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Category: smartphone

  • iPad Available Internationally on May 28

    Apple announced iPad international availability and pricing – the “magical and revolutionary device” will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28.

    Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10.

    Pricing details:

    UK:
    • 16GB WiFi £429
    • 32GB WiFi £499
    • 64GB WiFi £599
    • 16GB WiFi+3G £529
    • 32GB WiFi+3G £599
    • 64GB WiFi+3G £699

    Continental Europe:
    • 16GB WiFi €479
    • 32GB WiFi €579
    • 64GB WiFi €679
    • 16GB WiFi+3G €579
    • 32GB WiFi+3G €679
    • 64GB WiFi+3G €779

    Canadian pricing is $50 (in CAD) more than US pricing.

    Apple also informed that it plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. The availability and local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries will be announced at a later date.

    In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

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  • Visa Brings Mobile Payments to iPhone

    Visa and DeviceFidelity are working to allow iPhone users to make payments by simply waving their iPhone in front of a contactless payment terminal. The new technology, developed by DeviceFidelity and certified by Apple, combines a protective iPhone case with a secure memory card that hosts Visa’s contactless payment application, called Visa payWave. The technology will work for both iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G devices.

    iPhone users will be able to make Visa mobile payments in retail stores, at fast food restaurants, in taxis, during sporting events, and also make purchases at vending machines that have contactless payment terminals.

    Visa claims that “thousands of merchants throughout the U.S.” have already upgraded their payment terminals to allow consumers to make Visa mobile payments.

    The technology will also work with a majority of smart phones that have a slot for a memory card. “By simply inserting the card into the memory slot on their phone, mobile users can transform their existing mobile phones into a Visa payment device,” according to the company.

    Visa has already rolled out a similar technology in Malaysia and Japan, where consumers can make mobile payments in stores and restaurants.

    The mobile payment application can be password protected and utilizes advanced security technology to uniquely identify each contactless transaction. In addition, all Visa mobile payments are backed by Visa’s global processing network and analyzed for potential fraud in real-time. If a mobile device is lost or stolen, account holders should contact their issuer, as they would if their card was lost or stolen. The issuer can immediately deactivate the account.

    Market trials of the payment-enabled iPhone are scheduled to start this summer.

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  • Sprint and Virgin Mobile Introduce "Beyond Talk" Unlimited Data Prepaid Plans

    Since Sprint’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile, the company has rolled out a series of new prepaid products, and today Sprint officially unveiled its new comprehensive multi-segment approach to the prepaid wireless marketplace.

    On May 12, Virgin Mobile will unveil three new "Beyond Talk" plans that all include unlimited messaging, email, data and web:

    • The $25 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 300 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $40 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 1,200 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $60 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with unlimited voice.

    Virgin Mobile customers can add Blackberry data service to any of these plans for $10 more, enabling $35 plan consisting of both voice calling and Blackberry data service.

    Virgin will also introduce new handset lineup that will include: Blackberry Curve 8530 (available for $299.99 at the end of May), LG Rumor Touch ($149.99; only available without a contract on "Beyond Talk" plans), LG Rumor 2 QWERTY ($89.99; also only available without a contract) and Kyocera Loft QWERTY ($69.99).

    Sprint’s prepaid portfolio will initially be driven by four brands (Virgin Mobile, Broadband2Go, Boost Mobile and Assurance Gíreles) with each focused on a specific audience. "The launch of this portfolio goes far beyond changing prices," explained Dan Schulman, president of Sprint’s prepaid group.

    "We are introducing innovative and attractive offers for specific groups of customers based on usage and habits – from those who are on limited budgets and use their phones infrequently to those who want high-end devices to use for all their communications, entertainment and social networking."

    According to him, this is the year that prepaid moves to the forefront of the wireless industry.

    "In the first quarter of 2010, more than half of the mobile gross additions in the U.S. selected prepaid, and we predict that approximately 70% of the net adds in 2010 will choose plans without a contract," he said.

    "With almost 60 million people now on prepaid service," Schulman continued, "the no-contract market has clearly moved beyond the credit-challenged and lower income segments. The prepaid market has changed dramatically, with customers across multiple demographics and lifestyles demanding a wide variety of handsets, features, and plans tailored to their specific needs and wants."

  • NPD: 75% of US iPhone and iPod Touch users Download Apps and Games

    The NPD’s "Entertainment Trends in America" update reveals three quarters of iPhone and iPod touch users are connecting to the Web to download entertainment content and apps.

    According to the latest update to the NPD’s tracking survey, 16 percent of Americans age 13 or older are using devices other than their home computers to download software applications, music, video, and other entertainment content from the Web.

    Based on NPD’s entertainment market research, 75 percent of iPhone and iPod Touch users are connecting to the Web to download entertainment content and apps, compared to 19 percent of game console users and 17 percent of Blu-ray Disc set-top product users.

    “It’s not surprising that Apple users are ahead of others when it comes to downloading Web-based content, given the breadth of the company’s app catalog and the head start iTunes had selling music for the iPod,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD.

    “Like other groups of early adopters, consumers downloading entertainment content are mostly younger and male; however, as app stores expand beyond Apple, as connected devices become more commonplace, and as connectivity is simplified we expect to see more activity on other devices and platforms,” he added.

    According to the report, among iPhone and iPod Touch users who downloaded content, free apps were the most popular download category, followed by video-game apps, and music downloads.

    Among consumers who connected via game consoles, game add-ons were far and away the most popular category, followed by purchased downloads of entire games, and movie rentals.

    In addition, one-third of Blu-ray Disc consumers who actually connected via their BD reported downloading a movie rental.

    “Music now competes with games and other apps for share of device, share of wallet, and share of time,” Crupnick said.

    He says that entertainment companies need to start to thinking of apps in broader terms, not only as a way of garnering direct sales from downloads, but also as a pathway to paying for additional entertainment content.

    “For example, an app that reviews movies could also be a direct channel for purchasing DVDs, BDs, or digital forms of video,” Crupnic concluded.

  • IDC: Mobile Phone Recovery Continues with Nearly 22% Growth in Q1

    The worldwide mobile phone market grew 21.7% in the first quarter of 2010, a strong rebound from the market contraction in Q1 2009. Growth was fuelled by increased demand for smartphones, and the global economic recovery.

    According to the IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 294.9 million units in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 242.4 million units in the first quarter of 2009.

    The report shows that growing demand for smartphones helped Research In Motion move into the top 5 vendor rankings for the first time. RIM, which replaced Motorola in the top 5, tied Sony Ericsson for the number 4 position in IDC’s 1Q10 vendor rankings.

    RIM shipped 10.6 million units in the first quarter while Motorola, which had been a top 5 vendor since the inception of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker in 2004, shipped 8.5 million units.

    Motorola, the number 2 overall vendor in 2004, registered a fifth place finish last year by virtue of its overall strength in the lower-growth traditional mobile phone category. Motorola has steadily lost share since 2004 when the market started its shift toward higher-end feature phones and smartphones.

    "The entrance of RIM into the top 5 underscores the sustained smartphone growth trend that is driving the global mobile phone market recovery," noted Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

    "This is also the first time a vendor has dropped out of the top 5 since the second quarter of 2005, when Sony Ericsson grabbed the number 5 spot from BenQ Siemens," he said.

    IDC believes the worldwide mobile phone market rebound will continue in 2010, though not at the same growth rate as the first quarter.

    "It should be noted that the market’s first-quarter growth, while impressive, is relative to one of the worst quarters in mobile phone industry history (1Q09)," noted Restivo.

    He said that the market’s growth should not be taken as a proxy for future quarters nor annual growth. “In fact, the results essentially match our first quarter projections. We are still expecting growth of 11% for 2010," he added.

    Top five mobile phone vendors according to IDC:
    1. Nokia
    2. Samsung
    3. LG Electronics
    4. RIM
    5. Sony Ericsson

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  • Motorola: TD-LTE is Now a Commercial Reality

    Motorola has successfully deployed the world’s first indoor over-the-air (OTA) TD-LTE showcase network at the Expo Center at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Together with China Mobile, Motorola is demonstrating end-to-end TD-LTE solutions at the Information and Communication Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

    Delegates are able to experience the real-life performance of TD-LTE via USB dongles, including video streaming, remote monitoring, video stream session and high-speed internet browsing.

    According to Motorola, a single TD-LTE USB dongle can stream 24 simultaneous video streams while supporting very high-speed internet browsing applications, at a total data rate of 20Mbps.

    A TD-LTE carrier in 20MHz can support transmission of a few hundred video streams simultaneously. Motorola claims that in the near future, TD-LTE subscribers will then be able to access a collection of high-bandwidth and low-latency internet applications including mobile TV, on-demand videos and video blogging anywhere.

    At the show, a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle carrying a camera and a laptop showcases real-time TD-LTE performance on the move. Live video captured by the moving camera can be viewed on other laptops and the main screen within the demonstration area via a TD-LTE USB dongle. Visitors are able to set up a video stream session between the laptop on the vehicle and the laptops within the demonstration area.

    The company informed that they will also integrate and launch the TD-LTE USB dongle that supports 2.3GHz at the event.

    According to Motorola, interest in TD-LTE continues to grow due to several key factors:

    • The tremendous growth of data use while mobile falling prices, more variety and improved ease of use in end user devices
    • Additional spectrum is necessary for serving more users
    • TDD spectrum traditionally auctioned for lower cost/radio frequency/population
    • Global and local roaming between FDD and TDD networks, allowing both networks to be used in the same geographic area.

    In effect, this ability to roam between FDD LTE and TD-LTE means operators can use TD-LTE networks to augment their FDD LTE network for more capacity or other applications such as video broadcasting, while operators choosing to use TD-LTE as their "main" network can still offer their subscribers the ability to roam to other operators’ FDD LTE networks in different countries.

    "We see the growing interest in TD-LTE as the technology delivers increased capacity and a lower cost per bit. Motorola is the leader in TD-LTE through trials and engagements with various operators around the world. The selection by China Mobile today once again demonstrates the reliability and maturity of our TD-LTE solution," said Dr. Mohammad Akhtar, corporate vice president and general manager, Motorola Networks business in Asia Pacific.

    “TD-LTE is now a commercial reality, making LTE a truly encompassing global technology standard,” he added.

  • No More Phone Numbers: Interview with Micha Benoliel, CEO of Digitrad

    “This is the future, this is the next big thing: save money on international calls and merging online social places with voice on your cell phone. You will never use your cell phone the same way!,” says Micha Benoliel, CEO of Digitrad, when asked by Smartphone.Biz-News.com about CallbyName, the company’s flagship product.

    Digitrad is the provider of consolidated communications platforms bringing together IM, voice, social networks and online directories. They started in 2000 as a web agency specialized in dynamic websites integrations.

    No More Phone Numbers
    “In 2003 we did our first voice app. After this successful first experience, we realized there was a wonderful opportunity by merging web interface with voice applications to create a real Swiss knife tool to help you build voice services in a record time.

    Micha Benoliel

    “CallbyName combines our unified communications features such as mobile voice to voice web, voice to email and voice to SMS with a social address book. Your real name becomes your single point of contact for all your communications.

    “Some people use multiple social networks with the same people and want to sync all their info under a single profile. Just one and same place to gather all your communications info. With all these contacts spread out across different places and applications, we need a service that helps us to reach someone fast, simply and in a way convenient for the caller and the receiver,” says Micha.

    “Almost free calling”
    The service also lets you call the world “almost for free” from the mobile phone. “Amost for free”? Micha explains how it works: “When you decide to call a friend in US from UK for example, instead of calling the US number CallbyName will assign you a temporary local English phone number. When you dial that number which is included within your plan or cost as a local call, you will hear an 8 second audio ad that sponsors the call and it will ring on the US number you wanted to dial originally.”

    CallByName mobile app, currently available on Android and iPhone, uses your local phonebook and offers to call up to 50 international destinations for the cost of a local call from your mobile. You can also leave voicemails directly delivered by email as an attachment. It’s available in the US, UK France and soon in 21 more countries

    “From the user feedback we have a good retention rate and they like the user experience very close from the one of any address book on any phone. But this is really a start as the version 2 is the one really getting the traction with the connectors to social networks and the presence feature that allows you to call your friends from the mobile to the Facebook page.”

    The version 2 will include the connectors with social networks and online addressbook like Facebook, Twitter, Google contacts, LinkedIn.

    Digital ID for all your communications
    Another product from Digitrad is yes.tel. In 2009, they became registrar for the .tel domain which is the first domain dedicated to communications. It is now between the top 25 registrars of .tel in the world. Instead of linking a name to a website, .tel links a name to contacts information.

    “For an individual, it could be called your home or your place on the web. For businesses it is a way to enter the first real-time global directory,” explains Micha.

    When asked what is next for mobile integrated communication systems, he says: “Our team of passionate and talented people works to integrate CallbyName within the everyday mobile and web user experience. It means that you will no longer have to search for the best way to communicate with someone. You will have a seamless call experience that will always reach and connect the other party even if you don’t know its phone number.”

    He believes the VoIP market has a great potential. According to him, the question is how are the telco infrastructures going to handle this technology very demanding in terms of bandwidth and quality of service.

    “We believe that for the time being a temporary local phone number to reach the cloud and connect anywhere for the cost of a local call is the right combination,” he says.

    Micha says the main goal for Digitrad in 2010 is “to show the world that using your real name as a single point of contact for all your communications is not a dream anymore.”

  • ERCOM Launches Secure SMS

    ERCOM, a secure communication solutions provider, announced that it has upgraded Cryptosmart Mobile Suite with secure SMS feature.

    Launched in 2008, Cryptosmart Mobile Suite is a patent based and certified solution for mobile communications that protects both voice and data transmission, encrypts data stored on the device, and blocks MMS, SMS and internet attacks.

    It is dedicated to governments and corporations to help them communicate in a confident manner.

    New Secure SMS brings three major security attributes:
    • Confidentiality : SMS are encrypted
    • Integrity : users are sure that the SMS has not been modified
    • Authenticity : the sender identification cannot be falsified

    “Secure SMS is complementary to secure data. Indeed, professional users continue to use SMS for some of their communications. There is no need to have any email address. Moreover, there are some cases where users do not have access to data networks (poor mobile coverage, lack of data roaming agreement, etc.),” according to the company.

    The Cryptosmart is compliant with all existing networks such as mobile networks (2G, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, LTE), satellite networks (Inmarsat, Thuraya, Eutelssat), and wireless IP networks (Wifi, Wimax). It is based on EAL2+ and common criteria technology.

  • HP to Acquire Palm for $1.2 Billion

    Although a week ago Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein still believed that “Palm can survive as an independent company” (FT), Palm was already up for sale and it was pretty obvious they would quickly find a buyer.

    And they did. The company announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with HP, under which HP will purchase Palm at an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion.

    The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.

    “The combination of HP’s global scale and financial strength with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets,” according to the press release.

    The companies claim that Palm’s webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as “true multitasking” and “always up-to-date information sharing across applications.”

    Under the terms of the merger agreement, Palm stockholders will receive $5.70 in cash for each share of Palm common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger.

    The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of Palm’s stockholders. The companies informed that the transaction is expected to close during HP’s third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2010.

    Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.

    According to HP’s executive vice president Todd Bradley, Palm’s OS provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a “unique” HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices.”

    “And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market,” he said.

    Jon Rubinstein said: “We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS.”