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(via PSFK)

The New York Times recently reported on a company called ShopText that is enabling users to purchase products instantly through their mobile phone and charge it to their credit card. 

The NYT writes:

To use the system, a consumer must first place a phone call to ShopText to set up an account, specifying a shipping address and card account. After that, all purchases can be made by thumb.

When ShopText receives text messages about donations or products, it charges the credit card it has on file for the buyer, then, if appropriate, sends the product from one of its warehouses around the country.

“E-commerce only represents a fraction of total retail — the thing that holds it back is it’s tethered to an Internet connection,” said Mark Kaplan, founder and chief marketing officer of ShopText. “The cellphones link products to media. When people get the impulse to buy, they have their cellphones.”

Print advertisers in particular are excited about how the new technology will increase readers interaction with magazines and loosen the death grip internet has held over non-retail impulse shopping.

We imagine this must resolve a few dilemmas for folks on holiday who just can’t decide whether to spend the day at the beach go out shopping - why not both!   Watch out for more and more print ads displaying text-message codes. 

Just read this post on Mashable about “dead” Dodgeball. Interesting to see how services develop and why some succeed and others fail..

Dodgeball, the text-message based social networking service, seems to have been left for dead.

Dennis Crowley, the founder of Dodgeball, and Alex Rainert have both left the sinking Dodgeball ship. Acquired by Google in 2005, Crowley insists that Google is not providing the resources necessary to innovate their service, let alone keep up with recently popular Twitter and newcomer Jaiku. Crowley and Rainert have decided to quit Google, leaving Dodgeball to fend for itself. An announcement from Crowley says that the whole experience at Google was frustrating, “especially as we couldn’t convince them that Dodgeball was worth engineering resources, leaving us to watch as other startups got to innovate in the mobile + social space.”

In the end, that leaves Twitter the reigning chief. Not that their dominance was in question as of late, but Dodgeball is sure to meet its end very soon. It’s a shame that Google never built up Dodgeball, considering the current and future mobile market, but then again, Google has $3.1 billion deals to tend to.

UPDATE:

Thanks to BlueAce here some more info from the guys themselves:

So…. Alex and I quit Google on Friday.

It’s no real secret that Google wasn’t supporting dodgeball the way we expected. The whole experience was incredibly frustrating for us - especially as we couldn’t convince them that dodgeball was worth engineering resources, leaving us to watch as other startups got to innovate in the mobile + social space. And while it was a tough decision (and really disappointing) to walk away from dodgeball, I’m actually looking forward to getting to work on other projects again.

So, what’s next? Starting today (Monday!) I’m joining the kids at area/code who are knee-deep in building all sorts of Big Games (remember PacManhattan? ConQwest?). Alex is moving on to IconNicholson where he took a gig as a Creative Strategist focusing on mobile and emerging technologies. (And sorry, but I don’t know what Google has planned for dodgeball going forward.)

ps: Clear your calendar for this Saturday (April 21). A whole crew of us are dj’ing to celebrate our escape. (details + invite coming soon!)

Do you work in the mobile industry?

Have you heard about Microblogging?

Do you know Twitter?

Well….Check out Jaiku’s new mobile application for Symbian series 60 3rd edition devices.. It is amazing. See screenshot below..

Micro blogging preferably with location information is really going to be soo big business.. I AM 100% SURE

It is timely(now), location aware(where), social(who, what) and easy to use.. All critical elements of a great mobile service are there..

So now you know it.. no more excuse that you didn’t see it coming….

On the Telco2.0 blog there is a very interesting 4 parts(part1, part2, part 3 and part 4) post to help operator’s answer the following questions:

Where am I?
Where do I want to go?
Which way do I need to go to get there?

The Big conclusion is not to focus on triple or quad play but to break up the broadband(Pipe) business model(horizontally and vertically). By doing so create new value and differentitaion(my reasoning, argumentation is missing in the post). Well…That sounds familiar. Have a look at this presentation about 3D Valuechains. I made this presentation not specifically for operators but business in general. My personal belief is that there is little new value to create by bundling and controlling a large part of the value chain. We basically should focus on individual parts and be no more than excellent in the seperate functions.

Here are some highlights that I discovered in this map:

We want to describe some new archipelagos and islands that telcos need to explore. Our thesis is that operators need to:

• slice and dice the broadband connectivity offering in different ways, then
• package it in different ways together with devices, software, services and
• distribute it in different ways via the standard channels and sales methods.

Thus they assemble a portfolio of business models for paying off the network.

In the bottom left are free (or subsidised) community or municipal networks. For good or evil, we think that governments will see high social benefit in ubiquitous adoption, and new business models are likely to emerge to support this. Communities themselves will also work together to provide the next generation of access. (The current generation being the widespread “linksys” and “NETGEAR” open wi-fi access points bringing you this very article right now.)

The bottom-up connectivity model is epitomised by companies like FON. As femtocells and other technologies mature, carriers will embrace hybrid models of network build-out.

There is a small exception case for services like i-mode or ISP email that use connectivity charges to cross-subsidise services. This is a commercial dead-end but lives on another decade.

In the middle of the diagram are personal-area networks (PANs) and other unrouted connectivity. Existing examples might include Bluetooth, Zigbee, or even short-range Family Radio Service radios. We agree with Motorola on this one: there’s likely to be an explosion of value in this space, and operators are so attached to big centralised networks that they’re likely to miss the boat. A whole new raft of players enter based on payments, games, next-gen walkie-talkies, presence sensing, and social media sharing. One to watch.

The growth in capacity of storage media greatly outstrips that of CPUs, batteries or dynamic memory. Within a decade, you’ll be able to buy a music phone with every song every recorded. Soon after, every movie will be thrown in too. Today operators sell devices where the memory is empty. It’s like Coke selling aluminium cans with a pack of sugar syrup and instructions to “just add water”.

In reaction to the “one-size-fits-all” nature of IPTV, peer-to-peer content delivery grows — and the networks evolve to support rather than throttle this behaviour. The content delivery networks (CDNs) incorporate P2P functionality, and everyone is happy.

Two big growth stories will dominate: one is already on the radar, of ad-funded services and connectivity; the other is service-funded connectivity where the user pays the price they see — no hidden postage or package charges, no bill shock, no metered usage anxiety.

An increasing number of devices will come with connectivity embedded as part of the deal, and no recurring charges (at least initially). This is the reverse of the cellular model, where the hardware is subsidised by the service fee. In practise many of these devices will be part of bigger home or automotive services where the cost of billing isn’t worth the hassle when the connectivity only forms a small part of the overall solution cost.

Finally, the shark’s fin in the water. Various forms of tiered connectivity are going to emerge at an alternative to full-blown carrier-controlled QoS. Rather than recap everything here, go read our article on Paris Metro Pricing for some insight into the area.

Slowly we see services getting mature in the area of speech recognition and TTS(Text To Speech). Will these “translators” become the bridge between the virtual world of the web and our physical world. Will the “translator” create an AI. Will the “translator” know you?.. Know your preferences, location, profile, history and social context?

Well Microsoft Vista is not ready yet..

The boundaries between humans and machines start to fade(long introduction)

Thanks to the great eye of Stefan Constantinescu from Ring Nokia who found the clip on YouTube.

THE FUTURE!!!!!

So when will we see the first Visa device, BMW device, Porsche device and maybe hmm.. Raimo device??(User Generated Phones can that be the future?)

Seriously.. You see that big scale companies have difficulties managing the customer. Their brand just does not connect. In LG’s case they need a brand closer to the public they want to reach. In this case Prada(a small scale player with a clear target audience).

On my other blog I wrote about this trend. Have a look at this presentation on Slideshare showing this development that the large scale production houses are slowly pushed back in the value chain..

Article at Boing Boing:

LG Electronics introduced its Prada mobile phone today. Designed in collaboration with the Italian fashion design firm, the device uses an entirely touch screen-based interface similar, some say, to the iPhone. The phone is slated to launch next month in Europe for approximately €600 (US$775), followed by China, Singapore, and Korea. No plans to bring it to the US have been announced.

Just played with the new Peerbox application version 0.95. I must say very impressed with the work they did. Very rich application with many options. A very complete library of music. The videos are still brand videos. Easy upload function. Ringtones download. Only strange thing is they say it will cost me 2,20 euro to download a song(ringtones aswell). Have no idea how they organised the billing. I downloaded The Scientist from Coldplay(yeahh) and expected a premium sms..NOTHING. Thumbs up for the effort of creating a user friendly and fast app. Now let’s wait until we have a nice business case..

Have a look at the screenshots..

yesterday i posted something on my other blog about The Value Chain. I just realized that it is also a very relevant topic to discuss on this platform. As a start a small quote from the Telco2.0 blog:

Are telcos communications companies?

The return-to-work week at the beginning of January is always a time for reflection and self-examination. We continue the theme of “What industry are we really in?” with some thoughts about personal communications.

The question for operators is: to what extent they should be innovators in their core voice and messaging products? After all, these services still account for the majority of the revenue of most telcos, be they fixed or mobile.

It’s an old debate, but one which in 2007 will take on a lot more significance as the march of technology releases us from the constraints of legacy infrastructure. Broadband has become mass-market in developed countries. Some smaller operators like Telio already have all-IP infrastructures. The leading-edge incumbent operators are getting close to launching IP-based replacements for much of their legacy equipment. Mobile operators are making similarly heavy technology investments to enable fixed-mobile products. Wi-Fi marches on and the power, QoS, security and provisioning issues start to ease. WiMax reaches the market, and creates new possibilities in markets with weak or no fixed access.

Customer expectations are rising

The rising Digital Youth generation of users aren’t going to stick with 1990s telephony and messaging products forever. The decision time is approaching:

• Invest in core communications service innovation, define differentiated software and devices, build channel.
• Partner with someone else who has these capabilities, and be a platform enabler for payments, service, logistics, etc.
• Exit the services space, and focus on pipes — or diversify into other areas.

At the moment we see a confusing mix of these in the market — as our survey results have confirmed. So, if you do engage in services innovation, where should you focus your money? We think we’ve got a slightly different angle on the problem.

So you understand the problem operators around the planet are facing. The Telco2.0 blog in their post gives the answer. I believe it is not their job to give the answer..

My goal is to give tools so that the operators can make the decision themselves.

Many operators have lost their focus their Value Chain has become a Profit Chain. Serving not the customer but themselves.

We need to create TRUE VALUE again. How to this? Watch the powerpoint: 3D Value Chains

Enjoy!

I am not happy.. My loyalty to Nokia is threatened for the first time since the N7650(milestone)..

This is a new MILESTONE! I have never in the 8 years I worked in the mobileindustry been so blown away.. I have alot of respect for the Apple team. They have faced tremendous challenges to create this device..

I just can’t believe it… I wonder what my ex colleagues are discussing now. I mail them tomorrow they probably haven’t seen it yet..(just kiddin)

Concluding: Symbian..TIME TO GET OUT OF THE MIDDLEAGES!!!!!

Wow.. I just saw how I will watch TV in the future..

I love the interface(see the preview post).

The channel switching(hear Bill Gates at Scobleizer) is acceptable to me(3 sec).

The Plugins are great: You can add IM from Google or Jabber, RSS feeds, channelchat and votes

I have somehow the feeling The Venice Project is more legit than I expected. With other words, I expected a “Grey App”(between legal and illegal) but it looks they choose the “clean path”.

So the P2P part is very limited. I haven’t seen any way to “upload” content or to create my own channel.

Strong focus on music. Looks like MTV is a partner..

Can’t help thinking that it is JUST a “distribution of content platform”. One of the many(in the end).

Looks like the disruptive movement of TV will not be kickstarted by one product(like Skype and Kazaa/Napster did) but it is more an industry movement(evolution).

Some early feedback:

Make the preview icons bigger(or let me choose resolution of metadata).

Make a PC/laptop variant and a TV variant. Both need their own interface.

Create a communication platform for Preview Orientation: I need to know more about the shows. I need recommenders, forum, comments, preview, trailers. Now I directly need to go to the content and start to ZAP. This confronts me with the choice dilemma. The current set-up freezes me up. Zapping through the channels on the Venice Project is not as efficient as on “normal TV”. Somehow zapping looks not be the best way to orientate the supply of TV content. Such a communication platform would enrich the total product alot. It will create value on top of the distribution function(tough competition market).

Probably soon more..

This is just so amazing..I just need to share this. When will we start to see these screens in our livingroom(on the diningtable?)