October 2003. Nokia announces its plans for Visual Radio through a demonstration that showed regular people using their cellphones for purposes far beyond ‘just’ texting and calling. They could receive FM radio broadcasts that came synchronized with live text feeds and interactive visuals. The only problem Nokia faced back then to successfully establish this technology was a decent partner to power the support forum. April 2005. Nokia and HP have reached an agreement.
“Now the Finland-based cell phone maker has teamed up with HP in a backend services contract that extends their previous relationship, builds out a new Web service for mobile phones and creates a revenue sharing scheme that impacts a couple of sectors.”
Also according to InternetNews.com :
“HP will also provide installation, consulting and integration support. In addition, HP said it would host and manage the Visual Radio service using its own platforms. For its part, Nokia said it is committing more resources to provide and continue to develop the Visual Radio technology.”
“Nokia already has FM tuners in some of its cell phones before. But starting with its color screen 7700 series, the handset manufacturer’s service lets the listener interact with promotions, purchase ring tones, buy concert tickets, and get additional content supplied by the station. The service also allows for traffic and weather reports, talk radio and sports broadcasts. Fees would either be based on minutes per data stream as part of a carrier’s plan or as an add-on package, Nokia said. The company said it also plans to make the Visual Radio technology available to other handset manufacturers.”
“We all see that to be successful we have to raise the average investment per the end customer.” – Joy King, Vice President at HP Services.
Read it all on InternetNews.com
Read HP’s Press Memo
Check it out on the Visual Radio Website