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Mashable has a great roundup of 27 best avatar builders.
As a big fan of avatars and a team member of the Klonies here at Comverse I was very happy to see the topic has been getting traction and coverage!
Hopefully in the next roundup we will see Klonies mentioned there as well... :)
The Carnival of the Mobilists midway of this week is hosted by Abhishek Tiwari in Santa Cruz, California. Follow the link to read the best mobilist writing of the week. Enjoy! :)
Just a quick post to remind you that our webinar is happenning today. If you'd like to join - you're only one click away.
Enjoy!
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Learn how can operators gain significant revenues from ringback tones by leaving the marketing to third party experts to promote the concept of RBTs successfully.
one of the leading global mobile entertainment D2C companies, is the first off-deck player in the western world to carry out a mass-communication campaign promoting its ringback tones in 2 operators in Germany, generating substantial revenues for both mobile operators and Jamba.
Comverse Fun Broker takes the ringback tone service out of the “walled garden” by enabling ringback tones to be sold off-deck by third-party players, using the successful model used for ringtones. By that, Fun Broker enables operators and content providers to exploit the huge off-deck potential.
Come and have a taste of the next BIG THING for ringback tones!
September 20, 2007 at 15:30 GMT; 11:30 EST; 17:30 Israel time;
One of the most successful mobile content types, leading in service penetration and $$ is the ringtone. Since it was introduced back in 1998 by the Finnish mobile operator Elisa, ringtones struck the world hard, leaving hardly any objectors who haven't changed their default ringtone (or at least scanned through the preloaded default ringtones gallery).
Today, almost 10 years after the first launch, there is still a huge demand! According to Strategy Analytics the future for ringtones is still very bright:
Lately there has been plenty of commentary since Apple’s September 5th announcement, unveiling the ability for iPhone users to purchase and customize ringtones from iTunes for an additional 99 cents. Buying more than a handful of ringtones would get expensive, but it’s still a better deal than the typical $3 ringtone for other phones.
For the rest of us who don't own an iPhone, now Mobicious enables you to create a custom ringtone for free. While several companies have offered ways of doing this with expensive PC packages and hard-to-use websites, Mobicious have developed an easier way. On the Mobicious site, you’ll now find "Make My Ringtone", a new feature that allows you to take your own music and make a custom ringtone from your favorite song. It's fun, free, and works on all major U.S. carriers including Verizon. Simply select an MP3 from your desktop, choose any 20 second clip, and send it to your phone.
[Thanks David!]
Related Stories: Mobicious: One Part iTunes, One Part Google
A few months ago I interviewed Myxer people about their line of business. Today Myxer announced a new partnership with Amie Street to mobilize their priced-by-demand ringtone service.
According to the press release,
"AmieStreet.com is bringing its community pricing model to the ringtone market, and for the first time offering ringtones at multiple price points based on their popularity with members. AmieStreet.com is the first digital music store where members of the community drive the discovery, promotion and pricing of music. All ringtones on AmieStreet.com will start at a price of zero cents. As more people purchase a ringtone the price rises, capping at $1.99. The dynamic prices on AmieStreet.com allow fans to buy music without breaking the bank and serves as a useful tool for finding great music, often for free."
One of the barriers many user generated based communities have is the lack of high quality of content (not everyone is talented like Andy Mckee or heart-stirring like Tasha and Dishka). What I liked in this newly partnership is how they dealt with this barrier, how the two partners complement each other's lacks; AmieStreet, brings the content of independent artists who wish to sell their songs online, and Myxer provides the platform to mobilize this content. And the cherry on top is the community essence provided by AmieStreet's pricing model where prices of ringtones are determined by popularity of downloads. Nice work!
Related links: Amazon Leads Investment in Music Site AmieStreet (NBC)
Hi all,
As you know, at my day job I work in Product Marketing at Comverse. I wanted to share something I've been working on lately:
Next week we're having a webinar which will cover the off-portal new market for ringback tones. (You're probably raising an eyebrow and wondering what am I talking about...) Here is a short overview and some background information:
As you know, a ringtone is a music file that is installed on your mobile device. After downloading the file (from your operator's portal or from other providers) the file is yours to keep. A personalized ringback tone is a tune heard while your callers call you which replaces the default "ring ring" tune. as opposed to the ringtone, your ringback tone is at the operator's system. This is why the operator has been the only player who could offer this service.
The upcoming webinar will present the first case study of two German mobile operators who have opened their system to a content provider who has been successfully promoting their ringback tones services.
Attached is the invitation to the fun dial webinar, feel free to join! :)
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Learn how can operators gain significant revenues from ringback tones by leaving the marketing to third party experts to promote the concept of RBTs successfully.
one of the leading global mobile entertainment D2C companies, is the first off-deck player in the western world to carry out a mass-communication campaign promoting its ringback tones in 2 operators in Germany, generating substantial revenues for both mobile operators and Jamba.
Comverse Fun Broker takes the ringback tone service out of the “walled garden” by enabling ringback tones to be sold off-deck by third-party players, using the successful model used for ringtones. By that, Fun Broker enables operators and content providers to exploit the huge off-deck potential.
Come and have a taste of the next BIG THING for ringback tones!
September 20, 2007 at 15:30 GMT; 11:30 EST; 17:30 Israel time;
Dear friends,
Our midway this week is at Matthew Miller's The Mobile Gadgeteer, where Carnival of the Mobilists #90 is sharing some synergy with Western Washington’s Puyallup Fair. Catch up on the fun and excitement of the best mobilist blogging of the week!
The common goal of all usability professionals, no matter if they specialize in cooking utensils, clothing or developing mobile applications and services, is to develop products from the end-user needs’ perspective, so they could use them easily and intuitively. Developing products should not be based only on technical possibilities and/or limitations. why? Simply, when it's easy to use, more people will use it and the more revenues the product\service generates. Unfortunately, many products fall at the "technical trap" and leave behind the goal of intuitive usage.
That is why I was very impressed with Hutch (India) “Copy Callertune” feature:
So simple. So elegant. So intuitive. All you need to do is press the * key when the ringback tone is playing. Who wouldn't press * if he\she hears a cool Callertune?
At Hutch’s website I’ve found the following directions:
“How to copy Callertunes Like your friend’s Callertune? Now you can set it on your own Hutch phone - it’s easy! Just call your friend, and while the Callertune is playing, simply press the * key on your Hutch phone. That’s it - the Callertune will automatically be copied and set on your Hutch phone.”
Way to go! And if you come across more cool examples - don't be shy and send me a word about it. Thanks :)
Some delightful ducks and the best writing on mobile topics at Wap Review where the Carnival Mobilists has arrived this week. This week there are many great posts featured this time, make sure you don't miss it :)
After answering a few readers queries through email, I realized that there is a growing reader's interest in mobile offering of avatars. Therefore, I decided to reply in a series of posts for the benefit of others who might be interested as well.
One of my favorite examples of a smart business model and a VERY successful avatar service is Mobile Game Town (Mobagetown) from Japan. It is the largest and fastest growing mobile Social Networking Service (SNS), available only on mobile. The site is a blend of casual games and social networking, multiplayer and singleplayer games coupled with chat, blogs and avatars.
An interesting fact is that Mobile Game Town is offered by DeNA, a Tokyo-based e-commerce company that runs virtual auction sites and shopping malls. This fact leaves a notable footmark on the business model (and makes a differentiator from other SNS sites). DeNA hooks the users with free mobile games with over 30 titles to choose from, supported by advertisement. Users buy from mobile e-commerce sites and get “mobile gold” which is then used to dress their avatars; by spending in the real world users get virtual money to dress their virtual alter ego, their avatar.
[via DeNA]
Mobile Game Town’s success is overwhelming: 5 million users with over 400 million daily page views back in May in less than a year from its official launch. Just to put the numbers in perspective, Mobile Game Town’s stats are four times larger than that of Yahoo's mobile portal!
And to give you a sense of latest (brilliant) marketing activities:
In June, DeNA announced "an interesting summer Yukata campaign. In co-operation with Aeon
dept. store the companies have set-up a virtual avatar catalogue from which members can build, for a modest fee, their outfit based on actual products complete with best dressed contest prizes. This would seem to be a rather slick ad campaign ultimately designed to drive purchases of the real thing just in time for the summer matsuri (festival) season. The company ran a similar campaign for Nike where customers who bought physical goods were rewarded with virtual prizes."
[via Wireless World Japan]
And a special treat from the Wireless Watch Japan - a video demo of both "Mobile Game Town" and Disney's "Wonder Days" (which will be reviewed here on its own in one of my next posts).
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