On-line subscription system and method

Abstract

A system and a method of providing on-line subscription services from a subscription server to a user of a mobile terminal through the Internet. The subscription server receives from the mobile terminal user-specific information relating to the user's mobile terminal capabilities, the user's preferences of products, and the user's financial information. The subscription server sends to the mobile terminal at least locally or remotely retrieved information related to a product based on the user-specific information. The subscription server receives from the mobile terminal a request indicating whether the user wishes to either cancel or purchase the product. The subscription server cancels the product when the user indicates so, and downloads the product to the mobile terminal when the user desires to purchase the product.

1 - 12 . (canceled)  
     
     
         13 . A server for providing an electronic service to a user of a mobile terminal in a cellular network, the server comprising: 
 a user register;    memory for storing user-specific information related to at least one capability of the mobile terminal, preferences of the user and other user related information;    seeking means for locally seeking out at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data from other vendor servers that the user prefers or is interested to retrieve the at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data registered by the user as determined by the at least one capability of the mobile terminal, the preferences of the user and the other user related information;    an interface for transmitting to the cellular telephone via the cellular network at predetermined time intervals and without user action the at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data, if the at least one digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data corresponds to the user specific information stored at the server.    
     
     
         2 . The server of claim  1 , wherein the user-specific information related to the capability of the mobile terminal comprises at least one of a user agent, a terminal type and a network type for enabling the sever to download data in a format that is compatible with at least one of a protocol of the mobile terminal and the cellular network.  
     
     
         3 . The server of claim  1 , wherein said mobile terminal includes a Blue-tooth capable transceiver.  
     
     
         4 . The server of  claim 3 , wherein if the mobile terminal is unable to display or play the transmitted at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data, the Blue-tooth capable transceiver stores then transmits downloaded product to an external device for presentation.  
     
     
         5 . The server of  claim 4 , wherein the external device comprises one of an electronic book or a laptop computer for at least one of viewing and listening to the downloaded product.  
     
     
         6 . The server of claim  1 , wherein the server sends a URL message to a shopping market website which redirects the server to other vendor web sites to retrieve products for presentation to the user based on the preferences of the user.  
     
     
         7 . The server of  claim 6 , wherein the other vendor web sites comprise various book publisher servers.  
     
     
         8 . The server of claim  1 , wherein an option to download the transmitted at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data is offered to the user if said at least one digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data corresponds to the user specific information stored at the server.  
     
     
         9 . The server of  claim 8 , wherein an offer includes at least a portion of at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data.  
     
     
         10 . The server of claim  1 , wherein the mobile terminal comprises one of a palm-sized computer, a Personal Digital Assistant and a cellular telephone.  
     
     
         11 . The server of claim  1 , wherein the transmitted at least one of digitally formatted electronic text comprises at least one of text and JPEG image data.  
     
     
         12 . The server of claim  1 , wherein the user-specific information comprises information relating to how the user is to pay for the at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data.