mocoNews.net - CTIA Wire RealNetworks Edition: SMS-To-MMS Conversions; Video Call; Ringtones; New Game

RealNetworks ( NSDQ: RNWK) made a slew of announcements at CTIA, adding more multimedia capabilities to its platform:

-- China Unicom-emoticonSMS: RealNetworks launched the next generation of its emoticonSMS service to China Unicom's mobile subscribers, making it available to more than 10 million subscribers in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions. Branded xPressiveMMS by China Unicom, the service incorporates images, background music and fonts into text messages, automatically converting SMS messages into MMS ones. xPressiveMMS subscribers can pay an "all-you-can-eat" flat fee for unlimited use (5 RMB per month; approximately 73 cents USD per month), or can pay as they go (1 RMB per message; approximately 15 cents USD per month). Release.

-- Interactive Multimedia Experience: The company will soon make IME available across the globe, adding video dimension to Interactive Voice Response. Utilizing 3G, the service combines voice call with multimedia and uses video call minutes on a per-minute basis rather than using data minutes. Once IME is deployed, subscribers will be presented with a menu of options like movie trailers and times, traffic, music and shopping, upon dialing a phone number. Release.

-- Cutting Tune: Cutting Tune, available for deployment in Q2 of next year, will enable mobile subscribers to select given songs from their operator's music service for their ringtone or ringback tones. Using their PC to create ringtones, subscribers can download the tones over-the-air and send them to friends as "gifts." The service can be added to an operator's existing Real-powered music-on-demand service. Release.

-- FremantleMedia: The companies are developing an upcoming casual game for the Regis Philbin-hosted game show,Million Dollar Password, for online, PC, Mac and mobile platforms. Real will begin rolling out the game this fall, first for the mobile phone. Release.