July Systems Powers Firstfun.TV’s Entry Into Mobile Content Retailing

White Labeled, End-to-End Managed Service Allows German Consumers to Try Mobile Games Before Buying

News by GamesIndustry International Contributor

Published on April 26, 2005

Hamburg, April 26 2005 - July Systems, an innovative technology solutions provider of smart mobile content retailing services, and Deep Visions, a Hamburg-based multimedia company, announced the launch of a try-before-you-buy mobile games service on the leading portal Firstfun.TV. The unique service will allow members of Firstfun.TV's gaming community to download and try a full catalog of mobile games for free, before deciding whether they wish to buy the games. The cross-operator service is available to subscribers of Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and debitel, and can be accessed from the Firstfun.TV portal www.firstfun.tv.

Oliver Schmidt, CEO, Deep Visions, comments, "We see this cooperation as a great opportunity to become an established top seller of mobile phone games in German-speaking countries. To this end, we will initiate a relaunch of our entertainment range within the next few months. Our experience in the gaming sector, along with our large user community dovetail nicely with the technology of July Systems. Plus, we share the same view as to what the market really needs. A clear win-win situation."

According to Dr. Wilhelm Bielert, Vice-President EMEA Operations, July Systems, this cooperation means a significant competitive edge for mobile service retailers: "Our mobile content retailing solution gives consumers the opportunity to buy only what they really want. As consumers increasingly feel tricked into buying unwanted subscriptions we now offer a new way for them to preview full original content rather than scaled-down trial versions. As our empirical data from other territories already shows, these retailing models will increase revenues for the service retailer as well as higher consumer satisfaction. With Firstfun.TV we found a partner who is able to offer extensive know-how along with many years of experience in the management of a large consumer community with nearly 150,000 members."

The new service on Firstfun.TV is completely managed end-to-end by July Systems and is built entirely on July's German mobile retailing infrastructure. July manages content sourcing and selection, service design and testing, as well as delivery and support. July's foundation supports billing on all leading German mobile operators including Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and debitel, allowing July to quickly deploy different types of cross-operator, cross-content mobile services for new customers and partners in Germany

About Firstfun.TV

Since 2001, Firstfun.TV, with its online gaming portal of the same name, has been offering "a little entertainment in between" for casual gamers between the ages of 7 and 77. Over 150,000 registered members form one of the largest German-speaking Internet gaming communities in this field. The range of offers includes 42 online games of various genres featuring self-developed characters such as the Pings, Larry & Friends, and Renny & Claus. A new game is added every other week. Firstfun.TV maintains media co operations with Computer Bild Spiele and AOL. The company is a spin-off of deep visions Multimedia GmbH. More information at www.firstfun.tv.

About July Systems

July Systems provides innovative technology solutions that enable mobile content retailers to multiply revenues and profits by transforming the retailing of mobile content to reach the mass-market. July Systems' turnkey solutions are delivered as low-cost, fast time-to-market, end-to-end managed services. Founded in July 2001, July Systems is privately held with investments by Charles River Ventures, NeoCarta Ventures, WestBridge Capital Partners, Acer Technology Ventures, Jumpstartup and Silicon Valley Bancshares. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, operates its Global Product Center in Bangalore, India, and has European offices in Germany, UK and Italy. For more information, visit www.julysystems.com.

July Contact Information - US

Gigi Wang

Vice President, Marketing

July Systems Inc.

Email: gigi@julysystems.com

PR Agency Contact Information - US

Lorie Hirson

Vice President

MS&L PR Agency

Tel: +1-415 364 3805

Email: lorie.hirson@mslpr.com

July Contact Information - Germany