Consumers continue to flock to the mobile Web, according to the latest report from Opera Software ASA, and they're increasingly looking to connect with social-networking sites.The Norwegian developer said its Opera Mini browser delivered more than 5.7 page views last month, up 12.1% from...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Up until very recently, proprietary handset platforms, walled gardens and expensive data tariffs have served well as...
My e-mail inbox is teeming with pitches offering self-serving "predictions" for 2009 that read more like best-case scenarios for those hoping to cash in on mobile. But here's a forecast of my own: 2009 will be the year record labels and carriers finally wise...
Move over YouTube. MySpace lovers can now access video from the social-networking monster on their handsets. MySpace, along with video technology vendor RipCode, announced that MySpace mobile users can view all MySpace video content on compatible phones."Video is a natural next step for us...
On-the-go consumers are using their phones to stay connected to their social networking communities, according to new data from AOL.The portal said MySpace was the most popular mobile search term this year, followed in order by AIM, iPhone, MocoSpace and Facebook. Other popular search...
Sprint Nextel Corp. is teaming with VeriSign Inc. to enable subscribers to send photos and videos from their phones to popular social media sites.The offering uses VeriSign's Xoomerang platform to allow users to upload images from more than 30 Sprint phones to MySpace, Photobucket...
More than 400,000 BlackBerry users have downloaded the new MySpace application, according to Research In Motion Ltd., shattering the record for applications in their first week of release.The offering, which was released Nov. 13, saw users send and receive more than 15 million messages,...
Facebook is stepping up its mobile game.The wildly popular social networking site has seen the number of wireless users triple this year, exploding from 5 million to 15 million active mobile Facebookers, according to a Facebook engineer's post on the company's Web site."This may...
The economic downturn is already dragging down the online-marketing space, but pure-play mobile ad companies swear they're not worried about its affect on the wireless Web.Nielsen Online last month reported a 6% overall decline in "image-based" online ad spending in the first half of...
If this keeps up, content owners may forget the whole "on-deck vs. off-deck" argument. Instead, they'll be trying to figure out which mobile application stores' shelves they want to stock.Google Inc. is the latest player in the app-store game, launching its Android Market last...
BOSTON - It's a busy time for T-Mobile USA Inc.The carrier is in the midst of rolling out its 3G network, it is launching the world's first Google Inc.-powered cellphone, and it is overhauling its interactions with application developers. The goal, of course, is...
MySpace jumped aboard the Android bandwagon with a free, downloadable application customized for the new platform.MySpace Android allows users to upload photos, access band profiles and tour schedules, view comments on profiles and connect with other users. Members of the popular social-networking site can...
Social networking is exploding in mobile, according to figures released by ABI Research. And Frank Meehan thinks he knows how to capitalize.ABI polled 500 users of online social networks and found that 46% of respondents had used such services from their phones. MySpace and...
The most important weapon in the war against the dumb-pipe scenario may just be the cloud.Cloud-based services - hosted applications "in the sky" and accessible through the Internet, as opposed to native apps - are suddenly all the rage in mobile. The concept is...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.I have a good vantage point of the mobile social networking opportunity: The largest social networking providers,...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo Inc. once again took advantage of the trade-show spotlight, using CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008 to plug an iPhone version of its oneConnect offering and an expansion of its Blueprint development platform.OneConnect, which was introduced at the Mobile World...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Verizon Wireless stoked the white-hot social-networking fire, launching three offerings that allow subscribers to share content and stay in contact with their friends.The carrier yesterday unveiled SocialLife, a $1.50-a-month application that connects users to a host of sites including MySpace, FaithBase,...
Mobile e-mail company Visto Corp. announced a major new push into the social-networking space, an effort to expand the company's offerings beyond e-mail and into various real-time information services.Specifically, Visto's new Mobile 6 product allows users to maintain connections to e-mail, social networking sites...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Along with every one of my friends in this industry, from entrepreneurs to product managers at carriers,...
Once again, the Olympics will be seen as a kind of barometer for mobile data. But for wireless to perform alchemy at this year's games by turning consumers into gold, carriers and their business partners will need to put some marketing muscle behind the...
When it comes to investment money, perhaps no space in mobile is as hot as social networking. And it looks like the spigot isn't going to shut off anytime soon. But for venture capital to truly flood the space, the online guys will need...
Microsoft Corp. said it will acquire the Portuguese mobile software developer MobiComp for an undisclosed sum.MobiComp specializes in data protection and management technologies that allow the backup and restoration of data for mobile phones. The 8-year-old company boasts roughly a dozen carrier partners in...
TEXTING. IF YOU HAD ASKED AMERICANS WHAT THAT WORD MEANT 15 years ago, most would have been short for words. Now the definition of texting, even though still not listed in some dictionaries, is embedded in our brains and the words are piling up....
If you're one of the bazillion players looking for a slice of the mobile social networking pie, listen up, because Paul Coulton has some advice.Coulton, a "senior lecturer" who specializes in mobile games and social networks at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, addressed...
