LONDON, UK & TOKYO, JAPAN: LiMo Foundation, a global consortium of mobile industry leaders, announced the addition of two new members to its ranks: Immersion Corp. and KDDI Corp.
Representing true innovation within their respective markets, these newest members are indicative of the broad cross-industry endorsement that LiMo’s collaborative device platform has earned.
“The intersection of next-generation technologies and advanced mobile communications continues to deepen,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation.
“Frontier technologies once limited only to personal computers are increasingly finding their way onto today’s handsets. Garnering the support of two market leaders with long-standing legacies of disruptive innovation is a testament to LiMo’s pre-eminent position in the mobile ecosystem. We welcome their participation, knowledge, and experience.”
Both of LiMo’s new members bring with them considerable market-proven expertise. With approximately 30 million subscribers, KDDI is Japan’s second-largest wireless operator.
KDDI joins LiMo members NTT DOCOMO and Softbank –- the country’s number one and number three operators -– for a combined addressable market of more than 100 million Japanese subscribers.
New LiMo member Immersion is a recognized leader in the development of advanced haptic technologies for mobile communications, consumer electronics, gaming, and manufacturing. An integral component in mobile touch screen applications, haptic technologies are emerging as a key driver in the mobile marketplace, with touch screen revenues expected to jump to $9B USD by 2015 according to NPD Group.
Immersion's technology improves efficiency and intuitiveness by providing confirmation of touch screen presses and adds depth and fun to content such as ringtones, videos, games, and music.
LiMo Foundation was launched in January 2007 by mobile industry leaders to provide the mobile industry with an open, consistent Mobile Linux-based handset OS, enabling the development of immersive, next-generation mobile consumer experiences.
LiMo’s membership includes mobile industry leaders from around the world, including leading OEMs that have brought 42 LiMo-compliant handsets to market and 12 global network operators representing nearly one billion mobile subscribers.
Showing posts with label Softbank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Softbank. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
GSMA launches competition, advances embedded mobile initiative
LONDON, UK: The GSMA announced new developments in its Embedded Mobile Initiative, including work to establish standard design guidelines for embedded mobile applications and the kick-off of a competition to drive development in the embedded mobile market.
The goal of the Embedded Mobile program, which was launched in November 2008, is to foster new business opportunities by bringing the benefits of continuous mobile connectivity to embedded devices in the clean energy, education, healthcare, transport, consumer electronics and smart utilities sectors.
"The benefits of embedded mobile to businesses and consumers are nearly endless, from enabling a travelling family to easily transmit holiday photos to relatives at home, to helping a vending company automatically track stocking levels and operating status of its machines, to allowing power companies to remotely collect data from across meter and power grids," commented Michael O'Hara, Chief Marketing Officer for the GSMA.
"As the programmes announced today demonstrate, we are keenly focused on reducing industry fragmentation in the delivery of embedded mobile solutions, facilitating economies of scale in design and production and driving cross-industry awareness of module designs."
To further promote the development of the embedded mobile market, the GSMA has kicked off a competition whose goal is to identify best-in-class embedded modules across a number of categories, as well as mobile service applications and solutions.
The first stage of the competition, which will focus on leading embedded modules, will be held at the Mobile Asia Congress in November 2009. The second stage of the competition will showcase innovative service applications and solutions at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2010.
"KT is confident that its active involvement in the GSMA's Embedded Mobile Initiative will create broader opportunities for this market," said Hyunmi Yang, Executive Vice President & CSO, Personal Customer Group, KT Corp.
"We further believe that the launch of a global competition as part of this programme will stimulate the growth of the M2M market and will help us to identify new mobile services that will be of true value to our customers. The GSMA's Embedded Mobile Initiative will allow immediate communication means for everyday devices via a mobile network, and we believe that the mobile network will become the key facilitator for enriching the daily lives of our customers."
"Potential use of embedded 3G modules are diversified and require development of unique software for each application," said Ted Matsumoto, Senior Executive Vice President, SoftBank Mobile Corp. "The cost of modules is a critical factor in helping make these applications accepted by a wide range of users, so we should avoid the fragmentation of module hardware design as much as possible. Working with the device and chipset vendors, the GSMA will help to achieve this goal."
To facilitate the creation of scores of new embedded mobile applications, the GSMA also announced that it has initiated a work stream within the Embedded Mobile programme to develop and publish of a set of design guidelines for key categories of applications, such as health, automotive, smart metering and consumer devices.
This is a joint initiative involving mobile operator and module vendor representatives from across the world. The GSMA expects to make these design guidelines available in November 2009.
The goal of the Embedded Mobile program, which was launched in November 2008, is to foster new business opportunities by bringing the benefits of continuous mobile connectivity to embedded devices in the clean energy, education, healthcare, transport, consumer electronics and smart utilities sectors.
"The benefits of embedded mobile to businesses and consumers are nearly endless, from enabling a travelling family to easily transmit holiday photos to relatives at home, to helping a vending company automatically track stocking levels and operating status of its machines, to allowing power companies to remotely collect data from across meter and power grids," commented Michael O'Hara, Chief Marketing Officer for the GSMA.
"As the programmes announced today demonstrate, we are keenly focused on reducing industry fragmentation in the delivery of embedded mobile solutions, facilitating economies of scale in design and production and driving cross-industry awareness of module designs."
To further promote the development of the embedded mobile market, the GSMA has kicked off a competition whose goal is to identify best-in-class embedded modules across a number of categories, as well as mobile service applications and solutions.
The first stage of the competition, which will focus on leading embedded modules, will be held at the Mobile Asia Congress in November 2009. The second stage of the competition will showcase innovative service applications and solutions at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2010.
"KT is confident that its active involvement in the GSMA's Embedded Mobile Initiative will create broader opportunities for this market," said Hyunmi Yang, Executive Vice President & CSO, Personal Customer Group, KT Corp.
"We further believe that the launch of a global competition as part of this programme will stimulate the growth of the M2M market and will help us to identify new mobile services that will be of true value to our customers. The GSMA's Embedded Mobile Initiative will allow immediate communication means for everyday devices via a mobile network, and we believe that the mobile network will become the key facilitator for enriching the daily lives of our customers."
"Potential use of embedded 3G modules are diversified and require development of unique software for each application," said Ted Matsumoto, Senior Executive Vice President, SoftBank Mobile Corp. "The cost of modules is a critical factor in helping make these applications accepted by a wide range of users, so we should avoid the fragmentation of module hardware design as much as possible. Working with the device and chipset vendors, the GSMA will help to achieve this goal."
To facilitate the creation of scores of new embedded mobile applications, the GSMA also announced that it has initiated a work stream within the Embedded Mobile programme to develop and publish of a set of design guidelines for key categories of applications, such as health, automotive, smart metering and consumer devices.
This is a joint initiative involving mobile operator and module vendor representatives from across the world. The GSMA expects to make these design guidelines available in November 2009.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Comverse names 10 finalists for fourth annual Innovation Awards
WAKEFIELD, USA: Comverse has announced 10 finalists for its Fourth Annual Innovation Awards. The winners will be announced next week during Comverse EXPO 2009, the telecom industry's leading virtual event.
The awards, organized in association with market research firm Yankee Group, honor service providers that have creatively implemented a Comverse solution to achieve significant business success. Examples include new monetization schemes, exceptional speed and scope of deployments, outstanding launch and business models, unique market penetration approaches, and significant cost reductions.
The 10 finalists are:
Bezeq (Israel): Migrating to IP-based residential and business voice services using Comverse MyCall Broadband IP Telephony, IP Centrex and IP Trunking;
m:tel (Montenegro): Deploying Comverse Converged Billing in an ultra-fast fashion, which allowed the service’s launch to capture roaming traffic during the summer tourist season;
SFR (France): Solving the problem of limited message storage space in handsets by saving text messages on the web using Comverse Messaging Router with Messaging Personalization and MT Interception capabilities;
SingTel (Singapore): Offering ground breaking advertising services to top-tier advertisers, media agencies and small- to mid-sized enterprises using Comverse Mobile Advertising;
Softbank Mobile (Japan): Innovative mobile enterprise telephony solution that integrates mobile phones with PBX-based enterprise telephony using Comverse Converged IP Centrex and IP trunking;
Telecom Italia: Consolidating postpaid billing operations for 22 million accounts using the Comverse Billing Solution;
Telefonica Moviles (Movistar Chile): Implementing a new Comverse Real-Time Billing feature that provides SMS notification to callers trying to reach prepaid subscribers whose service has been temporarily disrupted;
Telstra (Australia): Deploying an online integrated inbox to support unified messaging from multiple devices and platforms using Comverse Messaging Gateway;
Vodafone Group (Global): Driving a leading industry group for mobile communications (Open Mobile Terminal Platform) to recommend industry specifications for visual voicemail, which will support its mass market penetration; and
Vodafone India: Creative prepaid marketing offerings, including Special Tariff Vouchers, using Comverse Real-Time Billing.
“We selected the finalists from a large, diverse group of customers, spanning all regions, tiers and lines of business,” said Urban Gillstrom, Global President of Group Sales at Comverse, the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling value-added messaging and content services, converged billing and active customer management, and IP communications.
“Their successful and innovative deployments of our Billing, Value-Added Services and IP Communications offerings reflect the great versatility and breadth of Comverse's solutions, which can be easily tailored to the business needs of each operator,” Gillstrom said. “The Innovation Awards are an integral part of this year's highly anticipated Comverse EXPO event.”
The awards, organized in association with market research firm Yankee Group, honor service providers that have creatively implemented a Comverse solution to achieve significant business success. Examples include new monetization schemes, exceptional speed and scope of deployments, outstanding launch and business models, unique market penetration approaches, and significant cost reductions.
The 10 finalists are:
Bezeq (Israel): Migrating to IP-based residential and business voice services using Comverse MyCall Broadband IP Telephony, IP Centrex and IP Trunking;
m:tel (Montenegro): Deploying Comverse Converged Billing in an ultra-fast fashion, which allowed the service’s launch to capture roaming traffic during the summer tourist season;
SFR (France): Solving the problem of limited message storage space in handsets by saving text messages on the web using Comverse Messaging Router with Messaging Personalization and MT Interception capabilities;
SingTel (Singapore): Offering ground breaking advertising services to top-tier advertisers, media agencies and small- to mid-sized enterprises using Comverse Mobile Advertising;
Softbank Mobile (Japan): Innovative mobile enterprise telephony solution that integrates mobile phones with PBX-based enterprise telephony using Comverse Converged IP Centrex and IP trunking;
Telecom Italia: Consolidating postpaid billing operations for 22 million accounts using the Comverse Billing Solution;
Telefonica Moviles (Movistar Chile): Implementing a new Comverse Real-Time Billing feature that provides SMS notification to callers trying to reach prepaid subscribers whose service has been temporarily disrupted;
Telstra (Australia): Deploying an online integrated inbox to support unified messaging from multiple devices and platforms using Comverse Messaging Gateway;
Vodafone Group (Global): Driving a leading industry group for mobile communications (Open Mobile Terminal Platform) to recommend industry specifications for visual voicemail, which will support its mass market penetration; and
Vodafone India: Creative prepaid marketing offerings, including Special Tariff Vouchers, using Comverse Real-Time Billing.
“We selected the finalists from a large, diverse group of customers, spanning all regions, tiers and lines of business,” said Urban Gillstrom, Global President of Group Sales at Comverse, the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling value-added messaging and content services, converged billing and active customer management, and IP communications.
“Their successful and innovative deployments of our Billing, Value-Added Services and IP Communications offerings reflect the great versatility and breadth of Comverse's solutions, which can be easily tailored to the business needs of each operator,” Gillstrom said. “The Innovation Awards are an integral part of this year's highly anticipated Comverse EXPO event.”
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Mobile broadband evolution maintains 24 percent rise in data revenues in 2008
UK: Over 15 percent of revenues generated by mobile operators globally came from non-voice services in 2008. According to the latest data made available by Informa Telecoms & Media’s World Cellular Data Metrics report, actual revenues comprising data services, reached $188.7bn in 2008, representing a 24 percent year-on-year increase.
“This is an important finding” commented Informa Telecoms & Media principal analyst, Nick Jotischky, “as non-voice services are becoming a central plank to mobile operator strategies at a time of increasingly high penetration rates, low voice tariffs and intense competition. Not only can data services help to keep the offerings of mobile operators more relevant and distinct from their competitors, but they can also help to raise ARPU levels and generate new customers.”
Looked at regionally, there is a considerable disparity in the significance of non-voice revenues –- at the top end, just over a fifth of the total $192.8bn revenues generated by mobile operators in North America in 2008 comes now from non-voice services as opposed to 5% of the $71.1bn revenues from mobile operators in Africa.
The majority of the $188.7bn of non-voice revenues are still SMS-based, but at the end of 2008, $75.1bn (40 percent) of this revenue was from non-SMS services. The deployment of advanced technologies (such as HSPA) and the growing demand for data-optimised devices such as Apple’s iPhone have helped to accelerate the level of non-SMS spend.
The advance of mobile broadband has been a key feature of the telecom industry in the past year with Informa putting the total number of subscriptions at 178.2m at the end of 2008. This represents extraordinary growth given that Verizon, the largest operator in terms of mobile broadband subscriber numbers (24.245m), only registered its first such subscribers at the end of 2004.
Given that it took the best part of 15 years to register the first 178m mobile subscribers globally, this represents a rapid evolution path for mobile broadband.
There are some warning signs, however, for the global mobile industry. There appears to have been a slowdown in data revenues reported by operators during the fourth quarter of 2008. Whilst, some of this can be explained away by currency fluctuations, there is a question over whether the global economic downturn has left its mark.
“Globally, data revenues remained flat in the fourth quarter at just below $49bn”, Jotischky comments, “and the fear is that global macroeconomic conditions have had an impact on discretionary consumer spend, and especially in North America and parts of Europe. If this trend continues into 2009, there is a real danger that any slowdown in non-voice usage will have an impact on mobile operator business strategies.”
Informa also publishes for the first time information on broadcast mobile TV networks. By the end of 2008, there were 26 live networks in deployment with the total number of subscribers reaching 27.718m at the end of 2008, of which over 21m subscribed to Japan’s 1Seg network, available on NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank networks.
“This is an important finding” commented Informa Telecoms & Media principal analyst, Nick Jotischky, “as non-voice services are becoming a central plank to mobile operator strategies at a time of increasingly high penetration rates, low voice tariffs and intense competition. Not only can data services help to keep the offerings of mobile operators more relevant and distinct from their competitors, but they can also help to raise ARPU levels and generate new customers.”
Looked at regionally, there is a considerable disparity in the significance of non-voice revenues –- at the top end, just over a fifth of the total $192.8bn revenues generated by mobile operators in North America in 2008 comes now from non-voice services as opposed to 5% of the $71.1bn revenues from mobile operators in Africa.
The majority of the $188.7bn of non-voice revenues are still SMS-based, but at the end of 2008, $75.1bn (40 percent) of this revenue was from non-SMS services. The deployment of advanced technologies (such as HSPA) and the growing demand for data-optimised devices such as Apple’s iPhone have helped to accelerate the level of non-SMS spend.
The advance of mobile broadband has been a key feature of the telecom industry in the past year with Informa putting the total number of subscriptions at 178.2m at the end of 2008. This represents extraordinary growth given that Verizon, the largest operator in terms of mobile broadband subscriber numbers (24.245m), only registered its first such subscribers at the end of 2004.
Given that it took the best part of 15 years to register the first 178m mobile subscribers globally, this represents a rapid evolution path for mobile broadband.
There are some warning signs, however, for the global mobile industry. There appears to have been a slowdown in data revenues reported by operators during the fourth quarter of 2008. Whilst, some of this can be explained away by currency fluctuations, there is a question over whether the global economic downturn has left its mark.
“Globally, data revenues remained flat in the fourth quarter at just below $49bn”, Jotischky comments, “and the fear is that global macroeconomic conditions have had an impact on discretionary consumer spend, and especially in North America and parts of Europe. If this trend continues into 2009, there is a real danger that any slowdown in non-voice usage will have an impact on mobile operator business strategies.”
Informa also publishes for the first time information on broadcast mobile TV networks. By the end of 2008, there were 26 live networks in deployment with the total number of subscribers reaching 27.718m at the end of 2008, of which over 21m subscribed to Japan’s 1Seg network, available on NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank networks.
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