"Nokia today announced it is supplying its multimedia messaging services (MMS) infrastructure solution to Cingular Wireless, the second largest wireless carrier in the USA."
Korean handset maker LG is to make handsets using both Symbian and Microsoft operating systems.
"LG says it will use a Microsoft OS for its high-end handsets, and Symbian in its mid-range models -- reinforcing the emerging belief that any Microsoft mobile OS success will come from business and corporate users as opposed to the mass market of general users."
I hadn't realised that was an 'emerging belief' but there you go.
"Sony Ericsson has pledged its smart phone future to Symbian. Peter Bodor, Sony Ericsson manager of corporate communications, said: 'There are no plans in Sony Ericsson to leave Symbian. We are committed to [the Symbian OS] for smart phones.' "
And it's hardly any wonder really when you consider that -
"Sony Ericsson's P800 smart phone has been positively received and is one of the first successes for Symbian and indeed the Swedish-Japanese joint venture, which reported its first quarterly profit yesterday."
"Nokia plans to significantly expand the number of its cell phones that have cameras--part of the Finnish handset maker's new strategy to focus more on "imaging" products. Nokia believes it could become the biggest digital camera manufacturer globally in 2003."
Emily, at Picturephoning.com draws our attention to a disappointing Financial Times report which informs us that MMS usage in Japan is well below expected levels. However Emily also hits the nail on the head as regards the root cause - the expense! Operators will eventually realise the mistakes they're making with pricing, rectify it, and see MMS take off.
Dave Winer pointed to BlogStreet's amazing RSS2Mobile service which lets you read any RSS feed in your WAP enabled mobile phone by simply appending the RSS URL onto a BlogStreet URL. Magic!
Sun has introduced new programs and software for telcos that it says will ease deployment of Java-based software and services. These include OTA (over the air) provisioning and delivery for carriers to introduce services like Vodafone's successful Live! offering, and a unified portal for its big enterprise customers to manage telecom services.
But then it ended it with this -
Carriers want users to see themselves as the platform, not Nokia, Symbian or Microsoft. So by positioning Java as a platform which doesn't look like a platform, it discreetly exploits Sun's existing carrier relatonships. Which for Sun is a major political win
T-Mobile in Europe announced an innovative new service that further expands the bounds of wireless data services and pushes the carrier one step closer to full over-the-air control over wireless phones. Under the offering, T-Mobile users will be able to download new user interfaces for their phones, a service that will allow subscribers to personalize their menus and services based on music brands, movies and sports.
T-Mobile International teamed with technology company Trigenix to offer the service, which will be available initially in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Austria for users of the Nokia 3650 and 7650. The service will be available to other devices in the future.
Diego Doval tells a funny tale (by the nature of it being so ludicrous) of his trials and tribulations when upgrading to a Nokia 3650 in Ireland. The phone isn't the problem, just the mobile operators,... of course!
His interesting conclusion is that the operators will eventually end up wondering where all their customers have gone by the time they finally realise that other Digital IDs are on an equal footing with mobile phone numbers, including email addresses, IM nicknames and so on. I love the idea - pervasive WiFi, or it's next iteration, and mobile handsets that can hook up, bypassing the dimwit operators :)
This BBC interview with design expert Dr. Don Norman is interesting for it's insights into the psychology of design but the cream of the article is right at the bottom where he observes that -
"The revolution we are in right now is not so much about the digital revolution, the computer revolution, the internet or the telecoms revolution. The revolution is the social interaction revolution and it is all of these things put together in one," he says.
To him, technology like SMS text messaging is "wonderful" because it makes him feel connected to his family dotted around the world. "We can keep this light, low level chat going on by using SMS, IM, chatting, wherever we all are in the world. We almost never use the telephone."
For a relatively old looking bloke this guy really gets the mobile technologies! How many boy geniuses are fooling themselves in the belief that it's all about the content and monetizing that content? Forget it! It's all about the contact.
"LogicaCMG today announced the commercial availability of its latest MMSC (Multimedia Messaging Service Centre) release. The new version -- MMSC release 2.0.1 -- incorporates the very latest transcoding technology which optimises the presentation of video MMS messages and even enables mobile subscribers to receive video messages if they do not have a video handset. This is a critical development for mobile operators to support the penetration of video MMS as well as high-value services such as music and sport clips."
It's very interesting to read that, "Dell has backed away from its smartphone plans, outlined last summer, and ruled out any attack on the handset market, despite its overall ambition of becoming a consumer electronics major. Chief operating officer Kevin Rollins said this week that the presence of Nokia would make handsets a difficult market to break into and that the sector is less attractive than other consumer devices because so much profit and balance of power goes to the mobile operators. "
In the light of Dell's recent announcement of a push into consumer electronic this seems all the more extraordinary and a real indication of the unfortunate levels of power held by the mobile operators. Boy how I'd love to see software radio technology like Vanu Inc's evolve to the stage that it could allow Nokia and other handset manufacturers sidestep the operators alltogether. I'd cry no tears to wave good bye to control freak network providers such as Vodafone.
"Hewlett-Packard Company launched a new wireless printing platform specifically designed for mobile phones, based on Bluetooth technology. Nokia is the first mobile handset vendor to leverage HP's platform, enabling users of Nokia's series 60 imaging phones - including Nokia 3650, 6600 and 7650 Bluetooth mobile phones - to wirelessly print photos, multimedia message services (MMS) messages with images, e-mails and others to HP printers, without connecting to a PC."
Picturephoning.com points to a report that there is a trend in Japan where the use of SMS is delcining in favor of newer formats such as MMS. With the current expense of MMS in Europe I can't see that situation being mirrored here any time soon.
Just noticed that Tom Hume has made an interesting post on the technology I mentioned below. In fact, catching up with Tom's blog after a week away I notice that he has posted lots of interesting entries. Go check.
Music giants Warner Music and Bertelsmann's BMG introduced on Monday a new anti-piracy technology enabling music fans to download songs onto a mobile phone and share the music with friends.
The new technology works on the concept of a restricted peer-to-peer network in which owners of mobile phones equipped with multimedia messaging, or MMS, can send and receive pictures and sound clips to and from other mobile phone users.
Pity my Nokia 3650 has such poor sound quality (for music). Anyway it seems that the Nokia 6220 is the only handset currently supported.
Trying desperately to catch up here, after a whole 10 days of internet fasting. Holy schmoley, I can't believe how so much can happen in such a short time! I won't have time for much analysis but will link to the most interesting items, of which the announcement by Opera Software of the Opera Platform appears to be one of the most interesting. Among other things it allows operators to seamlessly integrate online content with local applications. Very cool indeed.
Just a quick message to say I'm back from sunny Spain and will resume normal service tomorrow. I can definitely recommend Tenerife (in the beautiful Canary Islands) for a totally relaxing holiday this time of year :)
