Sony Ericsson Unveils real-time Mobile Event Guide: Next-Generation Tools for Sports Fans

Sony Ericsson today unveiled the Mobile Event Guide, its new initiative to be launched for the first time at the Sony Ericsson Championships, the prestigious season ending women’s tennis event. The Mobile Event Guide is a free mobile application that fans can download onto their mobile phones, allowing them to access all that is best about a sport’s programme and local travel and tourism information without the inconvenience of searching and downloading individual web pages for information. The Mobile Event Guide is the first service of its kind that is updated via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to include real-time information.

“Sony Ericsson continually strives for new ways of using its technical innovation to enhance the experience for those attending Sony Ericsson sponsored events. The Mobile Event Guide will enable fans at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha to access an easy-to-use, free service offering an indispensable guide to the tournament and city. We look forward to rolling out the application in the future for a variety of spectator events”, commented Aldo Liguori, CVP and Head of Global Communications and PR, Sony Ericsson.

The Mobile Event Guide is driven on a Java ME (J2ME) mobile application running on the JP-7 and the new JP-8 Java platform. The application is self-contained so does not require a data connection through the day, however with the use of wireless technology, the application can be adapted to receive live feeds, giving up to the minute information.

Advances in technology will enable the Mobile Event Guide to be adapted to meet the needs of event-going spectators by providing them with a palm-sized passport that includes event-guides, preferential entry and live feeds of the latest information.  Fans entering the stadium in Doha will be greeted with a message from Sony Ericsson inviting them to download the application via Bluetooth. The Mobile Event Guide will then be updated intelligently each day; when the same spectator arrives the next day the application will be replaced with an updated version with new content, preventing expensive data or roaming charges. The technology is available to most Bluetooth enabled phones, meaning spectators will have the ability to download a version of the application that suits their mobile phone at specially designated Sony Ericsson kiosks in the stadium.

Integral to the player and official version of the Mobile Event Guide is the Capuchin firmware, Sony Ericsson proprietary technology, which allows a much richer, intuitive user interface that is seamlessly combined with low-level phone functions.

Players will have a personalised Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot phone with a special Capuchin version of the application that will provide them with not only a much richer user experience but additional features including live updates to information such as latest match statistics and personal schedules and maps of the stadium, using the new wireless feature of the Cyber-shot phone.