MANILA, Philippines - Sun Cellular’s chat service, the Sun iMessenger, announced recently that Gmail chat is now included in its Instant Messenger (IM) portfolio, which means that Sun mobile subscribers can now chat with their Gmail buddies online using their mobile phone.
Previously, Sun IM only allows users to chat with IM buddies on Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and ICQ.
Louie Oviedo, president and CEO of Greetings Unlimited Inc. (GIU), the company behind Sun IM, said that to register for an online account, one needs to text SUNiM to a dedicated Sun Cellular number - 2746 — and follow the succeeding instructions.
“There’s no need to download anything and the service is very user-friendly,” she said.
GUI launched the Instant Messaging service with Sun Cellular in 2006. Recently, however, it was able to introduce a feature where one can chat not just on one but a variety of IMs. This was made possible by a partnership with a UK-based programmer which created the application.
Oviedo said the service is currently the most cost-effective chat mobile service in the market as users are charged a flat rate per day or per month of usage rather than per message sent.
“The current pricing scheme in other networks for the chat service is P2.50 per message. Sun IM charges a flat rate of P20 for one day of chatting regardless of the number of messages sent,” Oviedo said.
It is also available for a flat rate of P100 for seven days and P300 for a month. Moreover, for those who won’t use the service for one whole day, they can log in for P2 and if there is no activity, it automatically logs out after three hours.
“It works best for those who are simply waiting for friends to go online and would initially want to create presence. If they do find somebody to chat with briefly, they can exchange messages for only 50 centavos per reply, which is still cheaper than the services in other networks,” Oviedo said.
Mobile phone-to-PC and PC-to-mobile phone chat services have been available in the country for years and its advantage is it gives mobile phone users a chance to communicate with their contacts when they are mobile and have no access to a PC and an Internet connection.
“It is ideal for friends or relatives abroad and you would like to chat with them if they are online on Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL or ICQ any time of the day,” Oviedo said, adding that Sun IM is the only mobile messenging service that allows users to chat on multiple IM services.
“You don’t have to wait in front of a computer all day to chat with a friend or a relative who is on a faraway place. You can be reached anytime of the day, anywhere you are,” she added.
The growing interest of Filipinos in a mobile IM service is evident in the fact that GUI’s subscriber base on Sun IM has doubled every year since 2006 even with minimal advertising and promotions mostly through on-ground activities, Oviedo said.
“One of its key advantages is easy login. Once you send a text message to register, you can use it right away. There’s no need to download anything and since most Filipinos are very familiar with SMS or texting, the IM service is very similar to texting except that your text buddy is online in his computer and may live in another country,” she said.
For MMS-enabled phones, users can also take pictures and send them via Sun IM. “If the MMS feature is enabled in your Sun Cellular phone, you can send the picture to a dedicated number and the message will appear as a link to the message your chat buddy will receive. He or she can click on the link to save the picture on his or her desktop.
To popularize the service further, GUI is giving a free 24-hour trial for those who will register for a Sun IM service for the first time. It also said that its future plans include making Facebook chat available on SMS.