Cell Phones: Demand Is Even Worse Than You Think.

"Low end, midrange and smartphones may all remain challenged as consumers reduce spending and push out planned upgrades."

Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone.

"What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it, its paucity of features, the low-quality camera, the unfashionable design and the fact that it's not Japanese... [and] it depends on a computer for syncing media and running software updates via iTunes."

iPhone not selling well in Japan, now available for free.

"There are no official statistics available as how well the iPhone sells after Apple started offering it in the Japanese market in July last year. Now Softbank Mobile, one of Asia’s biggest tech companies and the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in Japan, thinks sales need a boost and decided to give away the hardware basically for free [JP]."

VMware demos mobile virtualisation.

"In a keynote at VMworld Europe, chief technology officer (CTO) Stephen Herrod unveiled the firm’s mobile virtualisation platform, explaining that phones featuring hypervisors - the technology that allows virtualisation - will have two main functions.

The first enables users to back up their system and data on a virtual machine, so if they get a new phone they can easily transfer contacts and other information regardless of the operating system. 'What data is on a device will outlive the device,' he said.

This will also make developing mobile applications much easier, as developers can embed it on a virtual machine with a thin operating system of its own, removing the need to ensure interoperability with different systems.

The second use involves running multiple virtual machines on a single phone. This will let users run two profiles at the same time. 'People don’t want to carry two phones – one approved by IT, and one that’s a bit cooler,' said Herrod, who added that this move was another step towards 'employee-owned IT.'"

Tough market means greater need for mobile device management.

David Ginsburg of InnoPath Software writes: "All told, MDM can save 10 minutes from the typical configuration call. Across the millions of calls an operator takes in a year, this adds up.

Net-net, MDM-driven care saves time, avoids frustration, and in an environment where it is a challenge to stay afloat much less swim upstream, it makes a real difference both financially and in terms of the end-user experience.

MDM for customer care may be deployed by an operator inside of six months, helping prove the business case when pressured to cut capex.

The financial return on investment is also compelling. A tier one operator could save upwards of €50 million in a single year, a figure validated by Stratecast. If just 10% of these savings are invested in the solution, it is money well spent."

Mobile Device Management Corrals Smartphone Problems.

"Fixing or even setting up a mobile phone can eat up the profits that come from offering the new range of services and applications on smartphones, so somebody had to step in and do something about it. Mobile Device Management (MDM), a surprisingly standardized service, provides a way for a carrier to look out all the way to the handset and quickly resolve problems by actually taking control of the device and working things out. MDM has been embraced by device manufacturers who are pre-loading the standardized clients into their devices. It also is being embraced by carriers who are loading the necessary software within their OSS/BSS to interface with those clients."

Motorola sells Good Technology to Visto.

"Motorola has agreed to sell its Good Technology division to California-based push email provider Visto for an undisclosed price. This brings to a close Motorola's ambitious plan to compete with Research In Motion (RIM) and its popular BlackBerry range of devices, through the acquisition of Good Technology in 2007."

Smartphones more complex than netbooks.

"The surprise, however, is in the fact that a netbook is actually less complex than that of high-end smartphones such as Apple's popular iPhone. In fact, using the progression of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G as a gauge, smartphones are actually heading towards higher complexity and component count."

NEC and Carrier IQ Announce Global Partnership.

"NEC's Device Management solution enables Mobile Operators to provide essential and effective mobile device management that increases customer satisfaction through remote device management and avoids user churn, while delivering new revenue generating services and enhancing user experience through users' life logs...

Carrier IQ's Mobile Service Intelligence solutions use software embedded on the mobile phone to provide detailed data regarding network and device performance, which when combined with Carrier IQ's IQ Insight analytics suite, gives carriers and OEMs an exceptionally thorough view of service delivery across their entire customer base. With this information, customer care operators can accurately diagnose user problems and improve both network and device performance."

Skype and Nokia partner to integrate Skype into Nokia devices.

"Skype and Nokia have announced a partnership. Under the terms of the cooperation, Skype will be integrated into Nokia devices, starting with the Nokia Nseries. The Nokia N97 flagship device will be the first to incorporate the Skype experience in the 3rd quarter of 2009."

Bill Gates grant to extend mobile banking to poor.

"Microsoft founder Bill Gates has agreed to help fund a massive rollout of projects enabling poor mobile phone users to transfer money using their handsets, an industry body announced Tuesday."

Sprint may launch a WiMAX Android handset in 2010.

"Sprint Nextel may launch a WiMAX capable tri-mode handset in early 2010 running on Google's Android platform, though it is not entirely confirmed that Android will be the OS for the phone.

The phone is expected to run on CDMA, WiMAX and WiFi, though the form factor of the handset is 'still being finalized,' according to Scott Lane, the director of sales and marketing for Sprint's 4G unit, who gave an interview to ComputerWorld.com."

Symbian Secures Big Backers in Mobile OS War.

"Symbian said today that 14 new companies, including Hewlett-Packard, MySpace, Qualcomm and SanDisk, have joined its foundation. This brings the number of companies that have signed up to use the mobile operating system’s platform to 78, putting it ahead of the 47 members of the Open Handset Alliance, which supports Google’s Android OS. More members are good, but Symbian still has to get those members psyched up and developing on its mobile operating system."

Palm OS, she is dead.

"Palm CEO Ed Colligan just pulled the plug on Palm OS... Colligan also mentions that the Pre will have an app store and Palm will have no control over the content. The Pre will hit other carriers in 2010 and that they’re not too worried about Apple’s patents (famous last words.) Luckily, Palm has 1500 patents up its sleeve and sees little problem in implementing multi-touch in the new OS."

The next step in multiplicity: Multi-IMSI SIM cards.

Dean Bubley writes: "What I haven't really discussed before is the concept of multi-IMSI SIMs. An IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) is essentially equivalent to a mobile 'subscription' or 'account'. It's not the same as the device identifer (IMEI) or a specific number (MSISDN)...

Multi-IMSI is something that's been mentioned to me quietly over the last 12-18 months, with increasing frequency. It essentially enables multiple accounts/subscriptions to be loaded onto a single (hardware) SIM. Now at present, it's not possible to have them running simultaneously (eg for separate voice and data connections), and you cannot just 'download' multiple operator personalities (eg Vodafone + Orange + 3) as most major MNOs only issue their own, single-operator SIMs.

But I've been hearing about some interesting potential applications, in a variety of contexts. A number of SIM suppliers offer the cards, and various network-side companies have methods of working with them."

Move Over Touch: Voice Recognition Grows Up.

"Nuance Communications said today it’s offering an upgrade to its line of speech recognition software aimed at carriers and handset makers. The new software includes a combination of on-handset speech recognition and server-based transcription that means it can do far more than navigate an address book. It’s also a sign that carriers are interested in offering up voice recognition as an easy way to navigate through content on mobile phones — while at the same time getting consumers to use their data plans."

Moshi Moshi (from NPR).

"For many in the U.S., life without a cellphone is all but unimaginable. But if you think you've maxed out its utility, a look towards Japan shows your cell can do so much more... 'Cell phones are driving people to the edge of nervous breakdowns. The reason why some people have multiple phones is that this way they can draw a line between their working life and their private life. They can use one phone for business up to, say, 6 o'clock. Then you turn that one off and you turn on another, because you want to connect to your family. Actually, the ones who don't like cell phones usually have the most.'"

Complete MP3 is here.

InnoPath and Mentor Graphics Deliver Mobile Device Management for Nucleus.

"InnoPath Software... announced the availability of its OMA-DM client and Device Update Agent (DUA) as a pre-integrated and validated solution on the Mentor Graphics Nucleus Real Time Operating System. The combined solution, available globally, allows device makers to meet increasing demands by operators for over-the-air manageability in new handsets. MDM will allow device makers to get handsets to market faster while operators will benefit from lower costs and enhanced subscriber satisfaction."

SIMCom Licenses Red Bend Software for Remote Software Management of M2M Wireless Devices.

"Red Bend Software... announced that SIMCom Wireless Solutions (Shanghai), a world-leading supplier in high-quality wireless modules, has licensed Red Bend’s vCurrent Mobile firmware over-the-air (FOTA) software for use in its machine-to-machine (M2M) product portfolio. SIMCom is the third largest cellular module supplier in the world. "

Microsoft leaks My Phone cloud service.

"According to Microsoft, My Phone synchronizes information like contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, text messages, photos and video content between the user's mobile phone and a password-protected website, enabling consumers to back up their personal data in the event their phone is lost, stolen or broken, as well as transfer information when they transition to an upgraded device. In addition, My Phone will synchronize Windows Live contacts on the phone with the Windows Live website."

With Latitude, Google Fires Another Shot at Mobile Operators.

Om Malik writes: "Google unveiled Latitude, a nifty little application for your smartphone (as long as it’s not an iPhone) that lets your friends locate you, and you them, on a map.... North American carriers in particular are at risk here. They need a collective LBS aggregation strategy, and fast, according to Chetan Sharma, a mobile industry expert, which is where offerings from Qualcomm can help. But will those be enough? I don’t think so."

Addressing the Challenges in the Design of High-Performance FOTA Diff Engines.

Jinsheng Gu, technical lead at InnoPath, writes: "Firmware over-the-air, abbreviated as FOTA, is the technology to enable wireless device manufacturers and network operators to remotely update the mobile device software, mainly firmware, already deployed in the market. At the center stage of FOTA is the diff engine, which intelligently computes, arranges the order of, encodes and compresses the differences between two given versions of mobile phone software, i.e., the existing version running on the device and the new version. The limited wireless network bandwidth, the lack of resources on the mobile device, and zero-tolerance of failures are challenges that any commercial diff engine developer has to face. This article briefly addresses the design of high performance FOTA diff engines to conquer these challenges."

Managing devices: the next big mobile opportunity.

"Mobile device management capabilities are 'one of the few remaining strategic differentiators available to tier-one operators,' said Stephen Drake, IDC analyst. It also addresses an operator’s largest operational expense – customer care, Drake said."

T-Mobile pushes G1 update, adds voice search.

"T-Mobile USA announced it was pushing a new firmware update for G1 users, adding voice search capabilities for the first phone based on Google's Android platform."

Not every company needs an App Store.

Greg Kumparak writes: "If you’re going to get knee-deep in app sales, guys, you need to form an alliance. One store, one common interface, one thing to pitch to consumers as the place to go. Should it happen? Certainly. Will it? Of course not. Every company involved is a direct competitor with the rest."

Customers are talking - Apple hangs up on the wrong customer.

"Cluetrain Manifesto co-author Doc Searls called Apple to get support for MobileMe (a paid service, by the way), and a synthesized voice summarily directed him to the website. Then, 'click.'"

Apple could allow real background applications on iPhone.

"Unspecified sources are now saying that Apple is considering backing down from its stance against letting user-space software run as background processes."

InnoPath Introduces First Mobile Device Management System Tying Smartphones and Advanced Featurephones to Customer Care.

"InnoPath Software... announced its next-generation solution, ActiveCare. ActiveCare represents a transition from point products with limited applicability to complete solutions and provides operators with an ‘active’ connection between the subscriber’s phone and frontline care. This reduces call handling times, increases first-call problem resolution, lowers operational expenses, and reduces churn by enhancing the end-user experience. ActiveCare is applicable to both featurephone and smartphones using the InnoPath Smart Client or native clients installed on the phone at the factory."

Mformation to Provide Advanced Device Management to Telefonica Mobile Business in Spain

"Mformation... announced that Telefónica Mobile Business in Spain is using Mformation’s device management technology to provide advanced enterprise mobile management as a service to their business customers. Enterprises obtain advanced mobile device management from Telefónica through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. This advanced, enterprise-focused mobile device management solution was rolled out to Spanish enterprises during 2008 and is now being used by many of Telefónica’s enterprise customers."

Taking Care with Mobile Device Management.

David Ginsburg, VP of Marketing at InnoPath, writes: "Mobile Device Management is going through a transition, from its roots in Firmware-over-the-Air (FOTA) for CDMA operators and GSM device configuration, to a foundation for a rich set of over-the-air customer care capabilities. The ROI for this new home of MDM in customer care, addressing a $25 billion annual problem, is proven, with the net result being lower operational expenses for the operator and increased customer satisfaction. For the first time, the operator has a direct over-the-air access to the phone when the subscriber calls for help, avoiding the error-prone and inefficient interplay between the frustrated subscriber and the frontline CSR that has been the norm since the birth of the industry."

---

---