China

RIM details BlackBerry's global expansion

Jason Ankeny — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:52:49 -0400

During its annual shareholder meeting last week, BlackBerry device maker Research In Motion outlined plans for international expansion as well as investments in new handsets and software. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said it hopes to extend BlackBerry service into markets including Russia, Latin America, China and Southeast Asia, countering investor and analyst concerns the firm will be unable to sustain its history of expansion. Last month, RIM posted a profit outlook that fell shy of expectations despite more than doubling its quarterly earnings. RIM added it will also introduce new devices and applications as well as bolster R&D spending.

For more on RIM's outlook:
- read this DailyTech article

Related articles:
RIM to launch BlackBerry Developer Conference in fall
RIM unveils BlackBerry platform updates

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

Chipnuts cracks smartphone OS market

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:59:56 -0400

Chinese mobile multimedia chips and system solutions provider Chipnuts Technology announced the launch of its SmartNX Mobile operating system and NX200 smartphone platform. According to Chipnuts, the NX200 platform integrates its C7280 multi-core mobile multimedia application processor with the Smart NX open mobile OS and related reference design and product development tools, promising to simplify smartphone development, accelerate time to market and reduce the total cost of ownership.

The NX200 platform integrates smartphone software such as the Office suite, web browser, push e-mail and IM along with intelligent tracking and remote control, two-way real-time conversation recorder and dynamic voice transformer. Chipnuts also announced the inclusion of the Chinese stock software Dazhihui.

"All these years, Chipnuts has strived to develop China's own smartphone platform and operating system," said Chipnuts CEO David Hu in a prepared statement. "The successful launch of NX200 and SmartNX Mobile not only demonstrates Chipnuts' effort and commitment, but also strengthens and brings forward China's innovative capabilities. We hope through the use of our new products, consumers from all levels can enjoy the convenience, power, and practicality brought by smartphones, making China the country with highest smartphone penetration."

For more on the Chipnuts OS and smartphone platform:
- read this release

Related article:
- Top 5 Most anticipated smartphones

QUICKLINKS: Research In Motion says China BlackBerry deal imminent; Previewing the Motorola Z9; and much more...

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:59:55 -0400

Research In Motion says China BlackBerry deal imminent. Article

Sneak preview: The Motorola Z9. Article

LG-Nortel licenses Global IP Solutions' VoiceEngine Mobile applications. Release

Mobile Ready debuts website conversion service. Release

Handmark names Ted Wugofski CTO. Release

QUICKLINKS: Telus offers adult content to Canadian subscribers; Why the iPhone is ARM instead of Symbian; Much more...

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:01:35 -0500

Telus offers adult content to Canadian subscribers. Article

Opinion: Why the iPhone is ARM, and isn't Symbian. Article

IE Mobile flaw could be used to crash phone. Article

Some TomTom devices ship with virus. Article

China launches 4G network in Shanghai. Article

OwnYourPhone.com: make ringtones from any song. Website

Google Maps now available as a native Windows Mobile app. Website

New GPS chip for phones supposedly works indoors. Release

Monotype updates font engine

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:01:38 -0400

Monotype Imaging has released new versions of its iType font engine and WorldType font engine which generate scalable true type fonts that actually look good on small screens. The company also announced the acquisition of China Type, a Chinese font design firm. Monotype also has a deal with QUALCOMM to integrate font technology into uiOne. Website

QUICKLINKS: TypePad takes blogging mobile; Mobile AJAX will replace J2ME; Much more...

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:01:35 -0400

TypePad takes blogging mobile. Blog

Registration for Google Code Jam now open. Website

Mark Reinhold: "Yes, we really are going to open-source the JDK." Blog

Opinion: Mobile AJAX will replace J2ME. Blog

JSR286 (Portlets 2.0): First impressions. Blog

Insert your SIM card and this sexy rotary phone is ready to go. Article

Fake Blackberries a real problem in China. FierceWireless

Helio to open retail stores. FierceMobileContent

LG Chocolate goes on sale in China

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 20:01:34 -0400

The "Chocolate" phone from South Korea's LG is now available in China for $495. The tiny slider phone features a 2-inch QVGA display, 512MB of on-board memory and a 1.3-MP camera. And it looks great. Blog

China claims 400M mobile subscribers

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:01:36 -0500

China's Ministry of Information claims that the country is home to 400 million mobile phones, about 59 million more than last year. Roughly 70 million of those phones can access data services, and about 40 million support GPRS. The number of cell phones in China is staggering, especially when you consider that there are only 111 million Internet users in the country. Blog

China picks TD-SCDMA for 3G

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 19:01:37 -0500

China has selected TD-SCDMA for next-generation phone service. This may seem like an odd choice, but it means that Chinese manufacturers will not have to pay the large royalties associated with competing standards like WCDMA and CDMA2000. Article