Plusmo

This is a mobile service that pushes online content to your mobile phones. It’s another service trying to capitalize on the pervasiveness of mobile phones. More than 72% of U.S. homes have mobile phones. That’s higher than the 70% of homes that have Internet access from computers. There are about 219.4 million wireless subscribers in the U.S., according to CTIA. And, wireless phones now make up 33% of home-phone minutes, vs. 25% in 2004, according to The Kelsey Group.) Additionally, 15% of U.S. wireless users accessed the Web in 2005 vs. 6% in 2004. And, some 30% of wireless subscribers have data services. Clearly, the mobile phone is expanding its usefulness. Great big market! But it’s still a great big problem to get any service. That’s because the problem with many mobile services is that they’re not compatible with all phones, or they’re not so easy to download. For instance, I tried to download Plusmo onto my Palm Treo 650. I couldn’t download it onto my Palm Treo 650 because the Plusmo file wasn’t compatible and I needed an expansion card (SD or MMC), which I didn’t have. That said, downloading onto my Blackberry Pearl was easy enough. It took about 10 minutes to download. As for the Plusmo service, it wasn’t bad. I like the fact that I could find cheap gas prices, based on the zip code I typed in. I liked the Starbucks locator too. Too bad Plusmo doesn’t have an In-N-Out Burger locator. That’s always handy on that long ride to Tahoe and back. It seems the channels that are available, such as Google News, TechCrunch, GigaOm, ValleyWag, to name a few (goes to show you who Plusmo execs are talking to) also have limited content. I added the Google News channel and I only received three news stories. All this said, I think the idea is a neat one. I like visuals as the gateway to news or a movie. It's one reason I have the Slide (photo-sharing site) version of Google.