“Qualcomm is working closely with key software technology providers in advance of commercial launches to optimize their solutions for devices running Brew Mobile Platform,” said Jason Kenagy, vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “This effort includes optimization of target devices and pre-distribution of these products to device makers. Through this collaborative effort, Qualcomm and its software providers will help device makers achieve faster time-to-market and ease of development.”

The joint effort announced today covers core mobile software applications and technology, ranging from custom browsers and Java programming support to solutions for mobile social networking, email and messaging, graphics engines, multimedia, standards-based device management, location-based services and font management.

Previously, pre-loaded applications and components were developed on Brew handsets, but this further development addresses the ongoing challenge of fragmentation that developers face in developing applications for high-volume handsets. It enables developers to write for a single platform — across multiple models and from multiple manufacturers — and it provides significant benefit to each participating manufacturer. Many developers, manufacturers and operators are now realizing the benefits through Brew Mobile Platform devices in development.

“We are excited to be able to offer a pre-integrated portfolio of software for mobile phones and consumer electronics, which includes mobile browsing, messaging and social networking,” said Simon Wilkinson, CEO at Myriad. “The combination of Myriad’s proven mobile software and the Brew Mobile Platform will enable handset manufacturers to bring new handsets with advanced features to market faster.”

“This is a perfect approach for us,” said Woojae Lee, director of the global business division at South Korea-based Infraware. “It is a key strategy for us as we grow the market presence of our Polaris(TM) family of embedded browsers. By integrating, optimizing and then distributing our mobile products in advance for the North American and Asian markets, we anticipate an excellent opportunity to better meet our existing customers’ needs. This represents a significant competitive advantage for Infraware.”
“Delivering standards-based, cross-platform solutions that manage firmware, applications and devices over the air continues to be our strategy,” said Yoram Salinger, CEO of Red Bend Software. “The modular design of our vDirect Mobile(TM) device management software supports the modular approach of Brew MP to be optimized for all device tiers. Through this collaboration, Qualcomm and Red Bend are enabling manufacturers and operators to bring differentiated devices to market faster and more cost effectively.”

“We have been pleased by the reception thus far for our pre-integrated Brew MP browser and messaging solution,” said Hanchul Kim, vice president of global marketing at software provider Obigo. “Mobile-device manufacturers and wireless operators appreciate being able to select a pre-approved, out-of-the-box product, and that convenience has contributed to our success in getting our technology adopted for more than 600 mobile devices worldwide.”
Other key mobile software technology partners developing for Brew MP include: Aplix, Bitstream, Comviva, Monotype Imaging, Novarra, PDAger, PixSense, Scanbuy Inc., SEVEN Networks Inc., Yappa and UCweb.
Brew MP is a mobile operating system platform that delivers high-end features across virtually all market tiers of handsets and mobile devices and across all 3G technologies. In addition to its integral support for Adobe® Flash®, the platform offers advanced device capabilities such as touch screen, rich multimedia, window management, open platform extensibility and expanded support for native application development.

Yahoo!’s mobile homepage, available across 32 territories, provides a rich experience across more than 1,900 different mobile devices – a fivefold increase from its April 2009 debut. Over the past two years (August 2007-August 2009), Yahoo! has seen usage of its mobile homepage grow by more than 3x - globally. The site simplifies and enhances the mobile Internet experience for people around the world by offering an open environment where consumers can bring together their favourite content and services from across the Internet.

Additionally, Yahoo!’s free mobile application range allows users to keep in touch with friends, share experiences by updating multiple social networks, view or post photographs using Flickr and even get the latest news. Combined with an unrivalled mobile search experience, Yahoo! powers the most comprehensive mobile web experience offering in the world.

Chat, Share and Search – on the move

In addition to Yahoo!’s mobile browser services, the following Yahoo! applications are available in the UK:

· Yahoo! App (iPhone) – Enables users to stay connected, discover what’s new and keep up to date with their world

· Flickr (iPhone & BlackBerry) – Users can share and discover photos and videos, stay connected and be the eyes of the world

· Yahoo! Messenger (iPhone & Blackberry) – Allows users to keep in touch with their IM friends when they are away from the PC

· Yahoo! Search app (BlackBerry, Nokia & Windows Mobile) – Takes the difficulty out of searching on the go by allowing users to simply say what they want and allow the application to return relevant answers directly to the screen

Yahoo!’s mobile applications offer users a simple and personally relevant experience bringing together mobile content and key Yahoo! properties in a rich and compelling way. Yahoo! will continue to introduce new mobile services, including Yahoo! Finance app in early 2010.

True PC-to-Mobile Integration

People can continue their Yahoo! experience on their mobile phone through true PC to mobile integration. With the new Yahoo! homepage, people can easily add apps on the PC – from Yahoo! or virtually any other site on the Web – and then with a few simple clicks, transport their customised experience to their mobile device. Additionally, Yahoo! scans for any changes users make across the Yahoo! network on the PC - such as adding a stock to Y! Finance or an RSS feed to My Yahoo!, and seamlessly adds them to their Yahoo! mobile experience.

One of the benefits of Vodafone’s new 360 service is that you can keep track of what your chums are up to. There’s only one snag. At present the only mates you can track directly are other owners of the Samsung H1 360 phone.

GoMo News doublechecked this point with the 360 support team and indeed no software clients for other phones have been released yet. But they did very usefully point out that you can register your interest here.

Judging from the form, the 360 service is presently only available in the UK, too. So in effect, if you want to chat and see who is online then you stuck with the 360 service.

Which is a bit strange because you can actually sign yourself up to both Windows Live email and Facebook with the H1 handset, for example.

Hence, all of your friends from Facebook (along with their pictures) will appear in you contacts book. This is really quite useful.

Plus – in terms of status – the H1 handset will show you which of your contacts has most recently updated their facebook status (and what they said). That’s good too.

For some reason, however, the H1 doesn’t seem to register who is online amongst your friends via your Windows Live account.

Nonetheless, GoMo News did successfully sent an email from its Windows Live account using the H1 rather than having to use the 360 mail service.

To date, we have been able to at least locate some apps that should get us onto Twitter via the Vodafone ‘Shop’. The one we tried isn’t very user-friendly, though.

Rather disappointingly, there doesn’t seem to be a Skype client for the H1 yet - which is a shame because Skype’s IM service is highly rated.

If anybody else out there is struggling to test Vodafone 360, they could always try to chat with me – ‘tonethefone’ or try my email which is tonethefone@360.com.

Tony is based in Surrey and is a veteran journalist he writes on the UK market…. contact him here mailto:tony@mobileinsight.co.uk

How does it work?

The name of the app is central to it’s entire theme. The idea of “Knocking” is that before you send the photos, you check if your friend is free to get them. And you do this very easily, by knocking on their phone - like you’d knock on someones door.

Let’s start from the receivers end. You have the Knocking app installed on your phone: it doesn’t have to be up front and running all the time, it operates in the background. If a friend of yours “knocks” on your phone, your device will quite literally make a knocking noise like someone rapping on wood. At that point you can choose whether to accept the knock or ignore it. If you ignore, your friend gets a little message on their screen saying sorry, but you’re not available right now. At the demo I got last night, the person being sent the pics was in class in New York, so they refused the knock.

If you accept the knock, then you get access to an album on your friends phone - you get to scroll through their photo album in real time. Any picture you want to keep, you simply click the “save” button and it comes straight down to your device. And an album can have up to 100 pictures in it!

Now, let’s have a look at how it works if you’re the one sending the pics. The Knocking app accesses the core pic functions of your device. So you can look at a picture album you’ve already created using the native camera app on your phone. Then you simply select which pics you want to send by tapping them. You can see a few of them are ticked in the pic below:

Then you hit “knock”. After a little while you’ll see whether your friend has accepted or not. Then, as they scroll through the album, you see which pics they’re look at! This feature is included to make it feel like you and your friend are flipping through a photo album together.

What we think?

This is an intuitive, easy-to-use photo sharing app. More impressive, though was the second app that was demonstrated for me. But unfortunately I can’t talk about that one yet! It hasn’t quite made it through the Apple approving process yet.

What’s going on here?

What it boils down to is that Sprint does have applications available for people on its network… it just doesn’t make it easy for them to get them onto their devices. Enter BoostApps, which focuses on getting apps and games sent directly to your Boost or Sprint/Nextel iDEN phone.

Wait, hold up. iDEN?

Very simply, iDEN is a technology that combines voice and data for a mobile phone. It was put together by Motorola back in 1994, and back then it allowed a mobile phone to also act as a radio, pager and modem. The network can be upgraded to 3G services, and Sprint is the biggest operator of the technology in America.

Right. So what’s the problem with apps?

Simply that Sprint iDEN is very closely regulated by Sprint. You want to talk about a “walled garden” model for app stores, Sprint was it. But that approach doesn’t work anymore. The only apps available from Sprint were ones that it had developed itself, and consumers want more choice than that. So Sprint is making its iDEN network more open - APIs are being put together so that developers can create their own apps for the Sprint network.

Ok. So how does BoostApps factor in?

While there hasn’t been an official launch yet, some of the APIs are currently available… if you know where to look. And Dennis Bournique of BoostApps did know where to look. I got to talk to him at the Buzzworthy event in San Francisco last night.

BoostApps is an unofficial app store for Sprint Nextel subscribers and, by extension, Boost Mobile subscribers. The site isn’t affiliated with, supported by or approved by Sprint in any way - but that’s ok because it only offers freeware, shareware and adware applications that are freely available. BoostApps even tests the apps before it posts them. You simply select the app you want, and BoostApps sends it straight to your phone.

What we think?

Sometimes I wonder if the operators know what’s in store for them. They have been able to run a completely independent service, capable of ignoring pretty much everyone and just doing whatever they wanted. But the important part is that they were able to do everything themselves. They’ve been completely isolated from the world for so long now. Now market forces are forcing them to crack open the gates a little. And there is a world full of playful, tech-loving geeks and programmers out there who will wedge themselves into that gap and do things the operators had never even imagined and could not possibly predict.

Since Spin3 first started, non-gambling games have become a much bigger player in the mobile market. These days when you say “mobile gaming” people will assume you mean PacMac on the iPhone or something. So, for the purposes of clarity, when I talk about gaming in this article, I am referring to casino games.

What has Spin3 done?

The game is called Mega Moolah. It’s your basic spin-the-reels-match-the-symbols style game that old ladies pour their life savings into at Vegas. The game is available on web-enabled smartphones, and has a number of different play styles to keep people amused. The important game, though, is called Mega Progressive. Each player who pays to spin the wheels, but doesn’t win the big jackpot, adds a little more to that jackpot. The more people play, the more money goes in. The on-line version of Mega Moolah delivered €6 million to a player in May of this year.

The game is only available as a mobile web-hosted app at the moment, but a Java version will be made available for download during December.

From the release:

Matti Zinder, Head of Spin3: “We are excited to be able to bring the biggest online progressive jackpot to the mobile platform. This is yet another milestone for Spin3 and for the development of mobile gambling. The industry is going from strength to strength and bringing a game such as Mega Moolah, which has such as strong online following, to the mobile platform is a fantastic achievement. The possibility of creating the next millionaire on a mobile phone is a hugely exciting prospect.”

What we think?

I’m not a gambler - apart from a brief stay in Las Vegas last year, I’ve never really been one to put my money down. But I can’t deny the pull of the idea that I could sit on the bus in the morning, playing a casino game on my device, and win several million dollars.

First of all, over 200 people turned up. And these people represented interests from all points along the mobile value chain. It was a really great night - I got to talk with Dom Sagolla, one of the founders of Twitter, and became probably the first Irish person to get a copy of 140 Characters, his style book for communicating in short form. He also ran a successful of what he described as “the next big thing” from Jack Dorsey, who is basically the daddy of Twitter. Unfortunately for me, I’m under a strict prohibitions against sharing what that was… and I have to admit that this was a recurring problem all evening.

It was incredibly frustrating in many ways. There were two more great services that were shown to me that evening - one based on video streaming, and the other based on a GPS mobile gaming idea that had incredible marketing applications. But in both cases the services were not yet ready for launch (or had not yet been approved), so I can’t report on them. Bah!

Nevertheless it was a really good event, and I got several stories that I definitely can (and will be) reporting on. Congratulations to the organisers!

Who are JAGTAG?

We’ve reported on JAGTAG a few times before. It’s a mobile barcode company with an interesting twist - it’s one of the few m-coders that doesn’t require users to download a mobile application or client program. The majority of mobile barcode solutions being released today are for devices that can both take pictures and run applications - smartphones. But JAGTAG processes its barcodes off-device: consumers send a picture of the code to JAGTAG via MMS, and receive content in return. This means that both feature phones and smartphones can use the service, as long as you have a camera on there!

JAGTAG has proven to be a pretty flexible service. We’ve seen it used to deliver restaurant promotion coupons, saucy pics of swimsuit models, and help charitable movements at music festivals.

What’s the Toyota campaign?

It’s a pretty simple campaign - during the autumn, as sports fans filed into the Giants Stadium, they were given flyers explaining the JAGTAG campaign and how it worked. The flyer had the JAGTAG printed on it, and told the consumer that if they took a pic of the tag and sent it to a provided shortcode, they would receive an MMS containing a video message from Giants Quarterback and 2008 Superbowl MVP Eli Manning. JAGTAG claims an engagement rate of 9.2%, with almost 1 in every 10 attendees using the service.

From the release:

Dudley Fitzpatrick, CEO of JAGTAG: “JAGTAG is dedicated to delivering a better mobile experience and new opportunities for marketers to reach a mass audience through innovative advertising without any downloads. For Toyota, leveraging JAGTAG in their latest campaign created an opportunity to extend both the reach and interactivity of their print promotion.”

What we think?

A big part of the reason I like JAGTAG is that it doesn’t require a download. It is possibly the simplest introduction to barcodes that exists for consumers. They don’t have to do anything they didn’t already know how to - taking pics and sending MMS. That’s it.
Another thing I found interesting was how it combined the mobile channel with people physically handing out flyers - check out our article from last night about Attack! Marketing for further discussion on that topic.

First of all, who is mig33?

mig33 is a mobile social network based almost entirely Instant Messaging. It does have a cheap SMS and call offering, but the heart of the service is in connecting people through IM. You can chat through the mig33 client, which also connects to the major social IM services - MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, GTalk and AIM - as well as supporting sending picture files.

Importantly, the mig33 client software is designed to run on any device. The majority of the 25 million currently registered on mig33 are feature phone users from outside the US.

What’s the news?

mig33 launched a premium games service, based on a virtual currency called migCredits. You buy your migCredits with real cash, and can use them to buy games or digital goods. The ubiquity of the mig33 platform meant that gamers on any mobile platform (and even on PC) from around the world were using the same currency to play the same games on the same platform. Gamers can compare scores and play against one another - both aspects of what is generally called “social gaming”.

Now mig33 is releasing data about how well the service has been received.

How has it done?

Very well, thank you. mig33 is reporting that it has had more than one million subscribers pay to play the premium games since it launched. This social gaming launch is part of the overall mig33 strategy of moving away from being “just” a mobile chat company, and towards being a full social entertainment service.

From the release:

Steven Goh, CEO and co-founder, mig33: “We are on a mission to become the Tencent QQ for the rest of the world, and our Social Gaming milestone is yet another step in our company’s march to achieving that goal. Without having to install a new client, our millions of users can immediately play games in any of mig33’s thousands of active chatrooms.”

Steve Boom, Executive Chairman, mig33: “Asia has seen some of the world’s fastest growth in terms of social and mobile networking. But even wildly successful incumbents like Tencent QQ and DeNA have remained landlocked in their respective regions.  mig33 is quickly growing to be the Mobile Social Entertainment Service of choice everywhere else.””

What we think?

There’s an interesting sort of behavior we’re starting to see among mobile networks these days - and I don’t mean the operators, I mean companies like mig33 and Nimbuzz who use the mobile channel to gather a community of chatters. Those communities now exist… and we’re seeing the creating companies trying to monetise them. You can’t just host a massive conversation for free forever - at some point you need your community to start paying for something.

GoMo News came across a mailshot for a mobile ’social’ site that had never heard of before – RDVMobile. It appears to use Google gears as a means of showing members who is in close proximity. Shame we couldn’t find a handset to run it on.

To be fair the list of supported handsets is quite broad. It claims to work on the Apple iPhone (naturally) as well as Android handsets and Windows Mobile devices. It can even run on a Windows Mobile handset using the Opera Mobile 9.5 browser.

It’s our guess that the author of RDVmobile (which means Rendezvous Mobile) is French. The clue is that if you click on the link to Wobility – the site’s author – the error messages are in French.

Come to think of it, when you log on initially, there’s the choice of English or French languages.

The sign-up process has an extraordinary bug. One of the parameters for joining (apart from being over 18, of course) is the country you live in. Strangely there is no option for Great Britain, the United Kingdom or England.

So we had to pretend to be in Ireland. The system also refused to validate our Vodafone 360 mailbox,too  so we had to resort to our Hotmail account instead.

Abandoning hopes of getting it to work on a mobile handset, we cheated and used the PC version instead. This meant we could use Google Gears. It definitely works because we found somebody active in Poitiers. Another clue that it’s French.

The blurb says that, “The concept of this new site is to combine a social network with a traditional meeting site to propose the most natural meeting service.”

Its aim is to enable participants “to extend their single people’s network as if in real life, with the help of new devices.”

Funnily enough, RDVMobile actually carries ads for other mobile dating sites such as wap.g8wave.co.uk and wap.loveleap.co.uk.

So if you’re bored and sitting on a train, now you have something to give a little light entertainment.

Tony is based in Surrey and is a veteran journalist he writes on the UK market…. contact him here mailto:tony@mobileinsight.co.uk

Despite sterling efforts to obtain the actual evidence, GoMo News learns that Vodafone UK intends to pump up its own iPhone offering by claiming that its network is better. That depends where you are, of course. If you’re waiting for a plane at London Heathrow airport this might be true.
The claim is taken from a mail-shot which Vodafone carried out recently for those who had bothered to express an interest here in purchasing the iPhone from Vodafone in the UK. Only Pocket-lint appears to have the actual message here.

It says that Vodafone’s engineers have been out and about across the UK testing the iPhone on their network and for watching a ten minute YouTube video, Vodafone says,  it downloads the fastest.

Such a claim is going to be very hard to prove but very easy to dispute. For starters, it depends on how you understand the phrase “across the UK”, for example. In certain high profile locations – such as airports like Heathrow - Vodafone has installed the latest 3G infrastructure.

Plus, Vodafone could well have a high speed link to YouTube from its own network which would make that connection faster than its rivals. So the claim would be true but might not apply to all video downloading.

There’s already a big public spat between 3 UK and Orange UK over who has the better 3G network. Orange says that its claim, “Is based on 3’s latest figures showing that it covered 91 per cent of the population, compared with the 93.4 per cent of Orange.”

Fair enough, you might think but 3 has retaliated that,  “If it [3 UK] applied a different measure used elsewhere in the industry to calculate coverage, it would be able to claim to cover 95 per cent of the population without reaching a single extra customer.”

Personally, GoMo News thinks that the fact that Orange has only circa 7,500 3G masts compared to 3’s 9,192 is a bit of a clue. Some of those masts could be badly located but surely not around 1,500 of them?

The implication is clever, however. The one area where O2 is weak is in 3G coverage. Look on the bright side. O2 says it will legally unlock existing iPhone but you’re still stuck with the contract period. of course.

junaio is a mobile and online platform that lets users create, explore and share information in a completely new way using augmented reality and location-based content. Users can place 3D objects, twitter messages or websites into the real world and then share their creations with friends through social networks. Imagine you are able to take a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and place an animated, 3D T-Rex gobbling up cars. These 3D objects can then be discovered by others who come across the same location. Or you can search for restaurants, cafes, museums, bars or shops etc. via Google local search and see the results in a 360° live-view of the camera.

With junaio, metaio is putting the power of its augmented reality technology – which has been used by industry giants such as Volkswagen, LEGO and Popular Science plus hundreds of other companies – in the hands of everyday consumers. The worldwide film company Focus Features has partnered with junaio to place memorable characters from its hit animated movies 9 and Coraline (the latter feature already available on DVD through Universal Studios Home Entertainment) on the platform to allow users to interact with the creations.

Unlike other applications that attempt to create new social networking communities, junaio is designed to tie existing platforms together with augmented reality based social interactions.  Users can insert an (animated) 3D object into a photo taken with their iPhone and upload it to Facebook, or augment images that others have posted. The technology will soon be available on other smart phone platforms such as Android and Symbian.

Thomas Alt, CEO, metaio: “metaio has a long history of developing augmented reality solutions for multinational corporations.  With the introduction of junaio, we are giving everyday consumers the ability to utilize and experience augmented reality in combination with location-based content and social interactions.”

Peter Meier, CTO, metaio: “junaio is the ultimate augmented reality experience – bringing the full creative power of the Internet to the world around you. This application defines a new dimension in communication with features that can be easily used by the consumer audience to enhance individuals’ interactions in the social networking world.”

Examples of metaio’s augmented reality technology in use today:
·       Retail: LEGO’s Digital Box - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UxWkZtUKaI
·       Mobile: Augmented Vision - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5kXIizs76o
·       Advertising: GE Ad on Popular Science magazine - http://popsci.com/imagination

Seeing a recent survey by Rightmobilephone.co.uk, appears to have stirred memories for Neil Papworth who was a test engineer with Airwide Solutions. He claims to have sent the first ever SMS – which said “Merry Xmas” - back in December 1992.

The Rightmobilephone survey found that around two thirds of the 1,014 people surveyed would probably send their mates a Xmas text rather than an actual card. Only about one third would do the same for their immediate relatives.

However, 83 per cent agreed that it would be unnecessary to send both a text and a card. Significantly,  nearly half (46 per cent) claimed they would send a text because it is easier.

This really highlights a gap in the market which could be exploited by the network operators. Why not make it dead simple to send a Xmas MMS to everybody in your handset’s addressbook?

A network operator could kill two birds with one stone: - generating more MMS traffic and publicising the existence of an online phonebook backup service.

Going back to Mr Papworth, who still works for Airwide but now holds the position of principal sofware engineer, he revealed that the message was actually delivered over Vodafone’s network.

““I was a young engineer working on new communications technologies,” he mused. “We thought SMS was a clever way for a company’s staff to send simple messages to one another.

I’d never have predicted that it would spread into the consumer world and become what it is today.” Nor did any of the analysts,  so you’re in good company Mr Papworth.

There is another irony here. I have just received my first Xmas card through the post and it is from Nokia’s press office. The prime aim of the card is to highlight the fact that the press office has moved.

But it was interesting to see which three products the company has chosen to include on the card. The N900 and the X6 are fairly predictable choices. But the Nokia Booklet 3G? Is this a new direction for the company, GoMo News wonders?

The GSMA has released figures from Wireless Intelligence which show that mobile broadband in the shape of HSPA networks are expanding fast. There are now 285 commercially operating HSPA networks,  supporting more than 167.5 million connexions.

The research has also revealed that there are over 1,600 HSPA-enabled devices. The GSMA didn’t break this down into how many of these were smartphones as opposed to netbooks, laptops and PC dongles.

The amount of data traffic carried by HSPA networks will increase significantly, with mobile devices predicted to send and receive more data in one month by 2014 than in all of 2008.

What is, perhaps, most surprising is that Africa, Eastern Europe and the Americas are expected to experience the biggest growth in HSPA connexions by the end of 2009.

Figures from ABI Research’s ‘Mobile Data Traffic Analysis’ report were also quoted by the GSMA predicting that 75 per cent of mobile data traffic will be attributed to Internet access, while nearly all the remainder will be due to audio and video streaming.

This shows that there will be a strong demand for mobile applications which can support streaming rather than just Internet browsing.

Dan Warren, director of technology with the GSMA,  speculates that, “There are several key questions operators need to address when building a business case for HSPA+ and/or LTE migration.

The answers to these questions will determine whether or not they choose to deploy HSPA+ first or move straight to LTE.”  Interestingly, there are already 28 commercially live HSPA+ networks.

As Warren says, “HSPA technology continues its phenomenal growth as thousands of operators, vendors, application and service providers back the technology, ensuring the presence of a vibrant and competitive ecosystem.”

There’s also a new website showcasing this information:- www.mobileworldlive.com.

Tony is based in Surrey and is a veteran journalist he writes on the UK market…. contact him here mailto:tony@mobileinsight.co.uk

It wasn’t the number of iPhones that Orange sold which was contested. That number stands at (last count) 30,000 - I had believed this to be in excess of the number sold by O2 in a single day in the UK. O2 informs me that it has “actually sold significantly more than this in one day.” Unfortunately the actual sales numbers are deemed to be “sensitive information”, so my request to see them was refused - but O2 does say that the number is “a lot” higher.

What we think?

It really is unfortunate that O2 can’t share it’s exact sales figures. If I have published incorrect information then I’m more than happy to retract it and apologise for it. But the lack of any definite documentation from O2 beyond “oh, we totally did” makes that somewhat difficult.

I say a “new perspective” because I spend more of my time talking to people who are already in mobile marketing, and are trying to convince other people to use that channel. Christian is looking at mobile as a valuable tool, and trying to figure out the best way to integrate with the existing Attack! offer.

So what does Attack! do?

Attack! works by getting feet on the pavement. It works by human-to-human interaction, face-to-face. For example, Jamba Juice is a current client of Attack! and is advertising a new breakfast option through the agency. One of the Attack! solutions is to place people at areas of heavy foot traffic in San Francisco, at the right time of day for people who are looking for breakfast, and handing out paper coupons. There are a lot of other methods Attack! can use (for example, the Attack! logo below is a “spray chalk” logo on the sidewalk outside the event), but this is the one we were discussing.

The question I asked Christian is how do you turn that coupon delivery system from a person into a mobile? After all, the end result is to get a coupon into the pocket of a customer. Whether it’s a paper coupon handed over by a person or a digital coupon delivered by a mobile shouldn’t make a difference.

What interested me is that Attack! has no intention of getting rid of the person handing out the coupon. The effectiveness of actual human contact can’t be replicated by a device. Attacks! has been running successful campaigns of this sort for 8 years now, and is interested in the intersection between it’s methods and those of mobile. Part of the problem is that mobile is actually too personal. If you blindside someone with an ad they weren’t expecting, they’ll treat it like spam. At best you’ll be ignored, at worst you’ll have turned that person against you.

Bluetooth is often taken as the worst example of this kind of marketing - but Bluetooth can be used effectively if used correctly (see the GoMo News article on that topic here). But a possible area Attack! is looking at is how Bluetooth can be combined with a person on the street: “We’ve got coupons and special offers for Jamba Juice today, and if you want to get a bonus digital coupon for a free coffee delivered straight to your phone, just turn your bluetooth on in this area!”

What we think?

It was really great to talk to an advertiser who wasn’t an expert in mobile. Attack! wasn’t pitching how GREAT mobile is - it’s a company that is confident in how it’s advertising model worked, and is really interested in how mobile can be used to enhance that offering, rather than replace it.

And one other point, on which Christian agreed with me: every advertising agency, no matter how large or small, needs to have a mobile strategy. Or at least be able to fake it.

The “there’s a map for that” ad campaign claimed that Verizon has 5 times the 3G coverage of AT&T. Specifically, Verizon used the phrase “almost anywhere” to describe where you can get Verizon 3G coverage, and the phrase “spotty” to describe that of AT&T.

It seems to be this map in particular that is pissing AT&T off:

So what’s the beef?

AT&T claims that Verizon has been extremely “creative” with it’s definition of the term “3G” here. Both AT&T and Verizon use different infrastructure standards in their networks - but I’m not interested in getting into acronym territory here. What it boils down to is that both operators have both 2G, 2.5G and 3G elements in their networks. While 2G networks are capable of carrying data services, they are a hell of lot slower than 3G. What AT&T is claiming is that when Verizon compiled its map, it counted all the parts of the network that could possibly carry data - covering the map in red. It goes on to claim that when it compiled the AT&T map, it only counted the most up-to-date 3G past of the network, leaving the 2.5 and 2G areas blank.

And so AT&T has begun legal proceedings to try and stop this ad from being broadcast.

What we think?

Mmmmm… there’s more than one thing to be considered here. Of course if what AT&T is saying is true, then Verizon has to stop showing that ad. But there’s the more important issue of public perception here. First, most consumers will have no idea that there’s a court case going on. Second, if they do they will remember a funny and clever Verizon ad and assume that AT&T is acting out due to sour grapes. Third, if you believe what you see in TV ads (which you shouldn’t) the best way for AT&T to reach you is to create a similarly caustic and funny TV ad.

What’s up?

The iPhone has been available in the UK from O2 for a year now. But 30,000 devices were sold by Orange today - more than O2 ever shifted in a  single day. Why are people flocking to buy the device from Orange instead?

For me it comes down to two basic reasons:

1) The iPhone is now a proven property.

When the iPhone launched, people knew it was going to be cool. They just didn’t know HOW cool. Or successful. One year, multiple upgrades and over 2 billion apps later everyone knows what the iPhone is capable of. So imagine, if you will, a subscriber with Orange who really wanted an iPhone. That customer has spent a year seeing all these great things happening on iPhone… whetting their appetite. But for any number of good reasons (they like their operator, or their plan, or they are just too lazy) they don’t jump ship. Then Orange begins to sell iPhones, and they sprint down to their local retailer on the first day to snap up the device that has been teasing them for 12 months.

Out of the 20 million or so customers O2 has in the UK, how many of them do you think match the above descriprion? 30,000 or so? Maybe.

2) Mobile data

While Orange is being careful not to get into a price war with O2, there’s no such regard when it comes to data. While the prices for data from Orange are pretty good, I still feel that the 750MB fair usage limit on its “unlimited” mobile broadband is a little restrictive. But Orange has taken the precaution of dropping the price for enabling tethering on your iPhone - in other words, you can use your Orange iPhone as a plug-in modem for your laptop, or even for your computer at home. I wouldn’t advise that, though, because for less than 10 pounds sterling a month you can get tethering AND home broadband from Orange. It may not be streets better than O2, but it’s an additional effort from the operator to make data usage easier on the device. And that attracts customers.

Who in the what now?

The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organisation that maintains the free, open source web browser Firefox. After Internet Explorer, which is the undisputed giant in the room when it comes to web browsing, Firefox is the most widely used browser.

Fennec is the mobile version of Firefox that the Mozilla Foundation is preparing for smaller devices - not just mobile phones, but also PDAs and other mobile computers. Although they would want to stop preparing pretty soon and start launching, because there is hot competition in the mobile browser space.

And as this is the fifth beta for Fennec since March of this year, don’t worry if you don’t like this one. There’ll be another in a couple of minutes.

What’s new?

Before we go any further, I should stress that beta 5 has only been developed for devices running the Linux-based Maemo OS from Nokia. So only people with an N900 then. Well, it’ll run on certain Nokia tablets as well, but the N900 is the main device.

The actual performance features for Fennec beta 5 are pretty good, I must say. You can see the full list here, but here’s what I would call the highlights:

New for Beta 5:

•    Enabled plugins - one of the best things about Firefox, and the reason it’s my browser of choice. Plug-ins are basically applications for your browser. I love them. I use plug-ins to search Google, Wikipedia and IMDB. I use them to manage my RSS feeds, Digg and Stumble. Having these integrated into Fennec is like a whole new source of mobile applications.
•    Form assistant to make filling forms easier - again, a great feature from Firefox
•    Improved panning and zooming
•    “Numerous” other bug and polish fixes.

Aaaaand… that’s it, really.

What we think?

Honestly, I’m a big fan of Firefox. I preferred Netscape to IE back in the day, and I prefer Firefox to IE now. But honestly, there are strong contenders in the mobile browser market at the moment. You’ve got independents like Skyfire and Bolt; other web search transplants like Opera; or device specific browsers like Safari for iPhone and the new, not-awful, web browser for Blackberry. Most mobile internet users have already chosen their web browser. Mozilla is late coming to the table on this one, so they would want to have a pretty spectacular proposition when they sit down.

This means those people who haven’t been made redundant, and can afford touch screen devices, can rattle their way through the social web on their iPhones, G1s and Blackberry Storms whilst the rest of us dig around for food in the gutter, shouting at the sky.  They will then be able to take pictures of this spectacle, tag it, tweet it and people will be able to OMG! at you all around the world within seconds.

This isn’t such a surprising development, as Samsung has been moving this direction for a while. It has limited developer tools available for a few months, in the form of the Samsung Mobile Innovator site. More importantly, in late October Samsung joined the Join Innovation Lab (JIL) - a body founded by mobile operators to overcome fragmentation in the mobile OS, apps and services market. This was a big move. Before Samsung joined (along with three other manufacturers, including RIM) the JIL had been comprised only of operators.

What’s the new platform like?

It’s called bada, which apparently is Korean for “ocean”. The name was chosen for a reason - it is meant to convey the limitless nature of the service. After all, Samsung is part of JIL, so we can expect an overlap between the Samsung SDK and those of other operators and phone makers.

Samsung has held “user-friendly” to be an important aspect of bada. It claims that the UI is easy and intuitive to use, but allows the sophistication required for cutting-edge developers. We can’t actually judge that yet, unfortunately, as the SDK won’t be available until December!

Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics said that “by opening Samsung’s mobile platforms we will be able to provide rich mobile experiences on an increasing number of accessible smartphones. bada will be Samsung’s landmark, iconic new platform that brings an unprecedented opportunity for operators, developers and Samsung mobile phone users around the world.”

The bada site is open from today, and the SDK will be shown for the first time tonight at a special event for developers in London.

What we think?

Man, people treat developers so nicely these days. It’s not like before, when being an app developer got you a haughty demeanor and a bag of crusty rinds (if you were lucky). These days it’s all workshops, APIs and dinner engagements. It’s almost like something has changed. It’s almost like manufacturers and operators alike have realised that people are more interesting in the content of a phone than the phone itself, and that developers are the best source of content you could possibly hope to tap.

What’s the plan?

The day after the Q3 losses were reported, releases came from Sprint about how it planned to attract customers next year - a concentration on Android devices, more investment in WiMAX, and it’s very own application store. But today we get the skinny on how the gap is really to be shored up: massive cost cuts across the board.

Sprint has announced that it will have to reduce internal and external labours costs by at $350 million each year - which includes axing between 2,000 and 2,500 employees within the company. That’s “internal”. Contractor and other outside labour will see huge cuts as well. The geographic disposition of the cuts hasn’t been decided yet, but Sprint lets us know in very PC terms that “many impacted positions will be eliminated by December 31, 2009″. Ouch. It’s tough getting fired over Christmas.

What we think?

Sprint has a reputation for being unreliable - and where it may have deserved that in the past, it certainly doesn’t seem to now. Metrics and analysis show that these days Sprint is the most reliable network in the US. Customer service calls have been greatly reduced. But it takes a long time to shake a bad name. The question is whether Sprint can do it before the recurring rumours about it selling up actually come true.

However, seeing as Sprint had almost $6 billion in cash sitting in its accounts at the end of Q3, it’s probably not in any immediate danger. Especially not when it’s being so liberal with the boot.

Transcode?

There’s no such thing as “the mobile web”, really - it’s just a catch all term for those sites and services that have been designed so that mobile users can see and use them easily on a small device. Most of “mobile web” pages are built from the ground up, but services like Mobify allow you to perform automatic optimization to your on-line page so that mobiles won’t have a problem with it. This is mostly achieved by automatically transforming the underlying code of the site into one that is mobile-friendly… or, transcoding.

We’ve had some experience with Mobify. Our own Val Halla created her own mobile site with it, and wrote about her experiences.

What are the updates?

I actually wasn’t expecting to be too impressed by this release, but there are some very good tools added in this update. Google Analytics has been built-in to the Mobify API - so you can get the same level of analysis for your mobile site as you would for an on-line site with Google support. API support has also been added for certain on-line page builders (including GoMo’s own home, WordPress) so that these pages will mobilize even faster than before.

Kevin Woolery, CTO of Jetpack Digital said “I’ve converted sites for mobile in the past, and it has always been difficult. With Mobify, we had a mobile version of VIBE up in no time. I’ll be the first to recommend Mobify to anybody who is looking to get a high-quality mobile presence without having to re-architect their site”.

What we think?

The true benefit in a service like Mobify lies in its speed and simplicity - as GoMo’s Val reported. For someone who isn’t a web designer (and even for some who are) the prospect of creating a mobile-optimized website can be daunting. Mobify won’t provide you with the in-depth mobile functionality that a mobile developer could, but it allows people who don’t have the time or resources to develop their own site/app to get some presence on mobile. And that is worth the price.

What is Nimbuzz?

Nimbuzz is a mobile service that uses VoIP and Instant Messaging to connect you and your friends as cheaply as possible. You can access it over you mobile browser, as a downloadable application or on your computer. The entire service is integrated into your contacts list, so when you search for one of your friends the option to contact them through a cheaper option is right there.

It also integrates with popular VoIP, IM and social networking clients - so you can use Nimbuzz to send a Facebook message to your friends, or Skype or Google Talk or etc. It’s a popular service: Nimbuzz claims to have 10 million registrations, and to be growing at a steady rate of around 40,000 new users every day.

For a closer look at the service, check out our video interview and demo here:

GoMo 1-to-1: mobile communications and the future of Nimbuzz from Cian Gomo on Vimeo.

What’s the news?

The news is called NimbuzzOut. You’ll need to put some money into this one, but a little cash will go a long way - and every other part of Nimbuzz is completely free. You can buy NimbuzzOut Credits at the website. International calls are pretty damn cheap - a call from the US to either the UK or China will set you back 2 cents a minute. The service is available through 3G and Wi-Fi on Symbian and iPhone OS phones at the moment, through more platforms should be support before the start of 2010.

What we think?

Nimbuzz is an extremely convenient service, so I couldn’t help but do a quick price comparison. I had a great experience with Skype recently, phoning my bank in Ireland. I wanted to know how much extra the convenience of Nimbuzz would cost me to phone a landline in my home country.

The answer surprised me. It’s actually cheaper. Not by much, mind you. Skype does calls to Irish landlines at 2.1 cents a minute. Nimbuzz does them for a flat 2 cents. Like I said, not much in the difference. But when something you expect to be more expensive turns out cheaper, it’s always a pleasant shock.

Shazam

Shazam is an app that recognises songs as they’re being played. If you’re in the store and you hear a song that you like, you activate Shazam and it will identify the artist and track. You can even user hum the tune you’re thinking of and Shazam will id it. Then you can tag the track for later purchase. It has consistently been one of the most popular apps on the iTunes stores, with over 10 million users worldwide.

And now it’s time for a big update. But rather than launching “Shazam v.2″, Shazam has released a slightly renamed version of the app with all the updated features called “Shazam Encore”. It’s a stand-alone app, retailing at $5 for download to iPhone or iPod Touch - or there’s the limited free version. What’s new? It now recognises and tags songs faster. A “discover” feature has been added so you can browse music similar to the track you’ve just tagged. And it has an “in-car” mode for when it’s placed in a car dock, that is optimised to more easily tag songs as they play on the radio (presumably so you don’t take your eyes off the road, crash and die).

Geodelic

Geodelic created a pretty exciting new location-based search application that launched this summer. Sherpa only runs on newer smartphone models, and provides hyper-localised responses. It will tell you what the most interesting things within a certain distance of you are - and those results can be filtered by category. One of the more interesting things about Sherpa was that it is one of the few high-end apps released for Android before iPhone. iPhone users can expect to see a free Geodelic app early 2010, but in the meantime, the updated Sherpa 2.0 app is available for Android users.

Geodelic claims the updated Sherpa app is almost twice as fast as the original version. The UI has been simplified, and has been more fully integrated with hardware buttons that Android caters for - so more of the applications functions will be one-click. It also allows more actions to be taken on the hyper-local search results. Making restaurant reservations, booking cinema tickets or accessing Twitter feeds from local retailers will all be built into the app.

Loopt

Loopt is best described as a social mapping application. It combines social networking, location and local search on mobile so that you can connect to both your friends and nearby locations from one app. Loopt will show you on a map which of your friends are nearby, and lets you share plans and locations on the map. Today Loopt launched an upgraded version, mostly centered around the local discovery features. It now integrates content from recommendation service Pulse, updating options for Facebook and Twitter, locally sourced mobile coupons and reviews from Zagat, Citysearch and the Loopt community.

I love my food, so I’m particularly interested in the Zagat deal. Nina S. Zagat, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of Zagat Survey said “we are excited to offer the Loopt community access to Zagat’s top lists and information about special Zagat events in their area. It is our mission to provide consumers with Zagat content wherever they are and whenever they need it.”
 
Loopt is a Blackberry-only app, currently available for free on selected Curve, Bold and Tour smartphones.

iBasis

Here’s an interesting one. iBasis falls into the “silent giant” category of companies. It’s a massive international voice call provider, and has specialised in IP calls (or VoIP, if you like) since 1998. iBasis, for example, carries both IP and legacy voice calls for companies including Skype, Verizon, Vodafone, China Mobile, China Unicom and Telefonica. No lightweights, these guys.

Well, iBasis is getting into the storefront business with a new mobile application called Pingo EZ Dial. The application provides cheap international calls for users of most popular smartphones and operating systems - primarily iPhone, Blackberry, Android and S60 users.

The thing that I really like about this app is that once it’s installed, you don’t have to worry about it again. As soon as your phone detects you are making an international call, Pingo EZ Dial automatically routes it through the iBasis system and applies the cheap VoIP charges. You don’t have to load an app, or enter a code, or anything. You can buy Pingo credit on-line (or through your mobile browser), and it works on 3G as well as Wi-Fi.

Now, I use Skype to make my international calls because it is cheap as hell. I lost my bank card during the week and had to ring my bank in Ireland to cancel it. That 15 minute international call cost me a grand total of 22 cent. But it required making the call from my computer, which was something of a pain. If that same cost-saving could be applied to a completely painless mobile app… this could be a big one, I reckon.

Google buy Admob - another notch on the bedpost?

Google has a list of purchased conquests on its bedpost. The latest notch is called AdMob – the mobile advertising self-service platform actually making a little bit of money.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google has bought AdMob. AdMob is the classic early adopter in the mobile space that managed to secure a lot of VC money and grow exponentially. It also doesn’t accept porn and so in Google’s eyes does no evil.

Or at least that is the PR scenario.

Without a doubt Google is the big fish in the ocean and quite frankly it is betraying its power with its multiple acquisitions. It hurts me to say that, as I do think AdMob is a good buy for Google. But that is because Google missed the boat on mobile and its services attempts at mobile advertising have been shit. I have said this since 2007.

But the fact of the matter is that Google is a cartel. Or at least it does need to be investigated. Doubleclick was one for online… AdMob for mobile – what about the rest of the competition?

Bing: Will it buy Decktrade? Or even Mobile Discovery to bolster is Microsoft Tag dream?

JumpTap: I thought JumpTap would have been purchased by Google so am a bit surprised as I thought the paid links would have been a match.

Yahoo: It’s the current mobile search and sponsored ad leader? Will it keep this title – I think it will be hard in the US but possible for it to remain the EU king.

Adfonic? If I was a start-up now I would think there is everything to play for. Carve your niche and the rest will follow so Adfonic must nail the UK and Ireland.

Webmoblink? Again this time a mobile and online player with a lot of potential in new markets such as South America and China.

What about the platform players?
Out There Media is the most aggressive player in the platform space at the moment with a Eastern European and Asian strategy. My money is on Out There Media for some kind of buy out in the next 24 months but this time I think it will be from a mobile operator.

Amobee: Amobee got funding from Telefonica and Vodafone but totally screwed it up, gave poor service and everyone hated them. Now with the CMO and every other C out apart from the founders …. can ex-Yahoo Michael Bayle turn it around?

Ad Aggregators:
Smaato: Smaato I think will also be sold to one of the publishing houses. Its brokering services will be vital for the publishing and digital market when the market is ready.

What AdMob did?
What AdMob has done right is grow with a mission. It had a simple strategy. To offer simple mobile advertising to users and nail brands with 100k deals. It had a pay back strategy offering incentives for signing up, cashing out, bonuses for just being there and all sorts.
This type of aggressive self-marketing strategy meant loyal regular users.

If you look at the last year, AdMob was quiet. In fact, bullish PR about the number of ads served ceased as the market got more aggressive. I think this is what made Google tick.

It waited for the economy to be weak. It waited for the downturn and it pounced just as AdMob couldn’t be as bullish as it would have liked to be. I mean 750 million is a steal if you look what prices have been flying around for online social networks. AdMob has clients. Its average high end deal is 100K and its CPC is as high as 0.22 in the UK.

Anyway, back to the point. One thing you can expect from Google buying AdMob is better mobile advertising from Google.

Augmented reality is basically combining meatspace with cyberspace, flesh with flash and skin with SIM.   By combining the technology in your phone with the connectivity of your network, augmented reality takes real life and imposes data over the top.  You never need to be disappointed with real life ever again.   This post over on Mashable has got some pretty interesting pics of the new Wikitude iPhone app, which pulls down geotagged data from Wikipedia and lets you interact with it using your camera, compass and GPS.  Another step towards Johnny Mnemonic then.

The Progress Apama BEP platform will form a crucial part of match2blue’s back-end infrastructure, providing the performance and scalability it needs, as well as enabling its business partners, who will be operating the location-based services to control and monitor their
operations through dashboards.

One example of an application is match2blues’s enterprise grade social solution that mobilises members of frequent flyer programmes globally. Members will be able to connect, exchange ideas, share taxis and engage in real time via a new mobile application.

In another example New York clubbers can use match2blue’s Webster Hall application for finding and meeting like-minded people. Clubs and communities can also push information on scale to the New York party scene via the iPhone application to ensure that new venues or
events are filled to capacity.

Stephanie Renda, Managing Director at match2blue explained, “Real-time information is the lifeblood of the community and opens up a number of lucrative opportunities for our brands and
multi-national clients. Our distinctive technology is based on a matching engine, which can identify offers, information and interests to communities. Now we have added scale to real-time exchange. This means that our reach has increased and we can target the masses with our instant profiling and people matcher technology. Event based real-time messaging will change the way in which we digest information and create a healthy new environment for brands to connect and engage with clients and consumers”.

Kenny Schachter at Webster Hall added, “match2blue allows us to offer something really unique for our customers. Our new iPhone application instantly notifies club goers when someone with similar interests is in close proximity and will reinvent their nightlife experiences by allowing them to take their socialising inside the walls of Webster Hall. Users can connect with like-minded people, and even invite them for a drink.”

Dr. Giles Nelson, Senior Director of Strategy at Progress Software, commented, “The use of
Apama Complex Event Processing to provide real-time information to social networking communities, wherever they may be, is another innovative and exciting use of our technology. This really is taking social networking to the next level and the Apama product offers the scale and performance for match2blue to react to millions of subscribers’ movements in real-time, so transforming their customer offering.”
The Apama platform is used by companies like 3 Italia (the Italian 3G service provider) for realtime visibility into service and billing processes, Royal Dirkzwager (a Dutch Maritime Information
and Service provider), for monitoring and analysis of real-time shipping information, and Boekhandels Groep Nederland – BGN – who introduced the world’s first item-level RFID
implementation).
ENDS

November 2009
Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.

AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.

After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:

*Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.

*Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.

*Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.

*Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.

You can read more about this deal at www.admob.com/google .

Omar

What we think?
Will Google also acquire AdWhirl - I wonder what happened to that deal. But congratulations Omar and Russell - its a great price and the company really has had a rollercoaster.

Mobile advertising agency,  We love Mobile,  is claiming to be “using rich mobile codes … the first of their kind to be used outside Japan” for a campaign its masterminded for Colombia Records and the band, Passion Pit. Couldn’t see anything particular rich about the ‘Mobile QR’ codes, though.

The code takes you straight to the Passion Pit’s home page and although it has a .mobi URL, the site wasn’t particularly mobile friendly either.

The good news is that the codes will be readable via a whole host of existing mobile handsets. GoMo News tried it with the standard code reader built into a Nokia E66 and had no trouble obtaining the URL buried in the code.

Those that need help with code readers can go here. If you can’t be bothered with QR code readers, you can still text ‘Manners’ to 88600.

The site offers visitors a number of discounts and money-off vouchers. Participants don’t have to download the music online, however. They can be used to buy CDs in independent record stores.

The clever part, however, will be that We Love Mobile will be posting up new codes over the coming weeks - each one revealing a new free track or video.

The most unusual thing about this whole promotion, however, seems to be that the QR code actually forms part of the band’s album artwork. The album is called Manners.

Did you know that Manners is actually the family name of the Marques of Granby? That should be useful in a pub quiz.