3G

Nokia 6630 Music Edition Announced
Acting like they’re fearful of not appearing hip to the mobile music revolution, Nokia have added their own rival to the Apple/Motorola ROKR and Sony Walkman phones, a special edition of the highly rated Nokia 6630 – despite having had music-playing on their phones for yonks.
Shipping later this month, the Nokia 6630 Music Edition offers a new music player and a bundled memory card to offer “enhanced music functionality.”
The updated music player bundles in a 256mb RS-MMC (with memory card support up to 1 gig), which Nokia claims will hold up to 15CDs of music, giving it an edge over the 100 iTunes song limit on the Motorola ROKR.
Music can be transferred to the phone using the included Nokia PC Suite software or with the bundled Nokia USB MMC/SD reader, with the Nokia Audio Adapter letting users plug in their favourite headphones (or “cans” if you’re a DJ) into the standard 3.5 mm stereo jack.
“The Nokia 6630 Music Edition is a fantastic combination of music, smartphone and 3G,” frothed Tuula Rytilä-Uotila, Director, Imaging EMEA, Nokia.”
“You can carry a good portion of your music collection with you wherever you go and with the Nokia Audio Adapter, you can quickly connect your favourite set of music headphones,” Tuula added.
The phone comes in two colours – Aluminum Grey for hip, fast living, city slickers and Rustic Red for cow-bothering, straw chewing, country types.
Being based on the well-rated Nokia 6630, the phone also includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, mobile broadband access with WCDMA networks, mobile email and streaming video.
Nokia have also launched the Nokia Music Pack, a bundled package of enhancements for mobile music, which includes the Nokia Audio Adapter, the Nokia 256 MB MMC Card, the Nokia USB MMC/SD reader and Nokia Stereo Audio Cable.
The only question we’ve got – is where’s the Nokia N91 we got excited about last month?
Nokia
19 September, 2005
Vodafone Targets Mass Market With New 3G Phones
Vodafone plans to unleash a swarm of new 3G mobile handsets in the run-up to Christmas as the company tries to turbo charge mass market adoption of its third-generation (3G) mobile service.
The world’s biggest mobile operator will adding a total of 15 phones to their portfolio.
Ten of the new phones will be exclusive to Vodafone, with six targeted at entry-level customers in an attempt to encourage the mass market take-up of its 3G services.
“We are confident that this is going to be a 3G Christmas,” ho-ho’d Chief Marketing Officer Peter Bamford.
This rings (festive?) bells with us, giving us a very strong feeling of Deja Vu as we heard ‘Vodafone’s betting heavily on 3G this Christmas‘ in November 2004. Perhaps Vodafone thing that saying it two months earlier this year (Sept vs Nov) will ‘make it happen’.
The period before Christmas is traditionally a bumper trading period for mobile phone operators, and Vodafone is confident that its festive offering of MP3 playin’, video and audio streamin’, video call-makin’ 3G phones will send sales soaring.
The new phones
The entry-level phones will include two handsets each from Sharp and Samsung and one each from Motorola and Sony Ericsson – all exclusive to Motorola.
The non-exclusive handsets will include the hugely popular Motorola RAZR V3x phone, the Nokia N70 and 6280, and Samsung’s SGH-Z500V and SGH-Z140V phones.
Four of the new handsets – two each by Sharp and Toshiba – will be targeted at the well heeled, with the Limited edition Sharp 902 Ferrari serving up exclusive Ferrari content for those folks impressed with that kind of thing.
All of Vodafone new 3G phones will offer new services, with the company hoping to tempt users to regularly dip into their catalogue of 500,000 full-track music downloads and mobile TV services and content.
Vodafone launched their 3G service in November 2004, and was reporting 3.3 million 3G customers by June this year.
The company expects big things from their 3G service, forecasting 10 million customers across its businesses to be using 3G mobile video and picture phones and high-speed laptop cards by the end of this financial year in March 2006.
Vodafone
16 September, 2005
Reuters launches 3G Video News Service On Vodafone
News agency Reuters has teamed up with Vodafone Live to offer a 3G streaming news video service for Vodafone customers in the UK.
The subscription service will be Reuters’ first direct-to-consumer mobile video news service and will be available to Joe Public for £3 ($5.45, €4.50) a month.
For their hard earned cash, mobile subscribers will be treated to regular updates from key financial markets around the world, as well as clips from the big news stories of the day.
The service, accessible by selecting “Business News” from the “News & Weather” menu on the handset, will become Vodafone’s first business and financial video to be made available over their network.
Suitably equipped 3G subscribers can choose from more than 20 different videos a day including market reports from London, New York, Singapore, Tokyo and Frankfurt.
Those lucky people can also watch riveting interviews with CEOs and industry leaders, and view stories on people and companies making headlines.
Vodafone subscribers will also get technology, world, sports and entertainment news and be able to set up SMS breaking news alerts.
Alisa Bowen, head of Reuters.co.uk, said: “The growth in downloads of video from our Websites, where over one million clips are viewed each month, made it clear just how popular video news has become.
It was an obvious next step to make this available on mobile devices, combining it with the existing financial data and text services to offer a truly multimedia experience.”
The 3G service is one a series of new mobile video services that Reuters will be rolling out as part of its meisterplan to make more of its news and information directly available to consumers.
Vodafone
Reuters
15 September, 2005
3 UK Announces Mobile Internet Packages
Mobile network 3 has announced two new content packages aimed at getting more customers logging on to its mobile Internet services.
From mid-September, subscribers to 3’s network will be able to sign up to ‘Mobile Web’ and ‘Wireless Web’ content options.
The new Mobile service works out at £2.50 ($4.50, €3.70) a month and lets punters download up to 5MB of content from the Mobile Web.3
Although the deal lets users break out from 3’s previous “walled garden” of accessible sites, the service will still not permit unrestricted access to the Web.
Instead, 3 is limiting the available sites to ones that they feel have been “optimised for viewing on compatible video mobiles” – this means that sites like BBC, eBay and Amazon will be viewable, but perhaps not ‘Bumper Big Boobies Online’.
The network asserts that this limitation is to ensure that customers “can be sure that both front pages and sub-pages are viewable, that the speed of download is high and that all the site’s key activities are available”.
Gareth Jones, 3 COO claimed that “only a fraction of the internet works well on mobile” but insisted that the mobile operator is “committed to extending the choice of high-quality video mobile services”.
Jonesy boy expects the number of sites available through 3’s Mobile Web to grow quickly, with customers invited to nominate sites they’d like to access from their mobiles (so maybe they will get ‘Bumper Big Boobies Online’ after all).
Elsewhere, 3 will continue to serve up content and services through its ‘Today on 3’ entertainment channel and via its partner sites like lastminute.com and FHM.
The second new service, ‘Wireless Web’ will provide full Internet access for customers connecting to the Internet via a laptop and using their 3 handset as a modem.
Punters will be charged a flat rate of £45 per month ($82, €67), with a download limit of 512MB of data.
3 UK
13 September, 2005
Mobile TV Looks To Rake In The Revenue Stream
A report by Unstrung Insider claims that Mobile TV is set to become a breakthrough mass-market mobile data service, boosted by pioneering services offered by major global operators such as Orange, Vodafone, and SK Telecom.
The report, entitled Mobile TV: Switching on the Revenue Stream, highlights the growing success of mobile TV over 3G and satellite broadcast networks, with some operators already soaring past the million sessions per month mark.
With commercial services streamed over 3G networks showing signs of success in their own right, the report suggests that the real power of mobile TV will be to act as an “extension” to regular TV services, persuading even the most techno-phobic mobile phone users of the benefits of 3G subscriptions.
Report author and Unstrung Insider Chief Analyst Gabriel Brown was enthusiastic: “There’s a lot of mileage in unicast mobile TV as a lure to attract high- value 3G subscriptions”.
“The power is its simplicity: Everyone already knows how to watch TV,” he added.
Steven Day, corporate affairs director at Virgin Mobile in the U.K agrees, saying that people who wouldn’t consider using, a streaming media application, for example, will warm to the new technology.
Basing his opinion on feedback from the company’s current 1,000-user mobile TV broadcast trial in London, Day praised the ease of use of Mobile TV services, “It’s dead easy. Everyone knows what it is, and what it does”.
Although the simplicity and familiarity of the service will please punters, the report says that mobile TV will need a “sophisticated sales approach” from operators who face a market driven by very low-cost or “free” services, adding that the mass market will only likely pay up to US$10 (~£5,€8~)a month for mobile TV.
The technology
The report comments on the industry expectation that “one-to-many” mass-market mobile TV services may be more efficiently delivered over dedicated mobile broadcast networks using technologies such as DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld), DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcast), and MediaFLO.
Despite DVB-H growing into the leading contender for dedicated mobile broadcast networks (especially in Europe) pesky issues surrounding spectrum allocation in urban areas looks set to slow down the commercialisation of services.
A potential joker in the pack could be Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology, which has the potential to challenge DVB-H as the automatic mobile broadcast technology choice. Although the technology isn’t as mature as DVB-H, delays to mobile broadcast spectrum allocation can only work to Qualcomm’s advantage.
Unstrung
12 September, 2005
Toshiba LED Pocket Projector For 3G Phones:IFA
Promptly filed under “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” at first peek, Toshiba are debuting a portable LED pocket projector at the Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) trade show 2005 in Berlin.
Toshiba’s new bijou baby has an unusual twist -the projector can be used to connect to 3G multimedia handsets, making it ideal for execs who want to travel light (and for those who want to share their text messages with the world).
Smaller than a gnat’s undercarriage, the teensy weensy LED projector weighs a mere 565 grams, and serves up SVGA (800 x 600) resolution using a 0.55-inch digital mirror device (DMD) chip, boasting a contrast ratio of 1500:1.
The cool-running LED technology means that there’s no need to fit the thing with both a lamp and a colour wheel – and with a lot less heat generated, there’s no need for a noisy, dust generating fan.
Inside there’s a panel fitted with different coloured LEDs which serve both as the light source and the means to determine the colour of the projected images.
With portability in mind, the unit is fitted with a 250-gram battery which can run for two hours and recharge fully in three hours, according to the company’s figures.
The projector is scheduled to be available by the end of the year, with a recommended retail price of approximately 999 euros (£675, $1,250). Not likely to be a big seller at that price is it?
Toshiba
7 September, 2005
Skype Secures Deal With 3G Mobile Partner, E-Plus
Skype has slapped hands and manfully patted backs with German network operator E-Plus as the VoIP giant secures their first 3G partnership.
The exclusive offering will see Skype bundling in their Internet telephony software with E-Plus’s flat-rate data subscription.
This will let subscribers to the Skype/E-Plus deal benefit from a fixed-rate mobile Internet access, freebie Skype calling and the ability to control call costs using the E-Plus flat-rate data subscription.
Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and Co-founder was ready with a quote: “We look forward to working with other innovative mobile operators around the world to bring the value and convenience of the Skype global Internet communications experience to their millions of mobile phone subscribers.”
The busy-bee Skypesters are said to be already hatching up schemes with a number of major handset and headset manufacturers – including Motorola – to develop a broader range of offer Skype-ready devices
“The use of Skype is growing strongly. Through our co-operation we are combining the advantages of mobile and stationary Internet access,” said Uwe Bergheim, Chief Executive Officer of E-Plus.
The flat-rate data subscription from E-Plus will be offered to its 9.8 million subscribers for €39.95 (~£27~$50) per month in October.
The company hopes to attract revenue from the fixed network and lure people off their landlines by persuading customers to make mobiles their de facto choice for making calls.
Skype currently claims more than 2.8 million Skype users in Germany.
Elsewhere, Skype has added a call forwarding function to the latest release of its VoIP software.
This lets users forward incoming Skype-to-Skype and SkypeIn calls to another Skype Name or to any landline or mobile phone.
The call forwarding is free so long as users have sufficient Skype balance available to forward the call to landline or mobile numbers.
Skype
E-Plus
6 September, 2005
4G Prototypes Phones Record Scorchio Speeds
Prototype cellphones capable of transmitting data faster than a startled squirrel on speed have been demonstrated by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, according to the New Scientist.
To test the speed and reliability of the new phones, the prototype handsets were used to view 32 high definition video streams from a car rolling along at 20 kilometres per hour.
NTT DoCoMo officials claimed that the 4G phones manage to receive data at the incredible rate of 100 megabits per second while on the move, and an astonishing gigabit per second while static.
At these kind of white-knuckle speeds, the contents of an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute.
Compare those breakneck speeds with the stately download speed of 384 kilobits per second (129 kilobits per second upload) offered by DoCoMo’s current 3G (third generation) phone network.
Naturally, the boffins behind NTT DoCoMo’s experiment high-speed phone network have come up with a suitably techie description of the technology, describing it as Variable-Spreading-Factor Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VSF-Spread OFDM).
This _apparently_ increases downlink speeds by using multiple radio frequencies to send the same data stream.
During the tests, another smartypants wireless networking trick was employed to send data via various routes across a network to further increase data capacity.
Going under the snappy acronym of MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output) multiplexing, the technology could, for example, enable a cellphone to receive data from more than one base station in range.
Lajos Hanzo, a communications expert at Southampton University in the UK found the prototypes “technically impressive,” but warned that NTT DoCoMo will need assistance from other phone companies for 4G take-up.
“In today’s world nobody can go it alone,” he told the New Scientist.
“And hence any standard proposal must be internationally ratified, which has not as yet take place,” he added.
There’s already been some international activity to cooperate on standards, with Japan and China signing a memorandum on 24 August to work together on 4G.
But don’t start throwing out your 3G phones quite yet though: NTT DoCoMo doesn’t expect to launch a commercial 4G network until 2010.
NTT DoCoMo
5 September, 2005
Nokia Grabs Lead In 3G Phone Market
Nokia has risen to become King Of The Hill of 3G phones with a market share of 17%, with its attractive range of 3G phones trouncing products from rivals NEC and LG.
According to a report by Strategy Analytics, the phone-shifting Finns scooped a 17% of the 3G handset market in the three months from April to June, 2005.
Chris Ambrosio, director of the Strategy Analytics wireless device strategies service observed that Nokia’s hefty share of the 3G market represents nearly half of its global overall share in the global mobile market, currently standing at 33%.
Previous 3G front-runners Motorola and LG have been overtaken by Nokia, with the report warning the manufacturers that they “have significant work to do to match up in the next battle for WCDMA phones priced below US$200 (~£111, €164~) wholesale, which will present significant mass-market opportunities in 2006 to 2010”.
The study notes that the market for 3G phones is still comparatively small, with only nine million units shipped in the second quarter of 2005 – small beer compared to the total sales of 185m handsets for the same period (source UDC).
“WCDMA (3G) technology, which accounted for just 5% of total handset sales during Q2 2005, remains a market in the early stages of development, but it is worrying for a cluster of aspiring Asian vendors that Nokia has already become best in class,” commented Chris Ambrosio, director of the Strategy Analytics’ wireless device strategies service.
Nokia’s market lead has been assisted in no small part by the popularity of their acclaimed 6680 3G handset, recently lauded as the “best-in-class 3G phone” in Western Europe.
Nokia’s triumph means long faces in the Motorola offices, with the company failing to make much progress with their 3G phones, despite their funky ‘lifestyle’ GPRS phones like the V3 Razr proving a hit.
Strategy Analytics
24 August, 2005
Sony Offers Manga Comics To 3G Subscribers
Sony Pictures Entertainment is set to triple the number of comic books it offers as mobile downloads in Japan, making the company the number one provider of “manga” downloads.
Sony has brokered deals with 10 popular Japanese comic artists, letting comic-mad 3G mobile users download about 300 manga books.
Manga comics are huge in Japan, with the name being coined in 1814 after the famous Japanese artist Hokusai created a book of black & white sketches that he called manga (involuntary sketches).
In Japan, manga comics are targeted at all age groups and cover a wide range of genres, covering a far wider range of topics than Western graphic novels – subjects can range from fantasy & adventure, to sports & cooking.
Sony is hoping to tap into this widespread appeal, offering five stories per month for 315 yen ($2.90), with additional charges for further downloads.
Downloadable manga comics are displayed on mobile phones using a technology called Comic Surfing.
This displays mobile-formatted artwork at a predefined speed and sequence, with pop-up frames and vibration during action scenes adding interest to the stories.
Sony intends to offer more comic books than competitors like NTT Solmare, (unit of telecom firm NTT) and Toppan Printing.
Surprisingly, a spokesman for Toppan Printing opined that Sony’s downloadable manga offerings would prove a good stimulus for growth of the market.
“The market for comics through 3G mobile phone handsets just began to emerge last year, when handsets equipped with clear colour and movies on the screen were put on the market. But we expect it to grow more,” he added.
Competitors NTT Solmare were equally magnanimous about their new competitors, commenting: “We hope that Sony’s entrance will be a path to our mutual prosperity, as it could promote the lifestyle of reading comics by mobile.”
NTT Solmare’s catalogue of 80 comic books have already earned the company more than one million downloads this month alone, so Sony looks to be on a right earner.
Manga [Wikipedia]
23 August, 2005