M-Qube Expands Offering, Launches Campaigns
North American mobile messaging firm m-Qube has extended its messaging application platform to both e-mail and instant messaging applications. Licensees of the software can now use SMS, WAP, instant messaging and both PC and mobile e-mail to reach consumers.
Additionally, m-Qube recently enabled mobile campaigns for several major advertises, including an online trivia game promoting Terminator 3 for AOL, a radio-based text messaging program for The Vermont Teddy Bear Company, amd an SMS trivia sweepstakes for Clear Channel Communications.
Miss Florida USA to Go Wireless
The Miss Florida USA 2004 pageant, scheduled for July 12, will be the first regional pageant in the U.S. to go wireless. Those who opt-in to receive alerts at the pageant Web site will get updates and trivia questions via Short Message Service (SMS) during pageant week, and the event itself will be wirelessly enabled by adversoft during its initial and tape-delayed broadcasts. Tel-Air Interests is producing the event.
“Adversoft developed a fun, interactive campaign that is available to cell phone users throughout the U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America,” said Grant Gravitt, president of Tel-Air Interests, which produces the event.
Report Finds Pure Play Mobile Content Firms in Trouble
The majority of content providers focusing exclusively on mobile channels will be out of business within four years, according to new research from wireless executive community W2Forum.
Non-mobile giants such as MTV, Disney, AOL Time Warner and Universal Music are already making an impact in the mobile content market, the report said, and the ability of pure mobile companies to survive in this market will require them to think further ahead and how they position themselves.
“The content market in Europe and North America is cranking the handle on production and development, but there is no effective method to getting these products to market,” said Graham Brown, author of the report.
A Ringtone to Beat the Skeeters
Mosquitos won’t let you sleep? Forget the insect repellent and whip out that phone. The Korea Times has reported that top Korean mobile operator SK Telecom is introducing a downloadable service that repels the pestering insects by emitting a high-pitched tone from your cell phone.
The noise, which is inaudible to human ears and works within a range of one meter, has only one drawback, according to the article: it’s a battery eater. However, for the hordes of New Yorkers fed up with a higher than usual number of the pestering insects this very muggy summer, the relief offered by such a bug repelling software may be worth a loss in talk-time.
