Industry Briefs
NEWS
KEEPIN’ UP ON COLLEGE SPORTS. Remember the days of keeping tabs
on your favorite college sports teams with a portable, battery-powered radio?
Those days are officially over. SmartVideo Technologies (a live broadcasting and
on-demand video service provider;
www.smartvideo.com)
and CSTV Networks (the multimedia sports network concern;
www.cstv.com)
have signed an agreement to deliver college sports games, events, news, and sports
analysis via video and audio programming to mobile devices such as cell phones,
PDAs, and other Wi-Fi-connected devices. Now campus fans can track their schools’
games and scores from anywhere.
UPLOAD SCHOOL LOGOS. In other
related news, mobile content publisher Smartphones Technologies (
www.smartphones.com),
and licensing-andrights clearance agency Collegiate Images (
www.collegiateimages.com),
have announced mobile sports content-licensing agreements with more than 30 colleges
and universities in the US. The agreement will provide to college sports fans
official licensed wallpaper, animated screensavers, mobile video clips, voice
(speech) ringtones and ring-back tones, text-messaging campaigns, and mobile video-like
games.
SPEAKING OF MOBILE DEVICES… According to M:Metrics
(
www.mmetrics.com), a syndicated
research services firm, students are the top consumers of mobile content, and
mobile browser usage has risen 8.7 percent in July. According to the latest M:Metrics
study, full-time students with jobs are 42 percent more likely to use mobile e-mail
than the average subscriber, and 23 percent are more likely to do so than respondents
who are just full-time workers. The benchmark survey also shows increases in usage
across all content categories—text messaging, retrieving news via a browser,
checking personal e-mail, instant messenging, ringtones, and more.
HOT
NEW TECHNOLOGY TOUR. Students will literally have their hands full this
autumn during the Fall 2005 TechKnowOverload Tour (
www.tkotour.com).
The tour, sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA;
www.ce.org),
and managed by marketing firm Mr. Youth (
www.mryouth.com),
will give students the opportunity to check out the latest consumer electronics
products and technologies. The tour will visit 24 colleges on the East Coast.
ALL-IN-ONE CAMPUS CARDS. Hello, do-everything campus cards. Financial
services goliath Wachovia Corp. (
www.wachovia.com)
has selected software from Dynamic Card Solutions (DCS;
www.cardwizard-dsi.com),
a financial software application provider, to enable the issuance of all-in-one
campus cards that students can use as ID, ATM, and Visa debit card. With it, say
DCS spokespeople, colleges can “have everything at their fingertips.”
NEW ADMISSIONS WEB SITE. To power-up its online presence, the
University of Maryland has launched its new admissions Web site
using ActiveAdmissions from LiquidMatrix (
www.liquidmatrix.com).
The technology will enable administrators to reach out to more prospects with
target messages. Meanwhile,
Gustavus Adolphus College (MN) has
expanded its Web recruiting with the same tools; both schools will benefit from
one-to-one communication with prospective students.
PEOPLE PASSING THE
TORCH. Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS;
www.copiers.toshiba.com)
has announced the planned retirement of President/CEO Dennis E. Eversole, after
a 21-year career at Toshiba. Simultaneously, Richard K. Taylor, who was senior
VP of Sales, Marketing, and Business Operations, will step in, assuming the role
of president and CEO.