Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
CDMA vs. GSM. Fight! Fight!
BOSTON-The battle for 4G is still not expected to hit the ground for several years, but the war over which technology will be used to serve consumers is well under way – and heated. During an opening session at the Mobile Internet World 2008 event, a panel of speakers representing the major wireless technologies traded polite barbs over how their respective offerings would play out on the wireless horizon. While few of the punches left any visible marks, the ferocity of the arguments showed that animosity from the past is still alive and well. The most-heated debate continues to be between the CDMA and GSM camps, where the GSM camp seems to have an advantage when it comes to support among operators worldwide looking to move beyond existing technology offerings. That point was well presented by 3G Americas’ President Chris Pearson, who – in response to moderator Berge Ayvazian’s question about a possible merging of the standards bodies in the future – said: “If you have 88% of the market you don’t look at merging your standard.” … Read more
MySpace goes Android
MySpace jumped aboard the Android bandwagon with a free, downloadable application customized for the new platform. MySpace Android allows users to upload photos, access band profiles and tour schedules, view comments on profiles and connect with other users. Members of the popular social-networking site can also exchange messages with others and update their moods and statuses, and can identify tunes with their phones with an integrated feature from Shazam, a mobile music discovery provider. The News Corp. subsidiary hopes to build on the impressive traction it has gained in mobile. MySpace claims 2 million daily unique wireless visitors and recent figures from ABI Research 70% of people who use social networks on their phones have visited MySpace. … Read more
Moto’s $2K handset, the Aura
Motorola Inc., struggling to return to sustainable profitability, will bring the Aura handset to market this quarter, the company said. With “state-of-the-art handcraftsmanship,” the device will set you back two (really) big ones – that’s $2,000. The launch’s timing aside – for many, the price tag may clash a bit with headlines of financial disasters sweeping the globe – the Aura appeared to reflect Motorola’s determination to make a design-oriented comeback of sorts. No word yet on the device’s sales channel. But don’t expect it to turn up at one of the major carriers. Most luxury phones are sold through specialty stores or high-end department stores. Indeed, the luxury phone segment is projected to garner as much as $11 billion by next year, according to ABI Research. That figure is expected to nearly quadruple in five years, the market research firm reported in August. … Read more
Taking the ‘Web’ mobile
BOSTON – There was a lot of talk during the Mobile Internet World 2008 event about expanding connectivity and access to the Internet to more people and devices using advanced networks, but one company in attendance is looking for a simpler solution. Israeli-based InfoGin was showing off technology that allows even the most basic mobile Web browser to have full access to any Web. And not just mobile sites, but access to all the functionality embedded in fully developed and feature-packed sites. Does your latest and greatest 3G iPhone not support Flash? InfoGin said its technology transcodes Flash content into a format that any device can use. InfoGin founder and CEO Eran Wyler demonstrated the technology using Nokia Corp.’s N95 device accessing YouTube.com’s desktop site, as opposed to the site’s mobile-optimized offering. The Flash-based video clip was converted into the RealPlayer format used by the device with the clip playing smoothly over the device. … Read more
Device trends: Go big or go home
BOSTON – The American waistline isn’t the only thing expanding. The latest crop of high-end wireless devices have been testing consumers’ size-and-shape boundaries, and it seems today’s shoppers are prepare to go big or go home. New numbers from AvianResearch show the BlackBerry Curve at the top of the list of most-popular cellphones for September. Apple’s iPhone comes in second. Indeed, none of the top 10 slots includes a slim clamshell – the form-factor du jour of the past half-dozen years. These findings could indicate a sea-change in consumer taste, and may open the way for a new crop of mobile Internet devices (MIDs), gadgets that sit in the space between a full laptop and a large smartphone. Having joined the cellphone-toting crowd during the Razr revolution, this strikes me as exceptional. Apparently, the Razr represented the height of the trim clamshell movement, a trend that favored slenderness above all else. … Read more
The first Android device, the HTC G1, makes its debut
T-Mobile USA this week launched the Google Android-powered G1 across the country. However, the device, which is built by HTC, is only available in retail locations in cities where the carrier’s 3G technology has launched, according to a T-Mobile USA spokesperson. Currently the enhanced network is available in 92 cities across 21 markets. The phone retails for $180 with a two-year agreement and T-Mobile USA has introduced a pair of data plans specific to the device: one for $35 per month that includes unlimited Web, e-mail, messaging and access to the carriers HotSpot Wi-Fi service and a $25 option that includes unlimited Web and e-mail, but only 400 messages per month. … Read more
Inside the emergence of Android
BOSTON – A day after the release of the first cellphone powered by Google Inc.’s Android software, the founder of the startup that initially developed the software took the Mobile Internet World keynote stage to explain the reasons behind the search giant’s much-hyped effort. “It’s been quite a busy week for us,” said Rich Miner, general manager of Google’s Mobile Platforms business and the founder of Android, the startup that Google acquired three years ago to form the base of its cellphone-software strategy. Miner, a 15-year veteran of the wireless industry, said Android rose from the ashes of his tenure at European operator Orange, which was the first carrier in the world to launch a cellphone running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile software. Although the launch propelled Orange onto the international scene as a maverick in the mobile space, Miner said the lessons he learned from the event pushed him to found Android. “It became clear to me that there were fundamental things that needed fixing in the mobile industry,” he said. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
