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  • Mobile Content Bits: Verizon Sells Music Early; Virgin's Homeless Campaign; HTC's WiMax-GSM Phone

    -- Verizon Wireless ( NYSE: VZ ) has exclusive Beyonce content: Prior to Beyonce's new album release "I AM.. SASHA FIERCE" on Nov. 18, Verizon Wireless will be able to offer its customers on V CAST Music. Starting tomorrow, Verizon Wireless customers will be able to download and purchase some full tracks including: "Halo," "Satellites," "Broken-Hearted Girl," "Ave Maria," "Sweet Dreams," "Video Phone" and "If I Were A Boy." Today, customers were able to start downloading ringtones and ringback tones on those songs and "Disappear," "Radio," "Diva" and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." As part of the promotion, Beyonce will be able to tave over the mobile music store, and select her favorite albums, songs, and other content to play from Nov. 14 to 18. -- Virgin Mobile USA ( NYSE: VM ) launches Homeless Youth TV Network: Virgin Mobile said it is launching HYTV, which stands for the Homeless Youth TV Network. The online campaign features such programs as "Meal or No Meal," "American Idle," "My Street 16," and "Project Runaway." The intention is to raise awareness of the more than one million youth living on the streets, and is timed for National Homeless Youth Awareness Month in November. Viewers can go watch episodes at http://www.homelessyouthtv.com/ and sponsor their favorite program with a donation of $1. The proceeds go to charity partners, such as Green Chimneys and StandUp For Kids. Sponsor will have their names listed in the show's credits. Virgin will match the first $10,000 in total donations. -- HTC launches WiMax/GSM phone: HTC has launched its first WiMax cellphone that comes with a GSM radio chip. The phone, dubbed MAX 4G, will be launching on Scartel's Yota network in Russa, and there's no plans for it to make a debut in the U.S. Obviously, for Clearwire ( NSDQ: CLWR ) or Sprint (...
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  • Mobile Video Services Launched On Telcel And Cricket Carrier Decks

    Cricket Communications and Mexico's Telcel both announced two separate mobile video services today: -- Cricket is rolling out a flat-rate unlimited streaming mobile video service for $5 a month. Subscribers will get access to one-to-four-minute video clips including music videos, artist interviews, music documentaries, sports clips, entertainment news and Spanish-language content. The service can be personalized to include the most popular clips downloaded or recommendations based on previous usage. ( Cricket release ). -- Telcel hooked up with ROK ( LSE: ROK ) Entertainment Group to launch Ideas TV, a streaming live and on-demand mobile TV subscription service that will include three live channels and seven pre-recorded channels that will play on a loop. The service, which will feature content from MTV, Nickelodeon, TV Azteca, History Channel and the Discovery Channel, will be available for a daily rate or monthly subscriptions. ROK said its technology will play streaming video at up to 24 frames per second over 3G networks. ( ROK release ). Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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  • Trials And Tribulations Of Buying The iPhone 3G (Or Not)

    Five AT&T ( NYSE: T ) stores, one Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL ) store and still no iPhone 3G. Once I pulled up to the closest AT&T store, I instantly knew I was in for an adventure . At least 75 people in line at 7:15 a.m. (PDT) and the second guy in line was trying to sell his spot for $250 minimum. People were camped out along 2nd Avenue in the Belmont Shores neighborhood of Long Beach, Calif. for up to 24 hours before the doors swung open. Camping chairs, pajamas, newspapers and coffee cups were in abundance as the crowd waited anxiously for the buying to begin. AT&T representatives wouldn't confirm, but a few people in line heard there were only 40 units available, so I jetted off to another store across town in a less popular neighborhood. No luck there either, but I waited around until about 10:30 a.m. (PDT) before throwing in the towel. To say the line moved at a sluggish pace would be an understatement. Turtles crawl faster. After two-and-a-half hours inching along the line, and with about 40 people in front of me, an AT&T representative whispered that there were only 9 units left. None of the employees at the Long Beach stores would officially comment on how many iPhones were on hand or even if they expected to meet demand. "We're trying to accommodate the public," one manager said, declining to give more information. Along with unmet demand, early customers who were able to purchase an iPhone talked about activation snafus inside the store and were sent home to activate on iTunes. It was past 11 a.m. by the time I reached the next AT&T store on my journey toward iPhone 3G-ness in Wilmington, Calif. That store and two subsequent stores in Harbor City and Carson were completely sold out. Each of the stores tried their best to sell late arrivals an iPhone that would be shipped to them within five days, but few were taking up the offer. Finally, I reached the Apple store in Manhattan Beach, where we'd been told there were still...
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  • Sprint's Samsung Instinct Is Selling As Briskly As The Razr Two Years Ago

    Sprint ( NYSE: S ) Nextel wants some attention for how well the Samsung Instinct is selling, and with a lot of hype and media attention going to the Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL ) iPhone, you can't blame them, especially since the touchscreen iPhone look-alike appears to be flying off the shelves since launching June 20. Six days after the phone's launch, Sprint called the Samsung Instinct the fastest-selling EVDO handset in the company's history. It said the intense demand even led to temporary shortages of the device at some locations and in order to prevent more, Samsung increased its manufacturing plants to full capacity and plans to deliver new supplies on a daily basis. Yesterday, Best Buy issued a press release , confirming the device's brisk sales. It said early results are showing that the device is the retailer's "best selling handset in the past two years." When asked for further clarification, a Best Buy spokesperson said the Instinct is selling comparably to the super hot Motorola ( NYSE: MOT ) Razr during the holiday period of 2006. With Apple's amazing marketing machine at work, it's going to be hard for Sprint to win in this match-up, but a quick look at the two devices side-by-side may gain it some fans because the Instinct is both cheaper to buy and cheaper to own. Here's a rundown: The devices: Sprint's Instinct is $130 with a two-year contract and a $100 mail-in rebate. Without a contract, the Instinct is $450. The device comes with a 2GB microSD and two batteries for the device. AT&T ( NYSE: T ) will charge $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model with a two year contract. Without a contract, the phones will cost $599 and $699, respectively. The iPhone does not have a replaceable battery. Voice and data plans: Sprint's $99 Simply Everything plan offers unlimited voice, data and messaging for $99.99; AT&T's unlimited voice and data plan is $129.99, and does not include text messages. AT&T...
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  • Interview: Jeff Bradley, SVP, AT&T: Enterprise Not An iPhone-BlackBerry War

    Most of the iPhone hype is concentrated around the consumer opportunity—how many ravenous fans will line up on July 11 to purchase the new iPhone 3G—but a potentially larger opportunity for Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL ) and its partners may lie in the enterprise with companies quick to snap up phones with full browsers that can connect into their corporate intranet, or, for instance, can be used by a pharmaceutical salesperson to show video presentations from the palm of their hand. At $199, an iPhone sounds affordable, but for free—because your company is paying for it—all the better. I interviewed Jeff Bradley, AT&T's ( NYSE: T ) SVP of business mobility marketing to talk about how the iPhone will be used for business. Some excerpts: Did you start working with Apple after it announced that it would be targeting the enterprise with Microsoft's ( NSDQ: MSFT ) ActiveSync and other features? No, it's been since two or three months since the original launch. We started to talk to them on a number of dimensions on what we would like the enterprise capabilities to be, so when the opportunity arose, like it has now, it would provide some of the best experiences. We certainly shared our best thinking about the requirements for such a product. I don't know if you know, but we have an industry-leading position in BlackBerry, and sell more every day, month and year than anyone else, and likewise with Windows Mobile, so we have a broad knowledge and have a set of experiences on what larger and small enterprises need. That's not Apple's background, as you know, so that's not where they had a lot of experience, and they were open to listening to us." More excerpts from the interview after the jump … Can you compare the Apple iPhone as an enterprise device to what's already out there? "The first thing is, is that it's obviously new and not even out yet and some of the proof to see how it will work in the enterprise. You won't know until...
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  • Is Verizon Wireless Buying Alltel For Its Assets Or For Its Culture Of Innovation?

    Verizon Wireless's ( NYSE: VZ ) $28.1 billion acquisition of Alltel will create the largest U.S. wireless carrier, but at the same time, it will eliminate one of the most innovative carriers in the country, which begs the question: Is Verizon buying Alltel for its towers and subscribers, or also for its forward-looking approach to the market? As a regional carrier, Alltel may only serve 13 million subscribers in limited territories, but that gives the company a level of comfort and flexibility to quickly roll-out new services without the constraints larger carriers face. It doesn't worry that millions of users will start using a new service overnight that crash the network, and it doesn't have to train as many customer-service and retail representatives every time it launches a new phone or application. So, the concern is that once apart of Verizon this attitude will fade. Some of it probably will, but if the merger gains regulatory approval, will companies lose an important petri dish, or gain a larger one? As an example, Alltel was Seattle-based Ontela first customer. CEO Dan Shapiro said he heard about the potential merger yesterday while in a board meeting. Immediately, the topic of conversation focused on how it would affect the industry. "There's two different thoughts," he said. "There's the conventional wisdom that the big carrier eats smaller carriers, and all good things come to the end," he said. But they came up with a second scenario: "They are buying a hard asset with towers and subscribers—that's 80 percent of the truth. Another piece, is that Alltel has been a pioneer that experiments with the way to bring value to its subscribers, outside of text and voice services, and that's valuable. They have a full-time business development person in Seattle to make sure that everything gets back to Little Rock. I strongly suspect that Verizon sees that culture of innovation and that skill-set as a way to maximize...
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  • Mobile Content Bits: Sony Ericsson And Usher; m.friendster.com; Sprint's Instinct; ShoZu's NowPublic

    -- Sony ( NYSE: SNE ) Ericsson ( NSDQ: ERIC ) said today that it will be partnering with Grammy Award-winning artist Usher and AT&T ( NYSE: T ) to market Sony Ericsson's Walkman music phones in the U.S., Canada and 20 European countries. Sony Ericsson said Usher will discuss the details of the partnership and make a surprise announcement (is it really a surprise if you say it's coming?) at a New York event May 28, or a day after Usher releases his new album Here I Stand . Sony Ericsson will be the title sponsor for Usher's North American tour later this year, and the partnership will include access to exclusive content on Walkman phones, and contests, such as winning a chance to meet Usher on a video shoot, and getting VIP tickets for a concert. Release. -- Social networking site Friendster has launched a mobile site at m.friendster.com , reports WirelessWeek . The site should be accessible from pretty much any wireless device, and is where users can get updates on friends, check messages, review requests, post shoutouts, browse photos, browse profiles, search for users by name or e-mail and post bulletins. It's a little odd that the company is only launching the site now, but said that the mobile site is the first of many mobile offerings coming soon. -- Sprint ( NYSE: S ) said that the Samsung Instinct—an iPhone look-alike—will be available for sale June 20. The phone has a touchscreen, fast EV-DO network connection and GPS. The company is supposedly throwing millions behind the marketing campaign and already has set up a snazzy Web site at www.nowisgood.com . The timing of the phone will be interesting since Steve Jobs is expected to announce the 3G iPhone on June 9 during Apple's ( NSDQ: AAPL ) Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco (although of course that doesn't mean it will go on sale that day). -- NowPublic.com , a news network, said it has partnered with ShoZu so that users can send photos and videos to NowPublic from their...
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  • Reports Differ On Whether Data Revenues Will Make Up For Slowing Subscriber Growth

    Two recent reports are weighing in on the big question facing the wireless industry: will rising data revenues make up for slower subscriber growth in the U.S.? Facts: The U.S. penetration rates reached 84 percent at the end of 2007. Last year, annual U.S. data revenues totaled $23.2 billion, or 17 percent of overall revenues totaling $139 billion, according to CTIA . Here's the two sides of the debate: Yes: If you can use other countries as a model, the answer is yes. In countries, such as Japan and Korea, premium content has seen dramatic growth with some operators recording data revenues exceeding 30 percent. The main drivers are premium content, such as full-track music downloads, mobile games, but increasingly also things like mobile video, according to MultiMedia Intelligence . Separately, some U.S. operators believe that revenues may increase from other sources as wireless chipsets are put in all sorts of devices going forward, including cars and home electronics. No: A transition from subscriber-led growth to data-led growth is coming, but it won't happen smoothly, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co . The study found that subscriber growth is decelerating sharply in the U.S., with the industry adding 23 percent fewer new subscribers in the first quarter compared to a year ago. Today, subscriber growth—not data ARPU growth—still accounts for nearly 90 percent of wireless revenue growth at Verizon Wireless ( NYSE: VZ ) and AT&T ( NYSE: T ). By 2010, they expect the market to reach full penetration at 89 percent. "We are entering a share game rather than a growth game....We believe that wireless sub growth is likely to decelerate too quickly to be easily offset by rising ARPU (average revenue per user). We expect a "U-shaped" growth trajectory, where overall revenue and EBITDA growth can be expected to slow significantly before re-accelerating."
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  • Mobile Content Bits: BBC Apology; Indiana Jones; Yahoo Go 3.0

    -- The BBC has apologised after an independent audit found that 106,000 pounds (US$206,500) intended for charity was retained by the arm of the broadcaster responsible for its premium rate services, reports C21 Media . The figure amounts to 1.3 percent of the 8 million pounds generated for charities over two years, and was due to phone calls made outside of the window in which votes were counted in a number of shows, including Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007. It was an accidental oversight, but too many of these have been happening lately (around the world) and it will damage the reputation of premium rate services. -- O2 and Samsung are teaming up to sell exclusive content for the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie. Wallpapers, true tones, voice tones and games will be available from 2.50 pounds, while O2 customers buying the Samsung Soul or Samsung J700 handsets will get 30 pounds free content, "this includes eight Indiana Jones wallpapers to customise your phone and four true tones from the movies, including the Indiana Jones theme song". ( Pocket Lint ) -- Yahoo ( NSDQ: YHOO ) has launched its Yahoo Go 3.0 beta for Windows Mobile devices...some of the new features include a new Yahoo! home widget that gives you an at-a-glance overview of what's new since your last visit, plus previews of your favorite internet content and the addition of up-to-date flight information to oneSearch. -- A report in Australia has found that a third of Australians own a 3G phone, but of those two-thirds don't use a 3G service. Half the people with a 3G handset but not 3G services "had no interest in them. Others cited high costs and lack of knowledge on how to access the services" reports the SMH .
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  • Sprint-Clearwire: First Reactions To JV Are Mixed: 'Spaghetti-like Mess,' Google, Intel 'Good Signs'

    A joint-venture deal between Sprint ( NYSE: S ) and Clearwire ( NSDQ: CLWR ) that includes investments of $3.2 billion coming from Intel ( NSDQ: INTC ), Comcast ( NSDQ: CMCSA ), Time Warner ( NYSE: TWX ), Google ( NSDQ: GOOG ) and Bright House Networks, among others, may be announced as early as tomorrow. With information leaked early to the WSJ , there's already a slew of opinions formulating on what this all means. Here's a few: -- mocoNews : Our take is that this deal, which may not have closed yet, may actually work after a previous deal between Clearwire and Sprint Nextel failed and a deal between Sprint and the cable operators also failed. Why? They all need each other for one reason or another. -- GigaOm : "This is a spaghetti-like mess of conflicts and self-interests. I wonder how open this network is going to be? Clear has a history of blocking other services such as VoIP carriers. Comcast is a known P2P offender. Will Google be our only search option?" -- CNET News.com: "At this point it's difficult to say whether the new WiMax joint venture will be a big success. The involvement of Google and Intel are good signs, but it remains to be seen if this network will ever have the legs it needs to compete against networks built by competitors using a technology with a greater following." More after the jump. -- Silicon Valley Insider : "The big unknown: Who's going to use Clear? The most obvious Clear subscribers are people who currently use slower, 3G laptop cards to connect to the Internet when they're not in a wi-fi zone. More widespread adoption will take a while, as consumer electronics companies eventually build WiMax into a variety of cellphones and gadgets like portable videogame consoles, laptops, etc." -- Julie Ask, analyst, Jupiter Research : "Google makes money from advertising - so more inventory at higher rates serves them well. Higher rates are plausible - if you add context (e.g., location) to...
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  • France's SFR Touts 250,000 Mobile Internet Contracts In Two Months

    France's second largest mobile operator, SFR, jointly owned by Vodafone ( NYSE: VOD ) and Vivendi ( EPA: VIV ), said on Tueday it had signed on 250,000 subscribers to contracts giving them unlimited access to the mobile internet since the launch of its flat rate "IlliMythics" data plans two months ago. Dow Jones reported that 52 percent of the subscriptions were new customers, while the remaining 48 percent were SFR customers who had switched plans. SFR had initially targeted 100,000 users for the service--which while touted as unlimited, doesn't allow VoIP or P2P applications, or using one's mobile as a modem. The launch coincided with Apple's iPhone roll out in France, and industry players saw it as a way for SFR to compete with France Telecom's Orange which is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone. SFR launched 6 third generation phones at the same time they released their IlliMythics plans. The plans last two years and start at 39 euros a month for flat rate data access and120 voice minutes, and rise to 69 euros a month for flat rate data access and 350 voice minutes.
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  • Mobile Video Snacking In Australia Bolstered By Strong 3G Uptake

    Australia seems to be embracing mobile video "snacking"...or at least the media is. The Australian pointed to a survey by media agency Universal McCann whic found that 46 percent of people wanted TV on their phones and 66 percent wanted mobile internet. Although the article used "Video snacks the mobile future" as the title the writing didn't really back it up, in fact Rob Belgiovane, creative director of ad agency BWM, "admitted the role of content was still ill-defined..."The role of content, not just in Australia but the whole world, is not clearly understood," Mr Belgiovane said. "Long formats have been tried, short formats have been tried." Telstra seems to have got the idea at least, with BigPond chief executive Justin Milne revealing that from today the company would change the way it charges on the BigPond mobile portal—out of three tabs on the portal two will allow cost-free surfing and content through selected sites while the third (assumedly unrestricted) will be charged at a traditional data rate. The SMH followed suit with 'Snacking' to spark mobile video explosion but this was backed up...mainly with quotes from content producers that this is the way to go. "MobileActive's managing director, Neil Wiles, said it was critical for mobile video to be tailored to a "snacking environment", in which people expect entertainment in short bursts." Mobile content vendor MobileActive just signed up Paul Fenech of Fat Pizza , lead Mambo surfwear designer Reg Mombassa and comedian Steve Abbott (better known as The Sandman), all pretty big if slightly alternative names in Australia, they'll be creating original made-for-mobile content including short clips, audio grabs and wallpapers. There's also an interesting stat from Frost and Sullivan: " 21.1 percent of Australians use fast 3G networks and internet-capable mobile phones. It forecasts this figure will jump to 42.1 percent...
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