Africa : POGO, a South African based company, developed the software and is looking to benefit from the growing demand for mobile phone applications in the youth market. The application entered the market in May 2006 after several months of development and testing.

"The software application brings Internet based peer-to-peer technology to the mobile phone. This is the first commercially successful application of file sharing software in the wireless market," said Jaysen du Plessis, managing director of POGO.

POGO allows users to share ringtones, music, games, videos and themes. The application also allows users to send messages at 1c per SMS as well as access classifieds, body weight calculator and car performance facilities.

POGO is downloadable to all GPRS and 3G mobile phones that are Java and WAP (wireless application protocol) enabled. The application is compatible with all phone types.

POGO is free and you just need to type in www.POGO.vg on your cellphone browser to get it. POGO does not bill for any further use of the file sharing facility and users pay only for the airtime to access the Internet.

"We have signed up a 1,000 users in the three weeks since the launch of POGO. We are seeing significant usage of the application. Some 6,800 items, mostly music or games, have already been downloaded. Music downloads are the most popular content requests," stated Jaysen du Plessis.

The application provides users with access to a community sharing its content. 5,000 mobile games and over a million different MP3s and thousands of ring tones (including the current top hits) are already accessible via the file sharing application.

According to Jaysen du Plessis, additional content will become available as more and more users join the POGO mobile peer-to-peer community.

"We are expecting a rapid uptake of POGO as users become aware of the benefits of sharing content with their mobile phones. The youth market is particular open to innovative means for accessing new content. Their demand for mobile content will drive the uptake of POGO in the market," said Jaysen du Plessis.

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