Business News Holding

Tag: interview

  • IFA 2009: Real Cable Feels the Difference

    VIDEO INTERVIEW. Quality cables become more and more important part of HD – both video and audio – markets. At IFA 2009 in Berlin, Biz-News.com interviewed Catherine Torchin, Managing Director and owner of Real Cable. She described to us the strategy of the company that has already been successful on 25 markets worldwide.

    Laurent Zawadil, Technical Menager for Real Cable, showed us the latest company’s product – innovative 1.4 HDMI cable with additional Ethernet Channel. The cable will be introduced to the market in October this year, but you can take a look at its main features right now.

    This is how the company described itself at this year’s IFA

    REAL CABLE was born in 1999 from the association of experience and conviction to answer the growing demand of High Fidelity and Home Theatre sound and picture perfection.

    Nowadays «Real Cable is one of the top cable manufacturers whose reputation has reached every corner of the world» commented a well-known journalist from a specialised press.

    Thanks to close collaboration with the major Hi-Fi and Home Theatre professionals, REAL CABLE was able to develop 4 product ranges: AVS, EVOLUTION, INNOVATION and MASTER, meeting the strictest technical demands in a variety of budget areas.

    Real Cable manufacture partners are in agreement with the most important certification norms and environmental regulations: ISO 9001 – ISO 9002 – ISO 14001 – HDMI LLC. All Real Cable products are ROHS compliant.

    Today REAL CABLE is a leading company on the French market in the field of high level cables for the Hi-Fi and Home Theatre equipment.

  • 4G: Network For Real Mass Market Activity

    Erik Hallberg, Senior Vice President and Head of TeliaSonera Mobility Services in Sweden, tells smartphone.biz-news how this telecom is changing the face of mobile technology with its innovative 4G network.

    Recently Eric Hallberg’s family settled in to a typical night at home. The family of four sat down for a comfortable evening by not turning on their television, but flipping open their laptops. This behavior is not atypical of many families these days, no matter what part of the world you live in.

    The use of technology as a medium for work and play is quickly changing our world. It is no surprise that eventually technology will have to catch up with our ever-growing need for more capacity, more speed and more power.

    “I think the demand is moving faster that we as a telecommunications industry can supply the demand,” said Hallberg.

    “The way that people are utilizing services like Twitter and Facebook is changing everything. They are connected from early morning to late in the evening.”

    In 2010 TeliaSonera and Ericsson will unveil the first commercial Long-term Evolution (LTE) network in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the 20 countries where the company has a communications presence. This 4G mobile broadband network will revolutionize the way we share information via our mobile networks by focusing solely on the exchange of data. Drastically expanding the speed and efficiency of the exchange of information will lead to a higher speed bandwidth for the corporate and everyday user.

    “4G is not just a step forward, it is totally new,” Hallberg said. “It is not designed for voice, it is designed for pure data. It is an all IP network – there is no transformation or translation between different types of technologies. All IP from the device to the radio station to the core network to the services – the first time a mobile network is designed that way for real mass market activity.”

    Whereas the everyday user will experience a faster speed and efficiency via their mobile network, for the corporate user, this expansion will mean a new kind of service opportunity for their businesses.

    “The integration of unified communication (i.e. voice adules, adule pictures and video conferencing) in the corporate market is really taking off,” Hallberg said.

    “There is the sophisticated level with the syscal equipment or similar to the small basic camera and things that you do through low speed activities of different kinds. This is just the beginning its going to boom in the coming years and its going to need a lot of high bandwidth accesses as well as core networks to support it.”

    According to Hallberg, TeliaSonera is not only looking to the future of telecommunications, they are also exploring environmentally friendly methods in which to embrace that future.

    As part of their development strategy, TeliaSonera will be participating in the 4G World 2009 Conference from September 15-18, 2009.

    “The reason for me to participate in Chicago is to listen to what others are thinking, what they are planning to do, or may be doing,” Hallberg said. “We want to get new input from other parts of the world that we will probably not get from the venders or from the local markets. So for it is a very important point for gathering information and inspiration as to what others are doing in the 4G market, LP market in the next coming years.”

    After their trip to the conference, the company’s priority will be to finalize the first installation of the new network and make it available first to users in Germany and China.

    “Based on experience that we gain from these 2 sides, we will go to the next decision at the end of this year, beginning of next year.” Hallberg said.

    The 4G World 2009 Conference will be held at the McCormick Center in Chicago, Illinois. It will feature mobile WiMAX, WiFi, HSPA and LTE technologies and how they will influence the business and technical aspects of the new 4G network.

    Listen to the whole interview

  • West & Central African Com: MTN Nigeria Targets Customer Satisfaction to Expand Market Reach


    VIDEO INTERVIEW: Ahmad Farroukh, CEO of MTN Nigeria, was interviewed at the recent West & Central African Com conference held in Abuja, Nigeria.
    He talks about plans for increasing market share by targeting customer satisfaction. Farroukh also discusses infrastructure sharing and MTN’s Community Phone Service.

  • Behance iPhone App is "Twitter for Actionable Tasks"

    INTERVIEW: Scott Belsky, founder and CEO of Behance, tells smartphone.biz-news about his company’s Action Method iPhone application – a free and innovative app aimed at increasing users’ productivity.

    Any productivity tool that has the word "action" in it sounds like it surely must have something going for it.

    So when the Behance team launched its free iPhone app six months ago, the fact it was based on the idea of capturing and managing "action steps" – tasks that need completing – made it sound like a pretty good prospect.

    As Scott Belsky, founder and CEO of Behance, explained to smartphone.biz-news, the idea is to help creative professionals organize their work by taking action.

    To do so they have created an ecosystem around the company’s Action Method project management software, the Behance Network, and Behance paper products.

    "What we decided to do was try and help people through offline and online media to organise their lives with a bias towards action," he said.

    Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance

    "This is what makes it special compared to other management tools out there.  Action is the central part of the entire experience."

    Belsky said the premise for the Action Method is very simple.  It comes down to three elements:

    • Action steps
    • Back-burner items
    • Reference items (other "stuff" in life that accumulates)

    Belsky said that people focus too much on deadlines instead of what matters most – action and delegating.

    When Behance started out selling paper products in the US several years ago the rationale was – and still is – to produce a well designed system for productivity.

    The Action Method Online application then followed as an everyday tool for people to manage action steps and their lives.

    Then, came the mobile version – currently just for the iPhone app but the New York-based company are testing a beta for Blackberry.

    "It’s exciting. Many people are downloading the app and using it," said Belsky.

    During the design process the Behance team spoke with people that used Microsoft Product Manager, Basecamp and other project management tools.

    They found that a lot of people used them – but didn’t really use them. And tasks such as updating the system are looked upon as a chore to be avoided.

    Collaborative Tool

    They also aren’t collaborative, so tasks that need someone else’s input have to be communicated – usually by email.

    However, since Action Method is designed as a collaborative management tool, users can delegate tasks to other users – but in a more effective way.

    Messages are sent, not by email, but by what Belsky describes as "Twitter for actionable things", which are displayed as action sets on the iPhone screen.

    "The idea is not to just have a to-do list but to engage people through multiple different lenses," he said.

    Various new features are being planned for the iPhone app which Belsky said will push it to a new level, as well as some important additional features for the on-line app.

    Valuable Tool

    For many people work and life do not separate, so the app is intended to make users look more often at their actionable tasks.

    Since the tool has to be accessible at all times, it can be used both on-line and off-line, and then synched when connected again.

    So even if you are stuck in the subway without internet access, it doesn’t mean everything draws to a halt.

    "Mobile extends that functionality," he said. "We do not have an excuse any more."

    "It’s about the little action steps that pop into your mind that you need to do. You can capture these thoughts."

  • Clearing Houses at Centre of WiMAX Hub Model

    INTERVIEW: Smartphone.biz-news spoke to John Dubois, global roaming director for the WiMAX Forum, to hear the latest on the deployment of the 4G technology’s networks – and plans for operators to use a hub model for roaming agreements.

    While many people have reservations about the future success of WiMAX it’s clear the 4G technology is gaining traction in markets around the world.

    In his presentation at the recent Insights’09 conference in Lisbon, Portugal, John Dubois, global roaming director for the WiMAX Forum, highlighted the growing number of WiMAX deployments – and the advantages it has in being first to market compared to LTE.

    The most recent figures from the organisation show there have been 484 WiMAX deployments in 141 countries so far.

    Aside from networks, the Forum has recently certified its first full Netbook (Onkyo C204) and its first Notebook computer (Toshiba Dynabook SS RX2).

    The specification for billing and settlement for roaming has just been completed and two operators – Clearwire and DigitalBridge – will be testing it over the summer.

    Roaming Trials

    Also getting underway are the first commercial global roaming trials, which will involve 14 "ecosystem leaders" carrying out end-to-end testing of roaming over live WiMAX networks.

    These operators, device manufacturers, equipment vendors, and clearing houses include Aicent, Alvarion, Bridgewater Systems, Cisco, Clearwire, Comfone, DigitalBridge, Intel, iPass, Juniper Networks, MACH, Motorola, Syniverse and Transaction Network Services.

    From the results of the trial Dubois told smartphone.biz-news that it will be possible to provide a baseline for establishing roaming services and agreements for WiMAX worldwide.

    "WiMAX operators do not have a lot of experience with roaming," he said.

    "After that other operators are very interested in participating. Six clearing houses are also involved in the trials.

    "They will provide back offices and after the trials are completed we will be in a position where we can start connecting operators on a commercial bases."

    Dubois said that while operators will be able to connect directly, he believed the vast majority will do so through clearing houses.

    This is because this simplifies the administration of the roaming process by only requiring operators to have one or two agreements with clearing houses – rather than individual agreements with every operator.

    He said that prior to joining the WiMAx Forum he worked as director of roaming for a mobile operator and had to manage more than 300 roaming agreements.

    "The hub model will prevail," he said. "That’s what the 3G world would like to move to. We will do that straight away with WiMAX.

    "It’s not something we are enforcing, we are letting the market take care of it."

    Interoperability Key

    A key element of the trial will be testing the interoperability of equipment – essentially devices’ ability to acquire a visited network’s base stations and backend while roaming.

    Dubois said interoperability is a particularly important aspect for WiMAX since there are a lot of different base stations vendors, each manufacturing its own equipment.

    He said it is clearly vital that devices work on the different base stations while roaming.

    For this reason, the WiMAX Forum has designed a certification process.

    "They will undergo interoperability testing to make sure that they will be interoperable with different base stations," he said.

    "That is key for roaming – but it’s nothing we didn’t face with 2G and 3G."

    Again, from his experience working for a mobile operator, Dubois said it took a while before handsets from the operator were able to function in different parts of the US.

    "With WiMAX, we want it to work now with all devices. It’s a matter of months," he said.

    A non-technical issue with base stations is also their cost and how this could be affecting the uptake of WiMAX.

    However, Dubois said prices were very competitive when compared with 3G.

    Deployment Growing

    Scenna Tabesh, director of marketing communications for the WiMAX Forum, said that despite the economic downturn WiMAX deployments and developments are continuing to grow "quite reasonably".

    While the Forum has no specific projections for future deployment rates it expects the numbers to grow significantly based on the history of the last few years.

    "We are growing very steadily and we are still cautiously optimistic that we will see steady growth over the next 18 months," she said.

    Scenna Tabesh, director of marketing communications, WiMAX Forum

    Tabesh said WiMAX activity has been particularly strong in the Middle East, Africa and South-east Asia, and auctions to allocate wireless spectrum are expected shortly in India and Brazil.

    "The big picture is looking pretty good. Operators continue to invest despite the global situation," she said. "There are also a lot of folks straddling the fence because they do not have to act right now."

    That’s not the case in Russia, where two operators – Yota and Comstar – have rolled out WiMAX networks.

    Tabesh said Yota, which launched its paid commercial Mobile WiMAX service on June 1st and is adding 1300 subcribers a day, has launched the first dual-mode GSM/WiMAX mobile.

    The Russian operator is also looking to extend its WiMAX investments outside its home market.

    However, Dubois said that while more operators such as Yota are successfully deploying WiMAX, this did not appear to be widely known.

    "WiMAX is gaining significant traction. A lot of operators are deploying but they are not making a lot of noise about it," he said.

    "There’s significant growth in the area. Operators are very excited because it provides them with what they need right now.

    "They are putting in broadband services quickly and once the network is up, customers flock to them."

  • US Mobile Market Ready for Location-Based Advertising

    INTERVIEW: Location-based advertising (LBA) is still in its early stages – and has so far mostly been rolled out in European markets, including France, Romania and Germany.

    Now TechnoCom has brought a mobile advertising and marketing content delivery platform to the US where it believes the opportunities are huge.

    Smartphone.biz-news spoke to Janice Partyka, vice president of external affairs at TechnoCom, about its SpotOn GPS application and plans for combining location-aware advertising with navigation.

    TechnoCom last month announced that it was launching SpotOn GPS, a mobile navigation system that offers turn-by-turn navigation, search and mapping.

    Nothing particularly startling in that. But where this hosted solution differs is that it is a mobile advertising and marketing content delivery platform that combines advertising with navigation.

    What makes this interesting – especially at a time when budgets are being fiercely scrutinised – is the potential it offers carriers and brands to increase the effectiveness and reach of advertising and promotional messaging.

    The argument is that the return on investment from mobile advertising dollars is greatly enhanced by presenting ads, coupons and offers to consumers at select times, in the right places and close to points of sale.

    Recent figures show that the mobile advertising market in the US is expected to reach USD $2.3 billion, roughly 25 per cent of the overall market by 2011.

    Janice Partyka, vice president of external affairs at TechnoCom

    The largest segment is expected to be mobile couponing reaching almost USD $4 billion by 2011 or 42 per cent of the overall market.

    Janice Partyka, vice president of external affairs at TechnoCom, said a key factor in launching the navigation system was their popularity as mobile applications.

    "We see it as a marketing and advertising pipe," she said. "In Europe there are offerings that combine navigation with advertising and marketing. But we are the first to introduce it to the US."

    Appeal of LBS

    Location-based advertising has been shown to yield significantly higher conversion rates with direct response modes, such as click-to-locate and click-to-navigate, compared to non-location-based advertising.

    This makes LBA and navigation an appealing combination.

    Helping drive the adoption of both is that fact that for end-users, ad-funded navigation can represent a balance between exposure to advertising and access to reduced-cost, or potentially free, navigation.

    Partyka told smartphone.biz-news that market research shows that a large percentage of people say "yes" when asked if they would be interested in an offering that deferred subscriber costs.

    "We have to be smart about it and not make the advert very intrusive," she said.

    "It has to be relevant to who they are and what they are doing."

    So while someone might appreciate receiving an offer from a nearby restaurant at lunchtime, they are unlikely to be so well disposed to getting one at midnight.
    "That’s not useful. Relevance is really important," said Partyka.

    She said that as well as carriers – the traditional channel for navigation – there were other options for SpotOn GPS.

    These include affinity groups, such as airline mileage rewards programs, shopping clubs or travel clubs, all of which can offer search listings of their inventory, suppliers, and partners.

    Partyka said that, for instance, a mileage program can list restaurants or hotels that offer their customers extra mileage incentives.

    The mileage program member may decide to view hotels on a map, receive coupons, offers and advertisements; click-tocall; connect to a website to see rates and book nights; and click-to-navigate to the business’s location.

    Partyka said this extends the reach of partners to get bookings.

    She said SpotOn GPS has other applications, such as a large retailer branding the application to always show its locations on maps, provide special offers that are regionally or outlet-specific, highlight certain vendors, and display loyalty messages.

    Other customers, such as wireless operators, may opt for third-party advertisements that SpotOn GPS offers as a bundle.

    Flexible Revenue Model

    But Partyka said that what SpotOn GPS also offers is flexibilty when it comes to the revenue model being used.

    While the traditional method is for navigation to be offered to end users on a monthly subscription, TechnoCom’s app can be be adapted to its customer’s requirements.

    The revenue models include subscriptions, premium content fees and advertising transaction fees.

    So this can range from a client paying the full fee or chosing a mix of reduced subscription with a share of advertising revenues – to the extent that it could is heavily discounted or even free.

    Partyka said that how customers end up working the charge with the end user depends on them.

    "In some cases they would not charge the end user for the service," she said.

    So, for example, it could be part of the American Express offering for Platinum Card holders, with the cost fully absorbed by membership charges or promotion budgets.

    "Someone else might make a minimum charge but much less than what would have found before," she said.

    Speedy Launch

    Designed as a turn-key solution, SpotOn GPS can be ready for service launch within sixty days of contract signing.

    Partyka said the app does what any other navigation, search and mapping service does.

    Worldwide rich mapping options include street maps, 3-D map views and satellite images. Location-specific traffic and weather are also offered.

    She said it is initially being supported on Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Java handsets but will be coming out on Android in Q3 and the iPhone Q4 2009.

    Based on LocatioNet’s amAze GPS service, it has has been white-labeled by leading international carriers and service providers, including Bouygues France, Orange Israel, Vodafone Romania and Telegate Germany.

    Partyka said SpoOn GPS is aimed at a wide range of end-users with access to international local search databases, and text and voice prompted instructions in thirteen languages with more being added.

    Other features being developed include user generated content, such as enabling users to identify where speed traps are located.

    TechnoCom expects to have its first customers for SpotOn GPS shortly, according to Partyka: "This is the beginning of the market. We have clients that are ready for it."

  • Service Transparency Vital Between Legacy Networks and LTE

    INTERVIEW: Telecom carriers are beginning to deploy IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) technology in their networks instead of buying VoIP equipment.
    VoIP.biz-news spoke to Mavenir Systems, a provider of converged voice and messaging solutions, about the opportunities and challenges faced in delivering next generation communications.

    Research firm Infonetics recently forecast a 74 per cent increase in IMS equipment sales in 2009, while standalone VoIP purchases have dropped by a third in the past year.

    The analysts report seeing "a noticeable shift" away from stand-alone VoIP networks to IMS in the core network.

    Someone well placed to talk about this shift is Payam Maveddat, VP of marketing at Mavenir Systems.

    His company provides a converged voice solution that enables operators to make the transition to a single all-IP voice core network based on IMS for any mobile access, including 2G, 3G, WiMAX and LTE (Long Term Evolution).

    Most operators believe that IMS will be the core switching infrastructure – with the impending arrival of LTE and Rich Communication Suite (RCS) big drivers for IMS.

    Both require IMS at the core.

    Market Challenges

    Maveddat told voip.biz-news that the challenge for a small company like Mavenir is dealing with dominant equipment vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent.

    "It’s unfortunate that when large equipment vendors go in and discuss this ‘grand vision’, they never talk about the changes that reside from having two separate domains on networks – IMS and legacy," he said.

    Maveddat said this is probably done deliberately since equipment vendors often have a vested interest in driving sales for the circuit side of their businesses.

    "There are enough challenges and technical difficulties with new technology, so the last thing that appears on the radar of trendsetters is ‘how can I connect with my old infrastructure?’" he said.

    But with IMS implementation in networks, operators need to look at the alternatives, according to Maveddat.

    "That’s where Mavenir walks in – and we are gaining traction," he said.

    Non-Standardised Products

    However, while many companies are used to buying standardised products that is not possible in the IP world.

    "The good news is: there are choices. The bad news is: there are choices," said Maveddat.

    "Since there are no standardised products, companies have to look at innovations. That’s been very challenging."

    Maveddat said Mavenir’s converged voice solution enables carriers to move their services from narrowband to IP-based access for broadband deployment as it is being rolled out.

    He said four carriers – including three Tier 1s – in Asia, Europe and the US are using its converged voice solution.

    "This tells us our strategy has been accepted and validated. Carriers want to use our services," he said.

    Voice and Messaging

    Maveddat said there is currently a great deal of discussion about voice and messaging on LTE.

    This centers around the fact there is 18-20 years worth of investment in mobile switching infrastructure with a very unique set of services, which are globally accessible.

    "With GSM, wherever you go, you pretty much get the same set of services," he said. "If you roam nationally or internationally, you have a seamless experience and can expect to get services exactly the way you want."

    So when it comes to the business case for deploying LTE, Maveddat said operators such as T-Mobile in Europe have a big problem with voice and messaging.

    He said unless there is service transparency between legacy environments and LTE, the adoption of the 4G mobile broadband standard will be seriously challenged.

    "So what we at Mavenir provide is the ability to anchor all your services in one core and enable the user to move between a broadband and narrowband environment," he said.

    "They do not see any service disparity."

    Mavenir has 150 employees spread between its headquarters in Texas, offices in China and Bangalore, India and regional support centers in Europe.

    Its IMS Centralized Services (ICS) allow mobile operators to connect and deliver IMS services to any device by connecting the IMS core to 2G, 3G, UMA Macro, Pico and Femto cells.

    This will enable carriers to transition the voice core to all-IP, eliminating the need for legacy MSCs.

    Maveddat said carriers that provide a purely mobile service, with no fixed infrastructure, are often interested in fixed mobile convergence services – without offering IMS.

    For them, the value of Mavenir’s solution is that they can offer incremental services – for example, providing a fixed line service in addition to mobile, with functions such as ring-back and, soon, text messaging.

    "The advantage they have here is that for a very low investment in infrastructure, they can get customers using a mobile service and provide unlimited calling from home," he said.

    "Subscribers will think twice before changing mobile operator, which helps with churn."

    Once operators have enough traction and consumers are adopting IP devices, Maveddat said the next stage is offering a complete stand-alone telephony service.

    Mavenir’s service enables the IMS core to be connected to GMS legacy networks.

    "It’s a changing game. Not only do we make it simple but we have a fast time to market and technology that works," he said. "The business case is improved for operators to launch the same set of services."

  • HiT Barcelona: Android Marketplace To Overtake Apple's App Store?

    INTERVIEW: Florian Seiche, vice president of HTC Europe, spoke to smartphone.biz-news ahead of his keynote address at the HiT Barcelona World Innovation Summit.

    He talks about the potential for Android’s Market app store and the opportunities that open source platforms offer as the mobile internet "explodes".

    Android’s Market will be at least as successful as Apple’s hugely popular App Store – and could prove even more of a hit.

    That’s the view of Florian Seiche, vice president of HTC Europe, who believes app downloads for the open-source software platform developed by Google could well emulate Apple’s success.

    Off the back of the iPhone, that success has been phenomenal – in April the App Store clocked up one billion software downloads in the nine months since it opened.

    However, Strategy Analytics recently predicted global shipments of Android-based smartphones will grow 900 per cent this year and it expects it to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years.

    If that happens – with a range of Android-supporting handsets on the market – then Seiche’s forecast for Android apps will undoubtedly become a reality.

    He spoke to smartphone.biz-news before travelling to Spain for the HiT Barcelona World Innovation Summit,where he is making a keynote speech titled "The Application Explosion".

    He said the key to the whole mobile application ecosystem is to make it a really viable business for software developers.

    App Stores Vital

    One factor in this is for each open platform to have a central app store where consumers can discover what applications are available.

    "The iPhone has been extremely strong because it was the first to go out with a centralised market place," he said.

    "The Android Market will have at least the same impact, if not more. It combines a central marketplace but there is a much wider choice of devices being offered."

    Florian Seiche, vice president HTC Europe

    While the recent proliferation of app stores – LG is the latest to announce it will be launching one shortly – may cause consumers some confusion, Seiche said software had to reach consumers.

    "For the immediate future, the most important thing is to make applications as available as possible for the consumer," he said.

    "It’s a good thing for each open platform to have a central place where applications can be accessed."

    There’s no doubt HTC would benefit from Android becoming a global success story.

    Ties to Android

    The Taiwanese company was one of the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance, the first product of which was the Android mobile device platform.

    And the HTC Dream – also marketed as T-Mobile G1, Era G1 in Poland, Rogers Dream in Canada – was the first phone to the market using the Android platform.

    So HTC has been closely involved with Android from the beginning.

    However, Seiche said HTC’s role goes back further, to the late 1990s when it was founded.

    "We focused our entire vision and strategy on smartphone devices," he said.

    "We did this at a time when the mobile phone market was growing very strong across the world but it was still very much a voice-centric market with just the basic parts of the data world emerging in the form of text."

    Even then, Seiche said HTC had set its vision on a completely different kind of device – one that brought together what people were doing on PCs with mobile devices.

    He said being in at the infancy of smartphone development has helped HTC over the years to pioneer technology such as touchscreens.

    Evolve and Change

    His address on Friday at HiT Barcelona will look at HTC’s role in the smartphone evolution but also look at how the market will continue to evolve and change.

    The first of two big themes that Seiche will cover is how mobile devices will drive and revolutionise what’s happening on the Internet.

    The second is the open platform revolution, which is resulting in the proportion of handsets with open operating systems rising exponentially.

    Seiche said that with the help of industry collaboration, third party developers now had access to some very credible and powerful ways to distribute their applications.

    He said that was opening up a whole new market, as consumers saw how apps tailor-made for a mobile environment were improving the mobile experience.

    "That will continue to grow even stronger," he said. "At the end of the day, all of this should benefit the end user."

    However, Seiche said empowering the end user by enabling them to personalise smartphones was only possible in a world with open platforms – where users decide what apps are relevant and important.

    He said HTC’s role in this is to ensure it designed user interfaces that allowed users to quickly and intuitively access the mobile Internet, including connecting with services such as social networking.

    However, HTC has no plans to enter the app store arena, according to Seiche. Instead, he said the company sees its role as providing the "best possible framework" for the end user.

    "Then it is to arrange the world they create in an easy and compelling way," he said.

    HTC has also developed dedicated apps and widgets on its phones to allow users to access information ranging from stock movements to weather forecasts.

    Mobile Internet Boom

    If HTC is enthusiastic about Android, it is equally positive about Windows Mobile – the OS used in the majority of its smartphones.

    With Microsoft due to launch its own mobile software store shortly, the growing choice for consumers can only be good news for HTC.

    Seiche said the mobile Internet is about to "explode" with third party developers innovating strongly.

    "It’s a great opportunity for us," he said. "We see the main shift in the market towards open platforms.

    "We see opportunity in offering choice with different platforms, but always with great user experience at the top level no matter what the operating system."

    Smartphone.biz-news will be covering HiT Barcelona – please check our site for the latest news and interviews.

    HiT Barcelona: World Innovation Summit: June 17-19 FIRA Barcelona

  • HiT Barcelona: Can Mobile Operators' New Openness Change Lose-Lose to Win-Win?

    Mobile operators are finally ditching proprietary operator APIs – so-called "Walled Gardens" – and moving towards exposing network intelligence to third parties.

    Next week’s HiT Barcelona: World Innovation Summit in Barcelona will be discussing the need for open networks in order to engage with the growing community of application developers.

    Representatives from the developer, operator and Internet communities are taking part in a panel discussion to develop the most effective approach for the GSMA’s One API initiative.

    Among them is Michael Crossey, chief marketing officer at Aepona, who spoke to smartphone.biz-news about some of the issues that will be coming under the spotlight.

    Mobile network operators seem to have done their utmost to prevent developers from innovating on the mobile Web.

    They have created barriers by using proprietary APIs – and contractual differences have limited the creation of cross-operator web applications.

    Equally, developers have been barred from accessing rich network capabilities such as authentication, seamless charging, location assistance, push messaging and connection awareness.

    This has undoubtedly been a lose-lose situation for both operators and developers.

    That is changing and according to Michael Crossey, chief marketing officer at Aepona, the whole mobile industry theme has moved towards one of openness in the past year.

    He told smartphone.biz-news that the main catalyst for this has been Apple’s desire to make it easy for developers to create applications for the iPhone by providing them with tools and a route to market for their apps.

    Michael Crossey, CMO at Aepona

    "This has sparked off a flurry of activity in the industry, with a lot of operators and other handset manufacturers announcing open strategies to help them tap into the activity of the developer community worldwide," he said.

    This is a marked change in tactic for carriers, whose expressions of interest in working with developers in the past have been superficial at best.

    "The reality has been that, while they welcomed creative thinking, they wanted to cherry-pick the best apps for themselves and bring them into their own networks to sell," said Crossey.

    This, obviously, hasn’t been in the best interests of developers and everyone from Google to the "two men in a garage" set-ups have found ways of getting around the networks.

    That realisation has finally hit operators, forcing them to "evolve their thinking", according to Crossey.

    Last Bastion Crumbling

    He said this has meant that the mobile operators "last bastion" – opening core network capabilities to developers – is crumbling.

    "Historically there has been a lot of resistance to that," he said. "But they are realising that unless they collaborate, they will get by-passed.

    "They look at the fixed-line world, where operators have lost the battle against over the top providers, and they are determined not to let that happen to them.

    "They realise that if they collaborate rather than close the networks, they can contribute to the process."

    It is widely accepted that one way to do this is to standardise API’s and interfaces within and across operator networks.

    The GSMA is leading the charge to adopt this approach – principally through its One API initiative, phase 2 of which has just been launched.

    Crossey said this strategy is seen as necessary because even if every operator opens its network, developers will still have problems because of the different approaches each carrier adopts.

    This would be both on the technical side and on the commercial one, because every operator’s interface is different – be that with regard to terms and conditions, payment methods, business models etc.

    Huge Breakthrough

    By creating a cross-operator API, Crossey said it is hoped the fragmentation that would otherwise exist between operators will be reduced.

    The GSMA is also proposing a common commercial framework to give developers a market for their apps.

    "The operator can be assured that if it complies with One API, this will be portable between operators – this is a huge breakthrough for operators and developers," he said.

    "If there is fragmentation, the whole ecosystem does not reach critical mass and the addressable market is not big enough.

    "If there is a single set of APIs, the internet model has shown that the developer community is huge."

    Operators may, understandably, be reluctant to embrace One API because of concerns that it would restrict them from differentiating their services from a competitor’s.

    However, Crossey said the technology means that it is possible to do both – have an API model for "commonplace" services such as messaging while still being able to differentiate on, say, video and multi-media capabilities because a particular operator has invested heavily in IMS technology.

    Crossey said that Aepona, as a specialist SDP (service delivery platform) provider, enables the operators make their network capabilities – communications, information and intelligence – available to developers.

    The Web Services-based APIs can then be used to telecom-enable both enterprise business processes and web-based consumer services.

    "We provide a technical platform that allows these capabilities to be exposed to developers in a way that they are familiar with on the internet," he said.

    On the web, developers use APIs to create apps that, for example, use Google maps and mash-up with PayPal or Amazon storage services.

    Crossey said that after preaching the message of openness to operators for a number of years, there has undoubtedly been a definite shift in operators’ willingness to embrace the concept.

    The Belfast, Northern Ireland headquatered company’s products have already been deployed by Tier 1 operators such as France Telecom/Orange, Sprint, Vimpelcom, Bharti Airtel, TELUS, TDC, BT and KPN.

    "We are having many other conversations now about operators using our technology," he said.

    Opening Up Potential

    Aepona is also working with developers to help them bring apps they have created to its operator clients.

    This involves showing developers how they can use network capabilities to greatly enhance their apps for use on the platforms Aepona has installed with operators.

    Crossey said a simple example is explaining that, rather than just relying on GPS data from high-end handsets for an app, developers can be shown that operator networks can provide location data for every handset.

    "So we can increase the addressable market to a huge degree," he said. "But very often the developer is not aware of what can be done."

    A shift towards openness has also to include ensuring developers feel they are sufficiently rewarded for their applications.

    If revenue-share models fail to do this developers will keep finding workarounds and alternatives to leveraging network capabilities.

    For more information on the HiT Barcelona: World Innovation Summit: June 17-19 FIRA Barcelona, click HERE

  • INTERVIEW: Carriers' "Sea Change" Towards IP Networks, JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy

    JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy talks to voip.biz-news about the "sea change" currently taking place in the communications industry – and explains how that has resulted in JAJAH itself evolving from a consumer VoIP focus to become a global IP communications platform provider.

    Telecom operators realise their business is shifting – what they do about it is another matter.

    One company that appears well placed to offer an opinion is JAJAH – not least because it is about to sign "three or four" operators globally to use its IP platform.

    Since its launch in March 2006 it has gone from being a web-activated calling solution to a platform of choice for outsourced IP managed services, partnering with a growing number of carriers, telcos and technology companies to white label its services.

    Trevor Healy, CEO of JAJAH, said there is no doubt that mobile operators’ views have evolved over the last two to three years.

    JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy

    He told voip.biz-news that their attitude to a service like mobile VoIP has gone from ‘this is not going to happen’ to ‘it’s a problem on a small scale’ and had now reached ‘it’s going to happen and we have to be involved’.

    "When we started our business we always had these strategy debates internally about whether we should engage the operators," he said. "We knew it would take time for them to get their heads around it.

    "Now we are close to signing three or four operators globally to use our platform."

    Healy said JAJAH is offering carriers a fully serviced data communications platform, from which they can then cherry pick services such as payment and billing, fraud protection and termination engines.

    He said the carriers would use the JAJAH IP platform for a number of different things.

    "Some want to effectively capture more international call traffic, either originating or arising in their country," he said.

    "They now understand that customers are using this tool for long distance calls. But rather than build a platform themselves it’s easier for them to partner us and OEM our platform."

    Healy said operators didn’t only want to capture domestic calls but also those made by displaced internationals.

    "So, for example, it could be an Irish operator trying to capture all Irish callers in the US," he said.

    At the other end of the spectrum were operators such as Japan’s EMOBILE who are working on pure Voice over HSDPA.

    "They are right at the edge of the technology curve," said Healy. "Then there are the WiMAX guys who are coming to us saying ‘we need something to bridge the gap between now and then."

    Another "market" for JAJAH is operators that are experiencing saturation in their domestic markets and who are looking to find new sources of revenue.

    This is the case in Italy, according to Healy, where there are two mobiles for every male in the country.

    "So because of this they need to go overseas," he said. "As they go international they look at how they can build up their market internationally."

    Healy said he expected to see interest from the Tier 2 operators first, since they were facing far more competition.

    And he said the Tier 1s would probably try and integrate platforms internally initially, a process which he reckoned would see some failures and provide "pickings" for JAJAH.

    "There’s definitely a sea change in the operator landscape – and it will continue to evolve," he said.

    "We are trying to evolve a business model philosophy. The CAPEX model is not going to work.

    "If we do not put a barrier in front of these companies, we will drag them along to our vision."

    That vision has been developing for the past three years, during which time JAJAH has been shifting its focus away from just providing the mobile web VoIP model of free client-to-client calls and low-cost international rates.

    A year ago the Silicon Valley-based company began providing VoIP back-end operations to customers such as Yahoo and Match.com.

    It formed a strategic partnership with Intel to get its technology onboard next-generation PCs and offers a range of software clients to support VoIP calling on WiFi.

    However, the real emphasis has been on becoming a service provider as well as a brand for end-user calls. At the end of February, JAJAH signed a deal with BoldCall to provide online retail customers with JAJAH’s click-to-call services.

    Healy said JAJAH has effectively re-invented itself three times in its corporate life, while staying in the same core market.

    The genesis behind the changes had been seeing the flow of dollars from large companies into enterprises, which then wanted to offer new solutions to their customers – very often their employees.

    "We started as a consumer business. What we did for consumers, we did very well," he said.

    "Then other companies started saying: ‘why not open up your platform on an OEM/white label basis?’"

    The resulting evolution has seen JAJAH design its IP platform to suit three general participants in the market:

    • Enterprises – especially large multinationals such as Pfizer
    • Internet companies – such as Yahoo, that use JAJAH’s platform to carry voice
    • Operators – who want to make a platform for OEMs

    Healy said the initial part of this business model change saw JAJAH offering its services to large companies.

    Then Yahoo asked JAJAH to integrate voice into its messaging platform for its 100 million IM users.

    "More recently we re-invented ourselves again by putting it into the cloud and offering a purely managed service to companies like Yahoo with no upfront fee," he said.

    "We started to see unified communications in the cloud."

    Healy said they saw what the likes of Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle were doing in enterprises and identified a "sweet spot".

    He said they realised that enterprises had a lot of front-end applications but no connectivity.

    So large corporations with offices worldwide were having to organise and invest in UC – effectively replicating JAJAH’s offering.

    "So we reiterated our platform as a full platform for enterprises, moving into UC," he said.

    While enterprises have always featured in JAJAH’s activities – there are more than 5,000 businesses using the platform at any one time – this shift into UC on the cloud is a new niche.

    However, Healy said various factors mean the company is well placed for the change.

    He said JAJAH is global by nature, connecting into 220 countries around the world, and its consumer background means it understands what services and apps people are using outside the office environment.

    This global connectivity is device-agnostic – the company has an "anything in and anything out" philosophy of connectivity – and it has mobile solutions for a wide range of devices.

    In financial terms, the change in emphasis has meant revenues shifting in favor of infrastructure activities.

    Healy said this is increasing every quarter and is nearly at an 80-20 revenue split between the IP platform and consumer sides of the business.

    "Having said that, the consumer business is a very good one and is still important because it’s our sandbox to test a lot of our offerings," he said.

    "When we bring it to a carrier, it’s been seriously tested. A lot of companies are doing their testing in a lab environment and then testing it in an operator’s environment."

    Healy said the VoIP calling business had also proved itself on a small scale – it has more than 15 million subscribers.

    "If our consumer business was in the hands of a bigger brand and with more investment then it would be a huge business," he said. "The model works and consumers are very loyal."

    It has been necessary to concentrate on the platform side at the expense of the consumer business, according to Healy, because JAJAH is a small company and can’t afford to dilute itself too much.

    He fully expects the company to reap the rewards from this approach.

    "In the long term, enabling others to do what we do is the better strategy," he said.