Google phone platform due out in mid 2008.

"Google will come out in mid-2008 with a mobile phone platform that incorporates a variety of Google online services and lets outside developers create applications, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday."

Bell Mobility adopts Mformation Device Management Platform.

Bell Mobility, the wireless division of Bell Canada, is using technology from Mformation... to provide seamless device management capabilities to its more than five million wireless clients across Canada."

Microsoft builds custom 'skin' for new T-Mobile phone.

"Microsoft built a custom Windows Mobile user interface for a new phone that T-Mobile USA expects to announce on Monday, evidence that Microsoft may be getting more serious about pursuing the consumer mobile market."

98% of UK stolen phones are blocked by networks within 48 hours.

"According to a new report published by the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF), 'Across all networks, 98 per cent of mobile phones reported stolen are blocked within 48 hours.'"

Microsoft's new mobile platform may be WinMo's tipping point.

"This indicates Microsoft's strategic shift. And despite some amusing confusion with branding, Microsoft is no longer trying up sell Windows Mobile on the back of Exchange. It's trying to offer Windows Mobile as a part of a comprehensive device management solution.

Microsoft's new platform, called System Center Mobile Device Manager (OK, so it won't win any awards for creative naming), takes the emphasis off e-mail and puts in on three areas: device management, transport, and security. Guess what, these are areas that Microsoft can win in...

In short, Microsoft isn't trying to replace RIM. It's trying to recast mobile as an IT issue, not a carrier issue that IT managers pay others to manage for them.

It also shows that Microsoft is serious about winning the device management sector. Device agnostic mobility platforms like Sybase iAnywhere, Smith Micro, and Odyssey Software should be scared. Startups like Mformation should be really, really scared."

SNAPin powers T-Mobile's customer service portal.

"When a T-Mobile subscriber calls 611 while using a SNAPin-enabled handset, SNAPin's software will capture the call and bring the caller to a menu screen with frequently asked questions, troubleshooting and other tips and tricks. The portal allows T-Mobile subscribers to automatically configure handsets, deliver step-by-step instructions, make account inquiries and pay bills."

Feeding the cash cow: Beefing up mobile business services.

"Based on a survey of more than 1,200 wireless subscribers, the average revenue per user (ARPU) for mobile business users is 24 percent higher than personal users, according to a report from ABI Research.

That gap more than triples for mobile data services, with business people generating 80 percent more revenue than their personal peers.

As might be expected, surveyors found that business users talk more on their mobiles -- 69 percent more than consumer users -- but they also discovered that pin-stripers use multimedia and entertainment applications on their cell phones more, too -- 78 percent more than personal users."

Microsoft introduces mobile management system for smart phones.

"But the software giant is just one of a number of companies trying to ease businesses into the smart phone era. Microsoft's move pits it against Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Last month, Hewlett-Packard unveiled the Enterprise Mobility Suite, an application that, like Microsoft's product, manages and secures mobile devices.

Good Technology of Santa Clara, now part of Motorola, in June released Good Mobile Messaging 5, which incorporates management and safety tools for IT professionals, allowing them to shut down, service and update phones remotely."

i-mate phones may stir up enterprise mobile.

"A vendor based in Dubai pounced on the enterprise mobility market Tuesday evening with a set of Windows Mobile 6 phones that come with built-in security and management software and will be sold independent of carriers... The i-mate phones come with built-in software for securing and managing the devices. The Secure i-Q software lets users or IT support people lock down a lost or stolen device or wipe the data from it over the air. They can then configure a replacement device with all the appropriate applications over the air, Buchanan said. Custom i-Q allows for customization of each device with applications, e-mail settings, and features over the air."

HP announces support for Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008.

"HP today announced plans for a portfolio of services and solutions to help ensure that enterprise customers experience a seamless transition when deploying mobile device management software.

HP plans to add Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 to HP Services' comprehensive mobility offering, which already includes the HP Enterprise Mobility Suite. Additionally, HP plans to support interoperability with future HP iPAQ handheld devices that will be compatible with Microsoft's Mobile Device Manager."

Microsoft's next wireless push courts the enterprise.

"Microsoft announced new server software to help businesses manage a company's fleet of smartphones, hinted at an improved browser for Windows Mobile and said it was funding a related startup in Boston. The new product is called System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 and the startup is Enterprise Mobile, which is a service provider that aims to help businesses manage the process of distributing smartphones in large corporations. "

related: Microsoft unveils remote mobile management software
"IT administrators using Mobile Device Manager will be able to remotely do things like turn off a phone's camera and prevent the use of unauthorized messaging services... Mobile Device Manager integrates with Microsoft's System Center so administrators with that software can use the existing active directory and group policy feature to disseminate policies... Mobile Device Manager comprises client and server software. Windows Mobile users will need to update their phones with the software... AT&T is expected to announce at the conference how it will update devices on its network, O'Rourke said... Once phone users have the software, they'll need to connect to the corporate network and log on before an administrator can start remotely managing the device. That's a one-time process, similar to one that corporate workers often go through when using a new laptop... Microsoft's Mobile Device Manager will only manage Windows Mobile Devices."

related: Microsoft backs enterprise mobile services company
"Microsoft approached Mort Rosenthal recently with the idea of starting a company that could help enterprises design, deploy, and manage Windows Mobile mobile phones and services, Rosenthal said. He plans to formally launch the company, called Enterprise Mobile, on Tuesday... Microsoft is a minority stakeholder in the Watertown, Mass., company, which has quietly been doing business since June."

related: Update: Microsoft considering opening up device manager
"Microsoft's new Mobile Device Manager faces a shortcoming because it is exclusive to Windows Mobile devices, but that might change, an executive said on Tuesday."

iPhone's security rivals Windows 95 (no, that's not good).

"It wasn't long after Apple released the iPhone in June that researchers discovered that every application on the device -- from the calculator on up -- runs as 'root,' i.e., with full system privileges. As a result, a serious vulnerability in any of these applications would allow hackers to gain complete control of the device... Miller says that Apple will need to redesign the entire firmware to fix the problem -- which would require owners to install a pretty hefty update."

On Gary Hamel's "The Future of Management".

John Caddell writes: "Hamel talks frequently in the book of enrolling the entire company in innovation. Among all the obstacles to achieving this--the lack of democracy, the weight of inertia--the biggest one in my view is the information gap. Comparing the volume and depth of information I had access to when I was a senior executive to the paucity I had in any other position--the difference was staggering...

It's no wonder that people can't or won't contribute meaningful ideas for the future when they don't know what the strategy of the company is, or what the core competencies are, or what happy customers like and angry customers hate about the company."

Enterprise gets ready for the spotlight.

"Bill Hughes, wireless technology analyst at In-Stat, believes that there is still a huge disconnect on the part of wireless carriers when it comes to the enterprise because most still treat this market as an afterthought, even though it is the most lucrative segment. 'The bulk of profits come from business users,' Hughes said...

We also expect to hear from enterprise-oriented companies such as Integrated Mobile, Movero Technology and others that help bridge the gap between the carrier and the enterprise segment at next week's confab. These firms are likely to become increasingly visible as carriers strive to make more inroads in the enterprise market."

Verizon: InnoPath's FOTA will deliver updates to phones.

"Verizon Wireless today announced that it is introducing new technology that will deliver system software updates over-the-air to new handsets. With a technology from InnoPath Software Inc., Verizon Wireless customers will be able to easily update embedded system software, technically called 'firmware,' on some of the newest handsets using over-the-air technology."

Mobile security tops concerns, but policy isn't enforced.

"'What this all means is that, ultimately, [companies] have to do the same thing they did with computers,' Mathias said. 'But with mobility, we're still in the "I don't know" stage.'

That 'I don't know' stage is caused by companies trying to do more with less. Devices are deployed and data is used on them and accessed through them, but IT budgets are dropping and managers are forced to try to work with fewer resources.

'The tools and techniques are mysterious to them,' Mathias said, calling mobile security a 'black art.' He added that companies are going to incur the bulk of costs associated with mobile security policies and deployments by educating end users and putting mechanisms in place that end users can't work around."

Interview with Motricity CEO Ryan Wuerch.

"This transaction [acquisition of InfoSpace Inc.'s mobile business unit], when it closes, gives us 11 of the top 13 carriers. We will be powering five of the top six carriers' portals. For four of the top six carriers we power the storefront, and for four of the top six carriers we also power the search. That breadth and that coverage enable us to do the most important thing, and that is to deliver a great rich experience to the end user...

We handle ringtones, games and graphics for AT&T. We have 15,000 developers and over 5 million digital media products integrated into our platform. We believe it's through segmentation and demographic analysis that we as a company understand that user, and understand what they are looking for and deliver it for them...

When we are talking about where the market is going--with advertising and search and different types of media that will be harnessed--you have to think about companies from a competitive standpoint like Ericsson, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. I'd be naive to not mention Google. Those are all companies that I believe we will see in a competitive environment in the future...

This industry is very complex and a very expensive industry to be in. This is very different from the web environment, which is very static. The industry we are in today has billions of users and thousands of handsets. Multiply that times the millions of pieces of digital media. And every day there is new content added and new technologies created. All this adds complexity.

Consolidation has occurred because it takes a lot of capital to make even a single point solution. That's why you see companies like Motricity, Ericsson and others acquiring key companies."

Steve Jobs: Third party applications on the iPhone.

"We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February.... It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc...

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than 'totally open,' we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs."

related: Developers on iPhone SDK: OMG! ABFT!
"Chris Messina, an open-source advocate and co-organizer of iPhoneDevCamp, also thinks the SDK is an admission by Apple that the world just wasn't ready for web-based apps … yet.

'They gave the web a chance to prove itself and the web failed them,' Messina says. 'In some ways, I think that the web has failed the iPhone and Steve Jobs. It's kind of unfortunate. It could've been the first real web-driven platform. But since we're not there yet, it looks like we'll just have to wait.'"

Managing the mobile device life cycle effectively.

Matt Bancroft, CMO Mformation Technologies, writes "operators must manage every device from the instant the subscriber activates it throughout the entire device life cycle—correctly activating, configuring and provisioning device capabilities and services, diagnosing and solving a wide range of problems, providing the appropriate level of data and device security to each user, upgrading applications and device firmware as needed, delivering a consistently high level of experience, and more." (the article is a nice introduction to MDM functionality)

Red Bend upgrades FOTA on Symbian.

"Mobile device management provider Red Bend Software has announced improvements to its firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) capabilities on Symbian, claiming a ninefold reduction in update times for phones the latest version of the OS."

CA develops enterprise smartphone management.

"The India Technology Centre (ITC) of Computer Associates (CA), one of the largest IT management software companies in the world, has developed a mobile device management (MDM) product, which can manage an entire corporate mobile infrastructure from a single console.

MDM will provide large organizations with enterprise-level device management tools for the most popular smartphone platforms from companies such as Microsoft, RIM and Symbian...

It provides over-the-air management, device-independent consolidated asset inventory, configuration management, policy compliance and security management."

Bill Gates unveils new communications software.

"Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is unveiling a new product he believes is the 'future of office communications.' ... The product will allow people to use their mouse and software to place a phone call from an email, instant message or contact card instead of picking up the phone, looking up the number and dialing."

It’s all about control (policy management).

"Tyler Nelson, Bridgewater’s vice president for business development and marketing, says the company’s technology wraps business rules and logic around a subscriber profile that can cover a multitude of parameters, including billing, usage, content and services, and even time of day.

The technology merges the static information on the device about such things as screen resolution and software capabilities with dynamic information about the subscriber’s access capabilities and use...

Bridgewater is working with a number of carriers to deploy centralized subscriber repositories with access to siloed applications so real-time policy decisions can be made, he says. Sometimes Bridgewater will replace a legacy network access controller to eliminate any data bottleneck."

Where’s the business case for device management?

Annie Turner writes: "[I'm] sitting next to Gareth Maclachlan, VP products and services, AdaptiveMobile... we’ve been talking about device management, which a number of companies such as mformation, InnerPath [sic] and Key2Cell are involved in. This means when a consumer phones the operator’s helpdesk because they can’t download something or can’t find what they’ve downloaded, the helpdesk can interrogate the device and find out what versions of software and apps are on it. My flying companion questions the business case – after all, in most cases it will be way too complex for the customer service people (not because they are stupid, but because there are just too many possibilities) so the advice is most likely to be to return to factory settings!"

Air Products selects Odyssey Software to upgrade MDM.

"Athena, Odyssey’s flagship product, is a mobile device management solution that enables helpdesk and IT personnel to remotely and securely monitor, manage and maintain Microsoft, Windows Mobile, Windows Embedded CE and Windows-based devices over local and wide-area wireless networks. "

Wavecom signs up partners for M2M monitoring and updates.

"[Wavecom] announced what has now been re-branded as the StarService, comprising both a product and service element.

The product is the Wireless Microprocessor WMP50, a module based on the ARM9 processor and running its Open AT Software Suite that enables customers to develop embedded apps. The service component is called Intelligent Device Services, the plural in the name referring to the fact that customers can get both monitoring and over-the-air updates to firmware and app software on remote machines.

The partners for the StarService offering are Jasper Wireless and Numerex."

Wavecom signs up partners for M2M monitoring and updates.

"[Wavecom] announced what has now been re-branded as the StarService, comprising both a product and service element.

The product is the Wireless Microprocessor WMP50, a module based on the ARM9 processor and running its Open AT Software Suite that enables customers to develop embedded apps. The service component is called Intelligent Device Services, the plural in the name referring to the fact that customers can get both monitoring and over-the-air updates to firmware and app software on remote machines.

The partners for the StarService offering are Jasper Wireless and Numerex."

Samsung to unveil dual SIM phone in Europe.

"Some 60 percent of Russian mobile users have more than two phones, partly because users want to separate their private life from their work life and also because different providers offer different options."

Arik Hesseldahl: Why I won't buy an iPhone.

"The company that styles itself as the technology supplier of choice for creative people with great ideas is insisting that to own its products is to accept a defined orthodoxy where there's only one acceptable way to do things. That doesn't sound like the Apple I know. So I'm not going to buy an iPhone. And until Apple commits to changing this ridiculous policy, I don't think you should either."

Red Bend Software reaches 200M mobile phones.

"Red Bend Software... today announced that the company has reached the significant milestone of providing its vCurrent Mobile software in 200 million mobile phones worldwide. This represents a 345% growth rate since October 2006, when vCurrent Mobile was shipping on 45 million mobile phones."

Mobile Firefox out to break industry hold on device apps.

"By developing a version of its open source desktop Firefox Web browser to run on mobile devices, Mozilla hopes to break the hold some handset makers and carriers have on what mobile applications consumers can use, an executive of the company says."

related: Mobile Firefox Likely to Work on Symbian
"Mozilla Corp.'s mobile Firefox browser, which the company said earlier this week is in the works, will likely be available for phones running Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux operating systems, a developer working on the project said."

Telefonica + Nokia services agreement.

"Fascinating announcement [on 10-9-07] from Nokia & Telefonica which is potentially game-changing, in that it recognises Nokia as a key partner for services as well as handsets... Using Nokia as an intermediary could be a way around the current problem with the mobile/web collaboration model - web services companies really don't want to do 100 separate operator-specific optimisations, and 100 separate negotiations, to get their application deployed widely (and hopefully virally)."

Microsoft plots embedded OS futures.

"The 'Software Plus Service' concept. 'We can no longer build software that just sits on a device... Instead, we have to build software plus a service.'"

InnoPath partners with O3SIS to provide backup and restore.

"InnoPath Software... has entered into an OEM agreement with O3SIS of Cologne, Germany, to bring to market a complete Integrated Mobile Device Management (iMDM) based Backup & Restore solution."

related: InnoPath Adds Backup with O3Sis
"Handsets from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola almost all ship with an OMA DS client for data synchronization, which is the basis for the O3sis product, so in their case we just have to activate and configure that client over the air... For Windows Mobile phones, which don’t, we’ll download a client to the handset...

The addition of backup and restore capabilities to its platform follows on the announcement last month of an agreement with mobile AV vendor SMobile to integrate its technology into the InnoPath platform. 'AV for mobiles is different from desktop stuff, because the latter can be a pull service, whereas in cellular you want to avoid unnecessary traffic, so you program it to be a push, only when there is a specific signature for a new threat,' said Ashkenazi.

He stressed, furthermore, that the deals are not exclusive. 'We’re a platform company, so we can integrate with other backup and restore or mobile AV products if a customer asks us to.'"

Interview: Graeme Ferguson, MD, Global Content, Picsel.

"The reason why Google is launching a Gphone is because they have some inbuilt advantages in that they can control user experience, they can control what’s embedded. We’re going to see a little bit more of handset manufacturers flexing their muscles and Nokia is the start of that."

InnoPath expects 2-3 Tier 1 contracts during 2008.

"US mobile device management (MDM) solutions provider InnoPath Software expects to close important deals with two or three Tier 1 carriers in Latin America during 2008, the company's Latin America sales director, Carlos Castilho, told BNamericas."

From PARC, the mobile phone as tour guide.

"Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC--the Xerox subsidiary that was the birthplace of the computer mouse, the graphical user interface and Ethernet--has developed a mobile application [code-named 'Magitti'] that offers up information that would be useful to a wanderer--things like shops, restaurants and event listings based on your location (via the GPS device in the phone) and the time of day, as well as your preferences and past behavior."

The dissent-free organization: a worst practice.

"You must acknowledge and thank those who disagree by telling them that they made the discussion, and hence the ultimate decision, much better... You need to reward and promote the mavericks or else the organization will lose its creative edge. You try to create tension inside because the outside challenge is so great." -- former Medtronic CEO Bill George

InnoPath Software penetrates Latin America mobile operator market.

"InnoPath Software... has announced expansion into Latin America with the establishment of a regional sales and support office in Brazil."

Mformation secures government support of $4.3M from Invest Northern Ireland.

"Mformation Technologies Inc... today announced that it will establish a new development and technical support centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Invest Northern Ireland has offered assistance totaling £2.1 ($4.3) million in support of the project."

related: Mformation brings 162 jobs to Belfast
"Specialist mobile telecommunications firm Mformation Technologies is to establish a centre of technical excellence in Belfast, creating 162 software development jobs for graduates."

Google Unplugged: gPhone or not, Google's going mobile.

"Just how IT administrators will actually manage Google's mobile software is another question. While Google Apps comes with basic management and update tools, the company hasn't put out a manage-ment console for its mobile applications, nor is it saying when one might become available. As Google goes mobile, the cellular industry, smartphone market, and customers are all flying with it--by the seat of their pants."