A growing chorus claims that Apple’s questionable approval policy for its iPhone app store raises issues with net neutrality. The latest is Free Press, which "alleges that Apple crippled SlingPlayer, a TV-streaming application for iPhone, so that it would only work on a Wi-Fi connection," according to Wired. However, Apple has approved live streaming for a Major League Baseball app.

According to AT&T, the problem is that it doesn't have enough network capacity. Wired reports: "We're certainly not crippling any apps," an AT&T spokesman said. "This is an issue of fairness…. While we would like to support all video services across our network, the reality is that wireless networks simply lack the capacity to support customers streaming hours of cable, satellite or IPTV video programming to individual users."

However, Ken Biba, founder of wireless consulting firm Novarum, says “SlingPlayer is clear evidence that AT&T’s network is overloaded” and he interprets that the new iPhone 3GS video recording and uploading option will clog the network even more and he added that even when carriers roll out the fourth-generation Long Term Evolution cellular network, AT&T’s network capacity will still be insufficient because by then, smartphones will be even more sophisticated and affordable, creating even more congestion. He suggests, “An even better solution would be if more cities deployed free Wi-Fi coverage to offload the stress from carrier networks."

At this juncture it is a mandatory to oversee the statement of Aneesh Chopra the US CTO, said at a consumer electronics show held in June 2009 at New York :

"If you were to ask investors how satisfied were you with your data wireless network investments pre-iPhone, my gut instinct tells me, they were not delivering the revenues that one would've expected to justify the investments they were making,"

Chopra noted that faster Internet speeds create business opportunities and that the government aims to create incentives for such investment. "We can lead with public policy in this area the way that the consumer has led in the device world". Already $7.3 billion has been allocated to hand out for broadband build-out in the President Obama’s economic stimulus package.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to draw up a strategy to bring high-speed Internet to nearly half of the U.S. population that does not get it, many in low-income and rural areas.

For your enjoyment: an interview with dotMobi's CEO, Trey Harvin. The interview was conducted by Sarah Blue of bnetTV at the Las Vegas CTIA event this past April.

Mobile website owners, similar to non-mobile website owners, may believe that website optimization, mobile analytics, search engine marketing and other digital marketing techniques are too challenging, take excessive time and, in many cases, become impossible to manage. This convinces some mobile marketers to "fly by the seat of their pants" when assessing mobile website performance.

Eric Hansen, Founder and C.E.O. of SiteSpect, a Boston-based marketing-focused website testing and optimization firm, will probably disagree with you. Since starting the firm in 2004, Hansen's team has helped numerous companies, including J.C. Penney, Overstock.com, The New York Times, CreditCards.com and others that have greatly improved their website marketing performance by optimizing mobile content and placement.

According to Hansen, SiteSpect is the only company in its space providing accurate mobile website user behavior on phones that don't support Javascript and cookies. Per Hansen, 50% of worldwide mobile handsets are not Javascript enabled. As a result, marketers are hindered in accurately assessing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and mobile website performance.

Marketers use SiteSpect's software and hardware solutions to better understand how various website elements, such as time spent on a web page or the impact of images, text placement, links, discounts and other content impacting accurate segmentation, lead conversion, sales and overall marketing results.

Employing SiteSpect's website analysis solutions, marketers "non-intrusively" test website performance during marketing campaigns, working at network level, without involving IT or making changes in their websites. SiteSpect, in tandem with marketing management, then assists marketers better assess landing page, copy and other content placement changes to increase conversions and realistically set goals for future mobile marketing campaigns.

Through a partnership with Bango, a mobile analytics firm delivering historical reports, SiteSpect's customers can further measure mobile behavior by creating new offers and promotions to boost conversions, grow website traffic and answer "what if" questions that predict future mobile user behavior.

Eric Hansen believes these capabilities give marketers the ability to conduct digital website experiments that better reveal mobile user preferences and achieve marketing campaign goals.

If you own or operate a mobile website, take 33 minutes and listen to one of the top experts in the field share ideas that affect the success of both mobile and non-mobile websites.

SiteSpect Mobile Content Testing and Optimization SiteSpect Demo Eric Hansen: Twitter: ericjhansen LinkedIn Profile FaceBook MobileMarketer Article

Gameloft®, a leading publisher and developer of video games on mobile phones and consoles, announced today the launch of its mobile CPA affiliation campaign on MobPartner affiliation platform.

Following this agreement, all Gameloft games are now available for download through the MobPartner platform in 15 countries: USA, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa and Colombia. By July 16, other countries including Brazil and Australia will join that list.

With 45,000 affiliates in more than 100 countries, the mobile affiliation platform will help Gameloft mobile site to improve its sales significantly.

“To continue moving in the same direction that we are on the web, Gameloft is moving to a performance-based advertising model on mobile,” said Salima Maury, Head of Advertising for Gameloft. “This is something natural for us, and we found the right partner in TexoMobile and their platform, MobPartner.”

“Our affiliates were waiting for this campaign impatiently, and are very enthusiastic about the money they can generate,” declared Vianney Settini, Co-founder of TexoMobile. “More than 1,000 mobile sites in the world are now promoting Gameloft CPA campaigns, and the number of daily sales is growing faster and faster every day.”

Mobile CPA affiliation campaigns (cost by acquisition) are already successful: they offer advertisers and media agencies the opportunity to control client acquisition costs and improve sales, downloads and qualified contacts.

The Android Developers made the Android 1.5 SDK available for download, providing developers with a wide range of brand new features that will offer them the necessary tools to create new applications for compliant Android-powered devices.



The new development kit is geared, obviously, for the new version of Android, a refresh that owners of all Android phones will eventually be able to enjoy. It brings with it several important tools to make development easier, including a Virtual Devices feature to let developers emulate multiple Android devices and other improvements to better gauge performance issues – a big concern for mobile environments where battery life and CPU power are limited with a number of new features, including home-screen widgets, speech recognition, live folders, and soft keyboards, as well as new programming tools.

This is also the first version of the SDK that will support add-ons, letting developers easily import external libraries. While very little of this is important to the end user, it's great news for the Android platform as a whole, as easier development will likely mean more programs to choose from. Android 1.5 OS will probably be released for all Android smartphones in May, one month before Samsung launches the i7500, its very first Android handset.

SDK Contents Development tools

The SDK includes a full set of tools for developing and debugging application code and designing an application UI. You can read about the tools in the Dev Guide and access them in the /tools/ directory.

The tools package in this SDK includes updates from those provided in the previous SDK. The tools also require a different project structure. To use the new tools, you need to migrate your applications to the new development environment. For more information about how to migrate, see Upgrading the SDK.

Here is the download link

The analysts said they expect Palm to have a stockpile of around 375,000 units at the device's debut (the figure is the median number of units the six analysts surveyed predicted).

A smartphone pioneer with its Treo, Palm has fallen on tough times against rivals such as Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone. When Pre launches with exclusive U.S. carrier Sprint in the first half of 2009, it will be the first phone to run Palm's new operating system, called WebOS, under development for well over a year. No pricing for the hardware has been set. "We're extremely enthusiastic about this device," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says.

Pre is a handsome, curved, 4.8-ounce device that's more compact than the iPhone. Like the iPhone, it uses sensors and touch gestures to enlarge photos and Web pages. It also has a hidden, slide-down qwerty keyboard to complement the vibrant 3.1-inch touch-screen. There are other features that the iPhone doesn't have, including support for Bluetooth wireless stereo devices and a removable battery.



You can also run several applications at once. For example, you'll be able to listen to music in the Pandora Internet radio application while surfing the Web. You cannot do that on the iPhone.

Facebook was one of the partners to join Palm on stage at CES. Other partners include Google, Yahoo and Amazon. But Palm was not specific about the number of applications that will be available for the phone at launch.

Pandora chief technology officer Tom Conrad says it took days rather than months to develop the Pandora app for the new Palm. The operating system "is really solid," he says.

Palm Chairman Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple executive instrumental in producing the iPod, says, "We're just getting started." A big early goal: "It had to be mostly usable with a single hand and minimize the number of button-presses."

Palm CEO Ed Colligan scoffs at critics who think the Pre arrives too late to compete against BlackBerry, iPhone and other competitors. "I don't even remotely feel like it's too little too late. It's a big, big space."

Samsung I7500 expected June 2009.
With a launch of I7500, Samsung became the first company among the global top three mobile phone manufacturers to unveil an Android-powered phone. This starts heating things up for all Android team and making a viable challenge to WindowsMobile.



“Samsung is among the earliest members of the Open Handset Alliance and has been actively moving forward to introduce the most innovative Android mobile phone,” said JK Shin, Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile Communication Division in Samsung Electronics. “With Samsung’s accumulated technology leadership in mobile phone industry and our consistent strategy to support every existing operating system, I believe that Samsung provides the better choices and benefits to our consumers” he added.

The Samsung I7500 is a cutting-edge smartphone, featuring a 3.2” AMOLED full touch screen and 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, giving users access to Google™ Mobile services and full web browsing at blazing speeds.

The Samsung I7500 offers users access to the full suite of Google services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Calendar™, and Google Talk™. The integrated GPS receiver enables the comprehensive use of Google Maps features, such as My Location, Google Latitude, Street View, local search and detailed route description. Hundreds of other applications are available in Android Market. For example, the application Wikitude, a mobile travel guide, allows consumers to access details of unknown sights via location-based Wikipedia articles.

Based on Samsung’s proven product leadership, Samsung I7500 comes with latest multimedia features. The large and vivid 3.2“AMOLED display ensures the brilliant representation of multimedia content and enjoyable full touch mobile experience. Along with supporting a 5-megapixel camera and various multimedia codec formats, the I7500 also provides a long enough battery life (1500mAh) and generous memory capacity up to 40GB (Internal memory: 8GB, External memory: Up to 32GB) to enjoy all the applications and multimedia content. The phone also boasts its slim and compact design with mere 11.9mm thickness.

The Samsung I7500 will be available in major European countries from June, 2009.

Nice comparison of the Blackberry Bold against the iPhone from the iPhoneBlog

"When everyone else does it I guess it must be a good idea..." That seems to be the reasoning behind the frenzy to make apps stores these days. Of course Apple is leading the way with their flawed but successful iPhone Store with Microsoft and Google Android playing catch up through a similar stores of their own.


Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the BlackBerry, is set to launch its own one-stop shop for add-on applications.

Third-party applications have long been available for BlackBerrys, RIM has decided to follow in Apple's footstep by creating and operating a central store. The goal is to cater to those who like their TV, music and MySpace. RIM is clearly going after a demographic that’s different from the executive road warrior who carried the real-time e-mail device around from meeting to meeting years ago. Today’s Blackberry phones come in a number of shapes, sizes and colors.

BlackBerry App World will be available for download from RIM's website, with a thousand programs initially available at launch.

Unlike Apple's App Store, BlackBerry App World will share revenue with cell phone carriers and allow them to profile themselves by setting up their own stores-within-the-store.

A smooth move will be that users will also be able to charge application purchases to their cell phone bill.

RIM's hopes are also based on their touch phone answer to the iPhone being a success. If you like to know more about the touch based Blackberry Storm here is a good video demoing it :

Mobile Advertising Growth Forecast: Michael Boland Podcast

Michael Boland, a senior analyst and program director for The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast Division, is an expert in mobile advertising market research and the mobile industry.

Since joining The Kelsey Group in 2005, Mike has been instrumental in covering the local online space for Interactive Local Media practice.

Mike is a frequent speaker and organizer at top industry conferences including Kelsey Group events, search engine strategies and others. He has authored in-depth reports on the changing local media landscape including online video, social networking and mobile.

He contributes regularly to highly read online news sources such as Search Engine Watch and Huffington Post. A trusted source for reporters covering the interactive media space, his comments have appeared in major news and trade media, including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Forbes.

The Kelsey Group is the leading provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on Yellow Pages, electronic directories, local search, SMB advertising and local media.

The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast for mobile advertising (2008-2013) is highlighted in the report “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity.

Kelsey’ s projections, quoted in Mobile Marketer, are  $330M in 2009; $720M in 2010; $1.5B 2011;  $2.3B in 2012; $3.1B in 2013, 20X $160M in 08; search: $81M in 09; $242M in 2010, $564M in 2011 & $905M in 2013.

In the podcast, Mike discusses local mobile search advertising trends, including advertising revenues changes from traditional media (radio, television, newspapers) to mobile (SMS, display and search). SMS still dominates, but local search is growing faster, and traditional media area adopting mobile marketing as another channel for revenue growth.

Research firm eMarketer recently downsized its U.S. mobile-ad revenue spend this year, dropping the forecast to $760 million, reduced from its $2.8 billion forecast for 2009 predicted last March, with a substantial reduction for 2010-2013. However,  Mike and Kelsey are sticking to their higher forecasts.

Online giants, like Google and MSN and large advertisers, continue to dominate mobile advertising, but SMB’s will garner more of the mobile advertising pie as ad revenue growth continues. Mobile search advertising will emulate online search practices—bidding for keywords, demographic targeting, etc.

Mike states that fewer dot mobi sites will appear, due to company’s optimizing their existing websites for mobile devices.  XHTML mobile device like the iPhone, Google’s Android devices and other smartphones are the biggest targets for mobile advertisers.

Current handsets in the U.S. (266M) will grow to 280M in 2009, 286M by 2011, 291M by 2012 and flat by 2013 due to high saturation among the total population.

Mike makes astute comments about the growth of Netbooks and mobile devices, combined with 3G and 4G handsets. Netbooks, the most “mobile” laptops on the market, easily complement cell phones, even if only used for voice communications. In fact, Mike says, the use of voice, already tested and in use by Google, is another channel for mobile advertisers.

Mobile marketers are realizing that “the application is the new ad unit.” One example, discussed in the interview, is a Coca-Cola brand campaign in Brazil.

For example, Coca-Cola worked with Nokia to launch a special edition mobile phone brand ‘Coca-Cola Zero Studio’ to put their brand directly into the hands of consumers in Brazil. The exclusive music content was bundled on device and acted as a real incentive to consumers to buy the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music Special edition, a handset that was designed by Nokia with music in mind.

Other mobile applications and services—especially on smartphones—are boosting mobile advertising revenues and rapidly growing. The iPhone and BlackBerry Application Stores are established channels for application developers.

MobilePeople in Denmark, quoted in one of Kelsey’s blog posts, provides local mobile search and advertising solutions for directory publishers and directory assistance providers, offering SMB’s a new sales channel to monetize their businesses.

Listen as Brian Prows with MobileBeyond  (iTunes) and IM-Mobile discusses mobile marketing and advertising trends with a visionary in the field.

Links for the Podcast:

Michael Boland Bio:

            -LinkedIn Bio

            -The Kelsey Group

Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity

The Kelsey Group

Kelsey Group Blog

Kelsey Group on Twitter

Kelsey FaceBook Group

Reach Michael at mboland@KelseyGroup.com

Skype is embracing the Android platform with the expected launch of the Skype Lite app for devices running on Google's mobile OS. The application will enable T-Mobile G1 users to make cheap calls without the need of a mobile Internet connection and also chat via instant messages with people in their Skype friends list.



The company's first native VoIP client for Java, Skype Lite will also be available on many other Java-enabled phones, such as models from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG and Samsung. Depending on your mobile price plan, you can use your inclusive minutes or call your Skype friends for the cost of a local call with the new Skype Lite. The instant messaging feature though, will use your data plan.

Skype has been expanding its reach to a variety of mobile devices, from Windows Mobile smartphones to Internet tablets like the Nokia N810. Now it's coming to the hottest new platform the Android OS, a platform that is set to expand exponentially this year, on forthcoming devices from Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

Skype Lite was already available to many handset models from Nokia, SE, Samsung and Motorola, but in a beta stage. The coming release, for both Android and other devices, is expected make it prime time and move the app out of beta status. As for availability, it will take a few days for Skype Lite to appear on Android Marketplace, while the version for the other devices should be available later on today from the Skype website.

The T-Mobile ad :


The T-Mobile inspired Facebook fueled impromptu event :


This was a very interesting event for us mobile internet fanatics because many of the people where notified by SMS. This type of mass movement is not new.. many similar type of events have happened in political happenings in Asia for example. But this one is unique in that it mimics an ad.. a mobile ad at that.

Mobile advertising networks, partnering  mobile advertisers and publishers, are growing rapidly in India and worldwide--especially in developing countries where Internet access is limited. Over 320 million people in India have a mobile phone with 10 million new subscribers activating service monthly. The 25 and under age group is the fastest growing segment of India's insatiable adoption of mobile handsets. Reaching these and other advertiser-targeted groups is achievable using mobile ad networks.

Recently, I had an opportunity to interview mKhoj's founder and CEO Naveen Tewari, who runs one of the largest mobile ad networks in Asia. mKhoj (pronounced "m-couch") is one of the leading mobile advertising networks that automates the creation, placement and monitoring of mobile ad placements among major advertisers and website publishers seeking to monetize their web properties.

Based in Bangalore, India with offices in Mumbai, Singapore and Palo Alto, CA, mKhoj received nearly $8 million in funding to target mobile markets in Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa--areas of the world where mobile is the only channel for advertisers and publishers to reach growing populations that lack landline-based Internet service.

In the interview, Newari discusses a large "mass niche" of mobile users, defined demographically by income or personal interests. The company's ability to rotate ads based on type of handset, country and other demographics better positions mobile advertisers' ability to maximize their ROI while delivering targeted content advertising to publishers.

Companies, such as Reebok, have created multimedia campaigns, integrating mobile advertising in promotional campaigns that drive desired branding and demonstrable results. In one campaign, Reebok achieved a 10%-12% conversion rate bringing customers to retail stores when mobile was used in conjunction with an overall promotional strategy.

Marketers around the world are researching and testing use of the mobile Internet to drive products and services to market, create brand awareness and optimize ROI. Conversions, according to Newari, vary by 1%-7%, depending on website, while post click-through conversions of 5%-20% become achievable deploying mobile in advertising campaigns.

Listen to an eye-opening podcast with mKhoj's Naveen Tewari as he explores the power of mobile advertising networks to maximize both advertiser and publisher profitability.

Links to the podcast:

mKhoj Case Studies
"Mobile, the Most Engaging Mass Media" (mKhoj blog post)
Publisher Advantages of Mobile Ad Networks
Advertiser Advantages
Naveen Tewari (Futher Information)
MobilOpen International Mobile Group

This year for the third edition, Le Mobile 2.0 will last 2 days on March 10/11, 2009 in Paris (France). Its theme: Useful, Used, Usable.


Conference and speeches

The first day will keep the conference and speech format, here are the round-tables with 35 speakers. A summary before every theme will zoom the usages and the market. For the moment the companies having confirmed their presence are Microsoft,Voxmobili, Goojet, Orange, Gemalto, MySpace, Nokia Interactive, Amobee, Miyowa, Qualcomm, SBW Paris, SFR, Cellfish Media, Motricity, Visuamobile, Six Apart,Bluenove, Novedia, MoMac, Sofialys...
Keynote : Useful, Used, Usable
Zoom and Analysis of the European and US market
Advertisement on mobile and Widgets: taking off?
Web Mobile: Social networks within the mobile
2 platforms 2 strategies: iPhone/Android!
M-commerce: Opportunities at the market reality!
Mobile Start-up programs: Support the growth of the innovating start-ups!
Keynotes: Close up / Remarks

Zapping of the Startup Mobile

The second day will be devoted to the Zapping of the European Mobile Startups of 5 countries introduced during 8 min (to subscribe, click here), speeches will be marked by 6 lectures of investment, development, marketing and communication professionals.

Here is the list of selected companies : 3999 , Actimos, Adaptive Networks, Atlas CT, Campfire, Floobs, GravityZoo, Haploid, Hiogi, Ikodz, Lastminute.com, Locle, Masabi, Mippin, MMTRG Studio, Mobile Tracing Service, Mobinear, Mobshop, Movidia, Nulaz, Pikkoo, RingRing Media, SoSoftware, TexoMobile, V3D, V4x, Webwag, Yoose

Mobile portals and mobile websites continue expanding worldwide. Over one million mobile websites Vianney Settini, co-founder of TexoMobile, a French company providing mobile advertising services and a portal called iGloo, a mobile web portal promoting mobile communities, is a comprehensive site for chat, dating, blogs, free email, social media and other services. iGloo is supported by advertising revenues.

TexoMobile runs MobPartner, a mobile marketing and affiliation network that is part of TexoMobile, allowing advertiser access to mobile users in over 130 countries, based on CPA (cost per acquisition). TexoMobile also offers CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per thousand) mobile advertising campaigns.

Listen as Brian Prows of MobileBeyond converses with Vianney about global mobile advertising. are are now registered and their growth is exponential. A major interest of mobile Internet site owners is learning how to monetize their mobile web properties through CPC, CPA or CPM advertising.