PavingWays

Some more interesting news announced at the Mobile Word Congress:

• Google’s new strategy “Mobile First”
  Google’s new strategy: “Mobile First”  The company now focuses more on smartphones than on desktops. That means giving mobile top priority and launching new products first on mobile platforms before creating PC versions.

  (Source: brighthand.com)

• 60,000 Android phone a day
  Google’s Android launched a year ago and is now available on 26 different devices in 48 countries. 60.000 Android devices running this operating systems are now being sold on a daily basis … meaning about 5.4 million handsets per quarter, or 21 million per year. Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones last quarter and 25 million in 2009. Seems like Android is gaining ground, hopefully internal fragmentation will be taken care of (if that’s possible).

  (Source: mobilegamesblog.com)

  (more…)

At MWC a number of the world’s leading telco companies including Vodafone, Orange, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Deutsche Telecom, SK Telecom, Verizon, AT&T or China Mobile have announced the formation of an international alliance called “Wholesale Applications Community” (WAC) - to battle Apple.

They are aiming to build an open platform for mobile apps to all mobile phone users and want to solve the massive fragmentation problem.

They try to develop a common standard for applications within the next 12 months. The WAC is supposed to be a platform NOT an app store.

Of course, the app market is still a lucrative business and growing. Analysts at Gardner predict that the number of app downloads will rise to 4.5 billion (from 2.5 billion last year), yielding almost $30bn.

So far so good. But what does that mean, especially for us developers? Is this the right approach in the “write once, run anywhere” direction?

The good thing is that the group intends to use existing open standards (JIL, BONDI, W3C) and that will make it a lot easier for developers creating apps across multiple platforms. Besides developers then have only one single gateway to access a vast potential and international customer base. It also saves a lot of time and resources. And the new alliance has access to more than three billion customers.

Well, does this sound too perfect to you? There are still a lot of questions and even doubts, right? (more…)

Instead of a lengthy blog post here is just a wrap-up of quite interesting news announced at the Mobile Word Congress today:

• Symbian joins Open Screen Project
  The Symbian Foundation is joining the Open Screen Project, an industry-wide initiative led by Adobe to enable the Adobe Flash Platform across a broad range of devices. This means that Symbian will be integrating Flash 10.1 in future releases of the platform.

  (Sources: allaboutsymbian.com, eon.businesswire.com)

• Ericsson launches eStore
  Today, Ericsson unveiled an application store product for mobile operators allowing them to set up their own application store. The eStore is available in 25 markets worldwide, reaching more than 1 billion subscribers throughout more than 100 operator networks. It already has 30,000 free and paid apps and games. The eStore is backed by Opera who provides the client framework for widgets and applications across multiple channels and devices.

  (Sources: mobilegamesblog.com, finchannel.com)

  (more…)

At Mobile World Congress 2010, Adobe announced today that it will bring Adobe Air to mobile devices, starting with Android and Blackberry phones.

At the moment you can build desktop web applications with AIR that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems, but soon it will be possible to create Android and Blackberry apps as well. These mobile apps will be able to store data locally on the phone, access other data on the phone such as photos, and be distributed as regular apps in the Android and Blackberry app stores. Not only that, but the same apps created with Flash developer tools will be exportable as iPhone apps (”Packager for iPhones“). The big picture is that developer can create applications once with Adobe’s developer tools and then output them as AIR apps for Android and Blackberry phones, native iPhone apps, or Flash apps on the Web. (more…)

Last year in October I wrote in a blog post about smart phone applications coming to cars. Today I read an article about Deutsche Telekom and tyre maker Continental joining this market as well.

They plan to put apps into all vehicles via an Android-based on-board computer. The prototype called AutoLinQ will be demonstrated at this year’s Cebit show. Inspired by the iPhone drivers can search for apps, download music, pick up news, check emails and answer them by using voice recording technology. The promise is: all without taking hands off the wheel or eyes off the road!

Deutsche Telekom said in a statement that the core functions of AutoLinQ include an online address book linked to the navigation system. Drivers can type in journey destinations on the computer at home or work before getting in the car, or via their mobile phone when out and about. As the vehicle is connected to Deutsche Telekom’s mobile network, drivers can call up information that tells them where the car is parked, or check whether the sunroof is open and close it remotely using their phone.

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After mobile phones and cars we now will be able to access our mobile apps on TV - This really is exciting news:

At CES 2010 in Las Vegas Samsung announced the upcoming availability of of free and paid apps in Samsung’s Apps store, including apps for Televisions, Blu-Ray Players, Home Theater and Mobile Phones. The download service for TVs will be available in July 2010.

I found two interesting videos from Samsung’s press conferences:

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As you can see in our Widget and App Store Wiki, a lot of phone manufacturers and operators have already joined the mobile applications battle or are planning their move in this direction. To promote their platforms and app stores and to attract new developers many of them have started competitions, usually with nice prizes to be won.

Have a look at the following currently ongoing competitions:

1. NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge
   PRIZE: global prize pool currently at $8.2 million USD in cash and licenses
   DEADLINE: November 6, 2009 (EMEA region)

   The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is focused on driving the development and visibility of innovative location-based solutions (LBS) for wireless devices. From business applications to sports, travel and security, integrating the accuracy and richness of NAVTEQ digital map data facilitates the discovery of the next wave of LBS using dynamic positioning technology. Winners are chosen by a panel of distinguished judges in each of five regions (EMEA, India, South America, North America, APAC).

   Registration for the LBS Challenge, EMEA Region has been extended to November 6, 2009.  A completed solution is not required at the time of  registration. The winners of the EMEA Region will be announced on February 14, 2010 prior to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The global prize pool for this year’s competition is currently at $8.2 million USD in cash and licenses.

   Read more: NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge (more…)

Handset makers Research in Motion (RIM), LG Electronics, Sharp and Samsung Electronics have joined the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) and will support JIL widget specification in future mobile handsets from Q1 2010.

“The decision of LG, RIM, Samsung and Sharp to incorporate the JIL widget specifications in their future product roadmap is proof of the tremendous potential that JIL offers both to developers and customers,” said Peters Suh, JIL CEO. “All four companies are innovation leaders and this is another strong affirmation of both JIL strategy and its robust technical specifications.” (Verizon Wireless)

Other members of the JIL include Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, China Mobile and Softbank (Japan) who are claiming to be able to reach a combined user base of more than 1 billion around the world (North America, Europe, Asia and Africa). (more…)

At the IAA in Frankfurt (Frankfurt Motor Show) in September 2009 BMW, Nokia and Parrot SA unveiled plans for bringing smart phone applications to cars.

“For software developers, this opens a whole new domain to sell their apps. For car makers, apps provide new ways to deliver infotainment and telematics services to customers. For motorists, apps allow them to enjoy their infotainment systems to the fullest, while paying only for the applications they want, thus saving them money. With apps so critical to the automotive market, companies are pushing approaches that benefit their specific goals. While the solutions shown at IAA were only concepts, they clearly reflect what will soon be on the market.” said Kevin Hamlin, analyst for automotive electronics at iSuppli Corp.

Sounds good? Yes. Where’s the catch? Doing it right!

(more…)

On July, 31, RIM has officially launched their app store Blackberry App World 1.1 now also in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands with enhanced features, such as:

• sorting options (newest, name, price, vendor, popularity and relevance),
• filtering top 25 free and paid apps,
• additional categories and sub-categories and
• SD card archiving for downloaded and purchased apps (customers can now reinstall deleted apps from their memory card). (more…)

On Tuesday the Nokia Developer Summit started. The conference was opened by Rob Taylor, Head of Forum Nokia. At the beginning he showed us a demo of a coming service (powered by qik) where consumers will be able to share videos live from their mobile devices.

The topic of this conference was mainly Nokia’s Ovi Store, which will launch this month. 500 people were at the event, mainly developers from all over the world, but also bloggers, press, analysts, students etc.

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During February 16-19, Barcelona again has become the “capital” for the whole mobile industry with the Mobile World Congress taking place. Despite the global economic crisis and declining mobile phone sales (for the first time ever since 2001), the mobile industry expects global growth due to new devices and services. This optimistic outlook is also proven by the sales figures of smart phones. In 2008 almost 160 million smart phones were sold worldwide. This year as much as 190 million smart phones could be sold.

A survey by analyst Nielsen and Tellabs, based on more than 50,000 mobile users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the US, shows that there will be an dramatic increase in the use of mobile data services (such as mobile internet, email, photo uploading and MMS) over the next two years with a significant ramp up in the next 12 months. 71 per cent of consumers anticipate the daily usage of services such as mobile internet and more than half of the approximately 200 million mobile data users in those countries expect to increase use in the next two years.

According to the study, about 49% of US respondents said they were planning to surf the mobile web more in the next year, compared to 34% of those in Europe. Preferences of US and Europe users differ (see the following picture below). In Europe, Italy tends to be the leading adopter across all services, while Germany shows comparatively low adoption rates.

(Source: http://www.tellabs.com/news/2009/index.cfm/nr/53.cfm)

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1. Mobile Devices Market Share:

ABI Research released their quarterly report about the mobile devices market. There, I found this interesting chart about the market share of mobile device vendors in the 3Q 2008:

Source: Mobile Device Vendor Market Share, 3 Q 2008

Some interesting facts from this ABI Research report:

• 3Q 2008: 8.2% year-on-year growth
• 4Q 2008: will be a vital quarter for handset vendors and mobile operators, 7.5% growth
• Year-on-year annual growth: 10.5%-11%, 1.27 billion
• on the winner side: Samsung, Apple, RIM

Source: Mobile Device Vendor Market Share, 3 Q 2008

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During its first BlackBerry Developer Conference co-Founder and co-CEO of Research in Motion Mike Lazaridis unveiled plans for an online application store for its smart phones. The store will launch in March 2009 and will include both an online and on-device component giving 20 million BlackBerry users on all platforms the opportunity to find and download add-on applications for their specific phone models. RIM is working with PayPal to build the payment system for the store.

“A new online application storefront and a new on-device application center will help application developers and carriers reach millions of BlackBerry smartphone users worldwide and will provide consumers with greater choice, enhanced application discovery and an easy method for managing installation, upgrades, and purchases.” (source: press release of RIM)

In December this year developers can begin submitting their applications. The storefront will allow them to set their own prices for applications. Developers will get 80 percent of the revenue generated from their application.

(more…)

In its fiscal fourth quarter, ended Sept. 27, Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones and has now sold more than 13 million iPhones this year (Apple’s sales goal was 10 million in 2008). Compared to Apple, RIM has sold 6.1 million Blackberry devices in the quarter ended August 30.

“RIM is a good company that makes good products and so it is surprising that after only 15 months in the market we could outsell them in any quarter,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during an analyst conference call following the release of the financial report.

Jobs also said that Apple was the third-ranked mobile phone supplier worldwide by revenue during the quarter.

Sources:
eetimes.com
theglobeandmail.com
golem.de

O2 and Vodafone have launched their new payment service “mpass” in Germany. Through mpass mobile phone customers with any German provider now have access to secure online shopping on their mobile phone or PC.

mpass combines the direct debiting system (German: Lastschriftverfahren) with SMS payment confirmation through mobile phones (we blogged about this before). Some companies like Cinemaxx, Blume2000.de or Beate Uhse are already supporting the service.

More about mpass here: http://www.mpass.de/

Source:
zdnet.de

As soon as Nintendo announced the next version of the hugely popular Nintendo DS gaming console, called the Nintendo DSi, I was curious if along with some hardware upgrades, such as 2 cameras, better screens and a SD card slot, there would be major changes to the OS and software included, especially if a decent web browser would be available or even included…and I was hoping for Opera. There is a video of the DSi presentation on YouTube.

Turns out there will be a web browser available (see above video from 01:45)…and it will be an Opera browser! In contrast to the current DS version, the DSi web browser will reside on the console’s flash memory meaning it will not come as a game-cartridge as the currently available Opera browser does.

(more…)

As I was reading an older issue (#7 in 2008 from 17.03.2008, current one is 9) of Germany’s premier computer magazine c’t I spotted a mentioning of Frost, our open source Ajax library for mobile browsers.

The issue’s title topic was “The web in your hand” and the article starting on page 112 was about “Webdesign for Mobile Devices”. On page 114 Frost is mentioned in one sentence. Yay!

“Event the first JavaScript library for mobile browsers, that are getting increasingly mightier, has been released; Frost is supposed to make simple Ajax manipulations possible.” the article reads (translated from German).

Just a small clarification here: we’re still trying to get the first real release out of the door, shame especially on myself for not bringing up enough time to get this thing done. Anyways good to know we’re on the radar, stuff like this certainly encourages further developments, but time always is an enemy.

If you wanna know more, check out Frost here.

T-Mobile criticized Nokia’s strategy
T-Mobile ain’t very happy with Nokia’s strategy offering more and more own services. Last summer Nokia announced Ovi, a paid internet portal for music downloads and navigation. So Nokia breaks into a part of the value-added chain, which T-Mobile occupied until yet. T-Mobile boss Hamid Akhavan emphasized that Nokia’s solo attempt will lead to conflicts.
Source: http://www.heise.de

Vodafone deepens partnership with RIM
Vodafone announced to deepen the partnership with Research in Motion (RIM). Within this partnership Vodafone wants to develop own consumer services for the Blackberry platform. Until now they mostly eyed business customers. Unlike in Europe, Blackberry enjoys great popularity by average consumers in the US.
Source: http://www.heise.de

Nokia navigates pedestrians
Last week Nokia introduced Walk, a pedestrian navigation software. Downloads are now available from Nokia Beta Labs, but the software is still in Beta.
Source: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/maps

Ericsson will be FIFA partner
In 2009 and 2010 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association)
will use Ericsson’s technical infrastructure for the distribution of mobile multimedia services. The center of the agreement is the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Ericsson will provide content management and service delivery platforms for transferring FIFA products (such as informations services, TV and video) to mobile devices.
Source: http://www.heise.de

T-Mobile cuts prices for mobile internet abroad
Last week T-Mobile announced 2 - still volume based - new tariffs which apply for all 27 EU-States:

• 1 MB data traffic for 2 EUR
• 50 MB day package for 15 EUR

It will be irrelevant, in which foreign network a T-Mobile customer has signed in. Well, mobile surfing gets cheaper in Europe, but it is still very expensive. The new T-Mobile Roaming tariffs will become available in mid-2008.
Source: http://www.heise.de

MSN Direct
Last week at the Mobile World Congress Microsoft introduced a new mobile client called MSN Direct. It is a free application and runs on Windows Mobile 6 powered smart phones. With MSN Direct you can assemble your own news service, such as top news stories, weather, stock reports, sports or entertainment news. The content from the MSN portal updates automatically and is displayed on the phone’s idle screen.
Source: http://phone.msndirect.com

T-Mobile integrates Yahoo’s Onesearch and IM
Starting at the end of March all web enabled T-Mobile devices will exclusively support Yahoo’s mobile search service Onesearch. Users will have access to news, weather, flickr as well as related pages for mobile clients.
This year T-Mobile also wants to introduce mobile Instant Messaging and will therefore support Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ and AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). Up to now T-Mobile prohibits the usage of Instant Messaging services with its Web’n'Walk tariffs.
Source: http://www.zdnet.de

Ericsson develops mobile multimedia platform
Ericsson has unveiled a new hardware platform for mobile devices in order to help manufacturers develop multimedia devices with multitasking capabilities.
“The U500 is a powerful multimedia platform with performance, graphics and usability, more resembling a mobile computer than today’s mobile phones,” said Robert Puskaric, head of Ericsson’s mobile platforms business. “With the U500 platform Ericsson will keep its world leading position within the multimedia mass market for years to come”.
The U500 platform integrates three ARM11 CPUs (high performance microprocessors) as well as hardware accelerators. The Ericsson U500 will launch early 2009 and can offer highly advanced features like support for WVGA displays (800×480 pixels), high-quality camcorder, 12-megapixel camera, high-resolution video for mobile TV and superior audio performance.
Sources: http://news.softpedia.com, http://www.mobilewhack.com, http://www.zdnet.de

Nokia starts mobile advertising network
Nokia starts with Nokia Media Network its own advertising network for mobile websites. The company not only markets its own mobile services, but also from other (70) provider, such as AccuWeather, Discovery, Hearst, Reuters and Sprint.
Nokia promises its clients click rates at an average of 10% in some areas.
The company relies on the Enpocket technology, which the company bought in October 2007. Enpocket’s analysis helps optimizing campaigns in order to increase click and conversion rates.
Source: http://www.golem.de

AOL announces Open Mobile Platform
Last week AOL announced the “Open Mobile Platform“, which can be used to develop applications for a wide variety of mobile phone and smart phone platforms. The platform will support platform systems like Brew, Blackberry, Linux, Symbian, Windows Mobile as well as mobile phones with Java. The integration of AOL services will be possible, too.
Developers can create application using a XML-based markup language, a client to be installed on the device and an application server. The platform is to be released as Open Source Software in summer 2008.
Source: http://www.golem.de

- YouTube revised their mobile website m.youtube.com. Now, there is a wider range of videos available (millions of videos). You can also access your YouTube account, your Favorites, your own uploaded videos, your favorite Channels via your mobile phone, and you can share, rate or comment other user´s clips. Uploaded videos (from your mobile phone via email/mms) will appear on m.youtube.com as well as on www.youtube.com.
Last but not least, YouTube for Mobile went international. It is also now available for the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Germany, and Russia.
For more info (including a video) check out: YouTube Blog

- The German student social network StudiVZ prepares itself against the market entry of his US competitor Facebook. StudiVZ plans to provide APIs for developers. They are also thinking about joining Google’s initiative OpenSocial.

- Mig33 announced closing a Series B funding of $13.5 million led by DCM with participation from existing Series A investors Accel, Redpoint and TVP. Mig33 is a downloadable mobile social networking application. They currently have over 9 million users across more than 200 countries. Mig33 will use the money to continue expansion of the company in the U.S. and internationally.

- The mobile social network MocoSpace has raised $4 million in its second round of funding, drawing from existing investors General Catalyst, Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and former eBay exec Michael Dearing reports TechCrunch. The Boston-based company already raised $3 million in the first round in January 2007. MocoSpace has 2 million members and 1 billion pageviews/month from mobile phones.

- Motorola considers an elimination of his weak mobile devices department. The goal would be to regain lost market shares. But the consideration is not final. Greg Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer: “We are exploring ways in which our Mobile Devices Business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise.”

- Opera announced the commercial release of the latest mobile Web browser Opera Mobile 9.5 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC, once 3GSM) in Barcelona. “the Opera Mobile 9.5 desktop-like browsing experience has been enhanced with innovations such as zooming and panning that make it easier to navigate, load pages quicker and get users closer to the Web content and entertainment they want. With Opera Mobile 9.5, users can experience the real Web and interact with content exactly as they do on their PC.” (Source: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases).
Watch the Opera Mobile 9.5 Guided Tour (video) here.

- At the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona Microsoft will unveil version 6.1 of its Windows Mobile OS. Amongst a new application (”One Note Mobile”) there are an improved Internet Explorer as well as a Chat view for text messages. One Note Mobile includes voice messages, notepad and drawings. Find more info here: golem.de and msmobiles.com

Sources:
StudiVZ: golem.de
Mig33: themobiblog.com, personalbee.com
MocoSpace: techcrunch.com
Motorola: motorola.com, heise.de