Kashminder Singh

How did you guys get into the mobile industry?
Before this, we were both working in corporate finance and securities industry. However, we were also hard core gadget lovers who always ended up buying the latest smartphones and PDAs. We were looking for something to do on our own and we could see that the potential of the mobile industry. We began to explore with other friends including a friend who worked in IT consulting and came up with the idea of Mobile-News.

And what is Mobile News all about.
It’s about bringing news to Malaysians and ultimately others in the world. Malaysians are crazy about news and so we came up with an application that will bring news right onto the screens of PocketPC owners in a simple easy way.

Is this purely a mobile application or is there a version for PCs?
Mobile News is a mobile application. We look at it as a 3G application and in that area, you can say that we are one of the ‘first movers’ in Malaysia.

How does this application work?
Mobile-News is basically an RSS reader that will aggregate news from various sources and bring it on a ticker bar at the bottom of phone screens. Using streaming technology, users will see various headlines scrolling on their phones and they could then click on and read the full news on the Internet. Our news providers benefit because we drive traffic to their web sites.

How much would users have to pay to get this application?
Mobile-News is a free application that will run on any Microsoft Mobile software powered device.

And how will your company make money then?
Through advertising and promotional tie-ups. The application has two scrolling bars. The first will carry news and the second is designed to get promotional messages across.

Why would advertisers be interested in advertising there?
There are many reasons. Firstly, it’s quick and easy tool to get a message across with Mobile-News. If advertisers have a quick message to get across, we are basically the fastest way to do that. They can run promotions effectively too. We can get Flash presentations across quickly as well as mobile vouchers.  There are so many other reasons but I think you get the idea.

Why did you choose to develop on the Microsoft Mobile platform?
Firstly because we believe that it will become a dominant platform among mobile devices. We also found it an easy platform to work on. Plus we got a lot of valuable assistance from Microsoft. And to answer a question your readers will be sure to have; we have no plans to develop versions of Mobile-News for other platforms like Symbian.

So what kind of devices can run your application?
Mobile News will run on any Windows Mobile powered devices like Dopods and O2s as well as PocketPC PDAs.

What kind of news is available on Mobile-News?
For a start, there’s foreign news from portals like MSNBC and local papers like New Straits Times and Berita Harian. We are working to bring more news sources to our users.





Now that you guys have come up with Mobile-News what are your next plans?
We will continue to improve Mobile-News. Next in the pipeline is a Chinese version that will bring to users news from Chinese news portals. We also plan to venture overseas and become a regional force.

How do users get hold of Mobile News?
We are talking to some distributors to pre-load Mobile-News onto their new handsets. Existing Windows Mobile device owners can also download the application from www.mob-news.com