Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Saturday, July 30, 2005
Real web browing on your phone
Something everyone has wanted (in cases without knowing), but the industry has been slow to provide. Web browsers in phones get full HTML support, and more and more web services come in mobile versions, better optimized for small screen.
Cell Phones Are Next Frontier For Internet Companies - Yahoo! News
Cell Phones Are Next Frontier For Internet Companies - Yahoo! News
Technorati going mobile
Technorati is a search engine for blogs. The mobile version is a simplified web version (read: not WML). I've added a link from the Mobile Blog page at wap.abiro.com.
textually.org: Technorati Launches Mobile Search
textually.org: Technorati Launches Mobile Search
Friday, July 29, 2005
PoC now adopted by many operators
Despite initial fears from operators that PoC would cannibalize normal telephony, many have still jumped on the train.
Most of the phones now support the OMA PoC standard rather than proprietary methods:
The survey also shows that most new phones in 2005 launched by the leading manufacturers incorporate the push-to-talk feature. The survey identifies 57 phones announced in the market from ten suppliers, for use on GSM/GPRS networks. Many of these devices support the push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) standard, which was ratified last month by the Open Mobile Alliance.
Digital Media Europe: News - 33 GSM networks worldwide now offering push-to-talk
Most of the phones now support the OMA PoC standard rather than proprietary methods:
The survey also shows that most new phones in 2005 launched by the leading manufacturers incorporate the push-to-talk feature. The survey identifies 57 phones announced in the market from ten suppliers, for use on GSM/GPRS networks. Many of these devices support the push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) standard, which was ratified last month by the Open Mobile Alliance.
Digital Media Europe: News - 33 GSM networks worldwide now offering push-to-talk
Mobile game sales will grow to 9.3B Euro by 2010
Current figure is 2.15B, so this is good growth.
Meanwhile the mobile games industry still has work to do to encourage mass-market adoption of mobile games. This year, just 6.7 per cent of all mobile subscribers globally will download and play a mobile game, rising to 15.2 per cent by 2010.
To win over the majority of potential gamers I believe sports, arcade and Sims-type games are needed. The market for e.g. RPG games is small, relatively speaking.
Digital Media Europe: News - Mobile games to be worth �9.3bn by 2010
Meanwhile the mobile games industry still has work to do to encourage mass-market adoption of mobile games. This year, just 6.7 per cent of all mobile subscribers globally will download and play a mobile game, rising to 15.2 per cent by 2010.
To win over the majority of potential gamers I believe sports, arcade and Sims-type games are needed. The market for e.g. RPG games is small, relatively speaking.
Digital Media Europe: News - Mobile games to be worth �9.3bn by 2010
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Symbian OS dominating the smartphone market
Symbian OS: 55.9%
Windows Mobile: 12.7%
Linux: 11.3%
Doesn't mention Palm OS, even though there's a decent amount of Treo's sold.
Symbian OS Tops Converged Phone-Handheld Computer Scene - Yahoo! News
Windows Mobile: 12.7%
Linux: 11.3%
Doesn't mention Palm OS, even though there's a decent amount of Treo's sold.
Symbian OS Tops Converged Phone-Handheld Computer Scene - Yahoo! News
Text messaging finally taking off in the US
About 5 billion text messages are sent a month in the USA, up from 2.8 billion a year ago, according to the wireless trade association CTIA.
Surge in text messaging makes cell operators :-) - Yahoo! News
Surge in text messaging makes cell operators :-) - Yahoo! News
Motorola and Nokia fighting back in China
It's no longer the local players that take marketshare, but rather Motorola and Nokia are fighting back with a vengeance. There's clearly consolidation going on.
China is the world's biggest cellphone market by subscribers, with 350 million, and 100 million units are sold into the market every year. A recent survey put sales worldwide this year at 779 million.
Alarm bells ring for Chinese cellphone makers - Yahoo! News
China is the world's biggest cellphone market by subscribers, with 350 million, and 100 million units are sold into the market every year. A recent survey put sales worldwide this year at 779 million.
Alarm bells ring for Chinese cellphone makers - Yahoo! News
Mozilla/Firefox on your phone
Mozilla is now ported to and slimmed down for Windows Mobile. Will it support also WAP 1.x and WAP 2.0? I figure not.
Minimo: Mozilla for your Cell Phone? - Mobile Phones/PDAs News - Designtechnica
Minimo: Mozilla for your Cell Phone? - Mobile Phones/PDAs News - Designtechnica
Qtek 9100, smartphone with full keypad
Not released yet, but Windowsmobile.no anyway got their hands on a unit. It runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has a full/QWERTY keypad that is pulled out from the side of the device. When that's done the phone is used sideways and the display goes into landscape mode. This is a good form factor for smartphones, as it becomes much more useful with a full keypad and a wider than high display mode. Even for simple messaging it's a clear bonus. It's got WLAN and GPRS/EDGE (why not UMTS?). It's got a camera and a feature called "snarveisknapp" that I guess is some kind of quick mode switching key.
Vi pr�vekj�rer Qtek 9100 � HTC Wizard :: WindowsMobile.no :: Din kilde til Windows Mobile - Qtek, Motorola, HP, Samsung, Mitac med mer
Vi pr�vekj�rer Qtek 9100 � HTC Wizard :: WindowsMobile.no :: Din kilde til Windows Mobile - Qtek, Motorola, HP, Samsung, Mitac med mer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Abiro - Mobile Blog
As Mobile News is in actuality a blog hosted by Google Blogger, and it gives me a chance to do self-promotion, here's the latest service from Abiro:
Abiro Mobile Blog enables quick posting of blog entries to Google Blogger from any WAP-enabled phone and via any network. Access is via wap.abiro.com and the service is completely free of charge.
Maybe I'll use this myself for posting to Mobile News :).
Abiro - Mobile Blog - Post to Blogger from your phone
Abiro Mobile Blog enables quick posting of blog entries to Google Blogger from any WAP-enabled phone and via any network. Access is via wap.abiro.com and the service is completely free of charge.
Maybe I'll use this myself for posting to Mobile News :).
Abiro - Mobile Blog - Post to Blogger from your phone
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Mobie invades your phone
A Mobie (not to confuse with Abiro's Moodies) is a tamagotchi-like application that runs on your phone and senses how you use your phone and reacts on that. Vodafone is the first to introduce this feature.
Whenever the user receives a phone call, an SMS or an MMS message, their Mobie's health and happiness will increase. The more messages and calls received, the more a Mobie can do. New activities will be unlocked and new props and toys will become available.
textually.org: Vodafone's new "cell mates" - a cross between a mobile game, a tamagotchi and a screensaver
Whenever the user receives a phone call, an SMS or an MMS message, their Mobie's health and happiness will increase. The more messages and calls received, the more a Mobie can do. New activities will be unlocked and new props and toys will become available.
textually.org: Vodafone's new "cell mates" - a cross between a mobile game, a tamagotchi and a screensaver
Sunglasses with Bluetooth handsfree
I'm wondering:
- Why the combination? There are pretty small dedicated handsfree devices available now.
- Why is the handsfree not charged from the phone? Charging via separate power supply or USB is very impractical.
textually.org: Bluetooth enabled sunglasses
- Why the combination? There are pretty small dedicated handsfree devices available now.
- Why is the handsfree not charged from the phone? Charging via separate power supply or USB is very impractical.
textually.org: Bluetooth enabled sunglasses
Motorola Q, more pictures
Q stands for QWERTY. I should have guessed.
Hands-on with the Motorola Q - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
Hands-on with the Motorola Q - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
Hop-on HOP1886, media-focused phone
The interesting thing with this phone is that the telephony function seems to be secondary: numeric keypad via touchscreen instead of dedicated buttons, while media controls have dedicated keys.
Hop-on.com :: Cell Phones :: GSM: HOP1886
If you've never heard of Hop-on before they seem to have most kinds of phone devices, including for VoIP, fixed line and telemetry.
Welcome to Hop-on.com!
Hop-on.com :: Cell Phones :: GSM: HOP1886
If you've never heard of Hop-on before they seem to have most kinds of phone devices, including for VoIP, fixed line and telemetry.
Welcome to Hop-on.com!
Motorola Q, handset for email junkies
This phone is touted as a Blackberry competitor, and it can very well be, as it has the design of the RAZR phones yet with an alphanumeric keypad, and sports Windows Mobile 5.0 with integrated compatibility with MS Exchange etc.
Motorola unveils thin phone for e-mail addicts - Yahoo! News
Here's a picture and more info. Nice phone!
www.hardwarezone.com� :: News Flash At A Glance!
And here:
The Q - Motorola's Super Thin Smartphone (Phone Scoop)
Motorola unveils thin phone for e-mail addicts - Yahoo! News
Here's a picture and more info. Nice phone!
www.hardwarezone.com� :: News Flash At A Glance!
And here:
The Q - Motorola's Super Thin Smartphone (Phone Scoop)
Monday, July 25, 2005
Mobile dating
It could possibly become a popular service due to new ways to locate people and with more precision.
It also claims Bluetooth can be used for proximity detection of people:
While location-based services are yet to be introduced, some companies are touting proximity dating using Bluetooth-enabled phones, which are equipped to transmit and receive short-range wireless signals.
With fewer than 6 million users in the United States, mobile dating is small compared with the estimated 40 million users of traditional computer- based online dating services."
Doesn't sound too bad though, as it's an emerging market. The advantage being you always have the phone with you.
textually.org: Hey, baby, want a date?
It also claims Bluetooth can be used for proximity detection of people:
While location-based services are yet to be introduced, some companies are touting proximity dating using Bluetooth-enabled phones, which are equipped to transmit and receive short-range wireless signals.
With fewer than 6 million users in the United States, mobile dating is small compared with the estimated 40 million users of traditional computer- based online dating services."
Doesn't sound too bad though, as it's an emerging market. The advantage being you always have the phone with you.
textually.org: Hey, baby, want a date?
Phone belt for an active life
LG LP3900, a multitasking phone
Being able to run several applications simultaneously on a phone (like playing music continuously in the background) seems obvious to a PC user, but is only starting to come on mainstream phones. You probably need something like Symbian OS or Linux to get this to work OK. I didn't find any information in English telling which OS this phone is using.
...the model enables users to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, such as listen to music while sending SMS, playing games, change menu, browsing the web or taking photos.
picturephoning.com: LG's new multitasking cameraphone
Here for some pictures and technical info (in Korean):
LG-LP3900
...the model enables users to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, such as listen to music while sending SMS, playing games, change menu, browsing the web or taking photos.
picturephoning.com: LG's new multitasking cameraphone
Here for some pictures and technical info (in Korean):
LG-LP3900
Software-based radio
For at least 5 years companies have attempted to provide programmable radio chip solutions that enable one device to support several radio protocols via software, and Sandbridge Technologies claims it's got a solution for the future. Probably you will also need different antennas to handle different frequencies, but nothing is said about that.
Where Sandbridge might make the biggest impact is in new types of devices, such as digital still or video cameras that can stay connected to the Internet over different kinds of networks depending on location, Baron says.
Flexible Chips Will Let Phones Do It All - Yahoo! News
Where Sandbridge might make the biggest impact is in new types of devices, such as digital still or video cameras that can stay connected to the Internet over different kinds of networks depending on location, Baron says.
Flexible Chips Will Let Phones Do It All - Yahoo! News
Nokia moving to Linux?
ARC guesses this is on the way, but has no hard facts to prove it.
...especially since a lot of Series 60 apps are written in Java.
None of the native ones are. Of course many downloaded games etc are written in Java.
I'll follow this as it's critical to the future of Symbian what choice they will make. Their licensing of Series 60 to other manufacturers has failed, so today Nokia is the clearly biggest user of Symbian OS.
Could Nokia dump Symbian? - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
...especially since a lot of Series 60 apps are written in Java.
None of the native ones are. Of course many downloaded games etc are written in Java.
I'll follow this as it's critical to the future of Symbian what choice they will make. Their licensing of Series 60 to other manufacturers has failed, so today Nokia is the clearly biggest user of Symbian OS.
Could Nokia dump Symbian? - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Tweens, a new mobile phone demographic
Tweens = subteenagers. Seems no age group is safe from mobile phone marketing anymore.
The study predicts that there will be 26 million tweens in the U.S. in 2009 and that four million of them will use their own phones.
"For example, older tweens prefer different types of devices, want different services, and will use their handsets in different ways."
'Tweens' Need Their Own Phones, Study Finds - Yahoo! News
The study predicts that there will be 26 million tweens in the U.S. in 2009 and that four million of them will use their own phones.
"For example, older tweens prefer different types of devices, want different services, and will use their handsets in different ways."
'Tweens' Need Their Own Phones, Study Finds - Yahoo! News
AMR Research expects RFID boom during 2005
Many have already written about RFID and the technology now seems to become interesting also outside of Japan and Korea.
Although 69 percent of the surveyed companies plan to implement the technology this year, 18 percent said they have no plans at all to use RFID.
Survey Says RFID Is Red Hot - Yahoo! News
Although 69 percent of the surveyed companies plan to implement the technology this year, 18 percent said they have no plans at all to use RFID.
Survey Says RFID Is Red Hot - Yahoo! News
Friday, July 22, 2005
Misleading TV ads of the crazy frog
Again the crazy frog has made a splash in the news. Something many think is a one-off deal is really a monthly subscription that has to be cancelled by the consumer. It's also much more expensive than I had ever imagined.
Customers must also get a reminder of how to unsubscribe every month or every time £20 is spent.
Each week, they receive a new text message for which they are charged £3, enabling them to download another ringtone.
It's the core business model that is immoral. The advertizing issue is just a side-effect.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Ringtone ads face stiff controls
Read also this, on the same theme:
BBC NEWS | 'Crazy Frog doubled my phone bill'
In this article mBlox is mentioned, but they are not to blame.
Customers must also get a reminder of how to unsubscribe every month or every time £20 is spent.
Each week, they receive a new text message for which they are charged £3, enabling them to download another ringtone.
It's the core business model that is immoral. The advertizing issue is just a side-effect.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Ringtone ads face stiff controls
Read also this, on the same theme:
BBC NEWS | 'Crazy Frog doubled my phone bill'
In this article mBlox is mentioned, but they are not to blame.
You know you've used your phone too much...
...when you get hallucinations. Ouch!
Digital Lab, a domestic consumer research outfit, said its poll, conducted on 422 Internet dwellers about their addiction to mobile phones, showed that 76.5% replied that they felt like that their phone were ringing, which actually were not.
Telecoms Korea - Mobile phone addiction getting serious
Digital Lab, a domestic consumer research outfit, said its poll, conducted on 422 Internet dwellers about their addiction to mobile phones, showed that 76.5% replied that they felt like that their phone were ringing, which actually were not.
Telecoms Korea - Mobile phone addiction getting serious
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Glum outlook for Nokia
Both the expected earnings per share and Nokia's competitive outlook seem worse than hoped.
Not only would the third quarter show a decline in earnings per share compared with the second, he predicted, but cut-throat competition in the mobile phone market and a flood of cheap models would also limit what Nokia could charge consumers for its phones for the rest of 2005.
Ollila said the world's mobile device market would reach 760 million units, up from 643, but most of the growth would be driven by developing countries, where cheaper, less profitable, mobile phones are the norm.
World leader Nokia dampens mobile phone euphoria with glum outlook - Yahoo! News
Not only would the third quarter show a decline in earnings per share compared with the second, he predicted, but cut-throat competition in the mobile phone market and a flood of cheap models would also limit what Nokia could charge consumers for its phones for the rest of 2005.
Ollila said the world's mobile device market would reach 760 million units, up from 643, but most of the growth would be driven by developing countries, where cheaper, less profitable, mobile phones are the norm.
World leader Nokia dampens mobile phone euphoria with glum outlook - Yahoo! News
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Gartner estimates 2.6B phones by 2009
"It is expected that some 779 million mobile handsets will be sold by the end of this year, 50 million of which will be smartphones.
textually.org: Mobiles head for sales milestone
textually.org: Mobiles head for sales milestone
IDC estimates 50M users of mobile music by 2009
50M doesn't sound much though.
"IDC believes that online and wireless music services may represent the music industry's best long-term prospects for reversing decline and promoting growth, and that these new services will ultimately be the future of recorded music distribution," Susan Kevorkian, a senior IDC research analyst, said in a statement.
Wireless Music Services To Be Huge: Study - Yahoo! News
"IDC believes that online and wireless music services may represent the music industry's best long-term prospects for reversing decline and promoting growth, and that these new services will ultimately be the future of recorded music distribution," Susan Kevorkian, a senior IDC research analyst, said in a statement.
Wireless Music Services To Be Huge: Study - Yahoo! News
Monday, July 18, 2005
Outlook for mobile video
In-Stat indicates many are interested, but yet few have phones to handle mobile video. They also believe 2005-2006 will show the biggest growth in this area due to enhanced networks.
Digital Media Europe: News - Majority keen on mobile video, but handsets not ready � survey
Digital Media Europe: News - Majority keen on mobile video, but handsets not ready � survey
Fujitsu provides bendable/low-power display
The most interesting things are in my opinion:
- It doesn't draw power when the information is not changed, and content is remembered, as opposed to TFT/LCD displays that are always refreshed.
- It uses a different layer for each color, which means no filters are needed, increasing the color range.
- Hopefully this will also be cheaper to produce than LCDs in the long run, as no protective glass is needed etc.
- Possibly (and I'm just guessing now) touch pads could be fully integrated with the displays, enabling low-cost combination components. Also feature phones could make good use of touch pads.
Fujitsu Develops World's First Film Substrate-based Bendable Color Electronic Paper featuring Image Memory Function : FUJITSU
- It doesn't draw power when the information is not changed, and content is remembered, as opposed to TFT/LCD displays that are always refreshed.
- It uses a different layer for each color, which means no filters are needed, increasing the color range.
- Hopefully this will also be cheaper to produce than LCDs in the long run, as no protective glass is needed etc.
- Possibly (and I'm just guessing now) touch pads could be fully integrated with the displays, enabling low-cost combination components. Also feature phones could make good use of touch pads.
Fujitsu Develops World's First Film Substrate-based Bendable Color Electronic Paper featuring Image Memory Function : FUJITSU
Abiro introduces new casino game: Fortune Teller
Another press release with focus on the new Fortune Teller game, but that also talks about the Mobile Blog service and the overall web site changes.
Abiro Introduces a New Casino Game: Fortune Teller
Abiro Introduces a New Casino Game: Fortune Teller
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Squirrel with license to screen phone calls
Being an Autonomous Interactive Intermediary (AII; probably a term we will hear more from this point on), this squirrel-like device reacts on the phone calls via Bluetooth and speech recognition. It then behaves and speaks in reaction to what's being said. Kind of "fuzzy" what the purpose is, but I guess I'll have to read the article a few more times. The speech recognition/synthesis etc is done on a PC, so the squirrel itself is primarily a robot controlled from the PC via Bluetooth. Note the tiny servos (same as used in model air planes etc).
The Intermediary is a conversational as well as robotic agent.
The conversational agent is able to converse with caller and callee—at the same time, mediating between them, and possibly suggesting modality crossovers. It deals with incoming communication attempts when the user cannot or does not want to. It's a dual conversational agent since it can converse with both user and caller simultaneously, mediating between them.
All clear now, or maybe not.
The Cellular Squirrel - Stefan Marti
The Intermediary is a conversational as well as robotic agent.
The conversational agent is able to converse with caller and callee—at the same time, mediating between them, and possibly suggesting modality crossovers. It deals with incoming communication attempts when the user cannot or does not want to. It's a dual conversational agent since it can converse with both user and caller simultaneously, mediating between them.
All clear now, or maybe not.
The Cellular Squirrel - Stefan Marti
Cell phones on planes, some day maybe
There's been a lot of discussions lately about possibly allowing cell phones on planes. One of the main concerns from travellers' point-of-view is getting disturbed by fellow passengers making voice calls, but text messaging seems more acceptable. Yet, there are also concerns about the possible negative effect this will have on the plane's navigation system, the main argument against allowing phones today.
Panel Discussing Cell Phones on Planes - Yahoo! News
Panel Discussing Cell Phones on Planes - Yahoo! News
Sprint provides SMS to landline voice
As few landline phones support SMS (most DECT phones do, but few operators have enabled it in their networks) SMS's are converted with text-to-speech to a "normal" phone call. Considering it's a synthetic voice it probably sounds a bit goofy.
SPRINT PCS - Send text messages to a landline phone
SPRINT PCS - Send text messages to a landline phone
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Sales slowing down
Will grow only 6% this year according to In-Stat.
"The slowing pace is a result of some mature markets at, or near, full penetration, and weaker-than-expected growth in some emerging ones," says Allyn Hall, In-Stat.
After Another Record Year, Cell Phone Sales Slowing - Yahoo! News
"The slowing pace is a result of some mature markets at, or near, full penetration, and weaker-than-expected growth in some emerging ones," says Allyn Hall, In-Stat.
After Another Record Year, Cell Phone Sales Slowing - Yahoo! News
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Vodafone launches PoC in Sweden
Based on a PoC/IMS server from Nokia and supported by a range of Nokia phones: 5140, 6230i, 6020 and 6021.
Digital Media Europe: News - Vodafone Sweden to launch push-to-talk in September
Digital Media Europe: News - Vodafone Sweden to launch push-to-talk in September
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Digital single sales up 744% in UK
Volume-wise that's 10M for 2005 so far. We are talking sales here, not free/illegal downloads. Sounds like the volume for 2005 as a whole could easily be 30-40M.
Oddly also 7" vinyl singles sell well.
Digital Media Europe: News - Digital single sales up 744%, 7-inch vinyl sales up too
Oddly also 7" vinyl singles sell well.
Digital Media Europe: News - Digital single sales up 744%, 7-inch vinyl sales up too
Use cases for RFID
You've probably heard plenty about RFID already, but there's been less about real down-to-earth applications. This article goes through applications deployed in Korea by SK Telecom.
Honing Its Digital Game - Yahoo! News
Honing Its Digital Game - Yahoo! News
Nokia says no to RIM
On a direct question whether Nokia would be interested in RIM, to strengthen the presence in corporate email, Nokia answered no.
I'm a bit surprised that most of RIM's revenue is from device sales (and that was the reason Nokia said no), considering RIM has a recurring monthly subscription plan (something like $40 per month flat rate).
Nokia says not interested in RIM -paper - Yahoo! News
I'm a bit surprised that most of RIM's revenue is from device sales (and that was the reason Nokia said no), considering RIM has a recurring monthly subscription plan (something like $40 per month flat rate).
Nokia says not interested in RIM -paper - Yahoo! News
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Camphones capturing the London terrorist attack
You all know what happened, so I won't delve into that. No doubt the media loves camphones, as they can capture news while they happen, but the real benefit could be that the perpetrators are easier to identify.
Mobiles capture immediacy of London horror - Yahoo! News
Mobiles capture immediacy of London horror - Yahoo! News
News readers for phones
Reading news via RSS/Atom feeds is the craze of today (or at least one of them; terrorist attacks seems sadly enough be another, regarding what happened in the UK recently).
Engadget makes a user survey on what RSS readers users prefer. See Engadget's Comments for the feedback.
Pitching for Abiro: We offer news feeds via the Web for PCs and WAP for phones (at wap.abiro.com). Also Abiro Mobile News is available via a news feed this way. You don't need a special RSS reader, but only a WAP-capable phone (which should be pretty much any phone).
Ask Engadget: Best mobile RSS readers? - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
Engadget makes a user survey on what RSS readers users prefer. See Engadget's Comments for the feedback.
Pitching for Abiro: We offer news feeds via the Web for PCs and WAP for phones (at wap.abiro.com). Also Abiro Mobile News is available via a news feed this way. You don't need a special RSS reader, but only a WAP-capable phone (which should be pretty much any phone).
Ask Engadget: Best mobile RSS readers? - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
MMS interoperability in the US
This now works between Cingular, Sprint and T-Mobile, and should increase use of MMS.
Now, if only the U.S. carriers could all just switch over to GSM so we could use any phone with any provider, we’d be all set.
Dream on...
Cingular, Sprint add more MMS interoperability - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
Now, if only the U.S. carriers could all just switch over to GSM so we could use any phone with any provider, we’d be all set.
Dream on...
Cingular, Sprint add more MMS interoperability - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
2005, the year of the MVNO?
Disney has already spelled out plans to become an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), and Forbes now speculates that also Apple might take the plunge.
Everybody In The Pool - Forbes.com
Everybody In The Pool - Forbes.com
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Yahoo! (and Google) offering SMS search
Just send a search string to 92466 ("YAHOO"). It only works in the US. Same goes for Google's service, which is odd.
Yahoo launches SMS search service - MobileTracker
Yahoo launches SMS search service - MobileTracker
RFID on the rise
A new report from Research and Markets indicates the RFID market will grow from $1.49B 2004 to $1.95B 2005 and $26.9B 2015. In my opinion it's not relevant to look so far ahead, as in 2015 completely new technologies and use cases will exist. This is for the worldwide market as a whole, and also not just mobile phone applications like e-wallets, e-cards, e-keys and e-IDs.
The applications of RFID include security/access control, toll collection, animal tracking, automobile immobilization, and many others.
RFID Industry Predicts Bright Forecast - Computing News - Designtechnica
The applications of RFID include security/access control, toll collection, animal tracking, automobile immobilization, and many others.
RFID Industry Predicts Bright Forecast - Computing News - Designtechnica
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Hutchison/Spinvox converts voice-mail to text messages
This is actually quite complex considering the conversion needs to be speaker independent and be able to handle continuous speech from fairly low quality input. Maybe there are a bunch of gnomes making the conversion manually...
Digital Media Europe: News - Hutch UK offers voice-to-text service
Digital Media Europe: News - Hutch UK offers voice-to-text service
Monday, July 04, 2005
Manufacturers about music on phones
All this has been heard before, but there's now also proof that music-enabled phones sell well.
Even if the sound quality remains inferior to the better portable music devices, the phones with the best music quality will undoubtedly do to the low-end music devices what camera phones have done to low-end digital cameras: replace them.
Digital music sets the beat of next mobile phone bonanza - Yahoo! News
Even if the sound quality remains inferior to the better portable music devices, the phones with the best music quality will undoubtedly do to the low-end music devices what camera phones have done to low-end digital cameras: replace them.
Digital music sets the beat of next mobile phone bonanza - Yahoo! News
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Pros and cons with music on phones
Despite numerous issues, like shortened battery life, harder to use than on dedicated devices, hard for carriers to profit etc, the note is overall positive about the outlook for music on phones.
"I strongly believe people will use cell phones as their multipurpose tools, and one of the most logical choices for that is music," said Roger Entner, an analyst with research firm Ovum
But digital music in general is far outpacing its hard copy equivalent, growing rapidly while sales of CDs have declined at a rate of between 5 percent and 7 percent a year since 1999, Travlos said.
"We're trying to create a whole eco-system around music," Beaton said, so customers start to think of their phones as substitutes for their music players.
Moving Beyond Ringtones - Yahoo! News
"I strongly believe people will use cell phones as their multipurpose tools, and one of the most logical choices for that is music," said Roger Entner, an analyst with research firm Ovum
But digital music in general is far outpacing its hard copy equivalent, growing rapidly while sales of CDs have declined at a rate of between 5 percent and 7 percent a year since 1999, Travlos said.
"We're trying to create a whole eco-system around music," Beaton said, so customers start to think of their phones as substitutes for their music players.
Moving Beyond Ringtones - Yahoo! News
Siemens S75 and SL75
Nice designs, business-focused, EDGE, USB 2.0 (thanks Siemens!), MP3/AAC playing, 1.3 Mp camera etc
Siemens throws down S75, SL75 - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
Siemens throws down S75, SL75 - Cellphones - cellphones.engadget.com
PalmSource focuses on Linux
"We are delaying all development of products not directly related to this," said Patrick McVeigh, interim chief executive at PalmSource
The note goes on indicating that PalmSource might be in serious economical problems if they don't get more customers very soon.
PalmSource Linux phone due next year - vnunet.com
The note goes on indicating that PalmSource might be in serious economical problems if they don't get more customers very soon.
PalmSource Linux phone due next year - vnunet.com
Track your pet
Sarantel provides a device that is attached to the pet's collar, and when the pet gets lost the owner calls up Locatis (that Sarantel partners with) that then finds out where the pet is. My understanding is that each such device has a unique ID, so you can easily spot your own pet.
Track Fido Anywhere - News From Abroad News - Designtechnica
Track Fido Anywhere - News From Abroad News - Designtechnica
Friday, July 01, 2005
Shift to phone replacements
Europe has earlier been considered one of the markets that are more or less saturated already, but my belief is that China, India and other Asian countries are far from it. Also US, with better coverage and interoperability, could still grow.
...the rate of growth is decelerating, said iSuppli...
Q1 2004: 170.5M
Total 2004: 713M
Q1 2005: 173M
Q2 2005: 180.5M (+7% since last year)
Total 2005: 750M
...some markets were becoming saturated...
iSuppli looks for 3G phones using CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and W-CDMA as well as digital cameras and MP3 music playback phones to drive the replacement market.
Replacements Will Soon Drive Mobile Phone Market - Yahoo! News
...the rate of growth is decelerating, said iSuppli...
Q1 2004: 170.5M
Total 2004: 713M
Q1 2005: 173M
Q2 2005: 180.5M (+7% since last year)
Total 2005: 750M
...some markets were becoming saturated...
iSuppli looks for 3G phones using CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and W-CDMA as well as digital cameras and MP3 music playback phones to drive the replacement market.
Replacements Will Soon Drive Mobile Phone Market - Yahoo! News
