Fox Mobile Entertainment (FME) is an American mobile content provider, including wireless carriers and handset manufacturers. It provides content from shows airing on Fox such as Family Guy and from films produced by 20th Century Fox such as Ice Age 3: Age of the Dinosaurs.^[2] Fox Mobile Entertainment also created American Idol's text-message voting system.^[2] It was originally founded in 2005.

References[link]

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Its introduction provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Tagged since December 2007. It is written like a personal reflection or essay rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. Tagged since October 2009. Its introduction may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines. Tagged since December 2007. It may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since December 2010.

Mobile entertainment comprises a range of activities associated with mobile electronics^[1]. The list is constantly expanding.

Definition[link]

According to Moore and Rutter^[2], a primary difficulty when researching mobile entertainment is that of definition. It is not always apparent to consumers precisely what ‘mobile entertainment’ is. The problem of producing common understandings of mobile entertainment has been previously highlighted by the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) when stating that two different industries make up the mobile entertainment industry: entertainment and telecommunications^[3]. Mobile entertainment is created as the convergence of both industries. Each of these worlds speaks a different language, and holds different assumptions about the nature of its work^[3].

MGAIN^[4] assumes mobile entertainment includes any leisure activity undertaken via a personal technology, which is, or has the potential to be, networked and facilitates transfer of data over geographic distance either on the move or at a variety of discrete locations. While workable, the definition does not cover whether mobile entertainment services must interact with service providers or telcos. It does not cover whether such service would incur a cost upon usage. If mobile entertainment were said to be a subset of mobile commerce, hence, it must involves transaction of an economic value. The social aspects of mobile entertainment are hidden within the phrase ‘any leisure activity’^[2].

This article presents a framework to examine mobile entertainment from multiple points of views. This allows future research to be conducted with the clarity of distinguishing mobile entertainment services of different domains.

Review and Redefine[link]

Wong and Hiew^[6] examine multiple perspectives from various players of the value web as well as researchers to bridge the gaps found in various definitions in order to reach a common understanding. The authors consider the following as key considerations in determining whether a mobile service falls under mobile entertainment category: a form of leisure activity, interaction with service providers, utilization of wireless telecommunication networks, and transaction which incur a cost upon usage. To understand mobile entertainment, three different segments are suggested in the following figure. Each segment suggests a specific set of theories. It is implicit throughout the study that mobile entertainment is any type of leisure activity on the move. Segment 1 consists of intersection between mobile commerce and mobile entertainment, sitting on top of wireless telecommunication networks. In other words, mobile entertainment services in segment 1 must be subset of mobile commerce, which involves exchanges of monetary value and interaction with service providers. Segment 2 covers mobile entertainment services which utilize wireless telecommunication networks, but do not incur a cost upon usage and do not interact with service providers. For example, one may play multiplayer mobile games with friends via Bluetooth. Segment 3 involves mobile entertainment which does not require wireless connection and transaction of an economic value. For example, one may play preinstalled single player games on mobile phone.

Transmission of Mobile Entertainment[link]

Mobile Entertainment via SMS has expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia and it is still the main technology bearer to send mobile entertainment messages to consumers. Because SMS is the main messaging technology used by young people, it is still the most effective way of reaching this target market. SMS is also ubiquitous, reaching a wider audience than any other technology available in the mobile space (MMS, bluetooth, mobile e-mail or WAP). More important than anything else, SMS is extremely easy to use, what makes adoption increase day by day.

What enhances the consumer confidence in using SMS for mobile entertainment applications is the reliability of the service. This means, if a consumer has ordered a new wallpaper or ringtone, this has to work properly, in a speedy and reliable way. Therefore it is important to choose the right SMS gateway provider in order to ensure quality-of-service along the whole path of the entertainment SMS until reaching the consumer's mobile.

Scenarios[link]

This section presents a classification of these segments (refer to Mobile Entertainment Framework) to identify relevant categories of mobile entertainment services for this study.

A mobile user connects to the Internet via his WAP-enabled mobile phone, searches for a particular ring tone and downloads it onto his mobile phone. This falls under Segment 1 where this activity utilizes wireless telecommunication networks, incurs a cost upon file download, interacts with service provider and is a form of leisure activity. If he transfers the ring tone to his friend via Bluetooth or infrared, this falls under Segment 2 where such activity still utilizes the wireless network yet does not incur a cost upon file transfer or involves any interaction with service providers. However, if he composes a ring tone (provided if the mobile device supports composing ring tone) and sets it as default ring tone, such activity is still considered as mobile entertainment but it does not utilize the wireless network nor it incurs a cost upon usage. Therefore, this activity falls under Segment 3. Hence, in this scenario, the players in the value web differ in all three scenarios. The definitions for all three cases vary as well. Hence, the model in the abovementioned framework aids the industries to determine appropriate business model to adopt in order to target the right audience.

References[link]