Symbios Group, which developed the mobile magazine, is collaborating with Bend Over in the venture. Subscribers will reportedly be able to view licensed content that includes adult videos, news features, regular short stories, exclusive stills, interviews with leading stars and unique location photography on their cell phones.
Symbios’ Sales Director Martin Montague said, “Increasingly, people live and work with a new set of habits regarding time, using the mobile phone. With this in mind we feel that the services will prove just as popular as the late night subscription or traditional purchase method for adult material via newsstands and TV channels.”
Montague told XBiz, “This is a world-first for the adult industry. We already are in discussions with major non-adult companies who want to use the technology. I’m sure that this model will replace paper-based material over the next 5-15 years,” predicted Montague, who referred to the mobile project as “one-stop shopping.”
“The target market for the mobile magazine is 18-to-45-year-old mobile phone users,” Montague continued. "As for resolution, it depends on the make and model of the mobile phone.”
Mobile operators such as O2 U.K., Orange U.K., T-Mobile Germany, Spain’s Telefonica Moviles and Vodafone Portugal offer adult content services. The Italian operator Wind derives up to 80 percent of its data revenues from its sex channel, dating and flirt Short Messaging Service (SMS) services.
Symbios eventually plans to offer its mobile magazine beyond the British Isles. “The market is very strong in Europe due to the technology. The U.S. will be an emerging market over the next few years,” Montague told XBiz.
Symbios reportedly plans to build and publish a portfolio of unique mobile-based programs aimed at the consumer phone markets in the U.K. The Fareham, England-based company plans to provide licensed programs to other countries. This includes tailoring products geared toward the growing U.S. market.
“Basically the customer subscribes using text, and then our billing system sends them a password and a Wireless Application Protocol address,” Montague told XBiz. “When they access it our WAP site detects what phone is browsing and gives them the best stills or video that the phone can receive so we can cover 100 percent of all color mobiles content,” the Symbios sales director said.
Montague went on to say, “This also applies to 3G phones as well as Java ones. It is possible for every brand or company to have its own mobile magazine. The income is recurring as the customer will get a new one each week until they unsubscribe.”
