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Mobile gamers flock to simple games

Mobile gaming enthusiasts envision the day when they can play massive multiplayer titles that combine real-time interaction and pinpoint location capabilities with eye-catching, 3-D graphics. For now, though, the most popular games in wireless are old and simple. And they weren't originally built for...

Connectivity to information last differentiator among portable navigation devices

New competitors will threaten the established portable navigation device vendors, said ABI Research.   The enormous market expansion and related price war in the consumer navigation market is no longer new. What has changed is that the resulting attempts at product segmentation and the additional...

Driving LBS

Commercial telematics, in particular mobile research management, is driving location-based services today, according to ABI Research. But the next big battleground will be to add Web portals to vehicle navigation devices. Following is a roundup of trends to watch in location-based services. The technology...

Other news from the LBS sector:

Digital map developer Navteq announced a product licensing agreement with LandSonar, a predictive traffic supplier. The deal gives Navteq the right to use LandSonar's Predictive Speed product, which estimates trip time and advises routes based on driving speed combined with the continental road network...

Japanese point, click phone to get info

Location-based services seem to encompass consumer applications that generate plenty of excitement among consumers, yet somehow, uptake of LBS applications is not exactly booming-except in cars. Cell-phone users in the United States have been slow to adopt mapping and tracking services, but drivers are...

Device security demands precious processing power

Device-based security, which despite competing notions of stored data vs. data-in-motion, has its role. In that case, according to the Tower Group's Bob Egan, keep in mind that the drivers-both legal and "reputational," if you will-are powerful and the market is small. Smart phones...

Securing phones for enterprise: It’s all data-in-motion now

16The spate of recent headlines can only feed the well-founded paranoia of corporate IT managers struggling to serve their colleagues' quest for mobility. The enterprise's demand for data on-the-go naturally includes e-mail and requests for proprietary corporate information, including access to the corporate network-sending...

Keeping up with the Jones’ drives handset market

Mobile-phone penetration rates are surpassing 90 percent in markets around the world, reaching the saturation point in Hong Kong, South Korea and Western Europe. Meanwhile, handset manufacturers continue to gain ground. Worldwide mobile-phone shipments in the second quarter fell just short of an all-time...

Mobile WiMAX taking shape

Given all the recent WiMAX announcements, it seems that the communications infrastructure community has convinced the rest of the world to invest in WiMAX technology, whether for fixed or mobile networks. In Seoul, South Korea's top two carriers, SK Telecom Co. Ltd. and KT...

Open source Java: The devil’s in the details

The big issue for some players in the wireless community regarding Java ME revolves around its owner, Sun Microsystems Inc., which announced at its May JavaOne conference that it was mulling how to go open source with the industry's dominant programming language. This move...

Understanding Java calls on Lego blocks

Imagine Java as a set of three types of Lego blocks, says Eric Chu, director of the Java ME platform in Sun's Client Systems Group. The bottom unit contains two "configurations," including CDC (connected device configuration) and CLDC (connected limited device configuration). Sitting on...

How Sun profits from Java

Sun licenses the testing of Java applications to various companies, and it licenses the Java brand to companies whose products are Java-compatible, according to the company. Sun also licenses implementations, so companies that want to ship a Java-enabled handset need to get software from...

Advanced networks call for advanced backhaul capabilities

As consumers and businesses start to take wireless carriers up on their offers of data services, and the carriers themselves put up ever-faster networks to support the demand they're trying to create, backhaul capacity requirements are poised to increase dramatically-and backhaul providers are anticipating...

Scrambled signals on wireless video: Satisfying fastidious TV audiences accustomed to super-sized sets

Television has been called the "75-year-old killer application" and, indeed, one of the hurdles to-and possibly a shaper of-the mobile television experience is the recent trend toward giant, flat-screen TVs with surround sound in the home. Accustomed to zoning out in front of a...

Tower companies stress service even as they fatten portfolios

If it seems like the tower industry has been taken over by giants, consider that first and foremost, towers are real estate. Thus, the game is not necessarily played according to volume. Rather, the value of any given tower depends in large part on...

BREW: Alive and well, headed for battle over direct-to-consumer

"News of my death has been greatly exaggerated," Mark Twain is said to have written in 1897, when he remained hale and hearty. Qualcomm Inc. has taken a page from Twain and added a biblical twist, as it hails its new incarnation of BREW...

Celebrating 25 years of covering the wireless industry

A quarter century ago, RCR's inaugural issue rolled off the presses. Radio Communications Report was launched by Titsch Communications Inc. as a monthly spinoff of another publication, Two-Way Radio Dealer, to cover the emerging cellular telecommunications industry. In its second year of publishing, with...

Fontes brings passion to wireless

WASHINGTON-In the dog-eat-dog world that is life inside the Beltway, it is rare to find someone who is liked, respected and considered effective from people on both sides of the aisle. Meet Brian Fontes, this year's inductee to RCR Wireless News' Wireless Hall of...

Test and measurement space explores customer experience, new technologies

No matter what type of network technology or application the wireless industry develops, you can bet that the test and measurement providers are prepared to measure how it performs. The major players tout equipment that can test basic voice and related services as well...

Industry consolidation challenges carrier billing methods

Within the past two years, the number of national carriers in the U.S. has gone from six to four. Between Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Sprint Corp.'s acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc., the companies that need to have their...

U.S. closing gap in data adoption

It's safe to say U.S. wireless subscribers have caught up with much of the rest of the world in terms of data consumption. But it appears American carriers still have their work cut out for them when it comes to cashing in. The United...

VoIP on verge of disrupting telecom

Hysteria about Voice over Internet Protocol is apparently not without cause, as VoIP is claiming a big (and-getting-bigger) piece of the communications market. Earthlink Inc. and Linksys, a Cisco Systems Inc. subsidiary, late last week teamed up to offer retail shoppers at 30 Fry's...

Converged services next telecom battle ground

What does $67 billion buy these days? Convergence nirvana, for one thing. If AT&T Inc.'s offer for BellSouth Corp. gets approved, as it's expected, big-time convergence could finally start happening in real-world terms. Bundled communications services from a range of wired and wireless network...

CDMA’s shifting landscape: From emerging India to mature U.S.

The market outlook for CDMA handsets may be described as a tale of two contrasting regions. And therein lies a few wireless lessons about the difference in how profits are made in emerging and mature markets. The emerging market is the Asia-Pacific region, led...