If you’ve done any research on mobile banking solutions you have likely been exposed to a slew of new terms. Specifically, how about the acronyms: GSM, GPRS, CDMS. Or, how about trying to decipher the differences between WML and XHTML. Finally, could you quickly describe the differeces between Java ME, Symbian, and BREW.

Well, I have found a resource that can help. The other day as I was reading up and found a presentation titled, “An Introduction to Mobile Technologies and Services” by Michael Sharon (Co-Founder/CTO of Socialight).

If you work or play from multiple computing devices – laptops, desktops and/or mobile phones, Sharpcast can be a killer productivity tool and an excellent way of keeping all kinds of files syncronized. In a very basic sense, it’s like IMAP for all your files.Sharpcast came out of beta and released a 1.0 version of their photo synchronization application today. Sharpcast Photos syncs the photos you add and edits you make on your desktop, web, and mobile phone in real time.

The new version now allows you to collaboratively edit your photos and galleries, also in real time. Collaboration consists of the ability to share files and read/write privileges in public or private folders along with real time chat built into the client.

The demo I saw of Sharpcast’s real-time syncing is quite impressive, pushing file updates to all the platforms in under a second. Edit a photo in their application, on the web, or your desktop, and the changes are instantly pushed to each location. But Sharpcast isn’t trying to be the next Flickr, rather, the photo syncing application really a demo for their file syncing API. In the specific case of photos, whole photos are stored in each location, with edits to the original photo represented as meta data directions on how the to render the final version.

They currently have a broader file syncing application, Hummingbird, in the works. Hummingbird will handle syncing for all file types. It is essentially the same animal as the photo sharing application, but with fewer bells and whistles. Hummingbird will note and push your updates to your other platforms, but won’t carry out the same real-time updates of the photo product. To avoid the problem of two people making concurrent edits to a file, they will have to be saved, and then opened elsewhere to make changes. While Microsoft Word does support editing concurrency, Hummingbird does not currently support it.

from techcrunch

Companies are starting to figure out that the contact information on your mobile phone may be the most important social network you have – perhaps even better than the email inbox that Yahoo is targeting.Danish startup ZYB started offering a service that simply backed up your mobile phone contacts to the web in mid-2006. A year later they turned all that data into a mobile social network. They’re one of the small startups with a real shot at mobile social network with critical mass. As of August 2007 they had 200,000 active users.

It’s no surprise, then, that ZYB is being emulated. Israeli startup NewACT, with $6.5 million in funding over two rounds from Cedar Fund, are launching a new service called SYNCY into beta today. The service lets users migrate contacts, calendars and media from a mobile phone to the web. It’s part ZYB, part Sharpcast.

While Syncy supports over 700 handset models, the iPhone isn’t one, so I took it out for a spin by installing it on a SonyEricsson phone. The feature that won me over was the ability to get immediate Web access to the photos and videos I’ve takes of our kids using the phone. Incidentally, the last time I had digital copies of such files was when I switched handsets. That’s when I had no choice but borrow a cable and install Nokia’s phone management application—by far, not a user-friendly proposition to access “everyday media”.

Syncy’s handset client is simple to operate and once syncing is configured to run automatically, it’s smooth sailing from there onwards. There’s also an Outlook plug-in which synchronizes contacts and events (Exchange is not required). Google calendar integration will be available shortly.

NewACT claims that Syncy is the only service to offer cross-phone synchronization. Meaning, you can sync a Nokia phone then stick the SIM in a Motorola phone and Syncy’s server will reformat and readapt the data to fit the exact data structures of your new phone.

The bulk SMS industry changed substantially over the last two years or so as sp@m became an issue with carriers and the industry defined itself by distinguishing between the features of a route and the price the client pays.
As a result, we now live with a situation where “you get what you pay for”. In an earlier entry, we discussed how a bulk SMS client should choose the route he wish to use. We looked at the different features and options that are available.

In this article, we will take a look at the difference of commercial bulk SMS routes vs guaranteed bulk SMS routes also known as premium bulk SMS.

Commercial bulk SMS routes: may include all features a guaranteed route offers but the delivery is not always guaranteed. Users therefore always have to test before they send a batch. Managed sends always include one message at the end of the batch sent for management to check whether the messages before theirs were delivered. Some of the very cheap bulk SMS routes might not offer delivery reports, have fixed numeric sender ID etc.

Guaranteed Bulk SMS routes (which we offer): on the other hand guarantee not only delivery, but also include all the features that clients wish for (delivery reports, dynamic sender ID, short code originator, binary support etc). That is the advantage. The only negative point is that guaranteed bulk SMS routes are charged at a slight premium.

So, let’s take a look at the price issue:

Let´s suppose a logistic compmay purchase 1 million credits from a commercial bulk SMS provider where delivery is not guaranteed at say Ksh2 per SMS. Upon sending, only 50% of the messages arrive. That implies that the client achieved 50% success or delivery to mobile phones and in effect paid Ksh4 per SMS.
With guaranteed bulk SMS routes such as the ones we offer the client will pay for example Ksh2.50 SMS and obtain 100% delivery. This could play a crucial role in the effectiveness of a campaign for example:

Cases where the client runs a competition and the recipients have to SMS an answer of a question to a short code.
If 100% delivery does not take place, the company running the competition does not only loose out on the branding opportunity but also the revenue share they would have earned from the networks. 100% delivery at a higher price ensures that the response expected from a SMS campaign equals the input.

The final decision about the route that the client would like to use lies with the client and in consulting them we should determine what sort of response they expect from their campaign. The features and service level should match the price they are willing to pay.

Bulk SMS decisions nowadays cannot depend on price alone anymore – quality is surely a rising issue with most gateway customers. The use of guaranteed bulk SMS routes are on the rise as clients are starting to realize that it is worth paying for quality.

Bulk SMS became a price based business over the last 4 years as the popularity grew with more and more companies communicating with existing and potential clients via text messaging also known as SMS.

Unfortunately, as is the case with all popular communication services or industries, bulk SMS ended up being used for spam and customers complained to the networks as they received unsolicited messages. The networks had to step in and set paramaters in place which monitored the sending of such unsolicited SMS.

Bulk SMS is identified by the text contained within the messages and the sender id – i.e. when bulk SMS is sent, the sender id as well as the content of all messages are the same. This provided the operators / networks with a way to monitor bulk SMS resulting in blocking of routes without advanced warning i.e. any message that remotely resembled sp@m was blocked.

It was time to define the different types of text messages consumers could send. In 2004 the networks started to distinguish between bulk SMS and streaming SMS routes. This distinction implied that messages containing different sender id and text were allowed to be delivered while messages containing the same sender ID and text were blocked by certain operators. (Filtering of messages took place). You may have read of Safaricom’s upgrade to its IN (intelligent network) platform, that will enable closer administration and monitoring of messaging as necessitated by the post election use of sms to instigate violence.

Market segmentation took place as a result of this filtering and today clear distinction is made between bulk SMS and streaming SMS gateways. Please note that streaming SMS is normally allowed if a bulk SMS gateway is used, seeing that the sender ID and text will be unique. In cases where a streaming SMS route for example only allow person-to-person communication, all bulk SMS will be blocked.

The following market segments for bulk SMS are used as a general rule of thumb and it originates basically from customer requirements or customer needs:

1. Web bulk SMS or pc to mobile bulk sms

Web or pc to mobile bulk SMS is sent when a customer logs on to an internet based text messaging service. Some companies also offer online/offline desktop software which could be used for this purpose. A text file with the numbers are created and uploaded to the bulk SMS gateway. One text message is then delivered to the numbers on the list. In these cases clients are normally limited to the number of bulk SMS they may send – for example 2,500 numbers per file upload. If the client wish to send 10,000 SMS they would have to create 4 different files.
2. Pure bulk SMS:
Pure bulk SMS is based on bulk that does not contain any sp@m or adult content. This could be bulk SMS used for specific well wishes or notifications for example a company wanting to wish their customer base of 100,000 (one hundred thousand) clients or more a prosperous new year. Advertising is allowed but the text messages may not contain IVR (interactive voice recognition) numbers or short codes. These bulk SMS gateways allows for dynamic sender ID and delivery reports if the clients are willing to pay a higher price. Minimum purchase volume is around one hundred thousand credits and clients could connect to the bulk SMS gateway with HTTP or SMPP.
3. IVR and short code supported bulk SMS
These bulk SMS gateways allows IVR or short codes to be included in the text messages. It also allows for massive bulk SMS volumes for example 2 million messages to be sent. A distinctive GSM feature of these bulk SMS gateways is that it normally does not support dynamic sender ID and there are no delivery reports. Minimum purchase volumes on these routes are normally around five hundred thousand credits and clients have the option to connect to the bulk SMS gateway with smpp.

Choosing the correct bulk SMS gateway in order to ensure delivery of your messages in a timely manner should not just depend on price. The old rule of “You get what you paid for” applies in the bulk SMS industry as well. If you find a ‘cheap’ route, please ensure that the route is tested prior to making a financial commitment. Clients should plan the campaigns they want to run, investigate various bulk sms gateways based on the requirements and then make an informed decision based on GSM features vs price and support.

Why bother exploring social media as a marketing channel for your website or business? After all, you could stick to link exchanges, search advertising or the purchase of banner and editorial ads on relevant sites or offline publications.
Here are some reasons why you should consider using social media:

1.    It’s natural. Not only do you get natural links without any discernible pattern, your website is exposed to large groups of people in a spontaneous fashion. This differs from paid advertising which has overt commercial overtones.

2.    It’s defensible. Once successfully mastered, social communities can be a great source of web traffic on top of any traffic you are already receiving from search engines. While you can’t easily increase your search engine traffic, social media traffic can be very easily controlled through strategic marketing.

3.    It’s low-cost/high returns. If done by yourself, costs are limited to only time and perhaps the expenses involved in hiring a freelance programmer/designer. The benefits will often exceed the cost. It would take you thousands of dollars to buy many links; social media has the ability to give you that for free.

4.    It complements other efforts. Social media optimization and marketing is usually community-specific. It doesn’t interfere with any other methods of getting traffic to your website. It can and will fit perfectly with an advertising campaign targeting other websites or search engines.

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.
There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.
If you are selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time.
Those who ignore the efficacy of social media usually fall into three categories; the ones who don’t know much or anything about social media, the ones who are interested but don’t know how to use it and those who don’t believe in the value that a social media strategy can bring to any site or business.

The Value of Marketing Through Social News Websites

For those who don’t understand or see the value of social media websites, let’s take a look at the benefits of creating viral content and effectively promoting them through social media channels.
Developing link baits and successfully getting it popular on various social media websites like Digg and StumbleUpon will lead to multiple benefits for any website:
•    Primary and Secondary Traffic. Primary traffic is the large amount of visitors who come directly from social media websites. Secondary traffic is referral traffic from websites which link to and send you visitors, after they come across your content through the social sites.
•    High Quality Links. Becoming popular on social news websites like Digg or Reddit will get you a large number of links, some of which may be topically relevant, some not. A good story can realistically acquire a large number of high quality editorial links, most of which cannot be easily bought.
Now let’s translate this into tangible benefits for your website:

1. Links = Better Search Engine Rankings.
When a website receives a large number of natural, permanent links from trusted domains, it develops authority. Search engines trust it. If you optimize your linkbait and website structure properly, you can easily start ranking for competitive keywords, which will in turn bring in search engine visitors.
Do this often enough and your search traffic will undoubtedly increase. In a sense, you are obtaining these quality links through borrowed trust. Many bloggers and webmaster still think that if an article is on the Digg or del.icio.us homepage, then it’s probably worth checking out and referencing through a citation link.
A new website may find it difficult to gain links from a critical mass that is not familiar with it but a trusted social news resource makes it easier for links to come in, because the community and buzz has somewhat ‘certified‘ the value of the site. Note that the actual strength of the article is still of utmost importance for all.

2. Primary + Secondary Traffic = Community/Supporters.
Some people claim that social news websites only send useless traffic, visitors that will often just view a specific webpage and click away. Yes, that’s usually the case. Sites like Digg are notorious for their poor bounce rates: many visitors drop in for the article and then leave after reading it. StumbleUpon is much better in this aspect.
But don’t mistake this with a lack of interest. Your subscriber figures will often take big jump up and then stabilize after a few days. If your entire site is relevant to the general interests of the social media website, there will always be a handful of social users who will start to track your site in order to submit future content.
Detractors also ignore the power of ultra targeted secondary traffic. General sites or blogs in the same niche will link to a story that’s popular on social sites, because it adds value for their readers or users. This is done naturally on a daily basis for many.
While primary traffic usually comes in a larger volume, I would argue that secondary traffic is more valuable. Why? Because links from other websites bring visitors who are very likely to be interested in your content. These citation links demonstrate recognition of your site in the eyes of others. It builds your brand.
Think of the social news site as a platform or a soapbox. As something that gives you a chance to be heard or read, even for a brief moment of a few hours. The people who are drawn to your message will visit your site and recommend it to others.

I came across this article, which rationalizes stealth mode startups. I do agree on some the issues especially so in markets such as Kenya…and Africa in general where funding is  not easily accessible.

 - First mover advantage is important.

Fair enough. It’s sometimes good to be first. But many times (more?) it’s not-so-good to be first. Look at the history of personal computer industry. Or hard-drives. Or more recently, look at web search tools. In the last case along we chewed through at least five companies, all of whom were in the market long before Google, before Google came along and swept up the market. Don’t get so swept up in your urge for perceived primacy that you launch a product thinking that first-mover advantage is that big a deal. It isn’t.

 -   There is no such thing as a unique idea. I guarantee that someone else has already thought of your wonderful web service, and is probably way ahead of you. Get over yourself.

Okay, but again, so what? The reason why rational venture capitalists (and some rational entrepreneurs) go the stealth route isn’t necessarily because they think they’re the first ones to do technology X, Y, or Z. Sometimes that’s the case, but more often it’s because they see no need to prematurely advertise what they are doing. Reminding people about an emerging category in a marketplace flush with venture capital is dumb.

 -   It forces you to focus on the key functionality of the site.

Fine, but it comes at a risk and with tradeoffs. Sometimes it’s a good idea, sometimes it isn’t. See the prior two points.

 -   Being perfect at launch is an impossible (and unnecessary and even probably detrimental) goal, so don’t bother trying to achieve it. Ship early, ship often.

Fine, but again, this doesn’t preclude stealth. You can ship early and often to a highly-controlled list of users without exiting stealth. Semi companies do it, so do software and web services companies. Shipping early and often is great, but shipping early and often and wide is often just a way to piss off a lot of people quickly.

 -   The sooner you get something out there, the sooner you’ll start getting feedback from users.

See the prior point. You can get feedback just fine, thanks very much, without exiting stealth prematurely.

I take Mark’s point about stealth & web services companies, and I don’t want to sound utterly enraptured with the whole stealth thing (despite being in the process of selling a stealth company!), because it is a kind of instant ticket to plausible deniability in the venture business (“Oh, we never announced funding a company in that area”).

But you have to keep the role of stealth in context. It is a rational response to a marketplace with too much risk capital, low barriers to entry, and many entrepreneurial teams looking for ideas. Saying that many people will come to variants of the same idea at the same time is not the same thing as saying you should ring a bell and invite everyone and their favorite VCs to come and feast on your nascent startup