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Samsung throws mud at Nokia, slaps at dawn duel threatens

New Nokia phone, N92 mobile TV phone
Samsung have started a round of mud slinging.   According to Harry Choi, head of Samsung’s mobile phone design, Nokia’s phone design has clearly declined from what it was a couple of years ago. He claims Samsung has managed to shake up Nokia’s leadership position with its clamshell phones.

Samsung’s market share has started to increase with the new distinguishable mobile phone line and the people at Samsung has realised that it takes more than technology to succeed in the European markets, says Choi.

I’d agree that something spurred Nokia into life this year. Last year’s models were decidedly second rate, but its line up this year, particularly with the new Nokia N-series phones and forthcoming Nokia N92 mobile TV phone, leave the competition standing. So don’t get too cocky just yet, Harry.

 
[Source: about-Nokia.com]
 

Faster High Speed 3G on its way with HSDPA and T-Mobile

T-Mobile has announced it has successfully completed what is believed to be the first live demonstration of High Speed Downlink Data Packet Access (HSDPA) calls on its networks in the UK, as well as in Germany and the Netherlands.  The calls were made using Nokia 3G network technology and are the result of the strong collaboration between the two companies to deliver HSDPA.  The commercial launch of HSDPA is scheduled for next year, with further testing continuing prior to then.

HSDPA is a software upgrade to 3G that delivers over four times faster download speeds than is currently possible— up to a theoretical maximum of 1.8 Mbps in the first phase, compared to today’s theoretical maximum of 384 kbps on standard 3G networks.

The benefits are both the ability to deliver high speed broadband services and the ability to meet the needs of a higher number of customers at lower cost.  Thso last two words, in particular, are crucial – it doesn’t matter how fast your sexy new 3G technology is, as current 3G has shown, if you price it too high, no-one will use its services. So how low cost this technology proves to be will be the defining factor in its success – I’m hopeful, because 1.8Mbps on a mobile connection can open some seriously cool services, but only if the price is cheap enough for users to use the connection 24-7.

 

 

Rumours of a new Nokia phone: The ‘N93′ with 3 megapixel camera

Nokia may have another trick up their sleeve with a possible new version of the yet to be released Nokia N92 mobile TV phone.  The new Nokia N93, as this mystery device is being called, looks the same as the Nokia N92, but with a bigger camera. And indeed, closer inspection reveals a rather tasty 3 megapixel autofocusing 3x optical zoom camera, DVB-H (mobile TV) functionality, and may also feature HSDPA / UMTS / EDGE, 802.11g, and Bluetooth 1.2.  Just rumour and an image or two at the moment, but watch this space for more info as and when!
 

More pics of the new Nokia phone after the jump.

 
[Source: Engadget]
 
 

Motorola mobile phone strategy for 2006 revealed

Motorola have revealed details of their 2006 strategy for mobile phones.   According to Reuters, “Motorola is hell-bent on making sure we have the hottest device in all form factors,” Ron Garriques said in an interview. He also said Motorola plans to rip a page out of Apple’s playbook and begin selling phones the day after announcing them — rather than announcing them well in advance, as it has up to now.
 

 

 

 

Not sure about this, myself.  Sony Ericsson tried this with the forthcoming P990, but rumours overtook the company, forcing it to reveal its plans before the smartphone was released. Equally, there was a ton of hype surrounding the ROKR months before it was released, simply because people knew that an iTunes mobile phone was being developed. That created a lot of expectation, which could have led to more sales had the product been any good.  But, er, Motorola dropped the ball there! Releasing poor phones without any pre-release hype may make things even worse.
 
Read more on Motorola’s 2006 product strategy after the jump.
 

Bush awards Motorola US National Medal of Technology for ‘innovation leadership’

After the disappointment of the Motorola ROKR, the company has received some better news by being awarded the US National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest honor for technological innovation. None other than George W. Bush awarded the honour, which recognizes Motorola for “over 75 years of technological achievement and leadership in the development of innovative electronic solutions, which have enabled portable and mobile communications to become the standard across society.”

Motorola Chairman and CEO Ed Zander gushed: “It is a tremendous honor to receive the National Medal of Technology.  This award recognizes the extraordinary contributions of Motorola’s employees over the company’s 77 years of innovation leadership.”

Three cheers for Motorola…here’s hoping you show us some innovative leadership real soon!

 
 

Vodafone sinks the FTSE, thinks about WiFi

Vodafone have announced rather poor results, dragging the London FTSE down with it.   Pre-tax profits fell from £4.54bn to £4.11bn in the half year to September and the company indicated 2007’s free cashflow, mobile revenue growth and margins outside Japan would be lower than in 2006. That said, they raised their customer base to 171 million, and have 5 million 3G customers.
 
According to Gavin Patterson, an analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, “By the end of June 2005 there was a total of 43 million 3G users worldwide, and we forecast a total of 70.6 million by the end of 2005.” That’s still not a great deal, though, and it costs the operators more to acquire a 3G customer than 3G revenue it gets back from that customer.  Maybe that’s why Vodafone have described themselves as ‘agnostic’ on the technology front, apparently comfortable “ looking at new technologies that come along… tomorrow it could be Wi-Fi, it could be mobile WiMax.”
 
Interesting – a mobile operator that doesn’t use ‘classic’ mobile phone technologies. Not going to happen anytime soon, of course – the operators spent too much money on 3G to back out of it now. But it makes sense that they ahve a fall position in the face of soon-to-be-competing technologies such as WiFi and Wi-Max.  My guess is, within 5 years we’ll have predominately WiMax network operators in towns and cities, with classic mobile phone technologies reserved for less accessible places. We’ll get the speeds we were always promised for 3G, but in an affordable package, and a thousand business case study books will be written on how the rush to 3G put back mobile broadband by 5 years.
 
 
 

Samsung and LG announce latest mobile handset sales figures

More figures are in from the big mobile phone manufacturers.  Following on from Nokia and Motorola’s reporting earlier this month, Samsung and LG have announced their latest figures.  Samsung Electronics, the world’s third-largest mobile phone manufacturer, held its second-place spot in North America for its sales of cellular phones in the third quarter of 2005. U.S.-based telecommunications giant Motorola ranked number one in sales commanding 36-percent of the North American market.

Samsung reportedly sold 6.7 million handsets accounting for more than 17-percent of the mobile phone market in North America which consists of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Korea’s LG Electronics claimed third place, and Finland’s Nokia ranked the fourth-best seller of mobile sets.

LG Electronics sold the most third-generation code division multiple access (CDMA) cell phones in the world in the third quarter. Market researcher Strategic Analytics in a report Monday said LG sold 8.8 million CDMA cell phones and captured a 23.8 percent global market share in the third quarter.

Korea and North America are the big markets for CDMA phones. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have been competing for the top spot in the global market in recent years, with Samsung coming first in the first two quarters followed by LG, Motorola and Nokia.

[Source: Chosun.com]

 

Vodafone and Universal partner for new music download service

Vodafone has announced it is joining forces with Universal Music to offer its customers a music download service with tunes frrm Universal’s catalogue of 600,000 songs.   The agreement, announced today, will see the introduction of a broad range of products and services featuring such market-leading stars as Eminem, U2, Black Eyed Peas, Kaiser Chiefs, 50 Cent, Keane, Rammstein, and Scissor Sisters. The new partnership between Vodafone and UMG’s Universal Music Group International (UMGI) division represents the world’s most extensive offering of music for mobile, including:

  • Realtones and ringback tones
  • Full-track audio downloads
  • Full-track video downloads
  • Video streaming

The service will be part of Vodafone Live! and is intended for 3G only.  However, they key part of the service, price, has not been announced yet.  If Vodafone price this too high (and remember, they’ll be competing with iTunes and P2P networks), then file this under “failure”.  The only advantage any mobile phone music service has over traditional ways of getting music onto a mobile phone (e.g. download MP3 tunes onto your mobile phone from your PC) is convenience. However, convenience is not worth all that much – price the tunes too high, and the extra convenience simply isn’t worth the money.

[Source: Vodafone]

 

Motorola Fuel Cell Phones on the horizon

Finally, a replacement to the humble cellphone battery – a fuel-cell phone battery! Fuel cells have been talked about for some time as a possible replacement to battery technology, which is becoming increasingly overlaoded by all the new features thatgo into a modern cellular phone. Fuel cells can offer more power for longer, ensuring that you can still make phone calls even after listening to your tunes for several hours. Now, they’ve come a step closer to being introduced into a cell phone, with the news that Motorola has made a strategic investment in Tekion, a micro fuel cell developer.
 
“Our decision to invest in Tekion was motivated by its cutting-edge technology and experienced leadership in micro fuel cell development,” said Warren Holtsberg, corporate vice president, equity investments and director of Motorola Ventures. “As mobile products have simultaneously miniaturized and increased in functionality, battery capacity has become a significant challenge. Tekion’s non-flammable Formira fuel cell technology combined with an advanced battery technology, such as lithium ion, is a practical and efficient solution. Tekion’s technology will help advance Motorola’s vision of bringing seamless mobility to wireless users.”
 
With Motorola’s torpid speed in developing new products, though, expect them to have a fuel cell phone by 2015. Other cell phone manufacturers should have their fuel-cell driven cell phones substantially sooner.
 

Apple Hobbled ROKR SHOKR

Rumour has been rife for sometime that Apple deliberately spiked the Motorola PLOPR ROKR, ensuring that it was a poor product. Now a new rumour has surfaced, suggesting that the reason for this was not so that Apple could produce an even better iTunes mobiled phone all by themselves, but rather so that consumers would think that MP3 playing mobile phones are pants, and the only good way to play MP3 music on the move is with an iPod.
 
That’s the theory being proposed by theappleblog anyway, and given the fact that it was Apple who forced the 100 tune limit onto Motorola, and then released the 1,000 tune iPod Nano at the same time as the ROKR was launched, there may be some truth to it.  It’s quite obvious that MP3 players will become entirely absorbed by mobile phones sooner or later, leaving Apple, with a hefty chunk its profit deriving solely from the iPod, dangerously exposed. The longer the shelf-life they can give the iPod, the more healthy their company will remain. But let’s just hope they meet the challenge with good technology, such as a really good iTunes phone, rather than trying to stem the tide with a poor product. Don’t fight the mobile phone world, Apple: embrace it.