XOS mobile play blooms with Digital Orchid

By Carolyn Braff
If college students didn t already spend every waking hour playing with their cell phones, they certainly will now, thanks to a new joint venture between XOS Technologies and Digital Orchid.

XOS, a provider of technology solutions for sports teams, organizations, and fans nationwide, has made the leap from the Internet world into the mobile market, partnering with Digital Orchid to offer a wide range of college sports content never before available via mobile phones.
College kids are in the perfect demographic for wireless content, explains Bob Betros, Digital Orchid co-founder and chief technology officer. They are early adopters and 90% of the customers out there are using their phones for these kinds of activities. Every single one of them is dying for stuff that s relevant to them in their lives, and college sports is a huge part of that.

Digital Orchid, a global mobile content provider whose clients include NASCAR, Major League Baseball, and ESPN, is lending its expertise to XOS to offer college sports fans virtually any content imaginable on their cell phones: SMS news and scoring alerts; live in-game scoring alerts; downloadable video and audio clips; custom wallpapers with logos and historical photos; ringtones and ringbacks that include fight songs, classic play-by-play calls, and school chants, and more.
If you look at what s available for your phone in terms of college content, currently you d be very disappointed, Betros says. Wallpaper logs and fight songs are pretty much the extent of what s available. There s no real dynamic, live, compelling content available at all, so the opportunity that Digital Orchid and XOS have together is a tremendous one.

Betros points to XOS and Digital Orchid s enhanced offerings in those existing product categories, such as wallpaper images of Saturday s game-winning play available as early as Sunday morning. In addition, he explains that mobile content created by the two companies will be available not just for the major sports, but for all collegiate athletic events. The companies plan to tailor their content offerings to the specific needs of each of XOS partner universities, integrating their services with each athletic department s preferences and areas of expertise.

Within each product category we re bringing content to the market that s head and shoulders above what s out there today, Betros says. The breadth is really what ties it all together.
In addition to marketing its new products through mobile carrier networks across the country, XOS will sell its mobile services directly to consumers on each of the collegiate athletics websites that the company manages.
One of the things we re interested in is bringing content to the largest possible audience, says Nada Usina, network president for XOS.
The mobile content industry is growing by leaps and bounds, Betros adds. Even though we re a bit behind the rest of the world, the core market for the people leading the charge here in the States is the people going to college. That is the sweet spot for this particular type of content. Because of the demographic, it s going to be one of the most desirable categories, because it matches closest to the consumer.

Although pricing for the content has not yet been disclosed, Usina said that the cost of each of the available services will be on par with what is currently available in the industry. XOS mobile content will be available in time for the kickoff of the 2006 football season.