Content Rules in the mobile space

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal last week on the strict decency standards US wireless carriers have been setting for mobile content. You can read the article here.

Not sure how this will all shake out but it will certainly generate a lot of discussion. I trust this only applies to content that the carriers sell through their own retail efforts and won't extend to the off-deck marketplace.

ESIF 2006 - We made the cut

Today we (Movaya) participated in the Early Stage Investment Forum (ESIF). The basic premise was that we got to pitch a group of angel investors, venture funds and others in the funding ecosystem.

The catch: we got to do a one-minute elevator pitch along with 7 other firms. 2 of these firms were then selected to do a 10 minute pitch...thru a voting process. And we won!

Here is the Seattle PI's blog entry on the event. Now, who is going to get us some funding...

One interesting speaker today was Alex Osadzinski, a VC from Trinity, a firm located in the Bay Area. Of the many topics he commented on, it was most encouraging to hear him state that MOBILE is still very hot in terms of fundability. Being chosen by the audience only reaffirmed this...as most people who claimed to have voted for us are interested in the industry and realize the great potential we have. In fact, a couple VCs who had previously been luke warm to our concept approached us about coming back for a second round of talks. Sounds good.

Microsoft mobile momentum

Blog post from CIO magazine about Microsoft's interest in mobile search. Nothing new here - I've written about it before - clearly a huge opportunity.

What is more interesting, however, is the last paragraph of the post which talks about the growing market adoption of Microsoft's mobile operating system.

Suzan DelBene, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices Division:

"In 2003, Microsoft had just one device maker and one operator signed up to support Windows Mobile for phones. Over the past three years, that has expanded to 47 hardware makers and more than 100 operators, helping to make Windows Mobile the fastest-growing division inside Microsoft."

San Diego Union Tribune Article

For those of you who aren't already totally convinced about the market opportunity for mobile games, read this article.

Nothing surprising for those of us in the business but good to see press, nonetheless.

Phonepimp.com new look & feel

We've made some updates to Phonepimp today. Go check it out and let us know what you think.

I-play consumer sat. report

Mobile game publisher, I-play recently conducted a survey of mobile game users. All in all, it appears that the sample polled are generally pleased with the mobile gaming experience.

When asked, how satisfied are you with the mobile games you play?
- 21% said very satisfied
- 58% said satisfied
- 21% said not satisfied

When asked, is your mobile gaming experience better than expected, as expected or not good
- 15% said better than expected
- 63% said as expected
- 22% said not as good as expected

When asked, would you recommend playing mobile games to a friend?
- 71% said yes
- 29% said no

Back from Vegas

Had a quick trip yesterday to Las Vegas for the CTIA show. Spent a couple hours walking the show floor and a few meetings as well.

Overall impression was that the show was pretty quiet yesterday morning - hopefully it picked up in the afternoon. Lots of announcements, here are a few highlights:

- Disney Mobile set to launch in June

- Sprint's COO, Len Lauer said he does not expect to add many new MVNOs to their network. Currently MVNO's using Sprint's network are Mobile ESPN, Helio and Disney Mobile.

- Adobe announced a deal with Verizon to incoporate mobile Flash within Verizon's handsets

- Amp'd (MVNO) announced another $100M+ in venture funding and is offering exclusive TV content

- Motorola announced a new RAZR music phone

- MobiTV announced over 1M subscribers!

Certainly lots of activity in the sector.

CTIA this week

The bi-annual CTIA show hits Las Vegas this week. I'm heading down there for the day on Wednesday but will try to update the site with a few highlights.

For those of you who simply can't get enough news, the team at MocoNews will be providing up to the minute news on their CTIA blog.

New Poll on cellphone use

Pew Internet & American Life project - a non-profit research center studying the social effects of the Internet on Americans - released a new study:

How Americans use their cell phones

It's worth a read but some of the highlights may surprise people over the age of 40:

- Almost two-thirds of young adults (18-29) use their phones to send text messages
- More than half of young adults use their phones to take pictures and almost half to play games
- Minorities were far more likely than whites to use the phones to take pictures, send text messages and use the Internet

And on a not so surprising note:

- 36 percent said they are sometimes shocked at the size of their service bill

New Sprint phone

The Motorola C290 is now available through Sprint. This is an entry level phone and is not too interesting but there is some significance to this announcement.

This is Motorola's first phone for Sprint that supports Vision services. Motorola has been Nextel's biggest handset vendor but has never had much (if any) relationship with Sprint. The Sprint folks would tell you that Samsung & Sanyo are their "preferred" partners. Although this phone isn't likely to generate lots of money for Motorola it could be the first step in a much bigger opportunity.

I know the Motorola folks were concerned after Nextel was acquired by Sprint but it looks like they're moving fast on building this relationship. Keep it up Motorola.