Diamond Touch- HTC’s new 3G phone

High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC) has launched a new 3G version of its HTC Touch in Middle East ahead of the awaited launch of the 3G iPhone.  

 

The interface can be spun by swiping a finger right or left across the display, providing efficient access to the features consumers use most. TouchFLO also enhances finger touch scrolling and browsing of Web pages, documents, messages and contact lists.

This smartphone, dubbed as iPhone killer, provides animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more.

General	2G Network	GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
		GSM 850 / 1800 / 1900 - American version
	3G Network	HSDPA 2100 / 900
		HSDPA 850 / 1900 - American version
	Announced	2008, May
	Status	Available. Released 2008, May
Size	Dimensions	102 x 51 x 11.5 mm
	Weight	110 g
Display	Type	TFT touchscreen, 65K colors
	Size	480 x 640 pixels, 2.8 inches
		- TouchFLO 3D finger swipe navigation
		- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
		- Touch-sensitive navigation controls
		- Handwriting recognition
Ringtones	Type	Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, WAV, WMA
	Customization	Download, order now
	Vibration	Yes
Memory	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	Practically unlimited
	Card slot	No
		- 4 GB user available memory
		- 192 MB DDR SDRAM, 256 MB ROM
		- Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 Mhz processor
Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	HSCSD	No
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, miniUSB
Features	OS	Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
	Messaging	SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
	Games	Yes, order now
	Colors	Black
	Camera	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, video; secondary VGA videocall camera
		- Built-in GPS with A-GPS
		- Stereo FM radio with RDS
		- Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer)
		- Java MIDP 2.0
		- Voice memo
		- MP3 player
		- Motion-based games
		- Built-in handsfree
Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 900 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 285 h
	Talk time	Up to 5 h 30 min

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Nokia launches N96 in India

Nokia has launched N96- its converged device in India. It will be available across the country from September 2008. Nokia has also announced a pre-booking scheme, offering consumers the opportunity to secure the N96 in advance. The offer will be valid through 2000 Nokia outlets across the country starting August 20, 2008.

The dual-slide Nokia N96 is a blend of style and cutting edge technology.Optimized for web access and entertainment it represents a whole new chapter in mobile technology.

Its features include:

A memory size of 16GB expandable to 24 GB through an external micro SD card, which allows users to store up to 18000 songs, up to 20000 images at 5   mega pixel, up to 60 hours of video or 20 full length movies.With multifunctional media keys and a 2.8” screen, music, movies, games and more are   available at the touch of a button.
To make playing, watching, listening or experiencing the content even more enjoyable, it features a ‘kickstand’ on the back cover that allows for   hands-free viewing.

It is the first ever mobile device to come preloaded with Wave Secure, a S60 unique security application that allows consumers not just to track   their handset in the event of loss or theft, but also create a backup for the phone data via the Internet.Additionally, in the event that it is lost or stolen, WaveSecure helps remotely wipe out all data from the device to prevent misuse, lock the device remotely and even track any new sim card inserted.  This is an application being offered exclusively to consumers in India.

Users can also explore the world through Navigation and the Nokia Maps 2.0 application. The new Nokia Maps application offers richer and more   detailed maps and has upgrade options such as City Guides, turn-by-turn pedestrian mode and voice-guided car navigation. Further, with the integrated A-GPS, consumers can now ‘location tag’ their pictures with location data and share them with their online communities.

A high-speed USB 2.0 connection and WLAN and HSDPA support, which enables the users to find, create, transfer multimedia files and share them on   their social network.The Nokia N96 supports the OVi family of Nokia internet services, including maps, music, media sharing and more.

A 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a dual LED flash and video light which allows DVD-like quality video capture at 30 frames per second.One  can also find, play and queue favourite tracks on the go with the most advanced music player. It features media keys, a 3.5 mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers which gives the users a superb music experience. The N96 also enables game enthusiasts to compete with friends from   the palm of their hands. Users can enter the N-gage arena and challenge the world to a wide array of games or even blog about their     favourite games and chat online with other gamers.

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MoMo Delhi 6th Meetup :Mobile Advertising on WAP, SMS, Voice, Video and Apps

The Momo Delhi team has managed to get an awesome panel of experts on Mobile Advertisement , to discuss and brainstrom all your thoughts on Mobile Advertisement.

Following are the details.

Topic: Mobile Advertising on WAP, SMS, Voice, Video and Apps

Panelists:
Anuj Kumar, Executive Director (South Asia), Affle
Chirag Jain, VP India Operations, SMS GupShup
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MD, One97 Communications
Salil Kumar, COO (Business), NDTV Convergence
Salman Hussain, VP (Business Development) , VUClip (formerly Blueapple.mobi)

a brief on some of the things we’ll discuss…so if you want to add to it,
please do let us know ..lets make this interactive -

– The nuances of your medium of choice - TG, usage patterns
– Your take on advertising models and how they fit with your medium - Lead
generation, display and click-to-call?
– Your experience with what advertisers want from your medium
– Comparison of experiences off-deck with on-deck from an advertising
perspective
– Impact of 3G on your medium, and expected impact on advertising

if you haven’t registered for the event yet .. this can be a good reason
..here is the link to registration page http://momodelhi6.eventbrite.com/

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AIRME now available for new iphone users

AirMe a free, easy-to-use downloaded application that allows iPhone users to take photos and have them instantly tagged and sent to the user’s Flickr or Facebook accounts, will now be available on the Apple App Store for new iPhone users.

It is an easy to use aplication. The user simply has to:

 a)Download the AirMe application from the Apple App Store

 b)Launch AirMe and take the picture

With the help of this application, all photos are auto-tagged with location, time, weather and any user customised information. It is currently being used in 56 countries around the world. 

AirMe is currently available on the iPhone and has plans to launch the application on the Nokia and Sony Ericsson platforms in the near future, with other phone platforms to follow.

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Guest Column: Developing IVR Applications by Uttam Pegu

The most essential requirement of an IVRS is that it has to work 24 hours a day, 364 days a year! It is not an application like your MS Word or Outlook Express that you run them when you need! Also IVRS does not have any User Interface. The reason for not having User Interface is obvious! It interacts with human through voice and telephone instrument keypad. (These are actually DTMF Digits. I will explain about DTMF, Pulse dialing in another post.) So, a typical IVRS application does not require to be executed manually, it starts as a service in Windows Operating System as soon as it boots up. ( Or same way in Linux)So, in order build an IVRS Application, the following are essential

1. How many channels to be used? How many calls it should handle simultaneously?
2. How should it be connected to PSTN Lines? Connection may be in two modes, analog and digital.
3. Type of Hardware used. It requires two kind of hardware – a. A PC or a Server b. CTI hardware.
4. Voice prompts Recording or TTS (text-To-Speech) Engine.
5. IVRS Software.
6. Power supply and wiring arrangement.

Number of channels greatly depends on number of calls the user is expecting. For example, if it is public utility (Like 100, 101, Railway enquiry etc), the number of calls will be high. If it has to handle large number of calls (more than 16 numbers), it should be connected using DIGITAL technology. And you will have to use a digital CTI cards too. Digital Cards are more expensive than analog CTI cards and they start with minimum channel count of 30. If you are going to use a Digital card, use a Server. There are many CTI cards, both analog and digital, available in various configurations.

Then the voice prompts! These are voices you hear as soon as you dial the IVRS telephone numbers! These are pre-recorded voices which are played as soon as your call is established. Normally one should get recorded the voice prompts and for any dynamic content or data, TTS may be used. But the voice quality of TTS is still poor specially it may be difficult to understand to people whose mother tongue is not English.

Once you finalized the above, it is time to develop your IVRS Software or find a IVRS Software development company! There are many IVRS Software development companies in the world. Many IVRS Software are developed on various platforms, using different languages. The best IVRS (in terms of robustness, features, easy to configure and maintain) are the IVRS software which are developed in C++. If you intend to develop a IVRS Software on your own, buy the CTI hardware, and read the APIs. Also you need to have thorough knowledge of PSTN exchange. Specially to configure DIGITAL CTI card using SS7, MTP3 ISUP, R2MF, ISDN PRI etc are time consuming and let me warn you, they are not easy! Also you have to have these infrastructure to your testing purpose! ( How many of you have an exhange with SS7 ?) So, best advice is, attempt build your own IVRS if you have to use analog CTI cards, and for DIGITAL CTI Cards, better contact some IVRS Companies!

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GSM User base in India increases by 6.42 mn in July

GSM-based telecom networks in India added 6.42 million mobile users in July. Handsets costing as low as $15 and call rates as low as 1 US cent a minute have helped India to become the world’s fastest-growing market for wireless services and the second-largest market for such services after China. 

In June, 6.32 million users had signed up. According to data from the Cellular Operators’ Association of India there were 218.9 million GSM users at the end of July. The data includes Reliance Communications’ GSM network as of June.

Reliance Communications, the No 2 telecoms firm,added a total of 1.74 million mobile users in June to 50.8 million. Top operator Bharti Airtel added 2.69 million users in July, taking its total to 72.1 million, the data showed. Vodafone Plc controlled Vodafone Essar, the third largest firm, had 50.95 million users at the end of July, having added 1.76 million users in the month. No. 4 mobile firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which is gearing up for a $10 billion public offer, added 553,219 GSM mobile users in the month to end with 37.92 million. It also had 30.9 million fixed-line users as of June. No 5 Idea Cellular, which is buying smaller Spice Communications, got 1.05 million new users in July, taking its total subscribers to 28.2 million. Spice had 4.2 million mobile users as of July.

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Bharti Airtel subscriber base crosses 75 mn

India’s largest private telecom company Bharti Airtel has also become the fourth largest in-country mobile operator in the world.  It achieved this landmark after crossing the 75 million customer mark.

Bharti Airtel is now behind China Mobile, China Unicom and American AT&T in terms of subscriber base, a company statement said. According to the statement the company had crossed the 60 million customer mark in February 2008 and the 50 million mark in October 2007, thereby becoming one of the fastest growing telecom companies in the world. 

The subscriber figure includes customers from all business units of the company, mobile services, telemedia services and enterprises services, the statement said. The mobile services division has a customer base of 72.07 million as of July, 2008, it added.

The mobile business provides mobile and fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles.

Commenting on the landmark Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint Managing Director Manoj Kohli said, “We are happy to have achieved this milestone of being the largest integrated telco in the country, in customer terms. For us, the benchmark of real leadership is customer delight and would like to thank all our customers for placing their faith in us.”
China Mobile with 414.5 million customers as on June 2008 is at the No 1 position followed by China Unicom with 170.7 million subscriber base. AT&T is marginally ahead of Bharti with a subscriber base of 72.9 million in June this year.

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Mobile Ticketing the next big thing in UAE and Middle East

M-ticketing will soon replace home-printed and pre-printed paper tickets in GCC and Middle East.It is becoming increasingly popular since it allows ticket buyers to avoid long lines and enables ticket sellers to eliminate printing and distribution costs - ultimately providing better service to customers.

M-tickets can be sent to a mobile phone or PDA via SMS. This consists of a bar code that can be quickly read and validated directly from the mobile device’s display screen.

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Indian VAS Revenues badly hit after Short Code Change

According to Economic Times,the VAS industry has actually shrunk in India, thanks to a TRAI order banning four digit short codes, despite high monthly mobile subscriber additions. The government policy had mandated that the digit 5 be added as a prefix for all short codes (for example, 8888 would become 58888).

Companies are reporting almost 50-70% drop in revenues and claim the order has hit them hard.

All players in the chain — content providers, aggregators, developers and mobile operators are affected. Even the government is losing revenues as it levies a service tax on each SMS sent of about 12.5%. It has taken the industry back by at least 6-12 months depending on company to company.

The only way out, to avoid the revenue bleed is to allow the four digit short codes for at least six to eight months so that new SIM cards are able to reach the market while older ones get phased out.

According to operators, the issue has completely marred user experience and it will take time to hook him back to the service.

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IMImobile is Voice & Data’s ‘Emerging Company’ of the Year 08’

IMImobile, the global provider of value-added services to mobile telecom operators and content owners, today announced that it has been selected by Voice&Data, as The Emerging Company of the Year. IMImobile has established itself as one of the leading providers of cutting edge technology in the mobile space recording phenomenal growth. IMImobile is a profitable fast-growing global company with operations in 51 countries supporting 200 operator deployments and over 400 content partners.

Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission, presented the award to Mr. Ashish Misra: Vice President Sales of IMImobile at the 9th Annual V&D 100 Awards function.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Vishwanath Alluri, Founder Chairman and CEO IMImobile said, “It’s a great honor and privilege to be recognized as the “Emerging Company for the Year” by Voice&Data.  We started with the mission of being the largest, the fastest and most able. We have met and continue to exceed all customer expectations, ensuring the best service standards and with seamless service and uptime. We are happy that our efforts are being recognized.”

SS Bhat, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), added, “Having pioneered managed VAS services globally, we are delighted to be recognized as Voice&Data’s “Emerging Company of the year”. Technology is our core strength and clients the world over come to us for management and development of their mobile VAS. The recognition comes at an exciting time as we are making forays into the mature markets of Europe and USA.”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Bibhu Kumar, Sr VP Global Sales of IMImobile said, this award is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of each and every employee of IMImobile. It also goes to our customers whose feedback and support has helped us become what we are today. I am happy that Voice&Data taking this initiative to institute these awards and acknowledging our efforts.

The Emerging Company of the Year award was announced following an eight-member jury meet of eminent professionals led Dr. DPS Seth, ex-CMD of BSNL and ex-member of TRAI. The other members of the jury meet included Mr. NK Goyal, Chairman, Emeritus TEMA; Mr. DP Vaidya, President, VSAT Association; Mr. SC Khanna, Secretary General, AUSPI; Mr.Vikram Tiwatia, CIO, CII; Mr. Rajiv Nayan Jha, Vice President, CMAI and Mr. Pradeep Gupta, Chairman MD, CyberMedia. CyberMedia is South Asia’s first and largest specialty media house, with 15 publications in the infotech, telecom, consumer electronics and Biotech areas.

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Ericsson India’s Mobility World Developer Program for Developers and Entrepreneurs

Came accross a wonderful opportunity for developers and small set ups who have come up with really innovative Mobile content and applications on 2.5G as well as 3G. Ericsson Mobility World intends to launch a Developers’ program in India.

Throughout the world, application and content providers rely on Ericsson Mobility World’s competence and channels to reach the mobile market. It assists them in creating and selling innovative and marketable applications that support Ericsson’s multimedia solutions.

The Ericsson Mobility World Developer Program shortens industry lead times by helping developers plan, create, verify and market applications that work on Ericsson’s multimedia solutions and service-layer products. The program offers the technical, business and sales support that developers need to transform ideas into reality.

Through the program, developers’ applications and content can be included in the Ericsson Mobility World application portfolio and presented to Ericsson customers around the world. Other benefits include development tools, application verification, and advice and support. The focus is on real-world applications and services that telecom operators can sell today.
 
Its a brilliant opportunity for all you developers or entreprenuers with such a set of developers to reach out to the world. Please get in touch for queries related to the program

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Govt releases guidelines for 3G service

Govt has released the guidelines for 3G spectrum in India. This means 3G will be launched soon.

The price for a 2×5 Mhz block of spectrum for Mumbai and Delhi and category-A shall be Rs 160 crore and for Kolkata and category-B Rs 80 crore and for category-C Rs 30 crore.

Government has also decided to allow up to 10 players in the 3G space, including eligible foreign players.

 Source: Economic Times

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286.86 million wireless users in India at the end of June

According to TRAI, Indian mobile firms added 8.94 million users in June, maintaining the momentum in the world’s fastest-growing mobile services market.

TRAI said there were 286.86 million wireless users in India at the end of June, up 55% from a year earlier. In May, mobile operators had signed 8.62 million subscribers.

Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel led the signing in June with 2.55 million new customers. The company had 69.4 million mobile users at end-June. No 2 Reliance Communications added 1.74 million wireless users to have 50.79 million subscribers.

Unlisted Vodafone Essar, controlled by Britain’s Vodafone, added 1.73 million mobile customers in June, taking its total to 49.2 million. Fixed-line users continued to dwindle with the subscribers declining 130,000 in June to 38.92 million.

Total fixed-line and wireless subscribers rose nearly 45% from a year earlier to 325.78 million at the end of June.

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Indian mobile VAS market to hit $2bn in 2008: PwC

Following a dip in revenues from voice-based services, mobile value-added services (MVAS) is all set to see a phenomenal growth across the world. According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the Indian mobile VAS market is all set to grow to $2 bn in 2008.

Currently, mobile VAS in India accounts for 10% of the operator’s revenue, which is expected to reach 18% by 2010. The worldwide spending on MVAS, including mobile music, mobile payment and mobile advertising will reach $55.6 bn by 2011, the report added.

Mobile payment, which currently accounts for just 1% of the data services market, is set to add 70.9 mn users by 2010, the report states. According to the report, the key driver for the growth of VAS in mobile payment segment will be demand from rural and semi-urban areas, where a huge gap exists in banking infrastructure. Mobile wallet will also replace plastic cards (credit cards) in coming years, the report added.

India has a high proportion of mobile subscribers to total telecom subscribers, driven by the faster wireless rollout, inexpensive handsets and low cost prepaid cards. Here, money transfers, driven by lack of banking infrastructure is a key service need,” the report said. Currently, about 44% of VAS revenue in India is driven by short messaging service applications. The youth segment will also continue to drive the market, particularly in the entertainment MVAS.

The mobile music segment is also set to fuel up with user spending on mobile music expected to increase to $32.2 bn in 2010 compared to $13.7 in 2007. While the revenue from mobile gaming is expected to grow to $9.6 in 2011 compared to $1.8 bn in 2007.

Mobile advertising, which is an important VAS segment, is expected to grow consistently to reach a valuation of $12.8 bn by 2011, compared to $2.7 bn in 2008. The growth in this segment will be fuelled predominantly by rollout of 3G networks, IPTV and high- end gaming on mobile phones. The size of mobile advertising in India is miniscule.

However, analysts believe it has potential to grow at 200% a year, giving operators a new revenue source. Currently, the VAS market is governed by short message service (SMS), Interactive voice response (IVR) and WAP portal platforms, delivering applications such as entertainment, advertisement, gaming and news.

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Airtel Live to be pre loaded on Nokia phones

In a bid to drive value-added services (VAS) revenue, Bharti Airtel has initiated talks with leading handset vendors, including Nokia, to embed its VAS application. The company wants to pre-load its Airtel Live platform as an icon in the handsets which the vendors will sell in India. The move is aimed at growing VAS revenue at a significantly higher pace than its overall growth.

Airtel Live is multi-access entertainment portal on the mobile that provides a variety of rich content. At present, consumers can access it by using a GPRS connection in their handset.

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Growing demand for multi-touch handset technology in the Middle East

Major mobile phone vendors are set to cash in on the growing demand for multi-touch handset technology in the Middle East and are expected to boost their product line-up catalysed by Apple’s highly successful iPhone.

Research firm iSuppli forecasts global market for touch-screen panels to grow to 341 million units and earn $3.4 billion in value this year.

In a market dominated by so-called resistive touch technology, Apple’s iPhone uses a different technology called projected capacitance that enabled the multi-touch functionality that had been lacking in resistive-based touch panels.
HTC launched its first touch-screen phone - HTC TyTN and HTC P3300- in 2006 and LG launched its Prada in 2007 and Samsung in 2008 while Apple launched its iPhone in 2007, but iPhone is not officially available in the Middle East.

Samsung has four main sleek touch-screen phones - the Omnia, the Haptic, the F490 and the Instinct and LG has the Prada, the Viewty, Venus and the Voyager while HTC has the HTC Touch, Touch Dual with Touch FLO, TyTN II, HTC Shift HTC Advantage X7510 lined up to take on Apple.

HTC, which has been pioneering touch-screen technology for nearly a decade, continued to innovate the touch-screen market and its intuitive touch-screen technology has enabled consumers to access to the most commonly used content, contacts and features with a simple flick of a finger.

The launch of iPhone has really boosted the touch-screen concept but the market is still small. People have started recoginising the concept.

LG uses two different technologies - Electrostatic Charge and Pressure Responsive for its handsets. The future is going to be touchy.

Rivals Motorola and Sony Ericsson are most at risk as Nokia is expected to launch a series of touch-screen devices in the second half of the year, with the first model - likely the 5800 Tube - is expected to hit the market by the close of summer.

iSuppli forecasts that the market will grow to 833 million units by 2013, expanding at an annual growth rate of 19.5 per cent from 2008. touch-screen module revenue is forecast to grow to $6.4 billion by 2013.

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