LOCAL companies Fontera and Jump are adapting internet based technologies for the small screen as cellphones continue to massively outstrip computer usage.
Cape Town’s Fontera believes the social networking phenomenon of Facebook and YouTube will prove just as successful on the cellphone, and has launched mobimii.com as a mobile rival to these popular social websites.
Mobimii lets users upload their own content such as photographs or video clips to share with friends through their phones. Subscription to the site is free, so users will only pay the usual network fee for data services. Users can connect via the internet, or over a high-speed cellular network after downloading a software application to their phone.
CEO Simon Leps said South Africans were quickly embracing online social networking and content sharing, and Mobimii was the logical next step in connecting people. The technology developed in Cape Town had to be robust and flexible to deal with different cellular systems worldwide and to let customers access content on their handset or via a computer, he said.
Meanwhile, Jump has migrated its existing internet-based comparative shopping service www.jump.co.za on to cellphones for people who want to check a price before they make a purchase. The service is designed for people who are out shopping and suddenly wonder if it would be cheaper to buy the goods over the internet.
The mobile version is accessed by entering m.jump.co.za in the cellphone’s browser, then typing in the details of the item. The software searches through more than 3-million products from 100 online stores in SA and gives the product description, the price and website details of potential suppliers.
“It makes perfect sense to launch such a product, as there are more mobile phone users than PC users in SA. This gives them the ability to look for comparative prices while shopping in the real world,” said Jump Shopping MD Albert Bredenhann.
In January, Jump Shopping sold 22% of its business to the online auction site BidorBuy in the US.
The BBC recently reported that 20% of international visits to its website from cellphones originated in SA, as people learn to use their handsets for more than making calls and sending text messages. “The next step up will be shopping with the cellphone,” said Arthur Goldstuck, MD of research house World Wide Worx.
“Meanwhile, using the cellphone to assist in traditional shopping is a natural evolution.”
Source: MyAdsl
