Thursday, August 4, 2005|
My Dream Mobile Phone.
Ever since I fondled the XDA II mini, I've been convinced that it definitely is on the right path to the perfect mobile phone form factor. Big screen, few buttons and most importantly, rotatable orientation so you can use it easily as a phone and as a browsing device as well. But of course, that form factor isn't great for games or text entry (I *hate* pens), so like I said back in January, it needs a little slide-out keypad or keyboard of some sort as well. Well, the HTC Wizard is getting pretty close. It's a much bigger device, but it's on the right track of keeping the front of the device clean and useful as a one-handed phone, and then the slide-out keyboard is great for messaging and browsing. But what about gaming? Portable gaming is key for mobile phones, even for the business-oriented user. Thus keeping in mind my mobile device form factors post from back in March, I tried to come up with what I think is a perfect converged device combining several different form factors into one. It would be the same size and weight as my current Nokia 6680, but the entire front would be a 800x320 resolution screen. The pixels might be a bit small, but that's okay. Navigation would be with a scroll wheel - an idea stolen from the new Blackberries and iPods. I think scroll-wheels are a great navigation device - you can move through big lists quickly, as well as web pages as well. It's very intuitive - much more so than a 5 way joystick. Opening up the slider keyboard, holding it vertically, you'd see a set of numbers at the bottom for dialing phone numbers, holding it horizontally you'd see a keyboard for typing out messages. It'd also have a set of PSP-like game controls - navigation on the left (analog and directional) and four control buttons on the right. ( Maybe we could throw some shoulder buttons on the back as well? That might be a bit much though. ;-) ) These are great for navigating the web (as I'm finding out now with the PSP's new web browser) as well as for advanced games. What do you think? It might all be a bit cramped, but we'd get used to it. Hell, look at the size of the Gameboy Micro - and that thing is going to sell like hotcakes. :-)
-Russ By weblog@russellbeattie.com. [Russell Beattie Notebook] |
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MoMo August: Jam Packed!.
Another standing room only Mobile Monday! Woohoo! We were actually jam packed into the presentation area and it was *hot* - but the presenters were great fun and had a sense of humor which definitely helped make the evening go quick. Thanks again to Matias, Robert and Ted for presenting and to Carlos and Stanford for hosting us! As always, you can check out the Mobile Monday photos on Flickr. See you on September 12th (we're skipping the first Monday because of Labor Day) - the topic will be Mobile Search! W00t!
-Russ By weblog@russellbeattie.com. [Russell Beattie Notebook] |
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Vodafone Japan Recruits Sony Exec.. WWJ Editors, 4 Aug. 2005 Vodafone KK, the struggling Japanese unit of the world's largest mobile company, has recruited an executive from electronics icon Sony known for his ability to read consumer trends. The Sankei Shimbun daily quoted a Sony executive as saying Nozoe, 56, was "the man who knows consumer trends best in Sony", will become senior executive vice president of Vodafone KK as of September 5 and from October will head the marketing unit dealing with subscribers, Vodafone said late Monday. [Wireless Watch Japan] 2:42:42 PM  comment
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1 Landline + 1 Cellphone = 1 Handset. A new docking station from RCA lets you integrate your cellphone and land-line service at home and use them interchangeably with the same cordless handset. [NYT > Technology] 2:41:59 PM comment
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Mobile Music Best Practices from Japan and Korea.  By Benjamin Joffe, 4 August 2005While Japan's music market is second only to the US, with $3.5 bn in CD sales, it ranks first in mobile music in terms of market size, service penetration and sophistication. Japanese record labels have managed a powerful comeback from their failure in the wild, MIDI ring tone-based 2G music market to massive success in the master-rights-based "Chaku-uta" 3G universe. They already own a 20-percent share of Japan's $1-billion-plus mobile music market. How did they pull off this stunning achievement? The labels identified their core assets in the mobile universe: trust and convenience.
Editor's Note: Today's guest Viewpoint is based on "Mobile Music Best Practices from Japan and Korea," a 103-page report recently released by Vectis International. Click Here to read the full article and purchase a copy of the report online; WWJ subscribers login to read the article and receive a special 10% discount coupon!! Researched and written over a period of several months by Simon Bureau, Managing Director and Editor, and Benjamin Joffe, Japan Market Analyst -- two of the saviest mobile industry watchers in Asia -- Vectis' "Mobile Music Best Practices" provides 103 pages of sharp and critical analysis covering mobile music downloading as it has developed in the world's top two wireless markets. With reference to carriers, content providers, networks, terminals, pricing, marketing and end-user behavior, "Mobile Music" is a must-read for anyone involved in planning and commercializing on-the-go music services anywhere. [Wireless Watch Japan] |
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Cellphones? Over There, Right Next to the Nachos. 7-Eleven and other companies have started their own mobile phone services, reflecting the ease of repackaging telecommunications services in the digital age. By MATT RICHTELand KEN BELSON. [NYT > Business] 1:57:53 PM comment
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Australian Media Sector To Grow, On The Back of New Media. : Pay-TV, the internet and interactive games will be the winners in media during the next five years, with emerging technologies making inroads against traditional media, according to a new country report by PWC. By 2009 the Australian sector will... [PaidContent.org] 1:57:26 PM comment
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Amazon.com To Launch Digital Music Service. : You read it here first, as usual: Amazon.com will be launching a digital music service soon, according to a job posting it has submitted on our Digital Media Jobs Blog. It is looking for a content acquisition manager for... [PaidContent.org] 1:54:08 PM comment
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China: Beijing firm says WiMax no threat to 3G. WiMax and 3G technologies will complement, not compete with, each other in China's broadband market, according to Analysys International, a Beijing research firm. Some analysts have predicted that WiMax will challenge 3G with bigger potential bandwidth, but much of the short-term focus and investment in bringing 3G technology to market in China means WiMax capabilities will be for improving fixed and mobile Internet rather than cell-phone customers. [Daily 3G News] 7:08:15 AM comment
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MVNOs Can't Be Launched By A White Paper. How do you know when the MVNO market is getting too crowded? When a consulting firm announced that it has released a white paper on how to launch an MVNO. Obviously, the consulting firm in question is just trying to drum up some consulting business -- but the whole idea of a white paper on how to launch an MVNO seems a bit absurd. [Daily 3G News] 7:07:01 AM comment
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Justifying 3G Networks with 2G Technologies. If approached correctly, carriers can utilize a 2G technology such as SMS to grow adoption for 3G data services. It will take a renewed approach to pricing beyond the standard a la carte tiered packages or the piecemealed data bundles. It will also take a great deal of creativity beyond the SMS-TV polling campaigns or TXT2Win-type sweepstakes. [Daily 3G News] 7:00:03 AM comment
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Technology Review: What's (not) on the Telly? At least that's the idea behind a challenge issued in the research and development labs at the BBC, which has led to the unveiling of a prototype personal video recorder, called Promise TV, that successfully recorded and stored all the shows running for a week on all 12 channels in the UK. [Tomalak's Realm] 6:59:38 AM comment
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Mobile Commerce Coming With 3G. Financial Express: With 3G, mobile commerce will come to India, soon, say experts. Currently, the services are mostly confined to railway bookings and airline bookings. Reliance Infocomm offers to its subscribers services like ticket booking, shopping for music CD and apparels as well as banking services. With 3G coming in, the need for the day will eventually change. By its very nature, 3G will be content driven as a result there will be a growing demand for new content. "There will be a need to come up with innovative services for the end user. A lot of creativity will go towards this,"? said Tata Teleservices general manager (enterprise solutions) Alok Sinha. [ContentSutra] 6:59:15 AM comment
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It's pouring money for cellular firms. AgencyFaqs: For the mobile operators in Maharashtra, the monsoon mayhem was a blessing in disguise. The state, which is divided into two telecom circles âo[per thou] Mumbai and Rest of Maharashtra (RoM) âo[per thou] registered a spurt in outgoing calls and SMSs, as cell phones was the easiest âo[per thou] and sometimes the only âo[per thou] mode of communication available. The increase in usage was as high as 50 per cent for certain companies on certain days of the rain-hit week âo[per thou] that is from July 25 to July 31. Except for Reliance Infocomm, all other operators registered rise in outgoing calls and SMSs. [ContentSutra] 6:58:27 AM comment
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Discovery Networks' Mobile Filmmaking Competition. Rediff: Discovery Networks Asia and Nokia are launching a mobile fillmaking competition: the companies have partnered to launch the 'Mobile First Time Filmmakers Contest 2005', which will give consumers the opportunity to try their hand at mobile filmmaking and qualify to win a grand prize of $10,000. Using the Nokia N90 high-performance multimedia device that comes with optics from Carl Zeiss, a leading optics company, consumers will now have the ability to create their own personal high-quality mobile films with their Nokia camera phones. The contest, which started on August 1, is open to individuals aged 18 and above who are residing in the following countries: Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. [ContentSutra] 6:58:05 AM comment
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Broadband And Mobile TV Will Drive Demand For Content. Business Standard: It may be a Rs 5 crore ($1.25 million) company, but the film and television software distributor, Star Entertainment Pvt Ltd is confident of growing at 22 to 25 per cent a year for the next few years. The company's director Jiten Hemdev says that with the proliferation of television channels, the need for content is also growing. With the changing media scenario in India, Hemdev says that companies also need to discuss the "broadband and mobile TV rights" for the programmes that they may be buying. âo[ogonek]For, the growth will come from the new modes of delivery of content," he adds. "India will need more content for mobile, broadband, cable TV and DTH. We see ourselves as major supplier of programmes,"? says Hemdev. [ContentSutra] 6:57:25 AM comment
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Interview: Larry Kramer, President, CBS Digital. : [Staci D. Kramer] Larry Kramer and I had a hard time connecting long enough to do an interview the day the new CBS News digital strategy was announced. We gave it another try Tuesday in his temporary San Francisco... [PaidContent.org] 6:52:04 AM comment
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Panasonic Mobile Bullish on China. ChinaView, 2 Aug. 2005 Japan's Panasonic Mobile Communications aims to have a two-digit share of China's mobile phone market by the end of the year. The firm is betting on better tie-ups with Chinese mobile operators and a focus on the country's high-end handsets to achieve its goal. "We expect to grab a 10 per cent share of China's handset market in 2005," said Taro Itakura, managing director of Panasonic Mobile Communications' China operations. [Wireless Watch Japan] 6:51:48 AM comment
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On the Cutting Edge of Wireless. eMarketer, 2 Aug. 2005 Pondering the future of wireless? Look to the Asia-Pacific region, home to some of the most advanced networks in the world. Japan and South Korea, long in the vanguard of mobile phone service, will soon be joined by Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, thanks to recent 3G network launches. Less mature wireless markets such as China, India, the Philippines and Indonesia also abound in the Asia-Pacific region, and subscriber growth will be far brisker in these countries than in either advanced or mature markets. [Wireless Watch Japan] 6:51:24 AM comment
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DoCoMo Introduces New 3G Handsets and i-Channel Service.  WWJ Editors, 2 August 2005 DoCoMo announced today that it will launch "i-channel," a news and information service, and compatible handsets, the 3G FOMA 701i series. The service will be launched concurrently with three FOMA 701i models, which are to be released shortly. These new FOMA 701i handsets from Mitsubishi, NEC and Panasonic [.PDF] , will be compatible with the i-channel service and all standard FOMA services and functions, including videophone, ChakuUta ring songs, ChakuMotion ring videos, Deco-mail decorative e-mails, i-appli JAVA and Macromedia Flash applications. DoCoMo also introduced two hybrid units today; the 'fashionable' FOMA DOLCE and GPS enabled SA700iS from Sanyo. Subscribers to i-channel will automatically receive various content, such as news, weather, entertainment reports, sports news and horoscopes, delivered to the phone's standby screen as telop text. By pushing the i-channel button, a Flash-based UI channel list will appear and the user can select the channel they want to view. [Wireless Watch Japan] 6:51:02 AM comment
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Japan Allocates 2-GHz Spectrum for TD-CDMA. MarketWire, 02 Aug. 2005 Last week, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that Japan's 2010 - 2025 MHz spectrum would be allocated solely to IMT-2000 TDD technologies. This paves the way for broadband wireless networks using UMTS TDD, also known as TD-CDMA in Japan; the first commercially deployed IMT-2000 technology for unpaired spectrum. Optimized for high-speed data, UMTS TDD is already used by operators and manufacturers worldwide and has emerged as a leading standard for Broadband Wireless Access. [Wireless Watch Japan] 2:06:46 AM comment
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BellSouth launches wireless broadband. Users can take their modems with them when they leave home and use the service at other locations in the coverage area, or even while moving at walking speed. [Computerworld Mobile/Wireless News] 1:49:48 AM comment
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KDDI's Phones Look Better Than Yours.
Oh, and they also released the W32S, a very pink and plasticky number that's been designed for all the laydeez. Or dudes that like pink. It should also be noted that these are the first non-DoCoMo handsets that have FeliCa contactless payment technology, which is quickly becoming Japan's standard. — CL
KDDI W32H [Akihabara News] 1:42:56 AM comment
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It's not like KDDI's got anything to prove when it comes to its phone design cred, what after models like the |
PDAs - I'm Not Dead Yet. Ok. Mea culpa. Just reading on CNET how a CEO has taken away all of his employees laptops and replaced them with "smart" handhelds. What does this mean? It means that to get work done—work obviously consisting of playing solitaire and replying to emails—all the average knowledge worker needs is a nice Blackberry. But wait a second—a Blackberry (or any other phone with PIM capability) in the grand scheme of things, is not a PDA. It's a smartphone. So maybe CNET needs to rethink its thesis. Generally, this story is saying that the smartphone is replacing the laptop, not the PDA, which I've always thought to be true. However, they make it sound like the PDA is replacing the laptop, which is untrue. The PDA is replacing that block of wood you put under the picnic table leg to stop it from wobbling.
In all fairness, they use the word "handheld," which is pretty nebulous. But I rest my case. The unwired PDA is a goner.
Has the notebook-to-handheld conversion begun? [News.com] [Gizmodo]1:40:34 AM comment
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Telcos Prep Internet TV. While cable companies focus on adding data and voice services, telephone companies get ready to roll out television programming over the internet. The goal: beat cable at its own game. By Michael Grebb. [Wired News] 1:40:05 AM comment
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Lee Press-On Nails and, Oh Yeah, A Phone.
Wait, those nails didn't come with the phone? We're supposed to believe that some hip Taiwanese girl's going to paint her nails to match her mobile? Oh. In that case, never mind: the Qube's a funny-looking little phone/MP3 player/1.3-megapixel camera with a keypad that makes the Nokia 3650's look like the height of usability. — CL
BenQ Qube Z2 [Shiny Shiny] 1:39:17 AM comment
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Time and time again, mobile phone makers have talked about how they see handsets as important fashion accessories, on par with tying a red bandanna around your knee. Well, maybe not that cool, since most of these fashion-first phones (remember Xelibri?) have failed miserably. But Taiwan's BenQ has taken an interesting approach by including HOT acrylic press-on nails with its Qube phones.Last update: 9/3/05; 2:23:50 PM .
