In few words, we can say that SevenClick is a European mobile applications company with an worldwide scope. It has been so since the very first day.

But is hard to get rid of our developed-country point of view that makes mobile applications as a new feature. Very clever, very fun, very interesting… but just a fancy new feature, not essential in any case.

Not many people understands mobile applications as a new way that can change their life. For sure, our life is already comfortable enough, so mobility will not dramatically improve our daily routine.

But in developing and underdeveloped countries mobile is just another story. It’s a matter of daily life. Specially in rural areas, where mobile networks are the best link with the rest of the world for many villages. Building a road or a motorway is much more expensive than building a cellular network.

In this situation, where no other infrastructure exists, mobile phone can be your bank, your shop, your encyclopedia, your newspaper, …

Google has noticed and has released “Google SMS in Uganda, a suite of applications which provides access, via SMS, to information on a diverse number of topics including health and agriculture tips, news, local weather, sports, and more“. Don’t miss the Google Official Mobile Blog  post.

We wish this innitiative to reach great success and to spread, making life easier for many people.

Link GoogleMobileBlog

SevenClick, TBS Group company specialized mobile solutions development, is participating as speaker in the Banking Technology Comittee of the European Savings Banks Group, taking place in Madrid on June 8 and 9.

Invited by La Caixa for such an important event, José Manuel Cristóbal, SevenClick’s CTO, will make a presentation entitled “Mobile Banking. Getting Satisfaction!”covering a number of first-level success stories.

Among them, those related to iPhone and Android electronic banking solutions, mobile Digital Signature, secure authentication mechanisms and payment authorization methods. All of them from a pure mobile perspective, assuring security and legal validity of each process.

Undoubtedly, a new opportunity to know the most important innovations in banking and mobile technology.

All of them in a exclusive environment with representatives of Technology Departments from the main European Savings Banks.

Press Note

The new Blackberry Storm opened as new mobile device for the members of Congress of the USA. They were waiting for a touchscreen device, but was not well received, though it had passed the tests the CAO had performed on the phone.

Some of the Washington elected officials have found problems using the Storm. Senator Harry Reid had trouble sending emails on the Storm and did not like the touchscreen. I guess that is because of the particular functionality of the touchscreen that consists on that the screen must be pressed like a button (not just touch, cause actually is a button, =(  ). Jeff Ventura, spokesman of the House chief administrative officer, said that many who tried the Storm on the Hill have returned it.

A number of members tried to use the Storm but only one or two still use it. A workshop has been started for Storm users, teaching them how to use the many functions on the device. But maybe this does not solve the problem, cause, for instance, some people don’t like the touchscreen even if they know it has to be used like a button.

Via PhoneArena

The European Union will approve the price limitation on the rates of roaming services and SMS messages among countries. Viviane Reding, telecomunications responsible of the EU, was who proposed this legislation, as the Internation Herald Tribune says.

EU industry ministers will approve this plan, which will limit SMS prices to 11 cents and also roaming service rates. These changes will be activated on 1st July 2009.

Obviously, this means that in some countries international SMS messages would be cheaper than local ones! This may provoke that companies reduce local SMS messages, but we’ll have to see. Anyhow, these rates reduction could also make the companies increase local prices. We hope not.

Via NY Times

Last week Martin Cooper, considered the father of the first mobile phone (btw, did you know he pick up the idea from Star Trek?) and the first person to make a call on one (April 3, 1973), criticized aspects of the current wireless industry, from closed carrier networks or inefficent cellular antenna systems to the design of top-selling smart phones like the iPhone (he had to hand his off to his grandson after some weeks using it… “You try to build a universal device that does all things for all people, and guess what? It doesn’t do anything very well.” ).

“We were promised affordable, ubiquitous broadband wireless for everyone,” he told at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston. “That promise is still just a promise.”

He put-down carriers as AT&T, comparing their current attitudes with the ones of the 1950s, when the company prohibited any telephones other than AT&T´s to connect to its network. “They still think, ‘It’s our right to provide all these services and no one else has that right,’”

Nevertheless, Cooper had good words for Verizon and Google, as examples of open companies. Verizon announced one year ago that they will open its network to other devices as well as applications. Android is the sort of open operating system that would allow for the full potential of wireless devices, Cooper explains on this video.

Via Forbes.com | Embedded.com

At the beginning of the year, this application was published but in a restricted way, only available for pre-registered or invited users. Now it has been published in a beta version and it is available for anyone who signs up in the website, even if you doesn’t want to stream videos but see and comment other people videos.

If you sign up you will be able to stream videos on a website directly from your mobile phone using your data plan to connect to the internet. In this new version you will have the chance of creating areas for your videos, grouping and making them public or private.

This new public version includes support for new phones such as Motorola Q or Nokia N96, and in following versions it will include support for iPhone 3G and several devices from HTC as HTC Touch Diamond.

One more feature of Qik is that the latency from the start of the recording to the beginning of the broadcasting on the internet is just between a half-second and 3 seconds. Half a second is extremely fast! This makes Qik the fastest and most live system of the online video streaming sites.

I’m sure that live video streaming from mobile phones is becoming something important in our lifes, better than just sending multimedia messages so that with Qik we can share on live our streams with whoever we want.

Via xatakamovil

こんにちは (Konichiwa · hello)

Acording to a little survey, 91% of Japanese don´t want an iPhone. Sure?, I don´t think so.

iPhone 3G will change mobile phones foundations, and i think everybody agree. Japanese are waiting for the iPhone with desire as in the rest of the world. Maybe Japan is a little bit special market for this gadget, they have great handsets and much more features built in their phones than in the rest of the countries, they pay the subway, order an pay a meal, use internet everywhere with affordable data plans… but even this things it is not enough to beat the fashionable and cool iPhone for many people in Japan. Of course the sales of this device will not be as incredible as in other countries like USA or UK, but it will be better than people think.

I have some friends in Japan, and i have made my own survey to know what japanese youth really think about the iPhone 3G.

Erika 20 years old, from 千葉県 (Chiba, Tokio)

Alvaro: Do you know the iPhone 3G?

Erika: Yes, i know it from TV news

A: What do you think about it?

E: I´m very interested in it!, it is so cool and fashionable.

A: Are you thinking on get it?

E: I want to get it, but i can´t, because I can´t cancel easily my current mobile phone contract.

A: What people around you think about this device?

E: People think it is reasonably price and attractive shape.

A: What do you think about the iPhone´s future in Japan, success or failure?

E: I think success, It is no expensive and it is so lovely! Many people are interested in it.

A: Do you think it is a great option to choose in Japan?

E: I´m not sure… If it can be very convenient phone in Japan, ( in terms of radio wave, battery live, usability…), it will succeed

本当にありがとうErika ( Many Thanks Erika)

10.000 mobile phones per hour were sold in India this first quarter of year, Incredible!.

Acoording to IDC India, 20 million mobile phones were shipped in India along this Q1´08.

Naveen Mishra, Manager, Communications Research at IDC India, said, “As the need of Indian mobile phone consumers is evolving, they are demanding feature-rich devices, which can cater to their business communication requirements as well as their personal needs.”

“This growth comes on the back of a burgeoning mobile services market and lower entry barriers across various customer categories, as average selling values (ASVs) of handsets continue to fall in the wake of a highly competitive landscape populated by close to 25 vendors.”

Overall, Nokia retained the top spot with a market share of 52.8%, followed by LG at 10.2%, and Samsung at 8.3% in terms of units shipped during the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Via CellularNews

Benefon, a Finnish company which recently changed its name to GeoSentric and bought the GyPSii application earlier this year, has just signed a deal with Nokia to put its GyPSii location-based social networking service on the N95 and 6110 handsets, regarding Reuters.

GyPSii service allows people to upload pictures, videos and sound clips recorded with their phone. At the same time, those uploaded multimedia contents are geo-positioned with the location where they were created. Besides, users can check where their friends, watch other geo-positioned contents or search other’s saved places.

We are sure that this kind of services mixing social networks and mobility will spread a lot for next months. What do you think?

Via Reuters
Link GyPSii too slow…

If you are a techie, one of the funniest things you can do in Internet is watch vision videos. In that way, one of our best SevenClick followers has sent us a great Intel Ultra Mobile vision video. Titled “Ultra Mobile: It lets me be me”, the video shows us how mobile technology is going to complete and make easiest (not change) our way of life.

Pay attention because you will discover some devices and technologies very similar to another ones that today are available.

• Nike+
• iPhone and multi-touch screens
• Media Center
• …

Enjoy it! Thanks Santiago N.