Posts filed under Convergence

Having recently released two mobile phones with built-in GPS receivers (the glorious Nokia N95 and cheaper Nokia 6110), Nokia have thrown down the gauntlet to Sat-Nav manufacturers by claiming that GPS will feature throughout its entire range in the not-too distant future.

Talking about GPS, Kai Oistamo, head of Nokia’s Mobile Phones unit, said at a recent news conference “I believe it will quickly go through almost the whole of our portfolio.”

According to Berg Insight, the Sat-Nav market is set to grow from 1 million units in 2005 to 12 million in 2009, and so it’s no surprise that mobile phone manufacturers want a piece of the action.

With digital cameras already pervasive throughout all manufacturers’ mobile phone portfolios, a new feature is needed to keep the mobile momentum going.

The worlds of mobile phones and computing are converging rapidly, as both Nokia and Intel announced separately that they’re developing new technologies involving WiMax for 2008. Nokia announced they will be releasing WiMax phones in 2008 (LG and Samsung already have WiMax phones in South Korea), while Intel announced it is dropping support for 3G technologies from its Centrino range of laptop CPUs to focus exclusively on WiMax instead.

This could have huge implications for mobile network providers, and could lead to super-cheap, super-fast phones for us users. Read on to see how.

It seems 2007 might be the year that mobile phones and SatNav systems start to converge. Nokia started the ball rolling with its Nokia N95 and 6110 SatNav phones, both of which incorporate a GPS receiver and a comprehensive set of maps. Now Tom Tom are set to announce the new Tom Tom Go 715 SatNav system that accepts a SIM card and can therefore make and receive mobile phone calls.

You’d expect Samsung’s response to the iPhone to be one of bravado, huffily claiming that their phones are much better than Apple’s. But you wouldn’t expect them to roll out a camera that beats the iPhone for features!

Enter the new Samsung VLUU i70 – a 7.2 megapixel camera phone with 15x optical zoom that comes complete with HSDPA connectivity and a raft of other features…but, er, no ability to make phone calls!

RFID is converging with mobile phones at a rapid pace, and new applications are emerging that begin to show the potential of this convergence. Korea’s KTF, for example, has announced the new ‘GREEN TAXI’ service, which enables pasengers to get information on the taxi by scanning an RFID tag embedded within the cab’s seats.

Orange have gone mad and announced a new quadruple play package, offering customers a mobile connection, fixed line connection, broadband and IPTV service in one package with one bill. Starting in France to begin with, the company is rebranding its Wannadoo broadband package, and offering 8Mbps broadband connection, high-def IPTV, VoIP, and an unlimited mobile TV service.

The service also allows calls to be made over the mobile phone, or switched over to a customer’s broadband connection via WiFi when at home.