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Tag: voices-of-the-industry

  • SiBeam CEO Welcomes Wireless HD "Competition"

    INTERVIEW: With a third group now entering the race to deliver a high-speed wireless technology in the home – and wireless HDTV products hitting the market – momentum is building.

    John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBEAM, and a leading member of the WirelessHD (WiHD) consortium, tells hdtv.biz-news that he welcomes the addition of the rival Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance to the fray.

    Over the past few years a number of wireless technologies have announced their intention to rid homes of cables and stream content around the home.

    Their number was enlarged recently when the newly formed WiGig Alliance declared that it is to develop a high-bandwidth wireless specification before the year end.

    The fact this group has the backing of household names such as Microsoft, LG, Dell, Samsung, Marvell, Nokia, NEC, Intel and Broadcom (among others), might have been cause enough for the competing groups to worry.

    But WiGig’s plans to use the 60 GHz spectrum would have been a particular worry for the WirelessHD (WiHD) consortium, which also uses 60 GHz to send signals.

    Not so, said John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBEAM, and a leading member of WiHD.

    He told hdtv.biz-news that, in general, WiGig’s arrival was very good for the 60 GHz spectrum.

    "This is the way in which the rest of the wireless world is going," he said. "There is room for multiple uses of the spectrum."

    For LeMoncheck the adoption of the 60 GHz spectrum is also something of a personal vindication.

    "When we first started talking about 60 GHz, they laughed me out of the meeting," he said.

    "Now it is satisfying to see the big guys focusing on this technology."

    He added: "There’s not a better or more cost-effective way to do this."

    Growing Interest

    WiGig joining the other competing groups – WiHD and the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) – also highlights the growing interest in wireless technologies.

    However, LeMoncheck said he would question whether WiGig was actually in direct competition with WiHD – which he described as very consumer electronics focused.

    "WiGig have not been able to clearly elucidate what they want," he said.

    "They are trying to be a lot of things to a lot of people, which can lead to a standard that’s not any use to anyone."

    That’s definitely not the case with WiHD, according to LeMoncheck, who said he was very happy with the progress being made.

    This year has seen the first WiHD-enabled products come to market in Japan and Korea, with launches from Panasonic, LG and Toshiba.

    Panasonic’s Z1 WirelessHD Plasma

    He said more HDTVs are going to be launched in the US and Europe this summer.

    "It has been a very exciting first half of the year for the rollout of the product," he said.

    "We are working hard to have products come out and work seamlessly."

    This has included publishing compliance test procedures in January – tests that all products have to pass before being able to carry the WiHD logo.

    And facilities offering WiHD testing are now also operational.

    A further boost has come from Philips joining the WiHD consortium as a promoter company.

    This brings the total number of promoter companies up to 10 and there are 40 firms associated with the WiHD standard.

    Pieces in Place

    "All the infrastructure is there to bring products to market," said LeMoncheck.

    "We have had tremendous traction in the market and other tier 1 guys should be launching in the fall."

    While products using the WiHD technology are in the high-to-mid range price bracket, LeMoncheck said they were working on bringing the cost down.

    The use of general-purpose complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology is expected to help with this, and he expected to see products in 42" range and lower as a result.

    "We can pick very friendly CMOS geometry, so we have room to migrate down as smaller geometry gets further down the cost curve," he said.

    "We can cut a lot of the cost from a system."

    That will undoubtedly be welcomed by consumers – as will the fact that wireless-enabled products are finally making their way onto the shelves.

  • Wireless Technology Specialist Option "Optimistic" After Business Model Shift

    INTERVIEW: Known for its hardware products, wireless solutions specialists Option is transforming itself in the face of fierce competition and plunging margins.

    The company’s marketing director, Jan Poté, tells smartphone.biz-news how the company is expanding to offer complete end-to-end solutions – ranging from its Ucan virtual ‘PC on a stick’ to designing the system board for Sharp’s new 3G Sidekick LX messaging phone.

    There is little room for complacency in the technology industry – even for those who pioneer products and establish themselves as market leaders.

    So when wireless technology provider Option found itself facing mounting competition in one of its core markets it went back to the drawing board.

    The company was founded in 1986 and one of its first products was a modem card for laptop PCs – obviously not wireless in those days.

    Jan Poté, Option’s marketing director, said it continued evolving slowly until, in 2001, the firm’s engineers developed the first completely wireless (cellular) PCMCIA data card.

    He said that after interesting Vodafone in Europe in the product, the subsequent growth in the market for data cards "kick-started" Option.

    This helped establish the company, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, as the market leader in data cards.

    Poté said it then saw USB devices coming – as did others in the industry.

    Major Issues

    However, the company had to face up to two major issues.

    The first was the need to reorganise itself internally after a period of rapid growth.

    The second, and perhaps more concerning, was how to address fierce competition from Asian manufacturers.

    Among them was the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which had begun manufacturing the new form USB connectors and was quickly gobbling up market share.

    Option responded immediately and last year developed a complete line of USB devices.

    But the economic downturn put enormous pressure on pricing and operators were drastically reducing stock levels.

    To make matters worse, ZTE, another Chinese competitor, had come onto the scene.

    Poté said the result was that by the middle of 2008 the market was in the throes of a "quite ridiculous price war" that drove prices sharply downwards.

    While operators such as Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile continued selling Option’s USB sticks, the volumes were much lower than had been expected.

    Changes Needed

    He said there was a growing realisation within the company that a change of tack was required. "We came up with two things," he said.

    The first centered on the idea of selling software with Option’s existing hardware products.

    From this was born the Ucan – a virtual ‘PC on a stick’ – a USB device that connects to the internet via 3G and 3G+ (HSPA) and allows users to take all their applications, data, favorite websites and so on, with them.

    It can be plugged it into any USB port of any computer and automatically creates a users’ personal digital environment.

    Poté said initial feedback from operators about the software platform was very encouraging.

    "It is a differentiator for them because it allows them to offer more than just connectivity time," he said.

    So they can build services to e-shop, to data storage servers or to carry out security checks.

    While Option was pitching the product to appeal to consumers, Poté said operators were keen to offer it into business verticals, such as insurance and banking.

    "So we are preparing for certain operators applications for certain B2B sectors," he said.

    Poté said the strategy of including software applications to its hardware products is adding quite some value for the company.

    "Differentiating in software is the first area where we can make a difference," he said.

    "Huawei and ZTE are not going in the same direction and we have 6-8 months of advantage at this point in time."

    Work to Strengths

    The second thing Option did was to go back to the drawing board and look at its core strengths.

    "We knew we were good at working with 3G connectivity and putting that capability in devices," said Poté. "So we said: ‘Let’s see if we can take things a step further`."

    Sharp had developed the first 2G Sidekick for T-Mobile and was now looking for a 3G version.

    Poté said Sharp came to Option and asked the company to work on the smartphone’s development.

    He said the new handset would have to be thinner, faster and produce less heat than its predecessor.

    "It wasn’t going to be simple and we told Sharp that the only way is if they let us do our own system board," he said.

    The result was that Option’s engineers developed a highly-integrated system board for the Japanese consumer electronics giant, incorporating all smartphone functionalities including 3G mobile broadband.

    The new 3G Sidekick LX messaging phone launched a month ago in the US to favorable reviews.

    Interest Grows

    For Option, the result has been a lot of attention from other device manufacturers, including IBM, HP and Apple, who are interested in complex 3G solutions.

    And this new market offers a potentially more rewarding revenue source.

    "Instead of having to invoice an operator for USB devices, where everyone is negotiating on price like hell, we negotiate with Sharp," he said.

    This initially entailed a development fee for the system board, but once in production Option gets a license fee for every Sidekick sold.

    Poté said this business model shift – with license agreements – was one they were going to repeat with operators for installing software on USB devices.

    He said talks were ongoing with a list of 50 software companies to see how they can integrate their applications onto Option’s Ucan platform.

    Poté admits that the process of re-assessing Option’s products and strategies has been a difficult one – and not without some pain.

    While the company has strengthened its team of software developers it has also is having to reduce staff in other areas.

    As a result personnel numbers are expected to fall from 700 to 570 over the course of 2009.

    "This year, revenues from USB devices will still form the majority of our revenues," he said.

    "We have had to cut costs down and have moved production one hundred per cent to China.

    "We are working on our cost bases and working to strengthen our core competencies. It’s not easy."

    Outlook Promising

    However, Poté said the result will be a company well set up to deal with future competition.

    "If you look at software, it’s an open field. We can pioneer in that field for 2-3 years, then when it’s a lucrative market we will have competition," he said.

    Poté said Option’s partnership with Intel integrating 3G onto its platform for MIDs had enormous potential, as did the possibilities for integrating 3G onto other devices.

    He said digital camera manufacturers have already contacted Option to inquire about having 3G on their products.

    "The opportunities are big. At this moment we make the smallest HSDPA module in the world – the GTM501 – which is half the usual size," he said.

     Despite the difficult economic situation, Poté said he was confident that the company’s result would improve from the end of this year as other products come onto the market.

    "We have seen that the adoption cycle for MIDs is slower than expected because of the economic downturn," he said. "This will improve and we are optimistic beyond 2009."

  • Optimism For WiMAX Grows – As LTE Cranks Up Network Plans

    INTERVIEW: With the WiMAX Forum Global Congress about to kick off in Amsterdam, smartphone.biz-news spoke to Mike Roberts, principle analyst with Informa, about the state of the emerging wireless technology.

    While the appeal of WiMAX for users has always been clear it hasn’t made the 4G technology’s path to becoming a widely adopted wireless standard any smoother.

    However, despite setbacks and delays in networks being rolled out, WiMAX does appear to finally be gaining momentum.

    On Tuesday, thousands of delegates will be attending the opening of this year’s two-day WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam.

    Mike Roberts, principle analyst with Informa, is chairing sessions at the conference.

    He said he is "cautiously optimistic" about WiMAX, which is taking a small but increasingly respectable share of the mobile broadband market.

    "It’s a newcomer and is not going to take over the market overnight," he said. "Given its strengths we see it taking a very small market share, but that’s growing and will continue to do so."

    Roberts told smartphone.biz-news that one of the themes in Amsterdam will be that WiMAX should focus on its strengths.

    "While that may appear obvious, it still holds true," he said.

    What are those strengths? Well, these are principally fast data rates and low latency.

    Broadband Data

    As a result, Roberts said WiMAX should initially be concentrating on the broadband data segment since it offers users a better user experience than other technologies.

    "It is the latest and greatest technologies bundled together. That’s its great advantage," he said.

    There are also disadvantages to the technology, especially when compared to 3G-based systems such as HSPA and EVDO. But Roberts said these largely come down to coverage.

    "They (3G) are established traditional systems, so they are everywhere. WiMAX does not have that in any countries, but that is a function of maturity."

    Juniper Research recently issued a report noting that growth in WiMAX networks has been slower than anticipated.

    But it forecast that revenue from WiMAX 802.16e broadband subscribers will exceed USD $15 billion globally by 2014.

    To put that in perspective, Verizon reported wireless revenue of USD $15.1 billion for the first quarter of this year.

    The report notes that WiMAX will likely be a replacement technology for low-end DSL service and in developing countries where wired access doesn’t make economic sense.

    Developing Nations Take To WiMAX

    A driving force in these markets is Intel, which expects to make WiMAX accessible to 120 million people in 2010, with global rollouts planned or already happening in nations such as Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and India.

    Roberts said WiMAX had strong appeal in these countries because of their low broadband penetration.

    He said coverage is often not very good because of the cost of creating networks.

    "But everyone wants broadband these days, regardless of where they are, and the obvious way to roll it out is with wireless technology," he said.

    "WiMAX and other mobile broadband technologies have a great opportunity to meet that demand and are going after that opportunity."

    In the US, the WiMAX market is slowly growing, thanks chiefly to WiMAX service provider Clearwire.

    It is, finally, rolling out its WiMAX network – it added 25,000 new subscriptions in the first quarter of 2009, and users in Portland, Ore., where the service launched in January, are using twice the bandwidth than those in Clearwire’s Pre-WiMAX markets.

    The company has the aim of providing a pervasive mobile broadband service nationwide.

    But despite USD $3 billion in recent additional funding, the current economic climate has caused delays in the rollout.

    That said, as PC makers and others in the technology industry infiltrate the wireless market, the more open WiMAX technology is likely to gain more ground.

    Clearwire CEO William Morrow, recently spoke about the capacity and openness of the WiMAX network.

    He pointed out that it offered a way for customers to get streaming video or other applications that carriers are currently leery of.

    Roberts said Clearwire is one of the first really major WiMAX deployments and the faster it deployed, the better it was for the technology.

    "The rollout has been delayed but now its going ahead the take up in some markets is very good," he said. "That is very good for WiMAX."

    Clearwire is looking to target its ultra high-speed service at "road warriors" and others looking to get the most out of their netbooks, smartphones and laptops. It also appeals to heavy broadband users on a local level.

    Clearwire argues that eventually, the economies of scale and interest level will be convincing enough for consumer electronics makers to embed WiMAX into a range of smart devices.

    To improve the road warrior proposition in the absence of widespread deployment, Clearwire plans to introduce a dual-mode modem this summer that can connect to Sprint’s 3G network as well as to the Clear network.

    It says that, while there are no embedded devices on the market right now, it expects there to be nearly 100 by the end of the year.

    Roberts said that WiMAX is very strong in the portable segment – USB modems and notebooks – and is gaining momentum elsewhere.

    He said this is in part because Intel is one of the technology’s major backers and it held a lot of sway in the market.

    HTC T8290 – HTC’s First WiMAX Device

    "A lot of the 100 devices will be in that category," he said. "Where WiMAX still has a lot of work to do is in the mobile device category, although a lot of WiMAX people would say that’s less important to them."

    If WiMAX achieves its goal of having 100 devices by the end of 2009, then that is quite good progress for an emerging technology, according to Roberts.

    But he said it still paled in comparison to the 1000s of mobile devices available to the encumbent technologies, which were also able to offer them at very competitive price points.

    "But WiMAX offers a lightly better user experience for some applications and they will have to differentiate on that basis," he said.

    Play to Strength

    While WiMAX is strong in the portable segments, true, "full-blown" mobility will be harder and more expensive to achieve, according to Roberts.

    "You can argue the extent to which some WiMax networks need to go there," he said. "Most will be based on mobile WiMAX but do not need a full-blown mobile service.

    "It could be more for people on notebooks rather than talking on the phone – that’s WiMAX’s real core strength and the obvious place to start.

    "If it tries to go against straight mobility, then it will come up against very intense competition."

    Also in the US, Sprint rolled out a pilot WiMAX program in Baltimore last year. The network delivers average download speeds of two to four megabits per second, half the rate of cable Internet but several times faster than the 3G mobile service used by many of today’s smartphones, according to Sprint’s tests.

    The company plans to introduce WiMAX in 10 American cities this year and five more in 2010.

    Since few mobile devices have WiMAX chips in them, Sprint’s plan requires a proprietary antenna that plugs into laptops, similar to the early Wi-Fi cards that have since been built into computers.

    Growth Gets Noticed

    The flip side to WiMAX’s expanding network is that competing technologies take notice of the progress.

    So carriers like Verizon Wireless have speeded up their next generation network plans (in this case LTE).

    Ericsson and TeliaSonera have just flipped the switch on the world’s first commercial LTE cell site in Stockholm, Sweden.

    The site will be part of a full-scale deployment that’s scheduled for next year.

    AT&T has also just announced it is to accelerate the ramp up of LTE, a move which places it in a head-to-head competition with Verizon Wireless.

    The latter is already racing to install its LTE wireless infrastructure.

    "Success does not go unnoticed," said Roberts. "The LTE crowd has seen WiMAX coming to market and they have accelerated their plans in response.

    "I may be being a little cynical, but in Ericsson’s case they have turned on the base station although no-one can use it as there are no devices available.

    "But it is a step towards commercialising LTE."

    Despite this, he is optimistic about the future prospects for WiMAX: "If you look at WiMAX in isolation there are a lot of very positive signs.

    "If you look at it in broad terms, there are also positive signs. But there is competition and WiMAX will have to compete with the incumbents."

  • EU Mobile Roaming Charge Caps Will "Increase Traffic and Revenue"

    INTERVIEW: As mobile operators in Europe rush to comply with legislation to protect consumers from massive roaming and SMS/MMS bills, Amit Daniel, vice president of marketing for Starhome, tells smartphone.biz-news about the challenges – and the advantages – the new rules will bring.

    One result of the European Commission’s new measures to cap mobile roaming charges will be the end of what has become known as "bill shock".

    This well publicised term describes the phenomenon of opening your mobile bill with no clue as to what the cost will be – and getting hit with massive charges for those calls made abroad.

    As a first step to ending this, new caps on roaming charges come into force in July.

    By then, carriers in Europe must ensure they have the appropriate technology in place to comply with the data usage regulations.

    Not surprisingly this has led to a significant increase in interest roaming solutions – including those offered by Israel-based Starhome.

    The company is the largest supplier of roaming solutions for mobile operators, with more than 160 clients around the world, including Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and Telefonica.

    Amit Daniel, VP marketing, Starhome

    Amit Daniel, vice president of marketing for Starhome, told smartphone.biz-news that operators are understandably concerned about finding and implementing solutions without incurring penalties, disrupting existing operations or inconveniencing customers.

    She said that aside from the legal requirements, consumers are also demanding clear information about roaming costs to avoid becoming victims of "bill shock".

    "We are seeing extreme demand for these kinds of solutions from all over the world," said Daniel. "Data is one of the hottest topics at the moment and this coming year there will be lots of implementations."

    Two-Stage Legislation

    European mobile operators have to meet two legislative deadlines to comply with the European legislation.

    The first is the adoption of the Roaming II Regulation, which is set to commence on July 1.

    It will significantly affect the roaming industry, especially the provision limiting the Euro-SMS tariff. Subscribers sending SMSs abroad must not be charged more than Euros €0.11 cents, and those receiving SMSs in other EU countries cannot be charged.

    The Commission also proposed a safeguard limit (per megabyte) for wholesale data roaming fees.

    A second phase of Roaming II Regulation states that by March 1, 2010, operators must enable customers to pre-determine the amount they wish to spend before service is "cut-off".

    While the new rules require operators to change their systems, Daniel said her impression was that the industry realised it would be offering something of value and simplicity to users.

    She said the most obvious was control over mobile costs while roaming.

    "It’s a major issue for operators but it will eventually increase traffic and revenue," she said.

    "Consumers are reluctant to use their mobiles while roaming at the moment because pricing is too complex and they are worried about suffering from bill shock.
    "So many people turn off their handsets and only use them in emergencies.

    "The EU legislation will give customers the possibility to control expenses and determine what they want to spend in the future."

    Benefits beyond Pricing

    Another benefit of the changes, according to Daniel, is that they offer operators the potential to stand out from the competition in terms of the packages they offer.

    This extends beyond just pricing to include revenue-generating services that can be offered as part of a bundle.

    However, Daniel said carriers were having to ensure their systems – both hardware and software – were capable of determining users’ real time usage status and how much calls were costing.

    "Current systems can do calculations of usage offline after a transaction has been made and record data consumption rates," she said.

    "But it’s not in real time. The main issue is to be able to do real time billing, which most operators do not have the capacity to do."

    Daniel said that the legislation essentially requires traffic usage to be monitored and measured to keep check on how much is being consumed.

    She said this then had to be correlated with a user’s subscription package and specific billing plan.

    Operators could then, for example, send a "roaming" user an SMS telling them how much they are going to be charged for using their mobile abroad.

    Credit Limit Warning 

    For the second phase of the EU legislation, subscribers will have the option to purchase packages from operators which are then monitored by companies like Starhome.

    As part of these, users will be notified if they are going to exceed agreed credit limits when using their phones internationally.

    To do this the operators again need to be able to access real time information on users’ mobile consumption.

    "This is a solution we are providing to give roaming control, both in Europe and beyond," said Daniel.

    A benefit for Starhome’s extensive client base was that they can use their existing platforms, according to Daniel.

    These are already connected to signalling and billing systems, so there is no need to integrate a new supplier – a major project in itself.

    Starhome offers the solution in a managed service mode, a popular option since there is a high level of liability on the operators’ side of the service.

    She said the company’s global operations centre carriers out 24/7 monitoring of its clients’ networks.

    "If something goes wrong with connections and so on, we are capable of seeing that in real time and alerting the operator," she said.

    "In terms of providing a service that’s really liable and always working, this is one of the areas where we have an advantage over competitors."

    The new rules will undoubtedly make knowing the cost of using mobiles abroad much simpler for consumers – whether the operators stand to gain from the changes remains to be seen.

  • SanDisk CEO Harari Bullish About Flash Memory


    SanDisk CEO Eli Harari believes that at $2/GB SSDs aren’t competitive yet with hard drives.

    But he is bullish about the technology’s prospects and believes it offers an ideal storage solution for netbooks.

    In an interview with Tech Trader Daily, he said that you can buy an 80 GB HDD for USD $30-$35.

    SanDisk CEO Eli Harari

    However, that same USD $30 would only get you 15 GB of flash. He suggests that 32 GB of storage is probably enough for many netbook applications.

    But to be competitive with hard drives, Harari said the flash industry will have to be able to sell at USD $1/GB while maintaining profitability.

    He said that wasn’t possible at the current 42-43 nm process technology now used for manufacturing flash.

    But he believes it should be possible at 24 nm, or two generations ahead of the current technology.

    Harari told Tech Traders usage of SSDs will start to pick up in this year’s second half and hit the mainstream in a big way in 2011.

  • iPhone Has "Changed Dynamic" of US Smartphone Market


    Worldwide smartphone shipments grew 5.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest quarterly market overview by Canalys.

    However, Pete Cunningham, senior analyst with Canalys, told smartphone.biz-news the North American consumer market saw shipments rise in Q1 2009 by 22.5 per cent year-on-year.

    He said North American market growth was being helped by the smartphone’s shift into the mainstream.

    RIM, which was instrumental in the development of the enterprise smartphone market, still dominates but the emphasis is changing.

    "The smartphone market in the US has grown up predominantly as a professional-focussed market," said Cunningham. "But since the iPhone launched, the dynamic has changed.

    "Now smartphones are pushing into the consumer space and that’s aiding the growth."

    The analyst said he was confident smartphone shipments would continue to grow in North America, although he predicted the rate would slow slightly.

    Pete Cunningham, senior analyst with Canalys

    He expected the Palm Pre, due to be launched on June 6th, to do well, as would the anticipated update to the iPhone.

    Cunningham said that in EMEA smartphone shipment growth was 3.4 per cent in Q1 2009.

    He said the bulk of growth was in Western Europe where operators were really pushing vendors to drive consumers towards smartphones.

    There was also growing reluctance from the majority of operators to subsidise high tier proprietary operating systems.

    "They are looking for vendors to support open platforms," he said. "There has certainly been momentum gathering in this since the beginning of the year which has caught some vendors out."

    Among them is Sony Ericsson, according to Cunningham, with the majority of the phone maker’s offerings having proprietary OS rather than open platforms.

    However, he said that moving forward he was confident the Western European market would continue to grow, especially with the prospect of a number of high profile launches imminent, including the Pre and upgraded iPhone.

    Another factor that has been evident in the smartphone market is the practice of carriers agreeing "super exclusive" partnership with high-profile handset makers.

    In the UK in 2008, this included Vodafone and the Blackberry Storm,T-Mobile and the Google G1, O2 and the iPhone.

    Cunningham said this was likely to continue with the Palm Pre expected in Europe shortly after its US launch.

    "The drive behind this is partly because operators are trying to focus on customer retention," he said. "And to do this they need high profile devices."

    Another key feature in the smartphone market has been the growth in sales of touchscreen devices, shipments of which nearly doubled in Q1 2009 compared with a year ago, according to Canalys.

    Cunningham said the success of the Nokia 5800, which had a "tremendous" first quarter, had really helped boost the technology.

    However, he expected to see a lot more QWERTY keyboards on upcoming models – and touchscreen/QWERTY offerings like the Nokia N97 and Palm Pre.

    "I would not be surprised if we saw more of this combination," he said.

    "A touchscreen is great for browsing but, especially with the growing demand for social networking, a keyboard is very good for text entry.

    "Software keyboards are sometimes not so great."

  • Skype Gets its Own Oprah Show


    Skype president Josh Silverman’s invitation to appear as a guest on ‘Oprah’ may not come as much of a surprise to fans of the show.

    The VoIP giant has already been featured on the program and Oprah Winfrey often uses it for interviews.

    But while Oprah is well known for promoting Skype, Kindle and Twitter, she doesn’t usually give over whole shows to them.

    What was the excuse for Thursday’s episode-long commercial for Skype?

    Josh Silverman Skype President

    Well the show was billed as an opportunity to discuss the features the technology offers to its subscribers.

    Titled "Where the Skype Are You?", it features people calling in from exotic locations around the world, with video chats on an airplane, a submarine, Antarctica, and London’s Harrods department store.

    It might have been interesting to have included a slot discussing Skype’s troubled relationship with eBay, would it not?

  • App Store Growth Risks Confusing Consumers

    INTERVIEW: Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer at analyst house Informa, talks about some of the latest trends affecting the mobile voice and data markets.

    Speaking in advance of his address to the Insights’09 conference next month in Lisbon, he discusses the impact of the iPhone, the rush to open app stores and carriers’ attitude to mobile VoIP.

    There is no doubt the phenomenal success of Apple’s App Store has been the spur for other handset makers and carriers to open similar ventures.

    The rush to download software to the iPhone has led to Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Palm and RIM, and operators like Vodafone, announcing their own versions of online mobile application stores.

    But while these will give consumers incredible choice Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer at analyst house Informa, said the proliferation of app stores might also lead to confusion.

    "It’s going to become a complete nightmare for the consumer," he said. "Already they have to make a decison about which device and which operating system, now they also have to decide which app store.

    "It’s unclear today if you buy a high-end Nokia device, with Vodafone as the operator and running the Symbian operating system, which app store you will first get access to."

    Newman said he believed there would be "massive fragmentation" since operators supporting hundreds of different handsets were not going to make all applications available on every handset.

    Mark Newman, Informa

    But he said mobile operators were keen to tap the lucrative app market because they realised that in the long-term new revenue-earning services are needed if they weren’t to become simply "dumb pipes".

    "Here we have a brand new market created by Apple. The operators are not going to allow Apple to secure that for themselves," he said.

    Newman is speaking at the Insights’09 conference next month in Lisbon, Portugal, an event covering a range of themes related to the global mobile market.

    He will be talking about the latest voice and data mobile trends on a global and regional scale.

    Mobile Has Become Indispensible

    In an interview with smartphone.biz-news, the analyst said there is no doubt that the mobile industry is being affected by the global recession.

    But he said that the financial results seen so far from the operators suggest that it is more robust than many other sectors.

    "The mobile phone is no longer a discretionary spend," he said. "It’s something we need for our everyday lives.

    "There are examples of people economising in their bills – but not as much as thought."

    Newman said a glance at any "high street" in any country around the world would reveal the dynamic and fast-changing nature of the mobile phone.

    He said this applied as much to the hardware – the handsets – as to the software and mobile applications.

    "In any country we will have 3-10 mobile operators, often fighting very aggressively to win market share," he said. "The winner tends to be the consumer."

    Newman said there had been two big new trends in mobile industry in the last couple of years.

    Mobile Broadband: Success and Challenge

    The first was mobile broadband, which allows laptops to be connected through the mobile network.

    He said that while the industry had been reasonably optimistic about the success of this service, operators have been surprised at how quickly it has grown.

    "Now it is a very big market and in many places is outselling fixed broadband," he said. "This brings new revenues for the operators but it also brings about major challenges for them as well.

    "Data services use up a lot more bandwidth than mobile voice services, so the operators are having to invest heavily to ensure support for data requirements."

    Newman said the evidence so far was that mobile broadband use was not dissimilar to that for fixed – with a lot of P2P traffic, which sucked up bandwidth.

    "What the mobile operators do not like is consumers paying a flat rate for services," he said. "They will think of ways around this."

    iPhone Sets the Pace

    Newman said the second big change to impact heavily on the mobile industry in the last couple of years has been the iPhone.

    He said the Apple handset’s success has had a profound effect – both on mobile operators and handset manufacturers.

    "If you look at its recent history – the last six months – it has moved from being an iconic handset in terms of its design, but it is the first example of a handheld device that people can use for basic internet connectivity," he said.

    "It is very exciting for a huge number of people and has opened up new services and possibilities."

    Newman said making internet connectivity mobile – and not just something you did from home – created the potential for a raft of features, not least the ability to use smartphones’ location capabilities to design new applications.

    While the iPhone is oriented towards the top end of the market, Newman said the fact it had been so succesful meant it was now being marketed to the broader consumer market.

    "It’s quite likely that Apple will introduce some low-priced offering," he said. "Which will be a threat to the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung."

    Posturing For Position

    Apple has also shown its ability to generate revenue through its app store and when it came to consumers paying for mobile applications, Newman said this has been well managed through the iTunes Store.

    He said having billing capacity was one factor that operators have in their favour, but it was unclear what payment mechanism Nokia, for example, was intending to use.

    "Nokia would like people to buy a Nokia device and be billed by Nokia," he said. "But the operators want revenue share from Nokia."

    Newman said that as a result, the industry is currently experiencing the early stages of posturing between players to determine how this very lucrative new market is going to be handled and divided up.

    He didn’t expect the outcome of this to be known for two to three years.

    "It’s not clear who will win," he said. "In the short-term it will be confined to high-end devices.

    "But that’s going to start to change as handset makers bring down the price of phones with internet capability."

    Newman said the issue was much simpler with Apple, since it had one device and a strong brand in the market.

    He said this meant Apple was in the "enviable position" of having the leverage to more easily dictate the terms of deals with operators.
    "Apple will keep that advantage," he added.

    As for Apple’s competitors, Newman believes Android will be a force to be reckoned with even if the early devices supporting its OS have not been as attractive as hoped.

    He said RIM’s Blackberrys and Palm’s soon-to-be launched Pre will both see demand for applications but not on anything like the scale of the iPhone.

    Mobile VoIP Not in Carriers’ Interests

    One area where Newman doesn’t see operators backing down is on the issue of Voice-over-IP (VoIP).

    While carrier 3UK recently launched a SIM card that allows users to make Skype calls for free, it stands out among mobile operators who have largely sought to block VoIP use over their networks.

    He describes 3UK’s position as unique and doubts if any other operators will follow its lead.

    "3UK is a group that entered the European market quite recently," he said. "They have come into a crowded market as the fourth or fifth operator and have the disadvantage of adding spectrum at high frequencies.

    "It’s not desperation – that’s harsh. But 3 has to offer something that’s different. They are using Skype largely as a marketing strategy in order to win customers from their competitors."

    Newman said that if any other operator took this approach it would simply be to stand out in a crowded market.

    "I can not see why it would be in an operator’s interests to allow VoIP," he said. "Eighty per cent of their revenues are voice, so there is really little or no motivation to allow VoIP."

    In the future, however, Newman said the roll out of next-generation LTE and the fact they were going to be All IP Networks meant it would be more difficult for operators to stop subscribers using VoIP.

    "Because of that we are seeing a lot of operators investing in technology that allows them to see different types of VoIP applications," he said.

    Newman said this raises the possibility of operators charging by VoIP type, with users being able to pay for the "privilege" of using VoIP.

    New Entrants

    If the dynamic nature of the mobile industry is causing carriers to feel the heat, consider also the situation with handset manufacturers.

    Recently, a number of companies whose heritage is in the PC space have either entered, or shown a desire to enter, the smartphone market – most notably Acer, HP and Dell.

    Newman said this was significant because of their access to low-cost manufacturing bases in the Asia Pacific region and their ability to share components, such as screens, across devices and industries.

    Consequently some of the traditional handset makers will be put under pressure over the next three to five years.

    He said this would result in some leading brand names’ market position being seriously transformed in much the same way that Sony Ericsson has moved from a position of great strength to one of weakness.

    Mark Newman will be speaking at the Insights’09 conference being held on 8-10 June in Lisbon, Portugal
    Click here for more information.

  • Customised Mobile Banking Key To Future Success

    Lukasz Michalkiewicz, from smartphone software developer eLeader, tells smartphone.biz-news about developments in mobile banking and the importance of tailoring applications to mobile platforms.

    The Polish company has developed the first mobile banking solution customised for specific mobile operating systems.

    Polish software developer eLeader isn’t the first to realise that the mobile world’s different operating systems make it advisable to develop applications tailored to each platform.

    It is, however, the first to develop a mobile banking solution that actually does just that. The user interface of its MobileBanking platform has been designed specifically for smartphones with Symbian, Windows Mobile and Blackberry operating systems.

    The solution has just been deployed by Raiffeisen Bank Polska SA, a subsidiary of Raiffeisen International – making it the first time a tailored mobile banking app has been used in Europe.

    While the development hasn’t exactly sent shock-waves around the mobile world, it does point to the growing acceptance and increasing adoption of mobile banking.

    In the US, the majority of the major banks now offer mobile services, including Bank of America Corp., which has signed up 2.4 million mobile banking subscribers.

    It also highlights the importance of paying attention to user experience when devising potentially complex mobile applications.

    Mobile is Different

    Lukasz Michalkiewicz, account manager with eLeader, told smartphone.biz-news that too often developments for the mobile are treated in the same way as for the PC.

    He said the variations in operating systems, user interfaces, internet browsers, screens and methods of data entry all had to be taken into account.

    "In the PC world there is a dominant operating system and browsers, but in the mobile world it’s different," he said.

    "A really intuitive mobile experience comes from applications tailored to all the different operating systems, browsers and so on.

    "We see that as the way to ensure an intuitive and truly user-friendly mobile experience."

    eLeader plans to roll the solution out to the iPhone in the next few months.

    m-Banking’s Extended Functionality

    As well as improving the UI, the application gives users to access to services, such as being able to contact their financial adviser directly.

    Michalkiewicz said Raiffeisen Bank’s VIP Mobile mobile banking solution extends the scope of m-banking to include advanced functionalities once only found in internet banking applications.

    He said it allows the bank’s customers to conduct the full range of common financial operations via their mobile handset in a very intuitive way.

    "Everything you can do on your PC, you can do on your mobile," he said. "But functionality is extended because with a mobile you can do it anywhere."

    Raiffeisen Bank is a part of Raiffeisen International, a banking group operating in 17 markets of the Central and Eastern European region (CEE) and with 14.6 million customers.

    Mariusz Glinski, head of electronic banking at the bank, said it has developed its mobile channel over many years, initially offering simple SIM-based software and later Java-based applications.

    He said that if m-banking is to be taken seriously then it has to be accepted that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to mobile applications will only go so far in today’s market.

    "To create truly usable applications we must take into account the characteristics of each type of mobile device," he said.

    "This is the only way to provide successful solutions which consumers really want to use on their handsets."

    It certainly seems as though mobile banking is moving towards wider acceptance and uptake. Please let us know your thoughts on the technology and available solutions.

  • HD Videoconferencing – A "Compelling" Option For Business


    High definition video has "raised the game" for videoconferencing and telepresence systems.

    That’s the opinion of Rick Snyder, president of Tandberg Americas, who says HD videoconferencing offers a "really compelling visual experience".

    He says this – and the fact the current economic climate has required business travel budgets to be cut – means more and more companies are looking seriously at HD videoconferencing.

    "We think that in the next few years, HD will become the norm," he said

    Speaking at the recent VoiceCon 2009, Snyder suggests that today’s HD videoconferencing systems offer a very compelling ROI – in some cases their cost is equivalent to a couple of international business trips.

    So as well as increasing productivity he says they can have a positive impact on a company’s bottom-line – and on the environment.

    Below is a video interview with Rick Snyder (his comments on HD start at 4.12mins) from VoiceCon.