Animated holiday MMS introduced

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 17 Nov 2005

Exactmobile has launched a messaging system that allows users to create a 30-second animated video clip that is sent via MMS.

The messaging program has been licensed from South African company Axon Wireless, which developed it in conjunction with a Limestream, a UK-based company, says Exactmobile`s entertainment and portal director, Gavin Penkin.

Called Yoyap, the messaging system provides a range of animated faces to which the user can assign emotion. Yoyap is being launched with seven characters, but Penkin says these will be expanded to 20 in a few months.

The user records a voice message, selects the face and emotions they want to convey, and sends. When the recipient opens it, the animated face speaks the voice message the sender recorded.

The Yoyap application is only supported by mobile phones with the Symbian operating system. However, the application is being converted into a server-based application, which will allow anyone with an MMS-enabled phone to receive messages, says Axon Wireless MD Justin Lipshitz.

Penkin says he expect this service to be very popular, especially among the youth market. "Right now adult content is driving MMS. Yoyap will start to make inroads so that mass consumers start driving it and there is something for everyone," he says.

While video conferencing has not yet become widely used in the country, entertainment-driven applications would show the potential that exists, driving an increased usage, he says.

Video ringtones

Exactmobile also launched video ringtones that allow users to set a video clip as their ringtone. When the phone rings, the application launches a video on the phone`s screen, along with the caller`s number.

Exactmobile has licensed 100 videos from record labels to launch the service and is selling them at R20 each, Penkin says. He says the high cost is due to the exorbitant licence fees that mobile content providers have to pay.

"Until the big players in the mobile content market put their foot down, recording companies will continue to rape the industry for as much money as they can," he says.