July 4, 2005
Use This Phone to Find a Date. Or See Videos. Or Even Talk.
The offerings planned by Amp'd Mobile, a new kind of cellular service, at the outset late this year include full-motion video of news, sports, concerts and other live events, as well as movie and TV clips and music videos, reports The New York Times. Added to the mix will be high-speed music downloads, 3-D games, video blogs, a dating service, SMS and ring tones and wallpaper.
Multimedia content from Amp'd will play on its phones - made by Kyocera and Motorola, and customized by Amp'd - as well as on the PC's of subscribers.
Amp'd refers to itself as an M.V.N.O., or mobile virtual network operator, meaning that it will use another company's network to operate: the Verizon Wireless EV-DO service.
Peter Adderton, founder of the company, said plans for his service included mobile broadcasting units that would upload video clips, some of them in real time, for subscribers to receive. There will be live text chats with athletes it sponsors in extreme sports like motocross.
Amp'd phones are expected to have an initial price of around $100, less than typical 3G handsets.
Amp'd also plans to create a circle of cellphone-based video bloggers by encouraging subscribers to post short videos and text made with their phones or computers.
The service is "taking the freedom of the Web world to the handset," said said David Sypniewski, senior director for media development.
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