Both Barrels Communications Ltd

Reevoo’s ratings and reviews solutions will increase conversion rates and improve engagement by providing customers with all necessary buying information on product pages

Bambino Direct, the leading online nursery goods retailer, is to add social commerce platform Reevoo’s reviews and ratings capabilities to its already-successful online store. Buy It Direct, parent company of Bambino Direct, is aiming to increase conversion rates and boost visitor engagement by providing customers with all of the information they need to make a decision to purchase without leaving its site.

Nick Glynne, managing director of Buy It Direct, said: “We aim to continuously improve the experience for customers using our website. By making Reevoo’s ratings and reviews available right there on the product page, we can help potential customers answer the question ‘is this the right product for my child’ without even leaving the page, never mind the site, which should turn more ‘browsers’ into ‘shoppers’.

“The fact that reviews are trusted and independent is important too, because people need to be able to believe what they’re reading when they’re choosing products for their children. We’re aiming for higher conversion and increased sales with Reevoo, and that’s how we’ll be measuring its long-term success,” he added.

Reevoo’s own figures show that retailers and brands embracing reviews and recommendations into their online retail strategy see an average sales uplift of some 18%: 11% due to conversion improvements, 5% to increased average order value and a further 2% to repeat visitor uplift. When reviews are read by consumers, conversion rates increase by 177%, average product purchase value almost doubles, and visitor return rates rise by 13%.

Bambino Direct will be deploying the ReevooMark™ service across all of its product categories, containing thousands of products. The ReevooMark service uses proactive harvesting to solicit reviews from verified product purchasers only, collecting and aggregating them, and then displaying those reviews with their Reevoo scores directly on the product page, for all products.

Richard Anson, CEO and co-founder of Reevoo, said: “The issue of trust is key to consumers everywhere, but rarely can it be more important than when buying something for children or babies because it is an emotional decision. Because all of our reviews are verified, this makes ReevooMark a great fit for Bambino Direct, as we provide customers with trusted opinions. Reviews are key to building trust and enabling consumers to feel confident that they are making the right purchase decision.”

[ends]

About Bambino Direct
Bambino Direct (http://www.bambinodirect.co.uk) is one of the UK’s largest nursery goods specialists. It stocks a huge range of prams, pushchairs, car seats and travel systems from brands such as Bugaboo, Maxi Cosi, Quinny and Britax. Its focus is on providing customers with the best deals available, coupled with great service. Customers may order via the website, over the phone or in its Huddersfield showroom.

About Reevoo
Reevoo (http://www.reevoo.com) aims to give the shopper everything they need to decide what to buy, in an impartial and straightforward environment. Reevoo reviews are independent, impartial and from genuine customers. Reevoo currently delivers over 100 million reviews a month for over 8m unique users. It is Europe’s leading social commerce aggregator working with top retailers and brands (see http://www.reevoo.com/b2b/ or visit our Social Commerce Blog), including TescoDirect, Dixons, Currys, Jessops, Orange, T-mobile, Sony, Kodak, Hotpoint, Sharp and Toshiba.

Reevoo’s ratings and reviews solution to build community and improve trust

JustShops, a collection of speciality e-commerce pet stores, is to add social commerce to all of its online stores with Reevoo. Social commerce will build greater trust, improve on-site conversion and make its sites more interactive and engaging.

JustShops provide pet owners with handpicked products, ranging from dog beds to rabbit hutches and chicken coops to parrot cages. Robbie Reddy, manager of E-commerce at Forward Internet Group Ltd – parent company of JustShops – said: “Social commerce is about building trust, raising brand awareness and adding value for our consumers. We want to encourage our customers to interact with us and with each other so that users can enjoy a more social, community experience on our sites. Word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer advice and recommendations are incredibly important to consumers, especially when they’re buying something online; we think it’s vital to bring this interactive quality to our sites so that users can get reassurance from other pet owners.

“Going forward, we will also be able to ask customers for their feedback on our sites and service; this information will help us to improve our sites and to provide our customers with the things they really want. We see this as the start of something really good for both our sites and our customers,” he added.

JustShops will measure the success of its social commerce solution by tracking review response rates, monitoring feedback on its products and services and, ultimately, by measuring the uplift in conversion rates that comes from providing impartial reviews to customers.

JustShops will be deploying the Reevoo Mark service across all of its product categories, to help customers make the right purchase decision. The Reevoo Mark service uses proactive harvesting to solicit reviews from verified product purchasers only, collecting and aggregating them, and then displaying reviews and Reevoo scores for all products directly on the product page.

One of the ways in which JustShops customers will be able to interact with each other is via the Reevoo Ask An Owner service, which transforms customer reviews from a broadcast medium to a conversation. Ask an Owner enables would-be purchasers to ask questions of already verified purchasers of that product, and to get a speedy response. Currently 55% of all Ask An Owner questions are answered within 24 hours, and response times can be as little as 12 minutes from question to answer.

Recent research by Reevoo shows that consumers are now more strongly influenced by consumer reviews (92%) than by friends’ or family recommendations (87%). Richard Anson, CEO and co-founder of Reevoo, said: “Everything to do with reviews and recommendations online is built on trust and it is at the heart of everything we do. Our research shows that people now trust Reevoo reviews more than word of mouth recommendations from families and friends; people have learned to trust the wisdom of crowds.

“And the size of the crowd can grow very quickly: as we sign additional retailers in any given market sector, we gather more and more product-review content which is then aggregated and syndicated on the sites of all relevant partners,” he added.

[ends]

Notes to editors
1. Reevoo recently published an eBook entitled ‘The Six Essentials of Social Commerce’, analysing common mistakes and how to avoid them. Reevoo’s eBook can be downloaded from www.reevoo.com/b2b/social-commerce.

2. Research figures quoted refer to a survey conducted by Reevoo in January 2011 among a sample of 736 Reevoo Plus users.

About JustShops
JustShops (http://www.justshops.com) is a collection of highly specialised online shops currently working within the pet vertical sector, designed to let consumers find and buy niche products quickly and easily online. JustShops currently comprises: JustCages.co.uk, JustDogKennels.co.uk, JustDogBeds.Org, UKParrotCages.co.uk, JustHamsters.co.uk, JustDogCages.co.uk, JustGuineaPigHutches.co.uk, JustVivariums.co.uk, JustChickenCoops.co.uk, JustRabbitHutches.co.uk and JustRabbitCages.co.uk.

JustShops is owned by Forward Internet Group Limited (http://www.forward.co.uk), a privately funded collection of internet-based businesses focused on consumer engagement and innovation.

About Reevoo
Reevoo (http://www.reevoo.com) aims to give the shopper everything they need to decide what to buy, in an impartial and straightforward environment. Reevoo reviews are independent, impartial and from genuine customers. Reevoo currently delivers over 70 million reviews a month for over 8m unique users. It is Europe’s leading social commerce aggregator working with top retailers and brands (see http://www.reevoo.com/b2b/ or visit our Social Commerce Blog), including TescoDirect, Dixons, Currys, Jessops, Orange, T-mobile, Sony, Kodak, Hotpoint, Sharp and Toshiba.

Online retailers using social commerce techniques risk inadvertently falling foul of the ASA’s new rules governing user-generated content unless the new guidelines are clarified further, Europe’s leading social commerce company Reevoo warned today. In force from today, the new rules specify that the new regulations only apply if user-generated content is used for marketing purposes – but fail to make clear how the ASA will assess this.

Richard Anson, CEO and co-founder of Reevoo, said: “ We welcome the guidelines as they make it very clear that online content must be ‘legal, decent, honest and true’. In that respect they should strengthen consumer confidence in social commerce, which is vital for the continued growth of these emerging channels. Where the guidelines are not insufficiently explicit is in what constitutes marketing. For example it’s arguable that reviews generated by customers to help others make a buying decision ‘marketing’. It’s here that we feel further clarification on the implications for brands using user generated content for social commerce purposes is needed.”

“Retailers using respected reviews and ratings platforms largely have nothing to worry about because these typically proactively harvest and moderate reviews from verified purchasers only, and are already fully compliant with the ASA requirements. However there are still e-commerce sites with a manual, ’DIY’ approach to reviews, and there are also platforms that are non-compliant, which could catch some retailers out,” he added.

Reevoo’s advice for online retailers aiming to act in accordance with the new guidelines is to follow ‘best-practice’ for reviews, which includes:
- not censoring reviews
- ensuring all reviews are by verified purchasers
- actively preventing fake reviews
- never rewarding reviewers.

All partners of Reevoo’s social commerce platform are already compliant with the new ASA guidelines. All reviews are from verified purchasers so cannot be fake or ‘planted’, are uncensored (except for foul language), and reviewers are not rewarded. Additionally, Reevoo has published an eBook on best practice for social commerce, entitled ‘The Six Essentials of Social Commerce’. The eBook is downloadable from www.reevoo.com/b2b.

[ends]

About Reevoo
Reevoo (http://www.reevoo.com) aims to give the shopper everything they need to decide what to buy, in an impartial and straightforward environment. Reevoo reviews are independent, impartial and from genuine customers. Reevoo currently delivers over 70 million reviews a month for over 8m unique users. It is Europe’s leading social commerce aggregator working with top retailers and brands (see http://www.reevoo.com/b2b/ or visit our Social Commerce Blog), including TescoDirect, Dixons, Currys, Jessops, Orange, T-mobile, Sony, Kodak, Hotpoint, Sharp and Toshiba.

18% uplift in sales for retailers implementing social commerce will translate into 20% decline in market share for those that don’t, warns CEO

Retailers and brands that embrace reviews and recommendations into their online retail strategy see a sales uplift of some 18%, new figures show. The uplift is worth a potential £8bn to UK retailers, on top of the UK’s existing £44bn of online retail sales.

Of the 18% total uplift, 11% is due to conversion improvements, 5% to increased average order value and a further 2% to repeat visitor uplift. The data, from Europe’s leading social commerce company Reevoo, shows how, when reviews are read by consumers:
- Conversion rates increase by 177%
- Average product purchase value almost doubles
- Visitor return rates rise by 13%

Richard Anson, CEO and co-founder of Reevoo, said: “Social commerce should now be a core strategy for every retailer, one discussed right at the top of the company – or it will, eventually, have serious consequences for the bottom line. With average disposable income likely to become tighter and tighter, there is no room in anyone’s wallet for “buyer’s remorse”; people will increasingly adopt a buying process that minimises the likelihood of such regrets.

“The magnitude of the sums involved makes it essential that retailers start to regard ratings and reviews as an essential and strategic part of their eCommerce strategy. There is an opportunity here for a step-change in the mindsets of retail marketing directors and boards, through a decision to put trusted reviews at the centre of their marketing strategy rather than bolt it on as an afterthought. Retailers who implement social commerce can enjoy up to 18% uplift in sales, while those who don’t risk market share loss of up to 20%,” he added.

Reevoo’s data is factual, observed data collected through its work with more than 100 partners who, between them, generate £1bn in online sales per year. The figures reflect the typical uplift realised by Reevoo’s partners during 2010 – with some partners experiencing much larger increases.

Its findings and consequent recommendations have been collated into a new white paper entitled ‘The Six Essentials of Social Commerce’. The paper analyses common mistakes and how to avoid them – for example, opening up an online retail site to invalid or fraudulent reviews; limiting review volume or confining content to too few locations; and even blocking reviews perceived as negative, irreparably damaging consumer trust in the site’s brand. It looks at how and why many companies are still hanging around the bottom of the learning curve in respect of social commerce, in some cases getting only half the conversion rate uplift that they should be getting. The ‘Six Essentials’ take the online marketer through the rationale, the obstacle, the lesson, and the benefits.

Reevoo’s white paper can be downloaded from www.reevoo.com/b2b/social-commerce.

[ends]

Notes to editors
1. http://www.retailresearch.org/onlineretailing.php: 2010 online sales in the UK were £44 billion (€52 billion) or 10.7% of UK retail trade (+16% on 2008).
2. http://www.kpmg.com/UK/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/NewsReleases/Pages/BRC-KPMGRetailSalesMonitorJanuary2011.aspx: The latest consumer spending report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and professional services firm KPMG, has found the shift towards e-commerce is continuing. Results from the companies’ Retail Sales Monitor for January 2011 showed that “non-food non-store sales” increased by 12.3 per cent year-on-year during the month. This figure includes items sold via the internet, ordered over the phone and shipped by mail order companies with cheap delivery and world courier firms.

About Reevoo
Reevoo (http://www.reevoo.com) aims to give the shopper everything they need to decide what to buy, in an impartial and straightforward environment. Reevoo reviews are independent, impartial and from genuine customers. Reevoo currently delivers over 70 million reviews a month for over 8m unique users. It is Europe’s leading social commerce aggregator working with top retailers and brands (see http://www.reevoo.com/b2b/ or visit our Social Commerce Blog), including TescoDirect, Dixons, Currys, Jessops, Orange, T-mobile, Sony, Kodak, Hotpoint, Sharp and Toshiba.

Showcases new capabilities at SxSW Interactive, March 13th-17th 2009

Personalised TV guidance developer Vizimo today launched an API-based service which enables any other service provider easily to add unprecedented TV personalisation and recommendation into its own products – whether on a set-top box, web or mobile.

Vizimo will showcase these capabilities for the first time at the SxSW Interactive trade show [March 14-16].

The three tiers of Vizimo’s new API-based service are:

• V-TV Free, which is open to any service provider, free of charge. A service provider can send a programme reference and V-TV Free will return recommendations based on the standard body of TV content in that particular geography.
• V-TV Plus, which offers additional layers of sophistication including personalisation. Additional functionality includes: the creation and maintenance of profiles using Vizimo’s unique profiling capability; profile-based recommendations; time-sensitive recommendations; and specification of a content source. The latter capability means a service provider can define a bias towards recommendations from specific bodies of content, such as premium or pay-per-view channels.
• V-TV OD, which is an extension of V-TV Plus. Recommendations may be drawn from on-demand sources as well as broadcast schedules. The OD option also enables service providers to specify the current device being used – such as ‘mobile’ or ‘web’ – so recommendations can include content suitable or available to view immediately.

Simon Steward, Vizimo’s CEO, said: “We’ve expended time and effort engaging with the market in order to develop a service that makes sense to the widest possible audience, is accessible to the widest possible audience and delivers unique value.”

Vizimo will also continue to offer consulting services to clients, undertaking some bespoke development aimed at helping partners achieve the most out of Vizimo’s TV personalisation capabilities. Vizimo also continues to develop and enhance its direct-to-consumer proposition under the Tioti brand name, which acts as a test-bed for innovation.

[ends]

SxSW Interactive
SxSWi takes place in Austin, Texas, March 13-17 2009. The UK Digital Mission stand is located in the Grand Ballroom, Level 4, Austin Convention Center. The trade show is open March 14-16.

About Vizimo
Vizimo develops personalised TV guidance solutions that tie together TV, the web and, increasingly, mobile devices. Its intelligent, interactive, guidance technology enables viewers to find, discover, manage and watch TV or video programmes that they are interested in.

Vizimo’s solutions make use of sources that include broadcast TV, on-demand and catch-up services, Internet TV and mobile video services, and are designed engage viewers with a genuinely personalised guide that works coherently across TV, web and mobile.

Links and resources

• Vizimo press office
• Vizimo web site
• Overview of Vizimo technology (image)

MOFILM, the world’s biggest global mobile short film festival, has partnered with Vizimo to help enthusiasts discover, and watch, their favourite short films during the MOFILM 2009 Festival. The festival takes place in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress this week.

Personalised TV guidance company Vizimo has created a mobile service for MOFILM which not only limits the amount of time and bandwidth spent streaming films that don’t appeal, but also enables the unexpected discovery of the ‘right’ content that the viewer might not, otherwise, have found themselves. It enables anyone to search for a film based on keywords in its synopsis and, subsequently, to discover other films from the collection that are similar – whether by genre, director or other characteristic.

Phone users may use the service simply by pointing their phone’s browser to http://mofilm.vizimo.com.

Ralph Cochrane, chief operations officer for MOFILM, said: “We’ve attracted a remarkable number of entries for the MOFILM 2009 competition from around the globe. Vizimo has made it possible for all MOFILM fans to watch their favourite films on their mobile phones by genre, and to discover exciting new content easily. We want as many as possible of these films to be seen and enjoyed, and this sort of ‘discovery’ is an elegant, natural way of doing it.”

Simon Steward, Vizimo’s CEO, said: “Vizimo employs a very sophisticated model to ensure it can recommend appropriate content when someone clicks on ‘show me more like this’. Our existing applications for TV content are already popular, but it really comes into its own when the entire collection of content is new, like this; it is unrealistic and less enjoyable to try to discover interesting content simply by watching films sequentially.”

Vizimo powers personalised TV by providing a rich, personalised ‘window’ onto the increasingly complex world of video entertainment. Working across mobile, web and compatible set-top boxes, users are given an easy-to-navigate view of the massive universe of available content – both broadcast and on-demand – and are guided towards items of interest to them.

Vizimo uses existing user behaviour for scheduled TV to stimulate take-up of new, non-broadcast services. In trials, users have employed Vizimo to discover new content of interest, to remotely set a home recorder, to set reminders and to discuss what they are watching with friends.

[ends]

About MOFILM
MOFILM celebrates the intersection of art, commerce and technology in the fast-evolving sector of mobile entertainment. The first MOFILM Film Festival will debut on February 18th and 19th, 2009 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (February 16th-19th). This unique film festival will celebrate amateur and professional film-making for movies of 5 minutes (or less) in length which would be ideal for viewing and sharing on mobile phones.

The GSMA is partnering with MOFILM to produce this unique programme, promoting short film to the global film, mobile and entertainment industries. The GSMA is the global trade group for the mobile industry, representing over 750 mobile operators from 218 countries.

The Mobile World Congress, held annually in Barcelona, is the world’s leading communications industry event. The Congress has become a focal point for the convergence of the mobile and entertainment industries, attracting leading film makers and artists – including Robert Redford, Isabella Rosselini and the Oscar nominated Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine) among others in recent years – which have come to explore and contribute to the discussions surrounding short films and the opportunities of the mobile medium.

About Vizimo
Vizimo develops personalised TV guidance solutions that tie together TV, the web and, increasingly, mobile devices: intelligent, interactive, guidance technology that enables viewers to find, discover, manage and watch TV or video programmes that they are interested in.

Vizimo’s solutions make use of sources that include broadcast TV, on-demand and catch-up services, Internet TV and mobile video services, and are designed engage viewers with a genuinely personalised guide that works coherently across TV, web and mobile. For more information visit the Vizimo press office and www.vizimo.com.

Personalised TV guidance company Vizimo is one of nine launch partners announced today by mobile marketing services group Gigafone at the introduction of its Ochre digital advertising solution. Vizimo will provide targeted, profiled ad inventory within its mobile TV guides, to brands and their agencies, via the Ochre solution.

Gigafone’s Ochre tackles the issue of market fragmentation which, to date, has largely prevented the development of effective and creative digital campaigns. Ochre will unify, into a single solution, the four major parts of the mobile advertising ecosystem: campaign creation, planning, distribution and result measurement, providing brands, agencies and mobile operators a holistic and simplified view of the advertising ecosystem.

With demography requirements and purchasing characteristics changing on a campaign by campaign basis, Ochre has been designed to address the issues associated with mobile advertising. Advertisers will be able to switch delivery channels at the click of a button, making sure content-rich information gets to the right person at the right time. In turn this means consumers will receive relevant and timely information about products that they are interested in, and advertisers can reduce wastage generated from blanket campaigns.

This dovetails neatly with Vizimo’s mobile capabilities, whose personalised TV guide enables Vizimo to build up a profile of each user’s personal viewing preferences. Simon Steward, Vizimo’s CEO, said: “In conjunction with Vizimo, the Ochre solution will enable advertisers to effectively target people who watch TV, but without the inherent wastage of normal TV advertising. Instead, content delivered will be personalised and targeted, based on user preferences, and provide a high degree of measurability.”

Vizimo also white labels its capabilities to TV guide publishers. “The combination of three elements – the quality of our profiling, the highly personal nature of TV viewing and what TV guide publishers know about their own readers – means that together we can build up an even better profile of a user. So ultimately, via Vizimo, such publishers will own their own ad inventory which they can populate with highly targeted, contextual adverts, via Ochre,” added Simon Steward.

[ends]

About Gigafone
Gigafone, the mobile marketing solutions group, enables operators to monetise mobile marketing. It employs more than 100 mobile technology and marketing experts around the world with offices in Russia, Asia-Pacific and Europe. It is a member of the Mobile Marketing Association and an Associate Member of GSMA. For further information, visit www.gigafone.com.

Rich messaging service Palringo is one of nine launch partners announced today by mobile marketing solutions group Gigafone at the launch of its Ochre digital advertising solution. Palringo will provide targeted, profiled ad inventory to brands and their agencies via Ochre.

Ochre provides brands, agencies and mobile operators with a holistic and simplified view of the advertising ecosystem. The intention is for Ochre to tackle the market fragmentation which, to date, has largely prevented the development of effective and creative digital campaigns. The aim is to unify, into a single platform, the four major parts of the mobile advertising ecosystem: campaign creation, planning, distribution and result measurement.

Palringo’s role in the ecosystem is as a distribution mechanism. Kerry Ritz, Palringo’s CEO, said: “The location and profile information of the Palringo user base will enable Gigafone and its Ochre solution to provide content that our users will find both relevant and useful. Palringo inventory is a real alternative to the failed experiment of replicating the banner advertising of the web in the mobile environment.”

With demography requirements and purchasing characteristics changing on a campaign basis, Ochre has been designed to reduce the risk of mobile advertising. Advertisers can now switch delivery channels at the click of a button, making sure content-rich information gets to the right person at the right time. In turn this means consumers receive relevant and timely information about products that they are interested in, and advertisers can reduce wastage generated from blanket campaigns.

“Palringo has always been more than simply a messaging service; it has always been a marketing platform-in-waiting. During 2009 we expect to be making real progress towards targeted, contextual content,” added Kerry Ritz.

“We’ll design its insertion carefully so that our partners’ attractive marketing content is consumed, but we’ll also be ensuring that we don’t detract from the usability of the service. Usability is one of the reasons that Palringo has been successful to date,” said Ritz.

“The fact that content will be targeted will, if it changes anything, add to our users’ enjoyment of Palringo. This personalisation is why mobile is different: people will look at content if it’s engaging and interesting and relevant,” he concluded.

[ends]

About Gigafone
Gigafone, the mobile marketing solutions group, enables operators to monetise mobile marketing. It employs more than 100 mobile technology and marketing experts around the world with offices in Russia, Asia-Pacific and Europe. It is a member of the Mobile Marketing Association and an Associate Member of GSMA. For further information, visit www.gigafone.com.

About Palringo
Palringo makes instant messaging work on mobile. The service combines walkie-talkie style voice (vocal instant messaging), the real-time text chat functionality of instant messaging and the ability to share pictures, all within the context of a discussion. The service supports both one-on-one and group discussions, and enables real-time dialogue that can incorporate users from across the globe, on any mobile network or connected PC. Palringo supports connections to other popular instant messaging services. The application is available for free from www.palringo.com.

Truphone today integrated AOL® Instant Messenger® (AIM) into its iPhone™ and iPod™ touch applications. Now Truphone customers on both devices can reach their AIM friends via their AIM identity.

With the addition of AIM, Truphone customers can now keep in touch with over 800 million addressable accounts for free.

The integration of this fifth messaging service reinforces Truphone as the “all-in-one conversations hub” for iPhone and iPod Touch users. Truphone has already integrated Google Talk™, Skype™, Windows Live Messenger™ and Yahoo!® Messenger into its applications for these devices, blending a combination of voice and instant messaging across multiple IM platforms within one application.

“Our goal is for mobile phone users to be able to reach any contact in their address book or on their buddy list, in a low cost way, at any time, using just one application,” said Geraldine Wilson, Truphone CEO. “Today’s announcement means that iPhone and iPod touch users gain a great way to stay in touch with AOL Instant Messenger users.

“We will continue to integrate further services and functionality, on other platforms too, giving people everything they need to stay in touch all within the Truphone application,” she stated.

Using Truphone to communicate with any of the five supported IM services is free over the Internet. When not in Wi-fi, Apple iPhone users can also make and receive calls and messages to and from Skype and Google Talk for the cost of a local call*, using the Truphone Anywhere feature. Voice calling functionality will be added to AIM, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger in the coming months.

[ends]

*Operator roaming charges will apply if users are abroad.

Additional resources

• Truphone web site
• Truphone press office
• Geraldine Wilson (alternative photo)
• Truphone photos (Flickr)

Notes to editors

1. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) has more than 100 million users worldwide.
2. Both Truphone for iPhone and Truphone for iPod touch are free to download from the Apple App Store. Neither application has any rental, subscription or other hidden charges.
3. Making a Truphone call on an iPhone or iPod touch couldn’t be simpler: Truphone displays a virtual keypad for dialling the number.
4. Wi-Fi hotspots are commonplace in offices, schools, campuses, at home, and even across entire town and city centres. Truphone uses the Wi-fi connectivity of the iPhone/iPod touch to carry instant messages over the internet to its destination.

About Truphone
The first true mobile internet network operator, Truphone allows users of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones to make and receive regular telephone calls, and to send and receive SMS [text] messages, using only a Wi-Fi connection and the internet. It has users in 149 countries.
Truphone is the trading name of Software Cellular Network (SCN). SCN is privately owned, funded by both venture capital investment and angel investors.

AOL and AOL Instant Messenger are trademarks of America Online, Inc. Apple, iPhone and iPod are trademarks of Apple Inc, registered in the United States and other countries. Google and Google Talk are trademarks of Google Inc. Skype is a registered trademark of Skype Limited. Microsoft and Windows Live are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Yahoo! is a trademark of Yahoo, Inc. Wi-fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-fi Alliance. Truphone is a trademark of Software Cellular Network Ltd. Skype and SkypeIn are trademarks of Skype Limited. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.

Definitely not the Queen’s speech, it seems

iPhone users appear to be avid BBC watchers, according to unusual statistics from next-generation guidance company Vizimo. The company – whose Tioti TV+ application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices enable people to remotely programme their Sky+ box to record programmes – found that no less than 39 of the 50 most-recorded programmes over the Christmas holidays were screened on BBC channels.

Seven places were taken by Channel 4 programmes with just four ITV1 programmes making up the top 50. Only one non-BBC programme – Harry Hill’s TV Burp Review of the Year, shown on Boxing Day on ITV – made the Top Ten.

The most recorded programme was the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which aired at 6pm on Christmas Day on BBC1. All of the Top Five were BBC1 programmes, with all of the top four airing on Christmas Day.

Half of the Top 20 most frequently recorded programmes were broadcast on Christmas Day and eight of those – the exceptions were Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (4.30pm) and Top of the Pops Christmas Special (2pm) – were broadcast after 6pm.

The Queen’s Christmas Message, broadcast at 3pm on Christmas Day as always, did not make the Top Fifty.

“The Top 20 contains several instances of conflicting, popular programmes. One possibility is that people used Tioti TV+ on their iPhone to programme their Sky+ boxes in order to avoid an argument with another member of their household – a perfect use of Sky+. Or, some people may have recorded a programme simply because they didn’t want to spend their Christmas Day watching TV, but just wanted to watch the programmes later,” said Simon Steward, Vizimo’s CEO.

“The presence of Doctor Who in first place might be down to the show’s popularity, or it might be down to the fact that at 6pm on Christmas Day many families are still only halfway through their turkey so are recording it. Anonymous statistics get us so far, but more qualitative research would be needed to establish more detail,” he added.

Individual shows aside, the heavy presence of Auntie in the top fifty could also have a number of explanations. “This data doesn’t confirm what people are watching per se, but it does give a good idea of what people really don’t want to miss,” explained Steward. “The recording bias seems to suggest that the BBC has more unmissable content than other broadcasters – or perhaps that it got the scheduling wrong and aired its most popular content when people wanted to be doing something else.”

More than 400 TV channels are now available in the UK, and more than 90% of households now have at least one form of multi-channel digital TV service – digital TV receiver, satellite or cable.

Steward concludes: “Given the choice available it seems astounding that the BBC all but cleaned up where recording programmes is concerned. It’s also slightly ironic that people are using their Sky+ box to record programmes, yet not a single programme made the top fifty that wasn’t free-to-air in some form.”

[ends]

Apple, iPhone and iPod are trademarks of Apple Inc, registered in the United States and other countries.

Top 20 programmes (recorded using Tioti TV+ on an iPhone or iPod touch to set a Sky+ box)

1. Doctor Who, BBC1, Christmas Day, 6pm
2. Wallace and Gromit, BBC1, Christmas Day, 8.30pm
3. The Royle Family, BBC1 Christmas Day, 9.30pm
4. Blackadder Rides Again, BBC1, Christmas Day, 10.30pm
5. Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special, BBC1, Christmas Eve, 10pm
6. Harry Hill’s TV Burp Review of the Year, ITV1, Boxing Day, 7pm
7. Top Gear Vietnam Special, BBC2, December 28th, 8pm
8. Madagascar, BBC1, Boxing Day, 4.10pm
9. Match of the Day, BBC1, Boxing Day, 11.05pm
10. Top Gear, BBC2, Christmas Day, 9.30pm
11. Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, BBC1, Christmas Day, 4.30pm
12. Dragons’ Den Around the World, BBC2, Christmas Day, 8.30pm
13. The 39 Steps, BBC1, December 28th, 8pm
14. Top of the Pops Christmas Special, BBC1, Christmas Day, 2pm
15. Shrek the Halls, BBC1, Christmas Eve, 7.30pm
16. 8 Out of 10 Cats Christmas Special, Channel 4, Boxing Day, 10.50pm
17. Wallace and Gromit, BBC HD, Christmas Day, 8.30pm
18. Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2008, BBC1, Christmas Day, 7pm
19. Fonejacker Christmas Special, Channel 4, Boxing Day, 11.40pm
20. Have I Got News for You Christmas 2008, BBC1, Christmas Eve, 9.30pm

Notes to editors

1. Tioti TV+ Screenshots
2. Tioti TV+ for iPhone and iPod touch, from Vizimo, helps to work out how best to see everything that you want to watch, and enables discovery of new content that you may also be interested in but didn’t know about. Launched in December 2008, Tioti TV+ may be downloaded from the App Store for just £1.79.
3. Users of other mobile phones may use the service by visiting wap.tioti.com on their handset.
4. The software displays programme schedules for the week ahead across dozens of channels. Choose the programmes you’re interested in, channel by channel, without having to remember what you’ve chosen. Then, when you’ve explored as many channel listings as you want, choose ‘My TV’ – and the software produces what is, in effect, a personalised TV channel for you, telling you which channel you need to be watching and at what time.
5. With just a couple of clicks, iPhone and iPod touch users can even programme their Sky+ box to record specific shows, helping to resolve schedule conflicts: watch one channel while recording another. Vizimo’s iPhone and iPod application will programme your Sky+ box over the internet so you can do it from anywhere, anytime.
6. No individually-identifiable data was collected by Vizimo.