You may have wondered just what has been the problem with handset companies like Nokia getting their hands on quality music and video for their handsets and portals such as its Ovi portal. If Apple can do it for the iPhone, why can’t other handset companies or operators like Vodafone, do it for themselves. They seem to be managing with music, but not quite so much with video.
Well one of the issues that it always comes down to is something called Digital Rights Management software, something that consumers have come to hate, because it usually means not being able to do what you want with the content that you’ve paid for.
Studios won’t release legal TV and film content, and record labels won’t release music unless a company like Nokia can complete a security audit, showing that it is looking after the content properly and that the device won’t be another place for content to leak onto the internet (okay, so most of it has already leaked there, but that’s content owners for you).
One of the most DRM celebrated efforts, driven by Nokia and Vodafone, but backed by almost everyone in wireless who matters, was the Open Mobile Alliance DRM completed in 2004, written to be royalty free, so that phone companies and operators would have to pay nothing.
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Posted by Peter on August 21st 2008 in 3G, General, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Samsung, Smartphones, T-Mobile, Vodafone, iPhone
The US mobile phone market has flipped into an immediate recession – with sales of handsets declining 13% - no wonder the major US handset manufacturer Motorola is in such a sorry state right now. The likely implications for Europe could be the same over time as consumer spending falls in the wake of price increases in every sector due to the rising price of oil.
However it is hitting harder and earlier in the US and since mobile operators buy most handsets in the US (and in Europe) due to handset subsidies, handset sales usually suffer when operators are going through a period of uncertainty.
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Posted by Peter on August 20th 2008 in BlackBerry, General, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Smartphones, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile
Motorola gave the impression of a comeback bigger than Ali and Foreman’s “Rumble in the Jungle”, as it came back from successive crushing quarters and surprised industry analysts with sales of 28 million plus handsets, and turn in a surprise profit yesterday.
The legendary boxing match which sealed the reputation of Muhammad Ali, saw a the top heavyweight of his time on the rope for 8 rounds, only to end the contest with three swift punches as Foreman punched himself out, and while neither Nokia nor Samsung are suddenly going to go away, Motorola pressed the idea that despite successive failed quarters, neither did it have any plans to lay down and die.
The last remaining US handset maker (apart from the recently arrived Apple iPhone) defied all Wall Street expectations and sold 28.1 million handsets during the past quarter when the industry consensus was that 26 million was about right. This left Motorola out of freefall in world markets, no longer plummeting down the popularity charts and still number 3 against the leader Nokia and the number two, Samsung, putting up defiant resistance against Sony Ericsson (which had a night mare quarter itself) and LG.
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Posted by Peter on August 4th 2008 in General, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, iPhone
Korean electronics firm LG Electronics Inc. reported record profits this quarter as sales of mobile phones surged.
Second quarter earnings increased by 84% to 706.9 billion won (£347.8m), from 384.6 billion won a year earlier. The company sold a record 27.7 million mobile phones, achieving particular success with their high-end touch-screen phones Viewty, Venus and Secret models, which have been spurred by Apple’s immensely popular iPhone.
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Posted by ellie_mears on July 22nd 2008 in 3G, Fashion Phones, General, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Smartphones, Sony Ericsson, iPhone
During the years of fuss about the UK adopting its own Big Brother-style identity card, it always occurred to us that all that anyone needed to do was to ask to see someone’s mobile phone to check their identity. Mobile access with push email support? Business/City type. Slick ergonomic design with a highly-styled exterior? Fashionista. High-fidelity audio playback supporting a wide range of file formats? Audiophile.
Increasingly the mobile is our main form of identity, and that trend is going to get stronger as the GSM Association and the major banking corporations around Europe move unerringly towards turning our phones into credit cards.
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Posted by Peter on July 3rd 2008 in General, Nokia, Orange, Samsung
The mobile phones industry is big business. More than three billion people worldwide now own a mobile phone, with 1.15 billion units sold in 2007 alone. With so many of us using and upgrading mobiles, the environmental implications are great.
Some 40-50 million handsets are dumped each year, according to a report by the UN Environment Programme (Unep) which was issued at a recent conference on the UN Basel Convention, designed to regulate international trade in toxic waste.
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Posted by ellie_mears on June 25th 2008 in General, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, iPhone
The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back, could have accompanied the Nokia deal to buy out its Symbian partners and release the whole kit and caboodle to an open source process.
The announcement, accompanied only by the payment of a mere $410 million this week, massively strengthened the traditional handset vendors and cellular operators, and in one stroke effectively killed off both Linux on the handset, and any chance that Google’s Android had of taking the cellphone by storm.
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Posted by Peter on June 25th 2008 in General, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson
Following on nicely from our Orange Chill ‘n’ Charge Glasto tent story, we’ve just heard that Samsung are doing their bit for the planet as they prepare to lunch, sorry, launch, their new SCH-W510 handset, all the components of which are made entirely of reclaimed bio-plastic materials constructed from corn starch and other environmentally friendly materials.
The SCH-W510 is a milestone in the mobile world, and is totally devoid of lead, mercury, nickel-cadmium, etc. Hopefully the handset will be moderately priced so that it won’t, ahem, cost the earth. We’ve not heard much about details and features from Samsung, but we reckon our artist’s impression of what the SCH-W510 will look like is pretty close to the mark.
Last year, LG came up with the Shine Wood (fnar), an interesting little clamshell handset whose USP was the fact that it’s main chassis was fashioned from dead trees.
Posted by Tom on June 19th 2008 in LG, Orange, Samsung
We are entering a world where many devices, perhaps all of them, will come with only two controls, a power button and a touch screen, so expect a three year ramp in handsets to make this the favored interface.
Exactly one year ago Apple introduced the first generation of its iPhone and the iPod Touch, and in the intervening year this has given birth to an entirely new industry. It’s one thing as a component supplier to have a device on your books that theoretically you can make which allow touch screen control, and another entirely to go around hiring factory space to go into volume production and start driving profits from a new product line.
Prior to the first iPhone the handset industry remained unconvinced that the timing to introduce touch screens was quite yet upon us. Now there is a mad panic to take up capacity. That’s how these things work, one company risks the idea, it takes off, everybody follows…
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Posted by Peter on June 13th 2008 in Fashion Phones, General, LG, Nokia, Samsung, iPhone
Can you say lawsuit? In a bid to take the wind out of Apple’s sales, Samsung have snuck this sneaky-looking iClone out just in time for the announcement of the brand spanking new 3G iPhone. Have a look for yourself:
Like the iPhone, the Samsung boasts a large 3 inch touchscreen display, fully integrated GPS tracking features, and comes in two versions, one of which comes with 8GB worth of storage, and the other which, you guessed it, comes with 16GB of memory. The Ominia also one-ups the new iPhone by allowing users to expand the onboard memory via the dependable microSD card slot.
Did we mention that the Omnia comes with quad band connectivity and 3G HSDPA for downloads at speeds of up to 7.2Mbps? No? Well, it does. Impressive yes? Especially when you consider that by the time this gets over here (Q3 by our estimates), Vodafone ought to have extended their high-speed networks to cover other areas of the UK besides London. Timing is everything…
Posted by Tom on June 10th 2008 in Fashion Phones, Samsung, Vodafone, iPhone
