Yesterday, Virgin Mobile announced that they were going to offer Free Instant Messaging. Wow, I can’t wait. But, you will only be able to download onto 3 devices and you will only be able to use Windows Live Messenger. Why would I want to be locked into one network when my friends are on two or more IM services? Why am I restricted to just these 3 devices.
Given that have announced that it’s going to be Free for the next 6 months, does that mean they are going to start charging at the end of the 6 months?
Does anyone wonder why so few people use Instant Messaging on mobile? Why are there 1.5 bn IM accounts on the desktop but so few on the mobile.
Come on Virgin Mobile, you can do better! You used to have a reputation for being the friend of the customer. All this proves is that you’re just like all of the other mobile operators! What a lost opportunity!
Palringo offers customers true choice. We allow them to connect to all of the major IM services (including Windows Live Messenger, GoogleTalk, Yahoo etc), we work on most devices (more than just 3!!) and we work across all networks (so if you change networks you can still access the services). This is the future of mobile–choice and independence.
If you feel like some light entertainment, you can listen to my interview with Martyn Davies of voipuser.org, where we talk about a range of messaging-related subjects. One subject we don’t about is Voip. We will have to leave that interview to another day!
Last month, at the Under the Radar Conference in Mountain View(hosted by Microsoft) we met with Vator.tv. In their own words, Vator.tv is a place where technology start-ups meet Investors, Press, Advisors and Supporters.
So if you would like to be a supporter of Palringo check out Palringo’s profile page on Vator.tv. Don’t forget to click on the Follow-us button on the profile page and you can keep up to date with all of our activities.
So use Vator.tv to stay in touch with Palringo.
Carl Ford writes about presence and Instant Messaging and how VoIP needs to reinvent itself by moving away from a focus on cheap minutes and emphasie the cool apps that are now available. The same holds true for mobile and he specifically mentions the rich messaging capabilities (text, audio and pictures) of Palringo.
Increasingly, presence, instant messaging, location and connectivity all will play a role in an increasingly connected and collaboration-intense environment.
Last month, Palringo was one of the finalists at a competition forr free place on the UKTI stand at Mobile World Congress 2009. This was an event organised by the The Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network in collaboration with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the competition was for UK SME’s to showcase their products or solutions on the UKTI stand next year. There were a total of 16 finalists and only 4 companies were selected. The competition was intense and each company only had 3 minutes to make their “pitch”–no powerpoint, no slides, no videos, no demos–just words, actions and the odd prop or two.
The competiton was pretty intense with a number of interesting companies including Alert Me (Home Security Solutions) , Augmentra (off-road GPS navigation), Documight Mobile, Helixion (protecting business data), Peerouette (personal server), Umu Mobile, and Wild Knowledge (location based learning). Umu Mobile, which provides mobile security and virus protection, was the other winner.
The event was hosted by Cambridge Wireless.
We are looking forward to helping UK Trade & Investment showcase to the world the range of exciting and innovative products that originate in the UK. Time to start planning!!
I couldn’t resisting copying this headline from Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review. Ewan and the team are chock full of ideas–there are so many we just can’t keep up. Last month, we launched Palringo Local on Windows Mobile, which is our unique location platform. We met with Ewan and the team to talk further about our upcoming plans and of course he had the camera crew in tow, so we made this video as well. And, Palringo will be released on Symbian, iPhone, Blackberry and Java devices over the coming weeks, So stay tuned.
Customers of Palringo often comment on how we have changed their use of the mobile. Whether it’s the fact that they can use Instant Messaging more effectively while on the move, or how Vocal IM allows them to send messages when text messaging just doesn’t work we seem to have a struck a chord around the world. In fact, Lisa Green from Under the Radar comments about how Palringo has changed her habits in her blog.
