zamano corporate blog

Zamano has thrown it weight behind moves by UK watchdog PhonePayPlus and a wider initiative by the European Commission to eradicate bad practice in the mobile content industry.
 
Declan Pettit, UK country manager of Zamano, said: “As with any communications network providing an open channel between content companies and consumers, there is potential for misuse. Zamano takes a great deal of care to minimise consumer harm.
 
“We believe the mobile content industry can only fulfill its true potential when consumers have complete confidence in the quality and value for money of services they consume on their mobile. Working in complete alignment with regulation is the only way for the industry to achieve this.”
O2 unveils first artist-orientated music stores.

O2 and Sony BMG and launched stores that put all mobile music products – videos, full track audio and realtones plus news and info – in one artist-based destination.

The collective offering is called My Play, and will be available exclusively through O2 Active. My Play puts all mobile music products – videos, full track audio and realtones plus news and info – in one artist-based destination. The store is live from today with videos priced at £1.50, tones at £3.50 and full music tracks at 99p.

Users can click from banners hosted across the Active deck or from the My Play portal to go to artist microsites. The four to go live first will be Usher, The Ting Tings, The Script and The Zutons, with around three more additions every month. Purchases from the store will be chart eligible from launch.

HTC has sold one million Diamonds

HTC expects to sell one million Touch Diamonds in its first three months on sale.

The Taiwanese vendor has enjoyed great success with its flagship touchscreen phone, which should hit the one-million sale mark by mid-August. Its predecessor, the HTC Touch, took five months to achieve this.

5.2bn global mobile subs by 2011?

The number of worldwide mobile subscribers will reach 5.2 billion by 2011, says Infonetics Research.

Its new report Fixed and Mobile Subscribers also states that there were three times more mobile subscribers than fixed line users worldwide in 2007 (3.3 billion vs.1.1 billion).
MobiTV has four million subscribers

The 3G mobile TV specialist MobiTV has passed the 4m subscriber mark after nearly five years since launch. The firm’s offering is now present on more than 15 operators, including Sprint, AT&T Wireless, Alltel, Telus, Rogers and Bell Mobility.

MobiTV offers over 50 channels in the US from brands such as ESPN, NBC, Disney Channel and Discovery. It is available on more than 350 devices. It first launched in November 2003.
Top UK TV to be mobilised?

Myvideorights.com is to distribute content from ALL3MEDIA International’s family of TV companies.

It will re-format the content to short-form and make it available to web, IPTV and mobile publishers. It’s a sweet deal, with ALL3MEDIA companies including ARG, Bentley Productions, Cactus TV, Company Pictures, Lion Television, Lime Pictures, Maverick Television, North One Television, Objective Productions, Studio Lambert and others.

Shows produced by these firms include hits like Midsomer Murders, Richard & Judy and Hollyoaks, although so far the only show confirmed for mobile is Guarding The Queen.

IPhone Nano scheduled?

Press reports suggest Apple is readying a ‘nano’ iPhone in time for Christmas.

The UK newspaper The Daily Mail has run a story suggesting the product will be launched by O2 in the UK at up to £150 for pre-pay customers. Apple is notoriously good at keeping new products under wraps, so the nano phone is pure speculation. Reports say it would have a touch wheel on the back for dialling numbers from behind.
007 gets the C902 Cyber-shot.

James Bond will use a Sony Ericsson Titanium silver C902 Cyber-shot phone in Quantum of Solace, which is released in November.

Bond will use the device all the way through the movie, particularly the five megapixel camera, with which he’ll capture and share special moments of death and destruction with M back at the office.

The handset will be available to buy for a limited period bundled with a memory card loaded with 007 content, including a trial of a ’spy-style game’. The C902 also comes with a concealed throwing knife, an industrial strength laser, spare ammo and a handy magnate for unzipping dresses.

Zeemote games controller to debut in Holland

Zeemote’s JS1 bluetooth mobile games joystick will be bundled with Sony Ericsson W760i in Holland.

It will go out as part of an exclusive promotion throughout hundreds of retail outlets across the country from August 8th (and remain exclusive to SE until October 31st). Zeemote will be offered free to people buying of W760i Walkman via a mail-in voucher promotion.

The W760i will come with two embedded ‘Zeemote Ready’ games with a further 14 additional games available through the Sony Ericsson Fun & Downloads portal. Gameloft has already confirmed that its Ferrari World Championship, Gangstar and Roland Garros 2008 games will support the gadget.
N96 to land in October

Nokia’s new 16GB Nseries device, the N96, will go on sale in the UK from October 1st.

The flasghip phone - which takes over the mantle currently held by the N95 - has been optimised for mobile video, with 16GB of on-board memory allowing storage of 40 hours of footage. The GPS-enabled device will also come with a five megapixel camera, 2.8 inch display, 3.5mm headphone jack and built-in links to the Nokia Music Store and Nokia Maps.
Dolby goes mobile
LG will be the first handset vendor to embed the Dolby Mobile surround sound
solution from the fourth quarter of 2008.

The first models will include capabilities such as Mobile Surround, Sound Space Expander, some nasty bass, EQs and a mono-to-stereo converter. LG says it opted to put Dolby tech into its upcoming multimedia handsets with a view to offering audio capabilities more akin to a dedicated MP3 player or PMP.
16m mobile web users in the UK

The Mobile Data Association says 16.5 million people accessed the mobile internet in May 2008. This is a 25 per cent rise on the May 2006 figure, and is equivalent to an average of 4,500 new users every day, 31,587 per week and 136,875 per month.

The industry body predicts that the mobile internet will become a ‘true rival’ for desktop internet access, with growth of around 20 per cent predicted for 2009.

Meanwhile, the MDA report says 10 million picture and video messages (MMS) are sent each week in the UK, representing 30 per cent year-on-year growth.

What’s more, SMS continue to grow, with UK mobile users now sending a staggering 1.4 billion text messages a week.

Jumbuck buys Plutolife for $3.7m

Australian mobile social networking firm Jumbuck has acquired its Norwegian competitor Plutolife for $3.7 million from Funcom.

Oslo-based Plutolife says it has over a million users in 16 countries. Last October the company completed a convertible bond issue to help fund a move into the US market.
The new Walkmans stroll out

Sony Ericsson unveiled its W902, W595 and W302 Walkman handsets at the third anniversary of its 77 million unit-selling music phone range.

The W902 has a five megapixel camera and an 8GB Memory Stick Micro. The W595 can store 1,900 songs and has built-in stereo speakers, while the entry-level W302 comes with a two megapixel camera, FM radio, TrackID and a 512MB Memory Stick Micro.