MobileNest

Cingular has big plans to follow Verizon Wireless and Sprint in the new move to the mobile advertisement.

According to BigOM, Ed Whitacre, chief executive of AT&T, which also owns the largest wireless carrier told the WSJ that it too will look to incorporate mobile ads later this year.

Om is guessing that on-deck mobile ads are becoming a new norm that will not reduce the cost of the mobile service to the end user, as initially predicted by Google’s Eric Schmidt.

We need to wait and see how will consumers react to this new norm, especially when they are not getting anything in return other than annoyance.

Cingular Wants Mobile Ads, Too [GigaOM]

Dear Readers,

Happy 2007 from MobileNest.

On New Year’s Eve, Verizon Wireless will allow all of its cutomers to download a free ringtone to their phone.

If you are interested in this freebie, you need to text “Tone” to the number 2007. If you do this, instructions will be sent to you on how to get your freebie.

Spread the word!

The new Motorola’s A910 mobile phone that was just approved by FCC replaces the old operating system used in Motorola’s phone with a Linux operating system. The new cell phone can be used on GSM networks.

Motorola A910 features:

• GPRS and UMA for connecting over WLAN networks
• Linux-Java based platform
• 1.3-megapixel camera with external display and photo lighting
• video capability
• streaming video
• MP3 player
• TransFlash card slot for extra storage
• Bluetooth

The phone should be availalbe shortly.

Motorola A910 [Press Release]

Samsung is launching the SCH-V960 phone, which is an another phone in the “first in the world” category by Samsung.

Up to this point, Samsung launched the slimmest slider, the slimmest phone, and the first 8GB hard disk smartphone. Last week Samsung announced a launch of the first phone with an optical joystick.

The joystick was designed to improve users mobile experience by making navigation easier.

The Samsung SCH-V960 features:

• 2.12″ (240×320 pixels) 262k color TFT display
• MP3 / VOD / MOD
• 2 megapixel camera
• microSD card slot
• Optical Joystick
• Bluetooth / USB
• Document Viewer

The Samsung SCH-V960 is expected to launch officially by the end of this month in Korea.

SAMSUNG Launches the World’s First ‘Optical Joystick’ Phone [Press Release]

Executives from Verizon Wireless are revealing next year’s plan to allow banner ad placement on news, sports, weather, and other Internet sites that users access on Verizon phones.

The development is a substantive and symbolic advance toward the widespread appearance of marketing messages on the smallest of screens. Advertisers have been increasing the amount they spent on mobile marketing, despite lingering questions about the effectiveness of ads on portable phones.

“We know we can make significant dollars in mobile Web advertising in 2007,” said John Harrobin, vice president of marketing and digital media for Verizon Wireless. “That said, we likely will not — we want to take it carefully and methodically, and enable the right experience.” More generally, he added, “Mobile advertising is going to take off in 2007.”

Ovum Research projects that spending on mobile advertisement has potential to reach 1.3 billion in the next three years. Current spending is small but growing at a rapid rate. In 2005, ad spending reached $45 million, but a year later (2006) spending will reach jump over 300 percent ($150 million).

Nice growth!

Verizon to Allow Ads on Its Mobile Phones [The New York Times]