SMART, technology partners receive global awards for breakthrough mobile ad services

In a sign of the expanding role of mobile phones in the Philippine marketing scene, leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and its technology partner Zad Mobile, Inc. received Tuesday an innovation award for mobile advertising from the GSM Association (GSMA).

At the Mobile Asia Congress held here this week, the “1-in-5 Panalo” promo that SMART had recently implemented for the global cola brand Pepsi was awarded Best Mobile Advertising in the GSMA’s inaugural Asia Mobile Awards 2007.

The mobile multimedia platform Mercury™, developed by another SMART technology partner, Netherlands-based 3ple-Media, was also awarded by the GSMA as the Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure, another category in the association’s Asia Mobile Innovation Awards.

The GSMA is the global trade association for mobile operators, and its citations are considered the Oscars of the mobile communications industry.

Done together with US-based Zad Mobile, the Pepsi promo was one the most successful promo campaigns for the cola brand, and put the country in the international spotlight as an emerging hotbed for mobile advertising in Asia.

“We are of course very happy and deeply honored, and we thank the GSMA for this award – the third from the GSMA for Smart after Smart Money and Smart Load,” said SMART president and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno.

“This international award highlights the huge potential for innovation that mobile phones offer to the advertising community in the Philippines,” said Danilo J. Mojica, SMART’s head for Wireless Consumer Division.

“Pepsi emphasizes pushing the boundaries of teen-relevant technology. Our partnership with SMART has opened many doors to reaching our consumers and building a strong affinity with them on a real-time basis,” said Maricelle Narciso, Marketing Director for Food and Beverages of the Philippine Branch of Pepsico, Inc.

Global, award-winning technologies
According to the GSMA, the new Asia Mobile Awards were created “as a platform to showcase leadership and diversity for mobile content, products and services across Asia. A specialist panel of independent analysts, journalists, and industry experts, judged the winners. The Asia Mobile Awards are open to operators, vendors and the broad value chain from across the mobile industry that provide products and services that are commercially available in at least one Asian market.”
“We are delighted with this year’s Asian Mobile Awards – they recognize the sheer pace of progress that’s been made right across the region’s mobile communication market. Our congratulations to the winners and nominees and our thanks to everyone who participated,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association.

According to the GSMA, the Asia Mobile Innovation Awards were created by the GSMA “as part of its Mobile Innovation Programme to encourage breakthrough technology, applications and services in the mobile industry by bringing together small and medium-sized companies developing innovative mobile products, industry investors and mobile operators.”

Jumpstarting mobile advertising
With mobile advertising predicted to explode into a billion-dollar global industry in just a few years, SMART had partnered with Zad Mobile and 3ple-Media and invested in award-winning, state-of-the-art systems that are expected to drive the company’s mobile advertising efforts. SMART’s moves are geared toward jumpstarting the development of mobile advertising in the country.

From 3ple-Media, SMART had acquired Mercury™, a fast, robust, and high-performing technology that allows the cellular operator to harness the richness of multimedia messaging as a compelling tool in the delivery of mobile ads.

Through the Zad Mobile Advertising Platform (ZMAP), SMART subscribers will receive only the ads that are meaningful, relevant, and interesting to them. It provides value and incentives in exchange for their participation. Most importantly, it assures subscribers of privacy and complete control over the choice whether to receive advertisements or not.

To advertisers, what this means is a much greater depth of consumer engagement via the mobile phone – a very personal device to more than 50 million actively subscribed mobile users in the Philippines – enabling them to talk to the right people in the right way.

Offering convergence and synergy
“We are working closely with the GSMA to help develop metrics, standards, and best practices for mobile advertising. We look to this with great excitement, because simply put, that device in your hands now is the convergence of advertising,” added Mr. Mojica of SMART.

“Operators and advertisers worldwide are taking a closer look at mobile advertising and SMART intends to lead in this area”, Nazareno said., “Given SMART’s leading position, we will provide the advertising community new tools that can complement very well campaigns implemented in the traditional media. At the same time, we will put in place policies that protect first and foremost the interests of our subscribers.”

 

Fake, Refill Inks print less, More Expensive

Hewlett-Packard has announced the findings of its first- cartridge yield and reliability study for Asia Pacific. Conducted by leading technical test organization TÜV SÜD PSB, the findings quantitatively show that on average Original HP Inkjet Print Cartridges produce over twice as many pages (106.6% more) compared to Asia Pacific brands of remanufactured and refilled ink cartridges tested.

With regards to reliability, the findings revealed that more than one in four (25.7%) cartridges from Asia Pacific brands of remanufactured and refilled cartridges tested were found dead on arrival (DOA) or failed prematurely, compared to Original HP Cartridges that had no such reliability issues during testing.

Refilled ink cartridges were found to have reliability and yield issues. In the tests, on average Original HP Inkjet Print Cartridges produced almost two and a half times as many pages (146.7% more) than refilled cartridges which were also found to have an extremely high failure rate. A third of them (33.2%) were either dead on arrival or failed prematurely.

“Ink cartridge consumers across the Asia Pacific are unaware of the issues in reliability when printing with remanufactured and refilled cartridges, and HP has long been concerned with this. We commissioned the study to expose the concealed real costs involved to aid consumers have a more informed choice,” said Neel Pillai, Marketing Manager for Supplies Category, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Asia Pacific. “Customers’ time and money bear the impact from high failure rates of remanufactured and refilled cartridges. These failures also cause a lot of frustration and might also lead to expensive long-term printer.”

“TÜV SÜD PSB is the first company in Asia Pacific to conduct such a comprehensive remanufactured and refilled ink cartridge test on behalf of HP,” said Mr. Tan Lee Heng, Assistant Vice President of Testing Services, TÜV SÜD PSB. “From the test findings, we note that original HP inkjet cartridges, on the average, produced 106.6% more pages compared to refill brands tested, and 59.8% more pages compared to branded remanufactured cartridges.”

From February to June 2007, HP commissioned TÜV SÜD PSB to conduct a study to evaluate the page yield and reliability of HP branded inkjet cartridges versus 14 brands of remanufactured or refilled cartridges from the Asia Pacific region. The 14 brands of cartridges were selected based on sales and usage in the region and sourced from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Korea and the Philippines. The study was completed in June 2007.

 

New Lenovo ThinkStation Brand Wins in Fast Lane with the AT&T Williams Formula One Team

Lenovo partnered with the AT&T Williams Formula One team today to launch the new ThinkStation brand – a powerful new entry in the workstation PC marketplace that extends the company’s 15-year-old Think product lineup.

ThinkStation marks more than ten years since a major PC vendor has entered the workstation market 1. As the first new Think brand introduced in more than five years, t he ThinkStation S10 and D10 workstations offer the ultimate performance and reliability for professionals in the most demanding data and graphics intensive environments, such as computer aided design/engineering, digital content creation, oil and gas exploration and electronic design automation. These workstations further extend Lenovo’s portfolio in the professional computing space.

The workstations are based on the upcoming Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 series and Intel® Core™2 Extreme processors, the first processors based on new 45-nanometer manufacturing process that nearly doubles the density of transistors on the chips for new levels of energy-efficient performance.

Two organizations highly dependent upon using the latest technologies, the NBA and the AT&T Williams team, are evaluating the workstations for integration into their operations.

“We run our motorsports business like our cars – fast, accurate and innovative,” said Alex Burns, chief operating officer, Williams F1. “We’ve relied on Lenovo to diagnose, repair and push the limit on racing performance. In an ongoing battle to be next in the victory lane, Lenovo’s new ThinkStation workstations are helping change the way our engineers work with faster interaction and design simulation to produce the next winning car.”

Workstation Designed for Maximum Performance and Usability
The ThinkStation dual processor D10 and single processor S10 workstations offer the fastest Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 series and Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor QX9650, respectively, large hard drives and the latest graphics solutions from NVIDIA. They also come equipped with fast connectivity with dual Gigabit Ethernet and multiple slots, bays and USB ports for expandability.

“Lenovo designed the ThinkStation to be the highest performance, highest quality workstation, delivering an unparalled experience for professional users who work in graphically and computationally intensive environments where a standard desktop PC isn’t enough,” said Chris Kelly, Workstation Director, Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence, Lenovo. “Not only do the Lenovo workstations provide excellent performance and industry-leading acoustics, our environmentally responsible, user-centric design helps to increase productivity even more.”

Lenovo is collaborating with leading independent software vendors to obtain the certifications that ensure seamless hardware and software interaction. Lenovo will offer a variety of storage, graphics adapters, memory and rail kits for the workstations.

“Together with Lenovo, we examined the types of applications that will be running in customer environments and the type of work being performed,” said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Enterprise Group, Intel. “To meet the needs of these data-rich environments, Lenovo is using the fastest Intel processors to deliver more efficiency, speed, memory and throughput. This technology helps customers work differently, allowing them to run multiple tasks simultaneously instead of working in a serial fashion. This allows them to do more, faster. ”

Beyond the high-performance focus, Lenovo designed the workstations with the environment in mind by offering models complying with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star® 4.0 requirements to help users manage energy usage and costs. The workstations feature 80 percent efficient power supplies. Additionally, they contain more than 50 percent recycled plastics content.

The workstations also incorporate usability along with cutting-edge performance. Lenovo’s user-centric design includes a removable top handle for moving the workstation easily in a variety of work environments as well as a side cover latch for easy access to the system. The workstation also includes illuminated front I/O ports to help users work more easily in multiple system and low light conditions. For a cool and quiet experience, Lenovo designed a unique dual channel thermal system that pulls outside air over the processors providing the workstations with the acoustics equivalent to Lenovo’s standard desktop PC.

To help increase user productivity and reduce system downtime, the workstations come equipped with a range of ThinkVantage Technologies including Rescue and Recovery, Client Security System and Image Ultra Builder. These unique productivity tools help reduce the total cost of system ownership.

Pricing and Availability
The ThinkStation workstations will be available in January 2008 through Business Partners and http://www.lenovo.com. The ThinkStation S10 will start at approximately PhP45,000 and the ThinkStation D10 desktop will start at approximately PhP72,000.