Vodafone, Cisco and RIM are partnering up to bring a unified communications solution called Vodafone Business One for small and medium businesses sometime later this year. In short, this service will allow your your mobile and landline to share a number and voicemail box, as well as enabling enterprise UMA calling for Wi-Fi calls while you’re in the office area. Solutions like this already exist, but it’s cool to see RIM getting directly involved with one. Who knows? In the long run, maybe fixed-mobile convergence will be just another one of RIM’s base services. For more info, and one helluva flash site, head on over to Vodafone Business One.
O2 has posted its pricing plan for the iPhone 3G. If you purchase the device through its Pay & Go prepaid program, you can get the 8 Gig iPhone 3G for £300 ($590) or the 16 Gig for £360 ($710). Included in this package, you get six months of free WiFi access, after which it will cost £10 ($20) per month.
Apparently, these prices were immediately pulled off their website after being published and replaced with a message saying that details would be available “shortly”. Disorganized much?
T-Mobile will be adding a Windows Mobile device to their UMA lineup - The T-Mobile Shadow II. For those who don’t know, UMA (unlicensed mobile access) is the technology that uses the 802.11 networks for voice, data and IMS/SIP applications. The device will be crafted by HTC and we’re hoping they’ll throw in some HTC Touch Diamond type magic into this new device. The Shadow II will be the first Windows Mobile-based UMA handset in the USA, with T-Mobile planning to launch the device in the fourth quarter of this year.
The Motorola Q9/Q9c is likely to be discontinued by Sprint. The smartphone has disappeared from Sprint’s website and reports of a discontinuation have been confirmed by a number of Sprint representatives. Given all of this, there has still not been an official press release confirming the discontinuation. Curiously enough, the carrier just posted the Windows Mobile 6.1 update for the Q9c earlier this month which means there may be hope for the device.
According to the latest study by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, approximately 31% of U.S small businesses (or SBs, defined as companies with less than 99 employees) are now using smartphones, with an additional 11% who do not use them saying plan to purchase one — equating to approximately 400,000 U.S. small businesses using smartphones.
What do these growth numbers mean? Money, and lots of it. AMI-Partners forecasts that U.S. SBs will spend a total of US$375 million on these devices alone (without services expense) in 5 years. This is a rate 6 times greater than the estimated spending of medium businesses (MBs, or companies with 100 to 999 employees).
Right now, RIM and Palm are 1 and 2 respectively in the smartphone market, but AMI-Partners says that much of future adoption will be driven by partnerships between manufacturers and carriers. They’re predicting that the upcoming BlackBerry Bold will allow AT&T to steal 18% of Blackberry SB owners under T-Mobile, and the 26% of Blackberry SB owners under Verizon.
What’s not mentioned, however, is the impact of the iPhone 3G on BlackBerry SB subscribers, considering its lower price point and the fact that most small business don’t require the stringent security RIM provides. Thoughts?
According to Evans Data, wireless application developers are keen on Windows Mobile and MS .NET Compact Framework. The statement comes from a survey that will be released on Tuesday. Approximately 43 percent of developers are targeting MS’ .NET Compact Framework and 42 percent of developers are looking towards Java ME. The survey encompassed 384 developers worldwide in May and June.
Also ranking in the survey were Windows Mobile 6.0, with 31 percent; and the following contenders: Linux, 25 percent; Nokia Series 80, 22 percent; Symbian, 20 percent; Windows Mobile 5.0; 19 percent; Java, 18 percent; Palm OS, 15 percent; RIM OS, 14 percent; Mac OS 10, 8 percent; and Android, 7 percent.
I really like what Vinod Khosla has to say about the smartphone industry and consumer adoption. In this video, he is talking about where we’ll be once consumer education reaches super-saturation. Eventually, consumers will feel comfortable having all their important tools (credit cards, keys, passports etc) all on their smartphone. Personally, I dream of this day.
At the Churchill Club’s 10th Annual Top Ten Tech Trends debate, Vinod Khosla opens shares his thoughts on the future of the humble phone. Your mobile will turn into a mainstream computer. Beyond just e-mail and web access, the phones of the future will have such features as built-in projection screens. High-speed data will make your phone a virtual credit card and ID (even a passport!). Access will open phones up, transforming them into payment systems, personal information filing systems, and much, much more.
Tech Radar did an interview with Andy Lees, the Senior Vice-President of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business. The interview was focused around the issue of how WinMo is going to survive faced with the iPhone and Google Android.
Do your relationships with mobile operators help you compete with the iPhone and Android?
One of the things that we can do slightly differently to Apple and Google is that they have what I think of as the ‘over the top’ scenario - they’re not doing anything to enhance the mobile operator’s ability to create data plans.
They just want the operator to create the ‘$30 all you can eat’ data plan – what the number is varies around the world. Our approach is to be very operator friendly, so we offer tiered services they can use to have different price plans.
I would tend to agree with Apple in this case. “All you can eat” data plans are the only way that we’re going to get a mobile web experience comparable to what we have on a desktop. If we aren’t moving in that direction, we may as well just give up now.
So Steve has taken the stage and we’re expecting big things. The iPhone will clearly be taking center stage this morning and we’re looking forward to a big 3G announcement. Or maybe it will be something that will completely blow us away. Like a nuclear powered iPhone. Or maybe Apple found life on Mars.
10:08 am Talking about the iPhone this morning.
10:06 am “We’ve been working real hard on some great stuff that we can’t wait to share with you.”
10:06 am Steve has taken the stage.
10:05 am The lights have dimmed.
There have been rumors circulating the web that Sony Ericsson was going to buy HTC. The rumors came shortly after the Swedish publication Elektroniktidningen had a meeting cancelled due to the fact that HTC was in talks with SE over some sort of merger. According to HTC’s spokesperson “This is just a rumor and there is no truth to this statement.” For now we’re moving along.
Mobile-ent.biz’s most recent editorial is about the amount of choice available in the mobile industry. The article uses Sociology professor Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice, whose thesis is that too much choice makes consumers unhappy, as the basis for the article. Personally, I have to disagree and say that I will never [...]
The BlackBerry has always been a really unsatisfying device in terms of media. Getting a movie on your BlackBerry involves downloading 3rd party software and although music is a simple drag-and-drop, there aren’t any dedicated keys. To make up for this, RIM is working on a new application for the BlackBerry that will “transfer your [...]
I just recently got an HTC Dash from T-Mobile but in order to use it in Canada I’m going to have to get it unlocked. Here is a QuicklyBored Guide to getting your HTC Dash by T-Mobile unlocked. Executive summary: Check the criteria for unlocking before starting.
The Nseries by Nokia are famous for their superior and unique design. They have the look and feel of a camcorder, messenger and phone all in one. The camera quality is superior to all others with a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens on the N96. Unfortunately, according to a reliable Nokia Blog [...]
