the opportunity
The mobile Internet has been an international phenomenon for more than four years. For example, in Japan, 37 million people subscribe to NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service, meaning this wireless carrier has overtaken AOL to become the largest Internet Service Provider in the world. In just six months, Vodafone Live! attracted more than 1 million subscribers in Europe with a combination of picture messaging, games, and rich content. Across the globe, consumers are expected to spend $3 billion this year just on ringtones - or to put it another way, ten percent of the global market for recorded music.
Now, finally, the U.S. is catching up. Over the past year, carriers have launched powerful mobile phones with full-color screens and the ability to download great applications. New network technologies such as CDMA 2000 and GPRS mean that mobile phones are always connected to the Internet at speeds faster than dial-up at home. As in Europe and Asia, text messages can now be sent to any phone, not just another phone from the same carrier. Most importantly, carriers are sharing revenue with content providers. With these developments, well-known brands and gifted developers have launched hundreds of entertaining and useful applications, games, and services for consumers to choose from.
The results are clear. The mobile Internet is going to be as big a success in the U.S. as it has been overseas. American consumers are already sending 2.5 billion text messages every month. Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS recently announced that consumers have downloaded more than 12 million applications, games, ringtones, and screensavers on each of their networks since the launch of their new data services. Well-known brands are building marketing campaigns entirely around mobile phones. And industry leaders like Vindigo Studios are generating millions of dollars in revenue.
The Challenges
This exciting new market presents some unique challenges. If you want to launch a web site, you can take advantage of mature, standards-based technologies and development tools to build one site that can be seen on any personal computer in the world. And no-one stands between you and the consumer. But the wireless Internet is different:
- Every wireless carrier is using a different combination of technologies
- Each of these technologies is immature, rapidly changing, and difficult to master
- Handsets are offered in dozens of different shapes, with different screen sizes and user interfaces
- In general it is not possible to bring an application to market without building a direct business relationship with each carrier
What Vindigo can do for You
Vindigo Studios offers the most complete solution for launching consumer information and entertainment applications on mobile phones. Our applications, including MovieGoer™ film guide and the Vindigo® - city guide, have set the standard for quality and richness on mobile phones today. By partnering with Vindigo Studios you can:
- Work with the most experienced design and development teams in the mobile data industry
- Take advantage of our industry-leading technology platform to rapidly build and deploy applications across multiple handsets, networks, and carriers
- Draw on our four years of experience driving revenue from mobile applications
- Leverage our relationships with every major wireless carrier to get your application to market quickly
In partnership with some of the best-known consumer brands in the world and every major North American wireless carrier, Vindigo Studios will be launching a series of exciting new products this year. We're ready to help you too.
