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Category: smartphone

  • Zoho Expands Mobile Device Coverage For Business Apps


    Zoho has extended mobile support for its free web applications to all the major smartphone platforms.

    Initially only available for the iPhone and Windows Mobile, Zoho Mobile now supports Android, BlackBerry and Symbian mobile platforms as well.

    It offers six apps geared towards collaborative business productivity:

    • Zoho Mail
    • Zoho Calendar
    • Zoho Writer
    • Zoho Sheet
    • Zoho Show
    • Zoho Creator

    Zoho’s Raju Vegesna said mobility was an important aspect for its on-line applications.

    The company has so far launched 19 different applications — from CRM to Mail, Reports, and Wikis.

    He said all its current and future mobile initiatives will be available under Zoho Mobile as mobile support is expanded to all upcoming applications.

    Zoho is entering an increasingly competitive market, with Google upgrading its apps’ mobile experience.

    Microsoft has also been making noises about providing mobile support for its Office products.

    Zoho is certainly taking the right approach by ensuring that its apps function across all the major mobile platforms.

  • Mobile App Revenues To Reach $25bn By 2014


    Mobile app revenues are expected to climb to more than USD $25bn by 2014 – fuelled by the launch of a raft of new application stores.

    But while one-off downloads currently account for the majority of revenues, that will change with the increasing utilization of in-app billing, according to Juniper Research.

    Its Mobile Applications & Apps Stores report suggests that rising revenues from additional mobile content will see value-added services (VAS) providing the dominant revenue stream by 2011.

    It also notes that many Tier 1 operators will seek to deploy their own app stores in a bid to maintain content revenue share.

    However, the report’s author, Dr Windsor Holden, said that in the longer term, the greatest benefits to operators would be derived from data revenues associated with app usage rather than from the retail price of apps and content.

    She said this was providing that the operators rejected the walled garden approach.

    "Data revenue growth is dependent upon operators embracing policies which enable open access – a policy which also involves facilitating app stores which compete with their on-portal offerings," she said.

    The report also noted that, given the fact that app stores currently cater exclusively for smartphones, then operators, developers and content providers would be unwise to ignore opportunities from traditional app and content distribution and monetization channels.

    Other findings from the Juniper report include:

    • Games will remain the largest category in terms of overall app downloads and revenues, although Multimedia & Entertainment apps will attract the greatest share of VAS revenues from 2009 onwards
    • App stores present a significant challenge to traditional content aggregators who may be obliged both to expand the range of their content portfolios and to amend their business models to remain viable

  • Apple Sold 3.8m iPhones in Q1 2009


    iPhone sales have boosted Apple’s quarterly profit by 15 per cent – despite economic woes and a new handset expected later this year.

    The company also said co-founder Steve Jobs intends to return from his medical leave as scheduled at the end of June.

    For the three months ended 28 March, Apple’s second-quarter net profits rose to USD $1.21 billion. In the same period last year Apple earned USD $1.05 billion.

    Apple said it sold 3.8 million iPhones worldwide in the quarter, more than twice as many as a year ago.

    iPhone revenues reached USD $2.2 billion for the quarter – a success that Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, attributed to strong consumer interest in downloading applications. Apple expects to announce its one billionth app down load tomorrow.

    An estimated combined total of 37 million iPhone and iPod touch’s have created an enormous platform for developers, which he said "unleashes a whole new level of innovation that keeps Apple years ahead of everyone else".

    The popularity of the touchscreen smartphone has also helped the earnings of its exclusive US carrier, AT&T.

    Elsewhere, Apple sold 11 million iPods, up 3 per cent. However, its Macintosh computer line performed less well, with a 3 per cent fall in Mac sales and a 16 per cent drop in revenue.

    Overall, Apple’s average revenue per retail store sank 17 per cent in the quarter.

    Attention will now be focused on how the continuing economic situation – and the launch of Palm’s Pre and various other smartphones – impacts on the iPhone.

  • Bharti Telesoft Renamed "Comviva" In Market Drive


    Bharti Telesoft has been renamed Comviva Technologies Limited as part of a company-wide re-branding initiative.

    Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of the Bharti Group, said the name change also signals its intent to be the leading integrated VAS solution provider for mobile operators in emerging markets.

    "The company has grown rapidly to achieve stature and scale," he said.

    Manoranjan (Mao) Mohapatra, CEO of Comviva

    "With a strong reputation in the market and a new vision reflecting its ambitions, it is the right time to adopt a new and unique identity."

    Manoranjan (Mao) Mohapatra, CEO of Comviva Technologies Limited, said the need for a powerful brand that resonates with customers globally has grown as the company extended its reach.

    It now has 100 plus customers across over 80 countries.

  • DiBcom And Solaris DVB-SH Partnership Signals "New Era" For Mobile TV


    DiBcom has signed a partnership agreement with Solaris Mobile to use its receiver technology to enable mobile devices to receive content such as mobile TV transmitted by satellite.

    The link-up centres around Solaris’ recently launched Eutelsat W2A satellite, which carries Europe’s first S-Band payload.

    It will offer Mobile Satellite Services (MSS), including the broadcasting of video, radio and data to mobile devices and vehicle receivers.
    The DVB-SH hybrid satellite will also supply a range of interactive mobile services.

    DiBcom supplies DVB-SH broadcast receiver solutions that give mobile devices access to the multimedia content transmitted by satellite and terrestrial repeater.

    The receivers are a multi-band and multi-mode solution featuring dual RF tuners supports DVB-SH, DVB-H and DVB-T in S-Band and UHF frequencies.

    In February, DiBcom announced it was launching a new platform that offers device manufacturers a solution to the problem of multiple standards worldwide for fixed and mobile TV.

    Yannick Levy, CEO of DiBcom, said its involvement in this "ground-breaking" mobile satellite launch was both a logical and strategic choice.

    He said the agreement between Solaris Mobile and DiBcom will be an enabling force in Europe’s mobile television markets by providing distribution technology for mass market consumption in the most economic way. Live trials using DVB-SH are currently underway in France, Spain and Italy.

    California-based MobiTV is also looking to broaden its reach and is in the process of developing its services for the European market.

    "We are witnessing the dawn of a whole new era for Mobile TV services with truely universal continental coverage," said Levy.

    "There is no doubt that Solaris Mobile will leverage the industry-leading knowledge and experience of its founding companies towards a new set of mobile applications of real value to end users throughout Europe."

    Steve Maine, president and CEO of Solaris Mobile, said it is one of four operators that submitted an application to the European Commission last October for the rollout of mobile satellite services over dedicated S-Band spectrum.

    He said this took place under a single European selection procedure and on behalf of the 27 Member States of the EU.

    "We are convinced that this is the most innovative opportunity in Europe’s telecommunications and media marketplaces and are extremely pleased that DiBcom is a leading participant in one of our major strategic mobile satellite service initiatives," he said.

  • Wizi Releases "SMS with Location" for BlackBerry


    Location-sharing start-up Wizi has announced the release of SMS with Location for BlackBerry.

    The application adds a new option to BlackBerry contacts allowing users to send an SMS with their actual position or the location where they are heading.

    Wizi also recommends the best routes when driving in the city using traffic data collected in real time by its community.

    Based in Lisbon, Portugal, Wizi’s SMS with Location lets users:

    • Find actual location on map (F)
    • Automatically insert the full address is SMS
    • Automatically insert GPS coordinates in SMS
    • Copy location to clipboard allowing to paste in any IM application
    • Search location by address (S)
    • Switch between BB Maps or Google Maps (M)

    Wizi’s Andre Goncalves said SMS with Location is currently only available for BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 but would be released soon for Windows Mobile.

  • Maps Upgrade Expected For BlackBerry OS 5.0


    RIM’s plans for its soon-to-be unveiled BlackBerry OS 5.0 include an overhaul of maps and messaging options.

    BGR reports that the Canadian smartphone maker is bringing in new maps features, including displaying the address location of a message – such as email, text or PIN.

    They are identifed by the OS and will bring up the location in Maps.

    Maps will also render around two times faster, while lagging will no longer occur when scrolling around and zooming in.

    Other Maps improvements include a lot of new towns, cities, counties and countries being included and the ability to display geotagged images on Maps, according to BGR.

    They also detail a raft of upgrades to the Calendar and Browser functions, while Storm users are to get a full-QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode.

    More details are expected at WES 2009, which starts on 5th May.

  • AQA2U Launches Twitter-like Premium Text Service


    Text message answer provider AQA has launched a new mobile service that it claims will allow content publishers to make money by sending text messages.

    In what could be seen as a reference to Twitter, UK-based AQA’s CEO, Colly Myers, describes the new venture as "web 2.0 with a business model".

    He said the service allows anyone with interesting content to connect and keep in touch with their followers, making money from every text that’s received by subscribers.

    The company started off by setting up AQA 63336 (Any Question Answered) five years ago.

    This service answered questions texted to it – so far it has provided over 17 million answers to over 2 million customers.

    With AQA2U content "publishers" create topics for people to subscribe to, market these topics to their followers, and then start writing content.

    AQA2U sends their content out to subscribers using premium text, giving publishers the majority share of net revenue received.

    Publishers are limited to no more than 14 texts a month or 3 a day, for which they receive 7-9p per message per subscriber.

    Users pay a maximum of GBP £3.50 a month, plus a 98p initial fee.

    Myers said that with no set-up costs, and with only 25 subscribers, a publisher can make GBP £275 per year.

    With 250 subscribers, a publisher can make GBP £3,000 a year.

    "AQA2U puts texts, alerts, updates and offers from anyone who’s got something to say, into the hands of followers who are passionate enough to part with a few pounds per month," he said.

    "We already know people will pay for this, as we get many thousands of texts to AQA 63336 asking the same types of questions time and time again."

    Myers said he was confident of rapid growth as even small publishers who get a few people to subscribe start making money, and all publishers have a vested interest to market their topics.

    "We’ve got over 2 million customers with AQA 63336 in five years, so we’re confident of getting 2 million subscribers in the next five years with AQA2U – delivering 20 million texts per month from publishers."

    We’d be interested to hear your feedback on this new service. Would you pay to receive content?

  • MobiTV Readies European Expansion As Momentum Grows

    INTERVIEW: Anders Norström, managing director of MobiTV Europe, talks about the company’s expansion plans and the growing consumer appetite for mobile TV

    While the uptake of mobile TV has been a slow process, it finally appears to be gathering pace.

    MobiTV, founded in 1999, was the first to bring live TV to mobile devices and remains at the forefront of a field that is becoming increasingly competitive.

    It is firmly established in North America where it was first rolled out via carriers such as AT&T, Cingular and Sprint.

    Now the California-based pioneer of mobile TV is looking to broaden its reach and is in the process of developing its services for the European market.

    Anders Norström, managing director of MobiTV Europe, told smartphone.biz-news that he strongly believed there is now a mass market for mobile TV – something backed up by his company’s rapidly growing subscriber numbers.

    It now offers content and primetime channels to over 6 million subscribers on more than 350 handset models on its managed mobile media service.

    In February it added the iPhone to the list of supported handsets (although Apple approval is still pending).

    Anders Norström, managing director of MobiTV Europe

    "The last million only took a couple of months. It’s really taken off," said Norström.

    MobiTV’s Media Distribution Platform has shown it’s able to deliver live streaming and on demand video content.

    In March, it was used in CBS Sport’s NCAA March Madness app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which provided live streaming video and audio over a wi-fi connection from the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

    The massive popularity of MobiTv’s live airing of Barack Obama’s inauguration to its subscribers is another indicator of the way things are moving, according to Norstrom.

    "It was a huge usage of this kind of service. It’s really coming on," he said. "The network is becoming better, devices are becoming so much better and the back-end technology is so much better.

    "So we have an increased end user experience."

    Expansion Into Europe

    Norström said the US is currently MobiTV’s main market, followed by South America.

    But he said Europe is the next target. The company is currently in discussion with different customers and carriers.

    "Hopefully by the end of the summer we will be deploying our first services," he said.

    "The European market is huge. There are very good networks and really good content."

    The approach and strategy taken in Europe will be slightly different to that across the Atlantic, according to Norström.

    In the US, carriers are more interested in total managed services whereas in Europe he said media carriers often want to run them in-house.

    So MobiTV is giving them the opportunity to have either, or to begin with a managed service and transfer to their own network once they are up and running.

    Since there are very few pan-European channels – Bloomberg and MTV, being examples – Norström said most content was specific to countries and made in the local language (German, Italian, French etc).

    He said Tier 1 carriers largely did their own content deals, adding: "But we have contacts in the content and industry and can help them – we are an enabler."

    Hybrid Services In Future

    Looking ahead, Norström said the type of content likely to be made available on mobile TV services would be mixed between TV, video on demand and live broadcasts.

    It would also comprise hybrid services, which combine broadcast and unicast video on demand – a mix of content and technology.

    He said in the US this will take the form of joint ventures, providing free-to-air DVB-H/ATSC-M/H services as well as the unicast/VOD solutions.

    This is necessary for 3G carriers, which are short-cut by DVB-H, and want to be involved in the "action", according to Norström.

    MobiTV is also now offering localised services on top of its standard platform.

    Personalised Services "Essential"

    These include Mobi4Biz, a version of MobiTV aimed at the financial market which was launched recently for BlackBerry Bold handset owners on the AT&T network.

    Norström has no doubt that this more vertical, personalised approach to mobile TV is essential.

    "That is the way to go. We are starting to have some overflow of information, as happened on the Internet, with mobile channels," he said.

    "How many do we really watch? If you have 30 0r 40 channels on a mobile, does it really make sense?"

    Norström said MobiTV will aggregate the information by category – sport, childrens’, business, fashion and so on – and provide a back-end solution.

    Interactivity will also become an important ingredient of mobile TV, especially when it comes to ads.

    Last year, MobiTV did adverts for BMW that were tailored to choices viewers made while viewing.

    Personalised ads is something that Norström said will become part of a bundled package in the future.

    Interactive ads allow a profile of users’ interests to be created and allow advertising to be targeted based on individuals’ preferences.

    "It should be happening fairly soon in the US," he said. "But we are region agnostic and it will also happen in other markets."

    Too Soon For Ad-supported Model

    However, while advertising – and especially the targeted variety – has great revenue potential, Norström said MobiTV would not be moving to an ad-supported model any time soon.

    "For quite some time more it will be a pay model," he said. "It is realistic that some content will be ad-supported but it will not be the main model."

    Network overload is a common concern whenever mobile internet is mentioned, but Norström said he didn’t believe it was a problem at the moment.

    He said that even if it did become one, there were technological solutions available to ease the impact of congestion.

    These will undoubtedly be required if the way in which the iPhone has vastly increased data traffic levels is anything to go by.

    Especially as the Apple handset has spurred other mobile makers, such as Nokia, to replicate the iPhone’s end user experience.

    "We will see an increase in data traffic, but we are fully prepared for that," said Norström.

    Growth Affected By Downturn

    What is also certain is that the global economic downturn will have an impact on the growth of wireless video.

    But Norström said that, so far, there had been no increase in churn.

    "In the US, it seems people are getting rid of their fixed lines and keeping their mobile devices as the means of consuming content as well," he said.

    "But the economic situation will slow down the increase in subscription numbers."

    That may be so but improvements in handsets and technology are making the outlook for mobile TV look increasingly bright.

    Proof of this comes from growing subscribers – but also from the entry of the likes of Qualcomm in the US and Orange in France into the market.

    A healthy development – and one MobiTV appears well placed to deal with.

  • Nokia's Q1 Profit Drops 90% – But 5800 Smartphone Shines


    Nokia’s first-quarter profit plunged 90 per cent as the Finnish handset maker showed its vulnerabilty to the current economic difficulties.

    The world’s leading mobile manufacturer posted a net profit of just EURO €122 million (USD $161m), compared with EURO €1.22 billion (USD $1.58bn) in the year-ago period.

    One bright note was sales of Nokia’s first touchscreen S60 smartphone.

    The company revealed today that it has sold 2.6 million 5800 XpressMusic devices in just one quarter of availability.

    Overall, however, the company’s sales fell 27 per cent to EURO €9.28bn (USD $12.2bn) for the quarter, down from EURO €12.7bn (USD $16.77bn) in the first quarter of 2008.

    Handset sales were down 33 per cent to EURO €6.19 (USD $8.17bn), although the company did sell more phones than some analysts had predicted.

    Nokia shipped 93.2 million devices, down sequentially from the 113.1 million units it shipped in the fourth quarter of 2008 and down 19 per cent from the 115 million it sold in the year-ago quarter.

    Nokia’s market share remained steady at 37 per cent.

    While the Finnish giant’s result are hardly impressive, it isn’t alone in suffering from the downturm.

    Equally, the results were better than widely expected, which led to shares in the company rising by 8 per cent.

    Nokia sold 13.7 million converged (S60) devices, down from 14.6 million in Q1 2008 and 15.1 million in Q4 2008, of these 5 million were Nseries and 3 million were Eseries.

    Nokia’s industry outlook sees similar device volumes and market share for Q2, but expect overall conditions to improve in the second half of the year

    Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo, Nokia CEO, said:

    "In what has been an exceptionally tough environment, we continue to invest in a focused manner in consumer Internet services delivered across our broad portfolio of mobile devices. Combined, these solutions will drive our future growth. As an example in Q1, I am especially pleased with the performance of our first mass market touch product, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Together with Comes With Music, it is a great example of Nokia providing solutions that consumers value.

    Regarding the health of the overall mobile device market, the inventory already in the sales channels decreased substantially during Q1 due to extensive destocking by operators and distributors. This adversely impacted our sales volumes in the quarter. However, it has also resulted in the demand picture becoming more predictable as we enter the second quarter."