AT&T: 95% of iPhone Owners Surf the Mobile Web
During his keynote appearance Thursday at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega championed consumer choice, beneficial partnerships and technology integration as the essential components for digital content success, stating "Customers must be able to get content when they want it and how they want it."
De la Vega also called Apple's iPhone "a game-changer," noting that since AT&T exclusively launched the device in mid-2007, mobile data consumption has grown dramatically. According to de la Vega, 95 percent of iPhone owners regularly surf the web, even though 30 percent had never done so prior to iPhone ownership. In addition, 51 percent have viewed videos via YouTube, and nine out of 10 rated the device better than their previous handset.
"There isn't a device that's easier to use," de la Vega said. "[The iPhone] proves that price resistance is only as strong as the user experience is weak."
Enhanced devices and improved user experiences are driving AT&T mobile data across the board. De la Vega said that 13 percent of all AT&T customers now own a 3G device, with another 12 percent owning integrated devices--subscribers on 3G devices yield ARPU 20 percent higher than 2G users, with owners of integrated devices generating ARPU that's 120 percent higher. At the same time, AT&T's decision to tie together its various music services under a single, one-touch access point increased mobile music revenues 400 percent in 12 months.
De la Vega repeatedly stressed the importance of AT&T's partnerships with manufacturers and content providers, listing off five principles vital to all of its deals: Companies and customers must benefit, both firms' interests must align, the agreement must play to each party's strengths, the deal must reflect market realities and the value proposition must resonate with consumers. "We need to structure deals in creative ways so everyone benefits," de la Vega said. [FierceMobileContent]
YouTube Expands Mobile Video Efforts
YouTube is making its entire catalog of more than 200 million video clips available to all mobile users with 3G phones operating on either a UMTS/HSDPA or EV-DO network. Not only can users view videos, but they can also upload content immediately from their cell phone and view it on a cell phone.
The company says that it has made a huge investment in infrastructure to make this service available. Besides the regular streaming service, YouTube Mobile will also enable users to personalize their service by letting them rate and comment on videos using their phone
YouTube Mobile product manager Dwipal Desai said that the service will be available to all Sprint and AT&T customers with 3G phones and a data plan. He added that the service currently isn't available on Verizon Wireless EV-DO phones because they don't currently have streaming support.
However, Verizon subscribers can get access to some select YouTube content through the operator's V CAST service. "This service is not tied to a particular OEM or a carrier," Desai said in an interview with FierceMobileContent. "With this launch, we have brought YouTube mainstream."
YouTube also has a free downloadable Java application it is offering through a handful of mobile phones with streaming capabilities. Those phones include the Sony Ericsson k800, w880, Nokia e65, n95, n73, 6610 navigator and 6120 classic.
The expansion of YouTube’s mobile offering will improve the user experience giving YouTube users the ability to engage the world of video anytime and anywhere. With more mobile functionality and features, YouTube for Mobile will also allow users to develop more innovative original content directly from their mobile devices and encourage new users to share and engage the community.
YouTube for Mobile is available in the following countries and in the below languages:
Countries: United States, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Germany and Russia.
Languages: English, Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese (Traditional), German, Russian. [Sue/FierceMobileContent]
Sony's Next-Gen Mylo PDA, Not Only New Design
Next-Gen Sony Mylo (Mylo 2), a PDA of sorts with a slide-out keyboard and is designed primarily as a portable instant messenger device. So, for anyone who lives their life online with multiple social circles and struggles to get enough time on their home computer, Sony’s mylo 2 communicator supports the popular web entertainment applications of a PC, in a pocketable broadband device.
Available in black or white, with a back-lit, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, this wireless broadband device connects to open Wi-Fi networks using 802.11/b and /g standards. But Mylo 2 wasn't just a Sidekick knockoff. Namely, it wasn't a phone at all. Mylo 2 used Wi-Fi to access the internet instead of the cell phone network, though Skype was available if you really needed to make a call
For starters, the web browser is impressive. With support for Flash, you can use the Mylo 2 to watch YouTube and other web videos, something few other handhelds can do. We're talking the full YouTube site, not the iPhone's stripped-down version. A camera adds a 1.3-megapixel lens to the mix, complete with editing software. And, of course, AOL Instant Messenger is now supported. Flash-based game downloads are also on tap.
With Adobe Flash Lite 3 software, the mylo communicator gives you full access to many of the odd and outrageous videos posted on YouTube and other popular Flash-based Web sites. The device can also upload and download content to and from the Web using the touch screen interface on its 3.5-inch high-resolution display.
“With the rise of social networking, people are making more friends and staying closer to the ones they have,” said John Kodera, director of marketing for personal communication devices at Sony Electronics. “And while they’re chatting and posting to their personal web pages, they’re listening to music, playing games or surfing the Web. The new mylo communicator combines these fun parts of your PC in a portable device so you can stay connected when you’re away from your home computer.”
You can also keep Facebook photos fresh with the communicator’s 1.3 mega pixel camera and photo editing software. You can resize, write captions or draw on photos and post them from the device directly to most social networking pages or blogs whenever you are connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot.
With the mylo communicator you can also log into existing AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and Skype accounts to access contact lists, while sending and receiving multiple messages at the same time.
When there is just too much news to type, you can make free Skype-to-Skype voice calls to more than 246 million other people who use Skype. You can use SkypeOut to make inexpensive calls to landlines and mobile phone numbers anywhere in the world.
The new communicator comes with 1GB of internal memory, with the option of adding up to 8GB of additional storage with Memory Stick Duo media. You can use this memory to store additional flash games, digital music files, video files, image files or news summaries downloaded from the Internet, or imported from your computer or digital camera.
The device supports Windows Media DRM 10, so users can store and play music that has been downloaded or purchased from compatible online stores and subscription music services. It plays MP3, AAC, ATRAC or WMA (secure and unsecured) files. You can watch MPEG4 simple profile and MPEG4/AVC baseline profile video transferred to the mylo communicator via USB from a PC or downloaded from the Web.
Regarding the available widgets, Mylo 2 users can also register to become developers with access to the information they need to create their own widgets. Developer registration will be available at the end of the month at http://www.sony.com/mylo. Personalized widgets created for the device can be shared on this same site. /pr
YouTube and Nokia to provide mobile VOD
From 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia, yesterday (2/13), announced a new partnership with user-generated video site YouTube that will enable Nokia Nseries multimedia handset owners to view YouTube content via broadband connections. The agreement calls for YouTube to launch its own mobile web site, pre-edit clips and encode them in the H.264 compression format for compatibility with Nokia's new Nokia Video Center application software.
The software, which promises a single interface for finding, enables users viewing and storing clips on the handset giant's N-series multimedia devices. Also, YouTube video RSS feeds can now be consumed through the new Nokia Video Center application. It combines branded video RSS feed services, internet videos and sideloaded videos from the PC into one single place such as the Nokia N95 and the recently announced Nokia N93i.
According to Nokia, its N95 device is the first to arrive at retail with the Nokia Video Center software pre-installed, with a download version also available for selected S60 devices. Consumers may also view YouTube content via the Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map.
"We are extremely excited to be able to announce YouTube as one of our first global partners in bringing internet videos easily to our Nokia Nseries owners," said Harri Männistö, Director, Multimedia, Nokia.
"The addition of the enhanced internet video experience is a logical continuation of the wide range of internet experiences available on Nokia Nseries multimedia computers covering already for example photo and video uploading and sharing, music discovery as well as search and navigation."
"We are thrilled to be giving users easy access to entertaining YouTube videos anytime and anywhere. By partnering with an industry leader like Nokia, we're able to bring YouTube videos to mobile phone users worldwide," said Steve Chen, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer for YouTube.
"Our cooperation with YouTube paves the way for continued growth for internet based content distribution. Enabling people to have access to a wide range of videos on their connected multimedia computers offers great potential for this area," said Torsti Tenhunen, Director, Multimedia, Nokia.
Nokia Video Center offers content producers and distributors a unique way to lead consumers directly to dynamic video services which can easily be produced and tailored for various interests. It will be available globally in the markets where Nokia Nseries devices are sold.
It will first be preinstalled in the Nokia N95 device and thereafter in most of the new Nokia Nseries devices. Nokia Video Center will also be available as download version for selected compatible S60 devices.
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