Mobile

Things that aren’t static

Sony Ericsson K610im Adds i-mode
With a full blown parp on their PR trumpets, Sony Ericsson has announced its new Sony Ericsson K610im, their first GSM/UMTS handset to offer full support for i-mode.
What’s i-mode we hear you ask?
Well, it’s a wireless Internet service developed by Japanese provider NTT DoCoMo, which currently operates at 9.6 kbps and offers iMail, iMMS and Web browsing via C-HTML, a subset of HTML.
With Web pages and content specially formulated for i-mode, users can expect nippier viewing of multimedia content using the included NetFront browser.
Although the download speed isn’t exactly impressive right now, the next-gen i-mode looks to be a much sleeker beast, supporting white-knuckle speeds up to 384 kbps.
Back to the phone, the Sony Ericsson K610im features a 1.9″ (176×220) 260k display, a 2 megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom and a second VGA camera for video calls.
There’s 16 MB of onboard user memory, with a 64 MB Memory Stick Micro bundled in the box (the phone can support cards up to 1 GB).
Other features include a speakerphone, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, USB charging and a flight mode.
Available in ‘carbon black’ only, the K610im is expected to start shipping in the third quarter of 2006, with pricing to be announced.
K610im specifications
Imaging and messaging
1.9″ QCIF+ (176×220) TFT 260k
2 megapixel camera and VGA Video call
iMail
Push e-mail
2.5 x digital zoom
16 MB user memory (actual depending on operator customization)
Video recording/playback
SMS and iMMS
DoJa stand-by application
Music
Speakerphone
64 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2 (support for up to 1GB)
Media player [MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ support ]
Support MFi & Mobile MP4
Full streaming Audio & Video
DoJa 2.5 OE
i-mode DRM
Polyphonic 72 voices
3D games
OMA DRM v. 1.0
Music DJ, PhotoDJ, VideoDJ
Connectivity
Memory card slot
UMTS 2100 + GPRS 900/1800/1900
Bluetooth™ technology
PC Tools & Software
USB 2.0 Mass storage
USB charging
Fast port system connector
External antenna connector
Flight mode
Access NetFront Web Browser
Kit Content
-64 MB M2
-USB Cable
-PC software
Sony Ericsson
20 June, 2006
Nokia 6080 Mobile Phone Announced
Slipping and slithering down the well oiled product slipway at Nokia is their latest swishy tri-band phone, the Nokia 6080 (no relation to their 1997 phone of the same name!).
Primarily targeted at Asian consumers, Nokia 6080 is a fairly bland, all-black looking affair with garish silver/gold highlights and a user interface akin to the popular Nokia Series 40 series.
There’s the usual raft of well-tuned Nokia features onboard, including a camera, Bluetooth, MP3 player, video recorder, FM Radio and MP3 ring tones.
Sporting a backlit keypad and bright colour display, the handset comes bundled with a stereo headset and offers all the usual customisation options (with wallpapers, themes, annoying ring tones etc) to keep da kidz happy.
There’s also an exclusive Sodoku game designed specially for the 6080 included if that’s how you like to waste away the hours.
Apart from the trusty phone functions, the Nokia 6080 also comes with Nokia’s Xpress audio messaging, email capabilities and a push to talk feature, with EDGE connectivity and an onboard XHTML browser for nippy browsing on the move.
Talk time is a distinctively average 3.5 hours with a standby time of up to 12 days.
The phone is expected to emerge around the fourth quarter of 2006 for about 180 Euros.
Nokia
20 June, 2006
The Siemens-Nokia Deal Examined
In the wake of the dot com boom, then the dot com collapse, equipment vendors have been feeling the fall-out and mergers seem to be the way to reconcile the collapsing markets. The Nokia-Siemens merger announcement bears witness to this.
Though the telecoms market is still expanding, increased competition from new entrants has made life very difficult for incumbent players.
The Siemens/Nokia merger is just the latest in what’s likely to be a continuing trend, both for vendors and telecoms companies.
Nokia brings expertise in the mobile space (they previously pulled out fixed markets), while Siemens has experience in the wired and broadband markets. Though there will be some overlaps, both companies mainly concentrate in non-competing spaces and as such, they should be able to move forwards with the best of both companies to offer a strong solution for next generation networks.
Siemens, a German giant
Even after disposing of their mobile arms (BenQ have already taken up the mobile phone division), Siemens is still a huge force in the world market, with over 600,000 employees. They have just disposed of parts of the companies in markets they’re not competing well in.
The BenQ buy-out of the mobile division of Siemens allows BenQ to sell phones under the Siemens brand for 18 months, and then under a joint BenQ/Siemens brand for a further 5 years, though BenQ may well drop the Siemens brand altogether. However, they are able to utilise Siemens’ retails channels and will actually based out of the Siemens mobile division in Munich.
This turns BenQ from a small phone player, to one of the larger ones. Siemens have always been good at making phone innards (radios), but their designs have been dated. BenQ must be hoping to imitate the Sony/Ericsson partnership where Ericsson made good phones that weren’t stylish, while Sony had the ergonomics, but dire insides.
Watch out for the Chinese
Though the west is merging like mad (most recently Lucent and Alcatel, both previously giants in the telecoms world) the real threat is coming from China.
Companies such as Huawei (“wu why” sometimes pronounced “who are we” which fits their appearance into markets that they had no presence in until recently) are starting to make serious dents into the Tier 1 telecoms/ISP markets.
A couple of years ago, no one had heard of them. They initially attacked the core ISP market with Internet routers, and offered Cisco “clone” hardware. While Cisco might sell you a system, then you add the software and then all the extra features, Huawei offered a system with everything on in the first place for 60% of the Cisco base price. Not surprisingly in an extremely competitive market, ISPs started utilising Huawei equipment. Huawei also have a huge development resource of 10’s of thousands of high class engineers out of Chinese universities. Where Cisco might take weeks to analyse and diagnose a problem, Huawei set of team of people on the problem and can release fixes in hours.
Now they’ve established themselves in the ISP market, the surrounding markets are being worked on (and since most ISPs are now owned by telecoms companies, it’s the telecoms markets that are easiest to move into).
The Chinese can make carrier class equipment much more cost effectively than their western counterparts, which is why they are suffering.
As networks move towards triple and quadruple plays (voice, video, Internet or voice, video, Internet and mobile) the equipment vendors now have to compete in all these areas. Triple plays are most common currently, but as can be seen from the likes of players like Orange and NTL (both offering quadruple plays), the market is moving in that direction (Vodafone recently announced they’re moving into fixed/broadband plays).
The combination of Nokia as the mobile infrastructure side of the business and Siemens Communications as the broadband/fixed player should allow them to offer a complete solution to their existing and new customers. If they can get the synergies right, the combined might of both has a good chance of competing and ultimately surviving in this crowded arena.
Only time will tell if they can defend against the power against them.
20 June, 2006
Tens of Thousands View World Cup On Vodafone Mobiles
Vodafone Netherlands got in touch with us to tell us how wildly popular the World Cup has been on mobile phones on their service – breaking previous records of simultaneous viewers.
They have two ways to access the football. Total World Cup, a bargain 5 Euro service that allows subscribers to access four minute packages for each of the matches as often as they like during the World Cup up to 9 July; and the Goal Alerts service that delivers edited highlights, not surprisingly the goals, direct to subscribers handsets via MMS.
The on-demand Total World Cup service is the one that really lit up at 5pm on the evening of last weeks match between Holland and Serbia Montenegro.
When we first asked, Vodafone Netherlands followed the now-normal approach of mobile operators of shyness of exact figures. We probed a little deeper for the actual viewing figures and found out that there were tens of thousands of people view it simultaneously.
This would have been a big test for their mobile network, delivering something as bandwidth hungry as video all at the same time. Without any reports to us to the contrary, we can only assume it all went smoothly.
Previous viewing peaks were the friendly match against Mexico on 1 June, the day of the London bombings in July 2005 and some undoubtedly dull rubbish about Big Brother.
Flush with the success, and no doubt in a way of trying to get subscribers hooked on MMS delivery, Vodafone are, as of today, offering the Goal Alerts service ‘without extra charge.’ Those without the handsets to handle video MMS will get a still photo delivered.
Mobile TV is now the 3rd most popular service on Vodafone Netherlands – behind voice and SMS – for those with capable handsets.
Vodafone Netherlands
16 June, 2006
Mobile Linux: Powerhouse Foundation Formed
We all know the mobile handset is totally fragmented. Sure there’s a standard – it’s called Nokia – but everyone who isn’t Nokia isn’t very happy about that.
Vodafone, Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Samsung Electronics have today announced that they hope to change that. They’re getting together to embrace mobile Linux to “create world’s first globally adopted open mobile Linux platform.”
They’re intending to form an independent foundation whose primary focus is the joint development and marketing of an API specification, architecture, supporting source code-based reference implementation components and tools. Pretty comprehensive sounding, but only time will reveal the level of independence afforded to the foundation.
While we understand that they ‘intend to leverage the benefits of community-based’, we’re not really sure where their aims of proprietary development fit in to this. It is after all supposed to be an Open project.
Who’s in? Who’s out?
It’s not surprising to see that Nokia _aren’t_ part of it. Vodafone have for a long time been concerned that, when asked, their subscribers say they have, for example, a Nokia handset rather than a Vodafone service. Nokia also dominate with Symbian.
Also coming in the ‘Obviously’ category, is the lack of Microsoft. They’ve been desperate for years to try and become accepted as the mobile platform of choice, but despite a few successes haven’t managed it. Today’s announcement combined with the strength of Symbian will give them a bit of a kicking.
The other major who’s missing is Sony Ericsson.
Beyond the handset makers, it’s interesting to include NTT DoCoMo. Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo were competitors in the Japanese market – up to the point that they sold Vodafone Japan to Softback back in April. Now that barrier is removed, we’re sure that they’ll love to get closer to DoCoMo to learn the lessons of how they’ve made content such a success in Japan.
Symbian supporters two-time them
Both Samsung and Motorola have in the past sold handsets that use the Symbian OS, but since Nokia have been tightening their clutched on Symbian, it’s likely that they’re becoming increasingly nervous of using it.
The idea of being in control of their own destiny – at least to the software platform – will be much more appealing.
What’s driving this?
Mobile operators are always looking at finding ways for more people to sign to their networks, so decreasing handset costs while maximising features is of the utmost importance for them. This is made clear by Kiyohito Nagata, Vice President and Managing Director of NTT DoCoMo’s Product Department
Open is the new proprietory
Clearly being ‘open’ (the interpretation of which is highly variable) is quite the trend in mobile, with Nokia open sourcing their s60 browser a couple of weeks back.
Much excitement is being generated by those companies already using Linux in their handsets. In a ‘don’t forget we’ve been doing this for ages’ way, Yoshiharu Tamura, Executive General Manager, Mobile Terminals Business Unit, NEC Corporation expounded , “As one of the leading pioneers with almost two years of experience shipping Linux-based mobile phones, we are delighted to participate in this initiative. We expect the foundation activities will accelerate further expansion of mobile Linux application developer participation, as well as global market growth of 3G mobile handsets.”
Not to be left out from showing off, Osamu Waki, Managing Director of Panasonic Mobile Communications, plugged like mad, “Linux sits at the core of Panasonic Group’s software strategy, and to date we have shipped nearly 8 million Linux based handsets in the highly competitive Japanese market.”
15 June, 2006
GSM Mobiles Hit The Two Billion Mark
The second billionth GSM mobile phone is expected to be connected this weekend according to the GSM Association (GSMA).
This historic milestone has been reached as mobile phone sales continue to go ballistic worldwide, with new users signing up at the rate of 1,000 per minute to GSM and 3GSM services (that’s just under 18 per second stat fans!).
“This is the fastest growth of technology ever witnessed,” exclaimed Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSMA.
“While it took just 12 years for the industry to reach the first billion connections. The second billion has been achieved in just two and a half years boosted by the phenomenal take up of mobile in emerging markets such as China, India, Africa and Latin America, which accounted for 82% of the second billion subscribers,” he added, breathlessly.
Although it seems hard to remember a world without vibrating, bleeping little talk boxes lurking in our pockets, it was only back in 1991 when mobile services based on GSM technology were first launched in Finland.
From those freezing Finnish acorns a whopping great global network has flourished, with more than 690 mobile networks providing GSM services across 213 countries.
GSM/ W-CDMA/3GSM now accounts for 82.4% of all global mobile connections, with 3GSM users making up just 72 million of the two billion total.
The top three
Today, fast-developing China is the biggest single GSM market on the planet, boasting more than 370 million users.
In second place is Russia with 145 million, followed by India with 83 million and the USA with 78 million users.
Such is the popularity of mobiles in India that they have become the fastest selling consumer product, shunting trusty bicycles into the number two slot.
More users in the developing world
With GSM hitting two million, GSM can now claim to be the first communications technology to have more users in the developing world than the developed world, with affordable prices helping to bridge the ‘digital divide.’
The GSM Association continues to develop initiatives to help folks in the developing world gain access to mobile communications, developing a sub$30 low cost mobile phone and putting pressure on governments to remove tax barriers on mobile products and services.
If you’re the kind of person that like to be right there when the big two billion figure is hit, you can while away the hours watching the total update on the GSM World homepage. Too much excitement!
14 June, 2006
Nokia N80: Screen and Browser Set To Stun
The dream of effortless – and easy to see – mobile Web surfing has taken a step forward with the release of Nokia’s N80 smartphone. The new device is rapidly garnering praise for its stunning screen which takes the stress out of Web browsing and picture viewing.
With a resolution of 352 x 416 pixels and the capacity to display 262,144 colours, the N80 leaves behind some of its N-series brothers and outdoes most QVGA (that’s Quarter VGA or 240×320 resolution, to you) devices.
The holy grail of mobile screens is full VGA – a massive 480 x 640 pixel resolution. The first full VGA device, Sharp’s 904SH, has already been launched in Japan and though there’s no release date as yet for the technology over here, it’s just a matter of time. Until then the N80 is causing industry commentators like 3G.co.uk to proclaim it the best display they’ve seen on this class of phone.
The increased density of the display makes the interface more crisp and easier to read and Nokia have taken advantage of this by utilizing vector graphics to sharpen up icons and fonts, reducing the blockiness associated with lower resolution devices.
The browsing experience is enhanced by Nokia’s new Mini Map feature. Mini Map allows full HTML Web pages to be navigated by clever use of multiple, semi-transparent windows, offering different views of the page. The phone also utilizes the impressive S60 browser recently covered which now sports a visual history feature and RSS support.
The N80 is pretty sharp on taking pictures too. With a 3.2 megapixel camera built-in, the N80 can deliver stills at 2048 x 1536 pixels, substantial enough to challenge regular digi cameras. Video recording is good at 352 x 288, the same resolution as the N70 and N90, and a VGA camera is mounted on the front for video calls.
The N80 is bursting at the seams with impressive features including connectivity in just about every standard going (UPnP, Bluetooth 2.0, 3G,Wi-Fi), playback of music files (WMA,MP3, AAC, AAC+) and integrated video-sharing and blogging tools. With all that and the eye popping display, the N80 might be the phone of the moment.
9 June, 2006
Samsung Announce True VGA Mobile Display
Mobile phone companies have been striving to develop high resolution displays to capitalise on the potential of multi-media content. This week, Samsung joined the growing list of manufacturers who have created a true VGA display suitable for mobile phones.
The 1.98″ LCD panel was debuted on Tuesday at the 2006 Society for Information Display International Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco. The screen uses the company’s proprietary amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology to achieve the same resolution as most desktop PC’s. It can display up to 16 million colours and supports extremely fast data transfer rates making it ideal for viewing video content.
According to Samsung, the screen has 10 times as many pixels per square inch as a typical 40″ HD TV meaning that your Big Brother clips will be rendered in super high definition.
VGA has been available on handheld devices for a while now. Toshiba debuted the first PDA with VGA display (the e805) back in December 2003 and the first VGA mobile, Sharp’s 904SH, launched in Japan in April this year. The latter has four times the resolution of the average QVGA (Quarter VGA) display and face recognition functions that authenticates users by their facial features.
All of this pixel-mania may be pleasing to electronics CEO’s and geek tech-heads but there are questions about the value of such high definition in such a small device. Higher resolution means greater pixel density which means smaller graphics. This doesn’t, necessarily, equate with ease of use. As one industry insider commented, “The fundamental issue is interface design not resolution. High resolution is primarily useful for viewing pictures – still or moving. Putting a Windows style UI (user interface) on a screen with a resolution greater than the human eye can detect doesn’t deliver a better product.”
Nokia has already had a stab at addressing this issue with their S60 browser Mini Map function which allows the user navigate around full HTML pages by zooming in and out. A feature which may point the way for future developments in interface design.
8 June, 2006
Mobile Consumers Are Lapping Up Convergence
Sad but (supposedly) true: a new study by Nokia has found that over one in five mobile owners said they’d find losing their phone more upsetting than their wallet, credit cards and – unbelievably – even their wedding ring.
Tempted though we are to find those people and give them a reality-introducing slap around the face with a wet fish, the survey does reflect the growing importance of mobiles in everyday life.
Clicking ticking mobiles
Nearly half (44 per cent) of mobile owners now use them as their primary camera – 68 per cent in India – with over two thirds predicting that music-enabled mobiles will soon rule the world, replacing MP3 players like iPods.
It doesn’t look like a good time to invest in Timex stocks, with the study finding that seventy two percent of mobile users no longer own a separate alarm clock – and nearly three quarters use their phones as their main watch or clock.
Nokia commissioned the research in 11 countries around the globe to discover people’s attitudes towards current and future mobiles, and generally found that people *heart* the things the planet over.
Such is the love for mobiles that users want to see them integrated even closer with their lives, with 42 per cent wanting their phones to be able to chat to their home networks, printer, PC, stereo, TV and mobile devices.
Curiously, 72 per cent of Saudi Arabians also wanted their fridges to be included in this network.
Surfing on the move
Mobile surfing continues to rise in popularity, with over a third (36%) of respondents browsing on their mobiles at least once a month, with Japan going for it big time, with 37% going online daily.
“The results strongly demonstrate that people are buying into the idea of convergence – they really do want one device that does it all, from taking quality images, to storing their music collections and operating a digitally connected home,” commented Tapio Hedman, senior vice-president of marketing, multimedia at Nokia.
Nokia
7 June, 2006
Nokia’s M-tickets Go Mainstream With Guns’n’Roses
Dandruff shakers looking forward to some geriatric rocking with Guns’n’Roses at the Hammersmith Apollo tomorrow night can forget all about keeping their tickets as a memento after the show.
That’s because the gig is set to be a high-profile trial of the new fangled mobile ticketing technology, where paying punters are sent barcodes to their phones instead of getting scrapbook-friendly paper tickets.
The m-tickets are disappointing looking affairs too, taking the form of a boring barcode and some text with event details.
Powered by technology provided by Nokia spin-off Ticketrush.co.uk, headband-toting rockers arriving at the gig will have to form an orderly queue to get their barcode tickets scanned by door staff.
It sounds nice and modern, but we’re already fostering fears of long lines of disgruntled rockers waiting in line as the door staff try and work out where the reset button is on their scanners.
Moreover, we don’t even like the idea of having tickets on our mobiles. What happens if your battery runs out, or if you delete your text message by accident?
It may save promoters printing costs and make the process of booking tickets all sleek, modern and Metropolis-like, but there are a lot of memories in old ticket stubs and, to misquote Johnny Thunders, you can’t put your arms around an m-ticket.
You can, of course, attempt to grab a personal record of the gig and annoy the people behind you all night by waving your glowing phone in the air.
With luck, you’ll end up with a blocky, distorted set of unrecognisable moving blobs in the far distance obscured by a forest of glowing phones in front of you.
Regardless of what punters want, The Man is pressing ahead for a bright virtual ticket future, with O2 working with technology provider, Mobiqa to provide m-tickets to this month’s O2 Wireless Festival in London – and in their first week, they managed to shift a hefty £100,000 worth of the things.
For kids too poor to get into gigs – and crafty freeloaders – the new m-ticketing may raise the bar for sneaking in free, but a part of us hopes that some clever nerds find a way to beat the system.
Otherwise they’ll never know the joys of our misspent youth, where we managed to get into a gig by the mighty Thin Lizzy by drawing a ticket.
The band were so impressed by our cheek that they signed the well-dodgy tickets after the gig. Try doing that with a chuffing m-ticket.
Ticketrush
6 June, 2006