Posted on 2009 under Communications |
14
Nov
» Will Apple’s treatment of its app developers eventually alienate coders? [Venture Beat]
» Trade group GSMA is predicting over 87 million LTE subscribers worldwide in 2014. [Fierce Wireless]
» An Oppenheimer analyst has updgraded Juniper Networks’ stock. [Cellular News]
» App developer Storm8 is asking forgiveness for fraudulently collecting its users’ wireless phone numbers. [ReadWriteWeb]
» T-Mobile is adding another Android phone to its stable. [Ars Technica]
» Virgin is expanding its wireless broadband service and retailers, and cutting $50 of the price of the service modem. [DSL Reports]
» Innovative Converged Devices (ICD) will roll out an Android-based tablet in 2010. [Gizmodo]
Posted on 2009 under Communications |
12
Sep
Motorola’s biggest success to date was when it released the thinnest and sexiest device the world had seen. Since then, the handset-maker has struggled to produce anything like it.
Yesterday, everyone was prepared to see Motorola’s latest form factor that would bring it back from the brink. Instead, what we got was an announcement about an innovative new user interface, or skin, that runs on top of the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android operating system. In fact, the big unveiling had little to do with the hardware, and in many ways, the upcoming CLIQ phone looks like any smartphone with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard. The interesting stuff is the Blur technology running under the hood.
This marks a huge cultural shift for the company, which in the past has always been driven by hardware design. While we didn’t get the entire story, the picture we gleaned during yesterday’s announcement and during a hands-on demo showed that much of transformation had to do with new Motorola (NYSE: MOT) management—and leveraging assets the company already had.
When Sanjay Jha was appointed CEO of mobile devices, he fast tracked a project being worked on by former employees from Good Technology, an enterprise email service that Motorola acquired, and then sold off in February. So, while other divisions back in Illinois were slashing staff, the Sunnyvale office was quietly picking up employees from Apple and Google in what has become a long two and a half year process to get to market. Rick Osterloh, Motorola’s VP of Product Development for Android Products, couldn’t help but talk about the project, which had been kept under tight wraps for the past year so well. He said it originated with Jha, who was interested in what the former Good employees were working on. “He liked what he saw and he gave it resources.”
Jha explained the importance of BLUR to GigaOm’s Om Malik at Mobilize and how it compares to Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. He said the platform melds Apple’s idea of having access to tons of applications with BlackBerry’s niche of integrating the apps—like email—deeply into the phone. Together, they have the apps and the integration: “The iPhone has one, BlackBerry has the other, but we have combined them in a meaningful way for social networking.”
Essentially, the BLUR technology enables users to get all of their messages, status updates and other social networking components pushed to them. Motorola’s director of product marketing Dan Rudolph told me during a demo at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art that in order to accomplish this, there’s a lot of server-side technologies playing a role. All of the messages are compressed and then sent to the device. The process should help save on bandwidth and battery life, while the consumer will have all the information without having to go out and retrieve it.
Osterloh said the original idea stretches back as far as 2007 when Facebook and MySpace were just taking off. “We had all these people from Good…we thought we could really solve something.” He said the two keys were that messaging services on devices had gotten complicated. (Users had multiple email addresses and also SMS and MMS.) The other thing they looked at was making a consumer-friendly service that would be used by people who didn’t have support from an IT staff at work. “We redid everything. It was focused on business and this is 100 percent focused on the consumer.”
Some of the key services include an online portal, where users could log in and manage their device. If it’s lost, they can ping it and see where it’s located on a map. If it’s been stolen, they can wipe off all of their information and data. Likewise, if you get a new phone, all you would have to do is re-enter a BLUR user name and password and all of the consumer’s settings and preferences would be restored from the wallpaper to which widgets it has on the home screen—a significant time saver. Osterloh: “There was a big hole between what was happening with applications and what was happening with services on the BlackBerry. We see that there’s a need for both…The strategic part is the BLUR part.”
Motorola’s strong software platform may have increased its chances of making a comeback. But form factor is important, too. And, so far, it’s something that’s been neglected on the Google Android platform. To date, most of the devices are bulky, and while some have gotten sleeker, nothing still compares to the iPhone. Motorola’s new CLIQ also falls into this category. While solid and full of the latest hardware, it too is large and strays from Moto’s design background. INQ Mobile’s CEO Frank Meehan announced yesterday that his company was going to start building phones on Google Android’s OS, but pointed to one of the challenges with the platform: “Currently, Android phones on networks that are selling against the iPhone have not performed well. You need to get the experience better.”
So far, Motorola has announced that its first handsets will be sold via T-Mobile in the U.S. and also Orange, Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) and America Movil. How will it do? We’ll have to wait and see.
Posted on 2009 under Communications |
11
Sep
This is the moment in which Motorola (NYSE: MOT) shows us whether they have what it takes to turn the company around.
At GigaOm’s Mobilize in San Francisco today, Motorola’s CEO of Mobile Devices Sanjay Jha took the stage in front of a packed and energized auditorium, to say its answer to its problems is “Moto Blur,” a social-networking platform that the company has developed to run on top of the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android operating system. The first phone will be the Motorola CLIQ, which will be sold exclusively by T-Mobile USA. Jha: “The Android operating system gives us the platform to mobilize the internet. The bottom line is that it’s a modern, well-architected platform written from the ground up.” (Release.)
T-Mobile’s Cole Brodman joined Jha to announce that they will sell the phone exclusively starting in the fourth quarter. No word on how much it will cost. “Our customers are used to seeing innovation from T-Mobile and getting the must-have devices.” He stressed the network will be prepared to handle the additional traffic the device uses, which might become a determining factor going forward as consumers use data and weigh down networks. “Our network is equipped to handle increase in traffic. We have spent $9 billion on the network in the last four years. We have a modern 3G network that will reach 200 million people in the U.S. and reach 250 cities. It is a great time to be introducing a product like this.”
More on how BLUR works after the jump…
The Moto Blur concept aggregates all of your social networks, and then distributes the information into various widgets that are available on the phone’s home screen. Messages get one bucket and status updates in another. The address book also draws from all the networks, providing options for how you contact someone—via SMS, Twitter, email, etc. The phone is linked to a portal online that allows people to track a phone when its lost or from there you can wipe it clean. A user online only has to log back in to a device with a username and password to pick up where they left off.
Pricing for the device was not announced and its unclear what kind of data plan it will require, or whether there’s additional costs involved for the online back-up (Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) charges for a similar service, called MobileMe.). Clearly, the starting price for smartphones as of recently is $200, so to even have a chance at being competitive, Motorola will have to beat that—and better yet, they should beat it.
After the initial announcement this morning, Jha explained in a chat with GigaOm’s Om Malik the idea behind BLUR in terms we understand today—Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. He said the platform melds Apple’s idea of having access to tons of applications with BlackBerry’s niche of integrating the apps—like email—deeply into the phone. Together, they have the apps and the tight integration. “The iPhone has one, BlackBerry has the other, but we have combined them in a meaningful way for social networking.”
A similar Motorola phone called DEXT will also be distributed internationally with Orange in the UK, Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) in Spain and America Movil in Latin America. Motorola will not stop there. Jha said a second Android phone using Blur will be announced shortly and will be launched in time for the holidays.
Posted on 2009 under Communications |
11
Sep
Maybe it was the anti-trust patrol looking over Apple’s shoulder or the memory of the RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) settlement with Microsoft, but the Rhapsody iPhone/iTouch app—the first in the U.S. to offer on-demand streaming music—slid right through the sometimes tortured iTunes approval process. The app, which went live overnight slated to go live in the next day or two, is a free extension of the premium Rhapsody To Go, which runs $15 a month. Any current subscriber should be able to download the app and log right in; other iPhone and iTouch users can get a 7-day free trial, which should be enough to decide whether or not Rhapsody adds that much value to their mobile experience.
During Wednesday’s not-so-big Apple music event, CEO Steve Jobs made sure to mention that the iPods don’t require subscriptions. That’s right. They don’t (and that lack of subscription option is one of the reasons I didn’t go iPod). But Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) does get a cut from music subscriptions sold through the iTunes App store, like Sirius XM [Ed. Note: the Sirius XM iPhone app is free; premium fees for access are paid directly to the satellite radio company, not to Apple.] and Spotify (now available only in UK and Europe)—and it will make money from “free” Rhapsody, too, since the app uses iTunes as its affiliate music store for MP3s.
—Features: Users have full access to their library, playlists, channels plus new releases and charts. The app also includes streaming Rhapsody Radio, and as mentioned above, the ability to download MP3s on the fly from the iTunes store. A Real spokesman tells me they decided to go that route rather than try their own store or leave purchases out of the app.
—First look: I was an early subscriber of Rhapsody and of Rhapsody To Go since launch (although I’m using a review account for this because of logistics) and have been thinking it’s time to cancel rather than keep two music subscriptions. (Sorry, Rob, but Zune would win that one in my case because it’s my primary music device.) But I have an iPhone now and while I’m still not a big fan of iTunes as my player or music manager, I’m enjoying many of the free music apps. Rafat predicted early on it won’t appeal to people already paying a lot for iPhone service; that may be true for most but it should get a serious look from music fans and could be a hit with iTouch owners. Following the wallet, Real’s biggest competition probably will be Spotify. My early take after 24 hours or so: this app fills a gap for Rhapsody subs and could be the reason I stay on.
—Integration: The so-far seamless integration between the app and Rhapsody.com startled me at first. I wandered into a Paul McCartney playlist in the app, and dipped into a couple of songs I didn’t know well. When I logged into the browser, it knew the last song I’d listened to was Mull of Kintyre and that I’d loaded the Buddy Holly tribute album Not Fade Away. When I added a Bob Dylan playlist in the browser, it showed in the app right away. And, as a test just now, when I added the Green Day Live EP featured on the browser it was in the app MyLibrary in seconds. The best comparison is the Kindle syncing feature that let’s readers pick up where they left off no matter the device.
—Navigation: The artist and album info is easy to read, easy to find. (It would be even better if the text included hyperlinks.) Pressing down on the touchscreen during a song brings up a list of choices—add track to library, add track to playlist, view album info, buy track from iTunes and remove track from queue. Some of the management can get a little complicated between the queue, playlist, library; several times I forgot where I stored a track or an album. Also, as far as I can tell, albums are all sorted alphabetically; I’d like a chronological option.
—Tracks: Real claims more than 8 million tracks. I don’t know about that but so far I haven’t hit any major walls. Some random examples: Grateful Dead, just added a 20-song Top Tracks list with two different versions of Sugar Magnolia. Not Fade Away (a test search I use across services), lots of covers including the usual suspects. I couldn’t find the Katrina & The Waves version of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place but discovered a seriously bad Partridge Family cover, sort of like the Cowsills doing Hair. Part of the joy of subscription is you can wander in just about any direction without extra cost and put what you want in any order you like.
—Quibbles: The touch screen means some actions will happen whether you want them or not. Also, I don’t see how to easily add in the songs I have on the iPhone already or to get it to learn what I like and make the right suggestions.
