Wireless – Page 98 – Digital-Lifestyles

LG opens European RandD Centre in Paris

The march of LG continues West with them setting up an R&D office in Paris (Reg.Req.), France. The advantages to them are plentiful; a stronger understanding of the needs of the European market; the forging of closer relationships with European network operators; having the cellular standards bodies on their door steps – ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) are both based in Paris.

This will be their fifth R&D centre, following San Diego, Beijing, Bangalore, and Moscow.

LG profile has grown tremendously in recent years, and their handsets have been doing well. They hope the opening of this R&D centre takes them one step closer to being a ‘global top 3’ in handsets by 2006. On past performance it looks highly achievable – rival companies must be getting worried.

i-mode UK Bound Via mmO2?

There has been some press speculation over the last day or so about mmO2 partnering with DoCoMo to bring their phone and content platform, i-mode, to the UK. Reuters reported that mmO2’s Chief Executive, Peter Erskine, had said last week that the company would decide by year-end on whether to introduce i-mode.

Things appear to have moved on, and this morning the Financial Times is more firm on the story, reporting that O2 will announce the deal next week. They say the service would start next year.

We spoke to mmO2 and their official comment was “the process is ongoing and we are still on schedule to announce before the end of the year”, so no big scoop for us there then. In conversation they did mentioned that the i-mode service has become more attractive over the years, since they last looked at it. Over that time the available range of handsets has increased significantly, it has driven up usage in the markets it has been deployed and the range of content available now for the platform has increased substantially.

[A brief interlude. Why is the company sometimes called mmO2 and other times O2? Let us clear up the confusion. mmO2 is the parent company that operates in a number of countries (UK, Ireland, etc). Its operating units in these countries are called O2. So, parent co=mmO2, local instance=O2.]

i-mode is a huge in Japan, where it has 42m users. Some even credit it with bringing the Internet to the youth of Japan. As home computer ownership previously wasn’t that large, the youth used their phone to get online.

It is already running in four European countries; Germany, France, Italy and Spain, although the take up figures haven’t been what you would call stunning, running at around 4m over the continent. The UK is a big gap in DoCoMo’s European coverage.

For content producers, the most interesting thing about i-mode is its content publishing model. Compared with other mobile platforms in the UK who can take as much as 50-60% of payments made by consumers, i-mode takes significantly less – in the low double digits.

It’s deals like this that are highly likely to draw content to mmO2 – it’s not wholly surprising that content producers will be inclined to get the most income from their wares as possible.

Given the current fashion among 3G watchers is to think that the winners in 3G will be those with the strongest content, a generous share of the income to draw in content owners could be a very smart move by mmO2.

DoCoMo
mm02

CNN News Free to Mobiles, Xerox Sponsored

CNN News to mobiles, Xerox Sponsor CNN has launched a news service over Europe that delivers the top ten CNN headlines to mobile phones without a subscription charge.

The phone owner will receive the 10 top stories of the day as chosen by the CNN.com site editorial team. If the application is kept ‘live’, ie. running on the handset, it will continue to receive news updates. When the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is turned off, either by the user or because they drop out of range, the news items remain accessible, as they are stored on the handset.

The process of signing up for the service sounds simple. The phone user sends an SMS requesting the service and a returned WAP link takes the phone to a Java application that is automatically downloaded to the handset. The news is then delivered to it using the data-only GPRS otherwise know as 2.5G.

Consumers will not have to pay a subscription charge for this service, as Xerox will be sponsoring it. In return Xerox will have their logo displayed as the service starts, on the home page and on the individual news pages. Xerox is paying a fixed price for the deal, which doesn’t vary on the number of people who sign up for it. Although users of the service can click through to a page of information about Xerox, which they have editorial control over, the real driver for their involvement is the association with the CNN brand and a leading-edge application of technology.

CNN have been pretty adventurous in distributing their news product to many platforms. CNN mobile currently offers a breaking news service to mobiles via SMS, which it charges Euro 4.75/month. In Austrian, Finland, Italy and the Netherlands, mobile owners are able to watch CNN on their handsets via their GPRS video streaming service.

There will be those in the mobile content world who will find this type of deal a little disturbing. They are currently very pleased that consumers appear to associate mobile content with paying – in stark contrast to Internet based content. If the consumer starts being offered quality content for no money, they might get used to it.

Expect more deals like this from media owners, as Kevin Razvi, head of CNN International ad sales says, “Our expanding portfolio of wireless businesses exposes advertisers directly to a broad consumer base through a highly relevant service for an increasingly mobile and technically-savvy target audience.”

CNN
Xerox

Entertainment Now: UK 3’s Deal with APTN

3, the first 3G network in the UK, are further enhancing their content offering by announcing a deal with Associated Press Television News (APTN). APTN will provide the video show, “Entertainment Now” that will be released twice a week and cover ‘celebrity entertainment’. In their words, it will be “quirky and irreverent, poking fun at the rich and famous, and of course, the infamous.”

3 customers have two ways to pay for the content. At 50p per clip or they can watch as much video as they like by paying £5 per month for the “video value” add-on.

We spoke to Deanna Gullery, APTN’s New Product Marketing Manager about the deal. They currently sell a 24 minute version of Entertainment NOW (is it just us or is the capitalisation unnecessary?) that goes to air with a number of broadcasters in various countries on a weekly basis.

The 3 version will be a cut down version, primarily featuring celebrity interviews, calling on AP’s strong access to the stars. It will be edited in-house down to between 2 and 4 minutes, voiced over and releases on Tuesday and Thursday.

We think the 3 deal is an interesting example of a content creation company making the most of their assets – “Sweating your assets” as we believe the 80’s phrase for was. AP are all over the world (80 bureaux in 67 countries) shooting this type of material for ‘traditional’ media outlets anyway. Why not make the most of it and edit it together in to custom pieces? We’re strong believers in this type of approach.

We don’t think this is the kind of content that will drive people to join the 3 services, it’s more about maximising Average Revenue Per User (ARPU, in trade terms). Their current ARPU taking the first 7 months of this year is £43.22 per customer, per month.

Three
Associated Press Television News

DAB Gets Big pre-Xmas Push from BBC

BBC DAB Xmas campaign The BBC will be launching a multi-format campaign starting at the end of November to promote Digital Radio in the run up to Xmas. It’s being previewed in London today.

Running across TV, radio, online (including the BBC home page) and posters, it will be a comprehensive campaign. The TV element, which airs this Saturday, will use animations of a computer-generated world to relate its message, marketing news site mad.co.uk reveals (reg. req.). In the piece, Robert Senior, the managing partner from the company that created the campaign, Fallon, goes on about a “wider spectrum of emotions” – but that’s quotes from marketing publications for you.

An industry insider tells us that this year the BBC will highlight what makes DAB special, rather than just talking about their additional channels, as happened last year. DAB features such as digital-quality sound and scrolling text should be highlighted.

This is a big year for DAB in the UK. Each of the major electronics retailers will be featuring DAB equipment prominently in their advertising. This year DAB receivers have also been in all of the glossy magazine with them falling over themselves to feature DAB in their publications. Last year they wouldn’t touch it.

The BBC’s isn’t the only campaign. The Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB) will be running a campaign over 257 commercial radio stations around the UK telling all and sundry that receivers can be bought for ‘under £50’.

The desired effect of all of this should be two fold. To give a boost to the sale of DAB receivers, at a time people are starting to think about presents for their friends and relatives; as well re-reminding the UK public that there is a wider variety of radio content available over DAB than on the analogue channels.

We learnt from the DRDB that 801,000 DAB units had been sold in the UK in the year to September. Their sales target for this year? “We’re aiming for 1 to 1.2m units before the end of the year” Ian Dickens, Chief Exec of DRDB told us.

With over 100 models now available in many different forms factors, they’ve got a strong chance of hitting it.

Philips’ Tiny Chip Provides FM Radio In Mobile Devices

Royal Philips Electronics has showcased a series of chips that will add FM and AM tuner functionality to mobile phones, CD/MP3 players, PDAs, and other handset devices. The chips are not only the world’s smallest, but will also allow handset manufacturers to create ‘true’ multimedia devices that are capable of playing audio, video, games, and radio.

According to Philips, FM radio is one of the key features users are looking for as mobile phones are evolving into connected consumer devices. With listening figures as high as 20 hours per week, according to the company, Philips is hoping that consumers will appreciate the addition of easy-to-use FM radio on their mobile phones. This, of course, is very likely, as for most people it will probably mean one less item to carry in their pockets. Today, only some 15 per cent of mobile phones sold worldwide have FM radio, although the market is set to continue to grow towards 50 per cent, asserts Philips.

Each new chip has its own peculiarities. For example, the TEA5767 requires low power whilst the TEA5777 supports the AM range. The smallest in the series, the TEA5761, is made using WL-CSP (Wafer Level – Chip Scale Packaging) and is a wafer of silicon crystal plates. As the I/O connections were redesigned and some of them removed, TEA5761-based solutions require considerably less PCB space. Some of TEA5764 are also shipped in WL-CSP package, but they primarily stand out with RDS (Radio Data System) support (provides various information like station name, current track, news, ads, and so on). RDS also helps to simplify tuning by ensuring that the radio always tunes to the strongest signal available. The technology also offers benefits for telecom operators by increasing average revenue per user (APRU).

‘Mobile phones are becoming the ultimate portable device and consumers are placing great value on the multimedia features that differentiate their phone from others in the market. Already established as a proven technology with a large user base all over the world, FM radio is a valuable addition to any handset,’ said Peter Baumgartner, senior vice president of Philips Semiconductors’ Communications business. ‘As the leader in this market for FM radio on mobile devices, Philips enables everyone to enjoy radio entertainment, everywhere and anytime they want.’

Philips’ FM TEA5761 is available now, while the FM+RDS TEA5764 and the AM/FM TEA5777 will be available in January 2005.

Royal Philips Electronics

Microsoft TV Attracts Older People To The Web

Microsoft is hoping its Web-based TV service will attract ageing users to surf the Internet, read e-mail and view digital photos – all without a computer. In what initially seems like a shot in the foot, Microsoft’s research indicates that the untapped market potential for older users is in excess of 40 million – a sizable figure even for the king of software.

As well as the older generation, Microsoft is also targeting first-time Web users, particularly in developing economies where the Internet is out of many people’s reach because of the cost of a PC. The major benefit of being able to view photos and read e-mail on your TV is that most people already own a TV, thus eliminating the prohibitive cost of a PC, as well as the hassle of installing and learning how to use it. Sitting in front of a TV is also usually a heck of a lot more comfortable than a computer.

“Our average user is 57 years old,” said Andy Sheldon, senior director of product marketing for MSN TV. “These people are getting to the age where they don’t want to deal with complicated ways of connecting to the Web.”

The service comes via a MSN TV 2 unit set-top box, bringing e-mail and the Internet to the TV. It includes a wireless keyboard and remote control and costs $199, in addition to a subscription fee, which costs around $22 per month. MSN TV 2 also includes a 56Kbit/s phone modem, as well as an Ethernet jack for connecting to an existing network or broadband connection. Of course, there’s also e-mail and instant messaging accounts and access to 200 radio stations and video clips. Viewers can also browse Web pages or even digital photos stored on memory cards.

MSN TV 2 is probably ideal for those who have yet to take their first step onto the Internet, but anyone interested in a home networking device can get more for their money
.

Sky Active re-launches with Significant Upgrade

The Sky Active service, which has been around for the last five years, has this week had a considerable redesign. Originally a text-based approach, the new version is significantly richer and takes is into a magazine style. We spoke to Sky to get the details.

Sky Active Front page The opening page (example right) has a video background running on the right and a small number of highlighted options on the left hand side. The layout and links on this page change throughout the day, to match the audience that they think will be looking at it. Currently changing twice it will feature items like horoscopes and lifestyles links during the day and betting and dating in the evening.

Sky Active Content page Another way to access the content is via a mosaic layout (example right). This shows a checkerboard of 16 video pieces running on loops. As the viewer uses their remote control to navigate between the videos, bring it in to focus, the audio channel associated with that video loop plays. This short-form video programming is designed to draw people in to the interactive content that lies behind and on pressing the Select key takes them to the content.

It’s clear that Sky is putting more resources (read money) into this service. There is a full time editorial team of ten people working on it on a day-to-day basis and with the video running, considerably more satellite bandwidth is required to run the video. Sixty people across the organisation have been involved with the re-launching of the site – twenty of them within the design team.

Sky Active is creating much of the content in-house, as well as commissioning other pieces externally. The content that is being created is unique to Sky Active.

Clearly Sky is making money from their interactive service, and want to make sure that they are ahead of the game (pun intended) as other rival services are launched.

Sky Active

Motorola Moves into Mesh Networking

In a move aimed at boosting its broadband networking, mobile giant Motorola has announced it’s purchasing US-based equipment supplier MeshNetworks.

Acquiring the wireless mesh networking company “brings sales, support and brand recognition that a startup could never match in a million years,” says Rick Rotondo, vice president of marketing for the Maitland, Fla-based company. (We suspect he was exaggerating for effect – commonly called hyperbole).

The purchase by Motorola further legitimises the whole mesh networking concept. Only last month, North American rival Nortel announced its mesh networking product line, aimed at providing easier WiFi coverage without the need for multiple access points. In the UK, LocustWorld has been selling its Mesh AP boxes to hotels, hospitality venues and rural community broadband service providers with a great deal of success.vMesh networking provides an innovative method to build complex data networks very easily. Using the intelligence of each component, meshing helps them to join into a self-organising structure. This approach differs from the traditional “top-down” design of data networks, and provides many benefits, including flexibility, speed and ease of management, making it simply to deploy widespread networks with low overheads. It’s particularly suited to wireless networks, where the connections can’t be predicted in the same way as a wired network, catering for mobile nodes, instant growth and unpredictable variations in reception and coverage.

Mesh networking builds up a wide spread multi-hop network, making connections between neighbouring nodes on demand. Once connected the nodes can explore the network and establish their routes through it, finding the resources that they need automatically.

“The acquisition also represents another step in Motorola’s commitment to deliver seamless mobility to all of our customers,” said Greg Brown, president of Motorola’s CGISS. The purchase will benefit “all of our businesses ranging from mission critical and enterprise markets to automotive and home entertainment applications,” said Brown.
SP Comment: Mesh networks are far from a new idea. Groups such as London-based Informal.org have been enthusiastic about the possibilities of a wireless mesh for a long time. For over three years they have seen the possibilities of a wireless mesh supplimenting the wired networks offering free, ubiquitous access and when combined with VoIP, replacing traditional phone services. When viewed in these terms, it is incredible how long big business takes to catchup with grass roots ideas.

Motorola
MeshNetworks
Informal.org

Viagra to Use RFID to Highlight Fakes

It has been claimed that 50% of the Viagra offered over the Internet is fake. Given this and the fact that Viagra had worldwide sales of nearly $1.9 billion last year, it pays Pfizer to protect its product.

Pfizer have announced that by the end of next year they will be shipping Viagra bottles with Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags built in to them. The tiny RFID tags will give them the ability to trace the shipments from factory to shop, while giving the purchaser the confidence that the goods are genuine.

The subject of RFID has proved controversial. Many businesses are enthused by the potential of the technology in further automating their supply chains while some groups feel that individuals privacy could be compromised the technology. If RFID tags were fitted to clothing, a shop would be able to ‘read’ which clothes a person was wearing as they walked through the door.

It’s unclear whether purchasers of Viagra will be happy to walk around with a bottle that could be remotely detected.

Pfizer