MobilRelay today launched Mobile Box Office, a service that enables moviegoers to use mobile phones as tickets. It is the first service of its kind in the United States and it is available beginning January 18 for all shows at Emagine in Canton, Mich.

Anyone with a web-enabled (WAP - Wireless Application Protocol) mobile phone and a color screen may use Mobile Box Office to browse movie listing dates and times, select and pay for any movie.  To use the service, moviegoers navigate to mbo.com on their mobile phones and follow prompts to browse and buy movie tickets.

After making a show selection and secure credit card transaction, moviegoers receive an electronic, bar-coded ticket on their mobile phones, which is scanned for entry at the theater. 

"Mobile Box Office speaks to people who live the mobile lifestyle," said Tom Beals, founder of MobilRelay.  "For them, Mobile Box Office is more convenient, since anyone can use their mobile phone at any time and from anywhere to browse and buy movie tickets."

Mobile Box Office offers advantages to consumers and theater owners:

Consumers

• Convenience of browsing available movies and times and purchasing from anywhere, anytime with a mobile phone. 
• Guaranteed seating at point-of-order.
• Ability to by-pass ticket lines.
• Ability to purchase tickets to popular movies the moment they are released for sale.

Movie Theaters

• Reduced operational costs, resulting in more profit for each ticket sold through Mobile Box Office.
• Build customer loyalty through increased patron convenience.
• Market to interested customers who opt-in to receive alerts about upcoming movies and special offers.
• Increased ticketing security.

Mobile Box Office works with and is optimized for all U.S. carriers and numerous mobile devices. MobilRelay has a patent pending on a process for distributing bar-coded messages to mobile devices. MBO technology incorporates Wireless Universal Resource File (WURFL), the largest open source movement for mobile device compatibility.

via www.phonemag.com