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  • Microsoft Files Patent Infringement Action Against Motorola

    Microsoft today filed a patent infringement action against Motorola for infringement of nine Microsoft patents by Motorola’s Android-based smartphones.

    The patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are “essentiall” to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.

    ”We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market. Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones," said Horacio Gutierrez, Motorola’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing.

  • Avaya and Skype Team Up to to Collaborate on Unified Communications

    Avaya and Skype have announced a strategic agreement to deliver communications and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes. The multi-phase deal includes both go-to-market and a joint technology integration.

    In the first phase of the agreement, Avaya customers in the U.S. market will have access to Skype Connect, a product which adds Skype calling to IP-based enterprise communications systems, providing a SIP communications channel between Avaya communications systems and Skype.

    According to Avaya, Customers with Avaya Aura Session Manager or Avaya Aura SIP Enablement Server, CS1000, Avaya IP Office, or BCM systems can use Skype Connect to place calls globally “for increased reach, while aiming to save on international calling.” Enterprise-level security and features such as tracking, recording, regulatory compliance, and more are provided by the Avaya system.

    Skype reported 124 million average monthly connected users during the second quarter of 2010. Now, Skype users can make inbound calls to Avaya customers in the U.S. market for free or at a low cost. Calls will be treated with Avaya’s routing, conferencing, messaging, mobility and contact center capabilities, as well as other collaboration services.

    For example, businesses can:
    • Establish Skype Click & Call buttons for inbound calling from Web sites
    • Establish Skype Online Numbers for inbound calling from landline and mobile phones
    • Route inbound calls from a Skype user to an enterprise extension.

    In the second half of 2011, Avaya and Skype plan to deliver integrated unified communications and collaboration solutions for enterprises within the U.S. The integration is intended to establish federation between Avaya Aura and Skype communications platforms and both user communities, so that an Avaya end-user and Skype user can engage and interact via presence, instant messaging, voice and video.

    According to the companies, a business, for example, could use Skype to access an Avaya-based contact center “in a simple and highly integrated way to quickly and efficiently resolve customer service issues.” The integrated solutions will also allow enterprise IT managers to manage and control the inter-connectivity between end users to meet their corporate IT policies.

    "Our relationship with Avaya is expected to expand the footprint for Skype Connect into more enterprises in the U.S. market, while allowing us to help Avaya’s customers benefit from Skype’s cost savings and access to Skype’s global user base," said David Gurlé, vice president and general manager of Skype for Business.

    "We believe our integrated solution in the second half of 2011 is expected to offer the benefits of Skype to a growing number of businesses and open up new ways for people to communicate and collaborate," he added.

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  • Marvell Unveils 1.5 GHz Tri-Core Processor Capable of 1080p 3D Video for Smartphones

    Marvell has introduced the world’s first 1.5 GHz tri-core application processor, the Marvell ARMADA 628. It incorporates a full System-on-a-Chip design (SoC) with three Marvell-designed, ARM-compliant CPU cores operating as the world’s first commercially available heterogeneous, multi-core, applications processor.

    The tri-core design of new ARMADA integrates two symmetric multiprocessing cores and a third core optimized for ultra low-power. The third core is designed to support routine user tasks and acts as a system management processor to monitor and dynamically scale power and performance.

    According to Marvell, the tri-core architecture provides superior performance and lower power over dual-core designs “while maintaining industry compatibility and leadership – ensuring a richer, faster and smoother experience than any other ARM-based processor available today.”

    The architecture is analogous to a hybrid muscle car. The ARMADA 628 is intended to perform like a race car engine on demand, while still delivering the frugal gas-mileage of a hybrid automobile. In real world terms, this enables the ARMADA 628 to play more than 10 hours of full 1080p HD video or 140 hours of music on a single charge while still providing 3 GHz of raw computational horsepower.

    The new Marvell’s processor comprises a complete SoC design – a first for the industry. In addition to the tri-core CPU, there are six additional processing engines to support 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decode, ultra high fidelity audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing – for a total of nine dedicated core functions.

    The company said that the ARMADA 628 is also designed to be the first mobile CPU to provide high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, which offers 10x faster performance than USB 2.0.

    "Marvell’s groundbreaking tri-core architecture is a unique solution to a long-time problem-how to achieve enterprise performance without breaking the limited power budget of smartphones, tablets and other mobile consumer devices," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group.

    The ARMADA 628 is based on a Marvell-designed ARM v7 MP compatible CPU offering 1.5 GHz performance. It offers support to use LP-DDR2 or DDR3 memory up to 533 MHz, a highly flexible display controller capable of driving four simultaneous displays at up t o 2K x 2K resolution, and a highly robust security subsystem that includes a secure execution processor.

    An integrated 3D engine renders 200 million triangles per second for an immersive game play experience and a multi-format video engine supports dual stream 1080p video for a true 3D visual experience. In addition, the ARMADA 628 supports DirectX, Open GL ES 2.0, and Open VG 1.1 – ensuring complete compatibility with the most hotly anticipated mobile game titles.

    ARMADA 628 supports RIM OS, Android™, Linux, Windows Mobile, and full Adobe Flash.

  • Survey: 79% of Consumers Have Experienced Poor Voice Quality

    According to a recent survey undertaken by the Customer Experience Foundation (CEF) on behalf of Empirix, 79 percent of consumers have experienced poor voice quality.

    The study asked 3,925 consumers about their experiences in dealing with contact centers and identified technology related trends and common problems that are affecting customer service and costing organizations around the world billions of dollars.

    The high percentage of global consumers that highlighted poor voice quality as a common problem points to a real issue in the industry. The study also revealed that poor voice quality drives down sales volumes, increases call lengths and the number of calls that are forced to be redialed. As a result, churn rates can increase for both customers and staff. The magnitude of the problem is indicative of how much businesses are struggling to come to terms with this issue, while consumers are quickly losing patience.

    "The word most associated in the study by consumers with poor voice quality was stress, which is not a word organizations want associated with their customers’ experiences," said Tim Moynihan, vice president of marketing, Enterprise business unit, Empirix.

    "Nearly half of the consumers who commented also felt that poor voice quality was a sign that companies really didn’t value their business-at a time when ensuring customer loyalty is more important than ever in any industry. When you analyze the problems with the core issue of poor voice quality, it equates to costing the industry billions of dollars, directly impacting the bottom line of organizations across the globe," he said.

    Other key survey findings include:
    ● Consumers say that 42 percent of all call center calls are impacted by poor voice quality.
    ● Thirty percent of consumers who experienced poor voice quality said it happened in more than half of their calls, with 68 percent of those saying they would usually hang up as a result, and if they were calling about a new product or service, they would call a competing company instead.
    ● Twenty-six percent of consumers say they need to redial to complete a transaction.
    ● Only one in six companies said they used specialist tools to manage voice quality, so it is no surprise that 72 percent of the businesses polled said they had frequent voice quality issues for which they could not identify the root causes.
    ● "Stress" is the most commonly used word when consumers were asked to explain how they felt after a poor voice quality call was completed.
    ● Case studies show that consumers are often forced to repeat themselves on calls as a result of poor voice quality.

    "Consumers are quickly losing patience with companies that suffer from poor voice quality-truth is, it’s a consumer’s market; they have choices in today’s market," said Professor Morris Pentel, chairman at Customer Experience Foundation.

    "Consumers are having major issues that they will not tolerate, which has obvious ramifications for businesses. Customer and agent churn will increase if they are unable to communicate with each other, not to mention the loss of new business opportunities, such as upsells or new products and offerings. Organizations with a reputation for poor customer service are simply pushing their customers toward their competitors, which impacts market share and the bottom line."

    The survey had more than 5,140 responses online and by telephone, which came from call center and IT Professionals in the U.S., UK, France and Germany, as well as 3,925 consumers.

  • Grandstream Introduces New HD Enterprise SIP Telephone

    Grandstream has extended the portfolio of its GXP series enterprise SIP telephones with the introduction of the new GXP2110.

    Based on Grandstream’s broadly interoperable SIP stack, “the GXP2110 SIP telephone delivers superior HD audio quality for crystal clear voice communications, packed IP telephony features and integrated Web applications, as well as support for highly flexible XML customization and strong security protection,” as the company says.

    The new GXP2110 SIP phone comes standard with HD handset and high performance full duplex speakerphone, a broad range of voice codecs, dual network ports with integrated PoE, 4 line keys, 3 soft keys, 18 programmable BLF keys, 5-way conferencing, large 240×120 backlit graphical LCD with 8-level grayscale, multiple languages, large phone book and call log (2,000 records), automated provisioning using TR-069 and encrypted XML file, extension module expandability, and a number of integrated Web applications such as real-time local weather, stock, currency, RSS news, etc.

    The company informed that in the near future, more advanced Web applications will continue to be integrated via FREE firmware upgrade and an open Web service API will also be provided for advanced custom enterprise/Web application development. Grandstream plans to continue to expand the GXP phone series with new models during the rest of this year.

    “The proliferation of Web applications from PC to mobile phones and now to desk phones is clearly gaining momentum,” David Li, CEO of Grandstream Networks.

    “The combination of HD voice communication with open Web application integration will unleash vastly improved productivity and create potentially unlimited new business opportunities at every desk phone. Known for our commitment to innovation and value delivery, Grandstream fully embraces market evolution and will continue its quest of providing advanced voice and video solutions that mirror evolving market demands,” he added.

    The GXP2110 is commercially available for purchase now through Grandstream’s worldwide distribution channels at a MSRP of US$139.

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  • Urgent Requirement for £1billion Upgrade to Britain’s Data Centres

    UK data centres are facing a ‘data crunch’ unless more than £1billion is invested in this critical IT infrastructure over the next 12 months according to Alex Rabbetts, Managing Director of data centre specialists, Migration Solutions.

    Recent unparalleled growth in online services, cloud computing, lean organisation initiatives and the rise of data on mobile phones is seriously risking a melt down in available data centre capacity to the UK.

    “Like the credit crunch, there’s an international dimension to this problem," says Rabbetts. “Worldwide the amount of digital information created last year was 800 billion gigabytes. This year it will grow by a factor of 67 – that’s over a Zettabyte! Simultaneously, the economic downturn has led to a prolonged under-investment in data centre infrastructure at a time when demand is soaring.”

    In the public sector the Cabinet Office has published an IT strategy calling for the G-Cloud, a massive consolidation of the 130 government data centres into 12 super-centres. In the private sector similar initiatives are under way to save money by consolidating and sharing data centre infrastructure.

    Rabbett’s says: “I’m pro modernisation – new, well designed data centres are much more efficient, consume much less power and are better for the environment than legacy solutions. However, in the rush to modernise the UK data centre industry, we have to ensure that we maintain the overall volume of capacity we need today and will inevitably need tomorrow.”

    Migration Solutions calculates that £1billion of new investment in UK data stock will provide 216 Petabytes of additional capacity – that’s just enough to accommodate less than 10% of Google’s Gmail users; or less than 1% of all the video stored on YouTube.

    Alex Rabbetts will be presenting ‘Data Centre 2.0: Managing the Data Crunch and the Power Surge’ at the 360° IT Infrastructure Event in London on 22-23 Sept.

  • Samsung Launches World's First Commercially Available 4G LTE Handset: the Samsung Craft

    Samsung Mobile and MetroPCS have just announced the commercial launch of the world’s first 4G LTE-enabled, multi-mode, CDMA handset, the Samsung Craft (SCH-r900). Samsung Mobile also supplied the LTE infrastructure for MetroPCS’ commercial launch of 4G LTE service in Las Vegas, the first in the United States.

    Samsung Craft is available at MetroPCS stores and online in the Las Vegas metropolitan area for $299, after a $50 instant rebate. It has 3.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen display and sliding QWERTY keyboard, 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and camcorder with auto-focus and Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface. Additionally, the Craft includes a 2GB microSD card (preloaded with "Star Trek").

    Along with the Craft, Samsung Mobile supplied LTE infrastructure for MetroPCS’ Las Vegas LTE network. MetroPCS became the first mobile operator to launch commercial 4G LTE services in the United States, offering talk, text and 4G Web access starting at $55 per month.

    According to the company, service will initially be available in Las Vegas and will cover the majority of MetroPCS’ existing CDMA network footprint in the city. 4G LTE network rollouts in the remaining MetroPCS markets are planned for later this year and early 2011, along with the launch of additional devices.

    “We continue to see our customers use mobile data services, and the majority of them rely on their handset as their primary access to the Web,” said Tom Keys, chief operating officer of MetroPCS.

    “Our 4G service, the Samsung Craft and applications like MetroSTUDIO deliver exactly what our customers demand: more of the entertainment they love, a desktop-like Web experience and the ability to do more and share more of their content such as text, photos and videos with friends and family,” he added.

  • Smartphone and Tablet Sales Ignite Advanced LCD Market in 2010

    Rapidly rising sales of smartphones and tablet PCs in 2010 will cause the global market for small- and medium-sized TFT LCD panels to expand at its fastest pace in three years, according to iSuppli.

    In its latest report, the market research firm finds that global shipments of small/medium TFT LCD panels, which are advanced types of displays used in sophisticated mobile devices like smartphones and tablet PCs, are set to rise by 28.1 percent in 2010 to reach 2.3 billion units, up 28.1 percent from 1.8 billion in 2009. This will represent the highest level of growth for the market since 2007, when shipments rose by 49.8 percent.

    “Sales of smartphones and tablets are booming in 2010 courtesy of the iPhone, the iPad and a range of competing products. Because such devices focus on delivering a high-quality user experience, many are employing TFT-LCD displays that offer bright, sharp images—a move that represents a boon for the suppliers of these displays,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, director of small and medium-sized displays at iSuppli.

    Global smartphone shipments are set to rise by 35.5 percent in 2010, according to iSuppli. Meanwhile, tablet PC shipments will grow by a stunning 787.3 percent, driven almost entirely by Apple’s iPad.

    Inspired by the iPhone 4, smartphone makers are adopting TFT LCDs using In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology. IPS supports a wider viewing angle and better picture quality in terms of presentation of color than a conventional LCD. It also consumes less electricity.

    Jakhanval said that all TFT-LCD suppliers now are making alliances or developing their own technology so that they can offer IPS displays to their smart phone and tablet customers.

    Meanwhile, a competing advanced display technology known as the Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) also is experiencing rapid growth in the small/medium display market, iSuppli’s electronic display research indicates. AMOLEDs are expanding because of the rise of the Android smart phone market.

    Growth in TFT LCD shipments will slow in 2011 and beyond as the expansion of the smart phone and tablet markets cools to more normal levels.

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  • picoChip Develops First Public Access Femtocell Solution

    picoChip today unveiled the PC333, the first chip specifically designed to extend the femtocell into the realm of public access infrastructure such as metro femto, rural femto and strand-mounted systems.

    According to the company, the PC333 System-on-Chip (SoC) device is the first femtocell chip to support 32 channels (scalable to 64) for simultaneous voice and HSPA+ data, the first to support MIMO, the first to support soft-handover and the first to conform to the Local Area Basestation (LABS) standard.

    picoChip says that the PC333 enables small basestations for urban hot-spots, city-centers or public access to be made and deployed at a cost far lower than traditional approaches, “radically changing the economics of network infrastructure.”

    The PC333 is the highest-specification femtocell available, and represents a significant step in bringing a complete 3GPP Release 8 Local Area 42Mbps HSPA+ basestation onto a single-chip.

    LABS is the 3GPP definition for systems with higher performance than home-basestations, allowing higher capacity, 120km/h mobility and +24dBm output power for greater than 2km range.

    The PC333 supports 32 channels, each with both voice and HSPA+ data and, with picoChip’s smartSignaling technology, in excess of 400 simultaneous smartphone users. Two of the devices can also be cascaded to support 64 active channels. The product runs on a 700MHz ARM chip with TrustZone and variety of specialized hardware features for security. As well as LABS conformance and release 8 HSPA+ (42Mbps downlink, 11 Mpbps uplink), the PC333 supports soft handover, receive diversity and MIMO.

    “Someday, all basestations will be made like this,” asserted Doug Pulley, CTO of picoChip. “With the PC333 we have extended the parameters of femtocell performance to levels that would traditionally have been considered as ‘picocell’ or even ‘microcell’. This high performance coupled with zero-touch provisioning means carriers can routinely deploy femtocells as part of their wide-area network rollouts. We are already seeing the emergence of femtocells into rural and metropolitan-area basestations,” he added.

    “As data traffic rises inexorably, it is evident that conventional macrocell architectures cannot cope both from a cost and capability point of view. Service providers are going to be deploying different, innovative basestation architectures to address this challenge effectively,” stated Simon Saunders, Chairman of The Femto Forum.

    The PC333 will be sampled in 4Q2010 to “lead customers.”

  • Slow Television Sales Spur LCD Panel Oversupply

    Shipments of large-sized LCD panels vastly exceeded end-market sales of televisions, monitors and notebook PCs in the first half, spurring a major buildup of inventory of the LCDs and finished products, including LCD-TVs, according to iSuppli.

    The research firm finds that a total of 46.8 million LCD-TV panels shipped in the first quarter of 2010. However, although LCD-TV set shipments equaled only 37.5 million units—an overage of 24.5 percent, iSuppli’s electronic display industry analysis indicates.

    In the second quarter, large-sized LCD-TV panel shipments grew to 52.0 million units, but actual set shipments amounted to only 38.7 million units. This gap of 36.4 percent, higher than anything seen in 2009, has pushed the market to further levels of oversupply, especially in the face of an uncertain outlook in the second half of 2010.

    “Coming amid fears of a slowing economy and the possibility of a double-dip recession, the inventory increases in the LCD TV retail channel are raising concerns throughout the display supply chain—from panel suppliers to contract manufacturers and brands, to retailers,” said Sweta Dash, senior director for LCD research at iSuppli.

    According to iSuppli, inventory levels for both suppliers and buyers have caused a ripple effect on pricing as large-sized LCD panel pricing dropped again in July, taking some panels down to the manufacturing cost level. In August, prices dropped another 4.4 percent because of the continuous inventory adjustment, with a further decline expected in September.

    Some low-priced panels were already reaching the cash cost level—and the oversupply situation is not helping matters, iSuppli indicates. These developments have prompted a series of production cuts by some panel suppliers in order to bring panel supply and demand back to balance.

    Although pricing for the LCD-TV sets themselves surged upward in July in the United States, prices are likely to have declined in August and will do so again in September, as brands and retailers have to become aggressive once again with their promotions in the upcoming months in order to fuel demand, iSuppli believes.

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