Bright Ideas from Mobile Startups

Bright Ideas from Mobile Startups

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/02/0214_mwc_startups/index_01.htm?technology+slideshows

At the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, BusinessWeek picks a dozen newcomers with promising products

Hot Concepts

GestureTek was the winner of this year's Mobile Innovation Award at the Mobile World Congress. Hardly a newcomer-the company has been around for 20 years-it won hands down for bringing a fresh new application to the mobile sector. GestureTek's EyeMobile Engine software lets mobile-phone users play games, scroll menus, navigate maps, and browse Web pages by shaking, rocking, or rolling their cell phones. So far, its software has been embedded in more than 50 million mobile devices worldwide.
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Social Phone Book
Zyb (www.zyb.com)Category: Contact managementCopenhagenZyb turns your dull mobile-phone address book into a live interactive experience. The company's technology lets you sync your address book with your Web profile on sites like LinkedIn and Bebo. And starting in May-provided the people in your address book opt in-when you click on their names you'll see a lot more than just a phone number. Using location-based technology, Zyb will tell you where your friends or family members are located (using Google Maps) and whether they're currently available to talk or text. It'll also let you sync up social calendars and exchange your most recent postings from sites such as Facebook, Flikr, and Twitter

Can You Hear Me Now?
Audience (www.audience.com)Category: Noise suppressionMountain View, Calif.Ever tried to make a mobile-phone call in a packed conference center or on a busy city sidewalk and struggle to hear above the din of the crowd and honking horns? Audience, the winner of this year's "Most Innovative True Mobile Startup" award at the Mobile World Congress, is a voice processor company that has developed noise-suppression technology based on the intelligence of human hearing. The technology is applicable across a broad range of voice-centered consumer products.


Hot Concepts
Pay-Buy-Mobile

French chip designer Inside Contactless specializes in chips for so-called near field communications, or NFC, which allows short-range wireless communication between electronic devices. NFC is helping cell phones morph into wallets around the world by letting users "swipe" their phones over a reader to make small payments. Inside's technology is playing a big role in NFC and the company won an award at this year's Mobile World Congress for "most innovative device-centric technology." Its MicroRead chip has been adopted by several major handset manufacturers and is a key component in the GSM Assn.'s Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, a program for standardizing contactless payments using mobile phones.

Spinning Your Messages
SpinVox (www.spinvox.com)Category: Voice-to-text conversionLondonSpinVox captures voicemail messages, feeds them into a speech recognition system, and then spits them out as text delivered per the user's choice-via e-mail, SMS, instant messaging, or even written on a Facebook wall. The service works on any handset or network, including mobile, fixed line, and VoIP. SpinVox is rolling out its service with operators, who like it because voicemail-to-text helps push up user revenues. After all, texting is often more immediate than voicemail, and users tend to respond faster to text messages by texting back.

Would a US Recession Hammer the Indians?

Would a US Recession Hammer the Indians?
Posted by: Steve Hamm on February 11
The threat of a US recession looms large globally. There’s no question that as America’s huge and hungry consumption machine starts to sputter, other economies around the world will suffer. My colleague, Nandina Lakshman, writes in a BusinessWeek Online story published today that some of the Indian outsourcing companies are preparing for a recession by cutting salary incentives and otherwise tightening up on expenses. I actually don’t expect a US recession to do much harm to the top Indian software services outfits. It’s true that they got hit hard by the US recession of 2001/2002. But I think that was a very different situation. For starters, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and the others were not that well known or credible five years ago. But that has changed now. They’re trusted by US and Northern European clients—depended on, in fact. Another factor: There was a lot of uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Business spending stalled. This time, it’s consumer spending that is faltering. Businesses will want to cut costs to deal with the effects of the consumer slowdown. I believe they’re likely to increase their use of low-cost Indian services, rather than cutting back on them.

US IT Jobs: Which Way is the Wind Blowing?
Posted by: Steve Hamm on February 13
US software programming jobs took a real wacking at the end of the last recession, but bounced back since—in spite of the offshoring trend and the rise of the Indian tech services industry. Now we’re heading into another recession, it seems. Will US software programmers lose out again? I’m betting no. The reason: The impending retirement of the babyboomers. Already, a lot of federal government programmers are retiring, since they’re reached the retirement age of 55. This factor—combined with low graduating rates for computer science majors—is already causing a shortfall in US programming talent. I believe that whatever cost cutting that’s done by companies during a recession will be more than offset by the software talent shortfall. Five years from now, US programmers will be in even greater demand.
New data supporting these conclusions came in this week from the IT Governance Institute. In its IT governance Global Status Report-2008, the ITGI reported the results of its survey of global IT leaders. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents said "insufficient number of staff" was a big problem--putting it at the top of problems they listed. That's a substantial increase from 2005, when 35% said they face staffing shortages. Remember, this is a global survey, so the shortage isn't just in the U.S. John Lainhart, the principle advisor on IT governance to the ITGI, told me that the baby boomers retiring is the big culprit. With newly trained programmers in short supply, he said, "We'll have to retrain people coming out of professions that aren't doing so well."
I noticed that President Bush's budget proposal slashes the labor department budget, so there isn't much hope for federal retraining programs stepping into the breach.
Lainhart mentioned an innovative program at Penn State that seems like it's on the right track. They're teaching computer science students to be consultants rather than coding grunts. People in the program have to study a foreign language in addition to the major programming languages. In their course work they operate as teams and work on creating technology solutions for customers. Their exams are team-based, too.
This type of program seems sure to appeal to students, and also will give people the skills they need for sustainable, high-pay careers. But, to fill the staffing gap, we'll need a lot more of this kind of thing.

Why the future is in your hands

Why the future is in your hands http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7250465.stm

By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website

GPS is starting to appear on more handsets

Sales of smartphones are expected to overtake those of laptops in the next 12 to 18 months as the mobile phone completes its transition from voice communications device to multimedia computer.

Convergence has been the Holy Grail for mobile phone makers, software and hardware partners, as well as consumers, for more than a decade.

And for the first time the rhetoric of companies like Nokia, Samsung and Motorola, who have boasted of putting a multimedia computer in your pocket, no longer seems far fetched.

"Converged devices are always with you and always connected," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia chief executive at last week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Last year Nokia sold almost 200m camera phones and about 146m music phones, making it the world's biggest seller of digital cameras and MP3 players.

In the coming year the firm predicts it will sell 35 million GPS-enabled phones as personal navigation becomes the latest feature to be assimilated into the mobile phone.

Form and function

Nigel Clifford, chief executive of Symbian, said: "All of those single use devices - MP3 players, digital camera, GPS - are collapsing onto the phone."

"We are going past the point where this was a phone with a few other things," he said.

Symbian's operating system shipped on 188 million phones last year and a third of those came with GPS.

"We see mobile phones evolving into multi-functional devices that now support consumer electronics, multimedia entertainment and mobile professional enterprise applications; all converging," said Luis Pineda, from mobile phone chip firm Qualcomm.

More and more people are snapping shots with a handset

Convergence is being driven by a combination of software, services and hardware.

The first phones powered by a chip running at 1Ghz will hit the market later this year, seven years after the first desktop chip broke the gigahertz barrier.

Qualcomm's 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset will debut inside a number of handsets, including some from Samsung and HTC

"It's a first in the industry for a wireless chipset," said Mr Pineda.

As well as raw horsepower Snapdragon also features a dedicated application processor, as well as the ability to handle 12 megapixel digital photos and up to 720p high definition video imaging.

Mr Clifford from Symbian said the mobile industry had to deliver multi-function devices which did not compromise.

He said: "When we look at what is collapsing on to these devices and people's expectations with their experiences on single-use specialized devices there is going to be rising expectations."

Chip shop

More than 90% of the world's mobile phones are powered by technology created by British firm Arm. It designs chip architectures that it licenses to semiconductors makers such as Qualcomm and Broadcom.

Ian Drew from Arm said future mobile phones demanded ever more processing power.

But building chips with greater processing was not a straightforward, he said.

The future of the internet and computing applications is not going to be in the home or at the office; it's going to be mobile Nigel Clifford, Symbian

"If you look at a typical phone the first thing you have got to do is get within the half a watt envelope.

"It needs to get into your pocket. And there's no fan. It needs to work for days rather than hours."

He added: "When you start adding multi media experiences - such as 3D graphics, video, and games - there are two ways to do that: you can get bigger and bigger processors or you have multi core where you can switch off a processor when you don't need it."

Arm is demonstrating a chip architecture, called Coretex A9, that will offer four cores, or processors, on a single chip.

Symbian has been working with Arm on future uses for multi-core mobile phones.

"You can use massive amounts of processing if you need it. But if you don't you can power down the cores that aren't required," said Mr Clifford.

Symmetrical Multi Processing will drive the next generation of applications on a phone, he added.

"Silicon vendors are looking very seriously at how they integrate SMP."

Mr Clifford added: "The future of the internet and computing applications is not going to be in the home or at the office; it's going to be mobile."

The gaming abilities of handsets are rapidly improving

He said gaming would be the next feature to collapse into phones.

"That is one of the next single usage devices that will start feeling the pressure from the mobile device," he said.

3D graphics acceleration is becoming standard on many of today's mobile phones and specialists like Nvidia have joined the market.

Mr Clifford said today's most powerful mobile phones, such as Nokia's N96 and NTTDoCoMo's 905 series have the same power as a laptop from 2000.

Nvidia's APX 2500 chip has enough 3D graphics acceleration to handle Quake 3, a PC game from 1999, on a mobile phone.

Handset owners were also beginning to expect the same online experience they have on their desktop PCs on their mobile phones.

"Web 2.0, social networking and video sharing; that's a real driver of horsepower," said Mr Drew from Arm.

He added: "But you need to be able to get data in. The next generation of mobile phones need high performance radios - they will have high data rates that will enable this content to be streamed to you."

Symbian is working on technology called Freeway to give phones the ability to move seamlessly between wireless networks, like wi-fi and cell networks like 3G and 4G.

"We don't want people to feel the mobile web is a second class experience."

Give up apple microsoft: 77.3m Symbian phones shipped in 2007’

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/12/give-up-77-3m-symbian-phones-shipped-in-2007/

Give up: 77.3m Symbian phones shipped in 2007
Posted Feb 12th 2008 9:06AM by Paul MillerFiled under: Cellphones
Sorry Microsoft and Apple, you may have had some fancy smartphone sales this year in your cute little American way, but globally there's no question who's the real leader in this segment: the Symbian OS shipped on 77.3 million units in 2007. That's a 50% growth over 2006 sales, with over 141 different phone models from eight licensees. If the new hotness from Nokia this year at MWC is any indication, those numbers aren't going to go away very soon, but Sony Ericsson's adoption of Windows Mobile for its flagship XPERIA X1 certainly spells a modicum of trouble for Symbian land. Of course, there are many more low-end Symbian smartphones than there are cheap Windows Mobile phones, and Apple's iPhone is still a premium product , but the line is becoming increasingly blurred.

It's the User Experience, Stupid: Users' love affair with iPhone stumps Mobile World panel

Users' love affair with iPhone stumps Mobile World panel
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206504012

BARCELONA, Spain — A blue-ribbon panel of human behavior and technology experts at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain agreed that the best recent advance in the mobile telecommunications user space came not from a mobile telecom company but from Apple Inc. — the iPhone.

Anup Murarka, director of technical marketing for Adobe, cited a study showing that 77 percent of iPhone purchasers described themselves as "very satisfied" with their user experience.

In an ominous note for mobile operators, the iPhone respondents credited their happy experience not to AT&T, the channel through which iPhone services were delivered in the U.S, but to Apple, the device maker.

The panel, whose title was It's the User Experience, Stupid agreed that iPhone represents a model for mobile operators to follow, but they reached little agreement on how to follow.

One direction, advocated by Lucia Predolin, international marketing and communications director for Buongirono S.p.A. of Milan, Italy, is to manipulate users by identifying their "need states" — including such compulsions as "killing time," and "making the most of it" — and fulfilling them subliminally.

Adobe's Murarka proposed a more technological approach to improving the user experience, satisfying the mobile phone subscriber through better interface design. Sarah Lipman, co-founder and R&D director for Power2B, suggested an almost mystical solution, somehow tapping into users' "neural networks" to navigate a mobile phone interface "using touch and pre-touch input."

Panelists cautiously agreed that the current user experience — at least compared to the iPhone — is not very good. Predolin said that one problem is that many people are reluctant to tap the vast potential of mobile communications — especially the mobile Internet — because they fear the eventual cost. With so many telecom companies advertising heavily the cost of their services per minute, users hesitate to explore possibilities that might devour their precious minutes.

Predolin said that this deadline consciousness is so strong among mobile users that they even constrained their consumption of minutes in a Buongiorno-sponsored trial in which participants were given mobile phones free for a week. "Operators are putting together cost plans that people can't understand," said Predolin. "It is not just cost but the way you market your cost."

Panelist Mike Yonker, general manager of worldwide strategy and operations for Texas Instruments' wireless terminals business unit, said that the way for the user to get the rich content now available on a mobile handset is through the "search" function. But this isn't so easy. He compared the limitations of a mobile handset to a full personal computer screen.

Searching on a computer, he said, is like going to a store, where the customers sees every product displayed, and can make comparisons, touch the products, even try things on for size. Doing the same search on a mobile, he said, but like trying to shop in the same store but "through a drive-up window." No matter how much stuff is in the store, you can only find out through the cashier at the drive-up window.

The dilemma, left unsolved by the panelists, was how to squeeze the user through that window, past the cashier, to sample all the things in the store, without guilt, while still feeling grateful to the cashier who seemed, all along, to be standing in the way.

Everyone agreed that, so far, only Apple has been able to turn this trick. For users, "the content is the core," said Lipman of Power2B somewhat ruefully, "and we have to get out of their way."

Yahoo launches OneConnect

Yahoo launches OneConnect

Posted by Marguerite Reardon Post a comment
BARCELONA, Spain--Yahoo has upped the ante in its campaign to rule the mobile Web.
On Tuesday, the company announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress here OneConnect, a new tool that allows mobile phone users to aggregate their social-networking updates and messaging in one spot on their phones. The service integrates directly with a phone user's address book and allows people to share status updates and messages from a variety of messaging and social-networking platforms. This means it can provide status updates from Facebook or MySpace.com as well as provide access to e-mail and archived instant-messaging chats.

Yahoo demonstrated OneConnect at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET Networks)
Using GPS tracking, cell tower triangulation and/or near field communications like Bluetooth to get a fix on the cell phone user's exact location, the service can be set up to let people know if their friends are in the same area.
The service sounds similar to one that is offered by a small company called Loopt. This service also allows people to track their friends using GPS and last year the company announced it had integrated the service with cell phone users' address books. But the Loopt service is only available through two carriers in the U.S., Boost and Sprint Nextel. It also costs an additional $3 a month and can only be used on certain handsets.
By contrast OneConnect should be able to run on most mass-market phones that have a browser, said Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Connected Life at Yahoo. Boerries also said the company is working on versions of the service for Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry. The service can also be accessed from any Internet browser through Yahoo Go 3.0.
Yahoo's OneConnect is yet another example of how the company is pouring resources and efforts into building up its mobile capabilities. Within the past year the company has gotten more aggressive about rolling out new mobile services and striking deals with carriers. Today, Yahoo has partnerships with 29 operators, who combined have more than 600 million subscribers, according to its press release.
Yahoo's hope is that it will become the default access point for mobile phone users accessing the Web. OneConnect fits nicely with Yahoo OneSearch, which aggregates news, weather, financial data, photos, and Web links based on search queries, Boerries said during a demonstration of the service at Mobile World Congress.
But Yahoo isn't the only company going after this market. Rival Google is also making a play in mobile. But many experts say that even though Google dominates on the desktop, the company seems to be lagging Yahoo in capabilities on mobile devices.
The two companies have taken different strategies in addressing the mobile market. Google is building its own mobile phone software in an effort to integrate its services into devices. By contrast, Yahoo is attempting to address the current phone market and is even integrating its competitors' services on this new OneConnect platform. For example, Google Talk and MSN Messenger will be aggregated as a part of the OneConnect product.
The competition between the two companies is heating up. Also on Tuesday at Mobile World Congress, Yahoo announced that its OneSearch service will be the exclusive search tool for T-Mobile's European customers starting in March. Google said Tuesday that its search tool will be embedded on the four phones Nokia introduced on Monday. Google search has previously been available on Nokia Internet tablets, and last year Nokia announced that the N95 8GB supported YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Google.

great news : Sony-Ericsson introduces XPERIA X1 'iPhone killer'

Sony-Ericsson intros XPERIA X1 'iPhone killer'

Sony-Ericsson opened the Mobile World Congress today by unveiling the XPERIA X1, its first true touchscreen-focused cellphone. Following a deal with Microsoft, the handset is Sony-Ericsson's first device to use Windows Mobile for its OS but also uses a custom interface of "XPERIA panels" rather than the default Microsoft front-end: users simply tap panels with their fingers to access calling, media, and other functions, according to the phone designer. Though dominated by its 3-inch, 800x480 touchscreen, the device also includes both optical and physical navigation pads at the bottom as well as a unique arc-slider QWERTY keyboard that tilts outward for more comfortable typing.
The X1 is also the most Internet-connected Sony-Ericsson device in history, the company boasts: unlike even most advanced 3G phones, it offers HSUPA (High Speed Upload Packet Access) that sends video and other media almost as quickly as it comes downstream. Wi-Fi is onboard for short-range networking and is backed by assisted GPS for route finding. A 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and a microSD slot (versus Sony-Ericsson's favorite Memory Stick Micro format) round out its key features.The first XPERIA phone is expected sometime in the second half of 2008; with quad-band GSM and an unprecedented five-band HSPA/UMTS connection, the device should be available both in North America as well as Europe and includes

The Top 5 Reasons Nokia Should Bid On Yahoo

We all know that Nokia is moving towards, becoming an internet company.
Here is an insight into how Nokia can achieve this and establish itself as an internet giant and maybe down the line outperfom Google.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/02/the_top_5_reaso.html

The entire tech universe is obsessed with Microsoft's attempt to takeover Yahoo. The market has been waiting for this move for the last year, so most of the "analysis" coming from bloggers and industry pundits is well-rehearsed and polished, but hardly thought-provoking. Instead of rehashing this debate, I want to start another one: Why isn'tNokia (NYSE: NOK) bidding for Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO)?

I have to admit that most of the bloggers have taken a very US-centric focus in this discussion. As my colleague, Eric Zeman, pointed out in a recent post:

The likelihood of another company stepping in and beating Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s bid is not high. Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp., said his company is not interested in bidding. Rumors suggested that Apple might buy Yahoo, but that seems an unlikely scenario given Apple's strong relationship with Google.

Not many other companies have $50 billion sitting around burning a hole in their pockets.

He's right; there aren't that many tech companies (or any other kinds of companies) with access to the amount of cash it would take to challenge the gang in Redmond for Yahoo.

Well, one company, Nokia, could challenge Microsoft. Nokia has the cash, the resources, and a killer global handset business with which to fuel the deal.

Here are five reasons why I think Nokia needs to jump into the ring and fight Microsoft for the rights to buy Yahoo:

1. If Nokia wants to be a Web company it needs a stronger desktop presence to compliment its push into mobile applications.

Nokia is now a Web company, not just a handset maker. But, the company acts as if the Web is just mobile and has no desktop component. This isn't a very smart strategy.

The mobile Web needs to be seamless -- with easy connections between the desktop and the mobile phone. Nokia's rivals in mobile -- Microsoft, Google, and, yes, even Yahoo -- all have desktop products. These Web giants are leveraging their vast desktop Web audiences to grow their mobile initiatives. While Nokia has tons of mobile phone customers, it doesn't have as many Web application users.

With the exception of Navteq (a company Nokia is about to close on), Nokia really doesn't have much of a presence on the desktop. If it expects its new initiatives, like Widsets, to thrive this has to change. Nokia could integrate Yahoo's applications with its cell phones, as well as leverage Yahoo's massive desktop and mobile user bases to grow its own initiatives.

2. Navteq + Yahoo = Nokia's dominance of mobile location.

While Google Maps and My Location continues to gain users and accolades, Nokia could leverage its pending acquisition of Navteq to dominate the fast-growing mobile location market. Sure, My Location has all the hype now, but Nokia owns the global distribution platform for mobile applications, the handsets. By improving the user interface on Yahoo apps, like Yahoo's Go platform, and bundling location-based applications on the devices, Nokia could beat Google Maps before it becomes the dominant platform for LBS.

3. Nokia needs to grow its U.S. market share and Yahoo is a brand that could help it.

While Nokia claims nearly 40% of the global cell phone market, it's a niche player in North America, and its reach into the mobile application market is equally small. Yahoo, after Google, is arguably the second dominant U.S. Web brand. Nokia could leverage not only Yahoo's online market share in North America, but also its brand equity for new applications and even devices.

4. Nokia is a mobile ad company that needs to grow its share of online advertising.

Thanks to its acquisition of Enpocket, Nokia is a mobile advertising company, but it doesn't have an online desktop advertising business. I think Nokia could build all kinds of synergies between Yahoo's desktop and mobile platforms and its own mobile advertising business.

5. Nokia cannot afford to let Microsoft or Google gain any more online market share.

If Microsoft merges with Yahoo, the company will gain online market share. And while Google seems to be the most obvious loser here, Nokia would lose too. Microsoft would gain more mobile users -- and more potential mobile advertising real estate -- if it gets its hands on Yahoo.

If Google (NSDQ: GOOG) can successfully circumvent the Microsoft deal with some kind of partnership with Yahoo, Nokia would likely lose too. The most talked about scenario in this situation is that Yahoo would sell its online ad business to Google and partner with Google for ad revenue. This would cede more mobile ad real estate to Google, another Nokia rival. From Nokia's perspective, this is hardly a better alternative. If Google could then combine Yahoo's mobile ad real estate with its own Android platform, things could get even worse for Nokia.

What do you think? Should Nokia bid for Yahoo? And is your answer is yes, do you think they will?

Android "complete mis-understanding of the handset market"

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/momolondon/message/3874

[ From a posting by David Hearn on the Mobile Monday London mailing list ]

What I saw from the Android developer event was, certainly from the UK market point of view, a complete mis-understanding of the handset market. In the UK, the vast majority of handsets are supplied and subsidised by the network, customised (and often mangled) to suit their requirements - particularly with security and features. Anyone remember Vodafone stopping MP3s being used as ringtones (so only the DRM'd expensive ringtones could be used) on handsets which, if bought sim-free, could do it out the box.

Orange with their smart phones, at the start, locked everything down so almost no applications could be installed. They've now gone down the model of opening it up a bit, but you still cannot install a non-trusted/self-issued CA key without Orange having to authorise and signing the key for you and sending you an executable to install it. They also don't trust the Microsoft certified global Mobile2Market certificate (issued by Geotrust and Verisign) for privileged execution (this is required for sending SMS, making calls or making a GPRS connection) - you must be an Orange partner to get that access.

Also the much publicised removal of VoIP clients by certain networks, which if bought sim-free would include it.

So, for Android to not have *any* trusted 3rd party security included seems great for the user, but completely ignoring the networks. The only signing they have, is self-signing, which Google admit, is not there for security, but to only allow application providers to group their software together and run under a single user.

It's almost as if they're aiming at the SIM-free, non-operator supplied market.

Too many of the questions asked on the day appeared to be answered with "trust us" and "that's not yet defined yet". Everything seems a bit vague considering handsets are meant to be coming out later this year. My question about malware applications which could claim to be and look like Google apps (or any other software provider out there) was responded with, I think, admittance that nothing stops that, and a dismissal that it isn't a problem. Signing applications with trusted 3rd party keys would at least allow people to be certain that an application does come from who you think. But Google have said that
they will not support this.

I cannot imagine that the networks will be comfortable with being unable to lock down the handsets. I understand that Open Handset Alliance members aren't allowed to do this, but I guess others can modify the code to do this, but a network operator isn't going to want to have to extend the OS to that degree. They'll probably go with handsets which support such things out the box.

I think that having open handsets is great for the consumer - you can decide what to put on the device (and what to remove!) - but for businesses using these devices, corporate police may mandate lock down - and networks love to restrict things.

Good luck to them - and as people have said - they've got everything to prove, and if anyone could do it, it would be Google - but I suspect it'll not end up as open as it set out to be.

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.