As we close the book on 2005, let's take a moment to reflect on the past year. What is the connection between these numbers and year 2005?

2005 was a year of discovery, evolution and expansion. More than 2,000,000,000 mobile phones are now in operation throughout the world. In Malaysia, we have a total of 17,551,000 mobile phone users with a penetration rate of 63.3%, as compared to 56.5% the previous year.

Despite the emergence of new technologies such as 3G and VoIPs, SMS usage in Malaysia continued to show significant growth with approximately 21,999,000,000 SMS sent in 2005, as compared to only approximately 9,532,100,000 in 2004. With an average of RM0.30 per SMS, this meant the total worth of SMS sent in 2005 was approximately RM6,599,700,000. The popularity of SMS is made even more obvious considering an estimated 1,000,000,000,000 SMS messages were sent worldwide in 2005.

MACROKIOSK has successfully acquired a 60% stake in Eluxion Media Sdn Bhd, a local interactive multimedia production house. With the acquisition, MACROKIOSK is able to expand its business offerings to include Mobile Interactive Media Services (MIMS) and provide the expertise to help clients produce and brand their own TV and video content.

Eluxion Media, interactive multimedia production arm for MACROKIOSK, provides the production capabilities, experience and a platform for MACROKIOSK to integrate messaging with television, radio and 3G content such as 3GMovies, 3GDramas and 3GCommercials. This new service is available to all the countries where MACROKIOSK is present.

With this venture, MACROKIOSK can offer more value-added services to local and foreign market. The announcement of acquisition took place in Hilton Hotel, Petaling Jaya on 23 January 2006.

SMS was an accidental success that took the world by storm when it was discovered many years ago. Created in the late 1980s, it was seven years before SMS really took off.

SMS was created by a group of Norwegian engineers who wanted a very simple messaging system that worked when users' mobile phones were turned off or out of signal range.The first SMS was sent on 3 December, 1992 by an engineer named Neil Papworth. He sent a simple "MERRY CHRISTMAS" to his colleagues at Vodafone in Great Britain.

SMS was never meant to be a channel for consumer-to-consumer communication. Network operators designed the system initially to inform all their customers when there are problems with the network. SMS - being the most convenient, personal, fast and unobtrusive channel of communication soon became the preferred method of communicating.

For the first 7 years, mobile phone users could only send SMS to users within the same operator. In 1999, SMS could be sent to mobile phone users regardless of operator which led to its popularity among mobile phone users. Over the years, SMS has evolved with the emergence of new technologies such as MMS and WAP, moving towards becoming a mainstream business tool. No doubt, the messaging family is the "killer" application of the 90s and it is here to stay. SMS has survived the challenge of emerging technologies by evolving to fit with the new boys in town. No wonder they are saying "SMS is still the KING".

Produced by Eluxion Media and powered by MACROKIOSK, Thumb-TV opens a new experience and perspective to viewers, by marrying two most pervasive media - Mobile and TV. Catch the 1st show on NTV7 this April '06.

This massive event has been the most well-attended, most exciting and most important gathering ever for the mobile industry. The purpose of this visit is to enlarge MACROKIOSK's business perspective and to establish greater working relationship.