Ever wanted to know what sort of testing handsets goes through before they hit the shelves? Heat, dust, UV – water! I don’t think I’ll be using my phone in the shower…
Pictures
Twitter: mediagranduk- RT @dpoyser: @DebsPoyser phew, I'll sleep easy tonight! < like a dog, no I mean log
- RT @DNAadvertising: New Technology! ;) http://youtu.be/9BnLbv6QYcA < fab, I hear Apple fans shouting 'I WANT ONE OF THOSE NOW!!"
- Media Grand is run by a human (or so it's thought) so please follow @paulmguk and allow me to introduce myself.
- Augmented Reality concept (via @corhospes) http://tinyurl.com/38trym8 - Catching butterflies in Japan
- RT @VentureBeat: Facebook: A "new chapter" for the company's mobile strategy http://bit.ly/cqZtYk by @kimmaicutler < some good points
Nokia prototype handset testing
Flash CS5 to Output iPhone Native Apps
Flash CS5 (beta available soon) is said to have new features which enable Flash developers to output not only Air2.0 and Flash Player 10.1 apps for smartphones, but also native apps for the iPhone.
This article from Adobe explains how it’s all expected to work.
Adobe’s Flash 10.1 Goes Mobile (Minus iPhone)
Adobe’s next version of Flash supports Windows Mobile, Google’s Android, Palm’s webOS and RIM’ BlackBerry platforms. Missing from the list: Apple’s iPhone.
Adobe Systems today unveiled details on its rollout of Flash 10.1 to mobile devices, introducing support for Windows Mobile, webOS, Android, Symbian and the BlackBerry platforms.
Adobe’s Flash technology powers much of the video and interactive content on the Web, but currently smartphones can run only a lightweight version, Flash Lite, which supports some but not all pages that employ Flash.
That’s about to change. Adobe said today at its annual developer conference that the next iteration, Flash 10.1, supports Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Google Android, Palm’s new webOS, Nokia’s and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform.
A public beta of Flash 10.1 for Windows Mobile and webOS will be available later this year, while Android and Symbian versions are due early next year.
The mobile version of Flash will also support multi-touch, accelerometers, multiple screen orientations and hardware graphics acceleration.
In the past, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has publicly criticized Flash technology, saying it’s too slow and inefficient for mobile devices. His company’s iPhone OS is now the only major platform that isn’t supported by Flash 10.1.
Adobe has been working to improve performance, increasing software rendering speed by 87 percent on mobile platforms versus desktop platforms, and reducing memory consumption by 55 percent, according to Adobe.
“With Flash 10.1, it’s more integral to these devices, so you’re getting fluid animation, faster rendering. It’s not consuming computing cycles and it’s not draining the battery power consumption, and that’s a major consideration for mobile,” Tom Barclay, Adobe senior product marketing manager for Flash.
Flash Player 10.1 is also designed to take advantage of media delivery with HTTP streaming, including integration of content protection powered by Adobe Flash Access 2.0. This initiative, codenamed Zeri, will be an open format based on industry standards and will provide content publishers, distributors and partners the tools they need to utilize HTTP infrastructures for high-quality media delivery in Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe Air 2.0 software.
The news comes as developers face an increasingly fragmented mobile market, having to program mobile apps for several different operating systems and smartphones, but that could change with Flash 10.1, said Avi Greengart, analyst at Current Analysis.
“This (news) is significant for several reasons: It ‘completes’ the Web browsing experience in many cases. For example, many newspapers and travel sites are useless without Flash. And, it enables Web developers who are already familiar with Flash to target mobile users, and it provides some level of cross-platform application development, for instance, write your mobile application in Flash 10.1 rather than, say C++ for Symbian, and your application will work on any mobile device with Flash 10.1 support, not just Symbian.”
Still, he says the new iteration of Flash is not the answer to all the issues faced by mobile developers. “It is not a panacea: Flash applications are not optimized specifically for a particular operating system or hardware implementation, and getting to market can be more straightforward with native applications and the platform vendor’s app store,” said Greengart. “It’s also worth noting that this is still just an announcement, not product delivery. We’re still a few months away from this being directly meaningful to consumers.”
Adobe last year established the “Open Screen Project,” in partnership with companies in the wireless industry with the goal of bringing full Flash support to mobile devices, and today RIM and Google both joined the group.
“As part of the Open Screen Project, RIM will be working with Adobe to deliver a great Flash technology experience on BlackBerry smartphones and to enable users to enjoy the exciting content and services that Flash technology developers and content creators are bringing to the Web,” said Alan Brenner, RIM senior vice president, in a statement.
Additionally, handset manufacturers such as Motorola will ship Google Android based devices with Flash Player support “early next year,” according to a Motorola statement.
“We’ve always believed that open platforms lead to greater innovation on the Web and we see participating in the Open Screen Project as another step in that direction. We’re excited to continue working with the teams at Adobe on pushing the web forward and to see where the next generation of Web development will take us,” says a post by Bill Coughran, senior vice president of engineering, at the Google Blog.
Posted in Adobe, Android, Apple, Blackberry, Flash Lite, Nokia, Palm, Smartphone, Windows Mobile Comments Off
An iPhone is not just for Christmas
As Orange announce they are to begin selling the iPhone in the UK, just in time for Christmas, Vodaphone has struck up a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone – but not until early 2010, completely missing out on the Christmas rush!
There will be some competition leading up to Christmas with O2 and Orange going head-to-head, but with the new year giving consumers three mobile giants to choose from, surely it makes sense to hold off until Vodaphone comes along to see who offers the best long term deals.
The only way iPhone users can get real value from their device is by using data services, something the mobile providers know only too well. From a consumers point of view, the best deals over 12 or 18 months will be the ones that offer the best value for data services over that period.
Nokia Buys Dopplr
Continuing its tendency to buy up smaller mobile content companies, Nokia has announced that it has acquired Dopplr Oy, a privately-held mobile service provider for international travellers. Dopplr has a team of seven people with offices in London and Helsinki.
The acquisition does not change the current Dopplr service which is available at Dopplr.com and on platforms where Dopplr is integrated.
Financial terms were not disclosed, although a Nokia spokeswoman told Reuters that the price “was a fraction” of the $15-$22 million estimate that has been rumoured in some reports.
Dopplr was co-founded by the former Director of Design Strategy at Nokia, Marko Ahtisaari.
Orange wins UK iPhone deal
Orange signed a deal with Apple, announced on Monday, to sell the popular iPhone in the UK as O2’s exclusive two year deal comes to an end. So far O2 have sold an estimated 1.5 million iPhones in the UK, boosted by the launch of the much publicised AppStore and by the release of the iPhone 3GS earlier this year.
They are expected to start selling the iPhone in time for Christmas, as O2 prepare for the launch of the Palm Pre. They will continue to sell the iPhone and it is expected that other manufacturers will attempt to get in on the act.
No news from Orange concerning iPhone tariffs as yet, but it should help Orange re-establish itself in the UK as it recovers some of its share from O2.
New device – Nokia 6750 Mural
SDK: Nokia S40 6th
Flash Lite version: 3.0
Flash Lite implementation: standalone, screensaver, wallpaper, browser
Full specification
Mobile Application Sales to Hit $16B Per Year by 2013
The number of smartphones sold each year will increase from around 165.2 million in 2009 to 422.96 million in 2013, with the total number of smartphone users approaching 1.6 billion, according to Wireless Expertise, a UK based wireless market research and consulting firm. Its latest report says that smartphone penetration will reach approximately 28-30% of the total mobile market by 2013.
“We expect smartphone growth to have a positive impact on the number of application downloads in the short- to mid-term,” said Anuj Khanna, CEO of Wireless Expertise and author of the report. “Strong revenues are expected to come from low-end mass market smartphones and mid-to high-end feature-phones in the mid- to long-term as operators and handset manufacturers take app stores to the mass market.”
Wireless Expertise forecasts that the global mobile app market – including games – will be worth $4.66 billion in 2009, rising to $16.60 billion, in 2013. With mobile phones outnumbering PCs around the world by 4:1, mobile applications represent an even bigger opportunity for the mobile industry than the fixed-line perceived the internet a decade ago.
“With over four billion mobile users around the world compared to approximately one billion PCs, mobile will become the ideal channel for businesses to reach their consumers,” continued Khanna. “Mobile operators have to adopt a dual app store strategy, using the now widely-accepted app store model in conjunction with a browser-based widget store, to provide the greatest potential for a mass-market proposition.”
The report points out that complacency from existing handset vendors and mobile operators had virtually killed the mobile content market. But mobile applications have reignited the demand for multimedia content and applications.
Wireless Expertise credits Apple for growing and revolutionalising the applications market. “Apple has not only invigorated what was rapidly becoming a stagnant mobile content and services market, but its App Store has paved the way for professional content developers and publishers to stand side-by-side with the new breed of garage developers introducing innovative and functional apps,” said Khanna. “However, we expect Apple to face tough competition from mobile operators, independent service providers and competing vendor application portals in the next 18-24 months.”
The report suggests that Nokia will be very active in the smartphone market and Nokia’s biggest advantage over Apple is its ability to offer Ovi on a wide range of handsets, ranging from the high-end to the mainstream. And the fact that Nokia is pushing its app store to a mass market is very encouraging.
“Diverse and competing mobile operating systems from other vendors such as Symbian, Google Android, Microsoft Windows and Research in Motion will also help in growing the market,” concluded Khanna. “We predict the emergence of independent mobile application stores which specialise in niche content such as games and location-based services.”
Mobile operators releasing a mobile internet API would address the issue of fragmentation and help create a multichannel app services and content retail environment coupled with integrated billing and payment mechanisms. However, operators must be involved in the delivery and payment of the service with their own platforms giving improved revenue shares as high as 90% if they want to compete in this market.
The report can be downloaded free from Wireless Expertise’s website (registration required).
Palm Pre hits UK shelves in October
O2 plan to launch the Palm Pre smartphone at the same level as the already popular iPhone. Their exclusivity deal is expected to come to an end at the end of the year so the Palm Pre could be the replacement, although there has been no comment from Apple or O2.
The smartphone will be available to buy direct from O2 or via the mobile operator’s retail partners, including the Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U, from 16 October.
O2’s parent company Telefonica in July announced that it had won exclusive rights to offer the Palm Pre across Europe.
UK consumers have more smartphones to choose from than the US where sales have been struggling since its launch. However, Palm remain optimistic.
“There’s a lot of excitement about Palm Pre in Europe as we continue to expand Palm webOS products across new carriers and countries,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and CEO of Palm, in Thursday’s statement.
Adobes drive to push Flash to smartphones
Adobes CTO, Kevin Lynch, explains to the Wall Street Journal about their focus on bringing Flash to smartphones. Some indication that there will be Flash on the iPhone, if Apple realise the market request from users.
Watch video
