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Tag: nokia

  • Frings Brings Video Calls to Nokia Symbian 9.3 Devices

    A few weeks ago Fring announced the release of the world’s first mobile internet video calls on Symbian S60 and iPhone/iPod touch.

    Yestarday the company said on its blog that also Nokia E72 & E75 (and all other Symbian 9.3) users can now video call with their friends on fring and Skype for free.

    Fring recommends that all Nokia S60 users download the latest version, as it contains some quality improvements, bug fixes and better connectivity in some specific scenarios.

    The new version for all Symbian S60 devices is available here.

    According to Fring, video calls now account for about 60% of all VoIP traffic in Western Europe.

    Related articles
    MWC 2010: Interview with Gil Regev of Fring
    More and More iPhone Apps Support VoIP over 3G
    fring Brings World’s First Video Calls to the iPhone

  • Firefox Goes Mobile

    Mozilla announced that Firefox is now available for Nokia’s Maemo platform. The browser is intended and optimized for use on the Nokia N900. It can also be run on the Nokia N810 and N800 Internet Tablets, but Mozilla don’t recommend using its product on these devices because they are "significantly less powerful.”

    Firefox for Maemo is built on the same engine as Firefox 3.6 for desktop (Gecko 1.9.2) with some extensive under the hood work to optimize for mobile. It includes the new “TraceMonkey” JavaScript engine, an advanced JIT (“just in time”) compiler using tracing technology.

    New Mozilla’s mobile browser comes with Weave Sync that enables to sync tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords with desktop Firefox, Location-Aware Browsing, which gives you maps and information relevant to your location, offline browsing and one-touch bookmarking.

    It’s the first mobile browser with add-ons support. There are currently more than 40 Firefox add-ons available for mobile, like popular AdBlock Plus, URL Fixer, TwitterBar, language translators, and geo guides, to name a few.

    Initially, Firefox for N900 does not support browser plug-ins. “Due to performance problems using Adobe Flash within Firefox on many websites, especially those with multiple plug-ins on them, we have disabled plugins for Firefox for Maemo 1.0.,” states Mozilla.

    “We plan to provide a browser add-on that will enable you to selectively enable plugins on certain sites, because some sites, like YouTube, work well.”

    Mozilla is also working on a mobile version of its browser for other platforms. Firefox for the Windows Mobile is in Alpha (yet optimized for Samsung Omnia II, AT&T Touch Fuze, HTC Touch Pro), the company is currently investigating development for Android.

    They do not have plans to build Firefox for iPhone – due to “constraints with the OS environment and distribution”, Blackberry – due to “its Java-based operating system and the inability to build native components”, and Symbian.

    Related articles
    Nokia Unveils N900 – The New Company’s Flagship Handset
    Mobile Firefox Expected On HTC Touch Pro

  • What Does Nokia’s Launch of Free Navigation Mean to the Market?

    On 21 January 2010, Nokia announced that it is to make turn-by-turn navigation free with its Ovi Maps offering. The research firm Canalys claims the move is a logical one for Nokia to take, especially in light of the recent launch of Google’s free navigation solution.

    Google’s navigation currently supports only Android devices and is confined to the United States – though Canalys expects both of these limitations to be addressed this year.

    “As Google’s free solution becomes more widely available, it will inevitably have a negative impact on consumers’ willingness to pay for navigation, making it increasingly hard for application providers to charge for their solutions. Yet Nokia’s move should be viewed less as a defensive measure and more as it going on the offensive,” state Canalys.

    “It already has the necessary assets in-house, with its own navigation software, ownership of Navteq, and a huge, growing installed base of GPS-integrated smart phones. In making its own solution free now, it has a head start over Google and any other vendor that follows in every supported market except the US, giving it time to firmly associate itself with the concept of free navigation through promotional activity.”

    Canalys’ end-user research has repeatedly shown that navigation is a feature that consumers want on their mobile phones. Being the first to make global navigation free across so wide a portfolio of devices will give Nokia handsets a true value-add and help it differentiate its products in the increasingly competitive smart phone space, according to the research group.

    Alanysts predict Nokia’s free navigation announcement will not be welcomed though by all its mobile operator partners.

    “While some are happy to endorse or support services that help encourage data consumption, many offer chargeable GPS navigation services themselves, albeit with varying success outside the US, and may well be reluctant to support a move that encourages consumers to expect navigation and other mobile content and services for free, eroding potential revenue streams,” says Canalys.

    According to the analysis, Nokia’s announcement may conceivably push more operators into partnerships with third-party navigation solution providers, where navigation is bundled with the cost of a data plan, providing their own effectively free navigation solutions with an incentive for customers to sign up to data plans, while maintaining customer ownership advantages.

    “Similarly, handset competitors may consider entering into deeper, closer relationships with selected navigation software vendors to offer their own bundled or free solutions. This would minimize Nokia’s ability to use navigation as a differentiator and enable them to also take advantage of the growing consumer appetite for, and expectation of, having free navigation available on smart phones out-of-the-box,” states Canalys.

    That it may prompt operators and some of Nokia’s competitors to pay more attention to their own navigation partner relationships.

    Canalys analysts claim the most significant impact for navigation vendors will likely be the effect that a widespread Nokia advertising campaign will have on consumers and their willingness to pay for navigation.

    "All providers will come under substantial pressure to reduce prices, and few consumers will be happy to pay the kind of prices that vendors such as TomTom or Navigon are currently able to command through application stores,” thay say.

  • Nokia to Offer Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation

    Nokia makes walk and drive navigation free on its smartphones. Starting today, the company offers a new version of Ovi Maps that includes turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries and 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world.

    The important news is that there is no network connection required when navigating: earlier pre-loaded on to the phone, the maps also work in offline mode, which means users don’t have to be worried about international roaming costs when traveling. That should also extend battery life.

    This game-changing move has the potential to nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market and makes Nokia the only company with a mobile navigation service for both drivers and pedestrians that works across the world.

    "Why have multiple devices that work that work in only one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you almost double the potential size of the mobile navigation market," explained Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President at Nokia.

    "The large-scale availability of free-of-charge mobile phone navigation offerings using high-quality map data will be a game changer for the navigation industry," said Thilo Koslowski, Vice President Automotive and Vehicle ICT at Gartner.

    "Such offerings will accelerate mass market adoption for navigation solutions and shift innovation focus to location-based services that go beyond traditional routing benefits."

    For Nokia, removing the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians allows the company to quickly activate a massive user base to which it can offer new location features, content and services.

    Nokia says this is part of its strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services. The move is also in line with Nokia’s vision that the next wave of growth will be centered on the location-aware, social internet — as the ‘where’ people are doing things becomes as important as the ‘what’ they are doing.

    According to research firm Canalys, the number of people worldwide using GPS navigation on their mobile phones was approximately 27 million at the end of 2009. With this announcement Nokia potentially grows the size of this installed user base to about 50 million by enabling smartphone owners, with compatible devices and devices that will be made compatible shortly to activate free drive and walk navigation through a simple download of the new Ovi Maps.

    Nokia will further grow this base as it adds more smartphones to the compatible devices list.

    Canalys also estimated in 2009 that the installed base of smartphones with integrated GPS was 163 million units worldwide, of which Nokia accounted for more than half (51%) having shipped cumulatively 83 million GPS devices.

    "By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world. The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for navigation," adds Vanjoki.

    Ovi Maps is immediately available for download for 10 Nokia handsets (including N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic and E72), with more Nokia smartphones expected to be added in the coming weeks.

    The company informed that from March 2010, new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.

  • fring Brings World’s First Video Calls to the iPhone

    Just a week after fring brought world’s first video calls over IP to mobile, the company announced “the first ever” mobile video calls over internet for the iPhone.

    fring video enables users to conduct video calls with other users as well as with Skype contacts over their device’s Wi-Fi or 3G internet connection, with support for mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-desktop calls.

    The company says this is the first video over internet service on the iPhone or iPod touch.

    The new fring version with video calls support is currently available to users with iPhone/ iPod touch OS 3.0 and selected Nokia Symbian S60 devices (Nokia X6, N97 mini, N97, 5800, N95 8G and N95).

    For the iPhone only incoming video-stream is available (due to the location of the camera). 2-way video streaming is available for Symbian devices.

    “We were the first to bring mobile voice over internet to mobile devices, the first to bring iPhone/ iPod touch users the choice to make free Internet calls, the first to enable cost-saving mobile twitter over internet, and now we’re proud to continue leading the field of rich mobile-internet communication by bringing users the world’s first fring video calls over internet for the iPhone and iPod touch,” said Avi Shechter, Co-Founder & CEO of fring.

    “As the mobile VoIP trail-blazers since this industry’s inception, we have a responsibility to continue breaking the mobile-internet barriers, and bringing users all the choices, richness and always-on connectivity that internet communications on mobile can deliver,” he added.

    The new video feature is embedded within the popular fring application that enables free voice calls to other fring, Skype and GTalk users as well as friends on regular phone lines via Skype-Out and SIP services.

  • U.S. Smartphone Market – Only the Strong Will Survive

    According to the recent Canalys Smartphone Analysis, the smart phone market continues to increase as a proportion of the overall mobile phone market in the US.

    Despite a drop in market growth to 6% in Q3 2009, down from 37% in Q2 2009, smart phones represented 26% of all mobile phones shipped in Q3 2009. This is up from 24% in Q2 2009 and will continue to rise in coming quarters.

    The top two smart phone vendors increased their combined market share in Q3 to 76.3%. Research in Motion (RIM) held 48.1% while Apple held 28.2%.

    “Despite what looks like a ‘closed shop’, with continued growth expected in the US smart phone market there is still plenty to play for, and new products are coming thick and fast from the competition,” the report says.

    Four other smartphone platforms in the US market today – Android, Symbian S60, webOS and Windows Mobile – represented only 23.7% of the market in Q3.

    Canalys claims the challenge for the handset vendors on the multivendor platforms is to “differentiate their products, especially as the market gets busier, while also providing competition to Apple and RIM and choice to the consumer.”

    Canalys also thinks that with an increasing number of Android and Windows Mobile devices launching, there can be little, by looking at the specifications, to choose between one and another on the same platform. “A key product differentiator will be seen in the software and the user interface. In short it is all about the user experience, particularly how the user organises their favourite applications, content, messages, people and places,” analysts say.

    Canalys says Verizon needs to fight back against the iPhone’s tremendous success and will be hoping the new Android devices (Motorola’s Droid and HTC’s Droid Eris) will “light up its somewhat uninspiring consumer device portfolio.” Demand for Android devices will be helped by the addition of Google Maps Navigation on Android 2.0.

    Analysts reminds us of the fact that AT&T is the only one of the big four US mobile operators not yet to range an Android device.

    RIM’s US device shipments were up 27.5% in Q3. Around 3.8 million net new subscriber accounts were added worldwide in its fiscal quarter and profits beat analyst expectations. According to Canalys estimates, RIM, with only the Storm, held a 2.2% share of US touch-screen smart phones in Q3 2009. As its entry-level and mid-range (mostly keyboard-based) devices increasingly come up against new touchscreen Android devices, buyers’ appetite for BlackBerry devices will be tested.

    The iPhone remains the leading consumer smart phone in the US. The response to the iPhone 3G S was ‘tremendous’ and ‘very surprising’ according to Apple, so much so that many international markets had limited supply for several weeks.

    Canalys says with each software release the iPhone gets more ‘CIO friendly’. According to Apple, the iPhone is being ‘deployed or piloted’ at more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies and is doing well in higher education institutions and government agencies, though increased device security will still be needed for broad deployment to be considered in government.

    The report shows that US smart phone share of HTC, the leading worldwide manufacturer of Android smart phones, supplying T-Mobile and Vodafone (in EMEA) as well as selling under the HTC brand, has hovered around the 5-7% mark for five quarters.

    “HTC devices are ranged by the big four US mobile operators. These relationships and the installed base of customers it has are crucial to HTC, and Microsoft. From being the first, HTC is now one of many Android device vendors,” says Canalys.

    According to the research group, Motorola “rose from the ashes” of the smart phone market recently with the announcement of the new Android-based smart phones, the CLIQ with T-Mobile and the Droid with Verizon.

    “If the CLIQ and the Droid do anything like as well as the RAZR did it will give Motorola a solid base for 2010. Working on Android means that building its own app store need not be a top priority for Motorola.,” according to Canalys.

    They also think Nokia really needs a big hit in the US (“It has failed to get its most popular Nseries devices ranged by the leading US mobile operators and it has thus far failed to make a significant impression with its Ovi services in the US”), Palm needs the old volumes back (“Mobile operators must be convinced that they can profit from ranging Palm webOS devices. Palm needs their commitment”), and Samsung has lagged in smart phones, although it still leads the overall US mobile phone market and continues to roll out new handsets with all leading mobile operators at a “blistering pace.”

    Canalys notices that there are more vendors planning to launch smart phones in the US in the next few months: Dell, Kyocera Wireless, LG (Android handsets) and Acer (Android and Windows phones).

    “They will all be faced with the same challenges: getting their smart phones ranged by the mobile operators and capturing the imagination of consumers. The mobile operators can only range, subsidise and promote a certain number of devices. As Apple did, new entrants need to come up with something special, and that is no easy feat,” the report concludes.

  • Nokia Sues Apple for Infringement of Nokia GSM, UMTS and WLAN Patents

    Nokia announced that it has today filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple’s iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards.

    Nokia says the ten patents in suit relate to technologies “fundamental” to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards.

    “The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007,” according to press release.

    There ware no more details given to the public.

    "The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for," said Ilkka Rahnasto, Vice President, Legal & Intellectual Property at Nokia.

    "Apple is also expected to follow this principle. By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia’s intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation."

    Nokia informed the company has already entered into license agreements including the patents in suit with approximately 40 companies, “including virtually all the leading mobile device vendors, allowing the industry to benefit from Nokia’s innovation.”

  • Canalys Special Report “Smart phone market trends 2009/2010”

    ADVERTORIAL. The mobile industry is pinning its hopes on smart phones as the driver of growth in difficult times. Overall mobile phone shipments are falling, but smart phones are growing and taking an increasing share of the market.

    Companies such as Apple and RIM are seeing increases in demand for their devices, challenging the likes of Nokia, and leading a fundamental shift toward new device form factors and use of mobile applications by consumers and businesses.

    Network operators are struggling to establish the best strategy to open up new revenue streams, while having to manage complex partnerships with strong hardware vendors, as well as other companies that have entered their world with mobile service revenue aspirations of their own, such as Google and Microsoft.

    The Canalys “Smart phone market trends 2009/2010” report pulls together, in a concise format, qualitative analysis of key market trends, top-level market share and shipment estimates for the leading vendors, comparative analysis of vendors’ performance and evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, and forecasts for future market development.

    “Smart phone market trends 2009/2010” report gives the precise and exhaustive answers to the following questions:

    • Who are the leading smart phone vendors in each region?
    • What impact will application stores have on operators and vendors?
    • How are the different mobile operating systems evolving and why?
    • Which operators have the best smart phone strategies?
    • How will the different regions grow over the next five years?
    • What are the biggest threats to today’s leading smart phone vendors?
    • How can mobile companies make the most of growth in China?
    • What are the implications of a more software-centric mobile ecosystem?
    • What are the key trends in user interfaces and form factors?
    • Where are the key competitive arenas for Google, Apple, RIM, Microsoft, Nokia et al?

    The full report, published in August 2009, is 70 pages and includes supporting definitions and explanation of the research methodologies used, and is only available direct from Canalys – the acknowledged leading market analyst firm in this area.

    Click here to find out more

  • Q2: Nokia Retains Lead but Apple and RIM Are Rising Fast

    “Smart phones continue to shine as one of the brightest spots of the technology industry, with shipments growing despite the global recession,” says the recent Canalys’ report on the Q2 key smartphone market trends.

    “Innovation in interfaces, design, applications and promotion continue to excite consumers, which, in contrast to the PC industry, is helping to keep average selling prices stable. The rise in data traffic seen by mobile network operators is finally generating a return on their investment in broadband capacity and will drive further infrastructure expenditure,” the autors predict.

    According to the report, Apple has established industry leadership in terms of industrial design, ease of use and application availability, offering one of the most desirable devices on the market and setting a standard that rivals are striving to emulate. It reinforced its position during the quarter by launching the iPhone 3GS.

    Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst, said, “Apple has revolutionised the smart phone sector, leapfrogging more experienced rivals. The competition must move much faster to close the gap in terms of functionality and design and at the same time try to target Apple’s weak spots. These are primarily related to its business model, which requires premium upfront pricing, high cost of ownership and, in many countries, a restricted operator line-up.”

    The research shows that the competition is building in a number of different forms. RIM has successfully expanded its product portfolio to include a wide selection of devices and interfaces that appeal to a range of customers at different price points. This includes 2.5G models that are smaller, lighter, lower cost and have better battery life than most of its 3G rivals. Palm has received widespread acclaim following the launch of the Pre in the US during Q2.

    Chris Jones, Canalys VP and principal analyst, added, “As a relatively small company, Palm has shown what creative leadership and focused investment can achieve. By going back to its roots and developing its own operating system, it has produced an innovative and differentiated product. Investors have responded to this, with its share price growing over 70% this year. Palm still has plenty of challenges ahead – it must find the resources to launch the Pre on the global stage, while continuing to fund development of its product pipeline.”

    Another emerging trend is the rise of the Google-led Android OS, which is already taking 3% of the smart phone market. Success so far has been driven through HTC, but with many other vendors, including Samsung, joining the fray, volumes are expected to increase substantially. The free licence model, tight integration with Google applications and the potential for a high degree of vendor and operator customisation are all benefits attracting industry participants.

    Jones continued, “It is noteworthy how differently the smart phone business is developing compared to the PC industry. PCs are a highly standardised, commoditised platform, where one model is often largely indistinguishable from another. Consequently, PC price points are incredibly low, which is good for customers, but the industry lacks excitement. Smart phones are different – Nokia, Apple, RIM and Palm have all achieved success by developing their own operating systems and delivering distinct devices and interfaces. Android customisation will further add to this diverse mix. As a result, new smart phones are front page news around the world."

    “The main loser has been Microsoft’s highly standardised Windows Mobile platform. Its smart phone market share has now fallen below 10% and the trend is likely to continue as many of its OEM partners, including HTC, Motorola and Palm, are focusing investment on other platforms,” he conclude.

    In addition to smart phones, netbooks are the other hot area within the technology industry in this difficult year. The competition and opportunities created between these platforms will be discussed at the Canalys Mobility Forum, taking place on November 17, near London’s Heathrow Airport.

  • Nokia Unveils N900 – The New Company’s Flagship Handset

    Nokia has finally launched the N900 – running on the new Maemo 5 latest company’s smartphone, which has evolved from Nokia’s previous generation of internet tablets.

    “The open source, Linux-based Maemo software delivers a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device” says the company’s announcement.

    Nokia N900 packs an ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz processor, up to 1GB of application memory and 3D graphics accelerator with OpenGL ES 2.0 support. The result is, as the company promises, “PC-like multitasking, allowing many applications to run simultaneously.”

    New Nokia comes with a 3.5-inch 800×480 pixel touchscreen, the full physical slide-out QWERTY, internet connectivity with 10/2 HSPA and WLAN, Wi-Fi 54Mbps data transfer, Mozilla-based browser and full Adobe Flash 9.4 support.

    To get the most out of the 5MP camera, Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and 800 × 480 resolution video recording, Maemo software and the N900 come with a new tag cloud user interface.

    The device also features GPS with pre-installed Ovi Maps, Bluetooth 2.1, FM transmitter, TV-out and 1320mAh battery.

    The panoramic homescreen can be fully personalized with shortcuts, widgets and applications. Maemo software updates happen automatically over the internet.

    N900 has 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card.

    "The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward. What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President of Nokia.

    Nokia N900 will be available in select markets from October 2009 with an estimated retail price of EUR 500 and will be displayed at Nokia World, Stuttgart, on September 2.