ShoZu Signs Amp'd Mobile as First US Mobile Operator Partner, Using BREW Platform to Deliver Multimedia Sharing Service
ShoZu Inc. today announced a distribution agreement that will make
its effortless Share-It uploading service available on phones sold by
Amp'd Mobile, America's leading mobile entertainment company targeted
at youth and young professionals. The Share-It service will expand
Amp'd Mobile's social networking feature set by enabling subscribers
to easily transmit photos and video clips to nearly two dozen media
sharing, blogging and community sites using a single ShoZu application
on the handset.
Amp'd Mobile is ShoZu's first mobile operator partner in the U.S.
and the second to be announced in a month, following a similar
agreement with Austrian carrier Hutchison 3G Austria. Both contracts
mark important building blocks in ShoZu's plan to bring its
handset-based multimedia services to the mass market through carrier
affiliations.
The Amp'd Mobile pact also extends ShoZu's support to the BREW
platform for the first time, adding to ShoZu's established support for
Windows Mobile, Symbian and Java environments. The handset software
that powers the ShoZu service will be distributed through Amp'd Live.
With the Share-It service, Amp'd Mobile subscribers will be able
to upload images to online communities ranging from Flickr and YouTube
to Buzznet, Kodak EasyShare Gallery, MSN's Windows Live Spaces,
Textamerica, Webshots, Pikeo and/or Moblog.uk. Other choices include
personal blogging sites Blogger, TypePad and WordPress;
citizen-contributed photojournalism sites CNN, the BBC and Scoopt; and
any FTP or email address. ShoZu continues to add new sites on a
regular basis.
The ShoZu application will be available from the Amp'd Live
catalog on the carrier's website for a flat monthly fee early in the
second quarter. Airtime required for image transfers will be free
because Amp'd Mobile's service packages include unlimited data plans,
allowing users to upload as many images as desired without incurring
additional charges.
"ShoZu's Share-It service enables easy entry to all social
networks through their intuitive, single access gateway. Most
important to users is the ability to set their own preferences," said
Brian Mullen, Director of Content Business Development for Amp'd
Mobile.
"Amp'd clearly understands what its target audience wants and has
put a high priority on offering the best possible social networking
experience," said Bob Morgan, Vice President, North America, for
ShoZu. "Their choice of ShoZu to provide social networking and media
sharing services again highlights the value of our open gateway
strategy, support for a wide spectrum of Web destinations, and ease of
navigation for end users."
ShoZu's Share-It service enables users to upload photos and video
clips captured on their camera phones with fewer clicks, at higher
resolution and to more Web destinations than any other method. Users
also have the unique ability to add titles or tags after uploading,
exchange comments between Web and phone, and upload any image to
multiple destinations for a single data fee in cases where carrier
charges apply. Uploads automatically resume from the point of failure
in the event of a dropped connection, eliminating user frustration.
ShoZu also offers 'ZuCasts' consisting of multimedia content from
ShoZu partners that can be delivered to the mobile phone by
subscription. ShoZu's proprietary data replication technology allows
files to be downloaded invisibly in the background without the need
for users to open a mobile phone browser, perform complex multi-click
navigation sequences, wait for pages to load, interrupt phone calls,
start over in the event of a dropped connection, or sync to a PC.
About ShoZu
ShoZu is a mobile media service that enables consumer and media
companies to interact with customers on their mobile phones through
fast, easy exchange of multimedia content and web-based services. The
company's patented technology allows consumers to download and upload
photos, videos, music, text and other digital content to and from the
handset without the need to open a mobile browser, wait for pages to
load, interrupt phone calls, start over in the event of a dropped
connection, or sync to a PC. Services include innovative ZuCasts that
deliver content to the handset automatically, one-click uploading of
camera phone images and video clips to community websites and other
destinations, and two-way mobile-to-web messaging and interactivity.
For more information, visit www.shozu.com/aboutus.