[Wireless-general] MO:LIFE

Thu Jun 16 11:13:30 BST 2005

A pretty decent list that started up in Australia recently.

MOLIFE

June 14, 2005

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*TABLE OF CONTENTS - 015  (June 14  2005)*
Produced by John Pace and Sam de Silva, mo:life

1. Mobiles ring at school for the deaf
2. Cometh the sale, cometh the man
3. Nokia sued for patent infringement
4. NZ's T3G to extend coverage
5. Asia mobile users to top 901m by 2009
6. Tech Guide: PDA shopping checklist
7. Nokia, Intel Team for WiMAX
8. Japan's Digital Divide: Broadband Available to 93
Percent of Households
9. Freescale Multimedia Processors Increase Playtime
for Mobile Entertainment Devices
10. Philips Ensation Technology Enables Wireless Audio
Streaming
11. Nokia, Apple Make Open Source Deal
*12. Q&A with Shane Williamson / 3 Mobile Developers
Network*

*AGGREGATE - keeping track of what's out there* 

1. Mobiles ring at school for the deaf
Most Bangkok schools have banned cell phones in the
classroom, after students were caught using text
messages to cheat on tests.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/09/1118123949262.html
June 10 2005

2. Cometh the sale, cometh the man
Solomon (Sol) Trujillo comes to the senior executive
position at Australia's largest telecommunications
player at a pivotal point in its history. 
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/0,2000061791,39196415,00.htm
June 7 2005

3. Nokia sued for patent infringement
Finnish mobile telephone giant Nokia is being sued for
infringing on a patent for technology allowing mobile
phone users to answer their phones without touching
them, a company backing the patent holder says.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/08/1118123873534.html
June 8 2005

4. NZ's T3G to extend coverage
Telecom New Zealand has promised to extend its
third-generation T3G mobile network to cover all towns
with more than 10,000 people by Christmas. 
http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/10/1118347582453.html
June 10 2005

5. Asia mobile users to top 901m by 2009
The number of mobile service subscribers in the
Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan is projected to
exceed 901 million by 2009.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/06/1117910233877.html
June 6 2005

6. Tech Guide: PDA shopping checklist 
Handhelds started as simple organisers meant for
managing appointments and contacts. However, you can
rarely find PDAs doing just that as these days it's the
norm for devices to include multimedia features such as
MP3 playback, voice recording and cameras. There's even
phone-capable PDAs too. As devices continue to evolve
and get voice capabilities, we'll see the line between
a PDA and phone blurring.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/coolgear/pdas/0,39023392,39195595,00.htm
June 7 2005

7. Nokia, Intel Team for WiMAX
Nokia and Intel are joining forces in the name of
WiMAX. The companies have agreed to work together to
accelerate the development and deployment of the
technology. 
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA607744.html
June 10 2005

8. Japan's Digital Divide: Broadband Available to 93
Percent of Households
Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications estimates that only 7 percent of
Japanese households cannot obtain broadband, according
to a report in The Asahi Shimbun. This amounts to
approximately 3.45 million homes.
http://www.japanmediareview.com/japan/blog/Technology/592/
June 8 2005

9. Freescale Multimedia Processors Increase Playtime
for Mobile Entertainment Devices
Freescale Semiconductor unveiled the i.MX31 and
i.MX31L high performance multimedia processors,
designed to deliver long lasting mobile entertainment
experiences. Based on the ARM11 platform and enhanced
with Freescale's Smart Speed technology, the i.MX31 and
i.MX31L processors maximize the effective cycles per
instruction (eCPI) to create a new benchmark for
power-performance mobile entertainment solutions. 
http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/dailynewsdetail/001480
June 10 2005

10. Philips Ensation Technology Enables Wireless Audio
Streaming
Royal Philips Electronics has announced the Ensation
wireless technology which will make it easier for
digital audio device manufacturers to add wireless
networking capabilities to their products, enabling the
streaming of digital audio from PCs, home entertainment
systems and other devices to multiple loudspeakers or
wireless headsets.
http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/dailynewsdetail/001443
June 6 2005

11. Nokia, Apple Make Open Source Deal 
Nokia announced it has partnered with Apple to use
open source software to create a Web browser for
smartphones using its Series 60 mobile phone software
platform. 
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3512381
June 13 2005

*12. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS  with Shane Williamson*

Shane is a Partner Manager at Hutchison 3G Australia
("3"), running the "Developers on 3" & "Solutions on 3"
partner programmes that he founded in 2003. 

*mo:life*
In terms of mobile content and mobile applications,
what kind of 'stuff' is 3 really interested in? From
your research, what's currently successful and what
does 3's crystal ball suggest will be successful?

*SW*
I'll break the answer into two parts:

First, mobile content. I guess 3 is interested in
content that will appeal to the majority of it's
subscribers. At this stage it is important to have
content that can be utilised by the various age groups
that make up our customers.

This takes the form of:

1. Entertainment (single & multiplayer games ,
ringtones, music video & audio, comedy), 

2. Information (news, sports, weather, horoscope,
finance, livesurfcams)

3. Interaction (Power chat, RSVP, Kodak photo share)

Then there's the mobile applications. Of course this
is something I  could write on till I fall off my
soapbox, so I'll focus on the major categories they
fall into. Currently in the Australian market we are
seeing movement toward these types of mobile
applications:

1. Field Force - service technicians, field workers 

2. Sales Force - sales people

3. Mobile Office - traditional office applications
that workers need
access to whilst out of the office.

The big opportunity in mobile applications are the
niche markets. Whether the developer/ISV focus on a
particular vertical industry like financial advisiors
or a horizontal solution such as delivery.

Overall, getting content like "Big Brother" makes a
huge impact on usage because of its voyeuristic appeal
and it's great use of the 3G technology like using live
video streaming. Smaller brand products like the comedy
product "Petey & Jadey" from Momentum are also very
popular.

*mo:life*
Where does personal media publishing stand. Are you
seeing mobile phone users engaging in uploading video
and sending images around, or  are people using the
devices more for pulling down stuff. Do you envisage
growth in a mobile-blogging culture soon, or is that
kind of activity a few years away?

*SW*
Yes, the mobile is a personal content distribution
system. All of 3's devices have an e-mail address so
users can share photos, videos and audio content they
have created on their device. The Kodak product we
recently launched now gives users the ability to upload
images to their mobile site via the device and share
that with their friends & family.

Mobile blogging is here & in the form of using the
device to send blog updates directly from the device. I
use this frequently as you can take a photo with the
device and then e-mail your blog comment live to your
site.

The true power behind blogging are the following
technologies though: 

1. Permanant status of entries (permalinks), which
makes it very easy to search,

2. Ability to subscribe to a site to be alerted to
updates (Real Simple Syndication - RSS)  

3. Having a conversation by readers being able to post
comments and interacting with you. (ClueTrain Manifesto
101)

So, Blogging should be seen as a service that
surrounds products not a product in it's own right. All
mobile services should use these features to foster 
the building blocks of Digital Social Networks. It's
this use of the technology that is 1 or 2 years out.

*mo:life*
Can you give an outline of 3's experiences in is  the
mobile phone culture evolving there?

*SW*
3 is currently only represented in HK within the Asian
market, which is a highly competitive market. 3HK is
doing some ground breaking services such as
programmable live traffic cams & live sport viewing. I
am very impressed with how 3HK has taken the customer
on the whole 3G expereince, not just selling the
technology. A good example of this is how they create
video training for the various services on their
website. 3 is also represented in many European
countries, the largest being the UK & Italy.

*mo:life*
Here's your chance to do the sell! If a developer had
a project, why should he or she approach 3 over the
other telcos? Can you briefly outline what 3 offers
developers.

*SW*
This is where you see what a bad sales person I am as
I don't think it should be about us versus them. A
developer needs to research their markets well. The
Australian market is big enough for developers to
choose the carrier(s) to work with. Factors such as
customer types, number of subscribers, types of
devices, coverage areas, cost of data & compatible
mobile services will greatly influence the developers
decision. Of course the carrier that assists the
developer with development tools & then marketing their
product to their customers will be highly beneficial. 3
has a developer programme
http://developers.three.com.au which supplies tools &
guidelines as well as a go-to-market programme for the
best of breed products and services called "Solutions
on 3" http://solutions.three.com.au that markets
through 3's various sales channels including the
ability to be introduced into other international 3
countries.

*mo:life*
Do you see the mobile content space going in the
direction of the WWW (millions of people creating
mobile content), or will bandwidth fees and other
requirements mean it operates more like the Pay TV
environment?

*SW*
Yes. We are not reinventing any new wheels here. The
Internet & it's technologies are pervasive & mature. 3G
brings speed and an always on connectivity to the
Internet. The make or break for mobile content will be
how much the carriers want to share that revenue with
3rd parties. Even in Australia we have seen a
repetitive cycle with mobile content where carriers are
opening their walled gardens & more importantly sharing
the revenue with 3rd party content. Competition will
drive down data costs, especially in the shadow of
higher mobile data speeds.

*mo:life*
What are your top three tips for mobile content
developers?

*SW*
1)  Research - know & live your market!  Understand
your competition, the Intellectual Property that
differentiaties your company, the carrier's customers &
market segmentation. Understand the development
environment, client or server based, devices etc.

2) Usability - Before implementing, articulate very
clearly what it is exactly that you are making mobile.
Then get real world users to test your product, not
just getting it tested it with your staff. Use trials
were possible. If it's a mobile product, then get
mobile to test it.

3) Partner - The hardest thing for a lot of companies
is not having the expertise or financial backing to
launch their product or service. As part of your
research, look for complimenting technologies or
companies that can assist in getting your product to
market. Document your agreements well and include clear
and concise exit strategies.

*mo:life*
More crystal ball time! What is the mobile media world
going to look like in 3 years time? And are there any
barriers that need dismantling to get us there?

*SW*
Now this really is the billion dollar question. 3
years should see the following changes in the market: 

* Every carrier will be selling 3G services.

* The early 3G carriers will be depolying their
upgraded higher speed networks (High Speed Downlink
Packet Access)

* 3G devices will be approaching 60% penetration of
the population

* The majority of developers/ISVs/content aggragators
with have mobile content & applications in their
products &   services portfolios

* People will perceive & be using 3G services the way
mobile voice is used today.

* Data revenue will out number voice for 3G carriers.

Of course, how the question is answered relies very
heavily on how well the carriers play their part. Will
mobile data have revenue sharing with 3rd parties? Will
3G coverage be extended quickly? 

The real test of time for 3G will be when an older
person says to a younger person "I remember when mobile
phones could only do voice calls" and the younger
person responds "Whats a mobile phone?"

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