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Samsung launches Wave

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Samsung has announced the launch of the Samsung Wave, the first mobile handset to be released on Samsung’s new, open mobile platform, Samsung bada. The Samsung Wave offers a Super AMOLED 3.3” display; a Social Hub and TouchWiz 3.0 provides an intuitive and customisable user interface. The Wave’s high-speed CPU is said to ensure swift, smooth application experiences and multi-tasking, making the device an always-on mobile multimedia companion. The full touch mobile will be available in the UK from April 2010.

“We’re delighted and extremely excited about the launch of Samsung Wave – the first handset to run on the Samsung Bada platform and the first to feature a stunning Super AMOLED screen. The Bada platform enables seamless access to an abundance of quality apps, through a screen that really has to be seen to be believed.  The screen is fantastic for displaying 720p HD video decoding and recording capabilities, plus the new Social Hub offers a life changing user experience”, said Mark Mitchinson, Vice President Samsung Mobile UK & Ireland.
Super AMOLED – Seeing is believing

The Samsung Wave features the world’s first Super AMOLED display. The Super AMOLED offers much brighter, clearer, and less reflective AMOLED OnCell display, featuring a high resolution WVGA (800×480 pixels) screen with mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) technology. DNIe technology is proven display technology which incorporated to Samsung’s LCD TV and LED TV lineups. With a free viewing angle and super fast response, the Samsung Wave display provides superb image quality for viewing both videos and photos.

Operators announce wholesale apps community

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12 operators want app environment based on BONDI and JIL

Well, we said in our show preview that it was going to be the show where apps, and operator app store strategies, took centre stage – and the GSMA and its operator members have delivered.

As we trailed yesterday following a short story in The Times, a group of operators has bonded together to announce that they will work towards a common applications development standard for mobile applications. The initiative is called the wholesale apps community.

The news is even more expansive than The Times had got wind of. In fact there are 12 operators involved, and that group includes the four operators who had previously plumped for JIL (Vodafone, Verizon, SoftBank and China Mobile). The GSMA said that the alliance, which it is calling Wholesale Applications Community, will use both BONDI and JIL initially, evolving both into a common standard in time.

The operators hope that the 3 billion subscribers they have under management will be an attractive proposition for app developers and content providers. Also, with the operators building on W3C standards they are hoping that they will not be seen as reinventing the apps space – rather providing some clarity in it.

This adds a further dimension to the already growing applications development environment. But it also fulfils something that Vodafone said to us at the time it launched Vodafone360 on JIL – that it did foresee JIL and BONDI coming together, and other operators adopting a common standard. Vodafone said that it felt that it had to move with what it had last year, and couldn’t wait for the standards bodies to catch up. So in a sense this announcement is a fulfilment of the expressed desire of operators to use their collective weight in the applications space.

As we said yesterday, the announcement should spice up Eric Schmidt’s visit. If the Google CEO was expecting to be crowned king of the mobile app space for operators, he can now think again.

As this announcement went across only at 8am CET, we include the full press release below for your information – it includes a list of all the operators involved.

15 February 2010, Barcelona: Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed the Wholesale Applications Community, an alliance to build an open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users.

América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom austria group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind are committed to create an ecosystem for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of device or technology.

Together, these operators have access to over three billion customers around the world. The GSMA and three of the world’s largest device manufacturers – LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson – also support this initiative.

The Wholesale Applications Community aims to unite a fragmented marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits everybody – from applications developers and network operators to mobile phone users themselves.

The alliance’s stated goal is to create a wholesale applications ecosystem that – from day one – will establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world. In the immediate future the alliance will seek to unite members’ developer communities and create a single, harmonised point of entry to make it easy for developers to join.

“The GSMA is fully supportive the Wholesale Applications Community, which will build a new, open ecosystem to spur the creation of applications that can be used regardless of device, operating system or operator,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSMA.   “This approach is completely in line with the principles of the GSMA, and in fact leverages the work we have already undertaken on open network APIs (OneAPI). This is tremendously exciting news for our industry and will serve to catalyse the development of a range of innovative cross-device, cross-operator applications.”

Jonathan Arber, Senior Research Analyst at independent analyst house, IDC, said: “Attracting and retaining developers is vital for any application store offering to succeed. However, mobile application developers currently face a high level of fragmentation in the industry, in terms of both technology platforms, and individual operators’ working practices. Developers want to meet the largest possible addressable market, as efficiently and painlessly as possible, and the Wholesale Applications Community initiative can meet these criteria by providing a simple, single point of access to a large number of operator storefronts. The initiative should also help to drive uptake of existing, open standards among developers, operators and manufacturers, thereby reducing fragmentation and benefiting the whole industry.”

The alliance plans to initially use both the JIL and OMTP BONDI requirements, evolving these standards into a common standard within the next 12 months.  Ultimately,  we will collectively work with the W3C for a common standard based on our converged solution to truly ensure developers can create applications that port across mobile device platforms, and in the future between fixed and mobile devices.

The alliance will serve as one point of contact for the industry and is open to all relevant parties – from telecommunications operators and device manufacturers to internet service providers and application software developers.

AT4 wireless demonstrates LTE conformance test solutions

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AT4 wireless, manufacturer of test & measurement equipment, is displaying its range of conformance test solutions for LTE devices and will perform several demonstrations to visitors at MWC.

The range of conformance test products from AT4 wireless covers all testing requirements defined so far by GCF and PTCRB certification schemes and includes testing of the RF, protocol and RRM capabilities of LTE user equipment.

At its stand, visitors will be able to request information and verify the capabilities of the following products: T4010 LTE RF Tester, T4110 LTE Protocol Tester and T4020 LTE RRM Tester, in its various versions.

This includes the full configuration of the T4010 LTE RF Tester, housed in a single mid-sized rack and being the smallest in the market, while providing the complete test coverage as required by GCF and PTCRB.

"It is the perfect environment to bring our complete line of LTE testing products, and to demonstrate the advantages associated with them. Visitors to our stand will be able to appreciate the efforts AT4 wireless has made to integrate the functionalities and performance of multiple instruments into compact and cost-effective test platforms.", said Juan Pedro Hidalgo, LTE Product Manager of AT4 wireless.

We’re closer than ever, say Sony and Sony Ericsson at Valentine’s Day handset launch

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One big one, one small one, and one small one with a keyboard

You know when a Hollywood power-couple can take rumours of ther marital difficulties no longer, and take out a double page advert in half the world’s dailies expressing their love for each other, and swearing how nothing can ever separate them? You know how that invariably works out, right?

Well, it felt a bit like that tonight at Sony Ericsson’s press launch for three new phones (of which more later). Sony had sent along President, CEO and Chairman Sir Howard Stringer to lend support. Now Howard didn’t say a lot, save to say that Sony is completely committed to Sony Ericsson.

“We firmly support Sony Ericsson and (SE CEO) Bert Nordberg,” he said. In fact, so happy was Stringer with Nordberg (“who I appointed”) and the new direction at Sony Ericsson that he said he was feeling “a new wave of euphoria”. That he could hardly keep a straight face when saying this rather undermined his point.

Stringer wasn’t really there to enthuse about the new phones but instead to proclaim that the marriage was stronger than ever. There was, however, nobody there from Ericsson to reciprocate.

The temptation to guide Hoornik and Sagaguchi to the window and say, “Look, an iceberg, a huge one, for God’s sake change course,” was overwhelming If Stringer did have something to bring to the conference as a token of his love, it was the news that Sony now views Sony Ericsson phones as a handy way of extending its PlayStation Network, and its whole networked services business. Clearly, the phones already carry Walkman and Cybershot brands, but they will now “potentially” have even closer ties to Sony. For example, Stringer said the company is “considering an extended, seamless Sony UI across Sony Ericsson phones.”

And so to the new phones. As well as the Vivaz, and the XperiaX10 that have already been announced, Sony Ericsson announced a miniature version of the X10, a miniature version of the X10 that also has a QWERTY keyboard, and a version of the Vivaz that also has a QWERTY keyboard. VP of marketing Lennard Hoornik called this line up the “fabulous five.”

A year ago, Sony Ericsson had the absolute hots for the Satio, the phone that was going to put it back in the game.

This phone, this Satio, was going to change the way we view the communication entertainment experience. It was PlayNow, it was here, and boy were they excited. Oh yes.

 

 

Yet now, after a horrendous year, the company is back at Mobile World Congress, pinning its hopes on this new “Fabulous Five”, which is essentially three phones, two of them with a keyboard added.

Alongside these, the company launched something called UXP, which stands for User Experience Platform. This appears to be its stab at a new, lovely software layer (a UI+, if you like), a bit like Motorola’s Blur or HTC’s Sense. It will be available on new phones going forward, and as a backwards compatible software load for existing X10 phones later this year.

The company also introduced what it called its new “design language”, which appeared to be phones with curves. There were not just any plain old curves, though. No, these are the Christina Hendricks curves of the phone world.

Chief Creation Officer Rikko Sagaguchi, the man with the best job title in mobile, took to the stage to tell us that the phones are based on “human curvature”. There was an incredible amount of stuff about appealing to the “human curvature” emotional side of us, as well as to our rational sides. Sagaguchi also told us that listening to music is like “communicating with yourself” (Rikko, it’s really not). The human curvature and the rational UXP would lead Sony Ericsson to the promised land of customer experience, Sagaguchi waffled on. “Now we have something that meets our vision … it’s been tough,” he said, sounding exhausted by now. The audience knew how he felt.

Hoornik cradled the phone in two hands like a minister offering up a baby to be baptised. “Every time I look at this phone, and touch it, I smile. That’s what Sony Ericsson is about, making people smile,” he gushed.

The temptation to guide Hoornik and Sagaguchi to a window and say, “Look, an iceberg, a huge one, for God’s sake change course,” was overwhelming. But I guess you don’t get to call yourself Chief Creation Officer unless you know a thing or two, even if your company hasn’t made a profit for seven quarters, is losing market share like water from a sieve, and its last handset didn’t sort of, work properly.

By this stage it was entirely possible that Sir Howard was thinking better of his public declaration of love, but if he was, then he kept it to himself. He may well have been experiencing a wave of something. It’s doubtful that it was really euphoria.

Orange to speed up mobile HD voice roll-out in Europe

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Orange announced today that it is ramping up its planned roll-out of mobile HD voice services in Europe, with the addition of France, Spain and Luxembourg to its 2010 roadmap. Following technological developments, Orange has confirmed that its UK customer trial of mobile HD voice will start from Spring and run for three months.

In September 2009, Orange became the world's first operator to commercially launch a mobile HD voice service in Moldova, announcing plans to bring mobile HD voice to the UK and Belgium in 2010. In addition to mobile HD voice, Orange was also first to launch HD over VOIP, first in France and shortly to be rolled out to Poland and Spain.

Olaf Swantee, senior executive vice president for Orange's global mobile business, said: "As far as Orange is concerned, voice is not just a commodity. With mobile HD voice, we are delivering true customer innovation – one that will genuinely enrich and transform our customers' lives. By being the first to innovate and deliver a new mobile voice experience, we provide a compelling and differentiated proposition which sets Orange apart. High-definition voice is the future standard for mobile communication."

According to Orange, customers using mobile HD voice services will benefit from the best possible sound quality, including a much richer and natural sound that is capable of 'conveying emotion' significantly better than an ordinary handset. It helps people hear better in noisy environments, providing clearer voice conversations and creating a much closer feeling of proximity between both parties, almost as if callers are actually in the same room.

Orange plans to rapidly extend the range of HD voice-compatible mobile handsets across Europe. Pricing and handsets will be announced at the time of launch locally.

HD Voice uses the AMR-WB (Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband) speech codec.  This provides excellent audio quality due to a wider speech bandwidth of 50-7000 Hz compared to the current narrowband speech codec of 300-3400 Hz, says Orange, and the AMR-WB delivers 'significantly enhanced' sound quality whilst utilising the same network resources.

Operators and OEMS to form open application platform

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Welcome to our show, Google – now get this up ye!

If this report in The Times is to believed, 12 operators will announce tomorrow that they are fighting back at increasing fragmentation in the mobile applications development market by…launching another application platform.

Interestingly,Vodafone is not on the list of The Times’ companies. Vodafone, Softbank, China Mobile and Verizon are all publicly committed to JIL- an app environment that the oeprators say will offer developers unified access to the combined 1 billion subscribers under their management.

If the report is correct, then the announcement looks set to be made on Monday 15th at the GSMA’s press conference – at least, that would make the most sense. Luckily, we will have a man there, ready and waiting.

The GSMA’s Michael O’Hara told Mobile Europe in a pre-brief for the event that applications would be a hot area for the Associations membership – and that defragmentation is one aspect the operators would like to push.

Google’s Eric Schmidt is headlining the main stage – and he may be wondering if he has in fact stepped into the lions’ den. After all, if mobile operators want an open app environment that allows them to compete with Apple – there’s an obvious contender. The only issue is, of course, for all the talk of partnership, most operators are still more comfortable with something they themselves control – or have at least led the development of.

There are half a dozen app platform providers exhibiting at the MWC’s App Planet. So another platform to certify, test and port to, even one backed by a dozen operators, further increase complexity, at least in the short term.

Operators offered marketing nirvana

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Target the influencers, says social analysis company

Mobile operators could be much more efficient in how they market services and offers to their customer base, according to Elery Pfeffer, CEO of social marketing company Pursway.

Pfeffer said that current marketing efforts, which rely on identifying customers in terms of revenue, or volume of use, are not as efficient as taking an approach that identifies the most important influencers within their customer base.

Pursway has been working with Vodafone and Orange to target those customers who hold the most influence within their peer groups. Pursway’s solution is not based on social media analysis, Pfeffer said, but on the data operators themselves hold about their customers.

“Deploying this approach can increase marketing ROI but 5-10 times,” Pfeffer said. “A typical consumer tends to convince between 0.3 to 0.5 people to take a product – in other words for every three customers you sign they might between then convince one more. But an influencer tends to influence 3-5 people to take up a product or service.” About 10% of customers are influencers, Pfeffer claimed, meaning that an effective marketing strategy to influencers could potentially address up to 50% of the addressable market.

He explained that the Pursway approach is not just about identifying the influencers, but about how companies then market to that person.

“Influencers tend to be a little bit more involved and informed than the general population, so ther is also possible with the wrong kind of contact or experience to generate negative advocacy,” he warned.

Bob Rapp, Head of User Communities at Vodafone Group which worked with Pursway on a recent unidentified launch said, “The work we have done with Pursway on a recent product launch across Europe demonstrates the capabilities and value presented by the Pursway solution and its team above and beyond any other methods we have previously experimented with.”

 

Muzicall wins further investment

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Muzicall, the European provider of ringback tone (RBT) services, announced today that it has received an additional €2.1million in investment from new investors Ventech, a venture capital firm with more than €360 million under management. The new investment comes four months after Muzicall announced its successful second round of fundraising, which saw the company raise €9 million from new and existing investors. Muzicall says the additional funds will enable it to accelerate its plans to make RBTs available to all European mobile phone users.

"We are delighted to receive this additional investment. It will add significant momentum to our expansion throughout Europe; it also demonstrates the faith of the investor community in the potential of ringback tones," said Patrick Allainguillaume, CEO of Muzicall. "Mobile content is incredibly popular with European consumers, but ringback tones have struggled to achieve the penetration and revenue rates that other parts of the world have experienced. Our pioneering and unique vision of managed services, combined with a strong marketing-led approach means this year will see a determined drive to increase consumer awareness of RBTs, and increased awareness is proven to significantly increase revenues."

In Europe, only about two per cent of mobile users currently have a ringback tone whereas in parts of Asia that number is approximately 40-50 per cent. Muzicall's managed service solution couples marketing expertise that is aimed at raising awareness of ringback tones with its unique approach of enabling RBTs to be sold (for the first time) through multiple sales channels. These channels include On Deck and Off Deck platforms, retail channel development, OEM distribution as well as affiliate partnerships and a strong presence on popular application stores.

The increasing demand for ringback tones that Muzicall is experiencing in Europe is reflected in recent reports, such as IDC, which predicts that "ringback tones will overtake ringtones in 2010 and become the single largest revenue source for mobile entertainment". 

"When operators look at what services to provide to their customers a key factor is the average revenue per user, or ARPU, and the ARPU for ringback tones is significantly higher than for other services, such as ringtones or games," said Jean Bourcereau, general partner at Ventech. "Put simply, operators make more money from fewer people with ringback tones; and when you consider the huge untapped market for RBTs in Europe, the fact that they cannot be pirated, they are affordable for the consumer and they are incredibly ‘sticky', then it is easy to see why we chose to invest in Muzicall."

Sofialys raises funds from German investor and launches Aditic

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Sofialys, a French mobile advertising specialist, has successfully raised several million Euros of fresh capital from German investor, Creathor Venture. This news is said tobolster the launch of ADITIC, Sofialys' new online mobile ad marketplace, which enables agencies and advertisers to identify audiences and serve campaigns on the growing inventory of mobile operators and publishers.

Gert Köhler, CEO at Creathor Venture says, "We firmly believe in the strong potential of mobile advertising and see Sofialys as one of the most promising players on the market today. We have been impressed by the professionalism and expertise of the Sofialys team and are extremely excited at the prospect of being part of such an innovative and exciting project within the high growth sector of mobile advertising."  This new round of investment will allow Sofialys to continue its international expansion and strengthen its management team.

According to Julien Oudart, VP Sales & Marketing at Sofialys, "The advent of Smartphones and the iPhone in particular, has dramatically changed the agencies' and advertisers' appetite for mobile advertising. However, while everybody remains convinced that mobile phones offer unique ways of engaging with consumers, neither brands nor agencies seem truly happy with the performances offered by existing ad networks. We firmly believe that ADITIC is about to change all this and we welcome the boost given to us by VC Creathor".

Negotiations are said to be underway with a number of mobile operators to use ADITIC as an electronic sales channel for on portal traffic, and VIP access will be granted to a limited number of agencies and brands, enabling them to choose which operator or publisher site/application their campaign is served on.

Motorola networks will get the debt

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Does it also get the cash?

Just a short addendum the news that Motorola is now considering splitting itself in two. I’ve had a look round and can’t see much made of this little snippet from Motorola.

“The Enterprise Mobility and Networks business will be capitalized in a manner that will achieve an investment grade rating and will be the entity responsible for Motorola’s existing public market debt at the time of separation.”

In other words, the handset and set-top business will be cut adrift free from debt. But the networks business will carry the debt.

You can look at this in two ways – either the handset business is so fragile that it cannot be encumbered with ongoing debt. Or you can take the view that the networks business is so busted that only an acquisition is likely in the long term, so we may as well load the debt into that transaction.

How much debt is that, by the way, we asked Motorola? Answer: $3.9 billion long term debt as of the end of 2009. The company also has $8 billion cash, it said. And with both new entities promised to be “well-capitalised” and the networks business, as we said, “capitalised in a manner that will achieve an investment grade rating”, it could also be that it takes the majority of the cash.

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