TS said it in November of 2004
NEOMEDIA RISING
It’s a good time to update NeoMedia’s (NEOM) progress and review a major catalyst that could drive this potentially explosive stock in the coming weeks and months:
* A big meeting in Seattle with Microsoft this week for NeoMedia. Remember -- one of the key issues for the NeoMedia plan is to establish a word registry for trademarks (for example ChangeWave) that allows first for a camera cell phone to take a picture of a barcode, and then get a URL that takes you to a Web landing page the trademark owner designates.
* Making search a one snap issue on the cell phone changes the balance of power in the search engine biz -- a real goal for Microsoft.
* But the REALLY cool application of NeoMedia patents is with a word URL -- just speaking the name ChangeWave into your phone and going to ChangeWave.com. This eliminates about 10 clicks going to a Web search engine on a phone. This is the BIG idea for NeoMedia -- setting up the world registry with SAIC (the folks who set up the first URL registry for the Web -- a business they sold to Verisign for a cool $10 billion). NeoMedia is ready to launch the registry with words to be licensed at $600-$800 a year. Do the math with 3 million trademarks and 5 million bar codes.
* The next key issue is licensing NeoMedia patents to Microsoft for their wireless operating system.
SEARCH ENGINES AND CAMERA PHONES
Here is what Alan Reiter, head mobile OS guy for Microsoft, shares in his weblog this week:
“What type of information and services would be useful from a search engine?
“I'm interested in how search engines deal with wireless and offer value specifically for mobile devices. It seems as if Google (its great search engine notwithstanding) doesn't offer much in the way of exciting or innovative services for wireless-based searching. Or have I missed something? Perhaps this is an area where MSN Search could take the lead. “Also, with hundreds of millions of camera phones being sold over the next few years it will be useful for Microsoft's search engine (or any search engine) to find videos posted from camera phones. Sure, lots of the videos will be useless, but some of them will have valuable information or be just plain entertaining.
“Microsoft has many resources. It has its search engine team, smartphone team and imaging team. All three groups should get together to explore ways to offer innovative services for wireless users.”
Reiter also quotes Dennis Hettema, the head of OP3 (a Swedish systems integrator for the camera phone barcode environment) who presents another use for word and bar-code URLs -- physical deterioration of thumbs and hands:
“Mouse-arm, SMS-thumb or SMS-hand are pretty much a common illness. In Sweden (9 million inhabitants) alone it’s calculated that over a million people have the symptoms. And the mobile varieties are hitting teenagers hard, even though we’re talking about small movements.
“Here’s a solution -- how about reducing input? Mobile direct connection technologies allow mobile internet interaction with a minimum in keystrokes or other ‘SMS-thumb inducing’ movements. Reading a barcode with your camphone gets you online in about two clicks, as opposed to the up to 60 clicks required for typing www.op3.com (which we believe is a pretty short URL).”
Remember too that Robert Scoble, Microsoft's Longhorn evangelist and “blogger extraordinaire,” got a demonstration from NeoMedia Technologies of camera phones as barcode readers. He calls the application a "killer" for the handsets. Again Reiter posts:
“Robert writes, ‘It's not every day you get to see a killer application for the first time.’ NeoMedia demonstrated how you can take a photo of a barcode that's transmitted to a Web site that sends back information about the product, purchasing information, etc.
“Robert says, ‘I started getting into it. Imagine you're at a bus stop in Seattle. Did you know there's a Web service that shows you where the next bus is located and how far away it is?
“‘At every bus stop there could be a bar code. You aim your camera at the bar code. Get back the Web service that'll tell you how long you need to wait for your next bus.’”
No question about it. We’re heading in the right direction with NEOM.
