NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 5 June
05-06-2007
by Deirdre McArdle
Spam levels continue to rise | Apple confirms iPhone launch date
Use of the mobile web in the US is surging ahead, with a threefold increase in the last 12 months, according to figures from mobile web technology provider Bango. The top five countries that accessed the mobile web in April using Bango's "global exchange" platform were the UK (27 percent of all visits monitored), the US (21 percent), South Africa (11 percent), India (9 percent) and Indonesia (3 percent). In the first quarter of 2007, the most popular handset for accessing mobile websites was the Sanyo Katana SCP 6600, a device that is only available in the US.
Meanwhile, mobile advertising spending is on the up, with Strategy Analytics predicting it will account for a 20 percent share of global internet ad spending by 2011. According to the research firm, advertisers will spend USD1.4 billion on mobile media this year, rising to USD14.4 billion by 2011. "The outlook for mobile advertising spend has significantly advanced in the past 12 months," said Phil Taylor, director, Global Wireless Practice. "The supply of advertising inventory is rapidly increasing as mobile publishers look to develop advertising as a revenue stream."
The amount of spam sent to Irish e-mail users has increased by more than 10 percent since the start of the year, according to new figures from hosting company IE Internet. The figures, based on an analysis of e-mails filtered by the Irish company, show the spam rate increased from 53 percent in January 2007 to 64 percent in May. The US and France were the top sources of spam last month, according to IE Internet. Meanwhile, the rate of viruses for May dropped slightly from the previous month to just over 5 percent of e-mails filtered.
Google has quietly announced its acquisition of FeedBurner, a company that distributes syndicated content for blogs and other media websites. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition means that Google can now put ads into the thousands of RSS feeds FeedBurner has, allowing the search giant to expand its AdSense website publisher network with the FeedBurner publishers, reports Silicon.com.
Apple has confirmed it will launch its mobile phone, the iPhone, in the US on 29 June. News of the long-anticipated launch date saw shares in Apple jump nearly 2.5 percent on the Nasdaq. The phone will start selling at a USD500 price point to AT&T Wireless customers only.
Through its venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures, Motorola has taken a stake in Vocel, a wireless push technology company and developer of the INCA (Interactive Commerce Accelerator) wake-up mobile marketing service. The financial details of the investment were not disclosed. Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures, said: "INCA has gained significant operator interest, and our investment should help the company to achieve deployments across multiple operators."
Business process outsourcing firm Abtran has been awarded the Planning Forum's 2007 Contact Centre Innovation Award by the UK's Professional Management Planning Forum. The Cork-based firm was recognised for its positive workforce management practices and the provision of "excellent" contact centre management services for its clients.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 