Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

Mobility

Nokia Maps Out Future With NAVTEQ

October 1, 2007

Nokia and NAVTEQ have announced a definitive agreement whereby Nokia will pay $78 in cash for each share of NAVTEQ including outstanding options for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.1 billion (euro 5.7 billion).   According to a company press release, the acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company.   NAVTEQ is undeniably a leading player in the field of electronic mapping, which enables in-vehicle navigation devices and a new generation of mobile-phone applications used for shopping, emergency services and advertising.   As Nokia looks to expand its business into the services arena, the acquisition of NAVTEQ makes sense, especially in light of the Finnish mobile phione maker’s stated desire to expand into services.   Nokia still derives most of its revenue by selling handsets — in fact Nokia reportedly sells one out of every three handsets in the world today. The move towards adding such critical applications as GPS or location-based services is clearly designed to make Nokia the “stickier” choice for consumers looking for a mobile device that can deliver context and geographical information to the company’s growing stable of Internet services.   "Location based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia's Internet services strategy. The acquisition of NAVTEQ is another step toward Nokia becoming a leading player in this space," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO, Nokia.   NAVTEQ is also the owner/operator of the Web site Traffic.com, an interactive service that provides traffic information and related content to consumers.   Upon completion of the transaction, NAVTEQ's current map data business will continue to operate independently, but will be folded into the Nokia corporate organization as a Nokia Group company.

Report: 435 Million Mobile SIP Users Projected By 2012

October 2, 2007

Informa Telecoms & Media has released a new report entitled, Mobile Converged Devices: Enabling IMS, SIP, UMA &VCC Services. This report forecasts 435 million mobile SIP users by 2012.   The research points out that sales of mobile phones with active SIP functionality will reach 275 million units in 2007, with an inflection taking place between 2010 and 2011.   Within the mobile handset space, SIP is essentially split into two main variants of IETF SIP, also known as Naked SIP, and 3GPP SIP, which is also called IMS SIP.   IETF SIP is believed by many to be the better choice to use as the basis of a convergence platform due to its acceptance in both the fixed and mobile camps and for its ability to enable access to open Internet services including wireless VoIP.   Malik Saadi Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and lead author of the report says “…growth will be mainly driven by the strong will of device vendors to get involved in the content space but also by the increasing number of new entrants among VoIP and Internet content providers who are determined to challenge the mobile operator walled-garden service offering”.   In terms of devices, sales of handsets with active SIP were as low as 4 million units in 2006. Nokia currently enjoys the largest SIP enabled product portfolio of all leading handset vendors, with over 35 SIP capable devices among its E-Series and high end N-Series.   For more, visit Informa’s Web site.  

Rich on Possibility of Google Phone

October 30, 2007

Rich has some insight into the possible announcement of the overly pre-hyped, not yet delivered Google Phone. Apparently the Wall Street Journal is saying that Google will partner with T-Mobile as a network partner.   Check out Rich’s blog for more.

Rich on Possible Google Verizon Partnership

October 31, 2007

Rich offers his take on the possibility of Google and Verizon partnering on some sort of Google powered phone to “take on” AT&T and Apple.   The battle for the hearts and minds of consumers continues.

Tom Wheeler on the Discovery Dilemma

November 5, 2007

  I saw a great article titled The Discovery Dilemma that was published on TMCnet’s Billing global online community.   In the article, the author — Tom Wheeler of CTIA and NCTA fame — talks about the challenge facing wireless operators when it comes to enticing customers to consume non-voice mobile services such as games, video, tones, and the like.   Check out the article here.   For other insights from Tom Wheeler, check out his TMCnet columnist page here.

Open Handset Alliance Member List

November 5, 2007

The Open Handset Alliance is a group of mobile and technology leaders who share a common vision for changing the mobile experience for consumers. The Alliance is made up of mobile operators, software companies, chip makers, handset manufacturers and commercialization companies.   For more information visit http://www.openhandsetalliance.com.        Mobile Operators   China Mobile Communications Corporation www.chinamobile.com/en   KDDI CORPORATION www.kddi.com   NTT DoCoMo, Inc. www.nttdocomo.com   Sprint Nextel www2.sprint.com/mr/aboutsprint.do   T-Mobile www.t-mobile.net   Telecom Italia www.telecomitalia.it   Telefónica www.telefonica.es     Semiconductor Companies   Audience www.audience.com   Broadcom Corporation www.broadcom.com   Intel Corporation www.intel.com/products/mid   Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. www.marvell.com   NVIDIA Corporation www.nvidia.com/page/handheld   Qualcomm Inc. www.qualcomm.com   SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. www.sirf.com   Synaptics, Inc. www.synaptics.com   Texas Instruments Incorporated www.ti.com/wirelessresources     Handset Manufacturers   HTC Corporation www.htc.com   LG Electronics, Inc. www.lge.com   Motorola, Inc. www.motorola.com   Samsung Electronics www.samsung.com     Software Companies   Ascender Corp. www.ascendercorp.com/oha.html   eBay Inc. www.ebay.com Esmertec www.esmertec.com   Google Inc. www.google.com   LivingImage LTD.

Packet8 Adds Mobility

November 19, 2007

Packet8 today announced the Packet8 MobileTalk international calling service for mobile phone users.   Over 340 handset models are supported out of the gate, including mobile smartphones running the Windows, Palm or Symbian operating systems. Blackberries are also supported.   One of the hallmarks of the MobileTalk solution is its simplicity. Users simply go to he Packet8 Web site to sign up, and a custom software app is created on-the-fly that’s downloaded to the user’s mobile phone over the air. If the user does not have a data plan, an e-mail is sent with the software as an attachment, which the user can then download to their handset by syncing with their PC as they would normally do to add other software.   Once the number is dialed or selected from, say, a recently missed calls directory, the MobileTalk application identifies the international prefix being called and redirects the call to a local Packet8 network access number.   From there, Packet8 initiates the international call at a low per-minute rate.   Customers can sign up for a Packet8 MobileTalk account starting today at the company’s dedicated MobileTalk site.

Are Cell Phones Safe?

December 19, 2007

TMCnet’s Tim Gray has some excellent coverage of cell phone spending and how it’s exceeding spending on landline phones for the first time ever.   Writes Tim:   Americans are hanging up on their land lines and going mobile more than ever…   In fact, 2007 is the first calendar year in which U.S. households spend more on cell phone services than the more traditional exchanges stationed on living room tables and attached to kitchen walls.   Newsweek picks up where Tim leaves off, and poses the following titular question in an article: How Safe Are Cell Phones?   In the article, Jeneen Interlandi writes:   …even as more people give up their traditional home phones altogether, and ever younger kids get their own cell phones, there are still questions in the scientific community about whether this new American staple is safe for heavy or long-term use.   For more, check out the full article here.

Patience Google Developers... Patience

December 20, 2007

What’s that? Could it be a chink in the armor of the all-powerful Google? More likely it’s just a sign that they need to spend a few more hours fully cooking their Android mobile phone development platform.   What am I talking about?   In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, reporter Scott Morrison wrote of “headaches and frustration” for developers attempting to write programs for Android.   In the article, developer Adam MacBeth told Morrison that after weeks of attempting to successfully write programs for Google’s Android, he “found the developers’ tool kit full of bugs.”   “Functionality is not there, is poorly documented or just doesn’t work.

Will February See Launch of Google Phone v1?

December 27, 2007

Rumors are swirling that phones based on Google’s Android platform might see the light of day as soon as February 2008.   And no, it’s not because my birthday falls in that month. You see there’s this little trade show called Mobile World Congress that takes place in Barcelona the second week in February and Google has booked a fair amount of square footage at the event, reserving two hospitality spaces (1 business, 1 standard).   APC Magazine does a great job reporting on this possibility, with pointers to a Gizmodo snapshot of one of the “rumored prototype phones circulating around the Googleplex.”   The article also directs readers to a demo of the new development platform posted on YouTube’s Android Developer Channel.   To quote the Counting Crows, perhaps February will be a great time to “catch a plane to Barcelona? I may take a (working) holiday in Spain…”   All in the name of Google’s mobile plans, of course…
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