India to Shut Down 25 Million Mobile Phones in January.

"The department of telecom (DoT) has instructed the mobile network operators to disconnect all handsets which do not have an IMEI number from January 6th 2009."

Verizon Wireless to Enable GPS on More Handsets.

"In the first half of 2009, the company will apparently be allowing internal GPS radios to work with applications other than Verizon’s own VZ Navigator. The lucky handsets mentioned include the Omnia, Saga and Touch Pro, according to an e-mail passed along to WMExperts... The solution is expected via firmware updates to the devices, so stay tuned. "

Survey: VCs Predict Difficult 2009, Followed by Recovery.

"Most VCs surveyed, however, predict a recovery in 2010, with the IPO market expected to re-open and those companies and venture firms that weathered the storm emerging stronger."

Mformation and Nokia Partner to Ensure Seamless Management of Nokia Devices.

"Mformation... today announced that they have entered a strategic partnership with Nokia, the world leader in mobility, to ensure that all Nokia S60 3rd Edition devices can be supported and managed by the MFORMATION SERVICE MANAGER(TM) platform."

Palm gets in on the app store action.

"No surprise. Google did it, RIM announced they were doing it so it's not a shock that Palm's gotten into the software app store business. There's choices for both Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices and this is a good move, albeit one that's late in coming."

AT&T now offering iPhone at-home activation.

"It seems that Apple has loosened its iron grip on the iPhone by letting AT&T not only sell the phone online, but also allowing consumers to self-activate it at home."

Is Verizon Wireless nailing the coffin shut on WiMAX?

Kevin C. Tofel writes: "I'd love to see WiMAX succeed. It offers unique and affordable day-passes and monthly service charges without commitments. And frankly, the folks I've spoken with at Clearwire are darn nice people. They've got a solid vision to offer a valuable service but unfortunately, I think they're running out of time. If we don't see some major WiMAX deployment completed within the first six months of 2009, my fear is that LTE will build up steam and roll right over WiMAX."

SmartTrust Expands Terminal Capabilities Repository Program to Support Over 4,100 Wireless Devices.

"SmartTrust... today announced the continued expansion of its SmartTrust Terminal Capabilities Repository (TCR) update program which now includes access to information about over 4,100 unique wireless devices from 118 phone manufacturers. SmartTrust TCR, part of the company's device management portfolio, allows service providers to identify wireless phones used on their specific networks in an effort to ensure subscribers have a consistent user experience...

With SmartTrust TCR, service providers gain the ability to identify a phone by vendor and model name, whether the phone can be activated and configured over-the-air, how a particular phone is configured through a particular standard, and what properties such as data and e-mail settings may be configured. In addition to these terminal provisioning capabilities, SmartTrust collects information of interest to application developers with data about APIs supported by a particular handset, the physical properties of a device including whether it has a camera or MP3 player, and details regarding a phone's screen size and type. A wealth of general device support information is also available from SmartTrust including details on the support of wireless standards and the spectrum those phones operate within as well as particulars about a phone's operating system...

The TCR program is a subscription-based service which provides 10 regularly scheduled updates per year with information on an average of over 100 devices per release."

Android Rising: Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, and 14 Others Join Open Handset Alliance.

"Android just got stronger. The industry consortium behind the Google-developed mobile operating system, the Open Handset Alliance, just added 16 new members, including ARM, Garmin International, Sony Ericsson and Vodafone... Nokia, AT&T, and Verizon are still sitting on the sidelines."

Blackberry Storm OTA upgrade finally appears.

James Kendrick writes: "I started the upgrade download and the phone told me it was 14 MB in size and that I did not have enough free RAM to install it. This evaluation phone came to me with a ton of extra software installed so I went through it and deleted a few of the programs and freed up enough memory. I restarted the upgrade and it went smoothly from that point on. It took about 30 minutes and then it was all updated. During the process the upgrade backed up all my personal data to the media card and then restored it after the upgrade completed. This was all automatic and the Windows Mobile folks should take notice that this is the way it should be."

Perlego announces mobile device management support for BlackBerry.

"According to Perlego, with this enhancement, Horizons customers can manage BlackBerry smart phones... [plus other] mobile platforms, including Symbian, Microsoft Windows Mobile and Palm.

With Horizons, administrators have the ability to perform a variety of smart phone management functions, all over the air, including: backing up and restoring data on a device; disabling a lost or stolen device; issuing software updates and patches; configuring device and user settings; and tracking and inventorying all their smart devices."

OTA and FOTA Updates for BlackBerry Storm and Other Feature Phones.

"The ability to update phones, smartphones and BlackBerries over the air is fairly recent. Verizon started pushing Firmware Over the Air (FOTA) updates in October of last year, using backhaul provided by InnoPath, a global device management solutions provider.

InnoPath has deliverd FOTA for hundreds of thousands of feature phones for Verizon, says David Ginsburg, Vice President of Marketing for InnoPath... However, RIM has its own [proprietary] system for the Over the Air updates which does not support the OMA-DM (Open Mobile Alliance Device Management) format that InnoPath uses."

Smart Support for Smartphones.

David Ginsberg, vice president of marketing for InnoPath, writes: "At four times the lifetime costs of more basic featurephones, a single half-hour support call for broken email or browser settings can eliminate any profit they hoped to gain from the subscriber... MDM can save operators billions of dollars annually in reduced call expenses by shaving just a few minutes off off every call. They can immediately tell if a phone needs an update, pushing it out, and either addressing known issues or enabling the user to benefit from new applications. The positive impact on first-time problem resolution and customer satisfaction goes without saying."

InnoPath Deployed by LG on Handsets at Telus and Bell Mobility.

"InnoPath Software... today announced that LG Electronics of Korea, one of the largest mobile phone makers in the world, has expanded its use of InnoPath device management for Canada’s Telus and Bell Mobility. New feature-rich phones with the InnoPath OMA-DM device management client include the Telus Keybo, as well as the Voyager offered by both Telus and Bell Mobility."

Nokia to pull out of Japan market.

"Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, plans to stop making phones for the Japan market, one of the largest in the world.

The Finnish phone maker announced Thursday that it would stop manufacturing cell phones for NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile, but will continue producing its luxury Vertu brand, according to a report by Reuters."

T-Mobile International works with Mformation to enhance remote customer support.

"Mformation... has today announced that T-Mobile International has deployed and is operating Mformation's MDM solution globally, supporting critical management tasks on subscribers' mobile devices."