Personalize your phones, Smart teaches us the way

In the nineties, menu-driven software made personal computers easy enough for kids to use.

Now, GSM cell phones come with SIM toolkits (STKs) that offer menu-driven services. Smart Communications has upped the ante by offering Smart zed plus SIM browsers, new STKs that enable the user to personalize the menus and thus, create a list of services genuinely his own.

Smart zed plus, Smart’s new STKs come in two versions – one with 32 kilobytes of memory and the other with 64K. They both come loaded with the long list of wireless services that Smart offers under its mobile portal Smart zed.

What’s new about these SIM cards is that they allow the Smart GSM cell phone users to select which of the many zed services they will activate and which they will deactivate. As a result, only the services that they actually want to use will show up on the phone display. If the user wants to change his checklist of services, he can easily activate those menus that he had earlier turned off and deactivate others.

A user can choose from the 13 broad categories of zed services ranging from the most practical information such as news and traffic updates to entertainment. Thus, a subscriber who chooses to activate, for example, My Smart, Mail, Entertainment, Search and My Money will see on his phone the following Smart zed menu: Personalize, My Smart, Mail, Entertainment, Search and My Money.

"This is another breakthrough for Smart. We are taking the personalization of mobile phones one big step forward," said Anastacio Martirez, Smart’s head for personal communications and mobile services.

"With our new STKs, a subscriber can create from our wide array of over a hundred services the specific set of services that suits his needs, whether he be a Net-gener, a yuppie, a power executive, or a 21st century mom," he added.

Smart has over 100 different mobile value-added services. In the past few months alone, the company has introduced wireless services such as horoscope plus, quiz game, movie club and branded graphics from Cartoon Network and Sanrio. And the list keeps growing.

"Smart is giving our subscribers the power to deal with a complex world. We want our technology to enable people so that they can be more productive at work and enjoy more fun-filled and meaningful lives," Martirez said.

New dimension

The rapid development of SIM card technology has added an important new dimension to wireless data services. Before, cell phone features were phone-based and thus, were entirely dependent on the particular brand and model. So some mobile phone models offered more ringtone choices, others could load logos on the air, etc.

As SIM card memories expanded, however, so did the possibilities for introducing services and features that resided not in the phone but in the SIM and the GSM network itself. As a result, mobile phone operators have been able to develop services and features that they alone could offer, thus effectively differentiating themselves from their competitors.

In the case of Smart, the company started offering SIMs that made it possible to offer such unique services as Smart zed, its portal for wireless services, and Smart Money, its electronic payment service.

These services require specially programmed SIMs in order to function.

SIM technology can be likened to the trend in personal computing where the more electronic brainpower in chips is being utilized to make the technology more user-friendly.

Early SIM cards with 4K to 8K memory came with basic text messaging functions. Then came 16k SIMs that enable wireless services to be accessed through sending keywords. Menu-driven 32K SIMs that are currently in the market make it possible for subscribers to access SMS-based services without having to use key words.

With the new Smart zed plus SIM Browser, Smart subscribers can choose the menu services that they can activate or deactivate, according to their personal specifications.

Bigger SIM memory for the Smart zed plus SIM Browser also translates into bigger phone book capacity and more room for text messages.

All the Smart subscribers need are the Smart zed plus SIM Browser (either 32K or 64K) and a Phase 2+ phones, most of which are being used by Smart subscribers.

The new Smart zed plus SIM Browser in 32K costs P990 for Smart Buddy, and P600 for Smart Gold. Meanwhile, the 64K version, currently available in limited stocks, costs P1,290 for Smart Buddy and P750 for Smart Gold.

Smart, which today has over four million subscribers running on its GSM network, has been introducing new wireless services and mobile communication technology in the past months.