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Tag: mobile-internet

  • Mobile Internet Connections – Reliable Targets for Hackers

    Researcher Karsten Nohl, an expert in data security, started a campaign against the major mobile operators in order to determine the adoption of more stringent measures to secure data traffic created by the users of mobile internet services.

    To demonstrate how vulnerable users of mobile Internet connections are to hackers interested in spying them, he created a software application that once installed on the mobile phone allows us to monitor all data traffic carried by GPRS.

    The owner of such a GPRS interceptor can track Web surfing habits of other people and even intercept sensitive data, such as passwords or credit card details.

    The whole demonstration was made possible thanks to a cheap Motorola smartphone and some free applications, modified to allow the interception and decryption of data traffic transmitted in the mobile networks using GPRS.

    The researcher wanted to point out that the encryption algorithms used for secure connections in mobile networks cannot provide effective protection even in the face of attackers poorly trained and are even lacking in some operators.

    Apparently, mobile phone operators choose not to implement the algorithms performance for secure connections in order to monitor data traffic carried out by users, to facilitate the detection and blocking the viruses that spread inside the network and the detection and blocking of Skype connections.

    Two years ago, the same researcher revealed the algorithms required for decrypting the calls carried by GSM networks. Last year he launched an application that allows users to verify if the calls initiated in the telephone networks can be bugged or not by malevolent persons.

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  • Volantis Enables Mobile Internet Access on More than 7,000 Devices

    Volantis announced that it has passed the milestone of 7,000 handsets for its mobile device information library, making it the most comprehensive device library available on the market.

    The HTC Legend, Samsung Wave and Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro are some of the most recently announced devices that have already been added to the Volantis device repository.

    The number of supported attributes and characteristics variables has also increased, from 650 up to 750 per device.

    Recent figures from the Volantis Mobile Internet Attitudes Report 2010 reveal that more than one in ten adults in the UK and the US are now accessing the mobile internet more than once a day, with another one in five accessing it at least monthly.

    With this level of adoption set only to increase, the appetite for mobile internet services that can react and adapt to the changing device landscape will result in significant opportunities for mobile operators in both the established and emerging markets.

    The Volantis mobile device information library is used by operators, systems integrators and developers to offer mobile internet and application experiences to consumers around the world, regardless of their handset or mobile device.

    According to the company, with the Volantis platform, developers can target a “next-generation user experience for high-end mobile devices,” whilst maintaining “best-fit experiences for lower tier and legacy devices without compromise.”

    For operators, this reduces exposure to commoditizing voice and SMS revenues by increasing data plan adoption from consumers across any device in their portfolio.

    "The mobile handset market has been greatly impacted by the recent surge in popularity of smartphones," commented Mark Watson, CEO of Volantis.

    "As a result, operators and content providers have to adapt and future-proof their service offerings for subscribers and keep pace with the speed with which these high-end, increasingly complex devices are launched," he added.

  • IDC: 450 Million Mobile Internet Users Worldwide in 2009, One Billion by 2013

    There were more than 450 million mobile Internet users worldwide in 2009, a number that is expected to more than double by the end of 2013, according to IDC.

    IDC’s Worldwide Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast finds that most popular online activities of mobile Internet users are similar to those of other Internet users: using search engines, reading news and sports information, downloading music and videos, and sending/receiving email and instant messages.

    Over the next four years, IDC expects some of the fastest growing applications for mobile Internet users will be making online purchases, participating in online communities, and creating blogs.

    Accessing online business applications and corporate email systems will also grow rapidly as businesses move to empower their mobile workforce.

    Highlights from IDC research include the following:

    • More than 1.6 billion devices worldwide were used to access the Internet in 2009, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles.

    • China continues to have more Internet users than any other country, with 359 million in 2009. This number is expected to grow to 566 million by 2013. The United States had 261 million Internet users in 2009, a figure that will reach 280 million in 2013. India will have one of the fastest growing Internet populations, growing almost two-fold between 2009 and 2013.

    • Presently, the United States has far more total devices connected to the Internet than any other country. China, however, is the leader in in the number of mobile online devices with almost 85 million mobile devices connected to the Internet in 2009.

    • Worldwide, more than 624 million Internet users will make online purchases in 2009, totaling nearly $8 trillion (both business to business and business to consumer). By 2013, worldwide eCommerce transactions will be worth more than $16 trillion.

    • Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total nearly $61 billion in 2009, which is slightly more than 10% of all ad spending across all media. This share is expected to reach almost 15%% by 2013 as Internet ad spending grows surpasses $100 billion worldwide.

    "With a wealth of information and services available from almost anywhere, Internet-connected mobile devices are reshaping the way we go about our personal and professional lives. With an explosion in applications for mobile devices underway, the next several years will witness another sea change in the way users interact with the Internet and further blur the lines between personal and professional," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC.

  • Mobile Internet in Africa: Interview with Jose Henriques, Vodacom

    Mobile internet is no longer luxury in Africa as it has become a valuable tool of global development, this according to Jose Henriques, Vodacom executive head of internet services.

    Henriques was speaking to Biz-News.com in Johannesburg last week during the Mobile Web Africa conference whose focus was looking at ways of harnessing the potential of internet and applications on mobile devices.

    “It is amazing how such a luxury item has quickly become a valuable tool of global development, shifting from being held to the ears to being held by hand, and becoming an instrument of promoting economic growth,” Henriques said.

    “Mobile phones are the advance guard for mobile broadband networks and at the same time they are promoting economic benefits and providing a basic tool of education, for instance helping parents to afford to educate their children.”

    Jose Henriques

    The conference, organised by All Amber and which was attended by over 150 local and international delegates, heard that Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa (fourth position), Sudan, Algeria, Kenya, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe are the top 10 countries in terms of internet penetration on PC,
    while only 3.3% of Africans have access to internet via their mobile phones.

    These top 10 countries make up of 85% of all internet users market in Africa, according to recent statistics.

    South Africa has over 4.5 million PC internet users and close to 10 million mobile internet users expectation is to have at least 15 million mobile internet users by 2013.

    Mobile penetration

    Henriques explained that despite the limitations of opportunities of fixed-line internet in Africa and the unstoppable rise of mobile revolution and its socio-economic advantages, countries such as Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria are working hard to push for mobile penetration, especially in rural areas.

    The African mobile internet market continues to grow dramatically, staying slightly behind the Middle East (fastest-growing region), with pages viewed having increased by 422% between April 2008 to April 2009, and Google being the number one and Yahoo in third in each of the top 12 countries striving intensively on software development.

    The top 12 countries include SA, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Zambia and Tanzania.

    However, Henriques warned that he said the only way companies will succeed to advance the mobile internet cause is to give a decent access experience to the user, get their price right and affordable and provide content adaptation.

    “One must ensure that the internet is accessed in any phone with cost-effective rates and the possibility to get any big website into a small screen,” he explained.

  • Collecting Testimonies of Violence Using Mobile Internet

    Kenya has taken a leading role in Africa by embarking on effective use of Mobile Internet to expose acts of political violence, murder and torture, Ory Okollo the founder of Ushahidi.com told Biz-news.com

    In an interview on the sidelines of Mobile Web Africa conference in Sandton recently, executive director of Kenya’s Ushahidi, Ory Okolloh, said her organization was primarily established to expose crisis situations to empower Africa.

    “In brief, Ushahidi means testimony. The name was derived from Swahili language and Ushahidi was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post election fallout at the beginning of 2008.

    “This is basically about creating technological platform to enable anyone from around the globe to capture reports by mobile phone, web or email. With time, we would want this to work with other online tools,” said Okolloh.

    Ory Okollo

    She said Ushahidi was an open source application which could be downloaded, used or implemented, to bring awareness to regional crisis prevailing on the continent.

    Already some countries such as Uganda, war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi and Zambia are tapping into Ushahidi project to improve and track near real-time stockouts of medical supplies at pharmacies.

    Even renowned international television channel, Al Jazeera, is reportedly using some of the technology from Ushahidi in its work to expose elements of violence from around the globe.

    Ushahidi.com site collects “testimony” on violence as people see it. They can send reports using cell phones and computers to the site.

    The information is logged and registered according to the type of violence (riots, deaths, property loss, rape, looting, etc.) using Google Maps.

    In places and moments when reporting is dangerous and difficult, this kind of program uses information from ordinary citizens to record violence as its happening. Ushahidi was put together by a lawyer/activist, Okollo and a small group of Kenyan, blogger/techies while the post-election violence in Kenya was going on in the early part of 2008.

    It was then used in South Africa to track xenophobic attacks against foreigners, and then in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All these instances can be viewed on the website.

    In addition to offering a method of tracking violence, Ushahidi also serves as a bloggers’ space to talk about new uses of technologies in Africa. Videos produced on the spot that can be uploaded also add to the testimony. It is cutting edge technology married to a citizen empowerment project.

    The collected data is useful for all kinds of people and purposes from NGOs, media, human rights workers, aid organizations to ordinary citizens who want to know what is happening in times of crisis.

  • Mobile Web a "Miserable" Experience for Many Users


    Mobile web users have 35 per cent less success completing website tasks on cell phones than they do on a PC, according to a study.

    Small screens, awkward input, download delays and badly designed websites were all given as obstacles to a good browsing experience.

    The results led usability researchers at the Nielsen Norman Group to conclude in their report that it is neither "easy nor pleasant" for people to use the Web on their mobile phones.

    Conducted in the US and UK, the studies found that the average success rate for users completing tasks on the mobile Internet was 59 per cent.

    This compared to an average success rate of 80 per cent for websites accessed on a regular PC.

    Jakob Nielsen, principal of the Nielsen Norman Group, said: "The phrase ‘mobile usability’ is pretty much an oxymoron.

    Jakob Nielsen, principal of the Nielsen Norman Group

    "Observing users suffer during our user sessions reminded us of the very first usability studies we did with traditional websites in 1994. It was that bad."

    Not counting poor cellular signal, researchers identified four main obstacles that mobile users face to getting a good user experience:

    • Small screens: When users see fewer options at any given time, all interactions become harder to do
    • Awkward input: Text entry is particularly slow and error prone, even on phones with mini-keyboards, and it is difficult to operate GUI widgets without a mouse
    • Download delays: Getting to the next screen takes forever, often longer than it would on a dial-up connection
    • Mis-designed websites: Sites optimized for usability under desktop conditions, meaning they don’t follow guidelines for mobile access, create all kinds of additional obstacles for mobile users

    Raluca Budiu, lead researcher for the study and co-author of the study, Usability of Mobile Websites, said the first two problems are inherent to mobile devices.

    "As for connectivity, it’s going to take many years before mobile connections are as fast as even a modest cable modem," she said.

    "The key opportunity for improving the mobile user experience lies in websites being designed specifically for better mobile usability."

    The researchers found that when test participants used sites designed specifically for mobile devices, their success rates averaged 64 per cent compared to the 53 per cent success rate they experienced when using "full" sites on their mobile phones – in other words, the same sites offered to PC users.

    The report said that user performance could be improved by 20 per cent by creating mobile-optimized sites.

  • Mobile Internet Becoming Part of Daily Lives


    The number of people in the US using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled in the last year.

    An estimated 63.2 million people accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, up from 36.9 million doing so in January 2008, according to figures released today from comScore.

    Of these, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so daily – also more than double the size of the audience last year.

    The highest growth, however, was in accessing social networking sites or blogs, with 9.3 million using the mobile internet daily to access a social network site or blog in January 2009 compared with 1.8 million in January 2008.

    Mark Donovan, comScore’s senior vice president, mobile, said that that over the course of the past year, mobile Internet use has evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of people’s lives.

    "This underscores the growing importance of the mobile medium as consumers become more reliant on their mobile devices to access time-sensitive and utilitarian information."

    Donovan said that social networking and blogging have emerged as very popular daily uses of the mobile Web and these activities are growing at a torrid pace.

    "We also note that much of the growth in news and information usage is driven by the increased popularity of downloaded applications, such as those offered for the iPhone, and by text-based searches."

    In January, 22.3 million people accessed news and information via a downloaded applications, with 8.2 million people using downloaded maps applications.

    SMS is still a strong channel, with 32.4 million people using SMS to access news and information—including 14.1 million people using SMS for search.

    Donovan said that hile smartphones and high-end feature phones, like the Samsung Instinct and LG Dare comprise the Top 10 devices used for news and information access, 70 per cent of those accessing mobile Internet content are using feature phones.

    Other significant segments included:

    • Traded stocks or accessed financial account, which grew by 188 per cent to 3.3 million
    • Accessed movie information, which grew by 185 per cent to 3.1 million
    • Accessed business directories, which grew by 161 per cent to 2.4 million
    • Accessed entertainment news, which grew by 160 per cent to 5.5 million.

  • Growth of Mobile Content and Services Sector Threatened


    The UK’s mobile content and services market could be in for tough times if research from mobile research and analyst house Direct2 Mobile bears out.

    Its survey found that over 7 per cent of consumers have stopped, or intend to stop, their spend on content and services until better economic conditions emerge.

    D2M said that figure represents 3.96 million users – or almost 50 per cent of the existing mobile content and service user base.

    Nearly a fifth of respondents (17.8 per cent of men / 16.3 per cent of women) – or around 10 million users – said they will not subscribe to mobile content and service subscriptions, such as mobile Internet access, mobile TV and mobile music services, until the economic environment changes.

    Nick Lane, chief researcher at D2M, said the glass is half full for the mobile operators and half empty for the mobile content and service industry.

    "As almost half the advanced data users are reverting to talk-and-text only usage, the mobile entertainment companies should remain vigilant for the foreseeable future," he said.

    "And with 20 per cent of the UK’s mobile population unlikely to subscribe to mobile data subscription services during the recession, it threatens to seriously impact on growth in the mobile content and services sector."

    The UK mobile entertainment market was worth approximately UKP£505.8 million in 2008, according to D2M.

    The survey, conducted by Lightspeed Research, asked a representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers about their changing spending attitudes and habits on mobile.

  • Why Halt At Tethering One Device To Your Smartphone?


    It’s one thing to hear the corporate blurb about a product, quite another to hear company executives’ experience of using their own gear.

    Sean O’Leary, TapRoot Systems’ VP of marketing and business development, has just spent a week touring Europe relying on his company’s WalkingHotSpot software for internet connectivity.

    Launched six months ago as a beta version, the ability of the software to transform Windows Mobile 6 and S60 3G/Wi-Fi handsets into walking “hotspots” has proved very popular.

    The application is capable of tethering up to five devices through a Wi-Fi enabled smartphone.

    Users can retrieve emails and surf the web on devices such as laptops and MP3 players using their handsets’ wireless data plan without the need for the added expense of data cards and dongles.

    While O’Leary was never going to be the most neutral of critics there’s no doubt he is more than pleased with the success of his first hand exposure to the application.

    “Even using it on trains around Europe it worked seamlessly and there was never any problem with connecting,” he told smartphone.biz-news.com at the Smartphone Show in London.

    While 30 per cent of software downloads have been in the US, Europe hasn’t been slow to catch on to the advantages of WalkingHotSpot.

    O’Leary said it was possible to make calls while devices were connected without any degradation in quality for either the devices or the phone call.

    The software is available to download for either a one-time fee of USD $24.99 (€18) for the lifetime of the phone or as a monthly plan for USD $6.99 (€5).

    O’Leary said support for other major operating systems is coming soon.

    To owners of iPhones just being able to easily hook up one device to their handsets would be ample.

  • Millions will wear video glasses for mobile viewing

    Screen size limitations on smartphones and UMPCs hamper users’ ability to fully enjoy mobile video, TV or the internet, according to Kip Kokinakis, president and CEO of Myvu.


    smartphone.biz-news.com spoke to him about Myvu’s Crystal video glasses and his prediction that millions of people will soon be wearing them for mobile viewing.

    Why watch a movie, play a video game or browse the internet on a tiny screen when you could be doing so on a 40” one?

    The answer would invariably be because there isn’t any real alternative for anyone on the move with a smartphone, UMPC or MID.

    Kip Kokinakis begs to differ. But since he is president and CEO of a company that designs and manufactures video eyewear for mobile entertainment, you would expect him to.

    The Westwood, Massachusetts-based firm’s latest offering is the Myvu Crystal, video glasses that connect to any media device with video out functionality – including the iPhone, Nokia N Series and most Samsung models.

    The premium model gives users something akin to a DVD-quality experience on a 40” screen, with built in ear-buds and the ability to “see around” the floating image when on the go.

    Spotting someone in an airport departure lounge watching a movie on a pair of Crystals may still seem a mite outlandish – but Kokinakis doesn’t believe it will be for long.

    “Within three years millions of people will be using these things,” he said. “All sorts of information and data can be translated to the glasses. It’s becoming natural to be out and about with them on.”

    What will influence uptake?

    Two factors that will undoubtedly emphasis the need for improved screen quality and size are the take-up of mobile TV and web browsing.

    This is already expanding rapidly in many markets around the world – just recently T-Mobile in the UK announced it was upgrading the download capability of its HSDPA 3G network to 7.2Mbps – and the pace of growth is set to continue.

    So too will the smartphone market, with research from ABI Research indicating that handset manufacturers will continue to push many high-end features further down their product lines, so increasing usage of mobile video, TV and the internet.

    And while Kokinakis admits that “wonderful things” are being done with smartphones and UMPCs in terms of computing power, there is only so much you can do with a small screen.

    “One thing you can’t do with a 4” screen is replicate a 50” screen,” he said. “You can’t keep evolving the screen on a hand-held device.
    “Video glasses are really the most cost effective way of getting a big screen on a small device.”

    Viewing technology will keep pace with content developments

    While the Crystal is described as providing the highest pixel density and sharpest resolution for any videowear of its size, Kokinakis insists the product is “a long way from being done”.

    He believes the technology is at a “tipping point” and over the coming year we can expect to see developments offering more pixels, near HD quality and a larger screen size.

    “By the end of next year we will have products so far beyond anything we thought of when we first demonstrated video glasses,” he said. “Everyone will be excited.”

    Kokinakis said that as optical quality improves and the number of pixels rises, the eyewear would become thinner and lighter while being able to display images as if on a 70” screen.

    While competing technologies, such as flexible displays, which can be folded or rolled, hold great potential, he doesn’t believe they will usurp video glasses.

    Speaking from Singapore, a center of excellence for material science and where he spends around 70 per cent of his time, he said: “The need for an optical system is there. Others are coming….but nothing replaces plastic at a price.”

    Another viable opportunity for video glasses is augmented reality, which Kokinakis believes will be feasible within three or four years.

    Who will be buying video glasses?

    While video eyegear might appear to only have appeal for those enduring lengthy commutes or frequent long-haul flights – especially in the US, Kokinakis believes the market and appeal is much broader.

    He points especially to the European and Asian markets, which have demographics more suited to video glasses because of wider use of mass transit and the fact people generally live in smaller living spaces.

    “We see a day when it’s not just about watching a movie, but people are watching TV while others are web browsing – all on a 50” screen,” he said

    Not so long ago people wearing headphones in public were scoffed at – imagine!
    Do you see video eyewear such as Crystal glasses becoming the norm for mobile viewing? We would be interested to hear your comments.