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Remember when you were a kid, rushing excitedly down the stairs on Christmas morning to unwrap and play with your newest toy only to be reduced to a tearful mess by the words BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED on the box?

Fast forward a few years and the realisation that the alcohol available on your all inclusive holiday is more suited to being a tool for arson or used as paint stripper brings tears of a different sort to your eyes.

What’s my point you may ask, what has this got to do with mobile? My point is that it’s the small things in life that matter most. In the examples above you didn’t care about the shiny red fire engine, or the fact you were going to come home two stones heavier due to all the free food. It was what wasn’t included that mattered the most, and that’s the same in mobile.

Let’s assume you’re on some kind of monthly contract, you will have minutes, texts and data all neatly supplied in a nice little bundle. For most people this will be more than they will ever use in a month, but you happily pay for it knowing that your bill will be the same, month in month out. Never again the horrors of the past, where every month opening your mobile bill was an exercise in fear and anticipation.

But wait, my bill isn’t £35 this month, it’s nearer £40. Hmm, I’ve haven’t been abroad, phoned any premium numbers or voted on the X Factor. What could it be?

Sent any picture messages, a picture of the new baby, pet or car? Maybe you were on holiday and wanted to share the sights with your friends.

MMS NOT INCLUDED

Of all the major UK operators only Orange and only in their Panther packages include 50 MMS in their contracts.

Bundles are available from:

O2: £5.11 for 50
Orange: £5.00 for 50
Vodafone: £3.00 for 100

Otherwise every MMS will cost you a minimum of 20p and a maximum of 36p depending on operator and contract.

Why are operators now trying to nickel and dime us on this? Vodafone used to include them in the Hero plans, O2 previously let you use them as part of your text allocation at a ratio of 4 SMS for 1 MMS, Orange let you use their 2010 era Canary text allowance on a 1:1 ratio.

Perhaps faced with falling termination charges and roaming price caps operators are only trying to recoup some profits?

Here’s where I see a problem with this strategy: Today’s customers have more options than ever before. As Apple are wont to say “there’s an app for that”.

Applications like WhatsApp and soon to be launched iMessage will cut deeply into revenue streams from MMS and that’s only the beginning. Once your operator has annoyed you by charging for MMS and you’ve discovered a way to bypass those charges, chances are you will start looking for other ways to save money.

With applications that do SMS and VOIP for calls, before too long customers will be looking for a data plan with 0 mins, 0 txts and using an app for everything.

Where will the operators be then, reduced to their worst fear, dumb pipes?

And all because MMS NOT INCLUDED.

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I totally agree Neil. It’s these small things that really do wind people up. You can follow Neil at @TheNeilRamsay on Twitter or visit his musings online at talkinmobile.com.

Anyway, let’s get on with the overview. First, here’s a cunningly photoshopped set of photos of the podcast protagonists — (left to right) Ben, myself and then Rafe.

This week we’re recording remotely again as Ewan calls in from Austin, Texas. In the last episode of series 1 (don’t worry series 2 is already on the way) we have a bit of a whinge discussing ‘bothersome things‘ (as Rafe terms them).

Ben‘s list covered pages by the time we finished listing them pre-recording so here’s a few choice ones… We discuss:

• WiFi hotspots
• MMS
• Batteries
• Mobile apps failing without coverage
• Context sensitive ringing

Gumpy old men we might be, but these are the niggles which drive us mad daily. What are yours?

There are lots of ways to follow the podcast or you can subscribe using iTunes and other popular services.

Here’s how the world famous red-top, The Sun, covered the story:

“X-Rated Ashely Photos Sent To Model”

I turned to the newspaper of record, The London Telegraph, for an update. That’s right, it’s even caught the attention of the Telegraph!

A topless model was the recipient of a few nude or naked photos (“Chelsea player in a state of undress”) — one which came with the message underneath reading ‘There. I look so ugly x’.

It turns out that Ashley Cole didn’t actually send the pictures himself. No.

Over to the Telegraph to explain:

He [Ashley] claims he had forgotten to delete them when he gave his old phone to a friend who then passed it on to another friend who sent the photos on as a joke.

He told The Sun: “I can’t believe that I gave a phone away that still had stuff on its memory. I thought I had deleted it.”

Miss Wild, however, insists she thought the texts were sent to her by Cole and even reciprocated by sending back naked pictures of herself.

Apparently the model had an ‘online friendship’ with the friend Cole gave his old phone to.

The Sun usually goes for the jugular when it knows precisely what happened. So the ‘Exclusive: Riddle of Cole Pics’ headline indicates clearly that Ashley’s explanation is accurate.

Turning to The Sun itself, their article explains:

“He took the images on an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone then didn’t manage to delete them when he gave it away to a mate. To say he’s horrified to discover the pictures were sent to a model is an understatement.”

Cole says he gave the unregistered mobile – which he said he had been using while “between phones” – to close pal Jay Wynters. But, unknown to the soccer idol, it is then said Wynters gave it to another pal who found the images and took his chance to hoodwink sexy Sonia.

What was he doing with a pay as you go phone?

If you’re earning 82,000 quid a week, you’d think you could probably afford to never be ‘between phones’.

I’m amazed that it’s 2010 and ‘celebrities’ are still not quite getting the reality that if you snap a picture, if you create a digital image, it’s extremely difficult to erase them. And when ‘image’ is so intertwined with ‘brand’, one would imagine it’s rather important to keep control. If you’re a nobody, there’s little value in the discovery of naked pictures. But celebrities? I wonder if someone shouldn’t setup a proper device management service for celebrities, so when they’ve finished using a handset or camera, they can have it professionally erased. Critical if you’ve been playing around with the camera functionality.

Sending naked pictures must be one of the primary uses of mobile messaging technology. Sonia, the model, even used the mobile video function on her handset:

“I sent back video footage recorded on my phone of myself naked and doing sexy things for him. At the time it was a laugh and a bit of a thrill for me.”

For years sending and receiving MMS messages (let alone video!) used to be an entirely unreliable experience. So I’m pleased the technology worked for the model and the friend-of-a-friend-of-Ashley.

The concept, as this MDA blog explains, is…

…to drive a high profile project which will educate and reinforce MMS messaging to a mass market in an entertaining and interactive way. In the same way the MDA helped to propel the growth of SMS text messaging, we now believe the emergence of increasingly sophisticated and affordable devices with intuitive MMS functionality should bring a surge in the use of richer media mobile messaging.

All the UK mobile networks are joining in — so it will be free to send an MMS, to Radio 1, on Friday 11th December. (WIN Plc are the aggregator behind the project).

Ostensibly the project will enable Radio 1 to compile a wickedly cool massive picture featuring your face — that, by the way, is what you’ve to MMS to the Radio Station on the day.

Just to be clear: You’ll be billed for sending MMS messages to anyone else. It’s only free to Radio 1 on that day.

Which, frankly, is a fat lot of good for the wider consumer.

The mobile industry — the mobile operators — (and to a lesser extent, the Mobile Data Association) — have handled the introduction and implementation of MMS with neolithic incompetence.

This is far, far too late.

Far too late.

THIS! From an industry that thought it would be a good idea to FUCK the consumer to the tune of FIFTY PENCE — read it and weep — FIFTY FLIPPIN’ PENCE — per shite small bollocks photo… the mobile operators deserve the absolute flop they got.

Oh MMS is reasonably popular, nowadays.

Now that generations of handsets have been sent out into the market with the correct settings, more or less. Now that mobile operators have actually got off their arses and interconnected.

But a public education project? Goodness me this is ridiculous, ridiculously late.

It is, of course, completely irrelevant to anyone with an iPhone or Android handset. MMS? What MMS? You can just email the photo.

Unfortunately the medium has a normob reputation of being absolutely useless — this isn’t quite the fault of the mobile operator per se — but when I take a 5 megapixel image and transmit it to your bollocks shitty small-screened Nokia 3600, yeah… the experience isn’t going to be very good at all.

Of course, now and again, there are moments where sending a photo to your friend with the shite mobile handset is necessary. So that’s when you need to use MMS.

My reading of the consumer marketplace is that they needed this effort from the MDA and the mobile operators about 3 years ago. Not now.

Still. Any assistance is useful, right?

And speaking of assistance, have you checked out getsettings.com? It’s the site run by the MDA that helps UK consumers get the right access settings for their network.

This is important, because the BOLLOCKS mobile industry couldn’t get its act together. Most reasonably modern handsets automatically acquire and select the relevant MMS/data gateways. But I meet too many normobs who ‘haven’t got MMS setup’ or who tell me that ‘it’s never worked for me’.

Only today I had a text from a reader who got his N900 today — but can’t connect to Vodafone’s data gateway for some reason.

This is simply ridiculous.

Again, I suppose it’s laudable that the MDA is doing something about it.

Pricing has always been a problem. Talk to most normobs and they’ll either tell you that MMS is ‘expensive’ or they’ll assume it’s not included in their price plan. Thankfully many monthly price plans nowadays lump SMS and MMS into one inclusive or flat rate fee. T-Mobile, though (as an example) still charges PAYG users 20p per MMS and 5p per text.

Which automatically tells the consumer that sending a photo is four times more expensive and should thus be used on ‘special occasions’.

Gahhh.

Here’s Scott Mills introducing the project:

And here’s the ‘MMS day’ site.

But hang on a second, this is the mobile industry – a sector not exactly renowned for its competitive cooperation and commercial innovation (compared to the world of the web/Internet). How groundbreaking would the conference really be? Would anything really come out of it, or would it just be a collection of industry leaders nodding their heads, agreeing they needed to do something useful with messaging, then after the beers had been drunk and the corporate hospitality exhausted, all go home and revert back to the paranoid blinkered attitude we have come to know and love from operators?

With limited time available, I figured a better way to gauge what was new, hot and exciting in messaging would be to hang around the exhibition and talk to some of the companies attending.

So what did I find? Representaives of some companies were quite welcoming, and more than happy to talk about what they were up to. Others were, how can I put it, more intent on hiding in the corner of their stands and being as welcoming and inviting as a shop with the shutters down and the open sign firmly turned to ‘closed’.

Armed with a notepad, a pen and my press pass, I wandered up to each stand (the ones with people there who looked like they wanted to talk and weren’t busy hiding or having customer meetings) and asked the simple question: ‘What’s new in your world?’

Comsys

First stop, Comsys. ‘So what do you do?’, I asked. ‘IVR’, said the gentlemen. Hmm, ok – that’s a strange start. This is a conference on mobile messaging – and you do voice response platforms for call centres? Fair enough – I let him carry on to see if there was anything I’d missed.

The company originally provided big beefy (read: expensive) IVR platforms to the likes of Christies, and Ikea. Their focus had now turned to the SME market, and they were showcasing a ‘drag and drop’ IVR service aimed at, as the guy put it, ‘non geeks’. Give it to an office manager and they could setup a simple switchboard or platform to route calls in a call centre. It’s all hosted by Comsys, so instead of spending large sums of cash on ominous grey boxes you just paid for what you needed. Plus with the simple user-friendly ‘normob-proof’ interface, it didn’t take a team of experts to set up and maintain.

‘When’s it available?’, I asked. ‘Autumn’, was the response. Hmm. Not exactly now, and not exactly innovative, I thought – casting my mind back to an IVR I’d built about 3-4 years ago with UK-based service provider Callagenix. That was sort of drag and drop – ok it didn’t have the worlds prettiest GUI but it was point click and go with a relatively simple web interface. So how far has IVR come in 3-4 years? Not too far, it seems.

After a brief chat about life, universe and the general state of the industry, I shuffled off to find something a little more innovative – and mobile-related.

MX Telecom

Next stop, MX Telecom. They’ve been around for donkeys years, originally as a simple SMS aggregator and over the years have moved into MMS, video shortcodes and voice. So what’s rocking their world?

‘We’ve got a large product, it’s really innovative, but I can’t tell you about it’. Oh. ‘But ask any of our competitiors and they’ll tell you what it is’. Oh. Again. So what is it? ‘I can’t tell you too much, but it launches in August, it’s something to do with FMCG [Google says that's 'Fast Moving Consumer Goods'], and we’ll be giving it a big push’.

OK, I’m still none the wiser. So is there anything I can write about? ‘Well we’ve just enhanced our 3G video calling service’. Zzz. Does anyone make video calls to an automated platform, let alone to each other? But then it twigged. Porn. Maybe that’s where the money is. And on that delightful (and slightly smutty) note, I moved on..

mBlox

Another stand, another SMS aggregator that’s been around since the year dot. So what was rocking mBlox’s world? Of course the question I really wanted to ask was ‘how are you getting on with all those PhonePayPlus adjudications and fines?’, but it didn’t seem the right time and place (if you click here and select mBlox as the service provider, you’ll see what I mean).

“We’re busy moving into new industry sectors, including travel alerts, anti-fraud services, and healthcare’. Well, I guess that’s better than reverse-billed SMS and subscription services. ‘We’ve also got a new reverse charge service for mobile data, which allows the content provider to pay the users data charge for downloading content’. Now this is quite interesting. Sometimes we forget a large chunk of the market doesn’t have unlimited data plans like us ‘mobile savvy’ lot do, and are still paying by the megabyte. What this service basically does is ‘reverse charges’ the data cost for downloading a bit of content back to the service provider – so if I pay lets say £3 for a ringtone (I know, I wouldn’t either, but bear with me) I don’t have to pay my data charges for downloading it. Neat. Is it available now? ‘We’re doing a trial at the moment in the UK, hopefully it’ll be rolled out soon’.

Finally, something interesting and vaguely innovative. With a renewed sense of vigor I wandered off to the next stand that looked welcoming.

I-New

‘Hello’, I piped up, ‘I’m writing for Mobile Industry Review. What are you showcasing today?’, I said to the rather tired looking gentlemen on the stand. He seemed quite delighted that someone was showing interest in their offerings – to be honest it was a bit of a quiet exhibition – and he started talking. I couldn’t keep up. My plan to use pen and paper was clearly failing, and I began to wonder whether I should have just bought an old fashioned dictaphone with me.

Reading my notes, and a pile of brochures I picked up, here’s a rough overview. I-New provide content and services platforms for mobile operators and MVNOs – think a big box you can lock up in a rack and offer a new service. They do messaging platforms, marketing software, IVR, instant messaging, colour ringback tones (known as ‘caller tunes’ on some operators in the UK), Intelligent Network services, and other operator-focuseed platforms. There’s also something interesting called ‘Mamba’ – which stands for ‘Mobile Assisted Micro Broker Application’ – which allows operators to provide money transfer services to mobile customers. With the UK operators and regulators seemingly failing to embrace the whole concept of mobile money transfer and flexible micropayments compared to somewhere like Africa, I wondered how many people attending today would be interested in such a solution. Still, with a worldwide audience, I’m sure there’d be an innovative operator somewhere in the room.

Lleida.net

Glancing around Lleida’s stand, and eyeing up their product literature, it looked like I’d found ‘yet another’ SMS and MMS aggregator – and I wasn’t wrong. The company, based in Spain, offer international SMS and MMS transit for MNOs, along with ENUM services, and something called ‘Virtual Handset’ – which at closer inspection is a regular virtual mobile service for receiving and sending SMS on your PC. So what was cooking in their world?

‘We’re showcasing Certified SMS today’, the representative told me. So what’s that? ‘It allows you to prove an SMS has been delivered to a particular destination’, he said. Right, so delivery reports? ‘Yes, but we provide a signed and digitally stamped delivery receipt via email to prove that the message has been delivered’. So who’s the intended audience? The brochure I have in front of me says legal documents. But surely a legal document is more than 160 characters? It seems more likely to be used for something like ‘Dear Alex, your bank account is about to self destruct as it’s overdrawn’, or the like. They reckon you could do a will or power of attorney over text. I’m not too sure..

And that was that. ‘Hang on’, I’m sure you’re saying, ‘you only talked to five people? What about the rest?’ Well, as I said before, sometimes exhibitors can be as welcoming as a shop with the shutters down and the sign turned to ‘closed’. I did want to talk to a couple of other people, like SMS router bods Telsis but to be honest they seemed to be having a picnic the first time I wandered past, and a customer meeting the next. I’m sure there were some other people there worth talking to, but stands were empty, some of them had one bloke cowered over a laptop scowling in the corner, and to be honest I doubt there was anything earth-shattering there anyway. However, I did get a chance to catch up with Jote Bassi, VP Global Sales & Marketing at messaging experts Anam for a chat – I’ll be covering that on another post in the coming days.

The buyer, mobile messaging company, Mobispine, has just completed the deal. Super news for James and the Fun Text team. And super news for the chaps at Mobispine — this is their fourth acquisition in about a year.

If you need a reminder on Fun Text, they deploy mobile messaging facilities for consumers, enabling them to send and share ‘professionally created multimedia’ on mobile. Birthday messages, jokes, that sort of stuff — it’s the kind of services that the MMS manager at a mobile operator loves — in many cases, Fun Text has delivered triple-digit MMS ARPU for their clients.

Mobispine is growing into a bit of a behemoth — working with over 30 mobile operators around the planet. Good news all round. Congratulations everyone!

Here we go…

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Give us an overview of the business?
Sharpcards has been working in the internet greetings industry for over 10 years. Seven years ago it launched the world’s first mobile greetings portal for Orange. Since then it has been supplying, customising and retailing messaging content with operator partners around the globe.

Today, Sharpcards delivers a comprehensive white label greetings and eCard experience to the world’s leading mobile brands including Vodafone, T-Mobile, AT&T, Orange, Sony Ericsson, Verizon, o2 & Samsung.

And the background?
Historically, Sharpcards have provided its operator partners with fully managed mobile portals, retailing the very best messaging content available in the market. Simple, straightforward message delivery is at the heart of what Sharpcards is about – customising and optimising the content to deliver the best possible experience for the end user in the mobile environment.

With an increasing focus away from portals, today’s Sharpcards offering looks very different. Sharpcards is now driving partner value by offering downloadable and embedded applications on the device. This brings enhanced messaging application & ecards directly to the most contextually relevant parts of the phone – the main message menus and home screen. By doing this, Sharpcards is able to deliver an excellent, relevant end-user experience, while driving MMS and content revenues for operators. Everything Sharpcards offers is fully customised to its partners’ brand look and feel – delivering a fresh and trusted content environment for their business

What are you doing with MMS? Any EMMA action?
Our Enhanced Mobile Messaging Application (EMMA) is already live on networks, including T-Mobile in the UK and 3 in Sweden. A number of new launches are imminent with other partners across Europe.
The new service is proving to be a great success. Customers are discovering the application when they go to send a message. Now, people are able to add colour, meaning and sentiment to their messages in a simple, fun and engaging way.

Who’s using your services? What type of customer? I’m betting the users skew female?
Well, we are finding the profile of our user is changing. The portal environment attracted a younger, predominantly female audience and the context choices and mix reflected this. With the application in the device we have seen significant growth in a number of new content areas – especially wind-ups, flirting and jokey content. The content choices within the categories we offer is now appealing to a much wider profile than before, demonstrating that the application is attractive to users across all segments and demographics. The proposition is simple and straightforward -everyone likes to send messages with added meaning. Everyone can understand the application, and people who receive the messages recognise the value.

We’re currently seeing strong growth in the enhanced messaging market. For us, the customer experience and great content is key. We are focusing our efforts on keeping our content fresh, relevant and fun. This is reflected sustained growth in conversion figures – with some of networks seeing 30% of application visitor’s purchasing content within a few weeks from launch.

MMS has — bluntly — been a pile of rubbish in years gone by. How are you finding it nowadays?
Right — yes, MMS has been a challenging environment in the past, and remains so on many networks. We’ve invested significantly in resource and technology to overcome a number of barriers. Ensuring that the message and content gets to the recipient in a format and quality our customers expect is non-negotiable – after all, that is what they pay for. To overcome this, each item we sell is tested and adapted by Sharpcards at our head office and then re-tested on our client’s networks. We work very closely with our operator partners to optimise user experience.

In markets where MMS is still an issue, for example where interconnect is limited, the enabled base is low or provisioning is an issue, we will use the most appropriate alternative interim delivery mechanism such as SMS or WAP Push.

How are people using Sharpcards?
People are using our application as a way of adding more meaning and sentiment to messages. Sharpcards are being used to express emotion and say more than you can with text-based messaging, while being fun.

What are your most popular cards? Are we talking cuddly looking kittens and funny cartoons?
Popularity of our cards vary from month-to-month due to context and calendar events. Sales are not just driven predictable events such as Christmas, Valentines Day, Mothers Day etc. but also other topical drivers such as elections, as in Obama, sporting events and exam results etc. So far this year Disney content has proved consistently popular, particularly Winnie the Pooh ‘I Love You’ being a top performer since the beginning of January.

Surely the I LOVE YOU stuff is a sure fire winner?
Well yes, predictably, ‘I Love You’ and flirty content dominated the downloads in February due to Valentines Day. Outside of the ‘I Love you’ content, a wind-up message informing the recipient that their phone has been reported stolen to the police and will be disconnected has been a big hit this quarter. We have seen a significant growth in simple and fun content – more and more people are just downloading humorous images to just say ‘hi.’

Given the historical issues with MMS, how often does an average user send an eCard?
Without getting into commercially sensitive arenas, I can say that around 20-30% of people who browse through our application will buy content item there and then. Most will buy more than one eCard.

How do you catch customers?
By placing the application at the heart of the device in the main messaging menu, next to ‘send a text’ and ‘send an MMS’, discoverability becomes the main driver. Customers can make a choice at the point when they send a message, to send basic text or decide whether they wish to enhance it e.g. when sending ‘happy birthday’ to a loved one, sending a more powerful image or animated message adds value to the message being conveyed – it says so much more that the sender cares and has put that little bit more thought into the message. After a customer has used the application once, they become familiar with the content available and know where to go for further content when they need it. We are seeing that when our customers return to the application, they browse fewer items before purchasing – they know what type of content they like and where they can find it.

Can you comment on your customers’ most popular handsets?
Ahhh — we have a number of relationships with device manufacturers around the world; unfortunately I can’t disclose which ones are the most popular! Performance across our all our device range to date has been very strong. The application has broad appeal to a wide audience. We are seeing very different content consumption by device – and interestingly higher than anticipated levels of adoption and repeat usage from the top-tier device users. Users of top-tier devices tend to send more traditional sentimental and soppy ‘I love you’ content – whereas users of middle and low-tier devices are much more likely to send wind-ups, jokes and flirty images. The content consumption reflects the target audience segment & demographic of the device. We put a lot of effort into optimising the content mix for each individual device to drive revenue for our partners.

So I couldn’t tempt you to tell us what your most popular Sharpcard-sending network is?
I’m afraid if we gave that away it would cause uproar. Needless to say that all our networks are exceeding forecasts on adoption and usage to date.

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Thanks for your time Will!

Blyk frustrated me; in return for receiving adverts matched to my preferences, and and every other user received 217 texts and 43 minutes per month. No data. No data AT ALL. The regular readers of Blykwatch will know I complained a lot about the lack of some kind of inclusive data along with competitive data rates ‘out of bundle’.

Well, to my delight this evening I received a SMS from Blyk;

You asked, Blyk listened. Blyk will be changing to a free monthly refill of £15 for you to use however you like.

*Fantastic* a company that listened to what the users want! Of course, having ‘a balance’ means you can use it on voice, sms, mms and data. The quid pro quo is immediately a lot more credible in my eyes.

However it comes at a price. At the same time prices on Blyk will now increase with call charges rising to 24p a minute from 15p. That’s STEEP. However text messages fall from 10p to 8p.

Now while this is fantastic for me — I can use my balance just on calls, or data — since I use Blyk as my secondary sim, for those using Blyk as a primary operator of choice, they’re now getting a bit of a raw deal.

The old system gave every user £28.15 credit (which made up the 217 texts/43 minutes). So if you’re used to using 217 texts and 43 minutes each month, that will NOW cost you £27.68.

But now, you’re only getting £15 ‘credit’ as thanks for receiving ads. If you wanted to maintain that same level of minutes/texts, you’d need to spunk out £12.68 extra per month.

That is a 46% percent decrease in credit and in return you get flexibility. I think the 46% is rather expensive for the value that flexibility brings. I understand that for a flexible plan you would expect to lose some credit ie 10 – 20% but certainly NOT 46%.

To me this suggests Blyk simply do not understand their user base. If you use the credit all on minutes you are better off than before the changes, however if you are a SMS user you lose out big style. Blyk is a MVNO only available for those who are aged between 16 and 24, users in this bracket (which I am part of) Text, MSN and Facebook each other. They are prolific texters, not callers.

As soon as I got the message concerning these changes I did a search on twitter to see if anyone had said anything (Ewan if you are reading this twitter IS useful).

Here’s what I sent out to my followers:

“You asked, Blyk listened”: 43 min 217 txt -> £15 +data,mms possibility.43min 217 txt=27.68.Cost of flex: 46% for mms, data. More flexible?

I received many responses — I don’t want to list them all so here’s a good summary one:

Am annoyed Blyk has decided to give £15 credit per month instead of free calls and minutes. It’s basically a guise for giving less.

I also jumped onto the forums, and I realised that Blyk had not sent this message in one go but had done a phased roll out, as a result the forums were very active on this topic. The main bulk were contained in two topics one was ‘bring back the old Blyk’ with 150 replies and a petition as well with 104 posts.

Not only that there are also two online petitions on sites on the internet:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?217_43
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-blyk-bo.html

The first has 92 names, the second has 99 names.

Checking the posts on the forum the first post on the change was on the 15th January at 4pm, so in less than 5 days this has been the response. I have been a user of Blyk for more than a year and a half and have never seen so much response on the forums. I think it clearly shows the opinion of the Blyk members.

I dropped an email to both Jonathan MacDonald and Alistair Crane (both part of the team who set up Blyk) to hear get their views on the changes.

“Businesses change their offerings. All of them. Blyk know more about what people want than all other mobile networks, in my opinion. I hope that that opinions about an offering change don’t cloud, remove or replace the fact that, for the first time ever, a media channel was built upon conversation rather than broadcast. We can and should have an opinion and it is more common for negativity to out-shine the positive. It is the way of the world sadly.”  Jonathan MacDonald

Fair point, but how much conversation was going on when they changed the game plan?

Let’s hear from Alistair:

“In January Blyk launched a comprehensive content portal and will be marketing the service heavily to members based on their profile information. By giving users monetary value to spend on whatever they want Blyk will drive content consumption, offer members an additional free service and most importantly, create increased inventory and another avenue for advertisers to access the profiled member base through traditional WAP formats (banners, text links etc.) as well as more creative pre-rolls, interstitials and ad funded content experiences (games, wall papers, ringtones).

Members will place a MASSIVE amount of value around flexibility and will love the fact that they can now access facebook, maps, email etc. using their free allowance. 

User created MMS will still probably stay low but is a good option to add to the mix.” Alistair Crane

I also got some words from fellow Blyk User and MIR Contributor Samanatha

“When I first heard about this, I’ll admit I was excited and happy. And then the reality of Blyk’s inability to comprehend the needs and desires of their customers finally sank in again. I don’t like moaning, and in fact I’m pleased they’ve finally realised that listening to their members is the right way to go about their business; but when there’s such a loss being made by each individual member, questions have to be raised.”
 

Blyk my final words to you are these, your idea is fantastic and it will work well however you tell me you listen BUT do you really?

Do you *really* understand your member base?

- – - – -

A word from the Editor: Hi there, Ewan here. When you go live and tell your customers that it’s all about the conversation, that you’re listening, that you care, it’s good news. If you mean it. But then I suspect it’s a lot larger to wield the happy stick when you’re running a mobile operator. But… if you’ve asked your users for feedback — and they give you feedback, it gets rather challenging when, for whatever logistical reasons, you can’t necessarily deliver.

Over the months we’ve delivered some rather inspiring commentary on Blyk — chiefly from Ricky, the author of today’s post, and more recently from Samantha. Both are exactly in Blyk’s target range. Both are considered, smart, intelligent individuals, misled by the Blyk concept.

We stopped the BlykWatch coverage a while ago because it began to turn into a broken record. Despite the readers from all across the world — I reckon that a good 20-30,000 tuned in regularly for BlykWatch — when we were continually publishing news about forum posts not being replied to and lax or bored customer service, I thought that was it. Time’s up. It’s an operator. Their job is to deliver as many eyeball conversions as possible for their advertisers. It is not to ‘listen’ to their users and it is most certainly not to react to what users want unless there’s a direct profit. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this as a business practice. The disconnect is the users — such as Ricky and Samantha and a lot more besides — getting far too passionate about the service. At one point I think I said to Ricky to go and get a T-Mobile account and stop worrying about Blyk. That’s difficult when you feel passionately engaged by the company and when the company simply does not reflect that back. I’m sure Jonathan MacDonald — in his Every Single One Of Us guise — will have something to say about that. It ain’t good. But it makes cash. The Blyk customer is the advertiser. The user is the gateway to cash for Blyk.

Now, here’s is a viewpoint that I doubt will be received well by Ricky, Samantha and the array of Blyk fans they’ve spoken to about the news: It’s free so you have no rights and your opinion doesn’t count. Despite what the marketing tells you.

The only opinion Blyk want to know is whether you liked the Coca Cola or the Pepsi MMS ad better. If it’s a service level you want — you’re much better off demanding service from a traditional offer and wielding your own cash in return, rather than your data/opinions.

Swapping around the credit structure perhaps indicates at a challenge with the Blyk model. According to a BBC stat, there are about 7 million 16-24 year olds in the UK.

200,000 of which have got a Blyk sim card. Or, let’s be generous — let’s call it 300,000. I don’t know the current stats. No one from Blyk has contacted me with an update for years. So let’s work on the basis of 300k ‘penetration’.

Let’s now get real.

Ricky — one of the world’s most passionate Blyk users doesn’t actually use them as his primary account. He uses T-Mobile. So let’s strip a load out.

Let’s assume 300k sim cards activated. Let’s assume 20% converted to become regular Blyk users? I dunno if this is accurate. Let’s keep with it.

20% is 60,000 regular Blyk users.

How many of them are PRIMARY Blyk users — i.e it’s their ONLY mobile operator? That’s a difficult stat. Let’s say…. another 20%? Let’s be kind?

So 12,000 regular, primary users.

Assume 1% of them can be arsed to care about their ‘billing structure’.

Text them and tell them the credit structure is changing and about 100 of them hit the forums complaining. That sounds about right. Now, once again, these stats could be hugely incorrect and I’m happy for us to be corrected by Blyk.

But if they’re anywhere accurate, they’d explain why the company isn’t necessarily screaming about it’s successes and why it may well become necessary for them to shift around the credit structure to reduce their costs by 40-odd percent.

The value with Blyk is surely in the concept. The concept that — all things being equal — the brands are LOVING the ROI. They’re actually getting returns on their investment. Measurable and high percentages. Just, not with millions of teenagers. So I think the concept of Blyk is a success. Whether the MVNO will prove to be so? Well I don’t know. Let’s keep watching and wish them all godspeed.

(And swap to T-Mobile, Samantha.)

The iPhone 3G! This was bound to appear somewhere, and so I thought it’s best to get it out of the way sooner, rather than later. Personally, I’m not a fan; and from what I’ve read, seen and heard accounts of, it hasn’t been all too great for Apple too. However, as much as I insist that it’s a pile of rubbish (feel free to beg to differ); it sold once again in its thousands.

Apple has conquered another market, and whether it’s because they found monopolising the MP3 market too easy, they’ve certainly made a statement. And even though the 3G came out way back in June/July the device still makes a regular appearance here on MIR. I do not doubt for a second that Apple have something lurking up their well-tailored sleeves, and if the rumours of an iPhone Nano are anything to go by… Then 2009 will be dominated with more Apples than your doctor can prescribe!

Secondly, Blyk! Hmm, well, me and Ricky between have more than enough to say on Blyk. For me, I was so hopeful that Blyk could be that turning point, especially here in the UK – where we ever so often fall behind in the world of technology and thought – and I was so disheartened with what eventually happened with them, it still annoys me now.

It can’t all be bad, and as much as I say I don’t like them and that their bound to fail… They haven’t yet. In fact, Blyk is over one year old now, and it still seems to be maintaining momentum. I think in 2009 we’ll either start to see how incredibly flawed Blyk’s aims and business model is; or dare I say it, it still surviving and the European expansion working out for the better for the company.

For me also, as I’ve begun to really take note and interest in the world of the Mobile Phone, I’ve seen certainly more usability on the rise, and a better use of SMS and mobile communications from businesses and services.

The “Knife Crime” Crime Stoppers text in service has to be, for me one of the single best things I have come across. It’s been implemented correctly in schools (well, at least in my school), without making itself appear too formal, and scary to use. And it’s using basic innovation, which as I know I have repeated many-a-time over the past few months; is severely lacking.

Slowly though, I’m beginning to see more and more use of mobile communications, for example my local hospital texting me when I have an upcoming appointment so I can’t forget; or my School using a system to ensure parents know if you’re not in school – when say you’re meant to be.

Hopefully over the next twelve months more of this good thinking and logic will be applied to other aspects of our general lives; and maybe with that, we might even get some more innovation out of that… And surely, that can only be a good thing?

Finally, my favourite mobile application… Well this has to go to MusicStation, which is available to Vodafone users. When I was first introduced to it by Ewan, I’ll admit I was majorly sceptical; I’m a music lover in every sense of the word. I don’t like the idea of being sold half-hearted 96kps versions of a song, or only having a minute and pointless library of music to download from; and this is all I expected to get.

I was wrong, and I loved the service. I haven’t yet seen it used by anyone I know on Vodafone, in fact, I’m not even sure if any of my friends are even aware of what they can get on their mobiles for a small fee per month; but if they did, then I do not doubt that it would be highly used by all of them.

Nokia I suppose are heading out in a similar direction, although I can’t comment on how the “Comes with Music” service works; I don’t doubt for a second that music services like the ones Vodafone and Nokia are offering are going to stop or end here.

—

I look forward to the next year, and I look forward to the new technologies developing, and being released, and being pleasantly surprised as I have been this year. I also see that as much optimism that I have, one cannot forget the looming “recession” and what impact will that have? I dare not speculate, but for more than one reason I’m pretty sure next year will be interesting and something to look forward to!

Anyway, I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Samantha.
samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

The summary? Couple went to McDonalds. Arguably this was their first mistake. Certainly from my wife’s viewpoint, anyway.

The chap left his handset by mistake at a store in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Apparently McDonalds staff promised to ‘secure the phone’ until he returned to get it.

And then it all went wrong for the couple.

The couple then discovered that the nude pictures she had sent to her husband’s phone had been posted online.

Not good.

Obviously they’re now, in the best traditions of America, suing the person or organisation with the biggest cash pile. So they’re not suing the person who allegedly uploaded the pictures. At least not according to the BBC story. Instead they’re apparently flogging the McDonalds Legal Machine along with the franchise owner for $3m in damages.

The Shermans claim they had to move to a new home after the woman’s name, address, and phone number appeared online along with the photos.

Rather unfortunate situation.

Just remember, if you take nude photos digitally, they can be transmitted around the planet in billiseconds and once they’re out of your control, there’s next to nothing you can do.

I very much respect the quiet dignity of the old chap in his uniform standing outside Waitrose in the local High Street selling poppies to raise money for the Royal British Legion and to remember all those lost in the war(s).

I always try and drop off a few quid at least.

The chaps at Moblog have come up with a nifty new service. I’ll let Alfie explain:

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Hi Ewan,

just to keep you up to speed on the shenanigans over at Moblog, I thought I’d let you know about a Moblog we’re doing for this years Poppy Appeal. It’s from the POV of their Poppy Man mascot, essentially in the form of updates as he travels around the country promoting the Poppy Appeal. As well as his own posts, we’ve opened the moblog up for people to post images of poppy related things they are doing.

All they need to do is to take a pic of themselves wearing your poppy (sure everyone has one by now right?) and text it to the blog, with a short message of support for the campaign (or anything they like). MMS to 07786201241 starting with the word popm or email to poppy_man at moblog.net and their post will show up at http://blog.poppyman.org.uk straight away.

Talk soon!

Alfie

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Thanks for the update Alfie — excellent concept. There’s donation information for the Royal British Legion here.

PS: If I’m not very much mistaken you can see a rather tired looking James Whatley of SpinVox participating in the Moblog here.

Marty Beard, Sybase 365′s President, says:

Today, businesses operate as part of a global economy—so providing our customers with seamless mobile services regardless of geographic location is paramount.

Sybase 365 is the global leader in SMS and with the launch of MMX 365, the company expands its North American leadership in MMS into the global MMS ecosystem.

Key features and benefits of MMX 365 include:

• One point of access to deliver to multiple destinations. MMX 365 ensures multi-media messages reach the desired recipient, regardless of which operator is sending or receiving the message or whether a message originated or is received domestically or internationally.
• Flexible connectivity options. Operators can choose to connect to MMX 365 via a secure IP connection or via GRX.
• A future-proof number resolution infrastructure. Sybase 365 operates one of the most comprehensive phone number resolution databases deployed today, meaning operators can rest assured that all information is up-to-the-minute accurate.
• Several value-added capabilities, including automatic scanning of all in-bound MMS messages for known mobile viruses.

We’re hooked onto more news coming in from Ewan present at CTIA.

I’m interested to say the least, because although the idea is very similar to Blyk, the essence of a complete “free network” is not there. And I’m thinking because of this, could SMSpup actually work?

I’m hoping that because SMSpup: Mobile is not completely free the service, reliability and customer care is actually a lot better than what is offered by Blyk in the UK. I also hope that they get the infrastructure working properly before opening their virtual doors to mobile consumers.

It also appears that SMSpup: Mobile will be available for everyone (not just 16 to 24 year olds), which means everyone can get in on the money saving action… Well as long as you’re in Australia.

I’ll be following SMSpup: Mobile, I’m interested to see how it compares to the (success) Blyk has had over here!

SOS messaging according to the CPH website is:
“Feeling in danger? Simply press the volume key 4 times on your phone to
discreetly alert your parents that you need help.”

Now maybe not the most interesting piece of news ever, and I certainly wouldn’t expect a lot of older people to understand how amazingly fantastic this idea is; but take it from me, this has to be one of the most enlightening pieces of information I have read in a very long time.

For example, I myself have been in a number of situations where I’ve felt seriously in danger. However, getting your phone out, making a text or call is not the easiest task to complete. Nor is it practical if say for instance you know the people you’re quite scared of may be tempted to “jack” your mobile.

To put it simply, ever been so angry or even frightened where all you do is shake? Well, try and write a text when your arms are doing an uncontrollable fit. It’s not easy, and it isn’t going to get you any help fast at all!

However it’s also the button. It doesn’t require the phone to be taken into sight. This means you may stand a lower chance of having your phone stolen off of you, or even being ridiculed for requiring assistance.

I can say having a mobile for some part does make me feel safer, but not completely. This due to the impracticalities that come with texting or calling your parents, or maybe the police if you’re in danger or someone else is. The Samsung idea completely eliminates this problem, which is not only brilliant, but hopefully a huge help.

I can say that those of days of walking home from school in fear are gone; but as we all know the sad truth is, there will be always more victims of bullying or of aggressive attacks. Yes the mobile phone is useful, but its limitations make it useless in situations such as these.

I hope other big companies follow suit with this idea; especially Sony and Nokia who have a lot of custom with the teenage market. But I also hope that more is done to educate youngsters, especially those starting high school. It’s daunting to say the least, but in our current climate of living in fear, more should be done to reassure my generation, and those younger than myself of these tools available.

A lot of time, effort and money are wasted on “talking” about the issue of bullying, and teenage crime. This though is just a waste, as not a lot is done to prevent, help or deter anyone from these activities. It is only simple measures such as the SOS Messaging which make some of the biggest differences to one’s confidence and ability to handle themselves in dangerous or worrying situations.

Somehow, some Blyk membercare staff have got it into their heads that shouting to me down the phone, or telling me to go to the forums, compensates as Customer Service. I beg to differ!

On quite a few occasions now I’ve had the luxury of speaking to such staff, and to be honest I’m fed up of it. Now, I should also make you aware that since June 25th I’ve been unable to open any MMS message that Blyk sends me; this naturally means my Blyk account is “inactive” resulting in my refill being delayed. I’ve been trying to get this sorted since this date, and as of yet, nothing has successfully worked. Plus, my refill which is due on Friday, will not be arriving, because Blyk are inapt.

I should also point out, that some of the Blyk Membercare team who have worked with me for the past weeks have been good, but then again, it’s their job isn’t it?

Anyway, Ewan asked me to post my complaint. For obvious reasons the name of the person I was complaining about has been deleted, and I am in the process of writing an e-mail to the CEO of Blyk, because to be honest, it’s a joke.

—

Hi,

I phoned up Blyk Membercare today after having troubles with my mobile phone on Blyk for nearly four weeks. I’ve been speaking to the Membercare staff for the past week trying to resolve this issue (although it took over two weeks for Blyk to respond to the vast amount of threads or concerns on the Forums). However, today I was greeted with a rather rude and loud *******.

I will expect the staff at Blyk to be aware that young people (the people you are dependent on for business), have the lowest tolerance for rudeness, customer services, and when things go wrong. I myself believe I have been very tolerant with Blyk, seeing as my problem still persists over three weeks. But, when I phone up and ask for help regarding any matter, issue, error or query, I do not expect to be shouted at down the phone.

I made it very clear to ******* that I had already visited the Blyk website, and that I’ve spoken to other Blyk Membercare staff over the phone regarding the issue; however she was insistently rude that I should return to the website, and that she wouldn’t help me over the phone.

I should add that this isn’t the first occasion that I’ve had a bad experience with Blyk Membercare people; and whilst on the whole my experience whilst talking to them has been good, I’m shocked to find that some of the Membercare staff believes that they have a right to be moody, agitated, or rude. I should remind you that the staff at Blyk Membercare are paid, and are answering phone because it’s their job, and they’ve chosen to do it. Therefore with that in mind, they should not be rude when talking to their customers on the phone.

I do not tolerate being spoken to in any manner that I perceive as rude, agitated, unwelcoming or harsh from anyone; this rule applies to the Blyk Membercare staff too. As I have already said, this isn’t the first occasion of rudeness, and on these occasions, I’ve forgotten about it, and did not complain; this though is the final straw. Blyk Membercare should not be directing their members to the forums (which I’ve read quite a lot about), they should listen, and when I made it clear that I had already visited to the Blyk site, and still the matter persisted, they should try and help me resolve the issue, and when the Blyk Membercare put me on hold, or mute their microphones, I do not expect them to come back on the line complaining that I’m still being rude, even though it’s obvious I’m not speaking to them.

Blyk seriously needs to sort out this matter, but as I have said numerous times in the forums you need to address a whole range of other issues too. The fact that Blyk expects to expand itself into Europe later this year, and next year is laughable. You can’t even get the basics right, or even offer the basic of services (Message Reports, outgoing MMS, Free Data included), yet somehow you can expand?

I can assure you too, I will also be passing these concerns onto the higher people behind Blyk; because I’m aware some of these issues don’t directly reflect the Memebercare, but it needs to be highlighted.

Thank you for reading this,

Samantha K.

—

Maybe they’ll get their bums into gear now, then again, like with everything they could just ignore it, and think nothing of the issue.

A couple of month’s back I was told about a new web/mobile service; and to be perfectly honest, at the time I wasn’t impressed. I thought it was a bit of a scam, and I didn’t see the possibilities for it. Recently, I’ve began to think about it a bit more; what is the future?

The website is ticket-text.com; the idea, buy tickets for gigs, concerts and the like online, receive a text with a “QR Code” – a mobile barcode for you and me. At the venue, you scan your phone and voila, you’re in. It’s simple, quick, easy, and on the website, you’re told you can have the ticket sent to you no matter how many times you like, or even have it sent two days before the gig, so you don’t loose it in your inbox!

I know this is hardly new technology here, and in fact it’s been around for a couple of years now; it’s just the potential isn’t being exploited enough.

Imagine for instance the ability to go to your local cinema, buy your ticket, and have it bluetoothed to your phone? You wouldn’t have to worry about finding the ticket when you need to leave for a toilet break, or even to replenish that popcorn you devoured during the adverts. And best of all… It’s environmentally friendly.

Have you ever thought about how much paper is wasted on cinema tickets each year? Well, to be honest, I haven’t; but in this age of loving trees, and saving wherever we can, surely this can only be the way forward.

Similarly, coupons and vouchers! More paper that need not be wasted with the mobile phone! All one would ever need is their mobile device, and we’re living cheaper, cleaner, and more greener lives.

The thing is I bet there are quite a few similar services out there, which are using innovative ideas and technology just like this. The problem is we rarely see any of it. They might go through a “beta phase”, but then cease to exist, or due to high advertising costs, struggle to get any attention whatsoever.

There are so many possibilities out there, and I’m sure there are people who have much better ideas than a paperless cinema; but it’s a start isn’t it? Plus, this doesn’t just benefit the environment, but financially we’re all better off. Paper costs money, and with the supply and demand for paper ever increasing, I can only imagine the cost slowly going up.

I want to know some of your ideas, so send them in to me at Samantha@smstextnews.com and the best will be posted next week.

According to the digital measurement firm comScore photo messaging climbed 60 per cent in the US and 16 per cent in Europe last year and summer holidays are apparently the reason.

60 per cent does seem a lot to blame on holiday snaps rather than the technology finally being adopted and I’ve not seen figures from postcard makers saying they’ve seen a corresponding reduction in sales. According to the release pasted onto Fox News:

As the mercury climbs in the summer months, so does the usage of photo messaging in the United States, where for the past three years, photo messaging rates have been higher than average in July and August.

“Summer vacations provide the perfect context for photo messaging, as the utility of instantly sharing a holiday moment with loved ones is undeniably compelling,” commented Mark Donovan, senior vice president, comScore Mobile Products. “The cameraphone could replace the postcard as the preferred mode to say ‘wish you were here,’ as even parents and grandparents are snapping and sending photos from their mobile devices.”

Admittedly I’m both cheap and lazy so rarely do either but a quick straw poll of friends suggest it might be true. At least they’ll arrive before you get back.

It would also be good to see the figures once new legislation comes into force to reduce the cost of sending an MMS from oversees.

It’s part of a mobile campaign called PhotoID, created for Nike by agency AKQA. Trainers buyers can take a cameraphone snap of “brightly coloured subjects, such as street graffiti or clothing”, MMS it off to Nike and get a message back showing a pair of Nike’s 1985 Dunk high-top customised using the colours in the photo. Anyone who’s really taken with their shoes can then buy the customised footwear.

You can see a video of the service in action over at The Guardian. I’m seriously tempted to give it a go.

The mobile plane tickets were introduced last week in Edinburgh, with BMI set to expand the system – created by local company Real Time – to other Scottish airports including Glasgow and Aberdeen.

The Herald says that “dozens” of customers have tried the mobile boarding system since it was introduced. Dozens? Was it a slow week at BMI or is the airline not really pushing the mobile ticketing system? Surely, given that everyone carries a mobile with them at all times, it’s way more convenient to have a mobile ticket than a bit of paper that can get lost – there’s got to be more than a few dozen people willing to give the system a go.

The system, called the Commercial Mobile Alert Systems, will see texts sent to mobile users including, presidential alerts, imminent threat alerts and child abduction alerts and possibly in the future, video and audio messages. The system will also be set up to deliver the messages to the blind and deaf.

There are two questions here: during disasters, will the network hold up? Anyone who was in London during the 7/7 bombings will attest how impossible it was to use the network for calls, texts or anything else. So does that mean there will be a priority system set up to ensure these messages get through? And secondly, the system delivering presidential alerts. During a crisis, surely the last thing people want to see is a George Bush’s gurning mug on their mobiles?

Heathrow Airport’s new terminal, ‘Terminal 5′ has been attracting a lot of attention of late, not least from environmental campaigners Greenpeace. They’re intimately acquainted with new technology and new media — here’s a good example: They’ve been using BAFTA nominated MoBlogUK’s system to deliver a blow-by-blow account of their Terminal 5 campaign today.

It’s not just pictures — but video too. Check it out here.

While the free service isn’t exactly new, O2 has decided to bring it to the attention of consumers with a £4.5 million advertising campaign. This sort of service, I’d imagine, will be gold for anyone who’s found themselves on the wrong side of a pickpocket, a boozy night out or a clumsy phase.

Presumably if a user switches to a rival operator, their content is no longer accessible though. It’s a great way for O2 to convince customers not to churn, but I wonder if some sort of cross-operator storage might be a bit more handy?

Vodafone reckons that it will work regardless of cameraphone resolution or the angle, shade and lighting conditions of the photo. If Otello can’t match the pic up with any results, users can add their own suggestions to the search engine’s database.

It sounds like a clever way to get more people using MMS, rather than just taking pics and storing them on their phone. It looks like the software might still need a little tweaking: according to Reuters, Otello couldn’t recognise a picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was trying out the service at the CeBIT trade show.

“The three mobile phone operators here – SingTel, StarHub and MI – are also sending out messages with pictures of the fugitive to 3.9 million subscribers, police said. “

Link: The Straits Times

Yes! What self respecting girl wants roses this year when they can have a funky Valentine’s Day message sent to their handset? It is your mobile duty to send a picture message to your loved one, this year.

To help, Cellyspace, the online tool for user-generated and advertiser-generated composition of mobile content, has launched a special Valentine’s day service.

If you’re stuck for ideas, you might consider:

– Poetic Valentine (poetry with images or audio MMS)
– Our Song Valentine (meaningful ringtone)
– Video Valentine (webcam greeting MMS)
– Intimate Valentine (“I love you” MMS)
– My Secret Valentine (anonymous MMS)
– Humorous Valentine (cartoon or celebrity character MMS)

Or, if you’re feeling really lovedup, get them a new 16GB iPhone…

More at http://help.cellyspace.com/246_71_1