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

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

Some days ago we wrote about home automation through iPhone in this post, now it is time to talk about home automation through a Windows Mobile handset using Twitter.

It is as simple as incredible, you can set up your laptop and connect it to your light switches (or any other electrical device) and control the device by sending text messages to your twitter account. Please check this video to believe what i am saying.

It seems simple (depending on your skills), you only need iLink Insteon software and a home automation light controller available on Ebay, and of course a mobile phone with a twitter client instaled.

Using your Twitter client and sending messages no longer than 140 characters to your own account, it allows through iLink Insteon software controls any device you set.

It is very interesting for me and Rafael, imagine set your home devices through your mobile phone while you are on the road coming back home from work. Cool : )

Via Hack N Mod

Multi-Tech, a Minneapolis-based company, has recently announced the availability of its brand new appliance. It is a turnkey solution that comes in a compact and self-contained chassis, that can be desktop or wall mounted.

It includes two interfaces. One with the GSM network in order to send and receive SMS. The other with your intranet, exposing the ability for sending/receiving SMS from your PCs. The server is managed via its web interface from any PC attached to the intranet.

Appart from the SMS server, you only need to provide a SIM card in order to get attached to your carrier.

“For most applications the traditional SMS server is an overly complicated product involving multiple companies with difficulty finding sources of problems. With the SMSFinder it is a simple process of connecting to the network, inserting a properly configured SIM card and configuring from a network-connected PC using a Web interface. At that point anyone on the network can broadcast messages.”, says Dan Nelson, Vice President of Sales North America for Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.

Via Aecomo
Link Multi-Tech

Hello Magazine has launched a mobile service based on SMS and MMS to offer news and photographs by means of direct transferences.

Hello will place advertisements on its web site or in its magazine to attract customers, but ” will drive traffic to the site by buying up banner ads on operator portals”.

Hello reckons its readers are ripe for a bit of mobile content goss as they spend an average of 37$ a month on mobile services – 118 % above UK average ( according to Ofcom numbers). 76% of its readers are under 40 years of age.

Via Moco News

The European Union (UE) launched last Thursday a study showing that the price of Roaming calls have reduced by 60% in recent months. Moreover, they look for the possibility of being able to do the same cut with SMS and data transmision from cellphone.

This cut, which come into effect last summer, was called “eurotarifa”, price standard for European Union, non superior to 49 cents of Euro per minute for Roaming calls and non superior to 24 cents of Euro for the incoming calls, plus Taxes.

This study shows very good levels of fulfillment in all Europe. It has been calculated that more than 400 million citizen of the UE will have this tariff at the end of September.

Via Noditiciasdot

Brithish love SMS more than someone else. They send an average of up to 100 SMS per month!!! Well, I think I could know somebody who send 100 sms per month, but… this measure said that every british send that amount of SMS. That compares with an average of 65 for Germans and 32 for Americans.
This data comes from a worlwide survey of 10000 mobile phone uesrs by the agency Universal McCann. The study also showed that the British are more inclined to use their mobile phones for texting than for talking. UK mobile owners dedicate less than half their mobile usage to direct conversation.

Via Gizmovil

iPLATO is a Patient Care Messaging system that allows sending text appointment reminders and other mobile patient services in UK Primary Care. Patients just have to register their mobile phone number in their surgery in order to receive appointment reminders and other health information in their mobile phones.

Despite a slow introduction, the service is gaining momentum among users and latest measurements have revealed a reduction of missed doctor appointments by 27% in Lewisham Primary Care Trust in London, UK.

This kind of experiences demonstrate how important is Health Care nowadays. Europe population is getting older as life expentancy has increased lately. People are very aware of this and public institutions ,like European Union, are making big efforts to foster services that will serve to face that problems in a near future.

SevenClick has also this problem in mind. We are currently developing a eHealth system for Vodafone focused in IMS networks. The system performs real-time monitoring of risk groups (old people, cronic patients,…) through bluetooth biometric sensors

Via Celular News

Link SevenClick Development Services

15 years!!!! SMS has become a teenager.

I don’t mean to remark SMS qualities. It has already been done plenty of times. I want to criticize comment what I call the “swiss army knife” of mobile operator excuses.

SMS is one of the greatest success stories in mobile industry. Forget about GPRS, UMTS, HSDPA <put-here-your-preferred-technology>. SMS is the one and only. It’s incredible what has been achieved with just a signaling message (for those that didn’t know it, yest, an SMS is just an SS7 protocol message). SMS has been so successful, that it has been adopted as the default comparison for every service launched by mobile operators.

The situation could be as follows:

A – Hey!!! I have created a brand new service for our great mobile operator company.

B – What do you mean? What do your service do?

A – Well, It allows you to smoke a virtual cigarrette from your mobile phone.

B – Do you really think that somebody would use that service? It sounds stupid.

A – Yeah, the same was said about SMS.

Believe me, after working for 5 years in a mobile operator, I’ve suffered this kind of situation several times.

I think that this a direct consequence of lack of fresh ideas in Mobile Operators. They look at Internet based companies with great envy, as long as mobile operators are not able to create such successful services. They are tied to the past, to those times that everything was putting the hand’s palm to receive money from customers, most times offering a poor service. Mobile operators have been stucked for long years thinking that voice was all they need to earn money. Big mistake my friends. Things have chaged.

Anyway, Happy Birthday SMS!!! I wish you another 15 years of success.

What do you think about this? Do you think that mobile operators will find a new SMS-like service? (in terms of economical success)