Mobile is key to Microsoft strategy, Ballmer says

Microsoft Corp.'s software strategy a few years ago revolved around software that was either embedded on devices or burned onto CDs and shipped to users, he said. Today, however, software works in tandem with the Internet, which can back up and update the software.

The phone is particularly important in achieving Microsoft's unified view, he said. "The PC is the most powerful device, but the phone is the most popular," he said. Particularly in the developing world where PC's may be cost prohibitive, cell phones may be more widespread.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302020.html

Nokia and Reuters Team up to Transform how Journalists File Stories in the Field

Nokia Research Center (NRC) and Reuters are working together on a mobile journalism project that could transform the way journalists file news reports when on the move. The new mobile application is the first project to be showcased from a long term research collaboration that has been established between NRC and Reuters. It centers around a lightweight toolkit that provides everything journalists need to file and publish stories from even the most remote regions of the world.

 

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/UKM05323102007-1.htm

Citizen + Journalist: Better Journalism

A cursory glance at sites that feature user-generated content will show that far from replacing 'professional' news, public contributions are a valuable, often insightful complement to standard news coverage and are nearly always carefully presented and labeled as eyewitness accounts and reader opinion.

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/anubhabhonsle/178/2579/citizen--journalist-better-journalism.html

Steve Jobs: Apple Will Open iPhone to 3rd Party Apps in February

In a signed message posted on Apple.com’s start page, Jobs wrote:

 

Third Party Applications on the iPhone

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK [software developer’s kit] in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once–provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task.

 

 

 

User-Generated Content Is Top Threat to Media and Entertainment Industry, Accenture Survey Finds

In its annual survey of senior executives in the media and entertainment industry, Accenture examined the growth strategies of companies across the landscape of advertising, film, music, publishing, radio, the Internet, videogames and television.

 

More than half (57 percent) of the respondents identified the rapid growth of user-generated content — which includes amateur digital videos, podcasts, mobile phone photography, wikis and social-media blogs — as one of the top three challenges they face today.  In addition, more than two-thirds (70 percent) of respondents said they believe that social media, one of the largest segments of user-generated content, will continue to grow, compared with only 3 percent of respondents who said they view social media as a fad.

 

http://accenture.tekgroup.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=4534

 

Camera phones making 'perfect' picture business

Digital photography used to be confined to the digital-camera market. Anyone who was serious about their pictures required a quality stand-alone digital camera. The situation began to change in 2003, when handset vendors began incorporating camera modules into mobile phones as a means of differentiating their products. The success of camera phones from that time has been staggering.

As the world’s largest handset vendor, Nokia shipped close to 350 million handsets in 2006, resulting in a 35 per cent market share for the year. This faster-than-market growth enabled the vendor to consolidate its position as the supplier of more than one out of every three handsets sold worldwide. It is estimated that more than half of Nokia’s shipments in 2006 included a camera, making the company the largest vendor of camera devices in the world.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/gsm/gsm415102007.html

 

Can Microsoft sell 20 million Windows Mobile systems?

Microsoft has said it wants to sell 20 million phones running Windows Mobile over the next financial year. Earlier in the week, CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying that Microsoft would like to run on 60% of the phones in the world.

 

One recent positive development for Microsoft has been Research in Motion's announcement that its own email software will run on Windows Mobile devices. Given the BlackBerry's domination of the corporate push email space, that switch might make Windows Mobile devices more attractive for enterprise buyers.

 

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/11760/1101/

100 million Symbian smartphones shipped

 

Symbian Limited, today announced that 100 million Symbian smartphones have shipped to over 250 network operators worldwide since Symbian’s formation.Symbian develops and licenses Symbian OS™, the market-leading operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones known as smartphones to the world’s leading handset manufacturers.

 

Since the first Symbian OS phone, the Ericsson R380, shipped in 2000 Symbian has worked with an ecosystem of customers, partners, vendors, content players and application developers within a market place demanding ever increasing segmentation and customisation. This increased complexity has driven the demand for a powerful, robust, open operating system such as Symbian OS. Today, 100 million Symbian smartphones have sold around the world including devices manufactured by BenQ, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo, Sharp, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson.

http://www.symbian.com/news/pr/2006/pr20068610.html

Java Powers More than 1.5 Billion Devices Around the World

Sun Microsystems, Inc. the creator and leading advocate for Java technology, demonstrated the ubiquity and security of the Java platform by announcing that 1.5 billion devices around the world are powered by Java technology. Java technology is the essential ingredient for a better digital and connected experience.

It powers everything from secure identity cards to mobile phones, printers, Web cams, automobile telematics, desktops, medical equipment, servers, jet engines, the navigation controls for NASA's Mars Rover, and more. Everything of value connected to the network is benefiting from Java technology today.

http://www.embeddedstar.com/press/content/2004/2/embedded13058.html

Photo Sharing Starts to Click

The number of cameraphones sold around the world continues to explode, with four times as many cameraphones sold last year as digital cameras.

Chris Ambrosio, analyst with Strategy Analytics, says vendors from the digital camera world are going to have to work harder because cameraphones are becoming more widespread. Cameraphones will capture 15 percent of the total low-end camera market by 2010, and it will be increasingly difficult to sell a regular digital camera as a second device to people who already own a multi-megapixel cameraphone, he says.

Many people might ask themselves why they need a digital camera at all if their phone does the same thing.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=71384