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Mobile telephony
Why Microsoft will eventually kill Nokia
Feb 10th
This couldn’t have gotten worse – Nokia working with Microsoft? Really? On a mobile platform? REALLY? Let’s go back a few years and look at a déjà vu situation. Remember the famous Microsoft – Palm deal when Palm moved away from its legendary Palm OS in favor of the Windows Mobile platform? What ensued after that, we all know. Palm lost a differentiating factor that was very critical in a world where every other company was manufacturing phones with Windows Mobile OS. By the time Palm realized that they were merely another handset hardware manufacturer it was too late. Palm was then bought out by HP.
Now let’s look at Nokia’s potential OS deal with MS. Say Nokia moves away from its Symbian platform for the high end handset market and lights them up with Windows Phone OS. Nokia would instantly start competing with the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung for market share – just on the handset side of things. Unless Nokia really pumps up its hardware design units to manufacture great looking, great working handsets with touch screens that don’t need styluses, they have already lost the battle. Say they make great looking handsets with awesome processing power. Then what? Then Nokia may stand a chance to make some money selling handsets all the while increasing Windows Phone’s market share. Even if Nokia maintained the Symbian OS for the lower end of the market it will never be able to enter the high end market again with the Symbian OS – in any form.
The next level of degradation will happen when market forces will compel Nokia to adopt Android as well, just to survive in the high end phone market. Let’s not forget that Chinese brands are eroding Nokia’s market share significantly in developing markets like India and Brazil. This situation leaves Nokia with a handset division which makes phones that no one wants. The next 3-4 years will be crucial for Nokia’s turn around, if it can i.e. else see it being bought out by some knight in shining armor – MS maybe for all you know.
Moral of the story? Windows mobile platforms have had the distinction of destroying innovation in Palm and now might do just what is required to destroy Nokia’s internal innovation machine. Don’t be too surprised if you see large scale movement of Nokia execs into Google, Apple and MS in the coming days. Let us just hope that Nokia doesn’t bite the Windows Mobile bullet.
Mind-reading phones?
Sep 23rd
They could come sooner than you think. Intel Corp.’s research chief, Justin Rattner, told Mother Nature Network that technology has advanced to the point that “context-aware computing,” is becoming more of a reality with the rise of mobile devices. This technology could lead to phones that act as psychics in your hand. Rather than simply collect secrets about you, the devices could be doing things with that information, such as predicting what you might do next and offering suggestions.
An example is a prototype application Intel worked on with Fodor’s Travel. The app learns what types of foods you like to eat and what types of attractions you like to visit, based on searches you type into the phone or locations identified using GPS. The software can also make similar recommendations when you visit a new city.
“Things don’t get really interesting until you fuse that hard sensor data with soft sensor data,” Rattner said. “It gives devices almost this sixth sense of anticipating what a user will need in the future, whether that’s the next few moments or at dinner later in the day.”
Data from “hard sensors” is information such as location, motion, voice patterns, and temperature. Combining those findings with data from “soft sensors”, such as calendar appointments and Web browsing history, are really what make these devices able to sense our needs. For example, your phone could detect that you’ve just left work and seem to be on your way home — a location it might know from your address book. It could then automatically recommend the best route around traffic.
These sorts of apps aren’t in smart phones quite yet, though companies such as Google, Netflix and Pandora are already trying to anticipate what their customers need and want.
An example is a prototype application Intel worked on with Fodor’s Travel. The app learns what types of foods you like to eat and what types of attractions you like to visit, based on searches you type into the phone or locations identified using GPS. The software can also make similar recommendations when you visit a new city.
“Things don’t get really interesting until you fuse that hard sensor data with soft sensor data,” Rattner said. “It gives devices almost this sixth sense of anticipating what a user will need in the future, whether that’s the next few moments or at dinner later in the day.”
Data from “hard sensors” is information such as location, motion, voice patterns, and temperature. Combining those findings with data from “soft sensors”, such as calendar appointments and Web browsing history, are really what make these devices able to sense our needs. For example, your phone could detect that you’ve just left work and seem to be on your way home — a location it might know from your address book. It could then automatically recommend the best route around traffic.
These sorts of apps aren’t in smart phones quite yet, though companies such as Google, Netflix and Pandora are already trying to anticipate what their customers need and want.
It’s Not Just an App, It’s an Entire Phone!
Sep 21st
Facebook is building a mobile phone to compete with Google’s impending Nexus One and the current iPhone and Android brands. Specifically, Facebook wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and other core functions of the phone. It can only do that if it controls the operating system.
It’s unknown what this phone will look like, how much it will cost, and what sort of capabilities the phone will have. Or even if Facebook is building a phone, as the social media giant has denied the report from TechCrunch.
“Facebook is not building a phone,” Facebook spokesperson Jaime Schopflin told CNET. “Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a ‘Facebook Phone’ because that’s such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do.”
But a brand/gadget merger could become a marketing scheme of the future, for Facebook or any other company, similar to Purina’s creation of an online game or the dueling Canon/Nikkon coffee mugs.
Brilliant Idea: A Cellphone Dryer
Aug 10th
Ever drenched your cell phone with water? Then head to Japan and shove your phone into the “Cell Phone Dryer Box”. A 30 minute cycle in this box should get your phone working again. The company doesn’t want to show off how they do it but it costs bout $12 to revive your waterlogged phone.
The dryers are setup at a few Yodobashi Camera stores in Tokyo, Japan. A brilliant idea for a common problem.
When In A Ford, Listen To Tweets Handsfree
Jul 30th
The system does not allow you to tweet back to make sure you don’t think too hard while driving. This is to make sure you are not distracted from your primary job at the wheel – DRIVE. But experts say that this may only lead to the driver reaching out to the phone to tweet back. Now come on, if the system can take voice commands it can also tweet, right?
“Making SYNC even more intuitive and easier to use will encourage more drivers to take advantage of its hands-free capabilities, helping them keep their focus on driving,” said Mark Fields, the Executive Vice President of Ford Motor Company.
The future’s going to be quite interesting given that there’s going to be some augmented reality, some tweeting and some self controlling cars. But for now let’s stick to what we have.
Ideabing Daily Roundup: National Threat Edition
Jul 26th
Blackberry A National Threat To UAE, Apparently.
Infographic: Conserving Water The Good Way
Infographic: A History Of Apps
First Mobile Video Relay Application for Deaf
Jul 20th
IWRelay launched the first mobile video relay application Friday, allowing Deaf and hard of hearing iPhone users to have on-the-go conversations with friends and family members who hear. The iPhone application, called IWRelay VRS, connects Deaf mobile phone users with video relay interpreters. Using the new iPhone 4 FaceTime feature, a Deaf caller communicates by sign language
Mesh Network For Cellphones Eliminates Need for Towers
Jul 16th
We thought that this would be the future of telephony but did not know it was already happening in the land down under. 3 Australian researchers have started the Several Project that aims to end the need for cellular towers for cellphones to work. The cellphone instead depend on each other as the cellphones themselves act as cellular towers thus creating a mesh network.
Each cell phone in the mesh network is WiFi enabled and can make and receive calls within the mesh. This eliminates the need for expensive cellular towers. This concept could be of great use in remote regions where creating a cellular network may not be economically viable. This network is comparable to a bit torrent where every person downloading a file is also uploading bits of the file to another down loader. Sounds good? We think so.
Want To Check Your Email In Your Car? Buy A BMW
Jun 26th
Now this is what we call messed up or productive, depending on how you see it. If you are the globe trotting CEO who wants to stay in touch with people via email even when you are driving your car, then this is productive. If you have just purchased the car to drive around like this guy did, then this is messed up. BMW is integrating email reading functions into their cars’ connect drive display unit. This means that if you have a Blackberry phone (no iPhone, sorry), you can now read emails off the phone directly on the car’s display unit. Now you decide if this is productive or messed up. Mr. Arnold, if you are listening could you please consider passing a law that bans drivers from reading their emails while in their BMW’s in Cal? Shots of the email interface after the break.
Aava Mobile Talks Tablets, More Goodies This Year
Jun 23rd
Aava mobile, the open mobile platform startup is getting Intel into the high end smartphone scene currently ruled by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform. We talked to Piotr Frasunkiewicz, the main man behind the sales and marketing at Aava. He talks to us about the Aava platform, Android fragmentation, Meego, Intel vs. Qualcomm, the Palm-HP marriage and
