Today at Vortex 2001, the exclusive conclave of Internet, telephone and television networking professionals, Rama Aysola, founder and CEO of AirFlash, Inc., presented a pioneering new communications feature for wireless devices that combines today’s seamless ease of talking over a cell phone with the empowering data from the Internet.

Targeted at mobile carriers and available only from AirFlash as part of the AirFlash SmartZone platform, the mobile groups feature allows a cellular user to create group digital lists with controlled access, either as a closed or open group record. Similar to email group addresses, users can define a set of personal addresses and easily share information within their defined community (family, friends, co-workers etc.), all through a continuous user interface that permits users to move from one query or action to another without leaving their original location.

On stage at Vortex 2001, Aysola demonstrated an example communication between a mobile digital user and his defined "local" group of friends, inviting them, with one message, to join him at a movie later that evening. Once users retrieve their message, they are offered the ability to perform an "action" on that data such as reply or forward the invitation via Short Message Service (SMS) or mobile email, make a phone call if the number is provided, save the location for later retrieval and find other services nearby. One of the recipients was able to get a digital map showing walking directions from his locale to the movie and another was able to find a nearby bar to go to afterward the movie and post the information back to the m-Groups list of recipients.

"Though the industry is learning the lessons of the early WAP deployments, a new sophistication is emerging because the primary focus is shifting away from the technologies and onto what the end-user actually experiences," said Aysola. "A continuous flow of new integrated mobile location-based services will help carriers increase revenue per user, reduce churn rates, differentiate their brand, and build easy-to-use services."

Despite recent warnings from some industry analysts, the mobile data industry continues to grow exponentially. According to a new report by Washington, D.C.-based market research firm The Strategis Group, mobile data will have a U.S. population penetration rate of nearly 60 percent by 2007, about 175 million subscribers.

"AirFlash leverages the precision of geolocation, the power of the Internet, and the global prevalence of the mobile phone to create compelling services for mobile users," commented Jim Forbes, co-producer, DEMO@VORTEX 2001. "We are pleased to have AirFlash to demonstrate its latest location-based services at the Vortex 2001 conference."

For more information:  http://www.airflash.com

Mobileinfo Comments and Advisory: Combining location-based applications with voice communication is compelling but will become common place soon. It is an interesting implementation but there is nothing magical about this offering.