Linux-based ROKR E6

delivers a 2.4-inch, 260k color QVGA touch-screen with stylus, a 2 megapixel camera and push-to-talk capabilities in addition to handwriting recognition, a QR code (barcode) scanner, business card reader, and document viewer for PDF and the most common MS Office apps.

QR Code is da code.

Buddy Stalker Vs. Dodgeball

There is also Plazes and AreYouHere and Jaiku
Do you know of other similar services?

Related:
Fabien Girardin: Mobile LBS Market and Nicolas Nova's: Location-based applications, failures and a second wave of applications to be expected.
In this regard it's interesting that Google also thinks that Google Maps failed (see here).

Press Release Text.it (MDA)

The total number of users recorded in July was 13 million, which had increased to 14 million by September.

According to research from Nielsen/NetRatings, a WAP-enabled mobile phone is the second most popular digital device owned by Britons, after the PC, with 57% of the survey owning a phone that could access the internet. (source: BBC.co.uk)

See the monthly WAP figures graphic.

We are probably now at 15 million, which is roughly a quarter of the entire population (see Wikipedia). That's not bad for a nascent industry (mobile internet).

Compare with iSuppli's Mobile-Phone Premium Content Market to Reach $40 billion by 2010

Photo: Robert Price

The new Kerrang, the english weekly rock magazine, hit the newsstands yesterday. We are proud to announce that the mobile tag below made it in the magazine*.



Short Code: 20207331 / Download the Kaywa Reader / Supported Phones


So if you want a Free Fightstar Video download, you should probably try it out.

By the way - if you know some german, you can read a review of FIGHTSTAR's Grand Unification over at Bandsmagazine

* See our other mobile tag projects.

Related: And see Emily's post about QR Codes for Food Traceability in Japan.

There is a Sylt mobile project with RFID and NFC. It works like this:

Gäste des Dorint Sofitel Soel´ring Hof Sylt und des Strandhotel Sylt können während der Zeit ihres Aufenthalts sich das Nokia 3220 Handy mit NFC-Shell kostenlos ausleihen. Ebenfalls wird das Nokia 3220 mit NFC Shell bereits in einigen Vodafone Shops vertrieben. Mit herkömmlichen WAP-fähigen Handys kann das Sylt mobil Portal über wap.sylt.regiocms.de ebenfalls aufgerufen werden.

Translation: Guests of the Dorint Sofitel Soel'ring Hof Sylt and of the beach hotel Sylt can rent for free a Nokia 3220 with a NFC-Shell. Everytime you see the above logo you can then get contextual information. With current mobile phones one can access the mobile portal at wap.sylt.regiocms.de.

How much easier could this be one with mobile tags - ok I am biased;). But just think, with NFC you only have one phone today and if you would want to print RFID chips on flyers and in magazines it becomes complicated. With mobile tags it's as easy: create and print. Here is the one that gets you to the main address (URL-encoded QR Code):

I am always amazed when I see this kind of initiatives. They are well meant and I also think positively about them but why do they most often fail miserably? How comes?

Having the inside experience of government-run agencies, I just think that the main difference is one of timing. Where innovative companies (bio-tech being probably an exception) operate in very short time cycles, government agencies have all the time they want.

2009 anyone? How many start-ups of today will survive till then?

Related:
Venture Capital und Unternehmertum: Selbstzweifel schaden nicht

Using Cell Phones to Promote Customer Loyalty

"The mobile phone is the most intimate communication device the consumer has, and marketing through it has a conversational tone," says Ashley Heather, co-founder of MoMeMo in New York.

Via Heike

See also:
Mobile Marketing Uncovered: Upwardly mobile by Brand Republic

J. Gerry Purdy writes in Why mobile will be the largest media market of all time that Frost & Sullivan offers the following forecast for advertising revenue from mobile media over the next five years in the US:



It would be interesting to corroborate these forecasts and also put them in context with forecasts of other countries. Personally I am still vers sceptic.

Ajit over at Open Gardens has however strong arguments that mobile advertisement will be huge after 3's X-Series announcement:

The proposed flat rate may pay some of 3's networks costs, but the real business model is advertising.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have all become experts in online advertising. Now they hope to transfer these skills to the mobile space.

Isn't this also a sign that the US, which were for a long time mobile outsiders, are now quickly catching up?

After Rossignol, a new phone is supported (Nokia 5300) and a new QR Code project has been started:



CODE 20207331

PS: Go to http://reader.kaywa.com, download the Kaywa Reader to scan this code. It's a short code for now. We'll add the URL later as well.

Rajjat Barjatya:

In India, we will have 300 million mobile users by 2008. It a huge number of people and a bulk of them will have GPRS and multimedia enabled phones. In the future, I see the mobile being a much bigger touch point than the PC.

Compare with: Web 2.0 Report (pdf)

Web 2.0 is here today, yet its vast disruptive impact is just beginning. More than just the latest technology buzzword, it’s a transformative force that’s propelling companies across all industries toward a new way of doing business. Those who act on the Web 2.0 opportunity stand to gain an early-mover advantage in their markets.

What’s causing this change? Consider the following raw demographic and techno-
logical drivers:

• One billion people around the globe now have access to the Internet
• Mobile devices outnumber desktop computers by a factor of two
• Nearly 50 percent of all U.S. Internet access is now via always-on broadband
  connections