Handsets Galore
By Brad Smith
LAS VEGAS–If it's a CTIA Wireless show, you have to expect there will be quite a few handsets being announced. This year's show in Las Vegas is no exception, with new handsets from all of the major handset manufacturers.
One of the biggest pieces of handset news was the announcement by Kyocera, which has only made CDMA handsets outside Japan, that it will get into the GSM market. Kyocera's first four handsets for GSM/W-CDMA are all set for the Latin American markets. Spokesman John Chier says Kyocera wants to continue to sell handsets to Latin America operators who have switched or are planning on switching from CDMA to GSM technology. No carriers were announced for the first four phones.
Will Kyocera bring its GSM/W-CDMA phones to other markets, like the U.S.? Chier wouldn't say.
Kyocera also announced three new CDMA handsets, the Neo E1100, Mako S4000 and Adrena S2400. In addition, Kyocera announced it planned to finalize its $400 million acquisition of Sanyo's mobile phone division, which will make the combined company the sixth largest handset manufacturer in the world. The Sanyo brand will continue to appear on phones for some time, though.
There also was a new handset manufacturer displaying phones at CTIA. Velocity Mobile, which has been talked about for some months, showed off its first two phones. The phones, called the Velocity 103 and Velocity 111, both use the Windows Mobile OS and are GSM/W-CDMA/HSPA capable.
The Velocity 103 will be available in the second quarter and the Velocity 111 will be available in the third quarter, both in unlocked and unsubsidized configurations. The company, however, promises that the phones will be affordably priced when they become available.
Velocity Mobile, with offices in Seattle and London, is backed by the large computer original design manufacturer Inventec.
Motorola announced that Verizon Wireless, Alltel and U.S. Cellular will start selling the manufacturer's latest smartphone, the Moto Q 9c. The Q 9c follows on the earlier Q and Q 9m. The Verizon Wireless model will include the operator's VZ Navigator service and will start selling this month. The models for Alltel and U.S. Cellular will be available in the summer.
Research in Motion has two new BlackBerry handsets with three different carriers, including the BlackBerry Curve 8330. The Curve 8330 is the smallest and lightest QWERTY BlackBerry for EV-DO networks. It will be sold through both Verizon Wireless and Sprint. It includes built-in GPS, a web browser, multimedia capabilities, and expandable memory. There are three earlier GSM/GPRS/EDGE models of the Curve, the 8300, 8310 and 8320, with the latter having Wi-Fi. This is the first Curve for CDMA and will be available on Verizon Wireless in May as well as on the Sprint network.
The second phone is the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 for T-Mobile USA, which also is a dual-mode handset with Wi-Fi. It also has a camera with video capture, multimedia and expandable memory.
LG Electronics is showing three new phones at CTIA Wireless 2008, including a new version of a messaging handset with a widescreen for video display, called the enV2.
The enV2 flips open from the side to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard and supports EV-DO. The phone will be available for Verizon Wireless's VCast music and video service. It also has an external keypad and screen. It has a 2.0-megapixel camera and camcorder, image editor, 10x zoom, music player, a microSD card slot, stereo sound, and Bluetooth.
LG also announced two other CDMA handsets, a slider model with a touch screen called the Glimmer, and the Scoop, which has a QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the side of the handset. The Scoop has a music player, camera and camcorder. It also supports Alltel's Celltop home screen.
ZTE announced two handsets at CTIA, both supporting carriers with AWS spectrum. The handsets are the ZTE C78 and C79 models, both for CDMA 1x networks.
"With the recent availability of the new AWS spectrum, carriers now have the potential to provide expanded wireless services to U.S. customers," says George Sun, CEO of ZTE USA. "Our new handsets allow U.S. carriers, both large and small, to leverage the AWS spectrum and fully profit from their investments in the spectrum."
The C79 is a full-featured, flip phone with an MP3 music player, 1.3 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, a 2-inch high-definition screen and support of a MicroSD removable memory card. The C78 is a more basic candy bar phone with a VGA camera, multimedia messaging and Internet browsing. It also has Bluetooth.
Sony Ericsson announced that its Z750a will be available exclusively through AT&T. The clamshell handset has a multimedia player, 2.0 megapixel camera, Internet browser and e-mail.
"We are delighted that AT&T will offer this device in the U.S. along with the hugely successful W580 Walkman phone," said Karen Morris, vice president of marketing for Sony Ericsson North America.
TCT Mobile of China, which purchased the Alcatel phone unit and brand two years ago, also announced it will have 15 handsets for the North American market. The company introduced four models but said more are on the way.
"We are excited to carry on our longstanding expertise in creating quality phones a affordable prices, and will continue evaluating opportunities to better serve our North American customers," said TCT Mobile CEO Liu Fei.
Court Rules Sprint Must Sell Nextel Network in Certain Midwest Markets
By Teresa von Fuchs
A higher court in Illinois ruled in favor of iPCS in its dispute with Sprint Nextel over competition in certain Midwest territories. The Illinois Appellate Court confirmed an earlier lower court's ruling that Sprint Nextel must sell its Nextel network in certain iPCS territories in the Midwest. The court's decision this week reaffirmed an August 2006 ruling in favor of iPCS that called for Sprint to divest its Nextel assets in the disputed markets.
Previous to the 2006 decision, a Cook County Circuit Court ruled that the merger between Sprint and Nextel violated Sprint's management agreement with iPCS Wireless, a subsidiary of iPCS, which sells Sprint-branded wireless services in areas of Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Nebraska. iPCS says its territories cover 7.8 million people and it currently serves 629,900 customers.
The initial rulings were put on hold when Sprint challenged them citing a ruling by a Delaware Chancery Court that allowed Sprint to sell Nextel services in Horizon and Bright service territories in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and New York. iPCS also owns the Sprint-branded affiliates Horizon Personal Communications and Bright Personal Services.
iPCS says it is pleased with the court's ruling, calling it a "significant victory" for the company.
Sprint Nextel said it will consider its legal options.
Sprint Opts for NSN Subscriber Data Management
By Rhonda Wickham
LAS VEGAS–Sprint selected Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to help it deliver a simplified and individualized subscriber database solution, eliminating inefficiencies and added costs usually associated with multiple databases.
Using Apertio's One NDS (Network Directory Server), the solution will help Sprint operate a Subscriber Profile System (SPS) based on a single, real-time common subscriber database. This also will allow Sprint to integrate new applications by plugging in extensions to the core data model on short notice without service interruption.
The platform also will support a host of IP and IMS-based services and applications over the Xohm WiMAX network.
According to Sue Spradley, Head of NSN's North American region, "As Sprint paves the way for 4G, we are pleased they have chosen our one-of-a-kind solution to manage and unify their subscriber data."
NSN also will provide maintenance and system integration services.
Nokia Fine-tunes Music Offering
By Monica Alleven
LAS VEGAS–Nokia isn't one to wait for carriers to get on the bandwagon before it makes a move. Sometimes the moves are subtle; other times, highly visible.
A good portion of yesterday's Mobile Entertainment Live keynote with Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president/entertainment & communications at Nokia, was devoted to Comes with Music, an offering that Nokia unveiled at the Nokia World conference in Amsterdam last year. Comes with Music will enable people to buy a Nokia device with a year of unlimited access to "millions" of tracks. Once the year is up, customers can keep their music.
Nokia announced the service in December with Universal Music Group International; Ojanpera said Nokia is making "good progress" in discussions with other labels, big and small. "It's important that it needs to be sustainable" as a business, with revenues to be shared, he said.
Nokia is just finalizing the device range and the markets in which it will launch with Comes with Music, he said.
Nokia also is involved in a Green Room project in the United Kingdom whereby a film crew hangs out with a band, for example, in the green room; it will run as a weekly show. Tied to that will be artist promotions in the Nokia Music Store.
Musician/producer Dave Stewart is on Nokia's artists' advisory council.
Ojanpera also discussed Ovi, the Internet services environment named after the Finnish word for "door." The intent is to enable easy access, or a gateway, to consumers' existing social network and content, combining the mobile, PC and Web worlds.
NBC and Fox Go with JumpTap
By Monica Alleven
LAS VEGAS–NBC Universal could have had its pick of any number of mobile advertising solution vendors, but it chose JumpTap to be its ad solutions provider for delivering and representing ad inventory for multiple WAP sites, including NBC Entertainment, NBC Sports, Universal Pictures, USA Network, SCI FI Channel and Bravo.
The selection of JumpTap validates the company's position in the ecosystem with operators, publishers and advertisers, says Paran Johar, chief marketing officer at JumpTap.
Under the agreement, JumpTap will sell available NBC Universal WAP ad inventory as part of its mobile-specific ad network; NBC Universal's ad sales team will continue to focus on selling integrated media campaigns, which include TV and/or Web advertising. As part of the deal, NBC Universal can provide JumpTap with display ad inventory from the media company's other WAP properties, in addition to the sites already mentioned.
Despite the U.S. economy, the mobile advertising market already is incredibly aggressive for 2008, Johar says. Last year involved a lot of testing, but this year extends beyond those tests, into actual budgets allocated to mobile advertising. "I think advertisers are begging for a new medium," he says, adding he thinks traditional channels like TV and print will be more affected by the economy.
What's attracting advertisers? "I think it's the promise of the Internet on steroids," he says, with mobile phones presenting a much more personal, uncluttered and interactive medium. "We're seeing a lot of momentum and a lot of interest for mobile marketing."
JumpTap also announced a similar mobile advertiser deal with Fox's new Fox Mobile Entertainment Network, which brings popular content from various television channels including FOX, FX, SPEED, National Geographic Channel and Fox Reality Channel to one mobile Web location at FoxMobile.com.
"We selected JumpTap for its advanced advertising solution capabilities and strong relationships within the advertising community," Mitch Feinman, senior vice president of Fox Mobile Entertainment, said in a statement. "We want to present advertising that actually enhances the consumer experience, and we believe working with JumpTap will help ensure we do just that."
Symbian May Head to Computers
By Brad Smith
LAS VEGAS–Symbian may be the leading smartphone operating system in the world but there's no reason it couldn't find its way on small computers such as Mobile Internet Devices, Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford said in an interview at CTIA Wireless 2008.
There was some discussion at the Smartphone Summit prelude to CTIA Monday that smartphones and laptops are on converging or competing paths. Analysts at the summit said there could be a day when smartphones would supplant laptops.
Intel and some other companies have Mobile Internet Devices as part of their futures, with MIDs eventually becoming something akin to smartphones with the support of voice over IP.
Clifford said Symbian's OS already has demonstrated it can be used on traditional computing devices. That was part of the message last fall when Symbian said it would support ARM's Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) architecture, while allows future versions of the OS to use multiple core processors that would handle different functions in a device.
Symbian and ARM are working together to integrate the OS's capabilities with ARM's coming Cortex-A9 multicore processor. Some analysts think the Cortex-A9 will compete with Intel's Silverthorne MID processor.
Clifford also said Symbian is focused on improving its power management capabilities, on massive data handling, network throughput, and a rich media experience using the OS. Symbian Monday announced support for SQL, which enables massive data handling on a phone, as well as its enhancements for location-based services.
Symbian's latest software, version 9.5, is expected to be in phones late this year. The upgrade will support data rates up to 25 Mbps, as well as enhanced graphics, Bluetooth v2.1, WLAN security improvements and SMP.
Redmond Has New Mobile Internet Explorer and Windows Mobile 6.1
By Brad Smith
LAS VEGAS–Microsoft announced a new version of its Internet Explorer Mobile browser today, as well as enhancements to its mobile phone operating system, Windows Mobile 6.1.
With the advent of 3G networks and their higher data rates, the wireless industry has started focusing more attention on better access to the Internet using a phone. Microsoft says its new IE Mobile is capable of a desktop-grade Web browsing experience on a phone.
The computing company says the latest version of IE Mobile adds the ability to easily view full-screen Web pages and multimedia on the Web using a smartphone. IE Mobile uses some of the technologies from its big brother, Internet Explorer 6, so it can support such multimedia capabilities as H.264, Adobe Flash, and Microsoft Silverlight. IE Mobile's updates will be available to handset manufacturers in the third quarter and the first Windows Mobile phones using the software are expected to be available by the end of the year.
Windows Mobile 6.1 includes a quicker phone set-up experience for e-mail, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connections and a Getting Started Center help facility. It also makes it possible to respond to missed calls, upcoming appointments and new messages from the home screen.
Microsoft also announced a device manager system for enterprise customers using Windows Mobile devices. The software, called System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, is available immediately.
The company says a survey of large and mid-size companies showed they wanted the ability to manage mobile phones in much the same way as they can Windows-based desktops. The new device manager service lets IT managers to protect business files and emails on phones, contacts and other data through file and storage card encryption. It also includes a mobile VPN.
Microsoft also announced that Windows Mobile will have an enhanced version of Live Search, which provides local business search, maps, driving directions, movie show times and other local content. The new version, expected this spring, provides deeper integration with Windows Mobile phones, user-generated content and Web search, as well as weather forecasts. Live Search for BlackBerry also will be enhanced with voice commands.
India Relaxes Telecom Infrastructure Sharing Rules
By Teresa von Fuchs
India's telecom ministry announced a relaxing of sharing rules for telecom operators. Local operators will now be allowed to share transmission systems, radio access networks and antennae, the country has also simplified the approval process for building mobile towers. But operators are still not allowed to share spectrum.
The telecom ministry said, in a statement: "The guidelines are aimed to reducing the input costs on telecom access providers...(as well as) reduced tariff and increased tele-density in rural areas."
Nokia Siemens Networks Provides LTE
By Rhonda Wickham
LAS VEGAS–Wireless operators are moving toward a flat, all-IP network architecture so they can deliver the flood of mobile data offerings more cost-efficient. As a first step, Nokia Siemens Networks is currently providing its standardized pre-LTE solution Internet-HSPA (I-HSPA). According to the company, I-HSPA allows new license winners to implement a flat all-IP network compatible with all legacy HSPA devices. It also preps their networks for the LTE evolution with a simple software upgrade.
Originally launched at the Mobile World Congress, NSN's LTE solution for radio and core networks includes the Flexi Multimode Base Station, Mobility Management Entity (MME) and System Architecture Evolution (SAE) gateway. The base station lets operators deploy W-CDMA/HSPA and LTE in all major frequency bands, including the 700 MHz and 1.7/2.1 GHz bands.
Sue Spradley, NSN's North American Region head, said new license winners are looking for fast time-to-market with their networks, and NSN's LTE solution caters to that need.
Verizon Wireless Adds V Cast Video
By Wireless Week Staff
LAS VEGAS–Verizon Wireless unveiled a number of new content and channel offerings for its V Cast video service at CTIA Wireless 2008, including a partnership with Warner Brothers Television Group to bring video content from the popular show TMZ.
Verizon Wireless says commercial-free video segments of TMZ will be available via a new TMZ TV channel on V Cast Video. The segments will feature clips from some of the shows 24 hours after their regular broadcast TV show.
"Our goal with V CAST Video is to bring leading entertainment to our customers," said Jennifer Byrne, director of V Cast video and social media. "The debut of TMZ TV on V Cast Video fits perfectly with that vision, offering our customers the latest in entertaining and compelling content."
Verizon Wireless also announced a deal with Saavn, a distributor of South Asian content, to bring Saavn's Bollywood Music video channel to V Cast.
Other deals included delivery of local TV news content formatted for mobile phones through News Over Wireless on a new My Local TV News video channel; a Spanish language video channel provided by Univision Móvil; the launch of two new MTV Networks channels called GameTrailers and The N; a new CondéNet lifestyle-oriented channel featuring content from Style.com, Epicruious.com, Men.Style.com, Concierge.com and Wired.com; and comedy programming through FunnyorDie.com.
Verizon Wireless Customers Text 20 Billion Messages in One Month
By Teresa von Fuchs
Verizon Wireless announced that seven years after the launch of basic text messaging, Verizon Wireless customers sent and received over 10 billion billed text messages in a single month–June 2007. Only eight months later, the number of text messages on the Verizon Wireless network in a single month doubled to nearly 20 billion. In February 2008, Verizon Wireless customers sent and received nearly 20 billion billed text messages.
"The volume of text messages being sent and received by Verizon Wireless customers is growing exponentially," Mike Lanman, chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, said in a statement. "Whether it's sports scores, news updates, the latest weather forecast, or the ‘joke of the day', text messages are a tremendous way for anyone to stay on top of what's happening in the world. Not to mention all of the parents–and grandparents–keeping up with their kids, or kids texting each other throughout the day, text messaging is becoming an increasingly important way to communicate for people of all ages."
Along with 20 billion text messages, Verizon Wireless in a partnership with wireless navigation and hyper-local search company Networks In Motion (NIM), also announced the newest version of VZ Navigator will be available in April on select handsets.
With the new VZ Navigator, version 4, customers in 75 cities from coast to coast will be able to access traffic incidents, traffic updates and find detours around traffic congestion and accidents; more cities are expected to be added in the coming year. In addition, VZ Navigator will offer 3D perspective view, a movie and events finder, weather reports and forecasts and gas prices at nearby gas stations.
The latest version of VZ Navigator will be available sometime this month for $9.99 for unlimited monthly access or $2.99 for one-day use on select Get It Now-enabled phones.
Zed USA Makes It Official
By Monica Alleven
LAS VEGAS–CTIA Wireless 2008 marks the "coming out" party of sorts for Zed USA, which is the combination of 9 Squared and Zed.
9 Squared, the company behind RingToneJukebox.com, was acquired by Zed last year as part of its Monstermob acquisition. While 9 Squared primarily has been focused on working direct from the Tier 2 and 3 carrier decks, Zed's strategy is more direct to consumer. Going forward, Zed USA will take a dual-pronged approach, according to Ted Suh, chief marketing officer at Zed USA.
While some industry pundits lament the ringtone market has flattened, Suh says there's still plenty of opportunity outside the usual hip-hop. Christian, Latin and country are some of the genres where there's room for growth, he says. The youth market represented early adopters, but other segments of the population have yet to discover ringtones.
More ringtones are sold than ringback tones, but that's because consumers usually need an added subscription service to enable ringbacks, he says, and the content catalog for ringbacks is smaller. It's still a lot easier to get a ringtone, with the exception of some operators; Verizon Wireless, for example, makes it easy to get ringbacks, he says. Other carriers have additional steps the customer needs to do, and that impedes adoption.
Zed Group is based in Madrid, Spain, and has a big presence in Europe and Asia. Until the Monstermob acquisition, it had a limited presence in the U.S. market. But Suh says now that 9 Squared has transitioned into Zed USA, you can expect to see a lot more content deals in the coming weeks and months.
Incidentally, rapper T-Pain alone is responsible for "unbelievable" ringtone sales. "Hip-hop by far is the largest selling genre," Suh says. The next top seller is rock.
Nokia Announces WiMAX Tablet
By Brad Smith
LAS VEGAS–With both Sprint and Clearwire rolling out WiMAX networks this year, devices and handsets supporting those launches are starting to appear. As expected, Nokia says it will have a WiMAX edition of its N810 Internet Tablet ready for those networks.
The N810 WiMAX Edition is the latest in Nokia's family of Internet tablets, with a large (4.13-inch) touch screen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a full Mozilla Internet browser, support for VoIP and instant messaging, support for both video and music playback, a built-in web cam, and integrated GPS.
Along with a full featured web browser, powered by Mozilla, that takes full advantage of the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition's large 4.13 inch touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a variety of popular web-based services are also supported. Many of these applications can be found on Nokia's dedicated OS 2008 User Site. To keep connected while on-the-go, a number of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Instant Messaging (IM) clients are available, including Skype, Gizmo, and GoogleTalk, which can also take advantage of the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition's built-in web cam for video calls. A client for the popular Rhapsody online music service is also available, transforming the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition into a portable jukebox with millions of songs available to enjoy at a few taps of the screen. Beyond these well-known services, an active developer community has also emerged around the Linux-based Internet Tablet platform, creating additional applications – from games to productivity tools.
WiMAX Forum Maps Progress
By Monica Alleven
LAS VEGAS–The WiMAX Forum is jazzed about the growth prospects for WiMAX around the world – and the growth that's already occurred in the U.S. market.
The forum projects more than 133 million WiMAX subscribers globally by 2012. About 70% of the forecasted WiMAX subscribers by 2012 will use mobile and portable WiMAX devices, according to the study.
More than 90 WiMax Forum members will be at CTIA Wireless 2008. A WiMAX Lounge in the central lobby includes a detailed map identifying all the deployments of WiMAX technology around the world. The forum also is sponsoring a Walk of WiMax Booth tour; maps are available at the WiMAX Lounge.
WiMAX is not only launched, but "it's proliferating and has a tremendous impact around the world," says Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum.
The forum also released a white paper stating its position on the 700 MHz spectrum. The forum views 700 MHz as a strong contender for mobile Internet services and says WiMAX technology in the 700 MHz frequency has the capability to meet specific requirements of new subscriber segments, such as low-cost deployment in low-density rural areas.
Air2Web Launches New Marketing Series
By Monica Alleven
LAS VEGAS–Mobile marketing has been around for several years at a reasonable rate, and Air2Web, a 9-year-old company, is one of the grizzled veterans of the space. What it's seeing now, besides people going beyond just talking on their phones, is ad agencies beginning to embrace mobile world beyond the testing phase.
At CTIA, Air2Web is highlighting its Promote and Service solutions, which it can deliver in a week or two as opposed to six or eight weeks, says Air2Web President Bill Jones. The Promote offering includes promotional messaging, coupons and voting; the Service offering includes alerts, store locator and surveys.
Mobile marketing is a supplement to a brand's overall marketing mix. It helps make non-interactive marketing channels more interactive, and it offers time and place immediacy with a direct connection to a specific customer, he says.
Some companies offer pieces of the mobile marketing puzzle, but Air2Web is doing a range of things. "We've got a nice broad footprint for customers and where it shows is in the breadth of our offer," he says.
The Mobile Marketing Solution Series is the first in a series of turnkey solutions Air2Web says it will bring to market during the coming months. Each Solution, which can be tailored for specific vertical markets, includes unlimited standard-rate messaging for 30 days.
mimoOn Demos 3GPP LTE on SDR Platforms
By Rhonda Wickham
LAS VEGAS–mimoOn GmbH, provider of software-defined radio (SDR) solutions, is demonstrating its end-to-end Long-Term Evolution (LTE) software solution, showing how it can accelerate development of mobile infrastructure and client devices.
The product comes in two versions: one customized for base stations, picocells and femtocells, and the other for client devices such as data cards, mobile phones, wireless modules and wireless modems
One of the challenges for all vendors is they have to begin designing LTE equipment now in order to have it ready for the projected timeframe of 2009. One obstacle is the LTE specification has not yet been ratified. However, according to Thomas Kaiser, mimoOn's CEO, the Duisburg, Germany, company's LTE product is written in high-level software, which will make it easy to upgrade. He said it also uses SDR technology which can be reconfigured and remotely upgraded when the standard is finalized.
mimoOn's platforms offer high processing power required for LTE. In order to keep power consumption low, the platforms employ parallel processing technology. The software solution also offers reconfigurability, which is key for supporting 2G and 3G standards while LTE evolves.
The Death of the Smartphone
By Brad Smith
LAS VEGAS–Apple has no public presence at the CTIA Wireless show, and might never come to the largest wireless show in the United States. But its shadow still hangs over this year's event.
During the Smartphone Summit, a pre-show event Monday, Apple's iPhone was brought up frequently because of the impact it is having on handset design, user interfaces and consumer expectations.
During an analyst panel at the summit, though, even the analysts couldn't agree if the iPhone is a smartphone or not. The topic was broached by Bill Hughes, analyst with In-Stat, who says In-Stat uses the iPhone in its smartphone research. But Hughes said he's not sure the iPhone qualified because it has been a completely closed platform. It was only recently that Apple decided to issue a software developers kit (SDK) that will allow outsiders to develop applications for the iPhone.
Hughes asked the audience at the panel how many believed the iPhone is a smartphone and only about one-third raised their hands.
Smartphones generally are defined as handsets with a high-level operating system that is open to developers. These include such platforms as Symbian, which is in about 70 percent of all smartphones because it is used by Nokia, and Microsoft Windows Mobile.
All the analysts agreed that the smartphone market, now about 10% of all handsets, is growing rapidly. Peter Cunningham of Canalys said his research shows there will be 241.1 million smartphones sold by 2010, a compound annual growth rate of 50.9%.
The smartphone market is different, though, according to region. Consumers buy most of the smartphones in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Cunningham said, while most of the smartphones purchased in the U.S. are bought by professionals. That also means the U.S. market is dominated by the BlackBerry, while in Europe it is the Nokia Symbian S60 platform. The iPhone was 17.3% of the U.S. market last year but didn't rate mentioning in Europe.
Cunningham mentioned that the iPhone, which is mainly a consumer device, likely will change the breakdown between consumer and enterprise in the U.S.
Andy Castonguay, director of consumer research for the Yankee Group, said he thinks carriers are going to start selling smartphones on an unsubsidized basis in the future. That's because customer acquisition, which includes subsidy costs, are one of the largest costs for operators.
The shift to unsubsidized smartphones is going to happen because consumers are buying more of them, Castonguay said. Consumers are starting to see the value in smartphones and, as evidenced by the iPhone, are willing to pay a higher price for them.
Hughes mentioned that the average smartphone buyer in the U.S. downloads less than two applications to his or her handset, although that has grown, and that most of the downloaded applications are games.
Jonathan Goldberg, senior analyst with Deutsche Bank, said he has been following the retail sale of smartphones for years and noticed a major change during the Christmas season. Prior to that, he said, carrier retail outlets had a separate area in the store for smartphones. Over the holiday period he saw no smartphone sections in the stores. That's because the smartphones are now being sold with the rest of the handsets and that they are being purchased not because they are called smartphones but for what they can do.
Goldberg said that kind of attitude change implied a kind of "death of the smartphone" because its not being marketed as a separate category.
Toshiba Adds Peripherals for Handset OEMs
By Rhonda Wickham
LAS VEGAS– The race is on among handset makers to pack their devices with as many applications as possible, including Internet access and text messaging, multimedia storage and playback, 3D gaming, mobile TV and video capture. However, additional features require more support for peripherals and also present challenges when implemented in slider or clamshell configurations. The hinges and sliders used in these designs can cause electromagnetic interference and mechanical stress.
To help address these challenges, Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) added the TC35892XBG flexible I/O expander to its line. It's designed to provide additional I/O ports, allowing devices such as keypads, LEDs and rotator wheels to interface with a mobile handset or other portable consumer electronics device's baseband and/or application processor. It also reduces the wired connections in these designs while also providing flexibility to handle various keypad layouts from 2x2 to 8x12 with up to 96 keys and eight special function keys.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company also introduced three Dynastron image sensors based on its high-sensitivity pixel technology as well as two new chip-scale camera modules (CSCM) for use in cameraphones.
Red Bend Teams on Chips, Software
By Rhonda Wickham
LAS VEGAS–Red Bend will be providing handset manufacturers with a pre-tested and optimized solution for rapid firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updating on entry-level mobile devices using LoCosto technology from Texas Instruments (TI). This will help handset makers produce cost-efficient, entry-level handsets that are capable of receiving continuous software improvements over-the-air.
"The ability to keep mobile software up to date with the latest enhancements has become an important feature for all mobile devices, and entry-level handsets powered by TI's LoCosto platform are no exception," said Markus Tremmel, TI's worldwide wireless ecosystem manager.
TI's LoCosto platform provides single-chip solutions and combines the radio and all the baseband processing into a single integrated solution, reducing component count, board space, power consumption and system cost.
In related news, Motive, provider of service management software, and Red Bend Software, established interoperability between their solutions, giving operators end-to-end visibility and control over the entire mobile service delivery chain – from the consumer device to the backoffice and network core.
Motive has verified interoperability between its Mobile Service Management solution and Red Bend's vCurrent Mobile and vDirect Mobile client software, establishing a standards-based reference design for the activation, provisioning, configuration and ongoing management of revenue-generating services. Interoperability was achieved using standards from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), including Device Management (DM) 1.2 and the Firmware Update Management Object (FUMO) 1.0 enabler.
EarthCam: The Next Best Thing to Being There
By Rhonda Wickham
LAS VEGAS–EarthCam, provider of international webcam content, unveiled a range of offerings including syndicated content of live streaming video of international landmarks, local traffic and weather-to-consumer webcam applications.
Earthcam is probably best-known for its original "My Live Webcam" application that allows customers to keep watch over families or pets, or monitor their homes, offices and personal property remotely.
Earthcam Mobile currently has installed hundreds of cameras in its webcam database. With this "network" of webcams, subscribers can view famous resorts t
