Business News Holding

Category: smartphone

  • Innovation Come to BlackBerry as RIM Acquires Torch Mobile

    There’s no doubt that the mobile market is a hot market. Competition is stiff, but the so far the clear winner by leaps and bounds has been the Apple iPhone.

    The market for second is easily becoming close with Blackberry fighting to keep its position and Palm looking to break into the market but eating some of Blackberry’s market share with the Palm Pre.

    Still, the iPhone may not stay on top forever and Blackberry has taken a bold step in the right direction. If one thing has kept the iPhone ahead of the game, it’s been its clear dominance in the ease of use market.

    Blackberry has always had dependable technology and has also established itself amongst the corporate market, something iPhone has been unable to do in recent years. As Blackberry users look for innovation, Research in Motion (RIM) take a bold step in redefining their browser by acquiring browser development company, Torch.

    The Toronto based developer has created an open-source browser called Iris, which like Mozilla, has offered innovative design for mobile browsers, to include tabbed interface. This tabbed interface has worked well for the various mobile devices that Iris has been put on, and now with the ability to be included on Blackberry devices, the acquisition could prove beneficial for both parties.

    In what is sure to be a step forward in tackling Apple, RIM released a statement stating that Torch will work closely with RIM developers to “contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry platform.”

    Torch has gone further to state on their own website that any contributors, Committers and Reviewers will remain on board as active participants in the WebKit development community.

    It remains to be seen if Blackberry can truly take on the overwhelming lead that Apple has with their iPhone, but with unique innovation that Torch can bring to the table, RIM has the ability to increase the ease of use to all their devices.

  • Feature Phones Still Rule the U.S. Market

    According to The NPD Group, a market research company, when it comes to sales of mobile phones in the U.S. feature phones still rule the market, even as smartphone sales continue to increase their share of overall handset sales.

    NPD’s Mobile Phone Track information reveals that unit-sales of new feature phones fell 5 percentage points to 72 percent of new handset sales in the Q2 2009, while sales of new smartphones reached 28 percent of overall consumer purchases – a 47 percent increase in the category’s share since last year.

    Overall handset sales volume in the U.S. grew 14 percent year over year in Q2 2009, as sales revenue increased 18 percent. The average selling price of all mobile phones increased 4 percent year over year – reaching $87 in Q2.

    According to NPD’s Q2 2009 ranking of handsets, the LG enV2 and Samsung Rant led feature phone sales, while Apple iPhone 3G and RIM Blackberry Curve were the top-selling smartphones.

    “Despite their ties to pricey data plans, the rich Internet access capabilities of smartphones are attracting consumers wooed by lower device prices,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at The NPD Group.

    The research shows that Wi-Fi capability increased three-fold since last year, with 20 percent of all new handsets equipped with this capability.

    Touch screens on both feature phones and smartphones have also seen tremendous growth since last year, with 26 percent of all new handsets purchased in Q2 including this feature. Physical QWERTY keyboards, by comparison, were available in 35 percent of handsets sold.

    “Feature phones are taking on more of the physical characteristics of smartphones, and often offer greater exposure to carrier services.With the price gap between smartphones and feature phones narrowing, to remain competitive feature phones need to develop a better Web experience, drive utility via widgets, and sidestep the applications arms race,” Rubin said.

    NPD Group compiles and analyzes mobile device sales data based on more than 150,000 completed online consumer research surveys each month. Surveys are based on a nationally balanced and demographically representative sample, and results are projected to represent the entire population of U.S. consumers.

  • 4G: Network For Real Mass Market Activity

    Erik Hallberg, Senior Vice President and Head of TeliaSonera Mobility Services in Sweden, tells smartphone.biz-news how this telecom is changing the face of mobile technology with its innovative 4G network.

    Recently Eric Hallberg’s family settled in to a typical night at home. The family of four sat down for a comfortable evening by not turning on their television, but flipping open their laptops. This behavior is not atypical of many families these days, no matter what part of the world you live in.

    The use of technology as a medium for work and play is quickly changing our world. It is no surprise that eventually technology will have to catch up with our ever-growing need for more capacity, more speed and more power.

    “I think the demand is moving faster that we as a telecommunications industry can supply the demand,” said Hallberg.

    “The way that people are utilizing services like Twitter and Facebook is changing everything. They are connected from early morning to late in the evening.”

    In 2010 TeliaSonera and Ericsson will unveil the first commercial Long-term Evolution (LTE) network in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the 20 countries where the company has a communications presence. This 4G mobile broadband network will revolutionize the way we share information via our mobile networks by focusing solely on the exchange of data. Drastically expanding the speed and efficiency of the exchange of information will lead to a higher speed bandwidth for the corporate and everyday user.

    “4G is not just a step forward, it is totally new,” Hallberg said. “It is not designed for voice, it is designed for pure data. It is an all IP network – there is no transformation or translation between different types of technologies. All IP from the device to the radio station to the core network to the services – the first time a mobile network is designed that way for real mass market activity.”

    Whereas the everyday user will experience a faster speed and efficiency via their mobile network, for the corporate user, this expansion will mean a new kind of service opportunity for their businesses.

    “The integration of unified communication (i.e. voice adules, adule pictures and video conferencing) in the corporate market is really taking off,” Hallberg said.

    “There is the sophisticated level with the syscal equipment or similar to the small basic camera and things that you do through low speed activities of different kinds. This is just the beginning its going to boom in the coming years and its going to need a lot of high bandwidth accesses as well as core networks to support it.”

    According to Hallberg, TeliaSonera is not only looking to the future of telecommunications, they are also exploring environmentally friendly methods in which to embrace that future.

    As part of their development strategy, TeliaSonera will be participating in the 4G World 2009 Conference from September 15-18, 2009.

    “The reason for me to participate in Chicago is to listen to what others are thinking, what they are planning to do, or may be doing,” Hallberg said. “We want to get new input from other parts of the world that we will probably not get from the venders or from the local markets. So for it is a very important point for gathering information and inspiration as to what others are doing in the 4G market, LP market in the next coming years.”

    After their trip to the conference, the company’s priority will be to finalize the first installation of the new network and make it available first to users in Germany and China.

    “Based on experience that we gain from these 2 sides, we will go to the next decision at the end of this year, beginning of next year.” Hallberg said.

    The 4G World 2009 Conference will be held at the McCormick Center in Chicago, Illinois. It will feature mobile WiMAX, WiFi, HSPA and LTE technologies and how they will influence the business and technical aspects of the new 4G network.

    Listen to the whole interview

  • Motorola to Feature Blockbuster Movie Download Service in Next Generation Handsets

    Blockbuster, a provider of in-home movie and game entertainment, announced plans to feature the BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand movie download service in select Motorola phones. Through the agreement next generation Motorola phones will feature the OnDemand application, providing on-the-go download access to Blockbuster’s digital library of current movies.

    Earlier this year, Motorola announced it is to unveil Android powered handsets in the fourth quarter.

    Blockbuster launched a movie rental service via set-top boxes last year. It offered a STB made by 2Wire that plays downloaded movies. Renting a movie for online playback at Blockbuster generally costs between $1.99 and $3.99.

    In March this year, Blockbuster and TiVo announced that they are working to make Blockbuster’s service available on all TiVo Series2 and Series3 DVRs (including the HD and HD XL models) in the second half of 2009.

    The agreement with Motorola it’s a part of the company’s new digital strategy to provide its library of digital entertainment to mobile devices.

    "Motorola is a recognized global communications leader and extending the BLOCKBUSTER brand and our OnDemand service into their portfolio of innovative new phones is a natural extension of our digital strategy," said Kevin Lewis, Senior Vice President of Digital Entertainment for Blockbuster.

    "Mobile video entertainment is exploding, as consumers are demanding the widest selection of content: the movies they love in their living room and on their PC, now also available on their mobile phone, while on the go," added Christy Wyatt, Vice President of Software Platforms, Applications and Ecosystem of Motorola Mobile Devices.

    According to Blockbuster the agreement will also further the company’s multi-channel vision of eventually Blockbuster enabling customers to use OnDemand application with multiple consumer electronics and portable devices, such as PCs, PMPs, Blu-ray Disc players, PVRs, set-top boxes, mobile phones and Web-connected TVs, to search Blockbuster’s entire catalog of entertainment content and download available titles for rent or purchase, schedule movies for mail delivery through, or reserve titles for in-store pick-up.

  • Huawei to Deploy First Solar-Powered Base Transceiver Stations in Bangladesh

    Huawei, a provider of next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators, has been selected by Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Telenor, to deploy Bangladesh’s first solar-powered base transceiver stations.

    To provide mobile connectivity in rural areas, Huawei will install its fourth-generation base stations, using a solar and diesel generator hybrid power solution. The base stations will primarily be powered by harnessing solar energy without having to be linked to an electricity grid. The diesel generator will be used as a backup.

    Once deployed, the new system will improve GP’ s network performance by preventing service interruption, a previously persistent challenge in Bangladesh due to power instability. It will also lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and reduce the cost of refueling and site visits, thereby lowering GP’ s total cost of ownership. The company claims these savings will offset GP’ s capital investment in just two-to-three years.

    "Huawei’ s competitive green power solution helps us utilize renewable energy and reduce our CO2 emissions while providing even better broadband services to our customers," said Oddvar Hesjedal, Chief Executive Officer of GP.

    According to Tony Zhang, President of Huawei Bangladesh, green technology is one of the company’s most important strategies and they will continue to pursue “cutting-edge, cost-lowering” green solutions for all of their operator customers in Bangladesh and around the world.

    Oddvar Hesjedal and Tony Zhang at the signing ceremony
     

    Huawei’s green solutions for wireless broadband networks use a combination of solar energy, wind power and diesel fuel and, to date, have been adopted by some telecom operators around the world, e.g. Vodafone, Warid and China Mobile.

    Grameenphone, a joint venture between Telenor of Norway (62%) and Grameen Telecom of Bangladesh (38%), is the largest telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh with more than 21 million subscribers as of March 2009. It has a nationwide EDGE-enabled network, covering nearly the entire population.

  • West & Central African Com: Infrastructure Sharing on the Sub-Saharan Market

    VIDEO INTERVIEW: Fazal Hussein, CEO of Helios Towers, was interviewed at the West & Central African Com conference held in Abuja, Nigeria.

    He talks about the Sub-Saharian market and he thinks the only way for the operators to go forward is to develop a lean architecture.

  • Low-Cost Handsets to Account for over Half of all Mobile Phones by 2014

    According to Juniper Research, low-cost handsets and Smartphones will together account for almost 79% of all new mobile phones by 2014, or just over 1 billion units in all.

    New research, which results have been contained in the latest Jupiter’s report ‘Low Cost Handsets: Markets, Opportunities & Forecasts 2009-2014’, has shown how the mobile handset market is becoming increasingly polarised between low cost handsets for emerging markets and high-end smartphones for developed regions – with the mid-range handset market being squeezed.

    Operators and vendors are preparing to deal with a massive influx of new users from low-income socio-economic groups in developing markets and a rising demand for complex ‘smart’ devices from affluent users in developed markets.

    Vendors such as Nokia, Apple and RIM (makers of Blackberry) are well positioned to benefit from these trends whilst players operating more in the mid range market such as Sony Ericsson and Motorola are having to rethink their strategy.

    According to the report author Andrew Kitson: “Low-cost handset shipments will number more than 700 million in 2014, up by 31% from levels seen in 2008, albeit down slightly from a peak of 716 million in 2012 as some users begin to upgrade to costlier devices. At the same time, smartphone shipment volumes will grow continuously across the forecast period, reaching almost 360 million by the end of the period. We therefore expect that mid-range device sales volumes will fall by more than 41% over the period”.

    In 2008, the Indian Sub Continent region accounted for the majority (23%) of low-cost handset sales, due to efforts by operators such as Vodafone to meet low-income users’ needs in markets such as India. By 2014, the region will account for 22% of sales.

    The report says also that take-up in emerging markets will be boosted by the availability of low-cost, highly targeted localised information services, such as Nokia’s Life Tools offering.

  • West & Central African Com: Rolling Strategies on the African Telecom Market

    VIDEO INTERVIEW: Christian De Faria, Regional Vice President – WECA region of MTN Nigeria, was interviewed at the recent West & Central African Com conference held in Abuja, Nigeria.

    He unveils what areas MTN Nigeria will be focusing on over the next few years. He also discusses the evolution of the Nigerian telecom market.

  • Harris Stratex to Supply India’s First Urban Mobile WiMAX Network

    Harris Stratex Networks, a provider of wireless solutions, has signed a contract with ICOMM, one of India’s leading groups in the field of telecom, to supply, install, commission and maintain an IEEE 802.16e mobile WiMAX network for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

    Under the multi-year contract, Harris Stratex will supply its StarMAX WiMAX solution to extend BSNL’s public wireless access network to provide high-speed wireless mobility in urban areas across the southern Indian state of Kerala.

    Harris Stratex will supply StarMAX IEEE 802.16e-2005 base stations, along with solutions for access services network (ASN) gateway; home agent; authentication, authorization and accounting; and network management system.

    “We greatly appreciate BSNL’s strategic leadership in India and its efforts to help the government reach its target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, and are extremely proud to be a part of this very important undertaking,” said Harald Braun, president and CEO of Harris Stratex.

    BSNL is the world’s seventh-largest telecommunications company and provides a telecom services to 7,330 cities and towns, and 550,000 villages across India.

    The contract award to ICOMM and Harris Stratex will enable broadband services to be deployed throughout the state of Kerala, India’s fourth largest telecom market by revenue with a population of more than 35 million people in an area of 38,000 square kilometers.

    “This mobile WiMAX rollout by BSNL will represent one of the largest deployments of this technology in the world,” the companies announced.

    The StarMAX platform is the result of the March 2, 2009 acquisition of Telsima Corporation by Harris Stratex Networks and includes a portfolio of IEEE 802.16d-2004 and 16e-2005 compatible base stations, fixed and mobile subscriber devices, ASN gateway solutions, home agent and network management tools.

  • West & Central African Com: The Complexity of African Markets

    VIDEO INTERVIEW: Osondu Nwokoro, Director of Regulatory Affairs of Zain Nigeria, was interviewed at the recent West & Central African Com conference held in Abuja, Nigeria.

    He explains the complexity of Nigerian and other African markets.