Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires today, Microsoft's Senior Vice President for Mobile Communications Pieter Knook said that the company expects to double the amount of phone devices using Microsoft's Windows Mobile software to 20 million worldwide in the fiscal year 2008, starting July 1. Microsoft said it is gaining market share in the mobile phone software market and expects that, as the handset market advances, computer applications and Internet services will become more important for both business users and consumers. "This will be the fourth year that we have doubled our size and we are significantly outgrowing the market and also our competition. RIM and Symbian aren't doing this and we're gaining share and growing our portfolio," said Knook. Beside HTC, which makes most of today's Windows Mobile devices, Microsoft also expects to expand on the 40 other handset manufacturers that currently use Windows Mobile and said that it hopes Motorola and Samsung will become more significant users of the technology."



Arne Hess has an article about the future of Windows Mobile devices. Well, if you think about it, Palm finally realized that the Windows Mobile OS is worth switching to. I have to admit that I've had a Palm device, a Symbian device, and a Rim device and I find the Windows Mobile OS far superior. I wouldn't trade my Dash for all three of the other devices combined. So how about your opinion. Why is the Windows Mobile OS market growing so fast and what makes it the best mobile platform?

"It seems HTC has finally gotten all of its leaves in a pile by releasing the much anticipated Windows Mobile 6 upgrade roadmap; while this news isn't a surprise, it's always reassuring to hear it straight from the manufacturer. Starting in April (the clock is ticking HTC) the updates will begin rolling out on HTC's European site for your downloading pleasure. The list includes the HTC Advantage, HTC TyTn, HTC S620, HTC P3300, and the HTC 4350. All of you folks rolling with carrier-branded handsets will have to wait until June, and to make it a bit more unbearable, no operators or devices are specifically mentioned. HTC's rationale in choosing these handsets over others in their portfolio -- in case you are screaming "why not me?" -- is that devices with a focus on messaging will most benefit from the upgrade. Maybe it's just us, but aren't all of HTC's handsets focused on messaging? We will be bringing you a blow by blow as these things land, so if you see one posted and we haven't mentioned it, drop us a line."



I can't wait for this. I wish T-Mobile was getting the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade in April like HTC's European site but at least it's being released somewhere. It's becoming more real all the time. I can't wait to put WM 6 on my Dash. Tick, tick, tick, it's like watching water boil. It's not that long but it sure feels like it. :lol:

"The Nokia E61w is designed in the familiar style of today's most popular mobile email devices. Yet it is incredibly slim and packed with powerful new functionality. A cinch to use with either hand, the device has a four-way joystick and full keyboard combined with a wide 16 million color screen making mobile email easier than ever before. The E61w will support Outlook Mobile, Office Mobile, Mobile Internet Explorer, along with seamless and encrypted mobile connectivity using Windows Mobile 6 Standard."



Wow, I don't know how we missed this news in all the other announcements that came out of CTIA last week. It appears Nokia has taken the popular E61 and are turning out a Windows Mobile version of it. Sounds very similiar to what Palm did with the Treo line of phones. It will be interesting to see what traction a device like this would have in the enterprise. Can Nokia actually offer a better Smartphone than the BlackJack, Q, or Dash?

"I have been using a T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile 5 smartphone for almost a week now and enjoying the seamless web integration that T-Mobile has put into the Dash. Push email, the T-Zones connectivity, even web browsing on the Dash has been a real joy. I have especially liked using the Mobile Google Reader to keep up with my RSS feeds when free time makes itself available. Until this morning, that is. Sometime this morning I lost all ability to connect to the web. Nothing is working, I get various error messages indicating the server is unavailable."

Have any of you experienced this? If you read the blog article it is theorized T Mobile is trying to stop people who are abusing their system. In the process they are snagging legitimate customers in the net. I hope this is not the case.

"Sling Media's Dave Zatz informed SlingCommunity today that SlingPlayer Mobile will indeed be coming to Microsoft's next generation mobile platform. Rest assured at some point in the future, Slingbox owners will enjoy their home television on the latest mobile devices running Windows Mobile 6. Other details, such as which versions of the new Mobile OS will be supported and a timeline for release, are unknown"

Well, it's not really much of a surprise with this news. Sling would be shooting themselves in the foot if they decided not to support the new OS. As for what devices will be supported, it's not hard to figure out. Sling Media has always focused on devices with greater than GPRS connections. So that would mean any device that offers WiFi, HSDPA, EDGE, 3G, etc... The only problem is that Sling Mobile is tied to the device. So you need to contact their support to move your serial number to a new device. For people like me that change devices almost as often as underwear, this is nothing short of a huge pain. :?

"Motorola Inc. will release a new, bicycle-powered cellphone charger aimed at Third World residents who lack regular household power supplies. "For people living in emerging markets, energy is a scarcity," Motorola chief executive Ed Zander said Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show. "In Southeast Asia, rural China and Latin America, we can actually put this in, hook it up and charge this device while we are riding a bike." Zander played up the device, by entering a packed auditorium at the Venetian Hotel on a bright yellow two-wheeler, to the music of Queen's Bicycle Race. He told the crowd the new charging system was aimed at helping to further penetration of the cellular phone in fast-growing overseas markets. He said there are now more than two billion mobile devices in operation around the world."

Alright, this is pretty funny. It's a great idea, but something about it just makes me laugh. There are plenty of people around the world that ride bicycles on a daily basis and this would be a great way to pump a little more juice into your phone during the commute. I just can't stop thinking about the poor guy who has to ride around in circles for an hour to recharge his phone. :lol:

"YouTube Inc., the popular online video sharing site, said on Wednesday it hopes to launch a service for wireless devices within a year. Chad Hurley, YouTube chief executive and co-founder, told an advertising conference that offering video services on mobile phones was a key opportunity for the company. "Within the next year we hope to have something on a mobile device, it's going to be a huge market, especially for the video mind-set we're dealing with, it's a natural transition," said Hurley."

I know that you've all been waiting patiently for this to happen. So, I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that you'll be able to stream your favourite internet video to your phone. The world will never be the same. :lol:

"Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday a Zune-branded phone is part of its future plans to expand in the digital music market, now dominated by Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod. "A Zune phone is definitely part of the future of this brand," Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune, told reporters at a news conference. He did not give specific details."

Bomb...dropped. A Zune phone? That sure came out of left field - what about Windows Mobile and Smartphones? If the Zune brand is a Microsoft "we build it" solution, that means Chris Stephenson is saying that Microsoft is going to build their own phones. That's one wild concept when you consider the impact it might have on Windows Mobile, all the partners Microsoft has, the carriers, and everyone else invested in the current offering. What about Photon, the next-generation version of Windows Mobile? This simple statement from Chris Stepheson is a bombshell - and it spawns dozens of questions.

My five-minutes-of-thinking-about-it take? Windows Mobile will continue moving forward, and Photon will stay on track. The Zune phone will be a narrow solution specifically aimed at the music-loving phone users, and be 100% entertainment-centric, lacking in the personal information management goodies we've come to expect from Windows Mobile phones. It will have a great media experience, but will be closer to a feature phone than a real Smartphone. In fact, I'm guessing it will be application-locked just like Portable Media Centers are - meaning no third party applications can be installed on it. So, in some ways, it will just be a really slick "dumbphone".

I asked a Microsoft spokesperson for an official response, and here's what he said: "Zune is all about connecting people to their music. It makes sense that Zune could be a part of a phone experience. But there has been no determination of how that will be executed or when it will happen."

"The next time you see a guy sitting poolside here furiously tapping away on a PDA, don�t pity the fool's inability to leave work. It may be the blackjack table he can't get enough of. This year, field trials will begin at the Venetian Hotel-Casino for the nation�s first mobile gambling devices, handheld gadgets that will enable guests to play video slots, poker, blackjack and roulette from almost anywhere on the property."



This is good because it gives people the opportunity to loose their money even faster. Think of it, no longer will those annoying trips to the bathroom bring a pause to the flow of money out of one's pockets! Those nasty inconvenient meals? You can pump out the cash as you chew and swallow! Las Vegas, always on the cutting edge. :)

"The price of cellular phone calls should decline more slowly in 2006 than in recent times as the duration of phone calls expands less rapidly, a top executive at Sprint Nextel Corp. said on Wednesday. U.S. operators have driven down the price of mobile phone calls in recent years as they tried to win new customers or steal each other's subscribers in the fiercely competitive market, which had as many as six national operators at one point. But as increases in the amount of time customers spend on the phone slow, operators will likely be less aggressive in lowering their prices this year, according to Len Lauer, chief operating Officer of Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. cellphone service."

Cheaper minutes might not get much cheaper, but I wonder what will happen to data plans in the USA? Based on what I've read about data plans, they've gotten better but still have a way to go - especially on the EVDO side of things. I feel a twinge of jealousy when I compare plans from American carriers with what carriers in Canada offer. It's like we're going backwards in time up here - we used to have flat-rate GPRS for about $75 a month, which at the time (2003?) was revolutionary. Since then Fido, the carrier that was offering it, was bought by Rogers, their only competitor in the GSM space, and the flat-rate pricing is no longer offered. Now rates are $100 CND ($90 USD) for 100 MB of data per month. Meanwhile I've heard of people on T-Mobile in the US getting unlimited GPRS for $4.95 a month. 8O

Europe isn't much better off with their data plans from what I know - Paul from MoDaCo in the UK was thrilled that his carrier was finally offering flat-rate plans, years after other places in the world. What about where you live? Do you feel like your rate plans have been getting cheaper, or has your usage of data plans for your Windows Mobile devices been offsetting the savings?

"For those who have become confused and bewildered before when attempting to compare wireless and calling plans from several companies, we would like to help a bit by giving you a real-world, typical-scenario comparison of the �big four� wireless companies in the U.S. In this feature, we will compare, as apples-to-apples as we can, an example of what an individual customer (you) could use to compare when shopping around for a post-paid (monthly) wireless plan."



Here is a snapshot of the big guys plans. I use the word "snapshot" deliberately because the plans have probably already changed. Every once in a while I call my carrier (Cingular) to see what's new plan wise. Occasionally a better plan has popped up that I can take advantage of.

"Mobile phone group Orange plans to launch SIM cards this year that can store up to 8,000 times the data stored on present day SIMs, potentially helping to transform a traditional phone into a multimedia player. The France Telecom unit said on Wednesday the 512-megabyte "MegaSIM" cards could store up to 130 songs, three movies or 80 games, compared with existing 64 kilobyte cards which could at best store a phone book and some text messages."

512 Meg on a SIM card?! That's cool. 8) It's a great location to install those 3rd party applications and thus keeping for miniSD card free for pictures, videos, or whatnot. Swapping your SIM between phones would mean you get all your programs and files too, without having to transfer your memory card. I can only hope that we see this on other carriers shortly after Orange releases it. :D

"T-Mobile USA has big plans for 2006, the company told BetaNews in an interview on Thursday. The carrier intends to complete the rollout of GSM 850, which has boosted its coverage area by nearly 40 percent, and finally establish its long-awaited 3G network. T-Mobile also believes it could top Verizon in Consumer Reports rankings of quality service. The biggest benefit of GSM 850 would be increased coverage, mainly throughout the central part of the United States. However, the rollout would also include rural areas of the Northeast and West. Altogether, nearly 400,000 square miles of new coverage has been added during 2005, according to the carrier. ... Eventually, T-Mobile's coverage map would be practically identical to Cingular's, erasing the advantage its rival and others like Sprint-Nextel and Verizon have over the nation's fourth largest carrier." 8O



I wasn't aware that T-Mobile had licenses for rolling out the GSM 850Mhz network. And looks like they have been pretty busy this year, expanding their coverage. I haven't noticed any improvements in my area, but then my Smartphone doesn't have support for the 850Mhz frequency. :-( Have you folks noticed any improvements? Coverage is the one thing we all wish T-Mobile can improve upon. And yes, catch up on the 3G roll out with the other US carriers. ;-) According to BetaNews, T-Mobile is planning on 3G networks for the metro areas by 2007.

"After the success of the Razr phone, the world's number 2 phone maker Motorola said to stay on top in the design battle with rival cell phone makers next year, the head of its mobile devices division said on Tuesday. Starting next year Motorola, will revamp its strategy for launching all new products and follow the method used by Apple. Motorola said to follow Apple Computer's strategy by begin selling phones the day after announcing them, rather than announcing them well in advance."

The first sentence should read "After the success of the StarTac..." How about staying on top of the design battle by putting something interesting on the inside Moto! A Smartphone that actually doesn't have to be returned 3 or 4 times would be nice! I want to see more Smartphones. You have to read this short article. It made me laugh. Announcing the latest remake of the StarTac the day before is not going to make a difference. Motorola already tried imitating Apple, can anyone say "ROKR"?

"Deutsche Telekom's mobile unit plans to invest in its U.S. business and hopes to start third-generation services there in 2007, the unit's Chief Executive Rene Obermann said on Wednesday. "We want to carry on our business there. We want to invest," T-Mobile chief Obermann said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Duesseldorf. Analysts estimate Deutsche Telekom would have to invest up to $10 billion to buy permits for 3G services in the United States and build a network there for T-Mobile USA, the group's primary growth motor. ... The smallest mobile operator in the United States after Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA now has more than 20 million customers, Obermann said. "In view of its success, its importance is beyond doubt," he said. T-Mobile USA has doubled its customer base in 10 quarters."



For the loyal T-Mobile customers this is good news. Earlier on in the year, there were concerns that the German parent of T-Mobile USA might sell-off the US business, because it is now the smallest operator. It feels good to hear statements like "We want to carry on our business there. We want to invest". What T-Mobile needs to do now, is launch one of the HTC Wi-Fi enabled Smartphones, which will bridge its GSM-EDGE network with its Wi-Fi Hot-Spots and in the process revolutionize the cell phone industry. Just like it did years ago with low data rates. :)

"Development of the next round of high-speed wireless data services has officially started, with a new consortium of carriers signing a 'Super 3G' agreement. The new system, planned to be at least 10 times as fast as modern 3G services, should first been seen in testing environments in 2007, with commercial deployments to follow."

I wonder if anything will come of this especially in North America where it seems this whole high speed thing is kind of sparse and confused in its implementation.

"The FCC today approved the Motorola A668, a new tri-band GSM phone with a unique text-input technology called Finger Writing Recognition (FWR). The otherwise standard-looking keypad doubles as a touch surface, allowing users to trace English and Chinese characters with their finger to enter text."



Mike had posted an article talking about the Synaptics MobileTouch technology for mobile devices. Now Phone Scoop is reporting that Motorola will be launching a phone that will enable the user to input text by tracing the text on the keypad-touchpad with their finger. You can see a demo of this technology here. Would you like to have a similar keypad-touchpad on your next Smartphone?

"Verizon Wireless plans next week to expand its high-speed mobile data service to 11 more markets, including New York and Los Angeles, as well as 19 more airports. The speedier laptop connections will be marketed only to businesses while the company adds coverage and readies services and devices for a consumer-oriented launch in 2005, Verizon Wireless said Wednesday...Verizon Wireless, owned jointly by Verizon Communicaions Inc. and Vodafone PLC, is promising downloads of 300 to 500 kilobits per second using "EV-DO" technology, rivaling the speed of entry-level DSL and cable broadband connections."

The race to upgrade the cell phone data networks in the US has begun. Currently Verizon Wireless and AT&T are the two main participants, who have high speed networks operational. Verizon currently does not have any EV-DO capable phone and is only offering EV-DO laptop cards for $100 after a $150 rebate. The high speed mobility will come at a high price, $80 per month. 8O

There is nothing surprising in this article, and while it doesn't list any new or previously unknown device, it does show us who Motorola has teamed up with to build their various mobile devices. CMCS will build the MPx220, Compal Communications will build the MPx100, Compal Electronics will build the MPx, and HTC will build the i930 (for iDEN networks).

"In an interview with the Financial Times, Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin said of the system: "In our view, it's not quite ready for prime time." The pair already co-operate on mobile standards but have not signed a deal on operating systems, the paper said. The newspaper described the comments as a setback to Microsoft's ambitions in the telecommunications industry."

Essentially, Vodafone (the largest mobile operator in the world) is saying that they are not planning to release a phone with Microsoft's Smartphone operating system until unspecified improvements are made. This is not too surprising since T-Mobile has been saying the same thing for a while now. When I asked T-Mobile for an example of what improvements need to be made, a representative cited the long boot-up time of a Smartphone (which is more than 1 minute the first time you turn the device on) as something that will make the current devices unacceptable to their customers and a burden on their staff.

Orange has been the industry leader in terms of adopting Microsoft's Smartphone platform and pushing it forward by launching new devices and services. But by being the first, they've taken a lot of heat for the problems that have been encountered while going through this uncharted territory. On the other hand, they've built up a lot of great PR and a loyal customer base for the same reasons and the fact that early adopters understand that innovation comes with problems.

If you aren't going to be the innovator in a market, your customers will not be so forgiving if you fall for the same problems that the innovators have already uncovered. So the question that each mobile operator must continually ask themselves is whether the Smartphone platform is mature enough to satisfy their users - robust enough for their staff to be able to properly support. Verizon and AT&T Wireless believe that the latest builds of Smartphone 2002 meet these requirements and rumors are going around that T-Mobile will finally launch a Smartphone some time next year with the Smartphone 2003 operating system. Hopefully Vodafone will follow suit.