3jam SMS 2.0

Thursday, September 27th 2007 - 16:00 CEST - Comments: 0

V irgin Mobile USA, with more than 4.8 million customers, announced the next innovation in one of the world’s most popular mobile services, text messaging, with the launch of 3jam SMS 2.0. The new, free-to-join service debuts today and improves basic text messaging by allowing friends and family to stay connected with group communication, enabling customers to have multi-party text-message conversations. The launch marks the first time a US carrier is introducing multi-party text messaging, thanks to a partnership with San Francisco-based SMS services firm 3jam.

> Lowest retail prices for 3jam SMS 2.0

 

 

Vergin Mobile - 3jam SMS 2

"At Virgin Mobile, we're dedicated to delivering services that fit our customer base, and this new dimension for texting is certainly an ideal one for our customers who want the simplicity and power of group texting," said Dominick Tolli, vice president, Mobile Data Services, Virgin Mobile USA.

 

3jam SMS 2.0 - How it works

3jam SMS 2.0 enables Virgin Mobile customers to send a text message to any number of friends simultaneously, have everyone know who received the message, and allow subsequent replies to go to everyone using SMS. The 3jam application is free and requires no subscription. Standard text messaging rates apply. Virgin Mobile customers can sign up on the menu of their WAP deck or online. The SMS recipients do not need to sign up. "From a business perspective, our goal at 3jam is to help carriers like Virgin Mobile increase revenue from text messaging, and we think that 3jam SMS 2.0 has that potential," said 3jam Founder and CEO Andy Jagoe.

 

SMS - Short Message Service

SMS is by far the most popular non-voice service for mobile subscribers in the US, and according to Pamela Clark Dickson of Informa Telecoms and Media, in 2007 it will generate revenues of $60 billion for carriers worldwide. According to Gartner Dataquest, the number of SMS messages will top 1.8 trillion in 2010. Nick Ingelbrecht, research analyst at Gartner says, "Nobody could have predicted the phenomenal success of SMS, and the race is on to find its successor. Without a doubt, new services are needed, but a clear leader has yet to emerge from the messaging services currently being deployed, such as mobile IM [instant messaging], video messaging, mobile e-mail and unified and integrated messaging."

 

3jam SMS 2.0 services

Consumers have shown interest in 3jam's off-deck service, which, since soft launching in September 2006, has gained hundreds of thousands of monthly active users. These users have discovered 3jam and have taken their "txt" to the next level. Currently, 3jam is building a global service for transiting, billing and clearing multi-party SMS messages, with many additional features to be available soon. The service has grown virally to date and was recently recognized as one of CNET Webware's Top 100 Services of 2007. "Our firm has reviewed dozens of mobile 2.0 services, and 3jam stood out because of their ability to enhance communications in a simple yet effective way. At the heart of mobile devices, people want to communicate better, faster and more simply with their friends and family," said 3jam investor Tim Chang, partner at Norwest Venture Partners, which, along with New Enterprise Associates, led a four million dollar round of funding for the company in July 2007.

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