"Changes to Savannah's Mobile Market"
October 11th, 2008.
excerpt from the Savannah Morning News:
International exposure
Urban Planet Mobile is hoping that growth will continue.
Urban Planet has created the concept for audio English language learning programs. They're in the process of contracting with wireless carriers to offer Urban English on cell phones in other countries, primarily in Asia.
Brian and M. Catherine OliverSmith started the company about five months ago and officially launched it in September.
Language learning is the top audio production in the world, said M. Catherine OliverSmith, executive vice president. But it's a field crowded with books, DVDs and CDs.
"There was nothing in mobile delivery," she said. "People might not have the time or the space, but they have a mobile phone."
There are 450 lessons right now. The program's aim is to expose people to English and give them the opportunity to practice.
"We're not replacing someone studying English in school, we're supplementing it by offering an affordable product that gets delivered to their phone that they can use wherever they are," OliverSmith said.
The files are as small as ringtone files, so people don't need fancy phones to use them, and the lessons are recorded at studios in Savannah.
OliverSmith is originally from Savannah, which is one of the reasons they chose to locate Urban Planet here.
"It's a digital world, I have a digital product. I can live anywhere, why not Savannah?"