It’s that time of year again in Barcelona, where the mobile industry fills up the city’s hotels for the oversized 3GSM show, and thousands of companies compete with each other for who’s got the biggest mobile news. (Hint, Microsoft, Motorola and Nokia often win that prize.) Check out the Twitter stream to get a feel for the chaos.
We skipped the show to stay stateside this time around, but we’re still following it closely. There’s already new handset announcements out from Nokia and Motorola among others, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 went official, and there’s a mobile music service which is looking to compete with Apple outside the U.S. Then there’s the usual unlimited mobile startups. Entertainment and content companies are also a newer trend adding to the noise this year, and the entire industry is pushing mobile data services, along with phones that can run the content and access the mobile web.
Here’s a round up of 3GSM news:
Microsoft: Anxiously waiting for Windows Mobile 6? Nah, we haven’t been either, but it’s official. T-Mobile Dash will get the treatment, and handset companies Motorola, LG, HTC and Toshiba are already talking about compatible devices. Microsoft also announced Windows Live products for cell phones, including Live Search for Windows Mobile and Live Search for Java Windows Live for Windows Mobile.
Motorola: Moto announced new versions of its Q. The ‘Q q9′ has HSDPA and Windows Mobile 6, and Moto added a ‘Q GSM,’ too. Also the MOTORIZER Z8 an HSDPA “kick-slider” phone, and an HSDPA-enabled MOTOKRZR K3.
Nokia: YouTube isn’t just working with carriers to get its content onto cell phones. Nokia and YouTube announced YouTube videos will be accessible with N Series phones. Nokia will offer YouTube content through a web browser and its new Nokia Video Center, over mobile video RSS feeds. And too bad the U.S. is going MediaFLO, Nokia showed off the N77 DVB-H enabled multimedia phone. Nokia also had new E-series business-targeted devices, the Nokia E90 Communicator, the E65 slider, and the E61i device.
Yahoo: Yahoo launched its mobile display ad service in 19 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas, and advertisers include biggies like Intel, Nissan, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble. Also, LG says it will preload Yahoo’s Go for mobile services on some of its phones.
Omnifone: British mobile music company Omnifone is aiming at the iPhone and mobile music outside the U.S. The company announced MusicStation, a full track mobile music service that it says will be available on 23 mobile operators.
iPhone: Nope not there, as far as we’ve heard, but on everyone’s minds and mentioned in every article.
We’ll update it with more news throughout the day.
Since you brought it up, any phones supporting MediaFLO at the show?
LG has MediaFLO-enabled mobile TV phones, according to this article
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/02/12/200702120018.asp
Qualcomm is also showing off a MediaFLO trial from BSkyB
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070212/lam040.html?.v=76
And a demo with Abertis Telecom
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070212/lam043.html?.v=74
the q looks pretty sweet. omnifone won’t affect iphone sales because it will stay in europe.
http://sanityfordummies.blogspot.com
Were there any representatives from “.mobi” registry ?
Hi Great day
What’s about Samsung? Samsung to Challenge Nokia for Mobile Phone Lead
// mobiKAR – mobile KARAOKE
Thanks for covering this. Any news on white-label versus traditional search engine space? I’m looking to work in the space.
Nothing very impressing this year. On the new devies, we are seeing mostly features which should have been incorporated in cellphone one year ago except for GPS; and GPS is the best devleoping trend currently. Example:RIM Blackberry 8800. Typical let’s-max-out the product life cycle-attiude for the 8xxx series. Palm behaves the same way.
I mention a few of these things on http://www.todolomovil.com but it’s spanish.
Best wishes for everyone.
What went under in these hectic days at the 3GSM is Nokia´s new and free Mapping Application for mobiles. It was hard to download it because the web page crashes down continously (www.smart2go.com). But now i have it on my phone and i think it´s a sensation. I don´t know why they don´t make it more public.
may i know what kind of proccesor is being use by nokia e90