How do your fees and services compare with your competitors?
Dhanani: Most carriers offer mobile phone navigation for approximately $10.00/month for unlimited use, regardless of provider. This has become industry standard. Some of our carrier partners also provide alternate options such as a pay-per-day or pay-per-use plan, or they bundle it into various data plans.

You were the first to launch a GPS solution on the mobile phone in North America. What can TeleNav do that other mobile GPS services don’t?
Dhanani: First, we have deployed TeleNav GPS Navigator on all available mobile platforms (Java, BREW, RIM, etc.) and on more than 200 mobile phone models. Most of our competitors’ solutions are limited to certain platforms and a limited number of handsets.

Are your features any different from other products?
Dhanani: Additionally, we have many features which our competitors do not offer. For example, our latest version of TeleNav GPS Navigator includes 3D moving maps, traffic alerts and one-click rerouting, gas price listings, restaurant reviews, location sharing, voice-recognition address entry, more than 10 million business listings, preplanning online and pedestrian mode. The voice commands were recorded by a real human (instead of text to speech) and the commands will include the street name so you know where to turn… What makes it unique is how we incorporate and display the data.

What do you think of Telmap, Ask Mobile GPS and amAze?
Dhanani: I’d like to answer this question by sharing what I think are the most important things to consider when reviewing any mobile GPS navigation service: features, usability, and availability. First, a customer should consider what the service includes – is it only basic navigation or are there other features available? In addition, are the features relevant? Will you actually use them? Secondly, usability is an important factor. For example, if the navigation is hard to follow or if entering addresses or locations is cumbersome, this can have a big impact on your overall satisfaction with the service. Finally, some navigation services are only available on a very limited number of devices so if a customer decides to purchase a new phone or switch carriers, they may not be able to take their navigation service with them.

Ross Rubin, Director of Industry Analysis, The NPD Group:
On the handset side, we continue to face the challenge of balancing so many features against a portable device with good ergonomics and battery life. On the network side, we are still building out 3G infrastructure and not yet delivering it at an affordable price point. And on the content side, we continue to search for ways to deliver compelling mobile services across a wide array of devices using diverse development standards.

Ben Keighran, founder & CEO of mobile social messenger Bluepulse:
Mobile phones are like snow flakes. They all look the same but are completely different. Developing consumer products for mobile phones is extremely challenging.

Jyri Engeström, co-founder of mobile microblogger Jaiku:
To work for consumers, mobile ads should be much more relevant: things that are current right now in your social and geographic neighborhood. There’s still a lot of room for innovation there, and also risks… We believe in the long run, our most compelling business model is to provide a free basic service that is supported by advertising, and offer additional features for an optional subscription fee. We currently display ads on the Web site but not on the mobile.

Dave Singer, vice-president and US general manager at Telmap:
Mobile customers are being bombarded with so many different options for devices, applications, ringtones, etc. As an industry we need to keep thing very simple for our customers and make it very easy for them to purchase and use our application.

How does EyeMobile work?
MacDougall: The Shake application is controlled by how vigorously the user shakes the device. This action is used for shuffling MP3 playlists, throwing dice, etc. The RocknRoll extension presents the opportunity to control applications based upon rock, roll, or a combination of the two. With Rock, you can use the flick of a wrist to answer a call or simulate a throw. Use Roll to turn the pages of a document or for steering and navigation. Combine Rock and Roll to simulate mouse or joystick control.

What were the greatest challenges with developing your product?
MacDougall: The greatest challenges were ensuring we had a solution that was flexible enough to work on any platform and interface with a variety of mobile applications (not just games). We also needed reliability and precision in our solution. It’s important that our technology works and works well. Finally, we needed to be flexible in how we made the product available to handset manufacturers and game developers. Different players want to deliver the product, market the product, pay for the product, and make money on the product, in different ways. It was important that we take their needs into consideration, and this continues to be a priority for us.

Do you feel comfortable with your mobile business model?
MacDougall: Our business model differs depending on the platform. For instance, on the BREW platform, GestureTek is paid for each game that is downloaded (this is of course through BREW’s plug-in model). On the other hand, DoCoMo pays GestureTek on a per handset basis. We do not see any threats with our different business models and in fact find security with the variety of models we employ.

What distinguishes GestureTek from your mobile competitors?
MacDougall: GestureTek’s main competition is accelerometers, which are costly and require integration into mobile hardware during the design period. GestureTek’s EyeMobile Engine uses the existing camera phone and is a pure software solution. GestureTek also offers an optimized solution for the widest variety of platforms. The company has over 20 years of experience and is available to over 50 million handsets

Can EyeMobile can do things that accelerometers can’t?
MacDougall: The accelerometer must be set to measure either small movement or large movement, but not both. On the other hand, GestureTek’s EyeMobile Engine has advantages in that it can offer both maxi and mini control, plus more versatility and functionality in gesture-control. Some of the most popular applications available through NTT DoCoMo, for example, are those in which people get a mobile gaming experience that’s closer to the real thing by making hand gestures at their phone. For example, people can swing their phones like they’re rolling a bowling ball in the Bowling Game, or dance around the ring taking punches at their opponent in the Boxing Game. Accelerometers can’t do that.

Yu: No, I don’t think it’s a matter of one overshadowing the other, but they are complimentary. Cost-wise, it’s hard for mobile broadband to beat existing hard lines like DSL and cable. I don’t think the distinction is going to come down to what pipe one uses to access the Web – many high-end phones offer WIFI support, which ultimately accesses the Web through a hard line – but more from what the form factor of the device is. I do think you’ll see more web sites tailored for the mobile device, driven by usability.

Huang: The surprising thing is that dependence on the desktop or laptop PCs will not diminish. Unless the physical make up of humans change, there are just limitations to a mobile device that can’t be overcome. It’s the same reason that it’s nicer to watch a movie at a theater or big screen than on an iPod. Sure you can watch the movie, but the impact of the epic war scene (a la Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Hero) is very different. I think we will all continue to gather digital assets and that a way to unify and access them all regardless of device or location will be of utmost importance.

So you don’t see the old devices being replaced by the new ones.
Huang: They are different mediums, each with their advantages. Recall in the old days the movie studios were all paranoid that the video tape would make people stop watching TV or going to the movies? In reality it grew the market and created new opportunities. The mobile web will have the same effect. We have seen this played out over and over again. Today it’s going on in the music industry. The Web and the mobile Web are delivery mechanisms. People will use what is most appropriate for the situation that they are in.

When will high speed wireless Internet become more appropriate in more situations?
Huang: If high speed wireless Internet reaches the same value equation as DSL or cable, then it will start to replace the older system. Today, the price and speed difference doesn’t make that possible. I recall a mobile trade show where they assumed that everyone would have a mobile phone. Then it turns out that the sessions were being held in a ballroom that happened to be three floors underground. No one could get any signal at all in the ballroom. All the vendor demos were broken. What we wouldn’t have given for a regular [wired] LAN…

You specialize in casual games – simpler arcade-style products – instead of massive combat fantasies. What are the most common misconceptions about your games?
Turetzky: People often think that casual games are just for women. While women do represent a slight majority of our mobile customers, we find that men enjoy the challenge of our casual titles as well.

How do gamers benefit from your EMERGE technology?
Turetzky: EMERGE enables Real to efficiently produce games for more than 800 handsets. We pride ourselves on being first to market on new handsets. When someone buys the latest handset, it’s important to them that they have a wide range of choices for content. With certain more limited circulation handsets, like the Blackjack, HTC 8525 or the brand new LG VX10000, many publishers are hesitant to develop games because of uncertain payback and we find ourselves in a very strong position. The carriers come to us and ask for our help in getting games onto these devices.

What kind of relationship do you have with mobile operators? Do you offer services that don’t depend on them?
Turetzky: The carriers like us because we bring well-known IP [intellectual property], fun games and the best handset support. In various markets, we offer a number of direct-to-consumer services, selling both a la carte titles and subscriptions. We don’t promote these heavily, as the current consumer is much more focused on the carriers for content.

Do you see any threats to your mobile business model?
Turetzky: As with most publishers, the majority of our sales come through the carriers. As carriers shift resources around their organizations, there may be less time available to deal with all the publishers out there. In the U.S., we are a top 10 publisher, so we don’t feel much of a threat, but there are always other publishers breathing down our necks.

Do you foresee any promising new mobile gaming interfaces?
Turetzky: I’m a big fan of touch screens. It’s an incredibly intuitive interface and is a natural way to control the leading casual game types, like match-3s, click management and hidden objects. There’s a lot of buzz around accelerometers because of the WiiMote but I don’t see how that lends itself well to a mobile handset. When you’re swinging the phone around, you can’t see the screen. I don’t see someone bowling and golfing by themselves at the bus stop. Actually, sometimes I do but those people usually don’t have mobile phones.

Several veterans of the mobile industry shared their assessments of the most promising mobile applications today, and listed some of their favorites.

Ross Rubin, Director of Industry Analysis, The NPD Group:
Some of the most promising applications are ones that provide information within a useful context; location-based services have come a long way in the past year. Song identification applications also put knowledge where you want it (hearing a song in a restaurant, for example). There’s a lot of promise in leveraging the wisdom of crowds for real-time information — everything from highway traffic insight to recommendations on what to do in a new city to instant, community-driven versions of Yahoo! Answers.

Brian J. Friedman, executive vice-president of mobile translator Enterpret:
Mobile applications are really starting to come of age and there are many productivity and lifestyle applications that show promise. Mobile TV is a good time shifting application, there are many middleware applications that provide mobile access to enterprise data and of course tools like the Enterpreter that combine productivity with lifestyle usage.

Song Huang, Chief Evangelist at mobile file access provider SoonR:
Personally I like location based services. Phones already have the GPS capability built in; we need to surface that in our applications. I don’t think proximity-based social networking apps are the answer, but enhanced functionality for travelers. Also mobile payment systems are very promising.

Kai Yu, president of mobile messenger developer BeeJive:
The best mobile apps are those that really fit the mobile device, and provide some utility that desktop apps wouldn’t be able to provide. Google Maps and TeleNav are both excellent applications, and really useful. Obviously it’s much more useful to be able to view location, navigation, or traffic information when you’re actually out and about, lost or stuck in traffic.

Steve Hartford of mobile file-sharing company Avvenu:
Beyond Avvenu Music and Access ‘n Share, I love Google Maps and Yahoo! Go.

Dave Singer, vice-president and US general manager at Telmap:
Wow, the possibilities for location-based mobile navigation seem endless right now. I have been in the mobile industry since 1989 when I was with McCaw and I equate mobile navigation to the early days of voice mail and more recently, cameras within devices. Within the next 24 months, every phone will be capable of providing mobile navigation… As for my personal favorite, I like them all but really the best for our entire industry is still yet to come.

Matt Turetzky, vice-president of non-PC platforms for RealNetworks‘ game division
[As far as games go], I can’t put down Collapse! Chaos on my touch screen 8925. I also love Seven Wonders.

Kai Yu, president of BeeJive:
Mobile Safari on the iPhone is really a groundbreaking product, more because of its usability innovations than any technical breakthroughs. Opera Mobile and the Series 60 browser actually supported Ajax earlier. Opera Mini is also very good for regular Java phones. We’d like to think our application is promising as well.

Francis MacDougall, co-founder and CTO of GestureTek:
The most promising mobile applications today are interactive games (such as bowling, tennis and boxing) as well as the GPS map implementation on DoCoMo phones. My personal favorite is the bowling game. As well, many popular game titles such as Crash Bandicoot and Katamari, have been transported from the console to the mobile phone because they play well on that sort of interface.

Location-based services is one of the most promising mobile fields, and one of the industry leaders, with almost 150 employees, is Telmap. Telmap Navigator is available around the world from over 16 different wireless service providers throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East. We talked with Dave Singer, Telmap’s vice-president and US general manager.

What does Telmap do for mobile users?
Singer: Telmap provides a location-based, turn-by-turn navigation application that runs on most cellular telephones, Blackberry and PDAs providing all of the functionality that customers have come to know and utility in their built-in mobile units. Telmap Navigator provides an application via our partners that is downloaded onto wireless devices and uses GPS to help customers drive, walk, search and share using GPS technology to save time and money as it relates to any type of personal navigation needs.

How is Telmap different from your competitors Networks in Motion and Telenav?
Singer: Telmap has provided a simple customized solution meeting the specific needs of our partner’s customer base. For example, we recently launched Boost Navigator powered by Telmap that customized the look and feel and extends the Boost Mobile look and feel into their Boost Navigator application. As part of our core offering, all customers are able to access our true pedestrian mode as well as our live and predictive traffic.

What advantages do your products have over GPS personal navigation devices (PNDs)?
Singer: Unlike PNDs our application does not require customers to purchase another piece of hardware, another AC charger, another in-vehicle car charger. Our navigator application is a simple one time download and then unlike a separate PND, we maintain our content data base so the information that customers use is always up to date.

How is the US market different for you from the UK market, where you already dominate?
Singer: Actually, we are the market leader and dominate all of Europe. Telmap has been selected as the navigation provider of choice for Vodafone UK, Vodafone Spain, Vodafone Germany, Vodacom South Africa, O2 and many other Tier I providers in Europe. Both the US and European markets are growing rapidly right now, especially as the GSM carriers deploy AGPS in their networks. In addition, in both the United States and Europe, new phones with embedded GPS chip sets are the fastest growing in the market.

Where does your actual mapping data come from?
Singer: Telmap currently partners with Navteq for our mapping data. We also partner with Inrix for our traffic data. All data is updated in the Telmap hosting center at least quarterly if not more frequently.

Does your company history give you a unique perspective on the mobile world?
Singer: Absolutely – Telmap is a 7-year-old company. Our roots are in location based, turn-by-turn mobile navigation so we have been at the forefront of this industry. Since we are a global provider, we are able to see and influence the mobile navigation space and leverage the success our partners have across geography’s. In addition, having our headquarters and R&D facility outside Tel Aviv allows Telmap to leverage the high tech industries in Israel as well as Europe and the United States.

You may know RealNetworks best as the creator of a popular Web audio format. On the PC, RealArcade has more than 40 million unique game users each month, giving RealNetworks the opportunity to build a cross-platform community with mobile users. We recently interviewed Matt Turetzky, vice-president of non-PC platforms for RealNetworks’ game division.

So what’s new at RealNetworks as far as games go?
Turetzky: We are very excited about our three new mobile games launches this Q4. Coming first, in October, was Luxor 2, our second game based on one of the best selling PC games of all time. The Luxor brand has been downloaded over 60 million times on the PC and we are very pleased to be able to bring it to mobile gamers. We launched the first Luxor mobile game last year and it was our best selling game of 2006. The new version features all new levels and power-ups and much sharper design and effects, thanks to the capabilities of the newer handsets.

What games are you releasing next?
Turetzky: In November, we are launching MTV Cribs, in which the gamer adopts the role of a struggling hip-hop artist. In order to earn money, he takes DJ-ing gigs throughout the world. The money earned is used to create fantastic cribs, decked out with everything an aspiring star could dream of. The player can then visit his crib online and share it with his friends.

What else?
Turetzky: I’m probably most excited about Collapse! Chaos coming in December. Collapse! Chaos is the latest mobile version of the Collapse! PC franchise which has been downloaded more than 160 million times, making it one of the top casual games in history. The previous Collapse! mobile game launched in 2003 and, despite a lack of refresh, has been a top 20 game every year. In the new game, the player experiences a series of frenetic challenges in which colored blocks are destroyed before the screen fills up.

How are mobile gamers different from PC gamers?
Turetzky: Mobile gaming is a very different experience. People generally play mobile games to kill time while they are waiting for something: a train, a friend, a class or my wife to finish getting her nails done. The typical play experience is 5-10 minutes. A game has to be very easy to pick up, learn and resume. Casual games are a natural genre here because they are so easy to learn, yet hard to master. In comparison, typical console games are significantly harder to learn and require a great deal of concentration

How are mobile games changing society? Doesn’t it chill face-to-face relationships to be staring at a handset all the time?
Turetzky: That’s an interesting point. Personally, I haven’t made a lot of friends at the bus stop, but we don’t ignore people who are less anti-social than me. In fact, many of our games, such as the entire Playman series and our Trivial Pursuit games (Europe only), feature a pass-around two-player mode, where you can play against a friend (or stranger) by handing the phone back and forth. While this hasn’t yet been popularized in the U.S., we find it is much more accepted in Europe, where you can actually find people in bars passing their phones around.

As background Seeker Wireless was spun out of research within the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The company’s technology hooks into carrier networks to process signal information and provide an accurate location for mobile handsets. Seeker has 50 staff is privately funded and is currently in trials around the world.

So what makes Seeker’s technology unique? Well the technology sits on any phone (thus larger reach than GPS) it comes carrier installed (thus not depending on users to download an application) and while not as accurate as GPS it is 6-9 times more accurate than Cell ID (400-800m versus 2,500-7,000m). According to Grill this is the key to Seekers advantage; a relatively accurate location awareness technology that will work on more phones than its competitors.

So what is Seeker’s business model? Seeker’s focus is on providing mobile operators with accurate billing data for their ‘home zone’ offers. If you are not familiar with the ‘home zone’ concept this is where mobile operators position their service as an alternate to fixed line phones. By using Cell ID a cheap home-based plan can be offered, hopefully cheap enough to entice users to forego a fixed line. Unfortunately for mobile operators Cell IDs can result in huge ‘home zones’ – subscribers could be at the local shops and getting ‘home zone’ rates rather than full mobile rates. Seekers proposition is simple, with more accurate location technology you reduce revenue leakage and thus increase profits. Seeker believes this leakage is significant and have a calculator to demonstrate this.

Seeker may have a real edge by pitching location technology that has an immediate impact to the bottom line. The same technology that Grill hopes will be championed by a mobile operator’s CFO will then allow further opportunities to ‘turn on’ location aware services such as advertising. Seeker’s approach means the Chief Marketing Officer won’t need to convince the CFO to buy a whole lot of infrastructure… it will already be there.

So who are the competitors? According to Grill it is the R&D sections of mobile operators! While technologies such as Femto Cells and Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) also pose threats, he also sees potential synergies. That story will need to wait till another post however…

After talking to Andrew I have to agree that Seeker does have an interesting play on the traditional location based services we often report about on inbabble.com. There appears to be a clear niche with an approach that has an obvious business case to any potential mobile operator with a ‘home zone’ offer.

If you can view PC-quality web pages and multimedia services on your mobile phone, maybe you should thank Bytemobile. Their technology is installed in the networks of 85 operators in 52 countries, serving a total of more than 1 billion subscribers. Bytemobile’s proprietary transcoding and dynamic bandwidth shaping solutions automatically adapt content to mass-market handsets, feature phones and smartphones. We asked Adrian Hall, vice-president of Bytemobile, about their services.

How does Bytemobile work?

Bytemobile’s integrated IP services dynamically and transparently adapt web and video content to mobile devices, filter content for parental controls, and optimize data and multimedia applications for speed and cost reduction.

So do I have to download anything?

These services are deployed on a single node in the core data path of the network. Operators have the option of delivering subscriber data services with or without a client on the mobile device.

What is your mobile business model?

We license our optimization services to operators on a capacity basis. We charge for web and video content adaptation and optimization services by numbers of users.

How are you different from your competitors?

Bytemobile’s competitors tend to deliver point products rather than integrated solutions that combine multiple IP services for the delivery of different applications. Bytemobile’s solutions are deployed in-network, rather than on the device, and require no client or other device changes.

Does your technology work better on certain devices or operating systems?

No. Bytemobile products are capable of delivering all web and multimedia content on all wireless networks to all mobile devices. They are network-agnostic, in terms of both network technology and network speed, and they are device- and browser-independent.

What new features are you planning to introduce next?

We are planning to launch a mobile advertising capability that will enable operators to monetize the web and video content they deliver, with mobile ads targeted to subscriber data.

What do you see in the future for mobile?

In the future, mobile consumers will have considerably more freedom of choice than they do now. They will also be more sophisticated users with higher expectations of the user experience on the mobile device.

How does bluepulse work?
Keighran: Bluepulse is a free mobile social messenger that is based on a very robust mobile platform that we started working on around five years ago. The platform allows anyone with an Internet-enabled cell phone to type “bluepulse.com” into their phone’s Web browser and get access to a custom version of the bluepulse social messenger for their specific phone. The magic of bluepulse is that it looks like it was built for your specific phone.

How do people use it?
Keighran: Once a user has bluepulse, they can use it to create a pulse, which is a dynamic profile about themselves using pictures, video and text. As they add content to their pulse, their friends are notified of the updates through a unique mobile messaging system. The system allows friends to have an improved way of communicating with each other using their cell phones by displaying instant updates to friends, pulses, new friendships that have been made on bluepulse, one-to-one and group messages.

Can I contact people outside the network?
Keighran: Bluepulse also enables users to send messages to anyone by typing in an email address, phone number, name or group name. If the message recipient is not yet a bluepulse user, an invitation to use bluepulse will automatically be sent to them. This means that users can easily invite their friends to join them on bluepulse.

What makes bluepulse different?
Keighran: The first thing that distinguishes bluepulse from other mobile social networks is that bluepulse has been built on a very robust mobile platform; it literally works on any Internet-enabled phone. Really, that’s the only limitation. The second thing that distinguishes bluepulse from other mobile social networks is that it is based on a trusted network. This means that people use real names, real phone numbers as opposed to anonymous profiles. And with this trusted network and the intelligence behind the platform, bluepulse users are introduced to their friends’ friends automatically. Bluepulse is an improved way of communicating with real friends on a mobile, as opposed to a place for broadcasting content and meeting random people, which is typically what bluepulse’s competitors offer.

Is bluepulse being used for business purposes or just for entertainment?
Keighran: Not one or the other, really. It is being used as a communication tool by anyone and everyone, whether for business or making social plans or sharing pictures and videos or updating friends, colleagues and family.

Do you see any threats to your business model?
Keighran: Bluepulse has an ad-supported business model. Advertising on mobile phones is very new territory for everyone and until someone gets the model right, this model could be a threat to our business.

What are the most common misconceptions about social networks?
Keighran: There is a belief that there will be one universal social network for everyone – that one size fits all. However, the larger each social network gets, the more niche they need to become. Each social network needs to have a unique selling proposition in order to succeed. Bluepulse not only targets the social messaging niche, but it targets the mobile device as well.

Sketch is a mobile app that lets you draw pictures on your Java-enabled handset. Users can create pictures using standard line, shape and color-fill tools, plus a variety of pre-loaded characters and objects including animals, food, cars, houses, etc. The finished masterpiece can then be saved on the phone or texted as an attachment to friends.

The quality of the result achievable is unlikely to win you the Turner Prize (then again…), but it could while away a few idle minutes, especially if you’re a teenager. We like the idea because it takes user generated content in a new direction. But the graphical limitations mean that its appeal is likely to be limited. Perhaps its significance lies more in the fact that it is indicative of the increasing diversity of user-generated material. As the technology develops, mobile-originated art may well start spawning the kind of online repositories of content that are already being created for photos, videos and books created on mobile phones.

Sketch costs £5 and can be downloaded directly via your phone’s browser from www.dakinewave.mobi

Hamish M.

MTV’s new lyric search service will be carried in the mobile environment via its MTV mobile, VH1 Mobile and CMT Mobile brands. Users texting the name of an artist, song, or partial lyric to a special number will receive a link in return that guides them to a WAP site featuring lyrics and other details about the artist in question. There is obviously significant scope for development of this idea, including links to the video accompanying the song and the ability to purchase either the video or the song for streaming and/or download.

InGroove’s music screensavers for mobiles are available to Verizon and Alltel Wireless subscribes in the US and feature animations of (apparently) renowned artists such as Tila Tequila, Too Short and B Legit that play simultaneously with the relevant track when a handset is opened. At $2.99 each they aren’t particularly cheap, but then the dollar is worth so little these days it may be a better deal than it sounds.

Music is an incredibly powerful medium for the youth demographic that is also a primary target for much of the other mobile content and applications currently on offer and in development. MTV is a huge and powerful brand and so almost anything it does is bound to get some traction, at least in the short term. Whether trying to identify a song or artist you like but don’t know the name of, or simply using it to cheat in pub quizzes, we think this idea has some mileage. INGroove’s screensavers could also hold significant appeal for the same demographic, especially when the range of artists on offer is expanded.

Hamish M.

Every now and again we get some truly passionate people on inbabble.com. Our interview with Rodger Raderman, co-founder of the mobile content Veeker, is one of these times. Rodger gave us an insight into why Veeker is unique, their recent funding round, and deals with NBC. For an online demo of Veeker follow this link. Read the interview below and you cant help but be excited for Rodger and the Veeker application.

Can you give a quick summary of veeker and why it is unique to other mobile content services please?
Raderman: The first version of Veeker was a mobile content service, but we do not see ourselves that way any longer. A few weeks ago, we launched Veeker 2.0, a video and picture messaging service. It’s a different paradigm—uploading a video or picture to a channel for others to view, versus sending a video or picture directly to a specific person as a message.

Mobile content services like Kyte, Zannel, and Radar work on a channel paradigm. For Kyte, it’s like a personal, online TV channel. For Zannel, it’s multi-media micro-blogging. For Radar, it’s more of a private channel. For each of them, the flow is the same: you create an account, upload mobile videos and pictures to your channel, and others can see these by viewing your channel.

With Veeker, you send video, picture, and text messages from your mobile phone directly to the mobile phone, email account, and/or Veeker account (if they’re registered) of a specific person.

The flow is different. When you join Veeker, you populate an address book with your contacts’ mobile phone numbers and email addresses. Veeker automatically creates an @ veeker.com address for each of your contacts. Then you can send video, picture, and text messages from your mobile phone to any contact’s @veeker.com address. You also can send webcam messages to them. That person will receive your message on the mobile number and email address you provided for them. Plus, the video/picture/text is saved for you in an online Sent Folder.

I record a video on my phone for one person, and send it to that person exclusively, from my phone to their phone, instantly. That’s messaging. It’s the natural evolution of text messaging. You can’t do it with a “channel” paradigm, and it is our fundamental differentiation.

I understand you recently recieved some funding ($2.5m?) … how do you intend to use the funds?
Raderman: We have received a total of just under $2.5M in funding, over the course of about a two years. Some of this came from angels, and some from Meritage Funds and Labrador Ventures. We never announced our Series A round when it closed last March. When Liz at GigaOm reported it recently, many misread this to mean that we just banked the funds. That’s not the case.

We have been using the funds primarily for product development, to build Veeker 2.0. It’s very robust technology, enabling not only sending videos and pictures from mobile phones to individuals and groups, but also cool things like sending webcam messages to phones, publishing videos and pictures to widgets, and more. If you look at our technology and platform, we feel like we’ve developed quite a bit of value for very little money. For example, none of the companies mentioned above have anything on us technologically, and they all have spent quite a bit more money.

We’re just about to begin looking for a series B round, and are being very, very careful with the money we have in the bank right now. We feel this space is still quite immature, and are planning for a marathon rather than a sprint.

What is your longer term plan to generate revenue (advertising, subscriptions etc). How far off is this in your business plan?
Raderman: We’re generating revenue now via B2B partners ranging from media conglomerates to consumer goods companies. We’re finding high demand amongst these companies to use our video and picture messaging platform to incorporate user-generated media (mobile and otherwise) into their online and off-line offerings. And, also, to communicate back to those people. The use-cases range from movie promotion to citizen journalism. Each of these deals is some combination of service fees and advertising revenue share. In the short term, these kinds of deals will be our focus for revenue generation. Over the long term, on the consumer side, our plan is to continue offering a basic free service, supported by advertising. And, upsell to various premium services.

How are you distributing Veeker – just via the web and direct to consumers… or through other means? (I note a recent deal with NBC… is this key to the way forward)
Raderman: There are three prongs to our distribution strategy: 1) via B2B partnerships, 2) via product development and viral growth, and 3) via widgets.

The most exciting B2B relationship we have right now is with NBC News. We power the citizen journalism efforts for each of their owned and operated stations, in major markets like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Philidelphia, Miami, etc.

NBC San Diego received over 2500 pictures and videos from their viewers sharing their experiences of the fires. That is a remarkable number. I made a blog post called “6 Factors That Make Citizen Journalism Work for NBC”for those that are interested:

http://blog.veeker.com/2007/10/sandiegofires

In terms of viral growth, Veeker 2.0 is a very open system. It ingests content from phones, from email, from webcams, and outputs it to phones, emails, widgets, and, of course, Veeker.com. As email is open, and TXT messaging is open—meaning, others don’t need an account to receive an email or TXT from you—so Veeker 2.0 is open. And since we’ve launched it, we’re seeing triple digit growth.

In terms of widgets, we’re big believers. Ours is a video message widget that you can embed on any webpage. Others can record a webcam message with it, and that will be delivered straight to your mobile phone and/or email. The widget also immediately can display any webcam video recorded on it, or video or picture sent to it from phone or email.

If I understand correctly Veeker does not require an application download or web access, just the ability to send multimedia messages. This must be great for consumer adoption ( i.e. easy to setup). Can you give our readers and consumers stats or useage stats (most popular media, number of subscribers, growth rates?)
Raderman: Yes, we we use the software everyone already has. A web browser on their computer and an MMS client on their phone. It couldn’t be easier. Since we relaunched, we’re seeing triple digit growth, which is validating.

What is next for veeker in both features/ functionality, and in a businesses sense?
Raderman: As I mentioned, we just completed a rather long product development cycle. So, we’re iterating as necessary from here. Small things like being able to reply from the phone, more granular organizational and archival features online, easier customization for our partners.

We feel like we have a very solid core. Right now, for us, it’s primarily about generating revenues on the B2B side, while working to make the consumer side of our business catch fire.

How does the Enterpret mobile translator work?
Sailer: The Enterpreter places a thin client application on a user’s mobile phone. The application is a Web 2.0 mobile application that accesses a robust translation data base to deliver translations to the phone.

Who was the Enterpreter designed for?
Sailer: The Enterpreter can be used by travelers, people studying a new language and can also be used to communicate casually with people who do not fluently speak a user’s native language.

What did you learn from your previous experience with translation tools and with the US Latino market?
Sailer: That the mantra in the translation industry is accuracy. Consumers want a product that they can rely upon and recommend to their friends and business associates.

What are the greatest challenges with mobile translation?
Sailer: The two greatest challenges we face is providing accurate translation on a regional basis and how to deliver options to the end user that will accommodate this challenge. Spanish for Mexico is not the same as Spanish for Argentina, and the same would apply for US English and UK English. Each region has subtle nuances that need to be accounted for when making translations.

What distinguishes you from your competitors?
Sailer: We stand apart from the competition because our translation database is hosted off of the mobile device. Since we don’t rely upon the limitation of the phone’s memory, we can provide the largest English Spanish mobile translation database, with over 600,000 words in each direction. We also have a unique feature that allows the user to make real time translations and communicate exactly what is being said, as opposed to being limited to pre-determined words and phrases.

How does Enterpret compare with mobile products such as ECTACO or Systran?
Sailer: Both ECTACO and Systran have excellent products. Enterpret’s database is stored off device which allows us to continually update and make changes that are viewable on the user’s device when they are made. We also offer free upgrades to the program whenever we add in new functionality.

Does your Web 2.0 interface make your product work better as well as look better?
Sailer: Because we are a Web 2.0 mobile application, we can provide so much more functionality and versatility than those devices that store the data on the device. Also, because of the limited storage capability of mobile devices, the only way to provide our level of functionality and accuracy is through a Web 2.0 application.

What can the Enterpreter do for me on a Blackberry or Symbian S60 that it can’t do on another 2g/3g phones with internet access?
Sailer: We launched the Enterpreter on Blackberry since, as a smart phone, it has wide acceptance and is broadly used by our target audience. We have now ported the Enterpreter to J2ME and BREW devices. Our next version will include Palm and Windows Mobile devices. Once this expansion is complete we will have the ability to deliver the Enterpreter to all main devices and operating systems. Obviously, using the Enterpreter is easier on smart phones with a QWERTY keyboard, but will also work very well with feature phones that have Internet access.

What languages do you plan to introduce next? What are your future plans?
Sailer: The next languages that we plan to introduce will be bundled into our “European Pack”, which will be comprised of French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and of course, English and Spanish.

Avvenu lets anyone share and access the music, photos and files stored on their home and work PCs, using any Internet-capable mobile phone or even another computer. We’ve previously reported on SoonR, a similar remote access product. Users install Avvenu Access ‘n Share software on each PC they want to access remotely. Avvenu Music (currently in beta) allows Windows Mobile phone users to view their iTunes playlists, listen to music remotely, and share playlists with friends. Avvenu has 30 employees, all based in Palo Alto, California. Steve Hartford, Senior Director of Product Management for Avvenu, told us more about the products.

What are Avvenu’s strong points?

Hartford: The Avvenu services run on our secure, patented platform which provides simple, reliable access to your stuff. For instance, users can choose to optionally store and sync their PC’s content in a secure online personal digital locker, for access anytime, even when the source PC is turned off. Avvenu services also take care of automatically formatting and transcoding your content as needed, so that you can effectively view and use it, no matter if you’re logged in on a feature phone, smartphone or PC/Mac web browser.

What does Avvenu do that your competitors doesn’t?

Hartford: The Avvenu Access ‘n Share service is available through any mobile phone web browser, allowing remote access, downloads, uploads and sharing of PC-based content. On more sophisticated smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone, users can remotely browse, share and even preview picture, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe PDF file formats. The Avvenu Music service allows anyone to remotely listen to the iTunes music collections stored on any PC connected to their account. You see artist, album and track information, just like you do in iTunes.

Are some people reluctant to use Avvenu out of fear that someone else will be able to remotely access their files? What security measures do you have?

Hartford: Avvenu was built from day one to be a highly secure, carrier-grade platform. Our security approach is similar to online banking and other high-security Internet systems. All user data is 100% secure from end-to-end, and leading security industry practices are used to ensure the safety of our user’s data. We’ve been extensively tested and verified as secure by outside security experts.

Avvenu Music works with iTunes on Windows Mobile. What if I use something else?

Hartford: We started with iTunes since it’s the most popular software for managing music on your PC, and it’s free. We’ll support other software and file formats in the future. The Avvenu Access ‘n Share service works on any mobile phone with a web browser and associated Internet data service from the carrier. For Avvenu Music, we decided that a native client application was the only way to ensure a great user experience. Avvenu Music is currently available on Windows Mobile, and support for other mobile handset OS is underway.

What is your revenue model?

Hartford:The basic Avvenu services are free. Avvenu makes revenue from optional premium services, advertising and affiliate programs.

What new features do you plan to introduce next?

Hartford: We’re dedicated to our mission of allowing anyone to get to their stuff, no matter where it happens to be, anytime, from any device. As for specifics, we’re leaders in a highly competitive industry where other companies tend to copy our efforts, and I don’t want to give them a head start.

What are some of Avvenu’s most interesting features?

Hartford: Using Avvenu, you can take a picture on your mobile phone, and use your mobile web browser to store the photos OTA [over the air] directly on your home PC. You can instantly share photos with family and friends, free up memory on your mobile phone, and never again hassle with tethered transfers once you’re back home.

What are your personal favorite mobile applications?

Hartford: Beyond Avvenu Music and Access ‘n Share, I love Google Maps and Yahoo! Go.

Last week, we talked with John Poisson about Radar, which allows anyone with even basic mobile web access to share photos with friends. Radar also offers a mobile application that runs on more than 225 devices today, offering a richer, more interactive mobile experience than the Web version. Poisson’s Tiny Pictures, which created the service, has 14 employees. Today we asked about users, features and the future for Radar.

How many users does Radar have so far?

Poisson: More than a half million, with increasingly impressive engagement metrics. Growth has been strong in America and Europe through this year, and Asia and Africa have been picking up a lot of steam. There’s a ton of demand for a mobile-centric product like Radar, especially internationally, and we’re absolutely hitting our stride on the mobile experience.

What’s your assessment of the mobile photo realm?

Poisson: There are lots of companies building photo-related services in the mobile space, but much of what’s out there is focused on public sharing, whether it’s photoblogging (or the horribly-named ‘vlogging’) or community sharing sites for cameraphones. Some of these services are interesting but many miss the mark entirely. Other services take a very technology-focused approach, allowing users with smartphones to synchronize photos with their PCs or push content to other services. Again, some of these serve a need for a specific audience, but that audience is largely tech early adopters, and ultimately there are far more people out there who find this to be an unsatisfying value proposition.

So Radar is not just for techies.

Poisson: Radar isn’t so outwardly focused on technology or process. Radar is helping you staying in touch with the people in your life. You share pictures (and videos) as they happen–as you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing, important or ordinary–and your friends can immediately engage with you around those moments from their phone or PC. It’s an ongoing conversation between you and your friends, starting with these pictures but weaving in through comments and whispers and real-time conversations. It all folds back in on itself in a way that’s hard to describe (and harder to engender!) but when new Radar users experience it, they’re hooked.

What features do you plan to launch next? And, in the future?

Poisson: Our latest release focuses on making it far easier to share with your friends, whether you’re a mobile-only user or more web-focused. We’ve got a ton of other features in the works, including some important ways to improve the first experience for new users. We’re also in the process of taking our web experience up a level, and the next few releases will see some dramatic changes here. Long-term, there are some fascinating opportunities. What can we help you do with this collection of pictures and videos and conversations between you and your friends? How can we further integrate this new form of communication into your life so it’s more seamless and more natural?

In five years, what will people be doing with applications like yours?

Poisson: I believe that in five years we’ll look back on this time as the start of another phase in the evolution of photography, much like we did at the advent of consumer film cameras, then Polaroids, then digital cameras. Cameraphones afford connectivity, and Radar makes that connectivity useful and relevant.

What future technological changes in mobile will have the biggest effect on Radar?

Poisson: I wish for only three things: speed, responsiveness, and openness.

Search specialist InfoSpace has sold its mobile business to Motricity for $135 million. The InfoSpace mobile business included GPS assisted search, messaging and mobile portal products and is used by T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint amongst others.

In the US, Sprint has launched a mobile TV channel with 100% in-house developed content. About 150 two-minutes content pieces will be released each week covering sport, music and news.

Airline checkin using mobile phone barcodes has been given approval by global airline association. Germany’s DBA and Air Canada reportedly already use mobile checkin options.

Mobile payments company Firethorn has made an agreement with Verizon Wireless. Under the agreement the Firethorn payments application will be loaded on Verizon handsets to allow users to complete transactions with Firethorn financial partners.

Mobile Virtual Network Operator, Virgin USA, has raised $412 million in IPO.

Mobile TV firm, Bluestreak Technology, raises US$20 million.

Disney has launched a mobile version of Disney.com which includes streaming video, audio and pictures. The launch comes a few weeks after Disney shut down its MVNO business.

Open source web browser Firefox is coming to mobile handsets.

Mobile microblogging company Jaiku (see our interview) has been acquired by Google.

Mobile music firm Catalyst Mobile has raised $10 million.

Google has launched an SMS based search service in India. See the demo here.

Photo sharing services have blossomed on the Web, and are quickly gaining popularity on mobile devices. But because they let total strangers see where you went last weekend, many of them have developed a voyeuristic flavor. We talked with John Poisson, the founder and CEO of Tiny Pictures, which created Radar, a social network which focuses on real-time private sharing between friends, with some of the feel of photo text messaging.

What motivated you to create a photo product designed for few viewers instead of many? Do you feel that other companies are neglecting the need for privacy?

Poisson: Privacy is important in the community social networking sphere, and some services do it better than others. But this is different, really, from what we’re doing with Radar. Radar is private because that privacy engenders a certain type of conversation, a way of staying in touch. And this is a value proposition with almost universal appeal. Even the most public of people have private conversations, after all.

Mashable called you the anti-Flickr. How did you feel about that description?

Poisson: That comparison came pretty early on, before people understood where we were going with Radar, and when the most surprising difference was our privacy model. We bristled a bit at the idea, largely because Flickr is an outstanding and brilliant service, and one we use ourselves.

Why does Radar encourage privacy?

Poisson: Radar isn’t private because we believe public is bad. Radar is private because our model of privacy maps beautifully to the cameraphone experience: the notion that this device in your hand is with you everywhere, offering an intimate view of your life. Sure, some of these moments can be shared publicly, but a lot of them weren’t being shared at all, and that’s why we created Radar.

It seems that, compared to Flickr or YouTube, your model restricts viral marketing. How do you plan to grow your company?

Poisson: It’s true that things spread differently in this kind of private social network, but there is an inherent virality to Radar that’s probably closer in its model to that of instant messaging. We’re definitely seeing viral growth and it’s picking up dramatically. Of course, we’re very interested in further reducing whatever friction exists. We’ve released a whole new set of features designed to make it easier to share with your friends whether they want to join join Radar or not, and to connect to friends of yours who are already on Radar. Additionally, there are opportunities for wide and rapid distribution in the mobile space that make up the difference, and we’re rolling these opportunities out as we speak.

Tell us about some of your recent changes.

Poisson: Well, we’ve just released a whole new set of features: all-new invites that allow your friends to see your pictures without having to register, the ability to import your address book from all the popular email services, a list of the friends of your Radar friends, so you can easily connect with people you know who are already on Radar, and a new embeddable player that allows you to share some of your Radar content publicly on a blog or social network.

You’ve suggested that this way of instantly sharing pictures on Radar is effectively a new form of communication. Do you think it will stick?

Poisson: You know, people used to decry text messaging as being a truncated, broken and feeble form of written communication, a kind of ersatz email that said less and took longer to write, unnatural in form and use. And now we have a whole generation of people who consider texting to be a primary, deeply engrained and highly intimate form of communication. We’re seeing precisely the same trend emerging with Radar, and we intend to see it through.