Mobile Advertisement to unleash "huge revolution", says Google CEO [with predictions of mobile adverstising revenues]

Source : http://www.telecomtiger.com/fullstory.aspx?passfrom=vasstory&storyid=530
Technologies:
Google chief is bullish on mobile advertisement. He told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the a new generation of location-based advertising is set to unleash a "huge revolution".

"It'''s the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us -- and it is very likely it will happen in the next year," said Google Inc CEO Eric Schmidt.

Forrester, a consultancy firm, has predicted revenues of under $1 billion for mobile advertisements by 2012. Schmidt, however, said this figure was too low and failed to take into account the fact the mobile Web was reaching a tipping point.

Google is one of the bidders for 700 MHz Spectrum auction in the USA.

Analysts have different opinion on the future of mobile advertising. Sterling Market Intelligence forecast mobile advertising revenues will reach $5.08 billion in North America and Western Europe by 2012. Thomson Financial predict Google's 2009 mobile ad revenue alone will reach $21.31 billion. Gartner predict that the worldwide mobile advertising market will grow from $895 million in 2007 to $14.6 billion in 2011, while the Kelsey Group forecast that the US mobile ad market will grow from $33.2 million to $1.4 billion in 2012. Forrester are the most conservative, predicting less than $1 billion in mobile ad revenue by 2012.

In a recent survey by Advertiser Perceptions in the USA, about 55 percent of marketers said that they plan to increase their budgets on mobile spending in the next 6 months, indicating that there is a healthy level of enthusiasm in the market.

However, less than half the participants in the survey, consider 'interactivity', which is a strength of mobile advertising, to be an important criterion when deciding their budgets for advertising. On the other hand, these advertisers consider 'reach', which is a weak point of mobile advertising, to be the number one criteria.

Mobile Internet usage needs to increase and attain levels comparable to other forms of media before platforms and publishers can expect advertisers to invest substantial sums in this medium

You Tube on Symbian Phones

You can find the mobile version of YouTube from Google here. It is a java based application, that has targeted Symbian first;]



Two different ways to watch!



Go to m.youtube.com on your phone
Download the app (beta)*

*Available for Nokia's N73, N95, E65, 6110, 6120 and SonyEricsson k800 and w880.

Could Motorola Fall Off the Mobile Map?

Source: http://www.cellular-news.com/story/28854_2.php

It may not be a question that many in the industry are asking themselves yet, or at least not out loud, but each poor set of results increases the possibility that Motorola could follow Siemens out of the back door of the mobile phone industry. IMS Research says that whilst it yet remains unlikely that anything so drastic might occur, the latest results from Motorola's Mobile Devices unit did little to inspire.
The headlines showed year on year handset sales down 38%, causing profits to fall 84% and losses of $388m as shares fell a further 16%. However, is Motorola simply recovering from the blunting of the RAZR? Its handsets have not always been well received in some parts of the world, all this changed with the RAZR. A phone that, through style and design, gave the average consumer exactly what they wanted; a slim, attractive phone for calls and texting.

Unfortunately this phenomenal but narrow success massively raised expectations that, as we are witnessing, are not easily fulfilled. Instead of delivering a range of ideas, technologies and form factors Motorola continued to follow the same formula by searching for the next big hit. A case of "the RAZR was big, so let's release the RAZR2." Perhaps it comes from a corporate culture infected by the fear factor. Rather than systematically platform-building in new areas, Motorola seems to have tried a bit of this and a bit of that as it looked for the next rabbit to pull from out its hat.
The situation is not helped by some activist groups in its ranks of investors. Drawn in by the excellent results of a few years ago, they did not seem to mind that Motorola had not traditionally accounted for more than 20% of the mobile phone market. Was it that, temporarily at least, it was excelling itself and punching above its weight?

Nor has the quick reaction of the competition helped. Whilst being a little slow to the table with 3G devices, and missing the boat for clamshell and thin designs, Nokia went about strengthening these areas of its portfolio. Samsung was quick to produce a number of thin phones, LG has been moving into higher-end fashion phones whilst Sony Ericsson has been expanding its lower range - all impacting Motorola's success. Combined, these companies have dulled Motorola's edge and now some investors are looking at how to get their money back.
It may be right that more capital could be generated by splitting up Motorola into separate business units. This would free up those successful areas, such as Home & Networks and Enterprise Mobility, from the troubled handsets group; but this is unlikely to be good news for the latter. Siemens went down this road with BenQ not too long ago and we know what happened there. Again I would expect that one or more of the Asian manufacturers would feel that they could build on the Motorola brand and presence, but would they give it the time and strategy to overcome its inherent problems? Additionally I feel that market pressure, should it go it alone, would inhibit the Mobile Devices unit and continue to pressure it to simply cut costs, at the expense of long term strategy.

Motorola seems to be heading in the right direction with the release of attractive music phones, fresh new designs and multimedia-focused products to accompany its staple lower cost and RAZR-based handsets. The announcement to return to Qualcomm as a 3G chip supplier may help as well. Once Motorola progresses in these different segments I expect that, whilst maybe not taking large chunks of market share, it will sharpen up to increase profitability, thereby guaranteeing its continued place in the market.

Phone with fold-away screen launched

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL2063412420080121?sp=true


The 5-inch (13-cm) display of Polymer Vision's "Readius" is the world's first that folds out when the user wants to read news, blogs or email and folds back together so that the device can fit into a pocket.
Polymer Vision, spun out of Philips (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research), whetted the appetite of gadget fans more than two years ago when it showed off a prototype. Now the gadget is in production and will go head-to-head with Apple's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPhone and Amazon's (AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research) ebook reader Kindle when it hits stores mid-2008.
"You get the large display of e-reading, the super battery life of e-reading, and the high-end connectivity ... and the form factor and weight of a mobile phone," said Karl McGoldrick, chief executive of the venture capital-funded firm, in which Philips still has a 25 percent stake.
"We are taking e-reading and bringing it to the mobile phone."
He would not say how much the Readius would cost, but said it would be comparable to a high-end mobile phone.
McGoldrick said his "dream device", which the company planned to build within 5 years, was a mobile phone with an 8-inch color display that could show video.
Like Amazon's Kindle, the Readius has a so-called electronic paper screen, which displays black-and-white text and images that look almost like they have been printed on paper.
The device -- which will also just make phone calls -- connects to the Internet using the third-generation mobile phone networks with high data speeds.
The company said it was talking to retailers as well as mobile operators to sell the device. Like Apple's iPhone, the gadget offers the chance for operators to boost data usage, which is more profitable than voice revenues.
Users will be able to set up their email accounts, news sources, podcasts, audio books and blog feeds at home on their computer, and the data is then pushed to the device whenever it is updated.
McGoldrick said the company opted to use this approach -- which rules out quickly browsing the Web on the go -- because it was simpler in a mobile environment.
"I see these devices with 50 buttons on them. We have eight," he said, adding that the company plans to add a keypad to future models.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)

five top VoIP Security Threats for 2008

VoIP security solutions provider Sipera Systems has posted their list of what their Sipera VIPER Labs sees as the five top VoIP Security Threats for 2008.

Before I offer this list, two caveats:

First, when a company with technological solutions posts their predictions, it is almost always a tacit declaration on their part that they know what is going on, and they have a solution just for you.

Second, props to Sipera on the name, VIPER Labs. I know if I was going into battle, I’d love to have poison snakes (or the binary equivalent of same) on my side.

OK here are Sipera’s five predictions:

1. First and foremost, as enterprises deploy SIP Trunks and UC for the mobile workspace, denial of service (DoS) and distributed DoS attacks on VoIP networks will become an increasingly important issue.
2. HTTP or other third party data services running on VoIP end-points will be exploited for eavesdropping and other attacks.
3. The hacking community, experienced with exploiting the vulnerabilities in other Microsoft offerings, will turn its attention and tools towards Microsoft OCS – taking advantage of its UC connections to public IMs, email addresses and buddy lists to create botnets and launch attacks. As well, enterprise federation for OCS, a major productivity and business process enabler, will be a source of greater VoIP security risk since it exposes once closed networks to the risks found in other federations.
4. Hackers will set up more IP PBXs for vishing/phishing exploits. Vishing bank accounts will accelerate, due to ease of exploit and the appeal of “easy money.”
5. VoIP attacks against service providers will escalate, using readily available, anonymous $20 SIM cards. With UMA becoming more widely deployed, service providers are, for the first time, allowing subscribers to have direct access to mobile core networks over IP, making it easier to spoof identities and use illegal accounts to launch a variety of attacks.

Well, well. IMHO scariest of those is Sipera’s view that hackers will turn to Microsoft OCS for attacks. As enterprises deploy OCS that’s where the big targets will be.

I’m on my way to the IT Expo in Miami Beach (OK you frostbelters can be jealous and I won’t hold it against you) next week, and you can bet I will be asking lots of questions about those risks.

Crunchies Winners

[source : http://gigaom.com/2008/01/18/crunchies-winners/#more-11239]

Without further ado, the winners of this year’s Crunchies awards are:

• Best technology innovation/achievement: Earthmine
• Best bootstrapped startup: Techmeme
• Best new gadget/device: iPhone
• Best business model: Zazzle
• Best design: SmugMug
• Best enterprise startup: Zoho
• Best consumer startup: Meebo
• Best mobile startup: Twitter
• Best international startup: Netvibes
• Best user-generated content: Digg
• Best video site: Hulu
• Best use of viral marketing: StumbleUpon
• Best clean tech startup: Tesla Motors
• Best time sink site: Kongregate
• Most likely to make the world a better place: DonorsChoose
• Most likely to succeed: WordPress
• Best startup founder: Mark Zuckerberg
• Best startup CEO: Toni Schneider
• Best new startup of 2007: iMedix
• Best overall: Facebook

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2007 Crunchies who are underwriting the event and making it possible to recognize outstanding contributions in our industry. Award Benefactors: Adobe, Charles River Ventures, The Founders Fund, The Mayfield Fund, Microsoft, Our Stage and Sun Microsystems. Thank you also to our Program Sponsors, including Ask, Framr (an ecommerce start-up offering custom picture framing, launching tonight), Lotus Vodka, Intel Capital, Lehman Brothers, MeeVee, RealTimeMatrix’s Vortex, Searchles, our official live-streaming partner of the night Mogulus, our official ticketing sponsor amiando, WeBreakStuff for design and MediaTemple for hosting.

Google betting big on mobile market--and Apple

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9849352-7.html

Posted by Elinor Mills

Vic Gundotra, a vice president of engineering at Google, shows off the new user interface of Google Web apps for the iPhone being unveiled at Macworld on Monday.

(Credit: Google)

(This post has been updated to reflect Google's announcement on Monday.)

On Christmas Day thousands of people opened up boxes with something cool and functional inside and wasted no time logging onto Google.com through their brand new iPhones.

As a result of those gifts, the number of global queries to Google's search site from iPhones surpassed the number of queries from people using market-leading Symbian-based phones for the first time. Google calls it the "Christmas cross-over."

That is huge given the fact that the number of iPhone units shipped is tiny compared to the number of Symbian-based phones out there. The cross-over only lasted a few days or so, but it shows the impact the iPhone is having on the telecommunications industry and provides a glimpse into its future market potential for the Web.

"It's about usage, not just units," Vic Gundotra, vice president of mobile and developer at Google, said in a recent interview with CNET News.com. "The data proves that people are using the browser on the iPhone."

The iPhone revolutionized the industry by making it easy and affordable to use the Web on a cell phone, he says. Google is offering Web apps written for the iPhone browser that bring the PC experience to the mobile device, he says.

On Monday--the first day of Macworld--Google unveiled a new user interface for its iPhone Web apps that make Gmail, search, Reader, Calendar, Picasa and other services faster to use and more customizable. It also has optimized iGoogle for the iPhone.

Now, new e-mail messages automatically show up so you don't need to hit refresh, messages can arrive in 25 seconds or less and auto-complete makes composing an e-mail faster. Calendar offers a month-at-a-glance view that isn't yet offered on the desktop. Your favorite apps are in tabs at the top of the screen and they can be switched around.

"This app will work great on Android," Google's mobile software platform launched in November, says Gundotra.

What's next? Will more Google apps join YouTube and Google Maps on the iPhone's home screen that shows up when the device is first turned on?

Gundotra smiles mischievously.

"One thing that bothers me is that (mobile) apps don't work offline," he says when prodded.

Given that Google launched Google Gears, which allows people to work on their Web apps even when they are not connected to the Internet, last May it's likely they'll have something similar for mobile soon.

Android struggles to life

Android struggles to life

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/15/android_demo/

New platform, old handset
By Bill Ray

Linux specialists a la Mobile has demonstrated Google's Android platform running on a mobile phone handset, an HTC Qtek 9090, and explained how a development house might make money from Android.
Getting the Android code to execute on a handset is technically challenging. Even though Boston-based a la Mobile was beaten to the demonstration by a lone hacker it's still an impressive achievement. But a la Mobile's done more than just getting Android to execute - they've also created the applications needed to make the device usable as a mobile phone.
Android might be free, but the suite of applications needed to make a phone into a phone were never part of the Android package. The expectation has been that third-party companies would spring up to supply those, but until now there has been little evidence of that.
a la Mobile was set up in 2005, and developed its own Linux-based mobile phone platform. The company reckons that by using the applications developed for that platform on Android, they can halve the time to market for an Android handset.

The question of who is going to be making that Android handset remains open. Demonstrations of the platform on three-year-old handsets are all very impressive, but without support from a major hardware manufacturer Android isn't going to be living for long. ®

Sony Ericsson sells over 100 million handsets in 2007

gr8 news for my previous company :)

source : http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/press/pressreleases/pressreleasedetails/q42007financialpressreleases-20080116
Sony Ericsson sells over 100 million handsets in 2007

16 January 2008 Q4 Highlights:
18% increase in volume year-on-year
Continued market share gains and profitable growth
Continued investment for the future
2007 Highlights:
Over 100 million units sold – more than double global market growth rate
Margins remain strong as company shifts to broader portfolio
Unit growth underpinned by increased sales of lower priced phones
145 million music enabled phones sold to date, of which 57 million were Walkman® phones – maintaining leadership in music
The consolidated financial summary for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Ericsson) for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007 is as follows:

Mobiles linked to disturbed sleep

Mobiles linked to disturbed sleep

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7199659.stm

Mobiles linked to disturbed sleep

The evidence on mobile phone safety has been contradictory

Using a mobile phone before going to bed could stop you getting a decent night's sleep, research suggests.
The study, funded by mobile phone companies, suggests radiation from the handset can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion.
It may also cut our amount of deep sleep - interfering with the body's ability to refresh itself.
The study was carried out by Sweden's Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US.


This research suggests that if you need to make a make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line

Alasdair Philips
Powerwatch

Funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, the scientists studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45.
Some were exposed to radiation equivalent to that received when using a mobile phone, others were placed in the same conditions, but given only "sham" exposure.
Those exposed to radiation took longer to enter the first of the deeper stages of sleep, and spent less time in the deepest one.
The scientists concluded: "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are adversely affected."
The suggestion is that radiation disrupts production of the hormone melatonin, which controls the body's internal rhythms.
Electrosensitivity
About half the people in the study believed themselves to be "electrosensitive", reporting symptoms such as headaches and impaired cognitive function from mobile phone use.
But they proved to be unable to tell if they had been exposed to the radiation in the test.
Alasdair Philips is director of Powerwatch, which researches the effects of electromagnetic fields on health.
He said: "The evidence is getting stronger that we should treat these things in a precautionary way.
"This research suggests that if you need to make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line, and don't have your mobile by your bedside table."
Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association, said the study was inconsistent with other research.
He said: "It is really one small piece in a very large scientific jigsaw. It is a very small effect, one researcher likened it to less than the effect you would see from a cup of coffee."
Last September a major six-year study by the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHRP) concluded that mobile phone use posed no short-term risk to the brain.
However, the researchers said they could not rule out the possibility that long-term use may raise the risk of cancer.

The invisible computer revolution: mobile phones in the developing world

The invisible computer revolution: mobile phones in the developing world


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7106998.stm



If I had told you ten years ago that by the end of 2007 there would be an international network of wirelessly-connected computers throughout the developing world, you might well have said it wasn't possible.
I would probably have said the same, but as it turns out we would have been wrong: it was possible, and it was created, and it continues to expand, not through Non-Governmental Organisations or charity or development grants but through the market, with much of it financed by some of the poorest people on the planet.
I am talking, of course, about the mobile phone network.
Along with the internet, with which it is rapidly merging, this is the most astonishing technology story of our time, and one that has the power to revolutionise access to information across the developing world.
Unfortunately, rich country biases limit understanding of this amazing phenomenon: for those in North America or Western Europe the cell phone is primarily or uniquely a phone designed to make voice calls.
In the rich world, even those who use the mobile for other tasks such as e-mail almost always do so as an adjunct to their "computer" (ie, the desktop or laptop in their home or office): the mobile phone is used for those tasks only when the "computer" isn't accessible.
Revolutionise education
Because those of us based in the developed world are always thinking of computers as things with 15-inch or 17-inch or 24-inch screens, it can be hard to see the potential of something much smaller, even if it's right in our pocket.
I was talking with a software developer friend of mine recently and going on as I do about the potential for cell phone software to revolutionise education, literacy, and public health in the developing world.
And he said to me "but can you really create a valuable user experience on such a small screen and with such a slow processor". So I asked him if he'd heard of the iPhone, or the Gameboy. Neither of those devices seem to have much difficulty in creating a compelling and useful user experience, and how long do you think it will it be before there's a sub-$100 iPhone or equivalent?
The whole history of consumer electronics suggests that we won't have to wait for long.



Meanwhile, this revolution of personally-financed wirelessly-connected computers largely goes unnoticed by the international development community, and because their paradigm revolves around desktops and laptops they spend millions developing specialised laptops for schoolchildren in developing countries, which will surely only ever reach a small fraction of them, while the network of invisible computers continues its exponential penetration into those same regions, below the radar.
Of course, even in the high-growth areas of sub-Saharan Africa, the fastest growing cell phone market in the world, most people still don't have a cell phone of their own (though many have access to one via a friend or family member).
But important sub-groups in that region have much higher penetration than the general population, including knowledge workers such as teachers or healthcare providers.
The question we should be asking ourselves, then, is not "how can we buy, and support, and supply electricity for, a laptop for every schoolteacher" (much less every schoolchild), but rather "what mobile software can we write that would really add value for a schoolteacher (or student, or health worker, or businessperson) and that could run on the computer they already have in their pocket?"
Consider just one application: continuing education for clinical health workers.
Many developing country health providers get trained once, at the start of their career, and never get any additional training at all.
This is because transporting these workers to a training conference is hugely difficult in countries where roads are inadequate, or don't exist, or fuel is scarce -- and sending paper-based materials to workers is either expensive, or more likely impossible given a poorly-functioning postal mail system.
But imagine a system that lets managers at a national level, who probably do have access to the internet on a desktop computer, coordinate and transmit SMS-based continuing education messages to the computers - sorry, to the cell phones - of those health professionals. What a difference would that make to the level of up-to-date knowledge available to a clinic worker? And how would that impact the quality of care?
And what other groups might benefit from that kind of educational program? What about teachers? What about students?
Unfortunately, as of this morning a Google search for "educational software for Windows" got 41,300 results, while a search for "educational software for cell phones" got exactly 9 hits.
Banking initiatives
That doesn't mean that no one is creating innovative, useful software to run on cell phones.
In South Africa and Nigeria, for example, a variety of mobile banking initiatives have taken off and been embraced by a population that isn't going to be getting "online", in the web sense, anytime soon but who want all the advantages of cashless transactions.
And in Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, with funding from The Vodafone Group Foundation and the UN Foundation, we've successfully completed a pilot of our EpiSurveyor mobile data collection software for public health.
Based on that pilot, which dramatically increased the public health data available in those countries, the World Health Organization has adopted EpiSurveyor as the standard for mobile data collection in Africa - and we're transitioning from unconnected PDAs to wirelessly-connected phones as I write this.
Importantly, the programming staff for that EpiSurveyor software is entirely located in developing countries: India, Kenya, and South Africa.
We've done this not only because it's more cost effective, but also to promote development capacity in those countries.
After all, who is more likely to come up with innovative software based on the centrality of the cell phone, a programmer in Silicon Valley surrounded by beautiful desktops and laptops, or a programmer in Nairobi who lives in a world in which almost all contact with the network is via cellphone?
But regardless of where the developer is located, I think it's time that we recognised that for the majority of the world's population, and for the foreseeable future, the cell phone is the computer, and it will be the portal to the internet, and the communications tool, and the schoolbook, and the vaccination record, and the family album, and many other things, just as soon as someone, somewhere, sits down and writes the software that allows these functions to be performed.
Joel Selanikio is a physician and co-founder of DataDyne.org, a non-profit creating open-source software for public health and international development, including the EpiSurveyor mobile public health data collection toolkit.