Business News Holding

Category: smartphone

  • Nokia to Offer Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation

    Nokia makes walk and drive navigation free on its smartphones. Starting today, the company offers a new version of Ovi Maps that includes turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries and 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world.

    The important news is that there is no network connection required when navigating: earlier pre-loaded on to the phone, the maps also work in offline mode, which means users don’t have to be worried about international roaming costs when traveling. That should also extend battery life.

    This game-changing move has the potential to nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market and makes Nokia the only company with a mobile navigation service for both drivers and pedestrians that works across the world.

    "Why have multiple devices that work that work in only one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you almost double the potential size of the mobile navigation market," explained Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President at Nokia.

    "The large-scale availability of free-of-charge mobile phone navigation offerings using high-quality map data will be a game changer for the navigation industry," said Thilo Koslowski, Vice President Automotive and Vehicle ICT at Gartner.

    "Such offerings will accelerate mass market adoption for navigation solutions and shift innovation focus to location-based services that go beyond traditional routing benefits."

    For Nokia, removing the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians allows the company to quickly activate a massive user base to which it can offer new location features, content and services.

    Nokia says this is part of its strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services. The move is also in line with Nokia’s vision that the next wave of growth will be centered on the location-aware, social internet — as the ‘where’ people are doing things becomes as important as the ‘what’ they are doing.

    According to research firm Canalys, the number of people worldwide using GPS navigation on their mobile phones was approximately 27 million at the end of 2009. With this announcement Nokia potentially grows the size of this installed user base to about 50 million by enabling smartphone owners, with compatible devices and devices that will be made compatible shortly to activate free drive and walk navigation through a simple download of the new Ovi Maps.

    Nokia will further grow this base as it adds more smartphones to the compatible devices list.

    Canalys also estimated in 2009 that the installed base of smartphones with integrated GPS was 163 million units worldwide, of which Nokia accounted for more than half (51%) having shipped cumulatively 83 million GPS devices.

    "By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world. The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for navigation," adds Vanjoki.

    Ovi Maps is immediately available for download for 10 Nokia handsets (including N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic and E72), with more Nokia smartphones expected to be added in the coming weeks.

    The company informed that from March 2010, new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.

  • Verizon Announces New Unlimited Voice Plans

    Beginning today, Verizon launches new monthly service plans. The customers may sign up for a new Nationwide Unlimited Talk plan that allows them to call anyone in the United States for $69.99 monthly access or a Nationwide Unlimited Talk & Text plan to call and send text, picture and video messages to anyone in the country for $89.99 monthly access.

    Nationwide Unlimited Talk Family SharePlans will be $119.99 monthly access while the Nationwide Unlimited Talk & Text Family SharePlans will be $149.99 monthly access (all Family SharePlan pricing includes the first two lines of service.)

    The company also announced the expansion of the 25 megabyte for $9.99 per month data package requirement to include all Verizon Wireless 3G Multimedia phones.

    The data package requirement was introduced last year with the LG enV TOUCH and the Samsung Rogue. The announcement expands that list to include new activations of the LG Chocolate Touch, LG enV3, LG VX8360, Motorola Entice W766, Nokia 7705 Twist and Samsung Alias 2.

    Verizon says thay expects to introduce a host of 3G Multimedia phones in 2010. The $19.99 data package option for 3G Multimedia phones has been discontinued.

    Customers using Simple Feature phones (Mobile Web-enabled) will continue to pay $1.99 per megabyte or choose either the $9.99 or $29.99 data packages. The consumer data package for 3G Smartphones such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or Android devices remains at $29.99 per month.

    Starting today Verizon also offers new prepaid plans: Prepaid Monthly Unlimited Talk is now available for $74.99 per month and Prepaid Monthly Unlimited Talk & Text is available for $94.99 per month. The 450- and 900-minute Monthly Prepaid plans will also be available for $5 more per month than comparable postpaid plans.

    Existing customers may choose to move to any of the new plans. Verizon allows customers to change their service plans at any time without penalty or contract extension.

  • Tight Competition for Biz-News.com Product of the Year Awards

    Contenders for the Biz-News.com Product of the Year Award are on a tight struggle to obtain the leading amount of votes for the 2009 Awards.

    The awards are people’s choice; users are being called upon to express their consumer experiences during 2009.

    What Smartphone device or service worked for you best? Which would you recommend to your friends and colleagues?

    Let us know and award them a vote by filling this form.

    Currently the top contenders are:

    • Mobile Mentor 1:1 mentoring session by Mobile Mentor
    • BlueWatchDog by SECU4
    • Roambi by MeLLmo
    • Nokia N900 by Nokia
    • BOLT Browser by Bitstream

    You can vote for them or nominate your personal favourite.

    If you have more than one nomination for "Best Product" you can make multiple submissions – but you can only vote once for any product.

    Voting closes on the 15th of February!

    May the best be rewarded.

  • Interview with Anna Chagnon, CEO of Bitstream, the Maker of BOLT Mobile Browser

    Global mobile communications software and technology giants Bitstream see the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa as a perfect platform to expand its influence in Africa and beyond.

    Nigeria is currently Africa’s biggest user of Bitstream’s flagship product – BOLT mobile browser – and once the football extravaganza hits the continent in June and July, the impact should be felt far and wide, says award-winning Anna Chagnon, CEO of Bitstream, in an interview with Smartphone.Biz-News.com

    “Africa is a very interesting market for BOLT. Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa have been in the top 20 countries for BOLT usage, and Nigeria is typically in the top 10. Nigeria is the eighth largest country in the world and is modernizing itself quickly,” said Chagnon, named 2009 Best Executive in the Stevie Wards for Women in Business.

    Anna Chagnon

    “With respect to the World Cup, we absolutely believe BOLT will have an impact for fans. As we have seen in other parts of the world in other major sporting, political or cultural events, people turn to their mobile phones for instantaneous information and news.

    “No other platform aside from mobile offers this ability to connect from wherever a person is and retrieve the information one wants. We have also seen that sport related content is among the most popular, so we fully expect that BOLT will play a role at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the 2011 World Cup of Cricket in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and many others,” said Chagnon.

    Nigeria Vision 2020

    The Nigerian government has put in place a plan called “Nigeria Vision
    2020”, which aims to put a large percentage of its population on the internet by the year 2020. Given that internet infrastructure and the computers to access it are rather costly, observed Chagnon, mobile has become the access method of choice.

    Nigeria’s telecom market is now larger than South Africa’s.

    The BOLT mobile browser is indeed a hit on the world market as evidenced by the product winning the 2009 Tech Awards Circle and clinching the bronze award for the Best Consumer/SOHO Software.

    And what has been the secret behind the success of this browser?

    “BOLT’s success is predicated on a number of factors, but fundamentally begins with designing an application to address the unmet needs of mobile users around the world. BOLT is built to work on the widest number of phones in the market. We estimate that more than three billion phones in the market today could install and use BOLT,” said Chagnon.

    “We began with a set of features we knew would be popular, such as displaying Web pages just as they would appear on a desktop computer, streaming video and quick downloading of content.

    “During our beta testing period, where we had over one million downloads, we created a number of mechanisms (e.g. online forum, Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, etc.) to listen to and interact with our user base. By the time we exited our beta testing period, we had built into BOLT a number of features that were driven directly by users’ input. As a result we’ve seen a sharp increase in downloads – now approaching three million – since the summer because BOLT is the mobile browser that best addresses the market’s needs,” she added.

    Since 1983, its award winning font technologies have been enabling device manufacturers and application developers to render the highest quality text in any language, on any device, at any resolution.

    Mobile User Experience Conference

    Headquartered in Marlborough, the United States and with offices around the world, Bitstream showcased its products at the Mobile User Experience Conference in London in November 2009 and used the occasion to share ideas with other players in the mobile industry.

    “We believe it is important to create the best mobile user experience possible. The Mobile User Experience Conference gave us the ability to learn from our well respected colleagues in the industry the best practices for building an easy-to-use yet robust user interface for BOLT.

    “The user interface of a mobile browser is critically important to individuals who browse the web on mobile devices and we continually strive to improve all facets of it so that BOLT users will have the best mobile browsing experience on the market today,” said Chagnon.

    Bitstream has expertise in font rendering, and its font technologies are used in all forms of consumer electronics, including video games, televisión sets, computers, mobile handsets and more.

    “We have worked hard to innovate and create new technologies that display crisp text on even the smallest screens. Since some of our competitors in different industry sectors have reached out to us to use our technologies for rendering fonts on their software, we believe we’re impacting the ability to make reading easier in digital content.

    “Our expertise in rendering fonts has led to innovations in rendering graphics and images too. Perhaps the biggest compliment we’ve received for BOLT – one we’ve received in numerous product reviews – is that it is able to deliver the most faithful rendering of Web pages and graphics than any other browser in our class. As a fundamental element in browsing, achúrate page rendering is more important than any other feature, including speed and we see other companies trying to follow our lead in this regard,” said Chagnon.

    BOLT 1.6 Availability

    In December 2009, Bitstream announced the availability of BOLT 1.6, "the most fully-featured mobile browser available for mobile phones of all types."

    BOLT 1.6 outscores competing mobile browsers earning a perfect 100 percent on the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test. The Acid3 test, created to help browser vendors ensure proper support for Web standards in their products, tests Web 2.0 dynamic Web applications and visual rendering, including Web fonts.

    According to Bitstreams, for all mobile data networks that support it, BOLT 1.6 now offers full socket-based connectivity which can increase the page rendering speed of BOLT by as much as 15 percent.

  • iVdopia Launches Talk2Me Mobile Advertising Solution

    iVdopia, the advertising technology company, has just introduced Talk2Me ads solution and claims that for the first time, mobile advertisers can customize interactive actions in video ads that include customized social features, which allows for the sharing of ads on Facebook or Twitter.

    iVdopia is an ad network and platform for the iPhone to enable both application developers and advertisers to simultaneously monetize their applications.

    With Talk2Me, users can engage with their favorite brands on their iPhone as they take advantage of iVdopia’s Share Respond Interact interface, which is customizable and has an extensible architecture that gives marketers possibilities to share ads (through various social networks), respond (by calling, sending an SMS text, emailing or filling out a short form) and interact (e.g. with the advertiser’s In-App WAP site).

    “Instead of giving users just one way to engage with the brand, this provides them with an unprecedented range of options – leading to much greater user engagement and response,” said Srikanth Kakani, co-founder of iVdopia.

    “Our knowledge and experience in brand advertising, both online and with mobile devices, now comes with a social networking option to connect advertisers with customers in the most engaging, immediate and personal ways possible.”

    iVdopia was pioneering media and video advertising on smartphones through Pre-App video, In-App video and social networking options on the iPhone.

  • ABI Research: 4G Mobile Consumer Service Revenue Will Exceed $70 Billion in 2014

    As 4G network deployments gather momentum, a substantial 22% of device subscription revenues will come from suites of operator-branded premium services.

    Total 4G mobile consumer service revenue – including mobile internet services – will grow rapidly to exceed $70 billion worldwide in 2014, says ABI Research.

    According to ABI Research practice director Philip Solis, “Operators of 4G networks will refuse to be marginalized as ‘dumb data pipe’ service providers. Instead, they will offer suites of ‘smart services’ – some internally developed, others via partnerships with third party suppliers – that will be provided over ‘smart networks’ enabled with all-IP technologies, IMS infrastructure and cloud-based storage.”

    The analysts think these 4G services will be optimized to enable a proliferation of mobile devices, such as smartphones, netbooks and PNDs, and many operators will be offering pooled device subscriptions: one user subscription, many activated devices.

    Internet access service will be the “killer 4G service” – no surprise considering 4G networks are data-only.

    However, a suite of premium services will collectively drive significant consumer adoption, revenues and profits, including location services (such as turn-by-turn directions and POIs), multimedia services (as VoD and P2P video sharing), media broadcast services (pay-per-view TV and digital radio) and gaming services (such as multi-player and augmented reality games).

    ABI Research predicts that these “Web 3.0” services will be integrated with popular Web 2.0 features, such as personalization, community, interactivity, presence, and localization, and will be delivered simultaneously, seamlessly and transparently to ‘three screens’ – PCs, TVs and mobile devices – over the internet, over cable networks, and over wireless networks.

    “Operators will take advantage of this market opportunity by breaking down their walls and building open ecosystems,” says Solis.

    “They will partner with third-party service providers from whom they can license and re-brand services; they’ll work with network and handset OEMs to influence infrastructure and device specs; and they’ll join ecosystem development organizations, such as Alcatel-Lucent’s ng Connect program.”

  • More than Half of Consumers Utilize Mobile Phones for In-Store Holiday Shopping Activities

    A recent Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions annual research study of holiday shoppers identified that more than half (51 percent) of consumers across 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities such as comparison shopping and getting peer feedback, product information and coupons.

    Motorola’s analysts think it signals the increasing importance for retailers to adopt mobile shopper technology strategies to remain competitive.

    According to the study, the usage and impact of mobile shopping technologies exploded during the 2009 holiday shopping season. The survey identified that 64 percent of Gen Y (age 18 to 34) shoppers used their mobile phones for in-store shopping-related activities during the holiday season.

    “Retailers, financial service institutions, advertisers and technology vendors are taking advantage of mobile platforms to attract this increasingly technologically savvy generation of shoppers,” says Motorola.

    The company also says all surveyed age-segments cited interest in next-generation retail technologies, 2demonstrating the growing consumer demand for real-time information to make better informed shopping decisions.”

    The research shows that when in-store associates were equipped with mobile technologies, such as two-way radios and handheld mobile computers, surveyed shoppers reported a better experience due to the use of the devices (59 percent and 56 percent respectively).

    Frank Riso, senior director of retail solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions, said, “By utilizing mobile technologies, consumers have become empowered, better informed and more critical shoppers. Retailers need to establish near-term strategies to provide product information, stock availability, discounts and coupons directly to shoppers to help them to remain competitive.”

  • iSuppli: Nexus One Serves as Research Tool for Google

    Google’s new Nexus One smart phone serves as a showcase for the latest version of the Android operating system and will allow the company to gather critical user data for developing new software, according to iSuppli.

    "With a plethora of smart phones based on the Android operating system already on the market, questions have arisen as to why Google would begin selling its own phone equipped with the operating system," said Tina Teng, iSuppli senior analyst for wireless communications.

    "iSuppli believes the Nexus One allows Google to demonstrate all the capabilities of its operating system more effectively than other phones that employ customized versions of Android. The Nexus One also gives Google direct access to end customers, yielding key information on how users interact with applications and utilize data."

    Such information will be pivotal as Android-based phones strive to gain market share in the burgeoning smart phone market. iSuppli predicts global smart phone shipments are set to rise considerably, more than doubling from 181 million in 2009 to 439 million in 2013.

    According to iSuppli, with Google having directed the entire design of the Nexus One, including the hardware, applications and operating system, the phone exemplifies all the capabilities of version 2.1 of Android.

    In contrast, other Android-based phones, such as Motorola’s Droid, have personalized the operating system to suit their own hardware designs and services.

    "The Nexus One will help Google popularize Android by showing what the operating system can really do," Teng said.

    Beyond serving as a technology demonstrator for Android, the Nexus One gives Google direct access to consumers’ use patterns.

    Teng said Google can embed an applet into the Nexus One that can send reports on user behaviors back to a company database for analysis.

    iSuppli believes the Nexus One is a compelling device in terms of functions and capabilities. However, the product will still face significant competitive challenges.

    "Google will have to bundle innovative software with the Nexus One to combat its strongest competitor: Apple’s iPhone," Teng said.

  • Google Officially Announces Nexus One – the “Superphone”

    At the special Android press conference in Mountain View, Google officially confirmed the company’s first phone – the Nexus One.

    This HTC-branded device is running Android 2.1 and comes with 3.7" AMOLED 480×800 WVGA display, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, 512MB flash onboard memory and 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB), 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash and geo tagging, stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, compass, GPS, accelerometer and light and proximity sensor.

    There is also an option of personalized laser engraving: up to 50 characters on the back of the phone.

    Android 2.1, a version of the platform’s Eclair software offers applications like Google Maps Navigation (offering turn-by-turn driving directions with voice output), Email (multiple Gmail accounts; universal inbox and Exchange support), Phone book (aggregate contacts from multiple sources, including Facebook), and Android Market with the access to more than 18,000 applications.

    Additionally, it futures voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields and voice-searching.

    Nexus One is initially available from the new Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA. It is also coming to Verizon this Spring and Vodafone later this year.

    Google will initially take orders from consumers in the US and three other markets – the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

    In the coming months Google plans on partnering with additional operators. They also expect to launch more phones with Android handset partners (including Motorola) and to expand the web store to more countries.

    "The Nexus One belongs in the emerging class of devices which we call ‘superphones,’ with the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset making it as powerful as your laptop computer of three to four years ago. It’s our way to raise the bar on what’s possible when it comes to creating the best mobile experience for consumers," said Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering.

  • 3G and Wireless Data Boom in China

    The release of 3G licenses in China is spurring a wireless data boom, with national revenue from such services rising by 18.9 percent in 2009 and nearly doubling from 2008 to 2013, says iSuppli.

    According to the research group, as the one-year anniversary of the issuance of 3G licenses in China approaches, wireless data revenue, including both messaging and non-messaging service, is set to rise to $19.3 billion in 2009, up from $16.3 billion in 2008.

    By 2013, data revenue will surge to $31.5 billion, increasing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.1 percent from $16.3 billion in 2008.

    iSuppli predicts that non-messaging revenue soon will exceed messaging revenue as carriers expand mainstream adoption of 3G services. Non messaging service revenue will reach $20 billion in 2013, up by a factor of three from $6.8 billion in 2008.

    “The rapid growth of China’s data services is being enabled by the monumental spending of the nation’s wireless carriers on mobile infrastructure equipment,” said Will Kong, an analyst covering China research at iSuppli.

    “The carriers this year will spend about $6.3 billion on mobile infrastructure equipment, up 28 percent from 2008. This will represent a near-term peak, with spending in 2010 declining by 2.4 percent to $6.1 billion. During the next five years, carrier spending will continue to decline but will remain at a high level of more than $5.5 billion annually.”

    Kong claims that, although China Mobile achieved strong financial performance this year, its subscriber growth rate will decline. This is because China Telecom and China Unicom will place greater competitive pressure on China Mobile, especially in non-messaging services, by leveraging their network and handset advantages.

    In fact, China Mobile already has lost substantial market share in terms of new subscribers. The company’s share of wireless subscribers dropped to 58.2 percent in September, down from 78 percent in January.

    iSuppli forecasts mobile subscribers at China Telecom and China Unicom will exceed 100 million and 200 million, respectively, in 2013. By leveraging their advantages in networks and handset products, China Telecom and China Unicom will place even more pressure on China Mobile.

    iSuppli expects that China Mobile’s incremental market share will be stable at around 60 percent for the next few years.

    China Telecom and China Unicom will continue to subsidize mobile phones in order to provide attractive consumer prices.

    And both carriers will be supported by their parent companies, keeping them solvent. iSuppli also believes China Telecom and China Unicom will focus on long-term returns to gain more market share rather than on short-term profits.