GSM and CDMA are competing standards. WorldMode wants to change that. This working group, bolstered by the CDMA Development Group, hopes to create phones that will work seamlessly on any continent. This might be because CDMA is essentially losing the race against GSM in many developing countries (not to mention Europe). I'm looking for numbers to back this up, but if anyone has seen any surveys, let me know.

Ultimately, something like WorldMode must happen as it's going to be more important—and profitable—to offer mobile systems that work anywhere and all the time. I'm just wondering if WorldMode will eventually just mean quadband GSM.

WorldMode phones do both GSM and CDMA [MobileMag]

11:39:45 PM    comment   

Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and now a partner at Kleiner Perkins, recently addressed a group at the MIT. He talked about "Six webs, 10 years On." Six webs were "web (typical TV viewer experience); the near-web (desktop computing); the here-web (mobile devices); the weird-web voice recognition systems); the B2B web; and the D2D web, of intelligent buildings and cities. Video of his talk is here.

(Ten years later) he believes the here web will figure most prominently in our lives, with its nomadic idea that instead of being tethered to an office, we carry around things of most interest to us. Says Joy, "Doing things with people you know through a small screen makes enormous sense."

Hat Tip, Gary Price

11:38:30 PM    comment   

Bharti's commercial deployment of IPTV is expected in the next 6 months, says ET. Apparently, BSNL and MTNL could be the first ones to roll out IPTV since they have the last mile and a ready base of 40 million fixed-line subscribers, who are increasingly opting for a broadband connection. Reliance Infocomm has been undertaking IPTV trials on users in Jamnagar, Mumbai and Delhi for the past one year.

According ABI Research, total subscribers for IPTV globally are likely to cross 120m by âo[dot accent]10 and Asia Pacific will comprise 47 per cent of it, with India being a major market.

Related:
Triple Play In India: Is IPTV Still Way Off?
"India May See Commercial Rollout Of IPTV Services In 2007"
Players Getting Ready For IPTV In India
Bill Gates Meets Anil Ambani Of Reliance Infocomm; Among Issues Discussed Is IPTV
Bharti's IPTV Trials In Advanced Stage [ContentSutra]
11:31:48 PM    comment   

Here is the he first-ever, South Asian American ringtone popularity trends prepared by Masttones, a mobile music site owned by eMbience Inc., a leading developer and publisher of wireless software. Many of the artists in the top 10 aren't even signed up with U.S. labels nor do they have proper distribution deals.

Top Selling U.S. Ringtones
Song/Artist

1. 2 Dons and a B*tch / Sandeep Chowta
2. Dil Luteya / Jazzy B
3. Aim So High / Kami K.
4. Boom Shackalak / Apache Indian
5. 2K3 Nagina Remix / Labh Junjua ft. Metz and Trix
6. Aa Dil Kya Mehfil / Kishore Kumar
7. Aag Lag Jau / Sukshinder Shinda
8. Another One Bites The Dust / Queen
9. P.I.M.P. / 50 Cent
10. Hollaback Girl / Gwen Stefani
11. Ghostbusters / Ray Parker Jr.
12. Baby Baby / Sunidhi Chauhan
13. Belly Dancer / First Light
14. Thank You / Dido
15. Kal Ho Naa Ho / Sonu Nigam
16. Lose My Breath / DestinyÂ's Child
17. Lose Yourself / Eminem
18. Feel Good Inc. / Gorillaz
19. Kaho na Kaho / Amir Jamal
20. Raja Pica / Sunidhi Chauhan [ContentSutra]
11:29:25 PM    comment   

ContentSutra: Which are the Indian companies you are showcasing to?

Kim, Chang-Soo: All Indian broadcasters like Doordarshan and Zee TV. They are all here.

CS: I believe you have already had some meetings with Reliance

Kim, Chang-Soo: Yes. We had meetings with Reliance; Reliance is also here today, so the major broadcasters in India are all here.

CS: How are you viewing the Indian Market?

Kim, Chang-Soo: We are looking at introducing Korean content in the Indian market, till now the Indian market has not been as receptive to Korean content, so we are trying to get more Indian audiences in the near future, thatâo[dot accent]s what we are trying to do.

CS: What are the barriers that you see in bringing content to India?

Kim, Chang-Soo: I think there is a cultural issue that needs to be overcome; sometimes when you look at foreign content you might not be as adaptive as your natural Indian content. That might be something that we might have to look out for.

CS: What are the major technologies that you are selling?

Kim, Chang-Soo: Well, we have DMB right now, its mobile broadcasting and not video on demand, its not VOD. It's broadcasting itself, its live, we are showing one of the channels provided by ZEE TV right now. We are transmitting the channel to the mobile phone, we are also showing on-site live coverage of whatâo[dot accent]s happening here in this room. Itâo[dot accent]s a very interesting demonstration.

CS: I am sure you have surveyed the Indian IPTV market, what do you think about that?

Kim, Chang-Soo: We were quite impressed when we went to Reliance, we think India is ready to go with IPTV. Itâo[dot accent]s not launched yet but it will be done this year. So we are looking forward to that, and we are also preparing for IPTV in Korea as well. There are always some regulatory issues. An environment needs to be created for IPTV. I think India and Korea are on the same footing.

CS: What are you expecting from TRAI?

Kim, Chang-Soo: Actually the KBC (Korean Broadcasting Commission) is a little different from TRAI. We are a ministry level commission, but nevertheless we are trying to co-operate with TRAI so that we can share information. At the upcoming stage there are many issues that we have to tackle together, the new media is a new area for everyone and co-operation is an essential way for everyone to go forward, we are signing an M.O.U. with TRAI and we are also meeting them. So I am hopeful this will set the foundation for us to go further.

CS: What is being covered in the M.O.U. that is being signed with TRAI?

Kim, Chang-Soo: Well it covers a lot from exchange of information to promoting broadcast content, also technical assistance between the two countries.

CS: How does Indian mobile TV market look like?

Kim, Chang-Soo: Itâo[dot accent]s a huge market, according to Reliance, the market will grow tremendously in the next few years, so if those mobile consumers get a taste of DMB, I think that would be good business. [ContentSutra]
10:59:37 PM    comment   

They claimed Anytime, Anywhere TV in your hand, and they have got just that. The TV Korea showcase meant business. It was an event which in its true sense helped understand Korean TV programs. There werenâo[dot accent]t any lengthy technical presentations and each speaker spoke to the point, explained and reinforced the fact that digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) was here to stay. These companies have already launched these services via terrestrial and satellite route.

Affordability is the key

Both the representatives of Indian companiesâo[per thou]Mr. Punit Goenka ( ZEE TV), Mr. S.K. Gupta( Technical Advisor, Tata Teleservices), Rajesh Sawhney (President of Reliance Entertainment) and the Korean Broadcasters strongly expressed keen interest in alliance for exploiting this technical advancement. Mr. Sawhney said that Korea has transformed itself in the last decade and is in itâo[dot accent]s 4th generation multimedia revolution and working towards commercialization of DMB, While Mr. Gupta added that at a time when developments become obsolete before they are commercially launched, DMB will give a tough challenge to Indian developments, but ultimately affordability will decide.

The Korean market was represented by Seoul Broadcasting System (CBS), Tu Media Corp, Alticast and Korean Broadcasting System (KBS).

They explained how DMB is not like VOD service (Video on Demand) and is actually broadcasting to mobile phones. A wide range of DMB enabled products were also displayed (remarkable technology, must add), some which were still at a prototype stage and some which had already been released in the market and were being used in Korea, successfully.

One of the issues that was raised by Mr. S.K. Gupta (Tata) was that although they had faith in the DMB technology, the customers in India are very price sensitive, to which Mr. Eun Sang Yung (Vice President, Atlantic) later during his presentation proposed and explained the advantages of the âo[breve]open standardâo[dot accent], which has been adopted in Korea. Among the advantages mentioned were âo[base "] easy deployment, high quality service, industrialized technology( as there are no serious patent barriers), a chance to explore overseas market and the most important with reference to the Indian market-- Economic advantage to the operator and the end user( operator gets best breed of components at low cost and the users enjoy low prices). He also added that the applications of DMB are very simple and are not like computers, they are based on the nature of mobile users.

Content

Tu Media Corp. shared its survey, bringing it to notice that Drama is the most popular followed by games, news and movies. They also claimed that 66 per cent of the users were male and that the average usage per day is around 54 minute, which they are trying to bring up to an hour. Their survey also showed that the usage dropped during the weekends. At present Tu charges a subscription of $20 and monthly fees of $13 for unlimited service. The users have an access of 11 video and 26 audio channels. Tu Media Corp expects to rope in 6.6m subscribers by 2010. [ContentSutra]
10:58:22 PM    comment   

An all-time high of 4.7 million new users signed up for mobile services in January âo[dot accent]06. Nine cellular firms offering GSM-based services added 3.5 million subscribers during the month. âo[ogonek]This is also the highest monthly subscriber addition recorded by the GSM industry since the inception of service,âo? the Cellular Operators Association of India said. [ContentSutra]
10:57:56 PM    comment   

The demonstration of Digital Multimedia Broadcasting was very simply put as âo[base "]The transmission from a TV is put into a machine for decoding and is then transmitted to a DMB enabled device. The delay is around 5 sec and transmission is real time. This was shown by transmitting one of the channels of ZEE TV to DMB enabled mobile devices. In addition to this, happening of the conference were transmitted live to mobile devices. But what is the technology all about, what is DMB??

DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) --- is a mobile multimedia broadcasting service based on a new concept of broadcasting and telecommunication services. Multi-channel, high quality audio and mobility are some of its key characteristics. Another feature, namely interactivity makes it most popular as it provides different types of interactive data services. Its key features correspond to services as follows:-

Anytime, Anywhere, Ubiquitous--- Personal TV
Mobile, WiBro (Wireless Broadband) ---Interactivity
High quality mobile transmission----Mobility
Digital, Multichannel, Multimedia---New Media

T-DMB (Terrestrial-DMB) --- is based on system A standard and uses Band III. High quality video, audio and data services are provided using video codec for MPEG-4 (H.264) and audio codec for BSAC. 1.152Kbits of Data can be transmitted per second allowing condensed video and audio transmission of high efficiency through multiplexing. This in turn makes multichannel broadcasting possible.

S-DMB (Satellite-DMB) âo[per thou] uses satellite in S-Band (2-4GHz) to transmit broadcasting content. This provides a variety of multimedia applications such as television, radio and data broadcasting using personal or automobile handsets when out doors or on the move. In area such as shadow zones and underground, where the satellite signal is not available or blocked, Gap fillers are used to provide the service.
[ContentSutra]
10:43:41 PM    comment