An internet service launched by Vodafone will allow mobile phone
users to pay for goods such as news stories and bus tickets and
have them debited to their phone bills.
The feature will allow retailers and other companeis who deal in
low value transactions and publishers looking to charge for their
on-line content to expand their market reach and profits at minimal
extra cost, Vodafone claims
The micropayment facility is built into the shopping application
of
Vodafone
360, the new service launched today in eight European countries
by the mobile network operator.
Built around a user's address book and use of social network
media, 360 allows users to buy low value goods such as news or bus
rides via their mobile phone bill. Vodafone and retailers will
share the income 30:70 respectively, said Michel Combe, CEO of
Vodafone's European region.
Combe said newspapers published in Italy and Spain had already
signed contracts to deliver news stories and premium content to
users' phones.
This was one example of more than 1,000 applications available
from Vodafone's new App Store also launched today.
Pieter Knook, Vodafone's director of Vodafone's internet
services, said the firm had tied up with China Mobile, Verizon and
Softbank to produce the JIL application development platform, which
allows software developers to write programs for Vodafone 360.
JIL is Vodafone's response to the iPhone API, and the Android
and Symbian development platforms.
JIL opened the path to a potential market of 1.1 billion
customers, which should be attractive to software developers, he
said. Vodafone was offering €1m to developers to encourage them to
write for JIL, he said.
He said developers who wanted to built B2B applications for JIL
were welcome. "It's an open platform," he said.
Vodafone also unveiled two new custom-built Samsung handsets
running the LiMo (for Linux Mobile) operating system and optimised
to take advantage of the new 360 infrastructure.
The phones use a new user interface to access 360's People
address book application. Users could synchronise People with their
PC or Mac personal computers via a new website,
360.com
that Vodafone launched today too.
People runs native on the two Samsung handsets. It will also be
pre-loaded onto four Nokia Symbian phones distributed by Vodafone,
and users of more than 100 other handsets will be able to download
it, irrespective of their present network operator, said Combe.
People gives users access to friends' Facebook pages, although
they can't update their walls, as well as Windows Live Messenger
and Google Talk. Support for Twitter, Hyves and studiVZ (sic), the
top Spanish and German social networks respectively, is coming
soon, the firm said.
The Vodafone App Store also sells music, games, and mapping
services.
Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said the firm's strategy was to
provide users with the most relevant applications with a network
that delivered the best user experience.
Pre-paid users would be limited by the balance on their phones,
but Vodafone executives had yet to decide on a limit for monthly
payers.