MaxxoMedia Digital Media and Entertainment Trends

Mobile social gaming community Cellufun is letting its eight million monthly visitors create discussion groups and advertisers can use this content to psychographically target their ads to members.

Each group has real-time chat and its own private forums as well as officers who get to decide membership criteria and review applications. Group affiliations also appear on users’ home pages, enhancing social ties throughout the community.

“Cellufun has become a social hub for millions of users all over the world, and they’re increasingly opting to spend time on our site rather than PC focused social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and hi5,” said Keith Katz, VP of Marketing at Cellufun. “We’ve always had informal groups popping up and posting in various forums, but one of our most frequent user requests has been to have a more formalized system for creating affinity groups, much like what’s available on various Web-based sites.

Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) has secured relationships will Research In Motion, Windows Mobile, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to roll out full Flash capabilities to the various smartphone platforms. With such a complete line-up, the only obvious phone remaining is Apple’s iPhone.

At the company’s worldwide developer conference in Los Angeles on Monday, Adobe plans to announce that its Flash technology, which is commonly used on the PC to view videos or ads, will be rolled out to browsers on Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows Mobile, Palm webOS phones later this year. In addition, public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available early next year. Finally, Adobe will also bring the Flash Player to Blackberry smartphones at an undisclosed date.

via Adobe Extends Full Flash To Just About Every Phone But The iPhone | mocoNews.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., September 16, 2008–Market research and consultancy, MultiMedia Intelligence, announces the release of its free whitepaper on the US wireless teen market, characterizing the market for mobile phone services by US 12-17 year old teens. The whitepaper is free to download at http://www.MultiMediaIntelligence.com

The teen market is an especially appealing market for two reasons. First, it is a primary source of new subscribers for carriers. Less than 40% of pre-teens have mobile service. By age 17, 84% of teens have wireless services, with the penetration skewing higher for females. Second, teens teach older demographic how to use their handsets.

From Kenradio.com

A growing number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide are taking online social networking to the streets. The U.K. leads Europe in mobile social networking on a percentage basis — with the U.S. boasting comparable numbers. In the U.K., approximately 810,000 mobile subscribers, or 1.7% of all mobile subscribers in the country, visited social networking websites on their mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008. That reach percentage was twice as high as it was in other major European markets?though similar to the U.S., where 1.6% of all mobile subscribers (4.1 million in all) accessed social networks via their phones in December 2007.

By Mark Levy, CEO MaxxoMedia

Throughout the past few years, the mobile content industry has enjoyed strong market growth. Primarily fueled by the sale of master ringtones directly through the cell phone carriers, the market looked unstoppable.

Recent studies show, however, that the ringtone market appears to be peaking and is projected to decline in the coming years. So far, no other mobile content application has proven it is ready to take the ringtone’s place. Mobile video has yet to take off and full-track music downloads seem to be dead on arrival. Some project Ring Back Tones may be the one to break through although it’s growth has been slow to date.

As recently as last year, it was believed that the direct-to-consumer market, also known as “off portal” mobile content sales, would more than make up for any flattening sales at the carriers.

Foreign-based companies, which had been successful in their native markets, began entering the U.S. market. They launched multi-million-dollar TV and print advertising campaigns to quickly build brand and drive awareness. Many considered the ads misleading. They offered “free” ringtones without explaining clearly that the consumer would be signed up to a pricey subscription.

By Mark Levy, CEO MaxxoMedia

In a recent ICOM survey of U.S. shoppers, 77% of the respondents in the 18-34 age group see their coupon use increasing if they could use some form of paperless coupon technology … and 63% of those 35-54 said paperless would increase their usage.

The mobile phone is one of the best ways to reach the elusive set of 18-34 year-old adults who have disposable income to spend, brands with which to affiliate, but neither the time nor interest to read newspapers or watch scheduled television.

San Jose-based Cellfire has been working hard for over five years to meet that demand. Cellfire is the only nationwide discount offer service, enabling consumers to conveniently receive and retain savings right on their mobile phones. Today, 68% of Cellfire users are between the age of 18-34, and 27% are over 35.

Currently they offer coupons for popular retailers such as Hollywood Video, Hardee’s, Domino’s Pizza, T.G.I. Friday’s, Peet’s Coffee, 1-800-flowers.com, Omaha Steaks, North Beach Pizza, Pizz’a Chicago and more directly to your cell phone. The service is available on all major cell carriers.