Mobile operators mourn death of embedded 4G
Is that a Wi-Fi hotspot in your pocket?
Mobile operators are giddy at the prospect of doubling, tripling or quadrupling the number of devices connected to their networks over the coming years. Next generation portable devices such as tablets, laptops, cloudbooks and Ultrabooks are seen as candidates for 3G/4G integration that will help shore up the carrier position …
US broadcasters team up to make Facebook for TV
Hey, TV is like orgasms - not something you do solo
Something big is cooking in portable TV in the US. It's possibly the equivalent of a Hulu (in that it is owned by content owners), but from a group of broadcasters who have already identified themselves as being behind the ATSC M/H Mobile DTV services: but this time the subject is both social TV and over the top (OTT) content. …
Dish Networks looks forward to 'seat at the table' in wireless
Doesn't have the capacity to go it alone as a 4G supplier...
As LightSquared continues to battle for the right to deploy LTE in its mobile satellite spectrum, the other major holder of such frequencies, Dish Network, has remained enigmatic. However, on its third quarter earnings call, chairman Charlie Ergen enlarged somewhat on the firm's plans, saying it would use its proposed LTE- …
Mozilla and Baidu join battle for the new cloud OS
Comment Stripping the Gecko
The battle for the conventional “fat‟ mobile OS is won and lost. But the fight to control the user interface to the cloud is wide open, and with Apple and Microsoft on the back foot, a Linux-based winner looks logical. Google has pitched Chrome OS, Hewlett-Packard has webOS and Intel has MeeGo. Now enter Mozilla, and Chinese …
Femtocells at tipping point: Don't want to become also-RANs
From the Macro, to the femto, to the metro, to the micro...
The femtocell industry gathered for its fourth annual world summit this week, and it was clear that significant progress had been made since the last London-based gathering. In June 2010, the tiny base stations had achieved wide acceptance as carrier controlled devices to improve indoor coverage and support offload.
However, …
US Senators pen Act to ban location-based stalking
Watching the watchers
Two US senators have filed a new Act called the Location Privacy Protection Act, which would require stricter controls and more transparency for all cellular companies that collect location data.
The Bill, brought by Senator Al Franken and co-sponsored by Senator Richard Blumenthal would make it illegal to divulge location …
iCloud: Big step for content management, but not for the cloud
All about the 'apps experience'
The glaring feature of Apple's much-vaunted iCloud announcement? It doesn't have much to do with the cloud. At least, not in the usual Google sense of doing everything via the browser with no local storage or apps.
In Apple's world, apps still need to reign supreme, or it risks falling well behind its more cloud-aware rivals, …
AMD targets tablets and cloudbooks in Intel showdown
Computex Intel takes on ARM with 'ultrabook'
Devices that combine the power of a notebook with features of a tablet were one of the themes of last week's gadget-fest, Computex 2011 in Taiwan.
Intel is pushing its new "ultrabook" concept, and the stage is set for the mobile PC market to split into three emerging form factors: touchscreen tablets; a new wave of more …
MeeGo and Mango promise mobile web delights
Did Nokia make the right call?
Earlier this year, Nokia derailed the MeeGo operating system project it shared with Intel by making Windows Phone 7 the heart of its strategy. This week, developer briefings have been held for both platforms, outlining their latest upgrades (MeeGo 1.2 and WP7 Mango) plus next generation plans. Both are laying claim to be the …
Microsoft adds RIM to its anti-Google axis
Both RIM and MS need to cut cords with their mobile OS and soar into cloud
When Microsoft first burst on the mobile scene with the original Windows Mobile, its strategy was to work around the Symbian brigade by getting close to operators, via mainly white label phone-makers. Hence the rise and rise of HTC, on the back of huge market share in an OS that interested very few rivals, plus the special …
Behind Apple's record sales are signs of desperation
Hailstorm of lawsuits hints at vulnerability
As we went to press with this story, Apple had just reported its first quarter results and Nokia was about to. For both arch-rivals, the quarter will not be indicative of longer term trends. For Apple, there has been disruption to its supply chain, while Nokia's future will be hard to judge until it launches its new WP7 devices …
Google's patents bid may prompt showdown with Microsoft
EU antitrust complaint from MS adds fuel to fire
Google bid $900m for Nortel patents on Monday, as its defence against rising Android litigation. The search giant now needs to compete with Apple, Nokia and Microsoft in an aggressive intellectual property rights (IPR) power play.
When Google emerged as the stalking horse bidder for Nortel's huge patents hoard, it indicated how …
Apple plays cloud catch-up
May delay iOS 5 to ensure it can compete
Apple may be untouchable in tablets and hard to beat for mobile user experience, but it will prove more vulnerable as the focus of innovation moves to the cloud.
Cupertino's offering here is a mess, with a collection of non-harmonised services such as MobileMe. It will need to do a lot of work to fend off Google, as well as the …
MS plans response to HP's webOS ... in 2013
After Google, Motorola, and even Baidu
Hewlett-Packard's recent presentation of its plans to place webOS at the heart of a broad cloud strategy highlighted a route that Microsoft, Google and Amazon will also take, in their different ways.
Essential to HP's desire to offer an end-to-end cloud platform – giving it control of a vast range of web apps and devices – is a …
Amazon is best hope of a viable alternative to iPad
With or without its own tablet, Amazon can cause problems for Apple
Apple's iPad 2 went on sale last Friday, with few doubting that it would be a strong seller, since it has very few competitors. But, while there are the usual near-hysterical unit forecasts from bullish Apple fans, there are serious questions for the broader market. In the glut that is likely to appear as scores of vendors chase …
Facebook moves towards more video-social networking tie-ups
Warner Brothers is first to offer Facebook a film to show, others to follow
Now that Warner Brothers has made a number of its films available on Facebook, it is just a matter of time before every other film-maker on the planet jumps on the same bandwagon, and Facebook becomes a credible video alternative, certainly to YouTube, definitely to Amazon, but even more scarily, to Netflix.
Facebook remains hip …
iPad 2: Apple forced to make carrier concessions
Cupertino vulnerable in the face of Android/LTE
Apple has been a blessing and a curse for cellcos. When it launched the first iPhone, the terms it demanded in return for operator exclusives were onerous and highlighted how a strong device brand would trump that of a carrier every time. However, as the world started to shift towards open access, its iPhone deals hugely …
Apple under siege: Antitrust probes and product delays ...
Will developer backlash be too powerful for Apple this time?
Apple is accustomed to a few months of over-excited headlines at this time of year, in the build-up to the refresh of its mobile product line, and its iPad 2 should, indeed, turn up next week.
But this week the company is under huge pressure, and negative comments are flying, indicating the new environment in which it will have …
HP launches webOS products, but no ecosystem
Comment Palmy TouchPad cometh
Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its first major webOS products since it acquired the mobile software platform with Palm last year. It has launched a 9.7-inch tablet, the TouchPad, and two smartphones.
The TouchPad is initially a Wi-Fi only device but a cellular version will follow, HP promised, which may attract more carrier …
Android's on top – will Nokia and RIM let it in?
More likely that Nokia will go for WP7
Android has overtaken Symbian to become the number one mobile operating system – a feat never achieved by Apple iOS – and now the new Honeycomb release should enable Google's platform to eat into the iPad's tablet market share too.
With Nokia reportedly mulling a change in OS strategy ahead of its analyst day next week, and RIM …
Apple and Google: New CEOs, old strategies
Taking the fight to Facebook?
Both Apple and Google saw their CEOs stepping into the background this month, for different reasons, but there was still a sense of an old guard standing aside. However, the change is likely to come from outside.
Apple and Google, two of the companies that have helped define the new web age – once the closest of allies, now …
Nortel patent sale fuels uncertainty over LTE intellectual property
Big guns scrap for IP stockpile
Apple, Nokia and Google are all expected to bid for Nortel’s huge patents hoard. The winner could help decide the licensing structures for LTE.
LTE deployments and trials may be stacking up, but one significant aspect remains fraught with uncertainty – the patent position.
In previous generations of mobile technology, …
Google revives ‘network computer’ with dual-OS assault on MS
Chrome OS injects new life into netbooks and thin clients
One of the great ironies of this year is that Google and Oracle – now owner of Sun and Java – are locked in legal combat. The irony stems from the fact that, even as they bicker, the concept they did more than anyone else to create is back in the limelight. This is what we used to call the thin client, which then morphed into …
WP7 vs Android: a struggle for supremacy
Microsoft must not throw away its best chance to outwit Google
Microsoft may be pandering to carriers by backing away from controlled updates, but predictable user experience is the best way to win fans from fragmented Android. Google can no longer dismiss criticisms of OS strategy from majors such as Netflix.
For all its flaws, one attraction of Google‘s "carrier-lite" sales model for the …
Samsung plans to smash Android rivals..what about the iPad?
Competitors and Apple should prepare for war
The most dramatic aspect of the smartphone market in the second half of 2010 has been the reinvention of Samsung. Samsung's Galaxy S has shipped 7 million units and has set targets of 20 million for this year – plus one million tablets.
Always a powerhouse in mass market handsets and feature-packed media phones, the Korean giant …
Apple’s iPad lead will face pressure from Google and Nokia
Honeymoon is over for Steve Jobs
Apple led the tablet market in Q3, but iPad’s honeymoon will be shorter than iPhone’s.
Apple's headstart in the tablets market is giving the vendor a blissful honeymoon period in this market, where it has accounted for 95 per cent of sales in the third quarter, according to reports.
Credible competitors will emerge for the …
Adobe combats Apple with 'mobile first mindset'
Comeback for Grandmaster Flash?
Despite the hostility of Apple, Adobe is determined to be a major player in the mobile and multiscreen world. And it used its MAX developer event to show exactly how it plans to do so.
At the MAX conference, Adobe made its usual promises of spanning multiple platforms painlessly, and extending this message to new norms such as …
Intel sets out tablet stall for Atom
It's key to growth but it ain't easy
In reporting its third quarter financial results, Intel placed the emerging tablets device category far higher up the agenda than in previous quarters, indicating the importance of new form factors in driving growth, as PCs and cellphones both start to mature.
The same trend was highlighted by the latest figures for the baseband …
Google TV makes some media hookups
Twitter, Netflix and Napster hop into bed with the platform
We said at the launch of Google TV that without content it meant nothing: but of course Google has been quietly working away on content, and has come up this week with the early fruits of its labour.
What Google TV really needs (and sorry to be a broken record here) is an end to that legal action between Viacom and YouTube, so …
Operators demand smartphones sort signalling storm
I can't do this with all that racket
While operators spent 2009 fretting about data traffic overloading their fragile 3G networks, this year they have also been worrying about another stress on their systems, exploding signalling burdens from 'chatty' devices that constantly poll the network in applications like social networking updates.
Nokia Siemens has thrown …
Qualcomm's ultralow power tech targets body area networks
Peanut power listens to your heart wirelessly
"Body area network" sounds like something from a 1970s sci-fi movie, but is actually the subject of serious R&D by major players.
Biosensors that collect and wirelessly transmit data from human bodies have clear applications in healthcare and other areas, but the need for ultralow power is even more of a challenge than in …
Oracle finally outlines roadmap for mobile Java
Google bait
There has been considerable criticism of Oracle since it acquired Sun Microsystems, and with it, the Java technology. In particular, the database giant has been accused, by Google and others, of failing to provide clear direction and leadership for the mobile version of the open source software, which underpins a huge percentage …
Nokia’s new CEO needs to change the message
Elop must not pander to the markets
Nokia held its annual Nokia World event in London this week, with the usual series of handset launches, developer love-ins and promises to address its weaknesses in high end smartphones and north America. But all this was overshadowed by the ousting, just the week before, of CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, quickly followed by his …
Intel to pay $1.4bn for Infineon WLS
Comment But does it really need it?
Intel has embarked on a major shopping spree to counter the pressures on its traditional businesses, which prompted it to issue a results warning at the end of last week. That was swiftly followed by the announcement that it would acquire Infineon‘s wireless arm, as widely expected, for $1.4bn, hard on the heels of the purchase …
Symbian Titanic heading for iceberg
Nokia deserves much of the blame
In a commentary piece titled Is Symbian re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?, Gartner analyst Nick Jones provides a stinging analysis of the current Symbian state of play, admonishing the less than impressive Symbian^3 user interface and misguided roadmap for the mobile operating system's evolution. He concludes that " …
Huawei could reorganize to win Sprint deal
Must compromise to appease US and Indian security
Huawei is looking increasingly ready to make compromises to allay the security concerns of various governments. The Chinese supplier denies all allegations that it is closely connected to its country's intelligence services, but is nevertheless running into clearance obstacles in several key markets. The Indian government has …
Japan gets unlocked phones and 42Mbps HSPA
DoCoMo hopes advanced network keeps customers loyal
NTT DoCoMo of Japan, renowned for its tight control of its handset experience, is taking a major step towards open access, and promises to offer all its phones unlocked. From next April, the operator will allow customers to switch handsets and take their devices to other carriers, by inserting a new SIM card, and will include …
Bluetooth formally adopts low power standard
Starts certification for Version 4.0
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has formally adopted the standard's Core Specification Version 4.0, which targets very low power networks, potentially vying with other systems like ZigBee. The new spec, originally released in January, is targeted at markets such as sensors for healthcare, and security and home networks.
The …
Qualcomm looks to emerging markets to up Brew
New lease of life in mass market 3G
Qualcomm's Brew content platform has enjoyed something of a revival lately, moving beyond its CDMA base into the growing market for affordable mobile web devices. AT&T has adopted the system, and so Qualcomm is holding its annual Brew conference, now renamed Uplinq, with a new sense of confidence.
CEO Paul Jacobs will kick off …
Skype boosts results for exclusive operators
3 UK says 80% of its Skypephone customers are new, and have low churn
Good news for operators like Verizon Wireless, which have thrown their lot in with Skype rather than fighting the open web tide. The pioneer of cellco-Skype deals, 3 UK, claims the arrangement has brought it a massive boost to earnings.
Research by CSS Insight showed that the benefits of Skype - or rather, the way 3 has marketed …
Android gaining on iPhone among developers
Survey finds Google OS is most highly rated for long term outlook in US
The iPhone 4 may be on sale now, but the Android community is doing a good job of keeping quite a lot of the spotlight on itself - mainly thanks to Verizon Wireless' aggressive promotion of its flagship phones, Droid Incredible from HTC and the new Droid X from Motorola. Such efforts are beginning to show results in terms of …
Femto World Summit is all smiles (mostly)
Deployments doubled since November. Yay
The femtocell industry's third annual event in London is taking place, and the sector's rapid shift from interesting concept to real world commercial market is highlighted by the wide range of vendors and carriers pledging support.
Global femtocell deployments have more than doubled in the past nine months, according to a report …
N8 flicks budget-price spitballs at iPhone
Nokia takes cues from HTC, Samsung to wind up Apple
Nokia has already unveiled its first smartphone running the upcoming Symbian^3 operating system, the N8, but will not ship it until later in the summer. It is keeping interest high, though, by making its most aggressive ever move against the iPhone, pricing the N8 well below the Apple icon and touting all the added value that …
Palm still designing new phones, despite HP's doubts,
Bosses' priority is webOS
Since the announcement that it would be acquired by Hewlett-Packard, Palm has scarcely figured in any discussions of the smartphone landscape.
HP wants the operating system, but is mainly focused on emerging device formats such as web-enabled printers and tablets, is the message from within the larger firm. But until the deal …
Google risks OEM wrath for unified Android UI plan
Insiders say next Android release will focus on making overlays 'irrelevant'
Conflicts of interest with Android supporters helped kill Google's Nexus One project, but that is not stopping the search giant embarking on another bid to keep Apple-style control of the Android platform. Google is reported to be planning a unified user interface that will be imposed across Android products, ending the …
Developers twitchy as wait for Symbian^3 goes on and on
Nokia promises improvements with N8, but new OS will take time to gain momentum
Nokia's forthcoming N8 smartphone will certainly have market leading hardware specs, but the real challenge for the firm is to convince developers of its software credentials.
It is promising improved developer tools, Ovi Store experience and user experience for the N8, drawing on the new open source release of Symbian. But …
RIM readies next BlackBerry, AT&T airs Aria
iPhone-bothering HTC Android phone out of traps
RIM is readying a new touchscreen BlackBerry, according to reports, while Android is slowly but surely getting its hooks into Apple's strongest bastion, AT&T. The US carrier will launch its first Android phone from HTC - currently leading the charge against the iPhone's US leadership - next week.
According to The Wall Street …
New wave of superphones poised to challenge iPhone 4
Displaying their wares
We have already pointed out that the iPhone 4 faces far more credible competition than its predecessors in terms of smartphones integrating advanced hardware design with a distinctive user experience.
As we wait for Symbian^3 and Windows Phone 7, the challenge focuses on Android, and its supporters are certainly rising to the …
Superslim iPhone 4 enough to fend off Android?
Opinion Impressive new display, but no game changers
Apple CEO Steve Jobs duly stood up at the company's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco this week to introduce the long-awaited iPhone 4.
This has become almost as much of a June tradition as Wimbledon tennis, but there was a clear difference this time around. To a far greater extent than on the previous three …
Microsoft pushes WP7 plans for enterprise
Struggles to shout about iPhone racket
Microsoft was always going to struggle to get coverage of its TechEd developer conference, and particularly its Windows Phone 7 plans, in the week of iPhone 4. But it is trying its best, outlining the WP7 strategy for its most natural market, the mobile enterprise. In addition, details of one of the first WP7 handsets likely to …
