Posts filed under Rumours

Samsung’s at it again.  They’re about to unleash five new mobile phones onto the European market before Christmas, each one focusing on a seriously slim form factor. The credit-card sized Samsung SGH-P300, only 9.9mm thick, was announced on Tuesday.  Following on from this come the Samsung SGH-Z510 and Samsung SGH-Z540 for 3G mobile networks. These new mobile phones are only 14.9 mm thick, making them the slimmest third-generation phones available.

 

Finally, Samsung will finish off the range with two slide phones, one of which, the Samsung  SGH-D800 will, at just 14.9 mm, be the slimmest of its kind.

More on the trend to slimness after the jump

Samsung have recently started to go more upmarket with their latest mobile phones, partnering with both Bang and Olufsen and BMW.  This, it transpires, is all part of a huge brand-building exercise the company is about to undergo, as it attempts to grow the value of its brand to $70 billion by 2010. As part of this exercise, Samsung will recruit 30,000 new R&D staff and spend over $47 billion on R&D, focusing on the semiconductor, display, mobile communications, high value-added shipbuilding and nanotechnology sectors.

 

Not sure about the high value-added shipbuilding part, but Samsung’s mobile communications arm is going to get one serious injection of cash – can’t wait!

 

[Source: Digitial Chosunilbo]

Today, it would seem, is the turn of the major search engines to muscle in on the mobile phone market.  First up is Google, with its beta release of Google Local for mobile phones.  Working on Java-enabled devices, Google Local for Mobile shows full-color satellite imagery from its Google Earth service, allowing overhead views with zoom in and out, and drag capabilities. Its purpose is to let you find local hangouts and businesses across town or across the country.

 

More details on Google’s new service after the jump.

After yesterday’s news that Qualcomm are suing Nokia for alleged patent infringement, Nokia have come out fighting.  Apparently, the press release Qualcomm issued was the first Nokia had heard of it too!  Nokia’s press release states “Nokia recently learned from a Qualcomm press release that Qualcomm has filed a complaint for alleged patent infringement against Nokia Corporation and Nokia Inc. in San Diego apparently involving some 12 alleged essential patents.  Nokia is yet to receive a copy of the complaint, and analyze the details, and therefore cannot comment on the substantive aspects of the claims.”

 

Nokia continue: “Nokia is disappointed Qualcomm has taken this step given they have yet to engage in any licensing negotiations concerning these matters. With respect to the patents alleged to be essential to the GSM/GPRS/EDGE standards, Qualcomm has a duty to license those patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Qualcomm has not provided Nokia with any proposed terms for a license in compliance with its obligations…

In a  fit of pique, Qualcomm hs announced it’s suing Nokia for infringement of 11 of Qualcomm’s patents.  Worse, these aren’t trivial patents that have allegedly been infringed: they are “patents that are essential for the manufacture or use of equipment that complies with the GSM, GPRS and EDGE cellular standards (the GSM family of standards).” So, pretty fundamental to the operation of a mobile phone, then! Of course, Nokia’s latest phones are so feature rich, it’s doubtful whether they’ll even be used as mobile phones, so they could remove the connectivity features, and who’d notice?! Personally, if I had a Nokia N92 and was was watching mobile TV with it (which doesn’t use GSM for reception), there’s no way I’d stop watching just to answer the phone – TV’s far more important!

 

The patent infringement is a complex case, as all telephony standards, such as GSM, EDGE, etc., are just that: standards. And unfortunately in this case, part of the standard involves technology that Qualcomm patented before it became a standard.  In other words, Nokia (and other companies) had no choice but to (allegedly!) infringe the patent if they were going to adhere to the standard.  Qualcomm state that it is “prepared to offer licenses under its essential GSM/GPRS/EDGE patents on fair and reasonable terms free from unfair discrimination to any company that requests one.” In other words, this won’t stop Nokia making mobile phones – it’s just that Qualcomm wants its slice of the pie. One for the lawyers I think. Just hope it doesn’t lead to a round of suing that could stifle innovation, as Nokia are on a real roll at the moment.

[Source: prnewswire]

 

Well, it comes as no surprise, but Engadget are reporting that the Motorola ROKR ‘iTunes’ phone (or, more accurately, a standard piss poor Motorola phone with an iTunes sticker on it) is not selling so well.  According to Engadget:

“Motorola has only unloaded 83,000 of the iTunes handsets per week since it launched, compared to a robust 500,000 RAZR units each week during the same period. Moreover, American Technology Research analyst Albert Lim claims that interviews with distributors, retailers, and Cingular call center workers have led him to speculate that ROKR phones are being returned six times more often than other new cellphones.”

 

Rushed release perhaps? Marketing over technology? Don’t say we didn’t warn you :)

Little news on the device front today, so time to talk business.  Sony Ericsson have released their latest figures for the past quarter, again showing strong growth:

	Q3 2004	Q2 2005	Q3 2005
Numbers of units shipped (million)	10.7	11.8	13.8
Sales (EURO m.)	1678	1614	2055
Income before before taxes (EURO m.)	136	87	151
Net income (EURO m.)	90	75	104

Units shipped in the quarter reached 13.8 million, a 29% increase compared to the same period last year. Sales for the quarter were Euro 2,055 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 22%. Income before taxes was Euro 151 million and net income was Euro 104 million, which represents a year-on-year increase of Euro 15 million and Euro 14 million respectively.

These figures of course look good, but with only 13,8 million handsets shipped, compared with Nokia’s 66 million and Motorola’s 38.7 million, Sony Ericsson clearly has a way to go to catch the market leaders. That said, it’s on a roll at the moment with some stunning new handsets, so it’ll be interesting to see what the figures are like for the next quarter, after Santa’s delivered his magic.

I gave Motorola a bit of bashing yesterday, but they’re obviously doing something right, as they’ve just posted record profits: 

• Revenue: $9.42B – up 26%
• Operating earnings: $597 million – up 52%
• 38.7 million handsets were shipped, up 66%
• Motorola’s phone market share hit 19%, up 5%

The RAZR alone has sold over 12 million units to date, which perhaps explains some of these figures – the rest of Motorola’s current line up of devices seems distinctly poor compared with Sony Ericsson and Nokia.

 

Speaking of which, Nokia have also released their results for the third quarter: 

• Revenue: EUR 8.4B – up 18%
• Operating profit: EUR 1.15 billion – up 19%
• 66.6 million Nokia handsets were shipped, up 29%
• Nokia’s market share is estimated at 33%, up 1%

Nokia’s still the world’s number one mobile phone manufacturer, but apparently Motorola’s top in North America.

 

[source]

According to a report by In-Stat, mobile music services—either in the form of downloadable music files or broadcast digital radio—have greater interest among US mobile customers than gaming, an application that is now providing some of the greatest mobile data revenue. However, the ecosystem that will permit widespread uptake of music applications is not yet mature, and shows signs of being put on hold until key issues, such as pricing, revenue sharing and Digital Rights Management (DRM), can be worked out, the high-tech market research firm says.

“The window to catch a group of wireless users we call ‘Mobile Music Intenders’ – those interested in mobile music services – may be closing soon,” says David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst. “They’re ready to buy new handsets and they’re willing to pay extra for handsets that play music. Without available music services or handsets, carriers may miss this opportunity to grab what could end up being a very lucrative mobile music market.”

Motorola and Apple have alrady demonstrated this rather neatly with the ROKR, a much-overhyped iTunes-based music mobile phone that must take its music from a PC or Mac – not over the air.  Accordingly, mobile networks miss out, as they clearly cannot charge for data they do not carry. However, this is rather immaterial as it ignores the impact of Mobsharing – letting users of such phones share music between themselves freely over a Wi-Fi connection. Unless there’s a revolution in music distribution, it’s not just the mobile operators who will miss out…