[ESC'09] Openmoko Is The Anti-iPhone; Runs Google Android, But Still No 3G

March 31, 2009
Openmoko is not a cell phone, its a development platform

Openmoko is not a cell phone, it's a development platform

The maker of the world’s first totally open mobile phone has a long way to go before it can compete with Apple, RIM or Nokia.

At a special session during the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) today in San Jose, Calif., Openmoko CEO Sean Moss-Pultz discussed how developers could use its FreeRunner to create mobile products.

The device is targeted at developers – not consumers – who then can totally change everything, from its physical aspect and hardware components to the operating system, installing Google Android or Debian Linux, for example.

The ultimate open source phone: Openmoko+Google Android

The ultimate open source smartphone: Openmoko+Google Android

“If you want to write applications, buy an iPhone. But if you want to transform the way the physical product looks, then buy a FreeRunner,” said Moss-Pultz. “I don’t think Apple will let you resell their products with a different operator, with a different market, with a different software stack. But we can.”

Moss-Pultz also argued that at $299 (the show’s special for 30 days), the FreeRunner is unbelievably cheap. “It has all the things you will find on a $3,000 development board [...] You have all the major RF components you want to do real development.”

Openmoko doesn’t do 3G because of “monstrous patents issues”

“The moment we try to do a design with 3G, the cost of this device goes up by $200. And then you have serious issues with documentation, etc.

So we decided that for the first version – to get this concept out there – the free networks like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth were more important for development early on than 3G.

Our stand on 3G is that it is something that at some point we will make. But really, we use this device first to see what markets are interesting out there. And then based on those markets, someone will come back to us and say “I want to place an order for 50,000 of these things with 3G.” And we’ll make it.

That would be for a specific project that they would not care about the openness of the mobile part.”

Here’s a video excerpt of Moss-Pultz presentation at ESC’09:

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Smartphones Make Up 12 Percent Of Handset Sales

March 12, 2009

Smartphones now make up 12 percent of the cellular handset market, but like everything else, growth has slowed.

In the fourth quarter, sales of phones like Research In Motion’s Blackberrys and Apple’s iPhone grew only 3.7 percent, according to Gartner. The pace was the product category’s slowest.

Still, 38.1 million phones were sold during the period – 139.3 million for all of 2008 – as consumers increasingly favored multi-function phones with Internet access.

According to Gartner, smartphones from RIM, Samsung, Apple and HTC took share in 2008 from Nokia’s more entry-level offerings. Nokia’s smartphone sales declined 16.8 percent in the fourth quarter.

The quarter also presented some difficulties for Apple. Sales fell from the third to the fourth quarters and the 2-million-phone inventory the company built up in the third quarter did not significantly diminish.

RIM’s Storm, T-Mobile’s G1, the first phone with Google’s Android software, and Samsung’s touch-screen products did well in the period. In North America, smartphones made up about 20 percent of fourth-quarter sales.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

UK Telecoms Said To Be Fuming At Nokia For Adding Skype To Phones

February 27, 2009

Two mobile service providers in the U.K. are apparently smoking mad over Nokia’s decision to install Skype on its flagship Nseries phones.

Mobile operator Orange said to be turning red over Nokia decision

Mobile operator Orange said to be turning red over Nokia decision

Nokia said earlier this month the N97 would be the first handset out the door with the Internet calling software in the third quarter.

Several published stories, including one on Mobile Today in the U.K., said mobile carriers Orange and O2 may refuse to stock the phones.

Service providers fear users will favor making free calls over the Internet with Skype, which is owned by eBay, instead of paid calls on the cellular network.

“This is another example of them trying to build an ecosystem that is all about Nokia and reduced the operator to a dumb pipe,” according to one anonymous source.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Cell Phone Industry Adopts micro-USB Charger Standard

February 18, 2009
A thing of the past: the universal phone charger kit

A thing of the past: the universal phone charger kit

The micro-USB port will become by 2012 the unique way to charge your cell phone.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, 17 wireless operators and handset makers – including AT&T, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, T-Mobile and Vodafone – agreed to standardize chargers shipped with their cell phones.

“A universal charger will also make life much simpler for the consumer, who will be able to use the same charger for future handsets, as well as being able to charge their mobile phone anywhere from any available charger,” explains the GSM Association (GSMA).

The Universal Charging Solution (UCS) uses the handset’s micro-USB port to deliver a 5 volts charge at up to 2.5 watts.

According to the GSMA, these energy-efficient chargers will result in an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption, 50 per cent less chargers being manufactured each year, resulting in the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.

UCS is good for the environment, cheaper to make and more convenient for the consumer. Now why did it take so long?

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Nokia Becomes First Major Handset Maker To Install Skype On Its Phones

February 17, 2009

Nokia on Tuesday became the first major cell phone maker to agreed to install Skype Internet calling software on its cell phones.

Nokias N97 will be the first phone shipped with Skype

Nokia's N97 will be the first phone shipped with Skype

The Finnish manufacturer said its Nseries line of high-end cell phones will include Skype, with the N97 the first to ship with the software in the third quarter.

Second tier producer INQ already integrates Skype with several of its models and the Skype is available as a download for phones running Windows Mobile from Microsoft and Google’s Android operating systems.

Phone makers have long resisted integrating Skype, which is owned by eBay, because carriers have feared the Internet service would cannibalize their businesses. Skype can be used to make free computer to computers and, for a fee, connect calls to other phones.

Nokia said the Skype software will let N97 users make free calls to computers and other N97 phones, as well as see when other Skype users are online.

The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Mobile World Congress Opens In Smartphone Fanfare

February 16, 2009

The Mobile World Congress just opened this morning (Europe time) in Barcelona, Spain, and the mood is still upbeat despite the recession.

Nokia, HTC and many other mobile vendors were inviting loads of reporters/bloggers to the event, all expenses paid of course!

The GSM Association which organizes the yearly event expects over 1,200 companies to show off their new wares in the Catalan capital and more than 60,000 attendees.

Smartphones: the bright spot in a declining mobile phone market

A slew of smartphones make up the main attraction of this year’s show. Gartner expects the smartphone category to grow 32% this year despite a 4% to 5% drop of the overall mobile phone devices market in 2009; the first in 10 years!

Here are some of the smartphones unveiled at the show: Sony Ericsson’s Symbian-based 10-megapixels prototype Idou; Acer’s first ever touchscreen smartphones; GPS smartphones from Garmin (Nuvifone) and Inventec; Toshiba TG01; HTC Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2; LG Arena; Nokia’s E75 and solar panel phones from LG and Samsung.

No words yet on Dell’s eventual entry in the smartphone business.

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Microsoft Revamps Mobile Windows; Plans App Store, Free Wireless Sync Service

February 9, 2009

Microsoft prepares a revamp of its mobile strategy that looks like an Apple copycat.

In a keynote at next week’s Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Microsoft’s chief plans to unveil Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest version of the company’s smartphone operating system, as well as an application store a-la iTunes and the free My Phone wireless “over the air” (OTA) synchronisation service.

However, just like for Windows Vista vs Mac OS X, Microsoft is years behind Apple in its smartphone strategy, despite its 10+ years head start, and this interim 6.5 version still pales compare to the iPhone or even the Palm Pre.

Users will have to wait next year, with the release of Windows Mobile 7 to catch up with Apple’s current generation of iPhones. By then, you can expect lots of improvements coming from the Cupertino, Calif.-company.

No wonder that Windows Mobile slid from its position as the world’s second-most popular mobile operating system a year ago to now be number four, behind Nokia’s Symbian, Apple’s OS X Mobile, and RIM’s BlackBerry. And by next year, Windows phones might slid even one more notch behind Palm’s Pre!

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Mobile Phone Business Still Dragging Down Motorola

February 3, 2009
Despite having numerous phones, Motorola's handset division is rapidly loosing market share and tons of money

Despite having numerous phones, Motorola's handset division is rapidly loosing market share and tons of money

Motorola’s mobile phone business is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Today, the telecommunications company said its mobile devices division sold about 100 million handsets in 2008, for a total revenue of $12.1 billion and an operating loss of $2.2 billion, compared with $1.2 billion in 2007.

To cut its losses, Motorola – now ranked fourth in the global handset marketplace behind Nokia, Samsung and LG – is reducing head count and the number of operating systems its devices support (Windows Mobile, Linux and Google Android).

However, the company 1-year old turnaround strategy for its mobile device unit – which included a sale – is not working and continues to spill out precious cash.

A fire-sale of the handset division might be the only way out for the Illinois company. Unless Motorola manages to surprise us with a handset a la Palm Pre or Apple iPhone later this month, at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain.

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Texas Instruments Revenues, Profits Plunge; Cuts 12% Of Staff And Expects Future Losses

January 27, 2009

After, AMD and Intel, Texas Instruments is the next semiconductor behemoth to feel the pain of the economic recession.

Last quarter, the Dallas-based company saw its profit plunge 86% from a year earlier when it almost topped $800 million, on falling revenues of 30% at $2.49 billion. The chip company said it will cut its work force by 12%, or 3,400 employees.

Projections for the current quarter are even gloomier. TI now projects a a net loss for the quarter and revenues between $1.62 billion to $2.12 billion, compare to $3.5 billion last year and profits of $756 million.

Texas Instruments transitions to be a fabless company in 2009

Aside from being a difficult year, 2009 will be an important transition period in the semiconductor maker business as it prepares to stop manufacturing chips and relying on foundries like TSMC and UMC to build its next generations chips. A similar move made by Sunnyvale, Calif.- based AMD when it announced late last year the spin-off of its own manufacturing arm.

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Nokia Handset Business Tumbles, Now Expects Global Mobile Market To Drop 10% In 2009

January 22, 2009
The Consumer Electronics Association hopes for a 2.1% in cell phone sales in 2009. Wishful thinking?

The Consumer Electronics Association hopes for a 2.1% in cell phone sales in 2009. Wishful thinking?

The world’s largest maker of mobile phones posted today a 69% drop in fourth-quarter profit of $751 million and a 19% revenue decline, still at over $16 billion.

During the last quarter, Nokia shipped 113.1 million handsets, down 15% over last year.

The mobile phone manufacturers are being hit hard in ’09

Competitors are not doing much better either.

Last Friday, rival handset maker Sony Ericsson posted a second-straight quarterly loss at $245 million. And Motorola also said it will report a fourth-quarter loss and slash an additional 4,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, Nokia lowered its outlook for global mobile devices sold in 2009, saying it now expects them to fall 10% compared to an earlier forecast of a 5% drop.

At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, the CEA hoped for a 2.1% sales growth in mobile phones. That might be just wishful thinking at this point.

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