The wireless industry has an ethical decision to make. Should we market our products and services to kids?The "tween" market generally is defined as children ages 11 to 14, and some recent wireless products and services target children as young as 6 years old.All...
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. subscribers can access the ringtone from a new Foo Fighters single before the song hits radio airwaves. Cingular and Sony BMG announced the availability of a ringtone from "D.O.A.," which will be released to radio stations today. Subscribers can buy the...
Wireless-related mergers and acquisitions dominated the headlines last week from technology pairings to content match-ups. Here is a roundup: Qualcomm Inc. paid $57 million in cash for Elata, a privately held U.K.-based developer of content-delivery software. Qualcomm said it will integrate its BREW platform...
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to launch a full-track music download service by the holidays, an executive from the newly merged carrier said last week. The operator looks to be the first U.S. carrier to deploy full-track offerings, which have gained steady traction among wireless...
The rising tide that is the mobile-content industry is hitting choppy waters for some publicly held content providers. Dwango Wireless is the latest company to get pummeled by the waves. The Seattle-based aggregator saw its shares plummet last week on news that it posted...
ATLANTA-Cingular Wireless L.L.C. subscribers can access the ringtone from a new Foo Fighters single before the song hits radio airwaves, the carrier said Thursday.Cingular and Sony BMG announced the availability of a ringtone from "D.O.A.," which will be released to radio stations Monday. Subscribers...
America Online Inc. is stepping up its move into the wireless industry with the acquisition of privately held software developer Wildseed Ltd., the Internet giant announced last week. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Wildseed pursued the highly coveted youth market with intelligent faceplates...
NEW YORK-The number of U.S. wireless users who have downloaded ringtones has more than quadrupled during the past year, according to a report from research firm Ipsos Insight. The company's latest quarterly study of digital music behaviors indicates 23 percent of subscribers have downloaded...
NEW YORK-Star Trek fans will soon be able to access themed content through a branded phone modeled on the communicators used in the 1960s TV show.Sona Mobile Inc. will partner with the licensing arm of Viacom International Inc. to produce the handset, which is...
NEW YORK-The number of U.S. wireless users who have downloaded ringtones has more than quadrupled during the past year, according to a report from research firm Ipsos Insight.The company's latest quarterly study of digital music behaviors indicates 23 percent of subscribers have downloaded ringtones,...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Wireless games and content publisher Namco America Inc. announced availability of Pac-Man's Arcade Corner.The interactive ringtone application features Pac-Man as the host and includes a source for exclusive video game ringtones developed exclusively for BREW technology. The ringtone also includes dancing ghosts,...
PLAINFIELD, Ind.-Brightpoint Inc. entered the mobile content space via an agreement with InProdicon AB, which distributes digital content in the Nordic region. The agreement between Brightpoint Sweden AB and InProdicon calls for the companies to launch a new Web site at www.media-milkshake.com that will...
While the industry steps up marketing campaigns in an effort to push lucrative nonvoice applications, content providers are quietly working to create "mobile communities" centered on wireless content and services. Motricity Inc., a North Carolina-based content and technology provider, began spending some if its...
MILAN, Italy-Content aggregator Buongiorno Vitaminic SpA will spend as much as $42 million to acquire Freever, a European mobile community builder, the companies announced Wednesday.Buongiorno said it has committed to pay $23 million in cash for the 6-year-old company and will spend as much...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Internet Protocol messaging solutions company Mobeon released a third-generation video-messaging interface that includes three-dimensional animated avatars.The avatars, called mobile buddies, replace traditional voice and text-based instructions with an entertaining and personalized mailbox navigation for wireless subscribers, said the company.The first mobile buddy, Fidgit,...
PLAINFIELD, Ind.-Brightpoint Inc. entered the mobile content space via an agreement with InProdicon AB, which distributes digital content in the Nordic region.The agreement between Brightpoint Sweden AB and InProdicon calls for the companies to launch a new Web site at www.mediamilkshake.com that will use...
LONDON-Mobile-entertainment company Player X and Vodafone Group plc announced plans to release a cell-phone companion called Space Boy in August. The character "lives" inside customers' mobile phones. Space Boy is the first in the "Mobies" series of interactive mobile-phone friends reminiscent of the tamagotchi...
Carriers and content providers increasingly are targeting younger users in a scramble to push revenue-generating content and applications into one of the few remaining growth market segments. But marketing to teens, "tweens" and even grade-schoolers can be a perilous endeavor. Last week, a group...
Verizon Wireless said it added an industry-record 1.9 million subscribers during the second quarter, which was a 25-percent improvement compared with the 1.5 million customers the carrier added during the second quarter of last year. The growth was significantly higher than the 1.1 million...
LONDON-Mobile entertainment company Player X and Vodafone Group plc announced plans to release a cell-phone companion called Space Boy in August.The character "lives" inside customers' mobile phones. Space Boy is the first in the "Mobies" series of interactive mobile-phone friends reminiscent of the tamagotchi...
WASHINGTON-A California-based consumer group last week filed formal complaints with state regulators against Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Sprint PCS, accusing the No. 1 and No. 3 mobile-phone operators of charging subscribers for unwanted text messages and ringtones. The Utility Consumers' Action Network, headquartered in...
Moviegoers with Bluetooth-enabled handsets can download movie trailers, ringtones and wallpapers at three Loews Theatres this summer. Twentieth Century Fox is providing kiosks at theaters in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco that will automatically send messages to devices with activated Bluetooth technology....
WASHINGTON-A California-based consumer group said it filed complaints with state regulators today against Sprint PCS and Cingular Wireless L.L.C., accusing the mobile-phone operators of charging subscribers for unwanted text messages and ringtones.The Utility Consumers' Action Network, headquartered in San Diego, said it will ask...
LOS ANGELES-Moviegoers with Bluetooth-enabled handsets can download movie trailers, ringtones and wallpapers at three Loews Theatres this summer.Twentieth Century Fox is providing kiosks at theaters in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco that will automatically send messages to devices with activated Bluetooth technology....
