 54482 bytes in size. The Trojan can be downloaded to the victim handset either via the Internet (from a WAP site) or via Bluetooth or a personal computer. The archive contains the following files:

FS.class - auxiliary file (2719 bytes in size), FW.class - auxiliary file (2664 bytes in size), icon.png - graphics file (3165 bytes in size), logo101.png - graphics file (16829 bytes in size), logo128.pnh - graphics file (27375 bytes in size), M.class - interface file (5339 bytes in size), SM.class - Trojan application which sends SMS messages (1945 bytes in size).

The Trojan can be easily removed from the victim handset using standard utilities already installed on the telephone.

SOURCE: www.it-observer.com

SMS is a temporary drag on 3G usage - Philippines

2006-03-01T01:26:00.000-08:00

The take-up of third-generation (3G) mobile phone services in the Philippines will likely fall short of initial expectations.
"The potential market for 3G services is currently very small, and it will require some years for demand on content services to grow substantially to merit offering 3G," information technology (IT) research and consulting firm XMG, Inc. said.

In essence, 3G is designed to allow mobile phones to handle larger amounts of data. The speed of the service is being likened to an internet broad-band connection, this time using mobile phones and personal digital assistants, not laptops or desktop computers.

This early, 3G players are thinking of leveraging on "large and rich" content such cuts from movies, television and Japanese anime shows; news updates for business users; music tracks for audiophiles; sports clips for athletes and sports enthusiasts; and interactive games.

But for 3G to gain market success, XMG said consumption of data services per individual subscriber has to be substantial enough to automatically consume 3G capacity the moment it is offered.

"This might not happen in the Philippine market, however, as the low- bandwidth SMS service [or texting] remains the dominant source of revenue for local service providers," XMG said.

For instance, Smart's 2004 annual report showed the company derived at least 88% of its data revenue from SMS. "This suggests that a majority of subscribers still find SMS to be sufficient for their needs and would not immediately adopt 3G technology," XMG said.

Still, XMG said local prospects for 3G are bright, albeit not immediate. "Although SMS remains the dominant form of data service consumed by mobile subscribers in the Philippines, the growth in consumption of value- added data services is slowly outpacing the consumption of SMS services. This would indicate the potential market demand for 3G services in the future."

SOURCE: TMC Net

AOL, WebEx Build At-Work IM

2006-02-26T21:53:00.000-08:00

For most of the millions of people around the world who regularly use instant messaging, the communications tool has largely been a text-only experience in which typed emoticons offer only minimal clues to someone's state of mind.

The recent launch of two services -- a brand new, fully three-dimensional chat-room product known as IMVU, and AOL Instant Messenger's new 3-D SuperBuddy icons -- is putting the spotlight on a major shift by the leading IM providers toward making graphical avatars a fundamental personalization feature.

IMVU is the new service from Will Harvey, founder of There. Harvey is riffing on some of the core communications features he developed for There's metaverse and devoting them to instant messaging. In IMVU, people talk to each other in 3-D chat rooms using avatars that display a wide range of emotional cues and do so through a client that is compatible with the leading IM applications.

"IMVU gives you the sense that you are in the presence of the person you are chatting with," said Harvey. "What I think we understand better than anyone else is that the killer app is something that lets people feel like they are with the person they are chatting with."

People seem to see something in IMVU -- Harvey said the service is getting 1,000 new users per day.

AIM's 3-D SuperBuddy icons appear alongside the service's traditional chat boxes and display emotional cues in response to commands typed by the service's users. AOL subscribers have used SuperBuddies since mid-2003, but their release in AIM follows a trend of graphical avatar-based instant messaging started by Yahoo and ICQ.

"It's really an extension to the conversation," said Drew Weaver, AOL's director of marketing for expressions and greetings. "It really adds a layer of fun and interactivity to the conversation without getting in the way of the actual conversation itself."

According to a study by comScore MediaMetrix, more than 250 million people use instant messaging regularly. And IDC estimates that more than 7 billion instant messages are sent every day. According to AOL senior director of corporate communications Krista Thomas, AIM's users are known to spend six hours a day on average with their IM client open.

3GSM: International operators push global Mobile IM service

2006-02-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

3GSM World Congress, Barcelona:

Several of the globe's largest operators are pushing initiatives to make instant messaging as pervasive as SMS. Vodafone, China Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, Orange and T-Mobile International are part of 15 operators trying to create a parallel value stream to their lucrative SMS businesses. Unlike text messaging, mobile IM offers a familiar messaging platform because it's commonly used on PCs. In addition, mobile IM allows users to manage a list of contacts, check their availability online and send one message to groups of users. Operators believe customers will be willing to pay for these features in a mobile environment, even though IM is free on PC connections.

The group also hopes to cooperate with Internet-based IM service providers , such as America Online, Microsoft's MSN, and Yahoo, according to Arun Sarin, Vodafone's chief executive officer. "We want to extend this service and make it a bigger experience for users," he said.

AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo already provide wireless access to their IM services, but this initiative's goal is to extend the availability and interoperability of wireless IM globally. AIM, AOL, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger don't interoperate, though Yahoo and Microsoft are working to build links between their services.

In the first phase, the mobile operators aim to extend IM--a widely popular service among PC users in the fixed-line telecommunications market--to their combined customer base of 700 million users. Over the coming months, they expect other GSM operators to join the initiative, representing a potential global market of more than 2.2 billion people.

On the Internet, more than 300 million people around the world use IM, and around 12 billion messages are sent every day, according to the GSMA.

Unlike the free IM service available on fixed-line networks, however, the IM service planned by the GSM community will cost money, with the calling party picking up the tab.

A key requirement for providing an IM service to mobile phone users is interoperability, to ensure that messages can be sent across networks around the world, said Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of European carrier Orange. Operators within the GSM community have agreed to IM interoperability standards, he said.

Most high-end smart phones and many low-end phones are already IM-enabled, according to Orange's Ahuja. He expects IM to become a standard feature of GSM phones moving ahead.

The operators expect to begin rolling out IM services over the next several months.

It is good sign interms of IM convergence. We need to wait for few months to see it in practical use.

Send free SMS/Text Messages from websites

2006-02-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of websites offering free SMS/Text Messages from their websites.
(Note: You may need to register / and some websites have limitations)

www.atrochatro.com
www.krify.com - sms/text India for free.
www.cbfsms.com - Send SMS/Text messages to UK networks, No registration needed.
www.motocrew.com.au
www.sms.ac - SMS to Europe/UK/USA and many countries
www.uboot.com - Send SMS and MMS.
www.nonstopsms.com - You can send only 2 SMSs free upon registration.
www.sms-india.com - SMS to India
www.textmefree.com - Send SMS to USA

And... there is a trick:

Install ICQ, add any user (add for example test@aol.com) as a buddy, modify the user settings and add cell number. On the buddy list, right click the user and send sms! Thats it! Easy, free and unlimited!!!!

Let me know if you know any other good FREE SMS/Text messaging providers.
I will add tho the web site list. Thanks.

Pay Per Click Ads Go Mobile with AdMob

2006-02-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

After the success of the pay per click (PPC) ad programs Yahoo YPN, Google Adsense, Chitika Minimalls and others , now they are reaching mobiles also. AdMob brings mobile advertisers together with content publishers. Advertisers reach consumers right on their phone and target by region, manufacturer, platform, or device capability level. Publishers can monetize their existing mobile products and services.

This is what AdMob says about the program:

"To put it bluntly, we simply feel that it's about time that everyone had an easy and cost-effective way to reach out to people on mobile devices. That's what AdMob is all about.

We actively partner with high quality, high traffic, independent mobile sites to carry our ads. This is not about a carrier deal or a proprietary portal; this is the open mobile web, the way it should be.

To make your ads as effective as possible we have developed a number of unique technologies that will change the way you think about mobile advertising.

You get what you pay for :
But in a good way. Everyone is familiar with pay-per-click advertising on the web, but AdMob is the first time this concept has been taken mobile. With AdMob, there is finally a way to reach a highly desireable audience of mobile users who are active on the mobile web."

All about texting, SMS and MMS.

2006-02-05T01:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a blog titled all about Texting, SMS and MMS.
textually.org/
Its been there for a long time. it has lot of posts related to mobile messaging.
Checkit if you havent already.

Review: GAIM - Open Source Messenger for Yahoo/ MSN/ ICQ/ AOL/ Jabber/ Gadu-Gadu

2006-02-02T08:31:00.000-08:00

Gaim

Then there's Gaim, a multi-protocol IM client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows originally developed by devotees of the penguin sitting around in an Auburn University college dorm room trying to emulate AOL's instant messenger. Like most Linux-based programs, GAIM is free and is kept current by programmers who work on it in their spare time. It interacts with a range of IM networks both large and small, including AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr IM networks.

The program is easy to install and easy to use. A simplified interface allows a user to add and edit buddy names, initiate conversations, and even carry on multiple chats simultaneously.

Additional features include Buddy Pouncing (the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle); support for customizable away messages; typing notification alerts; MSN window closing notifications; support for the SILC (Secure Internet Live Conferencing) protocol; and support for plug-ins, with current plug-in offerings such as text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, and iconify on away.

In some respects, this is open source at its best. Launched as a solo effort, the program now involves a number of programmers working diligently to improve the application. Updates have been coming as often as every two weeks, with the latest iteration fixing some 240 minor bugs that had been identified in prior versions.

Still, free open-source software can have its own frustrations. Take for instance this item from Gaim's FAQ page: "Does Gaim support file transfer?" The response: "Somewhat, yeah." The reply then goes on to list some supported transfer types, adding, "If you would like file transfer to work better or be more complete, get CVS and submit a patch using the generic file transfer API." For the non-developer crowd, um, what?

Overall, these products make sense for heavy IM users. They simplify the process of tracking and communicating with multiple buddies over diverse platforms. Is that a plus or a minus in your life? It all depends on how much time you have on your hands.

Pros: Freeware/open source; handles a wide range of IM services, both major and minor; frequent updates

Cons: Subject to changes in the proprietary APIs of IM networks such as AOL and Yahoo! that could lead to temporary inability to connect to these networks, free and open source status begs question of Gaim's long-term availability (continued development depends on continued interest of programmers)

DOWNLAOD GAIM here: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

IBM and Instant messaging Convergence

2006-02-02T03:39:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to see IBMs new step to integrate AOL, Yahoo and Google Talk messengers with its instant messaging platform(Lotus Sametime). IBMs secure messaging system is used in many of the big companies for Instant Messaging. And certainly adding AOL, Yahoo and google talk, it will enhance the Lotus Sametime usablity and obviously more corporates who are not yet using Lotus Sametime will look into it.

Missing from the deal is Microsoft Corp., the most direct rival of IBM in the corporate instant messaging market, where customers often demand greater security and want IT managers to have the ability to audit what users say.

IBM claims that Lotus Sametime has 20 million users inside companies worldwide, including more than 25 companies with more than 100,000 users apiece. IBM said 60% of the world's 100 largest companies use Sametime.

AOL Instant Messenger, the most popular instant messaging system, has more than 40 million users in the U.S. alone, according to a Commscore Media Metrix survey.

Yahoo had roughly 20 million instant messaging users, and Microsoft had around 15 million, according to midyear 2005 data.

Google had far fewer instant messaging users, but it just introduced its IM offering midway through 2005.

Link

History Of SMS.

2006-02-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

As for most other services and modules of functionality of the GSM system, no individual can claim the fatherhood of SMS. The idea of adding text messaging to the services of mobile users was latent in many communities of mobile communication services at the beginning of the 1980s. Experts from several of those communities contributed in the discussions on which should be the GSM services. Most thought of SMS as a means to alert the individual mobile user e.g. on incoming voice mail, whereas others had more sophisticated applications in their minds, e.g. telemetry. However, few believed that SMS would be used as a means for sending text messages from a mobile user to another. One factor in the takeup of SMS was that operators were slow to eliminate billing fraud which was possible by changing SMSC settings on individual handsets to the SMSC's of other operators. Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch-billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSC's to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it.

As early as February 1985, after having already been discussed in GSM subgroup WP3, chaired by J Audestad, SMS was considered in the main GSM group as a possible service for the new digital cellular system. In GSM document 'Services and Facilities to be provided in the GSM System' (GSM Doc 28/85 rev2, June 1985), both mobile originated and mobile terminated, including point-to-point and point-to-multipoint, short messages appear on the table of GSM teleservices.

The discussions on the GSM services were then concluded in e.g. the recommendation GSM 02.03 'TeleServices supported by a GSM PLMN'. Here, a rudimentary description of the three services 1) Short message Mobile Terminated / Point-to-Point, 2) Short message Mobile Originated / Point-to-Point and 3) Short message Cell Broadcast was given. This was handed over to a new GSM body called IDEG (the Implementation of Data and Telematic Services Experts Group), which had its kickoff in May 1987 under the chairmanship of Friedhelm Hillebrand. The technical standard known today was largely created by IDEG (later WP4) as of the two recommendations GSM 03.40 (the two point-to-point services merged together) and GSM 03.41 (cell broadcast).

The first commercial short message was sent on 3 December 1992 by Neil Papworth of Sema Group from a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone on the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom.

SMS was originally designed as part of GSM, but is now available on a wide range of networks, including 3G networks. However, not all text messaging systems use SMS, and some notable alternate implementations of the concept include J-Phone's SkyMail and NTT Docomo's Short Mail, both in Japan. E-mail messaging from phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's i-mode and the RIM BlackBerry, also typically use standard mail protocols such as SMTP over TCP/IP.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service

About this blog.

2006-01-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

This blog ia all about messaging magics:
SMS, MMS, E-Mail, Instant messaging like Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, AOL.
Trends in messaging, news, information and free resources, ringtones, picture messaging
will be posted here.

2006-01-31T06:17:00.000-08:00