The Operators Strike Back: The Next Generation of App Stores.

Dave Ginsburg, Vice President of Marketing at InnoPath Software, pens an article discussing the Verizon and Telefonica mobile application storefronts. It's worth reading.

Latest iPhone OS May Cause Battery Problems; Apple Investigates.

"The note also contains a file that installs an unsigned profile for battery-life logging on the iPhone. If users opt to install the profile, their battery-life logs can be synced with iTunes, and they can request that those logs be sent back to Apple for inspection, according to The iPhone Blog."

First OPhone in China Now Shipping with Red Bend's Mobile Software Management.

"Red Bend Software... today announced that Borqs, a leading open source mobile application software provider and integrator, is now shipping Red Bend's MSM software in the HTC A6188 mobile phone featuring the OPhone OS (Open Mobile Phone Operating System) developed by Borqs for China Mobile. In February, Red Bend announced that Borqs adopted Red Bend's vRapid Mobile(R) software for firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updating and vDirect Mobile(TM) software for device management (DM) for use in its Google Android-based software platform."

New Survey Shows Mobile Operators can Save Billions.

"InnoPath Software... today announced the completion of a yearlong analysis focused on frontline customer care for mobile operators, with an emphasis on the growing smartphone support problem. The study found that the rising popularity of smartphones and data services has led to longer, more complex support calls, which are much more expensive for mobile operators to resolve. These longer calls resulted in global costs of $3 billion directly tied to customer care. Additionally, operators able to deliver higher First Call Resolution (FCR) of consumer issues with shorter, more efficient call times enjoyed significant advantages in customer satisfaction, brand equity, reduced churn, and ultimately, better financial outcomes."

Can FOTA Further Marginalize Carriers?

"Microsoft is planning on providing updates to its mobile OS directly to users, much like Apple, Palm and Google do for their respective OSs... So what does this do to carriers? A lot actually. Their grip on handset manufacturers is slipping even further. App stores are also marginalizing the role of carriers."

Ondeego Launches AppCentral, A Mobile App Store For Enterprise Tools.

"Interestingly, AppCentral allows companies to manage third party and proprietary applications remotely while simultaneously securing data within them. Mobile apps can use Ondeego’s patent-pending ‘Securitization’ technology, enabling 3rd party application data to be remotely locked or wiped.

AppCentral is platform agnostic, supporting applications for all major enterprise-grade smartphones, although Ondeego says it can’t support the iPhone yet due to ‘legal restrictions’."

Verizon's new managed mobility solution signals beginning of trend.

"Verizon today introduced a new managed mobility offering targeted at international companies trying to manage multiple mobile devices, usage plans and applications across multiple operators, and putting itself in direct competition with the likes of AT&T and British Telecom.

The company introduced a new suite of services that addresses five key areas: Inventory and expense management; logistics (automating device deployments); mobile device management, mobile security and application management, which is coming next year...

Verizon chose to use Quickcomm's telecom expense management platform for the integrated inventory and expense management and device logistics pieces of the offering. The company also tapped Sybase's enterprise device management platform to not only manage devices across the enterprise but perform security functions such as encryption and lock/wipe policies."

also see: Enterprise Mobility Matters: Holy Partnership Batman! Verizon Develops Mobility Management Services

Desperately Seeking Scale, Orange & T-Mobile Merge in UK.

"Orange will merge with T-Mobile UK in a deal that will see the combined company become the largest player in the UK, with 28.4 million customers and a 37 percent market share. And it likely foreshadows more consolidation as the ultra-competitive wireless market moves from 2G to 3G and beyond, forcing operators to invest heavily in upgrading their networks in order to compete.

The move is all about cutting costs in an effort to better compete with O2 and Vodafone, which have 27 and 25 percent of the UK wireless market, respectively."

Analyst Finds 150 Million 'Missing' Handsets.

"The Linley Group released a report last night in which it claims that about 150 million handsets are missing from the official calculations of phones sold in 2008. The research firm notes that while some 1.2 billion cell phones shipped last year, 1.43 billion cellular baseband chips shipped, too, almost all destined for handsets. After accounting for waste and non-handset devices such as modems, analyst Bob Linley Gwennap guesses that 1.36 billion handsets were actually sold, while the missing chips were put into some 150 million unlicensed phones produced in China. From the report:

We believe that most handset-market estimates are missing the large number of unlicensed handsets produced in China. These “shanzhai” phones are produced by many small suppliers, some even operating out of apartments. This market is largely supplied by MediaTek, which provides complete handset chip sets and reference designs to the shanzhai vendors."

China Mobile Ophone hopes.

"The release of the long-anticipated Ophone platform, the world's first mobile phone operating system developed by a telecom carrier, and the Ophone handsets is seen by analysts as a move that could help China Mobile stabilize its slowing profit growth...

According to a survey on www.sina.com.cn, the largest Internet portal in China, 51 percent of the 2,161 respondents said they might buy an Ophone, attracted by its 'powerful' mobile Internet connection and application functions."

Microsoft to unveil Windows Mobile 6.5 Oct. 6.

"According to Microsoft, WinMo 6.5 will include a redesigned Internet Explorer Mobile browser boasting a new engine and built-in Adobe Flash Lite support for better rendering and completion of tasks. Handsets also will arrive with Windows Live, enabling users to more effectively manage their social media behaviors across services including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace."

Sprint inks M2M partnership with DataSmart.

"Sprint Nextel said it signed a multi-year deal with wireless data service provider M2M DataSmart to help get more machine-to-machine devices running on its network...

Yet Sprint is by no means alone as the nation's carriers look beyond traditional wireless connections for supplemental revenue streams. Verizon Wireless formed an M2M joint venture with Qualcomm in late July called nPhase. And AT&T signed an exclusive deal in May with M2M firm Jasper Wireless for Jasper to provide the activation, billing and connectivity support for all the embedded wireless devices on the carrier's network.

In other M2M news, T-Mobile International and Sierra Wireless signed a deal to provide joint solutions for the M2M market. The companies will work together on product development, marketing, sales and deployment of M2M solutions and related services. The cooperation targets the European market, with initial focus on Germany."