Plugged In at HomePlug

In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly with independent telephone companies. For more information as to the various ways Viodi works with independent telephone companies, please go to http://www.viodi.com/alliance/

Disclaimer:

The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.

All displayed trademarks, logos and service marks are the property of their respective owners. © 2005Viodi, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
5255 Stevens Creek, #127 Santa Clara, CA 95051

Viodi View Newsletter - October 12, 2005

Indie Telco Local Content Workshop Advertisement

Going Mobile - Wee Hee

By Ken Pyle, ken.pyle@viodi.com, Managing Editor, Viodi View

The applications I saw at the CTIA conference, held in San Francisco a few weeks ago, could be broadly categorized into those that improve business productivity and those that ostensibly improve individuals’ quality of life. Some of the applications, especially those of the person to machine variety, offer the potential to make our life easier, while making businesses more productive.

One of the applications that simultaneously impressed and depressed me was the long-promised electronic payment solution for vending machines. SimpleWire demonstrated a system that allows one to purchase a soda (or conceivably anything else) by text messaging a vending machine. Using my cheap cell phone, even I was able to order a soda. After my order, I received a confirmation question, which I had to accept. A few seconds later, out popped the soda and fifty cents was added to my cell phone bill (that was the depressing part, as I figured the soda would be free since it was a trade show).

I then received another text message announcing I had won a prize for ordering the soda (I wish the prize had been my fifty cents back, instead of a promotional coffee cup). Kidding aside, what a great application, as this has the potential to offer manufacturers and distributors real-time inventory status, improving productivity, but it also allows brands to build one-on-one relationships with the end customers. This is also a great application for any customer who is short on change – how many times have I wished for this sort of thing when struggling to buy some time on a parking meter.

Simplewire Screenshots

There were also some mobile customer relationship management (CRM) applications that looked of interest. One such application was from a company called eAgency Systems. This company and application started out by providing mobile CRM solutions for insurance agents and now they are expanding horizontally into other industries. They would be interested in partnering with telcos to include their package as part of a telco’s small business offering.

There were several companies that were showing applications that used the camera feature of a cell phone to snap pictures of advertisements or bar codes that can then be sent to manufacturers or marketers. Applications for this technology include transmission of on-demand product information to prospects, improved customer service (imagine taking a photo of a serial number and being able to provide that information without having to complete a form) and promotional activities. One company, Nevinvision, allows people to snap photographs of television screens and then send the photos to a Nevenvision's photo recognition software - this could offer some interesting potential interactive television shopping opportunities.

Then, there are the applications that sound ridiculous to this middle-aged dinosaur, but will probably be popular among the youth and may even find some interesting business and social applications. One of these applications was ring-back karaoke tones. With this product, one gets to warble their favorite songs for their favorite people (or enemies, if one’s singing is like mine). Apparently, it could be set up such that different phone numbers hear different songs. I could see an application of this where a business might have different ring backs for customers than they would for prospects.

Mophone represents the convergence of the Internet and wireless world. It is very similar to a social networking site, like a MySpace, but it is designed for mobile applications. It allows one to use the service from the web or the cell phone and crossing between these two media seemed pretty easy.

Finally, I met with Mike Pinto, President and Founder of MobZilla. MobZilla is fundamentally a radio service, in some ways like an XM or Sirius, but which uses the data portion of the cell phone network for signal transport. For $5.99 a month, a user can access millions of songs, thanks to their deals with BMI, ASCAP and SoundExchange, via either their PC or data-enabled cell phones. MobZilla views itself as a service provider, which uses its own technology as differentiation.

The sound quality was quite good. The music is currently categorized into 32 genres. Future genres include sports, comedy and talk radio. One of their big differentiators is they know what content is being streamed to what cell phone, so they are able to use this information to optimize their programming much better than traditional radio. Pinto stated that 83% of their trial customers convert to a paid subscription. In addition to audio, MobZilla has some interesting text services, such as daily horoscopes, pick-up lines and jokes – with that combination, there has got to be a punch line somewhere.

Previous Issue

Viodi View Subscribe

Click Here to Learn How to Contribute to the Roger Brown Family Fund

IP Video Tracks at TELECOM 05

Note, the following sessions are included with the basic registration for Telecom05. For more info, please click here.

Sunday, October 23rd

Monday, October 24th

Tuesday, October 25th

Wednesday, Oct. 26th

Content Differentiation – What’s an operator to do?

Independent Local Content- Click Here to Learn More