Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.

Developer id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment announced this week that the two companies have joined forces to create a new division of id Software, id Mobile. This new division will develop games for cell phones, the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. The two software developers have worked in the past on games like Orcs & Elves and DOOM RPG. The twisted minds at id Mobile are currently working on Wolfenstein for mobile handsets. Now that my id has been stimulated; I’m waiting for something to boost my ego and superego.

Indiagames is partnering with Glu Mobile to distribute Glu’s catalogue of wireless content in India. As part of the agreement, Indiagames will exclusively distribute games, wallpapers and ringtones for a number of Glu’s leading titles including Age of Empires® III Mobile, Atari® Legends 3, with classic games such as Pong®, Asteroids Deluxe® and Super Breakout®, Brian Lara’s Cricket 2008, Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare™, Insaniquarium™ Deluxe, DC Comics, Kasparov Chess, Looney Tunes and Zuma™, amongst others. We’ll have to wait and see if some Glu gurus come out of India.

The Terminator will be coming to a mobile device near you. Halcyon, which owns the rights to the Terminator franchise, is starting its own gaming company and making a game adaptation of the film “Termination Salvation: The Future Begins.” Unfortunately for Terminator fans, the game won’t be released until the summer of 2009, in tandem with the movie’s release. I guess you’ll have to keep reading MobileCrunch for another year and a half to keep up on this future development.

If you are thinking of getting an iPhone but are afraid there aren’t any games available on the unit, don’t worry. There are currently 132 games that can be played on the iPhone through the Safari browser. This isn’t much choice but Apple is encouraging developers to customize or develop games for the iPhone. Be careful though, you don’t want to thumb-thump a crack in the iPhone screen.

I-play has bought the rights to make a mobile game based on the movie, Wanted. The film stars Angelina Jolie, James McAvory and Morgan Freeman. The game will be an action thriller, with a plot centered on a secret society of assassins. The movie will be released in March of 2008 and of course the game is slated for a similar launch time. I’m inviting Angelina over to discuss her role. Hopefully she’ll spend the night so I can raid her tomb.

Samsung, the huge corporation known around the world for high-tech mobile phones,
flat-screen-TVs and huge merchant ships, is being rocked by another scandal that has renewed concerns about the power and influence of the “Republic of Samsung.” In South Korea many call Samsung this in deference to its size and worldwide exposure, and take great pride in the conglomerate.

“Samsung has two faces,” Kim Byung-su, the editorial page editor at the liberal Hankyoreh newspaper wrote. “The Samsung brand is a name recognized worldwide and makes you proud. Take a step back, however, and there is another Samsung.”

The latest scandal was broke by Kim Yong-chul, a former top Samsung lawyer. Yong-chul went public with allegations that Chairman Lee Kun-hee and others masterminded a campaign to raise slush funds to pay prosecutors, judges and lawmakers and influence high-profile court cases. Prosecutors have started to investigate the allegations. Samsung says the bribery charges are false and groundless. Elected officials across the political spectrum have called for an independent counsel, saying a probe by prosecutors could not be objective, given that they are alleged to have accepted bribes.

For many in South Korea Samsung is more than a corporation, it is a distinctive part of the nation. They can make a mobile call on their Samsung handset while sitting in an apartment built by Samsung and eating a snack from a Samsung refrigerator. While on vacation, Koreans can stay in a Samsung hotel to visit a Samsung amusement park, and pay for it all with a Samsung credit card.

‘It means South Korea,” said Jang Ha-sung, dean of the business school at Korea University. “If something goes wrong with Samsung that will have an immediate impact on every corner of Korea,” he added. “It’s not just because it is big, nor is it just because it is one of the multinational corporations we have. Because Samsung is embedded in the whole society.”

“All Koreans like Samsung,” said Ko Young-hun, who sells phones at a small shop in Seoul’s electronics market. He cited their quality and design as well as thorough post-purchase service.

Samsung

YouMail, a free cell phone voicemail service provider, has partnered with Salient Media to provide users with comedic voicemail greetings. Some of the greetings from Salient entertainers are free, while other greetings are sold on a subscription basis. Subscriptions range between $1.99 a month to $9.99 a month, based on the number of different greetings a user uses at one time.

“This partnership is a significant milestone in YouMail’s goal of creating and distributing the best premium content to our users,” said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. “Salient Media’s breadth and depth within the entertainment industry will give us the opportunity to offer YouMail users premium content from the industry’s most popular and powerful entertainers, artists, comedians and actors.”

The first Salient Media talent to appear on YouMail is comedian Katt Williams. He has appeared on a variety of television shows and comedy specials, but is best known for his triple platinum selling DVD Pimp Chronicles pt. 1. Other comedians are soon to follow.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with YouMail to help entertainers such as Katt Williams connect with their fans through YouMail’s unique and innovative voicemail service,” said Gary Binkow, CEO of Salient Media. “YouMail offers not only a way to connect entertainers with their fans, but also gives fans the opportunity to express their personality and interests in a new and exciting way.”

I like to think I’m my own comedic genius. My greetings don’t have profession quality sound but they get the job done. Try exercising your creativity before using canned comedy.

YouMail
Salient Media

GoAmerica, a provider of relay and wireless communications services for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired persons, announced losses for the third quarter ending September 30, 2007. Net losses were approximately $861,000 or $0.41 per diluted common share. Losses are up from second quarter losses of $786,000, or $0.36 per diluted share. Compared to last year’s third quarter, total revenue is up 4.3% to around $4.8 million.

In order to continue to grow, GoAmerica has entered into an agreement with Verizon to buy Verizon’s telecommunications relay services (TRS) division for $50 million in cash and up to an additional $8 million in contingent cash considerations. This purchase will be financed by issuing additional shares of GoAmerica convertible preferred stock and debt.

GoAmerica is also in a merger agreement with Hands On Video Relay Services. This deal will cost $35 million in cash and 6.7 million shares of GoAmerica common stock. Both deals require regulatory and stockholder approval.

“During the third quarter the Company received a financial commitment of $110 million from Clearlake Capital Group to enable two strategic transactions,” said Dan Luis, CEO of GoAmerica. “The two transactions – the Verizon TRS asset purchase and Hands On video relay merger – will enable GoAmerica to operate from a position of increased strength. We look forward to promptly closing these two transactions after obtaining stockholder and regulatory approvals.”

GoAmerica

Today is America Recycles Day 2007 and CTIA, The Wireless Association, wants to remind us to recycle used wireless devices and accessories. Green is the trendy thing to be these days, so why not get rid of some clutter and become popular by recycling?

“These days, many Americans are `going green’ and taking measures to reduce, reuse and recycle in their daily lives,” said CTIA-The Wireless Association® President and CEO, Steve Largent. “America Recycles Day is a great reminder for the more than 250 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. to reduce their carbon footprint by recycling their old cell phones and accessories.”

I don’t know how Largent got his job with the CTIA, but it wasn’t because of his knowledge of environmental science. Recycling a cell phone has nothing to do with reducing carbon emissions. In fact, more carbon emissions will be released into the atmosphere by recycling wireless devices than if you simply throw them out. All the shipping and processing of old handsets requires much more energy than simply digging a hole and throwing the things in. The potential danger comes from what these devices are made of. The metals and chemicals used to produce mobile phones are a potential hazard when they break down in a landfill or are incinerated.

“Millions of phones have been collected and kept out of landfills thanks to the wireless industry’s commitment to wireless recycling and the maintenance of successful, consumer friendly recycling programs,” continued Largent. “Thousands of drop-off locations, including every major wireless carrier retail store, collect all makes and models of wireless phones, accessories and chargers, making it easy for consumers across the country to participate in wireless recycling.”

Recycling drop off spots have expanded beyond carrier retail stores. Major retailers such as The Body Shop and Best Buy accept old devices, free of charge.

If you are going to recycle, here are some easy steps to follow. 1. Terminate the service for that cell phone. You don’t want unauthorized calls from Mongolia showing up on your bill. 2. Clear the phone’s memory of contacts and other stored personal information by utilizing the Cell Phone Data Eraser at http://wirelessrecycling.com/home/data_eraser/. You don’t want nefarious individuals to get your personal information. 3. Remove the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) if the handset has one. SIM cards store the service-subscriber key used to identify a subscriber. If you aren’t sure if the device has one or not, call the place you got it from and ask.

If you are a really dedicated environmentalist, ask the place you drop off the phone at what happens to it. MobileCrunch reported in September that, Wales Bags Biggest Mobile Phone Recycling Facility in Europe. You may think that recycled devices are destroyed in a green way but many are refurbished and resold in developing countries. So instead of reducing pollution, it is simply moved to another part of the globe where people are less likely to re-recycle, and simply dump the things when they aren’t functional anymore.

China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless operator, announced earlier this week that it is in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone. MobileCrunch reported in August of this year that Chinese Pirates Copy (the) iPhone. Now it seems the population of China may be able to buy the real thing, not just cheap knockoffs.

The iPhone has moved from its European launch this month and is going to be offered in Asian markets next year. It looks as though the Chinese want in on the action. A deal with China Mobile or China Unicorn would give Apple access to a market with 523 million subscribers, more than the combined population of Europe. If the iPhone’s coverage area continues to grow like this, it won’t be long before penguins in Antarctica are complaining about being locked to one carrier.

One point between the companies that has to be worked out deals with revenue sharing. Analysts have estimated that AT&T pays Apple $10 to $20 a month for each subscriber. Similar agreements hold true in Europe.

“Our customers like this kind of fashionable product,” China Mobil’s chairman, Wang Jianzhou, said at a conference in Macao, referring to the $399 iPhone handset made by Apple. “The biggest issue is the business model.”

I can’t get over the fact that the leader of a Chinese company is talking about a business model instead of a five-year plan. Chairman Mao must be very concerned.

For all you good capitalists, Apple’s shares rose more yesterday than they had in over a year with the news from China. The stock added $16.20 to close at $169.96 in NASDAQ trading. China Mobile stock rose over 9% at the end of trading today, to close at $18.08. China Unicorn, which is interested in the iPhone but hasn’t talked with Apple yet, was up 6% and now sells for $1.98. I wish I had a piece of that action.

Apple
China Mobile

Yahoo! has added nine new mobile operators to its list of service providers who carry the company’s mobile search engine, oneSearch. Yahoo! now has distribution partnerships with twenty mobile operators around the world and is available in nineteen countries. Yahoo!’s oneSearch has the potential to reach hundreds of millions of mobile customers.

The new partnership agreements include mobile operators such as Aircel Limited (India), BPL Mobile (India), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL; India), DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi; Malaysia), PT EXCELCOMINDO PRATAMA Tbk. (Excelcom; Indonesia), PT Hutchison CP Telecom (Hutch 3; Indonesia), PT Indosat, Tbk (Indosat; Indonesia), PCCW Mobile HK Limited (Hong Kong) and Starhub Ltd (Singapore).

“Fostering and developing high quality partnerships is a cornerstone of our mobile strategy and, together with our partners, we are delivering a premier mobile Internet experience to our respective consumers,” said David Ko, vice president and general manager, Connected Life Asia, Yahoo!. “Today’s partnerships with leading operators across Asia add to Yahoo!’s incredible momentum in mobile and underscore our leadership in this important and growing market.”

Yahoo! Mobile

Disney plans to end its U.S. mobile phone service in December and to compensate will turn to the Japanese market early next year. The company is hoping that the demand for its online content will be able to compete in the world’s biggest market of third-generation phones. Disney will use local mobile phone carrier Softbank Corp’s network. The two companies have plans to develop new mobile phones and content for Japan’s competitive market.

Softbank, which is new to Japan, has been gaining market share with its low-cost price plans. Softbank hopes that a partnership with Disney will induce subscribers to use their phones for more downloads, and switch to more expensive handsets and calling plans.

Michito Kimura, a market analyst at the research firm of IDC Japan, has doubts about the new partnership. Disney phones might appeal to hard-core Disney fans, children and adolescents; they are unlikely to win more than 100,000 to 200,000 subscribers out of a market of 100 million mobile phone users.

“Softbank is eyeing long-term growth from this partnership, and the question is if Disney will stick it through,” Kimura said. “You need to constantly come up with new and quality content to keep users interested.”

Disney
Softbank

Alltel Wireless has partnered up with Bytemobile to create the Alltel Parental Controls application, which will be available free of charge beginning in February 2008. This application will allow parents to filter inappropriate sites that may contain pornography, gambling, weapons or violence. This service will be available to both pre-paid and post-paid accounts.

“Through our relationship with Bytemobile, Alltel Wireless strives to provide our customers with the tools required to control what websites are accessible from their mobile device,” said Scott Moody, director of multi-media content for Alltel Wireless. “With Alltel Parental Controls, parents can block much of the harmful material found on the Internet from ever reaching any phone on their account.”

Rulespace will provide the content filtering database. This will allow Alltel Parental Control to remain informed of newly discovered, unrated and mixed-content sites. The service’s real-time capabilities allow for instant site ratings and the ability to selectively screen different pieces of content on the same web page.

“Bytemobile understands the importance of this service, and we are working closely with Alltel Wireless to deliver a socially responsible service that will allow parents to feel confident regarding their child’s mobile internet usage,” said Marty Smuin, vice president and general manager, Americas, at Bytemobile. “The service, with its comprehensive database, allows for a high level of content filtering, and we are dedicated to making the user experience as safe and rewarding as possible.”

Alltel
Bytemobile
Rulespace

The European Commission is expected to create a new regulatory body that it hopes will spur telecommunications competition in Europe with the goal of reducing costs for consumers. This new body will have the power to separate telecommunication networks and access providers. It is believed that the large companies that now control these aspects of European telecommunications retards growth and inflicts artificially high prices on consumers.

The EU’s executive arm has called the existing panel of national telecom regulators a “do-nothing group” that hasn’t taken European Union consumer interests seriously. Today the EU’s executive arm will call for the creation of a European Telecom Market Authority that may push national regulators to aid small companies in their struggle with the large telecommunications companies that have a stranglehold over national markets.

This new body will initially concern itself with the high-speed Internet market in the EU but all good bureaucracies know how to nose their way into other areas. I’m sure it won’t be long before this new body looks at the mobile phone business. The EU recently addressed the high costs of cross-border mobile phone use by issuing a price ceiling on roaming charges.

The slow rollout of a high-speed Internet market in the EU is blamed on regulators’ unwillingness to take on the giant telecom companies. In Western Europe, only one in five households has broadband. These meager numbers are due to high prices and poor provider choices. It is believed Europeans have lagged behind the Untied States and Japan in Internet use due to these factors.

Major companies like France Telecom fear new regulations could harm investment in next-generation networks. The proposal to break up networks from service branches at incumbent operators “goes in the wrong direction” and would hamper companies’ ability to coordinate complex investment decisions, warned Jacques Champeaux, France Telecom’s senior vice president for regulatory affairs.

Instead of new regulations, France Telecom proposes that rival Internet providers could run new optical fiber cables alongside the incumbent company’s own lines, so rival companies could get their own capacity to compete with giants like France Telecom.

The plan to separate telecommunication networks and access providers has caused a division within the EU’s executive arm. Neelie Kroes and Guenter Verheugen, the EU antitrust and industry commissioners, respectively, have expressed concern that parts of the plan could harm investment and add to red tape.

I’m not sure how fast the EU works but I see this problem taking years to untangle. The large companies don’t want to breakup their lucrative business structure and I’m sure they have some money to spend to buy politicians and hire good antitrust lawyers. France Telecom’s proposal to let competitors use their right-of-ways isn’t a good compromise. This would only create expensive redundant capacity that the consumer doesn’t need but would have to pay for. It would also take years to implement. I don’t see any easy and quick answers that will give consumers better service and lower prices.

MoPhap, a mobile ad serving company, and Vantrix, a company which works with mobile video, announced the launch of a new mobile video ad insertion platform. The best of MoPhap’s SparkMobile ad serving and campaign management tools are combined with Vantrix’s Ad Booster advertising insertion and optimization platform. This partnership allows content providers to insert highly targeted ads in real time within streaming and downloadable mobile video content. Delivery is optimized based on the capabilities of each user’s phone.

To focus where ads are delivered, MoPhap and Vantrix will target wireless users with video ads based on behavioral and psychographic information compiled by MoPhap. Vantrix will gather information on device, carrier and network characteristics.

“Earlier this year, we partnered with Vantrix to deliver optimized display ads on mobile phones,” said Bob Walczak, founder and CEO of MoPhap. “The natural next step for us is mobile video advertising. Using MoPhap’s proprietary server-side cookie technology, MoPhap can target ads more effectively for its mobile video advertisers both contextually and behaviorally. With Vantrix, we can now stitch ads to video content in real time, which provides enormous value to our content provider and advertiser partners.”

Daniel Torras, VP Marketing & Product Strategy of Vantrix, estimates that the global mobile advertising market will grow ten-fold in the next four years to exceed $10 billion. Advertising publishers will be looking for new ways to target certain populations with ads that aren’t only specific in content, but also specific to the type of handset the ad is being sent. MoPhap and Vantrix may have what those advertising dollars are looking for.

MoPhap
Vantrix

Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.

This week’s mobile gaming news isn’t good. According to research firm iSuppli, worldwide mobile gaming revenue was down 9% during the three months ending in June. It seems some in the mobile gaming community are sitting on their thumbs instead of pounding the pads.

David Carnevale, iSuppli analyst, said the decline was due to weak subscriptions numbers for mobile games. This year’s first three months saw mobile gaming rise by 11% globally, so I guess we’re still up three points. And as you know, three points can be all the difference in a difficult head-to-head match. Carnevale doesn’t know if the decline is a onetime event, or the start of a trend. I think it’s an aberration. Only crazy people would stop playing mobile games.

“While the third quarter performance and the fourth quarter outlook appear optimistic, the pace of growth is slowing, causing great concern to content providers,” Carnevale said in a research report.

The only performance I know is my performance on the small screen. And as for quarters, the last time I used quarters to play anything I was living in another century. There is some good news. The experts predict that mobile gaming revenue will almost triple by 2011, to $6.6 billion, up from the $2.3 billion posted in 2006. I’m hoping you all will extract those thumbs from the sitting position and wrestle with the handset.

That is this week’s MobileCrunch Arcade game roundup. Remember, exercise those thumbs, recharge the battery and never take your eyes off the screen.

Vonage, an Internet phone company, is in negotiation talks with AT&T to settle a lawsuit involving patent infringements. Vanage is asking to pay $39 million over the next five years to put things right. In October, Vonage settled with Sprint Nextel for $80 million and with Verizon Communications for between $80 million and $120 million, the amount to be determined in a future court hearing.

Last year, Vonage offered investors an initial public offering of stock at $17 a share. Much of this money is being used to pay for the company’s legal woes. Because of the lawsuits, Vonage stock dropped to as low as $0.89 in September of this year. As plaintiff companies have agreed to settlement offers, Vonage stock has risen accordingly. As of Thursday afternoon, the stock sold for $2.28.

The company’s third quarter numbers were poor. Vonage lost nearly $162 million which computes to $1.04 per share. $132 million in losses were due to legal settlements. In last year’s third quarter, the company lost $62 million, or $0.40 per share. Vontage ended the quarter with $154 million in free cash, down from $356 million.

Vonage’s churn rate rose to 3% in the third quarter. Churn rate is the number of customers that drop the service every month. Chairman Jeffery Citron said a majority of customers leave because of poor user experience. The company is focusing on improving customer service.

“We have to answer customer calls more effectively,” Citron said. “Customers sometimes call several times before their problems are resolved, and this is unacceptable.”

In recent years, Vonage has been the traditional phone companies’ biggest competitor. Because of poor customer service and legal troubles, cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable have surpassed it in the number of phone subscriptions.

I realize this isn’t a story about a mobile phone company or product. It is a cautionary tale. The Vanage sales pitch is that you get unlimited calling anytime to anywhere in the United States for $25 a month. I’m sure investors were salivating at the prospect. But hidden somewhere in the back of their heads, the investors who bought the stock when it was around $17 a share, must of heard that it was all too good to be true.

Vonage

Opera announced the release of its new mobile web browser Opera Mini 4, yesterday. This new version of the company’s browser allows users to view web pages exactly as they appear on desktop computers. All your favorite Web sites and services can be cradled in your gentle hands with loving care. Opera Mini 4 automatically reduces the size of the transferred pages, so Web sites load faster while reducing the cost of surfing.

“Two years ago, we introduced Opera Mini to the world because we wanted to bring the Web to users everywhere. Today, Opera Mini is the world’s most popular mobile browser,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “As a result, the mobile Web is now a mass phenomenon. Opera Mini 4 raises the bar for user-friendly access to the Web on
any mobile phone, anywhere in the world.”

“We’ve had a lot of help from the community to get us ready to release Opera Mini 4 to the world,” says Oleg Tukh, product manager for Opera Mini. “Now that it’s ready and free to download, anyone can discover the beauty of Opera Mini and enjoy the best Web
experience available on almost any regular mobile phone. We’re excited to share this with everyone.”

Opera Mini is a free service, so if you have some time check it out. Let me know what you think. Just point your phone’s current Web browser to http://www.operamini.com/

Opera Mini

Signing a contract with a mobile phone provider can be a tricky thing and requires the smart consumer to take the time to read and ask questions about the contract before signing. Early termination fees (ETFs), fees paid to end the contract before it is fulfilled, is one aspect that a conscientious buyer is aware of. There are a myriad of reasons why a buyer may want early termination of a contract and the cost for doing so can be an unexpected surprise. In 2008, T-Mobile will introduce a flexible ETF policy for customers entering into contracts for service with the company.

Under the new guidelines, ETFs will decline during the course of a customer’s contract with T-Mobile. So the longer a consumer honors the contract, the lower termination fees are. T-Mobile hasn’t released specific details about its change of policy, but they should be introduced in the first half of 2008. The company’s sliding scale ETFs may be a great deal or they may not. Always remember to read the contract. When the new policy is implemented, it will apply to new customers as well as current customers who renew contracts with T-mobile.

“T-Mobile is widely recognized as the undisputed service leader in wireless. We want to do everything possible to create a great experience so customers want to stay with us for years,” said Sue Nokes, senior vice president, Sales and Customer Service, T-Mobile USA. “This announcement builds on our heritage of listening closely to our customers and always striving to meet their needs.”

It will be interesting to follow whether T-Mobile’s ETF policy will help attract new subscribers. I’m sure many consumers think that paying the same termination fee towards the end of a contract as that near the start is unfair. But will buyers consider a sliding-scale termination fee a major factor in signing mobile phone service contracts? I doubt it. But I just write about the mobile phone industry. Company executives have all the consumer data to crunch and know what they are doing, right?

T-Mobile

U.S. Cellular reported a strong third quarter yesterday and shows good growth over last year’s numbers. Service revenues of $954.5 million are up 16% compared to last year. The company recorded operating income of $101 million, up nearly 31% from the third quarter of 2006. This year’s net income and diluted earnings per share were $63.6 million and $0.72. Last year’s net income was only $35.9 million with diluted earnings per share of $0.41.

Much of this growth is attributed to selling more new subscriptions and increasing current subscriptions to high value plans. The total number of customers increased nearly 6% from a year ago, while the retail customers increased over 7%.

The company acquired 73,000 net retail postpay customers in the quarter. Postpay customers are the cornerstone of U.S. Cellular’s customer acquisition and satisfaction strategy and comprise 95 percent of the retail customer base. The number of prepay customers declined 21,000. The company also acquired 5,000 net reseller customers.

Much of the third quarter success was attributed to data revenues and the popularity of U.S. Cellular’s national and wide area calling plans. These plans are lucrative to the company and over half its customers have subscribed to them. U.S. Cellular also sees customer satisfaction an important contributing factor.

“We also continue to see results from our customer satisfaction strategy and high-quality network,” said John Rooney, president and chief executive officer. “We recently received our fourth consecutive award from J.D. Power and Associates for call quality in the North Central region. The award highlights both our associates’ efforts to provide the best customer service and our commitment to ensuring a high-quality call experience. Our retail postpay churn rate of 1.6 percent, down from 1.7 percent in the third quarter of 2006, reflects this commitment.”

U.S. Cellular

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, and Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile phone company, announced plans today to provide easier and faster access to the Internet on selected handsets. Nokia will provide Vodafone users some of its top-end models, which allow high speed, third-generation (3G) connectivity.

Few details were given and no financial information was disclosed. But the partnership will enable customers to access Vodafone’s music service and the Nokia music store through Nokia’s Ovi Web site.

“Vodafone and Nokia will make it easier to access the Internet quickly at the click of a button,” Nokia said. “Customers will get the full suite of communications, content, Internet services and browsing, through seamlessly integrated Vodafone services on Nokia handsets.”

Vodafone, which has over 230 million customers, said the partnership with Nokia was “a logical step” for Vodafone. The company plans to improve existing services with leading Internet partners.

Nokia
Vodafone

YouMail, a company that provides free cell phone voicemail service, raised $4.5 million from VantagePoint Venture Partners. VantagePoint is a Firm that invests in entrepreneurial companies at all stages of development in the CleanTech, HealthCare and Information Technology sectors. Craig Cooper, a venture partner at VantagePoint, will join the YouMail Board of Directors. Mr. Cooper is a co-founder of Boost Mobile. I’m sure he’s on the Board to make sure YouMail spends the $4.5 million wisely.

YouMail is a free cell phone voicemail service that allows users to better express themselves by personalizing their voicemail. YouMail customers can setup different greetings based on caller id, record self-generated greetings, or choose greetings and away messages from a library of user-generated material. Instead of having the same old greeting for every call, this service allows a person to craft greetings and away messages based on the person calling. You don’t want your boss to hear the same greeting that your give your super-hot new boyfriend or girlfriend. YouMail also allows users to access their cell phone voicemail over the web or in their e-mail, share special voicemails, and save them.

“Over the past few months, YouMail has been rolling out and steadily improving its innovative free cellphone voicemail service, and we look forward to working with VantagePoint to grow our business and expand our presence in the market,” said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. “We selected VantagePoint as our partner because of the firm’s deep expertise and success in helping launch and grow some of the hottest new mobile companies in the market today.”

Craig Cooper brings the YouMail Board of Directors over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. Besides being a co-founder of Boost Mobile, Mr. Cooper was a partner at Softbank Capital where he led the West Coast Digital Media and Wireless Investment Group.

“YouMail has undoubtedly developed one of the most compelling mobile services that we’ve seen in some time. Because the company’s offerings are free, easy to learn, fun to use, and increase productivity, it will considerably shake up the existing category,” said Cooper. “We are excited to be investors in a company with such an innovative and global vision for the future of the mobile experience.”

YouMail
VantagePoint

Google’s long awaited conference call announcing the Internet company’s mobile phone intentions came at noon today, est. Many of the rumors that have created a buzz can now be laid to rest, at least for awhile. There is no Gphone (Google phone) in the immediate future. The Gphone was supposed to be a low cost mobile device with the hardware and software of a military supercomputer, all paid for by advertising money. Now that the news is out, its time to go back to fantasizing about finding the wining lottery ticket on a recycled roll of toilet paper.

Google is going to compete in the mobile phone market by creating a software system called Android that will make the Internet run smoother on phones. It doesn’t look as though the mobile phone world is going through a revolution but the way business is done in the future may change.

Google is working with over 30 companies, including network providers, handset manufactures and chip makers to create a mobile internet experience smoother than a well aged single malt scotch. Handset makers will be given software kits in a week’s time, and it is hoped applications based on the Google platform will be available in the second half of 2008.

“It will open the mobile phone to do things that people now do on their PCs,” said Todd Greenwald, a financial analyst with Nollenberger Capital Partners in San Francisco.

“This approach is going to be far less costly,” Greenwald said, contrasting Google’s open partnership to proprietary phone industry strategies. “It should position Google to be an early leader in the mobile advertising market.”

And it is predicted that the next ten years will see a huge increase in the amount of advertising money that is spent sending advertisements to mobile phone handsets. If the Google software works as well is hoped, the company will be poised to rake in piles of ad money.

Sprint Nextel, one of the companies helping develop Google’s Android, said the system will be based on open-source Linux code and made available to phone makers and carriers without license fees. Look out Apple, unlocked, open and free is going to compete with the iPhone.

“Rather than trying to restrict customers and saying you can only use my services, which we think has limited growth potential, we’d rather give customers exactly what they want and benefit that way,” said John Garcia, Sprint senior vice president for product management.

Apple isn’t trying to create a communist worker’s paradise but the electronics maker is no longer accepting cash for the popular iPhone. Apple now only accepts credit and debit card purchases at its stores. Carl Marx must be rolling in his dustbin.

IDC tech analyst Chris Hazelton says this is the latest example of Apple trying to keep tight control of the iPhone. Apple currently controls which carrier the iPhone works on and what programs the phone runs.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris says the credit-only policy announced last week is meant to discourage people from buying iPhones in hopes of reselling them for a profit. Credit sales make it easier for Apple to track bulk buyers. Resellers do good business on eBay, where around a 1000 iPhones are up for sale daily. Unlocked iPhones can be sold for more than locked iPhones at the Apple store.

The iPhone is locked into one mobile phone carrier. In the United States that carrier is AT&T. Over the past few months people have learned how to circumvent this, so other carriers can be used. It is believed that Apple has a revenue-sharing deal with AT&T similar to those Apple worked out in Europe, so Apple loses money when a user switches to an unauthorized carrier. It is estimated that about 250,000 iPhones have been unlocked. The potential loss of revenue could be in the millions of dollars.

MobileCrunch has been following the battle between Apple and those who have been unlocking the iPhone. I have generally been more sympathetic towards Apple than the lock pickers. But restricting people to their credit cards so they are easier to track is spooky to me. If I want to pay cash for something, I don’t like it when I’m refused a sale because I didn’t bring my plastic with me. Forcing me to sign a contract with AT&T is a choice I make if I want an iPhone but restricting how I pay for the phone takes away my choices.

The only nation to experiment with a cashless society was Pol Pot’s Cambodia and that didn’t workout so well. Unfortunately, I predict the public won’t care too much and Apple will be able to get away with its experiment of a cashless iPhone society.

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