21 iPhone Food Apps to Eat Your Heart Out
21 iPhone Food Apps to Eat Your Heart Out
Sure there are plenty of foodie sites online like Yelp, Zeer, Dishola and tons more. But how many have actually merged into the iPhone space, the most portable way to figure out what you want to eat?
Here are 21 food-related iPhone apps, both free and paid, that will let you eat your heart out:
Where (free) – A location-based app that works with Yelp as well as Starbucks. So you can find food and your coffee wherever you are. The app also works with GasBuddy (for the cheapest gas nearby), Eventful, Buddy Beacon, ZipCar, and Quibblo Quizzes.
Yelp (free) – The Yelp app is GPS-enabled and will find you places to eat nearby (amongst other things). The problem with this app is that it lacks Yelp’s best feature – the ability to review.
UrbanSpoon (free) – A fun app if you’re close to a city. It’s not as limited as the LocalEats app (above), but you’re not going to find anything nearby if you’re more than 20 miles from a city. It’s a slot machine application that lets you pick how much you want to spend or what kind of meal you want to eat. You shake the iPhone and it gives you a list of results within the categories you selected.
iFob (free) – This app goes against GPS technology and encourages Wi-fi connections. So when you’re at a restaurant that has wi-fi, you can walk away with a friend? The idea is to connect people that are within close range of each other. So maybe you’ll have an eating partner.
Restaurant Nutrition (free) – The most disturbing of the nutrition fact iPhone apps is this one. It lists the nutrition facts for most popular chain restaurants. You won’t believe how many grams of fat are in a chicken caesar wrap at Chili’s.
iWant (free) – A (possibly better) version of the Where To app (below) that’s free. Like the Where To app, it works easily like the POI navigation on a GPS device. Easy to use, easy to drive with. It has 3.5 stars at the iTunes store with the biggest complaint being that it doesn’t list enough results under some categories.
Nearby (free) – Works like other geo-locating apps, you search for things around you; only this time there will be various types of commentary about a particular spot: photos, notes, reviews and “virtual graffiti”.
YPMobile (free) – When worse comes to worse, hit up the Yellow Pages.
Where To ($2.99) – This is a cool little app that works like the POI (point of interest) function on a regular GPS. It finds your location, you choose a category, and it finds all of the places in that category that are near you. Food & Drink is just one of the 600 categories that you can choose from. It works kind of like a front-end to Google Search, however makes using it while on the road very easy and simple to use. Is it worth the $2.99? Well that’s less than a tank of gas in most places, so sure.
LocalEats ($0.99) – Based on the site wherethelocalseat.com, this app gives you the best 100 restaurants in the top 50 U.S. cities. The interface is extremely easy to use and it mostly avoids chain restaurants. The downside is that it’s only applicable if you’re near or in a big city. Still has 4 out of 5 stars at the app store.
There are also some good Web apps for foodies:
Menus – Offers menus for many fast food restaurants and includes a Google Maps link so that you can direct yourself to the nearest drive-thru.
TopChef Recipe Finder – Hosted by the Bravo network, this Web app will help you find recipes when you’re grocery shopping or just plain looking for something to make. AOL Recipes and 101Cookbooks are other Web apps like this.
iFood – If you’re feeling like an extra fat day, you can turn your phone into a slice of pizza, bag of popcorn and other things with this app.
CookBook – So you have all these ingredients in your house but you’re not sure what to make with them. This Web app will let you input ingredients and will try to come up with some recipes that you can make using those ingredients.
Steak Timer – You didn’t think someone would spend the time on this one did you? Yeah this little Web app shows a piece of steak on a timer from raw to well done. I think I’d do the meat thermometer test first though before trusting this app.
GrubOntheGo – A little Web app that has you enter what you’re craving and where you are. Will display local results and the distance (approximately) from your location. A lot like the other iPhone apps but I like the twist of “what you’re craving”.
And when you’re done, maybe you should download the FatWatch app. Mmm… I’m hungry already.
U.S. tech trends for 2008
[Editor’s note: This is an Op-Ed piece by Bernard Moon, an entrepreneur who blogs at Silicon Moon. It’s time to hear from an entrepreneur, as we’ve already heard from the VCs; see here and here.]
A couple of months ago, my wife and I visited Seoul, South Korea—a trip that inspired me to come up with a list of technology predictions for 2008 and beyond. The land that brought us bottle service, massive multiplayer online role playing, and paid online casual gaming serves as a good place to consider emerging trends—not just technologies that are on their way to the U.S. but also those the U.S. will export to the rest of the world. Here are a few predictions of what I see lurking on the immediate and not-so-immediate technology horizon.
Mobile videoconferencing reaches the states. If you’re a teen, the only thing better than gabbing on your cell with a friend is gabbing on your cell with a bunch of friends—and seeing each of them on screen as you do so. In Korea kids are doing just this—videoconferencing as they speak to friends via mobile handsets—and loving it. Since kids are kids everywhere, we can expect to see a similar response in the United States, though we probably won’t see it happen before the end of 2008. Unlike Korea—which has the only commercial WiMAX networks in the world—the United States doesn’t have the Mobile WiMAX capabilities required to stream video at 8 megabits per second or greater (16 Mbps or greater for downloads). In the U.S., you’re lucky if your cable modem service gets 6 Mbps—and a range of 2 Mbps to 4 Mbps is far more typical. When mobile videoconferencing does become a reality here, how will it impact handset manufacturers? Can we expect to see larger mobile phones and bigger screens as a result? Only time will tell.
Virtual currencies warm up. Content is not the only driver for sustainable online communities; virtual economics play an important role as well, with virtual currency serving as an increasingly critical tool. Virtual goods already provide a viable business model in online worlds—with companies providing outlets in which players can convert in-game assets into real-world wealth (and vice-versa). Virtual goods are starting to find their way into every other area of the Net as well—only now it’s not just about generating revenue but about paying people (in virtual currency) for their eyeballs. Virtual currency is already used to grab users’ attention for online product launches and games and could soon become a common feature in all online networks and worlds. As companies and services vie for user attention, we can expect to see more and more of them rewarding users with virtual coins or points that can be traded for cash or noncash goods and services. Worst-case scenario, we all turn into brain-dead mouse clickers obsessed with accumulating Yelp and Starwood points. Best-case scenario, we’re rewarded for our time and effort with healthy incentives.
Semantic Web slowly begins to gel. Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Web of the future—in which data itself becomes part of the Web and can be processed independently of application, platform, or domain—is finally becoming a reality … albeit slowly. In 2008 we can expect the various filtering, aggregating, and grouping efforts to continue as the Web 2.0 services that initially captured our attention (such as Radar Networks and Adaptive Blue) expand and evolve. Now the questions become, how will data be organized? By advanced algorithms? By humans (no, not Mahalo)? And what format or tools will be used? Tagging? Grouping? Finally, what do users want? Friends’ feeds? Multimedia files? The latest books, photos, and gossip on Britney Spears? I believe we’ll see a couple of tangible and useful services take off next year (including some of the stealth startups I’ll be writing about soon).
Location-based mobile services gain ground. According to Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, 20 percent of mobile phones currently include the satellite-based navigation system Global Positioning System (GPS)—a number that’s expected to grow to 50 percent within five years. This means that at last a critical mass of end users has emerged for location-based mobile services that take advantage of GPS. Thus, we can expect to see a surge of activity in this area. I can visualize it already—my weight soaring as In-N-Out pushes me a coupon every time I get within proximity of an outlet, my credit card bills soaring as Nordstrom and Macy’s send my wife sales notices and coupons. It will be horrible; I’ll be dragged to these places more often. Forget it! I hate location-based services already!
Interactive TV makes a comeback. This won’t be like watching Evander Holyfield or Mike Tyson attempting a comeback—a one-time champ too old and worn out to rise to prominence again. Instead, it will be more like watching a boxer who debuted too early return and live up to his initial promise. This time around the infrastructure is actually cost-effective; the integration of the Internet and TV has created infinite collaborative possibilities; and new entrants (such as consumer electronics makers) are eyeing the market. Interactive TV won’t be a media champ; however, it will serve as an important secondary source for information, commerce, and social networking. Efforts such as Apple TV (which combines Internet content and television) represent the first step in Internet content being ported to millions of U.S. couch potatoes. With consumer electronics manufacturers eager to capture more of their customers’ mindshare, this represents a potential battleground for cable and satellite operators.
Watch for the trends I’ve spotlighted here to emerge in 2008 and beyond—and let me know what technology trends you see on the horizon.
Mobile trends in Japan
 READING ON THE MOVE(December 8, 2006) A growing number of people are reading novels and other books on their mobile phones and computers. Easy to access and a cinch to carry around, these electronic books are convenient and, thanks to plans offering unlimited data transmissions at a fixed rate, reasonably priced as well. |
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 SHOPPING BY PHONE TAKES OFF(July 25, 2006) Shopping by mobile phone is enjoying growing popularity among young women, who are discovering the allure of being able to purchase the goods they desire anywhere, anytime. |
 MANGA ON THE MOVE(May 30, 2006) Using cell phones to view manga is one of the newest and fastest-growing applications of mobile technology in Japan. |
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 IS IT A PHONE? IS IT AN OCTOPUS?(October 6, 2005) As mobile phones become an indispensable part of life for many people, they have developed into personalized fashion items as well. Some users customize their phones by decorating them with stickers or covers of their choosing, and these covers have evolved to take on many forms. |
 BACK TO BASICS(January 14, 2005) Modern cell phones are a lot more than just phones. In addition to voice calls, they can be used to send e-mail, take photos and videos, navigate the Internet, and even conduct bank transactions. But not everyone is impressed with such a plethora of functions. |
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 NOVELS DELIVERED TO YOUR PHONE(March 10, 2004) Nowadays the sight of people passing time on the train by sending e-mail with their mobile phones is an everyday occurrence in Japan. This technology has now led to the emergence of a new and unexpected phenomenon: people reading entire novels on their mobile phones. |
 MOBILE MUSIC(March 3, 2004) Mobile phones, users can now be notified of incoming calls with songs performed by the musicians themselves. Called Chaku-uta – ring songs – the service is anticipated to create a new market for the music industry. |
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 IT STARTED AS A PHONE(July 17, 2003) Cellphone companies are engaged in a fiercely fought race to add new advanced functions to their handsets. The first new battleground is the task of enhancing the built-in cameras many phones now feature from the previous 300,000-pixel level to the one-megapixel level. |
 AN EMERGING “THUMB CULTURE”(January 10, 2003) Mobile phones have become a major provider of entertainment on the train. These phones are extremely versatile multimedia tools that allow users to do everything from doing e-mail to playing online games, and even listening to music. |
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 MOBILE PHONES TO THE RESCUE(December 18, 2001) Mobile telephones are used a lot by the young and by businesspeople as a means of communication. Research is now being carried out on using them to provide support for the elderly and the disabled in their daily lives. |
 CYBER COUNSELLOR(March 22, 2001) Today in Japan there are over 40,000 sites that can be viewed on Internet-capable mobile phones. A recent addition has been an Internet service via cell phone that calls on smokers to “enjoy the challenge of quitting smoking.” When a smoker who has been hit by the desire to smoke presses a few buttons on his or her phone, words of encouragement and advice show up on the screen, complete with illustrations. |
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 IT’S A CAMERA, A STEREO, AND A TRAIN TICKET(February 7, 2001) More and more cell phones equipped with a variety of functions that go far beyond simple voice communication are being developed and marketed. Although these extra functions are centered on amusement, cell phones are in fact highly technologically advanced instruments. Some have a built-in digital camera, which enable users to send and receive images by e-mail; some can play music while displaying still images or text; and some can play moving images and music simultaneously. There is also a new model that can play music while the user enjoys i-mode cell-phone Internet access. Yet another new model–now under development and expected to be on the market in two or three years–will function as a train ticket or commuter pass through the insertion of an integrated circuit (IC) chip. Just how far is the cell phone going to permeate our lives? |
 PHONE PROBLEMS(February 1, 2001) The use of cellular phones in Japan has been widespread since around 1994. It was not until February 1999, however, when NTT DoCoMo introduced its i-mode Internet service for cell phones, that their use really took off. The age of mobile phones is upon us, but with it come problems that did not exist in an age when telephones were stationary devices. Society is now turning its attention to the issue of mobile phone etiquette, and particularly to users who talk on their phones in crowds without concern for those around them. |
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 DIGITAL FASHION(April 3, 2000) Today in Japan about one in three people own a cellular phone. As of the end of February 2000, some 49.9 million people had signed up with a cellphone service, a four-fold increase over four years. In addition to their practicality, these phones have become an essential part of youth fashion. This may be why, along with the amazing growth of the phones themselves, sales of accessories used to decorate cellulars have also blossomed; there are now over 1,000 such products on the market. |
 STELLAR CELLULARS(March 11, 1999) Have you ever seen a leopard-spotted cellular phone? Or one that plays movie theme songs to signal incoming calls? In Japan, where approximately one in three people own a mobile phone, these have become common sights and sounds. Today’s mobile phones are more than just communication devices: They have become indispensable tools of everyday use offering a multitude of functions like text transmission and information downloading. Perhaps as an indication of users’ growing attachment to these devices, the number of people looking to customize the appearance and sound of their phones is also on the increase. |
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 CALLING AND DRIVING DON’T MIX(September 25, 1996) Along with the explosive increase in cellular phone use, traffic accidents associated with their use have also risen sharply. According to a National Police Agency survey, June this year saw 128 accidents causing injury, and 1 accident resulting in death, where the driver was operating a portable phone at the time. Of the 129 accidents, 123 involved more than one car, and 98 (80%) of these car-car crashes were rear-endings. |
| PERSONAL HANDY-PHONE SYSTEM GOES NATIONWIDE (November 28, 1995) The personal handy-phone system service that began in Tokyo, Sapporo, and other major cities in July has now been expanded to cover urban areas throughout the country. The PHS gained instant popularity after its introduction owing to its lower cost compared to cellular phones, and the expansion of the service network is expected to make PHS phones even more competitive. |
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Link: http://web-jpn.org/trends/ev/cellphone.html
Mobile Business Model from Javasoft
Making Money in the Wireless World
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Service providers, aggregators of third-party applications, and developers are experimenting with business models that will monetize their applications in the mobile environment. Here’s a broad view of this complex and rapidly evolving marketplace.
Perhaps there are developers who write wireless applications just for the sheer joy of creating, but we haven’t met very many. Most people want to get paid.
They ask questions like: How do I turn my application into a money-maker? What is my revenue model? How can I create a recurring, healthy cash flow? (The developers aren’t alone – the service providers and device manufacturers are asking the same questions.)
It seems simple enough. The providers devise what they hope will be a successful business model. Part of their plan is to add value by offering their customers new applications and content. Their target customers include everyone from teenagers playing multi-level games to enterprise users with sales-force automation software on their wireless devices.
As the developer, you’re at the head of the revenue-generation stream. You create the app, the provider sells it, and everyone makes money.
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as it sounds. It’s early in the game, and the providers and other members of the mobile communications ecosystem – including handset manufacturers and third-party content providers – are still trying to scope out the best mix of revenue models. A key consideration is the relationship between providers and the Java developer community. At present, the J2ME space has no standardized revenue model for compensating developers.
Says Mazin Ramadan, CEO of 4thpass, a Seattle-based developer of mobile Java technology, “If applications are king and are going to drive the last leg of J2ME, then we need a way to complete the ecosystem. Now is the time to mature the business side of J2ME and create the channel between Java developers and mobile carriers. We need to get some of the industry dollars flowing back to the folks building content.”
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Service Provider Revenue Models
The development of a standardized revenue model among providers, third-party applications aggregators, and J2ME developers will begin to take shape as the providers settle on their basic approach to generating revenues from their customer base.
“It’s important for the operators to look beyond basic Internet or voice models,” urges Craig Miller, Sun’s Product Line Manager, Wireless Business Group. “The ‘all you can eat’ approach is not a good billing model for today’s new services and applications that offer a high value-add. It’s our experience that the more successful revenue models closely resemble those used by such content-based industries as cable, entertainment, gaming, and media. They provide users with a far richer experience and generate substantially more revenues for the SPs and the developers.”
Among the revenue models to consider are charge-per-download and data-volume (airtime) usage. Also, as the user base increases, trickle revenues – those associated with referral fees for airtime used while connected to free-access content providers – may prove significant.
Whenever possible, single-download applications should be replaced by services that encourage upload and download, such as networking or multi-level gaming. Games are turning out to be the killer apps for mobile users, especially for the current crop of teens (ages 13 to 19), who are far more interested in wireless than adults.
Other revenue generators, such as partnering and cross-selling in the form of discounts, advertising, and communities, can generate incremental downloads and data-volume usage fees.
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Sophisticated Services
“We see services evolving from mobile voice communications and simple information like text messaging to more sophisticated data services,” says Miller. “In the not-too-distant future these will be augmented by increasingly personalized and integrated data services. Supporting this evolution are several key open standards such as IP, XML, and Java. Bandwidth is increasing and as we move into 3G and beyond, innovative technologies such as advanced softswitches, video compression, and AAA (authentication, authorization, and accounting services) will drive the market.
“As we get better security, location knowledge, and personalization, savvy developers on the enterprise side will be creating sophisticated apps like personal enterprise portals, sales-force automation, customer-relationship management, and preference-based advertising,” he adds. “And, as packet networks mature and color imagery, streaming video, and rich catalogs become more prevalent, developers on the consumer side should also have a field day.”
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SP Revenue Models
Miller points to a number of successful deployments by providers located around the world, all of whom use Java services. “It’s all about saving money, making money, getting to market first, and staying flexible in order to take advantage of new opportunities,” he says. “That’s why Java is far and away the first choice of service providers, device manufacturers, and developers as they create new applications and experiment with various revenue models.”
Many of the biggest and most well known providers in the world are now using a variety of scenarios to offer Java services. Here’s how these revenue models are playing out:
Hosted and Managed – In this scenario, operators like NTT DoCoMo in Japan are providing heavily branded services and applications. . The provider owns the whole revenue-generation streamfood chain except for the application development (although and in some cases, the provider may own this that as well). . The operator, or its portal portal-content providers, offer a wide variety of applications that are owned and branded by the SP, or are owned by third parties but distributed by the provider. . Typically the provider keeps between 9% and 15% of the revenues –– the rest is returned to the application developers.
Managed Only – Here the provider guarantees that the content of an application provided by a trusted third party is safe to download. The applications are not hosted on the operator’s site – instead a directory points to external repositories for access and downloads by customers. Of course, with another mouth to feed along the way, the developer gets less. The amount varies, but if the application is being handled by a third-party aggregator such as Tira Wireless, nGame, or Digital Bridges, its developers can expect to see up to 75% of the revenues siphoned off before they get their share.
Some carriers and middlemen charge up front to certify applications to make sure they meet the standards for a certain network or carrier specification. That means developers must pay to obtain their certification before the carrier will offer their applications to consumers.
Unknown Internet Provider – In this model, the provider receives revenues based on airtime only, and offers no guarantees regarding the content, reliability, or security of the application. “Let the buyer beware” is the motto. “If you get a virus on your phone, it can hose the whole handset,” says Miller. “Authentication technologies and trust-based initiatives such as the Liberty Alliance can help determine identity, but in today’s reality, the quick road to monetization is to link up with a trusted operator, a device manufacturer, or a highly regarded third-party application provider such as NuvoStudios or Tira Wireless.”
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Making Money the Wireless Way
Below are a few examples of wireless revenue scenarios adopted by major providers now using Java services.
In January, 2001, NTT DoCoMo launched its i-Appli Java service with 32 initial content providers. Today there are more than 1000 i-Appli apps, ranging from news to fortune-telling. Customers pay a monthly charge of ¥300 and a ¥0.3 packet charge. CNN news costs ¥300/month. For ¥170/month you can download your daily fortune. The charge for i-mode mail runs ¥1 per message, and emails cost approximately ¥4 to send and ¥2 to receive. (At this writing ¥116 = approximately $1.00 U.S.)
The Japanese carrier J-Phone provides its wireless customers with email, Internet access to more than 800 content sites, and nearly 60 Java Appli applications. Java Appli access costs ¥2 per Kb data plus a monthly flat fee charged by the content provider. J-Phone also combines monthly fees (for example, ¥200 for a Sega diving game and ¥150 for G-Mode access to games) with charges per transaction for such services as email and Web access.
In the U.S., Nextel launched its Java service in July, 2001. The provider offers cellular, wireless Web, and basic text messaging on a monthly subscription basis, and business productivity tools, games, and other apps for a per-application fee. Networked applications incur a traffic charge. Charges range from $12.99/month for 175 Kb to $54.99/month for unlimited Kb.
Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong’s year-old offering provides its 1.7 million customers with a service package that includes news, stock prices, stock price alerts, exchange rates, and information about weather and traffic. Users can go to mymobilesoft.com to download games. Displays will soon feature Disney characters and icons.
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The Developer’s Slice of the Pie
Although as yet there is no standardized revenue model for compensating Java developers, 4thpass’s Ramadan reports that applications revenues are being split 80/20, and in some cases 90/10, with the developers getting the lion’s share. These munificent splits reflect the providers’ awareness of how important new and exciting applications are to their revenue streams.
For cell phones in a 2G or 2 1/2G environment, operators usually charge on a per-bit basis. When customers move from basic voice to data services – for example, games – additional charges are incurred. The game itself may be free, but the gamer pays perhaps 5 cents more per minute, or an additional charge per bit. These added revenues are split fifty-fifty with the content provider.
Customers also pay for special services. For example, investors who want to get updated stock prices at the highest data rate the network has to offer pay a premium for that added value.
Enterprises are deploying wireless applications that range from supply-chain management and sales-force automation to CRM. Wireless productivity aids sold into this market can bring hefty, recurring revenues to providers and developers.
E-books, music, video clips, map applications, SMS messaging – all are grist for the developer’s mill.
Bill Day, Sun’s Technology Evangelist, points out that advances in markup languages and related technologies will help speed this explosion of applications.”In the long term, wireless technologies, including WAP and Compact HTML, are converging with standard Internet technologies, including the Java platform, XML, and IP. We will see thousands, then millions of devices using XHTML in consumers’ hands in the not-too-distant future. Plan for it and start thinking in terms of Java technology+XML+IP-based development and deployment now.”
Adds Sun’s Miller, “If you develop for Java and to the MIDP spec, you are addressing a tremendous range of devices. You are targeting some 50 operators around the world who have either launched Java or have announced their intention to do so. And this is just the beginning of Java’s penetration into the wireless arena.”
Mobile created content
Up Next, Mobile Created Content
We’ve pointed out the growing trend of cell phone users creating and sharing video and photo content1, pushed by the popularity of camera and video-camera embedded phones, content-sharing mobile applications and high speed networks. While user-generated mobile content is still a relatively small market, the International Herald Tribune points out2 the success of the carrier 3’s “See Me TV” service, which the carrier says has brought in more than 100,000 amateur videos and photographs, resulting in more than 12 million downloads.
All carriers are looking to take advantage of user-generated mobile content, given it doesn’t cost the carrier anything to create, and gives the customer something to send over the pipes other than low-margin voice services. While this market is exploding online, evidenced by Google’s YouTube purchase, the mobile environment is moving slower, because of networks, handsets and the carrier-controlled environment.
But it’s still starting to grow rapidly. In Europe, Mobile Streams and MTV Europe are starting to push the FunkySexyCool mobile social service which highlights photo and video profiles and a voting system. Even in the U.S., where mobile video adoption is slower, Cingular is offering a “Messaging Awards” program3, where customers vote on the best user-generated video, photo and text submissions. Perhaps in anticipation of the nationwide availability of its 3G network. On Wednesday mobile video sharing startup Veeker, which we’ve written about a few times4, plans to launch its service.
From GigaOM
Integrating DRM with P2P
Following is the executive summary of a white paper by Digitail Containers
The rise of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks has been an inevitable outgrowth of the rise of the Internet. Unfortunately, P2P networks have grown from useful tools in information sharing to havens for trafficking in unauthorized copies of intellectual property (IP). Owners of IP, meanwhile, have been pushing for digital rights management (DRM) technologies to control distribution of IP so that it does not fall into the wrong hands.
Supporters of P2P networks appear to be at odds with DRM-supporting IP owners, but P2P networks offer a lot to users as well as other participants in content business models, and they are here to stay. Integration of DRM into P2P architectures is inevitable, as IP owners try to walk the fine line between embracing functionality that users want and maintaining control over their IP.
This white paper explains the motivation for and inevitability of integrating DRM with P2P. After briefly reviewing how both DRM and P2P came into being, we explain the need and opportunity to integrate DRM functionality into P2P networks. We discuss features of DRM technology that make it especially appropriate for integration with P2P, and we summarize shortcomings of many existing DRM solutions with respect to those features. We conclude with some suggestions for how to develop the market for DRM solutions that are optimal for integration with P2P networks.
Nokia’s new Cellular phone offering – Enhanced Mobile Browsing Experience
Nokia’s new phone sets the hot area for wireless service providers.
The Fact: High bandwidth and cheaper fees make it more attractive to connect your wireless device to web
The Chanllange: Limited computing power, shorter battery life and small display screen of your device
The Oppotunitity: Enhanced service that attracts customers to replace their computers with mobile phones, replace laptop computers with PDAs.
The Technology: Web2.0 enhanced websites that target PDA users.
Business Model: You can apply all the tricks used on internet
Then, all of us will have a cell phone that labels “Intel Inside”, “AMD Inside” or Microft Inside, or Google Inside
Cellular and WiFi on a device-based collision course
With national cellular wireless networks becoming more of a 3G data monster these days — finally — WiFi in all its shapes and forms is becoming just as ubiquitous in major metro areas, from local hotels and restaurants to covering entire cities. This begs the question — when do traditional cellular networks mesh with WiFi networks, since they are both datapipes for voice and data? How about right now.
We are seeing more UMA-enabled handsets from major vendors and my guess is that more handsets will feature both traditional cellular connectivity and WiFi access at the same time, for many reasons. But, will we see total convergence of the two standards? I doubt this, although supreme interoperability may be looming on the near horizon.
An overview of all cool wireless companies
SMS & MMS
Abbreviated as SMS, the transmission of short text messages to and from a mobile phone, fax machine and/or IP address. Messages must be no longer than 160 alpha-numeric characters and contain no images or graphics.
Once a message is sent, it is received by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which must then get it to the appropriate mobile device.
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) (a newer standard)
Mobile365 http://www.mobile365.com/case_studies/sony.php
NeoMedia Mobile companies
12snap is an award-winning specialist for creative work and development in the fields of mobile marketing, mobile (CRM) and mobile applications. The company is based in Munich, Germany and has offices in Dusseldorf, London, New York, Milan, Stockholm and Vienna and an affiliated partner in Moscow. 12snap provides services to companies including McDonald’s, MTV®, Coca-Cola, Ferrero, Wella, adidas, Unilever and Gillette®. Press Release – February 14, 2006
Gavitec AG – mobile digit is a specialist in designing and manufacturing flexible and easy-to-use code readers for mobile marketing, mobile ticketing and mobile couponing. We are the pioneer and leading innovator in creating scanning systems able to read linear barcodes and two-dimensional symbols from mobile phone displays, and in developing code-reading solutions using the built-in camera included in mobile imaging phones. Press Release – February 21, 2006
Mobot is a leader in visual search and recognition technology designed to make marketing effective and innovative using mobile devices. Mobot connects consumers using any camera phone on any wireless carrier to brands, mobile content and commerce. Mobot gives marketers, content providers and carriers the tools to make it easy for any consumer with a camera phone to interact with their offerings. Press Release – February 9, 2006
qode’s ground-breaking technology turns brand-names and barcodes into hyperlinks to the mobile Internet. Web-enabled handsets with the patented Qode® software are able to take consumers – or enterprise users – direct to desired pages on the mobile Web, simply by clicking on a code with the handset’s camera, or by entering keywords or product codes in a search-style window. The handset is now your mouse and the brand name or barcode is now your hyperlink.
Sponge is one of Europe’s leading independent developers of mobile applications and content. The Company continues to experience rapid growth and profitable operations, as a premier provider of mobile services. Today, Sponge counts more than 40 agencies, including WPP, Aegis and BBH, as clients, and supplies services for over 100 world-class brands, including Coca Cola®, Heineken® and Diageo. Press Release – February 22, 2006
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P2P multi-level marketing
http://www.coremedia.com/en/88908/superdistribution/
OMA DRM Companies
—The ability to sell premium digital content for the mobile phone market represents a significant opportunity for nobile operators and content providers. Rampant piracy, however, requires that operators who hope to profit from this expected revenue growth have a viable Digital Rights Management (DRM) content protection system. NDS mVideoGuard, an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standards compliant end-to-end content protection system—server and client—provides enhanced security and flexibility of business models based on superior implementation and extension of the OMA standard.
See also
See also
US wireless non-voice service forcast
It is no secret that mobile phones are attractive to advertisers and marketers. In March 2006, BusinessWeek and visiongain projected that U.S. mobile advertising and marketing spending will increase rapidly from 2005, reaching $602.3 million in 2009.
Moreover, mobile phones have achieved mass adoption, and eMarketer projects that 296.8 million Americans will have one by the end of 2010, up from 207.9 million in 2005. This represents over 95 percent of the country’s population.
Mobile phone subscribers in the U.S. accounted for $118.6 billion in voice-related revenues in 2005, according to data from the TIA published in March 2006.
CTIA-The Wireless Association projected in September 2005 that mobile service revenue for the year would reach $108.53 billion. CTIA tracks revenue from June to June each year rather than January to December, and its number was produced six months before the TIA’s. CTIA’s mobile service revenue tracking from previous years indicates slowed growth, down to 14 percent during 2004-2005 from 21 percent during 2001-2002.
Advertising and marketing to people via mobile phone is generally done using other means than voice or voice mail campaigns. But which non-voice applications should marketers use? Messaging accounts for over 60 percent of all non-voice mobile spending now, and the widespread use of this application indicates that this is the best way for marketers to reach the most mobile users. Text messaging (“texting”) is currently the largest component of revenue from mobile spending. Since texting is the biggest non-voice revenue driver, it is easy to understand why so many mobile campaigns ask consumers to “text to” a given number: Texting is a popular application for which people are accustomed to spending money.
Market research firm Yankee Group, which in May 2005 projected more bearish mobile data revenue for 2009 than eMarketer, nevertheless also views text messaging as the leading non-voice moneymaker.
