SMS 2.0 - SMS gets a facelift

**doc_sameer** · Jun 27th, 2007, 09:41

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Affle, a Britain-based technology company, on Tuesday unveiled an enhanced version of the wildly popular short message system (SMS) that allows users to view more content and do searches on their mobile phones.

Affle said the SMS 2.0 maintains the simplicity and ease of text messaging, but adds more choices for the mobile phone user such as viewing the latest gossip from Bollywood to searching the location of a restaurant in Singapore's trendy Clarke Quay district.

The service was launched on Tuesday in Singapore and India after pilot trials.
Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Japan and Australia are expected to be added to coverage within the next two years, Affle executives said.

Many of the SMS 2.0 contents will be free, financed by advertisements, which executives said would be "unobtrusive" when shown on the screen.

The cost of sending a text message is unchanged, Affle said.

'First of its kind'
Chief executive Anuj Khanna said he believed SMS 2.0 is the first of its kind in the world to build on the highly popular text messaging, which remains the undisputed money-spinner for several telecom firms despite the emergence of fancier applications.

"I think this is one of the most significant innovations in the mobile industry," Khanna told reporters at the launch. "I am convinced that this is revolutionary."
When a subscriber turns on the mobile phone, SMS 2.0 is launched by default but the handset can still be used in the same manner when sending or receiving text messages.

At the bottom of the mobile phone's screen is an array of content banners — from news to astrology, travel and video — that the user can choose from if he or she wants to do more than just sending or receiving an SMS.

"It does not take anything away from the existing SMS," Khanna said.

Searching
He added that in the next two months, a "search" feature will be added to make SMS an acronym for "short message and search".

Under this feature, a user can key in a word or phrase just like composing an SMS message, click "search" instead of "send", and will be directed to a search engine like Google or Yahoo.

Khanna said Affle was in talks with various online search engines to power this feature.

Affle has initially partnered with phone-maker Nokia for the handsets. Media company GroupM, part of London-based communications services giant WPP Group, is to help with the expansion plans.

Affle said it has teamed up with leading Indian mobile telecom firm Airtel Bharti, with Times Internet Ltd, part of media conglomerate Times Group, providing the content in India.

Mobile phone firm M1 is its partner in Singapore.

Some experts and industry players who attended the CommunicAsia telecom fair in Singapore this month said text messaging will remain a key revenue earner for mobile phone companies in developing countries because it is cheap and simple.

**doc_sameer** · Jun 27th, 2007, 09:46

Bharti Airtel Ties-Up with Affle to bring next-generation SMS2.0 to India

Application set to revolutionize Messaging and Content experience for customers

SMS2.0 is the next generation messaging application which converges messaging, content and advertising in one seamless application
World's latest interactive, non-intrusive application on SMS platform to enhance user experience
A great platform to build a scalable mobile media platform and ecosystem

New Delhi, June 21, 2007*: Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom service provider and Affle, the leader in mobile media innovations, today announced a partnership, to make the revolutionary SMS2.0 service available to all Airtel customers in Delhi & National Capital Region.

The SMS2.0 application powered by Affle is the world’s first major upgrade to the extremely popular SMS application. SMS2.0 retains the simplicity of text-messaging while enhancing the user experience by seamlessly converging enhanced messaging, content and advertising. SMS2.0 integrates itself with the usual user interactions by residing as the default SMS application on the handset.

SMS2.0 leverages the eyeball assured nature of SMS to blend interactive media within the existing messaging experience. With SMS2.0, consumers can discover a variety of relevant content and services of their choice in a very familiar interface at no extra cost.

Commenting on the launch of SMS 2.0, Mr. P.S. Parasuram, Head - Content and New Product Development, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd said, "Airtel has continuously aimed to provide a superior user experience across all its services. We selected SMS2.0 as we feel it enriches our users' experience with SMSing, while at the same time creating a viable and extremely exciting revenue model."

Initial studies show extremely positive usage patterns. Users were particularly pleased with the integrated content that was both fun and informative. Users also favoured the enhanced messaging features like custom text colors, fun emoticons, and scheduled SMS.

Mr. Anuj Kumar, Executive Director (South Asia) of Affle, said, “We are excited to partner with Airtel in India. SMS2.0 is a media, for which the leading content partners and advertisers, are already creating customized campaigns. This is because the users value our media, and find the content, promotions, and messaging features extremely engaging.”

With SMS being the most widely used application, the user is already familiar with how to launch and use the basic features of SMS2.0. This makes the learning curve to browse SMS2.0 content minimal. The advertisements on SMS2.0 are highly interactive and have a rich set of ”call-to-action” features such as call now, call-me-back, buy-now, launch video, answer-survey, view web page, and many others. The potential of the platform is evident, given that leading companies like Aviva, Britannia, Goodyear, HPCL, ICICI, Levis, Makemytrip.com, Perfetti Van Melle, Indiatimes, Cricinfo &Group M Interactions, have already partnered with Affle & Airtel.

Download Mechanism:

The Airtel users in Delhi circle (NCR Region) can download this application for free by sending “sms2” to 121.

About Bharti Airtel Limited:

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is one of India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of 42.68 million customers as of end of May‘07, consisting of 40.74 million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel has been rated among 10 best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list.

Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile services, Broadband &Telephone (B&T) services and Enterprise services. The mobile business provides mobile &fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles. The B&T business provides broadband &telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national &international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel’s high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 40,000 kms covering all the major cities in the country. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe. For more information, visit www.bhartiairtel.in

About Affle:

Affle is leader in the mobile media innovation space. They offer cutting edge technologies with a value proposition for consumers and business partners. The solutions and products from Affle have been specially designed to enhance user experience and make mobile media a reality.

Affle currently operates in five countries including the UK India, Singapore, Malaysia, and USA. The company is in the process of strategically expanding to other top mobile markets including Japan, China, Korea, Philippines, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan &Indonesia, in the coming few years.

Affle has already established strong partnerships with leading Mobile Network Operators, Original Equipment Manufacturers, Content Providers, Media Agencies, and Advertisers, across various geographies. For more information, visit www.affle.co.uk.