Highlights offerings and partnerships that enable mobile operators to move
into the era of mobile personalisation
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- This week at Mobile
World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, RealNetworks(R), Inc., (Nasdaq: RNWK) the
digital entertainment services company, will highlight its mobile
entertainment offerings that allow mobile operators to bring subscribers
into the era of mobile personalisation by providing the music, games and
video that subscribers want in order to individualise their mobile
experiences.
Real's CEO, Rob Glaser, will outline the company's Entertainment as a
Service strategy at Billboard and Hollywood Reporter's "Mobile Backstage"
conference (Wednesday, February 13th at 4:45 p.m.), focusing on the ways
mobile operators can increase ARPU by offering mobile entertainment
services to subscribers.
Real announced that it has renewed its Music-on-Demand contract with SK
Telecom for the acclaimed MelOn service. In addition the company is
launching touch-screen support for mobile games -- including for its
upcoming game Little Shop of Treasures which will be one of the first
hidden object games on the mobile platform -- and is highlighting a unique
alliance with Honda which will sponsor a critically-acclaimed game. In
addition, Real will preview the Q2 release of Helix Mobile Server v12.
SK Telecom MelOn Renews Contract
Demonstrating the popularity and success of Real's services for mobile
operators, Real announced the extension of its contract with leading Korean
wireless services provider, SK Telecom, to continue powering its acclaimed
MelOn Service, offering SKT subscribers with the music that they want, when
they want it.
Since November 2004, through its acquisition of WiderThan, Real has
powered the world's first ubiquitous digital music service, SK Telecom's
MelOn. MelOn was the first integrated online and wireless subscription
music service, allowing users to enjoy their music whenever and wherever
they choose by streaming to a PC or downloading tracks to a mobile phone or
portable music device. With the extension of this partnership, Real will
continue to deliver premium digital music services to SK Telecom's
subscribers -- the largest number of digital mobile music subscribers in
Korea.
Touch Screen Support for Mobile Games
The global leader in PC-based casual games, Real is known for its
innovative mobile game titles and technology. With an extensive catalog of
award-winning titles, Real has announced today that more than a dozen
mobile games are now optimized for phones featuring touch screens. Strategy
Analytics forecasts that nearly 30 percent of phones will feature touch
screens by 2010.
In April, RealArcade Mobile will release Little Shop of Treasures, a
hidden object game based on a top-5 most-downloaded game in Real's games
network. Launched in 2007, the franchise has already spawned two sequels
and boasts nearly five million downloads to-date globally. Little Shop will
be the industry's first hidden object game available for the mobile phone
platform with support for more than 800 handsets.
RealArcade Mobile Partners With Honda
In an effort to introduce its popular Playman mobile game character to
an expanded audience, Real's mobile games division and Honda are creating a
unique opportunity to make one of Real's most critically acclaimed mobile
games, Playman Extreme Running, available free of charge with embedded ads
promoting one of Honda's vehicles, the Honda Fit.
Game players can download and play six levels of Extreme Running --
which won Sony Ericsson's first-ever Content Awards late last year and was
given Pocket Gamer's Gold Award -- in exchange for watching brief Honda Fit
advertisements before and during natural breaks in play of the game. In
addition, as players virtually run, somersault and jump through the city
streets of the game, they will pass billboard ads for the Honda Fit.
Announcing Helix Mobile Server v12
Real, with its long heritage in streaming video, also announced that
the next generation of Helix Mobile Server, currently in Beta with leading
European mobile carriers, will be available broadly in Q2 2008, including
new features and performance enhancements that will help operators drive
adoption of video on mobile devices. Topping the list of new features is
Fast Channel Switching and improvements to Rate Adaptation for on-demand
mobile content.
Fast Channel Switching will bring a more "TV like" viewing experience
to subscribers as they change between mobile video "channels," reducing
switch time from 10-15 seconds to just 3-5 seconds, eliminating dead time
between videos. Rate Adaptation improvements for on-demand content will
improve overall end-user quality of service, particularly with fluctuating
networks. The feature automatically delivers the highest bit-rate stream
that can be supported by the network at any given time.
The high quality video delivery of Helix Mobile Server enables mobile
operators worldwide to provide customers with the new video services they
desire. Helix Mobile Server continues to support open standards and
multiple media data types, with broad playback reach to over 175 million
handsets worldwide.
RealNetworks will feature its full range of services -- currently
available through 89 mobile carriers in 44 countries worldwide -- and
products marketed to mobile operators to help them create additional
revenue and value from their subscribers. Real offers a comprehensive
selection of mobile services including Music on Demand, Games, Video,
Personalisation features (such as Ringtones, RBTs and Multimedia Ringback
Services) as well as messaging services. The company also offers packaged
software products for mobile operators who want to manage and deploy their
own solutions.
See Rob Glaser speak at GSMA's Mobile Backstage (brought to you by
Billboard and Hollywood Reporter), Palau Nacional, Wednesday February 13,
2008 at 4:45 p.m.
Find RealNetworks at Mobile World Congress at Hospitality Suite 19 &
25Hall 4, Level 0
RNWK-G
ABOUT REALNETWORKS
RealNetworks, Inc. delivers digital entertainment services to consumers
via PC, portable music player, home entertainment system or mobile phone.
Real created the streaming media category in 1995 and has continued to lead
the market with pioneering products and services, including: RealPlayer(R),
the first mainstream media player to enable one-click downloading and
recording of Internet video; the award-winning Rhapsody(R) digital music
service, which delivers more than 1 billion songs per year; RealArcade(R),
one of the largest casual games destinations on the Web; and a variety of
mobile entertainment services, such as ringback tones, offered to consumers
through leading wireless carriers around the world. RealNetworks' corporate
information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com/company.
RealNetworks, RealArcade, Rhapsody, RealPlayer and the Real logo are
trademarks or registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. or its
subsidiaries.
All other trademarks, names of actual companies and products mentioned
herein are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE RealNetworks, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.realnetworks.com
CONTACT:
In Europe, Kevin Connor of Axicom, +44
791.219.4237 mobile, Kevin.connor@axicom.com; or In Asia, Eric
Suh of RealNetworks, +82 2 2014 5377, eric.suh@ap.real.com; or In
the US, Jennifer Humiston of Shift Communications,
+1-617-779-1812, jhumiston@shiftcomm.com; or Tiffany Dunning of
RealNetworks, +1-206-892-6733, tdunning@real.com
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