''Freshmen'' enters japanese mobile market

Fast and flat. No, it's not fat.

Japanese mobile market enters eMobile , a mobile arm of japanese ISP eAccess, with main points of its offer , aimed at business customers.

E-M ONE at the glance:

- mobile broadband plan - HSDPA ( all-you-can-eat ) for a fixed fee of 50 $ a month ,
- Sharp widescreen PDA / smartphone with Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system,

Also packed into the device is 802.11b/g wireless LAN, Bluetooth and a tuner for Japan’s mobile digital television broadcasts.

If eMobile can successfully attract customers in Japan through aspects such as price and speed, it may offer a breath of fresh air for the japanese mobile industry's stale phone and data pricing schemes.

Vodafone Marches Across India

An uneasy friendship

We know Vodafone recently bought Hutchinson's stake in Hutch Essar Limited, India's fourth biggest mobile operator, but we still don't know who and how this venture will be run.

Arun Sarin, India-born Vodafone's CEO, tours India in the private jet, and tries to convince Essar's representatives ''this is fair game''.
Shareholder agreement is still unsigned.

Vodafone has already committed to invest two billion dollars in a "couple of years" for expansion of Hutch-Essar in India as part of efforts to become the country's largest mobile operator with a target of 100 million subscribers.

Emerging market rings.

According to Hindustan Times and given Sarin's quote there:

"ROIC (Return on Investment Capital) test met in year five and Internal Risk of Return would be around 14 per cent,”

Boris Nemsic serves on the GSMA management board

Mobile Tszar Boris

Boris Nemsic, at the moment CEO of “Telekom Austria Group”, has been chosen to become a member of the Management Board of the World GSM Association with a two-year term of office.
Congratulations.
I would call him ''our man'' :)
Among other facts, his work left a huge mark here in Croatia and practically he was one of the most infuential people building ''mobile crazy'' nations in the Southeastern Europe.
In November 1998, he became CEO of Vipnet, the first private mobile communications operator in Croatia.
His official profile is here.

Tele2 Croatia loss of 300 million Kuna for 2006.

Sales of calls just not enough. How about data plans ? Chief, should we go or let it go ?

Tele2 Croatia, third mobile operator in Croatia, reported loss of about 300 millions Kuna ( about 40,8 million Euro ) for 2006 .
Wow.

I wasn't aware they are loosing so much money. Tele2 AB Group reported financial results for 2006., and croatian chapter contributes with 1/5 of overall losses.
At the end of last month, they had 300,000 subscribers.
They begun with operation in October 2005.
The main philosophy for Tele2 in Croatia is '' simple and cheap ''
( just like everywhere else ).

For such a bad financials, they blame roaming costs.
Tele2 is using VIPNET's infrastructure ( second biggest mobile operator in the country ).

Tele2 is my mobile operator and I own ''golden number'' ;)) I was among first users in Croatia of their network. I own SIMs of all operators, naturally. ;))

Via: Suvremena.hr

Mobile operator's cool shoulders

Party line

As much as iPhone didn't impress myself on the very first day it was showcased, another strong voice from mobile carrier community ( Australian Telstra Senior Executive Greg Winn ) thinks along the same line.

Sydney Morning Herald and The Age quoted Greg Winn:

“I think people overreacted to it”,

“There’s an old saying - stick to your knitting - and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that’s not their knitting”

“Cingular is not a global company,”

"You can pretty much be assured that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE and others will be coming out with devices that have similar functionality."

However, Winn did say that the iPhone would probably be a successful initially.
We shall see.

Smudge your iPhone

iPhone fans always kept their fingertips clean and their nails nicely clipped. Are they gay ?

Try iSmudgenator , a flash based iPhone simulator that was inspired by Jon Hicks post.
Smudge your iPhone. Over and over again  Fun. :))

Mobile phones should be clean just like a clean sunglasses, cause you know, now it's a lifestyle device.
You can't socialize with dirty phone screen. Could you ?
If I ever touch that iPhone... :)

I am still ''worried'' and want to hear woman's experience with iPhone ? Those with large nails ? Anybody ?
Nail-to-phone practice ? Doesn't seem to be looking like good experience.

Now, I must learn 101 simple strategies for dead iPhone.

State of the calling

Give me more, more and more.

Fresh data about telecom trends in Croatia become available in the media .
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics ( key facts for 2006., reference year 2005. ):

- 46,3 % more minutes in the mobile networks,
- 13,7 % less minutes in the fixed network ( 8,3 billion minutes ),
- 10,2 % less international calls for the fixed network ( 194 million minutes ),
- 47,3 % more domestic calls for the mobile networks ( 3,5 billion minutes ) ,
- 20,8 % more international calls for the mobile networks ( 128 million minutes )
- 5,1 % more SMS's send ( 2,5 billion )
- 43,2 % more MMS's send ( 14,5 million, but volume is only 0,6 % compared to SMS )

Domestic mobile calling and MMS is up, although, MMS's volume is minor.
About croatian telecom market, read more here.

Phone correspondent with SE W900i

Sakura-san reports

Croatian chapter of Sony Ericsson and Zagreb's local television Z1 made a deal for phone-reporting.
Z1's reporters will be given SE W900i phone which is capable of shooting video with 30 FPS ( 30 pics a second ) hence reproduction will be suitable for TV airing.
The reporters will stage live reporting from Zagreb's streets.
Nice deal for proactive croatian SE chapter and inovative TV project.

Mobile TV, but for offline viewing

Selling hand-potato lifestyle :)

Mobile TV, which was before some time beyond my comprehension, will most likely be success. Eventually it will be.
Add-on for normal TV viewing habit.
We are too early in the market, if we can say ''market'' at all. Tough to sell.

Who would want to look TV on a mobile phone ? Currently, the concept is not widely understood. I had a trouble for a long time and couldn't find much reason.

Well, just imagine if you have a situation where many handsets ( the time will come ) have an in-built tuner for DVB-H signal, and you get some cheap programming, you most certainly would be tempted to try it out.
At least for some porn or betting ? Don't you ? ;))

It happened to me today when I was discussing with my neighbour about digital TV ( DVB-T ).
He asked me whether I was looking to buy DVB-T reciver to get digital TV .

I wasn't much informed about DVB-T before, but indeed, we have this ability in about 60-70 % of croatian territory. You need to buy reciver and be lucky to live on the territory with signal coverage and you are good to go ( do not need to pay for any service ).

So, I felt, this can be very easy adopted for mobile phones.
The broadcasters could upgrade equipment with DVB-H specifications, and if mobile operators step in with 3G service, you need ''just'' to buy phone with DVB-H tuner ( and pay for the service, he, he ).

It'll take time to take off as a viable business, but if experience is smooth, and pricing structure done right, then we can watch in Croatia pretty soon mobile TV . Vipnet, actually, started the first croatian mobile TV with Vodafone Live .

But watching is different pair of shoes. What's the point to ''catch'' with TV programming and today's TV scheduling ?
If the ''time-shifting'' model is what we expect to be more in use these days, then why not watch it offline or watch it , at least, more conveniently ( mobile PVR ) ?
If we are watching it offline, then it's not mobile TV anymore, but on-demand content.

Maybe we could label our TV show just like we bookmark web sites with del.icio.us these days. Save it, and watch it when you have time to do so ( record, download ).

The digital standards are raging wars among providers, and handsets are still beyond mass market.
The key is user's experience and price. Attracting world class content providers will be important step as well.

Just some my messy thoughts about mobile TV.
More to learn as we go further down the mobile road.

Born in Texas

Wild , wild Wikipedia


Wikipedia missed the fact about Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus :)
Under the section ''Early life'', the unknown editor made a spoof:

He was born in Texas (or Velletri) on September 23, 63 BC with the name G-Money.

Wikipedia at its best.
Totally randomly I was looking for some fact about Roman Empire, and voila... Texas and G-Money. :)

Here's a right wikipedian ''mirror'' about him.

Flash Lite to rock on mobile

Mobile youtubisation *blink*

Flash Lite 2 is a nice way to go and focus efforts in mobile development.
Developer.com, focused web site, awarded Flash Lite 2 with the title Product of the Year 2006.

New and exciting opportunities and challenges are ahead.
Adobe will present next month some of the flash beauty at 3GSM in Barcelona.

Scott Janousek reports a list of firms that will make live presentation.
I am aware that Alen Alebic, croatian developer, is much praised in the Flash Lite community.

Sumner Redston is smart businessman and he already made a deal with Adobe about Flashcast, so Viacom could distribute multimedia content over the ''pipe'' but with Flash Lite as the presentation layer.

Tongue Talk

Chat with her clitoris

Sexual human being as I am, I like sex.
My girl offers me sometimes to ''talk'' with her clitoris :)
No need to tell me twice !

- I'm coming dear !
- Would you like to talk with my clitoris ?
- My pleasure.

And then we go on with ''communication''.
Long time ago I read a small tip by some ''oral expert'' about spelling words when touching clitoris with lips.

- A, B, C, D.....S, R, R, R....B, B... ( splash )
- Oh, yes, mwoowoo ( moaning )

It's naturaly we develope full dialog during this act.
That's good communication :)
After her orgasm, I proposed.

- I wanna launch MVNO company called '' Tongue Mobile''. Are you in ?
- I am over and out.

Me too :))

Influencing your party jukebox

Save the last SMS dance for me

PartyStrands is interactive music service for bars, clubs and private parties.
Business model is interesting :

PartyStrands’ business model makes it easy for venues to take part. There is no cost for bar or club owners, but they must have a digital music system in order for the music selection to work. Partygoers pay a USD 0.50 or EUR 0.30 surcharge per SMS sent to the partyStrands system. The Ericsson Internet Payment eXchange (IPX) charging system distributes the revenues between myStrands, the venue, an affiliate when relevant, and Ericsson.

Still, it incurs charges. I wonder could such a service be made to support bluetooth.
In that case, you wouldn't have any business model at all for service.
Power to the partygoers, repeal those evil DJ ;))
Spanish Belchica Bar offers beers and SMS dances.

Softbank's fixed/mobile infrastructure

Fixed/mobile convergence with little help from croatian friends.

Softbank Mobile from Japan was, most certain, helped by croatian engineers when they have been launching IMS network over 3G ( first in the world ).
Croatian chapter of Ericsson Nikola Tesla is is one of the most important Ericsson centers for planning, design, implementation and system integration of IMS solutions and experts from this company have participated in more than 10 IMS projects across the world.

Dive in into Ericsson Mobility World.

Short advice to PR guy

Blues with 35 thesis for blog PR or PR blog or whatever.

During my drive home from Djurdjevac, come to my mind few thoughts.
Microcontent is described long time ago.

If we only think about small chunk of the content on the web ( blog posts, forum entries, CMS news, picturephoning etc ) like another microformat ( similar as these people define it ) , it has metadata.
We know Google thinks in terms of ''keywords''. Professionals ( journalists, copywriters ) who write for Web should fully understand metadata concept of microcontent and behave accordingly.

Google will add more metadata search later on, I am sure on that. Tim Berners Lee looked into this matter long time ago and name it semantic web. Who has a time for semantic, valid question.

PR guy the other day asked me about this, and it was main reason I wrote short guide for croatian PR guy, why he should care about blogs .

I replied that he should for the same reasons he spreads the message in traditional media and among audiences he chooses ( target public/audience ) , but this time you can envelope your message with metadata and the message is almost like microformat ( microcontent ) which gives more access to your data and it is ''automatic'' ( crawled with machines, and attributess of the message are extracted ) so you get speed, global spread, human response, word of the mouth, stickiness and pretty exact meassure of success
( Technorati, Nielsen BuzzMetrics , Google Analytics ).

Don't forget clean web links made by blog tools which brings you Google traffic.
Then I went further and compiled ( in croatian ) 35, as I call them ''thesis'', of how PR manager should respond to today's internet and which tactics to use.
I am not PR professional, but I am informed internet user and creator about the subject ( digital publishing, media, blogs ) so I am not afraid to speak out. Know a bit about PR, though ;)

Maybe my most radical idea to some ears would be, for God sake, don't follow Cluetrain manifesto. Forget it to oblivion.
Micro- this and micro-that wasn't mentioned in the paper :)
Microsoft for that :))

Let's get back to professionals who write for the web. Take digital news desks ( newspapers, TV stations, online magazines ) or columnist.
You are lucky media owner if you mandate your job applicants fluency and skills for metadata and microformats ( and hyperlinking articles ) .

Every article in the digital newspaper should have ''inside'' compiled metadata ( about author, time, topic, label, issue, edition, keywords, picture tagged, location etc.) , even though it should not be displayed to readers fully and all the time, but it should be available in the ''open'' web waters for free machine retrival ( RDF schema ) .

It brings traffic and gives visibility. I know it's illusion that every columnist and writer should care about semantic web but software can help you if common sense and lack of time doesn't : )

For PR guy I had a just one more advice at the end of my expose. Don't forget about flash banners.
Yes, flashy and obtrusive flash banners.

I was at first ( few years back ) against them , but I think if they give you value ( make you more informed, engaged with the brand itself ) , give them to your audience but be modest , just like in everything. Flash is now standard for marketing people, you should still stick to the text, but make combination is better.

Don't forget your message needs audience, and web properties you are interested in( brought to you by web barons ) should not be demonstration of ''digital maoism'' , but advertising funded ventures ;)

UPDATE:
I become aware of The Great PR Blog Flop ( MS Vista and Edelman agency ).
Technorati and press releases is the way to go.

Google's playground

Sergey and Larry should be checking SearchMash from time to time.
Searchmesh.com is Google's playground for improving search on the internet.
It's not branded effort so not too many people ( ? ) know this fact so it helps them go undistracted and get decent feedback.
I guess.

Miscommunication with Twitter

San Francisco discovered SMS and short code but at the end...it's all Web

Wrapped my thoughts today about Twitter.
It's unusual social web and mobile service coming from the Evan's garage. Not pure web play, not pure mobile play, not pure IM play. It tries to be ''something'' . For many, it's pointless and useless.
But is it so ? Internet fad comes to my mind.

I had a ''second coming'' effect, just today. But my negative attitude prevailed, although I tried to be positive .

Currently, it's low profile and simple service, but way too simple service that doesn't solve much of people's communication problems.
The buzz is around, even BBC jumped on the board.
It looks like Apple ''hive mind'' is hunting this web app along with such high profiled members from SF web community participating on Twitter.

IMHO, it is niche and it is another internet fad.
Why ?
It doesn't solve communication problems. Mobile communications and Web are not married.
This service can be global only on the web and not on mobile phones, and that's what I am interested at this moment.

So, I come up with my own solution ( concept ) , but it's strictly for my eyes ;))
Effective discussion is not possible with Twitter, it's not straightforward chat tool, it's not effective group organising tool etc.
Only networking and microformatting feature is straightforward, but I'm bit tired of so many ''friends'' ( favorites ) I have never met face-to-face ;))

Yahoo already launched service that pretends to be something similar and it's called MixD.
I didn't try it out.

Currently, I can's see much metadata about location, age, interest.
When you become twitter, you feel somehow isolated and banal, and don't find it much fun either.

How many people think and are curios to find out what I am doing now or what I have done during a day ?
Maybe few, but to find out that on Twitter.... There must be some other solution for that and the one that's more mobile friendly and accessible.
The above mentioned problem should be solved with mobile web in mind and not with SMS, IMHO.
Twitter will be my ongoing research. Hope to post more in the future .

FOX News audio feed on the phone

After my reverend's speech, it's time for Fox News in the sunday morning.


It's no secret among my friends and ''club experts'' that I think ''podcasting/audioblogging for the average user'' ( shall we say, audio voice for distribution on the web and mobile ) is in the combination of mobile phone, dedicated call numbers, blog account and co-branding of mobile operator and blog service provider ( Dial-in Mobilecasting ) .

I am aware it's not for iPod and Mp3 freaks, but for different type of users. Those that prefere making web sites with Blogger or Blog.hr and not with PHP Fusion and other shiny CMSs.
FOX News in the US ( I found out today ) thinks similar. Reuters reports very briefly.

Fox News has rolled out a new service that will let anyone with a cell phone access an audio feed of the cable channel.

I stick to these concept even if I know many ridicule my approach on daily basis looking what's catch and who would use it.
I already wrote about Podlinez service in US and express my opinion for combining web and mobile with good old phone calling ( no data plan needed ).

It is working, it's simple, it's more or less cheap, and people could be using it for short audio clips distributed over the net, but heard on every mobile in the country.
This should be first phase for the rollout mobilecasting in a way Melodeo does.
But it'll take time for mp3 downloads on the phones.

Mobile internet for TELE2 subsribers in Croatia

Tele2 Croatia online

The youngest croatian mobile operator Tele2 is finally preparing data plan for their subsribers.
Somehow I digg it up ( it's not official yet ) on their website.

MobileInternet 555 is the name of the data plan and it's combined with USB modem for desktop or laptop PC with 18 month contract.
General monthly rate for the Plan is 185,00 kunas.
It's 555 MB included in the Plan and above that user pays 0,35 kunas for 1 MB.
At first, UMTS signal is only available in Zagreb, but GPRS signal should be decent throughout the country.

I understand Tele2 hesitated for a long time to start such a service because of their agreement with VIPnet.

LG concept, but Apple rule

Brother's out of law

iPhone seems to be having twin. Engadget reports about LG KE850.
LG is a company that sells a lot more mobile phones than Apple does, but it has a rock star and brand name CEO :))