Prepress
Monotype Imaging Debuts Free Trial of its FlipFont Solution, Now Available to Consumers in Europe and the Americas on 46 Handset Models
Thursday 04. June 2009 - Accessible through http://www.flipfont.mobi, Vodafone UK or 3 UK, FlipFont Enables Consumers to Personalize their Mobile Phone with Fonts
Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE), a leading global provider of text imaging solutions, today announced a free trial of its FlipFont mobile font download solution, now operational on any of 46 handset models, up from four models supported initially in the UK. For the first time, users in both Europe and the Americas can license typefaces from Monotype Imaging’s mobile e-commerce site, http://www.flipfont.mobi, for use on supported phones. Users are able to override the phone’s factory-installed, default font to experience a FlipFont typeface within the phone’s user interface, menus and various applications.
The free trial, which includes three fonts, is also available to Vodafone UK and 3 UK customers who can access the FlipFont solution through their respective carrier channels: the Vodafone Live! multimedia portal or the 3 UK personalization homepage.
“Today’s news is a tremendous move forward for FlipFont,” said John Seguin, executive vice president of Monotype Imaging. “We’ve seen from our initial launch in the UK that many consumers prefer to use a font that suits their personality or is simply more fun to use. Now the opportunity to enrich the mobile experience through fonts has opened up to a great number of consumers in different parts of the world. Increased device support coupled with a free trial will enable more users to enhance the way text is presented on their phone.”
Vodafone UK was the first operator in Europe to offer customers the opportunity to choose their phone font.
The complete list of Nokia phones on which FlipFont can operate includes the N71, N73, N75, N76, N77, N78, N79, N80, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N85, N86 8MP, N92, N95, N95-3, N95 8GB, N96, E50, E51, E55, E61, E61i, E62, E65, E66, E71, E75, E90, 5320 XpressMusic, 5630, 5700 XpressMusic, 5730, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic, 6290, 6650, 6710, 6720 and V804NK handsets. FlipFont can also run on the GT-i8510, GT-i7110 and SGH-L870 handsets from Samsung.
Each of the three trial fonts can be used freely for up to 48 hours. The trial fonts include the attention-grabbing Musclehead typeface, the classic Zapf Chancery script font and the versatile Equinox design. A total of 19 typefaces are available for license and download, with selections that range from distinctive yet legible designs to casual fonts that suggest a handwritten flair.
Monotype Imaging has broadly expanded the availability of its FlipFont solution by connecting the company’s mobile e-commerce site to a new payment gateway set up through Bango, an international mobile Internet company which provides content and services directly to mobile phone users. Consumers access FlipFont through http://www.flipfont.mobi to download and purchase fonts using U.S. dollars, euros or British pounds. In most cases, transactions appear on the operator invoice, as Bango has relationships with the majority of major network operators.
Seguin said: “Today’s news is also a milestone toward meeting our objective of extending FlipFont coverage to a wider range of phones worldwide. Our focus is to ensure that fonts play a key in mobile data services, where solid growth is projected over the next few years.”
According to a Telltabs-sponsored survey published in February, 2009, and conducted by The Nielsen Company, consumers in Europe and the U.S. intend to increase their use of mobile data services, and a significant ramp-up of usage is expected in the next 12 months. The research focused on 10 mobile data services in Western Europe and the U.S., and it revealed that more than half of the approximately 200 million mobile data users in the surveyed countries expect to increase use in the next two years. The research also reported that more than 25 percent of the millions of consumers who do not use mobile data services today intend to begin using them shortly.