“ninemsn is set to launch mobilise.” Now, look closely at that sentence (or not closely at all, really), and you can guess three things – this development relates to mobile phones, Microsoft, and either Britain or Australia.
The mobile part should be easy to see. As for Microsoft’s involvement, it relates to the “msn” portion of ninemsn’s name, and the company’s “About Us” page confirms, “ninemsn is a 50:50 joint venture between the Microsoft Corporation and Australia’s leading media company, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited.”
On to the Britain-or-Australia bit, then – the spelling of “mobilize” with an “s” is the giveaway, and ninemsn is, in fact, “Australia’s number one interactive media company.”
So at last we can get back to mobilise itself. There’s not a lot of information out there yet – ninemsn hasn’t even written a press release – but Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling describes it as an “ad-supported mobile service.” That support will make mobilise free, and it should feature some video and all the standard mobile goodies (think news, IM, local information, and the like).
It should also be successful, assuming that the goals of Tony Faure, ninemsn’s chief executive, are met; while speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, “he conceded capturing 20 per cent of ninemsn’s 8.3 million unique users within two years was a reasonable target.”
mobilise will go live in August, according to the Herald. In the meantime, we’ll see how many more mobilise-related clues and details we can decipher.
