What can we expect for the fast-moving telecommunications market this year?
There are many predictions. I started looking for information from Twelve 2012 Predictions For The Telecom Industry and Top 12 Hot Design Technologies for 2012 articles. Then I did some more research on what is happening on the field and decided to make my own list of what is expected this year. You can go to the original information sources by clicking the links to see where all this information comes from.
The global telecommunications services market will grow at a 4% rate in 2012 (was 7% in 2011).
Mobile growth does not stop. The number of global mobile subscriptions will pass the 6 billion mark in February. India will pass China to become the world’s largest mobile market in terms of subscriptions.
The mobile handset market will surpass the $200 billion mark. Smartphones are most heavily used by people under 45, and that age group increasingly sees the smartphone or tablet as a portal to Facebook and Twitter, among other social networks. The demand for the chips that generate and process that data in smartphones is increasing (sales of smartphone applications processors surged to $2.2 billion in the third quarter of 2011). Six Companies Want Supremacy On The Smartphones Chip Market! Qualcomm Look Out!
There is lots of competition on mobile OS marker, but I expect that thing continue pretty much as 2011 ended: Android continues to boom, RIM and Microsoft decline. Symbian’s future is uncertain although Symbian started and finished 2011 as the undisputed king of mobile OSs (33.59%). Windows Phone will try to get to market and Leaked Windows Phone Roadmap gives us a peek into the future. Java Micro Edition making a comeback according to the NetApplications report because large number of low-cost feature phones. The real mobile application battle lines of 2012 will be drawn across the landscape of HTML5.Tizen open source project tries to push to mobile Linux market (first version Q1 2012) with ideas from Meego, LiMo and WebOS. Cars and smartphones start to communicate using MirrorLink technology to allow new features.
Mobile campaigns to be hot in 2012 presidential race article tells that though mobile advertising not seen much on the campaign trail, mobile strategy is expected to be important for attracting younger voters. Social networks played an important role in the last U.S. presidential election, but the explosive growth in smartphone usage and the introduction of tablets could make or break the candidates for president in 2012. Expect to see specialized apps to help campaign groupies follow the candidates.
Text messaging has been very profitable business for mobile phone operators and making them lots of money. Text Messaging Is in Decline in Some Countries tell that all signs point to text messaging’s continuing its decline. There has been already decline in Finland, Hong Kong and Australia. The number of text messages sent by cellphone customers in USA is still growing, but that growth is gradually slowing, “SMS erosion” is expected to hit AT&T and Verizon in this year or next years. The fading allure of text messaging is most likely tied to the rise of alternative services, which allow customers to send messages free using a cellphone’s Internet connection.
EU politicians want to ban roaming charges according to Computer Sweden magazine article. If the proposal becomes law in the EU, it takes away slippery roaming charges for mobile data (could happen earliest at summer 2012, but I expect that it will take much more time). Roaming robbery to end – 2015 article tells that the goal is that the mobile roaming fees should be completely abolished the 2015th.
Near Field Communication (NFC) is becoming available in many mobile phones and new flexibility via organic materials can help in implementing NFC. NFC-enabled SIM cards are expected to become a worldwide standard. Electronic wallet in smartphones probably takes a step forward with this. Google, opened the game with Google Wallet service. According to research firm ABI Research estimates that in 2012 NFC phones is growing 24 million to 80 million units. There is still years to wait until mass market on NFC wallets starts. ABI Research estimates that there is 552 million NFC enabled devices at year 2016.
The 4G technology WiMax will see the beginning of its end in Asia. Like operators in other regions, Asian operators will opt for the rival 4G technology LTE instead.
The number of active (installed) PCs worldwide will pass the 2 billion mark. Broadband penetration continues to increase. Broadband penetration of the world’s population will pass the 10% mark globally. IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) penetration of the world’s population will pass the 1% mark. Broadband technologies are fundamentally transforming the way we live. UN wants two-thirds of the world online by 2015.
Today’s Cable Guy, Upgraded and Better-Dressed article tells that the cable guy is becoming sleeker and more sophisticated, just like the televisions and computers he installs. The nearly saturated marketplace means growth for cable companies must come from all the extras like high-speed Internet service, home security, digital recording devices and other high-tech upgrades.
Ethernet displaces proprietary field buses. As Ethernet displaces proprietary field buses to facilitate the operation of the digital factory. Ethernet switches are the ubiquitous building block of any intelligent network. Ethernet has also become the de facto networking technology in industrial automation even in mission-critical local networks. Modern Ethernet switches have added significant new functionality to Ethernet while decreasing port prices. Ethernet for Vehicles also becomes reality largely to serve the expected boom of camera-based applications in cars.
Operators’ growth will increasingly depend on their having a cloud computing strategy, an approach for the high-growth IT service market and a clear value proposition for the enterprise market. Data center technologies will be hot topic. 10GBase-T Technology will become technically and economically feasible interface option on data center servers. 10GBase-T Technology allows you to use RJ45 connectors and unshielded twisted pair cabling to provide 10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, and 10Gbps data transmission, while being backward-compatible with prior generations.
40/100 Gbit/s Ethernet will be a hot topic. Carriers and datacenters have been clamoring for the technology to expand their core backbone networks. 2012–A Return to Normalcy and Pragmatic, Power Conscious 100G article mentions that in 2010 and 2011, the industry saw the first real roll-outs of 100G transport solutions based on Coherent Detection and FPGA-based Framers. In 2012 we’ll start to see 100G taking a bigger place in the build out of new and existing networks around the world. The initial deployments of 100G are clearly too costly and too power hungry to be widely deployed as the primary transport technology, so optical transport marketplace will move to much lower power and lower cost Direct Detection optical transport solutions. The average WDM link for 10G is dissipating about 3.5W per optical module, the average WDM link per 100G is dissipating about about 100W.
5 Major Changes Facing the Internet in 2012 article tells that 2012 is poised to go down in Internet history as one of the most significant 12-month periods from both a technical and policy perspective since the late 1990s. This year the Internet will face or can face several milestones: root servers may have a new operator, new company could operate the .com registry, up to 1000 new top-level domains will start being introduced, additional 10,000 Web sites will support IPv6 and Europe will run out of IPv4 addresses.
No IPv6 Doomsday In 2012. Yes, IPv4 addresses are running out, but a Y2K-style disaster/frenzy won’t be coming in 2012. Of course there’s a chance that panic will ensue when Europe’s RIPE hands out its last IPv4 addresses this summer, but ‘most understand that they can live without having to make any major investments immediately. Despite running out of IPv4 addresses we will be able to continue to use IPv4 techniques (Asia depleted all of its IPv4 address space already April 2011). ISP’s and hosting companies will not run out of IPs. This only means that the price per IP will start to slowly grow. Forward thinking enterprises can spend the year preparing for the new IPv6 protocol (USA is expected run out of addresses next year). Comcast has said it will offer production-quality IPv6 services across its nationwide network in 2012.
Operators start to pay more attention to the business opportunity of “M2M” (machine-to-machine connections). Investment and innovation in M2M (think smart energy meters and fleet trackers for logistics) will follow.
Smart Grid technologies include smart power management and architecture system components are already hot. Smart meter deployment on the rise globally. The global power utilities are the next mega-market moving from analog, standalone systems to digital networked technology. The opportunities are huge in everything from wireless components in smart meters to giant power electronics. First cut of some very basic framework standards have been drafted and lots of works needs to be done (ensure safety!). Forward-looking utilities and such vendors have now put business units and plans in place. IPv6 is seen as a needed technology in implementing Smart Grid communications. IPV6 has become a buzz word for smart grid firms.
You Will See A Ton Of Hype Around “The Internet Of Things” article tells that “The Internet Of Things” is a catchy term revolving around the idea that most everyday objects around us will be equipped with internet-collected electronics, and this will open up new applications. You Will See A Ton Of Hype Around “The Internet Of Things”, and it is hard to say if The Internet Of Things will be a huge business or a passing fad. NXP Semiconductor’s vision of Internet of Things starts with lightbulbs. Wireless sensor networks will get attention. EE Times article Top ten Embedded Internet articles for 2011 gives you links to articles that help you to catch on those topics.
Security issues were talked about lot on 2011 and I expect the discussion will continue actively during year 2012. There are still many existing security issues to fix and new issues will come up all the time.
802 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
These Are The Prices AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Charge For Cellphone Wiretaps
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/04/03/these-are-the-prices-att-verizon-and-sprint-charge-for-cellphone-wiretaps/
If Americans aren’t disturbed by phone carriers’ practices of handing over cell phone users’ personal data to law enforcement en masse–in many cases without a warrant–we might at least be interested to learn just how much that service is costing us in tax dollars: often hundreds or thousands per individual snooped.
Here are a few of the highlights from the fee data.
Wiretaps cost hundreds of dollars per target every month, generally paid at daily or monthly rates. To wiretap a customer’s phone, T-Mobile charges law enforcement a flat fee of $500 per target.
Data requests for voicemail or text messages cost extra. AT&T demands $150 for access to a target’s voicemail, while Verizon charges $50 for access to text messages.
All four telecom firms also offer so-called “tower dumps” that allow police to see the numbers of every user accessing a certain cell tower over a certain time at an hourly rate. AT&T charges $75 per tower per hour, with a minimum of two hours. Verizon charges between $30 and $60 per hour for each cell tower. Sprint demands $150 per cell tower per hour, and Sprint charges $50 per tower, seemingly without an hourly rate.
For location data, the carrier firms offer automated tools that let police track suspects in real time. Sprint charges $30 per month per target to use its L-Site program for location tracking. AT&T’s E911 tool costs $100 to activate and then $25 a day. T-Mobile charges a much pricier $100 per day.
Annah Ferdinand says:
It is fine to know that a job like this has records to trace its origin. Yet, I think that the discussion of its development more than centuries is missing. It is a good start off nonetheless.
Tomi says:
One Third of Telcom Staff More Productive Working From Home
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/04/04/2036241/one-third-of-telcom-staff-more-productive-working-from-home
British telecoms operator O2 has found that 88% of its staff are just as productive working remotely, while one-third claimed that they actually got more work done when they worked from home.
“The success of O2’s experiment extends much further than just allowing some of the workforce to stay at home and work. It proves that with the right thinking and planning, even the largest organizations can protect themselves from the most severe disruptions to their business,”
COMMENT:
Managers badmouth telecommuting because it more or less proves what we’ve known all along. Most managers are useless, redundant, wastes of space that spend more time putting on a show to justify their own existence than they do conducting actual management.
Managers do serve some purpose.
They’re not all totally useless.
You need one good manager. Not 10 bad ones.
A ‘bad’ manager does the annoying crap. A good manager enjoys the varied trouble shooting they do every day, dealing with problem clients, calming upset employees, reorientating upper managements ideas into something workable and basically planing ahead sufficiently well to make themselves redundant (others always create problems to make that goal impossible).
If you aren’t directly managing employees and/or it isn’t necessary for you to have physical access to equipment, there is no reason why working from home won’t work. My boss and all my team are scattered all over the country, we’ve never met each other face to face. All my meetings are over the phone and via web conference. Nothing requires that I be anywhere near an office, just that I have a quiet place with telephone and high-speed internet access.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei and a handful of European universities are requesting EU funding to research 5G cellular networks. Bell Labs’ Tod Sizer (shown) says it’s not too early to begin contemplating the outline of future 5G nets
Source: http://confidential.eetimes.com/news-updates/4238378/Get-ready-for-5G-wireless-nets
Tomi Engdahl says:
As many as 46 percent of Sonera’s customers responded to trend survey said that it would be difficult to live for one day without cell phone. Without a mobile phone would feel uncomfortable in four hours 42 per cent of respondents. Women accounted for up to 50 percent.
The next day lives would be difficult without family and friends (20%), keys (16%), and a computer (6%).
Sonera’s mobile services, consumer business at Juha Koivuniemen that smartphones are firmly entrenched in the everyday life of users. People want to be reachable, and they also want the internet in passing.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/viis+ystavista+kannykka+riittaa/a797344?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-05042012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cord Cutting is Real: 1 Million TV Subscribers Lost to Streaming Services
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/cord-cutting-real-1-million-tv-subscribers-lost-230011290.html
Netflix and Hulu are convincing millions of cable, satellite and telco subscribers to cut the cord and dive into video streaming.
That’s the conclusion of a new report released this week by the Convergence Consulting Group, which finds that 2.65 million Americans canceled TV subscriptions between 2008-2011 in favor of lower-cost internet subscription services or video platforms.
Convergence co-founder Brahm Eiley projects that the number of people opting out of TV subscription services will begin to slow in 2012 and 2013.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This article has interesting numbers to think about:
Just how big are porn sites?
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/123929-just-how-big-are-porn-sites
we know for a fact that porn sites are some of the most trafficked parts of the internet.
The main difference between porn and non-porn sites is the average duration of a visit: For a news site like Engadget or ExtremeTech, an average visit is usually between three and six minutes; enough time to read one or two stories. The average time spent on a porn site, however, is between 15 and 20 minutes.
In short, porn sites cope with astronomical amounts of data. The only sites that really come close in term of raw bandwidth are YouTube or Hulu, but even then YouPorn is something like six times larger than Hulu.
Serving up videos requires a lot more resources than plain text and images, in terms of storage, CPU cycles, internal I/O, and bandwidth.
Software-wise, most large porn sites will use a very-high-throughput database such as Redis to store and serve videos, and a light-weight HTTP server like Nginx to serve up the web pages.
Finally, bandwidth. Referring back to our Xvideos example (based on an Ad Planner estimate), a large porn site will have to have enough connectivity to serve up 50 gigabytes per second, or 400Gbps. Bear in mind this is an average data rate, too: At peak time, Xvideos might burst to 1,000Gbps (1Tbps) or more. To put this into perspective, there’s only about 15Tbps of connectivity between London and New York.
To put that 800Gbps figure into perspective, the internet only handles around half an exabyte of traffic every day, which equates to around 50Tbps — in other words, a single porn site accounts for almost 2% of the internet’s total traffic. There are dozens of porn sites on the scale of YouPorn, and hundreds that are the size of ExtremeTech or your favorite news site. It’s probably not unrealistic to say that porn makes up 30% of the total data transferred across the internet.
Tomi says:
Windows Phone will only account for 2% of app downloads in 2012, firm says
http://www.bgr.com/2012/04/09/windows-phone-will-only-account-for-2-of-app-downloads-in-2012-firm-says/
Despite reinforcements arriving this year from Nokia, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform will only account for 2% of all mobile application downloads in 2012, a recent report suggests. Market research firm ABI Research recently released a new study stating that nearly 36 billion apps will be downloaded to smartphones and tablets this year, and an overwhelming 83% of those downloads will be served to either Android or iOS-powered devices.
Research associate Lim Shiyang says, “Although Windows Phone lags behind RIM’s BlackBerry and even Nokia’s Symbian, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the two percent that we forecast for 2012 would be twice the share the platform achieved last year. Microsoft is gaining momentum, but its starting point is frustratingly low. Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t really a chicken-and-egg problem of low device sales holding back the app business and the slow app business holding back the device sales. It’s more complicated than that.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Iran To Shut Down Internet Permanently; ‘Clean’ National Intranet In Pipeline
http://img.ibtimes.com/www/articles/20120409/325415_iran-internet-intranet-censorhip-freedom-tehran-google.htm
Millions of Internet users in Iran will be permanently denied access to the World Wide Web and cut off from popular social networking sites and email services, as the government has announced its plans to establish a national Intranet within five months.
In a statement released Thursday, Reza Taghipour, the Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, announced the setting up of a national Intranet and the effective blockage of services like Google, Gmail, Google Plus, Yahoo and Hotmail, in line with Iran’s plan for a “clean Internet.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia jumps the gun, unveils its first NFC Windows Phone handset: The Lumia 610 NFC
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/04/11/nokia-jumps-the-gun-unveils-its-first-nfc-windows-phone-handset-the-lumia-610-nfc/
Microsoft had teased NFC support in its Windows Phone OS but until recently it had been a pipe dream. Nokia and ZTE had previously been linked with the release of an NFC-powered Windows Phone handset but today the Finnish mobile giant showed its hand, unveiling the Nokia Lumia 610 NFC, its first device to feature the contactless technology.
Nokia pushed the advantages of the contactless technology in its video, including the activating of NFC-enabled tags by tapping on them to open a webpage, connecting to supported wireless Bluetooth speakers and also the inclusion of support for Mastercard’s PayPass technology, allowing users to tap to make payments using their Nokia device.
it also appears that UK mobile operator Orange will be one of the first carriers to offer the handset, which means the Nokia 610 NFC is set to launch in Europe, with the UK (and maybe France)
Nokia Lumia 610NFC – first Windows Phone with NFC?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7NSzelp2L4A#!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android spanking iOS in world’s BIGGEST mobile market
Google OS wins up to 70 per cent of China’s mobile market
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/11/china_android_market_leader/
Android is absolutely creaming iOS in the world’s biggest mobile phone market, according to new stats from Beijing-based Analysys International, which estimate the Google platform now accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Chinese smartphones.
Android began 2011 in second place with 33.6 per cent, behind Symbain with 42.5 per cent, but overtook the Nokia OS in the second quarter and hasn’t looked back, ending the year with a share of 68.4 per cent.
Android is loaded onto a huge range of handsets now and is likely to make even deeper inroads as domestic manufacturers like ZTE and Xiaomi roll out Android devices aimed at the budget end of the smartphone market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stratix V Again – But in Networking?!
http://www.fpgagurus.edn.com/blog/fpga-gurus-blog/stratix-v-again-%E2%80%93-networking?cid=EDNToday_20120411
It’s been a busy time for new platforms based on Altera Corp.’s Stratix V, but the latest win is in a realm where we see few startups – high-speed enterprise and metro networking. Arista Networks Inc. is launching a new high-integration switch that combines the Stratix with an ASIC called “Bali” from Intel’s switch and router systems, a division of Intel that formerly was a company known as Fulcrum Microsystems.
The company had introduced a first generation of what it calls an “application switch” last year, but the new 7124FX platform integrates an entire x86 server and atomic clock in a small 1RU platform with a chip-level switch. This system is not something that does enterprise level switching and routing of network traffic
Instead, it uses packet switching to accelerate such math analysis problems as financial analysis and genome studies – something FPGAs have done in board-level systems offered by many startups such as Wall Street FPGA and NovaSparks.
In one sense, anything that employs a 1G/10G Ethernet switch chip deserves to be called a networking switch. On the other hand, Arista is making an important point in calling its product an application switch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Siemens Networks have recently received both praise and criticism. Liquid Radio-network technology is praised
ABI Research, however, hard NSN top of technological developments. Be especially commended the company’s new Liquid Radio platform. It is based on multi-radio Flexi Base Station.
“Flexi Multi Radio can be implemented on top of Liquid Radio flexible architecture and the capacity for active and dynamic, for example processing capacity sharing. Almost all radio networks we provide are already multi-radio Flexi Base Station,” Sahala said.
NSN demoed recently by as much as 1.4 Gbps LTE-Advanced-contact Flexi Multi-radio equipment. This indicates that the beginning of a scalable for future mobile networks standards.
Source:
http://www.3t.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/teknologia/nokia_siemensin_uusi_tekniikka_saa_kehuja
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blackberry 7 is named best OS for the enterprise
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2167194/blackberry-named-enterprise
CANADIAN PHONE MAKER Research In Motion (RIM) finally has a reason to celebrate, as Blackberry 7 has been named the best mobile operating system (OS) for enterprise users.
According to a study by Trend Micro that compared four mobile operating systems, Blackberry 7 is the OS that best meets the demands of enterprise owners. RIM’s home-grown software got the highest score of 2.89 on a number of factors including built-in security, application security, authentication, device wipe, device firewall and virtualisation, ahead of IOS 5 at 1.7, Windows Phone 7.5 at 1.61 and Android 2.3 at 1.37.
The researchers noted that the fact that version 2.x is still running on most devices is a security risk in itself, as there is no central means of providing operating system updates.
Raimund Genes, CTO of Trend Micro said, “Against the growing, unstoppable backdrop of consumerisation and BYOD, every mobile device is a risk to business.”
“there is still a strong ‘consumer marketing’ legacy in some quarters and this is negating some of the progress made on the enterprise front.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia is no longer the world’s largest – Samsung went past
Nokia’s 14 years of the reign of the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer has ended, analysts estimate.
Samsung has gained momentum as Andoid-based Galaxy smartphones increase in popularity.
Bloomberg put together by the five analyst estimates that Samsunghas sold its first quarter 92 million phones, while Nokia announced yesterday it had sold 83 million handsets. Of these, 12 million smart phones.
Nokia has been slower than expected to respond to the smartphone market. Nokia, which does not have the competitiveness of smartphones, will lose their positions, says NH Investment & Securities analyst Lee Sun Tae for Bloomberg.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/mobiili/2012/04/12/nokia-ei-ole-enaa-maailman-suurin–samsung-meni-ohi/201227236/66?rss=6
Tomi Engdahl says:
A recent study shows that a large slice of the smartphone is the use of Facebook, news and e-mail.
Under review duration representative of the well below 30 seconds. During that time, time to turn the lock off and use a single application.
Under review duration representative of the well below 30 seconds. During that time, time to turn the lock off and use a single application.
- A growing number of studies report on smart phones to be involved not only in car accidents also social consequences, such as home and work conflicts. Decades of psychological research, unfortunately, shows that the habits and ways are difficult to change, he adds.
Source: http://www.taloussanomat.fi/informaatioteknologia/2011/07/25/tylsyys-iski-raplaanpa-puhelinta/201110377/12?ref=lk_ts_itv_1
Milford says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
How Samsung beat Nokia
http://www.asymco.com/2012/04/12/how-samsung-beat-nokia/
“Nokia currently estimates that Devices & Services net sales in the first quarter 2012 were EUR 4.2 billion, comprised of Mobile Phones net sales of EUR 2.3 billion (71 million units), Smart Devices net sales of EUR 1.7 billion (12 million units),”
We don’t have the total number of Samsung shipments, however estimates exist. They range between 41 and 44 million smartphones and 44 and 47 million feature phones. The low end of that range would imply Samsung shipped 85 million phones.
Nokia’s press release indicates that it shipped 83 million.
This would be the first quarter that Samsung beat Nokia in total phone shipments. It had already overtaken Nokia in sales volume and profitability last year but this is the most cited metric of market performance: being the biggest in volume.
Note that both companies have seen non-smart device volumes contracting. Samsung’s level is approximately the same as it had in late 2007 and Nokia’s is lower than at any point in the last six years (perhaps longer).
Samsung was able to convert its portfolio to smartphones while Nokia failed to do so. This is the sort of transition that can only come about from an explicit strategic intention on the part of management. Market demand can steer you in any number of directions, but a vision of a future should provide the compass for making the big bets.
The bet Nokia made many years ago was that there would be a continuing, substantial business in the “low end”. And low end meant feature phones. This strategy was still in evidence last year under the moniker “the next billion” users.
The decisions were not driven by whether the products would be hired for different jobs, but that they would hit different price points. In other words, segmentation of customers by their ability to pay for devices rather than categorization of the jobs they hired mobile devices to do.
Perhaps Samsung was no wiser, but they were more pragmatic. Being non-dogmatic meant being flexible. They ran with off-the-shelf technologies and managed a transition to smart devices faster than anyone expected. It may not be a perfect strategy but it beat a bad strategy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cellphone Unit Sales in First Quarter Were “Weakest in Years”
http://allthingsd.com/20120412/cell-phone-unit-sales-in-first-quarter-were-weakest-in-years/
With no new iPhone model to boost sales, major U.S. carriers saw little if any gain in traditional contract customers during the first quarter, according to a new report.
Indeed, Jefferies & Co. said that the first quarter could mark the first time ever that the number of postpaid customers actually declined.
Jefferies sees “modest” growth in traditional customers for AT&T and Verizon, but declines at both T-Mobile and Sprint, which saw a big jump last quarter — its first with an iPhone.
“We believe there is a distinct possibility that Q1 could be the first time that the postpaid market, as a whole, loses subscribers,” Seitz said. Seitz noted that sales tend to be weak in the quarter immediately preceding and immediately following the launch of a new iPhone model.
Sales of prepaid phones may have also seen slower growth in the quarter, Seitz said.
Nonetheless, the carriers should see some revenue growth, thanks in part to the continued growth of smartphones as well as recent price hikes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone sales to touch 1 billion-unit mark in 2014: Credit Suisse
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/us-smartphonemakers-research-creditsuiss-idUKBRE83B0LS20120412
(Reuters) – Global smartphones annual sales will cross the billion-unit mark in 2014, helped by strong demand from China and the launch of cheaper low-end handsets, Credit Suisse said.
“We see robust growth for the smartphone market in China, which we think will account for 22 percent of global units by 2015,” analysts including Kulbinder Garcha wrote in a note.
The brokerage also said wireless chipmaker Qualcomm Inc will see its license business grow 17 percent this year
Tomi Engdahl says:
Not so smart anymore: Microsoft’s watches are done
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/smart-anymore-microsoft-watches-officially/
Microsoft’s Smart Personal Object Technology, also known as SPOT, was originally unveiled by Bill Gates a decade ago. It was a neat concept — using FM transmissions to deliver lightweight data services such as news headlines, sports scores, gas prices and weather to devices. It started with watches and later expanded to GPS navigation units and even a coffee maker.
Of course, it was our phones that ended up being the smart devices in our lives, giving us all of that information and more via cellular and WiFi networks.
And yesterday marked the official end of the Microsoft initiative, as the MSN Direct service that powered the devices went dark, as noted by Engadget.
The end of the service was not a surprise. Sales of the watches were discontinued in 2008, and MSN Direct’s Jan. 1, 2012, end of life was announced in October 2009. The SPOT initiative was long ago relegated to the status of flop.
Tomi Engdahl says:
THE FUTURE OF MOBILE [SLIDE DECK]
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-mobile-deck-2012-3
IGNITION WEST: Future of Mobile
put together a deck on the current trends in mobile. We looked closely at the growth of smartphones and tablets, the platform wars, and how consumers are actually using their devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emirates wedges national ID cards inside NFC phones
ID-by-handset to become norm after gov inks deal with Etisalat
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/12/uae_nfc_id/
The United Arab Emirates has signed up local operator Etisalat with a view to getting the national ID card embedded into mobile phones.
The memorandum of understanding, signed by the Emirates Identity Authority and Etisalat, sets out a plan for both parties to examine the feasibility of implementing the existing ID Card as an NFC application installed on a mobile phone, meaning that forgetting one’s handset wouldn’t just be inconvenient, it would be illegal too.
The existing card, which arrived in 2004, uses an ISO7816 chip (same as a credit card) to store encrypted credentials including the holder’s name, birthday, gender and photograph, and the 15-digit key to the Population Register which was set up at the same time. Also stored on the chip, but not printed on the card, are the holder’s fingerprints.
A phone wouldn’t have all those details in human-readable form, printed on the outside, but it would have a short-range radio for relaying them to a reader (complying with the NFC standard), so we’d assume that Etisalat will be pricing up the cost of those readers for the government.
Carrying an ID card in the UAE is mandatory at all times, so once the card is in a mobile then one will have no excuse not to have one handy. That might sound draconian, but it’s worth remembering that failing to carry a mobile has already prompted arrests in Germany and France (on the grounds that one must be hiding something).
Once one has digital ID cards, then pushing them into mobile phones is a logical evolution, and the induction-powered NFC (which works when the phone’s battery is dead) is a suitable technology, as UAE residents should soon find out.
Tomi says:
iPhone Users Sue AT&T For Letting Thieves Re-Activate Their Stolen Devices
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/04/13/2025258/iphone-users-sue-att-for-letting-thieves-re-activate-their-stolen-devices
Following on the heels of the FCC and U.S. mobile carriers finally announcing plans to create a national database for stolen phones, a group of iPhone users filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T on Tuesday claiming that it has aided and abetted cell phone thieves by refusing to brick stolen cell phones.
If customers reported their iPhones as stolen and had all of the necessary details (serial number, IMEI number, etc) that could uniquely identify their phones, then this suit may well have merit. This info is likely in either their system or Apple’s system, especially if they both track serial numbers through sales and registration. If thieves are bringing stolen phones in and that data is in their system then they damned well should be doing something about it.
Tomi says:
Apple under fire for backing off IPv6 support
IPv6 proponents slam AirPort Utility v6.0 for removing support for next-gen Internet protocol
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/041312-apple-ipv6-258241.html?hpg1=bn
Apple Computer came under fire for back-pedaling on its support for IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol, at a gathering of experts held in Denver this week.
Presenters at the North American IPv6 Summit expressed annoyance that the latest version of Apple’s AirPort Utility, Version 6.0, is no longer compatible with IPv6. The previous Version, 5.6, offered IPv6 service by default.
“Home gateways have been one of the areas that was slowing IPv6 adoption,”
In order to pass the UNH-IOL test, home gateways must enable IPv6 by default and pass a set of interoperability tests. So far, the lab has approved six home gateways as passing 100% of its interoperability tests
While home networking vendors like Cisco and D-Link are adding IPv6 across their product lines, Apple appears to be the only vendor that is removing this feature.
Home gateways are a critical class of networking gear that requires upgrading as the Internet migrates from IPv4, the original version of the Internet Protocol, to IPv6.
IPv6 is needed because IPv4 is running out of addresses to connect new users and new devices to the Internet. IPv6 solves this problem with a vastly expanded address space, but it is not backwards-compatible with IPv4. So ISPs like Comcast have to upgrade their routing, edge, security, network management and customer premises equipment to support IPv6.
The alternative is for carriers to translate between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, which adds latency and cost to network operations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web version of Skype confirmed by Microsoft job posting
http://www.wpsauce.com/2012/04/web-version-skype-confirmed-microsoft-job-posting.html
Skype, the world’s most popular VOIP service (now owned by Microsoft) is stepping into a fairly populated territory – IM on web. The job posting confirms that Skype is indeed coming to your web browser soon. The team at Skype division in Microsoft is looking for “passionate, team-oriented and self-motivated developers to help us bring Skype experience on to the Web.” No longer would you require your Skype client or a third party service to use Skype to message your friends and families – just use Skype on Web. The best part? According to the job posting – Skype on Web could quite possibly be written in HTML5/JS which means Windows Phone support and other Operating Systems support is imminent which are using Webkit browsers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Language translation has came to popular mobile phone platforms:
Google Translate is something more than a simple translator: it’s a real must have in our Android
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/tools/google-translate_cozz.html
Actually, Google Translate is one of those apps that once we have given a try, we cannot live without. There are not too many features, although: text-to-speech, voice input, history/star favorite translation and sms translator. What it’s really amazing is its performance: high-quality and precise translation thanks to Google’s database and search engine, 60 languages available, Google suggest and complete dictionary mode (which include related expressions, pictures and detailed info). It’s real impressive the text-to-speech and the voice input response.
Google Translate is one of the starred apps developed by Google Inc., the official Android Market provider
Google Translate it’s just an example of a “must have” app, and we are glad to recommend it.
A new look for Google Translate for Android
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-look-for-google-translate-for.html
When we launched the first version of Google Translate for Android in January 2010, we were excited about the year ahead.
We also offered voice input to let you speak the word or phrase you wanted to translate instead of typing it in, and SMS translation so you could translate SMS messages sent to you in foreign languages.
Conversation Mode. This is a new interface within Google Translate that’s optimized to allow you to communicate fluidly with a nearby person in another language
Currently, you can only use Conversation Mode when translating between English and Spanish. In conversation mode, simply press the microphone for your language and start speaking. Google Translate will translate your speech and read the translation out loud. Your conversation partner can then respond in their language, and you’ll hear the translation spoken back to you. Because this technology is still in alpha, factors like regional accents, background noise or rapid speech may make it difficult to understand what you’re saying. Even with these caveats, we’re excited about the future promise of this technology to be able to help people connect across languages.
Google Translate designed for both iPhone and iPad
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-translate/id414706506?mt=8
Translate words and phrases between more than 60 languages using Google Translate for iOS. For most languages, you can speak your phrases and hear the corresponding translations.
Bing updates ‘Translator’ app for Windows Phone with live-translation goodness
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/04/16/bing-updates-translator-app-for-windows-phone-with-live-translation-goodness/
There has long been an app in the Window Phone Marketplace called ‘Translator,’ a basic application that let a user, you guessed it, translate phrases.
However, today, Bing (along with Microsoft Research, and others) has released an update for the app that should bring it to the forefront of the Windows Phone Marketplace, as what it can now do is nifty on several levels. The newly updated program has the ability to live-translate anything on the fly. Point your phone at a sign, and the translation, in the language you prefer, will appear.
This is the sort of neat app that every smartphone platform likes to have, as it gives phones that run it a certain edge, as if they were a bit more than others. To the savvy eye, this technology isn’t brand new. But to most consumers it will be.
The app also contains voice translation, for conversations, and the ability to enter a phrase and translate it.
welding technology says:
welding technology…
[...]Telecom trends for 2012 « Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog[...]…
How Clean is Your Cloud and Telecom? « Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog says:
[...] The global telecoms sector is also growing rapidly. Rapid growth in use of smart phones and broadband mobile connections mean mobile data traffic in 2011 was eight times the size of the entire internet in 2000. It is estimated that global mobile data traffic grew 133% in 2011, with 597 petabytes of data sent by mobiles every month. In 2011, it is estimated that 6 billion people or 86.7% of the entire global population have mobile telephone subscriptions. By the end of 2012, the number of mobile connected devices is expected to exceed the global population. Electronic devices and the rapidly growing cloud that supports our demand for greater online access are clearly a significant force in driving global energy demand. [...]
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE Vet: Carriers Capping LTE Services To Avoid Fixed-line Cannibalization
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/04/18/0351249/ieee-vet-carriers-capping-lte-services-to-avoid-fixed-line-cannibalization
Roberto Saracco isn’t buying carriers’ claims that they need to put data caps on their LTE services due to excessive traffic causing massive engineering challenges. Saracco, a senior member of the IEEE and the director of the Telecom Italia Future Centre, said during an interview Tuesday that the major reason carriers are placing data caps on their LTE services is to prevent users from going exclusively with wireless data services and ditching their landline connections.
Carriers cap LTE services to avoid fixed-line cannibalization, says IEEE’s Saracco
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/041712-carriers-lte-258364.html
Roberto Saracco isn’t buying carriers’ claims that they need to put data caps on their LTE services due to excessive traffic causing massive engineering challenges.
“You’re always going to want to make the maximum amount of value,” he said. “And you don’t want to have your fixed-line network being cannibalized by mobile.”
Saracco also said that while carriers have been marketing LTE for its bandwidth and download speeds, the real benefit of LTE is that it provides users with a native IP connection, which in the long run will provide cheaper wireless connectivity for users than previous cellular technologies such as HSPA and EV-DO.
This may seem somewhat counterintuitive given that carriers are currently charging a premium for LTE services. Saracco said carriers are able to do this because they’ve successfully marketed LTE as a game-changer in terms of providing data speeds to smartphones and tablets. However, Saracco said most smartphone users don’t require LTE-level data speeds to meet their needs and predicts that consumers will start to pay less for LTE connectivity once more competitors hit the market.
“My feeling is that if you’re using a smartphone you’re never going to need this kind of [LTE] speed,” he said. “It’s a different story if you’re using a dongle on your laptop and you’re downloading a really big file.”
The wireless industry has been moving away from all-you-can-eat data plans over the past couple of years and toward tiered service plans that place caps on monthly data consumption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anssi Vanjoki: operating systems, a surprise comes from China
The game is played. Operating systems in the future kingship fought against Google ‘s Android, Apple ‘s iPhone and Microsoft in Windows. They have to settle for.
Wrong, even if your Nokia -leader Anssi Vanjoki are to be believed.
“I do not think it will happen,” Vanjoki said Wednesday, speaking on the Helsinki Fair Centre ICT Expo 2012 event.
He estimated that all three major operating systems will find a position.
“I believe that will be seen in a real open source of departure in this case,” he said.
China, it should be a wild card. He mentioned that the country has a lot of universities are also committed to Linux.
“We will see something surprising there.”
Also, HTML5, a trend should be monitored closely
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/anssi+vanjoki+kayttojarjestelmien+yllatys+tulee+kiinasta/a800919?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-18042012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
3G and 4G Wireless Speed Showdown: Which Networks Are Fastest?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/253808/3g_and_4g_wireless_speed_showdown_which_networks_are_fastest.html
We tested 3G and 4G wireless data transfer speeds–indoors and out–for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, at multiple locations in 13 major cities. Here’s what we found.
“Our research shows that the demand on mobile broadband networks is nearly doubling every year, so there is definitely no room to remain idle” said Dan Hays, U.S. advisory wireless leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “The results of this year’s PCWorld study clearly show that most wireless network operators are continuing to invest significantly in their 3G networks, adding capacity to ensure that speeds remain competitive.”
Tomi says:
Google’s Plans For Motorola Revealed!
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-truth-about-what-google-wants-to-do-with-motorola-attack-the-iphone-2012-4
When Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12 billion last summer, the company told press, shareholders and partners that it made the purchase for Motorola’s patents.
That’s true. Google got a great price for Motorola’s patents
But here’s the truth, according to a person briefed on Google’s plans for the merger: while Google may have originally wanted to buy Motorola for its patents only, it has come to realize that it wants to follow Apple’s lead when it comes to smartphone and tablet computer development. A second source, also briefed on Google’s plans for Motorola, confirms this is true.
Google now wants to design smartphone hardware, software, and make the sale.
To be clear: Google’s ambition is not another Nexus One, a third-party manufactured smartphone it helped design from the ground-up in an effort to show all that Android could do. Google wants to do more. It wants to have its own iPhone business.
The third-party companies that already make Android phones – Samsung and HTC lead the way – are slowly realizing Google’s intentions, and they are furious.
Tomi Engdahl says:
All current Windows Phones will/won’t get WP 8
http://gigaom.com/mobile/all-current-windows-phones-willwont-get-wp-8/
Depending on whom you believe, Microsoft will either offer Windows Phone 8 as an upgrade to all current handsets running on Microsoft’s mobile platform or it won’t provide the software to any of those phones. Confusion is quickly rising over the situation, as there’s no official word from Microsoft yet on any future upgrade plans.
I have to wonder if the decision isn’t settled internally at Microsoft yet. It knows it runs a huge credibility risk for its mobile platform if it decides to not upgrade existing Windows Phones. To its credit, it appears to be eliminating any application-fragmentation issues among versions in either case, which would be an improvement over similar challenges faced by Google Android owners.
Regardless of how this plays out, I can’t understand why Microsoft wouldn’t offer the upgrade, at least for phones that debuted recently, such as the Lumia 710 and 900, or the HTC Titan II. The platform is well-optimized to run on minimal hardware, and the recent handsets should have plenty of horsepower to handle whatever Windows Phone 8 requires. If these won’t meet new minimum hardware requirements, Microsoft planned poorly — a definite possibility.
My hope is that Microsoft quickly addresses the confusion and states its intent for upgrades: Bad news (even if it’s not so bad) doesn’t get better with age.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TeliaSonera: Free Skype calls are in the line
Telia-Sonera will take steps to recover payment of mobile phones and other mobile devices that use data for VoIP internet phone calls. Skype and other VoIP calls to face a charge over the summer in Spain and Sweden.
The background is continued for a long time of development. Operators of the speech received by the input current is reduced at the same time, the difference in mobile data use has exploded.
“TeliaSonera is the leading edge of developments are creating new, sustainable business model. We are at an early stage have introduced tiered pricing for data services and to lower data roaming charges, and recently told openly that we will begin charging wireless VoIP calls,” the company said in a statement.
The VoIP call charging based on the fact that the operator will be able to analyze the traffic data and other data to distinguish between calls. TeliaSonera did not tell if VoIP calls are priced per minute or the amount of data transferred.
The more mobile data is used, the more versatile use of Telia-Sonera wants to charge
Mobile will contract in Finland
A year ago, the number of Sonera mobile subscriptions was 3.28 million, and at the end of last year’s 3.23 million.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/teliasonera+linjaa+ilmaiset+skypepuhelut+pannaan/a801291?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-19042012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla CEO: First Boot To Gecko Devices Will Be Sold In Brazil
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/19/mozilla-ceo-first-boot-to-gecko-devices-will-be-sold-in-brazil/
Mozilla and Spain-based Telefonica officially announced their intentions to work together on an open web device at this year’s Mobile World Congress, but I’m not sure anyone expected the launch market Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs just announced.
According to the Brazilian blog ZTop, Kovacs just recently revealed the the world’s first consumer-ready Boot to Gecko devices are expected to launch in Brazil either at the end of the year or in early 2013.
Sadly, Kovacs made no mention of the juiciest tidbit: what kind of hardware we’ll get to see Boot To Gecko running on.
Way back in February, Mozilla was demoing an early build of the operating system running on a Samsung Galaxy S II, and lucky developers at a JavaScript conference got their hands on free Nexus Ss running a slightly more modern build not long ago.
Really though, since most of the heavy lifting — think telephony, messaging, etc — are handled with HTML5 and web APIs, the hardware itself doesn’t need to be the most spectacular.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC fighting mobile ‘bill shock’ with new alert system
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/19/2960871/fcc-bill-shock-alert-system
The free alerts will cover usage for voice, data, SMS, and international roaming, and will come in two forms — one when you’re nearing your limit, and another once you pass it. The new system will cover 97 percent of US wireless customers, and the FCC says that carriers will need to implement alerts for at least two of the different charges by October 17th, 2012 and all four by April 17th, 2013.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm warns of smartphone Snapdragon chip shortage
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17769952
The world’s best-selling mobile phone chipmaker has warned that it cannot meet demand for some of its processors.
Qualcomm said that the third-party factories to which it subcontracts the manufacture of the “28 nanometre” chips would not be able to create enough supply until the end of the year.
The news will impact Android and Windows-based phone makers who had planned to use the products.
The firm admits they may turn to rivals to power their mid-range handsets.
“In any constrained environment, people look for any alternative they can in order to solve the problem,”
“We’ve been helping customers to see how they can swap in our Fusion 2 chipset… [but] we do expect to see some alternative non-Qualcomm chipsets used to solve that issue as well.”
“Looking forward, this will impact shipments of mass-market smartphones as firms re-engineer their devices, but having said that, I think the industry should not take too long to catch up,” said Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of problem when a chip designer upgrades to a new semiconductor design.”
tomi says:
AT&T releasing Watson voice recognition APIs to developers in June
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/19/2959854/att-watson-voice-recognition-api-june-release
AT&T’s research arm has spent over two decades developing its Watson speech and language engine, which translates spoken words into text. Now, AT&T is planning to release a number of Watson APIs for developers in June, in an effort to accelerate development and innovation in the voice recognition space. Instead of having to develop their own speech recognition software, developers will now be able to plug AT&T’s Watson APIs into their apps to more easily include voice recognition features.
AT&T’s first APIs will be focused around seven different areas: web search, local business search, Q&A, voice mail to text, SMS, AT&T’s U-verse video programming guide, a general-purpose dictation API. AT&T has found that speech recognition works best when focused on specific categories, so these categories will help Watson know what types of words to expect.
AT&T had plenty of Watson enabled experiments to show us at an event in New York today, the most flashy of which was a QNX-equipped Porsche 911 that used the carrier’s cloud-based service to handle voice commands. The convertible has its top down and unfortunately had trouble picking up commands accurately and reliably with the din of New York City around it
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm supply issues may delay iPhone 5 launch to October
http://asia.cnet.com/crave/qualcomm-supply-issues-may-delay-iphone-5-launch-to-october-62214365.htm
According to an industry note from investment banking firm Piper Jaffray, Apple will most likely continue its trend of October launches and wait until this fall to release the iPhone 5.
This later release date is said to be due to a supply issue with Qualcomm’s 28-nanometer modem chip, which will enable the new iPhone to be LTE-compatible.
Qualcomm supply constraints to limit revenue
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/18/us-qualcomm-idUSBRE83H1B120120418
Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) warned on Wednesday that it will have trouble meeting demand for some of its advance cellphone chips for the rest of the year due to manufacturing constraints and that will increase operating expenses faster than expected.
“At this stage we cannot secure enough supply to meet the increasing demand we are experiencing,” Chief Executive Paul Jacobs told analysts on a conference call, adding that the issue would limit revenue growth this year.
The San Diego-based company not see a significant improvement in supply until the December quarter as it will take a few quarters to get up and running with new suppliers for the cutting edge 28 nanometer chip manufacturing technology along with TSMC (2330.TW), the world’s top contract chipmaker.
“Demand went so far ahead of availability that we’ve decided to start spending more money to get more supply as soon as possible,”
However, since the chips that are in short supply are used for the latest high-speed cellphones based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology Bernstein’s Rasgon said it could lead to a slowdown in the roll out of the most advanced LTE phones.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidia: Smartphone graphics to best Xbox 360 by 2014
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57417603-92/nvidia-smartphone-graphics-to-best-xbox-360-by-2014/
There once was a time when mobile platforms never had a chance of matching game consoles. That’s about to change, says chipmaker Nvidia.
For now, mobile devices still can’t match game consoles in graphics quality. Nvidia thinks that could change, and soon.
And based on the performance upgrade brought to the new iPad, courtesy of the A5X processor, today’s top mobile chips seem to be on a level playing field (if not a bit better) than graphics found in traditional gaming portables, like the Nintendo 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Vita.
Game developers have taken notice of those achievements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tomorrow’s Privacy Struggles, On Display Today
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/tomorrows-privacy-struggles-on-display-today/
The thorny privacy issues of tomorrow were on display Thursday morning, when AT&T showed off a batch of technologies under development at AT&T Labs, the company’s research arm.
A number of the tools focused on taking advantage of data about a user’s location, pointing toward tensions that will very likely increase as products are developed that use mobile devices as sensors and transmitters.
Driving Safely, which is being developed by a group of Israeli developers who are working with AT&T, uses a smartphone and sensors in a car to allow parents to keep track of how their teenagers are driving. The system can disable certain functions of the phone, like calling or texting, when it is in a moving automobile. Apps intended to discourage distracted driving already exist — AT&T has an app that shuts down some functions in response to a car’s movement. But its settings can be controlled by whoever is using the phone at the time which, depending on your perspective, could be seen as a shortcoming.
“It needs the kid’s consent, so he has to download and use it,” said Raz Dar of Amdocs, who is working on the project.
Another project that AT&T is testing is Donde, a location-based messaging system that could one day end up as part of its network’s basic SMS service. The program allows someone to send a text that will be delivered when the recipient arrives at a specific location.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Testing E911
http://www.eetimes.com/design/test-and-measurement/4371428/Testing-E911?Ecosystem=communications-design
North American operators are looking to enable E911 on their LTE networks within the next twelve months. As a result, requirements for mobile devices are evolving to take advantage of new positioning technologies and protocols, which in turn will lead to new test requirements.
Additionally, actions by the FCC are pushing improved accuracy and availability of E911 positioning, making it likely that this next wave of LTE-enabled devices will deliver much-needed performance improvements.
Today, more than 70% of 911 calls originate from mobile devices and more than 60% of 911 calls originate indoors.
Many technologies have been used to locate mobile phones, including assisted GPS (A-GPS), cell ID (CID), enhanced cell ID (ECID), advanced forward link trilateration (AFLT), downlink observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA), uplink time difference of arrival (UTDOA), and angle of arrival (AoA). They may read like acronym soup, but their effectiveness is fundamental to the outcome of life-or-death emergency 911 calls that originate from mobile phones.
More than 10 years ago, the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) phased in its E911 Phase II location requirements for US wireless network operators and mobile devices: caller location must be provided to public-safety answering points (PSAPs) with 50 meter accuracy for 67 percent of calls and 100 meter accuracy for 95 percent of calls. The original requirements included a relaxed location accuracy requirement for network-based technologies, although this is scheduled to be phased out by the end of 2018.
The transition to LTE means that operators have to aggressively support E911 location technology on LTE networks.
LTE-only E911 services will launch in 2013, if not sooner.
LTE positioning includes both handset-based and network-based techniques. No current positioning technology is capable of providing the FCC’s required accuracy level by itself, so a combination of multiple technologies will likely be needed. Network-based technologies, including UTDOA and AoA, rely on network measurements to locate mobile devices, whereas handset-based technologies such as OTDOA, A-GNSS, and ECID rely on mobile devices’ measurements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft lobs out first Skype for Windows Phone
Now does straight-up video calls
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/23/microsoft_skype_winphone/
Microsoft has delivered the first version of Skype for Windows Phone.
Available through the Windows Phone Marketplace, the free app eats up 6MB of space and works on devices from version 7.5 and higher.
Microsoft said Skype has been tested and certified to work on seven handsets – three Nokia Lumias, two from HTC and two from Samsung.
The app comes a year after Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5bn, Redmond’s most expensive acquisition. Skype is now a separate division inside Microsoft.
At the time of the deal, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer promised that while Skype would be developed for Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Kinect, Outlook, Hotmail, and Lync, it would also continue to support non-Microsoft platforms.
What Microsoft didn’t say at the time is that Skype would be integrated with Internet Explorer, too.
At the time of the deal, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer promised that while Skype would be developed for Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Kinect, Outlook, Hotmail, and Lync, it would also continue to support non-Microsoft platforms.
What Microsoft didn’t say at the time is that Skype would be integrated with Internet Explorer, too.
You might wonder why Microsoft would want this
galaxy note occasion says:
Comment on modifie les icones sur le samsung galaxy ace?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s Mobile Comeback Is Looking Terrible
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsofts_mobile_comeback_is_looking_terrible.php
Microsoft ruled the PC market for decades with utter dominance. But today, as the future shifts toward mobile devices, things are not looking good for Microsoft. It’s not that it’s not trying: Microsoft is spending a lot of money and effort on cracking the mobile market, now in lockstep with Nokia, its top partner. But there’s no indication yet that it’s having any real success.
One troubling sign: Even now, more than a year after Microsoft started shipping Windows Phone 7 devices, U.S. mobile customers are getting rid of Microsoft devices faster than they’re buying new ones.
The trouble is that Microsoft’s phones – though decent – just aren’t good enough to demand attention. They’re certainly better now than they used to be – especially the new Lumia series from Nokia – but that isn’t enough. To cause any real damage to Apple or Google, Microsoft’s phones would have to be dramatically better than the competition, and they just aren’t.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers find that Web sites deplete smartphone batteries due to bloated code
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/researchers-find-that-web-sites-deplete-smartphone-batteries-due-to-bloated-code/2012/04/23/gIQAsrypcT_story.html
Smartphone users know that watching a video or playing a game can quickly drain a battery. Free apps are also power-hungry, and even simple Web browsing has an energy cost.
Now, researchers at Stanford University and Deutsche Telekom have discovered that such popular sites as Wikipedia, IMDB and even the home page of Apple are wasting energy due to bloated code. The researchers have also shown how to reduce this energy usage by almost 30 percent without affecting user experience.
By rewriting the code for one Wikipedia page to perform only the required function, Thiagarajan’s team reduced the energy used from 15 to 9.5 joules, which would help battery life. They say that Web designers should consider the energy used in loading a page, thereby helping smartphone users and others preserve their battery life.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Europe Loves Android, U.K. Loves Apple
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/04/23/europe-loves-android-u-k-loves-apple/
Android is slowly pushing iOS into second place among Europe’s top five economies, according to a report published today.
InMobi, which claims to be the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network, reported that Android was the most popular operating system in three of the five top economies, with only the U.K. and Italy favoring Apple’s iOS.
Speaking of other operating systems, Mr. Stoneman said there was no evidence yet of any impact by Windows Phone. “Frankly at the moment, Windows Phone is a rounding error.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Reports Second Quarter Results
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/04/24Apple-Reports-Second-Quarter-Results.html
Record March Quarter Sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs
Net Profit Increases 94% Year-over-Year
The Company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
Apple sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
The Company sold 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Tim Cook,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia share price hits 15-year low as Fitch downgrades it to ‘junk’ status
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/24/2971128/nokia-15-year-low-stock-price-fitch-junk-downgrade
We may look back on this day as the point from which Nokia bounced back up, but for now at least, the struggles over in Espoo are being judged harshly by the financial markets. The Fitch ratings agency has followed Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s in downgrading Nokia stock, but it has gone one step further in dropping it all the way down into the “junk” category, adding a negative outlook for the future as well. Nokia’s own expectations for the next financial quarter aren’t much happier