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Spanky, I was aware that the patent did not have anything to do with connecting to the internet. However, I included it as DD since it is a potential enabling technology for cell phones and other mobile devices with digital cameras to more effectively read barcodes.
Scanbuy claims:
Decoding barcode images from digital cameras included in mobile devices presents several difficult problems. These problems go well beyond the challenges addressed in commercial barcode readers. Some of these problems are addressed below:
[0006] Lighting:
[0007] Most mobile devices with integrated digital cameras do not have built-in flashes and rely solely on the ambient light for illumination. This can cause the image to be underexposed or overexposed depending upon the intensity of the ambient light.
[0008] Focus:
[0009] Digital cameras for portable devices are usually designed to work at a variety of distances. The need for a wider range of focus in cameras results in a trade off between the cost of the lens component and the sharpness of a typical image.
[0010] Low-cost Lens Components:
[0011] In order to meet cost constraints of many portable device markets, manufacturers often compromise on the optical quality of camera lenses. This can present decoding technology with a different set of challenges from the simple focal length based focus problem noted above. Low-cost lens components can produce image distortions that are localized to a specific region or form a changing gradient across the image.
[0012] Limited Resolution:
[0013] The cost of a digital imaging CMOS sensor increases as the number of image pixels increases. Although the Asian market has seen the release of general purpose consumer devices like PDAs and cell phones with "megapixel" image resolution, the European and North American markets are now only seeing their emergence. Lower resolution images contain less detail and usually require further processing to be useful.
[0014] Based on the aforementioned described problems with mobile digital imaging, there clearly exists a need for an image enhancement algorithm which can compensate for many of these shortcomings. Such an algorithm would allow many more of the images captured by a digital camera to be useful, especially if the images are intended for optical decoding.
If Scanbuy is right, then this could be a complementary technology to enable Paperclick to be more widely accepted.
SS9173
DD New Scanbuy Patent Application
Section based algorithm for image enhancement
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FP...
This present invention discloses a system and method for enhancing images of barcodes and other similar objects taken by the digital camera connected to or embedded in a mobile device. This filter works by converting the image into its equivalent gray scale. The algorithm then divides the image into sections and finds the pixels of minimum intensity in each section of the image. This minima is used to calculate cut-off values for thresholding. After thresholding, the image is reassembled from its divided sections.
SS9173
Scanclik was or is Scanbuy's core product based on Feb 2004 press release
http://www.scanbuy.com/website/pressrelease/pressrelease_feb0904.htm
ABOUT SCANBUY
ScanbuyTM, Inc. is a New York based software company dedicated to developing solutions that link the physical world and the online environment using personal barcode scanners. The company's core product - ScanClik(TM) - is designed to facilitate online sales of independent supplies dealers. For more information, please visit the Scanbuy web site at www.scanbuy.com, or e-mail at info@scanbuy.com or call the company headquarters at 212-SCANBUY.
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DD More on .mobi
Mobiles get .mobi Domain
http://www.t3.co.uk/news/communications/mobile_phone/mobiles_get_.mobi_domain
mTLD
http://www.mtldinfo.com/
On July 11th, 2005, it was announced that mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd. was formed and signed a contract with ICANN to administer the .mobi domain.
The mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd. is committed to creating a registry service to the .mobi domain, which will serve as a reliable and recognizable mechanism to Internet content and services that are specifically tailored to a mobile experience thereby promoting the considerable opportunities those services represent to end-users and the telecommunications, mobile, Internet and media industries.
The mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd. believes ".mobi" will enhance and improve the ease of use of Internet-based mobile data services through discoverability and predictability, as well as, speed and delivery to market.The .mobi TLD will indicate to consumer and enterprise users, that the site they are visiting is optimized for the delivery of content and services to mobile devices. This quality assurance will attract users, stimulating Internet-based mobile data usage.
About mTLD
http://www.mtldinfo.com/about.aspx
About mTLD Top level Domain, ltd.
The mTLD Initiative was founded in March, 2004 and submitted an application to ICANN for the creation of .mobi. In the culmination of a year long process, a group of mobile & Internet investor companies formed a joint venture named mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd. to perform the registry functions of the newly approved, .mobi domain, including: Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse Technologies, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
As .mobi was created to serve its sponsored community, mTLD has an open, organizational structure for input from its sponsored community through the Membership Advisory Group (MAG) and Policy Advisory Board (PAB), whose purpose is to act as a gathering place for the sponsored community and its associated organizations to discuss policy issues and recommendations with respect to the ".mobi" domain.
mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd. is an Irish-based company.
Mobile Industry Leaders Announce an Initiative to Create a Mobile Top-Level Domain
http://www.mtldinfo.com/web/pdf/LeadersAnnounce.pdf
Assessing the Benefits and Risks of Authorizing the Mobile Top-Level Domain
http://www.mtldinfo.com/web/pdf/Mobile_TLD_WP_final.pdf
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SS9173
JP,
On vacation this week so I won't have much access to the internet. I connected this evening for a few minutes to read member marked posts while waiting for fireworks this evening. Enjoyed the video. Thanks for posting.
SS9173
DD A Week in Wireless #189
1st July 2005
(From an email I receive from Fiercewireless.com)
This week, Dutch incumbent KPN agreed to buy the third-biggest mobile network operator in Holland, Telfort, for some €980 million. This deal brings another 2.4 million customers to KPN, and removes one of five competing operators in the highly competitive Dutch market. Despite the obvious implications, the Dutch authorities were expected to approve the deal. Telfort has now been handed down like a pair of old clogs and sold three times in three years, and failed last year in a bid to buy out the UK's third-biggest carrier O2.
Speaking of O2, the operator was the toast of the London Stock Exchange this week, as its shares reached an all-time high on persistent speculation of a more successful takeover bid in the offing. O2 denied that any bid existed in a statement issued to news agency Reuters, but nothing would dampen the market's appetite for O2 stock. Deutsche Telekom and various private equity bidders were rumoured to be interested. On Thursday, O2 shares rose 2.6 per cent, in a powerful performance from the UK telecoms sector: Vodafone was up 1.4 per cent and Virgin Mobile 3.8 per cent higher.
In another small European country practically overrun by mobile operators, Austria, KPN also got into this week's headlines when it took back an offer for fourth-biggest (and highly profitable) network Tele.ring. Financial sources in Vienna were surprised by the move, as KPN had until then been the clear favourite. The remaining candidates are a group of private investors and the third-biggest operator, One, a division of the German electricity company E.ON. A rather byzantine scenario doing the rounds of the German-speaking press suggests that E.ON, bizarrely, is buying Tele.ring in order to sell its shares in One. The argument is that on its own, One is not big enough to interest major carriers. A merged group, the second-biggest operator in Austria, would be easier to sell or float.
What no-one seems sure of is whether the private investors - the funds Permira and Apax Partners - are part of E.ON's Machiavellian scheme or whether they are in it to win Tele.ring. The operator is valued at around €1bn; either Apax or Permira could find the money. Just to render the chicanery even more intriguing, some sources say the financial bidders are warming to the idea of a Pacman defence, in which Tele.ring would launch its own bid for One.
Confused yet? You will be. KPN's decision came after the deadline for binding offers ran out without anyone showing their hand. The deadline was then extended in recognition of the fact that the state of Lower Austria took this moment to impose a tax on base stations. A major political row broke out, with opposition politicians demanding to know how this could be reconciled with the roll-out of high speed data service to the countryside. The Austrian federal government is considering overruling Lower Austria, which could mean a constitutional crisis. However, it seems the European Union might yet come to the rescue by ruling that the legislation is incompatible with free trade in the EU, which would save face. Whether the federal government, the Lower Austrian parliament, the courts, or the EU kill the legislation, it looks like the governor of Lower Austria is going to be hung out to dry. That's if Vodafone doesn't send out large men in dark suits to make him "look like an accident" first.
Still in Austria, discount MVNO Yesss!, whose heavy use of the letter "s" hasss ssseen it covered by AWIW ssseveral timesss in the passst, won a court case against T-Mobile defending its right to publish links to websites offering cheap phone unlocking services. Yesss! alleged that T-Mobile was illegally trying to impose its terms and conditions on customers even after the expiry of its contract with the operator. T-Mobile accused Yesss! of incitement to a crime. A Viennese court ruled in Yesss!'s favour in the first instance. Whether T-Mobile will appeal or not remains unclear.
Back at T-Mobile headquarters in Germany, this week saw a highly significant decision. The carrier announced it would offer unrestricted access to the internet, using monster search engine Google as a homepage. At first, the offer is only on high-end handsets such as the Nokia 6680, Sidekick II and such; it's not clear what will become of the t-zones portal. Users of the service (to be entitled "Web'n'Walk". Yuk.) will be offered a flat rate data tariff, one of the first in Europe. For €10 a month, one will get 20MB of download over either UMTS or GPRS, which is handy because downloading 20 megs of data over GPRS would probably take a month. T-Mobile's US division has already been offering a similar package, but now it's crossed the pond. The message would seem to be "We're a bit-pipe - and proud of it!", especially in light of T-Mobile's support of numerous MVNOs. It's a bold and pragmatic move the Informer strongly supports. Users in Germany and Austria will go first, followed during 2005 by Brits, Czechs and the Dutch. What's the betting that the much-trailed Motorola Skype phone will turn up not a million miles from T-Mobile's network?
The Skype Journal reported this week that VoIP gadgetco Mplat.com is offering a USB-Flash softphone for $46.90. The gadget consists of a USB stick loaded with the Skype client and various DSP and sound kit, as well as a mini-headset. You insert the device in a USB Flash driver, and Skype away. Well, you could if your phone has a USB port, which is unlikely. (I wonder why that is?) It should come as no surprise, then, that researchers at research firm Analysys think that by 2010, mobile and VoIP will account for over 60 per cent of voice spend in Europe.
One new gadget this week that does have a Flash driver is Hewlett Packard's new PDA/phone, the iPaq hw6500 series. As well as quad-band GSM/GPRS functions and Windows Mobile, 312MHz of processing power and 64Mb of memory, it also packs in a 1.3 megapixel camera and an integrated GPS receiver. Vodafone will be offering them.
Meanwhile, it's no go for the Blackberry clone known as the Ogo, a data-only device that Cingular will no longer offer. Its presence at Cingular was always anomalous, being a hangover from AT&T Wireless. Cingular this week became the first network operator to break ranks over the controversial Motorola/Apple iTunes phone, as Reuters reported that anonymous sources in the company had promised that the device would ship first on the US's no.1 network. Operators have not been keen on the gadget, fearing that their users would fill it with songs at home rather than paying through the nose to download them over-the-air. As if on cue, Apple launched version 4.9 of its popular music download software, and bloggers were quick to discover apparently secret mobile functionality buried in the code.
A resource file in the Macintosh version called "Localized.rsrc," it seems, contains multiple references to mobile phones, including functions to "Set up your mobile phone," "Automatically choose songs for my mobile phone," and "Configure phone preferences." Before leaving the subject, we will note that Moto also chose this week to launch the first phone using its new JUIX user interface. Features: Tri-band GSM/EDGE, 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, Bluetooth, TransFlash, and MP3 playback.
British handset firm Sendo was effectively bought out by Motorola this week, transferring 200 engineers and some 90 patents to the American manufacturer. No financial information was given, but the rest of the company is to close. Sendo made the world's first Windows-capable smartphone, but its brief history has been marred by near-constant litigation. If your core business is making Windows devices, falling foul of Microsoft is not a good idea. And if the devices are phones, falling out with Ericsson about GSM patents probably isn't very wise either. But Sendo managed to do both, and hence joins Psion handhelds, Marconi, hovercraft, DNA sequencing, Concorde, tilting trains, nuclear power, and much more in the long history of British engineering innovations that failed dramatically once they reached the market.
And Sprint announced it was planning to begin trials of WiMax wireless broadband in the 2.5 GHz spectrum, using Motorola equipment for the "emerging" 802.16e standard. The test campaign is to begin this year and continue into 2006.
Philips announced this week that it was working on a sub-$20 handset for the developing world. This goes quite a bit further than the current GSM Association challenge in this field, and fits nicely with Vodafone boss Arun Sarin's sizable article in the Financial Times on Thursday expounding the benefits of mobile telephones for the poor. Motorola, of course, was the winner of the GSMA emerging-market handset competition.
Motorola Networks also invited the Informer to a secret underground cavern this week, so see the Spotlight for more Moto-Madness.
Nokia's high-spec N90 phone, it was announced this week, will be delayed by several weeks. No doubt the manufacturer will give some sort of half-baked techie excuse, but experts consulted by the Informer suggest it's more likely that Nokia is suffering from a bitter labour dispute in the Finnish paper industry. It's now six weeks since the paper mills that produce the 25 per cent of Finnish exports that Nokia doesn't have worked, as one of the longest strikes in Finnish history drags on. And Finland is now facing a menacing shortage of toilet paper, after panic-buying stripped the supermarkets of their remaining stock.
Perhaps that's why the traditional bombardment of Nokia press releases let up somewhat this week?
British police have been called in to investigate a malicious voicemail threatening to "kneecap" mobile users in the Hertfordshire area. This seems to be a retread of the rather hackneyed "revenge" services that used to ring people up with a message along the lines of "My daughter's pregnant!" in the early 1990s.
In other news relating to scum, the heavily-hyped CommWarrior virus actually seems to have infected someone's phone without a publicity-hungry security consultant being involved. A British woman noticed that credit on her pay-as-you-go phone was mysteriously vanishing as the little beast sent MMS copies of itself to all her friends. Apparently, the infection, like so many, was picked up during a Mediterranean holiday.
British authorities were on something of a mobile clean-up campaign this week: as well as the police investigation mentioned above, the premium-rate service regulator Icstis announced it was looking into the marketing practices of Jamster, the ringtone firm that brought us the widely despised Crazy Frog. Somewhat to the Informer's surprise, the investigation is to focus on complaints that the Frog's owner fails to make it clear that buyers of the infuriating noise are also agreeing to receive further text messages offering ringtones. Each message is charged at £3. Our first thought had been that they were looking into how the accursed amphibian came to be marketed in the first place. But it turns out that it's not so much a Crazy Frog as a Trojan Frog.
Returning to the positively po-faced world of mobile enterprise applications, Nokia and IBM execs made a joint appearance at JavaOne 2005 to encourage Java developers to get cracking on business applications for mobiles instead of games'n'ringtones. Craig Hayman of IBM's Software Group suggested a new Java API would "put the power of the server in the handset". The key is Java Specification Request (JSR) 232, which is meant to make IBM's favourite idea, Service-Oriented Architectures, possible on mobiles.
But if you think the developers are going to listen when they could be playing with electronic frogs, you're a fool...
They do these things better in Japan, as with massage and trains, and NTT DoCoMo this week announced a joint-venture with a Slovenian firm called ULTRA to sell its US-based mobile asset management software, Telargo. Mobile asset management, by the way, basically means using mobile comms technology to track fleets of vehicles, workers or stock. Is that serious enough yet? Anyway, NTT is paying some $28.6 million for the deal.
What mobile fleet management is to men in high-visibility vests, push email is to besuited executives. And, if it's not a Blackberry, it's not the real thing. Some golf clubs are said to refuse entry to persons carrying the wrong wireless email device these days: almost as bad as wearing brown shoes with a suit. Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion had first-quarter results out this week, boasting of revenue up 12 per cent on the previous quarter and 68 per cent year-on-year, fuelled by 24 per cent growth in subscribers in the quarter. Net income was reported at $132.5 million, 67 US cents a share, before a $6.5 million charge for legal expenses relating to RIM's patent dispute with NTP. Rival email-to-suit provider Visto Corp announced the opening of a new R&D centre in Tianjin, China.
Microsoft announced a deal with Vodafone to achieve world domination...whoops, to launch an IM (instant messaging) service that works between MSN Messenger and Vodafone Messenger users. Several European countries should see a launch before the end of the year. Alternatively, the well-dressed young exec might prefer CommonTime's new mNotes software - a client for Symbian OS phones that hooks up to an enterprise Lotus Notes installation and claims to offer "a full Notes groupware experience".
Verizon Wireless, though, bucked the mood of seriousness when it announced that a music download service would be available within the next six to eight months, probably using the LG VX1800 phone. But France Telecom stood up to the temptation of such frivolity, suggesting that its users will soon be able to monitor a "home surveillance service" from their phones. CEO Didier Lombard told a strategy session that the giant telco's fixed-line and internet operations outside France are going to be rolled up in the current mobile brand, Orange. French press reports had suggested an even more radical move was in prospect, with the entire group in line for a fruity makeover, but this did not materialise. He promised a €1 dividend per share this year and stated that debt would continue to be paid off. Rumours, meanwhile, were rife in London that France Telecom might be a bidder for Cable & Wireless.
British regulator Ofcom has published its Spectrum Framework Review into how radio spectrum allocation should work in the future. Apparently, spectrum trading is on the cards for up to 70 per cent of the available frequencies. And the answer to whether or not TV over mobile is actually TV for the purposes of Britain's TV licensing legislation (and hence subject to the tax that finances the BBC) is in. Apparently, if the broadcast is viewed at the same time as it is sent, it's telly: if it is downloaded and then played back, it's not. Anyway, the TV licence fee covers all TV devices in a household that are powered by an internal battery in addition to the main TV, so it's unlikely anyone will pay more.
Lucent Technologies' European president Dave Poticny has been shifted to the Developing Markets group, in what a spokesman said was a move intended to "take some of our big guns into the new markets and grow our business." However, Lucent said that this was not a company policy, and the spokesman knew of no other similar personnel moves. It sounds very much like a demotion for Poticny, and a source (and frequent critic) told the Informer that Poticny was being "run out of his job" after a colleague was fired without his knowledge. Lucent refused to comment on the sacking.
Telefonica of Spain surprised the world this Friday by announcing it was taking a stake in China's second-biggest fixed-line operator (and unofficial mobile operator) China Netcom. Strict government restrictions limit foreign involvement in Chinese telecommunication, but apparently the deal has been structured so as to avoid this. Netcom, which is widely expected to be chosen to launch a 3G network, may be seeking expertise in 3G from Europe.
The Informer
Send your feedback to: theinformer@mobilecomms.com
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Wooger, I can't help but think we will see some major announcement regarding the launch of Word Registry the week of July 4th. My gut tells me the PR phrase I referenced in yesterday's post wasn't just put there by accident. Chas was trying to give us a big hint IMO. The words just don't fit very well if there wasn't some other hidden meaning behind them.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6826852
Read them again and ask yourself why did they choose this wording:
NeoMedia's Fritz said that his company "is eager to work with Virgin to help launch its PaperClick words in the PaperClick WordRegistry(TM) to promote new Virgin stores and to wave the flag together."
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OT DD Microsoft in talks for adware developer, NYT reports
http://biz.yahoo.com/cbsmb/050630/d24b58e5fc9c4d68bc6238b9b13d087f.html?.v=1
Thursday June 30, 6:19 am ET
By Abby Deveney
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft has been in talks for the last two weeks to buy private Silicon Valley company Claria, the New York Times says, in a move that underscores just how eager it is to catch up with Google . Claria, an adware marketer formerly called Gator, is best known for its pop-up ads and software that tracks people visiting Web sites. The offer price recently on the table was $500 million, according to people who have been briefed on the talks, the Times reported. The Gator adware has frequently been denounced by privacy advocates for its intrusiveness, and a person close to Microsoft said Wednesday evening that the negotiations were on the verge of breaking off. One person briefed on the deal said there was opposition within Microsoft to the acquisition, with fears the move could bring an outcry as critics portray Microsoft as a corporate Big Brother, trying to track every mouse click on the Web and profit from it.
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Joedimaggio,
Like everyone else, I am elated that our patents have been validated by Virgin and Neom settling out of court, and Virgin licensing Paperclick and Word Registry. It is a huge development for Neom's business.
But lets also remember that we have just completed the first inning, and Neom is up 2 to 0. There are 8 more innings to play yet. And while Neom is off to a great start, they can't get sloppy and still win the game. There are still lots of competitors infringing on Neom's IP. Several of them have brought their goods to market in some form or fashion. Neom can't ignore these guys...they have to pursue them with a vengeance, hopefully getting them to sign license agreements rather than long drawn-out court proceedings.
My point is Neom is now well-positioned for success. Management is at the top of their game, but they have to continue doing so. Neom's opportunity now is to go back to all the players that have already inked some form of relationship or partnership (Intel, SAIC, FCB, Symbol, Digital Rum, 12 Snap, Aura Digital Communications, etc) and work diligently with them to bring Paperclick to Market...Working diligently so that those previously inked deals can live up to their full potential.
So while this Virgin settlement is a 2 run homerun, IMO we still need to execute our presently well-thought out business plan. I have seen a lot of companies have great business plans, but didn't execute well. They weren't as successful as they would have been otherwise. Neom is executing, but IMO speed-to-market so far is not a core competency. Most all their timelines have slipped to the right. Now we can all try to justify that there were good reasons for the time it took to reach the Virgin settlement, but look how long it is taking to close the BSDS acquisition as an example.
In summary, the validation of Neom's IP now positions them well for profitable growth. I believe they have a very good business plan as well. They have lined up some excellent "big player" relationships. But they are still in the minor leagues (OTC-BB), and will have to continue to execute in order to score more runs, and make it to the major leagues (Nasdaq). I am excited about how well we played the first inning, and look forward to watching the rest of the game.
SS9173
DD - Change is in the air
http://economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=3713929
Mar 10th 2005
From The Economist print edition
Smart travel: New technologies promise to make air travel smoother for passengers and cut costs for beleaguered airlines
GET ready to change the way you travel. That is the message from Giovanni Bisignani, the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), an industry body that co-ordinates aviation rules and standards. He still wants you to travel by plane, of course, as 1.8 billion passengers did in 2004, and 1.9 billion will do this year. But with commercial aviation in a sorry state as a result of terrorist attacks, an economic slowdown, SARS, the Iraq war and high oil prices, he believes the best treatment for the industry is a strong dose of technology that could both reduce costs for airlines and make travel simpler and smoother for passengers. IATA's grand plan to do this, called “Simplifying the Business”, was launched in Geneva last November. It calls for a drastic overhaul of four aspects of the air-travel process—tickets, boarding passes, check-in and baggage handling—with an aggressive timetable that should start to deliver results this year.
At the same time, other new technologies are reshaping the nature of air travel. In-flight internet access, and even the use of mobile phones, could soon become commonplace, on some routes at least. Entertainment systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated as airlines compete for customer loyalty. What will all this mean for air travellers?
The president of IATA made a speech about the “Simplifying the Business” plan in November. The IATA also has a press release about e-ticketing, information about self-service kiosks and RFID baggage handling, and an overview of how the reforms will fit together. Virgin Atlantic has information about its advanced onboard entertainment systems. In February, SITA announced the launch of OnAir mobile phone technology. See also the International Airline Passengers Association.
The first plank of IATA's plan is to eliminate paper tickets by the end of 2007. In many parts of the world they are already an endangered species: only about 20% of tickets issued in America are paper ones, and almost all of those are for international flights. But globally, electronic tickets still account for only 35% of all tickets issued, up from 10% in 2001.
With a paper ticket, details of the passenger's journey are stored in a magnetic strip that can be read by special readers. With an electronic ticket, these details are stored in an airline database, and are retrieved using a unique look-up code. This means there is no need to issue a physical ticket to the passenger: instead, the code can be delivered via the internet or over the phone. It is much more convenient for passengers, particularly when buying tickets online, and results in huge savings for airlines: an e-ticket costs around $1 to issue and process, compared with $10 for a paper ticket. Eliminating paper tickets could save the industry over $2.7 billion a year, says Michael Feldman of IATA.
No tickets, please
Implementing e-ticketing within a single airline is relatively straightforward. But “interline” ticketing (in other words, tickets for a journey involving more than one airline) is trickier, because it requires different airlines' databases to talk to each other. Getting rid of paper tickets, then, involves linking up the airlines. This is happening first within airline alliances, says Mr Feldman, and then between airlines that partner on particular routes.
What of smaller, regional carriers? Linking up smaller airlines is not as tricky as it might seem, notes James Peters of SITA, a company that provides technology and infrastructure to the aviation industry. SITA runs a reservations system called Gabriel, which is used by more than 160 airlines, many of them small carriers in Africa and Asia. Support for electronic ticketing was added to Gabriel at the end of 2004. Problem solved, then? Not quite. What will take time, says Mr Peters, is establishing commercial agreements between airlines, changing procedures and training staff. “The technology and standards for electronic ticketing are well established,” says Mr Feldman. “But to implement it requires changes in business processes.” The cost savings ought to encourage airlines to get moving, however.
Doing away with paper tickets also means the check-in process can be completely overhauled, the second component of IATA's four-part initiative. For once a ticket is no longer a physical item, there is no need to be at the airport to present it: instead, you can check in for your flight from home via the web, or even while on the move via your mobile phone. In each case, the boarding card is issued in the form of a two-dimensional bar-code, an apparently random grid of black-and-white dots. This pattern, which can be printed out from a PC or displayed on the screen of a mobile phone, is then scanned at the gate before boarding. Several airlines already allow online check-in over the web. It is more convenient for passengers, since it means less standing in line at the airport; they can even see what choice of seats is available on-screen, and make their choice accordingly. It also saves airlines money, by reducing the need for check-in facilities and staff.
The next step, says Mr Peters, is to extend online check-in to mobile phones. SITA has developed such a system in conjunction with Siemens, and began testing it with a Brazilian airline last November. Check-in is handled by a small piece of software on the phone, downloaded like a game or a ringtone. The software establishes a wireless connection with the reservation system, offers a choice of seats, and then retrieves the boarding-pass bar-code, which is stored in the handset.
The system can be configured to send passengers a text-message reminder two hours before the flight; clicking a link in the message launches the check-in process. Several airlines plan to introduce mobile check-in later this year. But bar-code boarding passes cannot be used for interline flights unless all the airlines and airports along the route support them. Like electronic tickets, bar-code boarding passes will be adopted first by individual airlines, and then by alliances, before becoming ubiquitous.
The third component of IATA's plan is an expansion in the use of self-service kiosks, which are already popping up in airports around the world. Again, the benefits are speedier service for passengers and savings for airlines: a self-service check-in costs $0.16 on average, compared with $3.68 using human agents, according to Forrester Research, a consultancy.
Do it yourself
According to a survey carried out by SITA, airlines expect a majority of their passengers to be using kiosks for check-in by 2008. On busy routes thronged by frequent travellers, kiosks are already so popular that it is necessary to queue up to use them. Rather than installing more kiosks all over the place to handle peak demand, it makes more sense to switch from airline-specific kiosks to shared ones, which can handle passengers from several airlines. This makes it easier to scale check-in capacity to meet demand, and enables even small airlines to offer self-service check-in. Such shared machines, which conform to a standard drawn up by IATA, are known as “common-use self-service” (CUSS) kiosks. The first CUSS kiosks to serve multiple airlines were introduced last April in Toronto by SITA. Passengers are presented with a common welcome screen, select an airline, and that airline's own check-in software then pops up.
The switch to CUSS machines makes it feasible to put kiosks in places other than the airport, such as car-rental offices, railway stations or hotel lobbies—places where a row of airline-specific kiosks would have taken up too much room and cost too much. Airlines are now examining the business case for putting kiosks in all kinds of places where passengers congregate, says Mr Feldman. Another trend, says Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester Research, is to integrate other, non-airline services into kiosks. It would then, for example, be possible to use a kiosk in a hotel lobby to check out of the hotel, look up the status of your flight, and then check in for it.
The fourth part of IATA's plan is the most ambitious, and will probably take the longest: switching baggage labels from printed bar-codes to wireless tags based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. The aim is to reduce the number of misplaced items of baggage, a headache for passengers and airlines alike. Of the 1.5 billion bags carried on commercial flights each year, around 0.7% go astray. Dealing with each lost bag costs airlines an average of $100, or around $1 billion a year for the industry as a whole, not to mention the loss of customer goodwill. A big part of the problem is that crumpled or torn bar-code labels are misread by the machines that process baggage as it travels between passenger and plane: the accuracy of printed bar-codes can be as low as 80%. RFID tags, in contrast, have accuracy rates exceeding 95%. As a bag with an RFID tag passes through a scanner, a pulse of radio waves awakens the tag, which responds by transmitting a small burst of data.
Trials with RFID tags have been going on for several years. But so far, adoption has been hampered by the high cost of the tags—now down to about $0.25, but still too much—and a disagreement over which of two approaches to pursue. One approach is to use “pre-printed”RFID tags that contain a unique identity code that cannot be changed. When the bag is checked in, the tag is applied, and the airline's computer systems associate the tag's code with the passenger's electronic ticket. This approach is being championed by Delta, an American carrier that is particularly enthusiastic about RFID tags. It has the advantage that pre-printed tags are cheap: they cost around $0.05.
The drawback with this approach, however, is that the association between tag and passenger is stored in the airline's database. So every time the tag is read, a real-time connection to that database is needed to work out how to route the bag. It works well for a single airline, but when more than one airline is involved, links are needed between their databases. That is why many in the industry favour a second approach involving the more expensive tags. These have the advantage that data can be written into them, including passenger and routing details, when the bag is checked in. This information then travels along with the bag, without the need for any database look-ups.
All of this depends on the development of an international standard, and that will require extensive testing. At the moment, says Mr Feldman, the emphasis is on limited trials involving pairs of airports and airlines. In one recent example KLM and Japan Airlines tested RFID tagging of baggage on the Schiphol-Narita route. Another trial, at Montreal airport, involves kiosks that generate RFID baggage tags at check-in, making self-service check-in possible even for passengers with hold luggage. RFID tags will be widely adopted only if airlines, airports and ground-handling staff can be convinced that they are a good idea, says Mr Feldman. The cost of the switch will also have to be justified. But as RFID is adopted in other industries, economies of scale ought to reduce costs.
All of these technologies—electronic tickets, remote check-in, kiosks and RFID tags—have already been adopted, to varying degrees, by forward-thinking airlines and airports around the world. The aim of IATA's initiative is to introduce standards, to ensure interoperability, promote adoption, and make the benefits of these technologies available to the whole industry. The switch from proprietary, airline-specific technologies to open standards will, however, reduce the airlines' scope for differentiation. If all passengers are using the same facilities, how can airlines distinguish themselves from their rivals?
Primarily through the routes they fly and the prices they charge, of course; and the quality of their in-flight service. But while technology would seem to make competitive differentiation within the airport more difficult, it is simultaneously increasing the scope for differentiation in the air, through the provision of ever more elaborate in-flight services.
In-flight entertainment is now a critical part of how airlines position themselves, say Mr Harteveldt. One of the most advanced entertainment systems in current use is Virgin Atlantic's V:port, currently available in 13 of the airline's 31 aircraft, and being installed in all its new aircraft. Its most notable feature is video on demand, with 300 hours of films and television shows that can be called up by any passenger at any time. The video is stored on hard disks on a central server and is streamed to each seat. V:port also has a music-on-demand service and a selection of games, some of which (such as a trivia quiz) support multi-user play between passengers. All this, says Lysette Gauna, Virgin's head of in-flight entertainment, reinforces Virgin's association with fun and innovation. Similar systems will become available on rival airlines in future, says Ms Gauna, so Virgin is already developing an improved system.
Another trend is the growing availability of internet access on board aircraft. The state of the art here is Boeing's Connexion service, which uses a satellite broadband connection to create a Wi-Fi “hotspot” inside the cabin. Lufthansa was the first airline to deploy the service, in May last year, and it intends to make it available on all long-haul routes by the middle of 2006. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have also adopted the technology, and Singapore Airlines, China Airlines and SAS plan to follow suit. The service typically costs $30 on flights of six hours or more, and $20 on flights of between three and six hours. A similar system is offered by Tenzing, a subsidiary of Airbus. It recently established a joint-venture with SITA called OnAir, with a view to exploiting what is expected to be the next big trend in airborne communications: the in-flight use of mobile phones.
Contrary to popular belief, the main impediment to the use of mobile phones on planes is not interference with the aircraft's avionics systems. On a typical long-haul flight, says Mike Fitzgerald of Altobridge, a firm that makes technology to bridge satellite and cellular networks, 20 mobile phones are left switched on. Instead, the problem is that airborne mobile phones disrupt mobile networks on the ground. An airliner with 500 phones on board, whizzing across a city, would befuddle the network as the phones busily hopped from one base-station to the next.
But the technology now exists to allow passengers to get around this problem. A small base-station, called a “picocell”, is installed on the plane, and connected to the telephone network via a satellite link. The aircraft cabin is shielded to prevent handsets from making contact with base-stations on the ground. Instead, they “roam” on to the network signal from the picocell. Since the picocell is so nearby, the handsets can operate at very low power to maintain contact with it, which eliminates interference with networks on the ground. Picocell systems have been tested on several flights, including a flight over the Pacific last August, and a test over Geneva to demonstrate that ground-based networks were not affected. Getting final regulatory approval will take most of 2005, says Mr Peters, so commercial service will begin in 2006. According to SITA's annual airline survey, more than 20% of global airlines plan to introduce in-flight mobile telephony by 2007.
“Check-in can be handled by a small program on your phone, downloaded like a game or a ringtone.”
When the technical and regulatory rules have been sorted out, however, the small matter of in-flight phone etiquette will remain. “I have concerns that it will be extremely annoying,” says Nancy McKinley of the International Airline Passengers Association, a body that represents frequent travellers. However, OnAir's market research found that long-haul travellers expressed more interest in internet access and text-messaging than voice calls, and Mr Harteveldt says his research has found that very few travellers want to make voice calls while in the air. It may be that the voice market will be stillborn, and more discreet data communications will predominate.
Flying into the future
Putting all these pieces together, it seems that technology could soon make air travel smoother, swifter, more fun and more productive. But there are two potential problems. The first is that customer service could end up taking a back seat to cutting costs. Even now, some travellers are suspicious of electronic tickets, notes Ms McKinley. Similarly, not everyone wants to use kiosks; some people would rather stand in line and talk to a human. Mr Feldman, however, notes that different airlines are using technology to serve different types of customers. Some see technology as a cheap way to provide no-frills services to economy-class travellers, while passengers prepared to pay more are given more personal attention; other airlines see technology as a way to appeal to frequent travellers who want fast service and like to be in control. So passengers will still have a choice.
Another problem is that, as airport procedures are streamlined by airlines, the lack of co-ordination over security procedures will become increasingly apparent. CUSS kiosks, for example, have been designed to support biometric technologies such as face-scanning or fingerprints in future, since governments intend to incorporate them into passports. So far, however, there is no international standard, and questions remain about the reliability of the technology. “We are trying to take into consideration where all of this is going, but there is still no clear global direction on which biometrics are going to be applicable and where,” says Mr Feldman. Variations in security rules could limit how smooth travel can be.
Looking ahead, IATA's “journey of the future” scenario imagines a seamless system in which security and immigration procedures are also implemented via check-in kiosks, so that there is no need to present the same documents repeatedly while moving through the airport. But this is a long-term vision. For now, the various plans to transform travel over the next couple of years would appear to be quite ambitious enough already.
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DD - Virgin Mobile chooses market leading mobile couponing solution for V Festival promotion
My comment: This is an older press release (it may have been posted some time last year...it didn't show up when I searched the board - but Ihub search appears to only go back to the beginning of this calendar year). Nevertheless, perhaps Virgin will do something similar with Neomedia now that they have licensed Paperclick.
http://www.flytxt.com/cgi-bin/template.pl?t=nrpd&ID=266
August 2004 / Virgin Mobile chooses market leading mobile couponing solution 11/08/2004
Virgin Mobile today announced that it has chosen Flytxt, the leading mobile technology provider, and ActiveMedia Technology, designers of real time m-voucher authentication technology, to launch a series of innovative m-couponing promotions throughout the rest of the summer, including V Festival taking place on 21st and 22nd of August in Chelmsford and Staffordshire. The initiative aims to reward loyalty amongst Virgin Mobile’s subscriber base and trial Flytxt and ActiveMedia’s market leading mobile couponing solution.
At the festival flyers and posters will encourage Virgin Mobile customers to take part in the promotion. Those keen to get a free drink will text the word BEER to an SMS shortcode and then receive a unique 8 digit numeric code. The Virgin Mobile customers will then enter their unique code at one of the two multi-media kiosks at each festival location to collect their FREE BEER coupon.
Virgin Mobile’s decision to run a series of m-coupon promotions at V follows several successful ‘Text 4 Beer’ trials run by Flytxt and Active Media on behalf of Virgin Mobile at the Carling Academy, Islington, in June and at the Big Gay out at Finsbury Park on the 3rd of July.
The trial promotions have tested several different campaign mechanics. One involved posters advertising a drinks promotion, where Virgin Mobile users could get instant redemption on their m-coupons for free drinks at the bar. The campaign had redemption rates well above 70%.
Other mechanics tested involved promotional cards handed out at the Carling Academy, encouraging participants to text in to receive a free Carling. Another involved a message sent out to a Virgin Mobile subscriber database, asking people to text back to receive their m-coupon. Participants received an m-coupon with two unique codes in, entitling them to two free pints of Carling at the Academy.
For both the trials that have already taken place and the promotions taking place in August, Flytxt provides the technical delivery of mobile coupons and the mobile marketing initiative to engage Virgin Mobile subscribers. ActiveMedia supplies real-time m-voucher authentication technology (RAPOS™). The RAPOS units that are installed in the bar, enable users to redeem their m-coupon instantly on site.
Stephen Rogan, sponsorship manager of Virgin Mobile, said: “Working with Flytxt on couponing promotions has given us the opportunity to both reward our customers and add value to their experiences. It is also very exciting to be using such an innovative system, and puts us at the cutting edge of mobile promotions.”
Carsten Boers, CEO of Flytxt commented: “We’re thrilled to be working with Virgin Mobile at V Festival. This mobile coupon mechanic offers the consumer both convenience and a valuable reward, and provides Virgin Mobile with valuable consumer behaviour intelligence and a cost effective way of rewarding their loyal customers.”
Ramesh Kumar, Managing Director, ActiveMedia Technology added: “Text promotions are taking off in the UK in a big way. Consumers are coming round to the idea of using their mobile phone as a way of accessing relevant and exciting promotions through m-couponing and companies such as Virgin are taking full advantage.”
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Hmmm...wonder if there is anything significant with this phrase (in bold) from the press release: NeoMedia's Fritz said that his company "is eager to work with Virgin to help launch its PaperClick words in the PaperClick WordRegistry(TM) to promote new Virgin stores and to wave the flag together." July 4th promotion????
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Great news this morning! IMO Virgin's licensing of Paperclick is a signal to the world that Neom owns the bridge of linking the physical world to the internet. This is a stepping stone that will enable many of the previous partnerships and licensing arrangements with the likes of Intel, SAIC, FCB, Aura, Digital Rum, 12Snap, Symbol and others to reach their full potential. Hopefully, it will also lead to further settlements / license agreements with Airclic and Scanbuy. Beyond that, the possibilities are enormous...it will just be a matter of Management capitalizing on them. I look forward to the Market's reaction to today's news. Congratulations to all longs.
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DD Verizon Wireless Expands Internet Service
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8B05QB00.htm?campaign_id=apn_tech_down
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From today's Pondering Primate: OP3 Updates ShotCode
http://theponderingprimate.blogspot.com/
I'm glad to see the physical world connection starting to take shape.
The 8th of June OP3 took the first step in making mobile Internet easy accessible by launching shotCode. OP3 today offered automatic optimization of regular Internet pages, making them readable on the tiny displays.
On average the mobile Internet simply is not being used. 99 percent or even more of current websites don’t look good on the tiny mobiles’ screens. But OP3, the company behind the ShotCodes, has now made its second step in its attempt to eradicate these problems.
Small mobile displays have a lot of limitations, compared to the ordinary PC- and laptop screens. Even if most of the mobile models are able to read HTML, optimization is usually needed. The new optimization feature on ShotCode.com is completely automatic and free of charge.
Here's a great idea that eBay could utilize. Instead of using a lengthy URL , use a ShotCode.
Say you would like to sell your bike on eBay, you can now easily point a ShotCode to your auction’s URL and hang this ShotCode on your local supermarket’s notice board. The ebay pages’ will be automatically updated so that the scanner instantly sees your auction in a readable format.
Another idea.
When you post your garage sale notice at the supermarket, include a ShotCode on the flyer. Click on the ShotCode for the address and the service provider provides a map to the location.
To get OP3's ShotCode software (for free)on your mobile phone, just point your camera at a ShotCode, (which is a circular type of barcode) click once and you’re instantly connected to the corresponding Internet site
posted by Vangorilla @ 8:41 AM
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DD Google Launches Free 3D Mapping and Search Product
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050628/285516.html?.v=1
Tuesday June 28, 9:01 am ET
Google Earth Offers New Local Search Experience
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 2005--Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - News) today announced the launch of Google Earth, Google's new satellite imagery-based mapping product that combines 3D buildings and terrain with mapping capability and Google search. Based on Keyhole technology, Google Earth enables users to fly from space to street level views to find geographic information and explore places around the world.
Key features of Google Earth include:
Free software download available at http://earth.google.com
3D buildings in major cities across the United States
3D terrain showing mountains, valleys, and canyons around the world
Integrated Google Local search to find local information such as hotels, restaurants, schools, parks, and transportation
Fast, dynamic navigation
Video playback of driving directions
Tilt, rotate, and activate 3D terrain and buildings for a different perspective on a location
Easy creation and sharing of annotations among users
"Google Earth utilizes broadband streaming technology and 3D graphics, much like a videogame, enabling users to interactively explore the world -- either their own neighborhood or the far corners of the globe," said John Hanke, general manager, Keyhole, Google Inc. "With many ways to access geographic information, Google provides a very rich local search experience for users worldwide."
Google Earth is the latest innovation within Google's local search product suite, which currently includes Google Local and Google Maps for web users and mobile phone users. With Google Earth, users have the tools to dive deeper into local information, whether they're exploring a vacation destination or researching a new home or apartment. They can combine multiple layers of information, such as cross-referencing school districts with address look-ups of available homes, business listings and public transportation, and save their results for later use.
For users interested in more advanced mapping capabilities, Google Earth Plus ($20/year) offers additional features including GPS compatibility, data import, and annotation. Google Earth Pro ($400/year), for commercial use, offers high-resolution printing and GIS data import capabilities.
Google Local
Google Local at http://local.google.com helps users locate businesses in a specific geographic location. Google Local offers comprehensive local information including business listings, reviews and related Web pages.
Google Maps
Google Maps at http://maps.google.com, is a browser-based online mapping service that enables users to find location information, navigate through maps, and get directions quickly and easily. The service features results from Google Local to offer users access to traditional business listings combined with relevant information from Google's 8 billion page web index.
Google Local for mobile phones
Google Local is also available for XHTML-enabled mobile phones. When users visit http://mobile.google.com/local from their phones, they can type a query such as (wifi hotspot) in the 'What' search box and (10019) in the 'Where' search box to receive Google Local results of wifi hotspots in New York City. Available in the U.S. and Canada only, this service enables users to find business listings and driving directions, view an area using Google Maps with zooming capabilities, and click-to-call. Users may also use Google SMS to receive Google Local results via a text message.
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Cabernet, to tell you the truth, I didn't know much about this technology when I first invested in Neom. But through my own diligent efforts and through others on this board, I am becoming more knowledgeable in this stock and its technology everyday. The more research I do, the more fascinated and excited I get about mobile marketing. You might say that I have caught "mobile marketing fever"...I just can't read enough about it right now. I think it's because the vision is easy to see...these aren't just dreams, they are realities in Japan...realities that eventually will become world-wide...it is just a matter of time.
I just bought my 8 year old daughter her first cell phone a few months ago. She is now more adept at using all of its features than many adults, including my wife. Her generation is going to embrace this technology "big-time"...By the time she is in high school or college, communication in our world will be a lot different largely because of Neom's patented technology.
Over the last year or so, as I have connected more and more "dots" I have increasingly felt more comfortable with Neom's risk to reward ratio and prudently increased my Neom shares to a very substantial level. So I am definitely connected with Neom both psychologically and financially. I am hopeful (actually fairly confident) my investment in Neom will payoff handsomely within my time horizon, which is about 10 to 15 years...just about the time my daughter is ready for college and I am ready to embrace retirement from the regimented workplace. This time horizon should be more than sufficient for this paradigm shift to fully transform the world in which we live.
My long time horizon doesn't mean that I close my eyes to Neom in the short-term. The developments that I fully expect Neom to achieve over the balance of this year are the stepping stones to making this paradigm shift a reality. First, and foremost, I look forward to a very positive settlement with Virgin. That will be the signal to the rest of the world (at minimum, the United States and Europe) that Neom owns the mobile bridge of linking the physical world to the internet. That stepping stone will enable many of the previous partnerships and licensing arrangements with the likes of Intel, SAIC, FCB, Aura, Digital Rum, 12Snap, Symbol and others to reach their full potential. Beyond that, the possibilities are enormous...it's will just be a matter of Management capitalizing on them.
Like yourself and myself, I think everyone of us has their own reason and their own story why they are invested in Neom. Reasons that will vary depending on our individual investing strategies, tactics and time frame. Stories as unique as we are as individuals. Stories that will be interesting and great to share some day in Vegas.
Good luck to you and all Neom longs.
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Cabernet, IMO DD from this board can be of value to Neom's Management because of their small size and limited resources to do the research and follow-up. That's why JP can give examples of past DD that was forwarded to them, then followed up and implemented by Neom's Management.
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Cabernet, This article might be of interest in answering your question.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0412/22/technology-36347.htm
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Why U.S. wireless use lags the rest of the developed world
By Ellen Simon / AP Business Writer
Ng Han Guan / Associated Press
A Chinese woman promotes the latest mobile phone on the streets of Beijing, China. Albert Lin, an analyst at American Technology Research. says, "The quality of U.S. networks is only now coming close to the quality you would see in major European and Asian markets."
NEW YORK -- On a trip on the Tokyo subway last year, almost everyone ignored the young man talking on one wireless phone, messaging with another and juggling a third.
Such cell phone overload would almost certainly get noticed in the United States, which lags the rest of the developed world in wireless use.
An estimated 57 percent of the U.S. population chats on wireless phones -- not much greater than the percentage of wireless phone users in much poorer Jamaica, where 54 percent of the people have mobile phones, according to the International Telecommunications Union.
By comparison, in Hong Kong there are 105.75 mobile subscribers for every 100 inhabitants. In Taiwan, there are 110.
Sprint Corp.'s $35 billion deal this week to buy Nextel Communications Inc. is likely to spark another round of price wars and handset giveaways in the United States, but it will take more than industry consolidation and aggressive marketing to increase use.
Why? The reasons range from credit checks to network quality to coverage areas.
Wireless networks elsewhere are simply better than those in the United States, said Albert Lin, an analyst at American Technology Research.
"For a long time, the U.S. had way too many networks being supported by not enough investment," he said. "The quality of U.S. networks is only now coming close to the quality you would see in major European and Asian markets."
Not that the European model was perfect: Companies there paid $125 billion for licenses to operate "third-generation" mobile networks that enable European users to zap videos and data by phone. The result: Mountains of debt, but a chance to sell phones packed with features James Bond would love.
That hasn't been the case in the United States.
Wireless companies were the No. 2 sector for complaints to Better Business Bureaus in 2003, trailing only car dealers. They were the second-lowest ranked industry in the University of Michigan's customer satisfaction index, second only to the hated cable companies.
One reason American consumers are miffed is what Forrester Research analyst Lisa Pierce calls "big holes in rural coverage." In the Tampa, Fla. area where she lives, her wireless calls start breaking up one mile south of her home. Her husband uses a different carrier; his calls break up one mile north.
Another reason for lower cell phone use in the United States is how service is sold. The largest carriers sell phones by subscription, requiring a credit check and a commitment of at least one year.
"We have tapped out the prime-credit segment in the U.S.," said Roger Entner, a Yankee Group analyst. "Everyone who wants to have a wireless phone and can pass a credit check has one. Everyone who can pass a credit check and doesn't have one -- after ten years of a continuous barrage (of advertising), they're not going to cave."
If the industry wants more users, it will have to change its business model to embrace people with iffy credit who are willing to buy prepaid phones, he said.
Companies are hesitant to do that because it doesn't help them with Wall Street analysts, who score wireless companies' stock by the number of subscribers added to their networks, the average revenue per user and the rate customers drop their service, a figure known in the industry as "churn."
Prepaid customers won't help average revenue per user or churn, he said, so the largest mobile companies aren't interested, Entner said.
One way around that is joint ventures with companies such as Virgin Mobile USA Llc. Their customers have a higher churn rate and lower revenue per user, but they still pay, Entner said.
No one in the industry is likely to say this, but the fact is, many companies may not want more customers if those customers won't be big spenders. They would rather focus on getting existing customers to spend more money by signing up for extra services and sending text messages and photos.
At Verizon Wireless, wireless data services contributed $300 million, or 4.7 percent, to third quarter 2004 revenue, up from 2.3 percent in the same period a year ago. One third of the company's customers use data services, which add an average of $7 to their monthly bills.
That's one reason that while the number of Verizon Wireless customers increased 16.9 percent in the most recent quarter, revenue increased 23 percent.
What's true for Verizon Wireless holds for the rest of the industry.
The average monthly wireless phone bill bottomed out at $39.88 in 1988. Since then, it's been edging up, hitting $49.49 this year, thanks to increased data use.
That's why all the major carriers are adding wireless broadband to their existing networks, so customers can get used to sending more information faster -- and paying more for the privilege of subscribing to such premium services such as video news clips.
The next generation of wireless users may be machines, not people. Services such as OnStar, a subsidiary of General Motors Corp., use a combination of cell phones built into cars and Global Positioning Systems, to call for help in emergencies, Lin said. Cars that call 911 when air bags are deployed use the same technology.
Similar systems are being built for vending machines to call a central office to say they need to be refilled and to monitor oil and gas company equipment used in harsh climates and using wireless networks to transmit video ads to screens in malls.
"People who think we're at a point of saturation are not including all the possible uses of technology," Lin said.
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Schep, Good catch...so they know about Neom; now hopefully JP's forwarding of the DD will be a catalyst to take it to the next level. That is, Neom will have to do some old fashioned sales and marketing to make this possibility a reality.
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DD Mobile usage statistics - Great for mobile trivial pursuit LOL
http://www.itfacts.biz/comments.php?id=35_0_1_0_C
Note: each statistic is backed up by a web link.
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JP, thanks EOM
DD More about Aura Digital Communications
This link is a must read! It is from the Cebit website, and contains the link that Rational Faith posted this morning plus a lot more great info and developments. It was published on June 15, 2005
http://www.cebit.com.au/_files/media_release/AURA%20Digital%20Communications%20Newsletter.htm
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DD Swiftpass...Mobile Ticketing and Mobile Coupons...They are based out of the U.K.
http://www.swiftpass.com/default.aspx
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Lesnshawn, That's exactly what I was thinking...you just elaborated more in a very good way.
JP, What are your thoughts? Is this an idea that should be submitted to Neom's Management?
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DD Nextbus - delivering real time public transit information when and where you need it (their technology is patented)
Home Page: http://www.nextbus.com/corporate/index.htm
How it works: http://www.nextbus.com/corporate/works/index.htm
Wireless Access: http://www.nextbus.com/wirelessConfig/index.htm
My Comment: Maybe Neomedia should contact them to see if they would be interested in a more user-friendly means of getting schedule information to cell phones.
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DD Amabuddy (it's a beta trial) for comparison shopping with barcodes on mobile phones
http://amabuddy.com/
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DD PlusOne - A partner of Aura Digital Communications - For Mobi-ticket
http://www.plusone.com.au/mobi-ticket.php
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DD New smartphones at Computex 2005
(Lots of neat photos and explanation for these new smartphones...check out the link for more info)
http://www.mobile-review.com/exhibition/computex-2005-smarts-en.shtml
Excepts:
Computex held for the 25th time and being one of the biggest computer exhibitions in the world attracts the attention of computer press from all over the world. This exhibition is one of the places to visit obligatory, like CeBIT, for instance. Manufacturing companies annually announce and show new processors, video cards, mother boards and other components, and that is what Computex is famous for. Editions specializing on mobile subjects exclusively usually pass it by and highlight only 3GSM congress and CeBIT. And that is in vain, since many interesting devices oriented on the end user are announced at the exhibition (smartphones, PDAs, MP3 players, media-players and so on). As our readers know, we annually visit 3GSM congress and CeBIT. And this year we managed to attend Computex in Taipei, Taiwan. Many things that an ordinary user won't know are told behind the closed doors or at the company meetings after an exhibition. That is Taiwan that the main manufacture of components and end-devices is concentrated, and head offices of the companies are also here in Taipei. This report will tell about the smartphones shown at Computex 2005.
Now, drawing a line under the story about the smartphones I'd like to stress the main tendencies. First, that is using a new operating system Windows Mobile 5.0, the prevalence of black colour solutions, screen diagonal decreased to 2.8" and, of course, wireless Wi-Fi modules.
Anton Kotov (anton.kotov@mobile-review.com)
Translated by Maria Mitina (maria.mitina@mobile-review.com)
Published — 10 June 2005
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Success622, Thanks for updating the case status. EOM
lesnshawn & KGR: I found this link on Nextel's website with reference to Airclic
(Actually, I have to give the credit to Success622...all I did was search Ihub for the words "airclic" and "nextel", and I found a posting from Success622 with this link...so you can thank both of us)
http://www.nextel.com/en/solutions/packaged_apps/government.shtml
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Success622, Re: your post regarding Airclic and Scanbuy docket entries that I am replying to...There are a couple of dates that have come and gone, but I am not sure if the replies from the responsible parties would create a docket entry...I would appreciate it if you could check when you have time. TIA.
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DD Japan - A future mobile society?
http://www.telecommagazine.com/Article.asp?Id=AR_668
Today’s Japanese applications may be worldwide successes tomorrow
by Stephen McClelland
Tues, June 7. 2005
You could be forgiven for thinking that in everyday life the mobile phone has become the most important tool for the Japanese. It certainly has spawned an astonishing range of applications and uses. Restaurant customers can check the freshness and quality of the fish on their plates because the fish now comes with a machine-readable 2D barcode certificate stating the provenance right down to the identity of the fishing boat that caught it.
Supermarket shoppers have been able to run checks on their bagged broccoli for a while. There’s a growing market in fortune telling by mobile phone; users pay around Yen 500 for a specific prediction, and the services are said to be extremely popular especially among 25- to 40-year-old women. High schools meanwhile are seeing the first cell phone yearbooks for graduating students so that they can keep in contact with one another.
Even the hard-pressed commuter apparently sees a happier life. Motion-sensitive phones launched in February allow train passengers to swing their phone to practice golf shots, and the phone records the quality of their swings.
The Mobile Wallet
Train commuters are about to get another benefit, too. What may well be the world’s largest mobile wallet application to date is being launched in early 2006. NTT DoCoMo has joined forces with railway operator JR East to offer a new service that brings i-mode to the JR East’s Suica IC card and enables easy mobile ticketing.
Given that 10 million Suica customers already use the card for ticketing and also payment at restaurants and convenience stores, the market seems set for another transition in the use of mobile phones. And, when they are tired of shopping, they’ll soon be able to call up their medical records by mobile phone, with even X-ray downloads expected in the foreseeable future.
Opening Doors
Getting home, they can open doors with mobile phone-activated locks; the phones are security-coded with fingerprint detectors. And in sitting down, someone else—or something else—can take the strain off everyday living. In January, the world’s first commercially available robot controlled by Bluetooth connection to a mobile was put on display by KDDI in Tokyo. The foot tall robot can be used for home security and retails for around Yen 200,000. It can be controlled by the phone and made to move providing the phone is within a 10-meter range.
It’s arguably a frivolous, concept product, but KDDI, like Japan’s other major operators, ponders how to keep phone users happy and aware of the value of the phone. Determined to keep image to the fore, it has pushed design features in its mobile phones as fashion statements, allowing high-profile foreign designers to do their part to shape the phone culture and consciously move it away from the functionality and price points that often obsess the industry.
The Dark Side
All are part of one of the world’s most vibrant mobile phone cultures, and one that has changed the face of Japanese life, probably forever. But other forces at work are less benign: Phone fraud is on the increase and worries Japanese society and media. A particularly pernicious type, called in Japanese ore, ore (It’s me, It’s me), sees extortionists calling up and swindling money out of relatives or friends of their victims.
But even without such a criminal side, it’s clear that the impact of communications mobility is massive. “Mobile phones have become widely used in the past decade,” says Takashi Yamakawa of NTT DoCoMo. “As a result DoCoMo believes it is now important to analyse the influence and impact of mobile phones on society from a number of different perspectives.”
Walking the Walk
DoCoMo has put its money where its mouth is. DoCoMo’s Mobile Society Research Institute—which is chartered to remain independent from the main DoCoMo business, says Yamakawa, deputy managing director of the initiative—will examine both the upside and downside of the mobile society. The aim? To enhance the upside and prepare necessary countermeasures to minimize the downside (although research programs are run entirely from an independent point of view).
The MSRI program is moving into its stride, and a selection of its recent research programs indicate the direction of thinking. Nine institute staffers administer more than 50 outside researchers who work on an outsourced basis. One program, run from Tokyo’s Keio University, is trying to determine the optimal protection level of copyright on mobile phone distributed content. Researchers say that the problem of illegal copies is hindering the process of content distribution and aims to ask what the balancing point is between user benefit and creator profit by studying the copyright protection of CDs as an example.
Another study focuses on mobile media problems in disaster prevention and recovery. Still other studies aim to promote mobile media literacy, prevent mobile phone abuse in youth markets and investigate the role and responsibility of telecom carriers when it comes to harassment.
One program, begun in mid-2004, provides a continuing focus on children and mobile media, investigating the relationship between children and mobile phones. One research sub-theme expects to rationalize an approach for mobile media toward child consumers for short term (around 2010) implementation. Another wants to clarify the possible social problems then may occur at the point where children find mobile phones useful coincides with the point where there is a high social risk.
Two children’s workshops have already been run to develop information. Among applications on display was a virtual shop using DoCoMo’s FeliCa service, shiritori word games using videotelephony, a hide-and-seek experience using videophones and even an attempt to create mobile Christmas cards. The involvement of family relationships with the use of mobile phones is a particular interest, Yamakawa says.
A Mobile Society
So, Japan is definably a mobile society, but what do the numbers involved currently suggest? According to official statistics more than 86 million Japanese now have mobile phones, meaning a penetration of around 70 percent, and 3G is well developed. A short-term outlook may indicate some market maturity, although market watchers would disagree on even this.
Not surprisingly, current subscriber breakdowns suggest some obvious points: a youth market and still signs of early adopter behavior. If you are an NTT DoCoMo subscriber under 19 in Japan you are more than four times as likely to use a 3G phone than a 2G one, and even the 25- to 29-year-old category is more than twice as likely to do so.
And while the percentage of most services on NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode on 2G and 3G platforms remains about the same, 3G users send and receive more than three times the number of e-mails than 2G ones, play more games and generate ARPU around 70 percent higher.
Making Money?
But does all of this actually mean commercial success for the telecom community? “It depends whether you take a business perspective or an economic perspective,” says Jeffrey Funk, an expert commentator on the behavior of the Japanese mobile phone market, and professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
“From a business perspective, you would ask ‘who is making money from what’ and in this, then the big Western operators are making more money than their Japanese counterparts, [on a like-for-like basis].”
Funk continues: “From an economic perspective, there is very strong market growth and it is nowhere near saturated. But that perspective gets ignored outside Japan, and I don’t know why.”
Funk also cautions: “It depends on what part of the business you look at. If you look at entertainment, then some parts, such as ring tones, are flattening. Mobile music and mobile video are showing growth.
“But if you look at mobile shopping for physical products and online transactions as well as enterprise applications and trading,” he continues, “then it is growing very substantially; but again those applications tend to get ignored in the West because it is harder for service providers to make money [from those services].”
Good Behavior
The economics of Japanese mobile businesses is also not obvious, at least to Western observers, says Funk. Data ARPUs continue to remain, if anything, almost certainly understated compared with Western operators, he says, as they exclude the appropriate part of revenues gained from the fixed monthly subscriptions that users typically pay.
Japanese service provider behavior, he says, is more driven by the need for market share than a reflection of profitability at any one time. Nevertheless, he argues, proactive tariffing has strongly driven Japanese consumer behavior and is even influential in the rise of mobile enterprise applications. E-mail is cheap in Japan, and SMS expensive, compared with Europe, Funk says.
Ticketing and Phones
The convergence of prepaid ticketing and mobile phones will produce another step in the marketplace. Funk predicts that initiatives such as the DoCoMo/JR Suica mobile wallet ultimately could drive a replacement of credit card behavior—if retailer commissions can be made attractive.
“I have no doubt that initiatives like FeliCa will take off,” Funk says. Downloading money, through FeliCa/Suica type of applications, he says, is a big convenience in Japan, with time-pressed commuters. He predicts this will trigger other changes, as consumers get used to the mobile phone capability they are carrying around.
For example, Japanese rail station outlets already see many transactions driven by the present Suica-card business, and the cards are popular particularly in convenience stores. “When you have the mobile wallet in your hand to pass through the station wicket, you already have it accessible to shop,” Funk argues.
Supplier Support
Meanwhile, Japanese suppliers seem to be doing everything they can to support that level of convenience, even if it means removing the need for keying on mobile phone handsets altogether. One trick already evident is clever bar coding, as operators and handset manufacturers enable bar code scanning in phones, particularly of 2D codes that hold URLs, identifier codes and e-mail addresses. Scanning is one way of doing away with the need to key in data by hand and increases the utility of camera phones to more than just taking pictures, commentators say.
Quick Response
The QR (quick response) bar coding schemes—about 1cm wide and holding up to 1,000 characters—are beginning to appear widely in Japan, printed on everything from business cards to magazine ads, although industry proponents admit that consumer usage and uptake is still relatively modest.
LBS add-ons even make it possible to guide phone users to specific locations once the information has been activated from a map, advertisement or guide book. Marketeers have been interested in using the technology to link users automatically to specific Web sites.
The QR code, now effectively a decade old, was invented in the automotive industry by a Toyota supplier that wanted to increase the amount of information a coding system could support.
It may see its widest usage in an entirely different industry. In Japan, at least, the mobile phone remains well and truly the face of everyday life. And that face may in fact be an appealing machine-readable barcode.
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DD Mobisign
Home Page Link: http://www.mobisign.com/en/
Products and Service Link: http://www.mobisign.com/en/products.asp?L=EN
Mobisign's Products and Services
Our products brings a real adding values that will help to differentiate what you offer, attract new customers or your staff. The mobiSign products answer also your needs to reduce costs and risk . Above all, mobiSign offer an extreme facility of deployment and employment and a maximal security
Each product as available in pack or through our ASP model. In pack means that we help you to integrate our products in your global solution hosted in your company, in ASP means that you integrate our products hosted on mobiSign server.
The fast changing technology provides new opportunities for businesses … the next wave of growth is at the junction between Internet and Mobile telephony. The rapid growth of Internet connections, mobile phone penetration and use of SMS messaging is changing the way people communicate and behave.
The mobiSign wireless barcoding solution.
Imagine your business applications unleashed by the possibility to generate real-time barcodes & send them anywhere to your customer's mobile phones !
Capture new trends in your customers buying habits with the mobiSign © patended wireless barcodes components.
Enable wireless vouchers, person authentication, wireless signatures, and more, easily, and at low cost.
How does it work ?
Upon the completion of a transaction, to make a marketing offer or to provide your customer with a unique confirmation code, you send real-time a barcode to your customer mobile phone.
Your customer receives a barcode as an operator logo or as an SMS on his mobile phone.
Your customer mobile phone is scanned at your physical point of sales to validate the transaction
The mobiSign Email Ticketing solution.
To make sure that all your customers can benefit from your services, mobiSign also provide real-time email ticketing.
How does it work ?
Upon the completion of a transaction, to make a marketing offer or to provide your customer with a unique confirmation code, you send real-time a Email Ticket with His barcode to your customer mailbox.
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DD Convergelabs' Mobile Barcode - Ticket Application
http://www.convergelabs.com/Mobile%20Barcode-Ticket.pdf
Also, see their mobile commerce platform
http://www.convergelabs.com/prod_platforms_mticket.htm
ConvergeLabs have launched an m-commerce platform named M-Bay for enabling B2C and C2C payment transactions. The main services offered are M-Ticket, M-Coupons and M-Pay.
M-Ticket allows the end-user to buy any ticket directly from the phone. Instead of standing in queues, losing tickets or getting tickets delivered to one's residence, the ticket is now sent as a special barcode on the mobile screen itself. A swipe of the mobile screen over a scanner is all that one needs to gain entry to the event.
M-Ticketing can benefit various businesses like :
Movie Theatres
Airlines
Ticket Agencies
Theme Parks
Railways
For more information please download the Mobile Barcode Ticket Application product sheet here
M-Coupons allows the user to get a discount at partner retail outlets. Rather than carrying around paper cuttings for availing discounts, coupons can now be downloaded over SMS in or around the shopping area.Display real-time data on a bright and smartly designed GUI screen.
M-Pay solution enables payment transactions on the phone, using WAP, SMS or IVR interfaces. The user can choose from various payment options e.g. credit card, debit card, post-paid mobile bill, pre-paid account. The user can also pay any other mobile phone user directly from his phone!
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DD - Abaxia's Mobile Tag
http://www.abaxia.com/2-suite/mobileTag.htm
Mobile Tag
Mobile phones have become everyday accessories in anyone’s life. They have turned into links to multimedia and data services. However, accessing these services requires data input from mobile keyboards, which is limited and not really comfortable.
Mobile Tag was developed in partnership with Wiziway to simplify data input and to create an easy access to external content (paper, TV, outdoor ad, catalogue…).
Mobile Tag is an embedded application that can read tags and decipher them. When end-users takes a picture of a tag, they can be automatically redirected to a specific service.
Mobile Tag main functionalities:
Direct wap link/ http link
Applications/ ringtones/ logos/ games download
SMS sending
Vcard download
Geolocalisation services
Payment activation
Information display
Mobile Tag includes a client application and a server application. The client application has been developed by Abaxia fo camera-phones (Symbian/Java 2.0/Palm OS/Smartphone/Doja 2.5). . The server application is managed by Wiziway (URL routing).
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DD Abaxia - a French company
See below - Possibly infringes on our european patents
May 17, 2005 : ACCESS and Abaxia Collaborate to Deliver New Datamatrix Capture Paradigm to Mobile
TOKYO, Japan / NEWARK, CA, USA / OBERHAUSEN, Germany PARIS, France –
May 17, 2005 – ACCESS Co., Ltd., a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies has signed an agreement under which Abaxia MobileTag 2D barcode reader solution will be integrated within ACCESS’ NetFront® Mobile Client Suite, the world’s most advanced, integrated browser-based software solution for advanced multimedia-enabled mobile phones. The joint solution enables a new data capture model between mobile devices and barcode-enabled applications like advertisements, brochures, posters, direct-mailers, or any object that can support a barcode.
Mobile barcode data capture ushers in an advanced new era of functionality for mobile handsets and delivers a new generation of mobile products and services previously unavailable to the mobile consumer market. As an example, an advertising program in a magazine can include a MobileTag 2D barcode containing information that end-users can capture with their camera-equipped mobile phones and which is delivered directly to ACCESS’ NetFront browser. Captured data can launch special Web pages offering exclusive music downloads, ringtones, screen savers or music video clips. Mobile barcode data capture offers significant benefits to mobile operators including the opportunity to stimulate end-user interest while increasing ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), as well as enabling partnership opportunities for companies interested in entering the mobile market.
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JP, I guess you beat me to it...Beyond what is stated in the most recent S-4 do we know when the last hearing was and when the next hearing is scheduled with Airclic?
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KGR, Airclic is alive and well. As Personalizit indicated you had misspelled the company name.
This link will give you an update of their most recent press releases.
http://www.airclic.com/news.asp
Also, according to their website, Nextel is still a partner as is Motorola and Symbol
http://www.airclic.com/partners.asp
Regarding the Neom lawsuit, this is from the June 20, 2005 S-4 Amendment:
On April 19, 2004, AirClic filed a declaratory judgment action against NeoMedia in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. NeoMedia answered and counterclaimed on May 18, 2004. AirClic answered NeoMedia's counterclaim on June 10, 2004. On April 20, 2004, NeoMedia re-filed its suit against AirClic in Pennsylvania for patent infringement. AirClic answered and counterclaimed on May 13, 2004. NeoMedia filed its answer to AirClic's counterclaims on June 2, 2004. NeoMedia filed an amended complaint on July 1, 2004, and AirClic answered and counterclaimed on July 20, 2004. NeoMedia's answer to AirClic's counterclaims was filed on August 3, 2004. The two actions were consolidated and the parties are currently engaged in discovery and discussing settlement opportunities.
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Somewhat OT DD but some good info: Jamdat Mobile
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/18/181565/Roadshow_Merrill.pdf
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