Wireless Business Forecast articles from August 2005

Wireless Business Forecast archives from August 2005

Can't Get In The Game? User Frustration Limits Mobile Playing.
August 11, 2005... You can't play if you don't have a scorecard...or a ball...or a bat...or if you don't know the rules. That may be the situation in mobile gaming. Even though more than half of worldwide cellphone owners have played a game on their handsets,...

Executive Q&A: Xingtones' Schreiber To Carriers - Be Dumb And Like It.(Jonathan Schreiber)(Interview)
August 11, 2005... Becoming a "dumb pipe" may be the smartest move for mobile carriers, according to Jonathan Schreiber, CEO of Xingtone. Xingtone sells PC software that converts audio tracks of any kind into ringtones that can be pushed to phones via SMS. The...

Lumitrend Puts Safety First: Does Backup Play Better On Phones?(CellSynx, CellBackup, ringvault)
August 11, 2005... Backup software and utilities always have been a tough sell on digital hardware, despite the tendency of new gadgetry to crash and burn. After all, when was the last time you backed up vital data on your home PC, even though Windows XP has...

Griming: Cellphones As Boom Boxes.
August 11, 2005... The next wacky cellphone trend in the U.S. may involve teens standing around their phones and rapping to a tune blasting from its diminutive speaker. Known in the U.K. as "griming," this phenom is a by-product of new phone devices optimized...

Mobile Makes a Dent in Gaming's Bottom Line.(THQ Inc.)
August 11, 2005... So far as we can tell, no one noticed that, buried within the quarterly earnings report of Top Three video games maker THQ was promising news for the mobile games industry. In the most recent quarter (1Q06) of 2005, the THQ Wireless game...

Ringtones Stage A July Comeback.
August 11, 2005... Ringtones are the mobile medium that just won't quit. After repeated stories that the format was in decline relative to emerging game and video content, the format makes a big comeback in the July breakdown of content revenue share from...

Name That Tune? Ho Hum.(Burger King marketing)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2005... When big brands try to act cool, it can just as easily misfire as be a hit. Burger King has an offbeat promotion that seems to involve heavy metal rock and a band wearing chicken heads to promote BK chicken. At any rate, the CoqRoq.com...

Another Day, Another Web Search.(4Info launches WAP (Wireless application protocol))(wap.4info.net)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2005... The SMS search service 4Info launches a WAP search portal at http://wap.4info.net. The resulting search box is nicely branded and offers quick access to a helpful list of search tips. 4Info gives easy access to movie times, sports scores,...

Are We Giving Users What They Want?(cellular telephone services)
August 11, 2005... In the rush to send trusted media brands to mobile, and filling the 3G network with streaming video and sexy games, carriers may be overlooking the obvious - that all content, like politics, is local. The most valuable information for most...

Deal Sheet.(marketing agreements, finance)
August 11, 2005... Who Is Doing What: RadioShack [RSH], headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas; 817/415-3300 Joins in retail partnership with Jamdat Mobile [JMDT], headquartered in Los Angeles; 310/636-3100 What to Expect Short-Term: RadioShack will sell Jamdat...

So You Want To Be A Mobile Pin-Up Star? 5280's Celebrity Plan.(5280 Mobile)
August 25, 2005... Who heard of Danni Ashe before the Internet? For that matter, could Pamela Anderson, Matt Drudge or Carmen Electra have achieved any level of notoriety without the unique mix of their personalities, flesh (well, not in Drudge's case) and the...

To 3D Or Not To 3D? Are Some Mobile Games Overkill?
August 25, 2005... As any player of "Doom 3" or "Half Life 2" will tell you, don't waste precious rocket-launcher ammo to extinguish a pesky robotic louse when a standard-issue Magnum will do. With the release of the NPD Group's first major study of mobile...

Executive Q&A: Can BitTorrent (Yes, BitTorrent) Supercharge Mobile?(Yongki C. Andyka Jong)(question and answer)(Interview)
August 25, 2005... BitTorrent, the ingenious file-sharing protocol developed by Bram Cohen, is best known for its facility with massive file downloads, especially full- length feature films that are now being pirated across the Web using the protocol. What...

Content A $13 Billion Game By 2009?(games in market )
August 25, 2005... Strategy Analytics, which often provides rosy forecasts for wireless, goes for the fences by predicting that mobile content in the United States alone will be a $13 billion market in 2009, up from $3.2 billion this year. Verizon Wireless...

Dwango, Jamdat Disappoint: Is Content Leveling Off Or Just the Margins?(mobile market and rate )
August 25, 2005... You gotta respect a company chairman that delivers bad earnings news and just comes out and says, "We are not satisfied with the result for the 2005 second quarter." Good for Dwango's Victor A. Cohn, who had to report that, in a fast-growing...

Location, Location, Location: Cellphones Own Wherever You Are Right Now.
August 25, 2005... Could cellphones ultimately be the missing piece in local searches? Online local search has been the elusive goal of Google and Yahoo! for years, not to mention the many Yellow Pages and local directory services that have been trying to tap...

A Modest Proposal: Customized Text Alerts.(introduction of information services)(Brief Article)
August 25, 2005... Mobile Media and The Weather Channel launched a new set of SMS information services last week, and they are just fine....just fine, mind you. You text in to the same 4CAST short code (42278) used for local weather from the Weather...

Deal Sheet.(QUALCOMM Inc. acquires Flarion Technologies Inc.)
August 25, 2005... Who's Doing What?: Qualcomm Inc. [QCOM] headquartered in San Diego, Calif.; 858/651-3628 Acquires for $600 million Flarion Technologies, headquartered in Bedminster, N.J.; 908/947-7000 What To Expect Short-Term: For $600 million with a...

CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2005.(Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association)(information technology)(Brief Article)
August 25, 2005... September 27-29, 2005 Moscone Center -- San Francisco CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2005 brings together the two entities of wireless data: Enterprise and Entertainment. On the Enterprise side, the spotlight is on incorporating...