Business News Holding

Category: smartphone

  • Can Vuzix Transform Video Glasses From Geek To Chic?


    Ever fancied a pair of those video glasses but felt you’d look a bit silly? Well Vuzix has come up with a set that would easily pass for wrap-around sunglasses.

    The US company claims its Wrap 920AV is the most advanced video eyewear yet produced – offering the viewing equivalent of a 62-inch screen seen from 3m away.

    David Lock, director of Vuzix’s European operations, spoke to smartphone.biz-news at the Showstoppers event on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona.

    Click below to see a video interview with David Lock:


    He said unlike its competitors, Vuzix has concentrated on providing the best consumer viewing experience with its existing four models – rather than focusing on look and style.

    But he said the new Wrap glasses transformed the whole video eyewear from "geek to chic".

    Certainly consumer interest in this type of product seems to be hotting up – helped no doubt by the growing demand for mobile video.

    Since its launch in Europe last March, Lock said Vuzix has sold USD $500,000 worth of video glasses.

    Typical buyers range from commuters to parents buying them for teenage children to watch video on their iPods during car journeys.

    Aside from the new Wrap, it offers fours models ranging from 44" to 62" in 4:3 and 16:9 screen formats.

    The iWear VR1440 is aimed specifically at gamers.

    With removable earphones and HD 2D and 3D viewing, the glasses run off a single AA alkaline battery that provides between 5-11 hours of viewing depending on the model and use.

    The eyewear can be used with a growing list of smartphones and mobile devices.

    But if the Wrap’s more fashionable look sounds appealing, Lock said the spec’s ability to allow viewers to experience augmented reality would be just as big a selling point when they are launched in the Fall.

    Essentialy that means the glasses’ "see-thru" lens design allows users to see what is around them while watching a video display or experiencing augmented or mixed reality on mobile devices such as the iPhone.

    He is enthusiastic about the possibilities that offers – such as being able to walk around a city wearing the glasses while following directions from a GPS map on the widescreen lenses.

    We tried out the glasses at Showstoppers and the quality is impressive – what might still put some people off are the prices, which begin at USD $199 for the most basic model.

  • Barcelona Mobile World Congress Live Coverage

    Smartphone.Biz-news.com Mobile World Congress 2009 live coverage feeds.


    We are covering the Mobile World Congress 2009 from Barcelona. We will be publishing photos, interviews and company profiles. Follow the event via Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, RSS and here on the web.

    If you are in the congress and you want to meet use – or you are not in the congress, but you want to get in touch with us – the easiest way will be a Twitter Direct Message (DM biznews_smartph) or post a comment into our Linkedin group


    The links to follow the event online are:

    All articles will have the tag "mobile world congress". Bookmark this link to get the latest updates.

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  • Advertising Will Subsidise Cost of Location-based Smartphone Services


    The smartphone market is likely to see big changes in 2009 – not least in how revenue is raised for services and content.

    Kris Kolodziej, CTO and vice president of business development with Spime, told smartphone-biz.news that navigation services were currently the top revenue earner in the cell phone market.

    These were followed by traffic and buddy finder services.

    Location advertising had, however, become a major talking point in the industry.

    He said he was sure that in 2009 and 2010, it would begin to subsidise the cost of services to consumers.

    Kris Kolodziej, CTO Spime

    This would be moving towards the Google business model of offering users content and services without a charge.

    “We shall see what happens with that – the consumer expects everything for free,” he said.

    Kolodziej said Google was a competitor of Spime in this respect. Google offered its mobile maps download for free, with features such as turn-by-turn and voice search.

    “Right now the user pays USD $10 per month for navigation, so that cost would need to be subsidised with advertising.

    “We will see what happens when Google comes out with this. Only Google with so many advertisers could pull this off.”

    Spime, a Fremont, California based company is a provider of wide range of location-based technologies and applications.

    Kolodziej said that 2009 was likely to be a year of consolidation in the industry. He said fewer players usually brought benefits to the consumer, citing the acquisition of Navteq by Nokia and Wayfinder by Vodafone as examples.

    Kolodziej suggested that Spime might itself be a worthwhile acquisition target.

    “Maybe Google would acquire someone like us because features like turn-by-turn are very complicated,” he said.

    “If this goes well we might be acquired by a big company.”

    What makes companies like Spime attractive, according to Kolodziej, is the growing realisation that the services provided by navigation companies had the potential to generate a lot of money, making them a juicy acquisition proposition.

    “It’s a proven market, it just needs to expand to capture more consumers,” he said.

    With smartphones now coming equipped with GPS as standard, there is no doubt that growth will come.

  • Growth of Mobile Content and Services Sector Threatened


    The UK’s mobile content and services market could be in for tough times if research from mobile research and analyst house Direct2 Mobile bears out.

    Its survey found that over 7 per cent of consumers have stopped, or intend to stop, their spend on content and services until better economic conditions emerge.

    D2M said that figure represents 3.96 million users – or almost 50 per cent of the existing mobile content and service user base.

    Nearly a fifth of respondents (17.8 per cent of men / 16.3 per cent of women) – or around 10 million users – said they will not subscribe to mobile content and service subscriptions, such as mobile Internet access, mobile TV and mobile music services, until the economic environment changes.

    Nick Lane, chief researcher at D2M, said the glass is half full for the mobile operators and half empty for the mobile content and service industry.

    "As almost half the advanced data users are reverting to talk-and-text only usage, the mobile entertainment companies should remain vigilant for the foreseeable future," he said.

    "And with 20 per cent of the UK’s mobile population unlikely to subscribe to mobile data subscription services during the recession, it threatens to seriously impact on growth in the mobile content and services sector."

    The UK mobile entertainment market was worth approximately UKP£505.8 million in 2008, according to D2M.

    The survey, conducted by Lightspeed Research, asked a representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers about their changing spending attitudes and habits on mobile.

  • Paid Apps Imminent For Android Market


    Google’s Android Market is expected to begin accepting paid applications this week for the first time.

    The move could provide a much-needed boost to the platform, which currently has around 800 applications.

    This is far below what Apple’s App Store had achieved in its early months. Incidentally, the App Store has just passed the 20,000 mark for apps, with over 500 million downloads.

    While Android Market’s position can partly be attributed to the G1 not being as popular as the iPhone, that’s not the whole story.

    Another key element could be the fact developers haven’t been getting paid to come up with shiny new apps for Android.

    With the incentive of remuneration thrown in, the desite to create software for the G1 and soon-to-be launched handset additions to the Android platform is likely to be much stronger.

    Interestingly, Google is deviating from Apple’s revenue model in that it receives nothing from the downloading of paid apps.

    Both app stores will give developers 70 per cent of the revenue, but whereas Apple pockets the other 30 per cent Google is passing it on to the carriers and to pay settlement fees.

    Anything that gets the Andoid Market rolling has to be welcome, expecially as others – including RIM, Microsoft and Palm – are expected to launch their own app stores very soon.

  • Subscriptions and Video Drive Mobile Adult Revenues To $ 2.2bn In 2008


    Increasing demand for streamed subscriptions services and video chat earned the global mobile market for adult content USD $2.8 billion in 2008.

    That represents an increase of 36 per cent over the previous year, according to a report from Juniper Research.

    The mobile adult report found that the increasing prevalence of 3G handsets in many European markets had led to migration away from services offering only text and graphics towards video-based services.

    This has resulted in significantly higher average revenue per user (ARPU) levels for service providers.

  • ZTE to Unveil Range of Smartphones at MWC 2009


    ZTE Corporation is promising to reveal a full portfolio of smartphones at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona.

    All in all, 10 different designs are to go on show, including customised handsets for Vodafone and China Mobile.

    The highlight is expected to the the VF 1231 model, which has been developed especially for Vodafone. The smartphone is based on Windows Mobile platform and has a single chip for GSM and EDGE.

    Other handsets due to be paraded in Barcelona is the ‘XIANG’ series of 3.5G super slim HSDPA/HSUPA handsets, the e760 (a

    ZTE’s e760 smartphone

    GSM-based handset custom-made for China Mobile) and the D820/D810 (a CDMA-based handset custom-made for China Telecom).

    Also expected to go on show is the U981, a top-end smartphone that was deployed by China Mobile during the Beijing Olympic Games.

    Xiong Hui, vice president of handset division of ZTE Corporation, said the demand for smartphones has reached the point where they are no longer seen as a luxury or a strictly work-related item.

    He said ZTE recognised this trend early on and invested in developing a range of smartphones.

    "ZTE is meeting the specific requirements of leading mobile operators such as Vodafone and China Mobile, and helping smartphones become a popular item worldwide," he said.

  • Mobile TV Viewers to Rise to 500 Million In 2013


    The switchover to all-digital television broadcasting in the US and other major countries will create an unprecedented opportunity for the mobile TV market.

    A study from ABI Research forecasts that traditional and mobile TV broadcasters and cellular operators in many regions will launch mobile TV services that will attract over 500 million viewers by 2013.

    Its says that mobile TV will be seen as an extension of traditional broadcast TV services.

    The researchers stress the important distinction between content streamed to mobile handsets over cellular networks, and free-to-air broadcasting to mobile devices equipped with mobile TV tuners.

    Jeff Orr, senior ABI analyst, said that mobile TV users have yet to value the medium properly because it has not been validated as an independent product and service.

    "It has been primarily offered at the end of a long list of more preferred cellular services," he said.

    "However, Mobile TV will soon be positioned in a more proper role as an extension of traditional broadcast TV services."

    Orr said mobile TV viewing will not be done solely on cellular handsets.

    He said devices such as MIDs and automotive infotainment systems will also play a part.

    "I believe that once the content is available and the services launched, mobile TV will enable more classes of mobile devices that are "natural fits" for mobile entertainment."

    The report says that those most likely to benefit from the rise of mobile TV are:

    • Content developers and providers
    • Device vendors, especially MID and cellular handset OEMs
    • Service providers
    • Multimedia and security software
    • Semiconductor and network infrastructure vendors

    Once mobile TV users adopt the service at high growth levels, advertisers will also climb on board to target the significant number of new "mobile eyeballs".

    ABI Research also believes the timing of the mobile TV market’s emergence is good.

    It said that as 2009 progresses, signs of economic optimism may emerge, and allow the fledgling industry to establish a foothold before the holiday shopping season.

  • ARCHOS Offers Android-powered Smartphone


    ARCHOS is to bring out a touchscreen smartphone based on the Android operating system.

    The new ultra-thin Internet Media Tablet (IMT) will have voice support and deliver "PC-like" performance, according to ARCHOS.

    It is similar to the Archos 5 media tablet – with the big differences being voice support and the Android OS.

    ARCHOS is to use Texas Instrument’s OMAP 3 platform, which will allow the processor to use less power without affecting performance.

    According to hdtv.biz-news, the device will allow playback of HD video while offline.

    Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president and general manager for TI’s OMAP platform business unit, said: "The OMAP 3 platform, with its support for the Android OS, is a powerful tool to support HD video, high quality multimedia and connectivity anytime and anywhere."

    The IMT will be ready in Q3 of this year.

    ARCHOS will give more details about the device at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

    But a statement from the company did say that it was "looking to expand beyond portable media players to provide solutions for the converged space, where a foundation in high-quality video content delivery is a benefit".

    "ARCHOS is marrying its rich digital media history with voice functionality to tackle new markets," said the company.

    Some core features of this smartphone include:

    • 5-inch touchscreen
    • Adobe Flash and Flash Video support
    • unrestricted access to TV, movies, music
    • games
    • photos
    • TV recording and HD playback
    • 500GB storage
    • 7 hour video playback battery life
    • runs on a 3.5G 7.2Mb/s HSUPA.

  • Smartphone.biz-news Covering Big Names and Rising Stars At Mobile World Congress 2009


    Smartphone.biz-news is providing extensive coverage from this year’s Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona between 16-19 February.

    We will be posting regular updates on product announcements and press conferences from big industry names like Samsung, Toshiba and Microsoft as they happen.

    Other companies not usually associated with smartphones – like Acer – are also promising to cause a stir in Barcelona.
    Our editorial team will keep you up to date with all that’s going on.

    But we’d also like to hear from smaller exhibitors and start-up companies attending the MWC.

    Smartphone.biz-news will be conducting exclusive interviews with innovative and cutting-edge businesses that promise to be the big names of the future.

    If you’re going to be in Barcelona and have an interesting product or service that would be of interest to our subscribers, please contact us.