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Tag: nokia

  • Nokia Touch-screen Smartphone Expected Today


    An announcement is expected from Nokia today about the launch of a touch-screen device.

    Dubbed the “Tube”, the handset could be unveiled at a media and analyst event in London.

    It would be Nokia’s first touch-screen since Apple launched the iPhone last year.

    IMS Research recently published a report saying the current steady growth in sales of touchscreen-equipped mobile handsets will become even stronger.

    It forecasts that while fewer than 30 million touchscreen phones were sold in 2007, this will surge to over 230 million by 2012.

    Nokia wouldn’t comment on an unannounced product.

    Reports suggest the device will be closely tied to Nokia’s Comes With Music service, which will first be released in the United Kingdom and compete with iTunes and other music services.

    On September 2, Nokia announced that Carphone Warehouse will be the exclusive UK prepaid channel for the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic edition.

  • New Mobile TV Channel for Nokia Smartphone


    Nokia is to start a mobile TV channel in the UK specifically for its new N96 smartphone.

    Users of the new handset, which was launched earlier this month, will be able to access a service called Capsule N96 from the beginning of October.

    This will allow users to download ‘mobisodes’ of exclusive entertainment and lifestyle programming for free.

    Lasting 96 seconds, the mobisodes will cover a variety of subject areas, including motoring, fashion, comedy and technology.
    Capsule N96 will initially run until the end of November, at which point Nokia will review the service.

    While the channel will be optimised for the N96, the service is to accessible via any Nokia phone capable of supporting the content.

    Although mobile TV has never really taken off outside of Asia, this could change with the increasing use of high-quality screens on smartphones.

    Earlier this month, Nokia announced that the BBC’s iPlayer application was to be available on the N96 – the first time it has been available via mobile.

    Also scheduled for an October, it allows N96 users to download BBC television programmes for up to seven days after being broadcast.

  • Nokia dominates global smartphone ad traffic

    Nokia may lead the world in smartphone mobile ad traffic rankings but iPhone fastest growing device

    Smartphones accounted for 25.8 per cent of worldwide mobile ad traffic in August, up 3.4 per cent since May 2008, according to AdMob’s August 2008 Mobile Metrics Report.

    Nokia dominates globally, with a 62.4 per cent slice of the traffic in August and more than 50 per cent in every region except North America. In the US, where Nokia does not have a top 20 ranked smartphone, RIM rules the roost.

    The Canadian company has 31.2 per cent of US smartphone traffic and manufactures three of the top 10 devices.

    According to the report, the Apple iPhone was the fastest growing device in the world last month and ended August with more than 2.9 million ad requests per day.

    AdMob stores and analyzes data from every ad request, impression and click and uses this information to optimize ad matching.
    In the latest report, AdMob has highlighted the rapid and global growth of smartphone usage.

    The anticipated launch of new smartphones in the coming months, including the first of Google’s Android phones, the RIM Bold, and the Nokia N96, is a strong indication that this growth is likely to continue throughout the year.

    According to the report, the iPhone ended August with more than 2.9 million requests per day.

    The top five smartphones in the US – the BlackBerry Pearl, Palm Centro, BlackBerry Curve, Apple iPhone, and Samsung Instinct – generated 12.9 per cent of all US traffic in August, a 2.4 per cent increase over July.

    Other highlights from the August 2008 report:

    * RIM is in second place worldwide with 10.8 per cent of smartphone traffic with the large majority of that coming from North America.

    * Motorola and SonyEriccson have a large share of overall mobile traffic, but neither has a smartphone ranked in the top 20 worldwide.

    * Smartphones continue to increase marketshare in the US, accounting for 23.7 per cent of traffic in August, up 3.5 percent since May 2008.

  • Symbian Foundation support continues to grow


    A further nine companies have thrown their weight behind the planned Symbian Foundation.

    Last week Nokia announced it had reached an agreement with Samsung to buy the remaining share in Symbian, clearing the way for the completion of the plans outlined in June.

    The new companies are Acrodea, Brycen, HI Corporation, Ixonos, KTF, Opera Software, Sharp, TapRoot Systems and UIQ.

    As well as comprising some well known Symbian names, the newcomers represent device manufacturers (in the form of Sharp and KTF) and a strong showing of software engineering and middleware companies.

    Since June, 40 companies have confirmed commitment to the initiative, including the ten initial board members: AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.

    Mats Lindoff, Sony Ericsson’s chief technology officer, said: “We are happy to see that so many developers and partners in the industry have expressed their support for the plans for the Symbian Foundation, as this will help drive the next level of innovation needed to deliver new user experiences on mobile phones."

    Bob Bicksler, CEO of TapRoot Systems, said: “We’re excited about the plans for the Symbian Foundation and believe it will increase the proliferation of innovative products and services to mobile consumers.”

  • Samsung accepts offer for Symbian buyout

    Nokia said it would buy out other shareholders of smartphone software maker Symbian for US$410 million

    Samsung has accepted Nokia’s offer to buy out its stake in software firm Symbian, and Nokia now has acceptances from all Symbian shareholders to sell their shares.

    Nokia said in June it would buy out other shareholders of UK-based smartphone software maker Symbian and make its software royalty-free to other phone makers in response to new rivals such as Google.

    Symbian’s assets will be contributed by Nokia to the not-for-profit organization, Symbian Foundation, in which it would unite with leading handset makers, network operators and communications chipmakers.

    It aims to create a group offering members a royalty-free license mobile software platform using open-source coding.
    Earlier, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Symbian’s chief executive, Nigel Clifford, hinted that there could be future consolidation among mobile phone platform makers.

    However, he declined to comment specifically on partnerships or co-operation with rival products such as the Google-backed Android, Microsoft’s Window’s Mobile, or Research In Motion’s Blackberry platform.

    “We have seen consolidation in the past, and, I’m sure, as the market place matures, as every other market place has done, we will see a consolidation in the future,” he said.

    “Whether we participate in that, will be a decision for the Foundation when that is up and running next year.”

    Clifford said a demand for service-rich smartphones is expected to be a catalyst for success in telecommunications markets such as the US.

    Earlier this week, Symbian’s reported that 19.6 million handsets with its operating system were shipped in second quarter 2008, bringing the total cumulative number of Symbian handsets in the market to 225.9 million.

    However, the company said the average royalty per unit declined from US$4.40 in the first half of 2007 to US$3.70 in the first half of 2008.

    Symbian said the reason for the decline was because licensees were migrating to the v9 of Symbian OS, which has a different licensing pricing structure.

    There are currently 159 Symbian phone models available globally from eight handset vendors. Another 92 handsets are in development.

  • Garmin delays smartphone launch

    The GPS maker Garmin has delayed plans to launch its Nuvifone smartphone in the fourth quarter of 2008 until the first half of 2009.
    Obstacles in dealing with the various individual needs of each cell phone carrier were cited as the reason for the delay.

    Shortly before announcing its decision on the Nuvifon, Garmin posted weak second-quarter results and slashed its outlook for 2008.
    The company has been hurt by slower growth in the personal navigation device (PND) market.
    It results and the delayed launch of its smartphone sent its shares down more than 22 per cent.
    The biggest US maker of navigation devices said the PND market, which it dominates with Dutch rival TomTom, has not been growing as fast as expected.
    It said consumers were being more cost-conscious.

    The outlook cut follows a difficult year for Garmin, as macroeconomic difficulties, competition and several new entrants have affected its prices and margins.
    The stock has lost 70 per cent of its value since last October.
    Garmin has not yet disclosed pricing and carrier details for the Nuvifone, which will compete against Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Pearl 8110, Nokia’s N95 and N82 multimedia phones and Apple’s iPhone.

  • Ad targetting to US teens expected to boom

    Smartphone ownership among American teens will mushroom beyond current 20 per cent – presenting massive opportunities for ad targetting

    Research shows that American teenagers have at their disposal an estimated US$200 billion annually in discretionary spending.
    The marketing agency Fuse recently interviewed execs from companies like Sony, MTV Networks, Yahoo and Nokia to get their take on what the future of technology will look like for the teen market.

    Among the conclusions was that the mobile phone in the US will supplant the PC in terms of popularity for teenagers.
    While currently only 20 per cent of US youngsters own a smartphone, both mobile and content companies are certain this rate will rise dramatically.

    Bill Carter, a partner at Fuse, presenting his findings at this year’s YPulse Mashup convention in San Fransisco, said smartphones like the iPhone are just the beginning for multi-functional devices.
    “Uses of mobile devices will expand to include all kinds of bar code applications and prepaid debit card payment methods,” he said.

    This prediction is a large part of the reason why geographic ad targeting to teens is expected to increase dramatically in coming years.

    Currently, providers analyse about 4 billion Protocol addresses to provide what is called street-level targeting to consumers.

    Companies can then reach teens directly via their phone with ads and info on nearby places to go like nightspots.

    “When you combine this new technology with teens giving their permission to market to them, the growth could be exponential,” said Carter.

    He predicts that teens will end up buying subscription based music services, a lot like the cable TV model.

    Carter also feels that other tech platforms will actually save not kill TV networks.
    The analog-to-digital conversion will allow teens to watch live TV on their smartphones.
    This will then in turn help the TV networks to target their programming to specific audiences, which will maintain the cost of advertising.
    What it boils down to is “the device is inconsequential compared to the content,” he said.

  • "Iconic" new smartphone models will entice buyers

    Launch of latest smartphones by Apple, RIM, Nokia and Samsung will ensure handset markets enjoy strong end to 2008

    Some impressive mobile phone product launches between now and the year-end will help the world’s mobile handset markets finish 2008 with strong sales, according to ABI Research.

    Spurred on by the launch of Apple’s second-generation iPhone, rival handset vendors such as RIM, Nokia and Samsung are also expected to debut new models in the second half of 2008.

    Kevin Burden, director of ABI Research, said such “iconic” models generate a lot of interest around the handset industry and get consumers thinking about replacement.
    “2008 should still be a very good year for the global mobile phone market,” he said.
    “While Q2 performance figures are still preliminary until finalised at the end of July, early indications do not point to an aggressively weak quarter.

    “Historically, the second half of the year has always outperformed the first, and despite nearly global economic problems, a second half lift is still expected, although likely lower than the near 20 per cent increase the worldwide market has seen in recent years.”

    Burden said that greater simplicity in handset design had been a powerful driver in new adoption over the last two years.
    He said a lot of advanced technologies and applications hade been built into phones but there had often been technical or ease-of-use barriers that prevented wide adoption.

    “The trend now is about making better use of what we have rather than introducing a flood of new services and network features,” he said.
    “That’s going to go a long way towards ensuring users’ acceptance of new phones and new applications.”

    Burden was speaking after the release of the latest update to ABI Research’s Mobile Device Market Share Analysis and Forecasts.
    It reports that many usability issues will also be progressively worked out as the industry increasingly moves towards standardised operating systems.

    Proprietary real-time operating systems can be painful to manage for operators as well as for users.
    Open operating systems will continue to migrate down phone vendors’ product lines, increasing the penetration of devices using standardised and predictable platforms and boosting overall ease of use.

  • Signs that South Korean handset barrier may be lifted offers alluring prospect to foreign manufacturers










    South Korean regulations requiring handset applications to be based on a homegrown technology are largely why the country’s mobile phone market is dominated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
    As a result of the WIPI ruling – the acronym stands for wireless internet platform for interoperability – foreign companies have found it too expensive to produce handsets tailored for South Korean consumers.
    Nokia is virtually absent in the country and Motorola is a minor competitor with less than 5 per cent of the market. Apple has kept its iPhone out of the market because of the WIPI rule.
    Yet international handset makers are keen to enter South Korea, one of the world’s most technologically advanced and expensive telecoms markets.
    Now President Lee Myung-bak’s newly elected government has expressed a willingness to soften the WIPI rule, potentially opening the door to foreign handset makers.
    The move comes as criticism of the WIPI regulations grows, based on the argument that it restricts Korean consumers’ choices,
    Some analysts believe that, even if Korea does soften its rules, foreign companies could still find it tough to break the into the Samsung and LG-dominated market.
    But there is no doubt that if the protection barrier is removed there will be no shortage of foreign handset seeking to end their dominance.



  • Nokia knocked off prime spot as iPhone and HTC hit top of the chart


    Nokia may still be the world’s leading mobile phone supplier but it’s been toppled from its pedestal when it comes to phone cases.
    Krusell, the Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, has released its “Top 10” – list for June 2008.
    The list is based upon the number of pieces of model specific mobile and smartphone cases that have been ordered from the company during June 2008.
    Its chart is unique, according to Krusell, due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 50 countries around the globe.
    Ulf Sandberg, managing director at Krusell, said that many companies in the accessory industry were currentlyloading their warehouses with iPhone accessories ahead of the European launch of the 3G version on July 11.
    This has catapaulted its iPhone cases into best seller slot for June.
    “Since the iPhones are to be considered as high end devices, we know by experience that the device will have a high case rate and are prepared for a rush for iPhone cases during the coming month,” he said.

    The June chart:
    1. (8) Apple iPhone
    2. (5) HTC Diamond
    3. (3) Nokia E51
    4. (2) Nokia 6300
    5. (1) Nokia 3109
    6. (9) LG KU990
    7. (6) Nokia N95 8GB
    8. (4) Sony Ericsson K810i
    9. (-) Sony Ericsson K530i
    10 (10) Sony Ericsson W890i

    () = Last month’s position.