Archive for the 'News' Category

Mobile Devices Market & Mobile Messaging Adaption

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

1. Mobile Devices Market Share:

ABI Research released their quarterly report about the mobile devices market. There, I found this interesting chart about the market share of mobile device vendors in the 3Q 2008:

Source: Mobile Device Vendor Market Share, 3 Q 2008

Some interesting facts from this ABI Research report:

  • 3Q 2008: 8.2% year-on-year growth
  • 4Q 2008: will be a vital quarter for handset vendors and mobile operators, 7.5% growth
  • Year-on-year annual growth: 10.5%-11%, 1.27 billion
  • on the winner side: Samsung, Apple, RIM

Source: Mobile Device Vendor Market Share, 3 Q 2008


2. Mobile Messaging Adaption by Business Customers:

In a whitepaper called “US Operator Mobile Messaging Services” ABI Research examined the adaption of mobile messaging services of four US operators (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile). In February 2008 ABI Research surveyed 750 mobile business users from the US about their usage and preferences for mobile services. The results of this survey were:

  1. ARPUs (Average Revenue per User) for mobile messaging services, which include text messaging, picture messaging, video messaging, IM (Instant Messaging), and mobile e-mail:
    • AT&T has the highest ARPUs
    • T-Mobile has the lowest ARPUs primarily due to its low fees
    • Verizon could potentially see the greatest ARPU increase by increasing the penetration of smartphones among its business customers (since it has highly mobile customers with information and collaboration needs)
  2. penetration of smartphones:
    • Verizon and Sprint have the lowest penetration of smartphones among the survey takers
    • T-Mobile has the second highest penetration of smartphones

Some of the key characteristics that drive up mobile messaging ARPUs to this customer segment are:

  • a highly mobile work environment that needs information and collaboration
  • a strong portfolio of smartphones
  • premium pricing (e.g. broad network coverage, high service and support levels)
  • personal usage of mobile messaging services for both peer to peer delivery as well as A2P (application to peer)*

* A2P: “[...]A2P messaging includes receiving content and information, such as sports scores or banking alerts, as well as content posting from the mobile device to online websites, such as picture album and
social networking websites. A2P messaging is certainly an opportunity for increasing the value of
mobile messaging services, both MMS and mobile e-mail. A2P delivery can create greater loyalty and possibly higher ARPUs [...].”

Source: Whitepaper “US Operator Mobile Messaging Services”

RIM to launch BlackBerry Application Storefront and BlackBerry Application Center

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

During its first BlackBerry Developer Conference co-Founder and co-CEO of Research in Motion Mike Lazaridis unveiled plans for an online application store for its smart phones. The store will launch in March 2009 and will include both an online and on-device component giving 20 million BlackBerry users on all platforms the opportunity to find and download add-on applications for their specific phone models. RIM is working with PayPal to build the payment system for the store.

“A new online application storefront and a new on-device application center will help application developers and carriers reach millions of BlackBerry smartphone users worldwide and will provide consumers with greater choice, enhanced application discovery and an easy method for managing installation, upgrades, and purchases.” (source: press release of RIM)

In December this year developers can begin submitting their applications. The storefront will allow them to set their own prices for applications. Developers will get 80 percent of the revenue generated from their application.

Furthermore, RIM will work closely with carriers to create customized, on-device application centers for their subscribers.

“The BlackBerry platform enjoys strong roots in the enterprise market and we continue to invest for growth and success with our enterprise channel partners, but the introduction of more consumer-friendly features in BlackBerry smartphones has clearly helped generate a groundswell of interest with new developers that has already resulted in the introduction of thousands of consumer and lifestyle oriented applications for BlackBerry smartphones,” said Mike Lazaridis. “The new BlackBerry application storefront and BlackBerry application centers will further support the growing BlackBerry ecosystem and help bridge consumers with developers and carriers as more and more innovative and interesting applications arrive.”

Another important part is the BlackBerry browser. The BlackBerry browser version 4.6 (e.g. Blackberry Bold) will operate much more like a desktop browser and supports HTML, XHTML, CSS, Ajax and DOM L2 code. With this move RIM hopes to see more application developers helping to grow the online and on-device stores.

For more information about the BlackBerry application storefront check out:
www.blackberry.com/storefrontinfo

Sources:
RIM press release

cnet.com
heise.de
internetnews.com

Apple sells more iPhones than RIM Blackberrys

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

In its fiscal fourth quarter, ended Sept. 27, Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones and has now sold more than 13 million iPhones this year (Apple’s sales goal was 10 million in 2008). Compared to Apple, RIM has sold 6.1 million Blackberry devices in the quarter ended August 30.

“RIM is a good company that makes good products and so it is surprising that after only 15 months in the market we could outsell them in any quarter,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during an analyst conference call following the release of the financial report.

Jobs also said that Apple was the third-ranked mobile phone supplier worldwide by revenue during the quarter.

Sources:
eetimes.com
theglobeandmail.com
golem.de

O2 and Vodafone launch mpass

Monday, October 20th, 2008

O2 and Vodafone have launched their new payment service “mpass” in Germany. Through mpass mobile phone customers with any German provider now have access to secure online shopping on their mobile phone or PC.

mpass combines the direct debiting system (German: Lastschriftverfahren) with SMS payment confirmation through mobile phones (we blogged about this before). Some companies like Cinemaxx, Blume2000.de or Beate Uhse are already supporting the service.

More about mpass here: http://www.mpass.de/

Source:
zdnet.de

Nintendo DSi to include Opera web browser

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

As soon as Nintendo announced the next version of the hugely popular Nintendo DS gaming console, called the Nintendo DSi, I was curious if along with some hardware upgrades, such as 2 cameras, better screens and a SD card slot, there would be major changes to the OS and software included, especially if a decent web browser would be available or even included…and I was hoping for Opera. There is a video of the DSi presentation on YouTube.

Turns out there will be a web browser available (see above video from 01:45)…and it will be an Opera browser! In contrast to the current DS version, the DSi web browser will reside on the console’s flash memory meaning it will not come as a game-cartridge as the currently available Opera browser does.

The browser will most likely be pre-installed, “most likely” because my Japanese is not that great ;)  Comments on the page over here are quoting the Nintendo site and also the Google and Babelfish translations state the browser has to be installed by the user. The English version slides of the introductory presentation of the DSi seem to state the web browser is part of the free DSiWare package.
Still, the English Wikipedia article states the DSi web browser will be pre-installed, the Japanese Wikipedia version (in the Google and Babelfish translations) state the same. So I would assume it will be pre-installed, it’s probably the means to access the DSi store anyways. Opera also officially verified their co-operation with Nintendo for the DSi (not mentioning if it’s pre-installed or an add-on).

If the browser will feature Ajax / XHR is not sure. The currently available Opera browser for the DS can do JavaScript but no XHR. According to a few sources, mostly comments in various blogs, the DSi browser appears to be faster, so there’s hope in the Ajax department too.

Finally a short and very rough calculation: in 2 years time the current Nintendo DS Lite sold around 50m times, next year maybe 10m DSi will be sold, in 2 years about another 20-30m. That makes around 30-40m new devices with a decent web browser and WiFi in 2 years…Now is there going to be a market for specialized DSi web apps or what?

Frost mentioned in c’t magazine

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

As I was reading an older issue (#7 in 2008 from 17.03.2008, current one is 9) of Germany’s premier computer magazine c’t I spotted a mentioning of Frost, our open source Ajax library for mobile browsers.

The issue’s title topic was “The web in your hand” and the article starting on page 112 was about “Webdesign for Mobile Devices”. On page 114 Frost is mentioned in one sentence. Yay!

“Event the first JavaScript library for mobile browsers, that are getting increasingly mightier, has been released; Frost is supposed to make simple Ajax manipulations possible.” the article reads (translated from German).

Just a small clarification here: we’re still trying to get the first real release out of the door, shame especially on myself for not bringing up enough time to get this thing done. Anyways good to know we’re on the radar, stuff like this certainly encourages further developments, but time always is an enemy.

If you wanna know more, check out Frost here.

Interesting Mobile News: Nokia, Ericsson, T-Mobile, AOL etc.

Monday, February 18th, 2008

T-Mobile criticized Nokia’s strategy
T-Mobile ain’t very happy with Nokia’s strategy offering more and more own services. Last summer Nokia announced Ovi, a paid internet portal for music downloads and navigation. So Nokia breaks into a part of the value-added chain, which T-Mobile occupied until yet. T-Mobile boss Hamid Akhavan emphasized that Nokia’s solo attempt will lead to conflicts.
Source: http://www.heise.de

Vodafone deepens partnership with RIM
Vodafone announced to deepen the partnership with Research in Motion (RIM). Within this partnership Vodafone wants to develop own consumer services for the Blackberry platform. Until now they mostly eyed business customers. Unlike in Europe, Blackberry enjoys great popularity by average consumers in the US.
Source: http://www.heise.de

Nokia navigates pedestrians
Last week Nokia introduced Walk, a pedestrian navigation software. Downloads are now available from Nokia Beta Labs, but the software is still in Beta.
Source: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/maps

Ericsson will be FIFA partner
In 2009 and 2010 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association)
will use Ericsson’s technical infrastructure for the distribution of mobile multimedia services. The center of the agreement is the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Ericsson will provide content management and service delivery platforms for transferring FIFA products (such as informations services, TV and video) to mobile devices.
Source: http://www.heise.de

T-Mobile cuts prices for mobile internet abroad
Last week T-Mobile announced 2 - still volume based - new tariffs which apply for all 27 EU-States:

  • 1 MB data traffic for 2 EUR
  • 50 MB day package for 15 EUR

It will be irrelevant, in which foreign network a T-Mobile customer has signed in. Well, mobile surfing gets cheaper in Europe, but it is still very expensive. The new T-Mobile Roaming tariffs will become available in mid-2008.
Source: http://www.heise.de

MSN Direct
Last week at the Mobile World Congress Microsoft introduced a new mobile client called MSN Direct. It is a free application and runs on Windows Mobile 6 powered smart phones. With MSN Direct you can assemble your own news service, such as top news stories, weather, stock reports, sports or entertainment news. The content from the MSN portal updates automatically and is displayed on the phone’s idle screen.
Source: http://phone.msndirect.com

T-Mobile integrates Yahoo’s Onesearch and IM
Starting at the end of March all web enabled T-Mobile devices will exclusively support Yahoo’s mobile search service Onesearch. Users will have access to news, weather, flickr as well as related pages for mobile clients.
This year T-Mobile also wants to introduce mobile Instant Messaging and will therefore support Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ and AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). Up to now T-Mobile prohibits the usage of Instant Messaging services with its Web’n'Walk tariffs.
Source: http://www.zdnet.de

Ericsson develops mobile multimedia platform
Ericsson has unveiled a new hardware platform for mobile devices in order to help manufacturers develop multimedia devices with multitasking capabilities.
“The U500 is a powerful multimedia platform with performance, graphics and usability, more resembling a mobile computer than today’s mobile phones,” said Robert Puskaric, head of Ericsson’s mobile platforms business. “With the U500 platform Ericsson will keep its world leading position within the multimedia mass market for years to come”.
The U500 platform integrates three ARM11 CPUs (high performance microprocessors) as well as hardware accelerators. The Ericsson U500 will launch early 2009 and can offer highly advanced features like support for WVGA displays (800×480 pixels), high-quality camcorder, 12-megapixel camera, high-resolution video for mobile TV and superior audio performance.
Sources: http://news.softpedia.com, http://www.mobilewhack.com, http://www.zdnet.de

Nokia starts mobile advertising network
Nokia starts with Nokia Media Network its own advertising network for mobile websites. The company not only markets its own mobile services, but also from other (70) provider, such as AccuWeather, Discovery, Hearst, Reuters and Sprint.
Nokia promises its clients click rates at an average of 10% in some areas.
The company relies on the Enpocket technology, which the company bought in October 2007. Enpocket’s analysis helps optimizing campaigns in order to increase click and conversion rates.
Source: http://www.golem.de

AOL announces Open Mobile Platform
Last week AOL announced the “Open Mobile Platform“, which can be used to develop applications for a wide variety of mobile phone and smart phone platforms. The platform will support platform systems like Brew, Blackberry, Linux, Symbian, Windows Mobile as well as mobile phones with Java. The integration of AOL services will be possible, too.
Developers can create application using a XML-based markup language, a client to be installed on the device and an application server. The platform is to be released as Open Source Software in summer 2008.
Source: http://www.golem.de

Interesting (Mobile) News

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

- YouTube revised their mobile website m.youtube.com. Now, there is a wider range of videos available (millions of videos). You can also access your YouTube account, your Favorites, your own uploaded videos, your favorite Channels via your mobile phone, and you can share, rate or comment other user´s clips. Uploaded videos (from your mobile phone via email/mms) will appear on m.youtube.com as well as on www.youtube.com.
Last but not least, YouTube for Mobile went international. It is also now available for the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Germany, and Russia.
For more info (including a video) check out: YouTube Blog

- The German student social network StudiVZ prepares itself against the market entry of his US competitor Facebook. StudiVZ plans to provide APIs for developers. They are also thinking about joining Google’s initiative OpenSocial.

- Mig33 announced closing a Series B funding of $13.5 million led by DCM with participation from existing Series A investors Accel, Redpoint and TVP. Mig33 is a downloadable mobile social networking application. They currently have over 9 million users across more than 200 countries. Mig33 will use the money to continue expansion of the company in the U.S. and internationally.

- The mobile social network MocoSpace has raised $4 million in its second round of funding, drawing from existing investors General Catalyst, Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and former eBay exec Michael Dearing reports TechCrunch. The Boston-based company already raised $3 million in the first round in January 2007. MocoSpace has 2 million members and 1 billion pageviews/month from mobile phones.

- Motorola considers an elimination of his weak mobile devices department. The goal would be to regain lost market shares. But the consideration is not final. Greg Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer: “We are exploring ways in which our Mobile Devices Business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise.”

- Opera announced the commercial release of the latest mobile Web browser Opera Mobile 9.5 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC, once 3GSM) in Barcelona. “the Opera Mobile 9.5 desktop-like browsing experience has been enhanced with innovations such as zooming and panning that make it easier to navigate, load pages quicker and get users closer to the Web content and entertainment they want. With Opera Mobile 9.5, users can experience the real Web and interact with content exactly as they do on their PC.” (Source: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases).
Watch the Opera Mobile 9.5 Guided Tour (video) here.

- At the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona Microsoft will unveil version 6.1 of its Windows Mobile OS. Amongst a new application (”One Note Mobile”) there are an improved Internet Explorer as well as a Chat view for text messages. One Note Mobile includes voice messages, notepad and drawings. Find more info here: golem.de and msmobiles.com

Sources:
StudiVZ: golem.de
Mig33: themobiblog.com, personalbee.com
MocoSpace: techcrunch.com
Motorola: motorola.com, heise.de

Nokia acquires Trolltech for $153 Million

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

Nokia acquires the Norwegian company Trolltech for $153 Million (€104 Million). Trolltech’s Qt Technology is a cross-platform GUI framework that’s used in applications such as KDE and Skype.

“The acquisition of Trolltech will enable Nokia to accelerate the cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and to develop its Internet services business. Nokia plans to continue to develop Trolltech’s products and continue to drive sales to new and existing customers” (press release of Trolltech).

With the open source technology Qt, Nokia plans to support developers creating applications that run on smartphones as well as PC’s. The acquisition of Trolltech could be Nokia’s answer to Google’s Android.

Sources:
http://trolltech.com
http://mashable.com
http://www.golem.de

O2 and Vodafone starting new payment system

Monday, January 28th, 2008

O2 and Vodafone are launching a new billing service in Germany this spring. The service will be accessible to every mobile phone user.

The new payment system combines the direct debiting system (German: Lastschriftverfahren) with SMS payment confirmation through mobile phones. That means:

  1. you order a product on a mobile portal or web shop
  2. then you type in your mobile phone number and password
  3. following you will receive a text message (SMS), which you have to confirm in order to debit the amount from your bank account via direct debiting system.

Prepaid customers and customers with cell phones provided by their company as well as customers of other carriers need to register once and for free for this online payment system.

Due to the handling of payments via two independent communication media, the payment security will be clearly increased according to Vodafone and O2. A prior registration giving bank account details and credit card numbers does not apply.

The whole payment service sounds very easy and promising. I am very curious about testing it.

Sources:
zdnet.de
golem.de

Google heading into Japan’s mobile market

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Last week, NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier with nearly 53 million subscribers, and Google announced their partnership that includes providing search services and search-related advertisement. The service is scheduled to be launching in spring 2008.
Besides, other Google services will be made available for i-mode users, such as a pre-installed application of Google Maps on i-mode handsets.

In the near future GMail, YouTube and Picasa will be also accessible through i-mode. In addition, in all upcoming NTT DoCoMo handsets with a capable HTML browser, Google will be set as starting page.

NTT DoCoMo may also introduce handsets that will use Google’s “Android” mobile software package in Japan - probably in the second half of this year. Not very surprising since NTT DoCoMo is a part of Android’s Open Handset Alliance.

This partnership will give Google a better access not only to the mobile market, but also to the search engine market in Japan, where Google lags behind Yahoo.

Mobile service subscriptions exceeded 100 million in Japan as of the end of 2007, with almost 70 million users accessing the Internet through their mobile phones.

Sources:
businessweek.com
efluxmedia.com
internetcommunications.tmcnet.com

Huge deal between Nokia and Facebook?

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

According to paidcontent.org Nokia is in talks with Facebook about a potential partnership and investment.

Nokia and Facebook are in negotiations about porting Facebook on the home screen of several Nokia handsets. This deal could be huge, since Nokia is the world’s largest maker of mobile phones. Nokia already tartgeted some mobile services for their devices:

  • Ovi (mobile web service)
  • Mosh (mobile social network)
  • Navteq (location based services)
  • Universal (music)
  • Avvenu (file sharing)
  • Twango (media sharing)
  • Enpocket (mobile advertising)

This deal could help Facebook expand in the European market. Nokia is also looking into purchasing a stake of Facebook.

Talks are still very early. A senior Nokia executive declined to go into details: “There is talk of a partnership in the works… it’s safe to say we’re testing the waters and things still have to be worked out.”

So no specific details have been released yet, but maybe mobilemag.com is right with “The giant just got bigger”.

Sources:
mobilemag.com
paidcontent.org

Hot Mobile News this week

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

- Mobile TV via DVB-H will start in Germany on June 1, 2008 - just in time for the European Championship in Soccer. There is still a lack of content which has to be adapted for the small screen sizes. It will be interesting to see if this version of mobile TV will be successful.

- China Mobile, China’s largest mobile operator, called off iPhone launch negotiations with Apple. Supposedly the negotiations were cancelled due to disputes about Apple’s share in downloads and other content sales.

- Nokia is to close its German plant. The closure of the Bochum facilities is planned for the middle of this year. The production will be shifted to more competitive locations (such as Romania and Hungary).

- Google has got the approval by the FCC (Federal Communications Commision) and is now one of the 214 qualified bidders for the 700Mhz frequency spectrum auction starting on Jan. 24, 2008.

Sources:
http://www.golem.de/0801/57045.html (Mobile TV),
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/101733 (iPhone),
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/01/china-mobile-an.html (iPhone),
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/101797 (Nokia),
http://www.golem.de/0801/57012.html (Nokia),
http://www.engadgetmobile.com (Nokia),
http://www.ft.com (Nokia),
http://www.informationweek.com (Google/FCC),
http://www.golem.de/0801/57029.html (Google, FCC)

Hot Mobile News this week

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

- Vodafone sued T-Mobile in Germany over its exclusive contract with Apple. That’s why Vodafone had issued a “restraining order” against T-Mobile for offering the iPhone exclusively. Another German carrier Debitel had also complained to the German telecommunications regulators about the exclusive deal (which ties the iPhone to a single carrier).
T-Mobile announced yesterday that they will now also sell the iPhone in Germany without the 24-month contract as well as without SIM lock. T-Mobile’s unlocked iPhones (without a contract) will cost 999 EUR (1473 USD).
Customers who sign up for a 2-year T-Mobile contract get the device for 399 EUR (588 USD) plus (at least) 49.99 EUR/month.

- The new version of the mobile Opera browser - Opera Mini 4 - was released on Nov. 7th and had already had over 1 Mio. downloads in the first ten days. Incredible! Congratulations to the Opera team!
Download Opera Mini 4 here: http://www.operamini.com/download/

Sources:
http://www.betanews.com
http://business.timesonline.co.uk
http://www.heise.de

Hot Mobile News from Last Week(s)

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Not the latest, but still some quite interesting news:

  • Apple plans to release an SDK for the iPhone and iPod Touch in February 2008. The company wants to create “a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for (their) users”
  • Orange will sell the iPhone in France without SIM-Lock, because the French consumer rights forces Orange to offer the iPhone also without contract and without SIM-Lock

Sources:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/97556/from/rss09
http://www.jaiku.com
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/97537/from/rss09

3jam lands an amazing deal with Virgin Mobile

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

Last week 3jam and Virgin Mobile announced their partnership. That’s really amazing news! Virgin Mobile is promoting that deal heavily, e.g. on their homepage and via messages to subscribers.

What is 3jam?
In 2005 Andy Jagoe and Enlai Chu started developing a new way of text messaging communication. Let’s name it SMS 2.0. It improves the basic text messaging by allowing friends and family to stay connected with group communication. The 3jam service is free, only SMS charges may apply. But the cool thing is that each text message you send or receive through 3jam is counted as 1 standard text message, even when your message may be received by multiple recipients in the 3jam conversation.

How does the 3jam service via Virgin Mobile works?
The Virgin Mobile customers have first to sign up on the menu of Virgin Mobile’s WAP deck or at www.3jam.com/virgin.Then they can start sending SMS to any number of friends simultaneously. The receipients of the SMS can reply to all at once.

How big is the market for SMS?
For this year Informa analysts suggest the value of global SMS traffic at 60 Billion USD; Gartner forcasts 1.8 Trillion USD by 2010.

In the US we already talked to some carriers and most of them are pretty interested in partnerships with service developers, since they can help them to attract more customers and also increase their ARPU.

Currently, 3jam is building a global service for transiting, billing and clearing multi-party SMS messages. They are also working on some new features. Rocco already met the 3jam Andy and Enlai. Way to go 3jam!

Sources:
us.blognation.com
3jam.com
virginmobile.com

Time for an Anti-Social Network?!

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

If you can’t hear words like “Facebook”, “social”, “networking”, “friends” or “community” anymore, then maybe you should have a look at the antisocial networking site Bugroff.

bugroff.jpg

This “website” has launched by Gray Dring - the person behind the Clever Little Pod comedy podcast. No wonder why Bugroff is nothing more than a spoof service :)

Source: http://uk.blognation.com

San Francisco and Frost - a quick heads-up

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

It has been a busy month and our last post was already a long while ago. So here’s a quick heads-up …

Our Ajax library, Frost, is still in development, but we already received some good response and many requests for more info ranging from freelancers to people from well-known companies. There is a lot of interest out there and we try to get the initial library online within the next couple of weeks. There’s also a definite plan how users will be able to contribute by extending the library and by testing browsers. Let us know if you want to help either building the lib or the community pages around this (based on WordPress)!

For now we have a video on YouTube that shows how the demo page of the Frost library works and looks like on the iPhone (we actually found a bug in Safari), so check it out!

Meanwhile we moved to San Francisco, at least for the next few months. Our goals are to get in touch with like-minded people from the Bay Area, build-up some interesting contacts and cooperations and introduce Frost and our upcoming mobile service to as many people as we can. So, if you are also in the Bay Area, please let us know!

There are a lot of events happening and we gonna write about it and let you know what’s happening.

We’re currently looking for a space in an office (for 2 people) - we talked to Chris from CitizenSpace in downtown SF and might end up working there, but if you have a better idea or even a little space in your office, please let us know!

Article on Mobile Ajax in .net Magazine

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

As previously mentioned I wrote an article about Mobile Ajax for UK’s .net magazine earlier this year.

The article got postponed but now finally appeared in the July issue of the magazine. Thanks go out to Oliver Lindberg and the rest of the .net staff.

Make sure you buy a copy of issue 164 and check out pages 106/107.

Rocco Georgi Mobile Ajax in .net magazine

CeBIT: new mobile (flat-)rates

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

There are some interesting news from the CeBIT in Hannover, Germany (15.- 21. March 2007). The CeBIT is a leading business event for the digital world, and the mobile industry is an important part of the CeBIT. Especially this year is a lot of going on mobile + internet. Here are some facts:

T-Mobile:

T-Mobile has dramatically dropped their prices for mobile surfing. Here are the prices for their time- and volume-based rates.

time-based rates:
The time-based rate is called “web’n'walk“. You only pay 0.09 EUR/minute for the “web’n'walk Starter” rate. There is neither a basic fee nor a volume limit. In August 2007 T-Mobile plans to offer the “web’n'walk Surfer” rate with 120 minutes for 5.00 EUR, which means 0.04 EUR/minute.

volume-based rates:
T-Mobile has also dropped the prices for their volume-based rates:
web’n'walk BASIC“: 200 MByte for 20.00 EUR/month
web’n'walk MEDIUM“: 400 MByte for 35.00 EUR/month
web’n'walk LARGE“: 5 GByte for 50.00 EUR/month

(more…)