KT urges government to end OTT free riding (Korea)
KT Chief Executive Lee Suk-chae has urged the government and the nation’s leading technology companies LG and Samsung Electronics to pay for using its networks, according to a report by Korea Times.
As per the report, Lee in a technology forum held at the COEX Convention Center, southern Seoul, that Korea needs a new paradigm. The digital revolution has changed everything. Despite heavy data traffic amid rapid rises of data-intensive devices such as tablets and smartphones, no one is ready to pay in return for using networks.
He added that if the current situation continues, then Korea will see a big data blackout. This is an expected scenario. There’s no free lunch. It doesn’t make sense to ride free on networks.
The increasing adoption of OTT players such as Whatsapp and Facebook messenger have been cutting into operator revenues, while demand for wireless services has been on the rise.
The report highlights that growth in Internet-enabled devices is giving huge profits to set makers such as Samsung and LG, however, the trend is hurting telecom companies.
Lee said that the network traffic increased 153 times since smartphones came to Korea three years ago. Huge burdens over network investments are weighing on consumers as KT has no option but to collect money from customers to secure cash for the networks. KT saw a decline in operating profit in the first quarter of this year as its latest decision to cut monthly charges for mobile phone plans dragged it down.
KT spokeswoman Kim Yoon-jeong said TV manufacturers are free-riding on its network, while its capacity to invest and upgrade it is shrinking due to worsening profitability.
LG favours Android over Windows (USA, South Korea)
Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer has recently announced that the company is planning to focus on smartphones running on Google’s Android mobile operating system. According to a report by KoreaHerald, the executive also said LG is taking a step back from Windows phones powered by Microsoft’s platform, adding that it will continue research and development efforts on Windows Phones.
As per the report, a spokesperson for LG revealed that the total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure. Further, the company currently has no plans of rolling out another LG-manufactured Windows phone soon.
The report reveals that Ballmer may holding a meeting with the chief of LG Electronics, as the U.S. software giant chief is expected to visit Seoul this month. Microsoft Korea spokesperson Lee Seung-yeon said that Ballmer, who will speak about the ‘new era of technology,’ will be staying for a day in Seoul.
Vodafone launches first German carrier communications service (Germany)
Vodafone will offer the first network operator in Germany as the new communications service, RCS-e. RCS-e, which stands for “Rich Communication Suite enhanced” by the industry association GSMA is a standard developed for easy and secure communications that will be launched globally by many mobile network operators.
Soon Vodafone first smartphones with software installed for the use of RCS-e will offer in trade. With many smartphones already available RCS-e can be used in the next few months, this is possible through free updates. To introduce the use of RCS-e in the Superflat Internet tariffs will be included.
With RCS-e-phone users can now easier than ever to send and receive messages, share files such as documents, pictures and videos with each other and also take part in an ongoing voice call, a video-link and see as their interlocutor. All functions can easily be started directly via the contacts stored in the address, the service is integrated seamlessly in this smartphone. Customers benefit from entirely new possibilities for communication, for RCS-e is a by operators globally supported service. For example, the network speed between transmitter and receiver is detected automatically, so for example, video calls, or photos and videos in the highest quality possible in each case by the fastest means to be transmitted securely.
Erik Friemuth, head of retail banking at Vodafone Germany, said that they introduced the first LTE network operators introduced in this country and are now underscoring their role as an innovative pioneer as the first provider of RCS-e in Germany. He added that their customers can now easily over any other than chat ever with each other to stay on video telephony in touch, share photos and videos live and share files. In communication is their core competency and they emphasize the rapid introduction of RCS-e.
To ensure that customers of different network operators communicate with each other messages and files, and video phone calls to the GSMA has developed so-called extensive interoperability testing. Everyone wants to offer network operators, the RCS-e, it must go through to ensure high quality and safety requirements and the availability of RCS-e these tests and are certified for this purpose.
The mobile network operators that will support the service in Germany, are next to the German telecom Vodafone and O2. Smart phones with preinstalled software RCS-e will come for example from equipment manufacturers such as HTC, Huawei, LG, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. More details to RCS e timely given the launch of the service, Vodafone announced.
Apple bags first place as top smartphone vendor (USA)
Apple Inc. has proved once again that it is still the world’s best vendor in terms of smartphones. Despite of the fact that Android phones are the new flavor of the season, Apple managed to take a decent lead with its iOS platform. It was the fourth quarter sales which changed the whole market scenario for Apple.
Apple Inc. overtook Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Co. to become the top vendor of smartphones’ worldwide. Latter one managed to get a fifth position in the list behind ZTE Corp. As per market estimates, Apple sold 35.5 million smartphones to consumers in comparison to Samsung’s 34 million.
As per sources, the key reason behind the success of Apple was the increased sale of iPhone 4S and fragmentation of Android phones. Some of the credit for increase in the sale of Apple devices can be credited to its holiday sales as well.
The Android market diminished for vendors like Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics and HTC, however, new players in the market like ZTE got a place in the last few names. According to sources, Nokia trailed behind in its competition with Apple because of lack of innovation competitive with Apple’s devices. Third and fourth position in the vendor list was acquired by Nokia’s Symbian and Research in Motion (RIM) respectively.
Verizon and Telefonica along with VMware offer Android users dual-number phone software (USA, Europe)
Mobile operators Verizon Wireless in the United States and Telefonica in Europe are reportedly working with software provider VMware, on a dual-number phone software which will enable users to maintain separate profiles for their personal and professional lives. According to reports, the VMware Horizon Mobile business solution will enable users to have two different phone numbers on their mobile handsets, for personal and business use. Further, Horizon Mobile users will be able to choose their own voice and data plans which will be completely separate from their corporate plan, managed by the user’s company.
As per sources, VMware claims that the solution helps to securely provision, manage and de-provision a corporate mobile workspace (email, applications, data, etc.) of a customer that uses an Android device. Handset makers LG and Samsung will reportedly be building the mobile phones containing this solution.
According to reports, Janet Schijns, vice president, Business Solutions Group, Verizon Wireless has said that Verizon Wireless and VMware are delivering a compelling new mobile security and management experience leveraging their most reliable 3G and 4G LTE network along with the proven virtualization and cloud computing platform leadership of VMware to address this enterprise trend.
LG working on Google Android Tablet (US)
Google is reportedly working on a new tablet device which will run a customized version of the Android OS, manufactured by LG and be sold under the Google brandname.
According to sources, Google approached Samsung and HTC, but both declined to participate in the product development.
Sources added that the tablet device coming out now which run on the smartphone variant of the Android OS, versions 2.x, will not be allowed to upgrade at a later date to the tablet optimized version 3.x, Honeycomb.
The new tablet which is said to be the Google Nexus T is scheduled for a mid-summer or early autumn launch and is presumably going to launch with the next upgrade to the Android OS, thought to be known as ice-cream, after Google penchant for naming its products after American deserts.
Apple and other top companies sued in camera related patents (US)
Imperium Holdings has filed a lawsuit against Apple, LG, RIM, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Kyocera, claiming that they all have infringed five patents related to the cameras and imaging equipment found in phones and other mobile devices.
The patents in question are US Patent Numbers 6271884, 6838651, 6838715, 7,109,535 and 7064768, all of which relate to pixel and imager technology for smartphones and other devices. Apple’s iPhone is named as one of the infringing products.
The five patents deal in:
Patent 6,271,884: Image flicker reduction with fluorescent lighting.
Patent 6,838,651: High sensitivity snap shot CMOS image sensor.
Patent 6,838,715: CMOS image sensor arrangement with reduced pixel light shadowing.
Patent 7,064,768: Bad pixel correction while preserving features.
Patent 7,109,535: Semiconductor device for isolating a photodiode to reduce junction leakage.
As per reports, the mix of patents are actually owned by two different companies: 6,271,884 deals with image flicker reduction, owned by Conexant System of Newport Beach while the other four have the assignee listed as ESS Technology, based in Fremont, California.
Cricket Wireless launches LG Optimus C (USA)
Cricket Wireless has launched a variant of LG Optimus One in United States. Called the LG Optimus C, this smartphone has a slightly different design than other variants.
The internals remain same; it features 3.2-inch HVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, a 600MHz processor, and Android 2.2 with some minor LG UI changes.
Cricket Wireless is offering the phone for just $130 after a $20 web discount and $50 mail-in rebate, plus you will have to sign Cricket’s $55 a month unlimited Android plan to start with.
Korean smartphone users approach 10 mn mark
If reports are to be believed, the number Korean smartphone users are approaching the 10 million thresholds. According to the report, SK Telecom has registered more than 5 million smartphone subscribers. KT Corp secured 3.7 million users and LG followed with 1 million.
The combined number topped 9.7 million, 35% higher from about 7.2 million at the end of last year.
SK Telecom added that its own 5 million subscribers, nearly seven times greater than a year earlier and 20 times that of June 2009. KT also saw its number of smartphone customers surge 35 percent since late December. LG users nearly doubled over the same period.
Roughly 60% of the sales came from just two handsets – with 3.7 Apple iPhones being sold, followed by 2.6 million of Samsung’s Galaxy S.
