Posted by Tattletech on Feb 20, 2011 in
3GSM,
Conferences,
MWC,
New things,
Renewable energies 
Sure. The show was massive, 50,000 phone nerds roaming around. It had all the things you have come to expect from Mobile World Congress – daytime cocktail receptions, night time cocktail receptions, late night parties and generally more networking than ever before. The biggest talking points of MWC 2011 was which parties were where and when, and all the muggings that took place nightly.
We decided to do a quick wrap up on what we think should have been addressed better at MWC along side the over-present and over-covered Android news. Here are our highlights from what we hope will be the last MWC in Barcelona, ever:
- Femto cells make it back into the limelight. Not sure why this isn’t bigger news, but in the end it should be. Network Norway, Orange and A T &T are high on them with research and roll=out plans underway, but Germany’s T-Mobile remains ambivalent.
- Portable fuel cell chargers from MyFc. Last year, MyFC was in attendance in the Swedish Pavilion to talk about their fuel cells for mobile devices and other consumer electronic devices. This year, they have a commercial product, PowerTrekk, that is ready for the market which is great news for the growing clean tech and renewable energy movement within the mobile market.
- According to their charismatic CEO, Björn Westerholm, he claims that PowerTrekk has a competitive edge over traditional portable chargers because fuel cell power is charging and generated immediately and isn’t impacted by weather or the position of the sun like it is for solar panels. Compared to battery powered travel chargers, PowerTrekk offers reliable charging as the fuel packs do not deplete as batteries do.
- Even though MyFC is way out in front here, there are others. Signa Chemistry says it has created a special fuel for mobile chargers that’s made out of sodium and silicon. Anyway you slice it, the industry should be looking to renewable energies to power these devices rather than continue down the path of resource consumption and waste.
- Mobile Health - this was in a small Pavilion in Hall 7 which was almost totally overlooked. A shame really because mobile health is going to be one of the ways that we use our phones to enhance our lives.
- Companies such as AlcoSystems, have created a mobile device-connected alcometer that measures alcohol content to enable people to keep a balance between an active life and alcohol consumption. They are using BlueTooth to connect the device to your mobile, which in our opinion is the best use of BlueTooth over social interaction.
- One rather overlooked piece of news from MWC was Vodafone’s announcement about its alliance with the UN & the mHealth Alliance on a new initiative will assess potential ways of connecting indigenous communities in remote areas of Brazil with health information, such as vaccination scheduling and maternal health guidelines.
- NFC (Near Field Communication) phones – for regular people this means secure mobile payments using your smartphone. Pretty much every device and operator claim they are on it — Blackberry, Orange, LG, etc., and I guess this means that finally there is some consumer trust or that we are all just getting lazier and lazier or maybe we just want things to be a bit easier with the chores in our lives and mobile payments via our phones just make life a little bit simpler. And, on that note, here is a list of all NFC phones you can buy today.
- Barcelona is not a good city for MWC anymore — just about everyone we know got mugged or had an attempted mugging. Move the show to a city where you feel safe walking around at 23:30 and for Barcelona that is not even late. Please move the show GSMA.
- Waterproof. How come it has taken this long to come up with this? Very cool stuff, let’s get this waterproof party started. Krussell had a waterproof phone case, Fujitisu has waterproof technology it can put into smartphones, hurry up please.
- Mobile behind the scenes just got sexy. Ok follow me here. Traffic goes up as more and more folks (like billions) use mobile networks and the cost goes up for mobile operators. They gotta keep up with the demand but they also need to make money. Simple. Two companies, from Sweden, are addressing these issues, Teligent and Birdstep. Teligent says it wants to “move the power” to the subscriber so that mobile operators can boost their revenues and do away with that pesky churn (if someone can resolve churn, there would be nothing to write about). Birdstep is focused on data off load and maximizing the switch between 3G and wifi networks. They have a unique approach via EasyConnect 3.1 for operators and by also offering consumers a widget/app-like view to monitor their usage.
- The country Pavilions are massively under reported. I mean if you want to see innovation at a uh, glocal level..then you should be watching what goes on in those pavilions – Spain, Germany, Ireland, Sweden (28 exhibiting companies ranging from mHealth to LTE to renewable energy and infrastructure), Israeli – amazing stuff and most of those companies in the Pavilions have partnerships with big operators or device guys that enable them to roll out their products and services. Don’t over look the small guys, there is a lot going on in those Pavilions.
- Mobile marketing. The coolest mobile marketing company at the show was not at the show but was roaming around the show – aFrogleap out of the Netherlands. Even though their website is in Dutch (it should also be in English), the team there is doing some innovative things in terms of concept and development for mobile web and applications. The company was founded by Naos Wilbrink and Bart Fussell who have an uncanny vision for the future of mobile and web apps and are creating some interesting apps for the big boys like CapGemini and ABN Ambro. You can follow them both on Twitter: Naos @Sprize and Bart @bartfuzzle.
– JH
Tags: afrogleap, Alcosystems, Android, Bart Fussel, Birdstep, Bjorn Westerholm, Bluetooth, Easy Connect, Fuel cell, fuel cells, Fujitisu, Glocal, Hydrogen, Krussell, mobile marketing, Mobile World Congress, MyFC, Naos Wilbrink, Near Field Communication, Network Norway, PowerTrekk, Signa Chemistry, Sweden Pavilion, Swedish Pavilion, Swedish Trade Council, T-Mobile, Teligent, vodafone, Waterrpoof
Posted by Tattletech on Jan 25, 2011 in
Mobile,
MWC Nimbuzz just keeps on rolling and this time into 88 million subscribers in Indonesia with the world’s first push notification option for feature and Nokia phones. (about 400 million (Nokia) Symbian smartphones, which currently lack this feature).
You know what this means? This means that operators (can you tell this is operator news day?) can increase data sales and drive up loyalty with an innovative VAS offering that bring smartphone functionality to this large market of feature phone customers. This also means that Nimbuzz is rapidly becoming an generate new value added services revenue through Nimbuzz, which is rapidly becoming one of the first OTT communications app in the market.
Nimbuzz Ping is a push notification feature that allows feature phone users to appear online to their friends and receive a free SMS alert when someone in their Nimbuzz community wants to get in touch, even when the app is closed.
Nimbuzz Ping is initially available to more than 88 million subscribers across the Telkomsel (Singtel Group network, with a dozen mobile operators throughout the Middle East and Asia Pacific adopting the service over the next few months.
According to Gartner Research, the feature phone market sold 264 million new ‘dumb phones’ in Q3 2010 compared to 62 million smartphones, such as the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, sold during the same period of time.
Ping is free for users to enable inside Nimbuzz and complements Nimbuzz’s “always-on” product nature. While operators provide the SMS alerts, Ping drives up ARPU with a new revenue stream from the additional data use that occurs when customers are prompted to log in to respond to invites, chat messages, or shared files. Pre-paid operators who primarily carry feature phones can also benefit and compete in the market with offers such as Nimbuzz Ping to deliver instant gratification to their customers.
How does it work?
Users appear online and available to their contacts even when the Nimbuzz app is closed. When one of their contacts wants to reach them, Nimbuzz Ping delivers a free SMS message to their home screens, prompting the user to log in to Nimbuzz and start a data session to communicate.
The path to Mass Market
Its not the niche markets that operators and apps are shooting for, its mass market appeal and reach. Nimbuzz Ping is targeted to the mass market of feature phones and optimized to work on low bandwidth networks. Ping also allows feature phone users to stay connected while preserving battery power. — JH
Tags: Mobile VoIP, Nimbuzz, Nimbuzz Ping, Nokia, Symbian, Telkomsel
Posted by Tattletech on Jan 25, 2011 in
Mobile,
Mobile industry stats,
MWC Well finally, a company has decided to step up and talk about what ails mobile operators and they are from the great country of Sweden. Birdstep, which helps mobile operators improve mobile broadband services, has started a blog series - Top 10 relievers for Mobile Operators. Interesting because they seem to be really hitting the sweet spot with the issues that are surrounding operators today – Capex, data caps offloading traffic, etc.
It’s all well and good to talk about the next big app or solution but lets face it, this stuff is really at the heart delivering a great mobile service… today there is some good insight on how mobile operators should take a hybrid approach to data.
You can follow Birdstep on Twitter @birdsteptech. They will be at MWC 2011 in Barcelona in the Swedish Pavilion, Hall 2, stand 2F13, if you wanna check em out. Plus, that Pavilion, always has cava. –JH
Tags: Birdstep, Capex, Mobile network operator, Mobile Operators, Mobile World Congress, Sweden, Telecommunication
Just when you think it’s all fun and games, leave it to the mobile location smarty pants (Daniel Appelquist @torgo, Christine Perey @ceperey and Mark Kramer (@mamk) to create a Mobile Augmented Reality Showcase that is guaranteed to shed some insight into how this technology will be and can be applied in our daily lives. The companies that have agreed to showcase this much hyped future technology are AcrossAir, metaio, Layar, LibreGeoSocial, Mobilizy and Kooaba. We are super happy that we finally get to see a variety of companies showcased in this AR market. We want to hear more than the hype and “ain’t it cool” - we want to see and hear more perspective on AR, which is why we will be at the Showcase.
The most interesting company out there we think is LibreGeoSocial out of Spain. They are are applying AR to tourism and as someone that travels alot and is curious about just about every corner, street and old building, I find this something to look forward to. We are also keeping an eye out on AcrossAir, very smart group of folks over there and metaio who represents the best hope we have for mainstreaming the technology out of the tech bubble.
We are are hoping to see this market evolve but also to force these companies (and listen up Layer) to give us more insight into how it will be applied to our daily lives and why we fracking need it. See you at the showcase, Feb. 17 from 17:00 to 19:00, North East corner of the Courtyard, the area bordered by Halls 1, 2, 4 and 5.
– JLH
Tags: acrossair, Augmented reality, Kooaba, Layar, Mobilizy
Posted by Tattletech on Jan 6, 2010 in
Conferences,
Emerging tech,
Innovation,
Mobile,
Mobile industry stats,
Mobile World Congress,
MWC,
Nordics,
Start ups,
Technology 
In the most recent ICT Development Index (2002 – 2007) by the International Telecommunications Union, Sweden ranked number one in the level of ICT advancement in the world. As a result, Swedish mobile and telecommunications companies are in the midst of a renaissance of both development and innovation bringing mobile technologies to edge markets as well as adapting them to existing and new products. Sweden is also ranked as the second largest online networked economy in the world according to a 2009 World Economic Forum report.
But there is more, since 2005, Sweden has had the highest penetration of mobile phones in the world, with more than one handset per person across the country. And, in 2008 more than half of all mobile phones sold in Sweden were 3G and in 2009, they joined Norway as the first two countries to launch 4G service.
Want more? At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from Feb. 15 to 18, you can talk to the next generation of innovation at the Sweden Pavilion. The Swedish Pavilion (Hall 2, stand 2 F13) represents the best and newest of Sweden’s mobile technology companies, products and services. With 18 co-exhibitors and more than 40 affiliated companies, the pavilion showcases a veritable revolution in mobile technology and innovation from Sweden.
Also on the stand is the Swedish Mobile Association, www.swedishmobileassociation.com, which provides data and analysis on the Swedish mobile and wireless market. The 18 exhibiting companies in the Pavilion represent the vanguard of this technology leadership in the evolving mobile landscape. The Pavilion showcases the entire spectrum of Swedish mobile technology from mobile advertising and gaming to online payments, devices and next generation mobile enterprise. Visitors to the Pavilion will be able to talk and meet with C-level executives from the following companies to learn about innovations in mobile and telecommunications technology for the next decade and beyond.
Mobile LBX
– Mobilaris
Mobile Advertising
– Frog2Frog
– Mobile Arts
– Plus Four Six
Gaming and entertainment
– Mobenga
User experience
– Ikivo
– Mobile Sorcery with MoSync
Mobile Infrastucture
– Synapse Mobile Network
– TalkPool
– Transmode
– Aktavara
– Telecom City
– Teligent
– Prosilient
Mobile Enterprise
– The Institution
Devices
– MyFc Launching its first commercial product at MWC
Mobile Training
– · Apis Technical Training
Since 2002, Swedish Trade Council has managed the Pavilion at Mobile World Congress. The Pavilion will also host two on stand parties during the show. The first party is hosted by Sweden Mobile Association, www.swedenmobileassociation.com, on Monday, February 15. The second party is hosted by the Sweden Trade Council on Tuesday, February 16. Both evenings will be opportunities to talk with some of Sweden’s leading mobile and telecommunications leaders regarding their plans for Mobile 3.0. RSVP to @sweden_at_mwc.
— JLH
Tags: Aktavara, Apsis Technical Training, Frog2Frog, Ikivo, International Telecommunication Union, Mobenga, Mobilaris, Mobile Arts, Mobile Sorcery, MoSync, MyFC, Plusfoursix.com, Prosilient, Sweden Mobile Association, Sweden Trade Council, Synapse Mobile Network, TalkPool, Telecom City, Teligent, The Institution, Transmode
Posted by Tattletech on Feb 17, 2009 in
Chips for Cameras,
MWC 
Zoran's cool APPROACH chip - 5 megapixls
Zoran Corporation who makes chips for mobile phones – and we we mean chips that make your mobile phone take a photo like a real camera, 5 megapixels. But they had the coolest stand with vignettes of Barcelona in moving photo boxes. If you get a chance, go by and see them – Hall 2, stand 2H 59.
Tags: Zoran
This great article in Wired Magazine about how are moving to digital overload. In essence, according Maggie Jackson, author of the book Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, takes a look at our high-speed, overloaded, split-focus and even cybercentric society” on attention. The article says that it’s not a pretty picture: a never-ending stream of phone calls, e-mails, instant messages, text messages and tweets is part of an institutionalized culture of interruption, and makes it hard to concentrate and think creatively.
You know – we could not agree more and yet we can’t stop. Although recently, Tattletech was talking with a young CEO of a start up and he told us that he got an invite to Small World which was supposed to be for the “special” people inside of an online social network. One more way to connect us to people we don’t know inside of the digital world. We know of a woman in Paris who is a senior PR director at a prestigious Parisian PR firm who also got an invite and says it was the worst thing that happened to her – it was about making connections with people based on exclusivity with no real common interests. We think this is where social networking might have derailed a bit.
Tattletech has an idea – how about meeting us at Mobile World Congress in real life for a coffee? Drop us a note, we will be there and would love to meet you in person!
Tags: Mobile World Congress
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