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MWC: UK’s largest app developer warns of Android fragmentation threat

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Android’s 2011 growth will be tempered by fragmentation

Android may be dominating MWC in terms of visibility and device launches, but Ben Trewhella, CTO of Mubaloo the UK’s largest application developer, Mubaloo, has warned that despite its rapid growth it will take time before Android apps reach the ‘best in class’ apps available on the iPhone.

32.9 million Android phones were sold in the last quarter of 2010 just topping the 31 million phones equipped with Nokia’s Symbian system.

Trewhella said that Google has raced to the top of the market by offering their software to phone makers for free, but warned that the continued growth of the Android platform is dependent on how it deals with the problem of fragmentation. 

“The growth in Android has come from a large number of mobile manufacturers finding it easy to adapt to various screen sizes, hardware features and user interfaces,” explained Mr Trewhella.

“This in itself causes fragmentation, with developers having to test across many devices and sometimes create device specific versions. The problem is compounded as the base Android operating system is constantly being developed by Google to provide new features such as Near Field Communication.

“Once a handset has been sold, the device manufacturer has little incentive to update their customised Android interface. This inevitably results in most Android users being left with an outdated version of Google’s mobile operating system.

“This fragmentation is also an issue for developers, who may not have the different skillsets or time to develop for anything other than a single platform: most typically the iPhone, which has little or no fragmentation.

“This will prove to be a mistake in the long term. The current growth of Android consumers, and particularly the accelerated rate of growth predicted in the next three years, indicates brands and agencies should be looking to take advantage of the new markets opening up. They should select development partners such as Mubaloo who have the proven ability to deliver apps across all the mobile platforms,” he said.

MWC: Telefonica and eBay Launch Global App Deal

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With the WAC launch yesterday focussing attention on operator app strategies, Telefonica and eBay chose today to announce that will work to put eBay available on most smart phones and feature phones sold by the company via its O2 brand in the UK.

This is the first mobile pre-load deal agreed by eBay anywhere in the world, and the first time Telefonica has selected an app to make available to its O2 smart and feature phone customers across the board. O2 customers in the UK will have access to the app first, but Telefonica expects to roll out the app in its other markets.

Starting later this year, Telefonica said that the eBay mobile app icon, or a link to the eBay mobile site, will appear on either the home page or two subsequent pages of most Android, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, RIM and bada devices sold by O2 in the UK over the next two years. The company will work with device manufacturers to pre-install the application.

Glyn Povah, Head of Content at Telefonica O2 Europe said, “Deals like this help brands stand out in the increasingly cluttered app marketplace.”

Steve Yankovich, Vice President of Mobile, eBay said, “The future of shopping for our customers is mobile. We will continue to invest in mobile technology and work with partners to extend our market-leading position in m-commerce, and to give customers the shopping experience they demand.”

MWC – Cinterion and Trimble collaborate on compatible wireless M2M and GPS modules for asset management solutions

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Cinterion, a Gemalto company and specialist in cellular M2M communication modules, along with Trimble, have announced their collaboration to pair the companies’  M2M and GPS technologies. Combining Cinterion’s cellular communication modules and Trimble’s Condor GPS modules creates solution for a wide variety of asset management services.

Cinterion’s modules offer full type approval and pre-approval by major mobile network operators around the globe, which significantly reduces time-to-market. Trimble’s family of Condor modules are easily integrated with Cinterion’s advanced platform of more than 40 market-leading modules offering wireless connectivity on both 2G and 3G networks.

Trimble’s Condor GPS modules feature major advancements in signal tracking for applications working in environments with poor signal strength. With higher sensitivity, enhanced performance and faster startup times, Condor modules enable system integrators to easily add cost-effective GPS capability to a mobile device with minimal impact on size or battery life.

“Developers and integrators have a growing need for easy-to-integrate, high-quality M2M modules and GPS capability,” said Peter Fowler, Cinterion regional president for the Americas at Gemalto. “The combination of our award-winning M2M communication modules and Trimble’s Condor GPS modules has raised the bar for performance and reliability in a flexible, cost-effective solution.”

“Cinterion is a valued technology partner with a worldwide reputation for high-quality technology, outstanding solutions support, strong carrier relationships and full type approvals – all essential elements of successful M2M solutions,” said Steve Ruff, general manager, Trimble’s Embedded Products Division. “We selected Cinterion for integration in our TM3000 asset tracking solution and the outstanding results enabled us to launch the product in weeks rather than months, saving precious time and resources.”

Vodafone and Intel aim to drive growth of machine-to-machine services

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Vodafone and Intel Corporation today announced a new collaboration that aims to make it simpler and more affordable for businesses to develop smart services by connecting devices to the Internet. The two companies aim to develop and market machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions that will combine Intel’s computing processor platforms with Vodafone’s network and connectivity services.

By aligning Intel’s enhanced computing power and Vodafone’s mobile data capabilities, it will be easier for companies to embed M2M capabilities in a wide range of products ranging from connected washing machines to connected vehicles to entire ‘smart’ buildings.

Information that is captured by the connected device and transmitted by the network can then be turned into valuable smart services for the customer.

By packaging embedded computing and mobile services, the two companies intend to spur a new wave of innovation in the global M2M sector.

As part of the collaboration the companies will create an M2M Smart Services Developer Kit using the Intel Atom processor making it simpler for businesses to create services and applications with standardized M2M capabilities in their products and foster growth in the M2M services market.

“The M2M market has the potential to boost customer service and profit margins, but take up has been partly held back by the complexity of installing and managing the technology,” said Erik Brenneis, head of M2M at Vodafone. “This new collaboration will create a simple way for businesses to firstly connect devices to the Internet then manage the wireless connectivity of these devices across the world.”

“The consumer and embedded sectors are moving towards billions of connected devices enabled by new and richer classes of service.  We view persistent device connectivity, security, and manageability as important factors for the success of M2M and this collaboration will facilitate further progress in those areas,” said Ton Steenman, vice president and general manager of the Embedded and Communications Group, Intel Corporation.

Initially the firms will focus on delivering an M2M capability that can be used across many different market sectors. They will then develop tailored M2M capabilities for use in specific products across the automotive, smart home and connected white goods sectors.

MWC – Synchronica introduces pre-RCS unified messaging with Mobile Gateway 6

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Synchronica, the international provider of next-generation mobile messaging solutions, today announced Mobile Gateway 6 introducing unified messaging capabilities, a presence-enabled address book, an ultra-lightweight J2ME client, support for xHTML browsers as well as advanced document transcoding capabilities.

Mobile Gateway continues to support literally any mobile phone in use today, providing push Email, synchronization, instant messaging and social networking even on low-end devices. The new Mobile Gateway 6 functionality adds an advanced user experience for feature phones and Smartphones.

New key features introduced with Mobile Gateway 6 include:      

Standards-Based Gateway with Pre-RCS Functionality

Mobile Gateway combines a range of industry standards to deliver messaging via IMAP, SyncML, OMA CP and IMPS, providing the best possible user-experience on native device clients. Mobile Gateway 6 introduces advanced Pre-RCS features, providing interoperability and coexistence with RCS as well as a roadmap to IMS networks with full support for RCS and SIP SIMPLE IM.

Unified Inbox

A new unified inbox, introduced with Mobile Gateway 6, collects messages from multiple communities and consolidates them into a single inbox, providing a “social stream” independent of the communication method and sorted by time. The unified inbox enables simultaneous conversations across multiple communities and channels – including phone calls, SMS, Email, Instant Messaging and Social Networking.

Presence Enabled Address Book

Mobile Gateway 6 synchronizes and aggregates contacts of IM, Social Networking and Email into a Presence Enabled Address Book. It allows users to see profile pictures, status messages, and online presence status of their entire contacts network in a single view. Based on the presence status, users can then decide to initiate a chat, send Emails or place a phone call directly from the address book.

Ultra-Lightweight Clients

New ultra-lightweight J2ME clients introduced with Mobile Gateway 6 support a wide range of entry-level and premium mobile phones. With a footprint of just 160k, applications are executed on the server, while the clients simply render the user interface. This allows functionality of the applications to be enhanced and modified without requiring the user to download an updated version.

Advanced Attachment Handling

Mobile Gateway 6 incorporates patented content adaptation and transcoding technology, providing data-efficient access to complex Email attachments, including support for complex office documents such as PDF and Microsoft Word as well as a variety of image and video formats. Instead of downloading the attachments, they are transcoded on the server and streamed to the user’s mobile browser, reducing network bandwidth consumption by up to 90%.

One-Stop Solution for Next-Generation Mobile Messaging

Mobile Gateway provides carrier-grade mobile messaging to literally any mobile phone in use today, using established technologies such as SMS, MMS and WAP Push for basic handsets, as well as industry standard IMPS, XMPP, IMAP and ActiveSync for mid- to high-end handsets.

The new Pre-RCS capability of Mobile Gateway 6 combines the complete functionality of Mobile Gateway in a single integrated and brandable client, while the new advanced document transcoding engine dramatically reduces network bandwidth consumption.

Mobile Gateway is a one-stop solution for operators and device manufacturers planning to introduce advanced mobile messaging services. It synchronizes consumer and business Email accounts and connects users to popular Instant Messaging communities such as GoogleTalk and Facebook Chat; and key Social Networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In. Synchronica messaging products have been chosen by more than 80 mobile operators and 8 device manufacturers worldwide.

Outlook and Market Development

The UMTS forum expects that by 2016, there will be at least one billion consumer devices connected to mobile broadband, fuelled in part by exponential growth of Social Networking Services such as Twitter and Facebook. At the same time, mobile Email and Instant Messaging continue to grow at rapid pace, in particular in the mass-market. Comscore reports an increase of 36% in mobile Email usage in the US, where in 2010, 70 million (30%) of all mobile users accessed Email from mobile devices, while 17% were using mobile instant messaging services.

The future of mobile messaging will increasingly be in unified toolkits that converge text and multimedia messages, IM chats, emails and voicemails, according to ABI Research. They estimate that the revenue from mobile instant messaging services will increase to US$212 billion by 2013, up from US$105 billion in 2009.

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, comments: “Mobile Gateway provides a one-stop solution for next-generation mobile messaging to the entire device landscape. Now, we are providing advanced features on Smartphones to really take full advantage of the capabilities of these devices. For many vendors, RCS is a just distant concept; but with Mobile Gateway 6, it becomes reality here and now. Synchronica is now ideally positioned to cater to the requirements of both mobile operators and device manufacturers in emerging and developed markets alike.”

MWC – ST-Ericsson unveils NovaThor family of smartphone platforms

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ST-Ericsson, a specialist in wireless platforms and semiconductors, has announced its new Nova application processors, its new Thor advanced modems and its range of NovaThor complete integrated platform solutions.

“By offering the most advanced application processors combined with our latest generation of thin HSPA+ and LTE modems, ST-Ericsson is setting new performance standards for our industry.” said Gilles Delfassy, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. “Our approach will accelerate innovation in the smartphone and tablet markets enabling consumers to experience human-machine interfaces based on gesture, voice and image recognition, 3D cameras and life-like augmented reality.”

ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor platforms, based on a scalable architecture, combine application engines, modems and connectivity chipsets into fully-integrated and tested solutions, which device manufacturers can use to quickly roll out a new wave of advanced smartphones and tablets with trailblazing multimedia capabilities across all segments.

At the high end, the NovaThor platforms offer device makers the opportunity to bring leading-edge smartphones to market swiftly by combining

ST-Ericsson’s very latest modems and application processors. In the mainstream smartphone segment, manufacturers can benefit by using ST-Ericsson’s highly-integrated platforms, in which modems and application processors are built into a single piece of silicon, to produce compact and affordable devices. The scalable architecture enables reuse of manufacturers’ R&D investment across the entire range of their smartphone and tablet portfolios.

ST-Ericsson today announced three new application processors, the Nova A9600, A9540, A9500 together with two next generation modems the Thor M7400 and M7300 as well as two additions to its complete highly integrated smartphone platforms the NovaThor T5008 and U4500.

ST-Ericsson’s new Nova A9600 brings over 200 percent more mobile computing performance compared to the U8500 platform. It features the industry’s best and most efficient low-power implementation known today of a dual ARM® Cortex- A15 MPCore(TM) with each core running up to 2.5GHz thanks to very innovative power saving techniques to be disclosed later this year.

“As the selection of advanced smartphones and tablets increases we see the need for a wider range of performance points to be addressed,” said Mike Inglis, EVP and general manager of the ARM Processor Division, “This announcement shows the performance that can be achieved by combining the Cortex-A15 processor with integrated LTE modems.”

The Nova A9600 will be the first platform announced to incorporate Imagination Technologies next generation of graphics processors, codenamed “Rogue”, which will set a new performance bar for GPUs at mobile power consumption levels. The Nova A9600 will bring more than a 20-fold improvement in graphics performance compared with the U8500 platform.

“POWERVR Series6, codenamed ‘Rogue’, moves the goalposts in terms of graphics performance and efficiency at low power consumption for next generation mobile.” said Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies. “We are delighted to be working with ST-Ericsson on such a groundbreaking product.”

The Nova A9600 will also be able to play full HD video at 120 frames per second, supporting professional camcorder-quality recording in 3D, as well as high definition videoconferencing and tele-presence.

ST-Ericsson also unveiled the Nova A9540, a dual-core ARM Cortex- A9-based processor, with each core operating at up to1.8 GHz, and the Nova A9500, a dual-core ARM Cortex- A9-based processor, running at 1.2 GHz. The Nova A9540 delivers a four times improvement in graphics performance compared with the current generation, while the A9500 delivers state-of-the-art graphic capabilities on mobile devices.

ST-Ericsson’s new Thor modems, the Thor M7400 and the Thor M7300, support the latest LTE and HSPA+ dual carrier technologies, while preserving backward compatibility with existing 3G/2G networks, in a small and highly-integrated radio solution that supports up to eight LTE/WCDMA/GSM frequency bands. These modems enable the development of truly global smartphones, tablets and many other mobile broadband-enabled devices.

The Thor modems and Nova application processors will be offered as combined NovaThor solutions which match the most advanced application processors with the latest modem technologies. Finally ST-Ericsson introduced the NovaThor T5008 and U4500 platforms which combine application processor and modem in a single die delivering all the benefits of integration, including size, power and bill-of-material advantages.

MWC – Tecnotree to help CSPs to create personalized, customer driven digital marketplaces with launch of new product and solution portfolio

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Tecnotree has today announced an expanded product and solution offering to support its new corporate strategy as a broad-scale IT solution and service platform provider for communications service provider (CSPs).

Tecnotree Agility, the new suite of revenue & customer management and value driving modules, includes:

 ·         Revenue – convergent, real-time charging & rating, convergent billing and distribution management

·         Customer – customer care, product management and customer lifecycle management

·         Value – messaging, media & entertainment service applications and service platforms

As part of the product suite, Tecnotree is launching two new products to the market:

 ·         Unified Product Catalogue – enables CSPs to combine all of their fixed, mobile and broadband products and services into a single repository and selection menu, where each subscriber can pick and choose their preferred service bundles.

·         Customer Lifecycle Management – maximizes profitability and customer experience by proactively analyzing, anticipating and predicting how, with what, and when each customer wants to be served.

 
Unified Product Catalogue bundles can cover all the aspects of provisioning triple-play (fixed telephony, mobile, broadband) or quad-play (including cable or Internet TV) services, to charging, rating, and ultimately billing. Customers can choose from prepaid, postpaid and hybrid charging models for these services. The bundles can contain products and services from operators and from a number of content and application partners, including music, media, gaming, or entertainment services.

Customer Lifecycle Management allows CSPs to convert customer billing data into actionable intelligence for cross-selling and customer retention activities.  Customer care can be personalised and service usage analytics and automated enactment can be used for triggering personalized marketing offers.

Kaj Hagros, president and CEO of Tecnotree, commented: “CSPs cannot stick to their guns anymore – they need to be expanding their offering to create a digital marketplace of services. Customers deserve to be offered a totally new level of empowerment and freedom to choose which services they want to use, how they want to bundle them, how much and through which channels.

“Bundling, provisioning, charging and billing of third party services require agility, flexibility and integration from the underlying business IT system. Tecnotree’s new strategy will help our customers redefine the value chain in addition to focusing on our traditionally strong prepaid charging, messaging and value added service solutions.”

Both new products have become part of wider Tecnotree solution offering consisting of three areas: Bundle Services for Every Taste, Boost Customer Lifetime Value and Create Digital Marketplaces. Each solution area consists of four solutions that will be launched at the Mobile World Congress. The new products, Unified Product Catalogue and Customer Lifecycle Management, are both critical ingredients within areas Bundle Services for Every Taste and Boost Customer Lifetime Value solutions.

Karl Whitelock, director OSS BSS strategy, Stratecast, a division of Frost & Sullivan, comments: “CSPs are no longer the end-to-end provider of what customers want. Alluring new services for both business and consumers now involve the resources from multiple suppliers working in collaboration with the community to define, deliver and support the right stuff at the right time. There’s now a golden opportunity to increase customer loyalty by using flexible service definition and personalization features.”

Tecnotree was formerly known as Tecnomen before the company merged in May 2009 with the Indian telecommunications product company Lifetree Convergence.

MWC – Mobile enterprise the next big growth area, says Movius

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Exciting new applications, converging technologies and the arrival of 4G/LTE networks will create major growth potential for carriers in the mobile enterprise market. That was the message given yesterday at the opening of the Mobile World Congress by Dominic Gomez, the CEO of unified messaging company Movius Interactive Corporation.

Gomez said that applications such as easy to use audio and videoconferencing and multi-line mobile devices would be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of creating opportunities for mobile operators looking to increase their enterprise revenues.

“We work with over 200 carriers around the world and we know that they are looking to boost revenues from the mobile enterprise space,” said Gomez.

“With more and more people across the world utilising the freedom offered by smart devices and tablet PCs to work remotely, the time is absolutely right to increase that flexibility with solutions that not only help them to work smarter but to play smarter too.”

Gomez was talking as Movius – which works in more than 70 countries worldwide – launched a new multimedia conferencing capability which builds on its current conferencing offering and allows operators to offer a pre-pay charging-enabled feature while at the same time is designed to be easy to deploy via 4G clients or the web.

“Young professionals want the ability to conference both easily and on the move and as they advance their positions within their organisations they will have this need more and more – creating further opportunities for operators within the business environment,” said Gomez.

Movius also unveiled the latest version of its highly successful Side-Line Service which allows operators to boost ARPU and reduce churn by offering customers multiple lines on a single device. Gomez sees this as an excellent opportunity for mobile enterprise, both in developing markets where small business entrepreneurs can now run separate businesses from a single device, to advanced markets where people will find it easier to keep their business and social lives separate.

“These are exciting times for carriers who are looking to embrace the opportunities of mobile enterprise. Together, we have a real opportunity to simplify communications and lower costs for an increasingly mobile workforce,” concluded Gomez.

MWC – NEC launches ‘Cloud in Your Pocket’

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NEC announced today the launch of “Cloud in Your Pocket”, the first mobile cloud service that provides connected and non-connected users with ubiquitous, secure and reliable access to their cloud resources and cloud environment, whether they are on- or off-line or have access to high-speed broadband.

“The NEC Cloud in Your Pocket has made the Mobile Cloud a reality by enabling mobile operators to provide pervasive mobile access to cloud resources – and profit from new services over the Cloud,” said Jaime Serrano, Cloud NEC Europe VP, President & CEO, NEC Iberica. “For the first time, a Cloud working environment is available anytime, anywhere and regardless of online connectivity or broadband speeds. Users can continue to manage and process their work even, for example, while in-flight and synchronise any updates via the Cloud as soon as they land at the airport.”

NEC has developed mobile cloud software that can be installed on a small, personal cloud device – “Cloud in Your Pocket” – such as a 3G/LTE modem or USB dongle. The Cloud in Your Pocket software allows users when offline or experiencing poor connectivity conditions to update and manage their own Cloud resources and data. Once connectivity is re-established data is synchronized immediately and backed-up at a secure carrier or data centre. Crucially, it provides a safe environment when used with any PC, laptop or thin client by automatically encrypting information and applications.

Should the user lose or forget their Cloud in Your Pocket device, they can gain access to their cloud resources from any online connected device while they wait for a replacement.

NEC has developed a suite of Cloud in Your Pocket services including Small Business Cloud in Your Pocket; Enterprise Cloud in Your Pocket; SaaS (*1) Cloud in Your Pocket and Virtual Desktop Cloud in Your Pocket.

“The NEC Cloud in a Pocket suite of services changes the dynamics of the Cloud and liberates the Mobile Cloud. It is no longer a set of services limited by connectivity and bandwidth. The always accessible, secure functionality of Cloud in Your Pocket will propel the Cloud to the dominant method of IT delivery, enabling carriers to enter a new cloud era and monetize their existing and future infrastructure investments,” continued Mr Serrano.

NEC Cloud in a Pocket is available now and will be offered through different carriers as well as to enterprise customers. It can be deployed at public, private or hybrid clouds.

MWC – Gemalto and iPass connect mobile operators to over 260,000 Wi-Fi hotspots globally

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Gemalto, a global specialist in digital security, today announced that it has entered into a Technology Collaboration Agreement with iPass, a provider of enterprise mobility services. The collaboration expands the benefits of the Gemalto Roaming Director, and provides mobile operators with a customised global Wi-Fi roaming solution.

Gemalto’s Roaming Director is a service solution that enables mobile operators to dynamically connect subscribers to their preferred 2G and 3G roaming partners. By adding the global Wi-Fi roaming capability to Roaming Director, mobile operators will go to market more quickly with a comprehensive mobility offering that provides their roaming subscribers with greater choices of network connectivity.

The Gemalto-iPass collaboration enables mobile subscribers traveling abroad to seamlessly access Wi-Fi  from their handset in one click, without the need to enter additional credentials or buy a voucher. By utilising the iPass Open Mobile client for smartphones, subscribers can access over 260,000 hotspots. The new service is charged to the user on their mobile phone bill.

“With the increasing use of mobile Internet devices and Wi-Fi being so pervasive, consumers are demanding more mobile connectivity,” commented Jean-François Schreiber, senior vice president Gemalto. “The combined roaming offering from Gemalto and iPass provides mobile users with simple and convenient Wi-Fi access when travelling abroad. It also enables mobile operators to better target different customer segments.”

“iPass has built the world’s largest commercial Wi-Fi network,” added Rod Brewster, vice president of business development and alliances at iPass. “Our collaboration with Gemalto will provide mobile operators with a cost effective implementation of a proven and secure alternative for network connectivity. Additionally, mobile roaming subscribers will have the flexibility to access high bandwidth applications at faster speeds and at lower costs.”

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