Mergers and Acquisitions

Is it excitement or hype for mobile LBS?

Wed, 28 May 2008 16:36:21 -0400

By Brian Dolan

In five short years mobile location-based services are expected to generate $13.3 billion in annual worldwide revenue, according to a recent report from ABI Research. Last year the services generated $515 million, but the momentum in the mobile LBS sector is apparent in the aggressive marketing carriers' have put behind navigation services and family locator applications as well as massive mergers and acquisitions like Nokia's acquisition of Navteq. So are these red letter days for mobile LBS? That depends on who you ask.

"Last year was more of a banner year than ever before for LBS services," Leslie Presutti, director of product management for Qualcomm's gpsOne group. "Nokia did an awful lot of groundwork to get LBS services established last year and they were going to push LBS with or without carrier partners. Carriers got the sense last year that they need to get on the [LBS] bandwagon."

Presutti notes that Nokia isn't the only one putting pressure on the carriers: Other change agents like Google are entering the market and pushing the incumbent to take action sooner than later. While Presutti acknowledges that the Nokia-Navteq is probably just the beginning of consolidation in the mobile LBS space, she hopes there won't be too much consolidation that innovation is sacrificed.

Right now mobile LBS applications like family and friend finders are gaining widespread support and navigation is close to becoming a given on advanced handsets, Presutti said. "We're almost to a point that navigation services that allow users to get from point A to point B will be commoditized. It will be a given in 12 to 18 months I bet. Consumers will just expect navigations applications to be present on their phones." Presutti said.

Once navigation services do become commoditized, however, application developers and carriers will need to look to the market innovators more than ever to keep users happy enough to be paying their $10 a month for LBS services.

"What will keep folks interested in mobile LBS?" Presutti asks. "When the market reaches that point in the next year or two, mobile advertising will come into play in a big way. LBS will help carriers and brands get more ingrained into a user's personal life and determine what that user likes to do and what kind of information they like to receive when they are doing certain things. In these cases, location based services are no longer serving as differentiators, but as the foundation [of the mobile experience]," Presutti said.

A recent report from Jupiter Research encouraged brands to enter the budding mobile advertising market, citing Nokia's acquisition of Navteq as an indication of an imminent rise in geo-targeted advertising.

Some companies in the location-based services market, however, contend that the hype around some of the newer applications is overblown. WaveMarket's founder and CEO Tasso Roumeliotis doesn't share Presutti's view that 2007 was a banner year for mobile location-based services.

"It was and it wasn't," Roumeliotis said. "On the one hand, we saw a lot of coverage and excitement over LBS, but there are only two applications that have generated big revenue: navigation and family locator services. These services generally cost consumers between $5 and $10 a month and they have been extremely well-marketed by carriers. The rest of the applications in LBS have received very high profile press coverage but achieved very little traction."

Roumeliotis chalks up the weak uptake of other services to expensive pricing, a dearth of interested users and a lack of carrier interoperability for LBS services.

WaveMarket is positioning its platform, VeriPlace to become the defacto platform for mobile LBS services by opening up its APIs and encouraging developers to create future applications. The company has already launched family locator services on a half dozen carriers, including Alltel, but Roumeliotis does not believe the market is yet ripe for applications beyond family locators and navigation.

"Who wants to be on a friend locator service if only two of your friends are on it?" Roumeliotis asked. "Once one subscriber leaves because it's not worth the $10-a-month to keep tabs on two friends, do you think those other two friends are going to stick around for long?"

On the Hot Seat with BREW's Andrew Gilbert

Wed, 21 May 2008 16:32:05 -0400

BREW's Andrew Gilbert

On the eve of the annual BREW confab in San Diego, Sue Marek, editor in chief of FierceDeveloper talked to Andrew Gilbert, executive vice president and president of QIS/MediaFLO Technologies and Qualcomm Europe about the latest developments in the BREW platform.

FierceDeveloper: You recently transitioned into the role of executive vice president of QIS and MediaFLO Technologies and Qualcomm Europe. How has the change been so far?

Gilbert: It is a new role. I've been at Qualcomm for a few years through the acquisition of Flarion. I spent the past few years running the European division. I had a huge exposure to QIS and MediaFLO because I was leading the operations of those two groups as they tried to develop out into Europe. I had a lot to do with Telecom Italia selecting the BREW gaming solution and O2 with their use of the BREW interface. Recently, I worked with Hutchison the BREW platform. So I have been groomed on the BREW way. The opportunity to take over running the entire organization was a fantastic opportunity and an honor.

Since then, I have spent a lot of time in San Diego. I'm based and live in the U.K. In the early stages, as I started to reach out and meet with customers and the vendors and developers, the first question was why have someone run this from the U.K.? But in reality the business has been global. The U.S. is a huge part of the business and a great success, but the appeal of BREW has spread globally.

FierceDeveloper: Verizon is one of your biggest BREW customers and they have been talking about their Open Development Initiative. How does BREW fit into that?

Gilbert: Open is such an open word. What does it really mean? I think BREW is a very successful model and others are trying to recreate that model, like Apple. That is a very similar model to BREW but they even own and run the device. In that sense BREW is much more open. BREW is applicable across any air interface, across any BREW-enabled device and with any operator that wants to be a BREW operator. It's developing now to create opportunities for a more open approach to how content is being delivered on BREW. BREW Zones is the opportunity for us to create an environment where developers can deliver content into a safe zone through a willing operator to a subscriber. A subscriber could go onto a BREW developer site or a BREW developer partner site, choose a game they like and download it across BREW Zones, across a BREW operator and onto their phone even though it may not be a standard BREW on catalog game. For those operators that want a more open environment, BREW Zones enables them to do that. It opens them up to a wider community. That is one illustration of how BREW is becoming more open.

Another would be how we are trying to add new features and functionality to BREW. These are features that can be deployed standalone or they can be deployed as part of BREW. Our recent acquisition of Xiam in Ireland is one example. Xiam has a product that is a profile and recommendation engine that allows an operator to add value to the subscriber experience by using the history of what they look at as a guide to recommending other content that is relevant. How does that tie into BREW? This will be an integrated part of the BREW solution and it will not only recommend content as part of the BREW content and BREW portal but also other content. It's designed to support recommendations from other portals that the operator might have. This is another piece of openness.

FierceDeveloper: How is BrandXtend -the off-portal part of BREW--progressing?

Gilbert: With BrandXtend we have announced Major League Baseball as a customer and we have been focused on making that a success. We are not in a position to announce any other clients at this stage.

BrandXtend is an ideal example of my over-arching strategy: any content across any network delivered to any device. We are doing that today with Major League Baseball.

FierceDeveloper: Tell me about the hosted services business. This was publicly announced earlier this year. Do you see a lot of growth potential from this model?

Gilbert: I do see this as having growth potential. There are different requirements for different operators. We saw an opportunity when Midwest Wireless was acquired by Alltel so we purchased the managed services business. I've met with the BREW managed service customers and they are happy that we offer this service. We have scaled down the power of BREW to these smaller operators and that is valuable to the operators and the subscribers who might not otherwise get access to this service.

I think there is an opportunity to take this to other operators that are emerging so they can deliver this type of service.

I will bring on stage one of the managed service operators to talk about their experience.

FierceDeveloper: Can you give me any hints at what Qualcomm will be talking about at BREW?

Gilbert: We will talk about BREW Zones and Xiam. We will also talk about a package of improvements that we are putting together for our developers to help improve the economics and the time to market for getting their products out. We will announce a number of improvements so developers have an even better experience with the BREW ecosystem.

FierceDeveloper: How is the BREW conference evolving?

Gilbert: I don't want to disenfranchise anyone. We have core and loyal group of operators and developers. We have seen great support from these companies. But we also see a broader world out there. We are bringing new people to Qualcomm like Xiam and we are bringing in new technologies such as widgets and new speakers such as Telefonica. There are more countries represented here than ever before. It's much bigger than just games and content.

QUICKLINKS: Android Watch; Neonode N2 unboxing;

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Android Watch: Tracking Google's mobile progress
Since formally announcing its much-anticipated Android open-source mobile operating system late last year, web services giant Google has played its cards tight to the vest. Even with the first Android-based devices slated to hit the market within the next few months, myriad developmental questions remain. Click here for a FierceDeveloper web exclusive spotlighting what we do know about Android, six months on.

> Neonode N2 unboxing. FierceWireless

> Motorola reorganizes handset business. FierceWireless

> Microsoft completes Danger acquisition, restructures. FierceWireless

> Tough going for iPhone in Europe. FierceWireless

> Nokia introduces mobile wallet phone. FierceMobileContent

On the Hot Seat with Tamara Casey

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:03:56 -0400

On the Hot Seat with Tamara Casey

Tamara Casey, the former vice president of technology strategy, research and architecture at Nextel Communications, left the company when it merged with Sprint and founded 4DK Technologies, a technology solutions firm that connects networks, applications and devices. Casey recently talked to FierceDeveloper editor in chief Sue Marek about her company's mission to tackle the "gaps" that exist between technology and strategy.

FierceDeveloper: Tamara, you left Nextel in 2005. Why did you decide to start 4DK?

Casey: The main reason was because I really loved what I was doing at Nextel. In my last position before I left Nextel, I was responsible for all the technology strategy and long-term network architecture and technology research for the company. It was an amazing job that allowed me to look at all emerging technologies and really focus on the future and finding a way to differentiate Nextel in the marketplace. I truly loved that work. The challenge was that it wasn't clear that what the business and product strategy was. It is hard to separate a technology strategy from a business strategy. There was this little bit of the dog chasing the tail. The business people would ask the technologies what we should do and the technologies would ask the business people what problem they are trying to solve. This went on for some time.

When the merger occurred [with Sprint], I had an opportunity to leave the company and think about what I wanted to do next. I really decided that a lot of the problems we were trying to tackle within my existing team at Nextel were valid as industry problems, not just as problems as Nextel or problems as Sprint. We were dealing what I refer to as "white spaces," or gaps in technology and strategy. We had to fill those gaps to deliver meaningful services to customers.

Fundamentally I decided that I needed to do the same kind of work but I wanted to be able to do it independent of any type of carrier business dynamic or political or business constraints. I wanted to look at technology from a purist point of view.

FierceDeveloper: Tell me about 4DK and the business proposition.

Casey: The business is focused around two core products. Our Scout platform is an interoperability switch at the application layer. It's an application switch. We view it as a complementary platform to IMS or service delivery platforms, which are common deployments in the carrier today. Those deployments are focused on specific protocols and implementations. For example, IMS was designed to deal with SIP-based services. Service delivery platforms are designed to take carrier legacy data environment and open it up and expose it to web services protocol. The view at 4DK is, What about the rest of the protocols, and why don't those two platforms interoperate with each other? That is that white space or gap that I've been talking about. It's effectively broadening the thinking. At the end of the day, services should be able to interoperate in a way that is meaningful for the end user and not based on the constraints of the protocols or specific application that the service is written in.

For example, people think about instant messaging as a popular service on the Internet today and on cell phones. But instant messaging is not an interoperable service. AOL doesn't talk to MSN, etc. Each company has their own service offering. At 4DK we think those problems should be hidden from the end user. That is an example of application interoperability between a common service type. We also believe if one person has push to talk and another has instant messaging, they are still messaging services and there is no reason the PTT person can't send a message to someone without PTT and have it be an instant message. Those are the problems we are solving at 4DK.

FierceDeveloper: Who is your customer?

Casey: We cater to both developers and operators. Our customers today are some of each. We also have our Scamp platform, which is essentially a smaller version of the same thing that lives in the handset. It takes apps that are native on your device and allows them to interoperate in a way they never have before. Also it solves the problem of when you download new apps or widgets to your device--they don't always recognize what is already there in the native set. We are trying to solve that problem as well.

We have one customer today on the application development side who is working on a diabetes management solution delivered by cell phone. We are helping them with our network platform by enabling for them a food journaling service. You can basically talk into your phone and say "Pizza" and with our platform and their development engine we can covert from speech to text and do a database inquiry and reformat the database inquiry and send information back to the end user and populate the end user's patient portal with their food information. Instead of them having to write everything down, they log in at night and validate what they entered was correct. They have their food journal they can keep for their physicians. This is one of the most commonly requested items by physicians and least followed by patients.

We also have our first trial with a carrier. It's a lab trial where we will be using their lab environment and our network platform to demonstrate many different combinations of PTX [push-to-x] services.

FierceDeveloper: It seems like you are advocating the eliminating of silos and an open network atmosphere. But at the same time you used to work for an operator. Do you really think that type of openness will happen?

Casey: I absolutely do. I'm happy to say that I was not too popular in 2005 when I was espousing that I thought we should open up our network and let the customers tell us what services they wanted to use. That was a very unpopular opinion back then. I'm happy to see that it's gaining traction now.

I do think it's the way of the future. In our conversations with the large operators we have seen them come to terms with this concept that no one knows what the killer app is and people have spent a lot of time and money integrating these incredibly complex services in their network and a little bit on the Field of Dreams "If we built it they will come" theme. And no one came. People are getting frustrated with that model.

This is in the nascent stage. As an industry we haven't figured out what this means and it's gaining momentum. People are looking to offer these unlimited rate plans and the name of the game is giving people what they want for the lowest cost possible. If you are dealing with that cost dilemma and the flexibility and freedom of choice, the only way to do that is through more openness.

FierceDeveloper: What does this mean for developers? Is openness a good thing or does it create more confusion?

Casey: I think that's a good point. It does present some challenges for developers. One of the things that is different about 4DK is that we think it's critical that we allow the technology to adapt to what the developer is doing and not the other way around. Developers, at the end of the day, want to do things their own way. They have a good reason to do it that way. The problem with many silo service development platforms in the past, like IMS, is they are putting a standard out there and telling the developer that if they write to this standard, their application will be compliant. We know that the average developer won't go seeking out the IMS stack. The only time development has worked in wireless is the typical developer program the carriers launch. The challenge there was back in the walled garden phase, you had to fight to get attention.

We believe a critical solution in this is providing a technology interface that adapts to the developer and doesn't cause the developer to adapt to it. That is what our Scout platform is doing.

FierceDeveloper: You have always been in this technology-centric field but I hear you have a background in dance. Tell me about that.

Casey: I grew up doing competitive figure skating and Spanish folk dancing. I've always had that bug since childhood. When I moved to the East Coast in 1993 I started doing competitive ballroom dancing. Like everything else in my life, I'm obsessive about it. I became competitive in it and it was my primary hobby for 15 years. I've always enjoyed the dance business. It provided me with a mind/body connection that you can't get at work. Your mind is going at work but your rear-end is spreading while we are typing away. It was a great exercise and very therapeutic activity. When it was time to leave Nextel, I decided to get a dance business going and maybe it will support me in my retirement.

FierceDeveloper: So you own a dance studio also?

Casey: Yes, you can go to supershagvegas.com and that's my dance studio. We are probably the No. 1 competitive dance studio in the Vegas area.

Microsoft at work on new mobile web browser?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

A recent BusinessWeek feature reports Microsoft is redoubling its mobile efforts to compete with the success of rival Apple's iPhone--Microsoft mobile communications business GM Scott Horn denies the software giant's push is in response to Apple's growing traction in the consumer market, saying "We've always been going in this direction, but we feel it's time to move in more aggressively now." Noting Microsoft's recent emphasis on the mobile web browsing experience, heralded by software licensing deals with Adobe Systems, BusinessWeek reports the company is likely in development on a new Windows Mobile-based browser to rival the iPhone, citing Microsoft's recent $500 million acquisition of device maker Danger as further evidence. Horn would say only that "We absolutely intend to provide a great mobile browsing experience."

For more on Microsoft's mobile web efforts:
-read this BusinessWeek article

Related articles:
Microsoft inks Silverlight deal with Nokia
Microsoft mulling Windows/Zune convergence
Sony Ericsson debuts Windows Mobile device

QUICKLINKS: Google Android demos from Mobile World Congress; Microsoft snaps up Danger;

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:59:55 -0500

> Google Android demos from Mobile World Congress. FierceWireless

> Microsoft snaps up Danger. FierceWireless

> Touch trend affects keypad crowd. FierceWireless

> Motorola completes Soundbuzz acquisition. Release

Qualcomm acquiring SoftMax

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

Qualcomm announced its acquisition of privately-held SoftMax, which develops noise reduction technology for mobile devices. Financial terms were not disclosed. According to Qualcomm, SoftMax's multi-microphone noise suppression and echo cancellation expertise expand the audio and voice capabilities of its product portfolio, enabling wireless devices to distinguish a speaker's voice from surrounding background noises. The technology also promises lower power consumption, more efficient implementation as well as minimal processing power and memory requirements.

For more on the Qualcomm/SoftMax deal:
-read this release

Related articles:
Qualcomm acquiring Firethorn for $210 million
Qualcomm acquires MIMO pioneer Airgo
Qualcomm buys Elata for $57 million

Report: Dell at work on smartphone

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

A Forbes profile spotlighting Michael Dell and his second go-round as CEO of the technology firm bearing his name speculates that Dell is at work on a smartphone, developing the device in collaboration with Taiwanese hardware maker Quanta Computer. The device, which is said to include video, an MP3 player and Internet access, is reportedly scheduled to debut in early 2008, possibly in conjunction with January's Consumer Electronics Show.

In February Dell hired Ron Garriques, executive VP of Motorola's handset division, to run its entire consumer business, the first indicator the firm was mulling entry into the smartphone market. In mid-August, it acquired ZING Systems, a consumer technology and services company emphasizing always-connected audio and entertainment devices. Dell is offering no official comment on the device, although with $13 billion in cash and equivalents on the balance sheet, Forbes reports it is also exploring acquisition possibilities, Quanta among them.

For more on Dell's smartphone future:
-read this Forbes article

Microsoft acquires media-sharing startup WebFives

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

Microsoft acquired startup WebFives, which provides web-based file-sharing services for Internet and mobile video, photos, audio, and blogs. Financial terms were not disclosed. Previously named Vizrea, WebFives was founded in mid-2003 by former Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Michael Toutonghi, who announced the acquisition via a personal message posted on the firm's website. According to Toutonghi, Microsoft acquired all rights to WebFives technology, patents pending, trademarks and software--WebFives will continue operating until the end of the year, with Toutonghi notifying users they have until that time to download and copy any content that you may be storing on the company's servers. WebFives' solution enables users to automatically upload multimedia content from mobile devices to the web--related services include a mobile website, widgets and a WebFives media player that may be added to social networking sites.

For more on the Microsoft/WebFives deal:
-read this ITWorld article

Related articles:
Microsoft files patent for new mobile user interface
Microsoft: "We want mass and scale" in mobile
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Symbian acquires MoGenesis

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:59:58 -0500

Symbian announced the acquisition of personnel and technology from MoGenesis, which develops smart OS mobile applications for the Chinese market. Financial terms were not disclosed. According to Symbian, the acquisition is critical to both its strategic growth in China and the ongoing evolution of the Symbian smartphone OS--MoGenesis' engineering and management team will join the Symbian staff, and CEO Dennis Kung will remain onboard to spearhead Symbian product development across the region.

Symbian opened a sales and marketing office in Beijing in January 2007, adding R&D facilities in August. "The acquisition will play a key role in Symbian's global R&D strategy for our world-leading customers," said Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford in a prepared statement. "China is one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones in the world and we will leverage our new Chinese resources to increase Symbian OS global product development. Symbian achieved 60 percent smartphone OS market share in China with 77 percent year-on-year growth, according to one analyst (Canalys) in Q207."

In additional news, Symbian announced Nokia's just-announced N82 smartphone is based on the mobile software developer's OS. According to Symbian, the multimedia handset is optimized for photography, navigation and web connectivity, featuring A-GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics. The Nokia N82 also features fast camera activation, fast reloading between shots and DVD-like quality video capture, WiFi connectivity and one-click upload to online communities, multimedia slideshows and a 3D multimedia menu and orientation sensor that rotates the UI automatically between horizontal and portrait mode.

More specs:

Support of WCDMA of 2100 MHz (HSDPA), EGSM 900, GSM 850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS) networks
Display 2.4", 240х320, 16.7М colors
Frontal CIF camera for a video telephony
Media player with support of MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC/WMA/M4A, OMA DRM 2.0/1.0 and WMDRM, MPEG4, AVC/ H.264, H.264, H.263, RV formats
Java MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1 support
Embedded memory 100 Mb
Size: 112 х 50.2 х 17.3 mm

For more on Symbian's acquisition of MoGenesis:
-read this release

For more on the Nokia N82:
-read this release

Related articles:
Nokia launches new Symbian development tools
Symbian OS 9.5 debuts
Nokia tops Smartphone Vendor Matrix