Why Social Media Should Welcome Location-Based Services

LBS present huge potential to radically transform the way we communicate and stay connected. This added layer of context is much more valuable than what's available on existing social networks, such as Facebook, that don't automatically offer location-specific information.

Context awareness is critical when you want to buy something, and advertisers get higher targeting based on our patterns and social contexts. The real value lies in providing better suggestions.

Privacy fears abound, but LBS in social media could radically transform how we communicate and stay connected with friends, says columnist Max Zeledon

By Max Zeledon, Businessweek

September 29, 2009

Twitter knows where you are. Or at least it will soon, when it introduces a feature that lets your followers know where you are when you send a tweet. The announcement that Twitter will soon give users the option to disclose their physical whereabouts kindled debate over the role of location-based services (LBS) in social media and elicited criticism that the tools are an invasion of privacy.

I've been trying out a wide range of LBS tools to see for myself whether they're useful or something to be feared. I've used Brightkite; Plazes, which was recently acquired by Nokia; Germany-based Aka Aki, which I like to use in Europe, as well as a series of lesser-known services.

My conclusion after a year of testing is that far from being a threat, sites offering LBS represent vast, unrealized potential to radically transform the way we communicate and stay connected. ABI Research predicts that LBS will generate revenue of more than $14 billion in 2014, from about $2.6 billion this year.

Besides helping us track our location patterns or the nearest Starbucks, these apps collect valuable data about our daily routines and the routines of those closest to us. They track personal tastes in food, fashion, and music so we can receive alerts and location-based notifications. Individual users can use LBS to share relevant information and places with friends. The device maintains a record of our daily routines, and it's constantly looking for people we know who may be nearby. This added layer of movement and context is much more valuable than what's available on existing social networks, such as Facebook, that don't automatically offer location-specific information.

Potential Gold Mine for Marketers

There's no denying LBS could also become a gold mine for marketers. "Context awareness is critical when you want to buy something, and advertisers get higher targeting based on our patterns and social contexts," says Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Nadav Aharony.

Yet as the space crowds with LBS players, the challenge will be to protect users' privacy, find ways to make marketing pitches relevant, and separate useful sites from also-rans.

Executives at Brightkite take security concerns seriously and give users the option not to broadcast their whereabouts. "A real sense of privacy is important, and we spend a lot of time thinking about it," says Brightkite CEO and co-founder Jonathon Linner. "Privacy has to be transparent—in the setting menu and the post screen. It has to be very explicit." Twitter plans to make its location services opt-in, also letting users choose whether to tell others where they are.

A related but more fundamental question: What happens to the data that are being collected about our whereabouts? Who or what controls it? "We need to be the owners and keepers of our information, and there are many ways to do this from a user standpoint," says MIT's Aharony. "We can create our own groups and set our security settings and circles of trust, and how we do this is critical."

At the MIT Media Lab, Aharony is developing an open-source LBS platform that lets users communicate directly from one computerized device to another, such as through Bluetooth technology, without having to go over a wireless network or be logged on to the Internet. "The majority of [existing] apps are very centralized—they remain Internet-based, and the controls are with the company," he says.

Ad Intrusion: Treading a Fine Line

Marketers that hope to capitalize on a person's whereabouts will need to learn how to send relevant pitches without going overboard or becoming a nuisance. "This has great benefits if it gives us what we need when we want it, but keep in mind that commercial interests are seldom in harmony with our personal interests," says UCLA Internet researcher Brad Fidler.

To be relevant, marketers will need to know a person's tastes and interests as well as location, experts say. "Location is not everything," says Linner. "If you're hanging out near Times Square, it doesn't mean you want to eat there. But if we know that you like Spanish food, then we could suggest a place that's on your route. The real value lies in providing better suggestions." Some consumers will need incentives, such as free or subsidized phones or calling plans, in exchange for the intrusion of ads and other marketing messages.

When it comes to existing sites, I find Brightkite and Aka Aki the most user-friendly for both beginners and savvy socialites. I found it quite easy to integrate them with my existing mobile devices, and it helped that some of my friends were already using the services.

Another factor was connectivity on the go. For example, Aka Aki's mobile version incorporates a combination of Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi technology to find users within specific areas and alert you via text if someone you know is nearby. Brightkite has also made it convenient to stay in touch on the go via text and e-mail, and I especially love the way I can send location-tagged pictures from my LG mobile phone. It's the feature I use the most since I love taking pictures. Brightkite also automatically sends my pics to Twitter.

Brightkite and Aka Aki also win because they look like finished products, and they pay attention to design details. Loopt, Pelago (Whrrl), and regional players such as Moximity are too gimmicky for my taste. Whichever services prevail, they're very likely coming to a phone or computer near you before long, and chances are they will radically change the way you communicate and how friends and marketers alike stay in touch with you.

Zeledon is a former research analyst at International Data Group in San Francisco. He is currently researching the growth of the financial social Web and runs a digital consulting firm, Virtualista.

Is Twitter Worth a Billion Bucks?

The bet, quite simply, is that Twitter can become enormous—a rich new source of business intelligence, a channel to reach targeted consumers around the world, and a hothouse for marketing and news start ups.

Twitter could divide its users into behavior tribes and begin to target them with tailored ads and services

Twitter could also eventually become a communications protocol, like e-mail and be linked to a series of new sites and services, each one a destination for Twitter-mediated ads.

The tricky part for Twitter will be to nurture a vibrant and prosperous community linked to its system while, at the same time, making money for itself.

Twitter's latest funding round values the microblogging site at $1 billion. Can the company become profitable enough—or profitable at all—to justify that valuation?

By Stephen Baker, Businessweek

September 24, 2009

Twitter's home crowd can be pretty tough. When reports emerged on Sept. 24 that the microblogging service was close to securing $100 million in funding that valued the company at $1 billion, flurries of 140-character jeers flooded the service. "Nutty valuation," wrote @Nicklippis. "I've seen this movie before," twittered @ericclovesbacon. "It starred eToys.com and ended in fail."

True, a billion dollars for a company with virtually no revenue recalls the excesses of the dot-com era. The logic behind Twitter's valuation comes straight from the very same school. It views Twitter less as a single company than as the base for a whole realm of communication and data. "It is an increasingly important platform for business and consumers," says Seth Levine, managing director of Foundry Group.

The bet, quite simply, is that Twitter can become enormous—a rich new source of business intelligence, a channel to reach targeted consumers around the world, and a hothouse for marketing and news startups. The risk, of course, is that Twitter may stall along the way and be remembered in a couple of years as a quirky fad. Or it may end up in the belly of one of its neighbors, Facebook or Google.

But for investors eager for a chunk of the next great thing, how many other possibilities are out there? "Once every five years or so, a company comes along that has nearly unlimited potential in terms of worldwide users," says Paul Holland, a general partner at Foundation Capital. "Five years ago, it was Facebook. Today, Twitter appears to be the 'next big thing' in social networking."

With the $100 million in new investments, Twitter has plenty of shopping money to extend its reach. Acquisitions, observers say, are likely to focus on two hot spots: search and marketing intelligence that companies can use to learn more about customers and potential markets. Twitter's funding was reported on Sept. 24 by The Wall Street Journal.

Harnessing the Real-Time Web

Even though Twitter has only one-tenth the population of Facebook, Twitter Search is becoming a vital source for a minute-to-minute read on what people are thinking about, and how they're responding to products and messages. As Twitter expands, it could provide increasingly detailed analytics about what different groups of people are saying and doing, industry by industry. "There's a perception that Twitter will have a grip on the real-time Web, which connects customers to brands," says Eric Porres, co-founding partner at New York's Underscore Marketing.

Speaking at a conference in Los Angeles this week, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said plans to build up advertising in the service are on hold. Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at Altimeter Group, a California consulting firm, says that it will be difficult to make money on the service itself. Still, he says, Twitter eventually could become a communications protocol, like e-mail, and "fade into the background." In his view, the service could be linked to a series of new sites and services, with everything from travel services to music updates—each one a destination for Twitter-mediated ads. "They could do an advertising network," he says.

The tricky part for Twitter, says one venture capitalist (with no stake in the company), will be to nurture a vibrant and prosperous community linked to its system while, at the same time, making money for itself. If they misplay it, Twitter executives could find themselves competing with application makers and Twitter-based services for the same streams of revenue. "It's a delicate balance," the investor says.

As the Twitter service becomes embedded in more smartphones, the company will also get an ever more detailed look at the movements of millions of users—and what they twitter about on the go. Like New York startup Sense Networks, Twitter could divide its users into behavior tribes and begin to target them with tailored ads and services. "They could single out business travelers," says Sense CEO Greg Skibiski. "They could sell college students. And they'd have a direct channel to the customer."

For now, it's mostly froth and speculation. Facebook and Google, among others, are angling for many of the same treasures. And they've demonstrated an ability to scale their technology—a vulnerability for crash-prone Twitter. But if Twitter makes good on its promise and manages to become a leading platform of the real-time Web, a billion dollars could end up looking cheap.

Vodafone Unveils ‘360’ Social Phonebook Layer For Samsung, Other Handsets

Further details and range of supported handsets @ http://info.vodafone360.com/en/phones/360H1

Robert Andrews, Sep 24, 2009 , mocoNews.net

Vodafone has unveiled Vodafone 360, and it’s not an app store. The service is first a piece of software, layered on top of handsets’ own OS, that aggregates users’ friends and messaging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIYqAduDqi4

It unifies contacts and their activities from the handset’s address book and from social networks to create Vodafone People, a connected address book that scoops up contacts from Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk and, soon, Twitter, Hyves and studiVZ. The will all sync automatically to a web counterpart for remote desktop access, too. Some aspects of the service will be available to non-Vodafone users via download, though it’s not clear which.

Voda is pushing the initiative across two exclusive new Samsung handsets (a “H1” and an as-yet-unnamed device), which it says “give the best customer experience of the services” and support the funky 3D view seen in the demo video. But the operator is also making the UI available through the LiMo operating system. on a range of its own Vodafone 360 handsets from “multiple manufacturers as possible” - this will include four Nokia S60 handsets from launch, though no more are named in the announcement.

http://qik.com/edent

Many people had expected 360 would be Vodafone’s answer to the rise of rivals’ app stores. But 360 is the culmination of Vodafone’s €31.5 million acquisition of Danish connected phonebook software maker Zyb in 2008. The growth of multiple social networks, each requiring separate accounts, risks splintering users’ communication ecosystem and requires reunification. In 360, messages and status updates can be sent and received from one native interface - not even an aggregator add-on - rather than separate apps.

Launch comes to Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK by Christmas, with India, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand, Romania and in France (SFR), Russia (MTS) and Vodafone Hutchison Australia amongst the others slated for 2010. No word on Verizon.

Vodafone Live! Is Dead!

Vodafone finally moves into the truly Web 2.0 world. Vodafone 360 is based on aggregation of all your social social connections by leveraging a mobile phone user's phonebook and building around it with location, apps and digital content (own + 3rd party by leveraging the open APIs).

September 24, 2009 | Ray Le Maistre, Light Reading

When the going gets tough, the tough revamp their online services strategy and give it a new name. In the case of Vodafone Group plc, it's moving on from its Live! Services offering to a new, more Web 2.0-based package called Vodafone 360 that will be rolled out during the next few months.

In a nutshell, Vodafone says 360:

...gathers all of a customer's friends, communities, entertainment and personal favourites (like music, games, photos and video) in one place... has the most personal address book available, bringing together all of the contacts from the mobile phone, social networks and other internet accounts. It works across a range of mobile phones, including the new, exclusive Vodafone 360 phones, and synchs automatically with the PC... [and includes a] new suite of internet services accessible on multiple handsets as well as PC or Mac, including a wide range of apps, games, music and mapping services.

And, as apps are hot, Vodafone is including "a catalogue" of more than 1,000 applications as part of the launch, all downloadable from the Vodafone online store.

CCS Insight analyst Paolo Pescatore says the mobile operator is "looking to take back the ground it's lost to the likes of Apple Inc., Google, and Nokia Corp. the mobile Internet land grab. It's a radical shift compared with what Vodafone has been offering so far. The shift is towards more of a Web 2.0-based architecture."

The analyst believes Vodafone's development has been built on the foundations of two acquisitions: Wayfinder and ZYB.

"It's based on two key items: A focus on people, which comes from the ZYB acquisition, and a focus on location, from Wayfinder. And it's opened up its API [application programming interface] to developers for that," notes Pescatore.

At the heart of the offering is the customer's address books, and that's a smart move, reckons the CCS man: "By aggregating address books, it's creating significant value. Google already does this, and Nokia has been trying, and the carriers haven't done a very good job so far. It's probably the first operator to integrate communications between the mobile device and the PC, something that Nokia has been preaching for quite a while."

He continues: "Vodafone is looking to regain leadership by doing this, having lost some ground in the past one or two years after the Live! launch. And you can see it's been focused on developing this -- this isn't something it could turn around in six weeks. This is a sophisticated development."

So a bold move, but "the big question is, how will Vodafone monetize this? I think this is only the beginning, and that we'll see a lot more business models come from Vodafone based around 360. This is the start of a long journey," concludes Pescatore in storybook fashion before disappearing to the nearest Italian coffee bar.

So what happens next? Well, 360 will launch this year in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the U.K., followed in 2010 by India, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand, and Romania. It will launch in France through SFR , through Mobile TeleSystems OJSC in Russia, and through Vodafone Hutchison Australia.

The "full Vodafone 360 experience" will be available on "two exclusive handsets built to Vodafone's specification" by Samsung Corp. -- the Vodafone 360 H1 and another as yet unidentified Samsung device.

In addition, "four Nokia Symbian smartphones will come pre-loaded with Vodafone 360, and part or all of the service will be downloadable to over 100 popular phones."

—

Vodafone Goes 360

The race for controlling and bringing alive the mobile phone user's phonebook. Handset makers like Motorola with the recently announced CLIQ seem to be heading down the same path.

September 24, 2009, Unstrung

LONDON -- Vodafone today announces the launch of Vodafone 360 - a new suite of innovative internet services for the mobile and PC.

All of a customer's contacts, status updates and messaging services are brought together in one place enhancing the customer's experience and use of social media. Customers will have integrated contacts, music, photos and mapping services and can share their favourite music choices and even their physical location, how and when they choose, with their chosen groups of friends.

The service is automatically backed up and synchronised, regularly and wirelessly, between the mobile and PC or Mac. All contacts updates, emails, photos and conversation history or settings changes made either at home or when on the move are saved, keeping all the content up-to-date.

"Vodafone 360 is the first service of its kind to offer customers the benefits of a truly integrated mobile internet experience that gathers all their contacts and content, all around them, in one place," said Pieter Knook, Director of Internet Services at Vodafone Group.

"The beauty of Vodafone 360 is that all the services work together and they are easy to use. Vodafone 360 enables customers' digital lives. Customers can stay in touch and share experiences through social networks, instant messaging, email, apps, maps, music and buying digital content on their mobile bill, with the personalised address book at its heart."

Vodafone 360 is a substantiator of Vodafone's new brand expression - 'power to you' - which is focused on putting the customer in control and enabling simple and easy to manage communications, both mobile and fixed.

Tata Takes Summer Subs Lead

September 24, 2009 | Catherine Haslam, Light Reading

Additions to India's wireless connections topped 15 million for the third month this year, according to statistics from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), demonstrating the continued growth potential in the world's fastest growing mobile market.

In total, 15.1 million wireless lines were added in the month of August, taking the total of wireless connections to 456.74 million and total overall communication connections to 494.07 million. On the back of this growth, teledensity increased to 42.27 percent, that's up from 34.5 percent in January.

India broke through the 15 million barrier for the first time in January 2009 and again in March. The numbers dipped through April and May before rising steadily to reach this month's high.

The biggest winner in August was Tata Teleservices Ltd. , adding 3,418,138 subscribers across its CDMA and Tata DoCoMo GSM services. This accounted for 22.5 percent of the new lines and gave Tata Teleservices the largest share of the month's connections, ahead of Bharti Airtel Ltd., Vodafone Essar , and Reliance Communications Ltd.

Table 1:

Overall Ranking	Operator	Subscribers added in August '09	Total subscribers as of end August '09	Market Share as of end August '09*	Percentage of monthly additions*
1	Bharti Airtel	2,818,898	107,996,533	23.43%	18.60%
2	Reliance Communications	2,105,610	84,112,632	18.24%	13.90%
3	Vodafone Essar	2,194,169	80,874,460	17.54%	14.48%
4	BSNL	1,343,629	57,304,404	12.43%	8.87%
5	IDEA Cellular	1,541,647	50,058,471	10.86%	10.18%
6	Tata Teleservices	3,418,138	42,789,210	9.28%	22.56%
7	Aircel	1,313,614	24,415,514	5.30%	8.67%
8	MTNL	20,916	4,662,833	1.01%	0.14%
9	Spice Telecom (now part of Idea Cellular but still reporting connections separately)	63,436	4,235,023	0.92%	0.42%
10	Loop Telecom (including BPL in Mumbai, now rebranded Loop)	66,929	2,417,446	0.52%	0.44%
11	Sistema Shyam	265,094	1,732,125	0.38%	1.75%
Source: TRAI *Figures have been rounded to nearest decimal place and therefore do not add up to exactly 100%

The August figures add to the 2.247 million subs Tata Teleservices secured in July.

The driving force behind this growth appears to be the new GSM services, which launched in June and are now available in eight of India's 22 telecom circles. The plan is to take the GSM services nationwide.

The GSM operation was rebranded as Tata DoCoMo at the beginning of August, when it launched in Mumbai and Maharashtra, introduced per-second billing, and unveiled a competitive introductory lifetime tariff offer.

Mumbai and Maharashtra accounted for 655,601 of Tata's total additions, and, although the operator does not give a breakdown of figures for each technology, the effect of the GSM launch is clear. Across the eight GSM circles, Tata Teleservices added 3,000,489 new customers, accounting for the vast majority of its new lines in August.

Outside the momentous wireless growth, India's wireline market continues to shrink, falling by 40,000 to 37.33 million, while broadband connections reached 6.98 million, representing a steady if uninspiring monthly growth rate of 2.65 percent.

Google Sync: Now with push Gmail support

Here comes free push email from Google as predicted. Currently for iPhone and Windows Mobile. Interesting part also is it uses the phone's native email application and so you don’t need to download or install additional software.

Google Mobile Blog
22/09/2009

Earlier this year, we launched Google Sync which allows you to synchronize your Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar with your iPhone, Windows Mobile, and S60 devices. Today, we're adding Gmail support to Google Sync for iPhone, iPod Touch and Windows Mobile devices.

Using Google Sync, you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you're doing. Sync works with your phone's native email application so there's no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three.

To try Google Sync, visit m.google.com/sync from your computer. If you're already using Google Sync, learn how to enable Gmail sync. Since push Gmail has been a popular request on our Product Ideas page and Help Forum, we look forward to hearing your feedback, so drop us a line and let us know how it's working or what you'd like to see next.

Douglas Gresham, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

India Telecoms Update - Aug09

India Telecoms Update - Aug09

• 15.1 Mn wireless adds taking total wireless base to 456.7 Mn
• Wireless growth surprisingly primarily from Category A & B circles. With multitude of new entrants this could be due to the ongoing bruising price war and resultant churn wherein trend of multiple SIMs atleast in the dominant pre-paid segment is getting stronger
  
• Wireline base continues to shrink and at 37.3 Mn
• Overall teledensity at 42.3%
• Broadband connections marginally up to 7 Mn
  

Facebook ‘Cash Flow Positive,’ Tops 300 Million

Facebook is finally proving its and also the overall SN bizs long standing critics wrong by not only scaling but by also turning cash positive basis a predominantly advertising model (its recently announced online payment system is still under testing).

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook is making enough money to cover its costs and now has 300 million users, the world’s largest social networking site said on Tuesday, proving the Internet’s newest star industry can be a viable business.

Facebook is now generating enough cash to cover its operating expenses, as well as the capital spending needed to maintain its fast-growing service.

Analysts said this shows the financial viability of Facebook, which has faced questions about its underlying business model, despite its popularity, and was a good sign for a potential initial public offering.

“It’s certainly meaningful to show that this is absolutely the real deal,” said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Ben Schachter. “They are executing. People are spending money on the site.”

Since its creation in a Harvard dorm room five years ago, Facebook has emerged as one of the Internet’s most popular destinations and is increasingly challenging the Web’s established powerhouses like Yahoo Inc and Google Inc.

Facebook unveiled a revamped search engine last month and is currently testing an online payment system. Facebook users have tripled from about 100 million a year ago.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post Tuesday that Facebook reached its goal of being free cash flow positive in its most recently ended quarter. The company had previously projected reaching the target sometime in 2010.

“This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term,” said Zuckerberg in the post.

Facebook spokesperson Larry Yu said the free cash flow metric does not include any cash from private investment.

In May, Facebook announced a $200 million investment from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies in a deal that valued the company’s preferred shares at $10 billion.

DST valued Facebook’s common shares at $6.5 billion in a subsequent deal to purchase shares from Facebook employees.

Facebook’s becoming cash flow positive ahead of schedule provides another nugget of data to back up the lofty valuations, and according to one analyst, makes Facebook a more attractive candidate for a potential public offering.

“They can command higher confidence from investors now,” said Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, who noted that he believes Facebook could go public in the second half of 2010, or in 2011.

Zuckerberg said in May that any IPO is “a few years out.”

Facebook did not provide any other financial details on Tuesday. The company has previously said its revenue was on track to grow 70 percent this year.

Facebook board member Mark Andreesen told Reuters earlier this year that the company will surpass $500 million in revenue this year.

Zuckerberg said in his post that the company is exploring ways to make the service perform faster and more efficiently as the number of Facebook users continues to grow.

Motorola Introduces CLIQ™ with MOTOBLUR™: The First Phone with Social Skills

MOTOBLUR is the skin or overlay (customised UI) developed by Motorola over Android. Google collaboration also extends beyond Android to the integration with Google apps such as Android Market Place, GMail and Google Calendar.

The proposition clearly seems to be an integrated view of all your connections in large part by bringing alive the phonebook by integrating your social networks and related connections.

Press Release

September 10, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO – Sept. 10, 2009 – Motorola, Inc. today unveiled the vision behind its Android portfolio with the introduction of MOTOBLUR™. Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is the first and only solution to sync contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more—from sources such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail™, work and personal e-mail, and LastFM—and automatically deliver it to the home screen. Content is fed into easy-to-manage streams allowing you to spend less time managing your life and more time living it. MOTOBLUR will be available first on Motorola’s new 3G Android-powered device, called Motorola CLIQ™ in the U.S. and Motorola DEXT™ elsewhere around the globe.

Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices, announced MOTOBLUR today during a keynote at GigaOM’s Mobilize ‘09 conference.

“With MOTOBLUR we are differentiating the Android experience for consumers by delivering a unique mobile device experience designed around the way people interact today,” said Jha. “MOTOBLUR, which will be available on our first Android-powered device and on multiple Android devices in our upcoming portfolio, helps us to create phones that are instinctive, social and smart.”

MOTOBLUR leverages Motorola’s experience in mobile Linux and open platforms, and taps in to the broad Android ecosystem. The proprietary solution differentiates Motorola’s product portfolio of Android-powered devices and supplies the power and flexibility to continuously deliver a variety of new and rich consumer experiences across a wide range of devices with multiple carrier partners.

Life: Organized, Streamed and Delivered

With MOTOBLUR, all conversation threads, friend updates, stories, links, photos and more are automatically delivered to live widgets on the home screen. There is no need to open and close different applications or menus. It’s all organized, streamed and delivered throughout the device in unexpected ways:

* Happenings: View all your social site updates in one spot with the live Happenings application. Every friend feed, status update, wall post, bulletin and photo upload is automatically delivered and ready for immediate reply, any way you like.

* Messages: Quickly scroll through the Messages application for a snapshot of current work or personal e-mails, social site messages, and texts, with the ability to respond to any message however you want no matter how it was sent: text, email, IM and more.

* Social Status: Blast your status right from the home screen and even save time by updating your status to one or all your social networks at once.

* News Feeds: Keep track of your favorite news feeds, sports scores or even celebrity gossip without leaving the home screen.

* Calendar: Integrate your work calendar with Google Calendar into one Calendar widget that shows the next appointment right from the home screen.

Integrated Contacts with Context

MOTOBLUR keeps track of all contacts so it’s easy to keep up. Contacts are automatically synced to the phone from personal and work e-mail as well as social network accounts, and MOTOBLUR updates any changes friends or contacts make to their information so you don’t have to. When making or receiving a phone call, your friend’s latest profile picture and status is shown on the screen. In the contacts view, see your communication history with each person and their latest social network broadcasts organized in an easy-to-read manner so you’ll always know the latest info about friends and family. Plus, communicate with them anyway you like, directly from their contact information.

Backed Up for Peace of Mind

MOTOBLUR is easy to set up and secure, so there is no need to worry about misplacing the phone. All contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed up on the MOTOBLUR secure server. Lost or stolen phones can be found with integrated A-GPS from the online owner’s portal, and data can even be wiped clean. Simply enter the account username and password on the next MOTOBLUR phone, and all the information will be ready and waiting.

Customize with Apps and Widgets

On Motorola CLIQ, mix and match thousands of applications and widgets from MOTOBLUR, Android Market™ or pre-loaded Google™ mobile services. Everything from messages to news feeds to sports scores to the Happenings widget to Google Maps™ can be added to create custom home screens that fit anyone’s multi-faceted life.

Delivered on the First Phone with Social Skills
MOTOBLUR will first be available on Motorola’s new Android-powered device, called Motorola CLIQ in the U.S. and Motorola DEXT around the globe. This QWERTY slider comes packed with all the bells and whistles:

* Never be out of contact with a full HTML browser, 3G speed and Wi-Fi.
* Snap photos with the 5 megapixel camera with autofocus; upload photos simply to your favorite photo sharing or social sites.
* Play back your favorite YouTube™ videos or capture them and easily upload them for your friends to view.
* Use the 3.5 mm headset jack to plug in your own headphones and easily connect to your music, create your own playlist or discover new music by seeing what your friends are listening to on LastFM.

Availability Around the Globe

MOTOBLUR will be available first on select Motorola devices in the fourth quarter with regional carriers worldwide. In the U.S., Motorola CLIQ™ with MOTOBLUR will be available exclusively with T-Mobile USA. Motorola DEXT with MOTOBLUR will be available with Orange in the United Kingdom and France, Telefonica in Spain and America Movil in Latin America.

For specific regional availability and pricing, contact your local Motorola representative. To experience MOTOBLUR, please visit www.motorola.com/motoblur. For the latest Motorola Mobile Devices product news and promotions, now you can also find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Media: For more information, product specifications and images of CLIQ, please visit Motorola Media Center Fact Sheets. For multimedia assets from the keynote, visit MOTOBLUR Press Kit.

Motorola Media Link Bridges Digital World

Motorola also is making it easier to manage your digital worlds with Motorola Media Link. This desktop experience connects your phone, PC and the web, giving you the ability to manage, secure, share and extend your phone’s media. Transfer and organize media such as photos and videos into albums and sync your iTunes and Windows Media playlists and music. Plus, Motorola Media Link helps you expand your phone with new downloads, applications, ringtones, wallpapers and more—directly from your desktop. Motorola Media Link will be available for multiple Motorola devices including CLIQ and DEXT.

India's Reliance Mobile launches BIGMaps on its GSM Network

The LBS space seems to be finally hotting up in India. Reliance BiGMaps offering is centered around the local search (YP, events, PoIs) proposition with currently a mobile and in future also a web rendition with add-ons including landmark based routing and SMS and Data (WAP + client) bearers.

Reliance also claims to have 20 Mn geo-coded PoIs ( I guess largely collected during their telecoms network roll-out planning).

Reliance also plans to aggregate UGC and is slated to launch a MapMaker akin product.

Press Release
September 10, 2009

Mumbai, September 10th, 2009: Reliance Mobile has launched BIGMaps service on its GSM network. Reliance Communications is the first telecom operator to offer BIGMaps service. The BIGMaps service allows search across Business, Directions, Events and Movies by organising local information on a pan-India basis. At present it's available on mobile through SMS, WAP and downloads. Plans are afoot to offer the service through internet in the near fture.

With the launch of BIGMaps service, Reliance Mobile intends to offer world-class local search platform for India with maps data across 15 zoom levels and real time landmark based routing.

Once public beta is opened on web, the platform will allow rich mobile-web experience leveraging on the best in class maps and geo-coded yellow pages information for India. BIGMaps service is available on RWorld for download and WAP search.

Commenting on the launch of the new service, Mr Krishna Durbha, Head - VAS, Reliance Communications said, "Our BigMap service reiterates our focus of driving VAS leadership through innovative offerings. This service will increase the usage of device based search & navigation. Business, Event, Direction and PointnFind search are for the serious users, while Friend finder adds the fun element".

Mr Manav Sethi, COO, BIGMaps added that this is just a beginning and whole lot of unique features on the platform and across data are in store. He added "BIGMaps has best Maps data and geo-coded yellow pages information with 20+ Mn geoc-coded buildings across India which once opened on web allows for most accurate search and user generated content. The missing restaurant could be added on the exact building and its possible to search cafe around atlantis building in Bandra. We are also ready with the mapmaker tool where in a missing building could be added next to the one on the map".

BIGMaps intend to partner content owners and aggregators for local content and will open up the APIs for application developers to build innovative applications.

BIGMaps a Mumbai based start-up. It aims to organize local information on India. The platform is built using open source technologies and leverages the best maps and geo-coded yellow pages data for India.

Aircel India Mobile Tariff Initiative

Outgoing Call Charges (Rs./min)

Local
To any Local Network :
For 1 st min : Rs. 1
2 nd min : Rs. 0.50
3 rd Min : Rs. 0.30

STD
To any STD Network :

For 1 st min : Rs. 1.50
2 nd min : Rs. 1.00
3 rd Min : Rs. 0.75

Tata Indicom Tariff Initiatives

Tata Indicom offered a pay-per-call to its mobile subscribers. In this offer, it doesn’t matter if you talk for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, you will be charged a flat fee. 1 rupee for local call and 3 rupees for an STD. The cost structure is flat.

Tata DoCoMo India Pricing Innovations

After their per second billing initiative, the operator has launched a new pricing strategy for SMS services (branded diet sms), charging INR 0.01 (US$0.00002) per character in a SMS, upto a max of 15 characters