The feature will apparently let users share their own location as well as see the location of their friends in their news feed. The source says that Facebook has been working on this feature for a year, and has waited until it is fully ready before releasing it.

Facebook will also make APIs openly available to third-parties who wish to enable location features within their own Facebook apps. Facebook has not said if or how mobile phones will play a role, but many of the site’s users access it from devices such as BlackBerries, Windows Mobile, the iPhone and Android handsets — all of which offer GPS location tools.

Skyfire, makers of Webby award-winning, PC-like web-browser for mobile devices, has launched the next generation of its Skyfire browser, version 1.5, for Symbian S60 3rd and 5th edition smartphones. See below their video explaining what is new about it :

Skyfire who is up against browsers like Opera mini or the newly released Firefox mobile is a mobile only browser. This has the advantage that they do only this and so are super focused on a smooth mobile experience. Of course there is the advantages of players like Firefox as they can sync between you PC and your mobile.

Whatever the case it is great to have players like Skyfire focussing directly on making the mobile internet a “turn-on” experience rather than the often “turn-off” browsing on your mobile device often is.

KT, a company partnered with Apple to sell iPhones in South Korea, revealed its plans to begin selling the 4G iPhone as early as April. We can obviously expect the phone to include new radio hardware for connecting to 4G networks, and KT’s reports indicate the phone will feature a new dual-core CPU for a speed boost. The screen is to be switched from a standard LCD to an OLED model, which could mean a brighter picture and reduced power consumption. There could also be a front-mounted camera for video chat and a battery that’s finally removable by the end-user.

According to Goldman Sachs’ Robert Chen, it won’t lack new features. “Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone,” he said.

There is also rumors that the back of the iPhone will be touch sensitive much like the touch panel used for the Magic Mouse or like the Motorola Backflip, an Android smartphone that can be controlled via a touchpad on the back of the screen.

Apple, of course, doesn’t comment on “rumors and speculation.” But according to Chen, the new iPhone will go into production in April and should be available to consumers in June or July — just enough time for the rumor train to go into full speed.

At first glance, it’s so sleek, stylish and sexy, we were almost wondering: Where’s the Apple logo?

Call it the Google challenge: After a few hours with the new Nexus One, a long time Apple fan will be willing to trade this iPhone. It’s very, very tempting.

Specifications of Google NEXUS ONE

Where could Google succeed, where other competitors have failed?

The Nexus One boasts speed improvements and enhanced camera capabilities, and the device will be sold unlocked.
The unlocked version of the Nexus One, which will be sold directly to consumers via a new web store hosted by Google, will cost $529. A locked version of the phone, which will be sold initially by T-Mobile, will cost $179 with a two-year contract that will cost roughly $80 a month.Apple’s iPhone 3GS now costs $199 with a two-year contract with AT&T.

Still, some new details emerged, so here’s a quick scan:
* In addition to T-Mobile the Nexus One will be supported by Verizon and Vodafone come spring.
* Some of those Android 2.1 goodies — expanded voice controls, including speech-to-text capability for tweets, texts and e-mail; a revamped photo gallery; more homescreen panels; interactive wallpapers; and a Google Earth app.
* In using the Nexus One to launch an online storefront intended eventually to allow consumers to choose from a raft of unlocked handsets and then pick a carrier and a calling plan, Google is revolutionizing the mobile phone marketplace. Or maybe not.

Courtesy of Brian J. Friedman

Many interesting developments during 2009 in this mini sector (literally and symbolically) of the movie industry.

The Sundance Institute operators of the Festival of the same name, have announced launching not it’s own mobile film festival but rather a well thought out iPhone App that allows art film fans from around the world to participate in the festival.

The app can be used both at the festival at Park City with program guide trailers, event schedules, GPS venue locator and the like. For those fans who can’t attend but wish nevertheless to participate they can follow via Facebook, Twitter and Flickr as well as get exclusive interviews and trailers.

This is just one example of course of how the movie industry is learning to harness the power of the mobile media channel.

Added to this are the games that often accompany movies. Of course this has been there before but 2009 has confirmed this trend. Example the blockbuster Avatar which looks set to bust all records of viewers and earnings launched it’s own game across all platforms as well as on mobiles such as the iPhone/iTouch platform.

The game play is surprisingly good and engaging as it is built on the Assassins Creed 2 platform.

It is interesting to see of course how the mobile heavy weights such as LG or Nokia continue to use movies as a platform to promote their hi-tech devices.

It is obvious that mobile devices especially the touch ones are great gadgets to watch movies or TV shows while on the move. Following are the words of someone from the industry who sums it up well :

Frank Chindamo, president and chief creative officer, Fun Little Movies: “In 2010, everyone with a mobile phone will realize they’re also holding a really cool video player, and start watching what they want to watch, when and where they want to watch it — instead of having crappy over-hyped TV shows shoved in their faces.”

Link : http://www.funlittlemovies.com/

We look forward to seeing how this will develop in 2010.

by Fab Poller

Apple is set to announce that it has acquired Quattro Wireless for $275 million, several sources confirmed.

With their 100 000 apps and the rising importance of mobile business revenue this makes obvious sense. It follows closely Google’s recent acquisition of AdMob the prize of the fledgling mobile advertising industry a Quattro competitor, which Apple had also made a bid to acquire.

Both ad networks were aimed at the fast-growing market to advertise on smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices and the plethora of other and new platforms (read Bada).

Waltham, Mass.-based Quattro has raised close to $30 million from two main venture investors–Highland Capital Partners and Globespan Capital Partners. Founded several years ago, its clients include Ford, Disney and the National Football League.

Competitor mobile networks in the space are still numerous, despite these big acquisitions, such as Millennial Media and Jumptap, both of which are now clearly in play for acquisition.

There was a lot of passionate response to the post a few weeks ago “Will Mobile Phones Replace In-Store Retail Salespeople”. Even more reason that these three announcements this week caught my eye:

■  The Aberdeen Group published a report that stated in 2008, the total of digital signage market revenue stood at $766 million and is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2014, growing at a healthy CAGR of 20%.
■  The London Daily Mirror reported according to unnamed sources that Nokia is planning to begin rolling out embedded NFC (near field communications) kits into its entire line of Symbian phones beginning Q3, 2010. The Finnish giant already has NFC in selected handsets, such as the 6216 Classic.
■  Malaysian manufacturer Fonelabs will produce two million low cost (under $100) NFC enabled phones in 2010
What do these three items have to do with retail? First, just as a refresher, Near Field Communication (NFC) is “a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 centimeter (around 4 inches) distance.” In other words, if you have an NFC enabled phone and opt-in, your mobile phone will be able to communicate with another proximate electronic device automatically.

The types of applications for NFC on mobile are numerous:

■  Electronic payments – swipe your phone and make a payment without a credit card. NFC technology is already being used in Japan in more than 30,000 stores. Users can place $50 amounts, for example, into their smart phones to make payments or even use them in smart vending machines.
■  Mobile ticketing on public transportation – swipe your phone on readers placed in buses, airlines, and trains
■  Electronic keys – swipe your phone and open hotel doors or your house door
■  Smart posters – use your phone to read RFID tags on billboards and other signs to receive additional information and to let the “billboard” know you are there
Smart posters is the one that I find particularly intriguing.

Let’s imagine for a second, that you walk into your favorite bookstore where you have purchased many titless in the past. With your permission, as you walk past an internal electronic billboard, you allow the billboard to communicate with your phone. Instantly, the billboard scans your past purchases and recommends new books to you that you might enjoy reading. Or even better, a scanner reads your phone as you walk in and sends you an SMS with a customized offer to you for a discount on items you purchase that day as an opted-in frequent customer.

It’s kind of like going into your favorite pub where everyone knows your name. Of course, downsides such as privacy cannot be underestimated (but, that is why it has to be on an opt-in basis). Imagine, though, how much more effective it would be to having a customized sales experience. In clothing stores, sales people can know what you like, know your size, know if it is in-stock, and immediately bring you customized selection of new items. Out of stock items could be posted to your customer ID and custom SMS messages could be automatically sent to let you know when the item is back in-store.

For the retailer, NFC gives unprecedented real time monitoring of consumer behavior in-store that could lead to better consumer in-store experiences – more accurate preference tracking of target audiences for better merchandise selection, display and pricing, and an ideal feedback channel for more detailed research. Individually, salespeople could be more effective in providing consumers with more meaningful in-store experiences if they are familiar with their past interactions.

Will mobile phones replace in-store retail salespeople? The consensus opinion from that last post was no, but it surely will change the playing field in a substantial way. The impending mobile NFC introductions are yet another way that the retail experience of the 21st century will never be the same.

Mark Jaffe is a mobile industry and digital media executive with an active consulting business that enables mobile technology companies, as well as other technology and digital content companies, to achieve breakthrough revenue growth with sustainable profits from a foundation of sound strategic analysis and innovation. He is also a noted speaker at industry conferences, as well as a speaker and facilitator at corporate retreats and strategy workshops. Further biographical information can be found at www.markjaffe.com.  His mobile industry blog, Mobile Mandala, can be viewed at  www.mobilemandala.com

The other interesting thing is that the carriers will also have the option of customizing the OS to suit their own requirements. bada will definitely give a tough competition to other Linux based mobile OS’s like Google Android and Nokia Maemo. Samsung is  obviously also planning to launch it’s own App Store.

Some additional UI tools include the ability to embed the Adobe® Flash® Player and the WebKit Internet browser directly into native bada applications, allowing seamless integration of premiere UI technologies. Also, the bada map control is easily embedded in your applications to deliver interactive mapping and routing with POI features for your users.

What does this mean for the other OSs that Samsung use today ? Well the forecast would have Symbian gone entirely by 2011 from Samsung phones and Microsoft’s OS at just 20%by 2012 where it makes up 80% of Samsung phones today. Not sure how this will affect Android but it would seem hard to understand that Samsung continue supporting Android against their own champion. The reach and actual popularity of Samsung phones (around 20% of the global market) means that bada will obviously be a force to reckon with if just by shear numbers!

Samsung has a vision of “Smartphone for everyone”, and by offering cheap Bada handsets as well as expensive ones, combined with a focus on in-app purchasing, Samsung hopes to entice developers with greater profits.

Samsung’s hoping to see an influx of applications thanks to the $2.7 million prize that’s been put up for grabs, and so far, EA and Gameloft have been signed up to develop games for Bada.

Bada will initially run on Samsung’s proprietary SHP (Samsung Handset Platform) paired with Samsung’s upcoming TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. It will be entirely multitouch, supporting both resistive and capacitive touch screens. Hardware-wise, it’s chip-agnostic, and Samsung aims for the cheapest bada handsets to be cheaper than the cheapest Android ones. It won’t run on older phones, however, and the first bada handset will arrive somewhere in the first half of 2010.

Definitely an exciting space to watch and see how well they pull this off.

Mobile phones have to be one of the best on the spot, at the moment, information retrieval resources of all time.  How many times have you seen disagreements settled immediately, courtesy of a quick iPhone web research query?  Well, it looks like some companies are ready to capitalize upon our penchant for instant research about things that interest us.

Let’s flash back to a recent industry panel where a senior Best Buy executive said “The right information at the point of impulse increases desired consumer’s behavior, sales, profits and customer satisfaction.” That sure sounds like a description of one of Best Buy’s best in-store salespeople helping out customers standing next to the latest electronic gizmo in one of their stores. 

It isn’t.

The conference was a mobile conference and the speaker was the senior manager of marketing and emerging capabilities at Best Buy.  She was talking about using mobile phones – not salespeople – as the information source at the point of impulse. I guess there is nothing like a little recession to make retailers think a little harder about how utilize our collective penchant for using our mobile phones for quick research projects and potentially saving some money in labor costs in the process.

Here’s how it works:  Using the mobile phone, customers can request information about any product on demand in a Best Buy store with a call to action on a product fact tag in store. What a great idea for consumers (no more pesky sales people asking ‘how can I help you’) and what a great idea for Best Buy (cut a little payroll here and there as the idea takes hold – I know, I know, not one salesperson will be fired as a result of this technological advance which is solely dedicated to the betterment of our customers:)

The truth is that we are already moving more and more to a self-service environment, anyway.  Why not leverage the mobile phone to eliminate cost, bring down prices, reduce the frustration in trying to flag down elusive salespeople to ask questions, and give us another excuse to have fun looking up info on our mobiles?  It sure makes sense to me.

So, let’s take this one step further.

What if retailers gave us the opportunity to engage in interactive texting?  Think of all the time we waste, and frustration we accumulate, in big box stores feeling like we always have to muscle in to get a little service.  Wouldn’t it have been a lot easier to just text in the question via mobile phone?  Then, get an answer and re-text our next question?

Why stop at electronics stores? What a great way for bookstores to compete with online retailers – just text in the title you are looking for and receive information on whether or not it is in-stock and where it can be found.

And, how great would it be to have self service mobile Q&A on the new car lot?  I don’t really like all of the sales pressure from those pushy car salespeople and now I can avoid it once and for all.  For good measure, I could just text the offers and counteroffers back and forth and never have to talk to them in person!

The best application, though, would be in high end department and apparel stores.  After trying on the overpriced designer suit, I could text in the question “How does it look?” I guarantee the response will be the same as if I had asked an in-store salesperson (who could actually see me in the suit) the same question.

On second thought, text messaging just can’t replace the sincerity of those baby blue eyes telling me I how good I look, even if they don’t really mean it.

Mark Jaffe is a mobile industry and digital media executive with an active consulting business that enables mobile technology companies, as well as other technology and digital content companies, to achieve breakthrough revenue growth with sustainable profits from a foundation of sound strategic analysis and innovation. He is also a noted speaker at industry conferences, as well as a speaker and facilitator at corporate retreats and strategy workshops. Further biographical information can be found at www.markjaffe.com.

If you would like to access Mark Jaffe’s blog Mobile Mandala directly, please visit www.mobilemandala.com.  If you would like to communicate with Mark Jaffe directly, please email mark@markjaffe.com

www.asiamobileawards.com

InMobi is nominated for GSMA Asia Mobile Awards 2009, which will be presented at the forthcoming Mobile Asia Congress, Asia’s leading mobile communications event that is set to take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, November 18th & 19th. InMobi was nominated in the category of Best Mobile Advertising & Marketing.

The aim of the Best Mobile Advertising or Marketing award is to recognize Asian leadership, and showcase ‘hot’ campaigns that are driving the emergence of this new sector.

Nominees for the Asia Mobile Awards are