While cutting-edge technologies allow wireless subscribers to use their handsets as TVs, radios and camcorders, Carl Washburn would like users to see their phones as textbooks.
The founder and chief executive officer of Vocel, a San Diego-based wireless technology company, Washburn was director of strategy for Siemens’ North American marketing operations when he left three years ago to start his own firm. Since then, Vocel has focused on creating “push” text-messaging applications that educate and entertain wireless users at the same time.
The company made national headlines last year when it teamed with Princeton Review, which prepares students for standardized tests, for a mobile study course for the Scholastic Aptitude Test. For $4 a month or a one-time fee of $9.50, prospective matriculants receive scheduled daily samples of SAT-style multiple choice questions over their phones. Scores from the test-prep sessions are recorded and can be posted on Web sites or sent to parents via e-mail.
Washburn said he created the application to help his teenage son study for the college boards.
“He can set up a schedule and get 10 SAT prep questions sent to his phone,” Washburn said of his son. “He picks an answer and gets feedback. It’s a two- to three-second interruption, short enough that he will tolerate that.”
The service drew the attention of Random House Inc., which earlier this year bought an undisclosed “significant minority stake” in Vocel. The companies are developing an application based on Random House’s “Living Language,” a 60-year-old series of foreign language self-study books and audio recordings.
Similar to the SAT prep application, Living Language will automatically deliver scheduled vocabulary words to users on their phones and will include audio files of native speakers pronouncing the words.
Of course, not all of Vocel’s offerings will be quite so highbrow, even if they are still educational. The company is building a wireless version of Prima Games, a Random House brand of video-game guides. As they compete against their friends in the Xbox title Halo, for instance, players could use their phones to access strategy tips and cheat codes to advance levels or gain weapons.
“One of the most purchased accessories (for video games) is strategy guides,” said Washburn. “It’s almost like a cult or religion” for hardcore gamers.
Other applications in development include a branded dictionary and thesaurus service from Oxford University that includes an audio pronunciation of words and an offering from Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. that will deliver “daily reads” from the popular romance publisher. Harlequin fans will also get thumbnails of male models and can share photos of boyfriends and husbands with other subscribers.
Washburn and Random House are hoping such literary wireless pursuits catch on here as they have in Japan, where users increasingly download novels to their phones in short installments and read them on-the-go. Japanese content providers and wireless operators say they’re seeing revenues from all sorts of genres, including classics, best sellers and works written exclusively for mobile phones.
Vocel’s services are offered on the BREW platform through Verizon Wireless and Alltel Corp., as well as eight regional carriers represented by Western Wireless. Washburn said Java-enabled offerings should be launched within the next two months. And Vocel plans to build on its Princeton Review service, adding offerings for graduate students facing standardized tests like the GRE, GMAT and MCAT.
“Most people download an application to their phone, and a lot of times just forget about it,” said Washburn. “This technology has the (ability) to actually reach out and touch subscribers on a regular basis.”
