T-Mobile has introduced its latest mobile multimedia offering: News Express, an innovative mobile newspaper service, which is delivered directly to your handset.
News Express is made up of four channels: news, sports, weather and entertainment, which are refreshed automatically, twice a day. Each of the two daily editions contains a series of articles covering national and international news and sports updates, showbiz gossip, as well as comprehensive national weather information with three day advanced forecasts for all major cities. Reports are accompanied by relevant full-colour pictures, such as snapshots of stars & starlets, key moments of major sports events, and detailed weather maps. In addition, breaking news alerts are sent ad hoc throughout the week allowing News Express subscribers to have the latest news updates at their fingertips. All reports and breaking news contain links to further information on specific topics, which can easily be accessed via t-zones.
An interactive mobile multimedia experience
News Express is the first European service to use Macromedia’s Flash Lite 1.1 technology allowing News Express subscribers instant access to news anytime, anywhere, as well as easy navigation throughout all available stories. News updates are delivered automatically in the background of the application via relevant software that is either pre-installed or downloaded via t-zones. The customer will therefore be able to read information off-line with no need to connect and no waiting times. An easy to use graphical interface allows News Express subscribers to simply click on an icon to go directly to the latest information, bringing the power of a rich multimedia newspaper experience to the mobile phone.
“News Express is one of the cornerstones of our mobile multimedia product offerings. The service is as easy to read as a newspaper, offers a rich news experience with a slick interactive feel, and our customers can trial it free of charge until the end of October,” comments Sandy Munro, Marketing Director of T-Mobile UK. “Moving forward, we plan on expanding News Express with additional news and magazine content, including mobile versions of popular newspapers, tabloids and lifestyle magazines, effectively creating a mobile news stand.”
Pricing & Availability
Starting this week, News Express is available for download to all T-Mobile UK customers with Nokia 3650, Nokia 6600, Nokia 7610 and Sony Ericsson P900 handsets. Further handsets capable of supporting News Express will be added from September, all of which will come with pre-installed software (no download necessary), enabling customers to trial and use the service ‘out of the box’.
As an introductory offer, News Express will be free of charge to all UK customers until the end of October. After this promotional period, News Express is expected to cost £6.00 per month (minimum one-month subscription), which is less than 10 Pence per edition.