Posts Tagged ‘companies’

Vote for the companies you’d like us to interview at MWC

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

We’re offering you something a bit different here for Mobile World Congress. As you may know, around this time, our inboxes start filling up with hundreds of pitches and event/interview invitations from public relations and marketing people eager to in front of you.

Usually these pitches are lost on you, dear reader. Because they never see the light of day.

Because there are usually hundreds of emails flowing in, it can sometimes get very difficult indeed to decide what is relevant and what might be semi-interesting — or, more often than not, what MIGHT be relevant if we tweak the pitch.

If you’ve ever wanted to get a look at this part of the editorial process, now’s your chance.

I’ve cut and paste the first 400-800 characters of a lot of the emails I have received. I’ve published almost every decent one that we’ve been sent — dropping the entirely irrelevant ones (e.g. Would you like to learn about our circuit board capacitor technologies? No. But thanks!)

After reader Jonathan Mulholland’s suggestion on my earlier post, we’ve implemented a ‘Digg style’ interface at http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/mwc/.

Headlines are lifted directly from the emails — although in some cases the unimaginative (”Invitation to meet at MWC”) have been changed to make it relevant when you’re reading down. The content is a cut and paste — again where relevant. And I’ve also linked, where possible, to the company’s URL.

[Note: It's surprising how many PRs don't bother putting their client's web addresses on pitches]

And that’s it. It’s now over to you. Now, in order that we control the voting a little, you will need to sign-up for an account. It takes biliseconds. We just need a username and password (and email in case you forget your detalis) — that way we prevent folk multiple digging stories.

Anyone can vote.

We’ll pay attention to those that rise to the top over the next weeks.

We’ve got our own plans to bring you wicked coverage from MWC irrespective of the results from the MWC Pitch system — just, the top selections that have audience support will get our attention. We’ll aim to arrange an interview and/or do a video interview with those companies.

If you find a pitch that you’d REALLY like to see get some attention, dig it — and then post a comment explaining why.

You can, of course, hit the BURY button and reduce the chances of particular pitches from moving up the charts.

If you click on the comments for any story, you’ll also get to see what usernames dug each story. I’m down as ‘digging’ everything because I submitted most o them.

That said — you too can submit your own pitch using the ‘Submit a Pitch’ button on the frontpage. Headline, description and a URL and woosh, your pitch will be live. Go ahead and publish if you’re up for it and cut us out the loop.

Finally, a note on how the pitches are ranked. Firstly, new pitches appear at the top temporarily — and then slowly descend by time. Those with actual digs next to them rise swiftly and — if no new pitches have been added recently, appear right at the top. Right now SpinVox and Sony Ericsson’s party are up the top with 4 digs each, closely followed by Microsoft’s press conference and HTC’s event.

So it’s over to you now. Your mouse is now a weapon of misery or joy depending on how you wield your digs…

Click here to start rating the current MWC Pitches: http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/mwc/

Jonathan Jensen on Thursday – What I’m looking for from my favourite mobile companies in the New Year

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

As we head towards the end of the year I’ve been thinking about some of the mobile companies and applications I’ve looked at this year and what’s missing from their line up. So, I’ve highlighted the key service enhancement I’d like to see from each of them in 2009.

The mobile VoIP space is a particular favourite of mine because it offers low cost calling, service innovation and improved coverage (for me, anyway). 2008 has been an exciting year for new services - I’ve used a few of them and been very impressed with what each has to offer. However, no one out there has got the whole package for me yet. Truphone has added more platform support with iPhone, BlackBerry and now iPod Touch joining Nokia S60, plus Truphone Anywhere to deliver Truphone service outside WiFi coverage. I’m a big Truphone fan but the primary enhancement I’d like to see is flat rate tariffing to deliver simplicity and predictability. Ideally a range of tariffs offering the choice of in-country calling or international would be good. Another favourite at the moment, DeFi Mobile, launched this year with superb call quality and an all-inclusive international flat rate tariff. DeFi’s initial service line‑up includes almost everything I need, with some neat features like simultaneous ring and call forwarding included in the standard tariff. What’s missing? Inbound and outbound SMS on my UK 020 DeFi number is a must to give me a single mobile number across both voice and SMS.

Niche providers in the mobile space continue to challenge the rates charged by the big operators for international calling and roaming. Swap your SIM card over to MAXroam and get great rates when roaming, especially outside the EU. Now that the EU has mandated lower roaming voice rates and is looking at data, I’d like to see MAXroam come back with finer pricing for EU roaming. Rebtel delivers great pricing for international calls and it’s big plus is that it just works from any mobile handset – no software, no SIM card swapping. Local in‑country phone numbers are becoming more and more useful with a number of service providers starting to offer them for a small monthly fee. The ability to add an inbound number to my Rebtel account that delivers calls to one or more of my registered numbers would be a nice addition and another revenue stream for Rebtel.

SpinVox has shown us what the future of voice mail looks like with it’s speech to text product. I’m surprised that none of the big UK mobile operators has yet embedded SpinVox in their propositions, so I hope 2009 will be the year that one of the operators decides to differentiate their voice mail from their competitors. Inevitably pricing will be pivotal here so I hope everyone’s sharpening their pencils!

Lastly I’m going to mention Evernote. Evernote is now my preferred repository for notes and anything I want to remember in the future. I’d like to see Evernote implement greater consistency in functionality and the user interface across the various versions.

So guys, a few ideas and now it’s over to you!

Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

Friday afternoon - who’d like to meet to be profiled?

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

I’m on the hunt for some companies to profile here on SMS Text News and I’ve got some availability this coming Friday afternoon.

If you’d like to meet, drop a mail over to me — ewan@smstextnews.com.


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