Google: 18 Android phones coming this year.

"Google disclosed that by the end of 2009 there will be at least 18 phones on the market running its Android operating system. That number does not include handset makers using the basic version of Android that have not notified Google of their plans."

Change Is Imminent.

"[Indian] Service providers are also expected to bring in improvements in their customer service capabilities. Adoption of mobile device management (MDM), that would enable call centre executives to have all the required information about a subscriber when he makes a call, will drastically improve the service quality. 'A call made to the call centre lasts about 20 minutes at the moment, which costs the operator Rs 7 per unit. MDM will reduce the call time to about 10 minutes, making possible huge savings by the operator. Net-net, this would help the operator save an amount of about Rs 400 crore in three years,' explains Fooming Hoh, vice-president, sales, APAC, InnoPath Software."

Cutting Call Times and Keeping Care Agents.

David Ginsburg, vice president of product management for InnoPath Software, writes: "With this new over-the-air connection deployed by a typical operator, up to 15 percent of all calls are addressable via MDM in some form or another. Savings are 10 minutes per call on average, and with second-line CSRs costing $1 or more per minute, the operator will save $10 or more on each and every call. The law of large numbers now kicks in, and with an operator fielding millions of calls a month, MDM will result in savings of tens of millions of dollars annually. Couple this with increased customer satisfaction, more effective uptake of new, high margin services, and positive impact on the CSRs, and the savings are greater still."

I've fallen and I can't call help! Samsung's 911 Jitterbug.

"...$3.2 million dollars to update the phone. All for a free software upgrade which could have been done remotely if the phone has been designed to include updates over the air.

Considering the fact that 'Jitterbug was created for people who prefer a simple, easy to use cell phone, a friendly, helpful service experience', perhaps a little bit of technology built into the phone ahead of time, would have saved a lot of headaches afterwards."

Q1 Mobile Phone Sales Off 8.6%; Smartphones Up 12.7%.

"Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 269.1 million units in the first quarter, down 8.6% from a year ago, according to new data from Gartner. But smartphone sales of 36.4 million units rose 12.7%."

WiMAX Will Keep Limping Along.

"Juniper Research issued a report this morning noting that growth in WiMAX networks has been slower than anticipated, but revenue from WiMAX 802.16e broadband subscribers will exceed $15 billion globally by 2014. Before we get all excited over the prospects for Clearwire, to put that in perspective, Verizon reported wireless revenue of $15.1 billion for the first quarter of this year."

Global Wireless Solutions: a 2009 FierceWireless Fierce 15.

"Although Global Wireless Solutions has been around for more than a decade, this performance monitoring company recently developed a creative new way to handle drive-test data collection. The firm's iPhone application, called TroubleSpots, lets iPhone users report in real time when they experience poor (or no) network coverage, dropped calls, failed calls or a failed data connection."

GPS System Reportedly On Verge Of Breakdown.

"Just when navigation software has begun to show up in phones, cars and a range of other gizmos, comes a report that the global positioning system on which they rely is getting close to a breakdown."

My Phone Backs Up Windows Mobile Data Online.

"My Phone, Microsoft's over-the-air backup and synchronization service for Windows Mobile devices, has opened up to anyone running Windows Mobile 6 or higher, offering 200MB of free cloud storage space."

Leaked: Nokia Bringing Maemo To Phones, Could Be Ad-Supported.

"Our source deep within Nokia’s headquarters has just leaked us a bunch of information about the company’s future operating system release, Maemo 'Harmattan'. It’s jam-packed full of unexpected twists, including their new-found love for home screen ads."

Wanted: One Mobile Device, for a 24/7 Life.

Balaji Natarajan, senior IT strategist for Capgemini, writes: "I believe there is a significant opportunity for mobile device manufacturers to re-architect a mobile device operating system to enable data classifications at a fine-grained level. Similarly, device management tools need to be updated with capabilities to selectively manage corporate data without compromising the integrity of the data deemed by a user to be personal.

As our work and personal lives become increasingly harder to separate, we will become increasingly unwilling to tote around more than one mobile device. Until we’ve implemented technologies related to on-device data storage classification and associated device management updates, however, one truly mobile device for a 24/7 life will remain out of our reach."

Red Bend Software's MSM Solutions Are Selected by NTT DOCOMO.

"Red Bend Software... today announced that NTT DOCOMO, INC... has signed a multi-year agreement to license Red Bend's full portfolio of mobile software management solutions."

Sybase iAnywhere Broadens Support of Mobile Device Management Solution.

"Sybase iAnywhere has announced that Afaria now supports Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA DM) standards for device management. The latest release of Afaria expands upon its proven, enterprise-class device management and security capabilities by offering OMA DM-based device management functionality for over a billion feature phones shipped worldwide using the native OMA client pre-installed on the device. Afaria provides businesses with a proven, enterprise-class solution that manages and secures a wide array of mobile device types, including laptops, smartphones and now, open standards-based feature phones and PDAs across the entire enterprise, all from a single console...

The latest release of Afaria provides the following capabilities via OMA DM:
* 'Clientless' device management using OMA DM standards and technology
* Ability to initially provision device configurations via SMS using OMA DM
* Trusted server configuration allowing for silent management of devices
* Policy Editors to define device configuration settings for GPRS, WLAN access points, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Skinny Client Control Protocol and Cisco Call Connect
* Over-the-air application delivery, installation and activation
* Variable substitution from external sources (e.g., LDAP server) allows for personalization of device settings
* Full integration of OMA DM functionality with the Afaria management console"

AT&T Reshapes Itself As a Smartphone Carrier.

"AT&T, the Dallas-based wireless carrier, on Friday began an image makeover, repositioning itself as the leading U.S. smartphone provider and preparing an ad campaign sans its most iconic handset, the iPhone."

Clearwire: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ LTE.

"Clearwire CEO William Morrow... focused on the capacity and openness of the WiMAX network. He pointed out that WiMAX offered a way for customers to get streaming video or other applications that carriers are currently leery of. He also was emphatic that even though LTE and WiMAX are similar, Clearwire isn’t planning on dumping WiMAX in favor of LTE anytime soon."

Companies Shed Initial Resistance to iPhone.

"About one-third of respondents wanted better tools to manage the device, like shutting off such features as the camera or the ability to do a remote wipe of data if the phone were lost. While Apple has made it easy to download apps, it's a little bit trickier for IT departments that want to update hundreds or thousands of devices at a time -- that was a concern for about 22 percent of respondents. 'One of the big challenges for Apple is that they don't have a good story around mobile device management,' says Stephen Drake, program vice-president at IDC. Forrester's Schadler says that Kraft has encountered problems with calendar synchronization. Still, Avaya is mostly satisfied with the devices. 'The only thing we'd want to do is a remote reset if someone called and lost the device,' says Avaya's Loo. Apple has said it will address some of these issues with iPhone 3.0 this summer, but it declined to elaborate for this story."

AT&T releases iPhone app for managing account settings.

"AT&T myWireless Mobile has released a free application for Apple's iPhone that allows customers to manage account and billing settings directly from the smartphone device."

LogMeIn Coming Soon To The BlackBerry Storm.

"This morning brings an announcement from LogMeIn, makers of the remote desktop access software of the same name. For those unfamiliar with the concept, LogMeIn allows you to control a Windows or Mac computer from another terminal across the internet. Previously, the term 'terminal' here was limited to meaning any PC or system with an up-to-snuff browser. As of December, the launch of LogMeIn Ignition expanded it to include the iPhone. This morning, LogMeIn is announcing that they’ll soon be throwing the BlackBerry Storm into the mix as well."