Rants And Ramblings About Mobile Technology

As Engadget Mobile also noted, it lacks support for Messenger, which would be a very interesting service to mobilize. Hopefully they'll add it later.

I'm wondering why Yahoo! is so focused on smartphones, or at least more expensive phones. The services could also be provided via Java ME or WAP 2.0, and that way reach a much broader audience.

Yahoo! - Press Release

Update 20060831: After doing some research (read: by actually checking out the Google Book Search site), I found that the books here are scanned in but not "OCRd". Hence they are not suited for reading on a phone. I added back the "Read Books" section at wap.abiro.com so you can try out how it works to read via the phone's browser. My experience is that it works much better via one of the free Java ME applications, as you flip whole pages, and much quicker, and you can typically change text size etc. If you are into the classics you'll find plenty to download at Project Gutenberg and you don't have to feel guilty about it, as they are all in the public domain.


That Google provides literature classics online is somehow considered controversial, but I don't understand why considering Project Gutenberg, Online Books etc have done so for years.

This doesn't have immediate implications for mobile access, but in e.g. Japan and Korea it's popular to read books and comics on mobile phones while commuting, so I hope Google will consider converting the books to formats easily read on phones, and possibly also provide a book reader for mobile phones. Such readers exist for plain text ebooks, and many of them are completely free.

For information about ebooks in general, please visit my ebooks pages.

Here are a few Java-based ebook readers for phones that I found at Tuxmobil:
Mobile Bookshelf
TequilaCat ebook reader
ReadManiac

Google provides printable versions of classic books on Internet - Yahoo! News

Quote: "I think what people really want is to be able to access the same sites they access on their PCs, but from their phones," said Matt Hatton, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group

Right, yet e.g. mobile content services and similar need to be optimized for mobile access to be useful. E.g. content browsing and payments must be in a phone browser friendly way, possibly also making use of mobile messaging etc. Try buying ringtones with Opera Mini for instance.

The mobile Internet: Are we there yet? | CNET News.com

There hasn't been much news lately, as the splitting effort and other things take much of my time.

Now both mopill.com and abiro.com are more or less ready. abiro.com has also been slightly enhanced in the process, and is hopefully a bit easier to navigate and might look a bit more professional too (no more orange...).

Note the more distinct Mobile Developer header, instead of The Lab. The focus on mobile applications and service development will increase in the future, mirroring my consulting business.

I'm fairly happy with what appears where:
* abiro.com: professional and personal information
* mopill.com: mobile content for young adults
Now the sites can be marketed completely independent of each other.

I have ideas for more sites, as I own a few other .com domains, but this is enough for now.

This note indicates Jataayu stays away from showcasing its new mobile browser on Windows Mobile and Palm OS. They've rather chosen Symbian OS / Series 60 as its reference platform.

It's not because of the quality of the browsers in Windows Mobile and Palm OS, as Nokia's new Safari-based browser is likely the best there is. The reason is rather said to be that customers of Windows Mobile and Palm OS use the included browser.

As Jataayu's market is phone manufacturers also for this browser (if I'm not mistaken) and not end-users, they rely on being able to sell its browser to platforms that have an optional browser. I'm wondering though why Nokia would ship the Series 60 platform without their own browser being mandatory. That would shut that door too.

Access (providing a mobile browser, KVM, application platform etc) is of a bit different opinion, but also says that it's hard to get any sensible market share on Windows Mobile.

The author of the note ponders on why Jataayu doesn't release a Java browser instead. A Java browser is a completely different beast, as it needs a transcoding gateway and is also shipped to consumers instead of manufacturers, and the testing required to launch a Java browser is staggering. What people don't seem to realize is that Opera already had a transcoding gateway before they released the Java browser. Of course they had to adapt it for the new markup language used by Opera mini, but still. Jataayu very likely doesn't have such a gateway, and Jataayu's strength is to sell middleware products to phone manufacturers.

It's no doubt that Opera did the right thing from an end-user point-of-view, as they address both new and existing phones, reviving phones that otherwise would only be able to browse non-existing WAP sites. The question mark that pops up is whether they might actually hurt their own embedded browser business, that per-unit generates much more money than Opera mini, but I guess they've thought that through.

Browsers in Windows Mobile and PalmOS scare ISV

I'm in the process of establishing a dedicated site for mobile content, as abiro.com is getting crowded with all kinds of topics. abiro.com will after that focus on my consulting business, Java ME programming and news.

You can see a prototype of the mobile content service here: www.mopill.com
Logo and color scheme are not set in stone yet (I built the site today).

There is also a mobile site with similar focus at wap.mopill.com.

If you've never visited my personal pages, this could be the time, as they might disappear in the process. I haven't quite decided their fate yet.

Visiongain has provided a new report on "Mobile communities and user generated content 2006-2011: Monetising mobile social networking".

Quote: Mobile operators face many challenges in the transference of popular community and user generated content fixed line services to mobile.
Actually no, because operators are not (and should not be) involved in the actual services. Let MySpace etc handle mobile-enabling of such services, yet provide them with the means to charge for service subscriptions, content downloads etc as well as the means to transfer information between users and the services.

I guess Visiongain's audience is mobile operators, but my advice to them is to adopt a split vision approach:
* Help operators understand they are network and billing service providers, and how to enhance those services based on emerging market demands
* Address the actual service providers and help them understand how to mobile-enable their services

The future for social network services is no doubt mobile, as the mobile phone is the main communication device for younger people, and I generally think the industry over-emphasizes problems with mobile phones as "portals" for such services. Young people have learned to use mobile phones for SMS, and are beginning to use mobile IM, news feeds etc. Going from there to blogging, media sharing etc is not a big step to take.

visiongain intelligence - Mobile communities and user generated content 2006-2011: Monetising mobile social networking

Engadget Mobile is commenting on Motorola's intentions to use Linux in most of its phones.

Quote: "Furthermore, Motorola's not planning on relegating their Linux platform to low-cost devices"
No of course not. Reasons:
- Linux adds costs in terms of more memory and possibly also CPU power (compared to simple RTOS's and ditto applications that mass market phones use).
- Switching to Linux is in itself a huge cost, but of course gives long term advantages. Motorola has already done that work, so they are home free.
- There's a shortage of mobile applications (like WAP, MMS, etc) for Linux, hence they need to be licensed or developed, the same way as for proprietary OSs/platforms.
- Linux doesn't have any mobile-adapted UI, so you need to add Trolltech Qt/Qtopia, your own solution, or other.
- Even Qtopia doesn't include any advanced applications ... again like WAP 2.0 and MMS, nor Java ME (that all phones must have today).
...so saying that Linux is for inexpensive phones is an oxymoron.

More valuable is its powerful and scalable functionality and the fact that at least desktop applications and developers exist in abundance. Of course, if you use a mobile UI (possibly developed in-house) you need to rewrite the applications heavily. Even worse if the UI is proprietary.

Developers that know Linux from the desktop side can easily move to the mobile environment, but on the other hand learning a new application platform and even a new programming language is easy, so that's more of a religious/conservative statement.

Then we could also discuss how free software under the GNU license really is when you make changes to it, and how well community-driven development of software works when talking new technology areas. My experience is: badly, as there are no critical targets the developers need to hit, and relying on open source projects' time plans is to risk your salary, literally, unless you take control of the further development of that piece of software, like Nokia did with its new mobile browser.

Is Nokia likely to switch to Linux in the near term? I don't think so. Nokia is the main user of Symbian OS, and it's a very powerful platform that's already well adapted to mobile requirements.

Motorola to support Linux on half of future models - Engadget Mobile

By sending a specially formatted SMS (8 1s or 0s) to a mobile phone with this SMS Remote Control you can set up to 8 relays on/off.

Any phone will do (at least in theory), as the add-on board uses standard AT sequences to read out the SMSs.

The longer chip shown on the board is actually an Atmel AT90S2313 single-chip MPU (CPU with memory), so part of the solution is to load this MPU with a small application that reads out the SMSs from the phone.

The note also gives advice for if you want to read out SMSs using a PC. You could potentially also send SMSs this way, e.g. for sending alarms, statistics etc from equipment.

You could similarly create a request/response service for low-traffic SMS communication where you pay for the outgoing SMSs, using a phone, a PC and the Kannel WAP/SMS Gateway, and of course also some programming skills.

Of course, for professional applications you should get mobile modules instead, like these from Telit where some can be programmed via the Python language.

SMS controller, with ATtiny2313 and T10s mobile phone

(via Textually)

Nokia held a competition in China for the best SMS slogan.

Quote: One of the children said in his SMS that, he hoped in the future, paper could be made from fibers, while ink could be made from chocolate
Tasty, but I don't think so. The future of paper, or rather newspapers/magazines, is obviously digital. Maybe I'm special, but I haven't subscribed to paper-based news in over 10 years, but instead read all the news I need on-line. The main incentives for me are more focused news (via web/WAP sites or news feeds) and less waste.

CCTV International

Here's some interesting trivia about Nokia.

The most interesting things I found were the use of Morse code and the fact that Nokia is the largest manufacturer of digital cameras. Read here why.

TechScraper » Nokia’s ’special’ SMS tone is morse code for SMS. More Nokia facts…

According to Telephia mobile gaming is not slowing down at all, but rather has increased by 2/3's since same time last year.

Note the top games: Tetris, Pac-Man and Bejeweled. All very simple yet addictive games, that can be played for just minutes at a time. There are also some more advanced ones, like Sims 2, but considering how popular the desktop/console version of Sims 2 is, popularity also on mobile phones shouldn't be a surprise.

Business Wire: public relations, press release distribution, investor relations, SEC filing

This note describes how DoCoMo lost money by consumers updating the phone software so that they could use the phones for viewing OneSeg TV without a subscription. Not that I fully understand how users can get access to DoCoMo's (or any other) mobile network without a subscription.

OTA downloading of the phone system software was initially intended for enabling manufacturers to provide bug fixes, but the note also mentions how OTA downloads could be used to add completely new functionality.

In my opinion, such enhancements should be handled via Java or BREW w(when talking mass market phones). Adding completely new functionality by replacing the phone's system software is risky at best, and both Java ME and BREW were specifically designed for after-market applications. Also, third-party can create such software, while complete system builds can only be made by manufacturers, and possibly operators (yet unlikely).

Still, maybe more importantly from a revenue stand-point, manufacturers don't want this, as they want/need to sell new phones all the time. Without the constant phone swapping the mobile phone industry would collapse.

MEX - the strategy forum for mobile user experience - Industry moves in favour of embedded feature delivery

Just some figures. Your conclusions are probably the same as mine.

For July:
China: 5.4M new users, totalling 432M
India: 5.3M new users, totalling 111M
(USA: totalling 218M)

In China, mobile slightly overtakes fixed line.

GSM dominates in both China and India. China also uses CDMA, but to a lesser degree.

China hits 432 million mobile phone users | InfoWorld | News | 2006-08-24 | By Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service

I've already indicated what I think about the .mobi domain at Softbank goes for full web on phones and C. Enrique Ortiz at Mobility Weblog seems to think the same way.

C. Enrique Ortiz Mobility Weblog

The NTP/RIM case is over, but there are still issues with the patents. After reading this note it seems NTP is just a placeholder for some really fishy business. Maybe RIM can get their money back now, not that they will be alone about such claims.

NTP co-founder faces lawsuits over RIM winnings - MobileTracker

Beccy Asplin from Bango points out that most mobile games are currently offered via operator portals, but also that this doesn't work effectively, so she hints that mobile games providers shall go independent and offer their games from their own mobile commerce portals.

Even more effective I think is to partner with major commerce services like Amazon etc as well as major meeting points for younger people, like MySpace etc.

After all, even if you have the best commerce site in the world, potential customer need to find it. The solution to that is of course heavy advertizing, but many game providers are relatively small and can't afford that, so their only choice is to partner with companies that already reach a lot of customers.

As a comparison PC games are sold in several steps:
* a game is developed by one company
* a global game distributor sells the game together with many others
* local broad distributors sell those games from many global distributors, as well as music, DVDs etc etc
The party with the least marketing power is clearly the original developer.

Going mobile with games - Editorial /// MobileIndustry.biz

(via QuicklyBored)

This video from phonescoop shows that it's actually faster to use T9 and a normal phone keypad instead of FasTap's solution (here implemented in the LG AX490) where additional keys have been put beside the numeric keys. This even for a user that's never used T9 before.

One reason mentioned: FasTap has designed its own placement of letters, meaning you can't use your experience of full keypads or normal phone keypads. That doesn't explain it fully though, as learning the QWERTY layout also takes time, but gets pretty effective with experience.

I doubt though that T9 is faster than FasTap when you write words not in the ditionary. That's something I'd like improved in T9: to have a much quicker way of writing "odd" words, e.g. by entering a multitap context by pressing a single key before starting entering the word, and then have that word saved automatically when done. I don't know if eZiText is better at this.

FasTap Video Diary (Phone Scoop)

Initially supporting a very limited amount of devices: Two Sony Ericsson Walkman phones and the Sony Ericsson K510 camera phone.


I'd imagine push email would be solved by sendng an SMS when new emails arrive. The SMS would be intercepted by the Java application in the phone, that would then request a list of new emails via HTTP.

"In order to use Seven's push e-mail customers must have a capable phone."
That's surprising, as the simplest MIDP / WMA phone should be sufficient. Therefor it looks like a trial at this time, that will be extended to many more phones later.

Seven offers push e-mail on some Java phones - Network World

I agree with these statements drawn from the new Mobile Youth report:
* "Young consumers are driving innovations like text messaging, mobile music and mobile radio."
* "Companies can capture youth by enhancing the social utility value of mobile phones"

What I don't agree with is the estimation that currently very young people will spend $30k on mobile services over their life time:
* The operator's/bit-pipe's part of the revenue might very well become close to zero in the future. Why? Because traditional telecom operators are likely to disappear or at least have to reinvent themselves to compete with nation-wide wireless broadband provided by Internet ISPs, that will be considerably less expensive over time than current 2G or 3G data services.
* Internet services are mostly free (except of course product reseller services, including for digital content), and that will also transfer to wireless. Also here probably advertizing will generate the actual revenue, which of course is not a direct cost for the consumers.

Youth Are Key To Mobile Growth, Report - Yahoo! News

Karl Woods at Kiloo believes that "offering free demos, sample levels or even ad-funded free games would entice consumers into at least trying mobile gaming".

"Think of it like the crack cocaine model. You offer the customer a free rock, and they get hooked."
I wouldn't say gaming is addictive in the same way as the chemically induced addiction caused by drugs. Yet some games, like Sims and World of Warcraft, are clearly addictive for many players.

The most effective way I've seen to catch mobile gamers without advertizing is high scores, and that works also for very simple games (the high score is the driver, not the game itself).

But the industry needs to understand that advertizing is needed to reach a broader audience (the same way any other unknown consumer product is advertized).

Also the selection of games could affect sales. I think the following can appeal to more people:
* simple yet very addictive games like Tetris, Pac-Man, Solitaire etc
* easy-to-learn multiplayer games (where actually Sims- and WoW-like games might fly), especially if they include chat rooms, bulletin boards and high scores

The rest probably just don't want to play games on their phones.

The mobile industry must change its retail model - Kiloo - News /// MobileIndustry.biz

This week up at MOPocket.

Mobile phones are clearly not just about high rates and bad user interfaces. They can look good too, and Fosfor Gadgets has put together a list of attractive phones.

Interestingly, Motorola RAZR is not listed.

My favorite (from a pure design point of view) is the KDDI Penck.

Top 10 most beautiful cellphones - Fosfor Gadgets

This is an article about Sys-Con's Integral Java product, that combines support for CLDC and CDC in one implementation, but what caught my eye was this (I haven't verified whether it's actually true):
Java, in the form of the Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME), has become a prerequisite for all future mobile handsets for at least the next seven to nine years. Not only will the core applications needed for the user experience be created in Java, it will also serve as the basis for the lucrative downloadable application market - the Java segment of which is currently projected to exceed $15 billion by 2008.

and this:
By mid-2006, the installed base of Java enabled handsets will cross the billion-unit mark, with over 35 vendors already offering upwards of 600 different Java-enabled handset models.

This might not be so nice though (for any specific provider of Java ME applications): over four million software developers, per 3G Americas' estimates in mid-2005, are now involved in creating J2ME-specific software
Most of them are obviously into making mobile games, but the competition among "useful" applications will also tighten.

Integral Java: A Single Solution for Bypassing the Pitfalls of Split Stacks @ SYS-CON AUSTRALIA

Stephane Labrunie at I-play: "This market will sell more games on mobile than traditional consoles in 2006."
Possibly, but the revenue per game is of course much lower.

"New technology, from my point of view, is really about faster, easier access to the network... You will have a much more intuitive experience - you will know where to download mobile games, and you will know how to do it."
I'm not sure how faster networks makes it easier to find games and other content. To increase mobile gaming we need to:
* advertise
* advertise
* advertise
* make no-brainer ordering services that can be accessed via PCs and phones

Quote: "mobile gaming is not a retail market; it's very much driven by the carrier industry."
That's an odd statment from I-play, considering e.g. Jamba is an independent provider, and one of the biggest there is, at least in Europe. Maybe I-play doesn't sell via Jamba.

GCDC: Mobile games to outsell console titles during 2006 - I-play // GamesIndustry.biz

If you are using NetBeans, or would like to be convinced to use it, here are 10 automation functions in the editor that makes coding a bit easier, by taking away some of the more boring aspects of coding.

arih’s weblog » 10 Tips for Coding with Netbeans

I don't think I've discovered something you don't already know, but it might lead to some events that might not be totally obvious:

All popular smartphones have alphanumeric keypads, and a flat form factor with a wide display, and display and keypad in the same fixed plane, as in RIM BlackBerry, Nokia E61, Sony Ericsson M600 etc.

Due to that I expect the following to happen (of course pure speculation):
* Nokia will drop the Communicator form factor, and go for E61 like smartphones
* Sony Ericsson will drop the P series form factor and use only the more modern/ergonomical M600 like form factor

Some still say a touch screen for handwriting is as good as a keypad, but in the broader market I believe few agree.

A touch screen could still be there (it doesn't cost much) for browser/map/menu/etc navigation.

If there's no touch screen, navigation could be made simpler/quicker with a wheel (a la Sony original phones, iPod etc) and/or an accelerating joystick or button that could be moved in any direction, that also has a select function. Separate buttons for arrows (even though often designed as a ring) and select makes navigation quite tedious and slow.

Here's another smartphone with the trendy form factor:
Excalibur up close and personal - Engadget Mobile

Sun has posted demos that highlight different aspects of Java Wireless Toolkit (WTK), the tool that's used by Java ME developers to emulate mobile phones on a PC. WTK is used even if you develop in e.g. NetBeans and Eclipse. You can also do with just WTK and a simple text editor, as WTK can also compile (etc) Java ME code, but the question is why, as all these tools are free. As usual you can find more info on my Java ME pages.

As CHAPI is demoed I guess we are talking WTK 2.3 here.

Sun Java Wireless Toolkit - MIDlet signing
A mysterious topic to beginners. Without it you face the "permission demon".

Sun Java Wireless Toolkit - Location Demo
Find out where the user is and use that information for localized maps, searches etc.

Sun Java Wireless Toolkit - CHAPI Demo
Content Handler API is aimed at extending the overall functionality of the phone with e.g. new media codecs, file handlers etc.

Other new demos, not WTK-related:
SDN Channel - Demo Central

That's not really a contradiction, but when talking demographic/function-specific phones it's easy to think fixed functionality, which is also how this Little Springs Design note starts out, but changes as it goes along.

Even if you add e.g. multimedia controls to multimedia-focused phones, alphanumeric keypads to messaging and/or business-focused phones etc, the mantra for the future must be "customizable by after-market software", to provide the functionality required by services no one has yet thought out.

No manufacturer or operator can predict the future needs for service functionality, so manufacturers should focus on putting hot new technology in the phones and fully open up that functionality for application developers in a standardized way. Operators should focus on the infrastructure and backoffice services needed for making it possible to do profitable business with such value-added applications and services.

New interesting services pop up every day, and phones need to be flexible enough to support those services, by advanced hooks into all the functionality of the phone, and provide an application platform that's consistent over phones, even when there are obvious feature differences between phones. E.g. applications need to be able to check if a phone supports a certain functionality dynamically.

I agree with the following:
A lifestyle device needs to be a full PCD optimized for specific market segment needs, but retaining the ability to do general purpose PCD functions

Little Springs Design - designing the mobile user experience » Blog Archive » Lifestyle device design

Mobile Games Blog challenges its readers to come up with arguments for or against Flash Lite. I posted a comment that I also include here, slightly edited:

One thing that might not be known to all is that Flash Lite can also be used for more useful applications that communicates over the bearer etc. See e.g. this thread at J2ME Forums.

As Flash Lite is only provided by one entity there's a big chance implementations of Flash Lite will be considerably less fragmented than ditto for Java ME.

I don't look very positively at Sun's open source intentions with Java ME (rather they should take over the responsibility for Java ME deliveries completely), as that will make it even more fragmented, and Flash Lite then has all possibilities to become the choice for graphics-intensive phone applications.

For sure, Flash Lite needs to get implemented in phones too. Java ME exists in approx 1 billion phones by now, so there's a lot of catching up to do.

Mobile Games & Gaming Blog: Open Discussion: The future with Flash Lite

In a new report about mobile video services Infonetics Research expects a 12000% increase in revenue in 5 years, and even coining video as the wave of the future.

Infonetics is fair to point out that there are lots of issues to solve to get there, like:
availability of handsets with reduced power consumption, value for the subscriber's money, ease of use, acceptable price points for multimedia handsets, and most importantly, the right selection of standard and unique channels, content, and services

Yet they believe these issues can be quickly solved. If the operators are not the service providers I believe a continuing issue will be too high rates for streaming video (via the mobile bearer or DVB-H or similar) to the phones. It requires very strong media companies to convince operators that they need to adapt rates to the value of the content, and maybe even set up flat rate subscriptions that involve both the service providers and the operators.

Mobile Video Service Revenue Set to Skyrocket to $5.6 billion by 2009

C. Enrique Ortiz (of Mobility Weblog) has written a tutorial about MSA at Sun Developer Network.

MSA is more or less a bundling of existing JSRs, similar to the previous Java Technology for the Wireless Indsutry (JTWI) specification, but with a much more advanced scope.

As with JTWI this is a way to firm up what functionality mobile devices should have, so that application developers get a more consistent environment for their applications.

The Mobile Service Architecture Specification

mad4mobilephones has a note about The top 50 mobile & cell phone websites.

That should not be interpreted as mobile-adapted sites, but as sites with content about mobile phones and telecom.

Actually I didn't find any mobile-adapted sites in the list at all. It would be very interesting to know which such sites are most popular, as that would tell...
* which ones to visit from your phone (as an end-user)
* which ones to advertize on (as a provider of products and services)
* which ones to follow (from a competitive stand-point)
Feel free to hint about good mobile sites in the comments.

Previously it was possible to see which sites got the most clicks at AdMob, yet no longer. That's obviously of competitive value, so I doubt AdMob can be convinced to release the current list publicly.

Revealed: The top 50 mobile & cell phone websites

Trolltech is the main independent provider of a UI and mobile application platform for Linux. Qt/Embedded is the most established product. Trolltech added Qtopia to the product suite to provide the core applications phones need.

The Greenphone, as announced here, is intended for application developers, to be used for the base development of e.g. corporate mobile applications.

Yet this sounds a bit naive in my opinion:
A corporation could find it economical to develop a custom phone for say, 1,000 employees, then take the design to a contract manufacturer who would build the phone using standard hardware components according to the design, Schillings said.
It's extremely expensive to make a 1000-unit custom design. The solution for corporations is rather to rely on application platforms intended for after-market applications, like Java ME, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile. Advantages are amongst others that existing phones can be used and the cost and the development time will be much less (we are talking magnitudes here).

If on the other hand Trolltech would actually succeed with this approach, then something is seriously wrong with the existing mobile application platforms. Not that I think that will happen.

Trolltech offers fully reprogrammable mobile phone - Yahoo! News

Trolltech's Linux-based "Greenphone" for developers - Engadget Mobile

Complementing the previous note, this one also highlights the fragmentation issues of mobile Linux.

Of course Motorola itself will strive for an internal commonalized Linux-based platform, that could potentially compete head-to-head with Nokia Series 60.

Motorola also uses Linux in other of its products, like set-top boxes, so there could be cross product type synergies as well.

Motorola Turns to Linux for Mobile Phones - Yahoo! News

Motorola turns to Linux for phones | InfoWorld | News | 2006-08-14 | By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

This is as far as I understand not related to the previously announced New industry effort to firm up and enhance use of Linux for mobile phones, but rather a response to that, to strenghten OSDL (focusing on the core) and LIPS (focusing on an application platform). As the organisations don't compete this sounds like a good match.

This is definitely a good thing, but as some have pointed out earlier, mobile Linux is in an even worse situation than Java ME when it comes to inter-phone application compatibility. Obviously application development houses don't want to develop different versions for different phones, so we should not count out Symbian OS (read: Series 60) and Windows Mobile just yet, as they are much more consistent across phones.

Linux groups team on mobile standards | InfoWorld | News | 2006-08-14 | By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

Steve Golding at Wireless Wonders ponders that this could happen as mobile application platforms get more advanced (see e.g. Java ME / CDC, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile) and phones get more advanced UIs, yet also that the browsers integrated in phones support the same features as PC browsers do (which is a clear trend).

Yet, I don't think the form factor of mass market phones is likely to change very quickly, as people want small phones that are focused on telephony. Some manufacturers have anyway been able to add alphanumeric keypads and landscape format displays, but the question is if that will be the norm. For instance, it would have been logical to add alphanueric keypads to all phones supporting SMS and e-mail, but as we all know that didn't happen.

It should be noted that CDC / Personal Profile is way more advanced than CLDC / MIDP. CDC is more in line with Java SE as used on PCs, and also Symbian OS and Windows Mobile.

Wireless Wonders: "Mobile apps" nearly dead? - Blog of Paul Golding, Wireless Veteran, 3G, Mobile etc.

The argument is that those finding bugs will now have easier to fix them. I'm not so sure this is a good thing (not that I'm against open source as such), as most phones don't use Java ME code from Sun (at least not in original form) and this could actually increase the already serious fragmentation problem even more, yet the logic might not be altogether clear.

As I've said before, the only provider of Java ME should be Sun, similar to Java SE and EE. I know, it's the Microsoft model, but the benefit is that any specific version of Windows works the same on different PCs, seen from an application point-of-view. I wish the situation was like that for Java ME, and for mobile-adapted versions of Linux.

Sun details open-source plan for J2ME - IT Week

Sun to make Java open source by year-end - Software - News - ZDNet Asia

The results are not just valid for MVNOs, but possibly even more for existing infrastructure operators, considering the huge amount of money spent on new infrastructure, that subscribers mostly don't use.

The note includes sound advise on how and when to set up focus groups and surveys as well as points out the importance of a good phone and service UI. I experience a chasm between the phone UI and the UI needs of services, so there must simply be more dialogue between those that enable services (phone manufacturers and operators) and those that provide them (and with that I don't mean just the operators, but even more so those that actually develop the services). Even today it's in most phones hard to find installed applications, and even to get the browser going. The idle screen is still mainly for call status and wallpaper, which must change.

This is a very interesting point:
There’s a huge gap between customer awareness and subsequent ‘addiction’.
Many surveys show there's increased uptake of mobile data, by asking questions like "Have you (ever) used ..." rather than "Do you use ... on a daily basis?", "How much time do you spend on ... every day?". Those latter questions are very relevant, but it's as if we are afraid of asking them.

So, what data-intensive applications and services can become addictive? Well, multiplayer games could be. E-mail, IM, blogging, media archiving, social networking, news headsups etc are others. All these services are seemingly highly interesting to use on the road, provided they are easy and inexpensive to use, so why don't they fly, and why don't they generate revenue for all involved (operators as well as service providers)?

Despite all the talk about mobile data nowadays, even more important is really to get more revenue from voice and SMS. Those services are of course already ubiquitous, so adding a tiny fraction of more revenue there would surpass all data use easily.

MEX - the strategy forum for mobile user experience - How to build an MVNO

Introduction

It's my pleasure to present to you this week's round of 'best of' blog entries within mobile. More than 15 entries and of high quality too, and there are at least two new contributors.

If you are new to the phenomenon of Carnival of the Mobilists, you can find information about it here.

To continue on the carnival theme, here's info about "Lundakarnevalen", a university-influenced phenomenon that takes place in my home town of Lund in Sweden. Slightly less exotic than the Carnival in Rio, but at least as crazy.

As Sony Ericsson's feature phone division and Ericsson Mobile Platforms are located an Lund, as well as numerous product and professional services companies focused on mobile technologies, there's a lot of mobile stuff going on around here.

Contributions

UI design

Steve Litchfield at All About Symbian provides arguments for having alphanumeric keypads in phones in Gotta have QWERTY?. Steve likes alphanumeric keypads as much as I do, which I've written about now and then.The functionality of smartphones and now also most featurephones are aligned for alphanumeric keypads, but most lack such.

Daniel Taylor at Mobile Enterprise Weblog provides an end-user's woes on trying to use mobile-adapted services in Who Designs This Stuff?. There seems to be an apparent lack of end-users involved in the design of phones and services, and a gap between features added to phones and features needed by services.

Multimedia

Nicolas Fogelholm at About Nokia gives practical advise for how to get better photos in How To Take Good Pictures With a Camera Phone. My experience of camera phones is that they still create much lower quality pictures than dedicated cameras (and for obvious reasons), so this might lend some help.

My favorite from SmartMobs this week is The Mobile Phone As Musical Instrument.It hints that the mobile phone can be used for amateur musicians for recording as well as an instrument in itself. I guess it's as always the younger/youngest generation that will determine the real destiny of mobile phones.

Application platforms

Matthew Miller at ZDNet Mobile Gadgeteer has written an anecdote about Are Treos the traveler's preferred device? that ponders on the possible continued life of Palm OS for smart/high-functionality phones.

Tam Hanna at TamsPalm wonders why it's such a big deal that Palm OS afficionados evaluate new mobile application platforms in Dmitry Grinberg evaluating PocketPC…so what?.

C. Entrique Ortiz at his Mobility Weblog indicates that it's time for new application platforms and how to go about developing new services in The Return of the Platform.

Business

Barry Welford at StayGoLinks contemplates Will TV Ad Dollars Move To The Mobile Web?, based on a study from McKinsey. The answer is of course ... well, see foryourself. Several analysts have reported about the trend towards Internet advertising, as many people are spending more time in front of a PC than they do in front of a TV, so the shift is a logical and necessary one also when it comes to mobile.

Tomi T Ahonen at Communties Dominate Brands tells a story based on real events about how windsurfing can be a good way to get into the mobile biz in How I became a Mogul in Mobile part x - BulkSMS from Capetown. It's interesting how a very specific personal need could become a general need so the business could grow.

Darla Mack at Days in the Life of a Mobile Diva highlights the huge logistical issues a major phone manufacturer faces in Ever Wonder How Nokia Phones Are Made?

Messaging

Justin Oberman at MOPocket goes through in detail why he thinks SMS has yet not exploded in USA in My Thoughts On WhyWe (The U.S) Don't Get The (Text) Message. Be warned: The note is very long.

Bonnie Bogle at MobileActive.org provides interesting insights into how mobile technology can be used during war time for both good and bad purposes, in this case in Lebanon, in Mobile Aid and Mobile Warfare. I just wish the war would end very very soon. Please...

Mobile Web

Dennis, editor at Wap Review discusses how mobile-adapted sites could be made easier to navigate via mostly simple changes in Mobile Web (un)Usability.

My own Mobile News contribution for this week is Finding volume drivers for mobile data that hints at what might become the main drivers for a boom in mobile data use. See what for yourself.

Convergence

Martin Sauter at his Mobile Technology Page digs deep to reveal flaws in the drivers for Intel Centrino chipsets in Centrino WLAN vulnerabilities - Getting your virus with a malformed packet.

Russell Buckley at MobHappy goes through how and why Sprint has chosen WiMAX as a complement to CDMA, and interestngly (and at least possibly) created an internal competitor(my speculation) in EV-DO in Sprint Races Ahead, Chooses Mobile WiMAX For 4G.

David Beers at Software Everywhere goes through the The economics of fixed-mobile convergence, and points out that central control (by operators) of pricing has both advantages (economics of scale) and disadvantages (blocking other providers).

And the award goes to...

This was a tough one, but I finally chose Who Designs This Stuff? by Daniel Taylor. I'm strongly convinced things need to be reasonably simple to use, for them to get used.

Next time...

Next week the Carnival of the Mobilists will be hosted by MOPocket.

For would-be contributors and hosts, please read About and FAQ for Hosts

Update: According to DMEurope the GSM function is based on the GM862 GSM/GPRS module from Telit that can be programmed using the Python script language, yet the editor has misunderstood how it's used though (the phone is sold complete).

Or, it's as much a mobile/portable phone as Osbourne-1 was a portable computer.

Note the lack of a high-resolution display for web browsing etc, and that it also lacks a camera, but you can at least make voice calls. Considering a mobile phone that can only do voice calls cost less than $100 w/o subscription (and doesn't even even exist) you pay a lot for the red plastic and the rotary.

Note "This phone is for entertainment purposes only!" but I've actually seen others sell these kinds of "mobile" phones for elderly etc.

Spark Fun Electronics

(via Textually)

Typepad is yet another blog service that gets mobile-enabled. The downloaded phone application is only available for smartphones at this time. You can submit text and photos.

TypePad - Download TypePad Mobile

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I've for a long time promoted access to the full web on phones, as existing mobile-adapted services simply suck and users want to access the web sites they are already familiar with, but as this in itself doesn't seem to generate enough interest and volume and/or works too badly and is too expensive (so far):

I'm more and more leaning towards mobile-optimized access to e-mail, IM, blog, media archive and social network services as the real driver for use of mobile data. In the backwater will come the generic access to the Web, but the first will drive the volume use (and hence revenue) of mobile data. More young people have mobile phones than their own PCs, so in practice mobile phones are more private and personal than PCs, and mobile phones also have more built-in functionality and are more convenient than PCs, and of course you always have the phone with you.

The cost for the transfer aside (which is more or less virtual), the mobile phone is completely unique in that you can record audio and video and take photos etc, and then immediately send that to whatever service you like (provided some level of enabling via a local application or email/MMS). Try e.g. uploading a photo via a laptop PC when you are on the move, if you even remembered to bring/buy a laptop:
1. take photos and/or record video clips
2. set aside at least half an hour
3. find a table or at least a chair
4. start the PC
5. connect the camera to the PC
6. transfer the photos/videos
7. convert them to a size/format the service supports
8. upload the photos/videos (via a mobile phone or, if you are lucky, Wi-Fi
...etc...

Enter the mobile phone:
1. Take photos and/or record videos
2. Send them to the service

The mobile phone has a huge potential as a multimedia source (and a sink too, but there's already enough written about that), and if the industry just understands this there are also huge possibilities to earn hard cash, rather than just hindering this from happening.

What's a bit confusing, and that I've commented on before, is that all the interesting multimedia services are free. What the industry needs to realize is that operators should charge less and at the same time the service providers need to charge at least something, unless they get revenue in other ways. Otherwise this will just die.

The use of the .mobi domain sounds like a bad fallback solution that doesn't really solve anything. The key issue is to make appealing services that work in an easy and mobile-optimized way, that users ideally are already familiar with from PCs, and it needs to be inexpensive to download/upload content. The operators are responsible for making the last thing happen, but they should keep their fingers away from the services. Existing popular services have a head start on also providing good mobile access, and it's happening as we speak. We just need a reasonable business model a la i-mode for this to be sustainable.

See Umundo, for sharing video clips from phones for more on this topic, and touching on the same subject is Brian Fling's "Designing for Mobile" made public.

In line with the ongoing trend of mobile-enabling popular blog, media sharing and social network services, Umundo adds its own spin with focus on video sharing to existing services. Hence, it's more like a gateway service, similar to ShoZu, than a media sharing service in its own right. Supported services are as of yet Google, Yahoo!, iTunes and Myspace.

Compared to ShoZu it's an e-mail based service, so there's no need for any special software in the phone like with ShoZu. Videos can be sent via e-mail or MMS (both to an e-mail address). This is definitely a trend. It's so easy to send a photo or video you've just recorded nowadays, that there's really no need for any special software unless you are editing your published content etc from the phone. For end users this is very easy to learn.

It seems to be the norm nowadays to call new services "Beta", instead of releasing them when ready. Users probably don't care (as they are all free), and there's a long line-up of other startups that want to do the same thing, backed by lots of investor money.

As always I'm wondering what's the point with a free service that you don't even need to register to, but I guess it has to do with Web 2.0 or something ;). Apart from external funding, maybe Umundo gets money from the services they support, but they are also free, sort of.

Of course from a brand building point of view a free video sharing service is golden these days, so they could easily add premium services to the brand later, provided the money lasts. The good design of Umundo's home page strengthens that hypothesis. A pure technology startup would probably spend more time and effort on securing the technology than creating hype, but in this market the hype is the most important as the technical complexity is very low.

Interesting with the services popping up everywhere for media sharing from mobile phones is that they are all completely without operator or phone manufacturer endorsement, and from startups. This is another clear trend, and I'm convinced operators (and phone manufacturers) will less and less be involved in developing mobile services and phone applications. It's even turning 180 degrees: Lately phone manufacturers have released support for browsing, IM, blogging and media sharing by incorporating others clients, including e.g. ShoZu. It seems supporting only OMA standards is more and more pushed to the side, and the industry is increasingly focusing on what the market wants at the time. That's of course good. What's not so good is that operators haven't fully endorsed this yet, and continues to meander along with services like push-to-talk, IMS etc that have no direct connection with actual user needs and that take "forever" to standardize.

I could for some reason only select United States and Ukraine via the web site. It seems like an error, but maybe the service is tested only there.

umundo

Update: Regarding building in support for popular services, just spotted this:
Stay entertained with Sony Ericsson’s 3G K618: a vibrant blend of work & play., 08 August 2006 - Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications: About Us - Press Room - Press release - Sony Ericsson
One click of the dedicated camera button and the 2.0 Megapixel camera is activated, which comes complete with 2.5x digital zoom and Mobile Blogger. This application allows the user to post (or blog) their images directly to their own blogsite, giving friends and family the chance to go online and view the shots.
Who's made this application and whether it's at all an application (instead of sending to a specific email address) is unknown at this time. If it's an application (which the announcement implies) it's most likely written in Java ME.


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According to a new report from Lyra there will be 850M camera phones on the market at the end of 2006, and they expect this will increase to 1.5B at 2010.

I figure ShoZu, YouTube and similar services applauds this, as it means the volume of picture and video uploads will increase considerably over time.

Lyra Research Press Room

(via Textually)

This time at Mobile Enterprise Weblog. It seems there's an increase in technically oriented posts this week. Interesting read in any case.

Mobile Enterprise Weblog: Carnival of the Mobilists, Number 39

O'Reilly has posted excerpts from J2ME in a Nutshell and Learning Wireless Java. Note that the books are from 2002, but MIDP basics are still the same.

I haven't found anything that beats Beginning J2ME yet (published 2005), at least if you are into productivity applications. For that and also other free resources etc, check out Java ME - Resources. Also, I often refer to the specifications for CLDC, MIDP and other JSRs when working with new functionality. Books and tutorials can only get you started.

You can find more O´Relly book excerpts here, but the page could have been much better structured.

ONJava.com -- The Mobile Information Device Profile and MIDlets, Part 1
ONJava.com -- The Mobile Information Device Profile and MIDlets, Part 2
ONJava.com -- The Mobile Information Device Profile and MIDlets, Part 3
ONJava.com -- The Mobile Information Device Profile and MIDlets, Part 4
ONJava.com -- The Mobile Information Device Profile and MIDlets, Part 5

ONJava.com -- MIDP GUI Programming, Part 1
ONJava.com -- MIDP GUI Programming, Part 2
ONJava.com -- MIDP GUI Programming, Part 3

Actually it doesn't have support for mobile networks, but it's got almost everything else a phone does or should have: plays video and audio, supports Wi-Fi for browsing, chatting and Skype (and email?) and a slide-away alphanumeric keypad. I guess it's based on Linux, but that's still to find out. The price is reasonable: $350.

» Skype and Sony team up on new personal communicator | Office Evolution | ZDNet.com

Sony unveils "mylo" personal communicator // GamesIndustry.biz

Sony's Mylo Aims at Sidekick with Portable IM - Yahoo! News

Sony Mylo: Media Player With WiFi, Skype, Browser, and Messaging - Gizmodo

iTWire - Sony launches Skype WiFi phone and IM device

Opera Mobile, Access NetFront and Nokia S60 "Safari" came out on top, and can be compared with PC browsers in terms of capabilities.

I give a special nod to Teleca's Obigo browser, as I worked there before, and because quote "Obigo has had the most impressive evolution from all mobile browsers."

There's a warning for the browser used in Motorola's GSM phone models, as it's supposedly pretty bad.

Of course, in most cases the browser is embedded, but this might hint what phones you should stay away from if you do a lot of browsing. Yet, if you are not happy with the embedded browser you can most likely run Opera Mini instead.

Introduction to Phone Web Browsers - OSNews.com

Brian Fling's presentation about "Designing for Mobile" has now been made available to the public. Little Springs Design provides some well-advised comments, and I provide some of my own below (well-advised or not).

The presentation is really focused on browser-based user interaction with services, even though mobile applications are also mentioned at points. Brian seems more knowledgeable on the first topic than the latter. Oddly he forgets about the issues with scripting of services. It's one thing to create passive web pages in e.g. Dream Weaver etc. It's something completely different to actually "build" an active site where all pages are created on-the-fly on the server, which is the norm today for anything but personal sites, if even that (as most personal sites are now at blogs or social network services).

I agree with most of LSD's comments, and here are my additional ones:
* 3: "Mobile is a zero billion dollar industry": Not quite. It's a huge business for network equipment providers, phone providers and operators.
* 20: "The 2G/3G Transition": It doesn't mention that after-market applications were enabled by the introduction of Java and BREW on featurephones by this time, and that PDAs became smartphones running Symbian OS and Palm OS. The adoption rate of applications was very low though.
* 21: "3rd Generation": Again forgetting after-market applications.
* 23: "Carriers vs Operators": Carriers = Operators. Maybe he means Service Providers or MVNOs when he says Operators.
* 27: "Mobile Devices" / "Look only at mass market phones": I wouldn't say "only", but I agree for the most part. This is clearly true for broad applications like blog editors etc, but also in most cases for corporate applications. When doing my own research I've found that companies don't want to buy smartphones to all employees just to enable e-mail access, time reporting etc.
* 31: "Deck": WML uses a concept called a deck (of cards), but I sense what's meant here is really the set of pages that a user can navigate through on a mobile portal, where access to the most revenue-generating and/or most attractive services should be the easiest etc.
* 48: "Mobile 2.0": It's easy to fall into the buzzword trap. I'd rather say that all the technologies for creating mobile services are in place. It's just a matter of using them, not to invent new buzzwords that points to some future "Holy Grail" technology that supposedly will fix everything, but never does, as the requirements are constantly changing.
* 51: "Web 3.0": -"-
* 52: "Web 4.0": -"-
* 62: There are way more than 200 device models on the worldwide market. Rather 400-500 models. Only browsers are mentioned, not Java, BREW etc.
* 87: Photoshop is mentioned as the design tool for J2ME and BREW, and HTML for WML. That doesn't make any sense at all. Complexity can also be discussed, but I agree that to make use of J2ME and BREW there's need for engineers. The same goes for server-scripted WML, XHTML and HTML. Flash is in my opinion the easiest for non-engineers to work with. Unfortunately it's also the least supported on phones.

Except for letting browsers just take whatever web content there is and squeeze it down for the mobile phone, the main good alternatives for mobile-enabling Internet services today are WAP 2.0 and Java ME. Java ME provides better interaction and access to local phone functionality, but WAP 2.0 has the advantage of being easier to support across many phones.

Designing for Mobile - Blue Flavor

Little Springs Design - designing the mobile user experience » Blog Archive » Brian Fling’s “Designing for Mobile”

Not the classical "your side, my side, and the right side", but rather SMS, MMS and WAP.

Mike Baker at iMedia Connection outlines the pros and cons with different means for mobile advertising.

The note has an American spin, so the high cost of sending out ads via SMS and MMS is not considered as a show-stopper, which it clearly is in Europe, unless the advertising is targeted and for high-value goods.

SMS and MMS ads sent out by operators of course don't cost nearly as much as if an external party would do it. It's mainly a matter of network load.

Of course there's no transfer cost at all for the third party for ads via WAP.

I've noticed that the click rate is higher on mobile sites than PC ditto. Maybe because mobile site visitors are less jaded, but I believe another factor is that a mobile site page can show only so much, so an ad stands out more than on a normal web page.

The note indicates that the response rate is noticeably higher for MMS than for SMS and WAP, and also that the fact that messages are saved, they can be used as coupons for special offers.

iMedia Connection: Three Ways to Market on Mobile

Not surprisingly Juniper Research expects a shift from ringtone downloads to full track downloads to mobile phones. Also here I'm sure single track sales will dominate, similar to iTunes and similar services. Juniper estimates the shift to take a couple of years, to be 50-50 by 2011. This is number of downloads though, not revenue. Revenue-wise I believe the shift will come quicker.

Telecoms Analysis Reports from Juniper Research - Mobile Music- Ringtones, Full Track Downloads & Streaming, 2006-2011 (3rd Edition)

Commentary:

MobileTechNews - Mobile Music Market set to Shift

Over the air music downloads to increase in the next five years news story in Mobile phones - Pocket-lint.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE Mobile Music Market to Shift Significantly From Ringtones to Full Track Downloads as Total Revenues Reach $14bn by 2011

Mobile Music: Ringtones, Full Track Downloads & Streaming, 2006-2011' (3rd Edition) - Research and Markets - Market Research Reports

On the topic of mobile technology for cars, this monitoring system called Silent-I from NavMan will tell you when it's being broken into, if it's driven above a set speed limit etc.

Quote: Mobile phones are smarter than your average phone these days
My understanding is that all the intelligence is in Silent-I, so any phone with SMS should work.

I think this is the site, but I found no further info about Silent-I: NavMan

Mobile phone keeps watch over cars | TECHNOLOGY | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

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This is done in several areas, including via Motopro Mobility Suite (framework for mobile applications) and a new company called CanvasM (development of mobile business applications).

Quote: Motorola's vision of a business world awash in mobile apps is nice in concept, but it's not happening in practice. It's difficult to shrink an app for display on a small device screen and tedious for users to manipulate the tiny keyboards on phones.
There are proven ways to get around this:
* By not trying to shrink the existing Windows- or Web-based application, but rather re-invent it based on the phone's limitations, but also added capabilities.
* By putting all the computer-heavy processes on the server (e.g. no local database, always on-line etc).
* By focusing on easy to fill in forms, and minimize the need for entering lengthy texts.

Thin Phones Aren't Enough; Motorola Pursues Mobile App Market - Yahoo! News

Here's another survey (see also Sprint surveys women on phone uses) on the topic of women and techie stuff, performed by TRU for Oxygen Network.

Some interesting quotes:

Advertisers are best served communicating lifestyle benefits of tech products by showing what's useful about them, rather than focusing on specifications
This is honestly equally (and increasingly) important for the male demographics, which we e.g. see with the success of the RAZR and the iPod. Still, I believe men are more focused on comparing tech specs than women are.

However tech-savvy (men) are, women are typically the decision makers when it comes to buying (in families).

(Women) are "far more oriented toward solutions rather than tools."

"Women are power users of the Internet now in terms of MySpace pages, e-commerce and photo sharing."

Study: Women like tech toys more than shoes - Yahoo! News

This lengthy note by Chris James at Pocket Gamer points out things to think about when making mobile games, and it boils down to different aspects of product quality. I'd argue that market visibility is also very important, considering there are now so many developers of mobile games at often very small companies, and that simple games rule the market. Developing very advanced games (graphically or otherwise) is not a significant competitive advantage.

Simply put, quality counts for all players in this market: the reviewers, analysts, operators and consumers.

The road to success according to Chris James:
1. Immediately familiar or understandable objectives
2. Intuitive controls
3. Simple gameplay dynamic – deliver one idea brilliantly
4. Immediate achievement - A reward within the first thirty seconds...
5. ...but a challenge that increases steadily
6. Create a record of progress and awards
7. Basic Multiplayer options
8. A little bit of madness or a sense of humor
9. Attractive 2D visuals (why worry about 3D?)
10. Pay attention to the incidental details

A comment on 6: Share this info via the Internet. That's a great way to create interest. See e.g. Mobile Fighter.

Create a simple but addictive game and you are likely to have a winner in the mind of users. Then you need to make the market understand that too.

If you are into mobile game development you must read this.

Ten Tips for Mobile Magic