Mobile Broadband Capacity woes: iPhone OS 4.0 with multi-tasking is coming.
Oh Great! Apple’s new iPhone OS update is adding multitasking to the iPhone now which is already causing enough nightmares to Telcos already with iPhones guzzling data like there’s no tomorrow!
Great news for users though. iPhone users have always yearned for multi-tasking and with the iPhone OS 4.0 they will get it this summer. Now, with multiple applications constantly pinging away at the Radio Network Controller (RNC) with their mouths wide open, the Telco nightmare is almost about to come true! The bandwidth and session count per user will go through the roof.
On top of the multi-tasking issue there is the matter of the battery! Apple with every successive release will continue to make the battery usage more efficient. To conserve battery the iPhone drops the data connection as soon as it is done with what it needs, emails, tweets etc in short bursts. This is great for the battery but the network suffers as a result of this. When the iPhone needs more data, it has to set up a new data connection. The need to initiate a new data connection everytime creates some trouble at the signalling end.
While the iPhone started this, Android and webOS use the same technique, and with wider penetration of these devices, Telcos need to gear up for this as of yesterday! Some highly clued-in folks at our operator clients tell us that the bigger problem is not the data capacity flowing through the towers, it is this frequent connecting-and-disconnecting which is posing to be more of a problem.
So we all know there is a problem! Where’s the answer? The answer partly lies in the Mobile Broadband 2010 report published by one of Wireless Federation’s group companies. Please write to Christina (at) WirelessFederation.com to pre-order your copy.
Apple to ship 13.2m iPads by end-2011
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a latest research by an agency, Apple’s tablet device alone will fail to secure the future of news and magazine publishing despite of a ‘gold-rush effect’ prediction that will see the total value of downloaded applications on the iPad hitting USD 68.8 million this year and USD 511.8 million in 2011.
With total paid downloads of 3.3 billion applications, the global mobile applications market is predicted to be worth USD 5.7 billion by 2014. As per the findings of the research, the volumes of the iPad will take time to build and the tablet media market will soon become as congested as the smartphone application store market.
According to the research, the total shipments of Apple’s iPad are forecast to reach 13.2 million by end of 2011 and by comparison, Apple shipped 25 million iPhones in 2009 alone.
China Mobile expresses interest in Apple’s iPad
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After making a super hit sale in the USA market, iPad is ready to take up the rest of the world with big mobile operators eying the new Apple device. The world’s biggest mobile phone operator by subscribers, China Mobile has expressed its desire to sell the iPad and its talks with Apple over the sale of iPhones were still ongoing.
China Mobile has openly disclosed its interest in iPad and it has been in constant talks with Apple over cooperation issues. By having the right to sell iPad, China Mobile wants to provide e-text to Chinese users, as it is developing an electronic book business. Though Apple iPad has not made its official entry in the Asian market yet, a “grey market” trade in the touch screen portable tablet computer has boomed in stores from Singapore to Seoul to Beijing.
The much-anticipated gadget was launched by the California-based firm on the US domestic market last month. It announced that it will be offered for the first time outside the United States on May 28 in nine countries including Japan. It was to satisfy the demand for the iPhone that China’s grey market in Apple products came into existence. The iPhone was officially introduced in the country in October by China Mobile’s rival China Unicom that too more than two years after its US launch.
According to China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile, which had 539 million users at of the end of March, still hoped to provide the iPhone to its customers and the key issue at the moment is that it would like the new-generation iPhones to use TD-SCDMA standard. China’s home-grown standard for 3G telecom services, TD-SCDMA, or Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access is a technology that can transmit images and video at high speeds.
NearVerse unveils LoKast Media-sharing App
NearVerse, mobile networking firm has unveiled its first mobile application, LoKast. It allows its users to share media between iPhones and iPod touch devices at super-fast speeds. The application can also be downloaded from the Apple App Store.
Also known as ‘Local-casting’, LoKast aims to eliminate the need for sharing content through physical media such as DVDs or CDs. LoKasters can share certain parts of their digital profile with other people, also using the application, within a limited proximity. Its process is very similar to browsing for Facebook profiles, but its target limits to people who are physically closer.
Users can easily download the free app and add photos, videos, music, contacts and web links to their personalized portal. The application will automatically allow other users to view and download their content if they are within proximity of 300 feet of another LoKast user.
The best part of LoKast is that it does not require 3G connectivity; it functions in subways, underground and heavily congested areas such as stadiums where 3G connectivity are not reliable.
The aim of the application is to offer its users the opportunity to distribute exclusive content they receive at shows to other. It thus becomes a walking media distribution hub to help spread the content to others nearby.
StarHub and M1 offer more iPhones on Christmas (Singapore)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: StarHub and M1 are coming up with Christmas gifts for the people by bringing out more iPhones from Wednesday and offering lower handset prices and more generous phone packages to sign up users. Both telco’s announced their plans and pricing for the Apple product.
Depending on the phone model and plan chosen, StarHub customers will have to pay something between nothing to $668, the plan starting at $38 monthly. M1 customers will also have to pay between nothing to $668, with its iPhone starting at $36.
M1 which is the smallest mobile operator of Singapore and has been losing its market share has also offered a package with 10GB of mobile data for its entry-level $36 a month packages, which is 10 times of StarHub’s offer and 20 times SingTel’s. Telecom operator Singtel was the first to offer latest iPhone 3GS to its customers, selling them at $678.
FIFA World Cup to come live on Optus 3G phones
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Optus 3G phone subscribers will now get to see live 2010 FIFA World Cup for free. The company has entered into a deal with FIFA (F©d©ration Internationale de Football Association) for the streaming of the live matches. Though the entire 3G mobile device already have the application, the iPhones will receive the solution for the broadcast before the World Cup kick starts in June 2010.
Footage captured by the cameras recording the game for the mobile phone form factor will be supplied by FIFA to mobile broadcasters. Unless there are two simultaneous games, all the operators will receive the same feed.
Optus said that it will give priority to the games played by Australian teams. Besides, it has also entered into another agreement with SBS, a television broadcaster for additional footage available from its “The World Game” program.
Apple To Introduce MVNO Wireless Service In ‘07, UBS Says
Moconews Writes …And so it goes…UBS telecom analyst John Hodulik has asserted that Apple plans an MVNO, buying airtime from Cingular. There’s no evidence for this of course, but some deductive reasoning. Interestingly he does point out the major problems with Apple launching an MVNO and says it will not be a slam-dunk. The problems with an Apple MVNO are that it would be entering not one but two very competitive markets, handsets and mobile services, it probably won’t be subsidizing its handset very much (which time and again has proven to be a bad idea), and its distribution is relatively lower (the number of stores it has is an order of magnitude lower than the carriers).
Despite these challenges, Hodulik thinks Apple will launch an MVNO because this strategy would appear to indicate Apple’s increasing desire for customer control, and potentially, store traffic???.
As for how successful the MVNO would be, if they sold 2 million iPhones with a two-year service contract, he says, it would equate to 4% of the post-paid gross adds in 2007, and 12% of the industry net subscriber additions???.
Which does raise one point—most MVNOs try to gain money from service charges or content sales, and subsidize a lot to encourage that. If Apple’s business model is about getting revenue from handset sales it may not care about making much revenue on the service.
