Deals were announced and applications launched last week as the large wireless vendors fanned the flames of the hot and getting-hotter mobile content market.
L.M. Ericsson said it will distribute ring-back tones from EMI Music’s catalog of music as part of Ericsson’s hosted ring-back tone service in the United States. The nonexclusive deal with EMI Music North America means Ericsson can offer U.S. carriers preapproved music from Blondie, Coldplay, Gorillas, Norah Jones, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and Yellowcard.
“Ring backs provide a great way to express one’s self,” said Thomas Ryan, senior vice president, Mobile and Digital Business Development at EMI Music North America. “It’s a lot more fun to hear something like Blondie’s `Call Me,’ or Right Said Fred’s `I’m Too Sexy,’ than a boring ring.”
Ericsson also updated the Ericsson Mobile Organizer by offering smart-phone users secure “push” access to all their Personal Information Management applications, such as e-mail, contacts, calendar and meeting requests. EMO 5.1 adds real-time, over-the-air synchronization of contacts, searching an enterprise’s global address list for e-mail addresses and accepting or declining meeting requests for users of Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile smart phones or personal digital assistants.
For those who yearn for channel surfing away from home, Siemens AG launched Mobile TV Streaming, which the company said makes mobile channel surfing over GPRS or W-CDMA/UMTS networks as easy as regular channel surfing at home.
Siemens said the streaming content is stored on a server, and both live transmissions and video on demand are possible. The company said Mobile TV Streaming can offer interactive services like surveys or games and allows customers to select their own personal programming. Network operators can schedule transmissions at certain times and simultaneously distribute the data stream to a large number of users.
Siemens said that streaming and Digital Video Broadcast for Handhelds are complementary, and that the Siemens Media Delivery Solution will develop into a dual platform supporting both technologies. The company also said mobile devices likely will be available to receive both streaming and DVB-H.
“The combination of DVB-H and streaming via mobile radio will show us all television from a new angle,” said Christoph Caselitz, president of Mobile Networks at Siemens. “With a combo device we will have the freedom, for example, to watch movies at specific times or on demand. A football fan can watch an international match from anywhere on the move over DVB-H, even while away on business. If he wants to savor the goals again, he can have them streamed to his mobile phone via UMTS.”
In other content news, Lucent Technologies Inc. launched the Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center, saying the center aims to enable service providers to rapidly introduce differentiated services, with low upfront investments and other operational and financial advantages.
“This is a crucial component in Lucent’s overall applications strategy,” said John Meyer, president of Lucent Worldwide Services. “Lucent is committed to supporting service providers by enabling `blended lifestyle’ services supported by best-in-class integration and customization services, in addition to our own carrier-grade product portfolio. And our hosting capabilities enable Lucent to help service providers turn up new services much more quickly than was previously possible.”
Lucent said the new center leverages its applications product portfolio, including the Lucent Intelligent Services Gateway and the Lucent iLocator location-based services platform, noting that its ISG will serve as the foundation of the hosted custom application center’s Service Delivery Platform and provide a common environment for creation and execution on new blended services.
In related news, the company announced an agreement with Pulse Entertainment to enhance Lucent’s portfolio of hosted custom applications for wireline and wireless carriers.
Pulse’s software lets users transform standard digital images into interactive, animated characters. Subscribers can select a character and then create customized content, blending messages and greetings into video services. The characters can deliver messages, perform greetings and stand in for a subscriber during conversations or online meetings.
“Pulse’s technology in combination with Lucent’s service delivery platform will make it possible for Lucent to enable our service provider customers to offer exciting new content services such as video messaging and other personalized and customized services to their subscribers,” said Ashok Shah, vice president of Professional Services at Lucent Worldwide Services.
