FunMail Officially Launches Its MMS Service On NTT DoCoMo's i-mode; FunMail MMS Joins the Company of Disney, CNN and Bandai as an ``Official'' NTT DoCoMo i-mode Site.Business Editors TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2002 FunMail officially launched its multimedia messaging (MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) An enhanced transmission service that enables graphics, video clips and sound files to be transmitted via cellphones. Developed as part of the 3GPP project, MMS phones are generally backward compatible with SMS and EMS. ) service on NTT NTT Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation NTT New Technology Telescope NTT National Technology Transfer, Inc NTT Name That Tune (TV game show) NTT National Tree Trust NTT Number Theoretic Transform DoCoMo's i-mode network today. The FunMail service allows i-mode users to send engaging color animations to each other for a monthly fee of 200 yen, plus 50 yen per month for their favorite character. The service is billed through DoCoMo's billing service directly to an end user's monthly statement, enabling FunMail to directly bill a base of over 30,000,000 i-mode users. Using the service, Japanese users can enter a short message in either Japanese or English into their i-mode phone, which is then "translated" into a relevant animation starring their favorite premium characters such as Hello Kitty, Garfield, South Park and others. Using FunMail's patent-pending MMS rendering engine, users can edit the background, story or character in each MMS message, customizing it before they send it to their friends. The FunMail messages can be terminated on either another i-mode phone, or on a desktop computer. "I-mode has always represented the future," said FunMail CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Adam Lavine. "The elegant form factor and dazzling color screens makes i-mode a perfect platform for us to launch our multimedia messaging services (messaging) Multimedia Messaging Services - (MMS) A feature of some mobile telephones that allows them to send messages including text, sound, images and video. ." FunMail animations are under 10k in size, and generally take only a few seconds to transmit, even on a 2G network. The user impact, however, is quite strong, enabling a very compelling multi-frame color animation. Even under GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) The first high-speed digital data service provided by cellular carriers that used the GSM technology. GPRS added a packet-switched channel to GSM, which uses dedicated, circuit-switched channels for voice conversations. networks, the phones will only accept files in the 30k to 50k size, making animation the perfect wireless visual communication medium. "Animated Messaging is the killer app A software application that is exceptionally useful or exciting. Killer apps are innovative and often represent the first of a new breed, and they are extremely successful. For example, in the late 1970s, the VisiCalc spreadsheet was the killer app for the Apple II, providing reason for multimedia messaging," said FunMail CEO Adam Lavine. "This commercial deployment on I-mode gives us strong market validation of our approach." For more information, visit www.funmail.com. About FunMail: FunMail Inc. provides carrier-grade content-driven visual messaging solutions for wireless operators worldwide. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., FunMail's unique patent-pending technology integrates with existing SMS (1) (Storage Management System) Software used to routinely back up and archive files. See HSM. (2) (Systems Management Server) Systems management software from Microsoft that runs on Windows NT Server. and MMS messaging networks to upgrade their capabilities to include visual messaging. |
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