Analyst: Apple Must Fix iPhone Faulty Antenna Design

July 21, 2010

In a report published today, MobileTrax principal analyst Gerry Purdy calls Apple to fix the iPhone 4 faulty antenna design.

Apple will need to fix the faulty design of the iPhone antenna. I can assure you that the iPhone 5 won’t have that problem. It might have another problem, but it won’t continue the antenna problems in the iPhone 4. I’m confident that Apple engineering will ensure the future iPhone (and iPad) products will have antennas that work properly.

Apple’s faulty design has consumers wonder if they should buy Apple’s smartphone or not

It has been a real nightmare for Apple, certainly a cause for consternation with millions of iPhone customers, and perhaps a “Wait a minute, should I buy one of these?’ hesitation for a number of prospective iPhone buyers.

And the real winner of Apple’s “Antennagate” ? Antenna engineers!

Simply holding a device should not interfere in any significant way with the network signal reception. And Antennagate will cause other firms such as HTC, Motorola, RIM and Samsung to increase antenna design capabilities to ensure that they won’t have a repeat of the same problem as Apple experienced. It should be a ‘field day’ for antenna design consultants to help all SmartPhone manufacturers fix antenna problems.

5 Comments | Apple, hardware, news, wireless | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Motorola Sells Off Wireless Network Unit To Nokia Siemens Networks For $1.2 Billion

July 19, 2010

Looks like Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent might finally have a serious competitor in the wireless equipment market.

The Finnish Mobile manufacturing giant agreed to acquire the telecommunication network infrastructure business of Motorola, which makes gears that wirelessly transmits voice, data and video on both the CDMA and GSM networks, for $1.2 billion.

A fire-sale for some. To put this in perspective, the Motorola unit generates $3.6 billion in annual revenue and $300 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Motorola’s wireless network equipment maker unit was also the last major one left in North America, after Nortel’s demise (based in Canada) and the Lucent’s buy-out by France-based Alcatel.

A move that would significantly bolster Nokia Siemens Networks’ (NSN) standings in the North American market, putting it in at number 3, after Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent. There are now essentially five major vendors of wireless network gear in the world: Europeans Ericsson, NSN and Alcatel-Lucent; and Chinese Huawei and ZTE.

The acquisition will be completed towards the end of 2010 and would provide operators the freedom to choose from the existing mobile network equipment providers that include giants like Ericsson, Alcatel Lucent, Huawei Technology and NSN.

The deal would help NSN gain over 50 relationships and add an 7,500 more employees. This in itself can prove encouraging for NSN, given the fact that the manufacturer has been in hot waters; slashing employees and closing numerous offices in a bid to save cash. The major issue has been with the falling demand as well as fierce competition from Ericsson, Huawei in terms of prices.

Motorola on the other hand is eyeing for a broader and more profitable restructuring. The plan is to spinoff its Mobile phone unit as well as set top boxes operations over to Sanjay Jha the Co-CEO. The buyout is set to bring further relief to Nokia Siemens Networks as it would place the manufacturer at No. 3 in the USA, #1 in Japan. In a Press release, Bosco Novak the Head of Customer Operations at NSN said:

..the addition of the Motorola wireless network infrastructure business is targeted to ensure that we are well placed to meet those needs..we will utilize the combined strength of Nokia Siemens Networks’ TD-LTE solutions and Motorola’s WiMAX and LTE businesses, to better meet customers’ evolving technology and business needs.

The two are also looking ahead into exploring better global relation in the area of public safety. It will be interesting to see how the partnership progresses for the and that the integration can bolster their standings in the market.

3 Comments | Nokia | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

How To Import Mobile Phone Movies (3GP) Into iMovie ’09 For Free!

March 6, 2010

Quicktime Player 10 lets you convert a movie created with a mobile phone (3GPP format) to MPEG-4... For Free!

UPDATE: Just simply change the file extension from .3gp to .m4v and you’re done. Thanks Jason for the great tip!

Eureka!

This is something I’ve been trying to do for a long time, but just couldn’t found out how… until today!

And I thought, I’ll share it here as after all these years, I haven’t found anything on the Web to help me do this. Which by the way, I found out by pure luck.

The problem. All the latest mobile phones I had (from a Motorola Razr to the Google Nexus I’m trying out now) can record videos using the 3GPP format.

But, inexplicably so, Apple’s iMovie (I’m using the latest version 8.0.5) would not recognise nor import those mobile movies.

My solution. So to import a 3GPP movie into iMovie, I would first convert it, using the free Quicktime Player (i’m using version 10.0), to MPEG-4 (with the .M4V file extension). And then, import it into iMovie.

Here’s how I did it:

  1. Open the 3GPP movie in Quicktime Player: File -> Open File
  2. Share it with iTunes: Share -> iTunes
  3. Choose the Apple TV size (better quality but larger file size) and click Share
  4. Quicktime Player will add the .M4V extension to the original name of the file
  5. After the file appears in iTunes, you can import it using iMovie.

It’s not as straightforward as if it was possible to import a mobile phone video directly into iMovie, but it does the job. Moreover, it’s free!

18 Comments | news | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Tech Price Watch: Motorola GPS For $79 At Target.com

November 2, 2009

First major brand GPS at such a low price

Just like the Insignia Blu-ray disc player a week ago, this is the first time I remember seeing a GPS from a major brand – in this case Motorola – for such a low price: $79 at Target.com with free shipping (almost half the original price!).

So far the big brands like Garmin, Magellan or TomTom managed to keep prices relatively high, at around $100.

Again, this bodes well for the Thanksgiving week where I anticipate GPS devices to go as low as $50, even through online retailers. At this price, there will be no reason not to have one in your car!

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Posted by TechPulse 360

HTC VP Americas: Competitors Are Criminals! (video)

October 29, 2009

The head of HTC's business in the Americas, Jason MacKenzie, explains why competitors' App Store strategy is a crime to developers!

In a keynote style that reminds me of Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer, HTC’s head of the Americas went as far as accusing his competitors (Apple, Motorola, Nokia or Palm) of committing a crime on developers with their App Store strategy.

“A lot of OEMs, a lot of manufacturers talk a lot about apps… Apps, apps, apps, great, cool apps. But what do they do? They relegate all of your hard work and your application to a simple little icon that is in a sea of a hundred of other icons… But unless you’ve got the best icon graphic in the world, when I hold that phone here [about 2 feet away from this eyes] yours look no different than anybody else. We think that’s criminal. Literally,” said Jason MacKenzie, VP Americas at HTC, in his keynote speech the Sprint Open Developer conference yesterday.

On the other hand, the Taiwanese phone maker promotes its Sense framework that let developers put their applications and widgets in front of users, mingled with the smartphone (Android or Windows Mobile) user interface. “We believe that your application should breathe and live on the device and that’s why we developed Sense,” adds MacKenzie.

Early next year, HTC promises to release the Sense SDK (software developers’ kit) for developers to create their own widgets and personalised screens.

Follows the video excerpt where MacKenzie talks about competitors’ app strategy and HTC Sense:

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Oracle CEO: We Never Compete With MySQL; Will Not Spin It Off… Ever! (video)

September 22, 2009
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison before an un-scripted conversation with Eddy Zander, former Motorola CEO

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison before an "un-scripted" conversation with "Eddy" Zander, former Motorola CEO

In a conversation with former Motorola CEO Ed Zander – hosted by the Churchill Club – last night, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said loud and clear that it will not spin off or kill MySQL, no matter what the European Union says about his deal to acquire Sun Microsystems.

“We never compete with MySQL… We’re not going to spin it off. The U.S. government cleared this. We think the Europeans are going to clear this,” pounded Ellison.

I’m sure that’ll please the bureaucrats in Brussels that are “thoroughly” reviewing the deal over some mussels and crispy triply-fried (Belgian) fries :-)

5 Comments | news, software | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Cisco Guns For IPTV Sales As Market Slows

June 2, 2009

After months of hyper growth, the IPTV market appears to be cooling.

This is because many of the world’s telcos have already launched service and few new prospective broadcasters are poised to enter the market.

The downturn also is playing a role, choking off investment funds.

Cisco gained set-top box market share from Motorola last year

Cisco gained set-top box market share from Motorola last year

This apparently hasn’t dampened Cisco System’s desire to improve its position in the set-top box market against competitor Motorola.

When Cisco bought Scientific-Atlanta in 2006, Scientific-Atlanta was stronger in the traditional set-top box market and not Internet, or IP, broadcasting. But since the growth was in IPTV, Cisco hoped to change this.

According to In-Stat, the company improved its market share versus ailing Motorola in 2008 as its shipments increase from 2007. Motorola remains the top dog in the market.

However, after 55 percent growth last year, the set-top box market will likely be flat this year.

That’s because providers including France Telecom, AT&T, Free, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and China Telecom have generated much of the growth in subscribers. It seems the easy-to-convince customers have already been won.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

App Store Chaos Coming (Except At Apple)

March 18, 2009

Apple’s iPhone App Store is a relatively orderly place, like the rest of iTunes.

But with handset makers, mobile carriers and operating software providers, such as Google and Microsoft, all building app stores of their own – mobile applications elsewhere are heading toward a cornucopia of confusion.

Too many app stores on the way

Too many app stores on the way

In other words, get ready for app-store chaos.

The problem comes down to this: too much choice. Where will the buyer of a phone running the Android software from Google turn to find applications? Should she look on Google, on the Web site of her service provider or on the Internet page of her handset maker -  say Samsung or Motorola?

All have stores. All will have apps. All will want the dribble of revenue apps can bring.

“It’s clear everybody wants to provide an app store,” says Max Mancini, senior director of platform and mobile at eBay. As to the chaos? “It’s probably just ready to begin.”

Eventually, the parties will get together and settle on umbrella app stores for each operating system or handset design, suggests Mancini. “They will have to combine into one store,” he said during an interview at the 2009 Wireless Innovations conference in Silicon Valley.

But until then, Apple’s App Store is going to look singularly calm – all 25,000 applications.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Android Phones To Outsell IPhones In Three Years

March 18, 2009

The thought that Apple’s venerable position in the smartphone market could erode in as little as three years is hard to fathom.

But consider this. In a relatively short period of time there will scores of phones on the market running Google’s Android software. They will feature a variety of price points and features – and they will come from a broad mix of carriers.

The soon to be released G2 phone running Android software

The soon to be released G2 phone running Android software

At the same time, there will be one, or maybe two, iPhones. And in the U.S., only one wireless operator sells the device today.

“Google wins hands down,” says Daniel Odio, co-founder of the mobile applications development company PointAbout. “There’s going to be hundreds of manufacturers making phones.”

That degree of use will help improve the Android software. It could be an uphill fight.

Odio estimates it will take only two to three years for Android’s volumes to pass the iPhone’s. Already companies such as Samsung, Motorola and HTC are working on or have developed models.

Obviously, Apple isn’t resting on its success. The company has sold 17 million iPhones since the product was launched in June 2007, 13.7 million last year alone. And it announced on Tuesday that the iPhone now sells in 80 countries, expanding its worldwide presence.

The company at the same time said its App Store has 25,000 third-party applications and so far has distributed more than 800 million downloads. Android has a long way to go to catch up.

Still, Android appears ready to benefit from a market strategy more akin to that of Microsoft’s Windows than Apple’s Macintosh. Microsoft sold Windows to a variety of manufacturers, who went out and built PCs with it at their core. Volumes went through the roof.

Apple is the only Macintosh maker today and though its computers are gaining share, they badly trail Windows machines in market share.

2 Comments | news, wireless | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Market For IPTV Bucks The Recession And Grows

March 11, 2009

Television delivered over the Internet – known as IPTV – is breaking ranks with the sour markets of the global downturn and growing despite the tough times.

And it has begun taking it out of the hide of cable and satellite TV services.

Subscribers to IPTV doubled in the past year to 23 million

Subscribers to IPTV doubled in the past year to 23 million

Vendors of IPTC, including Verizon and AT&T, added 3.2 million customers in the fourth quarter. That brings total subscribers to 23 million, double the figure from a year earlier, says Dell’Oro Group.

The region encompassing Europe, the Middle East and Africa remains the largest market place. But the fourth-quarter growth was due to rapid adoption in the North America, where AT&T and Verizon aggressively marketed the service.

Despite price declines, the market for IPTV set-top boxes is seeing growth, but the market for set-top boxes supporting cable and satellite services is shrinking, says Dell’Oro Vice President Greg Collins.

These dynamics are setting up an interesting tussle between Cisco Systems and Motorola, the top box makers. Cisco is gaining share in cable while Motorola is gaining share in IPTV, says Dell’Oro. With a new generation of high-definition box filtering into the market, well, let the games begin!

Leave a Comment » | communications, hardware, news | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

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