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  • Mobile World Congress 2013: The End of Apple Dominance Is Near

    The annual meeting Mobile World Congress, ongoing this week in Barcelona, seems to mark more than any other event the end of Apple dominance in the global market for smartphones and tablets and the rise of some rivals with more open operating systems.

    Mozilla has opened the event in Barcelona unofficially. The nonprofit organization, which used Firefox a decade ago to fight Microsoft control in the online search engine market, wants to change totally the smartphone market as well.

    The industry is currently unnaturally controlled by a few companies, said general manager of Mozilla, Gary Kovacs, during the presentation of the first generation of mobile devices with Firefox operating system.

    More than 20 telecom industry executives who brought their support to the launch of Firefox OS had similar views.

    “We change the industry for the common good,” said Cesar Alienta, general manager of Telefonica, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. Spanish company chief criticized the closed operating systems, such as iOS, and warned that “the smartphone market is making a step back from the internet’s opening feature”. Telefonica wants to introduce shortly Firefox OS devices in Spain, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

    America Movil, controlled by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, committed to launch Firefox OS in Mexico “and in all possible markets” soon.

    The outgoing General Director of Deutsche Telekom, Rene Obermann, called the Firefox OS release “an important step towards more competition between different systems”. Deutsche Telekom will launch Firefox OS devices starting from this summer in Poland.

    Mozilla is not the only company that wants to change the market for smartphones and tablets. Samsung and Intel are also developing an operating system called Tizen, which would be even more open and will allow software developers more important changes compared to Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

    Mobile operators are strongly attracted by the prospect of being able to strongly change the operating systems, for an interaction as direct as possible with the user.

    The irony in this case is that the success of Samsung with Tizen would make the South Korean company less dependent on Google and stronger in the smartphones and tablets market.

    The rest of the world seems to recover the distance to Apple's platform for mobile devices, and the American company must innovate again or will be cannibalized by rivals with cheaper and more accessible devices. Smartphone market seems to have matured, so that real opportunities could be in the expansion in emerging markets.

  • Mobile World Congress 2013: Nokia launches a $20 phone – Nokia 105

    Nokia has decided to create a lower cost phone, Nokia 105, aiming at those that still purchase a phone for calls and texts.

    While we are all discussing the latest smartphones by Apple and Samsung and whether we should prefer iOS, Android, BB10 or WP8, Nokia is approaching a different type of customers, the ones that are unwilling to pay a fortune for a phone. Thus, they created a $20 device, which was presented at this year's Mobile World Congress and has already been discussed a lot..

    Nokia 105 does not impress you with its specs, but you can use it for calls, texts, alarm, FM radio and flashlight. What's more, its battery life lasts for 35 days, which is really impressive on its own, and it has a resistant keypad to endure in scratches and dust. Nokia 105 is expected during the following months in many countries, starting from China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Vietnam and other markets in Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe.

    As you may notice, their target audience is not the U.S., they are not even including them for now, but the emerging markets that are still not under the hype of the latest trending smartphones. Hence, they are trying to win a new territory, hoping that they will remain loyal to Nokia for their future purchases, too. After all, there are still so many people out there, even in Europe, that do not use their phones extensively and would find the price of the Nokia 105 tempting.

    According to Stephen Elop, the CEO of Nokia:

    "There's a very large number of inexpensive and largely undifferentiated devices. We believe we have to offer differentiation at each price point."

    It seems like smart move for Nokia and it could be the chance for them to rebound on the smartphone market.

  • GSMA Announces Winners Of The 2013 Global Mobile Awards

    The GSMA today announced the winners of the 18th Annual Global Mobile awards, held at the Mobile World Congress 2013 in  Barcelona. The winners were honoured in an afternoon ceremony hosted by writer, actor and comedian, David Walliams.

    Walliams entertained nominees and attendees with a comic introduction to the ceremony. He was joined on stage by representatives from sponsors McAfee, Myriad and Telmap, and media partners CNBC, Fortune and Time, who co-presented awards, as well as John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA and members of the judging panel.

    In total, more than 170 independent analysts, journalists, academics and subject matter experts and 13 representatives from mobile operators throughout the world participated in the judging of the 2013 awards.

    The winners of the 2013 Global Mobile Awards are:

    Best Mobile Health Product or Service
    MIPsoft for BlindSquare

    Best Mobile Education or Learning Product or Service
    Mobilink for SMS Based Literacy program

    Best Mobile Product or Service for Automotive
    BMW i, MINI, Sixt and Vodafone Group for DriveNow Premium Car Sharing

    Best NFC /Mobile Money Product or Service
    Etisalat for Flous – The Etisalat Commerce Programme

    Best Mobile Publishing Product or Service
    Ver Se Innovation for NewsHunt

    Best Mobile Innovation for 'Smart Cities'
    Streetline for Parker

    Best Mobile Enabled Consumer Electronics Device
    Samsung Electronics for Samsung GALAXY Camera

    Best Enterprise Mobile Service
    Mobilelron for Version 5 Complete Enterprise Persona

    Best Consumer Mobile Service
    Comviva for Mahindra Comviva's mobiquity™ MFS platform powering mTicketing service for Bangladesh Railways

    Best Advertising or Marketing on Mobile
    McCann Worldgroup (Hong Kong) for Chok! Chok! Chok!

    Best Network Product or Solution for Serving Customers
    NTT DOCOMO for Hanashite Hon'yaku, world's first automatic voice translation service

    Best Product, Initiative or Service in Emerging Markets
    Ericsson for Amazon Connection– a digital inclusion program in the Amazon

    GSMA mWomen Best Mobile Product or Service for Women in Emerging Markets
    Asiacell for Almas Line

    Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations
    Vodafone Foundation for Vodafone Instant Network

    The Green Mobile Award
    Indus Towers for Green Sites Project

    Best Mobile App for Consumers
    Facebook

    Best Mobile App for Enterprise
    Evernote

    Judges Choice – Best Overall Mobile App
    Waze

    Most Innovative Mobile App
    McCann Worldgroup (Hong Kong) for Chok! Chok! Chok!

    Smartphone Application Challenge
    AT&T for Application Resource Optimizer (ARO)

    Best Application using Network APIs
    Bharti Airtel Limited for my airtel app

    Best Smartphone
    Samsung Galaxy S3

    Best Feature phone or entry level phone
    Nokia Asha 305

    Device Manufacturer of the Year
    Samsung

    Best Mobile Tablet
    Google and Asus for Nexus 7

    Best Mobile Infrastructure
    Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks

    Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough
    Accuris Networks for AccuROAM Wi-Fi: Making Wi-Fi a carrier driven extension of GSM for Offload and Roaming

    Best Cloud Based Technology for Mobile
    Jasper Wireless cloud-based connected devices platform for machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer electronics

    Best Mobile Safeguard & Security Products and Services
    AdaptiveMobile and Syniverse for Messaging Trust

    Outstanding LTE Contribution
    SK Telecom for 4G LTE with PETA Solution

    Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – The CTO's choice
    Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks

    Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award
    Government of New Zealand

    Mobile for Development Award
    U.S. Agency for International Development

    m-Government Award
    Government of Moldova

    "Through these awards, we are proud to shine the light on the mobile industry's many innovators and leaders, from all corners of the world," said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. "This year's new categories reflected the industry's reach into many new sectors and we received more than 600 high-quality entries from across the mobile ecosystem. We would like to congratulate all Global Mobile Awards winners and thank the many hundreds of companies and organisations that support these awards by entering each year."

  • Mobile World Congress 2013: Nokia presents Lumia 520 and Lumia 720

    Nokia has presented two new smartphones at the Mobile World Congress, the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, aiming at customers with lower budget.

    Lumia 520 is the cheapest Windows Phone 8 for Nokia, starting at $184, with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a 4-inch WVGA screen and a 5MP camera. It weighs 124g, it has a 2D hardened glass and it is also ideal for touch while wearing gloves. It will be released in five colours (cyan, yellow, red, black and white) and it is expected during the next quarter. It seems like a pretty decent phone for its money, with Nokia's experience and Micorosft's ambitious Windows Phone 8 being a great combination.

    As for Lumia 720, it is a bit more sophisticated, with a 6.7MP camera, a 4.3-inch screen, a 1GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 8GB of storage and it will be priced at $329. Lumia 720 will also have a Carl Zeiss lens and f/1.9 aperture, also focusing on the front camera with an f/2.4 aperture, which makes it an ideal choice for everyone that loves taking decent pictures with a smartphone.  It supports NFC and it also allows wireless charging with a snap-on cover. Lumia 720 will also be released in 5 colors and it is expected mostly in Asia and some countries in Europe. There are already some users from the U.S. that found Lumia 720 attractive, although it seems that it won't be available for them.

    Nokia is trying to recover on the smartphone market, targeting for now the low and mid budget users who used to purchase affordable Android devices. It's up to them to persuade them to trust them.

  • Survey Reveals Mobile Users Prefer Voice Over IP

    A study conducted by BroadSoft revealed greater than 2/3 of mobile device users showed a preference for voice over IP or UC services and regarded it the most worthwhile application. BroadSoft surveyed 700 people who work in assorted industries located in Sweden, Spain, and in the United States.

    The primary issue users had with communication was lack of speed at 78%. The next two issues were finding and contacting a person (68%) and email problems (58%). Other issues users experienced included travel interruptions, internal meetings, and telecom problems.

    The survey found that users of voice over IP preferred internet collaboration, instant messaging, and mobile incorporation. Leslie Ferry, vice president of marketing for BroadSoft concluded operators of mobile devices are in a better position to make their investments earn them the most profit quicker in LTE networks and they can furnish users with excellent service business users need regardless of location and device. This is because of the greater revenue produced by each user through UC services.

    A white paper issued by BroadSoft indicated there are still professional employees who communicate with smartphones and laptops more than desktop computers. Other professional employees still communicate with desktops and standard telephones perhaps because of limited finances. Desktop computers are among the most used deice for communication proceeding laptops and office telephones. Desk tops and office phones tied as a commonly used communication device for the health industry.

    Other studies and BroadSoft agreed with other studies that observed the developing enterprise adaptation of UC services. The study also concluded that a lack of UC applications may cause a 'production gap' amid employees onsite and mobile device users of nearly 2.5 hours weekly. The trend of voice over IP and other UC services will proceed to expand as employees continue to take their mobile devices to work and more services for mobile communications are provided by UC vendors. Vendors will need to stay ahead of trends.

  • Apple Rumored to Acquire German TV Maker Loewe

    Loewe, a luxury German TV brand, saw stock prices soar after a trader claimed that Apple was in the market to bid 4 euros a share for the company.

    The rumor set off a chain reaction, causing stock prices to go as high as 3.93, an increase of 44.5 percent from February 12th's closing 2.72 closing price. The price fluctuated throughout the day and eventually closed out at 3.35 on February 13th, an increase of 23.6 percent in just a day.

    Rumors of Apple's interest in the company have been around since May of 2012. Despite reports on AppleInside, Loewe refuted the rumors and Apple never commented on it. With Loewe's capitalization reaching nearly $58 million, a buyout could be a smart move for Apple. However, the company would also have to persuade Loewe's executives and Sharp, a major shareholder.

    The buyout would be a way out of the difficult TV market that Loewe has found itself in. The company experienced a loss of $39 million in 2012 and is now attempting to cut 1,000 jobs to lower expenses. In an effort to expand its market, Loewe has also branched out into manufacturing Blu-ray Player, multiroom systems, speakers, racks and DVD recorders.

    But rumors are just that, rumors and we have yet to see if anything will come of all the speculation. But who knows, maybe Apple is in the market to purchase Loewe and expand into the TV market. We will just have to wait and see if all the hype that increased stock prices is just talk or fact.

  • Seagate Vows to Bring Shingles and More Storage in 2014

    Seagate hopes to deliver to its customers, shingled magnetic recording disk drives with enhanced storage set releasing later in 2013 and in 2014. They plan to introduce HAMR, or heat-assisted magnetic recording technology, which will be released two years ahead of schedule. This early release could be due to Seagate's reaction to the helium gas attack prepared by the WD division HGST.

    Shingled magnetic recording functions by overlapping data tracks to create extra space. SMR will be issued on disk drives as revealed to Rocky Pimental, primary marketing and sales executive, at Stifel Tech conference by Andy Rakers, an analyst for Stifle Nicolaus. Perpendicular Magnetic technology for disk drives is entering the final stages of development since any additional reduction of magnetized bits causes them to be unstable, which means that storage companies should proceed to a more modern technology.

    Pimental stated the new technology would give the drives an extra 20-25% raise in density. Upgrading the disk drive to SMR would increase space to 5 TB. He also mentioned Seagate will begin distributing the 5mm dense 2.5 inch dual disk drive with a hybrid form in tablet PCs and other lightweight notebooks later in 2013. Last March, Seagate talked about a decade of HAMR technology which could generate a 3.5 inch drive with storage capacities of 60TB. Western Digital and Toshiba have made no announcements about the technology they prefer, though, a contest can be expected between HGST applying helium plus SMR and Seagate using HAMR and SMR. Pimental said the premium cost will not be important for shipping over one million hard drives

  • Radvision Unveils eVident and Scopia Elite 6000 MCUs

    Unveiled by Avaya's Radvision, the software-based multipoint control unit (MCU) Scopia Elite 6000 Series, is the newest monitoring tool available for video networking and video conferences.

    This MCU supplies 1080/60fps double channels that provide content and video, with synchronized H.264 high profile bandwidth effectiveness, and H.264 video coding. The unit operates on an Intel server, and provides an interoperable, multi-stream, engaging telepresence system.

    Centered on hybrid architecture the MCU offers 40 ports with live video resolutions up to 1080p from one 1U system. Users will also be able to regulate meetings through a series of on screen menus compatible with the Scopia iPad application, and other equipment.

    Bob Romano, the global vice president of marketing at Radvision, reported to Fierce Enterprise Communications that, "there has been a real trend toward desktop mobility and BYOD" among the video conference market. Romano feels that potential customers want the ability to join a conference remotely without having to consider what type of device they have.

    Ramano goes on to say, "What we are seeing is a real desire for more capacity because as you extend video conferencing out to mobile and desktop users, that draws on a bigger user base". With Radvisions new Scopia desktop and mobile platform, plus the new MCU support, remote involvement is now possible.

    Also launched this year by Radvision is the eVident video monitoring tools set. These tools allow the administrators to ensure that their networks are ready for video conferencing preceding operation. The tools including Prevideo, RVMON, and VQInsider, provide measurement and analysis of quality monitoring, audio and video metrics, and codec parameters.

    Even though 1,000 influential firms interested in the mobile conferencing market agreed that they would embrace desktop video conferencing, the revenue produced in the market fell by 6 percent in the second quarter. Service providers must find innovative ways to encourage firms that the use of video conferencing is necessary, or these enterprises will look for other options.

  • HTC announces the 4.7-inch HTC One

    HTC has just announced a new smartphone, the HTC One, which brings additional competition for Apple and Samsung on the war of the smartphones with the bigger displays.

    There is a trend lately with bigger displays for our smartphone and that is why HTC chose to launch HTC One with a 4.7-inch 1080p display. Apart from the bigger screen, HTC One will have a new imaging sensor, UltraPixel camera as they call it, which has a f/2.0 lens, gathers 300% more light than the usual sensors, but is of only 4MP. However, they are confident enough that their brand new UltraPixel Camera will enhance the pictures taken from smartphones, featuring optical image stabilization and adding the ability to share short videos.

    Moreover, HTC is presenting BoomSound, an audio experience that they think it is the best in the market, which is justified by the two front stereo speakers. As for the technical features, it has a quad-core Snapdragon 600, running at 1.7GHz, having a 2GB RAM and allowing storage of 32GB or 64GB. Not to mention that it will support 4G connectivity, as every smartphone that is competitive nowadays. Last but not least, HTC One will sport the new Android Jelly Bean (4.1.2), called Sense 5, which makes the interface simple and nice.

    It seems that HTC is determined to get back on the track of Apple and Samsung, trying to fit in between their endless war. And they seem capable of boosting their sales for 2013 with smartphones like this one. They just have to convince the users to trust them once again, instead of choosing Apple or Samsung.

    HTC one is expected during March and it will be launched globally, with HTC having already signed with 185 carriers all over the world. We might not know about the price yet, but its launch it's not that far. If you are convinced from the first presentation, just be patient for a while.

  • Net2Phone’s SIP Trunking Solution Now Rated “Avaya Compliant”

    Net2Phone, one of the largest distributor-based VoIP providers in the world, today announced that its SIP Trunking solution is compliant with key small and medium enterprise solutions from Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration systems, software and services.

    The Net2Phone SIP Trunking solution helps businesses reduce their overall telecommunications costs while providing high-quality call origination and termination. The application is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya IP Office 8.1.  It is supported for use with both IP Office 500 and IP Office Server Edition.  

    “Net2Phone's Business VoIP solution enables Avaya customers to make outbound and receive inbound calls from anywhere across the globe using their existing Avaya IP Office system,” says Jonah Fink, senior vice president, Net2Phone. “Our solution is based on open, standard-based platforms, which helps business customers incorporate new technology easily and cost effectively and uncover new possibilities for getting more out of their communications infrastructure.” 

    Net2Phone is a Technology Partner in the Avaya DevConnect program—an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.  

    As a Technology Partner, Net2Phone is eligible to submit products for compliance testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab. There, a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compatible. Doing so enables businesses to confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure—speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs.  

    “Technology partners like Net2Phone are helping Avaya by providing VoIP services to our customers, helping them to reduce inefficiencies and complexities in their networks,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations, Avaya. “This enables organizations to be more productive and responsive, and helps accelerate operational and development processes.”

    About Avaya
    Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com. For more information on the Avaya DevConnect program, visit www.avaya.com/devconnect.

    About Net2Phone
    Net2Phone provides a full suite of VoIP solutions in over 160 countries.  As the largest distributor-based VoIP provider in the world, Net2Phone routes millions of minutes daily over data networks, offering high quality voice services and saving consumers and businesses up to 90% off international calling rates.  For more information about Net2Phone’s products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com. Net2Phone is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT).  Through its Telecom division, IDT provides telecommunications and financial services.  IDT Telecom’s retail products allow people to communicate and share financial resources around the world while its carrier services business is a global leader in wholesale voice termination.  For more information, visit www.idt.net.