BlogLive at CTIA

Post-show wrap: Symbian Foundation frees from Nokia handcuffs

Sarah Reedy — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:41:07 +0000

The Symbian Foundation announced its spin-off from Nokia as a non-profit organization at CTIA Wireless, complete with a new logo, a beta Web site and ambitious aims. At an open forum event at the show, Foundation members, journalists and analysts discussed the future of Symbian’s open-source mobile operating system. The common trend that emerged was a concern that its ties to Nokia were still too strong.
Foundation executives stressed the power of openness and said that by 2011, other third-party developers would be contributing far more code than Nokia. But for now, most agreed that the global handset leader remains the driving force of Symbian, which will fully integrate Nokia’s S60 middleware and user interface with the OS and eventually support touch interfaces and widgets – new to Symbian, but quickly becoming table stakes in the industry.
For more on Symbian’s road ahead, see Telephony’s online story on the Foundation.

Post-show wrap: Samsung’s multi-pronged WiMAX strategy

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:02:40 +0000

Of any vendor, Samsung probably has the most fingers in the WiMAX pie here in the US. Not only is its network division building a substantial portion of Clearwire’s WiMAX network in the US, its PC division is embedding WiMAX chips into laptops and its handset division just released a stand-alone WiMAX data device, the Mondi—all to support Clearwire’s launch.
In an interview at CTIA Wireless, Dr. Hwan Woo Chung, Samsung’s senior vice president of wireless broadband systems, shared with us all of the details of the vendor’s multi-faceted wireless strategy. He discussed the philosophy behind the design of the Mondi and why Samsung chose to launch the device while its potential market is still small. Chung also detailed some of Samsung’s future device plans and shared the scope and scale of the vendor’s current WiMAX build out in the US.
For the complete report see Telephony’s online feature on Samsung.

Post-show wrap: CTIA attendance down 15%

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:38:19 +0000

Wireless may be getting a partial pass in the down economy, but the industry’s biggest trade show certainly isn’t. CTIA reported attendance at CTIA Wireless dropped 15% this year, short of the worst case scenario, but definitely an indication that recession isn’t bypassing mobile industry.
Official attendance came in at 34,000, down 6000 from the previous years, and way off of the 45,000 plus CTIA Wireless has enjoyed in years’ previous. CTIA claims that the movers and shakers that actually make the strategic decisions and purchase the goods were in attendance, so while foot traffic may have been down high-level networking and deal-making were still going on behind the scenes.
For a complete report see Telephony’s Unfiltered Post on CTIA’s numbers.

Al Gore challenges wireless industry to think beyond profits

Kevin Fitchard — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:38:15 +0000

Adding the green theme to this year’s CTIA Wireless, Former vice president and Nobel peace laureate Al Gore today commended the wireless industry on its efforts to combat global warming, but said there was still much more work to do. Delivering the final keynote to this year’s conference, Gore said while he believes strongly in the profit motive as the driving force of the economy, some of the most successfully companies are those willing to pursue higher goals than dollars and cents.
Gore said that in the future will judge the present on how it handles global warming today, and it will look favorably on the companies, institutions and individuals that devoted their resources to solve a seemingly impossible problem. Whichever solutions are ultimately developed and utilized, Gore said, wireless technology will be a critical component.
“Wireless is going to be one of the key tools we use to solve the climate crisis,” Gore said. “The wireless communications industry is at the heart of the transition we need to make.”
Gore acknowledged the significant steps that the wireless industry has already taken toward eliminating carbon emissions and reducing waste. Phone’s like Motorola’s Renew and Samsung’s Blue Earth, use recycled materials and, in the case of latter, incorporate solar cells directly into the device. A concept phone from Nokia reuses parts of older phones and nanotechnology to print electrical circuitry rather than rely on chipsets. LG Electronics is deploying solar powered phone charging station. Meanwhile equipment vendors have taken steps to reduce their gear’s power consumption and thus reduce their carbon footprint as well as developed cell sites powered by wind, solar, geothermal and biodiesel energy. Carriers have begun deploying solar and fuel cells at cellsites as back-up power sources to replace environmentally unfriendly diesel generals and batteries.
While lauding those efforts, Gore said some of the most significant contributions wireless will make will be in linking together other green industries, technologies and initiatives. In applications like telemedicine, wireless enables information to be shared without patients driving long distances to see doctors and without generating stacks of paper records. The power industry will eventually move away from large centralized power plants, to create distributed electric grids fed by millions of power nodes drawing green energy from renewable sources, each of which need to communicate and coordinate one another. Wireless provides the key connection technology to manage those grids, Gore said.

Alvarion heading to Main Street America

Kevin Fitchard — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:13:31 +0000

Main Street America has tapped Alvarion as a vendor for its rural broadband access deployment in the southeastern US, one of the largest Rural Utilities Service-funded initiatives in the US. Alvarion will deploy its BreezeMAX broadband gear in an unspecified number of Main Street’s 129 RUS-funding-eligible communities in Florida and Georgia.
Main Street will use BreezeMAX gear over licensed spectrum at 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz as well as in the unlicensed 3.65 GHz band, for which Alvarion’s equipment recently received RUS certification. 3.65 GHz has proved particular popular as a primary or supplementary access technology for rural and small broadband providers. Though unlicensed the FCC requires operators to register their equipment wherever they deploy, giving them limited rights to use the spectrum though not exclusivity.
Main Street, through its subsidiary Broadband South, has received $34 million in RUS funding so far to bring IP phone service and broadband access to un-served and underserved communities in Florida and Georgia.

Verizon launches app store (kind of)

Sarah Reedy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:20:13 +0000

Verizon announced at CTIA that it is opening its own Mobile Web Games and Apps Store, what it called ‘another easy and fun way for consumers to access the games and applications’ it offers. The portal will feature the tools and titles Verizon already makes available on many of its handsets. Customers with Get It Now-capable phones can use the mobile Web to browse and search the storefront on either a WAP or HTML handset.
It has app store right there in its title, but Verizon’s announced portal isn’t much more than an updated version of its age-old WAP site. The carrier is, however, hosting an application developers’ conference this summer, suggesting a real app store might not be out of the question. But for now, Verizon isn’t in a rush to compete in the app store market, according to vice president of digital programming Ryan Hughes. Instead, Verizon’s objective is to succeed in working with handset makers to enhance applications as much as they can.
“Brew is a closed ecosystem and each deal is hand cut,” Hughes said in a CTIA interview. VZW has put a ton of energy and money behind applications like Song ID for ringtones, its Rhapsody mobile music platform and ESPN application, he added. Titles in Verizon’s Mobile Web Games and App Store that can be previewed, sampled and ordered, include, Tetris, Guitar Hero World Tour, VZ NavigatorSM and Backup Assistant.
“We want to offer the biggest brands to bring a core experience,” Hughes said. “We are now getting more open and our concern is, how do we make sure we get developers and work with RIM to meet all the quality-of-service requirements and deliver the best experience to customers?”
Verizon won’t engage in the practice of restricting apps that it thinks consumers won’t like, but like AT&T, it will be make sure that RIM, Android and any other platform’s apps are complaint with legal, appropriateness and quality of service standards. Hughes pointed out that on Android at launch, some apps simply didn’t work, which is something Verizon hopes to avoid.
“There’s an inclination to race to be open, but we need to make sure we don’t compromise the experience,” he said. “Some folks don’t have that customer experience,” he said. “We need a level of protection to apply…The intent is to make sure developers have the best set of tools and the customer experience is good.”

RealNetworks CEO talks unlimited music, DRM

Sarah Reedy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:20:08 +0000

Vodafone Spain this week introduced a new music strategy built around data plans that include unlimited access to mobile music for 12 Euros, or about $16, per month. The logic behind the relatively inexpensive unlimited plan is that if Vodafone can accelerate data penetration, it’ll make more money than from a pay-per-song model, according to RealNetworks chairman and CEO Rob Glaser.
“We are trying to get the music industry to move away from a per-unit view to an ARPU model,” Glaser said. The iPhone has had an influence disproportionate to its relatively small global market share, he added, leading many operators to believe paying per song is the best model for music.
RealNetworks powers Vodafone’s music service in Spain and nine other countries, in addition to 11 other operator’s offerings across Europe and Verizon in the U.S. In addition to its unlimited service, Vodafone recently began offering digital rights management-free songs that can be delivered to a range of mobile phones and PCs without side loading or synchronizing. It partners include Universal Music, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, Warner Music and several independent record labels.
Vodafone is making more than one million songs available as unprotected MP3s to customers, meaning they won’t be restricted to any particular device. Customers who’ve already purchased DRM-protected music from Vodafone have the opportunity to upgrade it to MP3s for free, which is something Apple charges for on iTunes. Although Vodafone’s subscription service retains the tracks’ DRM so that consumers cannot keep their songs if they cancel their service, it’s an important move for the music industry, which according to Glaser, has typically let a fear of cannibalization drive its business model of paying per DRM-free track.
Glaser pointed to college kids to whom music is central, but piracy is thought of less like stealing and more like jaywalking. He said his message to music labels is that by embedding in the fabric of digital, they can drive revenues in much the same way the Amazon Kindle has monetized content that is otherwise already available free on the Web.
The problem with a service like Nokia’s Comes With Music, Glaser added, is that it is asking consumers to pay too much up front. In his opinion, the best model to drive mobile music is a plan, like Vodafone’s, that includes a device that does not cost more, but comes with a required data plan that includes music. The model definitely hasn’t made its way to North America yet, but Europe tends to be a Petri dish for wireless experimentation. Considering this, flexible enough economics to allow carriers to do bundled data plans with music will come to the U.S., Glaser said, but it will take a few years.

Didmo launches mobile content creator

Sarah Reedy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:20:03 +0000

Mobile technology and content provider Didmo is branching out from its traditional focus, mobile games and advertising, to launch Magmito, a user-generated mobile content service enabling consumers and enterprises to publish and share their life’s events on mobile devices. The free service lets users form invitations, albums or events on their PC by selecting a template, customizing it with information and photos and sending it to as many mobile devices as they like.
The Evite-like service uses an SMS link to open up a page, optimized for mobile, around a service or special event. Didmo CEO Roberto Chaves said it could be used for everything from newlyweds sharing their wedding photos to industry professionals planning a meeting to adverting companies and retailers promoting an event. The service can be divided by up to four pages. For a party invite, for example, the first page would be general information, the second for Google maps and directions, the third dedicated to the itinerary and the fourth for a related questionnaire. The resulting app is then sent to either an entire phone book or individual contacts as an SMS. Clicking on the SMS launches a custom downloadable app on Java ME and iPhones or a WAP site on other smartphones’ mobile browsers.
Consumers can also choose whether or not they want ads in their creation. The number of ads dictates the cost of SMS delivery. Didmo plans to make it money from SMS charges and advertising, as well as white labeling its service to large corporations who want to use it as a tool to create branded newsletters, sales training or solicit feedback on the mobile handset.
“It’s important to create a tool to allow these web developers the opportunity to make money,” said Ted Ianuzzi said. “We don’t charge anything to give them the tool; we just ask they do the delivery through us.”
Swedish-based Green Wines and Spirits is the first customer Didmo has announced. The company will promote its Pure Green Vodka brand to potential distributors through a Drink Book mobile app created using Magmito. The app includes product information and recipes that can be downloaded and viewed on any mobile phone.

Nokia Ovi about consolidation, not an app store

Sarah Reedy — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:30:13 +0000

As Nokia prepares to officially open its unified application storefront to consumers, the handset maker is stressing that Ovi Store is not about cashing in on the app store craze, it’s the culmination of Nokia’s year-long plans to solve the problem of discoverability and disparate processes across its handsets.
“The advantage of Nokia is our reach and scale, but there was no way for developers to achieve this,” said George Linardos, vice president of media services and software at Forum Nokia, at a CTIA luncheon today. “They needed a media network….We went from consolidating our activities to being part of the biggest craze of the year, which wasn’t what we signed up for.”
To differentiate what ultimately is an application store, Nokia is tying it in with its other services, like music and video. For example, a Qik app for streaming live video to the mobile Web will upload videos to both the Qik server and to Ovi Share, Nokia’s video and photos sharing platform. Apps will be distributed through Ovi, but also preloaded into certain handsets, starting with the N71.
“It is about distinguishing our services to distinguish our handsets, which will all lead to sales,” said Rob Taylor, Forum Nokia’s director.
Nokia does have a vast array of handsets on the market, each with a different user interface. Taylor said that the fragmentation that exists is there for a very specific reason – to target distinct market segments, but it will prove to be a challenge nonetheless. Nokia would like to move to enabling a ‘write once, launch everywhere’ system for its developers, but he realizes it’s not feasible yet.
Nokia has already lined up some compelling content in advance of the launch, including apps from the AP, Qik and mobile media Kinoma, as well as a deal with Tim Kring, creator and product of the popular TV show Heroes. Starting with mobile first, Heroes will launch an immersive narrative through the Ovi Store using geotagging, social networking, user-generated content and professionally made videos. Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, said that this app and others are meant to reinforce that Ovi is not just an app store – at least in Nokia’s mind.
“Ovi Store is positioned as a full-blown entertainment channel with an application store attached, which makes it different and more ambitious than most of the other app stores hitting the market,” Zoller said in a research note. “This is partly why Nokia makes such a big play of the personalization, location and social media features that underpin Ovi and which it hopes will provide differentiation, for both users and developers.”
Another one of these media features is Point & Find, which lets users point their phone at physical objects, beginning with movie posters, and pull up related information and services on the Internet. This function ties the phone’s camera, GPS and browser to the app to let users capture an image, receive location-relevant information and use search to pull in relevant services. Zoller pointed out this could be used by developers to offer more personalized apps and by advertisers for engaging with the mobile user.
Nokia plans to charge for apps in the Ovi Store with credit cards at launch, but Linardos said they recognize this has its limitations. As such, Nokia will also integrate with operator billing, giving the operator a cut of the revenues if the developer chooses to charge that way. Ovi Store is scheduled to open next month.

AT&T dives into beta development, funky devices

Kevin Fitchard — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:59:23 +0000

AT&T revealed new elements to its mobile strategy at CTIA Wireless today, announcing plans to launch a consumer-driven beta application program and pursue netbooks and other new devices that don’t quite fit the definition of phone or computer.
The new development program is intended to expand the scope of applications available to customers who don’t use any of its portfolio of smartphones, all of which have their own development programs and—with the launch of the BlackBerry App World on Wednesday—already have their own app stores. Key to the initiative is a beta program for consumers to download and trial new apps. The best of those apps will be picked up by AT&T for sale or distribution directly to its customers.
“We’ve always given developers a voice,” David Christopher, chief marketing officer for AT&T mobility and consumer services, said at and AT&T luncheon at the show. “Now we’re giving customers a voice so we can deliver apps to the broadest swathe possible.”
AT&T is launching its beta program to cut down on the time it takes to launch an app and help developers reach its customers better, according to Emily Soelberg, AT&T director of product marketing management. She described the program primarily as a feedback forum for developers to get input on their creations, but she added that AT&T would consider pulling certain successful apps into their own app storefront across the carrier’s handsets.

AT&T has had its own mobile-Web storefront in place for the past five years offering thousands of titles spanning entertainment, productivity and communication, but the store suffered from a lack of awareness up until the launch of the iPhone. Soelberg said that as the iPhone drove familiarity and phones got more advanced and lower in cost, MEdia Mall has benefited from the new interest.

If the beta program proves successful, though, MEdia Mall may not prove deep or feature-rich enough to support an incoming flood of new applications. Christopher said AT&T is weighing options on how to handle that influx if it comes to that. “Whether that’s an app store or whether it’s more breadth and choice on MEdia Mall, we’re not announcing today,” he said.

AT&T is also pushing further into the mobile device space. On Wednesday it announced a pilot program in Philadelphia and Atlanta, which will offer low-price netbooks to customers that subscribe to both AT&T home broadband and 3G data, combining the two into a single “home and on the go” broadband plan for $60 a month.

AT&T also announced today that it will again provide three-screen coverage of the 2009 Masters Tournament across U-Verse TV, AT&T FanZone on the PC and AT&T wireless devices, along with a special interactive app for all U-Verse TV customers. In addition to scores, leader boards and real-time content, U-Verse subscribers will get access to a mosaic of channels broadcasting live coverage. The carrier will provide both live footage and on-demand content from Augusta National on the TV and wireless for those customers who subscribe to AT&T Mobile TV, MobiTV or Cellular Video services.