Vodafone

Vodafone Americas Foundation launches developer challenge

Jason Ankeny — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:50:39 -0500

The Vodafone Americas Foundation (a philanthropic arm of international telecoms giant Vodafone) launched its Wireless Innovation Challenge, an initiative that promises cash prizes in recognition of unique, late-stage mobile projects with the potential for social change in education, health, economic development, the environment and communications access. The new competition is open to applications and services submitted by applicants from universities and nonprofit organizations across the U.S.--eligible projects must demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach that capitalizes on wireless-related technologies to address a critical global issue. Vodafone adds that entrants must also boast the potential for replication and large-scale impact, as well as a business plan or basic framework for financial sustainability and rollout.

The Vodafone Americas Foundation will select eight finalists for in-person presentations in March 2009, with winners publicly announced and recognized at an event hosted by the foundation the following month. Three winners will earn prizes of $300,000, $200,000 and $100,000 according to the decisions of a panel of judges made up of experts in wireless engineering, international school development and social entrepreneurship. Submissions will be accepted now through Feb. 2--click here to enter.

For more on the Wireless Innovation Challenge:
- read this release

Delivering personalized content

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Expect personalization to be a hot topic at BREW. Qualcomm has been talking a lot about its purchase of Xiam last March and how that company will help it take personalization to the next level through its software that matches behaviors and interest with mobile phone users. The software application, according to Xiam, solves the problem of discovery on the mobile phone and has been commercially deployed by Orange in the U.K. and Vodafone in Ireland. Xiam technology will be included with the next release of BREW opening it up to a wider audience since it will work with any multimedia handset.

QUICKLINKS: Report: BlackBerry Thunder to debut in Q3; Microsoft proposes alternative Yahoo deal;

Tue, 20 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

> Report: BlackBerry Thunder to debut in Q3.

> Microsoft proposes alternative Yahoo deal.

> Windows Live Services to launch on BlackBerry.

> Vodafone, AT&T interested in Huawei handset biz?

> Qualcomm wins L-Band spectrum auction.

> LG and Samsung team on mobile DTV standard.

Operators team for mobile web services lab

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:58 -0400

International mobile giants China Mobile, Softbank and Vodafone announced they will team to establish a Joint Innovation Lab to promote the development of new mobile technologies, applications and services in an effort to accelerate commercial deployment of mobile web initiatives spanning multiple handset platforms and operating systems. The Joint Innovation Lab will serve as the platform to develop projects according to emerging technologies and market demand, emphasizing web-based services like mobile widgets--the three operators said they welcome vendor and developer cooperation as well.

For more on the Joint Innovation Lab:
-read this release

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Nokia unveils nanotechnology concept phone

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:59:58 -0500

Nokia and the University of Cambridge jointly unveiled Morph, a nanotechnology concept phone that promises to demonstrate how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, enabling the user to transform handsets into radically different shapes. Developed by the device giant's Nokia Research Center unit in association with Cambridge engineers, Morph was launched in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art's current "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition, and purports to illustrate the ultimate functionality inherent in nanotechnology, typified by flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. According to Nokia, elements of the Morph initiative are still a good seven years away from integration into handheld devices, although it believes nanotechnology may one day lead to reduced manufacturing costs.

"We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience," said Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, head of the Nokia Research Center's Cambridge laboratory, in a prepared statement. "The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials."

For more on Morph:
-read this release and check out this photo gallery

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Nokia unveils sustainable phone: Remade

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:59:57 -0500

During his keynote address last week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo unveiled a handset concept that was forged entirely from recycled materials. The concept phone is called "Remade."

According to Kallasvuo the materials do not aversely affect design or functionality: Remade is "a device [that] uses nothing new--all reused materials without compromising a bit of style," Kallasvuo said. "Even the internal materials are based on environmentally friendly materials. At the end of the day, none of us needs more complexity or environmental trade-offs to get access to great technology." -Brian

For more on the concept phone:
-watch this video
-see our keynote photo slideshow

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Nokia debuts mobile video service

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

Continuing its acceleration into the multimedia space, Nokia announced Medeo, a new mobile streaming video service created by mobile services and software developer Starcut. Accessed through the www.nokia.mobi portal, the ad-supported Medeo service focuses on entertainment-themed content like Hollywood news, film trailers, celebrity interviews and red-carpet footage, and is now available via Nokia Nseries and Eseries devices.

For more on Medeo:
-read this release

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On the Hot Seat with Morgan Gillis

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:20:32 -0500

FierceWireless editor Brian Dolan and DailyTechRag editor Mehan Jayasuriya recently interviewed Morgan Gillis, the executive director of the LiMo Foundation to discuss the ramifications of Google's Android launch, the advent of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), the challenges Google faces on this front and whether LiMo and the OHA have considered merging.

FierceDeveloper: Google seems to be doing a lot to highlight the differences between their product and the closed systems that are out there today. What is LiMo doing to highlight the differences between its product and other closed systems out there?

Gillis: LiMo was, as you will recall, was brought in by an industry consortium. The six founding members were DoCoMo, Vodafone, Samsung, Motorola, NEC and Panasonic. The background to the creation of LiMo was that the industry was reluctant to use the commercial platform offerings from Microsoft and Nokia on a broad scale. Very slowly Microsoft has found a niche for Windows Mobile in the enterprise segment. The industry as a whole hasn't engaged with those platforms. The reason, primarily, is one of ownership and business models. There is a general discomfort with sourcing the middleware layer of technology from a single dominant party that may have an ulterior business agenda. In simple terms, that was the reason that the founding members got together to create LiMo. They also quite deliberately selected Linux as the underlying technology because the open-source nature of that technology and also the fact that ownership was open and community-based.

In very practical terms, LiMo is also making very strong progress-the first release of the platform R1 is virtually finished. It will be completed this calendar year-so in about seven weeks. It's thereafter available to any party to use within handsets or to pre-integrate in semiconductor products or just to build applications on top of. Also, the first handsets that use the LiMo platform technology will come into the market and into the hands of the users next month as well. This is a device called the N905 from NEC for the Japanese market. And a further device called the P905 from Panasonic, also for the Japanese market. We expect to see a range of LiMo handsets from a larger group of handset makers in the first half of 2008.

FierceDeveloper: It seems like Google's OHA and LiMo were both formed for similar reasons and in similar ways. Would you agree?

Gillis: The difference is that OHA has just one founding member, which is Google and the other 33 are sort of, well, I'm not sure how they're referred to but they are the second tier of members. I presume, although I haven't looked yet, that there are certain bylaws by which the OHA conducts its affairs. I expect that they have taken some of the good things from the LiMo model and applied it in a slightly different way to the OHA.

FierceDeveloper: While Google has promoted the openness of its platform for the end user, it still seems like that will eventually be determined by the way a mobile carrier adopts the Android platform. Is that true for LiMo's platform as well?

Gillis: Ultimately, the openness of the handset is determined by the operator. Google has set up their stall where they are heavily promoting openness, and I'm sure they do really mean openness in terms of how the handset is offered to the user, but whether that's achieved or not is I'm sure dependent on the marketing policy of the carrier concerned. If you buy a handset in Europe you will find the handset can be a much more open handset than North American handsets typically are and you can download applications and program the handset yourself. I do believe this is central to Google's philosophy because it's really propelled their success on the desktop, but the success that Google achieved on the desktop was really achieved without disturbing the PC industry status quo because of the very open nature of the Internet. Google was able to make itself available to consumers without any intermediary. Progressively, Google, found very clever ways to develop deeper and more commercial ways to connect with users, but without having to go through the PC industry at all really.

The mobile world, of course, is different. It's more controlled. It's controlled in the sense of the networks and the handsets as well because the operators like to have some control over the degree of openness that's present on the handset. So Google's approach here has to be one of working with and through the mobile industry, rather than going directly to mobile consumers. It's for that reason that I wasn't surprised at all to see that Google was assembling an industry consortium. I thought it was very understandable that last week the message that they really wanted to get across, first and foremost, was that they were engaging with the mobile industry rather than attempting to take over the industry or disintermediate the industry.

FierceDeveloper: Is LiMo going to offer an open SDK like Google's?

Gillis: Well, LiMo's focus is different from Google's. We are focused exclusively on the middleware, so we explicitly do not address the user experience layer as part of the LiMo mission. That's quite deliberate. Philosophically, we believe that the value line on handsets has shifted up significantly now. Most of the value now lies in the user experience layer and LiMo's role is to create the middleware. Our mission is to catalyze next generation user experiences of all kinds, but not to try to produce those experiences from within LiMo. We feel that this is a very natural way to conduct our affairs. It means we can focus totally on one part of the system and not get into conflict with our partners.

FierceDeveloper: Are the OHA and LiMo competitive with each other in any sense?

Gillis: Well, no, I think that there are some very substantial points of alignment and the two initiatives are very naturally complementary to each other. As you, of course, have seen a number of the leading drivers behind LiMo are also in the OHA camp and are quite comfortable in both camps, actually. As I said, LiMo is middleware, while Google's primary focus is the user experience. They clearly have some middleware components, but strategically they are going to focus on the JAVA implementation and the JAVA SDK that goes with it. I doubt that Google has any ambitions at all to be the middleware driver for the whole mobile industry. That's not the endeavor that really plays to their core competence. It's all not something that other big players like Nokia or Microsoft have been successful with at all.

FierceDeveloper: What challenges does Google face with its Android launch?

Gillis: Their biggest challenge is engagement with the industry. It's not that the industry is disinclined to engage with Google-it's clearly the opposite: they've got a very impressive list of names onboard. But the practical and the commercial and contractual engagement is something that Google will have to obviously be very thoughtful about. Essentially what they are doing here is to roll out a set of new business models which they're taking to market through their existing value system. They have to marry up with a whole spectrum of business models and business plans and business ambitions that already exist within the industry--some of the operators don't really have ambitions to deliver the mobile Internet to consumers themselves and they are probably quite excited about Google's arrival. Others, of course, have very clear objectives to deliver the mobile Internet experience to their customers without necessarily working in concert with a large partner like Google. It's a very complicated value system, they have to work through operators they have to engage handset makers and introduce new business models throughout.

At the same time, they have to engage an army of developers to innovate, create and imagine the next generation of mobile Internet experiences. I think that the main area of challenge is engaging the mobile industry in a way that allows them to get access to mobile consumers and get traction with their platform as quickly as possible. The success of any platform really depends on the pace of the platform getting picked up. They will have a strong start but they really need to augment their existing B2C play with a compelling B2B play now to really address the entire mobile market.

FierceDeveloper: Given the complementary missions of LiMo and the OHA, would LiMo consider joining forces with the OHA?

Gillis: We see convergence, practical convergence between OHA and LiMo, as a very plausible prospect and we are extremely open to that. We see that as something that would be very natural and there's already a commonality in industry backing. There aren't particular plans at the moment but I could see that happening. These key LiMo members are very open and comfortable about now being involved in OHA. They see Google as a fantastic consumer play and they see LiMo as an industry play within the mobile industry. For those parties, the two fit together extremely well. People would only become uncomfortable if Google began to play outside of its core strengths and to become the provider of a middleware platform, which wouldn't be appropriate because Google has no record of delivering mobile handset platforms. That takes a very long time to get right. The LiMo partners have been at it for a very long time. It took Nokia's Series 60 to take about five years to become mainstream within Nokia. Google will have some very punchy objectives to engage mobile consumers directly, and it would slow them down considerably if, in addition to addressing the consumer, they attempted to create their own handset platform. It wouldn't make sense at all.

Developers hamstrung by Vodafone software changes

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Mobile developers are up in arms over changes initiated by British operator Vodafone that threaten to hamper the quality of their services and applications while also limiting premium content sales. PCWorld reports that Vodafone recently implemented software created by adaptive content delivery service provider Novarra designed to reformat website content for improved display on mobile screens--however, some firms contend that in the process, Vodafone also removed user agent applications that enable their websites to detect the model and capabilities of handsets viewing their content, in turn optimizing content for that particular phone. Without the user agent, premium content sites also cannot determine which ringtones, wallpapers and related downloads are compatible with a particular phone.

According to PCWorld, Vodafone-approved firms on the operator's so-called "white list" were notified of the changes, and the user agent is so far working correctly in relation to their services. But other developers complain it is difficult and time-consuming to gain white-list access, and that Vodafone requires companies to make certain changes to their site behaviors in order to gain the carrier's seal of approval. At present it is unknown whether Vodafone's removal of the user agent capability was deliberate--on a developers' forum hosted by the operator, one user posting as a Vodafone employee defended the move and said customer feedback is so far mostly positive. But in a blog post on the issue, mobile services developer Lucca Passani writes "The great majority of consumers won't realize that they have been deprived of a service and will not complain."

For more on the Vodafone controversy:
- read this PCWorld article

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Oracle acquires Netsure

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Software behemoth Oracle announced its acquisition of network intelligence, analytics and network data integrity software developer Netsure Telecom Limited. Financial details were not disclosed. Netsure provides operator partners like Vodafone, Cable & Wireless and Eircom network intelligence and analytics software promising efficient operation and utilization of existing and next-gen networks and services. The Dublin-based firm will become part of Oracle's Communications Global Business Unit upon the transaction's expected close later this month.

For more on the Oracle/Netsure deal:
-read this release