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  • 2nd Annual Cloud Computing World Forum: Interview with Mathieu Poujol of PAC

    „Cloud Computing will strongly influence the future of the IT. But it will take time before it become the main way of delivering IT,” said Mathieu Poujol in an interview with Storage.Biz-news.com.

    Mathieu is a Director of Technologies at PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants), a global market research and strategic consulting firm for the Software and IT Services Industry. He will be one of the speakers at 2nd Annual Cloud Computing World Forum that will take place in London, from 29th June to 1st July 2010

    He thinks Cloud Computing has in fact being stimulated by the crisis: “it is a reality for the majority of the IT managers, according to our surveys,” he siad. He also said that in PAC’s latest recommendations for the EU’s Commission and the French goverenment, the research firm put CC as the top priority for the EU’s investments.

    “With Cloud Computing, a big part of the IT is moving from light –workforce intensive- industry to a heavy –capital and automation- intensive industry. A bit like the automotive industry between the two World Wars,” he claims.

    Mathieu Poujol

    Asked about the business value of the cloud and how the economic crisis has changed it, he had this to say: “The goal of the IT since it exists is better IT Business alignment at lower costs. Trying to meet specific needs with cost effective mutualisation. Open Source, package applications, shared services and many more are all in this line. According to our latest studies, the business value of Cloud computing is optimisation, agility, simplicity and elasticity. So it is in the right sense of the IT history.”

    Mathieu said that Cloud Computing is growing very fast in Europe–more than 20%, according to their data, and will reach 4B€ in 2010. “But it is still a huge marketing hype, with everything that is virtualised being called Cloud Computing. Companies will also see that not everything is eligible to CC,” he said.

    He said he totally agrees with Ovum analyst Laurent Lachal’s opinion, that it’s becoming a hybrid system: for example, one creates his work on software on his PC, and then he saves it and shares it through the cloud. “IT Systems are by construction hybridizing technologies. If your SAP FI/Co is working well, why taking the risk and the complexity of putting it in the CC now?” said Mathieu.

    When asked which of the deployment strategies and integration techniques he consideres the best and most promising for enterprises, he said: “As always in any IT project, planning is critical. Also try CC on some already mature workloads such as messaging then the best is to make your IT “CC compliant”, to adopt private cloud, so you ill be able to better use all kind of CC, and more important asses data, security and backsourcing issues. According to a phone survey we do in March on 200 French IT manager, 71% of them will first embrace Private CC.”

    Mathieu also shared with us his thoughts on “private cloud”: “It will be either in-house or with a hosting company. As with traditional outsourcing, it is a good way to better use external cloud providers and not depend entirely on them.

    With private Cloud you manage your data and your security and have less network problems. IT inside the company is heading this way as it is confronted to the competition of external providers.

    Also, some regulations and security measures will prevent you from outsourcing some data: for example, none of Europe’s banks can put its client data out of its country of origin,” he said.

    When asked “Would you agree that cloud services will replace the Microsoft desktop?”, he answered: “VDI will also grow by more than 20% and competition is more open now with interesting Open Source and SaaS offers. But MS has also this kind of offers and capacities to remain a leader on this market. What I see, it that this increase competition, mostly based on prices will damage MS margins.”

    He also said that green IT and sustainable computing are not issues for the cloud today, “even if marketing is pushing it.”

    “Cost optimisation is the issue and the CC mutualisation, a bit like public transportation, is greener,” he said.

    Asked about the key challenge for 2010 in cloud computing, he said: “For the coming year, network will be the issue. No bandwidth, no CC.”

    Mathieu expects to meet CC project owners and share with them at the 2nd Annual Cloud Computing World Forum in London.

  • Gartner: Worldwide Smarpthone Sales Grew 49% in Q1 2010

    Worldwide smarpthone sales to end users reached 54.3 million units in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 48.7% from the first quarter of 2009, according to Gartner. Mobile phone sales totalled 314.7 million units, a 17% increase from the same period in 2009.

    Gartner report "Competitive Landscape: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 1Q10" shows that among the most successful vendors were those that controlled an integrated set of operating system, hardware and services.

    "In the first quarter of 2010, smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

    Q1 2010 saw RIM, “a pure smartphone player”, make its debut in the top five mobile devices manufacturers, and saw Apple increase its market share by 1.2 percentage points. Android’s momentum continued into the first quarter of 2010, particularly in North America, where sales of Android-based phones increased 707% year-on-year.

    According to the report, growth in the mobile devices market was driven by double-digit growth of smartphone sales in mature markets, helped by wider product availability as well as mass market price tags.

    “Increasing sales of white-box products in some emerging regions, in particular India, also drove sales of mobile phones upward. We expect sales of white-box products to remain very healthy for the remainder of 2010, especially outside of China,” said Milanesi.

    The first quarter also saw some movement outside the top five mobile handset vendor rankings: Hong Kong-based manufacturer G-Five made its debut into the top 10, grabbing 1.4% of market share

    The rise of white-box manufacturers from Asia has also helped the "others" section, as a proportion of overall sales, increase its market share to 19.20%, up 2.7 percentage points.

    “This is having a profound effect on the top five mobile handset manufacturers’ combined share that dropped from 73.3 in the first quarter of 2009 to 70.7% in the first quarter of 2010,” said Milanesi.

    In Q1 2010, Nokia‘s mobile phone sales to end users reached 110.1 million units, a 1.2% decline in market share year-on-year. Although Nokia’s midtier products sold well, Nokia lacks a high-volume driver in the high-end, according to the analysts.

    “MeeGo based devices and other high-end products will not rejuvenate Nokia’s premium portfolio until the end of the third quarter of 2010 at the earliest, and Nokia will continue to feel pressure on its average selling price (ASP) from vendors such as HTC, RIM and Samsung,” said Milanesi.

    The reorganisation announced last week demonstrated that Nokia is trying to streamline the reporting process to deliver results quickly, which Gartner believes shows its recognition of the pressure it faces from investors.

    Samsung sold 64.9 million devices in Q1 2010, an increase of 26.3% year-on-year. Samsung was one of the five vendors in the top10 vendors ranking to grow its market share, which increased by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year.

    RIM’s mobile phone sales reached 10.6 million units, a 45.9% increase year-on-year. RIM is making its debut into the top five worldwide mobile handset manufacturers ranking. RIM’s focus this quarter was centred on its ecosystem strategy, its tightly integrated control of store, OS and device played to RIM’s strengths, according to the report.

    The reports also shows that the first quarter of 2010 was Apple’s strongest quarter yet, which placed the company in the No. 7 position with a 112.2% increase in mobile devices sales.

    “Growth came partly from new communication service providers in established markets, such as the UK, and stronger sales in new markets such as China and South Korea,” said Milanesi.

    She claims that the second quarter of 2010 will be a very important one for Apple. “We expect that Apple will present its new iPhone in June during its Worldwide Developer Conference, which will be the first to feature the latest release of the iPhone OS that includes welcome improvements for developers and users, such as multitasking,” she said.

    OS market
    In the smartphone OS market, Android and Apple were the winners in Q1 2010. Android moved to the No. 4 position displacing Microsoft Windows Mobile for the first time. Both Android and Apple were the only two OSs vendors among the top five to increase market share year-on-year.

    Symbian remained in the No. 1 position but continued to lose as Nokia remains weak in the high-end portfolio.

    Smartphones accounted for 17.3% of all mobile handset sales in the first quarter of 2010, up from 13.6% in the same period in 2009.

    “As seen with the iPad and web books based on Google’s Android platform, mobile OS ecosystems are developing and will move beyond smartphones to continue to deliver consumer value and a rich user experience,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.

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  • ABI Research: 2012 Will Be a “Bellwether” Year for 4G

    ABI Research has been tracking cities and population coverage for 4G for the past year. The research group reports that at the end of 2009 there were more than 170 802.16e carriers across 65 countries, covering 480 million people. That number is projected to cross the 1 billion mark by 4Q-2012.

    According to ABI, USB dongles have been an excellent vehicle to prime the market along with CPE and laptops, but mobile handsets will be essential to the success of WiMAX.

    Yota, Sprint, and Clearwire have already started beefing up their lineups with models from HTC and Samsung. Meanwhile, mobile operators are seeking out LTE licenses. ABI predicts that twenty carriers will launch by 4Q-2010. Population coverage lags WiMAX but will catch up, reaching 600 million people by 4Q-2012. LTE coverage will start in urban hotspots but carriers indicate they will push coverage rapidly in order to handle the increasing mobile data wave.

    Analysts also think that the 4G market could well have 150 million subscriptions by 4Q-2014. They claim that the split between WiMAX and LTE will depend on WiMAX carrier commitments to upgrade to 802.16m. “WiMAX vendors such as Motorola and Huawei are gearing up to offer “802.16e+” which will bring features of 802.16m to the current market. Many companies in the ecosystem are already working on interoperability testing for 802.16m,” says the report.

    According to Jake Saunders, VP for forecasting at ABI Research, TD-LTE is the “wildcard.” “It was originally primed as an evolutionary technology for TD-SCDMA carrier China Mobile, but has been gaining interest from some WiMAX carriers. Both camps will be frantically trying to ramp up IC wafer manufacturing, product portfolios and population coverage. There will be considerable scrutiny over the next few years,” he said.

    Practice director Philip Solis added, “Some WiMAX service providers may switch from WiMAX to TD-LTE, but others are doing this partly as insurance and partly to assure investors of an alternate path so they may go forward with WiMAX. This is something for smaller greenfield service providers to consider. Large mobile operators will move forward with LTE whether it be on FDD or TDD spectrum. Clearwire can do both WiMAX and LTE if it wants to since it has the spectrum to do so.”

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  • Empirix Brings VoIP and IMS Expertise to Mobile Networks

    Empirix has expanded its flagship Hammer XMS technology to provide end-to-end network monitoring for mobile core architectures.

    For mobile operators transitioning to all IP LTE networks, and traditional wire line operators or MSOs that are adding mobile service offerings, Hammer XMS "helps lower the cost of deploying and maintaining multi-protocol network architectures and ensures a more consistent customer experience," as the company claims.

    Hammer XMS includes a suite of protocol support for both GSM and CDMA networks including MAP, CAP, IS-41, CAMEL and WIN services, complementing existing SS7/C7 and IMS protocol support. The new solution by Empirix extends its hallmark end-to-end view across TDM and IP domains to the mobile market. Acoording to the company, it gives operators ‘unparalleled visibility into the customer experience throughout the core network.”

    Transaction monitoring, real-time packet analysis and historical storage of CDRs enable operators to troubleshoot, analyze and report on service quality much more effectively – thereby giving them the ability to more quickly identify and fix issues before they impact their customers.

    “As the boundaries between fixed and mobile services blur, end-to-end network validation will only become a larger, more complex task for providers adding mobile services as well as mobile operators migrating to all-IP networks,” said J.D. Doyle, General Manager of service assurance solutions at Empirix.

    “Ultimately, however, these new services will help them become more nimble and Empirix is committed to smoothing the inevitable transition to IP, lowering costs and speeding the time to market for our customers,” he said.

    Hammer XMS also provides operators with the tools to introduce and monitor multiple IP-based elements and services. End-to-end correlation between TDM and IP domains is provided for mobile softswitches, helping carriers assure the quality of service over SIP-based trunks to the PSTN.

    According to Empirix, femto cell launches will go more smoothly as carriers will have the ability to monitor the quality of voice as traffic from femto cell is carried over the broadband network. Carriers can then assure a smooth integration of femto based sessions into the core mobile network. Additionally, carriers will be able to more effectively enforce SLAs with lower cost IP interconnect partners.

  • New iPhone Ad Platform Extends Services—and Raises Questions

    The recent unveiling by Apple of its new iAd advertising platform extends the company’s array of inventive services for the iPhone, but also continues a distinctive collaboration-versus-competition dynamic between the giant technology trendsetter and its partner companies, according to iSuppli.

    “Thanks to the phenomenal success of the iPhone apps store and iTunes, Apple is in a unique position to partner with best-in-class companies and offer innovative services, products and apps to the market,” said Francis Sideco, principal analyst for wireless research at iSuppli.

    “The launch of one of these services, iAd, is a result of Apple’s recent purchase of Quattro Wireless and points to what appears to be an emerging modus operandi being employed by Apple – namely, a pattern of initial amicable association between Apple and its partner companies that then turns into a competitive relationship,” he said.

    In the smart phone market, Apple was the only player in the Top 5 to achieve a substantial increase and consistent gain throughout 2009, growing its share from 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to 16 percent in the final quarter.

    In contrast, top-ranked Nokia saw only a 3 percent increase during the period and suffered a dip in the third quarter, while the share of No. 2 RIM fell from 21 percent to 19 percent during the year. Rounding out the Top 5 were HTC with 6 percent share and Motorola with a 4 percent share.

    The iAd platform joins a host of major changes in Apple’s updated iPhone OS 4. In the case of iAd, developers will be able to embed ads into their applications, allowing iPhone users to interact with the ad without leaving the app. Apple CEO Steve Jobs says iAd not only presents additional revenue opportunities for iPhone developers but also provides users with improved advertising quality and access to ads.

    According to iSuppli, while iAd is the progeny of Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, Apple’s moves in the past have been less overt but nonetheless ended up pitting the giant against its former partners.

    “For instance, Apple partnered with Amazon.com to allow the Kindle app to run on the iPhone. Within a year or two, Apple now has launched its own iBook store for eBooks and other electronic publications. Prior to that, Apple originally partnered with Google Inc. for search and mapping capabilities on the iPhone, but Apple within two years achieved in-house capabilities for those functions and now, with iAd, is going after Google’s highly lucrative advertising business,” as the research group claims.

    As these developments illustrate, Apple is acquiring valuable domain knowledge that is allowing the company to enter into competition with some of its partners, iSuppli believes. And while Apple’s actions could be viewed as a reaction by the company to the moves of its partners, they also can set in motion possibly antagonistic relationships.

    “Should Apple continue to operate in this manner, the company might find it difficult in the future to form an association with best-in-class partners—connections in which friendly partnerships at the beginning alter and then deteriorate into aggressive rivalry,” said Sideco.

  • Report: European Videoconferencing Endpoints Market

    Videoconferencing has proved to be a viable solution for companies that are reducing their travel expenditure, thereby boosting the European videoconferencing endpoints market growth, says Frost & Sullivan.

    New analysis from the research group, European Videoconferencing Endpoints Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $383.6 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1.03 billion in 2015 at a compound annual growth rate of 18.0 per cent.

    According to Frost & Sullivan, the major growth factors of the videoconferencing endpoints market in Europe include the need for companies to decrease travel expenses, search for alternative ways to meet their workers and clients and the stringent environment policies imposed by the European Parliament.

    Additionally, videoconferencing is stepping up the decision-making process and enhancing teamwork in the more-than-ever dispersed workforce.

    "The videoconferencing endpoints market has been witnessing a slow transformation in the recent years, largely attributed to the introduction of high-quality products, such as high-definition conferencing and telepresence, the market’s shift towards converged audio, video and web conferencing solutions, and integration with other existing collaborative applications," states Iwona Petruczynik, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst.

    However, the report says, the European videoconferencing endpoints market is restrained by several factors. For example, the misconception that videoconferencing services are communications tools used only by large enterprises is hindering the adoption among small and medium businesses.

    Moreover, new communications and collaboration vendors are delivering videoconferencing as a part of a unified solution, creating a one-stop-shop for their customers; however, this is hampering the growth of standalone videoconferencing providers. Poor infrastructure and low bandwidth, especially in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), also have adverse effects on the videoconferencing endpoints market growth.

    "The two main challenges with which the market is constantly battling are – the long-standing belief that videoconferencing is a complicated tool, reserved only for the top level management in large enterprises, and the rise of unified communications (UC), where audio, web, and video-conferencing tools are converging," said Petruczynik.

    Analyst claims that overcoming the first barrier is a constant challenge for vendors. However, with the recession spurring the growth of videoconferencing, these collaboration tools and their benefits have been brought to the fore, especially their increasing ease of use.

    “Videoconferencing vendors should be able to proactively address their clients’ needs and evolve constantly in this market. The trend of shifting towards UC is leading to an increased attention to the adoption and usage of visual collaboration in business,” concluded Petruczynik.

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  • SAP to Acquire Sybase for US $5.8 billion

    SAP and Sybase announced that SAP’s subsidiary, SAP America, has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Sybase. SAP will make an all cash tender offer for all of the shares of Sybase common stock at $65.00 per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $5.8 billion.

    The per share purchase price represents a 44% premium over the three-month average stock price of Sybase. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2010.

    The companies claim they both will benefit from synergies across product lines and markets. SAP expects to accelerate the reach of its solutions across mobile platforms and drive forward the realization of its in-memory computing vision. This can drive higher user adoption of SAP software and unlock significant business value out of existing customer investments.

    In addition, Sybase’s mobile platform can connect all applications and data (SAP and non-SAP) and enable them on mobile devices. SAP, Sybase and their customers will be able to tap into Sybase’s messaging network to reach 4 billion mobile subscribers through 850+ operator relationships worldwide and engage their consumers via alerts, transactions and promotions on their mobile devices.

    For Sybase, SAP in-memory technology can provide the opportunity for performance improvements to its analytic processing capabilities. Sybase can also be able to bring its event processing and analytics expertise, which was built in the financial sector, to customers in other industries, markets and product areas in which SAP has a complementary, strong presence.

    Finally, Sybase’s core database business can be enhanced by SAP in-memory technology to deliver integrated transactional and analytical capabilities. At the same time, SAP reinforced its dedication to customer choice by stating that it will continue its commitment to supporting database vendors.

    “With this transaction, SAP will dramatically expand its addressable market by making available its market-leading solutions to hundreds of millions of mobile users, combining the world’s best business software with the world’s most powerful mobile infrastructure platform,” said Bill McDermott, co-CEO of SAP and member of the SAP Executive Board.

    “This is a game-changing transaction for SAP and Sybase customers, who will be better able to connect their employees with key functionality and information from anywhere and make it easier for companies to make faster, more informed business decisions in real time. With SAP’s customer-centric approach, we are resolute in our commitment to support Sybase customers to be best-run businesses,” he added.

    SAP said it will continue to support each organization’s product road map while enhancing products to help customers derive additional value from existing investments.

    It also stated that both companies’ development organizations would remain intact, with the opportunity to cross-collaborate to increase innovation for customers.

    Headquartered in Dublin, California, Sybase delivers a range of solutions to ensure that customer information is securely managed and mobilized to the point of action, including enterprise and mobile databases, middleware, synchronization, encryption and device management software, and mobile messaging services.

    The two companies announced that Sybase will operate as a standalone unit under the name “Sybase, an SAP Company.” Sybase’s management team will continue to run the business. The SAP Executive Board plans to propose to the Supervisory Board to appoint the Chairman and CEO of Sybase to SAP’s Executive Board.

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  • America's First 4G Phone, HTC EVO, Debuts on June 4

    Sprint announced that it will start selling its highly anticipated HTC EVO 4G on June 4. The company will price the device at $199.99 with a two-year service agreement with a new line activation or eligible upgrade.

    HTC EVO 4G will use Sprint’s Everything Data or Business Advantage Messaging and Data plans. Everything Data plans start at $69.99 per month. Mandatory $10 per month Premium Data add-on will allow costumers to use WiMAX when they’re in a Sprint 4G market.

    Additionally, an optional pricing add-on will turn HTC EVO 4G into a mobile hotspot connecting up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices (laptops, gaming devices and digital cameras) simultaneously at 4G speeds where available and at 3G speeds anywhere on the Sprint 3G network for $29.99 per month.

    Sprint launched first U.S. 4G in Baltimore in September 2008. According to the company, today, Sprint 4G covers 41 million people and expects to have up to 120 million people covered by the end of 2010.

    "HTC EVO 4G is a fantastic 3G device, but when you use it in our growing 4G coverage area, it becomes a multimedia powerhouse," said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO.

    HTC EVO 4G features Android 2.1, the newest version of the HTC Sense, simultaneous voice and data capability in 4G and Wi-Fi coverage areas, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 4.3 inch display, two cameras – an 8.0 megapixel auto-focus camera with HD-capable video camcorder and a forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, built-in mobile hotspot functionality allowing up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices to share the 3G or 4G and integrated HD video capture.

    "The EVO 4G experience is much like going from TV to HDTV. But EVO has more than just an impressive list of features – it is also fun to use with remarkable gaming, video and web-browsing capabilities," Hesse added.

    With the launch of HTC EVO 4G, Sprint is also launching new video chat service: Qik. The two-way voice and video capability will be available as an upgrade to the preloaded Qik app on HTC EVO 4G to enable conversational, interactive, real-time sharing between mobile devices or from mobile-to-desktop.

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  • NACT and VOIPFUTURE to Deliver VoIP Monitoring to Customers in the US and Canada

    NACT and VOIPFUTURE announced an agreement that establishes NACT as the exclusive distributor of VOIPFUTURE’s Voice Services Monitoring capabilities in the United States and Canada.

    NACT is a provider of prepaid application solutions (NACT’s Vinci, and Vinci Softswitch), having sold and installed more than 650 switching platforms – in 26 countries – that control more than 12 billion minutes of traffic annually.

    VOIPFUTURE specializes in VoIP monitoring and test equipment. Their solution enables communication service providers to monitor the quality of voice traffic crossing their IP networks, and use the data to troubleshoot problems, optimize the performance of their networks, and document the quality of individual call minutes exchanged between peering partners.

    The technology of VOIPFUTURE is based on its own unique speech recognition algorithm which delivers precise information on the voice quality within a telephone conversation and on the service quality status for an entire network.

    The company’s Smart RTP Monitoring Probes are passive, non-intrusive measurement devices located at demarcation points in the network, such as SBCs, gateways or peering points. According to VOIPFUTURE, the integrated solution for network optimization, SLA verification and troubleshooting shows superior performance for full line rate analysis at 1 Gbit/s.

    “Offering competitive voice services poses a number of challenges that are influenced by the dynamic behavior of IP networks, and effective, easy-to-use monitoring capabilities play an essential role for voice service providers,” said Jan Bastian, CEO of VOIPFUTURE.

    “NACT’s new management understands our industry – and they’ve aligned all of the resources that we feel are necessary to develop a market for our technology in US and Canada,” ha added.

    Arnie Goodstein, President of NACT, said: “Of all the VoIP monitoring technologies we’ve looked at, VOIPFUTURE provides a level of granularity and quality that is simply unmatched by any other offering.”

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  • Sharp Develops World’s First 3D Camera for Mobile Devices

    Sharp has developed a 3D camera module for mobile devices capable of capturing high-definition 720p 3D video images, an industry first. Mass production of these modules will begin within 2010. Sharp said they will start shipping samples in July.

    3D images are composed of two views taken using two cameras that simultaneously capture separate images for the right and left eyes. Consequently, a 3D camera requires peripheral circuitry to apply image processing to the two images, for example, to adjust color or to correct positioning between the images from the two cameras. Manufacturers have thus been pursuing designs that reduce the size and weight of 3D cameras and seeking ways to shorten their development period.

    According to Sharp, their new 3D camera incorporates functions to process the image data output by the left and right cameras, including Color Synchronizing Processing to adjust color and brightness, Timing Synchronizing Processing to synchronize the timing of the video signals, and Optical Axis Control Processing to correct positioning.

    Fast Readout Technology transfers video data from the image sensor, enabling 3D images to be captured in high-resolution HD mode. In developing this camera module, Sharp also applied high-density mounting technology to achieve a compact form.

    "Embedding this camera module in mobile devices such as digital cameras, mobile phones, and smartphones will contribute to the development of a wide range of new, innovative communications tools," the company said .