BROWSING: WAP

iLoop buys InAphone

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Mobile application software company iLoop Mobile said it acquired Danish mobile content company InAphone A/S. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ILoop said the InAphone purchase solidified an existing strategic partnership between the companies and extends its geographic reach into Europe,...

Worst of the Day: CTIA I.T. Day 1

Hello! And welcome to a special CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2006 edition of our column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry—especially at trade shows—so this column is a chance for us at RCR...

Sprint Nextel begins to wade into mobile marketing waters

Sprint Nextel Corp. is expected to become the first Tier 1 carrier to officially step onto the mobile marketing playground this week, tapping Enpocket in an effort to generate revenues by delivering advertising messages through its wireless Web service. Industry sources say New York-based...

Bango teams with MTV for content

NEW YORK—Bango announced it has partnered with MTV Networks U.K. & Ireland to provide its browse-and-buy technology for MTV's new WAP site. The MTV WAP site is designed to promote and sell digital content to users. Bango's technology streamlines the process for users to...

Bango teams with MTV for content

NEW YORK—Bango said it has partnered with MTV Networks U.K. & Ireland to provide its browse and buy technology for MTV’s new WAP Web site. The MTV WAP site is designed to interact with viewers to promote and sell digital content to users. Bango’s...

4INFO adds TV listings to search service

LOS ANGELES-A new partnership between TV Guide Mobile Entertainment Inc. and 4INFO Inc. aims to deliver TV listings to cellular phones. Wireless subscribers will immediately be able to search for programs by title, time or channel. The offering will work on either text messaging...

Yamaha offers musician-friendly app for cell phones

BUENA PARK, Calif.—Yamaha Corp. of America released an application designed to allow musicians to use their mobile phones to tune instruments. The offering, dubbed "The Musician’s Companion," features a pitch pipe, metronome and library of more than 1,000 guitar chord fingerings. The application is...

4INFO adds TV listings to search service

LOS ANGELES—A new partnership between TV Guide Mobile Entertainment Inc. and 4INFO Inc. aims to deliver TV listings to cellular phones. Wireless subscribers will immediately be able to search for programs by title, time or channel. The offering will work on either text messaging...

Baseball fans can tune to Sprint Nextel for play-by-play

NEW YORK-Sprint Nextel Corp. subscribers will soon be able to tune in to live radio broadcasts of their favorite professional baseball teams straight from their handsets. The carrier unveiled a non-exclusive pact with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to deliver live audio broadcasts of...

Baseball fans can tune to Sprint Nextel for play-by-play broadcasts

NEW YORK—Sprint Nextel Corp. subscribers will soon be able to tune in to live radio broadcasts of their favorite professional baseball teams straight from their handsets. The carrier unveiled a non-exclusive pact with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to deliver live audio broadcasts of...

Regionals provide 2Q spark

It was a good quarter for some regional providers of wireless service, with healthy growth and increasing average revenue per user. Alltel Corp. posted strong second-quarter results with plusses and minuses in all the right places. The industry's No. 5 carrier improved ARPU, substantially...

Short codes stymied by perceived complexity

Call it the WAP gap. Major media companies and mega-brands around the world are trying to lure customers by promoting short codes as a kind of red carpet to their Internet and mobile offerings. Consumers can send a text message to the five-digit code...

XandMail supports podcasts, RSS on phones

PARIS—XandMail launched its Mobile Podcast Solution, which the company said pushes podcasts, video or any RSS feed directly to cell phones. To use the service, subscribers enter the feed address or use the product’s auto-discovery feature to generate a list of feeds they want...

Upoc lines up community service for Virgin Mobile

Upoc Networks announced it is providing mobile chat and community functions to Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. customers.The service allows customers to access thousands of existing messaging groups or create their own personal messaging groups. The service is available on phones through a WAP browser...

Upoc lines up mobile community service for Virgin Mobile USA

NEW YORK—Upoc Networks announced it is providing mobile chat and community functions to Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. customers. The service allows customers to access thousands of existing messaging groups or create their own personal messaging groups. The service is available on phones through a...

“Free” key to driving wireless Web traffic

Companies looking to monetize surfers on the wireless Web should consider giving stuff away. That was the consensus of the three speakers featured last week in RCR Wireless News' first webinar, "Wireless portals: Who owns the mobile Web user?" While content providers and carriers...

Mobile software developers are looking East and seeing the Lite

Flash Lite-essentially a stripped-down, mobile version of the popular Flash Player for computers-has quietly gained impressive ground since NTT DoCoMo Inc. introduced handsets enabled with the software in 2003. DoCoMo recently touted surpassing the 2 million subscriber mark to its i-channel service, which uses...

FAMILY AFFAIR: Tracking kids new sales tool

With a flurry of launches last week, the wireless industry appears to have re-discovered-and is falling head over heels in love with-The Family. Both Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc. announced new family-focused services on the day that Disney Mobile began selling its highly...

Content companies hedge bets on hometown news

While big-name media conglomerates scramble to find ways to leverage the "third screen," a handful of wireless companies are slowly gaining traction by offering content from hometown TV newscasts. Local Solutions Network, an Atlanta-based mobile content delivery company, has quietly inked deals with local...

Short codes add one to boost numbers

Wireless industry trade association CTIA is hoping to spur direct-to-consumer revenues by expanding the industry's short-code program. The industry group, along with short-code administrator NeuStar Inc., announced open registration for six-digit short codes. Wireless subscribers can access content or services by sending a key...

Zoove looks for new groove with improved short codes

It's no secret that short codes have failed to gain traction among mass-market wireless subscribers in the United States. Tim Jemison thinks he knows why-and how to cash in. Jemison is the chief executive officer behind Zoove Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup expected...

AskMeNow acquires Israeli ‘natural language’ search vendor

IRVINE, Calif.—Mobile information service provider AskMeNow announced plans to acquire Israel-based IntelliGate Ltd., a specialist in information retrieval and natural language search technology. AskMeNow, a subsidiary of Ocean West Holding Corp., said the acquisition will allow it to offer mobile phone users automated search...

Nokia expands presence in China

Nokia Corp. announced plans to bolster its research and development operations in China, adding wireless network product development to its center in Chengdu in order to be more responsive to customer needs as they emerge in the market. "The Chinese mobile market is seeing...

Nokia expands presence in China

ESPOO, Finland—Nokia Corp. announced plans to bolster its research and development operations in China, adding wireless network product development to its center in Chengdu in order to be more responsive to customer needs as they emerge in the market."The Chinese mobile market is seeing...