Airbiquity and Nokia enter licensing agreement

SEATTLE, USA: Airbiquity Inc., a global leader in wireless connected services, and Nokia Corp. have entered into an agreement whereby Nokia has agreed to license from Airbiquity certain patent rights including the 6,681,121; 7,206,305; and, 7,221,669 US patents.

The license to these patents allows for Nokia to provide TTY functionality in its GSM handsets according to 3GPP specifications.

Airbiquity delivers vehicle telematics and connected services solutions worldwide through a flexible ecosystem with the most reliable, cost-effective, easy to use two-way wireless connectivity solutions and best-in-class applications centered-around its VIAaq managed services platform.

Airbiquity partners with leading automotive OEMs and personal navigation device (PND) companies to connect drivers with information that enhances the driving experience.

Smartphones to surpass PNDs in navigation market in 2014

EL SEGUNDO, USA: The days of supremacy for the Portable Navigation Device (PND) in the global navigation market are coming to an end with the rise in worldwide usage of GPS-equipped smartphones in the coming years, according to iSuppli Corp.

After several years of strong sales growth, PNDs will continue to lead the navigation market in 2009, with 114 million sets to be in use by the end of the year, compared to 57.8 million smartphones. However, by 2014, usage of navigation-enabled smartphones will rise to 305 million units, exceeding the 128 million PNDs that will be around by then.

The figure presents iSuppli’s forecast of global usage of PNDs and navigation-enabled smartphones. Please note that this figure presents the number of products in use instead of annual shipments.Source: iSuppli, USA

“Previously, smartphones were not seen as a threat to the dominance of PNDs due to mobile handsets’ poor battery life, unclear pricing structures and inferior interface,” said Danny Kim, global Location-Based Service (LBS) analyst for iSuppli. “However, as smartphone design moves forward, many of these issues have been or will be resolved, leading to increased market share for navigation applications on smart phones.”

New smartphone models are more suitable for use with navigation applications for a range of reasons, including the integration of GPS functionality, better usability, larger screens, built-in connectivity and most importantly, the flurry of applications being developed for smartphones. Other features boosting the smartphones’ utility for navigation include better microprocessor support, higher internal flash memory and improved battery life.

iSuppli believes that in 2011, nearly 100 percent of all smartphones shipped will integrate GPS functionality.

“These features will give smartphones similar feature sets as mid-range PNDs, making them more attractive to users,” Kim said.

Apps are everything
Another factor driving increased usage of smartphone navigation is the launch of high-profile navigation applications from TomTom and Navigon for the iPhone.

“These new applications will make the iPhone a better match for the PNDs, diverting attention from the portable navigation devices,” Kim said.

With TomTom’s announcement last week, Apple now has eight navigation applications for the iPhone—two off-board solutions and six on-board counterparts.

The initial reaction from iPhone users should be encouraging to the application suppliers.

Owing to the arrival of these applications, iPhone navigation users are expected to increase to 28 million in 2013, up from just 2 million in 2009, iSuppli predicts.

Rise and fall of the PND
The rise of smartphone navigation represents another milestone in the remarkable story of the PND.

The starting gun for the PND market was in 2004, when the product began exceeding all expectations in growth and popularity and continued to so for several years. The year 2009 marks the dividing line when sales expansion for the PND slows as the product moves from the growth phase to the maturity stage of its life cycle.

The two major PND vendors are expected to maintain very similar market shares in the PND space into 2013.

iSuppli forecasts that the number of TomTom and Garmin PNDs in use—based on a three-year life span—will not significantly change between 2009 and 2013. Any new growth in PND shipments is likely to come from the Asia-Pacific region, where past map coverage has been patchy but is improving.

SatNav rolls out Moov 300 multifunction SatGuide PND

NEW DELHI, INDIA: SatNav Technologies, pioneers in GPS Navigation in India since 2005, today announced the launch of the all new SatGuide PND Moov 300.

The new personal navigation device (PND) will provide hassle free road navigation with cutting edge features like voice prompted directions and a 4.3-inch touch-screen for better user interface to its consumers.

Loaded with the latest SatGuide maps, the new attributes of the device like GPS navigator, calculator and digital entertainment features -- audio and video player make it a multi-functionality gadget ideal to carry while traveling.

The comprehensive SatGuide Maps, which Moov 300 buyers will navigate from, include detailed road maps of 200+ cities and more than 15 lakh destinations (points of interest) for customers to choose from. The maps are constantly enhanced and on the anvil are plans to grow this to 500 cities, 30 lakh destinations, and ultimately the 6 lakh villages across the country.

“SatGuide PND Moov 300 is an indispensable travel tool”, said Amit Prasad, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SatNav Technologies. “Our philosophy has always been that Indian consumers want cheap AND best, this product takes it a step further in that direction empowering consumers with a fully loaded device at a very reasonable price,” he added.

Moov300 offers the cost conscious Indian consumer, benefits of a widescreen personal navigation device without compromising on the quality and features. Installed with cutting edge technology, this sleek device makes navigation to a destination both easy and entertaining by the use of a convenient user interface, digital entertainment features and turn-by-turn voice prompted directions.

The device is priced at Rs. 16,990 online at www.satguide.in making it an eye-catcher for anyone who is looking at purchasing a stylish yet affordable PND. The product is available across all major Large Format Retailers (LFRs) across the country.

In fact, some stores like Ezone, Croma, Reliance Digital, HCL Digilife, XCite etc will be offering it at even more attractive prices. The device can be easily installed in vehicles and is accompanied with a USB cable and an in-car charger.

Moov 300 comes with the latest WinCE 5.0 version and sports a 64 MB Flash with 512 MB RAM. When compared with the other PNDs in the market, Moov 300 has faster GPS fix times with SiRFInstantFixII™ Technology and 20 channel receivers.

Nokia #1 choice for mobile navigation in Europe and Russia

ESPOO, FINLAND: According to the study conducted by Frost & Sullivan among European and Russian consumers, Nokia is the number one choice for mobile navigation over other leading handset manufacturers.

The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the perceptions, understanding, expectations and motivations of European and Russian consumers towards navigation and location-based services.

The key objectives of the study were to analyse consumers' awareness of, and level of satisfaction with different types of navigation systems (e.g., PND, mobile phones), the different features available (e.g., navigation, 3D imagery, voice guidance, touch screen), location-based services (e.g., car and pedestrian navigation, traffic information, social networking) and other telematics features.

The study also aimed at evaluating consumers' perceptions and willingness to pay for different types of navigation systems, their features and location-based services as well as determining consumers' brand awareness and perception.

According to Frost & Sullivan, GPS-enabled devices is a fast growing market segment in Europe, with more than 30 million devices shipped in 2008 and close to 80 million devices expected to be shipped by 2010. In Russia in 2008, the market for navigation-enabled mobile devices grew to over 300 000 units, representing a share of more than 60 percent of the overall navigation market in Russia.

Altogether 3,119 interviews were conducted for this survey in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Benelux, in addition to 600 interviews conducted in Russia.

According to the study, 62 percent of the non-owners of a navigation system in Europe and 77 percent in Russia consider Nokia as the leading brand for delivering mobile navigation. Additionally, over 72 percent of the current users of a navigation system in Europe and 81 percent in Russia vote Nokia as the best brand for delivering mobile navigation.

"Nokia has clearly excelled in identifying growth opportunities in a maturing mobile handset market by integrating GPS in a large number of its handsets, making them navigation-ready.

With a target of enabling a majority of its new devices with the GPS feature by 2010, coupled with the acquisition of mapping and software companies like NAVTEQ and gate5, the company is clearly building a strong presence in the mobile navigation markets in Europe and elsewhere," comments N. Praveen Chandrasekar, Program Manager, Telematics and Infotainment at Frost & Sullivan.

"This vertical integration strategy along with its position as the leading handset vendor puts the company in a good position to meet the needs of people both already using and considering mobile handset-based navigation systems."

According to Frost & Sullivan, Nokia's acquisition of Navteq last year has enabled it to aggressively venture into the mobile navigation space with a strong product portfolio. With the recent launch of Ovi Maps for mobile and web, the company is expanding its market presence into the service space within the mobile navigation market.

Nokia's aggressive strategies in this market and strong brand recognition among consumers make it a worthy recipient of Frost & Sullivan's 2009 European & Russian Mobile Navigation Leading Brand Awareness Consumer Choice Award.

The latest version of the Ovi Maps for your device is available for download at http://www.nokia.com/maps.

The Ovi Maps Beta on the web is accessible at http://www.maps.ovi.com.

CSR, SiRF to launch new era of connectivity and location

CAMBRIDGE, UK & SAN JOSE, USA: CSR plc and SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. completed the merger between SiRF and a wholly owned subsidiary of CSR, creating a leading pure play provider of connectivity and location platforms and a company with the scale, technology and strategy to enable its customers to address the exciting and emerging opportunities in mobile markets.

The merger yields an enlarged development team, a strong IP portfolio, and a broad base of market leading customers. Customers of the enlarged CSR group will be able to deliver new user experiences of connectivity and location technologies in a diverse range of devices such as mobile phones, personal navigation devices, in-car navigation and telematics systems, laptop and netbook PCs, mobile Internet devices, digital cameras, gaming machines, cellular accessories, and consumer electronic devices.

Joep van Beurden, CEO of CSR said: “In bringing together the combined capabilities and broad range of CSR and SiRF technologies and platforms, we have created a new force in the industry and a world class organisation with the commercial, technical and operational scale to build on CSR and SiRF’s existing customer relationships and deliver the next generation of connectivity and location enabled products.

“Our strategic goal is to address the existing and emerging needs of our combined customer base for connectivity and location technologies. The potential applications and benefits to the end user of connectivity plus location are only just starting to open up, and these exciting new opportunities will be driven by our unique combination of leading location technologies and connectivity solutions.”

“CSR and SiRF have a shared vision of using innovation to bring the benefits of wireless connectivity and location to mainstream consumers and enterprises and to enable new and exciting user experiences”, commented Kanwar Chadha, co-founder of SiRF and newly appointed board member and Chief Marketing Officer of CSR. “We believe that through this merger, our customers and consumers will derive benefits from a much stronger player whose focus is on delivering best in class connectivity and location platforms.”

“Technology innovation represents the foundation for both CSR’s and SiRF’s success in the market place,” said James Collier, co-founder, board member and CTO of CSR. “We look forward to combining the complementary expertise of our teams to take innovation to the next level in our multifunction radio and system platforms to address emerging customer and market needs.”

For CSR’s customers, the merger with SiRF means CSR’s Connectivity Centre products are augmented by GPS technologies that are well respected and enjoy widespread adoption. SiRF brings to CSR a strong IP portfolio in GPS and assisted GPS (A-GPS), dead reckoning and location centric platforms.

SiRF’s customers benefit from enhancements to SiRF’s Location Platforms, with CSR’s Connectivity Centre capabilities and strategy of Smart Integration delivering industry leading performance, low cost and small size.

The enlarged CSR group will have its global headquarters in Cambridge, UK, with SiRF’s headquarters in San Jose, California becoming CSR’s US headquarters.

The combined CSR group enters the prestigious list of the world’s top 10 fabless semiconductor companies, with an enviable combined customer list including six of the top seven handset manufacturers, the top five personal navigation device makers, the top two automotive telematics suppliers, and other leading auto and consumer electronics providers.

RMI delivers Android capability for mobile connected applications

COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2009, TAIWAN & CUPERTINO, USA: At COMPUTEX Taipei 2009, RMI Corporation, a leading provider of high-performance processors for communication and media rich applications, announced the availability of a complete Android version 1.5 (“Cupcake”) reference design for mobile connected applications.

The Android solution benefits from the power-optimized, high performance Alchemy processor family and brings a complete turnkey solution aided by partnerships with Embedded Alley, a leading provider of embedded Linux and Android solutions, and MIPS Technologies Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for home entertainment, communications, networking and portable multimedia markets.

“By bringing the Alchemy processor to the market with Android capabilities gives us an additional advantage for success with MIDs and connected media devices,” said Mike Wodopian, vice president and general manager, RMI. “The power-optimization and the high-performance processing offered opens up a variety of applications and capabilities that our customers are demanding.”

“The MIPS architecture brings a powerful capability to the Android market, giving our licensees such as RMI the flexibility to meet the needs of their customers in the connected portable media market and beyond,” said Art Swift, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies. “With our focus on Android combined with RMI’s innovative developments, the world’s leading consumer electronics suppliers will be able to implement capabilities and features that were not possible before.”

The Alchemy Android reference platform is the ideal solution for mobile connected applications such as MIDs, Netbooks, AVN, Home Media Players, PMPs and PND devices. The Android solution runs on the Alchemy Processor family and highlights:

* A powerful open connected applications platform, customizable for each device.
* Android V1.5, with libraries and Dalvik VM optimized for MIPS.
* Broad support for all significant Video and Audio content standards.
* High performance processing at ultra-low Alchemy power levels.

The Embedded Alley Development System for Android-based devices supports cross development for both platform and application software. It targets MIPS architecture devices, with support for the RMI Alchemy Processor family development board (BdAu) and HMP Processor solutions.

In the development system, Embedded Alley provides an up-to-date production kernel (2.6.29), run-time libraries, the Android application framework and off-the-shelf applications. Embedded Alley has optimized the Android Dalvik VM and bionic library for MIPS processor cores and enables developers to prototype and test using the Android Device Emulator, an Eclipse-based plug-in for the Embedded Alley Development System, and customize the emulator to match their end products.

“Together, Embedded Alley and RMI deliver a turnkey solution for OEMs creating multimedia, mobile internet, automotive and a wide range of other applications,” said Matthew Locke, Embedded Alley COO. “Embedded Alley expertise and experience in enabling Android-based devices and applications, and the power of RMI Alchemy processors, make an unbeatable combination.”

In its suite at the COMPUTEX Taipei conference, RMI, along with MIPS Technologies and Embedded Alley featured multiple demonstrations of the Android platform including a Home Media Player (HMP) running Android. Attendees can see the power of Android in several applications, including full internet browsing capability.

Can we expect exciting times in 2008?

Welcome 2008! May I wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2008. Another year's gone past. We have a habit of looking back to see at what happened and what could have been.

A lot has been written already about 2007 and what to expect in 2008. So let's just touch upon some of the events from 2007 and some expectations from 2008.

For India, 2007 was a great year for the semiconductor industry -- first, the Indian government announced the semiconductor policy, followed some months later by the fab policy. Both were tremendous firsts in India's science and technology, and not IT, history. Everyone hopes that the Indian semiconductor industry will take off this year. Eyes are focused on the embedded segment, what with the global semiconductor industry reportedly facing 'an embedded dilemma.'

An issue hitting the EDA industry is that, the cost of designing or developing the embededded software for an SoC actually passed the cost of desgining the SoC itself in 2007. The world needs to avoid this software crisis, and India is well placed to take full advantage and play a major role, given its strength in embedded.

In IT, it's been a mixed sort of a year for Apple, which hit big time with the iPhone, seemed not to make waves with either the Safari browser or the Leopard OS. Microsoft had the Vista OS, but then, Vista didn't exactly warm the hearts of users or those who wished to upgrade their OS, including yours truly. Maybe, 2008 would ring in better times for Vista.

While on browsers, Firefox has gained lot of ground. However, by the end of 2007 came the news that the Netscape Web browser -- which started it all -- would soon be confined to history.

Netscape Navigator was the world's first commercial Web browser and launch pad of the Internet boom. It will be taken off on February 1, 2008, after a 13-year run. Time Warner's AOL, its current owner, has reportedly decided to kill further development and technical support to focus on growing the company as an advertising business. The first version of Netscape had come out in late 1994.

In gaming, there are admirers of Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360, and will remain the same. Which one of these gaming consoles will reign supreme, eventually, is difficult to predict.

In consumer electronics, lines are surely blurring between portable media players (PMPs) and portable navigation devices. Also, it would be interesting to see how digital photo frames survive 2008. A reported tight supply, especially for seven-inch models, has led to some makers in Asia either postponing mass production or extending lead times. Surely, makers cannot add more entertainment functions in smaller screen models, to keep costs down.

In the security products market, IP cameras and video servers should have a better year, with more emphasis now on video surveillance. In fact, some friends have been querying me as well regarding their potential.

On components, we can hope to see more growth for solid polymer capacitors in 2008, and among PCBs some fabricators should start manufacturing high-density interconnect (HDI) PCBs this year.

In wireless, we should witness TD-SCDMA in operation prior to the Beijing Olympic Games. Backers would like to see TD-SCDMA succeed, given the effort Datang-Siemens has made on the technology, as also the Chinese government, which issued spectrum for TD-SCDMA nearly five years ago!

Let's all welcome 2008 and look forward to more exciting things happening.