Summus, Inc. and AP Digital, a division of The Associated Press that provides news to interactive markets, announced an agreement to develop AP Mobile, an interactive mobile news and photo package that delivers top AP national and international news, sports, weather maps and photos to mobile carriers for provision to their end-users’ devices.

Through a revenue sharing agreement, Summus and the Associated Press will make AP Mobile available to wireless carriers, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and wireless resellers for use as a subscription-based or pay-per-use service for users of mobile devices. Wireless users will be able to receive or retrieve news photos and captions, sports photos, and international, national and regional weather maps 24 hours a day via their mobile device.

Insight

Associated Press is just one of many major traditional media brands looking to extend their franchise to the wireless environment. The BBC is working with Hutchison 3G, Reuters supplies Vizzavi and CNN already operates its own services on i-Mode. The key, obviously, is mass distribution and this can only be achieved through agreements with operators.

i-Mode has proven that users are willing to pay a small subscription fee for accessing valuable content. AP will need to seek out partners which have a proper micro-billing infrastructure in place, enabling customers to sign-up instantly for the service and have the subscription billed to their network account. DoCoMo’s i-Mode and AT&T’s m-Mode are the obvious choices.