Palm Announces New Device and OS

Palm announced its new Pre handset which is to use its new "webOS," which was formerly referred to as Nova OS.  It's a multi-tasking capable Linux OS with more of a focus on web applications as opposed to native applications.  This puts Palm into a strategy it believes will be vital to its success - controlling both the device and OS.  This is what Palm used to do with PDAs back in its heyday, and what Apple and RIM do right now.  Its "Pre" device looks highly appealing, with software features that include the ability to bridge common data across applications.  This allows the applications to have more synergy - a word Palm repeated throughout its announcement.  This is a product that could keep Palm relevant.  The only question is - will Palm keep webOS as a part of its closed system strategy, or will it commercialize it and license it to other device vendors?  My guess is that it will keep its new OS for itself.

TeliaSonera Selects Ericsson and Huawei for LTE Deployments in 2010

TeliaSonera’s announcement of LTE vendor selection is good news for the telecom industry faced with mounting negative announcements of bankruptcy filings (Nortel) and missed earnings reports. It also reinforces ABI’s position that LTE will offer a ray of light for infrastructure vendors feeling the pinch of the tight economy as operators delay purchases and reduce capital expenditure.

Its not surprising the Ericsson was selected a key vendor for LTE deployment given their strength in 3GPP related technologies and leadership in developing LTE products. However, Huawei’s selection is more of a surprise and signifies that the Chinese vendor is gaining traction in the European market. This LTE win will also strengthen Huawei’s position and it looks to gain entrance in the North America market. Verizon Wireless

Will text for food

Office workers used to be judged by the speed and quality of touch typing. The popularity of mobile phones with younger generations is ushering in a new metric – the number of composed text messages each month. Youthful fingers made recent headlines when a 13-year-old California student hammered out 14,528 text messages to her friends in one month. Her father has a 140-page online statement from the wireless carrier to prove it. Fortunately, the frantic fingers were covered by an unlimited text plan.
In a January 2009 BBC interview, Intel’s mobile chief Anand Chandrasekher said the behaviors of younger texters are migrating into other common activities. He noted that the under-25 crowd are more likely to say they use their thumb to ring a doorbell instead of the pointer finger most-used by the over-25 generations.
As mobile messaging devices become pervasive, will a cultural shift from surgical facelifts and tummy tucks move to medically sculpted fingertips optimized for mobile texting speed become fashionable? Should speed texting become an officially sanctioned sport? We hope not. But it’s clear that texting is an opportunity for cost-conscious communications over a mobile device and an opportunity for mobile marketers looking to connect with device-wielding consumers.
In November, 2007 and December, 2008, ABI Research conducted online surveys with more than 1000 U.S. mobile phone users between the ages of 14 and 59 to gauge their use of text messaging on their mobile phones and their receptiveness towards mobile marketing among other things. The surveys indicate that frequent text messaging is becoming more common among all mobile phone users. In 2007, 35% of all respondents reported that they use text messaging on their phones at least once a day, while a significantly higher 47% do so in 2008 results. Not surprisingly, this varies by age. Significantly higher percents of younger respondents engage in daily texting vs. their older counterparts. In the 2008 survey, 68% of those under the age of 35 report that they text at least once a day, with over three-quarters (77%) of those under 25 texting daily. Several more interesting trends related to mobile marketing are appearing.

Verizon's $250 femto box - A deliberate ploy behind the aggressive pricing?

Apart from the fact that it is a Samsung UbiCell product, similar to what Sprint has been using for its Airave service, some of the highlights are as follows:


- Works on CDMA 1x 800/1900 MHz
- The box costs $250
- There is no mention about reduced calling plans, free texts, or any subsidized data services
- Its coverage spans a large area of 5,000 sq ft and can cover 2 to 3 floors of a building
- It is meant for homes and SoHo usage
- Can support upto 3 simulataneous users


Because we still do not have an official confirmation from Verizon, it is hard to provide a detailed analysis. However, there are some parts in this leaked announcement that jump right at you.

Verizon is trying to go after the SoHo market, something that is refreshing to hear in the femtocell space. Although the coverage area seems adequate, the capacity restricts it to SoHo type establishments rather than SMEs.

There is no mention about reduced data or voice plans. I would be really surprised if they do not offer any service plans along with the femtocell, which make voice calling and data services more attractive over the femto box. Otherwise, it would seem unreasonable for a customer to spend $250 apart from what they are already spending on broadband and their existing mobile plan. Add to that the looming economic crisis and you have to sit and wonder, what is Verizon thinking!

However, as the box is offering an extended coverage of 5,000 sq ft across 2 or 3 floors, the $250 might be justified.

One probable explanation for the largely un-subsidized femto offering, could be that Verizon see it is a way of restricting the adoption of femtos for their initial rollout. Instead of doing a mass-market rollout which gets hundreds of thousands people signed up, Verizon might deliberately want to keeping the initial numbers low. There could be many reasons behind this approach. Verizon can use this marketing ploy to follow a measured approach in launching femtocells, allowing them to gradually scale their internal IT systems and integrate femtocells much more efficiently. More importantly they would like to have a tight control on the install and related customer service backend. Educating the customer is important from a femto perspective, and if the recent Starhub and Sprint Airave launches are anything to go by, educating the customer and the 'newness' of a femtocell to the end user is a massive challenge for operators. By restricting their initial pool of femto users, Verizon has a lot to gain in terms of ironing out the initial hiccups.

Whatever be the case, the Verizon approach has surely raised eyebrows in the femto community, where some could see this as a brash confident operator being sure about demand for this product. At the moment, it doesn’t look like customers are appreciating what Verizon has to offer. If the comments on the Engadget site are anything to go by, Verizon might end up with many more disgruntled customers who cannot afford the femto, rather than keeping a selective few happy.

We expect speculation to be laid to rest in the coming few weeks. On a more important note, 2009 is looking to be an interesting year for femtocells, with many such surprises in the bag. We at ABI surely have an eye out for them, and so keep tuned!

AT&T’s femto play – The iPhone and Enterprise connection

The femto market is overjoyed this week. With two of the largest operators in the US coming clean on femtocells, it might be right to term 2009 as a 'transition year' for femtocells.

Close on the heels of Verizon's announcement on Monday, came news that AT&T is launching femto city trials in three cities later in 1Q 2009. There are unconfirmed reports that the trials will be followed by a commercial launch later in 2009.

However, AT&T seem to be following a data-centric approach as opposed to its rivals Verizon and Sprint which have been talking about improving or extending voice coverage indoors. Its somehow ironic, looking at today's results from Verizon which saw web-surfing and texting revenue grow at 41% in the fourth quarter of last year. And if data revenues continue providing an 'offset' then why do they have a femtocell that simply extends 2G voice data?

In any case, operator differentiation on the femto has been something that everyone has been waiting for and the North American market seems to be embracing femtos at the moment.

There might be a reason why AT&T has gone for improving data capacity and coverage indoors rather than simply focusing on voice. With iPhone data usage going through the roof, it's not surprising that AT&T would desperately like to ensure that its macro network does not face a backhaul bandwidth crunch. With femtos providing sufficient capacity indoors, the macro network can service the outdoors, reducing output power at the cell site, boosting capacity and offering a better data experience when users are on the move. As a result, AT&T can expect to manage network capacity better and to do it without investing in additional cell sites or backhaul. Be aware, the capacity issue is all about data, not voice.

Although AT&T hasn't mentioned anything about unlimited data bundles, the fact that it is restricting usage to 3G phones is proof enough that it is bullish on data. The 3G femto push is certainly encouraging and would allow for a seamless experience for iPhone users, many of whom typically switch to their Wi-Fi network when accessing data indoors. Although Wi-Fi is always going to remain the primary interface for our desktops and laptops inside homes, 3G can become the default data connection for mobile phones. With operator data suggesting that the majority of mobile Internet usage is over mobile phones rather than laptops, it is not surprising to see operators like AT&T being aggressive on 3G femtocells. It might just be that the iPhone has forced them to act quicker than their competitors when it comes to 3G femtocells.

The other part of the announcement that is really interesting for me is that they plan to market the femto to SMEs. On their website they mention 'small businesses' and the capability to support 10 users with four simultaneous users. I am encouraged to see both Verizon and AT&T go after small businesses with the femtocell, as this will drive femto adoption across multiple segments, not just residential. With Sprint having a strong Converged Network Solutions unit, I won't be surprised if it has an enterprise version of their Airave in the works.

The Bar for Smarphone Processing Power Has Been Raised

Two handsets have been announced so far that have raised the bar in terms of the porcessing power in handsets. They are the Palm Pre and the Toshiba TG01. They both use ARM-based processors that are based on ARM's Cortex-A8 design. The Palm Pre includes TI's OMAP 3 (3430) processor, and the Toshiba TG01 includes Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor. These are more powerful processors that are perfect for MIDs and netbooks, and they are now making their way into smartphones.

TI's OMAP 3 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon (as well as other solutions from Intel, VIA, Freescale, etc.) are not just processors though. Platform would be the better word. They include graphics capabilities, bus, peripheral support, and more. The Palm Pre was the first handset announced to use such a processor, but the Toshiba TG01 is the first to use the Snapdragon solution. Snapdragon also includes GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, EV-DO, and HSPA all on the same SoC. With Snapdragon, smartphone vendors can get their solution to the market quicker than if they had to also design the wireless solutions in, and we believe it will allow consumer electronics vendors (or any other company not used to designing mobile wireless products) to get smartphones on the market easier as well.

Garmin-Asus Announce the nuvifone - GPS first, Phone second

In early 2008 Garmin announced their intention to release the Nuviphone, a GPS centric cell phone, which would extend Garmin’s GPS/PND strengths into the cell phone market. However, as 2008 passed, there was still no Nuvifone. Many have speculated that passing carrier certifications have led to delays in the release of the Nuvifone. In December, the Nuvifone cleared FCC certification process and on February 4^th,Garmin brought the Nuvifone back to center stage when they announced their partnership with Asus.

The first device will be branded the Garmin-Asus G60, and will run on a proprietary Linux operating system. The Garmin-Asus relationship is not going to become its own legal entity; the two companies intend to release a full line of Nuvifones on other key operating systems such as Android.

While Asus is not a tier 1 handset manufacturer, it has had some measured success designing and distributing WinMo devices with unique value add applications such as a business card reader. Garmin is a well known industry leader in the PND space and is concerned about GPS capable cell phones pushing into its space. Both companies needed something, Asus needed a unique phone with star potential and Garmin needed a solid phone to bring their LBS expertise into the cell phone space.

The Nuvifone 60 is the first phone to place LBS functionality at the forefront of phone design. Unlike the vast majority of GPS capable phones where GPS and LBS are an afterthought, the Nuvifone brings LBS access directly to key applications on the device.

Designing and building a cell phone is no small undertaking, and designing a good one is even harder. While it may be true that phone OEMs are the best at building phones, they are constantly challenged to cram immense disparate functionality into a single device. To meet these demands, OEMs attempt to reuse prior successes to fit new technologies and applications. Unfortunately this approach tends to dilute the effectiveness and usability of these technologies.