At this year?s Mobile World Congress, Jibe Mobile will host a mobile air hockey tournament. The game will run on the Vodafone IMS network and is designed to showcase the network?s speeds and handset capabilities.
Jibe Mobile will host a mobile air hockey tournament, to be played out at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, to demonstrate the capabilities of the Jibe platform.
The tournament, open to all attendees at the conference, is a cooperative effort involving Jibe, game creator MTI and network operator Vodafone.
The game, Air Hockey developed by MTI, will run on the Vodafone IMS network and showcase both the network?s speed and handset capabilities. Players will compete for medals and a grand prize with daily shootouts on February 27, 28 and 29 at noon, 2 and 4 pm at Hall 1, Stand A50.
While consumer adoption of mobile games is growing rapidly, real-time social, mobile gaming capabilities have lagged in comparison to console and PC-based gaming. This is a missed revenue opportunity for mobile operators and developers alike, since multi-player gaming is inherently viral. Jibe?s App-to-App Platform changes this. With just a few lines of code, developers can incorporate powerful in-app features for mobile network-based gaming, including:
Discoverability: Using the address book built-in to their mobile, users can find friends who have the same game installed, and send invitations for instant app-to-app play.In-App Communications: Developers can enhance the social experience for multiple users by adding features such as voice, video and chat.
Rapid App-to-App Reply: Mobile can match console and PC-based multiplayer experiences by adding rapid app-to-app reply (no lag in gameplay) for hard-core games.
?Jibe?s Mobile Platform helped us to enter the fast-growing mobile real-time gaming market,? said Toshihiro Maeta, CEO of Tokyo-based MTI. ?By partnering with Jibe, it was simple to deliver real-time features and in-application communication making multi-player gaming come alive for end users. Without Jibe, we wouldn?t have been able to introduce real-time features.?
The Air Hockey game that will be showcased at Mobile World Congress was built by MTI, using the Jibe software developer?s kit, which streamlines creation of premium applications. Air Hockey features head-to-head play and fast action that highlights both the speed of the mobile network and newest devices. One of the latest devices will be offered as a prize to the winning contestant: a Sony Ericsson Xperia, which is the first PlayStation Certified Android smartphone.
At the Jibe stand, developers will demonstrate the following RCS-e applications built with the Jibe SDK:
? Jibe ON: Consumer messaging application featuring group chat, file transfer, VoIP and video calling
? Kodo: Multi-player arcade game with instant play and real-time fast action
? Reversi: Board game with embedded voice and video features plus mobile address book friend discovery and instant play invitations
? Car Racing: Real-time multi-player auto racing game with mobile address book friend discovery and instant play invitations
? View Together: Tablet-based audio and video collaboration suite including live document co-editing
? Mobile Advertising: In-app advertising using context aware placement and ads via the inMobi mobile advertising network
? Remote Device Customer Care: Enables live over-the-air device troubleshooting and remote device control
In 2012, the home will become a key area for innovation and competition as smartphone players move to enable them to interact with home entertainment devices. This is according to research conducted by Analysys Mason and will be presented at next week's Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
In 2012, the home will become a key new area for innovation and competition as smartphone players move to enable smartphones to interact with home entertainment devices in a more seamless and integrated manner, according to new research from Analysys Mason.Our research is summarised in The home will be the centre stage stage of mobile innovation in 2012, an article presented in Analysys Mason?s special Mobile World Congress 2012 thought-leadership collection called The future of mobile. With about 93% of smartphone owners using their handsets at home (latest figures from Google) and 15% reporting that they use a computer less since purchasing a smartphone (latest figures from Ofcom), smartphones will continue to displace the PC in the home as a means of checking emails and accessing social networks.?The mobile/home interaction paradigm is set to bring a new platform for innovation to the applications space,? explains Ronan de Renesse, author of the article and lead analyst for Analysys Mason?s Mobile Broadband and Mobile Content and Applicationsresearch programmes. ?For instance, several providers have begun offering solutions that synchronise TV sets and smartphones, so that the smartphone is aware of what is being watched on TV. However, the corresponding revenue opportunity is unclear, because little or no consumer spend is allocated to those applications that are seen by service providers more as a churn reduction tool than a stand-alone revenue generator.?For the full article, please see The future of mobile, a collection of 12 articles developed in preparation for Mobile World Congress 2012, presenting views from Analysys Mason?s expert analysts and consultants on the emerging topics and issues in the mobile telcoms industry.Other key topics covered include the following:The value of the mobile gigabyte ? is the mobile data explosion a myth?Key revenue opportunities from consumer cloud services.Innovative approaches to mobile loyalty schemes.Operator strategies for RCS-e services.Maximising usage of UHF spectrum, particularly for wireless broadband services.Coping with high churn in multiple SIM emerging markets.* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @gadgetza
payD nominated for GSMA Mobile World award
Local mobile-centric company, Oltio has announced that it has been nominated for the Best Mobile Money Innovation for its switch platform, payD, in the annual GMSA Global Mobile awards.
payD, which was launched in 2011 removes a significant obstacle to the mainstream adoption of e-commerce in South Africa by transforming a user?s mobile phone into a remote point of sale (POS) device. The technology is also used by Oltio parent company MTN for its Eazi Recharge pre-paid airtime top-up service which already has over 110,000 users.
The GSMA Global Mobile Awards are the most sought after in the global communications industry and more than 170 independent analysts, journalists, academics and subject matter experts throughout the world participated in the judging of the 2012 awards.
Says Oltio?s head of new business development, Dave Parratt: ?Just being nominated is an honour for us. It is recognition that our commitment to innovation and in particular, making e-commerce accessible to more South Africans, is paying off.?
We believe that payD has the ability to fundamentally change how consumers conduct online transactions and the more than 170 merchants who are already working with us using this platform, agree. ?
?Reflecting the intensity of competition and innovation across the mobile ecosystem, we saw a record 600 entries and an exceptionally high quality field of contenders vying for this year?s Global Mobile Awards,? said Michael O?Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. ?It is a significant achievement to have made the shortlist, and our warmest congratulations go to all the nominees announced today. We look forward to the unveiling of the winners at the Mobile World Congress next month.?
Judges for the Best Mobile Money Innovation category looked at the following elements in judging the nominations:
- Genuinely innovative - that is different from other similar services deployed in the market
- Entry provides a seamless, simple to understand and use mobile-based commerce experience for users
- The product?s reliability, consistency and value to the user
- Availability in at least one mobile market
- Evidence of user take up
- Conformity to appropriate standards and regulatory codes of practice
BlackBerry QNX support Android
RIM expects to soon launch the BlackBerry QNX based on early 2012. That is, starting next year, users can access applications on the Android BlackBerry QNX them.
Steven Li, an analyst at research firm Raymond James told Bloomberg said to allow the BlackBerry to run Android applications is somewhat interesting.
Previously, RIM has announced that the playbook to support Android and Java applications that take advantage of the "agents of the application. Also, support is also directed to the C / C + + development support, HTML5 , Flash, and air support.
