Xiam Mobile Music

Xiam Technologies, makers of the ground-breaking MPOS technology which enables Operators to mass market digital content using personal recommendations for subscribers, has released a music focused module of the software.
MPOS 4Music capitalises on the innovative recommendations-based technology of MPOS to deliver innovative new capabilities specific to the mobile music marketplace.
MPOS 4Music uses data relationship models that have been optimised for music which enable disparate silo-based music repositories to be effectively catalogued and modelled for the purpose of making recommendations on an individual level to music lovers over the mobile channel.
MPOS 4Music presents subscribers with a personalised stream of music over their handsets, based on an initial indication of their favourite artist or genre, with the ability to buy tracks directly over the phone.Users can skip tracks or indicate their like or dislike of a song which in turn enriches their profile, the better to present them with new music they are likely to want to buy.
MPOS 4Music allows Operators to present individualised music recommendations from diverse content providers over various genres in order to promote experimentation and get users to sample and purchase previously undiscovered music.
Xiam have developed a unique cartographical scheme into which any piece of music content can be mapped which enables a radical method to compare different pieces of music content, transcending simple genres and eras, and taking into account a wealth of new variables derived from Xiam's psychographic analysis.
Xiam have incorporated the market leading Social Networking Analysis techniques from the MPOS system which provide a method to present meaningful recommendations to customers whose current profile is limited.
Using a dynamic set of tracking mechanisms, MPOS 4Music can identify key users from within the music downloading community whose profile identifies them as early adopters of cool and new music. Trendsetters who are ahead of the curve can be utilised to suggest that other users check this new music out.
With the Mobile Music industry currently worth in the region of $7.4 billion and set to expand to $13.6 billion by 2011, MPOS 4Music makes the one-to-one marketing power required by mobile music sellers available to Operators now. MPOS 4Music's streaming capability also provides the stickiness required to combat the substantial side-loading issues facing the industry at present.
According to Kurt Lillywhite, VP Marketing, "Mobile music will have to respond directly to the customers' whims and moods, delivering flexibility, innovation and value for money. MPOS 4Music gives Operators the technology required to present music to the user in a way that instigates interaction and the expression of their own tastes, while providing the Operator with the ability to present a stream of targeted tracks to the user. Additionally it enables the Operator to be flexible in their pricing models, allowing mixed models of subscription and purchase fees across the same service".

Passalong Gracenote Mobile Music

PassAlong(TM) Mobile announced today theaddition of the Gracenote Mobile MusicID(TM) technology to its mobile solution offering. PassAlong Mobile provides a platform of services for wireless,mobile and home connected media applications. Gracenote's Mobile MusicID combines the world's most advanced andaccurate audio stream recognition technology with the largest musicinformation database. Utilizing the Gracenote Global Media Database, whichcontains information on more than five million CDs and 60 million individualtracks, Mobile MusicID provides fast, accurate and reliable songidentification and metadata for users in more than 200 countries and regionsaround the world. Gracenote's global media database also includes more than 10million song fingerprints, optimized for mobile devices and representing themost popular music in the world. "Song identification is crucial for both discovery and linking toenhanced services," said Kevin Gorman, GM of PassAlong Mobile. "Gracenote'stechnology and global database provides the best coverage for remoteidentification on mobile devices anywhere in the world, enabling serviceproviders to provide instant discovery, related content and purchaseopportunities to their users " PassAlong Mobile provides consumers with a legitimate solution forsharing music recommendations through its Passing-and-Points(TM) program,which enables them to earn points toward future purchases when arecommendation results in a transaction. "PassAlong is an innovative partner for Gracenote technologies, and agreat illustration of how we envision Mobile MusicID being used by customers,"said Craig Palmer, chief executive officer at Gracenote. "We are excited toprovide PassAlong with our Mobile MusicID technology, and look forward toworking together on future initiatives to better serve connected consumersaround the world." Other offerings from PassAlong Mobile includes theConnect-to-Consumer(TM) transfer of protected content from one WiFi-enabledportable device to another, the wireless version of its popular OnTour(TM)concert finding application and Concert-of-the-Future(TM) initiative.

P Money

Hip-hop legend P Money flew the NZ flag at this year’s Telecom Mobile Music Awards. His track “Keep on Calling” featuring US artist Akon, achieved Gold status after it was downloaded onto Telecom Mobiles as a Caller Tune and/or Tru Tone Ringtone more than 6000 times in the past year.
The annual Telecom Mobile Music Awards took place last night at the Metropolis Hotel in Auckland with awards presented for songs that have achieved Gold and Platinum sales status for downloads as Caller Tunes and Tru Tone Ringtones.
The awards celebrate the number of downloads as either Caller Tunes or Tru Tone Ringtones that an artist has achieved over the previous 12 months. Just like vinyl and CDs, the sounds of ringing mobile phones now translate into the NZ Recording Industry equivalent of Gold and Platinum awards for sales of over 5,000 and 10,000 units respectively.
Proving that the appeal of mobile music is not just limited to the younger generation, reggae legends UB40, whose legendary track “Red Red Wine” received over 6000 downloads, also went Gold. “Beautiful” by Snoop Dogg received Gold for the second year in a row, proving that Snoop is very much still the Doggfather. Other receiving artists included Chingy, Gorillaz, Beyonce, Foo Fighters and James Blunt.
Four Platinum awards were presented for tracks that had been downloaded over 10,000 times. These songs represented a variety of musical genres and featured big name acts such as System of a Down with “BYOB”; Bow Wow (feat Omarion) with “Let Me Hold You”; Kanye West (feat Jamie Foxx) with “Gold Digger” and “My Humps” from Black Eyed Peas.
“Mobile technology is transforming the way we listen to music, a few years ago platinum sales of ringtones would have been unheard of,” said Telecom’s General Manager Consumer Marketing, Kevin Bowler.

EMI T-Mobile Partner on Mobile Music

EMI Group says it is working with Deutsche Telekom unit T-Mobile, and Rhythm NewMedia on an advertising-supported mobile music video service.
London-based EMI is joining a service being trialed by T-Mobile which will allow UK mobile-phone users to watch entertainment, news and music clips from their mobiles.
The trial comes as music companies show an increasing interest in using advertising to fund delivery of their content over both the Internet and mobile phones.
The service will be operated by California-based Rhythm NewMedia, which will provide video content to users on condition that they watch a preceding advertising clip.
Customers will use an electronic program guide to select a range of video content including news, entertainment and music.
Vodafone earlier this year trialed a similar service with Rhythm NewMedia.
EMI said in a statement Monday that advertisements would be "specifically targeted" for the artist being selected by the consumer. EMI's largest artists include Coldplay, Gorillaz and Robbie Williams.
Advertising-supported mobile content is one of a range of business models being trialed as a way of paying for online content.

Groove Mobile Teams with TMV

Groove Mobile, the world'sleading mobile music commerce platform, is teaming with TMN Portugal topower its mobile music download service. Packed with the latest technologythat music fans demand, the Groove Mobile platform gives TMN Portugal's 5million customers the ability to download full music tracks direct tomobile phones. With this launch, Groove Mobile further extends their globalreach, now having access to 81 million mobile phone subscribers worldwide. "TMN Portugal is teaming up with Groove Mobile because their innovativefeatures and leading technology make them an important partner for themobile music service," stated Miguel Geraldes, TMN Business Unit Directorof Data and Content. "TMN is committed to providing customers with theworld-class products they demand, and our new mobile music service deliversthe latest tunes, hottest artists and best music features right to thephone." With full-length tracks from Warner, Sony BMG, EMI, V2, DRA, TheOrchard, and Beggars Group, TMN Portugal's customers will now have accessto a library of complete songs across multiple music genres. Customers willalso have access to a wide variety of songs by Portuguese musicians as wellas catalogs from local independent labels. And with Groove Mobile'sadvanced features, subscribers are able to access multiple charts, receiverecommendations based on purchase history, sideload music previouslypurchased online or from CD's as well as browse, preview, and downloadsmash hits from a huge number of artists. The music service also features ala carte and bundled pricing. "The TMN Portugal mobile music service extends our worldwide leadershipin bringing the best features to the growing number of music fans whoprefer listening to music on mobile phones," stated Adam Sexton, VicePresident, Marketing and Product Management, Groove Mobile. "Our constantinnovations, including music recommendations based on purchase history,have made Groove Mobile the choice of music fans across the globe." Groove Mobile also powers the award winning Sprint Music Store, thefirst full track download service to launch in the United States. Inaddition, independent wireless analysts as well as US and UK musicconsumers report favoring Groove Mobile powered music services because oftheir ease of use and innovative features.

Groove Mobile Teams with TMN

Groove Mobile, the world'sleading mobile music commerce platform, is teaming with TMN Portugal topower its mobile music download service. Packed with the latest technologythat music fans demand, the Groove Mobile platform gives TMN Portugal's 5million customers the ability to download full music tracks direct tomobile phones. With this launch, Groove Mobile further extends their globalreach, now having access to 81 million mobile phone subscribers worldwide. "TMN Portugal is teaming up with Groove Mobile because their innovativefeatures and leading technology make them an important partner for themobile music service," stated Miguel Geraldes, TMN Business Unit Directorof Data and Content. "TMN is committed to providing customers with theworld-class products they demand, and our new mobile music service deliversthe latest tunes, hottest artists and best music features right to thephone." With full-length tracks from Warner, Sony BMG, EMI, V2, DRA, TheOrchard, and Beggars Group, TMN Portugal's customers will now have accessto a library of complete songs across multiple music genres. Customers willalso have access to a wide variety of songs by Portuguese musicians as wellas catalogs from local independent labels. And with Groove Mobile'sadvanced features, subscribers are able to access multiple charts, receiverecommendations based on purchase history, sideload music previouslypurchased online or from CD's as well as browse, preview, and downloadsmash hits from a huge number of artists. The music service also features ala carte and bundled pricing. "The TMN Portugal mobile music service extends our worldwide leadershipin bringing the best features to the growing number of music fans whoprefer listening to music on mobile phones," stated Adam Sexton, VicePresident, Marketing and Product Management, Groove Mobile. "Our constantinnovations, including music recommendations based on purchase history,have made Groove Mobile the choice of music fans across the globe." Groove Mobile also powers the award winning Sprint Music Store, thefirst full track download service to launch in the United States. Inaddition, independent wireless analysts as well as US and UK musicconsumers report favoring Groove Mobile powered music services because oftheir ease of use and innovative features.

Groove Mobile Teams with TMN

Groove Mobile, the world's leading mobile music commerce platform, is teaming with TMN Portugal topower its mobile music download service. Packed with the latest technologythat music fans demand, the Groove Mobile platform gives TMN Portugal's 5million customers the ability to download full music tracks direct tomobile phones. With this launch, Groove Mobile further extends their globalreach, now having access to 81 million mobile phone subscribers worldwide. "TMN Portugal is teaming up with Groove Mobile because their innovativefeatures and leading technology make them an important partner for themobile music service," stated Miguel Geraldes, TMN Business Unit Directorof Data and Content. "TMN is committed to providing customers with theworld-class products they demand, and our new mobile music service deliversthe latest tunes, hottest artists and best music features right to thephone." With full-length tracks from Warner, Sony BMG, EMI, V2, DRA, TheOrchard, and Beggars Group, TMN Portugal's customers will now have accessto a library of complete songs across multiple music genres. Customers willalso have access to a wide variety of songs by Portuguese musicians as wellas catalogs from local independent labels. And with Groove Mobile'sadvanced features, subscribers are able to access multiple charts, receiverecommendations based on purchase history, sideload music previouslypurchased online or from CD's as well as browse, preview, and downloadsmash hits from a huge number of artists. The music service also features ala carte and bundled pricing. "The TMN Portugal mobile music service extends our worldwide leadershipin bringing the best features to the growing number of music fans whoprefer listening to music on mobile phones," stated Adam Sexton, VicePresident, Marketing and Product Management, Groove Mobile. "Our constantinnovations, including music recommendations based on purchase history,have made Groove Mobile the choice of music fans across the globe." Groove Mobile also powers the award winning Sprint Music Store, thefirst full track download service to launch in the United States. Inaddition, independent wireless analysts as well as US and UK musicconsumers report favoring Groove Mobile powered music services because oftheir ease of use and innovative features.

Samsung T629

As expected, T-Mobile USA today launched the Samsung t629 together with a few other phones that are currently marked as "coming soon" on the T-Mobile website.
The t629 slim slider phone features a large display, 1.3 megapixel camera, music player, removable memory slot, Bluetooth, EDGE, speakerphone and voice recognition.
T-Mobile is selling the Samsung t629 for $149.99 after $50.00 instant discount, a $50.00 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement.

Samsung SGH-P310

The SGH-P310 is almost exactly the same size and weight as the P300, coming in at 86x54x8.5mm and weighing only 75 grams. What's amazing in that this little device packs in a 2 megapixel digital camera with flash, 1.9" 320x240 pixel widescreen display and microSD expandable memory, plus an MP3 player, Bluetooth and even a TV output port. There's EDGE data support too, which is handy if you use an EDGE-compatible network.
Gone is the P300's calculator style keypad, and in comes something much more modern-looking. The P300's keypad was a love-it-or-hate-it affair, but in fact it was very easy to use and ideal for a small format device such as this. It might be that the SGH-P310 isn't quite as easy to use as a result.
Add the external case (which has an additional battery), and the weight goes up to 140 grams. It's a handy thing to have if travelling with the Samsung P310. Samsung say that the battery life has been improved in the P310, which was a source of complaint in the older handset.
Whether or not you like tiny phones like this is a matter of personal preference. A look around the Mobile Gazette office (a pretty unscientific sample) shows that we prefer bigger phones in daily use to tiny ones - but if you like 'em small, it's hard to see how you could get more features into a handset as compact as the SGH-P310.
Samsung say that the P310 should be available from September 2006 in Europe and then October 2006 in Asia-Pacific.

Mobile Phones Prices Drop

Mobile phone display shipments reached 275.3 million main displays and 60.7 million sub-displays the second quarter of 2006, flat with the previous quarter though up 32 percent year over year, according to a report by market research firm DisplaySearch Inc.
Mobile phone display revenue was $2.9 billion, down 5 percent quarter-to-quarter and 4 percent year-to-year, reflecting a 27 percent year-to-year drop in average selling prices.
"Mobile phone display revenue continues to contract due to the year-to-year drop in ASPs, even as the industry continues to shift to active matrix displays with larger average sizes," said DisplaySearch vice president and analyst Barry Young. However, we expect the ASP reduction to moderate in the next few quarters, allowing revenue to grow with the increase in shipment volume."
Active matrix liquid crystal displays now comprise 53.7 percent of total shipments, up from 41.7 percent a year ago. By the fourth quarter, active matrix displays are projected to comprise 60.4 percent of mobile phone displays.
Samsung SDI was the leading supplier of color super twisted nematic displays and ranks sixth in active-matrix LCDs. Philips is second in CSTN displays and fourth in AMLCDs. Sharp is the leading supplier of AMLCDs and seventh in CSTNs.
Overall, Samsung led in mobile phone display shipments with 44.9 million, or 16.3 percent of the market, followed by Philips with 32.1 million, or 11.7 percent. Sanyo Epson, Sharp, and Wintek round out the top five.

Real Networks Acquires Wider Than

RealNetworks Inc. said Tuesday that it would acquire mobile music company WiderThan Co. Ltd. for $350 million.
The announcement, made after the markets closed, sent WiderThan shares soaring in after-hours trading.
RealNetworks, a digital media company known for its music player and Rhapsody music service, said the deal would allow the company to get further into the mobile music space.
Among other services, WiderThan provides "ringback tones" - music that plays when a person places a call. The company, based in Seoul, South Korea, has worked with cellular carriers, including South Korea's SK Telecom and Verizon Wireless, a partnership between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC.
Seattle-based RealNetworks said it planned to acquire WiderThan for $17.05 per share, or approximately $350 million. The deal is expected to be completed in the first three months of next year.

BlackBerry Pearl Online

Pearl is RIM's first BlackBerry with a built-in camera for picture and video as well as music-playing capabilities. It is built in the mold of RIM's 7100 series, which means it is more smartphone-like than models like the 8700 series, for example.
As result, the device nixes the traditional BlackBerry QWERTY thumb-keyboard for a keypad/keyboard combo that merges numbers and text onto each button, while RIM's SureType technology helps users accurately input text. When they press a key, the new handset - as with the 7100 series – is supposed to know which of the two supported letters they meant to use.