Occasionally, we get so swamped by the amount of stuff going on in the mobile marketing world that there are barely enough hours in the day to cover it all, so in the interests of completeness, heres a News in Brief round-up of some of the stuff that we havent had time to cover in full the last week or so
ALK Solutions has released its Moozey mobile marketing software application, which is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. For 24 a month, you get a one-stop-shopping environment, including WAP, SMS and 2D-barcode services and extensive reporting tools. ALK says that users can create mobile marketing campaigns in a matter of minutes.

ROK Entertainment Group has launched ROK Promoter, a web-based application which allows advertisers to create and manage their own Bluetooth advertising campaigns, direct to consumers. ROK Promoter enables advertisers to build, deploy and monitor Bluetooth proximity-marketing mobile video campaigns themselves, via a web interface, without the need for third-party agency involvement.
The application has been developed by ROKs Finland-based mobile applications development subsidiary, Geniem. It is available to license on a weekly, monthly or long-term basis.

Rough Guides and DK Travel
have released The Rough Guide to the iPhone: Second Edition, written
by Peter Buckley. The book offers a comprehensive one-stop guide to the
3G iPhone, and costs 6.99.

Portio Research has released its report, Strategies for Driving Data ARPU. The report includes 20 case studies from mobile network operators around the world, and  identifies the successful strategies adopted by operators in advanced countries to drive data ARPU from a variety of data services:
The report is the third instalment in Portios Growing Data Services Series and follows on from the companys previous report: Strategies for Creating End-User Demand for Mobile Data Services.
It costs 1,495 for a 1-5 user PDF licence, 2,495 for a small or medium-size company PDF licence, or 3,995 for a large, corporate, unlimited PDF licence. Theres more information here.

Cytech has launched version 4.1 of its mobile marketing platform. The SMS Platform (SMSP)is a mobile marketing tool designed to provide marketers with the ability to implement polls, trivia and sweepstake competitions. SMSP handles the routing, management and delivery of SMS messages and offers an easy way to create mobile marketing campaigns through a dedicated web application.

Xtract has announced expanded US availability for its Social Links software, as well as a new module to help mobile operators worldwide better understand their customers in order to deliver more engaging marketing and advertising.
Xtracts Social Link analyzes social network interactions within large scale mobile communication networks to identify the underlying social network structures within the subscriber base and the most influential people in the network. The result, it says, is a completely new layer of customer insight and a tangible tool for increasing the efficiency of targeted marketing and advertising.  Add-on modules include Churn Prediction, Customer Acquisition, Product Marketing, and the new module, Customer Insight.

Tatango, the Seattle-based SMS service firm, has announced its public launch in the US. Tatango aims to revolutionize group text messaging, enabling any group to send and receive group text messages for free from the web or their own mobile phone. Since its private launch in October 2007, Tatango has built a user base of over 500,000 users and has delivered over 25 million text messages to group members nationwide.

The GSM Association (GSMA) is inviting entries for the 2009 Global Mobile Awards and the penultimate round of its Mobile Innovation Global Competition, both of which will be presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 17 February 2009. The deadline for entries is 5pm GMT, Friday 28 November 2008.
This years awards incorporate several new categories including a new Green Mobile Award (highlighting eco-friendly mobile products, services and initiatives),  Best Mobile Internet, Best Mobile TV Service and Best Mobile Money Service.
You can see a full list of all the awards categories here. 

DeviceAnywhere has unveiled the Apple iPhone 3G as the latest addition to its expanding roster of mobile devices available to developers worldwide over an Internet-based service. DeviceAnywhere offers developers a simple, direct connection to more than 1500 mobile devices, now including first and second generation iPhone handsets, to optimize their development efforts without having to physically acquire the devices.
DeviceAnywhere is an online service used by thousands of mobile organizations and their developers. It provides access to real mobile handsets that are each connected to live networks. These devices are accessible remotely over the Internet, allowing users to interact in real time to ensure all development, porting, testing, and monitoring needs are met. The DeviceAnywhere service uses actual, physical handsets to provide developers with the same experiences as having the devices in hand. 

Sony Ericsson has agreed to significantly expand its existing licensing relationship with Zi Corporation, which provides solutions for mobile search, text input and advertising. Under the terms of the new arrangement, Zi Corporation will continue supplying Sony Ericsson with both predictive text and handwriting recognition technology.
Zi says the new arrangement is expected to generate multi-million dollars in revenues for the company over the remainder of the contract, representing an approximate increase of 33% in revenues per year from shipments of Zis predictive text software, when compared to the previous year of the agreement. The new arrangement will also result in an approximate increase of over 80% for such revenues in the second half of 2008, when compared to the first half of 2008.

Valista, which provides digital commerce software and managed services, has won the Global Telecoms Business Award for Wireless Network Infrastructure Innovation 2008 for its Operator Payments Service. Valista says the Operator Payments Service is being used by mobile operators worldwide to enable their off-portal business. Key customers include U.S. Cellular and Cricket Communications.

Syniverse Technologies and Colibria have announced a messaging hub solution that they say will deliver seamless interworking between operators for IM(Instant Messaging), SMS, MMS and presence applications. Syniverse provides technology and business solutions for the global telecommunications industry, while Colibria provides IM and presence solutions.
The new model focuses on solving the complex issues of interconnecting mobile operators for the exchange of IM, SMS and MMS traffic as well as subscriber presence information. The solution will ensure that communication can occur regardless of a subscribers location or message type. 
This IM-focused messaging hub is one of several approaches that Syniverse is developing in partnership with leading companies around the globe to provide mobile operators with seamless interoperability to deliver the voice and data services demanded by subscribers at ever-increasing rates.

Xirgo Technologies, a global wireless solution provider, has placed a $6.5 million (3.5 million) order for modules from Telit Wireless Solutions, the machine-to-machine (M2M) mobile technology arm of Telit Communications PLC.
Xirgo and Telit will combine M2M technologies to create customized applications that they say will dramatically change the way companies do business. Xirgos new customers extend across a variety of industries, including innovative applications for the consumer retail market, automotive sales, and fleet management, among others.

Juniper Research has released its report Mobile User Generated Content: Dating, Social Networking & Personal Content Delivery 2008-2013 (Second Edition).  The 200+ page report includes 52 tables and 38 charts, and profiles 33 key companies and organisations. It also has four forecasting chapters providing market projections until 2013.Six-year forecasts  are offered across eight key regions for end-user revenues, advertising revenues, and total service revenues. The report costs 1,750 for a single-user licence, 2,500 for a 2-5 user licence, or 3,750 for an enterprise-wide licence.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has outlined its Mobile Marketing Forum (MMF) agenda for October, which includes events in Budapest, Hungary, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Topic highlights across the events include cross media integration; social community campaigns; leveraging mobile for brand awareness, loyalty and direct response; mobile analytics and integration; business models; the mobile Internet; mobile usage; and the iPhones impact on mobile adoption.
Confirmed speakers at the events include Jana Eisenstein from Screentonic, Stacey Fassberg from Celltick, Khurram Hamid from Procter and Gamble, David Barker from Nokia Ad Business, and Tom Daly from The Coca-Cola Company
The events take place in Budapest from 7 8 October, and in Buenos Aires on 14 October. Further fixtures for 2008 will include the North American and Asia Pacific Mobile Marketing Forums. The North American MMF, held in San Diego on 13 November, also incorporates the MMA Global Awards Ceremony.

Mobile ad sales agency 4th Screen Advertising  has expanded its sales team to 15 with the appointment of Mark Angell as Director of Strategic Sales, and Andy Beames as Account Manager. Angell joins 4th Screen from Guardian News and Media (GNM), where his most recent position was Newspaper Sales Manager, was responsible for leading the advertising sales effort across the newsprint products.   
Beames, joins from Orange, where he was a Client Sales Manager at Orange, responsible for the sale of online display and sponsorship advertising to key clients on on Orange.co.uk and the Orange Ad Network. He also worked on Oranges mobile advertising offering 

A survey of 31,000 mobile phone buyers carried out by customer review website Reevoo.com has identified what consumers like most and least about mobile phones.
Surprisingly, features did not come top of either list. The Best Bit list was headed by Looks Good (15.3%), followed by Compact (14.1%) and Camera/Video (10.4%). Top of the Worst Bit list was Battery Life (14.8%), Navigation/Keypad (10.2%) and Software (4.2%).
Reevoo says it is now working with a number of major manufacturers to use such findings to help R&D departments to develop future products.

Gamos Technology Solutions (GTS) has released Colomba Wate (Colombo Ride), a free Java mobile game available to mobile users in Sri Lanka on any network. GTS says it is the first mobile game to be launched in Sri Lanka.
The game revolves around a taxi driver who must find passengers to make a living. The twist is that the environment depicted in the game is an almost identical map of Colombo, the business capital of Sri Lanka. This enables businesses in and around Colombo to place ads inside the game. Local audio clips have also been embedded in the game. Theres more information here. 

Regenersis plc, which provides product lifecycle management services to the consumer and commercial technology markets, has announced preliminary results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2008, with revenues up 9% to 105 million and headline operating profit increased to 5.8 million. Cash generation from operations further improved to 13.4 million, eliminating debt to end the year with a net cash balance of 0.7 million. The company also posted 15 million of new business and 20 million of renewed business during the year ending 30 June 2008.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) company InnoPath Software has extended its reach with OMA-DM client support on the Casio GzOne Boulder. The GzOne, recently launched into the North American market, is a ruggedized, field-force optimized phone with CDMA/EVDO, video, GPS, and push-to-talk capabilities. InnoPath says its client, coupled with the companys server at the wireless operator, helps avoid device recalls and provides a better end-user experience with Firmware updates Over The Air (FOTA).
   
WIN plc has announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2008. Turnover was identical to the hirst half of 2007 at 19.4 million, but gross profit was 13.6% up at 5 million. In August, WIN launched a video streaming platform for T-Mobile Germanys 38 million subscribers , while earlier this month, it launched Sony Ericssons PlayNow web portal, providing over 1 million tracks of DRM-free music. The company has is also investing 2.5 million in the development of a Next Generation Messaging Platform.

kooaba has announced that its kooaba search iPhone application is available for download from the Apple App Store. The application enables iPhone users to scan posters of current movie releases in order to receive relevant information about the movie on their iPhone. This includes trailers, reviews, information about actors, or links to merchandising material.
kooaba says that recognition of CD covers, DVD covers and games will be added to the service in a few months. kooabas search service currently focuses on the German speaking market, but will be expanded to other countries in the near future.   

OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform), the mobile operator-sponsored organisation has joined the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), in order to further the work of its BONDI project, which aims to make mobile web surfing safe and easy for mobile users. OMTP says membership of W3C will allowit  to make submissions directly into the key W3C activities affecting BONDI. These will, for example, include work within the W3C Web Applications working group helping to standardise widgets. By working with W3C, OMTP says it will be able to help deliver consistency and security and assist in making web services ubiquitous across different handsets.

i-Free, which provides mobile content in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, has designed an interactive WAP portal for Swedish mobile operator TELE2 in Croatia. i-Free describes the wap.tele2.hr portal as a multi-service social utility. Subscribers can create blogs and photo galleries, publish and share their own content, read and comment on other peoples blogs, meet each other in chat rooms and forums, and access a catalogue of paid-for and free, branded mobile content.