Archive for March, 2010

Here is the current market share for cell phone carriers in the United States.

1. Verizon : 31.2%
2. AT&T : 25.0%
3. T-Mobile : 12.1%
4. Sprint : 12.1%
5. Tracfone : 4.8%
6. MetroPCS : 2.3%
7. US Cellular : 2.2%
8. Boost Mobile : 2.1%
9. Cricket : 1.7%
10. Virgin Mobile : 1.7%
Others : 5.0%

84444.com uses MX Telecom as its aggregator of carrier mobile data traffic.  84444.com congratulates both companies on the acquisition.  We have been told that it is business as usual and are happy that our competent team from MX Telecom will remain intact after the acquisition is completed.

Amdocs a leading provider of customer experience systems, has acquired MX Telecom, a leading mobile payments and messaging aggregator with operations in Europe, US and Australia. Under the terms of the agreement, Amdocs has acquired MX Telecom for approximately $104 million in cash, net of debt and cash.   MX Telecom is the aggregator that provides connections for 84444.com to

MX Telecom will become part of Amdocs’ OpenMarket, a business of Amdocs that operates a market leading mobile transaction hub. The acquisition accelerates OpenMarket’s plans for global expansion into key markets. The joint OpenMarket MX Telecom business will provide a hosted platform to extend mobile payment and messaging capabilities through an integrated network and product portfolio.
Jay Emmet, General Manager of OpenMarket, said, “This strategic acquisition expands OpenMarket’s global footprint and substantially increases our market leadership in the rapidly growing mobile payments market that will extend well beyond messaging in the coming years. In addition, it strengthens our product portfolio with an extensive set of value-added services for merchants.”

Alex Moir, Managing Director of MX Telecom, added: “We are delighted to be joining forces with OpenMarket. OpenMarket’s mobile payments platform is highly synergistic with MX Telecom. This acquisition will enable the combined organization to better serve our customers and accelerate our global growth plans. Our employees are proud of what MX Telecom has accomplished, and we look forward to continuing to shape the industry as part of the OpenMarket team.”

Brian Shepherd, President of Amdocs Interactive, expanded: “Amdocs is committed to the OpenMarket business and its global expansion. Amdocs’ deep relationships with service providers around the world, combined with the OpenMarket MX Telecom mobile transaction platform, have the power to transform the mobile services industry. As a hosted distribution channel for mobile services, OpenMarket enables service providers to efficiently use this channel to monetize emerging mobile services to brands, marketers, enterprises, and digital content providers.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Amdocs has acquired MX Telecom for approximately $104 million USD in cash, net of debt and cash. The impact of the acquisition on Amdocs’ non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be modestly accretive in fiscal 2010. The impact on GAAP results in fiscal 2010 will not be known until after Amdocs completes the purchase price accounting for the acquisition. Amdocs may incur a one-time acquisition-related expense in the quarter ending March 31, 2010 to account for certain costs related to the acquisition.

by Bob Bentz

When Apple Computer introduced the iPhone in 2008, it introduced a new option on iTunes: the Apple App Store.  The Apple App Store is a collection of software programs known as “apps” that can be easily downloaded to a smart mobile phone.

 

Almost two years later, the moniker “mobile apps” has become synonymous with Apple’s iPhone.  It’s a phenomenon comparable only to the fad of mobile ringtones just a few years earlier.

If you want it, it’s probably available on the Apple App Store.  The range of apps is bewildering with apps related to cooking, hockey, jokes, and even an app that will help you remember where you parked your car.  While some have a cost, over 82% of the apps are free.

The Apps Marketplace

Mobile users will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores, according to Gartner.  This is up 48% over the $4.2 billion that was spent on mobile apps in 2009. 

And, it’s just the beginning.  Mobile apps downloads will exceed 4.5 billion in 2010 and will surpass 21.6 billion in 2013.  That makes mobile apps a whopping $29.5 billion industry in 2013.

Apple is the overwhelming apps leader, as the product itself seems to be synonymous with the company.  Apple accounted for 99.4% of the 2.5 billion mobile apps downloaded in 2009.

Apple’s dominance in the apps marketplace is even more astounding when you consider that it maintains only a 25% market share of the total USA smartphone subscribers.

But, Apple is not the only player in the apps game.  Apples App Store success has spawned a plethora of competitors, including RIM, Microsoft, Palm, and Google.  To say that the competitors are miles behind Apple, however, is an under-statement.

BlackBerry’s Apps Failure

Although BlackBerry is the most widely used smartphone handset in the USA, with 43% of the smartphone market, its app strategy has failed miserably.  While there are over 150,000 apps in Apple’s App Store, Blackberry App World has barely over 10,000 apps.  Google’s Android has almost 15,000 apps.

Smart Phone Market Share

RIM Blackberry – 43.0%

Apple iPhone – 25.1%

Microsoft Windows – 15.7%

Google Android – 7.1%

Palm Treo – 5.7%

(Source – comScore MobiLens; January 2010)

Does BlackBerry have a chance of catching the iPhone in terms of mobile apps?  It’s probably very unlikely given that Blackberry is the choice of smartphone for business users and applications like games are the iPhone’s top seller.  Moreover, the BlackBerry suffers from the fact that downloading an app is considerably more difficult than with an iPhone.

But, despite the obvious limitations, there have been some success stories with BlackBerry’s App World.  Business-focused apps such as managing expense accounts or tracking auto mileage are popular.  Plus, there’s the TooDo task reminder for the workaholic BlackBerry users.  It shows that BlackBerry users will download apps if the application is right.

So, why then does BlackBerry trail so significantly, even when it comes to available apps?  The answer is that developing a stand-alone app for a BlackBerry is expensive as an app written for an iPhone will not run on a BlackBerry.  Hence, marketers with limited budgets in this difficult economy are going where they are most likely to be downloaded and just creating apps for Apple when they should be creating them for the entire marketplace.

The Future of Apps

To date, the dominant apps application has been overwhelmingly games; most notably free games.  But, with mobile devices now exceeding desktop computers by a factor of 10, businesses should be looking to apps as a viable channel to a competitive advantage.

Clearly, the future trends toward useful apps rather than trivial apps.  By 2012, the leading app category will be money transfers and mobile banking followed by GPS-based services, and mobile search.

And, there is no doubt that BlackBerry and Android users are going to demand more apps for their phones, thus resulting in more available apps and a significantly more varied and stronger marketplace.

84444.com’s Bob Bentz penned an article about mobile apps that was recently published on popular mobile site Fierce Wireless.

Bentz discusses the need for mobile apps to not only be produced for iPhones, but also for BlackBerry’s and Androids.

On another subject, Bentz, an avid baseball fan, discusses the best mobile apps for baseball fans and specifically for fantasy baseball fans.

Type: Carrier maintenance

Partner Impact: Premium MT SMS traffic to Boost/Nextel USA subscribers may be delayed during the maintenance period.

The maintenance work will be carried out on March 9, 2010 from 3 am to 9 am.

MT messages sent to affected subscribers will be queued on the 84444.com SMS Gateway for delivery once maintenance has been completed.

Standard rate and MO SMS traffic is unaffected.