Orange teams up with Twitter to enable customers to send and receive Twitter updates from their mobiles via texts

Orange has teamed up with Twitter to enable its customers to send and receive Twitter updates directly from their mobiles using text messaging.

It also sees Orange become the first mobile operator to enable its customers to upload and share photos on the social networking site via MMS.

The partnership has been designed to give Orange customers fast and direct access to Twitter without the need to download specific software or pay extra for services. Customers will be able to update their own tweets, send direct messages to other Twitter users and receive alerts on Twitter activity through text messaging. Alerts will be available for free, with upload text messages included in customers’ bundles or charged at the usual rate.

Twitter, Facebook and future social networking and real-time web apps could "see off email in a decade" according to a British professor.

Professor David Zeitlyn from the University of Kent thinks the meteoric growth of websites like Facebook and Twitter in recent years spells the end of email as the leading form of online communication.

Social networking and real-time web apps are proving to be more appealing to younger users as they are faster and can easily be accessed anywhere on hundreds of mobile phones and devices.

Professor Zeitlyn claims 15 to 24-year-olds Brits already use instant messaging and social networking sites more often than they use email.

The verb, which is used across several social networking sites, has been defined by the dictionary as: "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook."

This year’s list of new words was heavily populated by tech-related words, such as ‘hashtag’ – referring to the way Twitter users tag their material and ‘sexting’ – which is the sending of sexual texts by mobile phone.

Speaking about the verb ‘unfriend’, Christine Lindberg, a language researcher for Oxford's U.S. dictionary, said: “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year."

607.5 million mobile internet users world wide are expected to access social networks from their devices by 2013 according to a new report “Mobile Social networks: Marketing by Location Shows Potential“ from eMarketer. In the US, that percentage is expected to be slightly higher (45%) and represent 56.2 million individuals.

Top Social Networks = Top Mobile Social Networks

Not surprisingly, the report found that the top destinations for mobile social networkers are the same for computer users – underscoring the fact that there is no online-vs.-offline, computer-vs.-mobile distinctions, we have one world with multiple means of communication based on what is most convenient at the time.

Online marketing firm eMarketer projects that the number of subscribers accessing social-networking sites from their mobile devices will grow to 607.5 million, representing 43 percent of the world's mobile Web users. The number of mobile social networkers in the United States is expected to grow to 56.2 million, good for 45 percent of the country's mobile Web user segment, reports FierceMobileContent.



eMarketer senior analyst Noah Elkin says the combination of the two channels represents a good opportunity for online marketing. KoMarketing Associates advises B2B marketing firms to take note of such a forecast.

With social networking becoming so much intertwined with internet usage, and assuming that the mobile internet users form the more tech-savvy among internet users, I would have expected a very high number of mobile internet users to be using the medium to connect to social networks. But that is seemingly not the case. Here are the projected number of mobile social networkers in the near future and the percent of mobile internet subscribers (worldwide) it constitutes

2008 : 76 million (19%)
2009 : 141.4 million (28%)
2010 : 223.4 million (34%)
2011 : 318.3 million (37%)
2012 : 454 million (40%)
2013 : 607.5 million (43%)
2014 : 760.1 million (45%)

Further to my colleague Paul Verna’s post today about the smartphone factor in Twitter usage, I wanted to mention one of the key findings of my recently released “Mobile Social Networks: Marketing by Location Shows Potential” report (full version of the report available here for Total Access subscribers only):

From a usage perspective, mobile users are starting to access social networks with an even greater frequency than PC users, offering a glimpse into a possible future for other online content and media.

The report points to smartphones as the force behind this emerging usage pattern, noting that the contrast in levels of social networking activity between smartphone and non-smartphone users can be dramatic. Just to give a sense, according to comScore, smartphone users in the US indexed five times higher than non-smartphone users in terms of accessing social networking sites or blogs, while in the EU-5, smartphone owners indexed at approximately triple the rate of non-smartphone users for social networking activity.

The number of subscribers accessing social networking sites via mobile device will grow to 607.5 million worldwide by 2013, representing 43 percent of global mobile web users, according to a new forecast issued by eMarketer. Mobile social networkers will grow to 56.2 million in the U.S. by 2013--about 45 percent of the nation's mobile web user segment. eMarketer anticipates mobile social networking will enjoy 46.8 percent CAGR between 2008 and 2014, increasing from 76 million worldwide users to 760.1 million during that seven-year stretch--by 2014, 13.3 percent of all global mobile subscribers will access social media sites.

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By the year 2013, 43% of global mobile internet users (607.5 million people worldwide) will be accessing social networks from their mobile devices, according to a new report from eMarketer, which characterizes mobile and social as still-emerging channels that are each helping drive the adoption of the other.

In the US, mobile social networkers will total 56.2 million by 2013, and will account for nearly half (45%) of the mobile internet user population, eMarketer said.

The report, “Mobile Social networks: Marketing by Location Shows Potential“ also revealed that social networking is one of the primary ways mobile users communicate with each other, and is one of the most significant drivers of internet usage on mobile devices.

In the UK, where it is called Dext, the phone is going to be launched today. Things appear to be going swimmingly.

However across the pond, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said his outfit is in talks with large carriers other than its initial partner T-Mobile USA to sell the gadget, which it calls Cliq in the US. Jha said he is "fairly hopeful we will begin to engage with all the US operators."

While T-Mobile will carry the Cliq in the US it had been thought that this would be an exclusive deal, perhaps with more cash subsidising the gadget.

Now it seems that relationship has either changed or other US telecoms are knocking on Motorola's door wanting a piece of the action.

This can't be much to do with hype. There has been little said in the press about what the phone can do other than basics and the fact that the Android operating system offers social notworking functions.

A key feature of the Cliq or Dext is social networking software dubbed "Motoblur," which syncs a user's phone contacts, emails, posts, feeds and photos from a wide range of messaging and social notworking services such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Gmail

Over the past year, we’ve written frequently about mobile payments startups and the potential future of this technology. Rivals Zong and Boku both offer essentially the same service—the ability to make a payment for a micro-transactions via your mobile phone. And both companies have been growing steadily, with Boku making acquisitions and expanding internationally and Zong picking up traction via a partnership with Facebook.

Today, Zong is upping the ante by offering a subscription service, which lets Zong customers to extend a recurring bill-to-mobile option of up to $9.99 a month. Basically, Zong users can now charge a flat-rate for multiple purchases instead of the existing pay-as-you go model.

Mobile social network Loopt is getting into the real-time game with Pulse, which will bring recommendations for things to do to depending on where you are and what’s popular at the moment.

It pulls in data from content partners like Zagat, Daily Candy and Thrillist along with its own users’ activity to figure out which places are busy. CEO Sam Altman calls it “social local discovery” — where should you go given where you are now and what your friends are doing? They’ve also co-opted the idea of “check-ins,” where you update your location as you get into a place like a restaurant or bar.

Sonico (http://www.sonico.com), the social network of Latin America that organizes people's lives online, announces the appointment of Angel Gambino as its new Vice President, Business Development at Sonico headquarters located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Angel's responsibilities include defining the strategy and developing partnerships with emphasis on increasing multi-device engagement and revenue through content and applications.

“The social fanatic’s dream.”

That’s the tag-line for the Cliq, a new smartphone built by Motorola – and T-Mobile is hoping it will be enough to pry a swath of young consumers away from their iPhones. In a statement timed to coincide with the release of the Cliq, Motorola said that the phone pulls data from “Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, work and personal email,” and “automatically delivered to the home screen of the Cliq in easy-to-view streams.”

The key selling point here is accessibility. With an iPhone, for instance, a Twitter application would remain separate from the MySpace application; the Facebook app would not be integrated with email. The Cliq, which is powered by Google’s Android operating system, uses platform called Motoblur, which Motorola is billing as a social networking “solution.” Feeds from various sites are integrated on the Cliq interface, which could make sorting updates and photos and emails a little easier.

The developers of the iPhone app GasBag, which helps iPhone users find the cheapest gas for their cars, are working on a new mobile friend locator service, Stalqer. This clever and aptly named service has two technologies that are unique, as far as I know, to help it get around two of the big problems found in other friend locators like Foursquare, Loopt, and Google's Latitude.

Problem 1: On the mobile platform that matters, the iPhone, there's no way to do real-time location reporting without running an app all the time, and the iPhone doesn't allow background processes. And even if it did, it would draw down the battery. The Stalqer solution is to create a dummy e-mail account that pings the Stalqer servers whenever the phone polls for mail, which is, by default, every 15 minutes.

Obopay has announced its entrance into the online games market with the immediate availability of its mobile payment solution. Both users and online merchants will experience many advantages by using Obopay's easy, secure and convenient mobile payment service. Users can mobilize their credit or debit card by linking it to their mobile phone number, making it easier and safer than ever to quickly purchase goods online. Online merchants can enjoy better economics and revenue opportunities with Obopay. This mobile payment solution targeted for the social network market is a natural extension of Obopay's existing product offering. There are significant synergies, in terms of demographic and usage patterns, between online gamers and the general mobile payments market.

Social network aggregation is a wonderful idea.

One place from which you can access Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and your tribe of IM buddies, rather than a bunch of separate applications. A great thing on the desktop, and an even greater thing on mobile.

The question is, who'll help you do it? There's a battle brewing, and would you believe it's shaping up as operators versus handset makers? With third-party app developers thrown in for added spice.

Start with the leaked information this weekend about Vodafone 360, which will apparently replace the Vodafone Live portal with an app store platform, but also social network aggregation features, allowing users to access Facebook and Twitter from one place.

Jennifer got married last week, I saw her photo on Facebook. Let’s chat on Windows Live Messenger and discuss our Tokyo holiday plans! Beyonce is coming to town! I heard the latest news on Twitter!

Do these updates sound familiar to you? If so, you’ve already tapped into the marvellous world of social networking to keep in touch with your friends and associates.

Facebook is one of the most successful social networking sites — it’s a place where you can look up long lost friends and meet new ones. Also, you can easily keep up with your friends’ activities by reading their newsfeeds or by viewing their latest photos.

Similarly, you too can use Facebook to post regular updates, share videos, send virtual gifts and play games with your friends.

In an attempt to give the so-called Twitterholics the access to their social networking stream on the go, mobile e-mail and texting supplier Peek has made the addition of the Twitter client to its listings of portable devices - with the launch of the dedicated 'TwitterPeek' in the US markets!

The TwitterPeek is being offered at a $100 cost along with a nearly $8 monthly service charge, or a lifetime service offer for $200, inclusive of the device. Meanwhile, the two other mobile text- oriented devices from Peek include the original $20-priced Peek Classic and the $60-priced Peek Pronto, both of which need a monthly service fee of $15.