Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog: Mobility Archives

iPhone Nets Growing Share of Smartphone Market

April 15, 2008 2:34 PM

As the smartphone market dissolves into a race between Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry device, it is becoming abundantly clear that the two manufacturers will have to differentiate themselves by offering a wealth of innovative applications on their respective platforms.

Current U.S. market analysis shows RIM’s Blackberry to be the leader with over 40% market share. Apple, which only has about nine percent market share is not only “up and coming,” it’s iPhone is fast becoming a fan favorite.

Apple’s iPhone may have a leg up when it comes to user satisfaction. The company has traditionally developed a rabid following across many of its product lines. A recent ChangeWave Research survey of 3,597 consumers found that an incredible four-in-five iPhone owners (79%) claim to be “Very Satisfied with their iPhone.” That number dwarfs the second place finisher — RIM — with but 54% of respondents saying they were very satisfied.

VZW Offers Unlimited Web, E-Mail for Smartphone Users

April 14, 2008 3:56 PM

If you own any of these smartphones — the Verizon Wireless SMT5800; the Verizon Wireless XV6800 and the MOTO Q9m — then for just $29.99 per month (with a qualifying voice plan) you can surf and send e-mail to your heart’s content using the Verizon Wireless E-mail and Web for Smartphone solution.

The plan supports up to 10 personal e-mail accounts, including your Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Windows Live and Verizon.net accounts.

For more, check out today’s announcement.

Industry Players Agree on LTE Licenses

April 14, 2008 3:41 PM

LTE is that much closer to becoming a reality, as a number of industry players have agreed to commit to a licensing framework, whereby they would license their patents according to “fair and reasonable” terms.

The group is a veritable who’s who of industry leaders, and includes Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

Notably absent from the list is Qualcomm, which earlier this year announced plans to develop LTE chipsets.

Essentially the companies agree in principle to establish “predictable and more transparent maximum aggregate costs for licensing intellectual property rights” that relate to the next-gen wireless technology.

Juniper Unveils Mobile Backhaul Solution

April 14, 2008 9:58 AM

Mobile operators are striving to improve operational efficiency of their networks and pursue cost control by raising the average revenue per user (ARPU) by offering new data services. This is no secret.

Tremendous growth in data traffic is being driven by increased use of video, music, photo sharing, and the like. This is not a secret.

A recent AT&T survey states that smartphone users double the ARPU. This I did not know.

Regardless of the infrastructure upgrades that occur in the core of the network, mobile carriers will never realize the full benefits of these upgrades so long as bottlenecks occur at various points along the way. Today, over 90% of cell sites are connected with T1 lines, which means these points in the network are major culprits for serving as those bottlenecks.

At the recent CTIA show, Juniper Networks unveiled the BX 7000, a new mobile backhaul solution designed to speed deployment of high-bandwidth services by enhancing the flexibility, scale and operational efficiency of mobile operators’ networks.

Juniper’s BX 7000 Multi-Access Gateway and new M-series Circuit Emulation Physical Interface Cards (PICs) are part of an overall backhaul solution that promises to enable comprehensive network management capabilities through new enhancements to the JUNOScope framework, as well as the capability for zero-touch deployments.

The BX 7000 Multi-Access Gateway is purpose built for the mobile market. Rather than use a mix of legacy TDM and ATM technologies, Juniper’s BX 7000 leverages an IP/MPLS connection.

According to Juniper:

The BX 7000 will feature a unique timing expansion module that protects network investments and provides a wide range of timing synchronization options by allowing customers to replace clocking modules as technologies and network requirements evolve. Additionally, the BX 7000 provides an expansion slot that will offer maximum flexibility for backhaul network uplinks.

Juniper also introduced a series of new Circuit Emulation PICs for their M-series routers.

To further reduce operating expenses and simplify deployment, provisioning and management of these backhaul networks, Juniper also unveiled an upgrade to their JUNOScope network management framework. New JUNOScope features include remote software upgrades; configuration management; and inventory management across the entire solution.

The BX 7000 and M-series Circuit Emulation PICs will reportedly be available by the fourth quarter.

3D World Drives Minute Plans, Mobile Purchases

April 14, 2008 9:12 AM

I recently met with Gemini Mobile Technologies at CTIA. Gemini Mobile recently made headlines with the release of its HyperScale Software Development Kit, which is designed to enable system integrators and partners worldwide to harness the power of Gemini’s powerful HyperScale technology to create products for a variety of industries.

Gemini’s HyperScale is the core technology behind its two products: a software messaging platform, HyperScale Messaging Center, and a community platform, eXplo.

While at CTIA, I got a thorough demo of S! Town, a 3D mobile community powered by eXplo. Based on Gemini’s HyperScale technology, eXplo unifies media, content and communication into a single platform offering end users a unique 3D mobile experience.

The service went live in Japan two years ago, with Softbank Mobile, and as of November it had 250,000 subscribers.

My first thought was, ok, so this is like Webkinz for mobile phones. Do a quarter of a million Japanese children really have their own mobile phones, with unlimited data plans?

Turns out the target demographic is not kids at all, but rather women from 20–29 years of age, a group that makes up 41% of the user base. And the next largest user group? 30 to 39 year-olds. Go figure.

The application comes bundled with a mobile phone, and helps drive the purchase of unlimited data plans from the carriers. Ok, now it started making more sense. Furthermore, the 3D world is filled with advertising, whereby users click on ad, to visit an advertiser’s WAP site, as well as stores, where users can preview videos or songs and download them with minimal clicks to purchase. So a key benefit is enabling content discovery; bringing it closer to consumer, and making it easier to close the sale.

So what seemed at first to be a game, is really an innovative way to enable users to more easily purchase items via their mobile phone while driving minutes and supplementary revenue to the carrier.

Webkinz indeed!

A Night at the Opera With Android

April 10, 2008 8:45 AM

Opera Software announced that its Opera Mini browser for mobile phones and devices is now available for the Android platform. Android is the open mobile platform being developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, led by Google. The technical preview release of Opera Mini for Android is available at labs.opera.com, inviting the Android development community to test the fresh build and share feedback with Opera for the forthcoming beta.

Once launched, Opera Mini for Android will be available to any handset built on Android.

Samsung's iPhone Challenger

April 8, 2008 8:51 AM

Samsung Mobile announced the Samsung Instinct at CTIA last week. Hailed by many as the “iPhone killer” (or at least a worthy alternative) the device offers full touch screen functionality and promises to accelerate the user experience by enabling access to commonly used applications and contacts with a single finger tap.

The device, available exclusively from Sprint, will run on the carrier’s EV-DO Rev A network, enabling users to browse the Web, access business or personal e-mail, share pictures, listen to commercial-free radio and more at broadband speeds.

The crew at Gizmodo seems to like the Samsung offering.

The device will come with a 2GB microSD card which is good for 2,000 songs or so from Sprint’s Music Store, two batteries offering up to 5.75 hours of continuous talk time each, battery charging sleeve, travel charger, USB cable, 3.5mm headphones with built-in microphone, and leather case with stylus.

Pricing has yet to be determined.

Oh… and the Instinct was awarded best of show at CTIA too.

D2 Cues Up For Google Android

April 4, 2008 5:13 PM

At CTIA this week, D2 Technologies announced that its mCUE converged communications client for mobile devices and handsets now supports Google’s Android.

The combination is designed to enable OEMs to rapidly develop handsets powered by Android that offer a premium, graphic- and media-rich user experience.

Doug Makishima, vice president of marketing and sales at D2 Technologies said, “This offering will give developers a complete turnkey solution for developing multi-mode mobile communication devices based on Android. There is considerable market anticipation around Google’s Android platform, and our goal is to make it as fast, easy and affordable as possible for OEMs to deliver converged, unified communications devices to meet that demand.”

Level 3's DeLong Discusses Backhaul

April 1, 2008 1:47 PM

Level 3 is always doing something interesting. And tomorrow, during a panel discussion on backhaul, Level 3 vice president of offer management Edgar DeLong will be promoting the carrier’s strategy of hybrid fiber wireless as a solution to help wireless providers adopt backhaul solutions at a greater clip.

DeLong told me this morning that fiber offers the scale and reliability that providers seek, but that the challenge with an all-terrestrial solution is the cost.

DeLong said that Level 3 has conducted a series of surveys and determined that only approximately 10–20% of carriers’ cell sites fall within a 500-foot radius of Level 3’s fiber footprint. That 500-foot radius determines an area where it is cost effective to connect via fiber.

Beyond that it makes sense to utilize an OC-3 microwave fixed wireless solution to accommodate more carrier cell sites and keep the cost of the solution low.

DeLong will be discussing this ecosystem approach, combining hybrid fiber and wireless in a panel discussion entitled Cell Site Backhaul: Addressing a Top Cost and Reliability Concern, at 2:30pm on Wednesday, in the Las Vegas Convention Center Room North 113.

CTIA Day 1 - Preview

April 1, 2008 9:18 AM

If it’s April, it must be Vegas.

Arrived after a bumpy flight last night. Not fun.

I’m looking forward to heading over to the CTIA show later this morning, and I’m excited by by the fact that I’ll be meeting with a slew of leading companies in the space. (I have over a dozen briefings set up for today alone!)

Be sure to check my blog later for updates on my what I find at the event. I’m always curious to see new products and learn about emerging strategies and trends.

But rather than wait for me to finish my meetings, check out TMCnet’s CTIA news page to stay up to date with all the new developments streaming out from the event.

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