The mobile web is evolving slowly to a fully PC-like web experience.
That happened thanks to improved mobile web browsers such as Opera Mini, Nokia’s mini map, iPhone’s Safari, Etc.
But the mobile web has yet a long way to go, sites are still to be optimized and most of the browsing is still made with old-fashioned browsers.
According to Admob Motorola V3 is still the most popular device in the states in web browsing.
That’s where Moblica comes in, the company turns websites into web-apps or widgets. The wrap of websites and presenting them as applications is very similar to the way Opera mini conducts the browsing. Moblica took another step farther and re-assembled the page and the user interface in a form of an application.
Snaptu is the latest package for the UK market but it is actually available to all and everybody can find it useful.
Take the Facebook app for example, rather than browsing the m.facebook.com site you can directly access your account with Snaptu.
The interface is much better than surfing the dedicated Facebook site for mobile, it is slick, fast and most of all, it looks great.
Google Calender, Picasa, an RSS reader, and several popular UK sites are on Snaptu as well.
The major issue is that mobile users are still not used to install applications on mobile devices, although that may change soon.
Snaptu is not aimed to replace the mobile browser, and one can not turn all the web into web-apps.
The mobile web is not the same internet. We do not use the internet form our device as we do on the PC but we do need to stay connected and updated, Snaptu is great for surfing your favorite sites.

Music download became a significant component in the mobile content ecosystem after the improvement of the connectivity speed.
Download is one thing but live streaming is another story that requires a stable high speed connectivity.
While most of the user’s music is stored onto the PC, transferring music to the mobile phone became common.
Didiom‘s application tries to combine those two needs to one mobile application.
As for the PC to mobile problem Didiom enable users to stream music form the PC directly to the mobile phone for free (like several products that exist for years as Orb networks and other operators’ proprietary solutions).
The streaming feature is problematic in terms of DRM.
It allows you to stream content but has anyone checked that the content was legally purchased?! The approach Didiom took is a little bit safer than other options (for them) because they locate a streamer on your computer and do not store any of the data on their servers but that approach forced them to require installation on the PC and on the mobile deivce.
The streaming feature means that all the playlists from your PC are available anywhere at any time, of course both the PC and the mobile must be connected to the internet.
Secondly the Didiom application has a music catalog with more than 2 million songs.
Lately the company announced a partnership with independent music distributor CD Baby.
Didiom’s store allows you to preview music, place a bid, or just buy new tracks and albums for you mobile, PC or both.
Payment is done using credit card with Didiom’s account or before purchasing.
The main disadvantage of the application is that you will not be able to use your original music player, but that it a small concession regarding the option to connect into your music library.

Didiom Application

The mobile market is flooded with iPhone form-factor devices, and some devices that are intended to “kill” the iPhone.
Until Nokia’s Remix event it seemed that Nokia does not pay attention to the rise of the iPhone.
They reasoned this position by showing recent researches showed that the potential market for iPhone-like devices which are “design centric” is 5% of the mobile devices market.
Now after the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was announced, Nokia is back on track, but it is not because of the 5800, it is because of the new service they announced: “Come With Music”.
In addition to the fact that the iPhone is an amazing piece of hardware (at least cosmetically and user interface wise) it is also the first phone with a well based music download service, the iTunes.
While with iTunes, music tracks are purchased per song or album, “Come With Music” offers a new way of purchasing music (Unlike Nokia Music Store).
You will not pay per song, the music “comes” with the device.
A free annual subscription is given for any Nokia device for unlimited tracks, at the end of the year all the tracks are yours, Of course, with some limitations.
The annual subscription can be renewed, just purchase a new Nokia device.
Nokia’s business model makes sense, while other services generate revenue from selling tracks, Nokia recruits music to help her stay the biggest mobile phone manufacturer.

It is not known to many, but Nokia with its MP3 capable phones became the brand with the largest market share in MP3 players (larger than Apple, Creative, SanDisk etc.).

But Nokia and Apple are not alone in this battle, Sony Ericsson announced recently its PlayNow arena, an all new music and mobile content store.
Sony Ericsson plans to maneuver between operators so they will foster Sony Ericsson’s devices and will not see that it bears a threat to their business model.
Sony, backed by its latest 260 million dollars acquisition of Gracenote, the company behind Track-id, is fully armed for the music battle.
The real battle will begin in 2009 when most of the services will be available worldwide and enough supporting devices are sold.

(For more information take a look at the table)

Today, Israeli Channel 10 (second largest TV Channel in Israel) with its Internet arm nana10 (www.nana10.co.il) launched a mobile video portal – *977. The digits 977 stand for the Hebrew word for “ten” which is the name of the channel.
The portal is based on 3G video calls (IVVR) that was built by Teleclal, an Israeli mobile services provider backed up by DSPV as a technological partner and Ugunduzi the IVVR services domain expert partner. Teleclal is the largest Israeli services provider with an offering in SMS, WAP, IVR, IVVR, and mobile content creation.
Teleclal group owns Telemesser, Appcell, Media Market, Media Direct, and more.The launch of this portal is meant to strengthen channel 10 and nana10 in their new media offering and is designed to broaden the reach to their audiences in the mobile medium.

IVVR (Interactive Voice and Video Response) is the technology that enables to deliver interactive video and services over a 3G video call.
The interaction (navigation) is done using the digits of the phone (DTMF).
The technology offers a solid business model (regular or premium charges on the call) with ease of use and requires no data connectivity (based on a call and not on internet browsing).
Because the IVVR services are based on a video call, the playing of videos is immediate (no buffering) and the video can be interactive (where in the mobile internet the playing is done in a dedicated player that allows no interaction with the video).

The technology is very attractive for media services and other interactive services but still suffers from low adoption in most markets and the video quality shows signs of the compression that is needed in order to serve videos on the 64Kbit/s dedicated channel.
The low adoption of the technology is caused by the problematic balance in the market between infrastructure vendors, mobile operators, and services providers.
Now, with a high penetration rate of 3G phones the relevance of the IVVR is growing and so is the number of commercial launches.

With the launch of Channel 10’s portal added to the existing services of Blockbuster and movie distribution companies, Israel becomes a leading market for IVVR services.
Talkingmobile compliments Idan Gafni, owner of Ugunduzi and a professional adviser to this blog on this major launch.