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Qualcomm Wants Marketers To Take Mobile Content Off-Deck

Qualcomm has embraced off-deck mobile content and entered the mobile marketing game. Today Qualcomm announced a new service, called BREW BrandXtend Signature Solution, designed to let major brands take their mobile content directly to their customers. As marketers embrace the third screen, many now want to bypass the carriers and . Earlier this month Sprite announced what may be the boldest example of this yet, a new mobile social networking service called the Sprite Yard. In order to better get a handle on Qualcomm's move into direct mobile marketing, I sat down with Mitch Oliver, VP of Solutions & Marketing, Qualcomm Internet Services.

OTA: Hello Mitch, thanks for taking the time to speak with Over The Air. Let's dig into today's questions. Why is Qualcomm suddenly embracing off-deck content?

Qualcomm has been pushing for ways for consumers to get more access to data services for the last six years. At the time there was only WAP and text messaging. Now that others have seen BREW, we want to be able to bring key brands to mobile consumers. The things we solved with BREW we think we can bring to the direct-to-consumer space.

OTA: How do you see direct-to-consumer changing the mobile content market?

First and foremost, large brands have big constituencies, and many of them may not yet be using mobile content. Now they can go directly to them and tell them why they should use content on their mobile devices. The brand can now get more focused on its message and bring more people to the mobile channel.

OTA: Will Qualcomm's off-deck offering embrace non-CDMA networks?

We're embracing all types of devices and networks. It's very important for brands to be able to reach all types of people. This will allow these brands to better monetize their investments. We want to be able to span the broadest swath we can.

OTA: What types of content will this include?

This will evolve over time. At first it will include things people are doing today, like wallpapers and ringtones. In the future we hope to include richer content like video and audio. We're going to work with wireless operators to open this more in a secure fashion.

OTA: Is there a possibility for this service to expand go beyond consumers to the business-to-business space as well?

There's always been the desire for a mobile B2B service. While that's not the mission of this effort, the technologies behind this could easily be used for B2B. But it's not the initial focus.

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