Interview with Ariel Poler, CEO Textmarks February 24, 2007
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, Business, Interview, SMS , 7 comments
Earlier in the week I profiled Textmarks, a user-generated SMS content startup who just launched a premium SMS version of their service targeted at bloggers and other small content providers. The TechCrunch crowd gave the product a bit of a kicking, so I had a chat with the company’s CEO Ariel Poler to ask some questions about the product and find out why he thinks there’s a market for it.
Life After Ringtones February 20, 2007
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile , 6 commentsGood summary of the current direction of the mobile content market from Reuters here.
Direct to consumer subscription plans, community and social services are increasingly where things are heading.
Textmarks Launches Awesome Self Publishing Premium SMS Alerts For Bloggers February 19, 2007
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, User Generated Content , 12 comments
After 8 years in the mobile industry, it takes a lot to get me excited about a new service. This new SMS application from Textmarks, however, is very cool indeed.
In a nutshell, TextMarks allows anyone to set up and run an SMS alerts service. Here’s how it works: You sign up with them, reserve your keyword (e.g. RAZOR), and then anyone who messages the Textmarks shortcode (41411) can subscribe for $4.99/month or $9.99/month. The owner of the keyword can then send SMS messages to subscribers from a simple web-based interface.
Gmail Mobile application rocks November 2, 2006
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile , 2 comments
Google launched a free J2ME mobile client for Gmail today. It’s excellent.
Stuff I liked about it:
- It downloads your contacts from Gmail and stores them locally so you don’t have to type anything in.
- Automatically displays attachments like PDFs, Word docs etc without having to download or store them client side.
- It’s pretty speedy even on my sluggish T-Mobile EDGE connection.
- It preloads unread messages, though I’d turn this off if you don’t have an unlimited data plan.
The worst videogame trailer ever, and what it says about the mobile games business November 1, 2006
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, Games , add a commentIn case you missed the news: Oblivion Mobile was released on Cingular today.
“The Elder Scrolls(R) IV: Oblivion(TM) for mobile phones faithfully adheres to what The Elder Scrolls is all about,” said Douglas Frederick, President of Vir2L Studios. “In partnering with Superscape, we have built an incredible role-playing game for wireless devices that players are now able to take with them wherever they go.”
This is the game he is talking about.
World of Warcraft cellphone client released October 30, 2006
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, MMO , 17 comments
This is nifty. An enterprising individual has hacked together a mobile phone client for World of Warcraft. It doesn’t talk directly to Blizzard’s servers, of course - it acts as a dumb terminal that connects to your remote PC desktop.
I think standalone mobile MMOs are largely a dumb idea, but I can see this finding an audience among certain hardcore WoW addicts.
[via Warcry]
Mobile phones and Internet are more important to 18-24 year olds than TV July 24, 2006
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, Business , 7 commentsThe recently published 2006 Mobile Life survey reveals that, when asked to identify which of the five “modern technological products” listed below was most important in their lives, the Internet leads among men and women 18-24. Mobile phones take second place, followed by TV in third place. This stands in contrast with the population as a whole, where TV takes second place and mobile phones place third.
Another nail in the coffin of old media? More validation for the projected explosive growth in mobile and online content? Alas, I don’t think so.
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Chinese government publishes mobile media blacklist July 18, 2006
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, China , add a comment
A lot of people are (rightly) excited about the potential of the Chinese mobile content market, but stories like this serve as an important reminder of how quickly the ground can shift.
In a bid to clean up the business practices of mobile content companies, the Chinese government has published a blacklist [Warning: Excel link] containing 102 providers who they have identified as mistreating users through practices such as overcharging or making it hard to unsubscribe from services.
This move comes hot on the heels of China Mobile’s moves earlier this month that will force customers to manually renew their subscriptions a month after signing up.
It is being predicted that as much as 30% of China’s mobile value added services companies will go out of business as a result of this change.
[via ChinaTechNews]
Microsoft to launch mobile network in 2007? July 6, 2006
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, Business , 28 comments
Microsoft is planning to launch an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) next year, according to Engadget.
I’m pretty bearish on MVNOs in general - a lot of them seem to launch without any clear differentiators. A Microsoft mobile network makes a lot of sense, though, particularly for the enterprise market.
While many MVNOs tend to start with second rate handsets that have been half-heartedly customized and had a logo slapped on, Microsoft is on the third major version of its mobile operating system and their phones rock.
If they combine their hardware and software advantage with a sensible data plan, I’d be pretty optimistic about their chances.
Radar: Infospace launches Moviso consumer mobile content portal June 28, 2006
Posted by David Kaye in : Mobile, Business , 37 comments
Infospace Mobile launched their off-deck, direct to consumer portal Moviso today. This marks something of a strategic shift: up until now, the company has focussed primarily on servicing carrier customers rather than targeting consumers directly. Shawn Conahan has some initial impressions here.
[Full disclosure: Infospace are a former client, and I worked on product development for this project.]
