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Friday, February 23, 2007

Mobile money transfer services launched.



The Guardian (Money section, p.8, 17 Feb 2007) report that Vodafone and Citigroup have launched a mobile money transfer system. Money senders can used credit cards to initiate a payment to a person on-line, and the recipient receives a text message they can take to a local currency office to pick up the cash. "A Safaricom pilot that allows people to send payments by mobile within Kenya has proved hugely popular in a country where few people have bank accounts or plastic money. A global rollout will be targeted mainly at migrant workers, but it should also be useful to Britons sending money abroad, such as parents transferring funds to children on gap year travels."

by Richard @ 13:37

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Operators missing out on mobile advertising?



At 3GSM Phil McKinney, CTO of HP, suggests that operators could generate significant revenues by better using the customer information they have.




"If they could use all that customer information as well as Google does they have potential revenue that could surpass Google with ease. It means changing their entire business model, but if they did they could out-Google Google."



Reported in Computing.

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by Richard @ 16:17

Monday, February 12, 2007

Vodafone offer mobile eBay, MySpace.



Vodafone have announced the roll-out of two mobile services for their customers. A mobile eBay service will allow customers to keep track of items they are buying or selling, while a mobile MySpace service will allow customers to update their MySpace account from their phone.



Vodafone are also in the news for their growth, and in teaming up with Orange to merge their networks "in a deal designed to cut costs and bring new 3G services to a greater proportion of their combined 32 million British customers"



Sources:




by Richard @ 18:02

Friday, February 09, 2007

Nokia and Visa and payments.




After a trial of the technology, Visa and Nokia have announced the launch of a mobile payment system. As vnunet.com describe it:"Transactions can be made by swiping your phone over a reader". YouTube have a general video demonstration of near-field communication.

by Richard @ 10:22

Monday, February 05, 2007

Operators to challenge Google?




The Telegraph is reporting that a group of operators are considering joining forces to create a search engine to grab more of the anticipated revenues from mobile search. "A joint approach is essential, because mobile networks will need to offer advertisers a large audience if they are to challenge the US search giants. [...] The groups involved have a combined customer base of 600m mobile phone users worldwide".




Source: Mobile giants plot secret rival to Google.

by Richard @ 19:25

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Charity saves with web-based mobile app.




Simple solutions can make a big difference. Housing charity Brunelcare were experiencing a loss of 25% of their paperwork, until they deployed a web-based application that could be accessed by workers from mobile devices. With no client to install, the simplicity of the system was the appeal. "There are occasional dropped lines, but nothing that cannot be overcome by someone walking outside sometimes to get a signal". Full case study is available from Computer Weekly.

by Richard @ 08:49