The 2006 3GSM Mobile Entertainment Awards have been announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. Envelope, please (por favor)….

Mobile Entertainment Awards Best Made for Mobile Game: I-play - Skipping Stone Best Made for Mobile Music Service: Hi3G Access AB – 3 Music Best Made for Mobile Video Service: Tapuz people – BLOGTV Best Made for Mobile Sports Infotainment: Alcatel – Live Sailing

Mobile Application Awards Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service: iPass – iPass Corporate AccessTM Best Mobile Messaging Service: Cognima – ShoZu

Handsets and Devices Awards Best GSM Handset or Device: Nokia – Nokia 8800 Best 3GSM Handset or Device: Motorola – Motorola RAZR V3x

Marketing and Promotion Award Best Broadcast Commercial: Vodafone Ltd – Vodafone Stop the Clock Campaign

Mobile in the Community Award Best Mobile Community Service or Initiative: MTN Nigeria Communications Limited – Rural Telephone Project – Phone Lady Initiative

Network Products and Solutions Awards Best Radio Access Product or Service: MBO Wireless Inc – AdaptaCell SuperCapacity base station (BTS) using Adaptive Array (AA) software Best Network Quality Initiative: TMN with Tektronix – TMN’s Customer Centric Service Quality Management (CCSQM) project usingTektronix’Unified Assurance Best Service Delivery Platform: Motricity – Fuel Mobile Content Delivery Platform 4.0 Best Billing or Customer Care Solution: IDEACellular Limited – BILL FLASH – A USSD based Application Best Roaming Product or Service: Vodafone Group – ‘Vodafone Passport’voice roaming pricing architecture (part of ‘The Vodafone TravelPromise’proposition)

Government Leadership Award Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Technorati Tags: 3gsm, mobile entertainment, mobile awards

UPDATED (MARCH 3) Last May (2005), I wrote about an Apple MVNO which was later picked up by Information Week. There are more trends and rumors indicating the emergence of an Apple-branded iPhone, made in partnership with SamSung and working with Cingular, a US carrier, to create a MVNO, a mobile network virtual operator. Disney are also creating an MVNO. Amp’d Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Boost are some of the more popular examples of MVNO’s in the US today. For apple, it is a no-brainer. The mobile market is much much larger than that for iPods and by combining the DRM called FairPlay with iTunes for an iTunes Mobile Music, Podcast and Video download and distribution platform could be an amazing extension to the mousetrap they have already built.

Also, it is interesting to note that Steve Jobs, who is now Disney’s largest shareholder and sits on the board, can collaberate on content deals between Disney, ESPN and Apple’s content relationships for Mobile content. All roads are leading there and it appears that an Apple branded device, leveraging the experience on the heels of Motorolo’s iTunes compatible phone (wjich was limited to 100 songs), will emerge sometime this year. Google today announced its intention to enter the Mobile Music scheme by partnering with Napster for an iTunes competitor. The magic of Apple is the combination of their DRM, Software platform such as iTunes, etc and a well-designed mobile device, and established content relationships are very hard to replicate. This is certainly a first to market maneuver and advantage.

UPDATED: MARCH 3, 2006 Motorola RAZR is putting pressure on Apple as it’s RAZR is continuing to sell at a blazring pace. Motorolo says that supply cannot meet demand according to this report. Apple should note that if Motorola is testing the market for them and taking notice. Motoroloa RAZR is just one component of the mobile economic food chain. If Apple can enter this market this year, they can cover all the components of the mobile foodchain by offering a device, content, and secure DRM billing system. Combine that with a database of iTunes users who already have billing information loaded means that this market could make the iPod market look puny in comparison. After all, the market today for iPods is 10M units whereas units of mobile devices are now in the hundred of millions and billions. It goes a setp further too, there is no reason to not have a video iPhone with QT7 and compete with MobiTV with the content deals that Apple is signing up in advance for its second generation video iPod.

With an Apple MVNO sure to come soon and more power efficient processors and devices, an Apple iPhone could be the ultimate smart device for consumers. Stay Tuned …

Technorati Tags: apple, google, mobile video, mvno

It’s official. according to Informa, a market research firm (not to be confused with mForma), that Western Europe has reached a major milestone of 100% mobile penetration. Yes, every single person has a mobile phone including babies and pensioners, Somewhere this has to be wrong. In Luxembourg, its 160% penetration. Somebody, send these so-called research firms back to math and statistics classes. I caught this this morning as reported by VNU

Technorati Tags: market research, mobile, europe

A new trend in publishing is finally figuring out how to utilize and extend their brand and community to mobile audiences. In this case, TimeOut, the well-known British publisher of quality travel and city guides, has created TimeOut Dating by forming a partnership with O2, a leading UK carrier and Enpocket, a mobile application and messaging provider. The service targets a well-heeled demographic to create profiles, chat and meet other like-minded singles as part of TimeOut’s community. Expect to see more branded content from the publishing industry leverage mobile as a value added and revenue-bearing service. Read More Here

Technorati Tags: mobile, mobile messaging, mobile dating

The rise and usage of SMS especially among the youth and transforming the way we communicate, diverging from tradional methods of communication of phone and email. In the UK, 165 Million messages were sent on NYE. The newest phenomenon was in the introduction of the “Mission Impossible” style self-destructing SMS

read more | digg story

Not satisfied with just one partner this week (Microsoft), MTV Networks has announced that it’s also inking a partnership with Amp’d Mobile, the first mobile entertainment company created specifically to bring next-generation broadband wireless services and applications to young adults.

read more | digg story

Problem: Businesses can’t get people to use their mobile phones to surf the internet. This is because typing in domain names on a phone is difficult. ShotCodes change all of this, radically. Shotcodes are special domain-name barcodes that, when captured by a mobile camera, take the user to a URL. Last year, Tangent Mobile posted wrote an Article on Semacodes, Barcodes, and ShortCodes. Today, there was an interesting article exemplying this use to make surfing on the Web a whole lot easier.

Read This Story on SpringWise

Technorati Tags: mobile, mobile marketing, mobile messaging