March 28, 2005
Mobile phones may woo women with birth advice
Developers of games and quirky applications for mobile phones will pitch their ideas to the big names in the business at a "code camp" in Florida, reports The Times. The companies, including Orange, Nokia and Symbian, will consider the applications before choosing the best.
Ideas to be put forward at the event, which will take place on April 18 to 20, include a mobile phone application that will help users to lose weight and a satellite navigation program. One developer hopes to woo the female vote with a mobile "ovulation" application that will tell the user when is the best time to try to get pregnant.
For mobile phone companies, the event is serious business. Despite the hype around 3G the technology has failed to take off.
Now, in an attempt to raise the level of interest, the operators are racing against each other to find the applications that will appeal to users — and help them to claw back the billions of pounds that they have spent buying their licences and building their networks.
It is becoming clear that, instead of one killer application, the operators will need constantly to introduce innovative applications to maintain interest in 3G.
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