5 LBS Apps on iPhone

Apple’s new iPhone software with the iPhone OS 3.0 update will include Google Maps integration. With this I feel there will be an explosion of location-based apps to start appearing in the App Store. This again will be followed by other app store hope-fulls like RIM, Nokia etc. There are already a few location-based apps available now and here are five that are worth a look.

uSonar (Free)

There are lots of apps available that let you keep up with your social networks while you’re on the go, but what about when you’re bored and want to find someone local to hang with? uSonar lets you know who’s around and what they’re up to, whether they are someone you already know or not. Members post “blips” about their activities and locations, then you can message them directly through your iPhone or iPod touch. Everything about uSonar is opt-in, so you’re in control of who can see where you are, or send you a message or email. You can even post anonymously if you’d like.

Loopt (Free)

If you want people outside your immediate location to be able to find you, try Loopt. This app lets you broadcast your whereabouts or send pictures to everyone in your social networks, like Twitter and Facebook. It works across all major mobile phone carriers and supports over 100 different models of phones so your buddies without iPhones can find you. It’s famous among youth of UK

Hear Planet (Free)

If you like to go sightseeing when you travel, then you’ll love Hear Planet. It uses geolocation to determine where you are, then feeds you tons of information about the area’s landmarks, famous buildings, historical sites, and more via your headphones. More than just an audio tour guide, listen while you drive around running errands and you just might learn something you never knew about your hometown.

Whrrl (Free)

Some folks love micro-blogging so much that they want to document every minute of their day. If that’s your thing, let Whrrl help. Use your iPhone’s camera to snap pictures of your lunch, trip to the market, and visit to the dentist, uploading to Whrrl as you go. You can even add text and messages if you choose. Your location and micro-stories are shown on a map, which is really neat if you happen to be around other Whrrl users doing the same thing as you. Imagine attending the IPL Cricket matches and updating the experience as it happens, while simultaneously watching someone else across the stadium do the same.

Traffic ($1.99)

This app will let you know what the traffic conditions are like in your area and display them in list form or superimposed on a map. Traffic gives you details on how severe the traffic situations are. The app automatically locates where you are, but you can enter the location of your choice so you can get traffic conditions anywhere.

ROI on Mobile Marketing Campaign

BMW presented a case study at the Mobile Marketing Forum in London. BMW shared how a MMS campaign in Germany, promoting the use of winter tires sent to 117,000 mobile consumers, generated $45 million in sales – or a return on investment of approximately $750 dollars for every dollar spent.

This makes a strong case for any and every kind of company in product or service space to add mobile to their marketing mix.

 

BSNL leasing out it’s Tower Infrastructure in semi-urban areas

State-run telecom operator BSNL has decided to lease out its passive infrastructure, that includes towers mainly, to other telecom companies in semi – urban areas in the country.

A senior official of BSNL said, “since we have more towers in tier-II and -III cities, we have decided to lease out those towers with unutilised capacity to the operators.” Aimed at generating more revenue and fully utilising the huge tower base, BSNL plans to cash in on its pan-India presence. It operates all over India, except Delhi and Mumbai.

(Source: Economic Times)

Areas of mobile marketing that need attention in 2009

On a global perspective, top three areas of focus are :

1. More mobile knowledge experts.
2. Greater case study sharing. &
3. Creation of guidelines around mobile measurement.

Mobile knowledge experts

There is a huge need in the global mobile marketing industry to pass our collective mobile expertise off to new entrants to expand the knowledge base of those able to evangelize.

More case study sharing

Already a strong proponent of information sharing, the MMA encourages all marketers to continue to share their successes and failures regardless of size of campaign, target demographic or results.

Measurement

Yes, mobile has been challenged with creating consistent metrics and reporting in order to drive greater spend in the mobile channel – like all media in its early days.

The MMA has launched its Measurement Committee and hopes to release its guidelines forMobile Web Measurement early in the third quarter of 2009.

Airtel’s Unique Business Model

Airtel today, is probably one of the best run companies in the world (most definitely in India). It is the largest telecom player in the country and has the advantage of both massive size and a very high-growth industry. It’s worth about $25 billion and growing fast.

The secret of its success (as per laymansmba) has been its model. Airtel focuses only and solely on two things – customer acqusition & servicing (retention) and business development/expansion. ALL other functions – hardware, network management, backend applications (billing etc), value added services and even telecom infrastructure – are outsourced. Airtel pioneered this in the Telecom game. It was the first to give up network management to companies like NokiaSiemens and Ericsson, IT and backend applications to IBM, billing to someone else etc. It was also the first to divest it’s hard assets, i.e. – its telecom towers – to a separate company and lease them back themselves as well as monetize surplus bandwitdh by selling to other operators. This was the ultimate act in putting the faith in the brand rather than in iron and steel.

Of course, having seen Airtel succeed with this, a number of the other operators are now trying to follow in some way or the other.

Because of this focus on the customer experience and on business development, Airtel has been not only the fastest growing but the most innovative of operators. It has realized the importance of having access to the consumer at all levels, and therefore is going from core mobile to landline internet, Digital TV (DTH) and even digital cinema (theaters). Its taking AT&T’s triple play and making it quintuple (5x)-play and more.

It is also one of the few companies that has realized the importance of value added services (VAS) early on in the game and is gearing up to provide compelling applications and content for when the explosive subscriber growth in India eventually slows (as it surely will).

BSNL Plans Broadband Services For Rural Users

NEW DELHI — Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. plans to offer broadband connectivity to users of its wired-line telecom services in India’s rural areas in a bid to retain and attract more such subscribers, an official of the state-run company said.

India had 362.30 million mobile phone users at the end of January, the second largest in the world. But the number of wired-line users in the country has been falling due to the cheaper calling rates and convenience of mobile phones.

“We are sitting on a goldmine of 40 million copper lines, and we want to reverse the trend in the next (financial) year,” Anil Jain, deputy director-general of broadband services at BSNL, told Dow Jones Newswires in a recent interview.

BSNL is India’s largest wired-line operator, but the number of its landline subscribers fell to 29.29 million at the end of January, from 29.5 million at the end of December.

The total number of wired-line users in the country has also seen a sharp drop to 37.75 million in January from 39.25 million a year earlier, and from 37.90 million at the end of December.

The company plans to reduce its broadband tariff charges for rural areas. “Modems will be given free of charge to rural consumers,” Mr. Jain said.

(Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal)

3G Networks still a Distant Dream for Indians

The Department of Telecom (DoT) asked state-owned telecom giants BSNL and MTNL to discontinue their third generation (3G) services till the time the security agencies set up apt monitoring system in order to track traffic on their network.

The decision comes in spite of BSNL and MTNL clarifying to the administration that interception of 3G traffic is possible, during a meeting with the DoT on March 4.

The Intelligence Bureau informed the DoT that BSNL has not provided for monitoring video calls.

A DoT note to the two PSUs said, “The IB was of the view that till such facility is not made available by the service providers, the various services should not be offered to the subscribers. Therefore, MTNL and BSNL may not provide such services to subscribers till monitoring is not available with IB.”

(XLRI), Jamshedpur winner of Google’s Got The Apptitude Challenge

Google’s Got the “App”titude was a challenge looking for student, faculty, and alumni leaders across India to implement Google Apps within their colleges. Google Apps Education Edition is a free suite of online products that offers students and faculty the tools to share information and ideas more easily.

XLRI had the highest usage of Google Apps amongst all the colleges that participated in the challenge. In addition, over 100 colleges in India participated & implemented Google Apps as part of this challenge.

DoT selectes two US – based companies – Telcordia Technologies and Syniverse Technologies – to provide MNP services in India

Syniverse has been awarded a letter of intent to provide India’s telecommunications operators with number portability clearing house and centralised database solutions for the next 10 years.

The DoT (Department of Telecommunications) has divided the country into two geographic zones for the effective implementation if the MNP (Mobile Number Portability) services.

Each zone is further divided into 11 service areas that represent cities within the zone.

Syniverse will cover northern and western states including Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, while MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India Pvt Ltd, a joint-venture including Telcordia, will roll out services in the southern and eastern states.

The MNP implementation will be initially focussed on the larger metropolitan service areas before moving into the rural locations, the company said.

(Source: siliconindia)

Content Stores will be next

Today I was interacting with a mobile media expert and while talking suddenly it struck me that lot’s being talked about User Generated Content (popularly referred to as UGC). However, different people have different opinions on whether UGC will have a profound impact in times to come on when, where and how it is produced.

I think, as there are app stores springing up around the world…the day is not far when operators will start their own content stores as well, where-in people will be able to submit their content for public voting, popularity and downloads. Which ever UGC becomes famous, will be adopted by operator or media companies on revenue share basis with content providers…as I feel ultimately quality UGC provider will definitely dominate and will stand out against all other service providers who provide generic services like voice, text etc.