Mobile

Things that aren’t static

Mobile Data Services Set To Rake It In
High speed mobile phones and new gadgets are set to send revenue from mobile entertainment services soaring over the next five years, according to market research firm Informa Telecoms & Media.
Boffins at Informa expect the market for delivering content and services on mobiles to rise from $89.3billion in 2006 to $150billion by 2011.
Mobile music – already the biggest earner – will continue to whip up the biggest wedge of wonga, although its market share is expected to dip from 40 per cent in 2006 to 36 per cent in 2011 in the face of newer consumer technologies like mobile TV and video service.
“Advanced mobile content and services have been slow to take off, but this should not be confused with the deepening relationship that we have with our mobile phones,” commented report author Daniel Winterbottom, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.
“Over time, users will warm to other data services as well. The mobile web is a prime example: WAP failed to take off when it was first launched, but five years on, more and more users have become comfortable with accessing news or other information on their mobile phones,” he added.
The analysts also predict that the market for mobile entertainment services, including games, gambling and naughty adult content, will more than double during the same period, increasing from $18.84 billion in 2006 to a bumper US$38.12 billion in 2011.
User-generated content is also expected to grow, with Informa predicting that revenue from user-generated services will hit $13.17 billion by 2011.
Full of enthusiasm for the future, Daniel Winterbottom enthused: “The arrival of the mobile web on the mobile handset over in 2007 and beyond will see users embracing the same content they take for granted on their PCs.
[Via]
5 February, 2007
Sony Ericsson W51S Mobile Phone
Sony Ericsson in Japan is launching the snazzy new W51S phone which comes in a striking clamshell package.
The no-fuss, flip out design is pleasantly understated, featuring a textured matt black front with just three icons for notifying the user of an incoming email, call or alarm/reminder.
The Organic Light Emitting Device (OLED) icons look rather dandy to our weary eyes, although work-shirkers probably won’t like not being able to see who’s actually calling before flipping open the phone and getting an irate boss on the line.
Once opened, the phone sports a 2.7-inch display with a 16:9 widescreen which (apparently) employs RealityMAX technology to “enhance picture quality.”
Also bundled on board the phone is a 2-megapixel camera backed up by a fairly healthy 120MB of internal memory and IrDA. As ever, Sony are persisting with their love of all things Memory Stuck, burdening the W51S with a Pro Duo expansion slot.
The W51S measures up at 105 × 48 × 19.3 mm, with talk time quoted at 210 minutes, with a standby time of 270 hours. For the security conscious, there’s also a feature letting users remotely lock and delete data on the handset over the web (Palm Treo users have been able to do this for years via excellent software like Warden)
The phone will be available in black, silver or pink, but there’s been ne’er a whisper from the Sony head honchos about pricing, release dates or even if this funky number will be getting it into the greasy paws of Britlanders.
[ From MobileWhack ]
5 February, 2007
Sony W880i Ai: Tuesday Euro Launch?
Sony Ericsson have let it be known via press invites that there’s a number of new handsets being released in Europe next Tuesday.
What they are and where it’s going on is currently being held close to the chest, but there’s rumours going around that one of them might be the W880i Ai.
There’s some shots purporting to be it floating around on a Swedish site called Mobil.
If the shots are to be believed, it looks mighty svelte, appearing only just bigger than a Bic lighter and as thin as you like.
It’s understood that it feels really solid, with a covering of metal conveying a feeling of quality.
We think it looks pretty hot, but the only thing that holds us back from near-total lust is the size and make up of the numeric keys, that have more than a passing similarity to a 1970’s calculator. Without having our hands on it, it’s unclear how friendly it will be to texting at high speed.
Specs are unclear, but it looks like two cameras, one facing forward, the other, a 2mpx facing back. Walkman branding makes it pretty clear it has music-ness included.
It looks like it’s 3G, which makes it all the more remarkable that it’s so tiny.
We’re really interested in its almost-neon-type interface.
Last, but not least, it looks like it’s heading to the US, as it’s got FCC approval.
Tune in next Tuesday for more details following the press launch, until then have a look at Mobil for more shots of it – and get a handkerchief to catch the drool.
The official I Want My W880 site.
Well done to those at Mobil for the photo scoop and Thanks to Hugo for the pointer.
2 February, 2007
MP3Tunes Oboe: Now Unlimited Free Storage
Oboe, the MP3Tunes.com online music service is increasing its previous 1Gb of free music storage to unlimited storage to some of its registered users.
The bold move was signalled when we received an email notification today that our account had been given the magic blessing.
MP3Tunes takes a different approach to iTunes and other on-computer music management software. Rather than have all of your music stored on the machine you are listening to it on, the music is stored on the Internet.
To listen to the music you can either use their application; or plugins for Browsers (Firefox or ie); or media players (iTunes and Winamp). Access to the music is also free.
This brings the advantage that your music can be played by any Internet-attached computer or device that you might have to hand, including TiVo, Nokia 770 and Series 60 phones.
Uploading music is done using their Oboe Sync 2.0 software which runs on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP, Mac OSX and Linux.
They’re not sniffy about the music file formats either, with a comprehensive selection supported (MP3, MP4, M4A, M4P, AAC, WMA, OGG, AIF, AIFF, MIDI). Pointedly it is also stated that “Digitally Restricted Files may not play.”
The unlimited service, previously called Premium, used to cost $40/year. As with their previous offering, there may limits on the size of each file that you upload, but at time of going to press, this remains unclear.
A bit of history for you …
Mp3Tunes was started by Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com, the trail blazing music service that started in 1998 and eventually had to close after a concerted legal attack by the music business.
In 2000 mp3.com started my.mp3.com, a service very similar to the Oboe service offered now offered by MP3Tunes. We hope that their new service doesn’t suffer the same end.
Impact
We think this move to an unlimited service could just start to put a dent in the dominance of iTunes, particularly in Europe, where legal pressure is building on them.
Being able to access music collections from work as well as home, without having to physically carry them, is a big boost.
As far as sustaining the service, because clearly there’s a fair cost in offering something like this, we assume the income will arise from the sale of additional music to the people who embrace the service.p
1 February, 2007
Mobile Internet Use Grows
Mobile phone users are increasingly getting jiggy with the wee buttons on their handset as new figures show mobile Internet access soaring.
According to the Mobile Data Association, UK mobile owners accessed the Internet nearly 16 million times throughout December 2006, adding up to a thumping rise of one million unique sessions over the previous month.
These latest figures mean that mobile users have accessed the web 45.6 million times in the past three months.
Although the figures suggest we’re rapidly turning into perma-connected, perambulating Internet fiends, Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Jupiter Research was quick to suggest that much of the recent increase could be down to Christmas gift-giving.
Ol’ Tommy also reckoned that mobile data was “far from being mainstream,” although he expected an increase in data use as more people got their grubby mitts on internet-capable mobile phones, backed by better user experiences, user education, and cheaper prices.
Ready to rustle up a risotto of facts was Nick Lane, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, who calculated that there’ll be 797.6 million mobile phone subscriptions worldwide capable of web browsing by the end of 2007 (that adds up to 25% of all mobile phones, fact fans).
“The continued advancement of handsets means people are beginning to spend more time familiarising themselves with new services,” Lane added.
News, sport and weather updates are currently the big hitters for mobile users, although recent surveys have shown an increasing demand for location-aware services like maps and local services.
[via]
30 January, 2007
Samsung Ultra Edition 10.9 World’s Slimmest Slider Phone
Slimmer than a hungry supermodel deprived of her daily slice of crispbread, Samsung’s new Ultra Edition 10.9 slider has proudly grabbed the honours to claim the accolade as the “world’s slimmest” slider phone.
Snaffling the crown from the previous super-skinny champ – Samsung’s very own D900 – the new phone sees the designers shaving 2 mm from the thickness of the previous champ to create a phone that is in danger of doubling up as a razor.
The all-black slip of a thing offers a simple interface, with a circular controller and call start/end buttons accompanying the largish screen, with the numeric keypad sliding out from underneath.
Despite its wisp-like dimensions, Samsung have still managed to squeeze in a fair amount of functionality, with a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back of the phone for grabbing stills.
Naturally, there’s an MP3 player onboard plus Bluetooth, video playback/ video out, backed by a fairly reasonable 80MB of internal memory, with a built-in microSD slot offering the option to load up additional tunes.
Much as we love the look of these new super-slim phones, and appreciate how cool and trendy they look tucked into the back pocket of a model’s super-tight jeans, we fear they’re not for us.
After all, judging by the way our Treo 650 has been battered about during visits to football games and ale-slopping nights at the pub, we reckon the Ultra Edition 10.9 would soon become the Broken Edition 10.9 within hours.
Still, if you’re a trendsetting kind of groover that treats your phone like it’s a precious object, then you may well love Samsung’s new number, although you’ll have to wait until more details of the phone are released at the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona next month.
[From Via]
23 January, 2007
Recycle Phones With Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation
The Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation is a charity caring for families with terminally ill babies suffering irreparable brain damage (SDD), and they’ve announced a three week long fundraising campaign in Ireland.
Thankfully, they’ll be no hill climbing or pail fetching involved; instead they want you to hand in your old or unwanted mobile phones.
The Foundation aims to recycle over half a million phones, and hopes to make €500,000 from the project, estimating that it will be able to support one new nurse for every 20,000 phones handed in.
Phones that are still working will be sent to third world countries while knackered phones will be dismantled, with salvageable parts reused and toxic elements disposed of safely.
“For the past seven years we’ve collected empty toner and inkjet cartridges. We saw groups in Britain doing something similar with mobile phones. Last year we did a sort of dry run collecting mobiles and managed to raise around €100,000,” said campaign organiser Stephen Bebbington.
The campaign will see freepost envelopes distributed through the news media in Ireland, letting mobile phone owners send off their old phones for free.
Naturally, there’s a horde of celebrities onboard, including jockey Frankie Dettori, pop star Ronan Keating and hurling star DJ Carey (we’ll have to take their word on his celebrity status as hurling is about as popular as tiddlywinks in the UK).
We dropped the charity a line to see if there’s any way UK folks can hand in their own phones – we’ll update the article when we get a response.
Jack & Jill Children’s foundation
22 January, 2007
LG-SH110 LG phone From Korea
With Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Slip Sliding Away’ surely on perpetual loop in the factory, LG have released yet another natty phone that’s big on that super-slidey thang, the 3G LG-SH110.
Clad in a fashionable all-black stealth finish, the phone boasts a colour QVGA display which – if you’re not down with acronyms – stands for ‘Quarter Video Graphics Array’ and translates into a 320 × 240 resolution display.
And that’s quite a big screen for such a wee phone.
Rustling though the minimal specs offered thus far, we can tell you that Messrs LG have wedged in a 2.0-megapixel camera coupled with a secondary VGA camera for video calling, with the screen able to show your own face and the caller recoiling in horror at your gurning mug.
Judging by the grinning, preening ladies clutching the phone with such ecstatic delight, LG are keen to big up the SH110’s multimedia abilities, with the phone offering an MP3 player, Music Sharing and Bluetooth support, with a pair of wired headphones bundled in the package.
HSDPA connectivity offers super nippy 1.8Mbps connectivity with visio-conference functionality hoping to tempt business bods.
If all this has tempted you to whip out your wallet with gusto, put your money away, squire – as with most of LG’s goodies there’s no confirmed UK release date and there quite probably never will be. Boo!
[From Akihabaranews]
22 January, 2007
The iDontWantOne: Private Eye Mocks The iPhone
The brilliant Private Eye, satirical magazine of the UK, has a fake advert for the Apple iPhone.
The headline? At last, from Apple – The iDontWantOne with a photo of the iPhone underneath it.
The gist of the jest is that it’s over-complicated for normal mortals and is highly likely to malfunction. After you’ve used the phone to call Apple customer support and tried to text them and failed, you can use it as an iBrick with a paper note attached to it saying “Why doesn’t your stuff work properly?”
Full copy is
The ultimate in hand-held technology! Now using the all-in-one device you can take a photo, download songs, play videos, access the internet and then with the iPhone you can ring up Apple to complain that none of the above facilities work. And if the phone doesn’t work you can text the customer services department – unless that doesn’t work either, in which case you can use it as a brick (the iBrick facility) to throw through the window of the Apple store, attached to a lo-tech hand-written note saying, “Why doesn’t your stuff work properly?”
Referring to the oft-used phrase of bad support departments, they have an insert with “Try turning it off and then on again,” underneath a photo of The Steve.
Given Apple’s legal-happy status currently, they may be contacting The Eye – not something that will phase them, they’ve had far bigger legal battles and won before.
Besides the great jests that Private Eye have against the irrelevant, they also carry out real journalism – actually investigating wrongs and exposing them – something of a rarity in most publications.
Private Eye
Private Eye subscriptions
18 January, 2007
Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email now on Sony Ericsson M600 and P990
Nokia are extending their relationship with Sony Ericsson as they take their Intellisync Wireless Email to two more Sony Ericsson devices, the M600 and P990.
Nokia’s Intellisync Wireless Email is their counter to RIM’s Blackberry and Microsoft’s mobile email service, covering wireless email, synchronization for calendars, contacts, files, data and applications.
Where as the competition only works with their own devices, Nokia claims that theirs works with any device and any backend system. This extended deal with Sony Ericsson makes this real.
This solution is primarily aimed at business users, but as people become dependent on digital communications, it’s highly likely that every man (and woman) and his (or her) dog (or cat) will be wanting this kind of thing.
Around the Digital-Lifestyles office we are not big email fans, given that it’s laden with so much junk these days. We, like many others use IM to communicate.
16 January, 2007