We have covered the Sprint / HTC EVO already in a previous post, the highly anticipated smartphone is set to be released June 4th and is only available on the Sprint Network.
We are pleased and honored to announce that Five Mobile has be named to Branham Groups Top 25 Canadian ICT Up and Coming companies! [Read more here]
Check out the piece on ScoreMobile FC, which we developed for ScoreMedia!
Susan Krashinsky Media Reporter Globe and Mail Update Published on Monday, May. 31, 2010 7:29PM EDT Last updated on Monday, May. 31, 2010 9:01PM EDT
When the World Cup kicks off in South Africa next week, sports fans will be united in their passion for the beautiful game. There’s just one problem for the media companies that serve those fans: The world doesn’t agree on what the sport is called.
For those outside North America (and purists within), it’s football, period. But when Score Media Inc. set out a few months ago to create a mobile phone application for footy fans everywhere, it faced a marketing conundrum. A “soccer” app would leave the rest of the world confused; a “football” app would have Canadians and Americans thinking touchdowns and tackles.
“It’s incredibly difficult for North American media companies to break into Europe for that very reason,” said Dale Fallon, the director of Score Media’s mobile division. But that is nevertheless the goal of the small Toronto-based company, which owns specialty TV network The Score. Its vehicle for a European landing is called ScoreMobile FC, which is to be released for iPhone and BlackBerry by the end of this week.
The company achieved unusual international success with its first application, ScoreMobile, which is the most popular app in the sports and recreation category for the BlackBerry – more popular even than the apps created by Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports and Major League Baseball.
Among Canadian iPhone users, it’s the No. 5 free sports app, according to stats from iTunes; the most popular is TSN’s. (TSN is owned by CTVglobemedia Inc., which also owns The Globe and Mail.)
Almost two-thirds of ScoreMobile’s total downloads come from the U.S. But the application has not brought in as many users from Europe. Score executives judged that the World Cup would be the perfect time to try to change that. While it is far too early to know whether it will pay off for Score Media, the move illustrates the way in which some media outlets are turning to mobile viewers in a search new revenues and growth as the traditional television audience fragments.
The FC app will be translated into French, Spanish and German by this fall; other languages, including Portuguese, will follow. The financial motivation is there: The Score only has so much airtime to sell TV advertising. Mobile platforms can court more digital ad sales, and can use “geo-fencing” target ads according to users’ locations.
In 2009, just under 10 per cent of Score Media’s $24-million in advertising revenue came from digital sales, including the small banners stamped at the top of the phone screen in its apps. The company’s goal is to grow its mobile revenues.
The popularity of ScoreMobile builds on the TV channel’s roots. When it launched in 1997, before there were anchors and highlights, it was essentially a sports ticker with scores and game information for die-hard fans. The app satisfies the same need for instant information, with scores and stats for baseball, soccer, football, hockey, basketball, golf, and car racing.
But both the TV channel and the mobile app differentiate themselves from other sports media brands through their approach to another side of the athletic world: gambling.
“We have been more forthright [than other sports channels] about the fact that people wager on games, whether it’s you and me betting privately, or whether it’s a provincially-funded sports lottery, or whether it’s offshore or whatever,” said Score Media chairman and chief executive officer John Levy. The app includes not only scores but also betting odds and information about athlete injuries.
“We do it very carefully because we don’t want to go offside, and everything we do is entirely legal,” said Mr. Levy.
The perk of expanding into international markets, Mr. Levy said, is that many of them are not as legally restrictive. Once ScoreMobile FC builds an international presence, he said, Score Media could be exploring a move into the highly lucrative betting business itself.
“By us now being in those markets, we’ll be able to deal with it in a more direct fashion,” he said. “…Who knows what that might lead to down the road. If we have the best vehicle to promote it, and to advertise it, then we should seriously look at stuff like that.”
Further apps that target an individual sport are on the way. Score Media is drawing up plans for one that caters to cricket fans in India. The original ScoreMobile app had 1.5 million downloads in its first three months and now, one year after its launch, it has been downloaded 3.5 million times. Score Media has a partnership with CBC to broadcast World Cup highlights and beyond the tournament, will include 30 leagues in its FC app. The international reach of The Beautiful Game gives the company a shot at building out its mobile strategy even further.
“In two to five years from now, we fully expect to be generating more revenue from our non-TV platforms than from our TV platform, and at much higher multiples,” Mr. Levy said. “We’re looking to be recognized as a sports media company with a global reach.”
Toronto has become a hotbed of app development for mobile phones, churning out everything from productivity apps for businesses to sports and entertainment apps. The iPad’s bigger screen opens up even greater possibilities and Toronto developers are eager to seize the opportunities. The city is well-placed to do so. Its bustling film, Internet, design and creative industries have merged around the city’s universities and institutions to create an ideal ecosystem for app development, says Krista Jones, who heads the information and communication technology division at the MaRS Discovery District, a small business incubator. “Toronto is an app hub because we have deep roots in both the creative and design industries, and the technical industries,” she says. “It’s the perfect mix for apps.”
Ameet Shah, Jeff Zakrzewski, Oliver Tabay and Troy Hubman of Five Mobile Inc., have developed apps for Sony, Disney and mapquest and are currently developing new apps for the iPad. They are seen outside their Toronto office on May 28, 2010. JENNIFER ROBERTS FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Five Mobile Inc.
Founders: Troy Hubman, Ameet Shah, Oliver Tabay, Jeff Zakrzewski
No. of employees: 35
Most popular creation: The Score Mobile for BlackBerry
Shortly before Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy in September, 2008, the financial giant pulled the plug on one of its many investments: Tira Wireless, a mobile app developer with a large office in Toronto. Five of the employees started the aptly named Five Mobile and never looked back. “When we started the company we had our first four contracts waiting to be signed as we were waiting for our incorporation papers,” says Ameet Shah, a Silicon Valley veteran. The company has grown to become one of the city’s larger developers. From NHL games for simple cellphones, the firm went on to create a popular BlackBerry app that aggregates sports results for The Score television network, as well as apps for Walt Disney Co., Sony Pictures Entertainment and MapQuest.
Our own Ameet Shah weighs in on the FTC’s review of Google’s acquisition of mobile advertiser AdMob.
Google’s $750 million acquisition of AdMob, the fast-growing mobile-advertising startup, appears to be running aground in Washington, D.C. Antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission have reportedly given the deal more time for a review. Some mobile developers, though, are raising questions about the FTC’s review process and asking whether Google’s getting a fair shake.
The deal is unquestionably contentious: Google, the dominant player in online advertising, is seeking to expand its presence with AdMob, one of the
top mobile-advertising networks. (Estimates of AdMob’s market share vary wildly but range as high as 62 percent.)
But VentureBeat has spoken with several developers who say FTC investigators who contacted them about the deal seemed to have their minds made up.
Will Price, CEO of WidgetBox, a San Francisco-based rich-media advertising startup, said that when an FTC investigator contacted him, he expressed his view that the mobile-advertising market is far from mature and that blocking the deal could harm an emerging industry. But he’s not sure he was heard.
“There’s a bit of a subtext, an agenda that comes across when talking to them,” said Price. According to Price, the FTC later sent him a transcript which omitted most of his views favoring the Google-AdMob deal and asked him to sign it and swear to its accuracy. Only after he protested did they send a more complete transcript for him to sign.
Ameet Shah, cofounder of Toronto, Canada-based Five Mobile, reported a similar experience. “It seemed strange, like I was being led to an already-defined conclusion,” he said. “They were definitely looking for reasons to investigate further.”
Are politics at play? The White House is often portrayed as being close to Google, a company Barack Obama praised as a presidential candidate. He assiduously courted the YouTube audience and even hired some Googlers, such as Katie Stanton, who’s now working in the State Department.
But Google’s growing dominance of search and online advertising — and through it, the future of media — has alarmed the government’s antitrust cops. Before her appointment as the head of antitrust enforcement at the Department of Justice, Christine Varney characterized Google as an antitrust “problem.”
That philosophy may be a factor in the government’s AdMob investigation.
“It seems like the FTC’s interest here in terms of Google seems to be much larger than this AdMob deal,” said Five Mobile’s Shah. “They’re more concerned with Google as a whole.”
The developer community is divided on the deal. Simon Buckingham, who writes a blog about mobile apps called Appitalism, has raised a number of questions about a combined Google-AdMob’s dominance of the field. But the concern expressed by some developers is whether the FTC is getting a full picture of opinions about the deal in the market — or if it’s even interested in doing so.
Shah also said the FTC personnel he spoke to didn’t seem familiar with mobile business models — like the fact that many apps, instead of relying on advertising revenues, offer free versions and entice users to upgrade, the so-called “freemium” business model. The Google-AdMob deal would presumably have no effect on such developers, Shah pointed out. ”My feeling was that the people I was speaking to did not have enough information to make a decision,” said Shah.
Widgetbox’s Price concurred: “The idea that [FTC investigators] understand this market well enough to make a decision strikes me as absurd.”
Hence, perhaps, the decision to extend the deal’s review period. The Google-AdMob deal may still go through. Apple’s acquisition of AdMob competitor Quattro Wireless certainly helps Google’s case. And Google, for one, is publicly displaying the Googleplex’s trademark sunny optimism.
“We’re continuing to talk with the FTC about our acquisition of AdMob,” said spokesman Adam Kovacevich. “We’re confident that they’ll conclude that the rapidly growing mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive after this deal closes.”
And if it does? Then questions will linger about the FTC’s aggressive stance in its investigation — and whether the next Google deal will proceed like an inquiry — or a witch hunt.
If you haven’t already heard about Square yet, this interesting little service is trying to revolutionize merchant services by bringing a mobile point of sale system to your iPhone, iPad, iTouch, and Android devices. The service works with a simple card reader attachment [pictured] that plugs into the head phone jack of your device, and voila you are now able to receive mobile payments. The costs are minimal at 2.75%, coupled with a 15 cent surcharge. Now all you have to do is turn your credit card over to the creepy guy who sells stuff out of the the trunk of his car! Check out the Video below!
Fresh off the heels of the OS 6 unveiling, the Blackberry Bold 9800 Slider shows up in the wild. Check out the first known video of the rumored device!
In a press release today, Apple announced that sales for the iPad have reached 1 million units in just 28 days!
While everyone has an opinion on the device, some good, some bad, 
no one can deny these impressive numbers. If we were to put things in perspective and take a look at the jewel of planet Apple, the iPhone, it took more than twice as long (74 days) before 1 million units were sold. Read the full press release below.
CUPERTINO, California—May 3, 2010—Apple® today announced that it sold its one millionth iPad™ on Friday, just 28 days after its introduction on April 3. iPad users have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.
“One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”
iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.*
Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®.
*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
Its been a REALLY busy last few months here at Five Mobile… so busy that we’ve been neglecting our loyal blog readers!
We’re happy to say that we finally have an application that is featured in an Apple commercial! The ecobee application can be seen in various Apple commercials throughout the olympics. Check it out!
