|
Network365's eyeWitness is a multi-media messaging application that enables users to take photos on camera-enabled mobile phones and then forward them to public or private Web sites or send them to other MMS users.
"The problem with phones with in-built cameras is that they are likely to be expensive when launched and therefore there won't be that many other phone owners you will be able to send pictures to," said Denis Hennessy, Network365's chief technical officer. Hennessy said eyeWitness solves this problem because the images can be sent to an on-line portal and then be accessed by friends or colleagues.
"For instance, if you were going away for a stag weekend you could set up a site that your friends could register with, and every time a photo is uploaded from your phone to the site they would be informed by SMS," he added.
Network365 believes that eyeWitness will prove attractive to mobile operators as they look to increase revenues by taking advantage of value-added MMS services. "It could be part of an operator's portal and customers would pay something like EUR1 a month to have a personal photo album. Users could then send the URL for the photo album to friends and family," Hennessy told ElectricNews.Net.
He pointed to the success of Japanese mobile operator J-Phone's picture messaging service as evidence of how popular such an application can be and how it can benefit operators. "J-Phone didn't have its own network and launched a proprietary handset but still managed to get in excess of 3.5 million subscribers for its camera-phone. The service has forced other operators like DoCoMo to follow suit," commented Hennessy.
Network365 said it is in discussions with several mobile operators who are currently planning trials of MMS services and added that it expected the service to be live in some European countries and Japan in Q3.
The company also said that it was pitching eyeWitness to media companies and marketing/advertising organisations. "It could be used by media outlets that wanted to run funny photos or celebrity sighting competitions. In the case of public-interest images, such as emergencies, weather or traffic sites, images are specially routed for review by an editor before going live and they can also add captions and other information to the image," said Hennessy.
"It is also a powerful way of sending promotions because audio and text can be added to the MMS message," he added. "So, for example, a film company could send an MMS message with several photos from the movie, as well as information on the film and its actors, and includes a link that allows the receiver to buy a ticket for the film over their phone."
However, there are potentially several barriers to the take-up of picture messaging. The first is cost. With several operators talking about charging at least EUR1 per picture sent, it is unlikely that many users will be sending a whole lot of snaps. The other is the price of integrated handsets. Such handsets, like Nokia's 7650, should be available by the end of the summer, but are likely to initially be expensive, possibly as much as EUR500.
Network365's eyeWitness works over the company's messaging application platform, mzone agora.
|
