Abstract: Provided herein are systems and methods that provide community based voting and/or actionable multi-media messaging in a social network. In an embodiment, actionable multi-media messaging is provided, in which the user receives a message comprising an actionable item that the user can act on. The actionable item can be, e.g., to purchase an item, to vote on a ballot, or other actions that can be taken by the user. In another embodiment, community based voting is provided, in which a user receives a message comprising a voting ballot. In this embodiment, the user can vote on the ballot, and publish his/her vote to his/her social network, e.g., to express his/her likes and dislikes. The user can also forward the ballot to other users in his/her social network, and view how other individual users in his/her the social network have voted.

Abstract: Provided herein are systems and methods for allowing mobile users to join a virtual line or queue for high demand tickets to an event. In an embodiment, users pay a small fee to join the virtual line or queue. After the users join the virtual line, the tickets to the event are allocated to the users in the virtual line based on an allocation policy set by the ticket distributor. After the allocation has been made, the users are notified of the allocation decision and each user that has been allocated a ticket is given an opportunity to purchase the ticket, e.g., within a purchase fulfillment period. In an embodiment, a user may purchase virtual tickets to join the virtual line or queue using his/her mobile phone/handset. In this embodiment, the user may be charged through his/her mobile carrier for the purchase of a virtual ticket.

Abstract: The present invention provide Auto Detect mechanisms to automatically determine the connectivity configuration of a handset. The Auto Detect mechanisms are used to develop applications that do not require connection configurations from the user and that work with handset settings as they are, whether the wireless device is set for WAP access or Direct HTTP access. The Auto Detect mechanisms enable applications to auto-detect and use the correct setting for connecting to a backend server, which may depend upon the wireless network, the handset, and the handset configuration.

Abstract: The present invention provides a Mobile Loyalty and Community Service (MLCS) for decreasing customer churn and increasing customer spend. In an embodiment, the MLCS provides a suite of mobile games. When a customer plays one of the mobile games, the MLCS issues points to the customer based on the customer's performance on the game (e.g., game score). Customers can redeem these points for valuable prizes from a catalog. The MLCS also provides tokens that customers can purchase and use to play pay-per-play games (e.g., one token per play). The pay-per-play games provide revenue every time a customer plays a game by requiring one or more tokens for each game play. By issuing points to customers based on their performances on the games, the MLCS motivates customers to play these games more frequency, thereby increasing customer spend. Further, the accumulation of points in their accounts encourages customers to remain loyal, thereby decreasing chum.

Abstract: The present invention provides a Mobile Loyalty and Community Service (MLCS) for decreasing customer churn and increasing customer spend. In an embodiment, the MLCS provides an event driven platform based around sticky accounts. The MLCS issues tokens, currencies, loyalty points and other value assets to customers based on definable user activities (e.g., purchases, forwarding promotional messages to friends, etc.), and stores these assets into customer accounts. Each of these accounts is made sticky by associating it with the mobile carrier and the customer's phone number. The MLCS provides prize catalogs where customers can redeem points in their accounts for valuable prizes (e.g., free voice minutes, ringtones, etc.). The MLCS also provides downloadable games, e.g., pay-per-play games. To motive customers to play these games, and thus increase customer spend, the MLCS issues points to customer based on in-game events (e.g., game score, level reached within a game, etc.).