Indian user’s perspective nice post………

http://www.mobiilemela.blogspot.com/

Kyocera Wireless Corp. today announced its entry into the GSM handset market with four new GSM handsets. The new phones will launch initially in Latin America, where a number of CDMA service providers recently switched to GSM networks. Combined with its extensive CDMA expertise, Kyocera’s addition of GSM to its technology portfolio also positions the company to address the rapidly growing WCDMA market. The announcement coincides with today’s finalization of Kyocera acquiring Sanyo’s mobile handset business, making Kyocera the world’s sixth largest manufacturer of wireless phones.

Read more

http://www.cellphonedigest.net/news/2008/04/kyocera_announces_entry_into_g.php 

A promotional video, purportedly made by Motorola, has appeared on YouTube that shows off a number of existing and unannounced mobile phones from Motorola. The mystery phones, which include a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone and 5-megapixel Kodak-branded shooter, could be the cards Motorola plans to reveal in a few weeks at CTIA.

Read more at

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/motorolas_ctia.html

F110 will be launched in UK next month. Now Adidas wont partner Samsung without a few fitness features such as heartbeat monitor and step counter. Other “Me Too” features include “Mp3/FM tuner”, “2 inch LCD TV”, ” 2 MP Camera”.

Handset OEMs seems anxious about increasing commoditization of products (all the phones at a particular price carry similar features.. am i wrong?), decreasing costs, competition from new corners (mind iPhone & Blackberry) and the most worrisome cause seems to be their one time interaction with the buyer. Handset developers want to acquire a larger share of customer’s wallet by having a continuous interaction with the handset buyer through handset’s lifecycle. Nokia’s OVI, Apple’s iTune and Samsung announcing its intention to enter into mobile content business at MWC 2008 underlines this development. Apple’s Steve Jobs showed  his sharp business acumen when he launched iTunes clearly emphasizing that it is an uphill task to survive in a business where your customer does not come back to you. He knew its not possible to run a profitable business continuously by just selling iPods, he wants them to come back to Apple even after buying iPod. NOKIAs and Samsungs are late to understand this fact.

These recent developments of handset OEMs getting into mobile content business  also starting another war between OEMs and Operators. Operators worldwide want increasing share of their revenues and profits from mobile content and OEMs entry into their turf is signalling conflict of interests. This conflict seems to turn real if we believe this report T-Mobile to Ditch Several Nokia Handsets – Report (http://www.cellular-news.com/story/29663.php).

It would be interesting to see how NOKIA reacts to such moves by operators and how many operators follows T-Mobile. One thing to be noted down is, ‘in developed mobile markets handsets are offered bundled with mobile plans unlike India’.

One thing is clear OEMs are not happy with just one time hardware purchase and operators just dont want to act as ordinary “PIPE”.

Trolltech’s Qt® cross-platform development framework is adding support for Microsoft®’s Windows® CE operating system. This means that applications developed using Qt on Windows, MacOS X®, and Linux® desktop and embedded platforms can now be easily deployed to a range of mobile devices running on the Windows CE and Windows Mobile operating systems.“Qt for Windows CE is another milestone in Trolltech’s vision of ‘Qt everywhere’. It will allow application providers to reach out to even more devices by enabling their applications to run across yet another operating system without rewriting the code,” said Haavard Nord, CEO and co-founder of Trolltech.

Qt for Windows CE enables developers to write rich, easy-to-use, platform-independent applications, using the intuitive API that Qt is known for. Rather than spending time rewriting their application for new platforms, developers are free to focus on value-adding innovations that can differentiate the user experience of their product.

The Windows CE version of Qt includes all the functions needed for end-to-end application development, and provides integrated developer tools, such as a powerful graphical user interface (GUI) and forms builder and robust features for translation of applications into new languages.

Cross-Platform Embedded: Companies that build similar devices running both embedded Linux and Windows CE can use Qt to create one application for deployment across both device types.

Desktop to Devices: Applications built with Qt on the desktop can now be extended to run on a variety of Windows CE-based devices such as tablets, mobile phones, and other mobile devices.

Unique approach to Windows development: Qt is unique in its ability to provide developers with a single, consistent API that works on a wide number of Microsoft Windows platforms, ranging from Windows 98 to Vista® to Windows CE and Windows Mobile®.

Enhanced speed and user experience

Qt for Windows CE helps developers to use the full capabilities of the hardware they are working with. It integrates Scalable Vector Graphics drawings with full support for multiple displays and supports OpenGL® ES. It comes with Qt GraphicsView, a powerful 2D graphics canvas that enables the creation of interactive applications that can handle thousands of 2D graphics objects. Qt Style Sheets customizes the look and feel of applications without changing the code enabling easy differentiation of the user interface with minimal efforts.

Qt includes a wide range of components needed to build rich and complex user interfaces, including data-aware item views, offering a high degree of customization. Qt for Windows CE is also integrated with Visual Studio® 2005, and Visual Studio 2008 support is planned for the upcoming Qt version 4.4 release.

Availability

Qt for Windows CE will be available as part of the upcoming Qt 4.4 release, which is scheduled to be released in May. Currently technical previews are available in the Qt release snapshots and the latest Qt 4.4 beta release, available on Trolltech.com. Qt for Windows CE will be available under Trolltech’s dual-licensing model, which includes both commercial licenses for commercial development and a GPL-licensed version for open source development

mobile device makers are not happy with just one time interaction with the customer. They want more pocket share of customer post hardware purchase. So after ‘OVI’ from NOKIA, now Samsung has intentions to pursue internet based services model.

The new strategy would unite all of Samsung’s premium web-services under one roof and put more of that consumer-cash back into Samsung’s accounts. And, with handset manufacturers scrambling to keep the end-user “in-house” even after the customer has paid for the phone and is long-gone from the retail store, Samsung’s new web-services strategy makes sense.

Over the next couple years we’re going to see most big-name manufacturers start to offer Ovi-like web-services integrated into their revenue model

I am not too surprised by this announcement personally because I was expecting handset guys to come out with something like this or something else which would give then regular income from end customers. With the increased commoditization of handsets, dollars are drifting away from handset guys and I am sure they are a worried lot.

Nokia and the University of Cambridge are showing off a new stretchable and flexible mobile device of the future called Morph.

The new concept phone is part of an online display presented in conjunction with the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition underway through May 12 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The device, which is made using nanotechnology, is intended to demonstrate how cell phones in the future could be stretched and bent into different shapes, allowing users to “morph” their devices into whatever shape they want. Think Stretch Armstrong for cell phones. Want to wear your cell phone as a bracelet? No problem, just bend it around your wrist.

Nokia says the concept device demonstrates handset features that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering, including flexible materials, transparent electronics, and self-cleaning surfaces.

“Nokia Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile devices,” Bob Iannucci, chief technology officer for Nokia, said in a statement. “The Morph concept shows what might be possible.”

Even though Morph is still in early development, Nokia believes that certain elements of the device could be used in high-end Nokia devices within the next seven years. And as the technology matures, nanotechnology could eventually be incorporated into Nokia’s entire line of products to help lower manufacturing costs.

                                   Open Mode

                                     Phone Mode

                              Wrist Mode

Pace at which a lot of desktop applications are moving to mobile phones, soon it would be imperative to have a ’search application’ on mobile phones which can search your mobile they way search is carried in desktops.

A company called Nuance offered a free trial to attendees of the Mobile World Congress last week that allowed you simply start typing a query in using T9. It automatically searched your entire phone for that content, be it a contact, file, image, application, etc

 Windows Mobile lets you search for some content using T9 in a way similar to the new software from Nuance, called T9 Nav. But it’s not as thorough as T9 Nav is. Unfortunately, T9 Nav offered only a temporary beta trial, and won’t launch until later this year. On top of that, the software is limited to Symbian-based mobile phones.

It would be a lovely feature especially to people who have got high end feature packed mobile phones.